Battleships split and merged, coal smoke surged, cannons roared, and fires danced wildly.

After more than two hours of fierce battle, the headquarters of the Joint Fleet was in a rather unfavorable situation: their four cruisers had to face the vanguard of the Beiyang Navy's eight warships. Although Japan still had a considerable advantage in firepower, it was still difficult to be siege by the Beiyang Navy with the ironclad ship "Zhenyuan" as the core. As the battle time went by, the trained Beiyang Navy officers and soldiers gradually adapted to the bitter acid shells equipped by the Japanese fleet, and the fire extinguishing efficiency became higher and higher; in addition, there were many targets, an average of one Japanese warship had to fight against two Beiyang warships, and the firepower was further dispersed, and the damage it caused to the Beiyang Navy was already within a controllable range.

The artillery battle lasted for nearly half an hour, and the flagship of the Joint Fleet, "Songdao", was severely damaged: at 15:30, a 305-mm giant bullet from the "Zhenyuan" ironclad ship hit the fourth deputy gun position on the bow of the "Songdao"; a 120-mm cannon weighing more than 2 tons was swept into the air by the explosion of air waves, and it was unbiased and just hit the pile of ammunition on the deck!

"At around 3:30 pm, the flagship was in the enemy shells, and all the ammunition piled on the front deck was ignited. In an instant, hundreds of thousands of lightning suddenly struck. Even though I was in the sealed commander's tower, I still felt the pain of the eardrum needle-like needle-like needle-like pain. Commander Ito struggled to get up from the ground and asked me to go to the front deck to observe the situation. I tried hard to push open the twisted and deformed iron door, and found that the front deck was no longer a scene in the world." A Japanese Navy Lieutenant Staff named Michiko Takao described the situation at that time in his subsequent diary.

"There are flames in front of me, and bloody corpses are all over my arms. Blood flows through my feet like waves, and my breath is full of burnt and dizzy breath. The front deck was still crowded a moment ago, and now there is no one standing figure; a piece of intestines 'plash' just fell into my arms. After a long time, my ears gradually became clear and I heard the heart-wrenching screams of the survivors, like a ghost calling."

Poison smoke gushed and the flames were burning. The poisonous gas produced by the burning of Shise gunpowder spread everywhere. Yuyuki Ito felt dizzy and was so upset that he felt like he was disgusting. He quickly took wet towels and helped him cover his nose. He calmed down slightly and counted a little. In the flames at the bow of the ship, about 30 corpses lay in a row! Seeing this scene, Yuyuki Ito felt a sudden slap in his heart. So many people died of death. If the wounded were included, the "Matsushima" had basically lost most of its combat effectiveness!

Do you still need to continue fighting?

Yuki Ito clenched his fists tightly, and his blue veins jumped. His ordinary and kind face seemed extremely ferocious under the dark sky. If we continued to fight, the Qing Dynasty cruisers would be completely fearless, but the threat of the three large iron armored ships could not be resolved at all. The main ships of the joint fleet sank one after another proved that these cruisers were unable to withstand the bombardment of the opponent's 305mm or 283mm heavy artillery; once they were hit, they could still save their lives. They were so lucky that they were just like the "Takachiho" that they were sentenced to death in an instant!

The three 320mm cannons that were originally highly anticipated were only described in today's battlefield performance; after two and a half hours of war, the three cannons fired a total of 8 shells. Except for one shot just now, none of the other cannons could fall within 200 meters of the opponent's warship. What's more serious is that the flagships destroyed the main guns not long ago in the battle with the Qing Dynasty's "Pingyuan" warship, which means that the joint fleet only has 2 320mm cannons that can provide firepower attacks. With this rate of fire per hour and a thousand miles away, it is utterly a dream to rely on them to solve the threat of the Qing Dynasty's iron armored ship!

If you hear the Chief of Staff Xuan Ye Guangyi whisper: "Learn anal, the Qing fleet is rampant at the moment, and our army's giant cannons have extremely poor accuracy, so it is difficult to achieve success. It is better to withdraw the troops for the time being, return to the home port, and wait for the two "Fuji"-class battleships to be completed and delivered, and then make a plan..."

Before he finished speaking, Shima Shima captain raised his eyebrows and shouted angrily: "Kun Yejun, do you know what you are talking about? The battle has reached this point, so how can we escape? If we just retreat like this, how can we be worthy of the broken Japanese naval officers and soldiers?"

Xuan Ye Guangyi retorted: "For generals, when looking at the situation and taking overall charge of the overall situation, they cannot be blinded by one leaf and stick to the gains and losses of one city and one place. The artillery battle lasted for more than two hours. Although our rapid-fire guns hit the enemy ironclad ships many times, it is difficult to cause fatal damage to them except to cause fire. On the contrary, our warships cannot withstand the bombardment of the opponent's main gun!"

"The evil words confuse the crowd." Shima Kiyoshi snorted, "That 10,000-ton battleship was destroyed. It is the best time for us to annihilate him. If we choose to retreat now and he recovers, we don't know how much price it will cost in the future to sink this evil German battleship!"

