Chapter 188 Against the Horse

--In the morning, Tsushima Island, awakened by a ray of sunshine, regained its vitality. The fishermen living here began to prepare fishing nets, hoping that today was lucky, but they did not know that the two fleets were slowly approaching in the strait next to the island.

The Tsushima Strait, which is located on the western edge of the North Pacific Ocean, at the southwest end of the Japanese archipelago, is 222 kilometers long and has an average water depth of 70 meters. It is the main strait for the sea to enter the Yellow Sea. The strategic location is very important. With Chen Ping's surname, he once suggested that the Pacific Army directly control here after the last victory!

But Li Mo rejected his suggestion. At that time, he and the naval officers were very puzzled, but now it seems that this decision is correct. If he controls Tsushima, he said that his plan to occupy North Korea will be aboiled, and his fists will be withdrawn to prepare for the battle against the Pacific Army, which no one wants to see.

More than two years later, today, the young master is right. He said that I really would rather die than give up North Korea. I desperately arranged 50,000 troops, and the chaotic and weak North Korea has also attracted more ambitious Russians. Now it has become my bloody wound and a meat grinder for Russia and Japan!

In just a few days, the Japanese army, which lacked naval support and supplies, paid more than 5,000 people to recapture Yuanshan. Although the Russians also fought very hard, they firmly held the port with the support of naval guns.

However, such a saying seems to have passed. No Japanese officer did not expect that after occupying Yuanshan Port, the Russians not only did not increase their troops in depth, but also took the attention of the Qing Dynasty and captured Lushun Port in just a few days.

It seems that North Korea will be more dangerous after Russia defeats the Qing Dynasty. Taking advantage of these days when the Russian fleet was dragged in Lushun, the Japanese army once again increased its attack.

But all this is not about the Pacific Fleet. All they have to do is to defeat the oncoming Russian Far East Fleet!

Xiao Zhitian unbuttoned a button. Although he turned his back to the sun and hid in the bridge, he still felt a little hot. This kind of hot weather was not caused by the weather, but by the flames of war in his chest!

Ten minutes ago, the Flying Fish sent a message that the Russians had entered the Tsushima Strait as expected. In another few minutes, they would plunge into the muzzle of the main fleet unprepared!

How Xiao Zhitian hopes to lead his Sky Survey to join the naval battle, but unfortunately he still has more important tasks to complete.

"Let's go."

Reluctant to look at the capital ships that were slowly being lined up. Xiao Zhitian gave the order to set out. The Sea Patrol and two other destroyers around him began to accelerate at the same time, making a big circle in front of the main formation, and then hid far behind the fleet. His mission was not to bombard the Russian fleet like the capital ship, but Responsible for dragging behind. Once the Russians break through the main fleet, he will try his best to intercept and win time for the main formation to turn and chase!

In a while, the patrol team drew a huge arc on the sea and drove back, looking at a slightly inclined straight line gradually disappearing under the sea level. Xiao Tianzhi was envious and licked his lips at the same time.

"These guys, don't do it too hard, and leave me a mouthful of soup!"——

In the northeast of the Tsushima Strait, Long Guozhang stood in the North Star Command Tower, and his hand holding the telescope was already sweating. On the sea, there were a row of four battleships and four heavy patrols, all of which were aimed at the direction in which the Russians were about to appear.

In addition to the two destroyers hanging behind the Russian fleet to scout, the patrol has already dodged far away. Their bodies are not suitable for the most exciting artillery bombardment, but the torpedoes are deadly assassins in the chaos.

"The herring report, two columns, in front of which are the battleship Peter the Great and the heavy cruiser Kremlin."

"This timid Wittheft!"

Hearing the formation of the Russian fleet, the officers in the command tower scolded one after another, and even the soldiers raised their middle fingers. This guy led the most advanced Chesma and unexpectedly ranked second in the formation. If this is in the first place, everyone pulls out their knives out of the sheath and stabbed him to kill him first. It's more convenient!

"Target No. 1, Peter the Great!"

Long Guozhang also frowned, but soon regained his composure and set the first shelling target.

Since the founding of the army, the Pacific Fleet has been painstakingly studying the battleship-name tactics pioneered by the British. It has not only absorbed the experience of the Chilean navy, but also improved it, proposing a series of improvements such as unified main gun volley, secondary artillery fire attack and so on.

