The Yakumo was a lucky warship, at least the captain and all the soldiers on board thought so, thanks to the French's narrow deck and small bomb design, it was the only warship in the fleet that had been hit less than ten times in four attacks, except for two second-class cruisers and torpedo ships.

Another attack would have to be met with nearly 2,000 shells bombarded indiscriminately, and 10 shells would be like itching.

In addition to being lucky, the captain was also very, very proud, because the Yakumo and its sister ship, the Azuma, were second only to the six battleships in terms of cannon caliber, and the two twin 40 times caliber 250 mm naval guns were enough to threaten even the enemy's battleships.

So in the return of the fleet this time, the Yakumo has always been regarded as a pilot ship and rushed to the forefront.

The captain thought that after rushing out of the islands made up by Micronesia and entering the open water, the attack would disappear because of the open line of sight, but he didn't expect the other party to chase back after him.

In order to reduce losses, Admiral Gonbei Yamamoto had to disband the sailing formation and try to break up the formation, so that the probability of being shelled was greatly reduced.

But no one expected that just now when the formation was scattered and turned around, the hateful main force of the Pacific Fleet came, and the thick black smoke cloud made the inexperienced captain know that it was at least a huge column of smoke only available to more than eight warships.

Eight ships! If it's all the kind of warships that fire like a hornet's nest, I'm afraid I don't really want to go home.

When the opponent's capital ship group jumped out of the water, the captain of the Yakumo breathed a sigh of relief, because the opponent only had two battleships, the rest were cruisers, and four of them were old ships that were only a little larger than the second-class cruisers.

But when he took the Yakumo and began to deflect the bow at the signal of the flagship, preparing to regroup the flagship to meet the battle, the firelight made his pupils suddenly shrink into a little cold star.

The other side opened fire!

Fired at a distance of 10,000 meters!

The captain was so frightened that he jumped up directly, when did the guns of the capital ship be able to hit so far?! At a distance of 10,000 meters, did their gunners hit accurately?

In fact, there are many people who have the same mind as the captain of the Yakumo, the capital ship is not a cruiser, and the larger the caliber of the main gun, the slower the rate of fire, in this case, ensuring accuracy has become the first element, so countries will set a 5,000-meter combat zone, and now the opponent is shelling at such a distance, purely wasting shells.

As if in response to the thoughts of the captain of the Yakumo, the first salvo of cannonballs whistled and smashed in front of the warship, and the most recent one was also several hundred meters away, in addition to the terrifying sound, it made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

But the captain of the Yakumo obviously didn't know that a pair of eyes full of fanaticism and vengeance from 10,000 meters away had locked the bow of the ship that had been deflected to the left, exposing most of the heavy cruiser of the ship.

Inside the Ussuri's Heavy Patrol No. 1 turret, Tsunekai followed the Yakumo through the observation window, and even the noisy sound of the bomb machine failed to make him blink his eyelids.

As a veteran gunner of the former Beiyang Jingyuan ship, he was assigned to the artillery group as a trainee artilleryman after joining the Pacific Fleet with Ye Zuqi.

At first, he didn't understand how a gunner like him couldn't even give him a full-time position, but when he saw the gunner assessment of the Pacific Fleet, he was deeply impressed!

Compared with the previous Beiyang, people are the real masters of playing cannons, practicing diligently every day, assessing every month, from 3,000 meters to 10,000 meters, and the cannonballs fall within 20 meters to pass!

And it is necessary to master the work of at least five different caliber naval guns, otherwise you will always hang the sign of internship!

After being stunned and hesitating, the Beiyang gunners who came with him threw themselves into crazy training, asking questions if they didn't understand, not going to school, continuing to shoot if they couldn't hit, aiming at static targets during the day, and even practicing their eyes with mosquitoes when they slept at night.

In the end, after half a year of crazy training, coupled with a good old foundation, he finally stood out from many gunners, returned to Captain Ye Zuqi, and became the main gunner of the Ussuri.

This time, he came out to take revenge, in fact, it was not only him, every Beiyang veteran who finally joined the Taiping Fleet had the same thoughts, even if they let them go to the bilge to shovel coal, they also hoped that their warship could sink a warship, they wanted to tell the Qing Dynasty, tell me that the bones of Beiyang are still standing!

