At about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the 1st guerrilla fleet of the island nation relied on its own high speed.

Crossing the front of the Beiyang fleet, the rudder turned left, diverted and galloped, and after a large circle, the right flank of the attack fleet was super brave and mighty, and the two relatively weak warships.

Saying! Chaoyong and Yangwei are both old warships launched in the seventh year of Guangxu, and the age of the ships has reached 13 years; And 'the next door in the middle of the ship is made of wood, painted and whitewashed'.

To put it simply, these two battleships are old and poorly maintained.

As a result, the speed is quite sluggish, the power of artillery fire and the rate of fire are insufficient, and the defense is also extremely weak.

With the addition of the four ships of the First Guerrilla Fleet, the caliber of the naval guns is not very large, the tonnage is 4216 tons, and the main gun is only 4 6-inch 40 times the caliber cannon, that is, 152 mm caliber.

Changed to the Xuange Battalion Combat Team, the flagship 'Barong', which is not much in tonnage, is equipped with twin 260mm naval guns.

But on the first guerrilla fleet of devils, all the water is the new Armstrong rapid-fire guns, and the speed of fire is much faster than the old guns of the Northern Yang fleet.

In the face of the attack of the devils, the two ships of Chaoyong and Yangwei tried their best to resist.

But under the superior fire attack of the four fast cruisers of the devil and a salvo from the side, they were soon hit by a bullet and ignited a raging fire.

Thanks to the members of the damage management team on the two ships, they desperately tried to extinguish the fire with various firefighting tools, and they would not be burned down in a short time, but they didn't even have the ability to fire back for a while.

As soon as the war began, the powerful threat of the four warships of the First Guerrilla Fleet of the island nation had been completely exposed.

Some of the officers on the ships of the Beiyang fleet were still quite good, and they suddenly had some thoughts in their hearts that they had to give priority to killing these four ships.

For example, the first mate on the Zhiyuan, Chen Jinhua.

In the first year of Guangxu, he went abroad for a few years as the fourth batch of young children to go to the United States, and after returning, he graduated from the Jinmen Sailor School with excellent performance, and then joined the Beiyang fleet.

It is a rare elite among the Great Youth, and at this moment, he can see the huge crisis that his fleet is currently facing.

After turning his head, Chen Jinhua looked at the Deng Guandao beside him and said anxiously in his mouth:

"Pipe band, these ships led by the Yoshino are too threatening, if you don't deal with them as soon as possible, they can rely on their high mobility ability to constantly appear anywhere on the battlefield.

Flank our army with other enemy ships to form an advantage of fighting more and fighting less.

As time goes on, the little devils rely on such a tactic to accumulate advantages, and the outcome of this battle for our army is afraid that it will be quite dangerous. ”

After hearing such a sentence, Deng Guandao frowned and glanced at the fact that the handsome flag had fallen, and even Admiral Ding was the flagship Dingyuan who did not know whether he was alive or dead.

Knowing that in this battle, it was no longer possible to expect to get the command of Admiral Ding and coordinate the fleet orders.

In desperation, he could only rely on his own Zhiyuan ship to solve the threat of this guerrilla fleet alone, especially the Yoshino ship, which had the strongest firepower and the most arrogant.

Immediately, his mouth passed through a copper pipe used for communication, and the command came out of his mouth:

"Be careful, as long as all the cannons find the firing angle, they will immediately attack the Yoshino with all their strength without asking for instructions; Even if you can't sink it, slow it down. ”

Under such an order, the Zhiyuan soon fired several shots at the Yoshino.

Coincidentally, Lin Guandao on the Jingyuan ship also saw the current crisis faced by the Beiyang Fleet, and issued almost the same order as Deng Guandai.

At about the same time, large and small shells were also fired at the Yoshino.

It's a pity that after the dense artillery fire greeted over, in addition to blowing up the sea water around the Yoshino, not a single shell directly hit the hull.

No way! In this year's naval artillery battles, except for the close range of bombardment, the hit rate is really not high.

Another point is that although the Yoshino ship has more than 4,000 tons, it is quite agile and high-speed, and it is even more difficult to hit it under his maneuver evasion.

In the following time, the Yoshino and the other three ships gradually widened the distance between them and the Zhiyuan ship by relying on their high speed, making the possibility of hitting it even lower.

And on the sea in the distance, after drawing a large circle.

He turned around with three battleships including the Naniwa ship, preparing to kill the two ships Chaoyong and Yang Wei, and there was a posture of not sinking these two ships and never stopping.

Seeing this, Deng Guandao bit his lip and smashed his fist on the command platform in front of him, even blinking his finger bones to the point of white.

Because now in his heart, there is an inexplicable sadness and indignation:

To know! The Zhiyuan ship he commanded, but it was the fastest one in the entire Beiyang fleet, and when it was first bought, it could reach a maximum speed of 18.5 knots, which was not much of a devil's Yoshino ship at all.

It's just that in these years, he led a group of sailors under his command, and carefully maintained them as if they were their own eyeballs?

There are some things that they can't solve.