This tactic was tested in the last naval battle against Japan. The fleet that grabbed the T position used the main gun to destroy the withered volley, and destroyed the Japanese guerrilla formation in just a few minutes. As a result, the Japanese joint fleet lost its most important speed in an instant and finally won a great victory.

After two years of training, the line-name salination tactics have been improved many times, and the gunners have also practiced their skills according to this set of tactics, which have improved a lot more than before. Today, it is finally time to test!

"The first goal, Peter the Great!"

With the radio waves, the captains of the ships who got the news made a fork on the first wing of the battleship formation on behalf of the Russian fleet!

With the feedback signals returning to the flagship, Long Guozhang slowly raised his head, and Tan Xiaozeng and others behind him also stood up straight, looking at the direction of the Russian fleet, and his eyes were shining.

This is the biggest challenge since the formation of the Pacific Fleet, and it is a real big test!

is a challenge to the old world navy ranking! It is the best opportunity to interrupt the Russians' sea backbone!

Waiting is the most annoying. Fortunately, such waiting did not last long. Several thick and thick black columns of smoke jumped out of the sea level, and then more and more columns of smoke joined it, as if even the sky in the distance had been dyed black.

Looking at the pillar of smoke, Long Guozhang trembled excitedly and slowly grabbed the telescope. The Russians finally came!

"Report, find the Russian fleet."

"Calculate the distance."

"Keep the formation, and the ships shall not leave without orders!"

"Prepare for shelling!"

While Long Guozhang quickly gave the order, he was also calculating the best distance to fire.

From the perspective of intelligence, although the most threatening in the Russian Far East Fleet are undoubtedly the Chesma and Sinop, these two Yekaterina II-class battleships with a displacement of 12,000 tons are the new warships of the Russians. If it is not for the sudden change of the situation in the Far East, let Nicholas II saw the opportunity to eat fat meat, and it was estimated that he was reluctant to send blood to the Far East.

However, from the perspective of Long Guozhang, the two battleships, which have been launched for the longest time for five years, have been outdated. Although they are claimed to be equipped with three double 305mm main guns, they are only 30 times the caliber, and the best shooting distance in naval battle is less than 3,000 meters.

Most importantly, it uses an untimely open-air turret, which is completely unprotected! This means that if it is close to a certain distance, even a secondary gun can threaten it! However, the design that can be raised and lowered is quite novel, but I don't know if it is ready to rise at this moment!

7 152mm single-loading secondary guns and 406mm side armor, which sounds quite good, but the surface of the armor has not been hardened, and the design of the "Fort" armor layout is completely outdated!

As for the most critical speed, it is only 15 knots, which is three knots slower than the North Star! This means that whether it is swirling or maneuvering, it is not as good as the North Star, and it can't even escape!

But this can't be blamed on the Russians. The development of warships these days is too fast. If it weren't for the young master's forward-looking eyes that seemed to penetrate time, the Arctic star battleships would have fallen back to the same embarrassing situation as the Catherine II class, but even so, it is similar to the new warships being built in various countries. In fact, the Polaris has gradually failed to keep up!

More importantly, according to Ning Xiaochuan's report on the damage of Zhenyuan and Jingyuan, the shells used by the Russian fleet also seem to have problems. They are far less powerful than the shells of Britain, France and other countries. Zhenyuan was even hit more than a dozen times by the main gun, and finally broke through the siege.

More than a dozen!

God, with the old body of the Zhenyuan ship, even if it is hit by four or five 203mm armor-piercing shells used by the Pacific Fleet, it will not move. How can it break through!

The Russians obviously made a big mistake like Beiyang two years ago!

"10,000 meters!"

The shouts of the gunners sounded in his ears.

Long Guozhang put down the telescope, stopped thinking, and twitched the corners of his mouth slightly. The Russians are going to pay for their outdated and mistakes! Although the tonnage of the Arctic star is similar to that of Catherine II, and there are even two fewer main guns, one of the biggest drawbacks is that the Russians can't overcome it!

"Eight thousand meters."

That's the range of the artillery!

"seven thousand meters!"

As early as after the last naval battle, the fleet proposed to increase long-range artillery training based on the disadvantage that the Japanese short-range rapid-fire gun would pose a great threat, so as to distance it as possible in the naval battle and reduce the threat of the opponent's small-caliber rapid-fire gun.

After the return of Sirius and Qixing, the young master, who attached great importance to this proposal, personally led all the mechanical experts on Oahu Island to make a secret improvement to the main guns of the eight capital ships. Because this operation was extremely confidential, even many sailors thought that this was just a normal maintenance of the naval gun, and the modified content. It is to increase the maximum firing angle of each ship's main gun by five degrees.