"The muzzle is 21 degrees to the left, and it is 4 degrees to the left......."

The turret, which had been silent for a minute, became busy again with the shouting of the artillery communicator, and Chang Hai also got busy quickly, and when the communication officer finished shouting the last word, a cannonball with a line of small characters written on it suddenly stuffed into the chamber with the help of the ramrod.

"Fire!"

As soon as the unique harsh long tone in the telephone came out, Chang Hai roared, and the huge triple main turret seemed to have been smashed by something, and there was a sudden shock in the loud bang, and dust and gunpowder smoke were scattered everywhere, filling the entire turret.

Even though a special ear protector was distributed, the huge sound of the muzzle still made everyone feel tinnitus and dizzy, and when the barrel was flattened to start the second reload, Chang Hai rushed to the observer's side, and as soon as his eyes passed through the small window, he suddenly straightened!

I saw that the bow of the Yakumo, which had been looking at it for a long time, exploded violently like fireworks, and the huge explosion directly pressed the bow down, almost submerging in the water!

"Hit!"

Chang Hai shouted excitedly, and waved his arm with all his strength, his enthusiasm immediately infected all the members of the artillery crew, everyone wanted to see the scene where the Yakumo was hit, but at this time, they couldn't and must not leave the battle position, they must quickly complete the loading and then give the other party a few hard blows!

"Reload!"

"Fire!"

"Reload!"

“….”

With every roar of the naval guns, Chang Hai also shouted, until finally the entire gun crew roared with the naval guns, the Yakumo on the sea was already in flames! ——

Yamamoto Gonbei's eyes were red, why could these damn people open fire from 10,000 meters away? And so precise! In just the second round, it hit the Yakumo, causing the first-class armored cruiser that was about to return to the formation to make a direct turn on the surface of the sea, and the bow of the ship deflected again.

And that's not all!

But before he could come out of his surprise and anger, the eight cruisers in the distance once again burst out in flames, and when the rumbling cannon sound filled his ears, he had just suffered a heavy blow, and the bow was deflected and was about to turn the rudder back to the formation Yakumo was aimed again, and at the same time that dozens of water columns were stirred up, two shells hit the rear bridge at the same time, not only destroying all the secondary guns and equipment around it, but also directly tearing a large hole in the rear bridge with a diameter of several meters.

That's impossible!

On the British cruiser, Fisher jumped up and pointed at the Pacific Fleet heavy patrol formation that had fired another salvo, the corners of his mouth twitched as if he had seen a new continent, and he was speechless.

As the British Navy's premier artillery and artillery expert, no one knows better than him the technical level of naval artillery in the world today, and he has carefully studied the two new naval guns sold by Italy to Limer, no matter in terms of the rate of fire of naval guns, the speed of discharge, the kinetic energy of shells and the penetrating ability, they are inferior to the British naval guns, and they only have a slight advantage in range.

When the Jinghai-class appeared in front of him, he had a premonition that Li Mo might also improve the firing angle of the Italian naval guns, increase the firing range, and change to the triple installation method, so when the Vladivostok-class heavy cruiser appeared in the telescope with two triple naval guns, he was only slightly surprised, but combined with the industrial and metallurgical capabilities shown by Honolulu, he did not think that Li Mo could improve the effectiveness of the Italian naval guns.

You must know that 152 mm naval guns and 203 mm naval guns are completely different things!

But what did he see now? Even if Honolulu can no longer have muzzle velocity, kinetic energy and armor-piercing ability, the rate of fire of these naval guns of Italian origin has made him unable to describe it as surprising, and even those triple naval guns of the same caliber have maintained the same rate of fire!

Two shots per minute!

Philettman glanced at his pocket watch and frowned as well.

At this moment, the best naval artillery technology must be the British Empire, but the fastest rate of fire of the same type of 203-mm naval guns can only reach one round per minute, and even the United States, which claims to be the first industrial power, can only reach one round per minute and a half of naval guns of the same caliber.

But now!

The hearts of the two men sank even more as the flames bloomed from the sidelines of the ships of the Pacific Fleet, and before they set out from the Andaman Sea with the Fleet, they received information that the Americans and Germans had seen the Pacific Ocean bombarding Manila City, and the rate of fire of the other side was only one shot a minute.

