Sevastopol is located at the southwestern tip of the Crimean peninsula, 450 kilometers from Istanbul; Due to its excellent ice-free port characteristics, it has been a strategic location in the Black Sea region since ancient times. In 1783, Russia annexed the Crimean Khanate, which was subordinate to the Ottoman Empire, and made it their most important strategic fulcrum on their way to the "warm ocean" to the south. Today, Sevastopol has evolved into an impregnable fortress in this era of social Darwinism; And all the main ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet were stationed there, ready to take the "Tsargrad" that they had coveted for a thousand years.

However, as the giant ship of time slowly sailed into the second decade of the 20th century, the offensive and defensive situation on the Black Sea quietly underwent fundamental changes.

When the Ottoman Empire ordered a dreadnought from Germany in 1908, Russia, which was far from getting out of the shadow of the Russo-Japanese War, did not have the capital to develop dreadnoughts in the Black Sea, either financially or technically, and could only try to complete the construction of two Yefstafi-class dreadnoughts that began in 1903. And this class of ships with a displacement of 12,840 tons is obviously not able to compete with dreadnoughts at all.

Although the lagging Russians then fought to catch up, in 1911 they placed an order for the expansion of three super-dreadnoughts for the Black Sea Fleet in one go; But until now, the "Queen Maria", which has the fastest construction period, will not be launched for half a year. At the speed of Russian shipbuilding, this class of super-dreadnoughts with a standard displacement of 22,600 tons and eight 356-mm guns would have to wait at least until the end of 1915 for its outfitting and combat effectiveness. And in the present. The size of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is shabby: they barely maintain their façade with only five former dreadnoughts. Among them, "Three Saints" and "Rostislav" are products of the era of ironclad ships. To put it in front of the dreadnought is to be overwhelmingly slaughtered!

It was for this reason that the Turkish captain of the Khairedin dared to follow the Sultan Selim to the periphery of the Russian port. And to his slight relief, the Germans did not completely go crazy: they stopped about 24 kilometers from the port and did not go any further. According to intelligence from the Central Powers, the most powerful shore guns of the Russian fortress of Sevastopol were two British-made 305 mm L45 MarkX guns; And even if the elevation angle of this gun is increased on the shore, 24 kilometers is enough to ensure that they are outside the range of this gun!

The sea breeze is inspiring, and the battle flag is rolling; With the steering gear offset, the massive hull of the Sultan Selim crossed an arc on the surface of the sea. The hull of the ship turned sideways. The four massive main turrets began to rotate slowly, their muzzles raised, and finally all aimed at the distant shore. Due to the intervention of Qingying, the main guns of the German-made battleships had excellent elevation angles; The Sultan Selim's main guns reached an elevation angle of 30 degrees, and at an elevation angle of 20 degrees, it was able to project shells from a distance of 23.3 kilometers, making it a complete no-brainer for the opposite shore.

Just after 7 o'clock in the morning, a thunderous roar that resounded through the sky suddenly exploded on the sea. The four turrets of Anna, Bertha, Catherine, and Dora each erupted a cloud of orange-red flames that were larger than the full width of the ship, and the huge impact wave caused the sea below the muzzle to ripple with layers of white fish scales. Four high-explosive bombs weighing 600kg roared through the air at a speed of 815m/s, shaking the sky and roaring. It flew through the air for a minute or so, and then slammed into the shore in a rage. Stir up a sea of fire and wind like a cloud of steaming clouds. The explosive power of this shell with 40kg of high explosives is second only to the high-explosive shell fired by the 420-mm giant monster "Big Berta" among the existing weapons of the German army.

A month and a half after the start of the war, the German-made 350 mm SKL45 naval guns roared at the enemy for the first time!

The red rainbow soared from the Sultan Selim and ran straight through the blue void; Then it roared like a meteor rain of fire, bursting at the landing point with a blood-colored cloud hundreds of meters high, and the sky shook the earth. Despite the fact that the production line of 350-mm shells introduced by Turkey to Germany as a whole has not yet been put into operation, the Sultan Selim, in order to save shells, fired only one and a half salvos every ten minutes; However, the Russians dozens of kilometers away were still stunned by the sudden thunder and artillery fire. As far as the artillery fire reached, the earth and rocks of the fortification were all shattered and exploded, and the fiery red flames rolled and tumbled, enveloping the explosion point in a sea of fire.

