Kowloon wins

Chapter 1118 The Boiling Ocean ([-])
"Report to the captain, the flagship sent an urgent call, asking if our ship can support it, if not, withdraw from the battlefield immediately."

Under the main mast of "Zhenyu", the captain, Rear Admiral Lin Xudong, looked at the sailors nervously putting out the fire all over the deck with a livid face. His mood could be described as extremely bad. No one else, as the commander of the First Squadron , and the captain of the first ship to fight the vanguard of the whole army, Lin Xudong thought that with the training level of his own ship, he could achieve a good result in any case, but he never thought that the battle line was already halfway through. , the shells were also consumed, but the actual battle results were lackluster. On the contrary, his own ship was beaten up everywhere, which really made Lin Xudong very angry, but what annoyed him even more In the back, no, before the fire on the deck was extinguished, a herald rushed out of the cabin at a gallop. After performing a standard military salute, he reported a telegram that made Lin Xudong's veins twitch.

"Call back, my ship is fine, no need to quit!"

quit?Quit just after the war started?Lin Xudong couldn't afford to lose face like this. Even if the battleship was damaged, it was far from being unable to fight. How could Lin Xudong be willing to withdraw from such a major decisive battle.

"Yes!"

Seeing that Lin Xudong's expression was not right, the herald who came to report did not dare to delay a bit, he hastily responded, turned around and was about to run into the cabin.

"Wait! Tell the first officer, the second officer, and the gunnery commander the telegram, and spread it to the whole ship, and tell them that if you can't fight well, I will leave!"

Before the herald could turn around, Lin Xudong added another order in a cold voice.

"Yes!"

Hearing Lin Xudong's words, the herald's expression immediately became terrified, but he didn't dare to say anything more. He simply gave a military salute and hurriedly conveyed Lin Xudong's order without mentioning it.

"His grandma, you bastards, listen to me, whoever the **** can't hit again, I will stuff the stomach with the shell!"

"Show me your spirits, you bastard, you'll lose face to the Commander!"

"You bastards, aren't you very majestic during the drills on weekdays? At this moment, I'll give you a loose belt, you bastards, if you can't hit again, jump into the sea by yourself!"

……

As soon as the message from the flagship reached the gun deck on the third floor, the first officer, second officer, and gunnery commander in charge of the operation were all furious, all with dark faces, and severely trained the gunners.

Hit, hit hard! "Zhenyu" has always been one of the strongest fleets in the entire Bohai Sea fleet. Every time it conducts exercises, its performance is always at the forefront of the entire army. But now, it has fallen to the point of shame. The officers and soldiers of "Zhenyu" who have always been proud How could he bear it any longer? Under such circumstances, any explanation would be superfluous. He had to grit his teeth and fight to the end, launch, and launch again!All the gunners put out all their life's skills, fired red-eyed cannons, and slammed shells of various types at the combined fleet on the opposite side.

One man works hard, ten thousand men are hard to beat, not to mention that the hundreds of gunners of the "Zhenyu" are all well-trained men. With such a ruthless attack, the results are undoubtedly brilliant. First, they hit two heavy artillery pieces of the "Hundred-eyed Giant", Five medium-sized shells set the "Hundred-Eyed Giant" on fire, causing a lot of casualties, followed by another salvo, six heavy artillery shells and ten shells hit the British medium-sized battleship "Iceberg" , directly sank this not-so-large medium-sized battleship on the spot, and then, in a fight with the Dutch battleship at the bottom of the combined fleet, another round of salvo hit the Dutch third-tier battleship "Tulip" three times. One heavy explosive bomb and four medium-sized blooming bombs discounted the rear mast of the "Tulip" and destroyed four medium-sized artillery pieces on the middle gun deck. More than a dozen Dutch sailors who were sailing on the deck were blown to death. Minced human meat.

The "Zhenyu" was able to achieve such brilliant results, although it was the result of the bravery of all officers and soldiers on the ship, but it is also related to the distance-the battle line of the United Fleet is not parallel to the line of the Qing army, but It moved forward by [-] degrees to get closer to the Qing army's array, trying to reduce the advantage of the Qing army in artillery. Although it is more likely to be bombarded by the combined fleet, at the same time, the power of the new type of heavy artillery blasting shells equipped by the "Zhenyu" will be brought into full play. On the contrary, the traditional shells used by the combined fleet, Although the power has improved as the distance shrinks, it is far behind the heavy explosive shells of the Qing army. The rate is not too low, but it cannot achieve the effect of sinking immediately. This has nothing to do with tactics, it is purely a painful lesson caused by too many backward weapons and equipment.