Don't underestimate this small improvement. In the maximum elevation shooting test after the transformation of the eight capital ships, if the main gun fires with full force, the range can reach 12,000 kilometers! It is a full three-kilometer higher than before. Although the error at that distance is really amazing, the test shows that the main gun can still ensure high accuracy at a distance of 5,000 meters.

When all countries strictly abide by the principle of 3,000 meters of war and conduct naval warfare with this standard, this proposal and improvement proposal are undoubtedly epoch-making. Although this short 2,000 meters, it will make unwitting people pay an unimaginable price!

"six kilometers! The speed is 13 knots!"

However, Vitkhft is so timid that he lined up two Yekaterina II-class battleships in the middle. Well, since he can't eat fat in the first bite, it's not bad to eat a chicken bone.

"The Russian fleet found us, but it did not slow down."

"Prepare for each gun."

Long Guozhang is still standing firmly, 2,000 meters away! With the maximum speed of 15 knots of the Chesma, it takes 4 minutes to enter the best range of the naval gun! In the case of filling in a ready-to-fire bullet in advance, four minutes is enough to shoot four rounds by yourself!

Let the State Council jump when it sees the budget, so that the young master has to persuade the live ammunition shooting training to reduce the intensity of consumption. Today, there is finally a chance to test the results!

"Five thousand meters!"

"Fire!"

While the gun chief shouted, Long Guozhang issued an order to fire!

At 10:15, at the northeast entrance on the left side of the Tsushima Strait, with the signal soldiers on the flagship mast holding the phone in one hand and waving the red flag representing the shooting with the other hand, the Pacific Fleet made the first round of sniper shot!

Sixteen 305mm main guns of battleships and 16 203mm main guns were heavily patrolled. At the same time, a roar broke out. The hot flames gushed out of the muzzle, forming a huge fireball. The powerful shock wave tore up the air and made a sharp roar!

The gunners responsible for coordinating the gunfire held the phone nervously, waiting for the news of the observer standing high on the other end of the phone. At the same time, everyone held their breath. After all, the 5,000-meter shooting was only trained, which was the first time it was used in a naval battle.

On the mast, the observers of the ships widened their eyes. In order to let them see farther, Long Guozhang even assigned them the latest telescopes just purchased from Germany.

But no matter how big their eyes were, they still saw only the soaring columns of water rising in front of the battleships on the left side of the Russian fleet. The No. 1 target Peter the Great was like a light sampan, which actually passed through the middle intact.

"Faled not hit the target."

After the gun officer said the observer's words, a sigh came from the command tower at the same time.

"Each gun adjusts the elements and prepare."

There was no fluctuation in Long Guozhang's mood, and he held up a telescope to prepare for the second sangulation.

The commander's calmness immediately stabilized the gun officer who was sighing. The observers of each gun quickly notified the previous bullet point to each gun group, and calculated the shooting elements by the reading power of each cannon.

In the era when there is no unified fire control equipment, and the battle mainly depends on the experience of gunners, the way to let the gun groups calculate and coordinate the shooting of Zhuyuan by themselves is undoubtedly the best.

And the in-ship telephone system covering each terminal of the ship finally reflects its benefits. Observers can tell the turret the information in time, and then feedback it to various departments from the turret. Although the system cost tens of thousands of pounds extra for each ship when purchasing, and tens of thousands of pounds in the later modification, compared with the convenient surname, this small amount of money is really not worth mentioning!

In less than a moment, with the gun officer getting ready, the second round of s shot again!

Like last time, the gun officer was still nervously waiting for the news of the observation sentry, but soon he jumped up, because there was no need to report. From the position of the bridge where he stood, it was clear that a huge fireball was rising in the fleet in the distance.

I hit it! ——

Looking at the blurred battle flag of the Pacific Fleet in the telescope, Witheft was stunned and his eyes were about to crack!

He didn't understand why the ambush was not on himself, but by the Pacific Fleet, which claimed to have left the Far East for shelter, and they also gathered all four battleships and four heavy cruisers!

He didn't understand that when the two fleets were 5,000 meters apart, the other side took the lead in firing, so that when the first shelling took place and dozens of water columns were hit on the sea around the fleet, he was still laughing at the immatureness of the other commander in his heart!

