Chapter 261 The first round of slampering

Behind him, white tracks crossed the blue sea, and the rocks inlaid between them were also getting farther and farther away from the warship. Countless fish accompanied by the waves of the bow, suddenly left and right.

While Jinyang stubbornly drilled out of the sea, countless egrets flew out of the inhabited island, surrounded by a huge fleet, flashing wings and energized to enjoy this rare and sumptuous breakfast.

Finally, I rushed out of the dazzling and dangerous archipelago, and the front will be open!

The observer was relieved, and the warm sun shone on his body, making him sleepy all night, but standing on the mast, he had to hold his eyelids and dared not neglect at all.

In the distance, the small black warship that made everyone grit their teeth and helpless was still swaying ten nautical miles away, leisurely like attending a long voyage party. Although the fleet had expelled many times and even sent the fastest torpedo ship to drive away at night, it still couldn't help it.

On the other side, the distance between the four British and French cruisers and the fleet has also increased a lot. From joining the formation at the beginning to the formation to the current formation alone 10,000 meters away, every Japanese officer feels the hidden meaning.

From the 25 minutes of lightning, which was a classic, but helpless by countless partners, many people in the fleet began to doubt whether they could go home smoothly. Every time the shells flew over the top of the mast, he prayed not to be hit.

The observer turned his body and looked around.

When the camera crossed the German cruiser, it was slightly stunned. Because he found that the familiar German counterparts on the mast for a few days seemed to have changed their faces, and they should have been dressed as officers.

The officer also climbed up the mast to blow the wind?

This scene surprised the observer. He quickly moved the telescope to the British cruiser and found that although there were still a few old faces on the mast, there were obviously more people on the bridge.

The same is true of French and American cruisers!

What's going on?

The observer quickly turned his head and looked at it. The sea was still calm like a huge emerald, and the small black warship was still swaying and slowly following the surveillance. There were no smoke columns or dark clouds. There was no sound except the rumbling noise of the steam engine and the singing of the egret.

Do these foreigners like to watch fish?

Following the visual direction of those outside [***] officials, the observer scratched his head in surprise, and a bad feeling rose in his heart, but he did not report the situation. Maybe he was just blowing the wind.

Phillipman looked up at the rising sun, turned his head and asked, "How long has it been?"

"It's been seven hours."

I haven't encountered an attack for seven hours. This is something that has never happened since the first sneak attack. The previous four attacks are basically two or three hours. Is it that the ammunition is exhausted?

Filetman shook his head. Although he could not know how many shells the warship could hold, he speculated from their size of 10,000 tons, at least 500 rounds per gun, and Li Mo dared to shoot the warship to attack so far away, and he must have made preparations in supplies. How could he not appear in seven hours?

152mm shells are not large shells weighing hundreds of kilograms. It is not difficult to resupply. According to the speed of at least 23 knots shown by the other party, it should not be difficult to catch up with the Japanese fleet with only about 16 knots after the supply is completed, but why hasn't it not appeared? Did you run in the wrong direction?

It is possible that although there are at least three black warships, they have not left at all this time under the close attention of all countries, so it is impossible to replace them with their companions.

In addition, the Japanese fleet has changed its course several times. In this case, the pursuit fleet, which can't get any news, is very likely to deviate, but...? Why do I always have some strange feelings in my heart?

Felitman turned his head and looked at the German cruiser beside him. The Lieutenant Colonel Percy obviously didn't understand, so he deliberately climbed onto the mast.

Maybe they won't show up today.

Thinking of this, Phillipman handed the telescope to the officer and turned his head to the cabin to see John Fisher, who had been hiding in the cabin in a daze since the strange warships appeared.

When he just walked into the rest cabin and was about to knock on the hatch, the alarm bell in the warship suddenly exploded. The hatch was suddenly pulled open. Fisher, with a tired face, looked at the also stunned Phillipman and ran to the bridge.

When the two rushed to the bridge, they found that large columns of smoke appeared again in the distant sky, and those novel warships had appeared on the sea level.

