Chapter 31 The Second Battle of the Jinqing Strait (2)

The Xiaoxue strategic supply ship was manufactured by the Japanese entrusted a British shipyard. The hull of this transport ship is very huge, far better than ironclad ships and other types of gunboats used for naval battles. It can carry 10,500 tons of ammunition, 4,500 tons of freshwater, 2,000 tons of food, 1,850 tons of spare parts, etc. However, given that the naval fleet led by Shenghaizhou is a local war, the freshwater and food do not need to be transported, and 6,000 tons of ammunition and a small amount of necessary materials were added.

The supply ship does not have a war artillery. Although it is extremely large in size, its protection is also extremely poor. It must rely on ironclad ships or gunboats to provide protection. Otherwise, in this war era, it would be impossible to move forward. Seeing two warships on one side and the Qing army's fleet from afar, the captain of the Koyuki Hamaguchi and Uemon secretly prayed: Just hit you, don't target us?

"Order turning, and strive to enter the Strait of the Pegasus before the enemy ships fired at us."

"Your Excellency, isn't this the order we received? Aren't we going to this Beppu?"

"The most important thing at the moment is to not be attacked by the enemy's artillery fire. Let's talk about other things later! If our ship really hits the enemy, think about it, the Xiaoxue, full of ammunition and supplies, will become a torch burning on the sea! Quick! Order to turn."

The reactions of Hamaguchi and Eemon cannot be said to be incorrect, nor can it be said to be not fast, but the hull of the Koyuki is too large, full of tens of thousands of tons of supplies, and the ship speed is only a pitiful 14 knots. It was fine when the Qing army was noticable. Once it was noticed by the other party, it was doomed to have a tragic fate.

The first shell of the Lei Xun hit the hull of Xiaoxue. The wooden boxes as high as mountains were piled on the front deck were blown into flying wood chips. The medicines, rain cloths, and life jackets contained inside were split into pieces and messy.

The Qing military control team looked at it with a telescope. After a large ball of fire, the sea was filled with messy things, as if no one was injured or killed. "What kind of thing is it on this ship?"

"Sir, will it be the enemy's supply ship?"

A sentence from the combat staff made the manager Xu Luan wake up from his dream, "Ha! Yes! This must be the enemy's supply ship! Tell your brothers, hit the firepower and sink it to me!"

Amid the rumbling sound of cannons, the Kosui was hit by more than a dozen shells. Although the firepower of the Raiga-class is not as strong as that of the Iron Craft, and the tonnage of the Japanese solar-class supply ship is also extremely large, this tactic of ants that kill the elephant still made Hamaguchi and Eemon complain, "Start up the speed! Speed ​​up the speed, illuminate the lights for Yukiko Nagaki and Togo Kwan, so that they can return to the rescue as soon as possible."

Yukijiro Nagaki on the Bolai and Hirahachiro Togo on the Dresden also saw the dilemma of the transport ship, but the two ships were unable to take care of themselves and had no way to do so. They watched the Xiaoxue being severely injured by the enemy, but there was no way to do anything, "What's going on with the Katsushika? Didn't you see and hear the situation here?"

The Dresden, commanded by Hirahachiro Togo, is facing a fierce attack from two 10,000-class gunboats. The Dresden has very good maneuverability and has not been subject to any threatening blows until now. But even so, he did not dare to turn around and protect Xiaoxue. His ship is fast, while the ship of Xiaoxue is slow. If you want to protect your friend ships, you can only give up your length and shortness. At that time, even the advantages of the Dresden will be lost. Therefore, he hopes that the Blade can get closer and cover Xiaoxue with himself, enter the Pingguan Strait as soon as possible, and avoid the powerful attack of the Qing army.

Yukijiro Nagashijiro didn't want to act like this, but the power of the Yama-class gunboat was underestimated? The Bolai resisted with all his strength and could only barely fall in the way, and he could not take care of him.

In this case, the Xiaoxue became an orphan without any control. The huge ship and the flames ignited everywhere became living targets for Qing army gunners to shoot. It was only because the shells on the Leixun were less powerful and did not hit its deadly part, which was delayed until now.

