When Shikinori Kayama decided to take the move of losing the rook to protect the marshal, the fate of Asahi, Naniwa, Takachiho and the attached 5 torpedo boats had already been decided, they were the abandoned chess pieces, the cannon fodder used to consume, they would rush to the three most powerful warships in the North Ocean, and use their bodies to win time for the main fleet to retreat!

Although death was near, the obedient Japanese still decided to carry out this order to send them to death, and the three cruisers, led by the Asahi, rushed towards Xu Jie's fleet. [Literature]

"Send the order, at most half an hour, to get rid of these miscellaneous fish in front of me." Xu Jie said with a contemptuous glance at the three Japanese cruisers that were getting closer and closer.

"Half an hour is too much, 20 minutes is basically enough." Lang Weili next to him shook his head and said. "They only serve as an appetizer before our main meal." At this time, Lang Weili is like a lion that sees its prey, ready to pounce and feast on it. But it seems that he suddenly found that the prey in front of him is not enough to stuff his teeth, if it weren't for these hateful little things in the way, Lang Weili might really let them go and solve those big guys directly!

The three main battleships of the Beiyang did not even change their formation and rushed straight over, while the three Japanese cruisers were also hedged, and the other five torpedo boats were looking for opportunities to prepare for lightning strikes from the other side. The distance between the two sides is constantly approaching, 4000 meters, 3000 meters, 2500 meters. With the sound of cannonball, the naval battle began!

At a distance of 2,500 meters, Xu Jie's flagship fired the first shot of the naval battle! A salvo of six 10-inch guns directly covered the Asahi in front of the right, and six huge columns of water rose into the sky, mixed with the products of the explosion of picric acid explosives, and the sea water was dyed green, drenching the deck of the Asahi.

Feel the vibration of the ship's hull. The officers and men of the Japanese fleet fell into unprecedented terror, and two of the near-misses caused the hull of the battleship of more than 6,000 tons to make a tooth-sour sound, but fortunately, it did not hit directly. Under these conditions, the Japanese Navy was completely unable to withstand this pressure, and they finally released this pressure with the cannons in their hands, and then the Japanese ships opened fire. The two sides entered the phase of firing each other.

At a distance of only 2,500 meters, it was only a matter of minutes for two fleets with a relative speed of more than 30 knots. If the course does not change, the two sides will soon stagger by. "Maybe it's a good idea to leave like that." Seeing that the Beiyang Fleet did not change its direction to engage in an artillery battle with him, a rather grotesque idea suddenly appeared in the heart of the captain of the Naniwa ship, Heihachiro Togo. The opponent's target is the main fleet, not us.

But this is just for them to think about it, even if Beiyang really lets them go, they must not leave, because if this fleet is allowed to rush over at this time, the Japanese fleet is afraid that it will not be able to run a single battleship. So, in order to stall for time. The Asahi made a cross-cut in front of the battle, leading the remaining Naniwa and Gao Chiho to cross Xu Jie's way.

"Troublesome stuff." Xu Jie muttered, and then commanded the fleet to turn. Let's clean up these miscellaneous fish first.

Soon, the two fleets turned into two parallel fronts. They are all battleships fighting on the side chord, and both sides can open full firepower, but there is a difference between different warships! The three new ships in Beiyang have a total of 14 10-inch turret guns, 14 6-inch rapid-fire guns, and 6 4.7-inch rapid-fire guns.

And what about the three cruisers of the Japanese Navy? Although the Asahi originally had 2 8-inch 30L guns and 14 6-inch 28L guns, the Japanese did not have that much money to replace all of them. In order to better maintain the speed and sea trials. The Asahi had only 2 8-inch 40-liter barrel guns and 10 6-inch rapid-fire guns, so that the side-chord fire was only 2 8-inch guns and 5 6-inch rapid-fire guns. And the two ships Naniwa and Takachiho are even worse, and the total firepower is only 4 260 guns and 6 6-inch rapid-fire guns! Compared with the new warships of the Beiyang Fleet, the gap is not a matter of one or two grades! …,

As for defense? Can a steel-faced ironclad with a main belt only 6 inches thick and two cruisers without even waterline armor compare with a 10,000-ton patrol with 8-inch hardened armor and an armor belt extending to the upper deck? In terms of speed, the average speed of the Beiyang 3 ships is more than 20 knots, and they can catch up with Asahi and other ships on a detour!

