Chapter 124 Hit! (Second update, please subscribe)

Zhuge Weidao held on to the telescope tightly. In the lens, there were several black spots that were almost invisible and roared towards the Lushun. He did not know whether it was eight seconds in ten seconds. The flight time seemed very short, but he was looking forward to it.

The moment when the enemy's shells were empty seemed extremely long.

"Boom boom boom"

The first wave of artillery shells fired by the British and Japanese formations fell. Of course, none of them hit, but one of the artillery shells actually landed forty or fifty meters on the starboard side of the Port Arthur, followed by a violent explosion.

A water column of more than ten meters high rose into the sky, and the broken waves spread to the deck of the Port Arthur.

Looking at the water column and spray, you can tell that the shell cannot be a 4-inch or 5-inch shell. It is at least a 13.5-inch Sovereign-class shell! Moreover, the warhead of the shell should not be filled with black powder or nitrate cotton, but with nitrate cotton.

It's the famous picric acid, otherwise it wouldn't be so sensitive, and it can cause a big explosion immediately if it hits the water!

If this is successful.

Whether it was Zhuge Weidao, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Navy on the deck of the Lushun, in the bridge, on the observation post, or the officers and soldiers of the other three Ming warships following the Lushun, they were all "nearly hit" by this missile.

The Port Arthur's shells startled her.

Although these people are the best naval officers and soldiers and have received the best education and training, their actual combat experience is just like fighting pirates and chasing a boat.

Compared with that kind of battle, this real showdown between steam battleships is the real decisive battle at sea!

The scene of dozens of cannons firing fiercely was like a landslide and the earth was shattering!

Zhuge Weidao, who seemed to have everything in mind just now, was too nervous to say anything at this moment. However, Zhuge still had to maintain his airs as a military advisor. He still habitually maintained an impeccable standing posture, holding up his binoculars and looking intently.

He watched the British fleet in front of him launch a second salvo. In the eyepiece, shining fireballs lit up one after another, and several black dots roared in, finally landing on the ground fifty to one hundred meters away.

On the sea surface, several water pillars exploded into the sky.

Still missed

"Haha, the artillery skills of the British Royal Navy are not very good either." Amidst the rumbling sound of cannons, Wang Wen, Zhuge Weidao's chief staff officer, was the first to react. He licked his mouth, as if he felt that it was not satisfying enough, and said with a smile.

: "It looks like we can get a little closer."

"Closer?"

Zhuge Weidao took a breath, and then visually checked the distance. It seemed that it was very close, and the British man's next salvo would not be able to do so.

"Boom boom boom"

Raindrop-like shells fell again, and dozens of thick water columns rose up outside the starboard side of the cruiser Lushun. The one closest to the Lushun seemed to be twenty or thirty meters away!

But the Lushun was still carrying the Vladivostok, Xinchang, and Xincheng at a high speed of 24 knots without firing a single shot. The reason for not firing a single shot was, of course, to maintain speed. Because the Lushun class also had small ships and cannons.

I mean more, if you adopt the tactic of firing from one side, there are 10 155mm rapid-fire guns that can fire at the same time. The huge recoil will push the ship sideways, and if the speed does not slow down, the hull will shake at a distance.

Not only is it very dangerous, but the hit accuracy will also be greatly reduced.

In order to grab the T position as quickly as possible, the four cruisers and destroyers of the Ming Dynasty can only rush forward with their heads covered!

"Are you trying to grab the T-position?"

George Yilu was not stupid either, and he immediately guessed his opponent's intention - although naval battles in this era had two routes: bow against the enemy and side against the enemy, the Ming Navy obviously bet on the side against the enemy route.

.So the warships of the Ming Dynasty did not hit corners, the main guns were also arranged in the center line of the bow and stern, and the speed was generally high, so they were very suitable for grabbing the T position.

Although the speed of the British fleet was nearly 10 knots slower than that of its opponents and it was impossible to seize the T-shaped position, George Elliot would not give up the T-shaped position easily.

"Left rudder 15!" After having a premonition that his opponent was about to turn left, George Elliot said "Turn first" as a sign of respect and turned the rudder left first!

As soon as he turned, Zhuge Weidao could not turn left. Because once Zhuge Weidao turned left, he would have to say goodbye to George Yilu's formation. Moreover, the Lushun could not turn left, otherwise it would have to turn left.

The formation was taken to Osaka.

"Right rudder 15!"

When Zhuge Weidao saw the lead ship of the British fleet starting to turn left, he had no choice but to order a right turn, preparing to use his faster speed to get ahead of the British fleet.

"Left rudder 15!" George Yilu soon discovered that the Mingship formation was also turning with him, so he did not hesitate to give the order to continue turning right.

After the two left rudders moved 15, the course of the British ship formation was facing the Pacific Ocean. And the distance between them and the open ship formation was shortened to three to four thousand meters. This was already the performance of the 6-inch rapid-fire cannon and the 155mm rapid-fire cannon.

The most powerful distance!

If the Ming Dynasty naval formation continues to adopt the tactic of running at full speed to seize the T position without firing, then the British fleet's 6-inch secondary guns will come into full play!

