It's a new day.

In Dadong Port, the tense landing operation continued, and although Ding Ruchang had already given the order to work overnight, after a whole day, less than half of the soldiers still arrived at the landing site in Uiju, which was 15 nautical miles away. The only good news is that heavy supplies such as artillery and horses have been largely delivered. Ding Ruchang's haggard face showed a little smile; After some calculations, he ordered the ships to start a fire and escort the unloaded empty transport ships back to Dalian at 12 noon.

The warships of the Beiyang Fleet were quietly moored in the sea east of Oshikashima, and the sky over the fleet was shrouded in black soot that heavily polluted the air. On the flagship "Dingyuan", Liu Buyun sat bored and lazily in the neat and bright officers' dining room, and after a while, this fleet will return to the base and continue to implement the fleet strategy of "like a tiger in the mountains" that made him sigh helplessly......

As a soldier, he had a passion for killing the enemy, but he was constrained by various political factors at home, and he had to be a turtle with his head shrunk all the time, and he did everything possible to avoid the culprits of the enemy country who caused heavy losses to his country! Thinking of this, there will always be an unspeakable anger in Liu Buyun's heart, which burns him almost to suffocate.

Ding Ruchang gently waved the silver knife and fork, cutting the food on the plate, his eyes wandering, as if he was thinking about something. On his right, Mediterranean Hannagan, like Liu Buyun, also had an unhappy face. He narrowly escaped in the shipwreck of Toshima, and the boss of the Qing court, who had served him for so many years, actually didn't say anything; However, when his homeland learned that his citizens had suffered a terrorist attack abroad, he immediately sent his battleships in the Far East to join the Qing court in the war against Japan. Hannagan habitually touched his bald head, which had few hairs, and let out a disgruntled and helpless sigh.

Suddenly, a terrible siren sounded from the battleship "Kaiyuan" in front, and the sound was piercing; After a while, a clearer alarm began to sound, and Liu Buyun was the first to recognize it, this was the alarm bell issued by his ship "Dingyuan"!

After a while, there was a sound of hurried footsteps in the outer cabin, and Ding Ruchang seemed to realize something; He stopped his knife and fork and put them in place. Without permission, one of the heralds pushed open the hatch and panted and shouted to the fleet decision-makers in the cabin: "Report, Japanese warships have been discovered!" ”

Ding Ruchang nodded slightly, then stood up and strode out of the door, a large group of naval officers who had long been unable to hold back the excitement in their hearts saw this scene, and immediately pushed away the seats and followed closely behind him. Stepping on the wide and smooth flybridge, taking over the binoculars handed over to the left and right, Ding Ruchang looked ahead: the white ship that appeared at the junction of the sea and the sky should be the main force of the entire Japanese Combined Fleet!

"Junmen, let's fight! Beat these bitches to death! Liu Buyun was already trembling with excitement and said loudly.

Looking at the Japanese warship slowly approaching at the junction of sea and sky, Ding Ruchang's emotions were agitated and he couldn't speak for a long time. Since the beginning of the war, the Beiyang Navy, under his command, has not received good news of the enemy's engagement and sent it back to the central authorities, causing him to suffer a lot of criticism in the uproar of the government and the opposition. Although he meticulously implemented the existing strategy of "keeping the enemy out of the country and protecting the ship first", this does not mean that this Huai army general is timid and cowardly, and does not dare to fight with the Japanese Navy! At this time, the main force of the Japanese Navy had automatically come to his eyes, and the enemies were very red when they met. As long as this inevitable war can be won, who else dares to say half a word of bullshit?

"Give the order to go down, raise anchor, line up, and meet the enemy!" Ding Ruchang put down the binoculars and ordered loudly.

The officers and men of the Beiyang Naval Division have been trained for a long time and are full of energy; The death of nearly 1,000 robes in the Battle of Toshima has long been a fire in my heart. At this moment, after receiving the order to set sail and prepare for battle, the crowd was even more excited and high-spirited. In a very short time, the ships had retracted their anchors at an unprecedented speed, and the stationary propellers began to spin at high speed as the connecting rods of the reciprocating steam engines roared. The fleet began to slowly change formations, gradually forming a horizontal formation. On the towering mast, a huge banner more than 2 zhang long hunted and danced; In the 19th century, this huge flag meant fighting!