So as soon as the war starts, it is a one-sided situation! At a distance of less than 2,000 meters, the three ships of Tianjin, Lushun and Weihai spewed flames like three steel lions at the three hyenas next to them. [Literature] with the help of new optical instruments. The well-trained officers and men of the Beiyang Fleet were hit 2 minutes after switching to the battle line!

A 10-inch shell fired by the Tianjin hit the Asahi's amidships gun gallery, and the 227KG shell effortlessly tore through the 6-inch armor and exploded in the gun gallery! Under the action of a dozen kilograms of picric acid explosives. The 227KG shell turned into a mixture of shrapnel flames and high-temperature air, and the powerful high-temperature air wave mixed with shrapnel and flames directly broke through the fragile walls between the turrets and wanted to spread around. It's just a few tenths of a second. The adjacent compartment was turned into a sea of fire, the cannon was blown into pieces, the personnel were charred, and even the various metal supports were burned. The place where you hit the bullet becomes a land of blood and fire!

And the tragedy of the Asahi was not over, and then two 6-inch shells hit the bridge, one of which blew a 6-pounder gun away, and the other hit a chimney, breaking half of the chimney. With the cheers of the sailors, the gunners worked harder to improve their ammunition, reload, and shoot.

Boom, a loud bang came from the Weihai ship behind Tianjin. "It looks like Weihai has been shot." LANG WEILI LOOKED BEHIND HIM WORRIEDLY, BUT THE ENSUING SCENE SURPRISED HIM, A 260MM RETREAT SHELL FIRED FROM THE NANIWA HIT THE WEIHAI'S SIDESTRING MAIN BELT, BUT SURPRISINGLY, AFTER THE HIT, THE HEAVY 200+ KG SHELL ONLY LEFT A SMALL PIT IN THE 8-INCH HARDENED ARMOR BELT. Fragments of broken shells fell on the surface of the sea in a flutter and were swallowed up by the waves of the Yellow Sea.

"Damn. Concentrate your firepower to sink the waves. Although the hit just now had no effect on the Weihai, it did anger the captain of the Weihai, Deng Shichang. Although Deng Shichang could not return to China to participate in the war due to various objective reasons, when he saw the dissatisfied eyes of his colleagues, he recalled the Beiyang warship that had been sunk when the Beiyang army was formed. Deng Shichang still has deep guilt in his heart. And now. This guilt has turned into the anger of the conflict, enough to burn the battleship less than 4,000 tons in front of him to ashes!

Not long after the Naniwa was hit, while the Japanese were still cheering, the Weihai that rushed out of the thick smoke was like an angry lion, with 4 10-inch guns, 6 6-inch guns, and 3 3.7-inch guns, spewing tongues of fire towards Naniwa. Almost simultaneously, two 10-inch shells hit the wave of speed. A cannonball easily smashed through the fast armor and plunged into the steam engine room located in the middle of the hull, followed by a loud bang, a large amount of steam and debris poured out of the breach with a diameter of about 2 meters, and the entire battleship seemed to be pushed flat to the right by a giant hand. Another shell hit the ammunition depot under the main gun in the tail of the Naniwa. High-explosive shells weighing up to 227KG exploded directly inside the ammunition depot, ignoring the fragile defenses.

Poor Nangaw felt as if he had been smashed in two by a hammer. The entire stern of the ship broke away from the hull, and a large amount of seawater poured in from the stern. In just a few tens of seconds, the bow of the wave was raised high, and then the whole ship sank rapidly. In the Naniwa conning tower, Heihachiro Togo struggled to his feet, trying his best to balance in the shaking battleship.