Now it seems that Li Mo deliberately concealed the rapid fire at that time, and he deliberately used the mouths of the two navies to spread false news, and finally spread it to the ears of the Japanese navy through his own people, so that they could paralyze and underestimate the enemy.

The only consolation is that the main guns of the two battleships on the other side are still firing every minute and a half, which is basically the same as the British naval guns, and it is obvious that Li Mo has no ability to improve these twelve-inch naval guns for the time being, otherwise I am afraid that the battleships built and rebuilt by the British Empire will be declared scrap metal immediately.

Rumble.

Under the loud sound of uniformity, the roar of forty 45 times caliber 203 mm naval guns every half minute was like thunder, shaking every heartstring!

When one flame after another burst from the poor cruiser Yakumo, Fisher's eyes had already shifted from this doomed cruiser to the strange cruiser that had attacked the warship on the opposite side, huddled in the center of the shelling formation, which neither fired nor maneuvered, and was very abrupt in the heavy fire formation, what the hell was he doing?

Not only did Fisher not understand, but the officers of every country watching the battle couldn't figure it out, what was that warship crammed there for, was it to protect the formation from the attack of the fast and small warship? It's impossible, you must know that ten capital ships have at least fifty or more rapid-fire secondary guns, not to mention that the two most important second-class cruisers have been entangled by three of their partners and left the central battlefield, even if they are here, I am afraid that they will not be able to carry out a surprise attack in such a dense firepower, let alone those torpedo ships that are monitored by the two second-class cruisers of the Pacific Fleet.

So what the hell are they doing?

"Speed 15 knots, left yaw 7 °."

In the shelling bridge at the top of the Dinghai ship, the fifteen-meter-long rangefinder had already thrown aside the burning Yakumo, aimed at the last Fuji battleship that was about to be inserted into the ship formation, and constantly reported the speed and angle of the Fuji to the fire control calculation team below.

Half a minute later, the shelling parameters and Zhu Yuan had been transmitted by radio to the various gun positions of the eight heavy cruisers, and the gunners of each group immediately adjusted their muzzles according to the new parameters and aimed at the Fuji that was about to join the team.

This is a relay fire control method that Li Mo came up with, because in the pre-dreadnought era, all ships lacked effective fire control means, although their own system is still very simple, but it is much more accurate than other countries that still rely on human eyes to aim.

At a time when it is impossible to provide fire control and aiming for all warships, the range and accuracy can be greatly improved by placing one or more warships equipped with fire control systems into the shelling formation through radio and transmitting the shelling parameters through radio.

If the command tower of the Antarctic Star is the head of the entire fleet, then this shelling bridge, located high above the bridge of the nautical ship, becomes the eyes of the fleet.

Boom, boom, boom.

Another perfect salvo, the targeted Fuji suddenly became the second unlucky ghost, three 203 mm shells accurately hit the stern and middle deck, the new type of armor-piercing shells under the impetus of high-power propellants, has long had the ability to penetrate the battleship anywhere except the main armor, not to mention that this time it hit the thinner chimney armor in the middle.

After penetrating the 150 mm armor that wrapped the chimney, the shell changed direction and drilled directly into the No. 1 boiler room below, where the debris swept through several boilers, and a large amount of hot water and steam poured out, and a dozen unprepared sailors turned into steamed meat without any shouts.

The explosion of a boiler room, in addition to opening a large hole in the middle deck of the Fuji, also caused it to lose a quarter of its power, and its speed immediately dropped from fifteen knots to twelve.

Seeing that the Yakumo rotated in place and the deck began to tilt, and the speed of the Fuji hull exploded in the middle of the hull decreased significantly, Ji Weishan only breathed a sigh of relief, and he knew very well from the beginning that if he used the one-on-one method of battleship duel, then even if the gun speed was faster, it would be difficult for his side to pose too much threat to the battleship.

Therefore, he took advantage of the opportunity of the light patrol to divert the ships and break up the opponent's formation, and used the method of concentrated artillery bombardment to hit the Yakumo in only the second round, and then took advantage of the high rate of fire of the heavy patrol's main gun, taking advantage of the fact that the fleet could not concentrate its firepower to fight back, and completely destroyed the Yakumo with five rounds of 200 shells.

After defeating the Yakumo, he took advantage of the last opportunity to inflict heavy damage on the Fuji and caused the battleship to lose its all-important speed.

