"You from Nanyang have transferred several new ironclad ships and armored cruisers to our Beiyang to strengthen our strength. The other old ships will be used as patrol ships. Then we will all obey the orders of Admiral Ding Ruchang. Wouldn't it be great?"
This sentence made Liu Yu angry on the spot. As a biochemical man made by Liu Hai, Liu Yu was very loyal to Liu Hai. Now when he heard this kid say this, where should they put their admiral Liu Hai Liu?
So Liu Yu pushed back at that time, "I see that you don't have any large warships in Beiyang. We have two giant ships in Nanyang that are bigger than you, and we have also ordered other cruisers. By then, they will not be as good as your Beiyang."
And come to our Nanyang, we can follow Admiral Liu's orders and focus on the strength of the country's warships."
Liu Yu's words immediately resonated with the naval officers in the Nanyang Fleet, and they all clapped the table and applauded.
Although the Beiyang side had received Ding Ruchang's instructions, they had all drank some wine. Besides, the other side was already making a noise, so how could they back down? So they also clapped the table and retorted.
At first, the two sides were still talking about merging with each other, but later they started to show off the combat effectiveness of their respective fleets.
When it comes to combat power, both sides are unwilling to give in. The Beiyang side believes that they have two German-made ironclads. Although the tonnage is not as large as the other side, their strong ships and powerful guns, coupled with the new cruisers, are enough to destroy all of Nanyang.
The Nanyang side was not polite and directly said that the two iron-clad ships of the Beiyang Navy were too slow and could not keep up with the speed of the two giant ships from the Nanyang side. Once a fight started, they would only be beaten passively without the ability to fight back.
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When he said this, Liu Yu was already a little arrogant. He directly told the other party that there was no need for other warships. As long as his Jiangxi was there, the Beiyang Navy could not advance even an inch.
And Liu Yu listed the various advantages of his Jiangxi on the spot. The four giant guns are no less than the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships. In addition, due to its large tonnage, the armor is stronger than the Dingyuan and Dingyuan ships.
The most important thing is that this giant ship can run at a speed of 17 knots. As soon as it starts running, the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships can only eat dust behind their butts.
Although Liu Buchan wanted to refute the various conditions listed by Liu Yu, what Beifang said was indeed true, which made him blush so hard that he finally slammed the table and roared: Battleships are driven by humans, you
No matter how good the battleship is, it's of no use if the people don't do the job.
It ended up being a banquet, and the two sides almost started fighting again.
By the end, Liu Yu and Liu Buchan were arguing with their faces red. Fortunately, Ding Ruchang and Liu Hai heard the quarrel from another cabin at this time and hurried over to take a look. Otherwise, there would have been a fight between the two sides.
After Ding Ruchang and Liu Hai separated their respective officers, both sides were still unconvinced.
Finally, Liu Buchan pointed at the Nanyang Navy and shouted loudly that if he had the ability, he would be able to compete on the sea.
Liu Yu didn't show any weakness and responded loudly, "Let's compete, whoever is afraid of whom."
So the officers of the Nanyang Navy and the Beiyang Navy clamored to conduct a drill at sea.
However, Ding Ruchang objected to this matter on the spot, and then scolded Liu Buchan and others until they were bitten.
Liu Hai also said a few words to his officers, saying that they were too impulsive and how could they be so proud.
After Liu Hai finished speaking, he glanced at the Beiyang Navy.
Originally, Ding Ruchang wanted to settle the matter, but when he saw Liu Hai's eyes, he was a little unhappy. He thought that this young man was too ignorant and he had been suppressing the anger between the two parties, so he started to stir up trouble.
So he also darkened his face and said to Liu Hai: "Since Nanyang and Beiyang formed their respective armies, they have not experienced any major actual battles. How about we conduct an exercise in the open sea between the Nanyang Navy and the Beiyang Navy."
Liu Hai looked at it and saw that there was no bang at all, so he immediately agreed.
Then the two sides agreed to conduct a drill between the Nanyang Navy and the Beiyang Navy in the early morning of the second day off the coast of Hong Kong.
Once this agreement was over, both parties broke up on bad terms.
Liu Hai watched the Beiyang Navy and Nanyang Navy fight like five-eyed chickens. On the surface, he was very angry, but secretly snickered in his heart. This time, his goal was finally achieved.
Liu Hai has been instigating conflicts between the Nanyang Navy and the Beiyang Navy for a while. When the war breaks out, the fisherman will gain.
Early on the next morning, the two fleets of the Beiyang Navy and the Nanyang Navy weighed anchor and headed straight for the waters off Hong Kong. Their big move immediately alerted the British fleet in Hong Kong. They didn't know what was going on with these two fleets.
, so he did not dare to neglect and hurriedly dispatched a warship to follow the two fleets out to sea.
After the Beiyang Navy and the Nanyang Navy left Hong Kong, they separated twenty to thirty nautical miles outside the sea and headed east and west.
When the distance between the two sides was twenty or thirty nautical miles, they split their formations again.
As the admiral of the Nanyang Navy, Liu Hai naturally had to command the battle this time. He had already seen that his side was actually at a disadvantage in terms of cruisers.
