Chapter 194 Asia is China after all

No one will suffer two losses in a row, unless you can't find a solution at all.

Hu Chuyuan is different from himself. He knows how to solve the problem. After he is sure that he has used bitter sour shells on a large scale, he also fully equipped with bitter sour shells.

Through the shell case test of my own, I accidentally found that I also had an original surname invention. In contrast, my method is more reliable than that of Americans.

There is a sample. Jiangnan Manufacturing Administration and Fuzhou Ship Administration Factory have also learned this method.

In addition, Hu Chuyuan also asked people to develop new gas masks and order them in large quantities in Shanghai. In the United States, they have a patent for the invention of an alkaline fire extinguisher, which can well deal with the high-temperature chemical flame produced by bitter acid.

In order to reduce the damage of the gunner, Hu Chuyuan specially ordered a high-temperature protective clothing for the gunner in the United States. The earth method is not high-tech, that is, to add a layer of refractory brick slurry on the outside of the traditional armor, which can only be used once or twice, and it will be replaced after the war.

At 18:07, the two sides finally began a large-scale exchange of fire.

The angry cannon fired wildly, and the bullets fell on the decks and sboards of the ships, smashing out continuous explosions. The huge flame could not dissipate automatically at all, but spread along the metal.

When the hit rate is roughly equal to the rate of fire and firepower, small details determine a lot of things.

I said that I didn't have time to modify the artillery, but temporarily replaced the new fire control technology with the help of the French. Then I secretly let all the capital ships sail out of the dock, secretly gathered on Tsushima Island in the northern sea, and then quietly entered the West Korean Gulf.

In terms of overall firepower, there is not much difference between Zhiyuan and Dingyuan. The former has 10 new 275mm Krupp main guns, and the latter has 8 identical main guns, but 4 more 150mm secondary guns.

It is because of this similar surname of height that the four main ironclad ships, Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan and Yingyuan, are unified in the First Fleet. In terms of the caliber of the main gun, the four warships are not as good as the two Ise-class, but in terms of average power, the four ships add up to have 36 new 275mm tube retreat main guns. The average rate of fire is 2 shots per minute.

In addition, six Jingyuan-class armored cruisers have 24 guns, with a total of 60 275mm 275mm main guns combined, and the average attack power of the birth is very amazing.

Although it has been predicted for a long time, Youdipin Zhiyun also adopted tactics to cut the opponent's formation by speed, but with the cooperation of two Chunyu and a number of cruisers, Ye Fu even lost two transport merchant ships, effectively preventing this tactic.

After the two sides fought to kill each other for more than ten minutes, the two domecruisers of the Japanese fleet were sunk and lost their combat effectiveness. The other two domecruisers lost their speed significantly due to the fire in the boiler part, forcing the whole ship to reduce the speed to 13 knots to maintain the formation.

In this case, many modified gunboats of Japan were exposed. Ye Fu could finally implement the tactics he wanted to implement most, use two new Yangwu-class cruisers to cooperate with Chunyu to attack the column formation of Japan, and adjust all the main gunfire to target the modified gunboats.

The two sides continued to exchange fire. After the sinking of Xiangwu, which had been damaged in advance, the First Fleet of the North Sea also completed the plan one after another, sinking four modified gunboats, reducing the firepower of the Japanese fleet.

At this time, Ye Fu adjusted his tactics again and retargeted all the firepower at the two flagships of Japan.

It's getting late and later. Even in midsummer, the sky is getting darker, and it is impossible for both sides to continue to fight in the dark.

Therefore, Ye Fu had to make a last fight to sink the two most critical backbone warships.

The two sides began a new round of tug-of-war. Due to the slowdown of the speed of many warships, some local goods can't withdraw from the battlefield now. They can only survive until dark. The original plan to sink any two ships in the Dingyuan and Zhiyuan class... seems to be difficult to complete.

Ijiin Goro proposed to give up the damaged warship, and the plan to withdraw the main force was also rejected by the promise of the land. In terms of actual talent, the promise of the land is indeed not as good as that of Pingjing Hangsan, and not as good as Ito Yuheng.

He has no choice.

The searchlights of all warships have been turned on, illuminating the whole sea area. The two sides continue to fight in front of the upcoming shady curtain. All the main guns are aimed at Ise and Shima. The dense artillery fire is constantly roaring, constantly deterring the two capital ships.

With a loud bang, the Shima failed to hold on until night. A large hole was opened at the junction of the side of the ship and the deck on the right side. The explosive force of a flowering cannon spread to the boiler room, which immediately triggered a larger internal explosion.

Zhimo can no longer persist, let alone leave, and can no longer play a protective role in the formation.

Seizing this gap, Ye Fu led the warship to use the speed to forcibly cut the opponent's column. The heavily damaged Pingwu and the remaining three transport ships carrying supplies began to leave the main battlefield, providing some poor long-range artillery fire.

Chunyu continued to follow the last side of the fleet formation. After cutting Shima and Ise, two Chunyu and a number of carrier-borne torpedo boats were responsible for the assault and used gas torpedoes to completely sink Shima.

At the same time, the group of ironclad ships led by Ise and the group of cruisers led by Shima were cut off, and all the main guns were aimed at many ironclad cruisers and the remaining two dome cruisers indiscriminately.

