"The fleet turned right and prepared to meet Kurama Yoshino." Xu Jie glanced at Lin Yongsheng and ordered directly.

"The last will obey." Lin Yongsheng looked at Xu Jie's injury, paused slightly, and then said firmly.

So the Beiyang Rapid Fleet shook off the three Japanese cruisers that had already been damaged and began to rush towards Kurama and Yoshino. At this time, the Beiyang Fleet became the inner circle, and the Japanese fleet became the outer circle, plus the three cruisers that had just been beaten, when they saw the Beiyang 3 ships turning, their first reaction was not to catch up and fight, but to immediately push them aside. What? Extinguish the fire!! The battleships are about to be beaten into torches!!

"A true warrior!" Seeing the 3 Guiyuan-class cruisers rushing over, Tsuboi Hangzo was also very shocked, according to his inference, at this time, it was undoubtedly the best choice to run away, he didn't expect the other party to be so bold! Looking at the homecoming ship with billowing smoke coming out of the port side. A sneer appeared on Tsuboi's face. Although the other party is excellent, his pommel horse number is not a soft persimmon! "Go up and let the people of China see what the warriors of Yamato are." So Tsuboi Hangzo ordered the fleet to turn right to cut off Xu Jie's route, and the Beiyang Fast Fleet could only turn left again, and the two formed two parallel battle columns! The rest is the attack, the shooting without any tricks, the formation is fixed, it depends on who has strong firepower and the crew is high!!

At this time, all ships in the North Ocean were engaged on the right side. (The beginning was a left-hand engagement,) the firepower remained largely intact, and the Japanese were completely new ships. The battle sequence is for Guiyuan and Suiyuan to deal with Edgar together, while Kaiyuan and Yoshino shoot each other. At the beginning of the battle, Tsuboi Kozo did not pay attention to Suiyuan, who was in the second position, but concentrated his firepower to design Huiyuan. After all, the Edgar class is a first-class cruiser, with 2 9.2-inch guns on the side, 5 6-inch guns, and 6 6-pounder guns, and the instantaneous burst of firepower is also quite terrifying, and the huge hull also makes this first-class cruiser have a lot of structural redundancy. The ability to resist strikes is definitely not comparable to those small ships of three or four thousand tons. And the speed is fast, and it is not easy to get rid of it.

"The Guiyuan and the Kurama are like two knights, shooting at each other at a very close distance, no one can be safe in this cannon fire, it depends on who on both sides can hold out longer, the Guiyuan class is well protected, but the Edgar class is bigger." Yu Xier, who was serving on the Guiyuan at the time, wrote in his diary. The well-protected gun gallery does not mean that it will not be destroyed. Especially in the face of the Edgar-class 9.2-inch main gun, only 8 minutes after the two sides started the battle, a 9.2-inch shell penetrated a gun gallery in the middle of the port side of Guiyuan, and the shell weighing 172KG tore the protective armor of the gun gallery, and the heavy 6-inch gun was directly hit into two ends, one of which fell into the sea from the side side and the gun chamber was blown apart, and no living person ran out of the confined space, even Xu Jie and others in the control tower also felt the huge shock generated by the battleship after being hit, and Xu Jie, who was already injured, if Lin Yongsheng didn't react fast enough, I am afraid that he would fall directly.

And when the Japanese naval officers and sailors on the Kurama had not yet recovered from the excitement of severely damaging the enemy ship, Guiyuan and the Suiyuan, who had already entered the state, immediately let the Kurama know how Alexander it was to face the two Guiyuan-type battleships!! Suiyuan, who found a well-designed position, immediately attacked at the highest rate of fire (in the pre-dreadnought era, not all positions could use the firepower of the ear guns, so finding a suitable position was crucial to developing the firepower. "After the 12th minute of the firefight, the situation on the Kurama got worse and worse. Although the Guiyuan destroyed 1 8-inch gun (the tail turret was jammed), 2 6-inch guns and several 12-pounder guns, it was still able to exert more than half of its firepower. And as the shelling of the Suiyuan became more and more accurate. For the first time, I lost faith in my battleship. After the Battle of Izu, Kozo Tsubori wrote in his diary. …,

