March 7, 1902. In the German Navy's Kiel Harbor, a 182-meter-long and 27-meter-wide behemoth is quietly moored at the No. 1 berth of the German Kiel Harbor Naval Base. Next to it are the most advanced quasi-dreadnought battleships in service in Germany, three battleships of the Westminster class.

"General, a Westminster-type battleship is like a toy compared to him. It is really appropriate for the Chinese to name this battleship after their legendary divine beast. Colonel Sippel said with envy as he looked at the behemoth in the distance.

"We will also have, our first-class dreadnoughts, like them, the German Empire actually took only a little more than 2 years to complete this behemoth weighing more than 20,000 tons, which is something to be truly proud of. In the future, I would love to see it out against the Great British Fleet in command of a fleet of such ships! Major General Scheer said with great ambition.

At this time, in the officer's cafeteria of the Longxing, the Huaxia Navy Officer Corps headed by Liu Buyun, who was in charge of receiving the ship, was making the most advanced preparations with the people of the German Admiralty on the comparative test that was ready to begin. According to the agreement with the German Admiralty, after the Longxing is officially delivered to the Huaxia Navy, the Huaxia Navy will test the main performance of the warship together with the German Navy, find various loopholes, and make certain improvements and perfections. For this behemoth, the top brass of the Chinese Navy, including Liu Buyun, also have no bottom. The Germans, on the other hand, sought to gain more experience with their new warships, and the German Navy had better testing conditions, so both sides were happy to take what they needed.

As agreed by both parties. The entire test was carried out in two parts, the first part was to compare the gap in combat power between the new dreadnought and the quasi-dreadnought, for which it was. The Germans specially selected two Saxony-class ironclad ships that were ready to be dismantled as target ships, and let the Longxing and Quasi-Dreadnought attack respectively to see how effective the actual damage was.

"The target ship is towed by a ship at a distance of 8KM, isn't it a bit far? The farthest design distance of your country in the Sino-Russian war is no more than that, and it is a warship that has been used for many years. Looking at the document in his hand, Tirpitz asked with some confusion.

"The long-range shooting hit rate is determined by just a few factors. One is the sophistication of fire control, the fire control system we use now is equipped with a longer rangefinder and calculation equipment than the king, after a period of study. It's very skilled now. Not a big problem. Another problem is to look at the walk of the gun itself, we used the Vickers 12-inch 45L main gun, which is similar to the main gun of the Ninghai-class battleships back then, and in order to reduce the wear and tear of the gun, we used a reduced charge to imitate the ballistics of the 12-inch 40L gun. Walking itself is also within our grasp. Not to mention. With more guns and a faster rate of fire, there's no reason why the Longxing can't hit accurately. Liu Buyun said confidently.

"If the design distance is set at 8KM, there is still actual combat as a basis, then in the later tests, the engagement distance is set at a distance of 10KM or even 12KM, which has exceeded the existing engagement distance by more than 50%! If it were not for the strong request of the Admiralty, the Krupp plant would not have even done a gun table at this distance, let alone carried out detailed tests, the sea is different from the land. The stability of the hull itself and the rocking cycle must be taken into account. Next to it, a German Admiralty technical officer began the second part of the test. Opposition was raised by ultra-long-range shelling.

"There are a lot of things in the world that have gone from impossible to possible, after all, we can't always use 8KM as the engagement distance, right? The desire of soldiers to fight farther and more accurately and ruthlessly than the other side will grow stronger over time, and the result is important, but more importantly, we must not stick to the rules. Deng Shichang was already a little dissatisfied with the other party's opinion. He doesn't like people who jump to conclusions before they have experimented.

"Since everyone has no problems, I think we can consider starting the test in earnest, and the Empire has made sufficient preparations for this test, not only concentrating 3 Westminster-class battleships, but also sending airships to observe the impact point from the air. I wish this trial a complete success. Tirpitz came out of the round, after all, the result was soon known, and there was no point in arguing now.

With three dazzling flares rising into the sky, a steamer began to enter from 8KM away, dragging the target ship. The comparative test of the codename Angel Sword officially began, and with the slow rotation of the 5-meter rangefinder on the top of the battleship Longxing, a figure gradually appeared in the field of vision. With constant adjustments, the target ship gradually became clear, and then, according to the height of the opposing battleship, the distance between the two sides was calculated, and then the course was determined.

Dozens of seconds later, the relevant data changes are transmitted to the fire control room through a special line, and the officers in the fire control room begin to settle various data, and transmit them to each turret through vehicles and other devices, and the gun commanders who are always busy in the turret only need to compare the settlement data in the fire control room with the gun table and fully load, waiting for the design order.

