"Today should be the day when Jiyuan and Zhiyuan will respond to Gao Sheng and Cao Jiang, right?" Xu Jie asked, Lin Yongsheng, the pipe belt of the Haitian ship.

"Yes, sir. Supposedly, there should be no problem for these two ships to have 2 cruiser escorts, right? Why is our fleet, the essence of the North Seas, cruising near this Toshima island? Lin Yongsheng asked with some puzzlement. Not long after Jiyuan and Zhiyuan lit fire and anchored, Xu Jie went out with the three cruisers that were waiting for him, but he did not inform Zhiyuan and Jiyuan, but kept a distance not far away. Jiyuan didn't know that Xu Jie was behind, but Xu Jie could know Jiyuan's sailing situation through the itinerary plan left by Guò in Beiyang.

"There's going to be something going on here." Xu Jie looked at the two new-style cruisers Suiyuan and Kaiyuan in the back, as well as the two avant-garde ships of the Sea Dragon and Sea Tiger, which served as the vanguard in front of the formation, and said.

"Could it be that Lord Fei thinks that the battle of Qingri will start here?" Lin Yongsheng said in shock.

"That's right." Xu Jie smiled slightly.

"Then why do you want to build a main fleet and not lightly patrol the waters near North Korea? If our fleet encounters the Japanese brigade, I am afraid that it will be more than lucky. Lin Yongsheng said with some blame.

"As far as the current situation is concerned, the speed of this team is too slow, in case of a big battle, the Japanese fleet is ready to go, and the repair work of the Zhenhai ship of our Dashimizu Division has not yet been finally completed. Once this is fought at sea, it will inevitably be more auspicious than lucky, so my Beiyang Fleet is now using a procrastination trick to drag three 10,000-ton warships back to China, then we will take the initiative. But towing does not mean that there is no action in the Beiyang, these three fast cruisers have a speed of more than 22 knots, and the only ones that can catch up with us are the two ships of the Japanese Navy, Takasago and Yoshino, and the 7,000-ton Kurama has just returned to China and is being renovated in the dockyard, and it cannot be put into battle in a short time. The fast fleet plus 2 advance ships can rely on high maneuverability to guerrilla attacks at sea. As long as the Japanese dare to shoot the first shot, we can definitely let them walk around without eating! Xu Jie said confidently.

"Lord Xu, didn't he use the Gaosheng Caojiang and Jiyuan Zhiyuan two ships as bait? As soon as the Japanese make a move, we will quickly attack and hit the other side by surprise? But how do the Japanese know about my Beiyang route? Lin Yongsheng was still puzzled.

"Although Beiyang has arrested a lot of Japanese meticulous work in the past few years, how can it completely uproot the spy network that Japan has operated for decades in just a few years?" Xu Jie asked rhetorically.

"In that case, let's wait and see." Lin Yongsheng didn't say much.

At the same time, just as the Jiyuan Zhiyuan 2 ship was preparing to turn with the Gao Sheng and Caojiang, and then rushed to Korea, a Japanese fleet was heading towards Toshima, and the three dome cruisers were advancing at a high speed of 15 knots in a line, and the first ship was the Japanese Navy's most cutting-edge 2nd class dome cruiser Takasago. The second ship was his classmate, the Yoshino, and the third ship was the Akitsuzu, which was already the fastest cruiser formation that Japan could put together. The first-class protection cruiser Kurama long-distance return machinery and hull need to be refurbished and cannot go into battle, the speed of the Asahi is too slow to obviously drag down the speed of the fleet, and the other two dome cruisers Akitsu and Naniwa are old ships launched in 85 years, they are already old ships, and the speed is at most 16 knots. Moreover, in order to prevent the main fleet from accidentally meeting the main force of the Beiyang Fleet, which might be cruising in the Yellow Sea, the two cruisers of about 16 knots had to remain as the vanguard of the main fleet cruising in the Korean Strait, and the Japanese did not know whether the Beiyang Fleet would suddenly go out. Therefore, appropriate reconnaissance forces still need to be left. …,

However, Kawara was still very confident in his fleet of three warships. The vast majority of warships in Beiyang either can't beat themselves, or they can't outrun themselves, as for the 3 new warships in Beiyang, they can indeed beat themselves and outrun themselves, but in his opinion, these 3 warships should not appear in the waters of Toshima, because after all, they are only escorting two transport ships, and Beiyang will definitely not escort all his cutting-edge warships for these 2 transport ships, if one is sent, the Japanese side has an absolute advantage, if there are 2 ships, the Japanese fleet can at least retreat. And if you send 3 ships, it will be absolutely impossible, because the main force of the Beiyang Fleet is still in the port, and as the only rapid reconnaissance fleet in the Beiyang, there is absolutely no reason to throw off the main force to run alone. Even if that Xu Jie dared to run, Ding Ruchang would not agree! Kawara is very confident. This inference is indeed correct, but unfortunately, the Kawahara of this plane is going to run into Xu Jie, who is hanging, this Jiyuan Zhiyuan is just two bait, Xu Jie's main force is preparing to fight someone in the sea near Toshima!!