Shells rained down around the Kurama, and the huge columns of water even affected the Kurama's shooting, and Suiyuan's position was behind the Kurama, so most of the hits hit the second half of the Kurama. The first to suffer was the Kurama's 9.2-inch rear main gun, with at least one 8-inch shell and one 6-inch shell hitting the rear main gun terrace. After successfully tearing apart the protection of the gun cover, the barrel of the 9.2-inch main gun, which weighed more than 30 tons, was directly bent by a huge explosion. The scattered sparks ignited the powder bag stored inside the gun cover, and the highly flammable nitrocellulose powder bag was ignited instantly, and a flame more than 7 meters high rushed out of the breach, followed by a dull explosion, and the stern of the Kurama shook violently. And that's not all, the dense shells from the 6-inch guns of the Guiyuan and Suiyuan have filled the huge hull of the Kurama with bullet holes, and a large amount of seawater has poured in from the breach, and the battleship has tilted. As for firepower, although the gun gallery is relatively well protected and will not be destroyed unless it is directly hit, due to various reasons such as water ingress and destruction, only 2 of the Kurama's 6-inch guns can be used. (The Kurama's 6-inch has 4 doors arranged in a relatively low position, and it is easy to enter the water when it is tilted or high-speed sailing) As for Yoshino in the back, well, don't look at the tonnage gap, but the combat power gap is quite large, under the blow of Kaiyuan, Yoshino lost nearly half of his firepower, although a large number of 12-pounder guns and 4.7-inch guns equipped on Yoshino also gave Kaiyuan a few fires, but Kaiyuan's firepower and speed were not greatly affected.

"Commander, let's withdraw, if we continue like this, Kurama will be finished!" The first mate said with a crying voice. Tsuboi Kosan is also very contradictory, the Guiyuan has been heavily damaged, and the speed has begun to decline, if the Asahi three ships behind can keep up, at least the Guiyuan still has a chance to sink, but at the same time, the Kurama was sandwiched by two battleships, and the situation is not optimistic. Just when Pingjing Hangsan was undecided, a 9.2-inch shell accurately hit the middle of the hull of the Guiyuan, and the pipelines of the three boilers broke due to the huge vibration, and high-pressure water vapor gushed out from the breach, forming a cloud of water mist outside the hull! The speed of the Guiyuan began to decrease, and at this time, the Asahi and Naniwa followed after extinguishing the fire.

"Sink and go away." Kozo Tsuboi, who was about to give up, shouted excitedly, and the Asahi and Naniwa, who came to support, seemed to hear Kozo Tsuboi's roar, and chased after him even more vigorously. With the sudden change in the situation on the battlefield, Suiyuan, who was in the back, suddenly raised the command flag, and Guiyuan, after hesitating for a moment, began to turn left and leave the battle column for maintenance. Kurama naturally would not give up the prey in his hand, so he planned to follow the steering, but then Suiyuan and Kaiyuan's fire design made Kurama obediently choose to avoid. Although the evasion was relatively timely, a deadly 8-village shell pierced through the tail of the Kurama, directly breaking the wheelhouse of the Kurama to pieces. The rudder is gone. Kurama immediately found itself in a dilemma, and then the Yoshino hoisted the command flag and took over from Kurama, which had lost its mobility, and fought the Asahi Naniwa formation that followed.

In fact, when the war was fought on this, there was no need for the two sides to continue to entangle, the flagship of the Beiyang Rapid Fleet was hit hard, Suiyuan and Kaiyuan were also created, and the Kurama and Gao Qianho have been beaten into dead dogs. The only advantage of Japan may be that the Asahi and Naniwa who are keeping up with the enemy are on the left side, rather than the right side of the seven meat and eight vegetables that were just beaten. The firepower remained intact. "This is actually already a battle for morale, and it is not good for either side to continue fighting, just to see who can overwhelm the other in the final morale." Afterwards, Zhao Yuanjie commented on the second half of the battle.

