Probably due to the strong wind, the dark clouds in the sky gradually began to dissipate, but the waves were bigger. The badly injured "Yamato" tilted so hard under the shaking of the huge waves that it seemed that the next wave could make it sink over.

Since the radar and communication systems had returned to normal, Rear Admiral Ugaki gave the order to evacuate, and just as the battleship was staggering and assembling in the waves, the heavy cruiser "Atago" suddenly sent a report that they were engaged with the Chinese fleet!

"There's a telegram from the 'Atago' that it is engaged with two battleships of China." An officer reported to Major General Ugaki.

"The wind and waves are too strong, their attack will not have any effect! Tell them to come back right away! Major General Ugaki said with some annoyance.

As soon as he thought of the torpedoes fired by the heavy cruiser Saymoto that had hit the battleship "Mino" and sent the wounded battleship "Kii" to the bottom of the sea, he was angry.

The successful experiment of the "93" type oxygen torpedo at the Wu Naval Factory indicates that the torpedo is more than 20 years ahead of the entire world level in terms of surname ability, and this is not an exaggeration. Specifically, the "93" type oxygen torpedo is 3 to 4 times the range of torpedoes of other countries, and the charge is 1.5 to 2 times that of other countries. The oxygen torpedo is the only new weapon in the 80-year history of the Navy that has been produced by relying on technological innovation. The navy regarded it as a treasure and used the oxygen torpedo as a decisive weapon in the decisive battle with the Chinese and American navies. However, in the Pacific War, the performance of oxygen torpedoes did not meet previous expectations.

Fundamentally, the oxygen torpedo is still a product of the deep-rooted doctrine of "big ships and big guns" in the Navy, and in his opinion, the ultra-long range of 40,000 meters makes the oxygen torpedo a means of attacking beyond the range of the enemy's battleship's main guns, and they dream of destroying their opponents outside the enemy's circle of fire and leaving themselves unscathed. From this point of view, I am too idealistic. Because this distance is much beyond the distance of the two sides. On the other hand, the Pacific War was already a completely new form of naval warfare, with traditional artillery warfare and torpedo warfare gradually being replaced by aviation warfare, and aircraft carriers replacing battleships as the masters of naval warfare. As a means of delivering firepower, the combat distance of the aircraft, the speed of maneuvering, and the flexibility of combat use are not comparable to those of oxygen torpedoes, and the large-scale lightning strike warfare that I envisioned is simply impossible to occur in this new type of warfare.

Although in the early days of the war, the ultra-long range and concealment of the "93" type oxygen torpedo, coupled with the fact that a number of elite troops trained by unconventional methods before the war, gave it a great advantage in night fighting, and the military lookout could spot the shadow of the ship 10,000 meters away with the naked eye in the dark night, and the torpedo and naval guns fired quite quickly and accurately, and when combined with the powerful torpedoes, the Chinese and US navies suffered a lot. However, these tactical advantages may determine the outcome of one or two naval battles, but they cannot turn the tide of the entire war, and the Chinese and American navies, with radar and tactical improvements, gradually overwhelmed the torpedo superiority of the Japanese army and grasped the initiative in night battles. At the same time, the oxygen torpedo also exposed some technical defects in practical application, such as easy self-detonation and other problems. As an effective weapon in naval warfare, the oxygen torpedo did play an important role in some naval battles, but judging from this "Dragon Triangle" naval battle, the idea of relying on it to achieve strategic victory was completely frustrated. This result is not due to the technical defects of the oxygen torpedo itself, or even to the technological progress of the Chinese Navy in radar and other aspects, but should be attributed to the lag of the strategic guiding ideology of the Navy and the change in the form of naval warfare.

And this time, because of the unpredictable huge waves of the "Dragon Triangle", the "93" oxygen torpedo actually made such a big oolong, how could it not make Major General Ugaki feel annoyed?

If it weren't for this "history-changing" lightning strike, the "Mino" super battleship would still be able to fight, and the outcome of this naval battle would probably have been different.

But at this time Rear Admiral Ugaki did not know that this would be the last time he received a report about these heavy cruisers.

The heavy cruiser fleet and the "Shinano" formation, which broke into the "Dragon Triangle," can be said to be a microcosm of the chaotic command of the combined fleet headquarters, because on the same battlefield, several unrelated units were used at the same time, and no commander was appointed to serve as a unified command, thus dooming the army to the final defeat.

The wind was high and the waves were strong, the sky was still cloudy, and it was pitch black all around. After completing the rendezvous, the heavy cruiser quickly followed the Chinese fleet. After the rain stopped, visibility became a little better, and radio communications and radar systems returned to normal, and Nobutake Kondo ordered the pursuit, with the "Atago" as the lead, and the "Chokai", "Myoko", "Haguro" and "Shima" behind, lined up in a single column and accelerated to continue the assault.

The heavy cruiser fleet sailed forward in formation, and there was a terrible silence on the sea, and the Chinese battleships seemed to disappear in an instant. Since the maritime warning radar on the heavy cruiser could not clearly identify the enemy ships, the officers and men of the Japanese were extremely nervously waiting for the start of the next battle.

