Even in the midst of a torrential rain, the sound of 'ready for battle' was so loud that it resounded throughout the fleet. ⊕ thick columns of black smoke rose from the chimneys, and the stokers in the belly of the warship were increasing the fire of the boilers, closing the boiler hatches, and using strong pressure ventilation to store enough capacity in the boilers so that the air pressure would not drop when it was most needed in the coming battle.

The gun emplacements were already protected by sandbags and coal bags, the decks were sprinkled with non-slip sand, and every piece of wood on board had been removed, including the survival boats. At the sound of 'ready for battle', many sailors lay down on the fore deck in raincoats, each of them carrying a bag of propellant - in the artillery battle, the guns need to fire quickly, but the packets must not be piled up on the deck, so they can only carry a pack of propellant each, and lie on the deck at certain intervals. But even if they were lying down, once the deck was hit, the sailors near the bombing point would be killed or wounded, and looking at the raindrops in the sky, all the sailors' lips were constantly shaking, and they were all praying.

After the confusion of the last battle, the people on the ship gradually quieted down, only the voice of the first mate of the guns on the mast echoed in the microphone, and with his voice, the breathing of the men in the command tower became smaller, and no one talked anymore; In the main gun turret, with each of his reports, the gunner lowered the gauge by a minute, and there was no sound of breathing here, only the whining of the pumping machine and the exhaust fan.

Under the command of Vice Admiral Moffett, the fleet was changed from a column to a horizontal formation, with the Haiqi Hairong on the left and the Hairong on the left and the right on the right, sandwiching the merchant ships in the middle. The flotilla galloped northward at eighteen knots in order to get away from the Kashima. This battleship with a displacement of 16,400 tons. There are two 12-inch guns, four 10-inch main guns, and 12 6-inch secondary guns. As long as he approaches, the fleet will surely die; And in the process of the flotilla moving away from the Kashima. The Shintaka and Tsushima approached from the east and west sides of the flotilla, and the combined power of the two light cruisers, each with six six-inch guns, was beyond the firepower of the fleet, and their approach was nothing more than an attempt to get within range of the six-inch guns and damage any of the three ships of the fleet. In such a situation, Vice Admiral Moffett no longer cared what Beijing's order was, he looked at the two light cruisers that were approaching, and had already ordered the enemy ships to open fire when they entered the firing range, and the weak ones could not seize every opportunity. Then all of them will be buried at the bottom of the sea.

The warship pulsated slightly with the rhythm of the engine, and the Ming-style four-clawed yellow dragon flag, which was different from the previous Qing Dynasty, fluttered high in the wind and rain. The Japanese cruiser approached with the slogan 'Stop immediately', while the Haiqi responded with 'Approach, fire'. Between the tension between the two sides, Lieutenant General Moffitt, who felt the inevitability of the naval battle, suddenly began to tidy up his military appearance, and after he only straightened his whole body, he smiled at Cheng Biguang and Wu Fan on the side: "Sue sù children, the time has come to pay loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor!" ”

The Americans were not aware of the truth about China, but the banner he said 'Loyal to the Emperor' was still beaten out by the signalman of the Haiqi, and the morale of the sailors was completely shocked when he read this encouragement. The officers are different. But the situation was already a thousand points, and the sneer on the corner of Lin Baoyi's mouth had not completely subsided, and the main gun behind the Haiqi let out an angry roar, and 116 kilograms of eight-inch shells were shot out. On the mast, one of the two impact timers arranged by Lieutenant General Moffett pressed the stopwatch, staring at the direction in which the shell flew and waiting for the landing point, ten seconds later. The water jet from which the shell splashed into the sky rose into the sky, but the shell landed too close. It was at least 800 meters away from the Japanese ship Tsushima.

This is actually a mistake in ranging, and this British-made Pakistani rangefinder is not a first-class product. Although the rainstorm stopped, the remaining rain still hung in the sky like a curtain, hazy like a layer of fog. This situation made the first mate of the guns, Pan Wenzhi, angry, and after correcting it, he shouted again in a sharp voice, "Rear main gun, test firing target, sixteen sections, left angle, test firing one!" Distance seven thousand one hundred. ”

"Rear main gun, test firing target, sixteen sections, left angle, test firing one! Distance seven thousand one hundred. Pan Wenzhi's voice was repeated by the herald and passed to the rear main gun turret. Next to it, a clock-like disc was held in the hands of another sailor, with the clock pointing to seven and the minute pointing to one, to prevent a mistake in reading.