For example, before the war, the Zhiyuan ship hurriedly scraped the bottom of the ship, and the aquatic creatures attached to it that affected the speed of the ship did not scrape it clean, which greatly affected the speed.

Because the boiler burns inferior coal all year round, the performance has dropped sharply.

Combining all of the above, where can the Zhiyuan ship still run at a high speed of 18.5 knots.

Even if it is in the boiler now, burning is the best 'five-trough coal' of the Kaiping Mining Bureau, and the speed is only 14 knots in the sky, which is a cut short of the boss on the opposite side.

In short, now that Deng Guan led him, even if he wanted to risk his life to lead the Zhiyuan ship forward and fight Yoshino, a huge threat, there was no way to catch up with the other party.

Such a huge sense of powerlessness made the entire command tower in the hearts of the officers and men, including Deng Guan, feel aggrieved.

At the same time, when Zhiyuan and the two warships were desperately firing at Yoshino, the main fleet of the North Yang Fleet and the Devil Combined Fleet, because the two sides were close enough distance, also opened fire on each other.

Among the shells that came and went, Hiei, Fuso, and Akagi, which were slower in the main team of the island country, became the key targets of the Beiyang fleet

After receiving a few shells, there were obvious gaps and fires in the hulls of the two ships.

However, while the damage management team was firing, they could continue to fight.

On the side of the Beiyang fleet, after the two ships Chaoyong and Yangwei suffered several more shots, they had to play the flag: temporarily withdraw from the battlefield for rescue.

The other ships also suffered some casualties.

It is equivalent to that now, the Northern Yang fleet has suffered a loss in the confrontation.

The reason why this is the case is that if the naval guns of the two sides are compared, although the main guns of the Beiyang fleet are old, they have a larger caliber and stronger lethality.

The problem is, you have to hit the other side too.

The Combined Fleet of the island nation, the Armstrong rapid-fire guns that have only been reequipped in recent years, are a little smaller in caliber.

But these small and medium-caliber rapid-fire guns are higher in terms of rate of fire; Often, they all fired three or four times, and the 305 mm guns on the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan fleets did not have time to call out a single shot.

Between the two sides, the rate of artillery fire was about the same.

The superiority of the devil's side in artillery fire was revealed at once.

Originally, in history, even because of such a naval battle, it also had a profound impact on the development of naval artillery by Yinfa and other powers.

The caliber of naval guns is no longer simply pursued, but also takes into account the balance between the two in terms of rate of fire.

Of course, these are all later words, and the current crisis on the side of the Beiyang Fleet is that the four ships of the First Guerrilla Fleet of the island country are killing the retreating Chaoyong and Yangwei ships.

After sinking these two battleships, it was planned to flank the Northern Yang fleet from the rear of the fleet.

For a time, the whole Beiyang fleet felt a huge crisis......

******

"Look, you see with the band, there's a new situation.

In the southeast direction, that is, in the rear of the devil guerrilla fleet, three more warships appeared, and they, they were the Guifei, the Kick, and the Fenghua of the Xuange Battalion fleet. ”

In the case of a bad situation in the naval battle, suddenly in the command tower of the Zhiyuan ship, a shout full of surprise sounded from the lookout.

After hearing such a sentence, Deng Guan was under a spirit.

I immediately picked up the binoculars at hand and immediately looked in the southeast direction.

Then, not only did I see the three warships of the Xuange Battalion Squadron that I had been in contact with in Surabaya City at the beginning, but because of the new refit, I was a little familiar and unfamiliar.

I was even more surprised to see that at this moment, on the Guifei, the handsome flag of 'Hu' was actually raised on behalf of the command of the warships in the field.

There were also people waving flags on it, passing some signals to this side, and while distinguishing the content of these flags, Deng Guandao repeated it in his mouth:

"Ladies of the Beiyang Fleet, although you and I have different positions and brothers, but in the current situation of foreign enemies, it is better for you and me to put aside the controversy, unite with the outside world, and defeat the devil first.

Now, please follow our tactics.

Gentlemen, please deal with the enemy's own fleet with peace of mind, and immediately use the new batch of shells that have just been supplied; The enemy's first guerrilla fleet will be handed over to us.

We will win this battle~"

After reading the flag on the opposite side, after only a little hesitation, Deng Guandao put down the Xuange camp side, which was the idea of Daqing's henchmen and enemies.

As said on the other side, everyone is a flower planter.

It's like two brothers almost broke their own brains in order to compete for the family property; It doesn't affect at all that when outsiders come in and grab something, they will join forces to beat the opponent out first.

As for such a practice, whether the court will investigate it in the future, he doesn't care anymore.

Immediately, through the communication brass in front of him, a new order was loudly issued in his mouth: "Attention all gunners, turn the muzzle of the gun and attack the little devil's fleet."

Target Hiei, sink this devil's battleship for me.

That's right! Immediately replace the shells, and replace the batch of flowering shells that have just been resupplied. ”

The reason why there is such a saying that 'change the shells immediately' makes people a little speechless.

That's because according to the regulations of the Northern Yang Fleet, when the gunners load the shells, they need to use the old shells first, so as not to store them for too long and cause problems.

