Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 138
At this moment, Yan Fu stood up.His excellent mental quality in combat was also fully demonstrated in this naval battle. After "Yoshino" sank "Jingyuan", the retreat route was blocked by the torpedoes of the Qing Dynasty. "Yoshino", so that he can leave as easily as before, wandering to other areas to attack the Qing fleet.

But in this one minute, Yan Fu seized this opportunity.

"Lean over to the Yoshino, full starboard. Move the main gun 35 degrees to the right and aim!" Yan Fu screamed loudly, "Hit me."

"boom"

There was another loud noise, and the 420mm main gun of "Changsheng" accurately hit "Yoshino" about 5000 meters behind it.

The "Yoshino" is produced by the Manchester Dockyard in the United Kingdom. It is equipped with two 320mm main guns, four 4mm rapid-fire guns on the left and right, eight machine guns, 140mm, and 100mm rapid-fire guns. The fastest can reach 120 knots speed.So much firepower.With such a high speed, its protection can be imagined.Cannons and boilers account for most of the weight of the ship, and the only thing protecting the hull is a thin layer of iron.The filling between the iron sheet and the hull is two layers of 8mm wood.It claims to have a displacement of 22.4 tons, and boilers and artillery account for more than half of the weight.

After being hit by a shell fired from a 420mm main gun, it exploded inside the ship.The entire "Yoshino" tilted up immediately, but it did not ignite a fire like "Jingyuan", but there were some small fires in the ship.Apparently the fleet did not use inferior or flammable paint.At this point, it has to be said that it is much more mature than the Qing Fleet.

If Dongxiang Heihachiro had to choose again, he would rather be that torpedo.I don't want to wait for the shell of "Long Victory" in place, but it's too late to say anything now.

In order to save the dying "Yoshino", the engine room at the bottom of the warship has already become a purgatory on earth.In order to prevent the fire from entering the engine room, all the passages leading to the upper deck have been closed, scorching every officer and soldier here.The hair has long been curled up, and everyone's skin is flushed.

Inoue Xingqiao, the manager, shouted in a hoarse voice: "Add more coal, don't stop, don't touch the bulkhead."

The engineers, who had lost any hope of survival, worked hard to fill the boiler with a shovel of coal under the leadership of the chief manager Xingqiao Inoue to complete their last work.

At this time, the "Yoshino" ship seemed to be reclining on the water, and the entire warship was seriously tilted to the right.

Finally, when forced to the surface of the sea, the "Haitian" could no longer withstand the call of the sea god, and returned to the embrace of the ocean.

Although "Long Victory" turned and fired in order to sink "Yoshino", it affected the entire offensive formation, and the stern of the ship was bombarded by the fleet, and was hit twice at the stern.But just like the power of British warships is always excellent, German warships never worry about protection.The firepower of the French warship must be strong, and the defense of "Long Victory" is indeed excellent. After being hit by two shells in a row, it did not cause major damage.

In fact, even if he was seriously injured, it would be worthwhile to kill "Yoshino" with one shot.

The atmosphere of the entire battlefield was immediately mobilized by the sinking of "Yoshino", and the Qing fleet became more courageous as it fought.And the fleet has lost its flagship and has no desire to fight.

"Takachiho", "Akitsusu", and "Naniwa" had already abandoned their original battle plan and quickly returned to the main armored ship, as if they were afraid that they would retreat and leave themselves here.

"Ride the Wind" and "Breaking the Waves" quickly caught up and detoured to the rear of the fleet, and the initiative on the battlefield changed hands instantly.

"Order Rise, Guangjia, Guangji, and Guangbing to turn around, and the other warships change formation, change to a T-shaped formation and rush in to separate the fleet. Separate and annihilate them one by one." Yan Fu is very satisfied with the current situation.He knew that Deng Shichang's first formation would arrive soon, all he had to do now was to fasten his pockets, use the T formation as long as he rushed past, there would be a long horizontal line blocking the fleet's way back to the sea, This fleet will be here when the first formation arrives.

He may not be very clear about the strength of the improved "Zhenyuan", "Dingyuan", "Weiyuan" and "Jiyuan", but he is not very clear about the strength of the "Daqing No. [-]" and "Daqing No. [-]" under his Nanyang Fleet. "The two [-]-ton battleships" are quite well known.With these two warships around, Xiao could only end up waiting to be killed.