“…… Test firing target, sixteen sections, left angle, test firing one! Distance seven thousand one hundred. "The gunner in the turret repeated the order, and in the shout of the secondary gun Ben 'adjusted', as the gun Ben Yang Deji fired, the eight-inch main gun shook suddenly, and the cruiser's anger erupted again.

Born two hundred and seventy nautical miles east of Wenzhou, the record of the Battle of the East China Sea is from the second year of Shenwu [In order to avoid ..., the following will be marked with the year number in the book, if there is any inconvenience, I hope to understand!] Beginning at 5:23 a.m. on August 23, in the face of the interception of the Japanese cruisers, the Haiqi opened fire first, but the first two guns were fired in the wind and waves. At this time, the Tsushima and Shintaka Yoshi, who had entered the range of the six-inch naval guns, also began to shoot, and the targets of both ships were the Kaiqi, and the Kashima behind was also trying to pursue, trying to close the distance to within 10,000 meters of the main gun. Unlike the last passive evasion, this time Hairong did not have any mechanical problems, and the three main guns also began to fire at full force when the Haiqi was test-fired, but it was aimed at the Xingao to the east.

Forty-five kilograms of six-inch shells fell around the Haiqi, and the splashing water hit the sailors' hands and faces violently, causing pain. At 5:29 a.m., a shell finally landed on the outside of the command tower, and although the generals had plugged their ears with cotton, the sound of shrapnel from the shells hitting the six-inch armor of the command tower still reverberated the eardrums.

At 5:34, another shell hit the main gun in front of the Haiqi, and the gunner Huang Tianyou and several gunners around him were instantly pierced into bloody people by shrapnel, and the hot blood with body temperature splashed the faces of the people, and the front main gun suddenly fell silent. After the news of the front main gun being hit reached the command tower, without waiting for Lieutenant General Moffett to order, Cheng Biguang, whose eyes were already red, jumped up tremblingly and said loudly: "Immediately!" Substitution now! Right away! Fire now! Yuan Peizhuo! Yuan Peizhuo! Yuan Peizhuo! ”

Yuan Peizhuo was taught by the Haiqi on the gun, and at this time, the front main gun was hit, and Cheng Biguang thought of this person without thinking. Just as he was shouting, Yuan Peizhuo, the gunners who heard the sound, had already rushed to the foredeck with a few sailors. Remove the wounded corpses and work with the sailors to extinguish the fire ignited by shells. Five minutes later, the front main gun began to fire again.

Unlike the small wind and waves in the Philippine Sea, when the shells of the Haiqi were all missed, Moffett was estimating the hit rate of both sides, and after some silent calculations, he felt that if he did not get closer to the Tsushima, he would not be able to hit the enemy ship in another half an hour; But if it gets closer, if the Tsushima starts using armor-piercing shells, then its own fragile power system is likely to be damaged by a hit. Once the Haiqi is forced to be reduced, the end will be tragic. To be close or not to be close, that's a question. When he hesitated, at 5:45 another sixteen-inch shell struck the chimney of the Haiqi, and after the shell touched the upper part of the front chimney, it exploded violently, and the upper half of the chimney was blown up, and the black smoke protruding from the boiler immediately filled the whole ship.

"Left rudder forty-five." Lieutenant General Moffett finally made up his mind to approach the Tsushima in order to wound or sink it.

"Left rudder forty-five!" The driver, Ben Zheng Chouxiong, repeated the order loudly. The signal chief also hoisted a signal flag in accordance with this order to indicate the flotilla to turn left.

