"This will be a moment that will be remembered by history! At this moment, the most powerful war machine in human history collided for the first time! Dreadnoughts, this epoch-making battleship finally ushered in their first battle shortly after entering service! Whether it is the Chinese Navy or the Russian Navy, their well-equipped war beasts will show their strength in this war, and I am fortunate to be a witness to this glorious moment! A German Navy observer aboard the Ryuxu wrote in his nautical diary.

"They turned so early?" Ethan couldn't help but be stunned when he looked at the two Longxu-class battlecruisers in the distance that had completed the turn and aimed their guns at him, at this time the distance between the two sides was about 12KM, he really couldn't imagine that the other party would be ready for battle so early!

"Leaning up, we spread out the battle formation at 9KM, fire at a distance of 8KM, and all the destroyers left the formation and waited on the perimeter." Essen ordered, but as soon as this order was given, a loud thunderous sound from a distance made Essen's heart tighten!

Clusters of orange flames burst out on the sides of the two Longxu-class battlecruisers almost at the same time! When the two sides were 11KM apart, Long Xu decisively played the first round and a half volley! One of the guns in each turret fired the first wave of shells with the help of rangefinders and fire control, and the two Longxu class ships aimed at the flagship of the Russian Navy at the same time, and in order to distinguish the impact points of the two ships, different colors of dyes were added to the shells.

A few seconds later, red fireballs that heralded destruction fell from the sky. Huge jets of water instantly surrounded Peter the Great! The most recent of these shells exploded less than 40 meters from the port side of Peter the Great, and the sea water mixed with red dye fell on the deck of the Peter the Great, and a trace of red water flowed on the deck. In the light of the sun, it shines with a blood-like color!

"Get through quickly!" This round of shelling brought too much shock to Essen, he didn't expect that at a distance of 10KM, the opponent could actually catch his flagship in the first round of shooting! If you can't get through this danger zone quickly and turn to fire in a short time, I'm afraid that before you can fight, Peter the Great will have to take two heavy punches first!

Less than 15 seconds after the first round of firing, the main guns of the two Longxu-class battlecruisers once again erupted tongues of fire! Another 8 shells flew from afar! "Why is the rate of fire of the opponent's main guns so fast?" Essen said as he looked at the flickering firelight in the distance.

The second round of shelling still missed, but one of the shells was already close missed! Less than 6 meters on the port side of the Peter the Great, a 12-inch shell entered the water. Under the action of more than a dozen kilograms of explosives in the shell, the calm sea water boiled instantly, and the over-temperature and over-pressure bubbles produced by the explosion pushed the shrapnel to hit the hull of Peter the Great fiercely. THE HULL PLATE WITH A THICKNESS OF ONLY 5MM COULD NOT BLOCK THE BLOWS OF HIGH-PRESSURE BUBBLES AND SHRAPNEL AT ALL, AND IN AN INSTANT, SMALL HOLES APPEARED IN THE UNDERWATER PART OF THE PETER THE GREAT! But the impact is not huge!

It was the third and fourth rounds of shelling that really inflicted the real blow! After getting a near-miss, it was briefly repaired. Long Xu and Long Wei fired two and a half volleys in succession! At this time, the distance between the two sides is less than 9KM. It's already the best strike distance for Longxu-class battlecruisers! Two and a half rounds of 16 shells hit Peter the Great!

Essen, who was observing the battle situation in the command tower, suddenly felt something hit the starboard side of the hull! The huge vibration made the Russian officers and soldiers in the conning tower shake for a while, Essen quickly grabbed the railing next to him to stabilize his body, and when he looked up, he saw a huge fireball rising in front of the starboard side! A thick puff of black smoke mixed with red stars obscured his vision! "It should have been shot in the anchor room, but fortunately, it's not an important part." Essen said with a sigh of relief.

As a result, before Essen could breathe his breath, another 12-inch heavy artillery shell smashed into the middle and rear of the right side of the battleship! The cap-piercing shell weighing 385KG directly tore through the upper armor belt of the Peter the Great! It then passed through several chambers and exploded less than 7 meters from the amidship chimney! Explosives weighing 12 kilograms tore more than 300 kilograms of steel to shreds, spreading a storm of death all over the hull of Peter the Great! In an instant, a living creature within a radius of 20 meters lost its life. More than 30 sailors and officers were killed, and two flues were pierced by shrapnel. Torrential black smoke poured from the flue breach into the hull.