Faced with this situation, the commander of the Russian fortress garrison was furious. Half an hour ago, he was still enjoying sex in his mistress's bed, but the violent explosion was like a basin of cold water, instantly extinguishing his primordial flames. By the time he rushed to the headquarters in disheveled clothes, the port had already been battered by dozens of large-caliber high-explosive shells from the enemy, and the sea of fire was raging; According to the observation reports sent back by the lookouts, the enemy warships that carried out the shelling were extremely far from the coast, and their own heavy shore guns were completely unable to respond normally!

Just as I was anxious and angry, there was a violent explosion on the harbor like shaking mountains, and the firelight and clouds exploded one after another, and the red and gorgeous lights were colorful and dazzling. The Russian commander was stunned and immediately judged the identity of the comer. The explosion was more than twice as powerful as its own 305 mm shore guns, and there was only one ship in the Black Sea that could have such heavy guns, and that was the Turkish Sultan Selim. Rao is the Russians have already guessed the camp of the enemy, and at this moment their hearts are still full of hatred and anger: the great and glorious Russian military port has been bombarded by the reptilian sick men of Europe, the Turks, are not afraid of angering the brave and fierce Slavs and striking them a devastating war blow?

Since his own shore guns could not reach the enemy, the commander of the Russian garrison immediately contacted the commander of the Black Sea Fleet and asked him to lead his warships out to sea to defend against the enemy and drive out the Turkish fleet, which was flaunting its might outside his own port. Upon receiving this call, the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Kaznov, was extremely distressed: at present, his fleet was in an embarrassing stage of lack of success, and it was completely unable to compete with the Turkish fleet with super-dreadnoughts on the capital ships. In terms of auxiliary ships, the nine newest destroyers of the Black Sea Fleet, the "Besbaukoni"-class destroyers, have not yet been completed, and all he can rely on at present is an old torpedo boat that was commissioned before 1905. However, Kaznov had no choice: if he chose to just huddle in the harbor and let the Turks' naval guns wantonly abuse the port of Sevastopol, he, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, would no longer have to be the commander!

With Kaznov's order, the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet anchored in the military port immediately entered a state of imminent battle: the Russian sailors ran out of the barracks with unprecedented efficiency, began to light the battleships, and perfected a series of preparations before the attack. In the last war against Japan, Russian soldiers carried a large pile of half-drunk vodka bottles, and staggered to the mobilization destination with a mouthful full of alcohol; As a result, it took the officer an extra week to reorganize this group of drunken drunkards into a combatable division. In order not to repeat the mistakes of the previous war, Russia issued a ban on alcohol at the beginning of the war, and finally enforced this decree throughout the country. However, there is nothing else to reflect this other than the rashness of slapping the thigh characteristic of the end of the Romanov dynasty.

In Russia, alcohol is a government-owned industry, and its annual income accounts for one-third of the government's annual revenue (which shows how much the Maozi are fond of alcohol...... ）。 This order of the Russian government undoubtedly cut off all this part of the revenue. It is well known that the governments engaged in the war have tried to increase their revenues by imposing all kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and Russia has never been able to give up the main source of state finance during the war. In contrast, the little advantage of quick response brought by Prohibition is undoubtedly far from worth the loss in this war for national strength!

Two and a half hours later, the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which had finished lighting the fire, pulled anchor and set sail, heading towards the vicious Turkish warships more than 20 kilometers away. In order to successfully repel the Turkish fleet, Kaznov ordered all the main battle ships to pour out of the nest and rush in one wave, striving to crush the enemy with numerical superiority. The old dreadnoughts and protective cruisers spewed out thick black smoke and drove to the battlefield with a smack driven by a three-stage or even a single-stage reciprocating steam engine; The appearance and shape, which is completely out of touch with the times, makes people can't help but feel a trace of pity for these old ships. Kaznov had long lost hope for the duel between the capital ships, and he only hoped that his front dreadnoughts and protective cruisers could suppress the secondary artillery fire on the enemy's capital ships, so as to create a chance for his 16 torpedo boats to defeat the enemy in one blow.

Seeing a large number of gray dots appear on the northeast sea level, and a thick black smoke cloud drifting in the sky above them, Ekoman, who was in charge of the Sultan Selim, couldn't help but smile. He slowly lowered the binoculars in his hand and said loudly to a herald next to him: "Send a signal to the Turks and let them cooperate with us in this first naval battle!" (To be continued......)

PS: Extremely solemnly thank the book friends for the 1w starting point coin reward of the bell in the wind and rain The author is an office worker, and I can't update it more on weekdays, but this weekend will definitely be reciprocated with a double update, thank you again

At the same time, I would also like to thank the book friends for reassuring two copies, a big drunk cat, the monthly pass support of the breath in the depths of the soul and the reward of zhouyu1976~~