On the undulating Yellow Sea, shells roared, smoke filled the air, and the loud explosions sounded like summer thunder. Two huge fleets, two destined enemies, began their life-or-death battle.
One side carries the glory of defending dignity, and the other side carries the absolute determination to fight for the future, using steel, flesh and blood, and life to kill on the sea where life originates. Amid the flying shrapnel and the raging flames, cannons fire out
Amid the roar of death, no one flinches or is cowardly, because everyone knows that this is a decisive battle, a decisive battle between two nations. The winner will win the future, and the loser will be sent to hell.
Before this battle, Li Hongzhang even went to Liugong Island in person to support the fleet, because all his elite troops had been detained in North Korea. Nie Shicheng, Ye Zhichao, Zhang Gaoyuan, Xu Bangdao, plus Liu Shengxiu and others in Pyongyang, could be said to be the main force of the Huai army.
Everything is bet on this war. If this war fails, he will lose all his capital. Not for the future of the country, but for Beiyang, for the Huai Army, and for his own future, he must win.
The Japanese First Division has arrived at Daejeon. If the naval battle fails and logistics is cut off, the ammunition consumption of the frontline armies will not last more than half a month and they will run out of ammunition and food. What will they have to contend with the more than 20,000 Japanese troops at that time?
The Second Division of the Japanese Army on the Northern Front has also landed in Wonsan and is rushing to Pyongyang day and night. With Song Qing and Liu Shengxiu, the number of troops in Pyongyang will not exceed 20,000. How can they fight against 30,000 Japanese troops without ammunition?
"For our Huai Army, this battle must be won!" Ding Ruchang, who stood on the deck waving his saber and commanding the cannon to fire just like he commanded the cavalry, had only these words of Li Hongzhang in his mind at this time.
The tactics of both sides have not changed. In fact, this is the best tactic they can choose. From the beginning of the exchange of fire, Dongxiang's four ships of the First Guerrilla Fleet cut into the right wing of the Beiyang Navy and sank Chaoyong as quickly as possible, but unfortunately
Unfortunately, he failed to fulfill the numerous instructions Tsuboi Kozo gave him while lying on the hospital bed before leaving.
"Be sure to get behind them!" Dongxiang Military God's mind was echoing the roar of his predecessor.
But Nima, how do you want me to get around it? He looked at the two jaw-droppingly fast destroyers that jumped out from the front, and he couldn't help roaring with grief and anger in his heart.
Today, these two small destroyers were like maggots on their bones, targeting him and the First Guerrilla Fleet. Originally, because these two ships had been wandering far away and did not join the Beiyang formation, he thought that the foreign mercenaries did not want to fight hard.
Who would have thought that as soon as he sank Chaoyong, these two guys would come to him. Although the eight 76 naval guns were not a threat, the ammunition projection rate of nearly 200 rounds per minute beat Takachiho to pieces in an instant.
In the sea of fire, if the four ships hadn't turned all the bow and stern artillery fire that was attacking Suihara and other ships at the same time, they would have directly rushed into the range and fired torpedoes at Takachiho.
But Takachiho was saved, but the price was that Chiyoda lost more than half of his artillery in the concentrated fire of Keigen and Laigen. However, the two culprits turned around and left the battlefield at a high speed of thirty-six knots, waiting for him to lead the fleet.
When they tried to get around to the rear of the Beiyang Navy again, they came out from directly in front of them and attacked head-on. The three 152 guns on the Yoshino ship's bow were directly overwhelmed by their rate of fire.
Just when the First Guerrilla Fleet was entangled with the three warships of Economic, Lai, Ji, and two destroyers, the Combined Fleet suffered a heavy blow. The 305mm picric acid shells were too powerful. Within two days of the battle,
Minutes later, the Itsukushima was torn apart by a near-missile explosion amidships, causing the ship to tilt due to water ingress.
Dingyuan opposite it has been hit by more than a dozen bullets so far, but it can be said that it is almost unscathed. Seeing this scene, Ito Heyou is itching with hatred, but it is a pity that the armor of this ship is so thick that it is heinous.
There is nothing he can do about the giant ship. Even if the 152 cannon is equipped with picric acid, it is no more than a mosquito bite against thirty centimeters thick steel-faced wrought iron armor. And the only thing in his hand that can cause fatal damage to Dingzhen is
Two 320 Ghana cannons. The one in Matsushima was directly damaged by a single shot last time and lost the value of repair. It has been replaced by a 152 rapid-fire cannon. Now only Itsukushima and Hashidate have one each, but these two
After the cannon has fired one shell, it is still unclear when the next one will be fired!
Just when Ito Hengyou was gritting his teeth as he watched the second ship Dingzhen, there was suddenly a huge explosion that shook the world. He looked in the direction and saw a huge fire ball at the midwater line of his weakest ship, the Kongo.
It was rising into the sky, and the fragments of the blown hull were clearly visible in the firelight. This ancient ironclad ship had just been hit by a torpedo by Fulong. Originally, its opponent was Guangjia and Guangbing, the two weakest iron-ribbed wooden ships.
, although it had just destroyed Guangjia in cooperation with another antique Fuso, Cai Tingqian's torpedo team saw the opportunity and took the risk to rush less than a hundred meters away and fired a blackhead torpedo.
