Early morning of April 1, 1895 - The Yokosuka Shipyard and the Uraga Waterway leading to Tokyo Bay were busy. At the Yokosuka shipyard, a large group of workers are clearing and repairing the dockyard in preparation for the upcoming repairs of the capital ships of the Japanese Combined Fleet. A large number of accessories and machinery are also in place, newly installed cranes are being commissioned, and a large number of rapid-fire guns and steel plates, willow nails and other materials for repairing battleships are also in place. Almost all of the open space in the shipyard is opposite, and thousands of workers are busy in the shipyard like worker bees in a hive.

At the same time, transport ships loaded with various supplies and supplies from Tokyo Bay also began to carefully sail out of the harbor. These transports may be loaded with food and ammunition for the front-line troops. Or pretend to be a large number of troops rushing to the front. Under the guidance of the dinghy, they slowly drove out of the harbor.

"Give way to the boat in front. Let's go first. A captain with a beard, rarely seen in Japan, said to his first mate.

"Mr. Captain, this is not very good, the channel is not wide in the first place, and there are mines on both sides. If you force it over, it may be dangerous. The first mate on the side whispered.

"MR. FIRST MATE, OUR MARUYAMA SHIP IS LOADED WITH UNITS OF ONE AND A HALF WINGS OF THE GUARDS DIVISION AND EIGHT 280MM ENGINEERING HOWITZERS NEEDED FOR THE FRONT LINE. What is most needed at the front line is these soldiers and siege artillery, what are those ships carrying? Some food tents or bullets. They deserve to be at the back of the line. Captain Noda's tone was filled with anxiety. When he woke up this morning, he felt an inexplicable terror that had been hanging over his heart all along. I can't tell!

"Very good, Mr. Captain. I'm going to signal now. With that, the first mate was ready to send a signal.

"Captain, where do you look? What's that? Combined Fleet? Suddenly, the second mate pointed to the billowing smoke that gradually appeared on the sea level in the distance.

"What is the Combined Fleet doing here? Ship repair en masse? Captain Noda was also a little confused. The captain couldn't understand it, but that didn't mean the Japanese commander in the fortress didn't understand. The current combined fleet is in ashes. The Russian fleet has not yet arrived. There is only one possibility for such a powerful fleet - the Beiyang Fleet is coming!!

"Alert. All gun emplacements are ready for battle. Tell those merchant ships that Xu, who didn't leave the port, go back quickly, and let them run away from the Uraga waterway. The battery commander ordered. But before the order could be conveyed, the Beiyang Fleet had already begun to accelerate the impact. Under the action of water-tube boilers and three-expansion vertical steam engines, the entire fleet gradually accelerated from a speed of about 10 knots to 15 knots. The high bow of the ship blooms on the sea. The battleship charged at high speed at sea. The splash was directly turned into a cloud of mist by the huge hull of the ship. Six battleships lined up in a column and rushed towards the Japanese convoy in the Uraga waterway like a swimming dragon. Behind him were more than a dozen other ships, and they didn't know what they were doing behind the battleship.

The huge muzzle of the gun slowly turned, and finally aimed at the overwhelmed Japanese fleet. They did not understand until they died, why it was not the invincible Japanese Combined Fleet that appeared. And three of these warships, which are larger than Fuji and Hachido, have never been seen. "What about our fleet? What about Shikini Kayama's combined fleet? One question after another appeared in the minds of these people, "Didn't you say not long ago that the United Fleet and the Beiyang Fleet had just fought a major war?" Why did you let the Beiyang Fleet come to the heart of the empire? "Look at such a horrible scene. A Japanese sailor went crazy.

"Alright, change formation. Prepare for the attack, hit the transport ship first, and then get closer to clear the battery. Xu Jie looked at the chaotic Japanese fleet in front of him and showed a cruel smile. Forthwith. Dozens of seconds later, the Beiyang Rapid Fleet, led by the Tianjin, began to turn. The huge fleet drew a huge U-shape on the surface of the sea, and opened the battle line about 3KM from the nearest Japanese transport, and then the fleet slowed down and opened fire! (The battle that began at the mouth of the Uraga waterway.) Based on intelligence feedback. When the boat arrives here, there is no guide dinghy, so there are certainly no mines. ）…,

"Fire." As the gun commander repeated the order over and over again. The secondary guns on the six battleships of the Beiyang Rapid Fleet were in full swing, and the gunners took out heavy 45KG shells from the ammunition hoisting shaft shirtless and loaded them into the breeches. Place the medicine bag in again and close the latch. Then aim, fire! A round of 6-inch and 4.7-inch shells was fired rapidly from the breech. In the face of inescapable slow transport ships. The Beiyang Fleet is basically shooting a bunch of fixed targets. And it's king-size!

