Chapter 11: The Battle of the Taiwan Strait (3)

Japan's special geographical location has caused scarcity of resources. Compared with Britain, which is also an island country, Japan lacks resources, especially important resources such as steel and coal. In addition, Japan does not have as many overseas colonies as Britain, and does not have the industrial history of Britain, resources are more precious.

In addition, national security is heavily dependent on the navy. Britain can become a European power and the maritime overlord of Europe by relying on the royal navy far exceeding any European country. On the contrary, on the other side of the world, Japan does not have such conditions. Compared with the Qing Navy, the Japanese navy seems too weak. These two characteristics not only determine Japan's basic national policy, but also determine the basic tactical ideas of the Japanese navy.

Since the Japanese Navy was officially established, the Japanese Navy has strived to be capable. That is, when the scale can never exceed the Qing Dynasty, it can counter the possible threats of the opponent by improving the quality of officers and soldiers and improving the performance of warships. In addition, in the tactical thinking of the Japanese Navy, there is no dogma of killing one thousand enemies and destroying eight hundred of them. According to the Japanese Navy's concept, if you want to become the overlord of the Pacific, you must not only defeat the Qing Navy, but also win while preserving your own strength.

Therefore, the Japanese can imagine the care of treasures like the Yang-class ironclad ship. But they never expected that the true naval first battle of the Yang-class ironclad ship would have just sank one of them. Although Yada Hori Keizo knew that once the war broke out, this kind of damage would be inevitable, he did not expect it to come so quickly!

"Kun Nakafuku?" Yada Horikita cried in his heart, and was deeply distressed for his old friend's sacrifice. However, the situation at the scene did not give him too much time to pity himself. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and turned his head to look at it. In just a while, Lei Youhu dragged his injured body and rushed to the sea less than 3 nautical miles away from the Langsu. "Put the flag slogan for Zhongyuan Jun, let him approach our ship and fight the enemy together!"

With the strength of the Langsu, there is really no need to be afraid of the first-class gunboat and Thunder, but there is a more powerful Changbaishan in front of him waiting for an opportunity to move. If you accidentally get a heavy gun from the opponent's ship, it will be unbearable. Therefore, the Langsu does not dare to show off. It obediently approaches a thousand meters of the friendly flagship, and the two ships fight together to fight against the enemy.

In another section of the sea, Xu Shoushan commanded the same number and was competing with the Kaze River. The gunners on both ships were like blind people. All the shells fired were gone without exception. In the past two hours since the war started, they have been unscathed, which is a miracle.

Xu Shoushan scolded him in the command room. Seeing Gao Tengyun make achievements in one fell swoop, he was even more shocked and envious, and his swear words were becoming more and more numerous. "Tell them, let me shine your tricks! They are all cowardly!"

But such things as combat cannot be achieved by the commander in a hurry. There are three rounds of rapid shooting. Xu Shoushan threw away the telescope hard, "It's not even a near-missile bomb? Are you all dead? I'll go up in person!"

"Sir, this is not possible! You still have to command the entire ship..."

Before Xu Shoushan could lose his temper, the hull of the resembled trembled violently, and a fire broke out from the port side! "Sir, we were hit by the enemy ship!"

Unexpectedly, it was the first enemy ship to take the lead, which calmed down Xu Shoushan, "Report the damage!"

Two shells from Katsushiro hit the main armor belt on the right side of the No. 3 turret. Fortunately, there was no explosion. It only left a deep scratch on the steel plate as thick as ten inches, and then fell into the sea. The other shell that hit the port side rapid-fire gun also penetrated the secondary cannon, hitting horizontal armor and firing an explosion, which did not cause serious damage to the hull.

After a false alarm, Xu Shoushan stopped losing his temper and cursing others, but instead became steadily. "Order the main gun, starboard rapid-fire gun, bombard the enemy ships, and let the two ships get closer to see if they can use torpedoes to sink the other party?"

On the Japanese Katsumaki, the officers and soldiers cheered. Without waiting for the captain, the team leader ordered the gunner to continue to work hard, and the accuracy of the shells increased compared to the previous one. In the third round of volleys, the Katsumaki shell hit the shell hit the same ship head at the bow of the same ship, and after smashing through the horizontal armor and the hull on the left of the ship head, an explosion occurred under the sea surface on the left.