On the cruiser Tsushima, the captain of the ship, Shusan Miwa, immediately saw that the Haiqi was turning left, and he muttered, "Do you want to fight hard?" Right away. The rudder turned left and kept a distance from the ship. ”

Turning to the left and the enemy ship followed to the left, Vice Admiral Moffett's attempt to get closer failed, and he immediately ordered the driver to turn the rudder back due north. After the Haiqi was hit again, he looked at Wu Fan, the political commissar of the submarine force, and asked loudly, "When will your swordfish be able to get to the end?" ”

The maximum degree of the surface of the submarine can reach nineteen knots. But it is impossible for Wu Fan to reveal the highest degree of submarines, and the sixth group of submarine formations already has problems with the main engines of two submarines. The specific operational arrangements were as follows: The flotilla first walked in the direction of due north for 40 minutes, then turned left 90 degrees and walked due west for 40 minutes; while the flotilla was tossing and turning, the five submarines took 45 degrees west-north from the point of separation as their course, and sailed in a straight line to the place where the flotilla would arrive in 80 minutes and waited. Therefore, the submarine formation could calmly obtain a firing angle to sink and damage several Japanese ships. The plan was simple, but now that it has only been more than thirty minutes, the Haiqi has been hit seven times, can it really be delayed until fifty minutes later?

Wu Fan, who knew that the submarine would definitely arrive at the preset position in advance, looked at everyone's anxious faces, nodded and said, "They will definitely arrive early." Mr. Vice Admiral, we can turn left now, but we must pay attention to the course without deviation, if the Japanese ships do not enter the ambush circle, they will not have a firing position, and it will be difficult to swing the effect. ”

"I understand! I understand! Lieutenant General Moffett shouted loudly to the rumbling of artillery. I know where those swordfish will be waiting for us, and we will definitely take the Japanese into their ambush circle! He looked at his pocket watch again, and seeing that the time had come, he ordered to turn left again, "Ninety on the left side, two hundred and seventy on the course!" ”

"Ninety on the left side, twenty-seven on the sail!" The driver, Ben Zheng Chou Xiongye, shouted loudly.

With the movement of the flagship, the fleet turned to the west completely, and the Haiqi made a move relative to cutting a T-shaped prefix in front of the Tsushima, while the Hairong on the east side of the fleet lost its firing position because of the left turn of the two main guns in front of it, and only the fifteen-centimeter main gun behind was still fighting against the trailing Xingao.

"The people of China are running away!" The captain of the Shindaka, Kobayashi Kenzo Nakasa, shouted happily, the target of the Shindaka is the same as the Tsushima, it is the flagship of the Shina fleet, the Haiqi, and the three main guns of the Hairong without artillery fire interference have an extremely high hit rate, and the shells hit the Shindaka one after another, and now the main gun loses its firing angle before it turns left, and the pressure on the people on the Shindaka is suddenly relaxed.

Rear Admiral Kazuhachiro, commander of the Third Fleet, who was on the Shintaka, agreed with the judgment of the captain Kenzo Kobayashi, but the chief of staff of the fleet, Iida Hisa, was puzzled by the actions of the Kaiqi, and he asked the radio liaison officer next to him, "Does the Shina Navy have ships in the western waters?" ”

"Your Excellency, the Hai Chip and Haichen of the China Navy have already gone to the Philippine Sea." Before the liaison could answer, the captain Kenzo Kobayashi spoke first. "There will be no warships coming to support. I think our biggest problem is how to stop the merchant ship from sinking. ”

The Sino-Japanese war had already started, and the Japanese Navy Ministry did not care whether it was a storm or not, and directly sank the warship in China. Capturing the hydraulic press was the best option, which is why there were no shells fired at the lieutenant general's merchant ship for half a day of fighting.

"But why should they go west?" Chief of Staff Iida Hisashi Grande pondered, "If it's me commanding. Then I'm going to figure out how to keep the fleet going until dark......"

"They probably want to sink a little closer to the Great 6 of China." Contrary to the doubts of the chief of staff, the commander, Major General Nawa Matahachiro, thought that there was nothing strange about the commander of Shina making such a decision. It's him. He would also want to die closer to the Japanese mainland.

At the same time as the Haiqi turned, under the leadership of Captain Ouyang Ge's U-49 boat, the five submarines of the sixth group took a straight line and went straight to the meeting point. One of the five submarines of the U-26 had the problem of insufficient power, and the degree could only be maintained at twelve knots, although it could also reach the convergence ambush point according to the calculation, but the team leader Ouyang Ge still put it last.

