After the loud bang, the dozens of tons of turret shook violently, and then the gunner quickly pulled the running bolt, ready to fill the shell again, and the smoke seeping from the tail of the gun suddenly diffused, but the choking pungent smell did not make the gunners pause in the slightest.

After a sizzling sound from the bomb machine, three projectiles weighing 46 kilograms were again stuffed into the chamber of the gun, and the propellant was then filled with only 10 seconds.

However, the first batch of trainee gunners, who had already fired three rounds, did not fire immediately, but turned their heads to look at the observers and rangefinders standing on the raised platform behind the turret, who sighed and shook their heads at the waiting gunners below after seeing that this round of shelling had failed again through a long new optical rangefinder.

"What are you doing in a daze?"

The old gunner seems to have known that there will be such a result, at a speed of twenty-five knots, a longitudinal swing of more than three degrees, and a distance of 10,000 meters, these recruits want to hit the enemy with three rounds of artillery fire and have already begun to accelerate, at least fifteen knots of opponents, unless they burn high incense when they go out!

In addition, the previous triple gun was directly tested by the navy before, and it was the first time that these trainee gunners of the academy worked on it, and they didn't know anything about it.

So the old gunner smiled slightly, kicked the nearest trainee gunner, and shouted: "There are still three rounds, whether to fight or not!" ”

"Hit!" How could the trainee gunners who were kicked and screamed give up such a good opportunity, although they all studied in the artillery department of the Naval Academy for half a year, and each of them had fired nearly a hundred live ammunition, but that was in ordinary practice, and they were all fought calmly, and the target and their own speed did not exceed twelve knots, so those experiences were not helpful to the current situation at all.

The trainee gunner took his position again, rushed to the gunner's observation window, glanced at it twice, readjusted the parameters, and then shouted the order to open the gun.

The turret then shook again, although the middle cannon fired 0.2 seconds late, but this subtle error could not be distinguished in the turret at all, only felt that after a loud noise, the turret was shaken a few times, and the smoke of gunpowder was filled again.

This time, the old gunner in charge of guidance did not stop, so the trainee gunner fired three salvos in one go, which made the ventilation fan behind the turret have to rotate at full speed, trying his best to extract the harmful gases that permeated the turret, making a burst of whirring sound, the old gunner frowned, he didn't like this kind of fully enclosed turret very much, although the ventilation fan effect was good, but it always made him feel panicked.

When the crane machine worked again, more than a dozen trainee gunners had already turned their heads to look at the observer, and when they saw that the other party shook their heads again, they were all a little discouraged, according to the instructions of this new type of artillery, the uniform speed of fire was six rounds per minute, that is to say, in this minute, under the work of the first group of trainee gunners, the three main guns fired a total of eighteen rounds of 46 kilograms of new armor-piercing shells.

In terms of a single turret, such firepower is not strong, and it is even more fierce than the main guns of the current fleet's main force, the Determination Heavy Patrol Capital, but as a result, the nearest impact point is ...... a few hundred meters away.

This result made the first group of trainee gunners depressed, especially when they saw that the Navy Cossack hit the Hequan in the second round, which made them feel even more discouraged, and they stomped hard before lowering their heads, and reluctantly gave up their positions.

"Pay attention to the amount of advance, which should be calculated together with wind speed and speed."

At this time, a voice suddenly came from the corner of the turret, and the trainee gunners hurriedly looked over, only to see a big man wearing a navy uniform like them, but without any rank marking, standing in front of the gun carriage, holding a small notebook to record something, while bowing his head and saying.

"Look at what! Didn't you hear what the old-timers said! ”

The old gunner actually saw the problem of these recruits for a long time, that is, they were too excited and forgot the most important thing as a gunner, so they did not fully consider it when adjusting the parameters, which led to the result that there was no near miss.

"Old-timers?" Hearing the words of the old gunner, the trainee gunners were stunned, although they had already seen the big man, but they always thought that he was a technician who had come to test the artillery work, except for the gun crew on duty, everyone else surrounded the old gunner and asked for gossip.

