"War is not just about fighting with artillery and muscles, but more importantly, about the collision of ideas and intelligence. ,!” - Lin Taizeng.

The Ocean Fleet did not choose the usual method of warfare in which the fleet turned at a large angle before engaging the enemy and faced the enemy ship with its side side, as is usually the case in naval battles, but maintained an acute angle of about 20 degrees between the route of the Ocean Fleet and the course of the Russian Fleet. For this decision, Lin Tai once explained that with 2 PISA-class ships still patrolling in the distance, the Russian fleet would definitely not dare to move forward, and would not even immediately show the flank for engagement. In order to achieve this goal, the other side must turn 160 degrees in order to be parallel to the ocean fleet in the same direction, and the distance between the two sides should not be too large, otherwise, because of the angle problem, it will be difficult for the first two warships of the Russian Navy to find the firing range, while the ocean fleet in the left rear can concentrate all its main guns to attack the battleship Rurik at the end of the Russian Navy.

In the face of such a state of engagement, Essen did not choose to evacuate as Lin Tai had predicted, he implemented a large-angle turn, but did not turn parallel to the position of the foreign fleet, but turned the course of the fleet by 100 degrees, in an attempt to form an oblique T-shaped array in front of the foreign fleet's course. The classic tactics of grabbing the T played a huge role in the naval battle in the western United States, and now Essen wants to repeat it in the Far East!

Essen's maneuver began when the two sides were 8 km apart, and if according to the original estimates, the maximum distance of the artillery battle between the two sides would not exceed 5 km, he had enough time to complete the turn. When the two sides are close to the firing distance, the Russian fleet will be just right to complete the scramble!

Experience is precious, ideas are beautiful, but the reality is cruel, in the two sides close to 7KM, located at the head of the team Taipei and the subsequent Kaohsiung ranging and direction finding work has been completed, located at the top of the ship 3 meters limit rangefinder accurately reported the distance to the other side: 7250 meters! And at this time. The Prince, at the head of the Russian fleet, is turning, and the Russia behind is preparing to turn! In the course of a sharp turn, the Russian fleet simply could not hit such a long distance! But the ocean-going fleet wants to try!

The four twin 11-inch guns of the Taipei and Kaohsiung slowly locked onto the Prince who was turning. In a 3-meter rangefinder. The long hull of the Prince is completely exposed to the eyes of observers. After verifying the distance once at the end of the day, the fire control tube transmitted the course and distance of the opponent to the turret, and then the gun commander used a telescopic sight to trap the opponent. After receiving permission to fire. The 4 twin turrets spewed out 4 fire dragons. 4 11-INCH ARMOR-PIERCING PROJECTILES WEIGHING 262KG FLEW TOWARDS THE PRINCE WHO WAS TURNING!

"What's going on? Are they crazy? A Russian officer heard a loud thunderous noise coming from a distance and quickly ran to the observation port to look at the ocean fleet in the distance. Four dark red objects flew towards the Prince with a whistling sound that swept through the air! Before a huge part of the Russians could react, four shells had already fallen, and almost at the same time, four huge water columns more than ten meters high rose into the air next to the Prince.

"They missed, and those braided guys were wasting shells!" A newly appointed aristocratic officer wiped the cold sweat oozing from his head and said.

"No, that's not normal!" Essen suddenly felt very uneasy. Neither the Northern Fleet nor the Foreign Fleet is a group of rookies. They don't do anything senseless. Since they dared to fire at such a distance, then there must be something! The fleet is dangerous now, it must pass quickly!

"It's a little far off." An officer operating the rangefinder muttered to himself.

"It's okay, at least it's in the right direction." The other said with a smile.

More than ten seconds later, the second round of firing between the Taipei and Kaohsiung began, and there were four more 11-inch shells, but at this moment the distance between the two sides was close to about 5,800 meters, and the correction of the first round of shells and the proximity of the distance made the second wave of shells closer to Taizi. Among them, the two rounds of the Taipei formed a straddle shot! Two huge columns of water rose almost simultaneously on the left and right strings of the Prince!

"They're done!" Thinking of this, a few drops of cold sweat ran down his head! As a good naval officer, he knew that once the opponent's rifle was completed, they would be waiting for them to shoot at maximum speed until the Prince was hit. Or the opponent does not form a straddle and needs to be recalibrated.

"Maximum rate of fire, fire." After getting the news of the success of the reshoot, the Taipei took the lead in the fast-firing phase, and the four 11-inch 40L main guns began to fire at the highest rate of fire, and in less than 40 seconds, a round of shells flew out of the turret and fired at the Prince who was turning!

Just 1 minute after the Taipei entered the rapid fire, the Kaohsiung also achieved a cross-fire, and immediately entered the rapid fire stage, and the 8 11-inch guns of the two battleships frantically thought about the Prince firing at a rate of fire close to 2 rounds per minute. Almost instantly, the roar of the 11-inch cannon became one, and the flames continued to contract at the muzzle. Smoke and flames almost obscured the hulls of the two King-class ships, and the Crown Prince was almost instantly surrounded by a rain of shells. Originally, the water columns were almost trained into a wall of water, and they were getting closer and closer to the Prince!

