Chapter 193 The Last Power of the Japanese Navy

Hu Chuyuan guessed right.

The Japanese joint fleet was indeed ambushed on Jiao Island in the Nanpu Sea.

At 7:15 a.m. on August 17, 1890, after a night of preparation, Ye Boyu's four Fuzi battalions, with a total of 7,425 troops, boarded three troop carriers and three material ships, as well as four other transport ships for transporting the Huai army to leave North Korea, in the main first quad force of the North Sea Combined Fleet. Under the protection of, we drove together to Nampo Port in North Korea.

This is a temporary plan. The Third Squadron of the North Sea Joint Fleet is stationed in Nampo, North Korea. It has two Weikang-class ironclads, six cruisers, four defense ships and a number of gunboats, patrol boats and torpedo boats. It is responsible for protecting Nanpu Port, protecting merchant ships and transport ships in the surrounding area, and expelling Japan. The ship.

However, no one expected that the Second Battle of the Yellow Sea would break out.

The commander this time was Ye Fu, whom I had not expected before. They thought that Lin Yongsheng, who was relied on Hu Chuyuan, the old opponent of the last time.

At 4:35 p.m., the first detachment of Beihai was no more than 80 nautical miles away from Nanpu Port. At about 10 p.m., the fleet would arrive at Nanpu Port.

Ye Fu stood on the Dingyuan-class ironclad ship, silently overlooking the east sea, and was also thinking about the changes in the whole war situation.

Like Hu Chuyuan, he also firmly believes that the whole war must rely on the procrastination strategy to gradually change from passive to active, and attack head-on. Even if the navy can win, the gap in the strength of the army is still obvious.

The problem of the army is precisely that Hu Chuyuan himself was too demanding, and put the decisive battle time from 1893 to 1895. The Maxim machine gun has been repeatedly strengthened in the Auckland Military Factory, designed derivative varieties, and has not been produced on a large scale for a long time.

The Jiangnan rifle is just an alternative, but it was not until the beginning of 1889 that the second improvement was completed and officially put into production. The Browning rifle, which was really expected by Hu Chuyuan, is still in the test.

In other aspects, although the new artillery system products were finalized, Hu Chuyuan did not accelerate production until the beginning of 1890.

Of course, Ye Fu did not know these things. He just felt that the gap between the Qing army in the army system was relatively large, especially with the assistance of Britain and France. The army's strength, training and equipment were stronger than that of the Xianghuai army.

This is completely different from that during the Sino-French War.

The first detachment of the North Sea Combined Fleet has entered the area of the West Korean Gulf, and it is getting closer and closer to Nampo. In order to reach Nampo as soon as possible, Ye Fu chose to sail in a straight line. Just in case, he asked the two "fastest" new Yangwu-class cruisers in the fleet to patrol the surrounding waters in advance.

The sky is getting darker, and a red glow appears in the distant sky. The bright golden light falls on the sea, which looks particularly beautiful.

Ye Fu couldn't help sighing in his heart that the navy could fight a decisive battle, but it was impossible for me to choose a decisive battle in the navy. Relying on the compression of the army and landing operations to force the Japanese navy's decisive battle - bullshit, look at the bird of the Huai army, more than 60,000 people in the Huai army is almost half destroyed.

He sighed a little.

At the moment when he was thinking about something, a cannon suddenly came from the sea in front of him in the distance, and a red flare shone in the sky, which was particularly bright, far better than the red glow.

The number of flares is very large, about a dozen.

This means that... the Xiangwu on the northeast side found the Japanese navy, and there were about a dozen ships on the other side.

Ye Fu was overjoyed and shocked, and then ordered the whole ship to be rectified. The transport ship returned collectively, leaving two destroyers to accompany the protection. The rest of the warships began to speed up and move closer to Xiangwu at a speed of 14 knots.

At this moment, Ye Fu's heartbeat suddenly became particularly rapid. It was hard for him to imagine that the Japanese army was so bold that he ambushed the navy in the northeastern region of the West Korean Gulf.

If he chooses to be in the southeast region, Ye Fu can still understand that even if he finds that the Qing army is very strong, he can still choose to return to Haizhou Port, which they have occupied.

Is he a gambler?

Ye Fu was almost suffocated, and his heartbeat was even more frantic. He couldn't help thinking, how the navy was going to gamble?

Do all the main forces take risks?

It's impossible. Half a month ago, Hu Chuyuan said that many of the main ironclad ships of the navy returned to Yokohama Shipyard for modification and collectively replaced the 150mm rapid-fire gun.

Is it finished so soon?