Fisher was the first to rush to the higher flying bridge and grabbed the telescope to look at it. Since the appearance of this kind of warship, he has been as if he has been distracted. He can't wait to go up to check the details in person. Unfortunately, except for the one-hundred-day yesterday evening, the last few times were at night and he couldn't see the details clearly, so he was early. I'm waiting for this daytime attack.

Lie said that in the sky, everything was very clear 20,000 meters away, but soon he froze, because he found that only three ships came from the other side this time, and the remaining one and two second-class cruisers did not appear at all.

Did I get results last night?

In Fisher's surprise, the three Jinghai ships in the distance had rushed ten thousand meters away. After drawing a beautiful arc on the sea, the naval gun roared again.

The rumble of shelling scared the heron birds to flee. Obviously, the other party had replenished the ammunition. The shelling was much more intense than last night, and this time they hit all the firepower on the Japanese battleships.

What do they want to do? It is impossible for a six-inch naval gun to cause much damage to battleships!

They had already lined up to protect the two light patrols and four torpedo ships behind them. While turning around and starting to fight back, their shells only fell to about 11,000 meters. They could only smash countless columns of water in front of the other side's formation, but they could not actually threaten the other party.

This is the consequence of the technological gap!

Not to mention the poor experience, the Japanese fleet is slow to respond. Fisher believes that even if the British fleet encounters such a situation that it can't reach its opponent and can't close the attack distance, I'm afraid it will be driven crazy.

"I said that I have changed my formation." When countless fires exploded from several battleships, Felitman's voice also sounded in his ears.

Yamamoto Quanbingwei, who was suppressed by long-range shelling and was beaten, finally chose to change. Asami heavily patrolled, leading the remaining Miao Gao and Fusang light patrols, and took the lead in leaving the formation to meet the three Jinghai ships. Although the speed of only 18 knots left by the long-distance voyage was not as good as the other party, But it's still not too slow.

At the same time, the fleet that has been maintaining a dense sailing formation has also slowly dispersed, trying to distance the distance between the ships and reducing the probability of being hit.

John Fisher sighed. Obviously, he said that his reaction was too slow. In fact, after the sneak attack yesterday, they stubbornly insisted on the dense geese formation and did not use the cruisers in the fleet to protect the wings and pull the formation.

Since the first generation of naval elites trained by the Japanese navy for ten years has been hit to the bottom of the sea by the Pacific Fleet, the quality of the Japanese navy has declined too much, and even unbearable, dullness, hesitation, slow response, etc., are all caused by lack of experience. What is more terrible than these is that with the Pacific ships With the long-range shelling and disturbance tactics adopted by the team, their confidence and body have fallen to a worrying level.

That's why he believed from the beginning that he could not win this victory. Compared with the disadvantage of equipment, inexperience has become the deadliest weakness of the navy, and the stubborn and conservative idea of protecting ships made them unwilling to give up even a torpedo ship, which completely ruined the last of their victory. A little hope.

In fact, at this time, everyone has seen that the cruiser full of six-inch naval guns, as long as it is prepared, it is impossible to cause much damage to the capital ship, and the other party also knows that the heavy artillery on the capital ship is very threatening, so they have never been close to 10,000 meters.

Now, the change has finally come.

"I hope it's not too late." Fisher held the telescope and didn't want to put it down for a long time--

"It's too late to change now!"

After receiving the information from the Jinghai ship, Ji Rushan smiled at the corners of his mouth.

All the officers in the command tower also clenched their fists at the same time, sailed more than 10,000 nautical miles, lost thousands of elites and veterans, and were tortured by the light patrol for one night. He said that he finally couldn't stand it and chose to disperse the formation to avoid the shelling, and divided a valuable heavy patrol.

Speed 15 knots, heading 180, two formations, multiple formations, and the formation interval is more than 5,000 meters!

I really don't know. In order to avoid the damage, the light patrol formation, after pulling away the navigation formation, I suddenly saw the opponent neatly blocking in front of me. What would be the expression of the remaining General Yamamoto Quanbingwei?

"Let's go!"

In the gaze of the staff and officers, Ji Rushan suddenly raised his right hand, and his straight right arm was like a sharp sword, guiding the direction of the fleet.