"What? Why are you staring at me? Do you think I'm lying? The old gunner glanced at the recruit in front of him, and smiled: "It only took three shells to hit the Yoshino, which was four thousand meters away and had a tail pursuit speed of more than eighteen knots. ”

"Three shots? The Yoshino with a speed of eighteen knots? ”

The trainee gunners have straight eyes, and they dare to love this big man who has been silent since entering the turret, and he is still a master!

Wang Guocheng squatted down and carefully checked the state of the gunner, he didn't think that he and Li Shimao worked together to hit Yoshino in Toshima back then, forcing Yoshino to be unable to pursue, and compared with those old gunners in the Pacific Fleet today, his own merits are really not worth mentioning.

Seeing the life and death of so many colleagues, Wang Guocheng came to Oahu with Fang Boqian again, gritted his teeth and gave up the idea of serving in the navy, but the saying that there was no cannon was really uncomfortable, fortunately, after Fang Boqian was appointed as the superintendent of the navy, he and several people who accompanied him entered the superintendent office, and later because he knew how to use cannons, and he also had the merit of hitting Yoshino, he was transferred to the gun factory as an artillery experimenter.

This job can be said to be completely aimed at his appetite, because the content of the work is to draw up experimental procedures drawn up by the engineers, and constantly conduct live firing every day, from the 37 mm rapid-fire gun, to the L40/305 mm naval gun used by the battleship, and then to the new triple 52 caliber 152 mm naval gun produced in Honolulu in front of him, if calculated by ammunition, he has fired nearly 3,000 shells in the past year!

Three thousand! This is an extremely staggering number, and it can be said that no ship gunner in service has had the opportunity to fire a thousand shells in a row, although a large part of them are small rapid-fire guns, but this is enough to make people staggering!

However, he also knew that he could not have such an opportunity because of how good he was, in addition to the factor of the young master, more importantly, the navy was unwilling to put a good gunner who was serving in the factory to serve in the factory, because a good gunner was the core of the entire warship, and sometimes even more important than the captain, so he and several gunners who came to Honolulu from Beiyang who did not want to continue to serve were cheap.

Since he is currently the only gunner on the ship who has experience in the live firing of the new artillery, he also boarded the ship as a technical guide this time, not to guide the rookie, but to comprehensively inspect the performance of the new gun in actual combat, and record it and bring it back to the factory for the designers' reference.

Although the first few rounds of trainee gunners did not hit, it still could not hide the unique position of this new artillery technology in his heart, its caliber is not the largest, the rate of fire is not the highest, but it is the brainchild of hundreds of artillery engineers throughout Honolulu for two years, and even the young master has participated in the design, proposing and solving many key problems.

In addition to the triple assembly technology, the new hoist introduced and modified by Germany can allow each gun to reach an average speed of six rounds per minute, and these are not the most critical, the most critical is the hydraulic gas brake and retreat machine under the barrel, which is connected to the barrel with two thick connecting arms, and even more important than the high-speed homing machine imported and improved from Germany, because this kind of brake and retreat machine proposed by the young master and designed by the French designer named Moa not only makes the gun lighter, And there is no longer a need to install a slow and coarse spring retractor on the gun carriage.

Although he still doesn't know much about the specific principle, but from the frame retreat to the current tube retreat, the effect is indeed amazing, not only reducing the impact of recoil on the hull, improving the accuracy of shooting, and with the acceleration of the speed of retraction, the rate of fire of the gun has also become faster, according to the results he came up with in the test, the maximum rate of fire of this new artillery can even reach nine rounds per minute, but then the cautery of the medicine chamber will be very serious, and the life of the body tube will be reduced a lot.

If there is a disadvantage, it is that the power of the armor-piercing shell is somewhat small and unsatisfactory, but as the improvement work is nearing completion, it is foreseeable that the power of this new naval gun will rise to a new level!