Combined with the first round of artillery bombardment with test surnames and one-minute adjustment, a total of eight rounds and five minutes, a heavy patrol was incapacitated and a battleship was severely damaged, which was already a dazzling achievement, which made all the countries watching the battle break out in a cold sweat. But he knew very well that on the opposite side, in addition to the two light cruisers who were scattered everywhere by the light patrol formation and could not return to help, the remaining eight capital ships and the heavily damaged Fuji had already completed the formation, and a bitter battle was about to break out.

Yes, hard fighting!

Because Ji Weishan knew very well what kind of cards he was holding, although the firepower of the entire fleet seemed to be very strong, but in fact, the four Determination class ships were already old, with a displacement of only more than 6,000 tons, and after receiving the modification, it increased by several hundred tons, making the speed drop to less than 20 knots all of a sudden.

Although the four Vladivostok-class heavy cruisers are equipped with triple guns, the essence of the four Russian ships has not changed, they are all warships that have been in service for ten years, and the hull structure and anti-sinking surname are no longer as good as the new generation of warships.

Even the two battleships in their hands are no longer as cutting-edge as the original, and the only advantage is artillery, but as the two fleets get closer and closer, this advantage will gradually disappear.

In the distance, it was said that the fleet had completed its formation, and the bow of the ships began to deflect rapidly, and when it gradually formed a parallel with the fleet of its own side, the counterattack also became neat and orderly.

It is necessary to divert the attention of the fleet as soon as possible, so that the eyes of the fleet will be red, and create an opportunity for the heavy patrol formation! And if you want to do that, there's only one way to do it.

Find a cannonball magnet!

Ji Weishan took a deep breath, his eyes bit the Mikasa who was at the front of the line, with the flagship flag, and clenched his fists suddenly, "Order the Sirius to press in with our ship and shell the Mikasa with all your might!" ”

"The rest of the ships continue to gather artillery fire in order!"

"Press in?!"

Behind him, the officers all shook violently, they all understood what would happen once the two battleships took the initiative to close the distance, and when they were hesitating, Ji Weishan had already shouted again: "Execute the order!" ”

"Yes!"

After a resounding answer, the Astar Antarctica and the Sirius took the initiative to leave the shelling formation, and the bow deflection continued to press against the fleet, while all eight main guns were aimed at the Mikasa at the front.

Boom Boom!

Eight 305 mm guns fired a salvo, and immediately shot several huge water columns around the Mikasa, and in the face of the Pacific Fleet's long-range high rate of fire attack, Yamamoto Gonbei, who was at a loss, saw that the other party took the initiative to approach, and immediately ordered the four new battleships Mikasa, Asahata, Hatsuse and Shikishima to temporarily let go of the farther heavy patrol formation and attack the two battleships approaching with all their might.

Yamamoto's counterattack suddenly caused a large number of water columns to appear around the Antarctic Star and Sirius, but the two Polar Star battleships took the initiative to attack with a large number of shells regardless of the danger, relying on their rough skin and thick flesh, and took on the task of dangerously shelling magnets.

The remaining eight heavy cruisers also knew that it was the most critical moment, and the ship's guns roared with all their strength at a high speed of two rounds per minute, and countless shells pierced the void and roared towards the fleet.

Ten minutes later, the heavy patrol formation, which had an absolute advantage in the rate of fire, finally reaped the results again, and the sister ship of the Yakumo, the Azuma, was continuously pierced through the side armor by more than a dozen shells, tearing open one crack after another, and the deck immediately tilted after a large amount of seawater poured in, and the captain was so frightened that he withdrew from the battle without even informing the flagship.

The temporary departure of the Azuma suddenly reduced the pressure on the heavy patrol formation a lot, and all the shells were concentrated on the remaining two heavy patrol ships, Asama and Tokiwa.

Eighty shells a minute, under the command of the Dinghai, the hit rate can reach 15 percent, and each salvo can pierce several large holes in the two warships.

At two o'clock, under such intensive firepower, the most astonishing scene finally appeared, after being hit by several shells in succession and damaging the steering gear, the bow of the Asama was deflected, and it actually rushed towards the muzzle of the heavy patrol formation of the Pacific Fleet at a speed of 16 knots, which immediately frightened all the officers and men of the Asama into a cold sweat.