"Accelerate the turn, let's go." At this time, Essen was already a little panicked, and when people encountered something they could not understand, they would panic, and at this distance the other party's shells would get closer and closer to them. And their own warships can only blindly fight back, making a splash at sea at least 100 meters away from the opponent!

Just as the Prince was about to complete its turn, a 11-inch 40L gun shell weighing 262KG suddenly hit the middle and rear of the port side of the Prince, and the sharp cap and the hardened layer of the armor were reduced to pieces. Then the entire projectile body hit the armor, tearing off a large piece of the armor on the side armor belt, and then the fuse ignited the charge, and a huge fireball rose into the air! Two 6.4-inch guns and one 5.5-inch gun were destroyed because the secondary gun layout was too dense, and billowing smoke rose from the middle and rear of the hull.

This was just the beginning, as the high rate of fire combined with the new gunnery skyrocketed the accuracy of the two armored cruisers, the Taipei and the Kaohsiung, just before the smoke cleared after the first hit. Two more 11-inch 40L shots hit the fastest battleship of the Russian Far East Fleet almost simultaneously, and one 11-inch shell made a large hole directly in the bow. The fragile 6-inch armor belt in the bow of the ship could not withstand the attack of 11-inch 40L cap-piercing shells from 4,000 meters away, and with the piercing sound of impact, the armor-piercing shells entered the bow of the ship without hindrance where the waterline met. A few tenths of a second later, a large hole of several square meters appeared in the bow of the ship, accompanied by a dull explosion. The anchor chamber in the bow of the Prince was destroyed.

The impact was even greater with another shell, which was very close to the point of hit of the first shell. The shell hit the 274 gun mount on the side of the prince's hull. The current 11-inch 40L shells still can't penetrate the armor of the gun mount up to 10 inches thick, even at a distance of 4,000 meters, with a bang, after a flash of yellow light, the gun mount of the Prince only appeared a crack on the surface. Just when the Beiyang Naval Division was depressed that this hit did not achieve a successful result, the 274 main gun that was slowly rotating actually stopped! The huge impact directly stuck this cannon to death!

"Damn it." Essen cursed in a low voice, as the distance between the two sides approached, the secondary guns of both sides also began to fire at full strength, and at a distance of 3,500 meters, it had reached the optimal range of the 6-inch guns equipped with new aiming equipment. Different from the cap-piercing shells equipped with the main gun, these 6-inch guns are equipped with picric acid high-explosive shells, according to Lin Taizeng's explanation, the 6-inch gun armor-piercing shells are too powerful, since they can't penetrate the armor, then set fire.

Immediately, nearly 20 medium-caliber rapid-fire guns sprayed a dense rain of bullets at the Prince, forming a fire net to cover the poor Prince. For a moment, smoke billowed from the entire battleship. Scorching flames, flying shrapnel, and toxic smoke wreaked havoc on gunners and exposed crews. Ten minutes into the engagement, the Russian Far East Fleet's best warship was damaged, and the fire was in danger of getting out of control.

Just as the Taipei and Kaohsiung were concentrating their fire on the Taizi, the Russian and Rurik suddenly aborted their planned steering plan, and the two warships cut to the array of the foreign fleet. Attempt to quickly close the distance between the two and suppress each other with fire projection at medium and close range. The encounter with the Prince just now has already taught the Russians that in long-range artillery battles, the Russians have no chance of winning, so since this is the case, they can only fight in close combat!

"Give up the Prince, and concentrate your fire on the Russos and Rurik that are rushing up." Lin Taizeng pondered for a moment and said. "Admiral Lin. The Prince had already been damaged, and the Russell and Rurik that rushed up completely let the two warships behind attack Ah. Deng Shichang said with some dissatisfaction.

"The main gun of the Prince can still be used, and the speed has not decreased. It takes a long time to want to sink. The short- and medium-range firepower of the Rurik and the Russian is very fierce, and the two sides are basically tied at 2 to 2. The war has just begun, and there is no need for us to fight with our opponents at the initial stage. Lin Taizeng was rarely tough for a while and rejected Deng Shichang's opinion.

"Order, the entire fleet turned left 2 compass points, widening the distance from the other side. The Taipei attacked the Russian, and the Kaohsiung and Fuzhou concentrated fire to attack the Rurik, and we have to make up for the regret of the First Sino-Japanese War in this war. After hesitating for a moment, Lin Taizeng still gave the order to transfer the firepower under Deng Shichang's dissatisfied gaze.

And when the foreign fleet was adjusted, the two Russian battleships finally rushed to a distance of 3,800 meters from the battle line of the foreign fleet, which was already the best distance that the artillery of both sides could play! A hand-to-hand fight is inevitable!

Thank you for the monthly ticket support of loanshark, the war has officially begun, I hope you will support more ~~~~. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )

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