Or, it's just a kind of deception. The navy did not change clothes at all, so it continued to gamble with a small-caliber fast gun and take a risk to save some of the disadvantages of the navy?

Ye Fu subconsciously felt that he should believe the latter, and the intelligence could be deceived, especially when he already knew that there were spies in the navy.

In a short moment, Ye Fu also decided to make a gamble, success or failure, anyway, it was a fight to the death.

He immediately ordered local rectification, so that the seven transport ships that could participate in the war would follow the fleet and be ready for battle. Instead, the transport ships carrying more than 7,000 soldiers stopped completely.

Half of the transport ships used by the North Sea Combined Fleet are modified by merchant ships, and many are simply produced according to military transport ships. They have certain protective armor and modification potential, and temporarily add a number of 120mm rapid-fire guns that do not require mechanical power or waste steam during the war.

Such transport ships can be completely converted into light-protected cruisers during the war. The disadvantage is that the merchant ship structure is not as exquisite as warships in terms of overall protection and anti-sinking design.

Ye Fu did this for two purposes. The first is to increase the firepower and the number of the opponent's targets, disperse the opponent's firepower, and the second is to cover up the news of the other three troop carriers, so that I believe that all the ships to be escorted are here. I will no longer send ships to scout the surrounding waters, and concentrate all the ships and the North Sea Fleet. War.

Soldier carriers use old-fashioned cheap coal-fired boilers, which produce a lot of thick smoke when sailing on the sea, which is the main reason why merchant ships and warships are easily found when sailing on the sea during this period.

Therefore, Ye Fuso asked the three troop carriers to stop sailing and stand by on the spot.

Ye Fu is also gambling.

He let the whole ship speed up its navigation. The front was organized into two rows, and the transport ships were placed on the south side. The main ships were platooned on the north side, leading by Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan and Yingyuan.

Zhiyuan and Yingyuan are both ironclads of the same grade as Zhiyuan-class ironclads. Dingyuan and Zhenyuan are built in the Volcant shipyard in Germany. However, Zhiyuan uses cold-pressed nickel-chromium steel as the main armored steel. The overall design features are relatively narrow and long, and the front of the ship is very high, which is more like the British style.

The officers and soldiers of Dingyuan and Zhenyuan have changed one set. The Nanyang sailors brought by Ye Fu just filled this vacancy. He was the admiral of the North Sea Combined Fleet, and Dingyuan became the flagship of the Combined Fleet again.

Dingyuan has just been rectified from Germany and replaced with a new boiler, steam engine and artillery system. The hull layout has also been modified to a certain extent. In terms of the overall surname, it can indeed serve as a flagship.

After rushing forward for half an hour at a speed of 15 knots on the northeast side, Ye Fu saw the Xiangwu with thick tail smoke from the telescope. This is the seventh of the new Yangwu-class cruiser. At the end of 1889, it was hurriedly put into service as soon as it was completed at the Luoyuanwan Shipyard. Compared with the new Yangwu, it was in the metal of the steam engine and boiler. The material has been improved to enhance the power of the engine, and the ultimate speed can reach 24 knots, which is also the fastest cruiser in the North Sea Fleet at present.

The design drainage tonnage of the new Yangwu class is 3,145 tons, which is a medium-sized dome cruiser. In order to improve the speed, the dome has thinned the thickness of the steel armor after using Harvey Steel, and the defense power has not been improved.

The advantage of Xiangwu is that it is fast. It has been considered to make a new ship for Hu Chuyuan.

The Xiangwu was obviously shot, and the black smoke of the boiler was mixed with the yellow smoke peculiar to the bitter sour shells. Seeing this, Ye Fu couldn't help but be a little nervous, but he still asked the whole ship to make basic preparations for the battle with the Japanese fleet in accordance with the regulations, and at the same time, he adopted the fourth plan to fight.

Two destroyers of Chunyu were then inserted into the queue and integrated into the ironclad camp.

In the distance, Lieutenant General Zhiyun, known as the "last power of the navy", is standing silently on the command tower. The warship under his feet is the most powerful warship in Japan - the Ise class.

Ise and Shima are ironclad ships that entered service in the Japanese navy until the end of 1888. The designed drainage tonnage reached 8,000 tons. It was originally expected to build six first-class ironclads to fight against the Qing army of Zhiyuan, Dingyuan, Jingyuan and Guangyuan.

However, Hu Chuyuan's diplomatic activities caused Britain to deliberately delay the construction of the last four ships, causing the seizure of Kumano and Shiga, which had been completed at the end of 1889. After the declaration of war between the two countries, the two ironclad ships and the remaining Yunan and Miyazaki were seized.

