After the Catherine lost a third of its firepower, the bow was shattered by a 12-inch shell and several 6-inch shells. Essen finally realized that although the two lions at this time had fought for a long time, they were definitely not able to fight by themselves! At this time, General Harvey had already said that he would arrive soon, in this case, Essen could choose to retreat, and after a counterattack, the sudden acceleration of the Longxu battle cruiser made Essen clearly realize that it was impossible for him to continue to track, so he had to return with the injured Catherine.

At this time, on the road of Lin Yongsheng's retreat, two seven-level fast battleships were waiting for the arrival of the Huaxia fleet there, originally Harvey's fleet had an armored cruiser in addition to two seven-level fast battleships, but because the oil depot was attacked, the Dutch could not raise enough heavy oil for three capital ships for a while, so the Sealand Province armored cruiser did not follow General Harvey to the battlefield, but sailed 60 nautical miles behind. However, in Harvey's opinion, his 2 seventh-level fast battleships should be enough to deal with the two exhausted Longxu-class fast battleships of the Huaxia Navy, of course, there is also wrong information about Essen, in the telegram, Essen wrote that the other party has already had a battleship heavily damaged and a lightly injured!

The time will come eventually, and the two Longxu-class battlecruisers have finally encountered the most formidable enemy since the beginning of the war! The most powerful fast warship in the Russian-Dutch combined fleet, the seventh province! At this time, the 16 50L274MM main guns of the seven provincial levels have been aimed at the opponent, and the big battle is about to start!

On the face of it. In addition to protection, the performance of the seven-provincial fast battleship is similar to that of the Russian Peter the Great-class fast battleship, but in fact. In terms of fire control and power, the Seven Provinces have their own advantages, a full set of British fire control and turbine units, plus oil-fired boilers, so that the actual combat effectiveness of the Seven Provinces is much higher than that of Peter the Great! After all, the latter uses a lot of Russian goods for optical equipment, and there are no gas turbines. The number of oil-fired boilers is also on the low side. Although the caliber of the artillery of the seventh provincial level is slightly smaller, the barrel is relatively long and the rate of fire is high, which is in the opinion of the Chinese naval officers. In addition to speed, the Seven Provinces are no less than the Longxu in all aspects

Unlike the Huaxia Navy, which violently attacked Peter the Great at a long distance, the effective range of the seven provinces is relatively close, but it still reaches about 9KM. THE TWO SIDES EXCHANGED FIRE 10KM AWAY. Face a strong enemy. The Chinese Navy has no fear! The formations of the two sides of the head-on battle have been deployed, so there is no trick to speak of, although the Longxu has outstanding speed, but after a long voyage and considering fuel consumption, its actual speed is not much different from that of the seven provinces. Therefore, the Huaxia Navy has no way to retreat, and only after repelling the seven provincial fast battleships can it have a glimmer of life, of course. It is also a way to let Liu Guanxiong's fleet come to the aid when necessary, but when the enemy situation is unknown. Obviously, there are considerable risks associated with this.

Almost at the same moment, four dreadnoughts erupted in deadly flames. "God, my Huaxia fleet has just repelled the three capital ships of the Russians, and before it has rested, two fast battleships of the Dutch have appeared in front of us again, the situation is very bad, but the officers and men of the Huaxia Navy next to me don't seem to care about their situation, or they are used to it, as a major who participated in the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle said, we have experienced a more critical situation, will we care about a close engagement?" In his report, a German naval observer described the Chinese navy's performance in the face of difficulties.

With the continuous and full firing orders, the remaining 15 naval guns on the Longxu-class fast battleship spewed deadly tongues of fire at the Dutch battleship. Heavy bullets pierced the sky with a screeching sound, and as soon as the two sides clashed, they used all their strength, and the main and secondary guns kept spitting flames. Less than 4 minutes after the battle, there was a deafening loud bang from the Longwei and the Seven Provinces almost at the same time!

A 274MM shell weighing 300KG hit the main armor of the Longwei's side chord at a speed of more than 700 meters per second, and the 8-inch thick hardened armor was deformed and broken under the powerful impact, and at the same time, the huge reaction force also forced the shell to fragment, and the heavy projectile body turned into several fragments and rushed into the inside of the hull, destroying the two nearby compartments, but fortunately, these two compartments were above the waterline and were protected by dome armor, so this blow did not have much impact.

At the same time, the cannon that hit the Seven Provinces struck its hull amidships, and a huge cannonball smashed the two boats into the deck and exploded in the upper part of the motor room. Although the motor nacelle was not fatally hit because of the protection of the horizontal armor, the huge vibration and flames still caused some of the motors in the warship's motor nacelle to stop for more than half an hour.

The two battleships were shot as if it was a signal to turn on, and in the following ten minutes, the four dreadnoughts were shot one after another, and huge fires and plumes of smoke rose on the four battleships from time to time. THE LONGWEI WAS THEN HIT BY AT LEAST TWO 274MM HEAVY ARTILLERY SHELLS, ONE REMOVING A PIECE OF THE AFT DECK AND THE OTHER DAMAGING A SECONDARY GUN. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, THEY DID NOT LET THE OPPONENT FEEL BETTER, A 12-INCH HEAVY GUN HIT THE REAR TURRET OF THE SEVEN PROVINCES, ALTHOUGH IT DID NOT PENETRATE, BUT UNDER THE HUGE IMPACT, THE HYDRAULIC TRANSMISSION EQUIPMENT OF A 274MM GUN WAS DESTROYED, AND THE LONG 274MM50L MAIN GUN FELL TO THE SIDE WEAKLY AND LOST ITS EFFECT.