Seeing the flagship "Yoshino" being sunk, the fleet was suddenly leaderless.No one listened to anyone, and flags were flying all over the sky.Some said that they should retreat first, some said that the cruisers continued to outflank the rear, and some said that the Qing fleet should be held back by ironclad ships, and the cruisers should go to reinforce Nagasaki first.

Anyway, each said his own way, each did his own way.Such chaos allowed the Qing fleet to easily realize Yan Fu's strategic goal, rushing into the middle of the fleet in a T-line formation.

With "Long Victory", "Undefeated", "Triumph" and "Victory" as the one in T, it firmly locks the fleet's retreat route. At the same time, the four gunboats as the 1 make full use of the left and right 8 The 140 improved rear-mounted guns on the door continued to bombard the fleet, and the periphery was constantly harassed by "riding the wind", "breaking the waves", "rising" and three torpedo ships.

The warship was completely disrupted, and the left and right could not be connected.Unable to contact the front and back, fighting on their own, chaotic.

Seeing that a great victory was about to come, suddenly a fleet of ironclad ships appeared behind the Victory and other ships and headed towards the East China Sea at high speed.It was obviously reinforcements from the fleet, but how could there be reinforcements at this time? ?

Yan Fu saw clearly through the binoculars that the "plaster flag" was hanging high, obviously it was a fleet.Did people see through their strategic intentions?Didn't send reinforcements to Tokyo? ?

At this time, there was no time for Yan Fu to think too much. The "Changsheng" and other ironclad ships that originally surrounded the fleet now appeared behind the fleet, and he was in a state of being surrounded.

The situation changed too quickly, but Yan Fu made the fastest decision after a short consideration.

"Order Triumph and Victory to stop the reinforcements. The rest of the ships speed up their elimination, take advantage of the wind, break through the waves, rise up and approach the enemy ships, and then use the main guns to deal the deadliest blow. It is best to kill one ship with one shot." Yan Fu said loudly. Bannerman said.

As soon as the order was given, "Triumph" and "Victory" turned around and sailed slowly towards the fleet that was approaching fast.Maybe they know that they are playing the role of cannon fodder.But for the sake of the overall situation, they have no complaints!All the officers and soldiers on the ship are silently doing what they should do.

This reinforcement fleet is composed of "Kyushu", "Hiei", "Fuso" and five small gunboats. Originally, "Kyushu", "Hiei", "Fuso" and "Yamato", "Musashi", "Katsuragi" was sent to Tokyo for reinforcements together, but when the third formation of the Qing Dynasty passed through the Pacific Ocean, the fishing boats discovered that the Qing Dynasty had only five cruisers escorting the troop carrier.

Ito Hirobumi, commander of the National Defense Forces, immediately realized that things were abnormal. If the goal of the Qing Dynasty was Tokyo, it would be impossible to send only five cruisers to Tokyo, not even a single armored ship.So immediately ordered "Kyushu", "Hiei", and "Fuso" to lead the gunboats to come for reinforcements, and encountered a fierce naval battle as soon as they set out to sea.

While "Triumph" and "Victory" were going to stop the reinforcement fleet, the rest of the ships also accelerated their suppression of the fleet.

At that time, artillery aiming depended on the non-commissioned officer in the mast plate to measure the distance between the enemy and us, and every once in a while, he would use the hand flag to report to the fort below. With each report, the gunners adjusted the pitch angle of the artillery according to the scale on the scale. .The distance measurement method used by the Beiyang Fleet is the complex and primitive sextant distance measurement method. There are generally three ways to measure the distance between the enemy and the enemy with a sextant: If the identity of the enemy ship is clear, and the enemy ship’s location is known in advance in the intelligence manual. For the height of the mast, measure the height of the mast of the enemy ship in the distance, and then compare the altimeter to find the distance; there is another way that the range finder uses a sextant to "measure the sea level and all the distances on the sea surface where the enemy ship is located." Angle", and then calculated by comparing with a special rangefinder; the last method is to measure the point where the enemy ship is located by a rangefinder at the head and tail of the warship, and then calculate the other two sides based on "one side of the obtained two angles, and take The middle number is the distance number." Compared with the ranging method of the Qing Navy, the fleet on the opposite side is much more advanced and convenient. They are equipped with a special British rangefinder. By using a rangefinder similar to a telescope to observe distant targets, when After the left and right eyepieces are focused and adjusted, the distance to the target will be automatically displayed on the scale. With such advanced equipment, the Japanese army has the upper hand over the Qing navy when it comes to shooting distance.