But in the second round, a huge fireball exploded at the chimney position of the battleship Peter the leader. A 305mm shell hit there accurately. The violent explosion not only tore the nearby armor, but also spread to the secondary gun below. What's more serious is that due to the middle of the hit, Two of the chimneys were directly destroyed with swept shrapnel.

Although there is still a chimney, the boiler room below will definitely be affected, and even the boiler will have to be turned off to reduce power due to poor exhaust!

In just two minutes, in just two rounds of shooting, a battleship was hit hard before I fired a shot on my side. This is simply the biggest sarcasm of the powerful Russian Far East Fleet!

This is a provocation! This is a despicable sneak attack. We must not let these damn yellow monkeys succeed!

"Change the formation and let Peter the Great avoid drag to protect Admiral Nasimov. The Duke of Edinburgh will take its place, and the rest of the ships will fight back immediately!" Witkhft gave the order to fight back.

As Peter the Great quickly broke away from the formation and slowed down, Edinburgh, which was originally in the second place of the armored cruiser, quickly turned its rudder and rushed to the front of the Chesma. At the same time, the straight line of the formation was quickly staggered, and the main guns of each ship opened at the same time!

The Russian Far East Fleet finally began to fight back before the other side's third round of volleys. The main guns of the capital ships roared at the same time. Even the wounded Peter the Great and Admiral Nasimov fired two shells respectively, but the disappointment in the North Star flagship command tower just now quickly spread to Inside the Chesma, the first round of shooting of the Russian fleet also deviated, even more outrageous than the Pacific Army just now!

In the Pacific Fleet opposite them, in addition to the officers and gunners who were arranged to come for internship, the veterans in the fleet seemed to turn a blind eye to the constantly blowing water column not far away, staring at the approaching enemy ships and slowly adjusting the muzzle.

As the projectile weighing hundreds of kilograms was stuffed into the gun by a mechanical push rod, two pieces of propellants were quickly pushed in. With the phone next to it, the deputy gunner in charge of coordination roared, and there seemed to be a thunder in the turret, and the huge vibration made everyone fall. Crooked.

Two minutes and 55 seconds later, the third round of sqi shot!

Whether it is adjusting the speed or filling speed, it is no different from the minutes and seconds of training! It's like an accurate clock.

Zhou Cheng stood in the bridge. His forehead was already covered with sweat because of the excitement brought by the battle, but even so, he still held the telescope high and did not want to put it down.

This is the first time that the Qixing Star led by him and the Sirius of Fang Jin have joined the main battle. Although he was also included in the main array when he led the Longxiao last time, the Longxiao was in a very awkward position due to the artillery caliber, speed and other reasons, and this time it was different! After modification, today's Qixing and Sirius are the same as the earliest North Star. The difference may be that the commander is not here!

In the first two rounds of s-fire, his Qixing star did not hit a single shot, and even a close-up bullet did not appear, which made him extremely depressed, especially the shell that hit the other's No. 1 battleship was hit by the Sirius led by Fang Jin, which made him feel even more pressure!

He doesn't want to be a tow oil bottle in the captain of the battleship!

After the No. 1 target Peter the Great slowed down, his eyes were locked on the No. 2 target, the Kremlin, and he held the telescope tightly in his hand, hoping to see the explosion of fire this time.

Just as he was waiting anxiously, the third round of shooting was finally fired. In the blink of an eye, the bow of the other party's second target ship, the Kremlin, suddenly burst into a fire, and everyone in the bridge waved their fists excitedly.

At this time, the shouts of the observer on the mast suddenly came from the phone. It turned out that the shell hit this time was indeed hit by the main gun of Qixing No. 2. Suddenly, the cheers in the bridge were louder, and Zhou Cheng also kicked the cold bulkhead excitedly. According to the observer's report, the 305mm armor-piercing shell directly hit the bow deck. The huge impact caused the Kremlin's bow to press down, which not only completely destroyed the opponent's No. 1 gun position, but also caused a fire and lifted off a large piece of armor under the bow.

Three minutes of battle, the armored cruiser Kremlin of the Russian Far East Fleet, which was listed as the second target ship, was also severely damaged, even worse than Peter the Great. Did a 305mm armor-piercing shell directly hit the deck in front of the bow main gun? The explosion caused not only the damage to the front main gun, but also tore open a With a two-meter-long mouth, the sea began to pour into the hull crazily.

The Kremlin had to hang the white flag immediately and temporarily withdraw from the battle!