He knew it. His last moment came. Even if he wanted to, it would be too late, the battleship sank too fast, and now jumping into the sea will be swept up by the vortex formed when the battleship sank. "It's time to go." Heihachiro Togo pulled out his command sword, just as he was about to learn from the old samurai and kill himself. Suddenly, a 6-inch shell pierced the command module, and in a rain of flames and bullets, this man, who was worshiped as a god of war by the Japanese Navy in another time and space, turned into a pile of minced meat. …,

"Congratulations, Lord Deng, you have achieved your first result today." Tycho on the side put down the binoculars and said happily.

"Nothing, our target is Fuji and Hachishima." A smile appeared on Deng Shichang's face.

"Be careful. Torpedo boats of the Japanese! "That's when it happened. The first mate suddenly shouted. Taking advantage of the gap formed by the Japanese fleet after the sinking of the waves, 5 torpedo boats rushed up and prepared to launch a lightning strike at close range. It's a pity that they are no longer facing seriously damaged Beiyang third-class cruisers, but second-class battleships with full firepower, and in the face of various rapid-fire guns like hedgehogs, this behavior has no effect except to interpret their bravery!

In an instant. Three 10,000-ton cruisers fired at the same time with various guns. (In order to save shells, guns under 12 pounds were not fired.) These cannons are too powerful and they are not needed. "It's like a volcanic eruption. From the conning tower, the sound of the artillery fire of the three second-class battleships was almost perfect. The muzzle flame almost formed a long band of light. 6-inch, 4.7-inch, 12-pounder, and 9-pounder guns fired several blockades from far to near. Form a dense web of fire. And Japanese torpedo boats were almost like mosquitoes rushing into a spider's web, and it was only a matter of time before they were hit. In his diary, Jericho wrote.

The scene of his first naval battle will not be forgotten even 20 years later, when Jericho became commander of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, and this naval battle had a profound impact on him. Since then, he has insisted on adopting a balanced design idea in the design of warships, whether it is a first-class battleship with high protection, high firepower and low speed in the pre-dreadnought era or a perfect cat in the dreadnought era. Jericho was strongly opposed to it, and he also clashed with Sir Fisher for this.

"If you ignore firepower, you will not be able to win a naval battle. If you neglect protection, you will lose victory in naval battles. If we underestimate the speed, we will not be able to grasp the opportunity of victory in naval battles. Although equilibrium means mediocrity to some extent. But for the mighty British Empire, it was the soundness and balance that mattered. This passage written in the diary changed history to some extent and changed the form of the 1st World War. And this is also the most important passage in Jericho's life.

Face the scorching fire like a volcanic eruption. EVEN A SHORT DISTANCE OF LESS THAN 2KM TURNED INTO AN IMPASSABLE DISTANCE FOR 5 TORPEDO BOATS. When they have just entered the distance of 2000 meters, it is less than 20 seconds. Two torpedo boats were hit almost simultaneously. One of them was smashed into a sieve by a small-caliber shell that rained down. Although the torpedo was not detonated or the boiler compartment was penetrated, the smoke and blood coming out of the breach in the cockpit had already told everyone that there were no living people on the torpedo boat, while the other was directly hit by a 6-inch gun, and a huge breach appeared on the side of the hull. Then the entire battleship entered the water and sank. After disappearing from the sea in just 2 minutes.

Two of the remaining three torpedo boats were destroyed when they reached a distance of about 1 km, and the last one was very lucky, just as it was about to fire a torpedo at a distance of 500 meters, when a 10-inch main gun shell exploded on the sea less than 3 meters away. The enormous water pressure generated by the explosion directly crushed the side-chord planks of the small boat, which was less than 70 tons. The whole ship instantly tilted to the right and sank into the rolling waves of the Yellow Sea.

Soon after the destruction of the torpedo boat formation, the Asahi and Akitsuzu finally reached the point of life. Weihaihao, who had his hands free, began to support Tianjin and the Lushun. In the face of the Qing Navy warships, which occupied an absolute advantage in firepower, the two warships did not even have the strength to struggle.