The nearest merchant ship was fired upon by the Guiyuan and Suiyuan, and three 6-inch high-explosive shells hit the ship's superstructure and waterline at almost the same moment. Two large balls of fire burst out of the superstructure, and then the fire caused by picric acid spread rapidly across the deck with the sea breeze. The Japanese crew, who had never expected to be blocked at home, hurriedly pulled out a hose to extinguish the fire, but the wooden hull provided excellent fuel for the picric acid charge. In a crackling and popping sound, the steel beams at the hit part have been burned!

The real threat was the shell that hit the waterline, and the 6-inch shell penetrated the sealed compartment of the hull without hindrance and exploded in the cabin. The huge explosion directly destroyed the underwater compartment that was already a non-existent submarine. A large amount of seawater poured in from the breach. The already overloaded transport ship tilted rapidly, and after just a few minutes, the hapless transport ship flipped over and the entire ship fell upside down. And the huge whirlpool that was formed not only swept the Japanese crew who jumped from the ship into the sea, but also sucked a guided dinghy into the depths of the sea!

"Happy. When the Japanese started the war, did you ever think that there would be today?! Lin Yongsheng said with relief.

Rumble!! Suddenly, a deafening loud bang came from a ship not far away, and in the next few seconds, Lin Yongsheng felt a strong air flow rushing into the control tower from the observation mouth on the control tower, and the paper and other items in the entire control tower were blown back and forth, and Lin Yongsheng and other Beiyang officers and soldiers even had a feeling of suffocation, as if the air in the entire space had been sucked away!

"What's going on?" Lin Yongsheng only heard a buzzing sound in his ears. Battle-hardened, he was also shocked by the devastating explosion. It is important to know that Lin Yongsheng's ship is at least 2.5KM away from the explosion point, and the shock wave generated by the explosion is still so powerful after traveling such a long distance. It's horrible!

"Damn, I hit the jackpot this time." Xu Jie, the initiator of the explosion, couldn't help but scold! Just now, a 6-inch shell rushed headlong into the middle of a transport ship that was turning to evade. Who knew it was an ammunition ship! The 6-inch high-explosive shell that hit the cargo hold easily ignited hundreds of tons of weapons and ammunition inside the ship! This is the amount of ammunition for a brigade to fight a battle, and it was reimbursed by a cheap 6-inch shell and less than 10KG of picric acid explosives in it!

The scene of the explosion was spectacular, quite spectacular. Spectacular!! At that time, Xu Jie felt like a live version of the atomic bomb explosion on TV!! A huge orange fireball soared into the air, and then the hull of the ship, which had been intact 2 seconds ago, instantly turned into a pile of splinters and shot out in all directions at a speed that was almost invisible to the naked eye! Because the explosion consumed a lot of oxygen and impact, pumping the surrounding space into a vacuum! A large amount of seawater and debris was pumped into the air at a height of tens of meters, and the hot air caused the seawater to quickly vaporize to form a layer of water mist. At the end, a huge gray mushroom cloud rose into the sky! It's as if the end of the world is coming!

"It's a big game!" Xu Jie glanced at the several transport ships next to the ammunition ship and couldn't help wiping the cold sweat on his face. The huge shock wave directly destroyed the 2 small boats next to it, and the energy conducted by the sea water directly shattered the fragile hull, and even the keel was shattered into several pieces! And the upper deck was blown to pieces by the shock wave. Even the mast and chimney were blown off, and the two affected ships capsized and sank to the bottom of the sea. And the ships that were farther away were also smashed by scattered debris! …,

"This will be the darkest day in Japanese history." Look at the merchant ships sunk by the Beiyang Fleet in the distance and the billowing smoke in the sky. The commander of the Japanese fortress couldn't help but shed tears. Facing the Beiyang Fleet that was killing not far away, and he couldn't do anything about it, he very much hoped that this desperate event would pass quickly, and after praying to the gods in his heart over and over again. He found that this was just the beginning!

"Hurry up, let's get by!" Ichiro Noda, who wanted to leave the port first, shouted loudly.

"No, Captain, in that case. We may be hit by mines, and some of the waters of the main channel are mined, and we must sail in accordance with the regulations. The first mate hurriedly stopped.

"Never mind, do you want the thousands of loyal Imperial soldiers and valuable supplies on this ship to be shattered by the guns of the Beiyang warship?" Ichiro Noda said hysterically. Suddenly, a loud bang came from the side. A transport ship proved the power of Japanese mines with its own real actions! A mine strikes the bow of a transport ship transporting grain. Subsequently, a huge explosion blew off almost the bow of the transport ship in its entirety! A large amount of seawater poured down the bow of the ship through the breach. Then the transport ship plunged headlong into the sea in a very unsightly upside-down position. The stern is cocked high. After a few weak rotations, the propeller finally obeyed the command. Subsequently, under the action of gravity. The already damaged hull broke in half and fell into the sea.