Because the explosion is very close to the hull, and there is almost no armor protection at the bow of the same ship, the shock wave generated by the explosion made a large hole about three meters in diameter below the waterline on the left side of the bow, causing the four compartments to be immediately submerged by sea water, and the inlet volume within five minutes exceeded 800 tons.

The gunners of the same number finally found the "feel" and the three shells shot, one hit the top of the bridge of the enemy ship, directly blowing up the main rangefinder. The other one fell in front of the D1 turret on the left side of the chimney, and exploded after penetrating the bottom of the ship. As a result, the sea water quickly submerged the No. 1 boiler cabin, and dozens of boilers inside were all killed. Most of them were not drowned, but were scalded to death by the high-temperature water vapor emitted. The third shell hit the edge of the horizontal armor on the right side of the chimney. After hitting the main armor belt, it deviated from the hull and fell into the sea to explode.

But at a distance of less than 4,000 meters, 22 shells hit four, and the other only three or five were nearly missing, which was not good. The Japanese navy soldiers believed that they understood the strength of the Chinese navy and were relieved. When the shelling was shot, they were even more powerful and more accurate!

By 9:05, a 300-mm heavy shell was slammed on the front armor of the No. 3 turret at the tail of the same number! The result was extremely miserable. The launching medicine in the No. 3 turret was detonated by the artillery shell, and the turret weighing hundreds of tons flew directly into the sky. No. 2 gunners in the turret were spared, and even more than 20 nearby damaged personnel were killed and injured. More importantly, a fire broke out on the same number!

Xu Shoushan struggled to get up from the floor, and first looked towards the enemy ship. The Katsuki was turning, and the artillery fire was temporarily stopped. This must be because the enemy ship commander saw the fire on the same ship, and knew that the shells were enough to teach the other party a lesson at this distance, so he chose to turn. All three main gun turrets were put into battle.

"Adjust the course and turn to 350 degrees!"

"Three hundred and fifty degrees?" The combat staff had just gotten up from the floor and his head was a little dizzy.

"Issue the turn order quickly!" Without further questions, the staff officer immediately issued the turn order.

This decision almost saved the shaky and similar. After the tail main gun was destroyed, only the first three main guns of similar can be fought, so the course has no great impact on artillery battle. In addition, after turning, the superstructure of the warship can block some of the flames, making it difficult for the enemy to aim. The most important thing is that after turning, the area of ​​the similar bombed number was greatly reduced, and the chance of being shot will be greatly reduced, thereby avoiding suffering more heavy losses.

The combat distance will continue to be shortened. When both sides can penetrate the opponent's armor, the combat distance can only affect the shelling hit rate. The armor thickness of both sides has little significance in combat.

The problem is that at this time, the Lishuang only had three nine main guns, and after the enemy ship completed the steering, there were six twelve main guns to fight! At this point in the battle, the Lishuang almost fought hard.

The combat distance was soon shortened from 5,000 meters to less than 4,000 meters, and then to 3,000 meters. Fortunately, the power system of the same number did not have any problems, and the steering was relatively flexible. In addition, after completing the steering, Katsuki needed to re-target the target and recalculate the shooting parameters. Therefore, the previous rounds of artillery bombardment did not have much effect. But once the enemy ship completed the calibration of subordinates and shooting elements, it would be the end of the same number!

Sure enough, Katsuki's captain, Shi Nakamura and Xu Shoushan, discovered the problem at the same time! But at this time, he changed the navigation route and exposed the entire hull to enemy artillery fire. He could not accept the possible losses, so he had to make mistakes, "Order to advance with maximum horsepower!"

"Sir, Master?"

“Transfer the order!”

The resembled Yu Yong, rushed to Katsuki at the highest speed of 18 knots, and formed a standard 't' shape with the opponent's warship, and attacked, "Your Captain, the Chinese... It seems that they are going to fight to the death!"

Nakamura Tsushi didn't expect that the war would progress to this point. If he could not completely sink the enemy ship within the range of artillery fire, when he could come soon..., the Katsuki was not equipped with torpedoes, then there would be no way out. "Fire the gun, fire the gun immediately! You must not let the Chinese attack within the range!" This range refers to the minimum shooting distance of the carrier-based artillery. Once you cross this number, the artillery on the ship becomes a decoration.