A dripping sound, accompanied by a somewhat sharp sound, the green light that signaled the completion of the artillery was remembered one after another, and the four turrets were ready to be completed separately, and then with the sound of metal rubbing against each other, the four turrets began to slowly point to the battleship in the distance that was sailing at a speed of about 10 knots. A full 12 guns raised their black barrels.

"Fire!" A command echoed in each gun emplacement, 4 turrets spewed out 4 hot tongues of fire at the same time, each turret only had the leftmost No. 1 gun design, just a dozen seconds later, 4 shells crossed a distance of about 8KM and landed around the target. Set up 4 water columns of different heights.

"Get a little closer, add another 400 meters." Correction data from the rangefinder at the top was quickly handed down, and just 40 seconds later, the second salvo began from the four turrets of the Longxing class, this time firing the No. 3 main gun on the far right of the four turrets. And a few dozen seconds later, these 4 shells fell behind the target. After two rounds of firing were completed, one fell in front of the target and one behind the target.

"Take 8,200 meters in the direction of the target and continue shooting." Immediately the battleship adjusted the target calculation distance for the third time, since the first positioning of 8,000 meters and the second positioning of 8,400 meters fell in front and behind the target respectively, then the target should be between 8,000 and 8,400 meters, and the third time the value was directly halved and 8,200 meters were taken. And this method of comparison is called the method of pinching and folding in half by the Chinese Navy!

The distance was not far in the first place, and it was quickly confined to a small range, so, in the third round of design, the No. 2 turret in the middle of the 4 turrets successfully caught the target, with 2 water columns in front of the target and 2 water columns behind the target! The target has been trapped, then it means that the target has fallen into the coverage of the artillery, as long as the fire continues, then sooner or later it can be hit!

"The main gun fire of the whole ship has been transferred to the rapid fire stage, and the artillery firing sequence is 1, 3, and 2 at full speed!" Finally, Liu Buyun and others received the long-awaited news, the fire control tube automatically transferred the artillery from the slow-fire stage to the fast-fire stage, at this moment, the giant beast Longxing began to really exert its might, and all 12 12-inch naval guns were fully displayed!

Because the battleship was stationary and did not sail, the hull shook very little, and 12 guns fired a salvo in three batches almost 15 seconds apart! With the support of the mechanized loading system, shells and propellants were raised from the ammunition depot, and then the gunner would open the bolt of the rear door, put the shells and two cartridges in, then close, adjust the pitch angle of the gun, and fire at the rear of the gun, and in the first minute, the Longxing fired a full 4 thirds of a salvo, and 16 shells came out of the chamber!

"It's spectacular!" Listening to the incessant roar of artillery, Scheer of the Westminster 1 ship, which was 2 kilometers away, couldn't help but admire. The spectacle of 12 12-inch guns firing alternately was the first time in his life that he had experienced it. The low roar of the cannon and the orange flames of the muzzle give the feeling that the end is imminent, how to say, like the twilight of the gods in Norse mythology, the ultimate violence, the ultimate beauty!

"The Longxing has hit, 8,500 meters away, and it has hit." Sipel next to him didn't have time to express his feelings, because at this time he was fiddling with a sextant to roughly observe the distance of the distant target. When he saw that less than 2 minutes after entering the rapid fire, the first 12-inch shell had already smashed into the target, which made him feel very shocked!

With a loud bang, a huge orange fireball slammed into the bottom of the target ship's front mast, and a huge explosion mixed with flames and smoke instantly covered the entire front of the hull, and the mast that was still standing high a few seconds ago was smashed into several pieces. The entire battleship was also crumbling with a heavy blow.

This was just the beginning, and then a series of furious blows followed. In less than half a minute after the first shell hit, the second shell smashed into the bow of the target ship, the powerful armor-piercing projectile directly penetrated the bow of the target, penetrating from one side, and when it was about to penetrate out, the fuse triggered the explosives in the shell, only to see the whole battleship fiercely, a large hole of several square meters appeared on the starboard side of the hull, although it was not clear because of the problem of perspective, but Siperel knew that the life of this Saxony-class ironclad ship had entered the countdown!

It has been an old ship for decades, and the sub-warehouse is not to say excellent, I'm afraid that it can't even be qualified with the current requirements! In addition, the two shells hit the front of the hull, and the already old hull could not withstand such a wanton and indiscriminate bombardment, the bow of the ship was seriously damaged, and the water ingress could not be contained!

Thank you for the recommendation vote of sun1980~~~. (To be continued......)