"Turn, turn quickly, immediately ready to fire!" Just started the war, before the first shot was hit by the opponent's main gun one after another, this situation made even the battle-hardened Essen a little panicked, in the war the only thing that can help you overcome your fear is the weapon in your hand, so Essen ignored the distance between the two sides is still a little far, so he changed the course in advance, quickly turned to give way to the side chord and then fired back!

Under the leadership of Peter the Great, the 3 Russian capital ships turned around at sea, and slowly rotated the main guns arranged in the central axis of the hull, and the rangefinder and the main guns were aimed at the Chinese Navy battleships in the distance at the same time. Different from the Huaxia Navy's half-salvo accuracy, because of the backwardness of the fire control system and fire control theory, coupled with the lack of the number of main guns, the Russians used 6 main guns to fire a salvo more firing, which means that the Russians will fire a salvo every 40 seconds, and then observe and shoot, which is slower than the Huaxia Navy in terms of speed.

And when the Russian battleships were parallel to the Chinese fleet, the relative displacement of the two sides became smaller, which made it easier to measure the range and work laterally. Although it was necessary to re-settle the shooting Zhuyuan, the shelling was re-accurate after a short pause, and the distance between the two sides was about 8 kilometers at this time, which was already a close-range battle for the Huaxia Navy, which had been running in for more than 1 year! After all, when shooting targets in the North Sea, 8 kilometers was nothing for the Chinese Navy!

"The Longxu continues to attack Peter the Great, and the Longwei attacks Catherine." Lin Yongsheng looked at the Sealand provincial armored cruiser in the Russian fleet, which was at the bottom of the list, and hesitated a little. "Leave him alone for now, let's deviate half a point to the left. Put some distance away. Lin Yongsheng's idea is very simple, the biggest threat to them now is the two fast battleships, although Peter the Great has been shot. But it is far from the extent of losing combat power, the 12-inch cannon can penetrate the side chord of the Long Xu class, and the 10-inch gun does not have this firepower, so Lin Yongsheng is not in a hurry to deal with the Sealand Provincial Number.

Although the tracks of the two fleets were parallel, they were not exactly opposite, and the two Longxu-class battleships were in a slightly forward position, and the course was slightly to the right and gradually widened the distance. However, in a short period of time, the heavy artillery of both sides was within their effective range, and the real battle had just begun!

Accompanied by the roar of heavy artillery. Flames rose on the surface of the sea, and after a few seconds, huge columns of water enveloped the entire battleship, and the Huaxia fleet re-entered the effective firing stage, starting with the Longxu. And then there was the Longwei. The new 12-inch 45L gun, equipped with a new mechanical loading equipment and servo, has reached a whole new level in terms of rate of fire, and under the control of a skilled gunner, it can complete an average of one shooting cycle every 30 seconds! And if you use a half-salvo, you can fire a wave of shells every 15 seconds! And at the same time, at this distance, the secondary guns of the Longxu-class battlecruisers were also under full fire under the command of the firing commander! They are faster, with a rain of bullets falling on the opposing ship's ships every 10 seconds on average!

"Every 15 seconds, we can drop almost 2 tons of shells on the heads of the Russians. We have entered the phase of effective firing, and from time to time there are clusters of fire on the enemy ships. Occasionally, there would be a loud bang, which should have been the result of a 12-inch heavy gun hit, although the Russians also had 12-inch guns, but because of the problem of fire control and the number of guns, their hit rate was very low, if this continued, the defeat of the Russians was only a matter of time. A German observer commented on the battle between the two sides.

Rumble! Rumble! With two loud bangs in quick succession, Peter the Great and Catherine were shot almost simultaneously! A 12-inch armor-piercing shell hit the armor belt of the Peter the Great again, like a giant battering ram, and the shell drilled through the bottom of a gun gallery! Then there was a dull explosion, and a bright yellow pillar of fire burst into the sky from the breach! The two 6-inch gun gallery protective toys were generally blown into the sky, and then a series of explosions came from the ship's amidships, and the entire battleship also trembled in the explosion. Needless to say, the dressing room of one of Peter the Great's secondary guns was ignited, and the detonation of the propellant and shells stored in it put the battleship in an extremely dangerous situation for a while.

The Catherine was also unlucky, as the armor-piercing shell smashed between the mainmast and the command tower, tearing the transport boat to shreds and then slamming into the upper deck, turning the cabin into a burning hell. The billowing smoke directly affected Catherine's ranging and sighting.