At this time, seeing the dark curtain completely come, Ise issued a new order. All the warships broke through and withdrew south, preparing to use the night to withdraw from the battlefield.

At such a last moment, the two Chunyu cooperated with each other, covered a large number of high-speed torpedo boats to attack the Japanese fleet, and took on a lot of firepower. Using the seven small torpedo boats behind, they suddenly launched an attack on two armored cruisers, resulting in a heavy attack and one forced to leave the formation.

You Zhiyun looked at the two Chunyu nar, which were extremely brave and had strange high speed and defense, through the telescope, and he became more and more puzzled.

"What the hell is going on?"

He can't figure it out. Chunyu can obviously reach 23 knots or even 24 knots at the limit speed, which can completely compete with the second-class ironclad ship in terms of defense.

He had no choice but to lead the remnants of the fleet to evacuate quickly, and Ye Fu also began to shrink his formation to attack several cruisers that lacked the speed of breakthrough speed and the old Japanese first ironclad ship, Fusang, forcing these ships to surrender and turn them into new ships of the North Sea Combined Fleet.

In the end, the Fusang, which had cracked hull, chose to explode and sink, and the other two Nagano-class dome-clad ships with split boilers and a Matsumoto-class ironclad cruiser tilted over the sea chose to be captured.

After an hour and forty-seven minutes of bloody battle, the naval battle in the West Korean Gulf ended completely at 19:41 p.m. on August 17, 1890. The joint fleet lost two ironclads, two ironclad cruisers, four domecruisers and five modified gunboats, three of which were captured and only three ironclad. The armored ships, two iron-clad cruisers and a modified gunboat were evacuated safely.

The first detachment of the North Sea Joint Fleet lost an ironclad cruiser, a dome cruiser, four transport gunboats, two ironclad cruisers and a domecruiser were heavily damaged. The Zhenyuan ship was attacked by a torpedo and the tail rudder was damaged, but it could still maintain a speed of about 5 knots.

The overall strength of the two sides is roughly the same, and the opponent also has more 120mm quick-fire guns. It turns out that the main ship's artillery is still large, and there are also a lot.

The thought of naval warfare of the Qing army led by the Fuzhou shipping administration is very clear in this naval battle - the flagship should accommodate other major warships of the fleet, realize the unification of the main gun on the basis of the average maximum caliber, and use the one-word column formation to bombard the opponent intensively at a unified range.

Ye Fu's whole tactic is formulated around this feature. He does not hesitate to lose some ships. By attacking the opponent's cruiser, he forces the opponent's average speed to decrease, and then uses the advantage of the average speed to open the distance from the Japanese joint fleet, and uses the 275mm average main gun to intensively bombard the opponent's flagship, forcing The opponent could not play the advantage of the number and rate of fire of 120mm small guns, so he had to choose to escape.

The defeat of the Japanese navy will also have another effect, that is, Hu Chuyuan's control over the whole Chinese navy through the Fuzhou ship administration has been further strengthened.

On this basis, he will also quickly formulate a new plan to raise the overall strength of the Chinese navy to a higher level and prepare to defeat Russia and France.

After all, Asia belongs to China, and this trend is difficult to change.

Ye Fu divided the fleet into two batches. The main flagship protected the rest of the ships and slowly sailed to Nanpu. The two destroyers Chunyu, which were not very damaged, and two iron armored cruisers were responsible for protecting the three material ships and Ye Boyu's troop carriers, and continued to sail to Nanpu Port.

The four transport ships prepared in advance for carrying materials sank... Whether this is right or wrong, there will inevitably be a lot of controversy within the Qingzheng axe, and even Hu Chuyuan is a little difficult to accept.

Japan's main plan went bankrupt, but in the army, because Song Qing did not have a suitable transport ship, he could only blow up most of the heavy and heavy artillery and shrink to Nanpu Port. With the help of Ye Boyu and Ye Fu, he temporarily defended Nanpu Port.

The army besieged Nanpu on August 20 and withdrew while fighting. In the end, more than 2,000 soldiers and some supplies were still unable to evacuate.

On August 24, 1890, the Qing army withdrew from Nampo. Due to the lack of more troops between Pyongyang and Dandong, the whole North Korea had fallen under the control of the Japanese army.

The loss of the four transport ships is not small, because Hu Chuyuan only has these military transport ships, and the rest are temporarily modified merchant ships.

As Hu Chuyuan expected, although Ye Fu won a big victory, Li Hongzhang and others were still quite criticized, questioning whether Ye Fu's decision to use transport ships to share firepower in naval battles was wise.

Hu Chuyuan couldn't explain this clearly, but he understood that in the face of the sudden outbreak of naval battle, Ye Fu, who did not have much preparation in advance, could indeed do anything in order to win. This was the choice that soldiers should make.

As for the transport ship, it is enough to temporarily modify the merchant ship. One warship is lost, and it will take a year and a half to replenish it.

For this reason, he argued with Li Hongzhang and other people who thought they knew everything in the navy in the court. By the way, the Huai army that attacked Li Hongzhang was a bunch of rags.

(to be continued)