At 10:52 a.m., a minute after the Japanese battleships opened fire, the battlecruiser "Victory" opened fire again, this time not at the light cruiser "Aomori", but at the battleship "Fuso". The first salvo of the "Victory" hit the aft deck of the "Fuso". Immediately, a thunderbolt of flames rose from the "Fuso", and the flash of red explosion pierced the darkness, and even the bright moon hanging high in the sky was eclipsed.

Seeing that the enemy ship had been hit, the officers and men on the "Victory" could not help but cheer in unison.

The ** of this night war is finally coming.

"Victory" began to fire again, and the "Minquan" behind her also opened fire at this time, and after discovering the "Yamashiro" hidden behind the "Fuso", the "Minquan" removed the artillery fire from the "Fuso" and fired at the "Yamashiro", and the two Japanese battleships were not to be outdone, the two "multi-turret shrines" unprecedented in the history of Japanese naval shipbuilding began a ferocious salvo, and countless bright spots flew everywhere in the night sky, Captain Scott, the captain of the "Victory" who was charging at the time, recalled: " It was the most magnificent sight I had ever seen, with meteor-like cannonballs drawing arcs of death in the night sky, as if the huge hail of the apocalypse in the 'Apocalypse' was falling from the sky, stirring up a wall of water like a hill on the sea, and I held up my binoculars and looked at the two Japanese battleships that were constantly firing at us, and they were like two brightly lit trains speeding over the hill in the dark. …… Walls of water were almost unfallible in the vicinity of the Japanese fleet, and the deafening explosion made everyone lose their senses. ”

At this time, on the battleship "Fuso", Captain Masakichi Daisa Oshi witnessed the flames from the guns of two Chinese battle cruisers in the distance, reflecting the sky red, and his heart was full of shock.

At this time, the searchlight of the "Fuso" swept towards the "Victory", and Taijiro Nagata and his staff officers carefully inspected this tall battleship like a fire-breathing dragon with binoculars, and Taijiro Nagata carefully looked at the bridge of this giant ship, and finally became convinced that this was the latest "battleship" of the Chinese Navy.

At this time, all the Japanese ships were aimed at the "Victory", various shells of different calibers were fired at the battlecruiser, and the Japanese light ships fired a large number of torpedoes at the same time. But luck befell the "Victory" again, none of the torpedoes fired by the Japanese hit, and the three 356-mm shells fired by the "Fuso" were all blocked by the armor plate of the "Victory", and more than 20 shells of different calibers hit the superstructure of the "Victory", causing extensive but only superficial damage, many of the shells fired by the Japanese failed to explode, and more shells were directly shattered, and could not penetrate the armor plate of the "Victory" at all. Nevertheless, these superficial sabotages caused quite a few problems for the "Victory": the lines of part of the communication system were destroyed, and one of the artillery commanders was damaged.

The Japanese did not know that, unlike the battle cruisers of the European navies, the Chinese battlecruiser in front of them was extremely strong, such as the main armor belt of the "Victory" with a camber of 21 degrees, horizontal armor of 180 mm, and another 90 mm of deck armor, while the frontal armor of the turret reached an astonishing 460 mm, and the armor of the conning tower reached 420 mm at its thickest point. In a sense, the "Victory" should be classified more in the category of "fast battleships" than "battle cruisers".

As the first generation of Japanese "Super Crossbow" class battleships, the "Fuso" has a broadside armor belt of 305 mm at its thickest, a frontal turret armor of 305 mm, a turret top armor of 114 mm, a gun mount thickness of 203 mm, a dome armor of 76 mm, and a command tower armor of 350 mm at its thickest point. The "Fuso" is the product of the Japanese one-sided pursuit of firepower and neglect of protection, and the serious consequences caused by such a design will be fully exposed in this naval battle.

At this time, the "Victory" and "Fuso" fired at each other, the "Minquan" and the "Yamashiro" fought together, and the gunners of the "Victory" kept entering the relevant data into the rangefinder, and then soon, a huge shell flew towards the Japanese battleship. "Our fire control system and artillery are running very smoothly, as if it were a well-rehearsed firing exercise." Lieutenant General Li Jingxi was very satisfied with the performance of the gunners, "We quickly hit the Japanese. ”,

Soon, the main gun of the "Victory" again obtained firing control data, this time the data was unusually accurate. At this time, it was exactly midnight, and the "Victory" fired a new round of nine salvos at the "Fuso", and this round of volleys hit the center of the "Fuso", causing a huge explosion immediately.

The "Fuso" was completely drowned in a rain of bullets, and Captain Wei Tiancheng, the rangefinder officer on the "Shengli", observed that one of the six 356-mm twin-mounted main turrets of the Japanese battleship had been blown off by the shock wave from the explosion, and "a dark red fire appeared in the middle of the enemy ship, and then it became brighter and brighter." Soon, the "Victory" fired another volley, again accurately hitting the "Fuso". The explosion occurred again, this time the damage to the "Fuso" was extremely serious, another main turret was destroyed, several holes were pierced in the waterline, the rudder was jammed, a fire broke out on the ship's surface, and part of the water caused the hull to begin to roll to the port side, and smoke continued to rise.