However, the Russians were not without action, when the Peter the Great fell back into a sea of fire, a 12-inch shell also smashed into the middle and rear of the hull of the Longxu, and the entire battleship shook slightly, accompanied by a tooth-sore metal cracking sound, Lin Yongsheng knew that the secondary armor belt at the back of the hull of the ship may have been pierced! The Longxu is a battleship with outstanding firepower and speed, although the core cabin relies on the dome armor to block the blow of the opponent's heavy artillery, but the armor belt of the hull is still a little shorter than that of the battleship, covering less than 60% of the area, and the armor belt at the bow and tail of the hull is only 5 inches, and the height is limited, and it is completely dependent on horizontal armor to protect the transmission shaft and other vital parts. Therefore, it is inevitable that water will enter after being shot.

At this time, a large hole of nearly one square meter appeared in the stern of the Longxu. From time to time, seawater pours in through the breaches. However, for this situation, the damage management team of the Huaxia Navy has long been prepared, a group of damage management team members rushed to the breach with large oak planks and bolts, and then stretched out a large piece of oak planks from the breach under the action of the suggested machinery, and then fixed it with a pole to let it plug the breach on the outside, and then fixed it from the side of the hull with an oak plank, and then drove in the bolts, and the two oak planks clamped the hull in this way, and then some small loopholes can be blocked with some leftovers. A pump then drained the seawater from the pump, and in less than 10 minutes, the breach was plugged and only some cleaning remained.

"Damn, let the Sealand lead the escort warships to stick it, our shells have limited lethality, and we can only make up for it by projection." Esen ordered as he looked at the Longxu, which was still the same after the smoke cleared. Peter the Great-class can't beat the two Longxu battlecruisers, and the Sealand Province at the end of the line is low in accuracy and low in the power of the main guns because of the distance, in this case, it is better to let this Dutch armored cruiser rush up with auxiliary warships to attack closely, nothing else, sweep the deck, right?

Essen's order soon reached the Sealand, and the Dutch captain, after a brief hesitation, left the formation with four destroyers. After breaking away from the formation, the armored cruiser Sealand Province quickly approached the battleship Longxu at a maximum speed of nearly 24 knots, while at the same time, the destroyers behind it also began to accelerate and were ready for lightning strikes at any time.

"Continue to attack the fast battleships of the Russians, at least let their combat effectiveness be greatly reduced, and then we will deal with the Sealand Province that rushed up" Lin Yongsheng said with a complicated look, although the Huaxia Navy now has an advantage, but this advantage is not as big as shown on the scene, as long as the two Longxu class stop suppressing the opponent, then the combat effectiveness is not greatly damaged, especially the Russian battleships whose main guns have not been destroyed will soon be returned to color.

If the Dutch armored cruiser is a crispy, then Lin Yongsheng can also concentrate his firepower to kill it first, but the problem is that the 9-inch main equipment of the Sealand Province armored cruiser is not vegetarian. This thing is a simplified version of a seven-province fast battleship! Considering the firing angle, it is still very difficult to penetrate the main equipment at a distance of 8KM. Moreover, the captain of this armored cruiser is very sophisticated, whether it is the Longxu or the Longwei, if you want to fire at it, only 6 of the 8 main guns have a firing range, and the other 2 main guns cannot effectively shoot at that ship, and this is also one of the reasons why Lin Yongsheng temporarily gave up attacking the Sealand.

However, giving up for the time being does not mean ignoring it, Lin Yongsheng looked at the Sealand Province and the destroyer behind it and asked, "Where is Lin Yingqi's light cruiser?" Let him be ready for anti-lightning strikes to provide cover for our ship. "It is impossible for both sides to be without losses for a long time, even the dominant side will have all kinds of losses, although the two battle cruisers of the Huaxia Republic were not hit by heavy artillery, but the rapid-fire guns of the two Russian fast battleships still lit a lot of fire on the opponent's hull, and part of the 12-pounder anti-mine guns were destroyed, causing a decrease in self-defense firepower. Lin Yongsheng was sure that the other party would choose lightning strike at the right time!

Upload a 4000-word big chapter today, I hope you can like it~~~. Thank you to book friends dsbghost, daysleep animal, sdy6418, jhonnyridden and other book friends for their monthly pass support~~~. (To be continued......)