"Back to the main channel, hurry." Noda also forgot who said that he was going to take a detour, and the lessons of the past were in front of him. He couldn't help but bow his head. The transport ship made a difficult U-turn under the operation of the helmsman. Little by little, we sailed towards the main channel. And at this moment, after the peripheral ships were almost cleared, this big ship that was sailing slowly finally appeared in front of the Beiyang Fast Fleet.

"Sink him, as long as this big ship sinks, the main channel may be blocked!" Looking at the big ship that was gradually heading towards the center of the fairway, Luang Weili said with his eyes shining. It's really heaven to help Beiyang. If the ship sinks, it is very likely that the main channel, which was already narrow enough by the mine arrays on both sides, will be directly blocked. At this time, if you consider the overall situation, even if the ship is sunk, it will definitely not be able to sail on the already narrow channel. Once this sinks, it is difficult to say whether the 5000-ton ship will be able to pass, but none of the 4 cruisers of the Russians will be able to pass!

Immediately, the Tianjin began to gradually approach, the distance between the two sides narrowed little by little, and the 10-inch main gun, which had not been used since the beginning of the war, also began to slowly aim at the huge target that was moving slowly in the distance. At this moment, the roar from a distance made Xu Jie have to turn his attention to the Japanese garrison. FINALLY, XU JIE'S FLEET SAILED INTO THE RANGE OF THE JAPANESE 240MM CANNON AND 6-INCH CANNON, ALTHOUGH DUE TO THE INFLUENCE OF THICK SMOKE AT SEA, THE IMPACT POINT WAS STILL A CERTAIN DISTANCE FROM THE SHIPS IN BEIYANG, BUT IN THE FACE OF THE 240MM SHORE GUN, NO ONE COULD NOT BE MORE CAREFUL.

"Send a signal to Lin Yongsheng, let the second squadron clean up the transport ship, and we are responsible for suppressing the battery and covering the minesweeper." Xu Jie ordered.

A minute later, Lin Yongsheng led three Guiyuan-class cruisers out of the battle sequence and cautiously moved forward. "That's the distance, let's fight, we have a lot of guns and a fast rate of fire, so we can always hit it." At a distance of about 4KM from Noda's transport ship, Hayashi Yongsheng gave the order to open fire. 9 8-inch guns spat out tongues of fire, and a shell weighing 100KG flew towards the transport ship moving like a snail in the distance!

The engagement distance of 3,000 meters is relative to the constantly maneuvering high-speed cruisers on both sides in the naval battle, and now the speed of the Guiyuan class has slowed down, and the target transport ship is cautiously moving towards the main channel, avoiding minefields and other ships, and there is no way to maneuver at all! Coupled with the ultra-high rate of fire of the turret-type 8-inch guns of the Guiyuan-class battleships and the assistance of rangefinders, it was not too difficult to hit these low-speed target ships. …,

Soon, 9 8-inch guns formed a pincer fire on the target! Faced with the water columns that appeared around the transport ship from time to time, Noda Ichiro was completely panicked. Not only him, who was the captain of the ship, but even the Japanese army officers and soldiers staying in the cabin knocked on the hull of the ship in panic, and some even broke down the door and jumped into the sea.

The Grim Reaper didn't make Noda and the others wait too long, and only 3 minutes after firing, suddenly there was a loud bang on the side of the ship on the right side of the Maruyama! An 8-inch high-explosive bomb easily shredded the Maruyama's fragile starboard side and burrowed headlong into a compartment located under the bridge. And this compartment in turn accommodates exactly more than 200 infantrymen! The sensitive fuse was quickly opened, and then more than a dozen KG of picric acid explosives in the shell were detonated, and the entire cabin turned into a sea of fire in an instant, and the powerful high-pressure and high-temperature air wrapped in this large amount of shrapnel tore the walls of the cabin to pieces. Turned the next cabin into 1 hell of learning and fire!

A tall column of smoke soared into the air under the cluster of flames, heralding the ship's final end! Then another 8-inch shell came in from the waterline, but probably due to the fuse, it exploded a little late. However, it was also the Maruyama's turn to be unlucky, this shell really exploded at the bottom of the hull, and the huge explosion force directly smashed a large hole in the bottom of the ship, and a large amount of seawater poured in from the breach, and finally caused the Maruyama to lose its pipe! The Maruyama sank to the bottom of the sea very smoothly at the end, and it sank sideways! Block the already not wide waterway!

And the Japanese on board either did not rush out of the cabin and fell silent with the ship. Either they jumped into the sea and were crushed to death by the pressure of the water generated by the shells that fell next to them. There are more than 1,500 people on the ship, and there are not ten who come out alive!! A big chapter of 4000+ words.

First of all, I would like to thank Brother Kongchen for his support. Secondly, thank you for the support of the book friend Taishang Hongmeng Patriarch and the monthly ticket to find a relationship. Today's naval battle officially begins, in other words, can you make today's new chapter more than 400 subscriptions? That's the lowest level ever! Would it be nice to give some motivation! (To be continued......)