The Rise of the Empire

The difference from the history is that this time, the Beiyang Fleet completed the transformation ahead of schedule, and the 9 warships of the team became 4 battle teams, which cooperated with each other in a fish-scale formation. And Yang Yonglin's fast fleet is on the left wing of the fleet, ready to step forward to intercept the Japanese fleet at any time!

"Tell Yang Yonglin to act! I will take care of the team's affairs!" Accompanied by Ding Ruchang's order, a series of flags were displayed on Dingyuan. And then, the Beiyang Fast Fleet, led by Kai Yuan, rushed towards the opponent like a sharp arrow after receiving the order!

At almost the same time, the Japanese fleet has also formed a linear formation, preparing to cut obliquely from the front of the Beiyang Fleet. And the four fast cruisers headed by Kasuga rushed to the right flank of Beiyang! The two sides are like two boxers, the fleet dominated by fast warships took the lead in action, and hit a fierce blow!

The two fast fleets staggered across the sea, and the distance between the two sides was once narrowed to about 5 kilometers, but neither of them paid attention to their opponents, but rushed towards the established target. Beiyang's understanding of this phenomenon is , the main fleet is going to lead the opponent into chaos, the fast fleet is more effective in blocking and dividing the opponent, and the Japanese are acting with speculative ideas! Neither Hirasaku Kozo, the commander of the fast fleet, nor Togo Heihachiro, who has experienced the combat effectiveness of the Mainz, are unwilling to touch this bad luck prematurely!

"They want to stop us!" The fast fleet sailed to the weak ships on the main flank of the Beiyang Fleet as planned. Then the Matsushima cruiser at the head of the team will face the three fast cruisers under Yang Yonglin's command first! The main force of the Japanese fleet is mainly battleships on the side chord, and when the three Beiyang cruisers are about to lie in front of the main force of the Japanese fleet, Ito Youheng suddenly has a crisis of consciousness!

To be honest, the theoretical speed of the Sanjing ship headed by Matsushima is not bad, even considering the actual speed, the speed of the Sanjing ship is faster than the two Zhiyuan ships! However, the speed of the old ships behind our team is too slow, and the maximum theoretical speed is only in the early 13 knots! After more than ten years, it is not bad that these warships can run at a speed of 11 knots! According to the principle that the speed of the fleet is determined by the slowest ship, it is very good that the Japanese fleet can maintain a speed of 11 knots, and this speed cannot run away at all!

The Japanese fleet, which incorporated the old ship into its own team in order to increase its strength, could only swallow this bitter pill by itself! Right now Ito Utotoru has only two choices, one is to speed up the maneuver and pass through before the opponent blocks it, the other is to turn the fleet around and aim the firepower of the entire fleet at the three cruisers!

After a short thought, Youtou Ito chose to speed up the maneuver, risking the entire fleet to be split into two parts to avoid the opponent's deadly interception! After all, if the opponent is allowed to lie at the head of his team, then a Matsushima will face the brutal side firepower of 3 cruisers! According to the lessons learned from the Toshima naval battle, Matsushima can be broken into parts in at most 20 minutes! Youtou Ito is very clear about the protection standard of the Matsushima!

And if the fleet turns around, it is very likely that it will be bitten by the main force of the Beiyang Fleet before it completes the turn in the second half! The team will still be split into two parts. Instead of this, it is better to separate as soon as possible, and then liberate the mobility of the battleships in front!

Soon, Utoto Ito's order was conveyed to the other battleships through the signal flag. The faster battleships headed by Matsushima, Itsukushima, Hashidate, Takachiho, and Chiyoda behind began to speed up! Gradually distanced from the other 5 slow battleships behind!

"The Japanese fleet is going to escape! Admiral Ding can only catch the second half!" Hipper realized the seriousness of the problem immediately after seeing the Japanese fleet that was speeding up and would soon pass through the front of his own fleet! The core tactic of the Beiyang Fleet is to suppress the formation of the Japanese fleet, so that they cannot smoothly exert their sidestring firepower. Under the current situation, at least half of the Japanese warships can avoid the fatal collision of the Beiyang main fleet!

"Kai Yuan goes first,

Stop Matsushima! Tell Zhiyuan and Jingyuan to follow quickly! "Yang Yonglin decisively issued an order that might put one's warships in a desperate situation! Use one warship to block the opponent's five! If there is a slight mistake, you will fall into a situation of eternal doom!"

After a short period of hesitation, the Mainz began to accelerate. More than 20 boilers delivered sufficient high-temperature and high-pressure steam to the engine room. The battleship began to accelerate, gradually increasing its cruising speed from 15 knots to 19 knots! Kaiyuan stood in front of the wolves like an angry lion! Even if we are outnumbered, what is there to fear?

When the Kaiyuan successfully blocked the side of the ship in front of the Japanese fleet, the Matsushima had just entered the Kaiyuan's intensive side fire attack range! When the two sides met at about 3,500 meters, the guns on the sidestring of the Kaiyuan made a deafening roar! More than a dozen rapid-fire guns of various calibers fired a dense barrage, completely covering the Matsushima in an extreme event!

A series of dazzling red light spots erupted from the giant steel beast in the distance, and then dense explosions came from all around! One after another water jets enveloped the Matsushima, violent explosions and flames rolled over the Matsushima's hull like a rolling flame storm.

The main gun of the Matsushima fell silent after firing a shell. It takes about 15 minutes for this powerful 320MM heavy gun to fire a shell, so the only thing it can really rely on are the 4.7-inch rapid-fire guns on the side string. , Matsushima tried its best to fight back, and the second-ranked Itsukushima immediately aimed its muzzle at the target. The sparse rain of bullets fired by the 7 rapid-fire guns could not stop this terrifying behemoth at all. Because of the distance, the other warships were also firing with all their strength, but they had no other use than blasting expensive shells out of the water column one by one!

Because of the artillery skills of this era, when the Kaiyuan was on the only way for the Japanese fleet, only two protected cruisers, Matsushima and Itsukushima, could fight against it, and the Japanese navy has already proved it with tears and blood How powerless are the two second-class dome cruisers facing the Kaiyuan!

Countless high-explosive bombs penetrated the fragile hull of the Matsushima without hindrance. The scorching flames and deadly shrapnel were like the scythe of death, reapering everything in the hull! The seemingly powerful sidestring rapid-fire guns of the Matsushima are as fragile as paper under such a fatal blow. They do not have enough armor protection, and there is no armored compartment between the gun galleries, and even a 6-inch shell was reimbursed at the same time. Regarding the situation of the two battery groups, a Japanese officer after the war commented that there is no essential difference between the side string gun gallery of the Matsushima and the battleship of the sail era!

Under the concentrated attack of the Kaiyuan, the hull of the Songdao was surrounded by fire in just ten minutes of the exchange of fire, and the 6 rapid-fire guns on the sidestring lost 4 of them in an instant in the fierce confrontation! And the dome armor of the Matsushima failed to complete its mission. Two 6-inch armor-piercing bullets penetrated the connecting part of the dome armor, and a large amount of debris and flames poured into the boiler room, cutting off several important steam pipes!

But fortunately, the Japanese fleet is superior in number. When the Matsushima withdrew from the battle to save itself, the other two Sanjing ships came up! But in general, the Japanese navy is at a disadvantage on this local battlefield. Takachiho and Chiyoda are entangled by the two Zhiyuan-class cruisers behind, and the two Sanjing ships facing the Mainz are just repeating the previous process!

The second is more ~~~~~, the opening of the war, please collect, recommend, and click!