Finally, at about 9 o'clock in the morning, the lookout post of the Takasago finally discovered the whereabouts of the Qing fleet from the sea fog that was gradually thinning, and two warships, one large and one small, loomed on the sea. One of these two battleships was in the style of a typical Armstrong-type cruiser, and needless to say, it must be of the Zhiyuan class, and the other was of the same size as him, which should have been from a certain German cruiser. The lookout competently gave Kawahara the report he had seen, and a moment later, the entire battleship was cheering. The Japanese naval officers and men, who were already nervous, also breathed a sigh of relief, and Kawahara Yoichi's eyes lit up with excitement. The Beiyang Fast Fleet is not there, which means that the main fleet is not there either. There should only be these 2 small ships around here, what are the goods of the old ships in Beiyang? Zhiyuan is better, as for the 3 warships ordered from Germany, none of them are good. And look at your own side is really full of good cards. 2 4,000-ton dome cruisers, and a 3,000-ton dome cruiser that has just been commissioned, it would be unreasonable if they couldn't kill each other!!

At the same time, the lookout on the Zhiyuan, which was in the first place, also spotted the Japanese who were not good. And Chen Jinhua, who sat on the pipe belt of the Zhiyuan ship after Deng Shichang left, suddenly felt bad, and then sent a signal to remind Jiyuan who was behind, and ordered to prepare for war. The gunners of the bow guns lifted a high-explosive shell from the ammunition depot and placed it in the compartment under the gun to store the shells, and the three 8-inch guns in the bow and stern of the Zhiyuan and the two 6-inch guns on the side chord began to turn and aim at the Japanese who were not good at coming from afar. And the guns of the Jiyuan ship behind also began to turn, and the muzzles of the black holes pointed into the distance.

"It seems that the Qing people are already prepared, but so what? The opponent's alignment is less than half of his own, and the speed is so slow that it can be described as a turtle crawling, no matter how the opponent prepares for the battle, the result is certain. Kawahara shook his head dismissively.

"Your Excellency, Captain Yoshino Yuyuki Shikano asks what to do next?" The first mate walked up and asked. (Kawahara wanted to be Captain Yoshino, this plane became Captain Takasago, and the Saikyo Maru was gone, and its captain Yusuki Kano became Captain Yoshino.) ）

"Rush up and kill them." Kawahara said confidently, and then, the three Japanese battleships began to accelerate and cut diagonally in front of the Beiyang Fleet. At 9:15, the 8-inch gun on the bow of the Takasago fired the first shot of the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle of the Qing Dynasty!

In the face of the Japanese fleet that cut obliquely into the forward course, Chen Jinhua immediately realized that his fleet was already in an unfavorable formation, and after the improvement of Zhiyuan, it was already a cruiser that received the enemy on the side chord, and Jiyuan was blocked behind because of the formation problem, so that only the two 8-inch guns and two 6-inch guns in the direction of the bow of the Zhiyuan could fire, in order to change the unfavorable situation, the Zhiyuan ship quickly turned left, and played a flag to let the Jiyuan in the rear follow up and turn left. The Beiyang two-ship formation began to cut the inner line to form a parallel engagement line with the Japanese battleships. …,

The Japanese cruisers' sidestrings spewed out clusters of orange-red fire from time to time, and a large number of 6-inch and 4.7-inch rapid-fire guns arranged on the sidestrings kept spraying a rain of dead bullets, and the flying shells kept exploding around Zhiyuan and Jiyuan, completely covering the two Beiyang cruisers. Perhaps because of the interference of the water column and gunsmoke, the Japanese army made some mistakes in the distribution of firepower, according to Kawahara Yaoichi's plan, Takasago and Yoshino should first concentrate their firepower to sink the Zhiyuan at the head of the team, because Zhiyuan has a faster speed and more fierce firepower, and even if Jiyuan is released first, it will not pose too much of a threat, and Jiyuan's too low speed can completely enable the Japanese army to pursue Jiyuan who fled after destroying Zhiyuan. Although the plan was good, when it was executed, it turned into Takasago and Zhiyuan firing at each other, and Yoshino and Akitsusu concentrated their firepower to attack Jiyuan. In this way, the situation between Zhiyuan and Takasago becomes, 3 8-inch guns, 2 6-inch guns, 2 8-inch guns, and 5 4.7-inch guns. The gap between the two sides is not very huge, and the accuracy of the Beiyang Naval Division is higher than that of Japan.