Suddenly, the lookout of the "Atago" noticed a ship shadow flashing in the distance, and hurriedly reported: "Found the enemy's ship shadow!" 10 degrees away from me! 8000 meters! ”

As soon as the lookout's voice fell, Kondo Nobutake recognized the other party's identity.

That's two "Republican" class battleships!

In fact, the two battleships were the "Reading" and "Nation" that were wounded and fell behind due to excessive wind and waves.

After discovering the enemy ship, Nobutake Kondo ordered the attack.

At this time, the "Yoriki" was the first to discover the Tsumoto fleet, first sounded the horn for warning, and then opened fire, and the heavy cruiser began to assault, and when it was about 12,800 yards away from the target, Nobutake Kondo ordered a smoke screen to be cast, and turned the rudder to fire torpedoes. His own ship, the Atago, and its successors, Chokai and Myoko, were aimed at Yoriki, and Shima and Haguro were aimed at the Minok.

At a distance of 10,000 yards, the heavy cruiser fired 12 torpedoes at two Chinese battleships in less than two minutes, then turned to the left and withdrew at high speed under the cover of a smoke screen.

The battleship "Nation" also discovered the enemy, and the captain Peng Chunhua immediately ordered to prepare for evasion. Shortly after the "Minnation" spotted the torpedo track at a 40-degree bearing, the searchlights of the two Chinese battleships focused on the vanguard ship "Atago" in the smoke screen and opened fire. The "Nation" made an emergency rudder after spotting the incoming mines, and with a sharp turn, the huge hull also tilted to the left, and the torpedo finally passed 5 to 6 meters in front of the bow.

"I said I did a good job!"

Peng Chunhua ordered an urgent turn of the rudder to the right 90 degrees and began shelling, but the line of sight was poor, and the ship frequently set off smoke screens, which could not effectively aim and shoot. In order to avoid the torpedo, Peng Chunhua ordered to turn back to the original route. And at this moment, the heavy cruiser again began a long-range torpedo attack.

"When the course was restored, there were suddenly another torpedoes on the port side, and there seemed to be about 10 of them. Although the visibility was low, we were able to see clearly due to the light stirred up by the wake wave of the torpedo. Peng Chunhua recalled, "The situation was very dangerous, and we had to turn to evasion again, which in turn affected the shelling of enemy ships." But the waves helped us, and several torpedoes suddenly disappeared under the crash of the waves. And at this very moment, our main guns hit the enemy ship. ”

"Atago" and "Chokai" were shot almost simultaneously. The port side of the engine room of the "Atago" was hit by a 406-mm super-heavy bomb and immediately lost power. The "Chokai" exploded when it was bombarded by the main guns of the "Nation," and it made a "snorting" sound like a piece of red-hot iron thrown into the water, and sank rapidly. Immediately after that, the "Myoko" was hit again under the front main gun, and the bow of the ship was cut off immediately, and it could only sail at a low speed of about 12 knots. Shortly after, the aft port side of the "Haguro" was hit by a shell fired from the main gun of the "Reading" and had to fill two ammunition depots with water, and the two main turrets were unusable and barely able to keep sailing.

At this time, only the heavy cruiser "Shima" was not hit, and although the "Atago" was more seriously injured this time, he still had no intention of retreating, and he sent a telegram to the main fleet: "Urgent battle report No. 2, our ship intercepted two enemy battleships, and two of our ships were drifting after being hit by enemy artillery, but it did not hinder the battle. Request reinforcements. His report clearly did not match the reality, but it is unclear why he did it.

After repelling the attack of the heavy cruiser, the "Reading" took the lead, followed by the "Nation" and continued to sail north. About 20 minutes after the previous attack, the heavy cruiser Morimoto caught up again.

The uninjured "Shima" drove to the launch distance on the east side of the Chinese battlefleet, and as the waves gradually subsided, the heavy cruisers fired a total of 14 torpedoes under the cover of dense fog. Among them, the torpedo fired by the "Shima" hit the middle of the port side of the "Reading", reducing its speed to 5 knots at once, and it took several minutes to recover. The "Reading" issued the call sign "Mine in this ship", and this call sign allowed the "Reading" to finally avoid the fate of destruction.

The "Myoko" and "Haguro", which followed suit, also fired 9 torpedoes in about 7 minutes, but unfortunately none of them hit. After the launch, several heavy cruisers were not in a hurry to return home, but changed course and began to shoot at the "Reading Power" floating on the water with their guns. At this moment, the "Nation" suddenly began to turn around, and a fierce salvo dispersed the heavy cruiser.

Although the view was still poor, the officers and men of the heavy cruiser could still see flares in the distance like fireworks and the Chinese battleships burning "like molten iron furnaces" in the skyrocketing flames. The hull of the "Reading" seems to be constantly exploding, and the mast seems to have begun to collapse due to the fire.

But at this time, I didn't know that the next moment was their destruction.

He said that his telegram for help did not receive a response, but the Chinese battleship received timely support.

"The 6th cruiser is coming."

In the smoke-filled bridge of the "Reading Power", a staff officer coughed and handed a copy of the telegram to the ship's commander, Colonel Du Kun.