With the cooperation of the Weihai. It took less than 15 minutes for the Tianjin to sweep the upper deck of the Asahi. The entire bridge was basically flattened. The artillery in the side-chord gun gallery was also basically destroyed, although during this time, the Asahi also hit, and a 6-inch shell hit the unprotected bridge of the Tianjin, causing a small fire, but this record was useless, as if it angered the 10,000-ton battleship even more. Various shells continued to explode on the Asahi. The old hull finally could not withstand such a blow, and eventually the hull began to sink under heavy artillery fire, and was subsequently swallowed by the raging waves. …,

And just 2 minutes before the sinking of the Asahi, the Akitsu Chau had been beaten into a burning torch by the Lushun. After several large explosions in a row, the hull broke into several sections, and then quickly sank. At this point, all the first cannon fodder of the Japanese fleet was sunk. And after sending the enemy to the bottom of the sea. The Beiyang Fleet did not stop and quickly headed in the direction of the main battlefield. Nearly 2,000 Japanese naval officers and sailors on 3 cruisers and 5 torpedo boats survived!

"It's just an appetizer, brothers, we have more to do, the Japanese have to pay for their atrocities and hubris, we will be here. Bury the accumulation of more than twenty years of the Japanese Navy! We will tell the world. Who is the real ruler of the Far East! Fight with our ships and unyielding will until we send those hateful enemies to the bottom of the sea. Xu Jie's passionate words came out from the horn of the battleship, and in the excited cheers of the officers and soldiers. Xu Jie's fleet rushed to the main battlefield. And the end of the Japanese fleet is coming!

"Looks like we could lose this bet." Said a British naval lieutenant who was watching the battle with a telescope.

"Damn the Japanese, they are so unbeaten." A sailor on the side spat into the sea and said.

"These Japanese are very good, it is really not easy to hold up for 23 minutes under the blow of the Garibaldi-class armored cruisers." An Italian naval designer took out a silver flask and took a sip of it.

"Alright gentlemen, I think it's time for us to go to the main battlefield, it's just an appetizer. The real battle has just begun. Looking at the wreckage in the distance and the blood-stained waters, Felimante ordered.

"That's right. There are still Fuji and Yashima who can barely be counted as opponents, but I personally think. Of the ships that could be clashed, only the Russian Rurik was evenly matched by the PISA. What we are witnessing now is just another massacre. Looking at the rising flames in the distance and listening to the sound of cannons from time to time, Vittorio said confidently.

At the same time that Xu Jie's fleet was fighting with the three ships of Asahi, the Beiyang Fleet and the Japanese Combined Fleet finally began to fight. After receiving reinforcements from Kurama and Yoshino, Shiki Kayama once wanted to rely on his temporary superiority in forces to pack up several weak ships of the Beiyang Fleet before leaving.

Therefore, under the influence of this guideline, the Kurama and Yoshino did not first converge with Fuji Hachishima as Tsuboi Kozo envisioned, and then quickly organize a breakout. Instead, they were forced to follow the order to launch an attack on the Beiyang Fleet in partnership with the Mikei, Izumi, and Chiyoda ships in a torpedo boat formation.

Seeing this scene, Liu Buyun couldn't help but smile. Mixed with a bit of pride. After all, this idea of integrating Lin Yongsheng's fleet into the Beiyang team was put forward by him. And the layout of the Japanese army happened to be guessed by him. If it were not for Lin Yongsheng's two Guiyuan-class warships, the Beiyang Fleet would have suffered heavy losses under the blow of the main force of the Japanese fleet, but with the addition of two 5,000-ton cruisers, Liu Buyun was not afraid at all.

He even hoped that the Japanese fleet and the Beiyang fleet would be completely entangled, so that after Xu Jie's fleet had dealt with that batch of cannon fodder, there would be no possibility for the Japanese fleet to withdraw as a whole. Because the Beiyang Fleet is divided into two formations, a column and a horizontal team, for the sake of command convenience, Ding Ruchang and Liu Buyun will command the three ships Dingyuan, Zhenyuan and Jiyuan, to cut into the Japanese fleet, while the rest of the warships, including Zhenhai, will be commanded by Ye Zuqi. Of course, Lin Yongsheng maintained a certain amount of flexibility, and he could go to join Xu Jie's fleet when necessary.

In this way, when the battle between Xu Jie's fleet and the three ships of Asahi entered the first place, the battle between the main forces of the Beiyang Fleet and the Japanese fleet officially began!

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