At the beginning of the rainstorm, Hu Qinzhai and several non-commissioned officers constantly used binoculars to reconnoiter the surroundings to prevent Japanese warships from appearing in the nearby sea, but only hazy drizzle and boundless waves were seen in the telescope. Nothing else was seen. At 6:18, the boat U-49 signaled that it had arrived at the meeting ambush point, and under Ouyang Ge's arrangement, U-49 and U-52 were ambushed on the north side of the route, while U-53 and U-4O were ambushed on the south side of the route, and the U-26, which had not yet arrived, was also arranged on the south side. But in order to prevent being attacked by enemy ships, so as not to startle the snake. The team leader, Captain Ouyang Ge, even ordered the U-26 to advance only underwater after 6:25.

The sea is rough, but the sea is calm thirty meters away, and being able to ambush enemy ships in the East China Sea gives Hu Qinzhai more confidence, not because this is home. But even if the submarine is sunk by an enemy ship, the bottom of the sea is only sixty or seventy meters, and such a depth is safe for the submarine.

He was thinking wildly. The listener made a quiet gesture, and several sailors who were laughing and guessing how many Japanese ships could sink this time were silenced. A few minutes later. The listener shook his head and said, "I heard it wrong, it's just the sound of cannons." ”

The sound of shells exploding on the surface of the sea can be heard far away. Although Hu Qinzhai knew that he couldn't see anything on the sea, he still leaned on the periscope and began to look for it to the east. I don't know how long it took, just after the scheduled time, when he began to worry that Haiqi Hairong had been sunk by the Japanese Navy, a warship covered in fire suddenly broke into the horizon of the periscope, all he saw was a shrunk heart, but he recognized it, it was Haiqi!

At this time, the hull of the Haiqi should have entered the water, tilted slightly to the left, and the navigation was also greatly reduced, only fourteen knots, one of the two masts had been broken, and the other one was strangely twisted in the fireworks, and it seemed that the whole mast was bent. The once huge chimney is now gone, and even the bridge has been blown away, and it is confirmed that the entire superstructure of the warship has been bulldozed by shells. There was no sign of firing from the ship, and there was no sign of activity other than moving forward. But even so, the shells continued to fire at it, some hitting the sea on the side of the ship, and the splashes of water extinguished some of the flames, while others hit the hull of the ship, and the flames exploded so loudly that the flames were even higher than the only remaining mast.

If the Haiqi is a dead ship on fire, then the Hairong in front of him is a frightened fire-breathing hedgehog, with three main guns and eight secondary guns firing fiercely - Lin Baoyi, who felt that the Japanese would solve himself after solving the Haiqi, finally began to exert all his strength, and he personally climbed the mast to direct the guns to fire. As the shape became more and more critical, the shells of the Hairong continued to hit the enemy ships, but it was a pity that these fifteen and ten centimeter shells could not bring substantial damage to the Japanese ships.

Seeing such a scene, Hu Qinzhai, who was boiling with blood all over his body, finally blinked his stagnant eyes after half a sound, and he came back to his senses and ordered: "Ninety on the right rudder, zero for a long time, and the main engine is all forward." ”

"Ninety on the right rudder, zero ninety on the voyage, and the main engine all forward." The chief engineer repeated his command in a loud voice.

As the rudder turned eastward, the firing formation that had been set up was suddenly invalidated, and the officers were puzzled when Hu Qinzhai's order came again, "Torpedo No. 1 to No. 5 are ready." ”

"Torpedoes No. 1 through No. 5 ready." The order was repeated, and Hu Qinzhai couldn't figure out if he could have a good shooting position after he passed, but seeing the Haiqi in such a miserable state, he still wanted to go over.