Due to the large amount of ammunition consumption, casualties and fatigue, the rate of fire on both sides was already very low, and the 6-inch guns only had a rate of fire of 2 to 3 rounds per minute, and even the passing 4 rounds could not be reached. Suiyuan and Kaiyuan guarded Guiyuan on the inside, using their bodies to protect the wounded flagship, while firing at the opponent with starboard guns. And Yoshino, who had been beaten and half destroyed, had no firepower at this time, a large number of gun emplacements were destroyed, and a large number of casualties had made this new dome cruiser run out of fuel when the lamp ran out, and the role of sharing shells was greater than his firepower. The Asahi and Naniwa who rushed up were very active, especially the Asahi, and the 6 rapid-fire guns on the side chord fired non-stop. The already injured Suiyuan felt a lot of pressure, although it was still unable to penetrate the side-chord armor, but the high-explosive bomb filled with picric acid also caused the superstructure of the Suiyuan to ignite a fire. The form is further unfavorable to Beiyang. Under the attack of Yoshino and Asahi, the Suiyuan is also in danger. …,

"Get to the end of the line and rejoin the ranks." Xu Jie ordered, this is a key, if the Suiyuan is hit again, then the entire Beiyang fast fleet will be in danger, although the speed of the Guiyuan can't get up, but no matter what, there are still 2 8-inch guns and 2 6-inch guns Firepower, at least it can suppress the wave speed behind, and the Kaiyuan with free hands can help Suiyuan. So, the Guiyuan, which had just extinguished the fire, turned around and sailed towards the stern of the team, and the bow as sharp as a knife cut through the sea, announcing its return to the sea and the enemy! Although he was covered in wounds, the indomitable momentum and the remaining artillery still made the other party dare not despise this injured lion! "Never give up, fight to the end!" Lin Yongsheng shouted in his already hoarse voice. Then a deafening roar came from the Guiyuan. Resounding through the fleets of both sides in battle. And as the Guiyuan staggered back to the battle column, the only firepower advantage of the Japanese Rapid Fleet was completely gone, and the half-crippled Yoshino and Asahi were simply unable to deal with Suiyuan and Kaiyuan. And the heavily injured wave speed can't fight with the equally hard-hit Guiyuan. There were few large-caliber shells left on both sides, or the main guns were destroyed, and in the follow-up 6-inch gun fire, the Japanese fleet could only fire the Guiyuan 3 ships at most, and Suiyuan and Kaiyuan did not dare to pursue in order to ensure the safety of Guiyuan. The naval battle has entered garbage time at this point, and the attacks of both sides are more just an oath, swearing their indomitable and heroic!

"Retreat." Looking at the hole-ridden hull and the bridges that had been scorched by the heat, Kano finally chose to give up. Then the first one turned right and left the battlefield, and although Asahika, who was in the back, was unwilling, looking at the few artillery pieces left on both sides, Inoue Yoshio chose to retreat sensibly. "Why hasn't the Guiyuan sunk yet?" One last glance at the tilted hull of the Guiyuan, the flagship of the Beiyang Rapid Fleet, and the bridge that was not satisfied with the bullet holes, Inoue Yoshixin sighed helplessly. The captain of the Naniwa, who was the last to leave the battle, Heihachiro Togo, fired three blank rounds with the last two guns to bid farewell to his opponent. Since then, the three ships that will never leave the bloody battle have been called the nightmare that the Japanese Navy will never forget. "For half a month after the Battle of Izu, every night I would return to the battlefield in my dreams, flying shrapnel, burning battleships, and rows of artillery, but the most terrifying thing was in the sunset, the three Beiyang cruisers that had been heavily damaged! No matter how much we fought, we couldn't break them up, and we gained the advantage when Guiyuan was hit hard, but then Guiyuan returned to the battle at the risk of its own safety, and our hopes were in vain, and when hope was dashed, it was the biggest blow. Inoue Yoshishin later wrote in her memoirs.

Five hours had passed since the naval battle, and the battered Beiyang Rapid Fleet was staggering south in the afterglow of the setting sun, and in its current state, it was no longer possible for them to return to Weihai through the treacherous Yellow Sea, but could only sail southwest to Shanghai. Because Shanghai is the territory of the Nanyang Fleet, there is the cover of the battery, the logistics support of the Jiangnan Bureau shipyard, and the ammunition supply of the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau. They are like a group of injured lions, looking for a place to rest for the time being, and then heal their wounds and look for the next chance to attack!!

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