.The e-book download function is suspended! It is expected to be completed by next week!

The 43rd time to control the sea power until the end of the battle, the Japanese army's damage control team was unable to cut off the bent and deformed armor and allow the turret to rotate freely.

Three minutes later, the Yuanzi-class ironclad ship taught Nagasaki a second and third fierce lessons. The first shell landed on the left side of the commander's bridge of the enemy ship. Although it could not penetrate the armor as thick as 445 mm, it hurt the commander's bridge and the officers and soldiers on the upper and lower decks at that time.

Gaben Wuyang was so shaken by the huge vibration that he couldn't stand steadily. He fell on the deck. When he stood up, his forehead hit a three-inch hole. Blood flowed down one side of his cheeks and fell down his chin on his white navy uniform. "Sir?"

Gaben Wuyang waved away the medical officer who was about to bandage him with his hand, and waved to Dashanyan, "Dashanjun? Please come to me."

Dashanyan was stunned. Gaben Wuyang's voice was very calm and peaceful, and he seemed to feel no pain at all, "Hi?"

"Mr. Dashan, I now order you to abandon the ship immediately!"

“Eh?”

"We lost this battle. But Japan did not lose. I hope you can keep your useful body and work hard for the future rise of the Empire."

"Sir, this is not possible!" Dashanyan's first reaction was to refuse, "Even if he wants to abandon the boat, he wants you to be the first..."

"Don't say stupid things!" Gaben Wuyang shouted, "Japan's future is all on the shoulders of a younger generation of naval people like you. Are you willing to sink with the fleet and don't want to contribute more strength to the imperial country?"

"grown ups?"

"Mr. Dashan, no matter how difficult it is to travel, please live! If you were not at that time, all those who were lucky enough to survive this war must remember that your life was exchanged for the lives of countless Japanese naval soldiers. For them, you must not give up, and live bravely! Only with life can we have the seeds of our Japan to continue to become prosperous and strong. For the sake of the imperial kingdom and for Japan, Dongxiang, please save these seeds!"

At 9:31, the Nagasaki disappeared on the sea. There were 360 ​​Japanese sailors who sank along with it. As for the Dashanyan who had taken the order to drop the ship early, they could not run far away and captured prisoners for the Qing army who had been cruising outside the battlefield.

On the other side of the sea, the Japanese ships Sakura Xue and the Longdao fought against the Wan Zhang and Wansu of the Qing army respectively. The battle scene was a different look.

The Wan Zhang and the Wan Su were recently transferred from the Nanyang Navy to Xiaguan to participate in the battle. The new ships were also new. The pilots of the two ships were Huang Jianxun and Lin Taizeng, both from Weihai Naval Academy. However, it was early and late. This time, the naval battle debut of Huang and Lin!

Once the battle began, the two of them made the same idea: they were sure to win this battle. The most important thing was how to spend the minimum cost and send the enemy ship into the depths of the sea with the lowest casualties and losses.

At 8:07, the naval battle began. By 8:12, the Wan Zhang achieved the first victory. The shells landed on the left side of the Sakura No. 1 turret, and penetrated horizontal armor, and eventually exploded in the armor wrapped in the ammunition compartment. Because the Japanese army did not use an integral turret on the warship purchased this time, the protective armor of the ammunition compartment was very thick, and after the shell exploded, it only injured several officers and soldiers in the ammunition compartment, and did not cause any greater damage. On the contrary, if the integrated turret was used, this shell would be enough to make the entire turret lose its combat capability.

At 8:30, when the shelling was in the twelfth round of volleys, Wan Zhang gained two, and the most important result. A shell accurately hit the top of the Sakura Bridge. After penetrating armor with a thickness of less than 200 mm, it destroyed the firepower command center, and then penetrated the upper and lower decks of the Luojing Bridge, and finally exploded in the Navigation Bridge. The Navigation Bridge is the most important command center on the battleship. Regardless of whether it is a flagship or not, the captain is usually inside the Navigation Bridge.

The shell directly killed the captain of the enemy ship and killed more than a dozen officers, including the first lieutenant, causing the Sakura Snow to lose unified command. In addition, after the main fire control center was destroyed, the three turrets on the ship could only fight alone.