As the artillery began to roar again, starting to bombard at a constant speed of six rounds per minute, Wang Guocheng also squatted under the turret and carefully checked the work of the starting and retreating machine, although the previous test passed the navy acceptance, but the test in actual combat is the most important, so he must record every detail, even the small cracks on the gun carriage can not be spared.

"Three near-misses."

According to the standards of the new 152-mm gun, if it is a close miss, it means that the shell fell within 50 meters around the target, although it still missed, but at this time it is not only the skill that needs to be tested, but many times it depends on personal luck.

"Group 3!"

With the shouts of the old gunners, the third group of trainee gunners went up, although the gunners who were replaced were still a little annoyed, but their faces were flushed, and they had the opportunity to fire a few shots in actual combat, and they could hit a close miss at high speed, which was already a good result! ――

"Eight thousand meters!"

Kato Kenkichi felt that his throat was on fire, and at this time he didn't need a telescope anymore, basically just grabbed the sextant to measure the distance and then reported the coordinates of the enemy and his side in time, and he was very busy.

But even if he was busy, he couldn't dispel the growing chill in his heart, especially when he saw that the other party could fire six rounds of artillery fire per minute, and continue to approach, his heart was about to jump out of his throat!

He didn't understand, the mouth of the other chimney obviously didn't have the thick and thick black smoke column that is unique to acceleration, and it was still similar to the smoke column when cruising, could it be that the Hawaiians already had a new boiler and steam engine that could increase the speed of a warship of more than 4,000 tons to more than 25 knots?

Is this possible? Could it be that they are more technologically advanced than the British? Or are they stuffed with boilers and steam engines? But even so, how much tonnage can a 4,000-ton cruiser have to install the power system? Not to mention that they have to install larger triple guns!

Kato's eyes widened, and he even hoped to see all the details of the cruiser that was firing and getting closer and closer, when a thick black smoke blocked his view, and the destroyer under his feet finally began to accelerate after being passively beaten for more than ten minutes.

He became more and more confused, the acceleration of the coal-fired boiler is not such a simple thing, it is necessary to constantly add coal to the furnace, and there is a process of full combustion in the middle, so it takes time, but the other party ......?

Still accelerating? Not a minute of delay at all!

Soon, his torpedo ship joined the gunfight, the 120mm cannons on the bow and side of the ship began to roar, and the flames continued to erupt from the muzzles, and the soldiers transporting the ammunition continued to lift the shells to the deck from the ammunition depots below, and then fired them into the chambers.

The battle entered the ** from the very beginning, the rumbling of cannons spread throughout the sea, and the fleet next to it began to sail desperately in the direction of Yuben.

Seven thousand meters!

Kato saw that due to the opponent's unusually fast speed, the gunners who had achieved good results in ordinary training suddenly lost their good luck, and countless shells smashed out of the water column around the opponent, but they were never able to hit the opponent. In addition to continuing to approach at high speed, the three cruisers of the Pacific Fleet, which were originally pursuing, gradually exerted their side firepower, and dense shells rained down from the middle of the water column, and then slammed into their own warships.

At this time, the quality of the sailors of the two fleets also quickly appeared, when the distance became closer and closer, the shelling of the more experienced opponents became more and more accurate, especially in the last few minutes, they seized the opportunity of the Hequan to rise smoke and the target was obvious, and constantly smashed the shells on the hull, and suddenly the Izumi attracted most of the firepower like a huge magnet!

Moreover, Kato Kenyoshi also found that even if there was no triple naval gun in the middle, their twin main guns with a slightly smaller caliber had a terrifying rate of fire, and often only one shell was fired from their own side, and as many as seven or eight rounds had already flown over on the opposite side!

