Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 418 The Perfect Storm
The British army in Victoria Harbor immediately released a water reconnaissance boat, and at the same time, the British destroyer stationed in Hong Kong has also been dispatched, searching blindly to the northeast on the dark sea.But soon the reconnaissance boats of the two sides almost collided.

At 4:20, the opponent's reconnaissance boat was discovered almost at the same time, and the situation was immediately reported to the own fleet.Although China's water reconnaissance boats are equipped with two 12.7mm machine guns and a howitzer, and their performance exceeds that of the British reconnaissance boats, in the following intensive confrontation, the Chinese reconnaissance boats have no effect on the enemy's attack.After all, the huge sea turbulence severely limits its combat performance.The not-so-experienced Chinese boat crew saw that they could not sink the opponent's scout boat, so they drove it away for a certain distance, then turned around and ran straight to their own fleet.

The British reconnaissance boat fell far behind the Chinese reconnaissance boat. After confirming its specific direction, it reported to the 2nd Fleet.After calculating the voyage of the Chinese reconnaissance boats on the water, the 2nd Fleet obtained the approximate location of the Chinese fleet and recalled its own reconnaissance boats.After learning of the news of the British water reconnaissance plane, the Chinese fleet immediately determined that there was a relatively large British fleet nearby, and its main battleship was at least above the level of a cruiser.And sent 3 water reconnaissance planes to conduct reconnaissance in three different directions.

Governor Bu Li sat anxiously in his office, thinking about one question all the time, that is, what are the Chinese going to do!
But until we figure out the true purpose of this fleet, it is better to wait and see how it changes. After all, relying on the Second Fleet stationed in Hong Kong to compete with the powerful Chinese fleet is simply shooting yourself in the foot.At the same time, the news was telegraphed to London immediately.

At the same time, a fleet is escorting three oil tankers sailing from east to west. The reason why they choose to sail at night is because people have borrowed China's southern waters without notice. Not for the first time.The value of the oil resources they escorted can reach 130 million yen, which is specially provided for the fleet stationed in Nagasaki and Hokkaido military ports.Originally they thought that this operation would still be as foolproof as before, but when it was close to 5 o'clock in the morning, the fleet commander suddenly received an urgent report that a Chinese warship flying a dragon flag was found in the open waters!
"Immediately list the battle formation, and at the same time, each ship enters a state of combat readiness, and the rangers estimate the distance of the Chinese fleet."

What are the Chinese going to do?Are they going to plunder these oil resources?They must not be allowed to succeed.

"Don't let Chinese warships get close to the tankers, intercept them immediately."

Time is not long. After the fleet calculated the position of the Chinese fleet, in order to intercept the Chinese fleet, it was decided that the faster battleship "Mutsu" and the battlecruiser "Kirishima" would carry all the cruisers and increase the speed to 20 knots. Turn eastward sharply, sailing towards the Chinese fleet.At the same time, it also ordered the two destroyers that missed the Chinese fleet to go south immediately.The battleship "Akitsu", accompanied by a destroyer, followed slowly at a speed of 15 knots.

As the Chinese fleet increased its speed and went to meet the supply ship at a speed of 22 knots, the distance between the Chinese and Japanese fleets began to gradually increase.An hour later, the lookout of the Chinese fleet had already seen the mast of the supply ship. At this time, the reconnaissance plane flying to the west also sent back a report of the Japanese fleet.The report claimed that two Japanese battleships and four cruisers were spotted, and at the same time, 4 nautical miles behind, there was another battleship and a destroyer with a speed of more than 20 knots.At this time, the distance between the two fleets was about 20 nautical miles.Huang Jianxun frowned. This was completely different from the news he had received before. He did not expect to send such a powerful escort formation.

This mysterious Chinese fleet is commanded by Vice Admiral Huang Jianxun of the Imperial Navy. At this time, he is feeling annoyed. Because the fleet he leads is an emergency mission received temporarily, in order to reach the designated Hong Kong waters within the specified time, he has to temporarily abandon it. However, when Mawei just came to the waters of Hong Kong and had no time to resupply ammunition, he was discovered.In this case, the entire plan is likely to be completely overturned.The most needed time is now!

He secretly calculated that it would take about 5 hours to replenish all the ammunition of the two main battleships. At this time, the distance between the two sides was only about 10 nautical miles, completely within the range of the Japanese ship's naval guns.Then the 6 extremely slow supply ships will be caught in the flames of war and are very likely to be sunk. At the same time, the enemy scout boat battle group will rush over at the fastest speed, causing more trouble for this ammunition supply.A few hours later, the sky will be completely dark again, and another battleship that has been replenished can completely win the naval battle by attacking the tanker.Moreover, even if the fleet knows that China has two battleships, one of the warships is needed to contain the fleet so that the other destroyer can complete the supply operation.So he made a decision: the "Chongqing" ship will conduct replenishment operations first, and immediately turn around to intercept the enemy fleet after replenishment.