After being confronted by Satoshi Nomura, an unknown fire emerged in Kura Ye Guangyi's heart and sneered: "Okay, I'm stupid. I don't know what trick Nomura's 10,000-ton iron ship can sink? Should I let "Yidao" and "Hashita" reach within 1,000 meters to find the right head and let the opponent's warships be beaten into a hornet's nest; or should I let the Yoshino once again rush to 300 meters to carry out suicide-style torpedo attacks? Don't forget, "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" are still alive!"

As they were quarreling endlessly, the stern of the "Kaiyuan" battleship not far from the north suddenly burst out dazzling purple and red waves again, and the two involuntarily stopped arguing. At the same time, they saw two surging water columns more than ten meters high surged in the first guerrilla fleet. Nearly three miles apart, the rushing snow waves and silver waves could still be clearly seen.

"The main artillery fire of the headquarters has recovered again!"

Shima Kiyoshi was shocked. At 15:8, the First Guerrilla Fleet had just beaten the battleship so hard that it could not be repaid and was forced to leave the battlefield. Just after just over 20 minutes, the Germans actually turned around and killed them and fired again! Although the battleship at this moment was covered with rolled holes and black scorch marks, there was no open flame!

Even Xuan Ye Guangyi, who advocated retreat, stared at the distance with anger, with an expression of disbelief in his eyes. After a while, he pointed to the "Kaiyuan" battleship roaring and running in the sea in the distance, and his eyes were filled with an unconcealed resentment: "Please look, everyone, he was hit by the soldiers of the Imperial Navy just now, and now he can't see a trace of flame at all. If you continue to fight like this, with the accuracy of the opponent's main gun, the joint fleet will be donated here!"

"Tell me the order, the fleet turns and returns to Incheon Port." Yuyuki Ito's tone was plain, as if he was talking about something that was not related to him, but his face, which had become bloodless, showed that he was suffering tremendous torture and pain in his heart.

Xuan Yeguang relaxed his heart, but Shima Kiyoshi next to him said anxiously: "General! Even if they can't kill their iron-clad ships, there is no problem in sinking these cruisers! The fires ignited by the Qing cruisers are higher than the masts. Just hit them for a while and they can all be sent to the seabed. Isn't it a waste of all their efforts to retreat now?"

"A little while? Can you tell me how long it will take for this little while? Is it 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours! During this period, how many warships and soldiers will be lost in the joint fleet!" Yuuki Ito could not bear it anymore and slapped the table and roared sternly, "A fully steel warship, no water or overturn, can it burn him with flames alone? Do you think this is still a wooden warship or a sail era, right?"

"Sikashi (but)..." Shima Kiyoshi clenched his teeth, and the rest of his words were blocked, and he could not say anything.

Yuki Ito took a deep breath and began to tremble gently. After a while, he continued in a hoarse voice: "Don't I know that this is a waste of all my previous efforts? But if I continue like this, even if I am lucky enough to sink those seriously injured Qing cruisers, how many ships can the Combined Fleet be left? Without the certainty of winning, as the commander-in-chief of the Joint Fleet, I must not let the Navy elites built by the Great Japanese Empire spend decades of lying on firewood and tasting gall, and working hard to build them all in my hands!"

Shima Qingzhi's heart was blocked and sore. After a moment of silence, she suddenly remembered something and her face changed slightly: If the Qing fleet chased after it, what should the joint fleet do?

Seeing Shima Kiyoshi facing him, the two ships next to him seemed to know what he was thinking, and sighed slightly, "Nomura is worried. The water in each ship of the United Fleet is not much, and the speed is still higher than that of the Qing Dynasty's turtle speed ships; and the two ships with the fastest speed of "Zhiyuan" and "Jingyuan" have already entered a lot of sea water, and it is difficult to keep up with our footsteps. As long as we want to withdraw, the Qing Dynasty's fleet will not be able to stop it!"

As the flag saying "retreat the team and return" was hung on the signal cable of the flagship "Songdao", the first guerrilla fleet, which had only three warships, drew a huge arc on the sea, quickly leaving contact with the "Kaiyuan" battleship. The steel shaft transmission was driven, and the four cruisers, "Matsushima", "Chionida", "Imashima" and "Hashima" began to accelerate one by one, and the dial pointer of the navigation room slowly deflected, and finally stopped at the scale of 13. The seven Japanese cruisers divided into two rows and ran wildly to the southeast.

In the command room of the cruiser "Songdao", a group of senior officers of the joint fleet were as if they were dead and remained silent. The officers of the damaged department just reported that the 305mm shell detonated more than 100 shells on the front deck, killing 28 people on the spot, and 88 others were burned and seriously injured, and all the artillery on the front deck were destroyed. Fortunately, the "Songdao" did not enter water due to this severe injury. The power was still there, so it could sail quickly at a speed of nearly 14 knots.

Yuki Ito looked back and was indeed as expected. Although the Qing fleet was unyielding and chasing, due to the severe water in the previous battle, its cruiser's speed dropped sharply, the distance between the fleets of the two sides had been widened by more than 4,000 meters, and it was still increasing at a speed of 2 nautical miles per hour. Yuki Ito sighed softly, and was about to say something to motivate his subordinates, the sound tube connecting the mast observation soldiers suddenly vibrated violently; he took the sound tube and suddenly a anxious and panicked voice came: "Report, the cruiser 'Hashiri' stalled and fell behind!"
Chapter completed!