Kato Kenkichi didn't know that it was a new generation of the Pacific Army's standard L47 type 130 mm rapid-fire naval gun, due to the modification of smaller but larger oil boilers and steam turbines, the two ships saved a lot of tonnage, so taking advantage of the opportunity of this modification, the four light cruisers also dismantled the original main guns, all replaced with this more powerful rapid-fire naval guns, the only regret is that the hull is too small to install a semi-automatic loader, otherwise the rapid-fire gun firepower of the overall shell will be more fierce!

Even so, the heavy rain of bullets still made the Izumi unable to hold it first, and in just a few minutes the deck was like a dog gnawing, and when the fire ignited from every deck, it finally began to turn.

Kato Kenkichi originally wanted to see what kind of new naval gun this was, but suddenly he felt that the torpedo ship that had lost the cover of the cruiser Izumi was completely exposed to the fire of the other side.

In the afterglow, a shell accurately hit the thin protective armor on the stern gun emplacement, and then the turret exploded after a hole in the front of the turret, and countless fragments swept away with an inflated flame, and the bodies of several gunners were torn apart by the swept fragments.

Before he could wake up from the shock, the more and more dense cannon sound had rumbled, and several black dots once again met his gaze and drilled into the bridge not far under his feet like lightning, and suddenly the explosion in the bridge rumbled, flames erupted, and several soldiers who had no time to dodge were swept away by the huge wave of air and fell into the sea.

"Smack." Kenkichi Kato held his head hard and hid in the mast, his body curled up in a ball, hoping to avoid the aftermath of the explosion, but then he suddenly felt something fall beside him, and turned his head to look only to find that a piece of scorched body had smashed into the narrow mast, and the blood and stomach on the body were clearly visible, and the pungent smell of burning made him vomit violently.

"Retreat! Retreat! ”

Terrible screams began to rise from all over the ship, and the frightened recruits ran desperately, but where could they flee without the command of the bridge?

Although it was only a few minutes from the escape of the Izumi to the baptism of the rain of bullets alone, Kato Kenkichi felt that it was like a few years, and when he looked up again, he found that the small torpedo ship under his feet had already ignited a raging fire, and the Suma and another torpedo ship had also turned the bow with thick smoke, giving up on intercepting the enemy and began to escape, as for the Izumi, which was dragging black smoke and abandoning his comrades, he plunged headlong into the slowly fleeing fleet, trying to use the merchant ship to cover the escape of the enemy's shells.

"This is the Imperial Navy?" Kato's eyes are cracking!

He didn't know what the captain of the Izumi was thinking, and he didn't know what was going on there, but that wasn't what an Imperial Navy soldier should do! If the Izumi left her torpedo ship alone can be explained by the fact that the damage needs to be temporarily withdrawn from extinguishing the fire, then it is unforgivable for them to hide in the slow merchant fleet!

Because to do so would be to completely expose the defenseless fleet to the enemy's guns!

Kato couldn't even imagine what would happen to those merchant ships under the guns, and perhaps knew what it would bring if the Izumi suddenly squeezed into the fleet, and the fleet, which had fled neatly just now, suddenly exploded, and some of the sailors on the deck began to panic, and some of them had even run towards the lifeboat.

Perhaps in order to match Kato's thoughts, a cargo ship that had just broken away from the fleet and was about to escape was hit by several pursuing shells, and the explosion burst from the side of the tall side of the freighter, and after the violent explosion tore open a section of the hull, the sea roared in, and within a moment the smoke in the chimney became lighter and lighter.

As more and more shells hit the freighter over Kato's head, explosions erupted from every part of the ship, engulfing the entire deck in the blink of an eye!

Kato could no longer make any sound in his throat, and he stared blankly as the three enemy ships swept past not far away, slaughtering into the flotilla that was supposed to be protected by him.

Looking at the red faces that were so close that he didn't need a telescope to see clearly on the gun positions of the enemy ships, he sat down in the mast and didn't even notice that the telescope had fallen off the deck.

In the rumbling sound of the cannons, he suddenly remembered his mother who was far away in Kyoto, and remembered the cherry blossoms that would bloom in a few months

(To be continued)