At the same time, the rapid alarm bell rang from each warship, and countless sitting and standby sailors rushed to the position like spying wolves. The gun coat was lifted, the turret began to rotate, and the huge shells were stuffed into the gun.

In the boiler chamber, a shovel of high-quality coal from Liaodong was stuffed into the combustion chamber. The red light of the small window became more and more popular, reflecting the red face of every sailor stained with coal ash in the power tank.

Next to the instrument of the power module behind, several turbine soldiers stared at the pressure pointer one by one. When the pointer had just arrived in the yellow area, he suddenly shouted, and the comrades behind him unscrewed the steam valve at the same time.

Rumble...!

One after another, like the heartbeat of the dragon's awakening. When it slowly became difficult to distinguish, the huge steam engine finally burst out all its power under the surging steam pressure.

The huge crankshaft drives the main shaft and rotates rapidly.

Under the water of the stern, the huge copper-cast propeller suddenly publicized and turned into a shining golden light, breaking the originally calm sea and bringing up a white rolling track.

The steel giant ships woke up under the roar of the steam engine, and thick black smoke spewed out of the chimney, as if an angry dragon pierced the sky.

Two Arctic star battleships, four determination-class heavy cruisers, four Vladivostok-class heavy cruisers, plus the Jinghai-class No. 2 ship Dinghai, a full of eleven giants form a sea sword. They will use cold steel bodies and thick gun tubes to create a magnificent future for this nation. !

"Fing direction 090, full speed!"

"The main gun is ready."

"The secondary gun is ready."

"The torpedo cabin is ready."

... A loud shout gathered along the telephone line to the bridge of each warship, and then poured into the flagship Antarctic Star command tower through the flag waved by the signal soldiers and the radio waves.

"Report, all ships are ready!"

The report made Ji Rushan raise his head from the nautical chart table, and his eyes suddenly turned to the south, where the direction of the fleet appeared!

"Command!"

"Cossack, Dragic, let's go!"

When the two hounds asked the bloody light patrol and rushed out of the formation and disappeared under the sea level, a cloud of smoke had risen in the sky--

"Enemy attack!"

The observer stamped his feet, hissingly pointing to the column of smoke in the sky, and his face was pale.

The signal soldiers on the flagship Mikasa waved the flag vigorously.

The ships that scattered and dodged the shells turned desperately to prepare to reorganize.

In the command tower, looking at the dark clouds that dyed the sky black, every officer's face turned pale!

No one thought that they would encounter the enemy's main fleet here. They thought that the other party would attack until they arrived at the Ogasawara Islands, and even fought a decisive battle near the sea, because the supply area there was closer, and it was more convenient to repair once it was damaged.

Even the officers on the four observation cruisers did not expect that the Pacific Fleet would give up the best ambush sea area of the Ogasawara Islands and choose to fight in this open sea more than 3,000 nautical miles away from Honolulu and Luzon.

This is a carefully prepared decisive battle. On the one hand, it is the Japanese fleet, which is disturbed by continuous attacks, seriously injured and tired. On the other hand, it is the Pacific Fleet, which is full of energy and elite, which makes every officer and soldier watching the battle stare.

The bow is constantly deflected, ready to accelerate out of this dangerous sea. Everyone knows that once the artillery battle begins, no one in this naval battle can stay lucky.

When eight heavy patrols, a light patrol and a fleet of two battleships collided with the sea and jumped out of the water, everyone sucked cold! Except for the four battleships blocking the Tokyo Bay, the Pacific Fleet actually concentrated all the remaining warships here!

Yamamoto Quan Bingwei's face is even more pale, because his fleet has not yet been reorganized.

At 1:10 p.m. on May 10, the fleet led by Ji Rushan blocked the returning fleet that had just emerged from between the Micronesian Islands and the Marshall Islands.

1:20, ten capital ships and Dinghai completed the steering at the same time, seizing the critical T position.

"Fire!"

When the harsh long sound sounded from the short-wave radio station dedicated to artillery command of each ship, the gun commander of each ship issued a firing order at the same time.

"Boom..."

The first round of shot!

(to be continued)