Chen Zhaoqiang glanced at the sea for a moment and suddenly ordered, "Order the turret No. 3 to turn to bombard the 3rd target ship! Sink it as soon as possible and let Lei Xun join the siege of the 2nd target ship!"

The Qing army gunners received the order and the first round of artillery shells hit the middle of the superstructure of the Kosuki superstructure and caused a fire. On this dark sea, like the prophecy of Hamaguchi and Eemon, it burned like a huge torch.

The Qing army gunners cheered, and the position of the target ship became more obvious. As a fire broke out on the Xiaoxue, the Leixun immediately changed its course and turned around and joined the two 10,000-character siege to encircle Dresden.

In the next less than ten minutes, the Taishan was bombarded by the Bolai and violently bombarded the Xiaoxue with its former main gun, including at least six 350mm caliber shells hitting the enemy ship!

At twelve to 48 in the morning, Xiaoxue's maritime journey finally came to an end. The ammunition depot placed under the two decks was hit by a shell and instantly detonated more than 3,000 tons loaded under the bow deck! Such a big explosion was unprecedented. The sky-surged air waves arrived on the Taishan, 7,000 meters away from the explosion site in a few seconds, and even the porthole glass in the cab was shattered!

This explosion caused the hull, which was more than 130 meters long, to be blown into five pieces! Because the sinking speed was too fast, the officers and soldiers on the warship had no time to escape, so only twelve of the more than 1,300 officers and soldiers of the ship survived! The Qing army later learned that the place where the Xiaoxue sink was less than two nautical miles away from entering the entrance of the Pingguan Strait! It can be said that it was sunk at the enemy's doorstep.

The sinking of Xiaoxue was not completely meaningless. When Taishan was diverting its firepower, Bolai seized this precious opportunity. During this period, Bolai fired a total of twenty-four rounds of volleys at Taishan, which was almost the fastest firing speed of the main gun of the ship. Among the more than 200 shells fired, a total of eight hit Taishan, and at least three of them caused serious damage to Taishan.

Among the eight shells hit, one hit the starboard side of the enemy ship. Because the angle of the shell fell was too large, the shell not only did not penetrate its main armor belt, but instead slid directly into the sea, and then exploded about ten meters away from the sea. But it was this shell that seemed ineffective that almost ruined the Taishan.

The explosion point of the shell is near the propeller on the right side of the Taishan, and the distance is definitely not too far. Although the charge of the 300 mm heavy artillery is only a few kilograms, the density of the sea water is more than a thousand times that of the air, and it is almost impossible to compress, and its ability to transmit detonation waves is more than a thousand times that of the air. The huge shock wave generated by the explosion directly shakes off the fixed bracket of the right transmission shaft of the Taishan, and also damages the propeller on the right side in the middle, causing it to lose one-third of the propulsion system, and causes the Taishan to begin to deflect to the right.

In this way, if Taishan wants to maintain its course, its maximum speed cannot exceed twenty knots! For ironclad ships with speed as the main performance, losing speed is equivalent to losing the right to survive. Not to mention the combat mission of the Taishan trip, it also requires it to maintain high-speed maneuverability.

Xiaoxue sank rapidly. After a moment, only a few ignitions remained on the sea surface, and the sky and earth became dark again. Under the siege of three Chinese ships, Dresden finally couldn't hold on. The only thing it was stronger than its opponent was its fast and flexible maneuverability. Without this magic weapon, any ten-thousand-word class ship could send him to the bottom of the sea. In the twenty-minute artillery battle, five shells hit the superstructure of Dresden, two hit its horizontal deck, and the other hit the main armor belt. Among them, the most serious damage to it was the three shells hitting the top of the No. 2 turret, the fire command center at the top of the bridge and the secondary cannon turret on the left side of the No. 2 chimney.

At this point, Dresden not only lost one-third of its main artillery fire, but also lost its main command methods. Perhaps, the most regrettable thing is that it was not able to make several holes in the hull. After all, the time of the battle was really unfavorable. The ballistic angle of the shells fell was very large, and it was difficult to hit the hull directly. In addition, the Japanese commander was not easy to do so. In this case, he still commanded the ships and serpentine avoiding the water surface. Although the three Qing army gunboats had the upper hand, it was not easy to sink the opponent.