Three minutes later, when the Asama was less than seven kilometers away from the Pacific Fleet's heavy cruise, the cold sweat came to an abrupt end, and a 203-mm cap-piercing shell accurately drilled through the crack in the stern that had been torn open, this time without the thick armor, it went directly into the interior of the hull, penetrated three decks in a row, and drilled into the ammunition compartment.

The charge of the 250-kilogram armor-piercing bullet was only ten kilograms, but under the violent impact and the detonation of the TNT surnamed Lie, the ammunition compartment was still ignited, and at the same time there was an earth-shattering loud noise, the air wave directly lifted the turret of hundreds of tons to a height of dozens of meters, and the stern of this first-class armored cruiser of nearly 10,000 tons was directly cut off by the explosion. After tens of thousands of tons of seawater poured in from all directions, the bow began to slowly until it formed a 90-degree right angle to the sea.

This scene was full of a strong visual sense, which made all the soldiers on the battlefield dumbfounded, especially the inexperienced, obviously never seen such an explosion and scene on a nearly 10,000-ton warship, and even forgot to fire the cannon, and all of them stupidly watched the Asama sink to the bottom of the sea little by little.

The Asama sank, and the Yakumo, and Azuma all temporarily lost their combat effectiveness due to the tilting of the deck due to a large amount of flooding, so that only one of the four heavy cruisers of the Motomoto, the Tokiwa, was left to support it.

But the officers and men of the Pacific Fleet were not excited for long, and a scene that worried them also appeared, the Antarctic Star, which was besieged by four battleships, was the first to be shot, and a 305 mm shell accurately hit the stern main turret, although it did not penetrate the modified armor, but the huge impact force and explosion still broke the two exposed gun barrels, and the strong shock wave also caused nearly half of the gun crew casualties.

Losing half of its firepower at once, the Antarctic Star was obviously a little overwhelmed, and at this time the Sirius also suffered heavy damage, and a shell from a 203-mm secondary secondary gun hit the middle of the hull, rendering two of the three chimneys useless, and Fang Jin had to order half of the boilers to be turned off to reduce the exhaust volume.

Seeing this scene, Ji Weishan had no choice but to order the two battleships to distance themselves from the ships, fortunately, the previous two ships were not all without gains, and the experienced gunners made up for the gap in quantity and quality, first the main armor on the side of the Mikasa was pierced through several large holes, and the two secondary secondary guns were also completely dumb.

The other Hatsuse was no better, the bow main gun was pierced through three large holes, and if it weren't for the direct fire shells that didn't drill down, I'm afraid that this main battleship would have ended up like the Asama.

At this time, the battlefield became a heavy patrol of five battleships and one heavy patrol against eight Pacific Army ships, and the situation suddenly became delicate again.

At 2:40, when the two battleships on this side had just withdrawn from a safe distance, the eight heavy cruisers who concentrated their fire avenged them, and the Fuji, which had been heavily damaged before, suffered heavy artillery bombardment, and a full five shells penetrated the Fuji superstructure in succession, completely sweeping away the front bridge and the command tower, making the Fuji lose its unified command.

In another volley half a minute later, the heavy patrol formation, which was close to 8,000 meters away, directly pierced the shells through the gun shaft, ignited the auxiliary gun ammunition depot, and the explosion tore apart the side armor at the same time, and also completely incapacitated the Fuji.

However, at this time, the counterattack of the fleet also caused damage to the heavy patrol formation for the first time, a 305-mm shell hit the bow of the Determination at a distance of 7,000 meters, the explosion tore through the bow armor of the Determination, and after a large amount of seawater poured into the bow, the Determination leaned forward in less than a minute, and Liu Haitao could only stare at the Chao Yue and ordered to withdraw from the battle.

Although the Resolve withdrew, it not only did not make the heavy patrol formation panic, but aroused the anger of all the officers and men, and shells hit the remaining warships like eyes.

But no one expected that in the end, the last meritorious service was actually a few light cruisers that had been pinning down from a distance, and the three Jinghai suddenly launched a surprise attack from the back at a high speed of 24 knots after beating two of them into flames.