Although the "Zhenyu" has achieved brilliant results, its own losses are also not small. There is nothing else. As the first ship of the array line, it was originally the number one target of the opponent's attack. Every time a battleship comes, it will fire and shoot. Usually, it is a salvo every other ship. It can be used as the first ship in the vanguard, but almost every time a ship passes, it will be bombarded once. If this is not the case, the Spanish "Feder" The "Lie" would not be sunk by the Qing army's warships as soon as the battle started. Although the "Zhenyu" would not be as unlucky as the "Federie", it was already a battle line. More than [-] bullets were shot, and the battleship was damaged everywhere. It was no longer able to keep up with the pace of action of the large force, so it had no choice but to withdraw from the battlefield, and was protected by eight cruisers including the "Shunfeng" swimming outside the battlefield. Carry out emergency repairs.

"Order: Our ship, 'Weiming', and 'Weishun' let go of the current enemy, speed up, move closer to our ship, and prepare to focus fire on the enemy's flagship!"

Two flowers bloomed, one for each branch. Just when the "Zhenyu" had to withdraw from the battlefield after its glory, the flagship of the Qing army's central army "Zhenyang" just sailed to a position near the middle of the battle line of the United Fleet. On the small high platform of the mast, Wang Yanxia, ​​who was observing the situation on the battlefield with a binoculars in hand, silently estimated the situation, then raised his hand, and issued the general order in a stern voice. The order was conveyed to the commander of the third ship by his own messenger .

"Order: 'Hood' and 'Kelly' let go of the current enemy ships, speed up to approach our ship, and concentrate on attacking the enemy's flagship!"

Perhaps because of a tacit understanding, almost at the same time Wang Yanxia gave the order, Edward Vernon, who was standing under the main mast of the "Brave", also issued almost the same order, and also mobilized the follow-up two ships, intending to focus on the flagship of the Qing army. "Zhenyang".

"The whole ship has it, open fire!"

"Call me!"

……

At the end of the last day, on the smoky sea, the "Zhenyang" and "Brave" finally faced each other head-on, and the distance between the two sides had been shortened to about 620 meters. In terms of distance, the power of the heavy artillery is still astonishingly high, but for the Britons, although the distance is a little farther, the power of the heavy artillery cannot be fully displayed, but it is not difficult to exert [-]% or [-]%. Obviously, they were all very confident, without any hesitation, they gave the order to attack almost at the same time.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

The gunners on the two flagships had been on standby for a long time. Once the general order was issued, they started shooting almost at the same time. First, the heavy artillery bombarded each other. Then, the medium-sized artillery of the Qing army and the medium-sized and light artillery of the British also started roaring in turn. At this time, when the two sides combined more than a hundred artillery pieces to shoot at each other, the artillery shells flying around the battlefield were really densely packed.

The British navy claims to be the best in the world. It’s really not just for fun, but it’s really strong. Both the sailing skills and the gunners’ shooting skills are the best in this era. He actually achieved two rounds of volleys. On average, the time for one round of volleys is less than 2 minutes. Although there are factors of super-level performance, without the usual strict training, how could it be possible? What is astonishing is the sailing level of the Britons. During such a dense salvo, the entire battleship never experienced too much translation and shock, which fully guaranteed the full play of the gunners, and the hit rate was naturally comparable. That's it - after the first round of shelling, three heavy artillery shells hit the side and front deck of the "Zhenyang", and another eight medium-sized flowering shells and six light shells also hit the target. As for the second Shooting rounds, due to the rush of time and the shaking of the battleship, the hit rate dropped. Only one heavy artillery shell, three medium-sized blooming shells and four light shells hit the "Zhenyang".

Although the officers and soldiers of the "Brave" have performed at a super level and their hit rate is extremely high, due to the distance, the damage caused to the "Zhenyang" is not as large as expected. Thick smoke was billowing on the "Zhenyang", and more than 620 sailors and gunners were injured or injured, but it did not make the "Zhenyang" lose its ability to fight again. In addition to having sufficient striking power, the light artillery shells were simply scratching the surface. When they landed on the "Zhenyang", their momentum was almost exhausted. After a while, as for the medium-sized flowering bombs, nearly half of them exploded, causing some casualties to the "Zhenyang". Several huge gaps were gnawed fiercely on the side of the "Zhenyang", the upper deck, and the ship's building. If the distance of [-] meters was not too far for the British artillery, Just this round of shelling is enough to cause heavy damage to the "Zhenyang"!
(End of this chapter)