The "Fuso" ironclad ship was one of the first three ironclad ships ordered by Japan from the United Kingdom, which was started in 1875 and completed and commissioned by the 1st Army in 1878, making it the most powerful warship in Asia at that time. The construction of the ship directly promoted the Qing government's ironclad ship order plan. The ship is 67 meters long, 14.6 meters wide, 5.5 meters draft, 3,717 tons of standard displacement, and can reach a speed of 13 knots when newly built. The ship is equipped with 4 240 mm Krupp guns, 2 170 mm Krupp guns, 4 150 mm Krupp guns, 6 75 mm Krupp guns and 9 small-caliber guns, and the waterline has wrought iron armor 100-230 mm thick.

Although the Japanese modernized the battleship in 1891 and dismantled the sail equipment originally equipped on the battleship, the aging of the power boiler has not been solved. At this moment, no matter how the Japanese sailors urged the battleship, her speed refused to exceed 9 knots, and she was completely powerless to get rid of the pursuit of the Qing fleet in the rear.

The battleship "Kaiyuan", which had completed the turn, launched a thunderous and lightning attack on the "Fuso" with her six 283-mm main guns at a distance of about 1,200 meters. Every time the cannon was fired, the muzzle of the cannon exploded through the layers of purple waves and red waves, and even the sea water below it was violently shaking, and the ripples and ripples spread rapidly to all sides for miles.

"Boom!" An unimaginable red flame suddenly exploded on the Fuso, the hurricane howled, the waves rushed, and the broken wood and iron flew into the sky, and the fire burned into the air. The officers and men of the Beiyang Naval Division cheered, but they saw a red and brilliant fire bomb burst out of the billowing smoke of the "Fusang" and swept towards the battleship "Kaiyuan"!

Although the battleship Kaiyuan had 300-400 mm thick armor, it was limited to key parts such as the waterline, the conning tower, and the bomb carrier, and there was no armor protection on the sides of the hull and a large area of the superstructure, which almost every battleship could not defend. Now, in order to carry forward all its main gun firepower, the "Kaiyuan" inevitably exposed the side of the battleship in front of the gun muzzle of the "Fuso"; And "Fuso" was originally the main battleship used to suppress the formation in Ito Youheng's plan, and the sailors on the ship were all veterans with long-term training, and at such a close distance, the opponent's bomb area was so large, if it couldn't hit again, then would there be any heavenly reason?

The captain roared, the main gun roared, and a 240-mm shell roared and thundered, tearing through the negligible layer of shipbuilding steel armor like lightning, and exploded in the battleship "Kaiyuan". The flames from the explosion of the picric acid raged, and yellow-green smoke billowed out of the hole. Feeling the tremor of an earthquake under his feet, Claude's face sank like water, although he had expected that this kind of life-like play would also hurt his own battleship, but he did not expect the Japanese attack to come so quickly!

"Pass the order, let the small-caliber artillery leave that mortal ship alone, and give me concentrated firepower to suppress the artillery fire on this ironclad ship!" Claude yelled from the conning tower.

In addition to the formidable 6 283-mm (11.1-in) guns, the Kaiyuan battleship was armed with 8 105-mm secondary guns, 88-mm rapid-fire guns, and 12 37-mm machine guns. Due to the late start of the rapid-fire gun industry of the German Krupp company, which was still inferior to its counterparts in the British Armstrong military industry in terms of technology, it had no choice but to equip the battleship "Kaiyuan" with a rapid-fire gun with a caliber of only 105 mm. Although the power of a single shot was slightly inferior to the British 120mm Armstrong rapid-fire guns that were heavily equipped on Japanese battleships, the rate of fire was not inferior, and it was suitable for suppressing the open-air fire of opposing ships.

Hearing the captain's order, the fire of the port side auxiliary gun, which had been blowing up well, immediately turned the gun muzzle and bombarded the "Fusang" ironclad ship nearly three miles away. There was a roar, shells flew in all directions, and the deck of the "Fuso" exploded one after another with exciting waves of fire. Unlike the fast cruisers of the Combined Fleet, the Fuso was not equipped with 120 mm Armstrong rapid-fire guns, and the weapons on the ship were comparable to those of the Beiyang Naval Division. And except for the 4 240mm guns, the other guns basically have no protection, once they are suppressed by dense fire, it will be difficult for these guns to continue to fire normally!

Due to the high amount of mercenary money every day, the German sailors were in high spirits, and the four 105-mm secondary guns, four 88-mm rapid-fire guns, and six 37-mm machine guns on the port side of the battleship "Kaiyuan" stormed the "Fuso". The cannon roared and roared, the light and flames burst into the sky, and from a distance, the "Kaiyuan" was like a giant beast spitting flames, and the dragon traveled on the sea, which was indescribably spectacular.

"Boom!" A 105-mm shell hit the bulwark like lightning, and the lightning danced; Several Japanese sailors who were operating a 170-mm gun did not even have time to snort before they were killed on the spot by the high-speed flying shell fragments cut into their bodies like tofu. Just a few seconds later, an 88-millimeter shell returned, the ammunition piled up around the gun emplacements was detonated, and a huge blood-red smoke cloud rolled up, and the 8-ton cannon was thrown into the sky more than ten meters high like a toy, and then fell heavily, splashing on the sea.

