"The Huaxia fleet is here!" Essen grimaced and threw a telegram in front of Makanov. "They have come to besiege the port of Batavia. is expected to arrive tomorrow, Yang Yonglin's appetite is really good, and he actually wants to eat us in one go. ”

"Really? It seems that this is an opportunity, and perhaps we can rely on the help of land-based batteries and observation posts against the Chinese fleet and tell the minelayer detachment to add a few more minefields to their perimeter. We had to push it back beyond the effective range of the 12-inch naval guns. Makanov said with a blank face. It's as if you're telling something that has nothing to do with him. In his opinion, the Huaxia Navy has planned to copy the experience of the Beijia Lang Bank to the port of Batavia, and strike at the port of Batavia with a brainless covering attack.

But this time, I'm afraid the Huaxia Navy will be disappointed. The forts in Batavia were relatively far from the front, at a considerable distance from the port area. In addition, there is also a certain space on the periphery to deploy part of the fleet, and with the mine array, the Russian fleet can indeed ensure that the port of Batavia will not be occupied, but how much damage it will suffer depends on the level of both sides. Makanov was still more confident that the Russians had set up a number of artillery observation posts on the periphery and more than 20 12-inch guns on the port batteries. In addition, the Peter the Great-class fast battleships have been repaired several times. The Russian-Dutch fleet has already surpassed each other in the number of large-caliber guns. With the advantage of observation and artillery on his side, it is enough to overwhelm the Huaxia fleet in terms of hardware. So Makanov expects to gain some advantages in this fleet engagement.

May 1, 1905. The main force of the Chinese fleet finally appeared outside the port of Batavia, and the strongest fleet in Asia stretched its body outside the port of Batavia like a giant dragon. 12 capital ships were formed in 3 columns. The Longxing and Longteng-class battleships were the first column. The Longtai-class battleships and Longxu-class battlecruisers were formed into the second column, while the other Longxu-class battlecruiser and three Ninghai-class quasi-dreadnoughts were formed into the third column. And the remaining 5 old armored cruisers of the Guiyuan class were left in the rear as a reserve fleet, and this kind of battle between giants was not suitable for them!

The detachment of light cruisers, which had been the avant-garde, quickly dispersed to both sides before approaching the position. Then the phalanx of 12 capital ships began to change formations. Along with the signal flag raised by the Longxing, the four battleships directly under Yang Yonglin began to accelerate to the right and pulled out a straight line, followed by Ye Zusi's phalanx of fast battleships, and they quickly followed after the battleship formation completed the turn to form a complete battle line, and then three Ninghai-class former dreadnoughts and another Longxu-class battlecruiser. 5 minutes later, the essence of the Chinese Navy. 12 battleships were fully deployed, and against them were the same number of 12 battleships and fast battleships of the Russian Navy, as well as the batteries behind them!

"This distance hit rate is worrying!" Look at the distance of up to 13,000 meters between the two sides. Liu Buyun shook his head helplessly and said. Good after the Russian fleet lined up. Because of the limitations of sea space and mine arrays, the Russian fleet was almost stationary, while the Chinese fleet was also sailing at a low speed. The lower velocity facilitated range-finding, while the segmented firing method minimized the disturbance between the guns. More importantly. The number of artillery of the Chinese Navy was sufficient. With such a large base, that is, if the mission hit rate is only 2%, you can hit nearly 2 shots in one round of shelling!

"Get ready to fire, just hit the Russian fleet and leave the batteries alone." Yang Yonglin ordered. Immediately, dozens of turrets of the 12 capital ships of the Huaxia Navy slowly turned to the engagement side, and after the order to open fire was given, the Huaxia Navy was assigned the target according to the pre-battle. Each capital ship shoots at one of the enemy's capital ships. With the Longxing's cannon barrels spewing out deadly flames again, the first Batavia offensive and defensive battle officially kicked off!

"It's finally begun. Although in my mind I guessed countless times the scene of the battle with the Huaxia Navy. But the sight of as many as 12 capital ships roaring at the same time still made me feel a chill in my heart. These warships are the best of their generation. Whether it was the Ninghai class back then, or the Longxing class, which had the strongest firepower in the world, or the king of fast warships, the Longtai class, and the fastest battleship, the Longxu-class battlecruiser. A barrage of fireballs erupted from the muzzles obscured the entire fleet. For a few seconds, we could only see dark red fireballs flying from the sky, and the opponent fired hundreds of heavy shells in a one-minute salvo, weighing more than 30 tons! Eisen wrote afterwards in the combat report. And this is one of the reasons why Eisen and others strongly recommended pursuing the Huaxia fleet at that time! The opponent is so strong that even if they get 2 dreadnoughts, Eisen and the others are still not optimistic about the battle situation in the decisive battle.