"Well done, give Qixing the third-class merit, and the second-class merit of the gunner!"

Seeing that the second ship also began to slowly break away from the formation, Long Guozhang shouted excitedly, but there was no joy on his face, because he knew that the Kremlin was the oldest of the four armored cruisers. Although it was equipped with two 250mm main guns, it was only 25 times the caliber, and it was also an open-air turret. The decks are all made of wood, and it's a waste to use armor-piercing bullets!

If the eight main combat forces of Russia are ten points, then the Kremlin is not even a single point. The real threat is still the two new battleships of the Ekaterina II class, Chesma and Sinop!

The fourth round of s volleys arrived as scheduled, but nothing exciting happened this time. Only the communications officer reported that the Courage observer saw that the ship's two 203mm armor-piercing shells penetrated the chimney of the enemy's heavy cruiser Dmitry Donskoy, but probably the armor-piercing shells were too powerful, and the shells directly passed through the thin shell. The chimney shell penetrated into the sea and did not explode.

"It doesn't seem to be too powerful." Shen Jun, who had nothing to do in the fleet and wanted to see the naval battle with his own eyes, laughed.

Long Guozhang despised it. Why didn't he say that the quality of the Russian [***] ship was too poor? Just as he was about to say a few words, the staff officer was already shouting. Report, the Russians haven't turned yet. I guess they want to break through us!"

Don't turn?

Long Guozhang frowned. In the naval battle, how to exert all the firepower is extremely critical! That's why the T-shaped tactic appeared. It was thought that the Russian ships would turn immediately after entering a distance of 3,000 meters and exert their maximum firepower. Unexpectedly, they continued to fight against the enemy with their bows. In this way, each of their ships could only exert half of the main gun power, and the most powerful Chesma and Sinop, because the turrets are unique characters. Game, so you can only play one-third of it!

Deswer us? It seems that this guy wants to fight a hand-to-hand battle!

Long Guozhang and the staff quickly saw through the idea of the Russian commander, that is, to get close enough distance, give full play to the advantage of firepower, and have a white-edged melee that is almost the favorite of the Russians, almost like the ancient port!

I have to say that Witkhft is not an idiot. In just four rounds of volley, one shot and one exit has made him understand that the firepower advantage of the Pacific Fleet is obviously superior, and the other party is an ambush, occupying the advantage of preemptive fire, so there is absolutely no future to launch a posture, so he chose to top. Keep moving forward with gunfire.

With a burst of fire again in the bow of the Russian ship, a column of water immediately rose around the fleet, and the nearest one was less than ten meters away from the Resolve!

"Cancel the volley, each ship will fire by itself, and the battleship and the heavy patrol will be separated from the left and right. Let them go from the middle and prepare to shoot!" As Long Guozhang ordered, he snorted coldly in his nose: "Would you like a white blade assault? Play this with a naval gun without turret protection, looking for death!"

With the order of the flagship, the ships gave up the main guns, and the gun commanders of each ship set their own artillery targets. With this order, after watching the secondary guns for a few minutes, they finally began to roar, and the dense rain of bullets smashed the Russian fleet. At the same time, four battleships and heavy cruisers suddenly lined up left and right. Soon two parallel queues were formed, and they launched a march with the Russian fleet!

If you can look down from the sky at this moment, you will find that the two fleets are like four knights rushing to each other with spears. As the speed gets faster and faster, the four torrents of steel suddenly pass by.

"Fire!"

Wipe your body and shell!

At that moment, all the captains of the Pacific Fleet roared, just like two cavalrymen with guns facing each other. When the horse passed by, they shot at each other crazily. Because of the proximity and fast speed, it was often the most tragic at this time, because no one knew that the roaring shells would hit there, and only The way to master the advantages is to compete for the speed of shooting and the courage of the gunners!

Although the battleship can't be as close as the cavalry, it is only less than 3,000 meters away. At such a close distance, there is no need to aim. Just flatten the muzzle and shoot desperately. Because both main guns have the opportunity to penetrate the opponent's armor, it depends on whose Good luck!

So this kind of gun battle is definitely a rigorous test of the quality and courage of the gunner. Only when you dare to stare at the enemy's dense rain of bullets and still stare at the old guys who are still staring at the fierce bombardment can they survive to the end!

For example, at the beginning of the same game, they ate each other's horses and entered the chess game of **. Now the competition is to see who blinks first!

(to be continued)