Seeing that the flagship was so quickly set on fire, Aramura Nakago couldn't help but be surprised, at this time he didn't care about his own safety, and ordered another decisive attack, so the Japanese convoy turned back again and fired eight torpedoes at the "Victory", but all of them were lost. The course of the Japanese ship was directed at the "Victory". At this time, the Chinese direct guard ships made a mistake, and these warships opened a distance from the battle cruisers because of the evasion of artillery fire, so that the battle cruisers faced the impact of the Japanese ships alone at this time, and the only advantages of the Chinese battle cruisers at this time were themselves: high speed, strong firepower, no damage, heavy armor and well-trained crews. Li Jingxi did not care about the order to summon his own direct guard ships, but continued to maintain the attack on the Japanese battleships.

At this time, the shells fired from the remaining main guns of the battleship "Fusang" began to fly towards the "Shengli", and Captain Wei Tiancheng, the rangefinder, recalled: "Six white dazzling shells were fired from the turret of the enemy ship, and they seemed to float slowly towards us in the air, and then accelerated as they approached, becoming brighter and redder. It is worth mentioning that we were not afraid of being hit, but evaluated these shells with a professional eye. ”

Another rangefinder, Captain Xi Cheng'an, recalled: "Between the fires of our secondary guns, a large column of water was raised, and judging from the size of the water column, these were large-caliber shells, and the second row of shells was a typical Japanese pattern - they were fired too close, so my attention was all focused on the impact point of the third row of shells." At this time, I saw a smoke screen emitted by the Japanese warship, and the figure of the Japanese battleship began to blur. The Japanese destroyers tried to launch a torpedo attack, and in the direction of our starboard side, two Japanese destroyers appeared, but their firing position was poor, and despite this, the Japanese still fired torpedoes, and as just now, not a single torpedo hit the target, only one Japanese torpedo inexplicably exploded in the wake of the 'Victory', stirring up a large mushroom-shaped column of water. ”

Not long after, the Chinese direct escort ships, realizing that the battlecruisers were in danger, gathered again towards the flagship, and a total of 6 ships, 2 light cruisers and 4 destroyers, formed a standard textbook battle line, bombarding the rushing Japanese warships with all their side guns. Two battle cruisers also joined the bombardment with secondary guns. In fact, the battle cruisers did not use all their strength, and in order to save ammunition, the two giant ships used only half of the salvo.

Although the "Aomori" nimbly dodged left and right in the rain of bullets, and miraculously was only hit by a shell fired from the main gun of a Chinese light cruiser, the explosion of this shell still caused it a lot of damage, and the violent explosion caused the ship's ammunition to detonate, so that it had to turn around and flee the battlefield. The slower armored cruiser "Nisshin" was not so lucky, it was hit by various shells from 152 mm to 406 mm, at 2:52, the bridge of the "Nisshin" was directly hit by three main shells fired by the "Victory", including the chief and deputy captain, chief navigator, chief of mines, almost all of the main commanders were killed, and could only be taken over by the chief gunner, and other shells hit its boiler engine room, and for a time the warship immediately lost power and became a torch floating on the sea.

During the fierce battle between the "Shengli" and the "Fuso", the "Minquan" and the "Yamashiro" were also engaged in fierce battles with their main guns. The "Minquan" continued to fire nine salvos at the "Shancheng", two of which hit the target directly, and the "Shancheng" began to burn violently, but the "Shancheng" also caused some damage to the "Minquan" after returning fire, and the power system on the "Minquan" was partially interrupted, and one of the main turrets was stuck by shrapnel and could not operate, but the brave sailors quickly eliminated the fault. ,

"It's real hand-to-hand combat." A U.S. officer who served on the USS Civil Rights said, "There were shells flying everywhere, the explosions were deafening, but no one was afraid, all of them were holding their posts, one of our main turrets was hit by an enemy ship, and we stopped firing, and our firepower was reduced by a third, but after a while, it began to roar again, and at that moment, we suddenly found that another Japanese battleship had appeared......"

This time it was the Japanese battleship "Zhoufang" that appeared. It had been hiding behind the "Mountain City", but at this time it was forced out by several Chinese destroyers that suddenly appeared.

At 22:14, the destroyer "Ni" who was on guard spotted three rapidly approaching torpedo boats flashed in the shadow of the island in front of the left, and the "Ni" immediately opened fireThe ship was always in a state of tension. Just as the armored cruiser "Iwate" led three destroyers to drive away the Chinese torpedo boats and return to its own team, it was shelled by the "Yamashiro" as a Chinese ** ship, and a 356-mm shell hit the "Iwate", causing a fire and a large number of casualties on the ship, and the Japanese fleet was immediately in chaos.