Moreover, the British fleet now has an inner circle advantage and can keep its T position by turning in circles on the sea. It must be said that the Royal Navy of the British Empire is not a weakling.

"Sir, it seems that we can't get the T position, so let's slow down and start the artillery battle!" Wang Wen had already made a judgment at this time, "The formation of the British ship formation is relatively long. If it turns around on the sea, the ships at the rear of the formation will

The artillery will be blocked by the friendly ships in front and will not be easy to use. But we can still focus our fire to bombard the Sovereign Class."

"What's the speed?" Zhuge Weidao asked.

"Reduced to 16 knots." Wang Wen said, "This way we can still force the enemy to keep turning left by trying to seize the T position."

"Okay!" Zhuge Weidao nodded, "Let's signal Vladivostok!"

"Yes, sir."

Almost at the same time, Li Chenghui on the bridge of the Vladivostok also knew that this T-position was a bit difficult to grab.

"Sir, the Port Arthur requests to abandon T-position tactics and slow down to 16 knots to start bombardment!" The signal officer's voice rang at this time.

Li Chenghui nodded: "Slow down, 16 knots, target, monarch level, give me a hard hit!"

On the bridge of the Lushun, Zhuge Weidao also issued almost the same order: "Target, Sovereign Level. Hit hard!"

After receiving the order, the gunnery commander immediately raised the phone and shouted an order: "Target No. 1, Sovereign Level! Concentrate fire!"

There are telephones on each gun position of the Port Arthur class. The gunnery commander can directly give orders to each gun. When his orders are transmitted to each gun position through electric current, all 155mm cannons that can be aimed at the Revenge battleship have been

Pointing the muzzle at the target. The squad leaders of each gun squad immediately gave the order to fire, and the gunners pressed the firing button. The 24 155mm guns on the Lushun, Vladivostok, Xinchang, and Xincheng burst out almost simultaneously.

roared, orange-red fireballs bloomed from each muzzle, and the huge recoil pushed the more than 5,000-ton Lushun and Vladivostok to the other side for several meters, and the hulls also swayed violently.

Zhuge Weidao in the bridge felt as if he had been pushed hard and almost fell over. Fortunately, he had already put one hand on the railing and quickly grabbed it with all his strength, and then stabilized his body.

Zhuge Weidao's other hand was still holding the telescope and raising it to his eyes. It only took a few seconds from the time the shells were sent out to the time they reached the target three or four kilometers away. Before he had time to focus his eyes, a wave of shells had already arrived.

Countless water columns exploded around the Revenge, making the most powerful warship in the British Empire seem to have fallen into a violent storm.

But before the water mist from the first round of shelling dissipated, just twenty seconds later, 24 155mm guns fired a second salvo!

Although this speed does not reach the combat firing rate of 4 rounds per minute, it is still faster than the firing rate of the secondary guns of the British ships on the opposite side. And more importantly, the Revenge and Indomitable, which are currently the best in the British ship formation, have no fire at all.

There were only a few secondary guns, among which the Revenge only had 10 6-inch guns, and only 5 on one side.

The Indomitable was even worse, with only 6 guns, and because the Indomitable was an old ship, it was launched during the Napoleonic Wars. There were no 6-inch rapid-fire guns at that time, so it installed a 20-pound breech-loading gun (87 mm). Later,

With the 6-inch semi-rapid-firing cannon, the Indomitable was modified and replaced with six 6-inch semi-rapid-firing cannons.

So now the Sovereign and Indomitable ships only have a total of 8 6-inch guns that can hit the Port Arthur, 3 of which are half-rapid guns, and the firepower density is simply not comparable to that of their opponents. Although the three British second-class cruisers have quite a few 7-inch guns,

The 6-inch rapid-fire and semi-rapid-fire cannons were unable to reach the Port Arthur, so they could only direct part of their firepower at the other three Ming warships. Once the firepower was dispersed, the probability of hitting it would naturally be lower.

Therefore, an unexpected scene appeared on the sea. The British and Japanese formations, which clearly had the advantage in strength, were at a disadvantage in terms of firepower output. They could only concentrate at most 8 6-inch guns and 4 13.5-inch guns.

Two 18-inch guns used a total of 14 cannons to bombard the Port Arthur, but the Ming army was able to focus 24 cannons to bombard the Revenge, and the latter's rate of fire was much faster!

Seeing the enemy's cannonballs coming like raindrops, but only a few of his own cannonballs being fired back, George Elliot immediately felt that something was wrong. The British Empire's ships seemed to be "wrongly built". What should I do?

Before he could think of a solution, the floor under his feet suddenly began to vibrate as if a magnitude 7 earthquake had occurred. He was knocked to the ground before he could stand, and his eyes were covered with stars. The glass windows of the control tower were also damaged.

It was shattered into pieces, and hot air waves rushed in from the window, carrying broken glass and flying wildly inside the bridge. It also cut many officers and soldiers in the control tower, and screams of screams could be heard one after another.

"You were actually hit?"

As soon as this idea came into George Yilu's mind, the bridge floor under his body shook violently again, and a huge fire ball suddenly burst out outside the bridge, and then it was hot and choking.

Agricultural smoke pours in from the window
Chapter completed!