The submarines went to the east, and the flotilla to the west. After five minutes of sailing, Hu Qinzhai, who was estimated to not be able to go any further, changed the course again: "The left rudder is one hundred, the boat is one hundred and nineteen, and the main engine turns fifty times per minute." ”

The command "one hundred left rudder, one hundred and nineteen azimuths, main engine ......" was repeated, and the submarine turned again to position itself for firing. But Hu Qinzhai did not stop, and the order came: "The enemy ship is 12, the distance is 1,100, the depth is 4 meters, and the torpedo is 35...... Turn on torpedo tubes 1 to 4! ”

"The enemy ship is twelve, the distance is one thousand and one hundred, the depth is four meters, and the torpedo is thirty-five...... Turn on torpedo tubes 1 to 4! In the repetition of the order, the noise of the warship engines above the submarine became louder and louder, and in the listening officer's drawing, the three of their own fleets, which should have been side by side, were now two in front and one behind, and they were followed by three Japanese warships, judging by the sound of the engines, the one in the middle was the battleship Kashima, and another Japanese ship seemed to be wounded at the end.

Hu Qinzhai, who was staring at the periscope, could not be distracted from the sketches drawn by the auditor, and he saw that many sailors on the Haiqi were on fire and jumped into the sea, and the Haiqi was getting slower and slower, so that he fell far behind the fleet. Hu Qinzhai, who had just set up the shooting position, wanted to go east again at this time, but in a hurry, he was afraid that he would not be able to find the shooting angle, so he could only wait anxiously in place.

More than thirty minutes ago, shortly after the turn of the ocean-going fleet, the battleship Kashima, which had already caught up, began to open fire. At 6:11 a.m., the 12-inch shell hit the foremast of the Haiqi, and the first mate of the guns, Pan Wenji, and several observers, who were in command of the firing on the mast, were killed before the mast fell. At 6:18, another 10-inch shell hit the rear main gun, and the entire turret was blown away, and all the sailors in the vicinity were killed;

The 12-inch shell that hit the command tower at 6.24 was the 152 mm thick armor of the command tower, but the commanders of the tower, Colonel Tang Tingguang, the political commissar of the submarine force, Colonel Wu Fan, the deputy captain of the Haiqi, Lieutenant Colonel Zheng Zuyi, the chief of staff of the fleet, Major Qin Yulin, the chief of staff of the general staff, Major Zhang Zengcun, the first officer of the pilot, and several drivers and sailors were killed on the spot. Vice Admiral Moffett, deputy commander of the Navy, was seriously injured and fell into a coma, and only Rear Admiral Cheng Biguang, who was standing in the crowd, survived, but he could not effectively command the Haiqi to continue the operation under this circumstance. The command tower could not be commanded, and the guns on the ship were flattened one by one by the Japanese guns, so that there was no cannon sound on the Haiqi except for the blazing fire, as if it was dead.

In the naval battle, the Japanese ship's artillery fire was all concentrated on the Haiqi, while the Chinese artillery fire was all concentrated on the Tsushima, and it was still the Haiqi rear main gun that hit first, at 6:03, an eighteen-inch shell poured into the side of the Tsushima, and the shell exploded at the rear mast, which was the medical station of the Tsushima, after the explosion, the ship's chief military doctor, young military doctor, more than a dozen wounded and more than 20 sailors were killed immediately, and half of the rear deck was also destroyed; After this hit, the Kaiqi hit two more Tsushima at 6:07 and 6:13, and one of the shells exploded through the starboard side of the gas tank room, killing and wounding seven Japanese sailors and reducing the Tsushima number.

Naval warfare is a battle of cannons against cannons, eight-inch shells are really no match for twelve-inch cannons, after the Haiqi completely lost its combat capability, this stubborn battleship was still enraged by the Kashima continued to bombard, just as the Haiqi passed by the U-52 submarine, another 12-inch shell pierced the side armor of the Haiqi, causing a violent explosion inside the hull. At the moment of the explosion, Hu Qinzhai suddenly felt that the battleship was about to disintegrate and sink. Fortunately, after the explosion, the Haiqi still moved forward, but the degree dropped extremely quickly, from twelve knots to four or five knots, and in the periscope, at the same time that the flaming warship slowly sailed out of the field of vision, an incomparably huge warship appeared in his field of vision. After cursing, he bit his lower lip fiercely, and in the violent beating of his heart, Hu Qinzhai held his breath and tried his best to wait for the prey to approach! (To be continued!)

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