The second shell hit the lower edge of the front armor of the No. 3 turret, bounced open and opened the open deck, and finally exploded after hitting the horizontal armor. Although it was not able to penetrate the horizontal armor and it was not able to enter the ammunition compartment, the explosion of the shell caused several pieces of horizontal armor to curl and deform, and stuck the turret, making it unable to rotate and unable to aim at the target, which was equivalent to losing combat capability.

Not far from Wanzhang, the situation of Wansu was not very optimistic. The Japanese artillery fire fell very well. Soon after the war started, five shells were hit on the right side of the hull of Wansu. Huang Jianxun could only pour water into the cabin on the left, causing the hull to sink nearly four meters. As a result, as long as the speed was close to twenty knots, its hull would be flooded by sea water. Fortunately, the Wansu was equipped with a ** generator, so it could provide sufficient power for the water pump.

By nine o'clock in the morning, the battle lasted for nearly fifty minutes. The Wansu and the enemy ships against each other were also brave, as if they were to see who could persist more and not be afraid of being beaten, pouring shells at the opponent. As for all the ideas of preserving their strength before the war, they had long known where Huang Jianxun had thrown them.

Half a minute later, two hostile ships exploded and caught fire at the same time!

Like two giants fighting to the death, while fighting all their strength, both sides paid a heavy price.

The explosion point of the Longdao is located in front of the bridge. The ammunition depot of the No. 2 turret was definitely hit. The high-temperature and high-pressure gas emerging along the bullet channel not only killed more than 20 gunners in the turret in an instant, but also threw the armor plate on the top of the turret into the air. The debris produced by the explosion directly hit the bridge behind, causing dozens of officers and soldiers, including the captain and the chief mate, to be killed and killed.

More seriously, the explosion point is at the bottom of the hull, not only below the waterline, but also close to the keel! Even though the warship did not break into two parts, after the violent explosion, the Longdao's combat career came to an end.

The explosion point of the Wansu is located behind the rear bridge. It is obviously that the ammunition depot of its No. 3 turret No. 3 was directly hit by shells, and the shell exploded in the ammunition depot. Then it detonated the shells and injection drugs in the ammunition depot. From the fireballs generated by the explosion, it can be inferred that the explosion point must be at the bottom of the ammunition depot, which is where the launching drugs are placed. Obviously, the destructive power of the explosion of the injection drug far exceeds that of the shells, which not only caused the entire turret to be blown away, but also caused the open deck and horizontal armor of the hull to be completely broken, and even caused the hull to be broken.

The damage caused by this gun was undoubtedly extremely serious. According to the subsequent investigation, the shells fired from the Changdao broke through the main armor belt of the Wansu. After penetrating the bulkhead of the three-layer isolation cabin, they penetrated the armor with a thickness of more than 200 mm wrapped outside the turret, and entered the second layer of the ammunition compartment. After hitting the bullet channel, they changed direction and entered the lowest level of the ammunition compartment, and finally exploded. This was a shot that can only be described as a ghost!

In addition to the break of the hull, the four propulsion shafts of Wansu were all blown up, losing all power. The situation of the Longdao was also miserable, and it could barely drag its heavy body back and forth and slowly approach the Longdao.

Ding Ruchang stood in the bridge and watched the fierce battle on the sea from afar. The Nagasaki and Masao had been sunk. The only three surviving enemy ships were just struggling to death. Although the Wansu was seriously injured, it had no big impact on the overall war. We were sure to win this battle!

A smile overflowed from the lips, and someone around him suddenly said, "Sir, the lookout sentry returns, an enemy fleet is attacking our army in the southwest."

"Oh?" Ding Ruchang was stunned for a moment, "Do you know which fleet it is?"

"The distance is too far and I can't see clearly, but it's certain that the person who came was the Japanese fleet."

"Come from... Nagasaki Port?"

"may be."

"Where is the distance?"

“There are about 19,000 meters left.”

"Shoot the whistle and notify the friendly ships to kill the enemy ships in front of you as soon as possible, and then concentrate on dealing with the enemy ships coming."

This time, the main Japanese fleet departed from Nagasaki Port was Akizumi as the flagship, accompanied by the Itsujima in the same four-scenery series, as well as Torihiro, Atago, Yaeyama, and the British Queen-class ironclad ship Victoria, which was leased from Australia. The command was Zhongtiangao.