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At the same time that the Beiyang Naval Division discovered the Japanese Combined Fleet, the sailors in the foremast of the "Yoshino" at the forefront of the entire Japanese fleet also discovered the Beiyang Navy in the distance. As the mist on the sea gradually dissipated, the Victorian naval livery became clear under the high-powered telescope, and what was shown in front of them was not a "weak and vulnerable ship" at all, but a large fleet of all the elites of the Qing Kingdom, including "Kaiyuan", "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan"! Piercing sirens sounded over the entire Combined Fleet.

"What's going on, why would all the main forces of the Qing Beiyang Fleet suddenly appear here?" On the flagship "Matsushima", the commander of the Combined Fleet, Ito Youheng, paced back and forth in the not wide naval control tower, his face turned red, and he scolded, "The movement of such a large fleet has not even noticed the slightest clue? Those rice buckets in the intelligence department should be cracked by artillery and slashed! ”

An adjutant next to him had a relative who worked in the intelligence department, and couldn't help but argue: "Your Excellency, the accuracy of the intelligence department is still very high, at least two months ago, in the Battle of Toshima, the departure time of the Qing troop transport ship was reported very accurately!" It was just a small mistake this time......"

"Konoyalu (you bastard)!" Ito Youheng was furious, and his backhand was a slap in the face, and he slapped the adjutant in the face hard, and the huge force made a blood-red five-finger mountain immediately appear on his face. He gasped and roared, "A small mistake? You know, these idiots have already got the entire Combined Fleet in it! Well? What's the use of asking for them? It's more useful to find a pig than them, at least the pork can still be eaten. ”

The officers in the command tower, seeing that the commander of the fleet, who usually had a good temperament, was so angry that they turned pale with fright and did not dare to squeak. Ito took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Judging from the current situation, most of the Qing Dynasty has been planning for a long time, and it is time to prepare for a showdown with the Japanese Empire at sea; However, due to the mistakes of the intelligence department, the side thought that it was only facing a small miscellaneous fish, and it had already lost in strategic decision-making. The fleet he brought out this time was not all the main force of the Combined Fleet; Not to mention anything else, the three ironclads and two cruisers that Britain instructed Chile to sell to Japan in countermeasures against the Kaiyuan did not travel with him; With these 3 warships alone, the total tonnage has exceeded 14,000 tons!

Do you want to run away? This thought flashed through Ito's mind, and then he immediately dismissed it. For no other reason, the warships of the Combined Fleet all had problems of one kind or another: either they were in disrepair, or civilian ships were refitted, or their boilers were of inferior quality, and none of them, except for the "Chiyoda", could exceed 13 knots. If they want to escape, only the four cruisers of the First Fast Fleet and the cruiser "Chiyoda" of this team can leave the battlefield at high speed, while the remaining seven ships are bound to be caught up by the fastest "Zhiyuan", "Jingyuan" and even "Kaiyuan" in the Beiyang Naval Division due to their slow speed, and the artillery attack will slow down, and then they will be sunk by the Qing Fleet, which arrived later. What's more, Shikinori Kayama, the head of the Navy's military command, is still on the "Saikyo Maru"! You must know that it is just a combat ship converted from a cruise ship, and it is also the master who can't run fast; If it is made to face the real capital battleship, its end is one word, death!

It seems that there is only one way to grit your teeth and fight for a shot!

Ito Yohyung had a hideous look on his face and spat on the floor as if he were ruthless. Although the people in the intelligence department were a bunch of shit this time, fortunately they were cautious by nature and did not overdo it, and brought out 3 cruisers equipped with 320 mm guns. After the improvement of the boiler, they can also run at a speed of 13 knots, as long as these 3 giant cannons can hit the design rate of fire and have an accurate head, the advantage of the Qing ironclad ship can still be effectively contained.

In addition, Ito Yuhiro also has the biggest hole card in the chapter, that is, the absolute firepower superiority of the Combined Fleet over the Beiyang Naval Division.