"It's Lao Li, they're coming quickly!" Du Kun took the telegram and glanced at it, and smiled bitterly, "I'm afraid I owe them a favor this time." ”

At this time, the main force of the 6th Chinese cruiser, 6 large cruisers of the "Zodiac" class had already appeared on the radar screen of the "Reading".

In the commander tower of the flagship "Yinhu", the radar officer stared at the display screen, and the formation of the army was already displayed on the screen.

"As soon as the fleet is within 20,000 yards, it will start firing." Rear Admiral Li Xianyang, commander of the fleet, said in a deep voice.

Although Chu Yang ordered the cruiser fleet not to enter the "Dragon Triangle," because he had lost communication with the main fleet for a long time, Li Xianyang, who was worried about the safety of the main fleet, gathered six large cruisers to enter the "Dragon Triangle" to search for the whereabouts of the main fleet because he had lost communication with the main fleet for a long time.

After entering the "Dragon Triangle", the Chinese cruiser fleet also encountered terrible winds and waves and whirlpools, and lost its way for a time, but fortunately, this fleet was composed of large cruisers of the "Zodiac" class with a displacement of nearly 30,000 tons.

Soon after the Chinese cruiser fleet entered the "Dragon Triangle," the storm gradually subsided, and the once dysfunctional radar system and radio communications were restored, enabling them to successfully get in touch with the main fleet, and after receiving the news of the attack on the battleships "Reading Power" and "Minzu" that had fallen behind, they rushed to the rescue as soon as possible.

At this time, the formation of the Chinese cruiser fleet was a single vertical formation, with the flagship "Yinhu" taking the lead, followed by the "Maotu", "Chenlong", "Sisnake", "Wuma" and "Weiyang".

The heavy cruiser discovered these new huge shadows, and the acting captain of the "Myoko", Mitani Nagakiyo, was the first to spot the Chinese battleship that appeared on the starboard side, and immediately ordered to open fire. The Chinese cruiser fleet advanced under the approaching column of water and calmly occupied a good launch position. Instantly, a huge column of water began to rise around the Myoko. Standing on the bridge of the battleship "Reading", Captain Du Kun looked back, and in the darkness in the distance, one dazzling fireball after another flashed out one after another, which was extremely spectacular.

"Fire!" Captain Mitani commanded loudly in a deafening loud noise, and with his order, the four 203-mm front guns of the "Myoko" began to aim at the distant flash, and fired back as best they could. The "Haguro" was also surrounded by a column of water at this time, and the acting captain Kazuo Fujimoto also gave the order to "shoot at the flash target".

The final ** of the "Dragon Triangle" naval battle was finally sung, and countless bright spots flew in the night sky, and Major General Li Xianyang, who was charging ahead at that time, recalled clearly afterwards: "This is the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. "The vicinity of the fleet stirred up walls of water that barely fell, and the deafening explosion almost made everyone lose their senses. The main force of the Chinese cruiser, six large cruisers of the "Zodiac" class, lined up in battle and bombarded these remaining remnants with heavy broadside artillery fire.

These large cruisers are all equipped with observation and sighting optical equipment: two advanced "Zeiss" optical 10-meter baseline shooting commanders and two "Nord" unified shooting commanders, and after the refit in 1938, one air search radar, one sea search radar, two main gun fire control radars, three anti-aircraft fire control radars, two main gun shooting commanders, four secondary gun shooting commanders, 10 40-mm anti-aircraft gun automatic controllers, and two ballistic computers. With these advanced equipment, the Chinese gunners were empowered by the extraordinary accuracy of their bullets.

At the orders of the captains, these large cruisers turned their heavy turrets, raised their 280 mm barrels, and were the first to fire 280 mm armor-piercing shells. The first launch of the Chinese cruiser successfully caught the "Myoko" and observed an explosion at the target. The cruiser "Yinhu" then fired a volley about every 40 seconds. Around the time of the second and third salvos, the salvos of the "Uto", "Chenlong", "Snake", "Wuma" and "Miyang" also began, and they waited for the best time to attack.

Just as the "Yinhu" was firing, the heavy cruiser "Shima" suddenly rushed towards the Chinese fleet. Torpedoes were fired at the "Reading" and "Nation". At this time, "Myoko" and "Haguro" had been hit by various shells fired by Chinese cruisers, "Myoko" was first hit by a 280-mm shell between the starboard anti-aircraft guns, and soon another 280-mm shell hit the right side of the No. 3 turret, and soon after a shell hit the port engine room in the middle, the engine stopped and caused a fire, within 5 minutes the "Myoko" was hit by bullets one after another and could not resist, and after firing 4 torpedoes at the Chinese battleship in the distance, the smoke screen finally began to turn the rudder and flee, However, at this time, the "Myoko" was again fatally attacked, and the three 280-mm shells of the "Chenlong" hit the bridge directly, and almost all the main commanders, including the chief and deputy captains, chief navigators, and chief mines, were killed, and the gunnery Changbaishan Shaozo became the supreme commander. And the nimble "Shima" dodged left and right, miraculously only being hit by a dud shot from a Chinese cruiser, causing a failure of the steering gear.

(To be continued)