During the high-speed march, several small boats kept going back and forth between the battleship and the supply ship, and sent the tow cables on the supply ship to the battleship. Pulled from ship to ship.After opening the wooden box, the sailors laid the shells horizontally and rolled them towards each turret.Then, the shells are hoisted into the ammunition compartment one by one through the manual hoist (that is, the pulley block).After more than 5 hours of intensive work, the ammunition for the main and auxiliary guns on the "Chongqing" ship was fully replenished.Then, immediately turned around and killed the fleet.

The sky had already darkened, and the fleet, which had always thought that the Chinese fleet was running wildly, never thought that the Chinese warship would take the initiative to launch an attack, and because of the heavy responsibility of defending the oil tanker, it did not dare to take the initiative to pursue it.

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the cruiser "Chongqing", which occupies the prefix "T" on the side of the ship, under the illumination of several flares fired by the destroyer "Guilin" in the front, fired at the "Mutsu" in the enemy fleet. The battleship HMS fired its first salvo. Nine 9mm artillery shells stirred up high water columns around the "Mutsu".The fleet had not yet had time to launch flares, so it could only roughly aim through the fire from the main guns on the "Chongqing" ship.After the "Chongqing" ship fired three salvos, the "Mutsu" and "Kirishima" turned the hull sideways and fired the first salvo.

Five minutes later, the fourth salvo of the "Chongqing" ship finally hit the battleship "Mutsu". A 5mm armor-piercing bomb blew up the 4-meter shooting director on the tall bridge of the "Mutsu". All of a sudden, the shooting accuracy of the main gun on the "Mutsu" dropped to an extremely low level.Of course, the "Chongqing" ship was also hit by several 295mm and 3mm shells, but fortunately, the "Chongqing" ship had "rough skin and thick flesh" and did not cause substantial damage.However, the eight 140mm main guns on the "Kirishima" posed a great threat to the "Chongqing" ship.A shell even collapsed two armor plates at the rear of the hull.

Huang Jianxun realized that the "Kirishima" that had not been hit by the shooting director was the biggest threat at present, and immediately ordered all the main guns to be aimed at the "Kirishima" to attack.At this time, the flares of both sides hit the sky over the opposing fleet, and both sides could see each other's various maneuvers at a glance.

At 8:30 p.m., the ninth salvo of the "Chongqing" ship seemed to be very accurate. Two shells hit the "Kirishima", and one penetrated the armor of the ammunition compartment of the 9mm hull gun on the port side. And caused the remaining dozens of 152mm artillery shells to die.Another shell pierced the rear nacelle armor, instantly cutting its power in half and bursting into flames.

However, the "Kirishima", which has not lost its combat effectiveness, still fought back fiercely. In its seventh salvo, a 7mm shell hit a 1mm secondary gun turret on the "Chongqing" ship, and lifted the entire turret. up the sky.

At 8:40, the 12th salvo from the "Chongqing" ship hit the "Kirishima" again, and three 3mm shells hit the front chimney and rear bridge of the "Kirishima" respectively.The front chimney was destroyed, which made the "Kirishima", which had lost half of its power, even weaker, and could only maintain a speed of 295 knots.The rear bridge was blown up, which reduced the shooting accuracy of its two rear main guns a lot, so it could only rely on the shooting director on the front bridge to shoot.

After the "Kirishima" was hit by this attack, its situation became even more dangerous. However, at this time, it switched to using the shooting director on the bridge, and gradually adjusted the shooting accuracy of the "Mutsu" to improve. A shell hit the horizontal armor of the "Chongqing" ship.Because the quality and thickness of the armor on the "Chongqing" ship were very good, a ricochet occurred, but the bounced shell destroyed the barrel of a main gun on the rear turret of the ship. Although the "Mutsu" was injured, it was far from losing combat effectiveness.At this time, another battleship "Akitsu" also rushed to the battlefield.

Huang Jianxun deeply felt the attack of the three ships, and it was really difficult for him to support himself. He began to send a report to the "Wuhan" ship, asking it to end the supply as soon as possible and come to support.

As a result, the "Chongqing" ship began to cast a smoke screen and conduct high-speed maneuvers.The two Chinese destroyers who always wanted to break through the defenses of the cruisers and destroyers were also bruised and had to follow the "Chongqing" ship. Now they can only consider escorting the Chongqing ship and driving away the destroyers who are about to approach the torpedo launch instead of doing anything else. Attempts to launch torpedoes at battleships were made.At this time, they can only maneuver around the severely damaged "Kirishima" at high speed, and look for an opportunity to destroy the "Kirishima".Therefore, the "Chongqing" ship always circled the fleet and fired salvos from time to time.The slower "Mutsu" and "Akitsu" could only follow the "Chongqing" ship with difficulty, and continuously fired flares so that the "Chongqing" ship could not escape their sight.

(End of this chapter)