Through the telescope, Youzhiyun silently looked at the North Sea Combined Fleet in the distance. It can basically be confirmed that the opponent is the first detachment of the North Sea Fleet he is most looking for, with four ironclads of Zhiyuan and Dingyuan.

The time of the decisive battle has finally come.

The future of this empire and countless children will be decided by today...!

"Let the Empire and His Majesty the Emperor be proud of me!"

As the last admiral of the Satsuma Valve, you can let the flagship Ise play an encouraging flag, and at the same time let the whole ship prepare for the final battle.

He stood coldly on the command tower and continued to stare at the first detachment of the North Sea in the distance. He couldn't help sighing with the adjutant Colonel Ijiin Goro beside him: "If you fail, the empire and our descendants will lose their future. Please swear to fight to the death. There is no way out for this empire!"

"Hi!"

Ijiin Goro nodded hard and then said, "Commander, please rest assured that we are ready to die. We must annihilate our opponents here, even at all costs."

"This horse deer!"

You Zhiyun gave a warm lesson to Ijiin Goro, saying, "The dead should be an old antique like me, and young people like you should live... I have lived enough. Although I can't see the empire become a world power, I am very satisfied to see the current empire. For you, you will be very sorry if you don't see the empire become the strongest country. So, Mr. Yijiyuan, please work hard, just think it's for my grandson's life... so live!"

"Hi!"

Ijiin Goro was silently grateful.

Both sides are sprinting forward with the determination to fight to the death, approaching the battle boundary with the fastest speed. The recent consecutive victories of the Japanese army have brought new hope and morale to me. This is a special shame for the Japanese navy held by the Samoyed valve.

They took up the most funds and support, but they didn't even win a decent victory. Instead, they lost ten warships in the first sneak attack.

Fortunately, they still have the capital to turn the game around.

In recent months, relying on the three major military shipyards, dozens of merchant ships have been temporarily converted into warships. As usual, they have been gambling, and a sufficient number of 120mm rapid-fire guns have been installed. They still have to take advantage of artillery fire to try their best to kill and injure a large area of Qing warships.

Because of the existence of these gunboats, I dared to continue to gamble.

The main force of the Japanese joint fleet is engaged in the ambush here, with two main ironclads, two second-class ironclads and one Fusang-class waist ironclads, four ironclad cruisers, four domecruisers, and six modified gunboats.

A total of 19 warships.

In the distance, Yiwu also patrolled back from the southern waters and joined the main force of the North Sea First Squadron. After Xiangwu was placed, it was repaired, and the remaining 13 warships and seven transport ships entered the battle sequence.

Ye Fu soon saw that there were also six modified ships hidden on the north side of the opponent's fleet, but unlike the transport ships of the North Sea Fleet, it was a pure modified warship with good fire output and almost the weakest defense of the warships.

There is no doubt that it is the best choice to target the gunboat, but Ye Fu believes that the opponent is well prepared and it is impossible for him to win easily.

However, it is impossible not to eliminate it.

Ye Fu quickly considered this problem and quickly adjusted his strategy. He decided to use the strongest link to attack the weakest link of the opponent and try his best to get a first winner, just like playing Go, using Dalong to eat the opponent's external points.

At 17:54 p.m. on August 17, 1890, the sky was getting darker and darker. The second naval battle of the Yellow Sea was called the outbreak of the Korean Gulf because it took place in the West Korean Gulf at 124 degrees east longitude and 39 degrees north latitude.

The ISE launched its first shell with a huge 310mm cannon, which failed to concentrate on the Dingyuan, but also announced the beginning of the naval battle.

Both sides quickly carried out a column-type surround attack. Because they both used smokeless gunpowder, they did not pay attention to the upper wind and lower wind. The Japanese warship was obviously modified with electronic control technology, and the gun hit rate was greatly increased.

Similarly, both sides used bitter acid shells with more side effects, which produced a large amount of poisonous smoke and chemical flames on each other's ships, which had a great deterrent and intimidating effect on soldiers.

Many seemingly major breakthroughs are actually just small technological changes, such as the snoring tubes of submarines, the glass industry, and the bitter acid shells are the same.

In order to solve the problem that bitter acid is easy to react with metals and produce more ** bitter salts, it is said that the method I used is to paint the metal layer of the inner shell of the shell, and the method of the Americans and the Qing army is to add a layer of kraft paper.

These two small methods can make the bitter acid shells serve on a large scale, and at the same time greatly reduce the possibility of accidental explosion.

For the soldiers on the ship, this is simply the end and hell.

(to be continued)