But this does not affect the pace of the Qing Fleet, which is in possession of the battle situation, to wipe out the opponent.

"boom"

Another loud noise came from the main gun of "Chengfeng". The shell that whizzed away hit the ironclad ship "Xijing Maru". "The one that hit "Yoshino" just now, the previous shell hit the warship at a distance of 5000 meters. If it weren't for the fragile defense of "Yoshino", it would not have caused much damage at all, and this shell directly hit the warship. The gun mantlet of the No. 140 140-meter secondary gun on the port side of the "Xijing Maru" was hit, and the fuze immediately started to work after being hit hard. The black powder filled in the warhead quickly ignited the gun, and the shell exploded on the No. 140 gun position.The huge impact airflow and fragments produced by the explosion made the gun mantlet look vulnerable, and instantly turned into scattered steel fragments.The [-]-meter secondary gun that was originally shielded behind the gun mantlet was also attacked. The entire gun body was blown up, and then fell heavily. The [-]-meter-caliber steel gun barrel was twisted into an incredible crescent shape.If it was just this, it probably wouldn't lead to the final tragic ending of the "Xijing Maru", but then something even more terrifying happened.

In order to ensure the supply of ammunition for the artillery during the war, a large number of 140-meter artillery shells were piled up on the gun deck under the main deck of the "Xijing Maru". , The artillery shells fired from this position also hit several Qing warships, so that the weakly armored gunboats in the Qing fleet did not dare to get too close.However, at this time, these ammunition has become a huge safety hazard, and the artillery deck of the "Xijing Maru" ship seems to be a huge powder keg that is about to be ignited.

A large number of gunpowder shells and vulcanized cotton propellants piled up near the 140-meter auxiliary battery position of the "Xijing Maru" ship were detonated! The "Xijing Maru" ship had a series of huge explosions, and a choking yellow poisonous mist immediately filled the ship.The impact force generated by the explosion of gunpowder tore a larger gap in the port side of the "Xijing Maru" while roaring and penetrating through various cabins inside the warship. Burning endlessly, the entire warship turned into a ball of fire.

"My lord, abandon the ship. If you don't leave, it will be too late." A sailor persuaded beside Isamu Shikano, who was struggling with the fire.

Isamu Shikano stopped his figure, turned around and said, "I am the captain of the Saikyo Maru. The ship is still alive, but the ship is destroyed. Let's put down the lifeboat and let's go. I should die to thank the Emperor!" After finishing speaking , Continue to fight with the fire.

It didn't take long for the "Xijing Pill" to sink slowly.Although two battleships were sunk in a row, after reinforcements suddenly appeared, the warships fighting separately had a unified action and quickly approached the reinforcement fleet.

In the face of the impact of dozens of fleets, the two ironclad ships responsible for intercepting the "Long Victory" and "Invincible" obviously had a lot of pressure, and they often missed here and there.

And facing the three cruisers "Takachiho", "Akitsusu" and "Namiwa" with speeds of 18 knots, 26 knots, and 24 knots respectively, Yan Fu has nothing to do. The only thing he can do is to keep firing shells. One or two of them can be dealt with.

However, the main guns lacking precise instrument aiming often exploded around the warships, and did not hit the three super-fast warships.

But those old-fashioned warships were not so lucky. Although "Riding the Wind", "Breaking the Waves", and "Rise" could not catch up with cruisers with a speed of more than 24 knots, they could deal with them with ease.

Especially under the support of the torpedo ship, the two old warships "Chiyoda" and "Akagi" were also sunk.But the rest of the warships still highlighted the encirclement and moved closer to the Japanese reinforcement fleet behind.

The scene was like a group of male dogs in heat seeing a female dog in the distance, rushing in that direction desperately.

After Yan Fu commanded "Long Victory" to sink the last ship in the fleet, "Itsushima" which was still on fire and wanted to break through, he turned around and saw "Triumph" and "Victory" still burning in the distance. Scenes that don't want to back off.

At this moment, his eye sockets were moist, according to his character.He should lead the fleet to rush up, at least to rescue the officers and soldiers on the "Triumph" and "Victory", but he knew that he could not enter the sea until his reinforcement fleet arrived.Only to draw the opponent out, he turned around and shouted to the semaphore soldiers beside him: "Quickly, let Triumph and Victory retreat. Hurry up!"

(End of this chapter)