"War is not just fighting with cannons and muscles, but more importantly, the collision of ideas and wisdom." - Lin Taizeng.

The Overseas Fleet did not choose the strategy of turning at a large angle before engaging the enemy and facing the enemy ship with the broadside as in usual naval battles. Instead, the Overseas Fleet maintained an acute angle of about 20 degrees between the Overseas Fleet's route and the Russian Fleet's route. For this decision

, Lin Tai once explained this way, with two Pisa-class patrol ships in the distance, the Russian fleet would never dare to continue moving forward, and would not even immediately show its side lines for combat. Their best way is to turn and prepare.

First, establish a certain distance from the two Pisa-type patrol ships, and then fight three King-class ships alone. In order to achieve this goal, the opponent must turn 160 degrees to be parallel to the overseas fleet, and the distance between the two parties cannot be too large.

Otherwise, due to the angle problem, the first two battleships of the Russian Navy would have difficulty finding the boundary, while the offshore fleet at the rear left could concentrate all its main guns to attack the last battleship Rurik of the Russian Navy.

Faced with such a fighting situation, Essen did not choose to evacuate as Lin Tai had expected. He implemented a large-angle turn, but did not turn to a position parallel to the overseas fleet. Instead, he turned the fleet's course by 100 degrees.

An attempt was made to form an oblique T-shaped array in front of the overseas fleet route. The classic T-grabbing tactic played a huge role in the US-Spanish naval battle, and now Essen hopes to repeat it in the Far East!

Essen's maneuver started when the two sides were 8km apart. If according to the original estimate, the farthest distance of the artillery battle between the two sides would not exceed 5km. He had enough time to complete this turn. When the two sides approached the firing distance, the Russian

The fleet will be just right and finish grabbing t!

Experience is valuable, ideas are beautiful, but reality is cruel. When both sides are close to 7km, the ranging and direction finding work of the Taipei at the head of the team and the Kaohsiung that follows have been completed. The 3 meters at the top of the ship have been completed.

The ultimate rangefinder accurately reports the destination to the other party

The distance: 7250 meters! At this time, the Prince at the head of the Russian fleet was turning, and the Russia behind was preparing to turn! During the violent turning process, the Russian fleet simply could not hit such a long distance! But the Overseas Fleet

Want to try it!

The four twin 11-inch main guns of the Taipei and Kaohsiung slowly locked onto the turning Prince. In the 3-meter rangefinder, the long hull of the Prince was completely exposed to the eyes of the observer. At the end

After verifying the distance, the fire control officer determined the opponent's heading

and distance were transmitted to the turret, and then the gunner used a telescopic sight to securely target the opponent. After receiving permission to fire, the four twin turrets sprayed out four fire dragons and four rounds of 11-inch armor-piercing projectiles weighing 262kg.

Flying towards the turning Prince!

"What's going on? Are they crazy?" A Russian military officer heard a thunderous noise from far away and quickly ran to the observation port to look at the overseas fleet in the distance. 4 dark red objects.

Accompanied by howling sounds across the air, it flew towards the Prince! Before the huge number of Russians could react, four artillery shells had fallen one after another. Almost at the same time, four huge water columns more than ten meters high were launched.

The Prince rose into the air next to it.

"They missed, those guys with pigtails were wasting their shells!" said a newly boarded noble officer, wiping the cold sweat from his head.

"No, this is not normal!" Essen suddenly felt very uneasy. Neither the Beiyang Fleet nor the Overseas Fleet are a group of rookies. They will not do unnecessary actions. Since they dare to fire at such a long distance, then they must

Have something to rely on! The fleet is now in danger, it must pass quickly!

"It's a bit far off." An officer operating the rangefinder said to himself.

"Fortunately, at least the direction is correct." Another person said with a smile.

Among them, the Taipei's two engines formed a span! Two huge water columns rose almost simultaneously on the left and right strings of the Prince!

"They have completed the competition!" Essen thought of this, and a few drops of cold sweat flowed from his head! As an excellent naval officer, he knew that once the opponent's competition was completed, what awaited them would be a maximum-speed attack.

, until the Prince is hit. Or the opponent does not form a span and needs to be recalibrated.

"Highest fire speed, fire." After receiving relatively successful news, the Taipei took the lead in entering the rapid fire stage. The four 11-inch 40l main guns began to fire at top speed. In less than 40 seconds, a round of shells flew out.

The turret fires towards the turning Prince!

Just 1 minute after the Taipei entered the rapid fire, the Kaohsiung also achieved the crossing and immediately entered the rapid fire stage. The eight 11-inch guns of the two battleships were crazy about the Prince at a speed of nearly 2 rounds per minute.

Fire. Almost instantly, the roar of the 11-inch heavy artillery

It became a piece, and balls of flames continued to treat each other at the muzzle. The smoke and flames almost covered the hulls of the two King-class ships, and at this time, the Prince was almost instantly surrounded by raindrop-like shells. Originally, there were water columns.