Although the Japanese warships were not hit by torpedoes, the Chinese torpedo boats delayed and interfered with the actions of the Japanese fleet, and soon a torpedo fired by the Chinese torpedo boats hit the already wounded armored cruiser "Iwate". The Japanese warship immediately began to tilt, and soon the tilt reached 45 degrees, and the captain had to give the order to abandon the ship, but most of the Japanese sailors had no time to escape, and two minutes later, the old armored cruiser capsized and began to sink in the stern.

When the "Zhoufang" appeared in the field of vision of the Chinese sailors, the "Minquan" immediately adjusted its artillery fire, bombarding the "Shancheng" with two front main turrets and the "Zhoufang" with one rear main turret. It was the first Japanese battleship to lose in recent battles and the first Japanese battleship to be sunk by artillery since the Russo-Japanese War.

After destroying the "Zhoufang," the "Minquan" refocused all its firepower on the "Yamashiro," but at this time, due to poor sight and frequent smoke screens by Japanese destroyers, it was impossible to effectively aim and shoot. But at this time the Chinese light cruisers and destroyers rushed to help, two light cruisers and two destroyers appeared in front of the left side of the Japanese ships, and fired torpedoes at the Japanese fleet from the other direction, this time it was the turn of the Japanese destroyers to be mineed, and the Japanese destroyer "Ni" was hit by a torpedo, and suddenly the flames soared into the sky, "like a red-hot iron spear piercing into the water" made a "sizzling" sound, and quickly sank into the sea. In addition, the stern of the destroyer "Zaoxi" was also blown to pieces by a torpedo, and after a while, it spun and disappeared into the sea. As a result, the strength of the Japanese destroyer fleet was greatly reduced, and the remaining destroyers scattered in a hurry, at this time the Chinese Navy's heavy mine-mounted light cruiser "Haiyun" made a torpedo salvo at the "Yamashiro", and 5 torpedoes shot straight at the "Yamashiro", the "Yamashiro" could not dodge, and the rear of the port side was hit by a torpedo fired by the "Haiyun", the hull of the ship was suddenly exploded, and a large amount of sea water poured in, the "Yamashiro" began to tilt, and the captain Otani Koshiro Osa had to order to fill the two ammunition depots with water to restore balance, As a result, the guns below turret No. 3 could not be used, and the main turrets No. 1 and No. 2 in the bow of the ship could only attack the "Minquan", but fortunately the power of the "Yamashiro" was not damaged at this time, and it was still able to maintain sailing.

At 2:43 p.m., the Japanese fleet suffered heavy losses and its morale gradually began to slump, while the Chinese fleet became more and more courageous, with the "Victory" taking the lead and the "Minquan" following closely behind, continuing to fire at the Japanese ships. At this time, the Japanese fleet was again attacked by the Chinese destroyer fleet, which was ordered to come to support the six destroyers of the 5th Destroyer Squadron commanded by Admiral Deng Zhongwen, and the Chinese destroyers approached the Japanese destroyers at high speed, especially Colonel Deng Zhongwen, who was sitting on the destroyer "Broken Army", led two destroyers, the "Seven Kills" and the "Sky Wolf", to the close range of the Japanese ships, and fired a total of 12 torpedoes. Among them, the torpedo of the "Broken Army" once again hit the "Yamashiro", this time it was a mid-mine in the middle of the port side, and the communications in the "Yamashiro" were immediately interrupted, and the command fell into chaos. ,

After the torpedo was fired, the "Seven Kills", the "Broken Army" and the "Sky Wolf" did not return to their home, but changed course and began to shoot at the "Hishin" and "Aomori" floating on the water with their guns. At 3:15 a.m., the Chinese destroyers began to withdraw, and the "Seven Kills" fired its last torpedoes at the time of parting, sending the "Rijin" to the bottom of the sea.

After learning that the "Yamashiro" had been torpedoed, Taijiro Nagata realized that the defeat was a foregone conclusion, and he ordered the entire group to retreat south. The "Aomori" was still floating on the water, its boilers and engines were still functional, but the steering gear was damaged and flooded, and the rudder was locked. Nakago Aramura tried to save the "Aomori", but the water ingress of the "Aomori" became increasingly difficult to control, and the sailors were forced to fill the ammunition compartment with water as the fire spread to the ammunition compartment, but the water ingress worsened. At 3:27, the "Aomori" also sank. At this time, the crew of the Chinese destroyer, which was still waiting for rescue at sea, watched with great interest the final explosion of the "Aomori".

The Chinese fleet continued to maintain the momentum of the attack, at 3:49, the Chinese fleet's firepower concentrated on the "Fusang" in the smoke screen, and the "Fusang" was surrounded by uneven water columns, and one minute later, the Chinese light cruisers and destroyers gathered together again were all killed under the artillery fire of both warring sides, leaving dozens of torpedo tracks on the sea surface and then quickly withdrawing A torpedo fired by the light cruiser hit the waist, and the speed of the ship was greatly reduced, and the huge warship began to maneuver to the right, but it could no longer drive after a short distance.

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