Therefore, don't look at the Beiyang fleet before, there have been a lot of shells called out, all of which are old shells from before.

The power of these shells is hard to describe, especially the armor-piercing shells in them.

Don't look at it, as long as you hit the target, you can make a gap in the devil battleship; But as long as it doesn't hit the underwater position, or the key parts such as the boiler room and ammunition room, the damage caused is really not large.

Under Deng Guandao's order, the gunners on the Zhiyuan hurriedly picked up a round of flowering shells that had been supplied in Weihai a few days ago and loaded them into the barrels.

Then the gun commander began to quickly adjust the muzzle of the ship's 210-mm main gun and 150-mm secondary gun.

The other warships of the Beiyang fleet are not as decisive as Deng Guandao.

The hostile relationship between Daqing and the Xuange Battalion, as well as the consequences if the imperial court pursued it after the war, made them a little undecided for a while, whether to obey the command and explanation of the Xuange Battalion.

But after a while, they don't care about those scruples in their hearts.

On the one hand, after the island fleet discovered the three battleships of the Xuange camp and attacked them from the right rear, perhaps because the tonnage of these three warships was limited, it did not have the slightest intention of retreating.

Under the orders of the flagship Matsushima, the 1st Guerrilla Fleet abandoned its plan to continue attacking the Chaoyong and Yangwei ships and sinking them first.

began to turn the bow of the ship and took the initiative to meet the three ships.

After all, the 4,216-ton Yoshino alone is almost equal to the total tonnage of the Xuange Battalion Fleet, the Guifei, the Kick, and the Fenghuahui.

The other warships of this fleet did not retreat for half a step, and kept firing wildly at the Northern Yang fleet.

Just stunned for a while, the bow position of the Jingyuan ship was hit by a shell, and a huge gap was punched in the bow.

On the other hand, the Zhiyuan ship, which had been replaced with new shells, also opened fire.

Coincidentally, it hit the port side of the Hiei, and immediately a violent explosion occurred there, causing the cruiser, which was only 2,284 tons, to tremble violently like a pendulum.

Wait until a splash of wood chips and the smoke of the explosion clears.

The hull steel curl ship on the left rear chord side of the Hiei ship has a hole in the boss, which is not the kind that the little devil's damage management team can make up for.

To tell the truth, if this hole were to be located a meter or two downward, this cruiser would probably have to enter a lot of water, and the hull would begin to tilt.

Now, the edges and inside of the hole are already burning, and there is a tendency to spread rapidly.

In short, this one was only supplied on the ship before departure, and it is estimated that under the arrangement of the Xuange battalion, they got the new flowering bomb.

Although it is only 210 mm in diameter, it is one of the most powerful in terms of power.

It seems that compared with the two ironclad ships in Dingzhen, those 305 mm caliber main guns are more powerful.

So the question is, if the 305 mm caliber main guns of the two ships in Dingzhen also use such a new type of flowering shell, how terrifying will the power be?

What a pleasant thing it was to bomb the battleship that was used to bomb the little devils?

With some such thoughts, the commanders of the other ships of the Northern Yang fleet such as the pipe band.

I can't care about being held accountable by the court anymore, those who are a little forward-looking and backward have a lot of thoughts, and they shouted out one after another:

"Put on new shells, fire at the devil's own fleet, and kill these little devils."

And in such a roar, the movements of those gunners moving the shells seemed to be a little faster.

These ordinary sailors did not have the scruples of the officers, whether it was the three ships of the Xuange Battalion Squadron that came to support, or the powerful power of the new artillery shells.

For them, winning the little devil and surviving is the key.

Now that the two sides can finally agree with each other, the morale of the sailors of the entire Beiyang Fleet is immediately different......

"Send the flag, order the Kick and Fenghua Hui to fight the battleship, and work with our ship to bombard the Takachiho with all their might, and knock out this thing for me."

Looking at the first guerrilla fleet of devils rushing towards this side at the highest speed, the tonnage is several times that of them.

Hu Biao not only did not have the slightest panic in his heart, but shouted such a sentence out of his mouth under the eagerness to try.

In fact, if he had a choice, he would most like to be in the first place.

It can be said that it makes the children sigh for not knowing how many kinds of flowers.

Even when Hu Biao was a child, he fantasized about crossing over to the ship many times and helping to add a few more shovels of coal to the boiler, so that the Zhiyuan ship could sink him.

Secondly, if you can kill the Naniwa first, you can do it.

Because the grandson of Heihachiro Togo, some time ago, was in command of such a battleship and sank the powerless cargo ship Takasheng.

It's just that he also knows that naval battles can't be done to his liking.

It is the wisest choice to give priority to the defeat of the weaker Takachiho and Akitsu Chau ships, and to subtract the wings of the First Guerrilla Fleet.

As for the Yoshino and Naniwa ships, it doesn't matter if they don't fight first, it's just that they will be killed later, and none of the combined fleets of the island country will be able to escape.

And Hu Biao's order made the Qiujinzhou ship fall with blood mold.

Captain Hikonojo Uemura, and a group of little devils under him, have no idea what awaits him......

(End of chapter)