All Chinese navies used a half-salvo or a three-stage shot in the first round of firing. So this is far from the highest combat rate of fire of the Chinese Navy, but even so, it is already quite shocking for the Russian Navy. More than 20 seconds after seeing the artillery fire, shells began to fall in the ranks of the Russian fleet. Columns of water rose around the Russian battleships, and under such intensive shelling, there was actually a shell that caused a close loss in the first minute of the battle! I don't know if the shell fired from the battleship landed near the side of the Duke Suvonov, the No. 2 ship of the Borodino class, this is a high-explosive shell! After more than 40 KG of picric acid explosives were detonated under the action of the seal, the shock wave generated was wrapped in shrapnel and squeezed the sea water to spread around, and the underwater structure of the Duke Suvonov, which was less than 5 meters away, was very sad to meet this wave of impact, the ship's side was damaged, and even the next door between the coal bunker and the empty bunker was hit with several holes. Although there was no trouble with the core compartment inside the hull, one of the coal bunkers was flooded.

Because it is an ultra-long-distance shot, even if a 12-inch heavy gun hits it at this distance, even the 6-inch hardened armor cannot penetrate it, so it is better to use a high-explosive shell to hit it with obvious results. The high-explosive bombs of the Chinese Navy have also been improved, firstly, the picric acid has been passivated to make it not easy to explode, and secondly, the fuse at the bottom of the bomb is used instead of the bump fuse, so that the shell can explode after penetrating some non-key protection areas. In addition, there is another reason that the armor-piercing shell is also ready to be used for the future Armageddon at sea, how can it be wasted here?

"Let's fire!" Even if it can't hit the target, the Russian Navy can't just be beaten and not fight back, not to mention the morale blow alone, so that Makanov must return fire even if he wastes shells. ALTHOUGH THE RUSSIAN NAVY ALSO HAS 12 CAPITAL SHIPS, THE NUMBER OF 12-INCH GUNS IS ONLY 60, THE NUMBER OF 274MM GUNS IS ONLY 16, PLUS 8 10-INCH GUNS. Such a capital ship firepower is obviously not enough to see in the face of the main force of the Chinese Navy, if it is not for an elite patrol formation, then the Russian Navy does not have to fight, but fortunately, in the port, the Russians still have more than 20 shore defense guns!

At such a distance, the artillery of the Russian Navy almost always reached the maximum elevation angle, and there was no need to think about fire control at all, after all, for the Russian Navy, which has always been at a distance of 7 to 8 kilometers, the probability of hitting an enemy ship at such a distance is too low! FORTUNATELY, THE CHINESE NAVY HAS ALSO PRACTICED ARTILLERY BOMBARDMENT OF MORE THAN 11 KM. The Russians have never done it. Although the hit rate can definitely reach a miserable level, the salvo of hundreds of various guns is still very shocking!

The first collision of the main fleets of both sides was not as brutal as one might think. After several rounds of firing at each other, both sides slowed down the rate of fire, for the simple reason that the distance between the battleships was too short, and the smoke of their own guns and the water column hit by the opponent directly affected the observation. The rangefinder was still in a low position, so there was a splash of water and smoke in the eyepiece, and it was impossible to continue the attack. And the actual hit rate can be described as pathetic. According to the statistics of the Russians, the Chinese Navy had only 2 direct hits, one hitting the flagship Peter the Great in Essen. The rear of the hull was cut off in one piece, while the other hit the Eagle, and the shell hit the side side, but apparently could not deal a fatal blow to its main armor, which was 11 inches thick, and was later catapulted into the sea.

And in the records of the Chinese Navy, the Russian fleet did not even miss a bullet in close range, not to mention hit! The most recent shells landed at around 500 meters! The exchange of fire between the fleets of the two sides is more like using artillery to express their will to fight, and the actual losses of the fleets on both sides are almost negligible!

"Let's go back a bit, there's no point in going on like this." Makanov said after looking at the Chinese fleet, which was also gradually slowing down the shelling. The shells were so precious that Makanov didn't want to waste all the shells he bought with real money just to see a costly salute. At the same time, the Huaxia Navy also began its own planning, and the previous bombardment was just a rehearsal before the opening of the big drama. After the Russian fleet began to retreat, it was time for the Chinese Navy to implement its own plans.

Makanov's fleet retreated a little. Completely left the strike range of the Huaxia Navy. Soon the Russians also gave up the return fire, both the battleships and the guns on the batteries fell silent, and the Chinese navy seemed to have given up this inefficient battle, the guns of the main fleet stopped roaring, and on the flanks of the fleet, some small warships rushed out, and these battleships began to sail in the direction of the port of Batavia for a short distance, and then began to wander repeatedly on the sea.

At the beginning, the Russians did not know what the Chinese navy was doing on the ground. But when they saw huge water columns rising into the air and bursts of roars coming from the sea, the Russians finally understood the purpose of the Huaxia Navy, which was to use minesweepers to gradually sweep away the peripheral minefields, and then the fleet moved forward step by step until the opposing fleet was included in the effective range of its own naval guns!

Thank you for the monthly pass support of the book friend Invincible Garfield~~~. (To be continued......)