Gaben Wuyang was ordered to go north and temporarily hand over the command of the fleet to Zhongtiangao. He has two tasks. The first is to organize manpower as soon as possible to repair other ships such as the Shimashima, which were the most seriously injured in the naval battle. The other is to pay close attention to the movements of the Chinese fleet anchored in Xiaguan and other places through telegrams. Once the other party is found to have the "" movement, he will immediately follow up and look for fighter jets appropriately to attack the enemy.

This is a very bad order: he has no combat plan or intention to fight. He only requires him to follow the Qing fleet and find fighter jets, and how can he operate? But Zhongtian Gao knew that with his current naval power, it would be difficult to have a face-to-face collision with the Qing army. If the commander left such a battle, it would be a helpless choice.

I heard from Gaben Wuyang that there were nine gunboats coming from the United States this time, and five were allocated to the Admiral’s Office of the West Navy. If these five ships could be brought back to Nagasaki safely, the naval power they owned would be comparable to the Qing army.

Waiting for several days at Nagasaki Military Port, on the morning of July 6, news came back from the Japanese intelligence department located in Naofang: There were Qing warships coming from the southwest, carrying officials from the inland and other ships. After that, the Chinese ships held a military meeting on the flagship, which was supposed to be discussing a combat plan against the imperial state.

By the afternoon of this day, further news came back: the Qing army warships had already begun to make the final preparations before departure. I believe that at the latest it will go to sea in the morning and even in the morning of July 7th, and the specific route and direction of the journey are currently unknown.

Zhongtiangao received the telegram and carefully calculated that Gaben Wuyang was not in Hong Kong, and all military mobilizations had to be decided by himself. This is not as good as before. Every move is related to the overall future of the Kansai Navy, and there should be no deviation.

After calculating, Zhongtian Gao finally made a judgment based on his own perception. The Qing army set out to leave the port with only two goals, either attacking Tokyo or attacking Kobe. However, the journey to attack Tokyo was too far, and Yokosuka had the most powerful shore defense fortification group on the Japanese archipelago. If the Qing army wanted to attack and take it down, it would undoubtedly be a dream without the full dispatch of the main fleet of the North and South Navy! In this way, the opponent's attack focus would be revealed.

To determine the direction of the enemy's advance, Zhongtiangao issued an order in the name of the General General of the West Navy's Governor's Office: At 5 o'clock in the afternoon on July 6, the entire fleet set off from Nagasaki Military Port and at the right time to fight the Qing army on the sea.

From Nagasaki to Kyushu Island and then to Shikoku Island, it was three or five hundred nautical miles further than the route taken by the Qing army. It was not until after 9:00 the next morning, when it appeared on the sea surface about 10 nautical miles of the battle between the Chinese and Japanese fleets.

Both sides discovered the existence of enemy ships at the beginning. The Poyang Lake led the Zhenyuan, Fuyuan, Leihe, and Lei Qiao slowly turned the bow of the ship and met it.

The Japanese commander Nakatian Taka also issued an order as soon as possible, headed by the flagship Akizumi, and the three ironclad ships of the Victoria and Itsujima followed behind him; Torihiro, Atago, and Yaeyama, three first-class gunboats, each speeding up the ship and rushing over.

The Japanese ship was seriously damaged in the Battle of Xiaguan in early June, especially the Itsujima, one of the Four Scenic Ships, after barely returning to the dock of Nagasaki Port, the hull had already inflowed more than 5,000 tons. If it weren't for the help of friendly ships, they would have almost sank to the bottom of the sea. When emergency repairs were officially started, the degree of damage to the hull was even more surprising: The Itsujima was hit by no less than 22 175mm caliber shells in the battle, and the combat distance was relatively close, so the main damage was concentrated on the horizontal deck and superstructure. About 35% of the horizontal armor needed to be replaced, as well as several secondary gun turrets, main gun body, etc.

In order to repair the damaged large iron armored ship as soon as possible, Gabe Wuyang not only mobilized all the workers from the Nagasaki Port Naval Shipyard, but also dispatched hundreds of fleet officers and soldiers, as well as a group of workers originally participated in the construction of the ship to participate in the repair of the warships. Gabe Wuyang even personally supervised the maintenance work at the shipyard and dock for half a month. By the third day of July, the Izumo was finally repaired as before - but this repair was limited to the firepower system and power. Because the materials and equipment were not yet complete, the Izumo only had 80% of the power output at normal times.

At 9:57, the main fleets of China and Japan opened fire at a distance of 10,300 meters from the other side, and the naval battle broke out instantly.

#c...

More to, address
Chapter completed!