Nakamura Tsushi was a student of the second phase of the Nagasaki Naval Exercise. When he was in school, Dutch teachers often used historical naval war stories as auxiliary teaching materials. However, looking at the naval war records of various countries, there was always a battle, which was carried out in this way! The damage of the same number was serious, but it was never at the end of the way. Is the Chinese so funny? So hard?

The artillery fire on the Katsushiro was roaring and fired towards the Shinsong, which was fast and vigorously south. The latter was not vague. While trying to increase the speed as much as possible, the main gun on the ship was counterattacked with the main gun on the ship. When the two sides were less than three thousand meters apart, the Qing army's gunners finally showed their due level. Three 135-caliber artillery violently hit the port side of the Katsushiro from the stern to the middle of the hull.

The result of the shot was catastrophic, with the power system and propulsion system concentrated on the stern of the ship, and the propulsion system first. Of course, the three secondary gun turrets located on the port side of the stern were also affected. What's more serious is that after water enters the left cabin on the left cabin on the stern of the ship, it doesn't make much sense to inject water into the right cabin on the stern of the ship.

Because even if the warship can be restored to balance, the warship will sink due to excessive water inlet. In addition, after the host stops operating, the generator driven by the host becomes a decoration, and without the power provided by the generator, the water pump cannot work and cannot pump out the sea water! Of course, in battle, the loss of power in the warship means destruction. However, the main gun of the Katsuki did not become mute. Even when the tail tip was more than ten degrees and the bow was almost lifted from the water, the nine main guns on the warship were still roaring. This is not only a manifestation of the bravery and fearlessness of the Japanese Navy, but also can be regarded as the dying struggle of the Katsuki.

This struggle seems to be futile in some way. There is no main power supply. The turret can only rely on a backup generator, and the power of the backup generator is quite limited. It cannot rotate the turret at full speed, and it cannot even lift the shells in the ammunition depot in time. In addition, when the turret is severely tilted at the tail, it is difficult for the turret to aim at the target.

The damage suffered by the same number is also extremely tragic. The three turrets on the deck of the ship are only the number one position and the other two are still firing. The other two are all mute. The starboard hull, including the six rapid-fire cannons, was torn a large hole with a diameter of nearly three meters by the opponent's heavy artillery. The surging sea water poured in, reducing the speed of the ship to about ten knots. The worst thing is that the bridge was hit by the enemy ship, and black smoke came out from the blown porthole. I don't know how the casualties inside were?

Fortunately, it is impossible for all commanders to stay together on a warship. The Qing army's artillery team garrison took on the responsibility of command for the time being. "Damage the management team? Hurry up and put out the fire! Order the torpedo to prepare! Enter the best range and launch it immediately!" The torpedo was already ready. In such an era, the torpedo can barely be called accurate only if it is within 1,000 meters of the enemy ship. A higher than such a distance is a pure waste of ammunition.

Thick smoke came out of the hull of the same number, and it looked thrilling like a black dragon behind the hull. "There are still 1,300 meters, 1,200 meters! Boom!"

The torpedoists were still calculating the distance between the warships on both sides. Another shell from Katsurachi landed at the bow. The power of the 300mm caliber shell exploded was earth-shaking! The hull of the same 7,200-ton plunged deep into the sea. When it was raised again, one-third of the bow was gone!

The bodies of a large number of Qing army sailors were smashed, and their limbs were scattered on the sea surface, and the sea water within a diameter of dozens of meters nearby was dyed red. Even though the Qing army had closed the waterproof door in advance, the hull could not afford such damage even if it was prepared in advance. Similar numbers sank on the sea surface for a moment, like a lead duck, sank into the sea within a few minutes!

Yamamura Yi, who was on the Katsuki, secretly wiped the cold sweat from his head, which was only less than 300 meters away! If he bullied this range by the enemy ship, it would be hard to say who would kill him! Fortunately, fortunately! Just as his thoughts were not over, a sharp whistling sound came, and his intuition told Nakamura Yi that this shot was decisive!
Chapter completed!