On the other hand, the artillery battle between the Tarzan and the Bolai has entered a fierce attack. The gunners on both sides rely on the brief light emitted by the Xiaoxue to increase their shooting accuracy. In this case, the two hostile ironclad ships seemed to be better at being beaten. The Tarzan hit at least five heavy shells of the Bolai; and one of them knocked down the opponent's No. 3 turret, and the other destroyed its sub-bridge.

The Bolai hit four shells on the opponent. Except for one of its No. 2 chimneys, the other three fell on the rear deck and three large holes were blown up in its hull. To Nagaki Yukijiro's regret, the Yama-class hull was very strong, and the design was taken into account the comprehensive survivability. These three shells did not cause damage to the steering mechanism.

When the battle was nearly two o'clock in the morning, the Japanese reinforcement fleet finally arrived from the southwest of the sea. Huge shells flew out of the cannon chamber, illuminating the sea with golden light - it was a flare!

Chen Zhaoqiang knew that if he continued to move on, and when the Japanese reinforcement fleet arrived, he would have to be eliminated. He was also a person who was about to break and ordered, "Hound the whistle, sing the lights, let's withdraw from the battle!"

When the Japanese main fleet was six nautical miles away from the Qing army's formation, the Taishan chose to avoid it. Two ten thousand characters and one Lega class did not give up and poured shells into the Dresden, and followed the flagship and left.

The Japanese reinforcement fleet did not know the situation of the enemy fleet, and did not dare to sacrifice their lives to chase the silent and dark sea. Both sides chose to avoid each other in a tacit understanding. A flash of lights, and the Japanese fleet began to turn and returned to Beipu all the way.

This night's encounter in the Jinqing Strait was indecisive, but when it comes to losses, Japan naturally lost more. A solar-class supply ship was sunk, and the personnel losses were still second. What's more important is that the materials loaded on the ship were all requested by Sheng Haizhou from the Ministry of War, and all contributed to the Sea Dragon King out of thin air. How could Sheng Haizhou not frown?

But in Sheng Haizhou's mind, this is not a big problem. With the current fleet's equipment, there is still enough inventory to fight a naval battle. What he is worried about is another thing, "What do you think this Qing fleet suddenly appeared in the strait at this time? Is it for reconnaissance, or is it for any other purpose?"

When the Japanese fleet returned to Imabepu, they held a combat meeting on the flagship Nara. The battle had just ended. The terrified Yukijiro Nagaki and Hirahachiro Togo also attended the meeting. "It is hard to say that they were sent to investigate." Hirahachiro Togo said, "If it was a reconnaissance, it would not be possible to go along the Hokkaido route. This would be meaningless. Not to mention conducting reconnaissance at such a time."

"...But if it is another purpose, is it..." Sheng Haizhou woke up the crew in his sleep and set off for emergency sailing. He was not in good spirits. After pondering for a long time, he suddenly frowned, got up and walked to the chart, took a look, and immediately guessed, "This is an act to block our way back!"

"Stop our way back?...The Chinese people have a big appetite. Do you think they can wipe out our Japanese navy?" Sheng Haizhou murmured to himself.

Although I figured out this section, the following arrangement tactics cannot be achieved overnight. After all, the warships used by the Chinese to intercept the return journey have already set off. I think the main fleet is not far away, right? "Okada Izo, Matsuura Kanejiro, Yoshimi Kenno-sei, accompanied by Teitaro, Hitano Hamagoro, Ani Yanzo, and Shiba Hongyoshi, you board the ship immediately and set out to the direction of the Hiraitan Strait. You must break the dreams of the Chinese and leave a lifeline for the main fleet! It depends on our fleet to defend the imperial kingdom! You must not lose it!"

"Hi!" Okada Izo was the first to stand up, bow and salute, and replied loudly, "For the sake of the imperial kingdom, we must break the Chinese's arrogant conception!"

"The remaining masters, including Yongjihengjun and Dongxiangjun, please follow me and move forward with me. Before the main force of the Chinese fleet arrives, we must open the route back to sail!"

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Chapter completed!