These cruisers under his command are much inferior to the 6 cruisers of the Beiyang Navy.
But Liu Hai didn't think he would lose, because he had two giant ships as his backing.
As Liu Yu said yesterday, the speed of his two giant ships can reach 17 knots. As long as they are driven, the opponent's two ironclad ships cannot catch up at all. They can only use cruisers to talk to themselves, but if these cruisers want to
Fighting against his own two ironclads and armored cruisers is simply asking for death.
This time, in order to take advantage of his two giant ships, Liu Hai ordered all the cruisers to form two formations outside the two ironclads. The cruisers were in a row and the two giant ships were in a row, bypassing the flanks of the Beiyang Navy at extremely fast speeds.
The Beiyang Navy was not to be outdone. They knew that their ships were slow and did not dare to pursue the opponent. Instead, they ordered all fleets to line up in a line to form a battle line to confront the Nanyang Navy.
As the two navies slowly approached, they slowly approached the firing range of both sides' artillery, but at this time neither side fired, because at a distance of 8 kilometers, the artillery on both sides could not maintain accuracy at all.
As the two warships got closer and closer, at a distance of 5 kilometers, Liu Hai's side fired first.
Liu Hai's strategy is to use 5 or 6 cruisers to quickly approach the opponent's main force, entangle the opponent, and make the opponent's speed even slower, and then use two giant ships to bombard the perimeter of the Beiyang Navy at high speed.
As the cruiser of the Nanyang Navy opened fire, the Beiyang Navy did not show weakness and immediately launched training bombs.
At this distance, the accuracy of the artillery on both sides was still somewhat poor, and the first round of shelling did not cause any damage to either side.
As the fleet got closer and closer, the artillery fire from both sides came back and forth, and the fighting was endless.
Let's be honest, the training of the Nanyang Navy is still worse than that of the Beiyang Navy. When the distance between the two sides was close to 4 kilometers, the Beiyang Navy took the lead. A training bomb accurately hit the Kaiji. Fortunately, it was a training bomb.
, if this were live ammunition, it would immediately neutralize the Kaiji's front main gun.
However, according to the agreement of the exercise, the Kaiji's front main gun immediately stopped shelling.
In the 10th round of mutual shelling, both sides suffered losses. Generally speaking, Nanyang suffered greater losses.
In particular, the Nanchen, which was not heavily armored, immediately withdrew from the exercise as a battle sink as agreed upon after being hit by the main gun of the Dingyuan ship.
At this time, the two giant ships of the Nanyang Navy had also circled to the rear of the Beiyang Navy, occupying the "T" position.
At this time, the seven giant guns of the two giant ships of the Nanyang Navy were also aimed at the light cruiser Chaoyong at the rear of the Beiyang Navy.
Just one attack and the battleship was judged to have been sunk.
Next, the two giant ships in Nanyang took advantage of their cruise fleet to be entangled with each other, and kept attacking each other's single ships. Only a few rounds of bombardment caused heavy losses to the Beiyang Navy, and several warships withdrew from the exercise.
In the end, although the Beiyang Navy took advantage of its numbers and artillery to capture all six cruisers of the Nanyang Navy, it also suffered huge losses in several cutting-edge warships, which were either sunk or damaged.
The two main ships of the Nanyang Fleet, the ironclad Jiangxi and the Jiangsu armored cruiser, are still intact.
Next, the two giant ships of the Nanyang Navy did not continue to entangle each other. Instead, they took advantage of their speed to continuously attack the single ship of the Beiyang Navy. In the end, both sides only had two giant ships left.
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In this final showdown, the two ironclad ships of the Beiyang Navy remained motionless, but their front main guns could not keep up with the Nanyang Navy's speed. In the end, they could only be passively beaten due to the speed of the two giant ships.
However, Liu Hai saw that the exercise had reached this point, and there was no need to continue fighting. Otherwise, the Beiyang Navy would lose face at all.
So he sent a message to Ding Ruchang through a semaphore, believing that the two giant ships on both sides were unable to defeat the other, and the exercise should end in a draw.
Ding Ruchang now understands what is happening on the Dingyuan ship. If the fight continues, their Beiyang Navy may be embarrassed.
So Ding Ruchang happily accepted Liu Hai's request, and the two parties ended the exercise.
After that, the Beiyang Navy and the Nanyang Navy reunited and returned to Ma Tau, Hong Kong.
The situation of today's exercise was quickly discovered by the monitoring British warship.
The British intelligence agency also quickly obtained the details of this exercise. Although they did not see the exercise, at the level of the British Empire Navy, they quickly deduced the results of this exercise.
But they still have some deviations. They believe that the artillery of the armored cruiser Jiangsu cannot threaten the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships at all. In the end, if a decisive battle is forced, they may be sunk by the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships, and they take this
The proud Collingwood-class ironclads were able to defeat the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships of the Beiyang Fleet with their speed and armor advantages.
However, since the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships still have eight cannons, they also pose a huge threat to the Jiangxi ironclad.
Therefore, they decided that this time the two sides fought a draw, but the Nanyang Fleet would save the ironclad Jiangxi after the war.