Historically, his attack on the Nishikyo Maru failed due to the torpedo depth problem. This will not happen this time, because the Kongo's draft is deep enough. In fact, its draft is almost the same as that of the Dingyuan. Compared with
The Saikyo Maru converted from a merchant ship was not of the same level. Ito Heyou watched the Kongo sink to the bottom of the sea.
Inspired by Cai Tingqian, other torpedo boats of the Beiyang Navy also opened their eyes to look for opportunities to make meritorious deeds. However, except for the one on the left, none of them have the strength to attack on such a large battlefield. You must know that Fulong can succeed because it has a displacement of 1.
One hundred tons, with a speed of more than 20 knots. The one on the left has a displacement of 90 tons and a speed of more than 20 knots. But the speed of the remaining five ships does not exceed 15 knots. It is obvious that entering such a battlefield is no different from dying, so they
At this time, the Saikyo Maru and the cruiser Amagi and the gunboat Oshima that escorted it were dueling outside the battlefield with Pingyuan, who was the slowest in the Beiyang Navy and could not join the formation!
Although one against three, it is obvious that the Pingyuan is not at a disadvantage. This offshore defense ship of only more than 2,000 tons, although its speed is appallingly slow, its armor protection is also appallingly perfect, and the waterline
The armored belt, the command tower fort, and even the luxurious horizontal armor make this a real ironclad ship. Compared with it, the Saikyo Maru modified from a merchant ship is like a can. As for the firepower, the Pingyuan has a 152 rapid-fire gun.
The front main gun and one 150 Krupp secondary gun on the left and right. Although the firepower is much weaker than the dozen 120 rapid-fire cannons on the opposite side, the problem is that artillery of this caliber cannot target the enemy at all.
Its armor, which is more than ten centimeters thick, causes damage.
So to this day, the fight with Director Huashan is still inextricable.
At this moment, the group of torpedo boats surrounded them, including the five named left and right, and even the four boats brought by Dingzhen. All of a sudden, they all regarded Huashan Ziji and his three warships as fat meat.
, especially the Dingzhen 4th boat, which looked very much like a small submarine. This torpedo boat with only two torpedo tubes quickly rushed to the Oshima. The frontmost Zhenyi launched a white-headed torpedo without hesitation.
. However, what surprised everyone was that the torpedo actually passed under the Oshima. Before he could react, Zhenyi was sunk by the small-caliber rapid-fire cannon on the Oshima. The other torpedo boats hurriedly retreated.
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Li He, the captain of the Pingyuan, looked at these guys speechlessly, and then asked the signalmen to send out a signal to inform them to adjust the depth. Although this work is more cumbersome in this era, fortunately the torpedo boats were not short of time, and these guys hurried away.
He stayed away and readjusted the depth outside the battlefield. At this time, the Yoshino 4th ship was still unable to get rid of the entanglement of the two destroyers.
These two guys are driving Dongxiang crazy. As soon as they see that he has a slight advantage, they will immediately rush up to attack at high speed. And because of their express delivery advantage, they can easily choose the angle of attack, either from directly in front of the fleet or from behind.
Directly behind the fleet. Although they have not yet had a chance to fire torpedoes, they used the crazy rate of fire of their 76 naval guns to beat all the warships of the First Guerrilla Fleet to a miserable state. And more importantly, on the front
The three Jingyuan ships never let go of such good opportunities, and even Zhenyuan on the main battlefield sometimes used their main guns to sneak attack here.
Now the two fleets formed a strange shape. The Beiyang Navy's five ships, Zhijing Guangbing, blocked Matsushima, Itsukushima, Hashidate, Fuso, and Chikushi. There were also two large torpedo boats, Fulong and Zuoyi, looking for opportunities to make a sneak attack.
, Itsukushima has tilted seriously, and it is estimated that it will have to withdraw from the battlefield soon. The ships of the Beiyang Navy were hit a lot. The Zhiyuan was the most severely affected by the fire, but it still maintained its combat effectiveness. The weakest Guangbing was competing with the weakest opponent.
Both sides suffer losses in Zhuzi.
On the right wing of the fleet, there are three Keirai ships versus four Yoshino ships, but there are still two destroyers wandering near the Yoshino fleet. With these two guys' crazy speed of thirty-six knots, only the Viper has taken one so far.
The Cobra has so far remained unscathed by the 120 shells. However, the seven Chinese and Japanese ships have almost suffered damage to both sides, especially Chiyoda. Because it was hit by a 305 shell from Zhenyuan for a sneak attack, the tail was blown horribly. It is now flooded, and the hull
It also began to tilt. At this time, the power of the artillery caliber has been shown. No matter how many 152 shells are hit, it will not cause damage to the hulls of even smaller protected cruisers such as Laiyuan and Jiyuan, but the 305 shells will only
One shot, no matter where it hits, is likely to damage the hull structure, and even the 4,000-ton Songshima class cannot withstand it.
Outside the main battlefield, Pingyuan was continuing to challenge three enemy ships alone. Although it had been beaten horribly, the armor protection was so perfect that it still maintained sufficient combat effectiveness. On the contrary, its opponents seemed to
It was a big loss. Especially the wooden cruiser Amagi. This poor battleship was purely a helpless move by Ito Toyosuke. He really couldn't find anyone to protect the Minister. The Oshima was just a small gunboat.
Thinking about the shattered ending of its predecessor, I knew that such a small boat was meaningless, so I had to reluctantly find a suitable cruiser to accompany it.