In order to defeat the Beiyang Naval Division and realize its ambition to colonize the Qing court, Japan began to comprehensively learn everything about the British Navy as early as 20 years ago; The smokeless gunpowder and tube-degraded artillery techniques that Armstrong had just released from the military industry were the best gifts from Britain to Japan. These two revolutionary innovations in technology have made a huge leap forward in the design speed of artillery; A cannon that used to take 2 to 3 minutes to complete a round of fire can now be aimed at the enemy in just 10 seconds and fired again! In 1887, the 120-mm rapid-fire gun completed test firing; In 1892, the 152 mm rapid-fire gun was installed on British warships. And for this Japanese student, who was able to resist Russia and at the same time forced the Qing court to open more treaty ports, the British teacher also taught him everything. Today, almost every warship of the Combined Fleet is equipped with 152 mm or 120 mm rapid-fire guns produced by Armstrong Military Industry, which is more than 10 times faster than the old guns of the same caliber of the Beiyang Naval Division.

Cutting out the already great advantage of the rate of fire, the Japanese fleet was far superior to the Beiyang Naval Division in terms of the quality of its shells. All of the combined fleet's shells were charged with Shimose gunpowder, which was composed of chemically active picric acid, and its explosion was so powerful that the flames produced were said to burn even steel, making it extremely difficult to extinguish. Most of the shells equipped by the Beiyang Navy Division are solid shells filled with sand made by the Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau, which only have the ability to penetrate, but have no lethal power. The only small part of the shells filled with black powder were still sent by foreign friends when they bought the ship, and it is unknown whether they can explode normally after being placed in the past seven or eight years. Even if it exploded normally, it was much less powerful than the Japanese shells loaded with Shimose gunpowder.

war, there is still a fight; If you retreat, you will die!

"Order." Ito Yohyuki slowly spat out a syllable from his mouth, and the herald next to him was excited, holding his breath and listening carefully to every word that the commander was going to say next.

"The 1st Guerrilla Fleet slowed down and lowered its speed to 6 knots in order to wait for the main unit of the Combined Fleet to approach and prepare for battle." Ito Youheng's tone returned to his usual calmness and calmness.

"Hey!" The herald nodded in reply.

"The 'Saikyo Maru' and the 'Akagi' broke away from the formation and accelerated to the left side of the 'Hiei' and 'Fuso' ships to avoid a direct confrontation with the main warships of the Qing State." Ito Yuheng paused and said, "In addition, tell Minister Kayama that the big war is coming, let him cherish himself, and this team can't control him anymore!" ”

Shima Kiyoshi, the captain of the Matsushima, said straightforwardly: "Your Excellency, Commander, now you have suddenly discovered the main fleet of the Qing Kingdom, and the people's hearts are unstable; Are they allowed to smoke as a way to relieve tension? ”

Ito Youheng was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "What you said is right, so do it!" With a wave of his hand, the herald saluted him and ran quickly towards the outside of the command tower.

Immediately following the order of General Ito Youheng, all the personnel of the combined fleet immediately got busy, and running figures could be seen everywhere on the deck, quickly entering their posts. Like the Beiyang Naval Division, a huge naval battle flag was raised on the mast of each warship of the Combined Fleet. Considering that once a war broke out, the ammunition depot would inevitably be the target of the opposing navy's key strikes, the Japanese sailors used pulleys to transport shells and bags of propellant from the ammunition depot and stacked them on each gun emplacement, completely emptying the ammunition depot. In addition to the captain, first mate, chief navigator and other senior officers, they went to important parts of the ship to supervise the battle. The Japanese sailors in white uniforms have completed the loading of the first shell, looking at the Beiyang Navy getting closer and closer in the distance, the veterans are gearing up and eager to try; The recruits, on the other hand, were pale and their teeth chattered.

Since the headquarters of the Combined Fleet had already caught up, the commander of the 1st Guerrilla Fleet, Kozo Tsuboi, ordered his warships to speed up to 8 knots. At 12:18 p.m., after receiving an order from the flagship "Matsushima" to "intercept the right flank of the enemy fleet," the speed of the First Guerrilla Fleet was raised to 10 knots, and it was directed to the backbone of the Beiyang Fleet. In the command tower of the "Yoshino", the flagship of the First Guerrilla Fleet, Tsuboi Kozo ordered the Yoshino to raise the signal again and again, and tirelessly reminded the three cruisers behind him, "Takachiho", "Akitsuzu", and "Naniwa", to pay attention to the distance and speed, so as to ensure that this extremely simple column navigation could be completely carried out by the sailors who were nervous in their hearts.

On September 17, 1894, a decisive naval battle that shocked the world began at 12:30 p.m. and was officially staged.

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