The battle between Italy and Japan in the waters near Jiaozhou Bay, the collision of nearly 200,000 tons of steel, which is also the largest naval battle since the birth of ironclad ships, naturally attracted the attention of the world.

However, there are only a few companies that have the strength to send warships to watch this naval battle in the Far East, only Britain, France, Russia, the United States, Germany and Austria.

Therefore, when the Italian and Japanese warships were in a pin-pong fight, on several warships in the distance, the officers of the various countries participating in the war stretched their necks and looked at the warring sides intently.

"The Italian battleship is really good, worthy of an epoch-making masterpiece."

It was Lieutenant Commander Boseman on the German ship Douri, who, as a German naval officer, was drooling as he looked at the mighty three Turin-class ships in the distance.

The German navy is now dominated by four Brandenburg-class battleships, which are 10,000-ton battleships that cannot be compared with the 16,000-ton Turin-class battleships that led the navy into the pre-dreadnought era.

"Battleships are the kings of the sea."

These were the words of the French officer, Major Arrod.

Although the French Navy and the Italian Navy are in strong competition in the Mediterranean, for France, which has only just ended the Green Water Navy program, it is more concerned about this naval battle, because it will provide more experience for the development of the French Navy.

"The Italians have a problem with their fleet, it's too tacit, they must have a means of communication that we don't know about."

The British did not give much evaluation to the warships of the two sides, but paid attention to the coordination of the Italian warships.

At this time, the British Imperial Navy was proud of itself, and when it saw that the Italian fleet was better than its own, it immediately sensed that something was wrong.

Officers from several other countries believed that they would also notice it, but the British Empire felt that something was wrong at the first time, which also fully demonstrated the high quality of the British Empire's navy.

Of course, no matter what they said about this naval battle, the naval officers of all countries who watched the battle unanimously agreed that the combined fleet of this naval battle was at a disadvantage. If effective changes are not made, then failure is imminent.

However, as the Combined Fleet changed formations, the reactions of the officers of various countries were very different. However, on the whole, Britain, the United States, and France gave a positive assessment to the change of formation of the combined fleet.

In the words of French Major Arrod, it was "very good that the Japanese Navy was flexible, aware of the enemy's weaknesses, determined and persevering." ”

Of course, where there is praise, there is slander, and the evaluation from Germany, Austria and Russia is very bad, in the words of Lieutenant Colonel Ivanov of Russia.

"The disgraceful behavior of the Japanese in showing their despicable and shameless appearance in front of everyone and wanting to use a warship to sneak attack a transport ship is simply a disgrace to their navy. In our Russia, this will be tried by a military tribunal. ”

The polarization of the attitudes of the countries watching the war also has a political underpinning.

Needless to say, Britain and the United States supported Japan in using it to resist Russia's expansion in the East, so they naturally did not want to see Italy get involved. And France, because of Italy's involvement, sided with Britain and the United States.

On the Italian side, Austria-Hungary chose to support Italy's actions because the war in the Far East had little impact on them, and because of its relationship with Italy, an increasingly powerful ally. After all, in the Balkans, although the two countries cooperate, there is also a sense of confrontation, and it is much better for Italy to focus its efforts on the Far East than in the Balkans.

Germany, on the other hand, in addition to its alliances, did not use the hand of Italy to expand its influence in the Far East. After all, at present, except for Italy, which is an outlier, other countries are dividing their spheres of influence in the Qing Kingdom, and Germany also wants to find a place here as its own sphere of influence.

As for Russia on the side of Italy, it is better explained. The Russians will not know the intentions of Britain and the United States, and if Italy comes out, they will naturally have to cheer for it, after all, Yellow Russia also has a fatal temptation for it.

Well, as the party that really entered the war, the Qing State was directly ignored. There is no way, who made this old empire perform too poorly in this war, no matter whether it is sea or land, there is no achievement that can be shown. This is the result of the 30 years of the Qing Dynasty's Westernization Movement, which was directly pierced by Japan. If Italy hadn't come to the aid in person, it would have been able to announce its surrender and peace.

But no matter which side they prefer, the end result requires the performance of both sides.

On the battlefield, the warships of the two sides are still fighting, but they are only divided into two disconnected battlefields, which are said to be disconnected, but the correlation is still incomparable.

"Fire!"

The captain of the ship, Major Petz, looked like a menacing Japanese warship, and bravely stopped in front of it to buy time for the follow-up rescue formation. As a high-speed cruiser capable of running up to 24 knots, the Eagle took advantage of its speed advantage to seize the position, and it was a good one-on-one hand.

Following his order, the Eagle's six rapid-fire main guns and eight 120mm secondary guns roared.

14 shells full of rage flew over a distance of nearly 4,000 meters, and smacked the armored cruiser Yoshino in the lead.

"Boom, boom!"

"Two shells hit the enemy ship!"

At the top of the railpole, the lookout post immediately loudly reported the results of the shelling.

"Woohoo......"

The return of the lookout sentry caused a burst of cheers from the warship.

"Let's kick the Japanese monkey in the ass."

The officers and men of the Eagle, encouraged by the results of the battle, took the opportunity to engage in another round of artillery bombardment.

The Eagle is happy, but it doesn't mean that the Yoshino who was beaten is so easy to bully,

The two 254 mm main guns on the foredeck, as well as two 152 mm secondary guns, randomly returned fire.

The shelling, with the roar of death, terrified the officers and men of the Eagle. Because the Eagle paid a lot of money for high speed, in the case of both the need to ensure firepower, then the protection can only be adjusted, and the protection of the Eagle is relatively weak, its main armor is only 25-80 mm, and the height is only 2.8 meters.

This kind of armor defense is still a little weak with 6-inch shells of the same level, such as the 10-inch main gun on the Yoshino can never be stopped, that is simply a dozen accurate.

Fortunately, the whizzing 254-mm shells did not hit them, but plunged headlong into the nearby sea.

But the 10-inch shell dodged, but the 6-inch shell did not. A 152 shell hit the ship's amidships, directly collapsing two armor plates, which was a great luck in misfortune.

It stands to reason that at this time, the Eagle should rely on its high mobility to start a fight, so that it can reduce the probability of being hit.

But now the Eagle can't retreat, and once it leaves its position, it will expose the unprotected transport ship to the other side. Relying on the three thousand-ton unprotected cruisers of the 1,000-ton class of Pernia, Courage, and Brilliance alone is simply killing them, so the Eagle can only be on top of itself.

As the attacking Japanese warships got closer and closer, the Hawk, which lacked the speed advantage, suffered more and more losses.

"Boom!"

A 254-mm shell hit the stern 152-mm main gun, easily penetrating its 115-mm gun shield, emitting a violent explosion.

The violent explosion tossed the cannon up, and at the same time swept the back deck into a blur of flesh and blood, adding another horrible scar to the already battered Eagle.

At this time, the Eagle suffered heavy losses, and in just half an hour, the Eagle was hit by dozens of shells, including 254 mm and 203 mm large-caliber shells. The half-hour strike caused the Eagle to lose most of its guns, the power was reduced to 13 knots, and the casualties were more than half, and only a third of the people who were still able to move were left.

At this time, the Eagle was on the verge of death, and if no one came to save it, it would be time to declare its sinking.

But fortunately, hope came, and several cruisers, led by two Venetian Improved-class, rushed over.

"We are saved!"

Major Paez, with a bloody bandage on his head and a smoky fire hanging from his left arm, put down his binoculars and said that we are saved, and then fainted and fell to the ground.