In just 2 minutes, the "Fuso" suffered an unprecedented intensive attack; The secondary artillery fire on the battleship "Kaiyuan" was as dense as a rainstorm, almost comparable to that of Japanese cruisers. Occasionally, a cannonball hit the waterline armor belt and was ricocheted off by the 9-inch thick steel armor, making a tooth-souring sound. Feeling the sound of artillery fire gradually falling silent on his own battleship, the captain of the "Fuso" ironclad ship, Arai Ariko, was anxious and angry: due to the age of this battleship, the four 240 mm main guns adopted an old-fashioned layout, scattered in the four ear stands in the middle of the hull, and the firing range was extremely limited; At the current angle, only 1 main gun is capable of attacking. If the 170 mm and 150 mm guns are extinguished again, how can they deal with the attack of the opponent's six new 283 mm guns with the only one old 240 mm gun on their side?

Arai Yugong gritted his teeth, and was about to order the gunners to manipulate those cannons in the rain of bullets in order to seek that one in 10,000 chance of survival, when suddenly a terrifying scream came from his ears; He was shocked, turned his head to look, and saw an officer tremblingly pointing to the window of the control tower, and hissed: "Qing warship!" The main gun of the Qing battleship turned again! ”

In this era, the turret-type structure has not yet appeared, and what the great powers of various countries use on the main ships of the navy is a "pseudo-turret real turret" type of main gun joint layout; The main turret equipped in this form is aimed at enemy targets by turning the "turret" to change the firing angle of the guns inside it. However, due to the limitations of the times, large-caliber artillery cannot be loaded at any angle, and the gun must be turned to a certain angle to carry out it. Under the constraints of this condition, naval designers of various countries chose this angle at a 0-degree angle when the barrel is parallel to the central axis of the battleship, and loaded at this angle. Therefore, as long as the target is not directly facing the bow, the barrel of the main gun should be turned back to the bow for each round, and after the reload is completed, the turret should be turned to point at the target at a certain angle. Although this is time-consuming and labor-intensive, smokeless gunpowder is not yet widely available, and the smoke from the combustion of the propellant does not dissipate for a long time; During this time, the people in the turret could not observe the target, so they could not shoot. Therefore, before the use of smokeless gunpowder, this battery-like structure was not the only factor restricting the rate of fire of large-caliber guns.

"Boom!" Two minutes later, the six main guns of the battleship "Kaiyuan" once again erupted with flames, and a 283-mm shell pierced through the 230-millimeter-thick waterline armor with a thunderous momentum, and fell into the boiler room of the "Fuso," where it exploded with a bang. Fragments burst into flames, screaming in all directions, and the icy sea water poured in, and when it met the blazing boiler, it instantly flashed, and an earth-shattering steam explosion occurred. As if pushed by a huge force, the hull of the "Fuso" suddenly rose to a height of nearly 1 meter towards the Lu, and then began to tilt sharply to the right of the Lu. At the same time, two 283-mm shells hit the bridge and the rear ear platform one after another, and all objects within a radius of 2 zhang were blown to pieces.

This is the difference between a battleship of the first rank and an ironclad ship of the third rank!

When it was, artillery fire roared and smoke covered the sky. The American Majifen stood on the flybridge with a wide field of vision of the "Zhenyuan" and looked ahead, only to see that the "Hiei" had sunk most of it, and only half of the bridge and a high mast were still exposed; In the distance, the "Saikyo Maru" was still struggling to escape, and the fire on the ship was raging, constantly devouring the structure and the cabin. Next to it, the "Fuso" was still surviving under the attack of two large warships, and only one 150-mm gun and two small-caliber machine guns on the ship continued to fight; Not far away, the small "Akagi" had been hit by a blackhead torpedo fired from the side of the "Zhiyuan", and the entire bow of the ship had completely sunk into the sea......

A happy smile appeared on Majifen's face, and he took out his beloved camera, "clicked", and fixed this picture forever in the long river of history.

In the boundless ocean, the battle flag hunts, and the ships are heavy. Pitch-black soot covered the entire sky, and a huge column of water rose from the surging waves. The roar of the cannon and the roar of the machinery compose a magnificent poem that swallows mountains and rivers.

Many years later, countless vigorous Chinese youths can still dream back to the noon of that autumn day in 1894 through this old photo, hearing the sea breeze and hearing the roar; The lovely figures, the majestic warships, are always there, with their bodies and wills, to defend the mountains and rivers, the emperor and the queen of heaven!

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I don't know how long later, in the command tower that had been razed to the ground, Arai Yougong, covered in blood, struggled to crawl out of the pile of dead people. He was bleeding from both ears, and he was obviously completely deafened. Looking at the Japanese sailors on the "Fuso" who escaped by diving like dumplings, Arai Yugong laughed miserably, he pulled out the family heirloom samurai blade he wore at his waist, stroked it lightly for a moment, and suddenly plunged it into his abdomen.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, don't you ...... up, in the next ...... That's it...... ......"

PS: The author is working very hard in the evening yards, asking for some recommendations and collections~~~