The battle between the Longxu and the Amsterdam was also very fierce, although it lost a 12-inch main gun before the battle, but the gunner level on the Longxu was obviously higher than that of the opponent, and soon after the battle, 3 12-inch heavy bombs were sent to the opposite battleship, one shot penetrated the upper armor belt and smoothly entered a steam pipeline, cutting off several steam pipes directly, and the other shot was knocked on the rangefinder, and the flying shrapnel was projected out to hit the rangefinder on the main mast! With a sound of shattering and tearing, the Amsterdam's fire control system was basically reimbursed, the battleship was good for everything, except for one bad thing, that is, there was only one set of rangefinders. There is only sighting equipment on the turret and no ranging equipment, plus there is no backup, so the damage of this cannon is significantly higher than the damage caused by destroying a turret! The last shell knocked off a piece of the beautiful bow of the Amsterdam.

But before the officers and men of the Huaxia Navy could cheer for their victory, a 274MM shell hit a flue near the Longxu, and the huge explosion not only shattered the flue, but also opened a big opening on the side of the No. 2 chimney, and the billowing smoke gushed out under the sea breeze, completely covering the rear turret. Because of the damage to the flue, the Longxu had to reduce the operation of some of the boilers to reduce the amount of smoke entering the hull. The damage management team members put on gas masks and went to the maintenance without risk. In the dark cabin, the strong light in his hand couldn't shine far at all, but the sense of responsibility still made these Chinese men walk to the bullet place with difficulty while cleaning up the debris and obstacles on the passage.

Evenly matched engagements are often the most brutal. The Longxu couldn't run away because of the damage to the flue and the time it took to recover the speed, so it could only fight with all its might, and although the seven provincial provinces were in good condition, the quality of the artillery and officers and soldiers was still one line worse than the other side, so the battle at the beginning could be described as comparable. However, as time passed, Lin Yongsheng's fleet inevitably declined. ON THE ONE HAND, IT IS BECAUSE OF THE LOSSES CAUSED BY THE BATTLE WITH THE RUSSIANS IN THE EARLY STAGE, AND ON THE OTHER HAND, THE SEVEN PROVINCES ARE REALLY EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE, 280MM THICK ARMOR IS ENOUGH TO FIRE DIRECTLY AT THE 12-INCH 45L MAIN GUN OF THE CHINESE NAVY OUTSIDE 6KM, SO ALTHOUGH THE RANGEFINDER OF THE AMSTERDAM WAS DESTROYED, THE DUTCH STILL DID NOT GIVE UP, THEY ACCELERATED THEIR SPEED AND RELIED ON HEAVY ARMOR TO APPROACH THE LONGXU-CLASS BATTLECRUISERS, IN A VAIN ATTEMPT TO LOCK THE VICTORY IN THE MIDDLE DISTANCE BATTLE.

WHEN THE DISTANCE IS CLOSER, YOU CAN SHOOT DIRECTLY, ESPECIALLY FOR THE French 274MM MAIN GUN WITH A STRAIGHT TRAJECTORY, AND AT THIS TIME, LIN YONGSHENG'S FLEET, WHICH WAS BUSY REPAIRING, STILL HAD NO CHANCE TO GET OUT OF THE ENGAGEMENT. THE TWO SIDES LAUNCHED A CRAZY SHOOTING AT A DISTANCE OF 7KM, THE 11-INCH MAIN EQUIPMENT OF THE SEVENTH PROVINCIAL LEVEL CAN BLOCK THE OPPONENT'S SHOT, BUT THE 8-INCH OUTER ARMOR OF THE LONGXU CLASS CAN NOT BLOCK THE ATTACK OF THE 274MM HEAVY ARTILLERY, ALTHOUGH THERE IS AN INTERNAL DOME ARMOR PROTECTION, BUT A LARGE AMOUNT OF WATER INGRESS AND CABIN DAMAGE IS STILL INEVITABLE! Although some shells did not penetrate due to the landing point and angle problems, after a long battle, the main equipment of the Longxu was pierced twice, and the Longwei was pierced three times. The large amount of water inlet is approaching the limit of drainage operations, and the power supply that is not cut off has made the damage management more efficient.

"It can't go on like this." Looking at the hull that was already slightly tilted and the enemy ship outside that was constantly spitting out tongues of fire, Lin Yongsheng knew that the result of consuming it like this would be his own defeat. The 1-on-1 engagement on the battle line was no longer suitable for the Chinese Navy at this time, and looked at the broken mainmast of the Amsterdam. Lin Yongsheng ordered: "Concentrate the main artillery fire for high-explosive shells to attack the Amsterdam, and the 6-inch guns for high-explosive shells to attack the Seven Provinces, let's fight back one first!" ”

Since you can't penetrate the opponent's main armor alive or dead, and you need to force the opponent to withdraw from the battle in a short time, what is the best way to do it? Naturally, let the other party set fire and then ask for it, when it comes to arson, what kind of shell can compare to picric acid high-explosive shell? Even if I can't kill you, let's get you to ashes first! As for giving up 1-on-1 and concentrating firepower to attack the opponent's battleship, this action is indeed very risky, but it is even more dangerous to drag it out, in this case, it is better to give it a try!

Thank you to book friends d309ebc77, Niuaniua, and Big Rabbit for their monthly pass support~~~. (To be continued......)