Hundreds of 152-millimeter shells penetrated the superstructure of the battleship Yashima at a distance of less than five thousand meters, and penetrated through the armor layer just 150 millimeters behind the main gun turret, and the debris from the explosion not only killed everyone in the turret, but also successfully detonated two refill shells, and the violent explosion pushed the Yashima into the abyss.

Yamamoto Gonbei did not expect that the mighty Yashima would be beaten by the enemy from behind, and was just about to adjust his tactics, but was extinguished by the three light patrols that reopened the distance, and when the three light patrols and the remaining heavy patrols concentrated all their firepower on the Mikasa, the 345 mm thick command tower was surrounded by fire, and the deck was as if it had been swept by a hurricane, and the masts, chimneys, secondary guns, etc., as long as they could be seen, almost all of them were swept into a hornet's nest.

In such a situation, let alone signaling, even the officers in the command tower could not raise their heads.

At this time, Yamamoto Gonbei suddenly woke up from the excitement of severely damaging the opponent's two battleships just now, and realized that the two light cruisers had been more than lucky, the sinking of the Asama, coupled with the fact that Yakumo, Azuma and Fuji had lost their speed and combat effectiveness when they entered the water, and even if they could escape, they would definitely not be able to hold out to the country.

If such a fierce battle continues, even if you can sink a few warships of the other side, your own losses will definitely increase, not to mention that there are still more than 3,000 nautical miles away from Yuben, and after losing all the coal-burning supplies, if you can't break through as soon as possible, I'm afraid that if you don't fight, you will become an iron coffin floating on the sea.

After thinking about it, Yamamoto finally gave the order to break out.

A few minutes later, the few remaining capital ships began to release smoke and retreat, but the gunners of the Pacific Fleet, who had already been beaten red-eyed, were willing to concentrate all their firepower on the Yashima, which was dragging last and had lost the ability to fight back.

Ten minutes later, when the remaining five capital ships withdrew from the battle, the Yashima had become a piece of cheese riddled with holes, sinking to the bottom of the sea little by little.

Although the Pacific Fleet did not sink a single ship, the injuries to the USS Resolve and two battleships still made people a little worried.

As for the fleet, it suffered heavy losses, after the Asama sank, the Yashima sank, and the Yakumo and Fuji flooded in large quantities and could not escape, the two captains had to order to open the remaining sea valves and sink themselves, only the captain of the Azuma, after seeing several heavy cruisers of the Pacific Fleet surrounding them, was so frightened that he forgot to open the sea valve and directly raised the white flag and surrendered.

The Myoko and Fuso, two light cruisers and four torpedo ships, had already been beaten into a sieve, ignited a raging fire, and finally were sent back to the bottom of the sea at close range by several light cruisers of the Pacific Fleet with torpedoes when they could not be saved.

Three ships were seriously damaged, in exchange for the opponent's five capital ships, two light cruisers and four torpedo ships, which is not a great feat, especially when the ship's guns still have a clear advantage in the rate of fire.

Although the soldiers were a little frustrated, Ji Weishan and the officers who knew the whole plan were full of smiles.

In the distance, looking at the Pacific Fleet as it began to clean up the battlefield in the sunset, Fisher let out a long breath and frowned again.

He knew very well that if the Pacific Fleet had two more battleships, or a few more 305-millimeter guns that could penetrate the main armor of the battleships, or if the shelling distance had been reduced to 6,000 or even 5,000 meters at the last moment.

Obviously, it is impossible for the Pacific Fleet not to know the power of its own naval guns, but if they did not do so, could they be so willing to let those five capital ships return to China?

Fisher shook his head, the Pacific Fleet is obviously not the kind of person who lets the tiger go back to the mountain, and Li Mo will not let go of the five capital ships, especially four of them are the latest battleships!

Although the five ships that escaped have all suffered heavy damage and will take at least a month to repair, don't forget, there are still four capital ships in the country, as long as the Uraga waterway is sealed with mines, and the four capital ships and shore artillery defense are cooperated, there will be enough time for these warships to recover their combat effectiveness!

Is there not enough strength at hand, or is there a follow-up plan?

In Fisher's painstaking meditation, the last rays of sunlight gradually disappeared below the horizon, and the four Jinghai-class cruisers of the Pacific Fleet in the distance took the lead in breaking away from the fleet, which seemed to answer the doubts in his heart

(To be continued)