The first documented hit was scored by Zhiyuan seven minutes after the start of the battle. A 203mm shell accurately hit the stern of the Takasago. The heavy cannonball filled with picric acid explosives exploded in an instant, turning the entire stern of the ship into a sea of fire, and the entire battleship seemed to be hit by a heavy hammer, and the entire battleship shook slightly. Although it did not hit the rear battery, the dense fog that rose into the sky obscured the vision of the rear running position. THE 203MM MAIN GUN IN THE REAR OF THE TAKASAGO WAS BASICALLY TEMPORARILY SCRAPPED. At this time, Kamihara wanted to find out that the Yoshino behind him was not attacking Zhiyuan with him, but bullying the weaker Jiyuan with Gao Qianhui! So Kawahara had to order the flags one by one to let the Yoshino divert firepower, and at the same time to step up the attack on the Zhiyuan.

THE FIVE 4.7-INCH GUNS, 12-POUNDER GUNS, AND EVEN THE 47MM GUNS ON THE SIDE CHORD OF THE TAKASAGO SPAT OUT TONGUES OF FIRE LIKE CRAZY, AS IF THEY WANTED TO AVENGE THE BLOW THEY HAD JUST TAKEN. As the distance between the two sides got closer, the delivery advantage of the Takasago side-chord rapid-fire cannon was once again revealed, and the 120mm rapid-fire gun was firing at a high rate of fire of 6 rounds per minute, and even the worst gunner would have achieved a result under the huge ammunition consumption. THE SIDE CHORD OF THE ZHIYUAN SHIP WAS HIT BY TWO 120MM SHELLS ALMOST SIMULTANEOUSLY, AND A SMALL BOAT AND A 57MM RAPID-FIRE GUN ON THE SIDE CHORD WERE DIRECTLY HIT, AND IN THE HUGE EXPLOSION, THE FRAGMENTS WERE THROWN INTO THE AIR MORE THAN TEN METERS INTO THE AIR, AND THEN FELL TO THE SURROUNDING SEA. The explosion left nothing but charred steel plates and shredded flesh and blood scattered around. Chen Jinhua glanced at the place where he was hit, and his heart was also a little weak, at this moment, he also considered evacuating, but thinking of the Gao Sheng and Caojiang who were rushing here and the thousands of army brothers on it, this thought only existed in his mind for a few seconds, so don't kill it. "Hit, hit. The Japanese warship will sink if it is shot, so there is nothing to be afraid of. Chen Jinhua said to the frightened first mate next to him with a hideous face,

Yoshino and Takasago, who turned the muzzle, stepped up the siege of Zhiyuan together, as many as 9 120 guns and 3 6-inch guns, if the fire chain of hell generally swept the rain of bullets towards Zhiyuan, various small-caliber rapid-fire guns also came in handy at close range, 6-pounder guns, 3-pounder guns kept sweeping the deck of Zhiyuan, and Zhiyuan was like a brave man staggering in the rain of bullets to do his best to give the opponent a blow. In the 15th minute of the battle, the Zhiyuan hit Takasago and Yoshino respectively, and Takasago was lucky this time and was concentrated in a gun gallery by 6-inch guns. The Armstrong 4.7-inch gun, which weighed more than 2 tons, was pushed directly out of the gun position as if by a raised hand, and the flying gun parts covered the side chord indiscriminately. The gunners in the gun emplacements were all killed in an instant, and the scattered fragments also knocked on the guard plate of the nearby gun gallery, listening to the clanging impact, the Japanese sailors also realized for the first time that they were so close to death. The excitement of the battle was gone, and only the face turned white with fear could be seen. Another 6-inch gun struck the middle of Yoshino's hull, and after piercing the thin hull, the shell destroyed a generator. A puff of smoke came out of the bullet hole. However, these hits were useless, although Takasago and Yoshino were damaged, but the Zhiyuan was clearly the first to be more severe, and after the dense rain of bullets, almost all of the 6-inch and 6-pounder guns on the Zhiyuan side chord were destroyed, and the hull was full of fires and sailors who were braving the rain of bullets. The speed of the entire battleship was also reduced to 11 knots due to a large amount of water. Just after Kawahara was going to make persistent efforts to kill Zhiyuan, two unexpected things made the battle situation a little confusing.

The first chapter of the war is nearly 4000 words, and it is worthy of everyone~~ If the collection can reach 3450 before 10 o'clock this evening. There is also a more ~~~ in the evening