It almost formed a wall of water, and it was getting closer and closer to the Prince!

"Speed ​​up and turn, let's go quickly." At this time, Essen was already a little panicked. People will panic when they encounter something they can't understand. At this distance, the opponent's shells are getting closer and closer to him. And he himself

The warships could only blindly fight back, spraying water one by one on the sea at least 100 meters away from the opponent!

Just when the Prince was about to complete its turn, an 11-inch 40L artillery shell weighing 262kg suddenly hit the center and rear of the port side of the Prince. The sharp quilt and the hardened layer of the armor turned into

fragments. Then the entire projectile hit the

The armor tore off a large piece of the armor on the side armor belt, and then the fuse ignited the charge, and a huge fireball rose into the sky! Because the secondary battery layout was too dense, two 6.4-inch guns and one 5.5-inch gun were

It was destroyed, and thick smoke rose from the middle and rear of the hull.

This is just the beginning. The high speed combined with the new gunnery has caused the accuracy of the two armored cruisers Taipei and Kaohsiung to rise sharply. Just before the smoke after the first hit has dissipated, the other two 11-inch 40l rounds

Almost at the same time, it hit the fastest battleship of the Russian Far East Fleet. An 11-inch shell directly opened a big hole in the bow of the ship.

The fragile 6-inch armor belt on the bow could not withstand the attack of the 11-inch 40L capped armor-piercing projectile 4,000 meters away. With a harsh impact, the armor-piercing projectile passed without any hindrance into the place where the bow connected with the waterline. In a few tenths of a second

Finally, a large hole of several square meters appeared in the bow of the ship, accompanied by a dull explosion. The anchor room in the bow of the Prince was destroyed.

The impact of another shell was even greater. This shell was very close to the hit point of the first shell. The shell hit the 274mm gun mount on the side of the Prince's hull. The current 11-inch 40l shell still cannot penetrate Houda.

The 10-inch gun mount is armored, even at a distance of 4,000 meters.

, followed by a burst of explosions and a flash of yellow light, the Prince's gun mount only had a crack on the surface. Just when the Beiyang Navy was depressed about the failure of this hit, it was slowly

The rotating 274mm main gun actually stopped! The huge impact directly jammed the gun!

"Damn it." Essen cursed in a low voice. As the distance between the two sides approached, the secondary guns of both sides also began to fire with all their strength. At a distance of 3,500 meters, the optimal firing rate of the 6-inch gun equipped with new aiming equipment was reached.

Cheng. Different from the capped armor-piercing projectiles equipped with the main guns, these 6-inch guns are equipped with picric acid high-explosive shells. According to Lin Taizeng's explanation, the 6-inch gun armor-piercing projectiles are too weak. Since they cannot penetrate armor, then

set fire.

Immediately, nearly 20 medium-caliber rapid-fire cannons sprayed a dense rain of bullets at the Prince, forming a fire net that tightly covered the poor Prince. For a time, the entire battleship was filled with thick smoke and hot flames.

, the flying shrapnel and toxic smoke were killing the gunners and the exposed damage control team members. After more than ten minutes of fighting, this one of the best warships in the Russian Far East Fleet was damaged, and the fire was in danger of getting out of control.

Just as the Taipei and the Kaohsiung were gathering fire to attack the Prince, the Russia and the Rurik suddenly stopped their original turning plan, and the two warships cut into the array of the overseas fleet in an attempt to quickly bring the two closer.

The opponent's distance is suppressed through the projection of firepower at medium and short range. The encounter of the Prince just now has told the Russians that in a long-distance artillery battle, the Russians have no chance of winning, so in this case, they can only fight

Close combat!

"Abandon the Prince and concentrate fire on the Russia and Rurik that came up." Lin Taizeng said after pondering for a moment. "Admiral Lin, the Prince has been damaged, and the Russia and Rurik that came up are

Just let the two warships behind attack." Deng Shichang said with some dissatisfaction.

"The main gun of the Prince can still be used, and the speed is not reduced. It will take a long time to sink it. The medium and short-range firepower of the Rurik and Russia is very fierce, and the two sides are basically tied in 2 on 2. The war has just begun.

There is no need for us to fight our opponents desperately in the initial stage." Lin Tai had a rare moment of toughness and dismissed Deng Shichang's opinion.

"Order, the entire fleet turns two compass points to the left to increase the distance from the opponent. The Taipei attacks the Russia, the Kaohsiung and the Fuzhou focus their fire to attack the Rurik. The regrets of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1899 are what we have to face in this war.

Make up for it." After hesitating for a moment, Lin Taizeng gave the order to divert firepower under Deng Shichang's dissatisfied eyes.

When the overseas fleet was adjusting, the two Russian warships finally reached a distance of 3,800 meters from the battle line of the overseas fleet. This distance was already the best distance for the artillery of both sides! A hand-to-hand battle was inevitable!
Chapter completed!