Now that the layout has been determined, neither side can change the order of battle. Cheng Biguang and Liu Guanxiong can also see the problem that the Russians can see, so the problem now is that the Russians need to concentrate their firepower on the Taipei armored cruiser in order to smooth it out

The opponent has a numerical advantage, and the Chinese Navy must concentrate its firepower to sink the Rurik first, and then use the Scharnhorst to fight against the Dutch fast battleship Amsterdam!

However, before the Russians could complete the turn, they still needed to withstand the artillery fire of the Chinese Navy. At this time, the sea wind reached about level 5, and because they were in the downwind direction, the smoke ejected from the smoke can could not completely cover the Russian rapid speed.

The battleship's slender hull can cover a distance of only about 7km.

All within the effective attack range of the Chinese Navy. Essen's flagship Peter the Great turned quickly and completed the turn before the Chinese Navy entered the effective attack range. The subsequent Yekaterina also followed closely behind.

, but the two seven-province-class fast battleships behind them failed to escape the salvoes of the Chinese Navy.

As a long series of signal flags were raised, Pinghai and Jinghai concentrated their firepower to attack the fast battleship Qi Province which was turning and its speed was decreasing, while Pinghai behind it and Taipei attacked Amsterdam behind it.

The 12-inch cannon and four 11-inch cannons sprayed out a long stream of

Long tongues of fire fired heavy cannons at the two Dutch battleships maneuvering on the sea surface. Because of the short distance, the first shot was completed within 3 minutes. Pinghai hit the target first, and then in the fourth round

During the shooting, this battleship that had been "heavily damaged" scored a hit!

A 12-inch heavy shot cut into the front of the Amsterdam's hull at an angle. Although the angle of incidence was not good, the hardened armor, which was less than 6 inches, was still torn open by this round and a huge hole was penetrated. The gun was penetrating

After being armored, it passed through the upper deck smoothly and finally exploded on the lower deck. Although there was no important part of the bow

, it was just an anchor room and a place where some soldiers lived, but the canvas hammocks and other flammable objects in the officers and soldiers' bedrooms were still ignited by high explosives. The fragments after the explosion of the cannon were scattered throughout the living area, and the flames ignited everything they encountered.

The flammable materials and flames quickly spread inside the hull, and plumes of thick smoke began to pour out from the damaged parts of the hull.

Then another 11-inch gun hit the Amsterdam again. This time the gun broke the traffic boat between the Amsterdam's two funnels into pieces, and passed directly through the upper deck, being blocked by the ship's main horizontal armor. The dense

The pieces and flames swept through several adjacent cabins, tearing the fragile partitions into pieces, and opening several holes in several flues. The billowing smoke instantly filled the cabins near the midpoint.[

While the Amsterdam was fighting, the Qi Province, which was under attack from the Pinghai and Jinghai, was even worse. During the period of steering adjustment, the Qi Province had been hit by three 12-inch main gun rounds!

One of the rounds hit the turret of a twin-mounted 6-inch gun on the Seventh Province. The 6-inch frontal armor of the turret could not block a 12-inch cap-pierced turret at a distance of 7,000 meters.

The attack, after cutting off the barrel of a 6-inch gun, directly shredded the armor plate on the front of the turret, blowing the entire turret into pieces. This was not the end of the story. Several heavy fragments produced after the gun shattered were even

The armor plate on the back of the turret was also torn to pieces, and several holes were made in the compartment behind the turret. Several Russian soldiers were unable to dodge and were beaten into a puddle of flesh by the pieces weighing dozens of kilograms!

One of the other two rounds hit near the command tower. The huge shock shook the Dutch officer inside. It took him a long time to react, and the other round hit the wheelhouse of the Seventh Province.

Above, scattered debris left the entire stern main deck riddled with holes. Burning flames spread along the corridor. Looking from a distance, a wave of

Thick smoke pillars rose from the tail of the Seven Provinces. During this period, the two Seven Provinces fast battleships were unable to effectively attack the Chinese Navy due to their violent steering maneuvers. Therefore, although the eight cannons continued to spit out flames,

But none of the shots hit. They just caused splashes of tens of meters high around the Chinese Navy's warships.

Just as the four battleships of the Chinese Navy concentrated fire on the two seven-provincial battleships, the Chinese armored cruiser formation headed by the Scharnhorst also planned to hold down the Russian armored cruiser formation and hit it hard. Liu Guanxiong even wanted to attack the Russian armored cruiser formation in the shortest possible time.

In time, the opposite Rurik was sunk in order to help friendly forces as soon as possible, but the sudden insertion of the Russian torpedo ship formation disrupted the formation.

Liu Guanxiong's plan, the sudden emergence of more than a dozen torpedo ships from the Russian armored cruiser array, forced the Chinese Navy to focus its primary attack targets on these small boats of only a few hundred tons. The current effective range of torpedoes is about 2 kilometers.

In other words, these little guys with sharp blades can bring the Chinese patrol formation into effective range in about 8 minutes!

"Hurry up and order the light cruisers to intercept." Looking at the Russian torpedo strike ships rushing out of the thick fog, Rear Admiral Spey, who was entering the battle for the first time, said with some worry. According to the conventional naval battle arrangements, he faced the opponent's torpedo strike group and attacked his own main fleet.

If so, the first thing to do is to send light cruisers to block in front of the main fleet and destroy them with rapid-fire artillery.

The incoming enemy. But from now on, it seems that the Chinese Navy does not intend to do this. Liu Guanxiong smiled and asked the flag officer to play a series of flags. Then four light cruisers sailed out from the rear of the main fleet and then inserted diagonally into the battlefield.

, forming a V-shape with Liu Guanxiong’s five armored cruisers, including the Russian torpedo ships participating in the lightning strike!

When the firepower is certain, the effect of multi-angle shooting is always better than that of a single angle. This is why cross-fire is emphasized in land warfare. The reason is very simple. If the opposite side is a skirmisher line, the frontal firepower should be in a 200-meter-wide area, for example.

If a certain number of enemies are attacked within the range, side fire may only be used within a 20-meter range.

The same number of enemies can be attacked within 10 seconds. This principle is also applicable to naval battles. The armored cruiser from the front may only attack the front projection of the opponent's battleship, while the light cruiser formation inserted from the flank will attack the opponent's side hull! And

This avoids accidental damage and aiming difficulties caused by the entanglement of the auxiliary warships on both sides!

This is a real fire net. The longitude and latitude lines composed of artillery fire are like a huge net, covering all the opponent's torpedo ships. Hundreds of tons of torpedo boats are like moths throwing fire, desperately sprinting forward, in order to catch the enemy's torpedo boats.

Bring the opponent into your own torpedo range. A mere few kilometers is not enough for a torpedo boat with a speed of up to 28 knots.

It only took a few minutes, but when faced with the fire of more than 60 6-inch guns and no less than this number of 12-pound guns, this distance suddenly became out of reach! It was really like rain.

The five armored cruisers and five light cruisers of the Chinese Navy completely mowed down the torpedo boats one after another with a discharge of more than 5 tons of explosives per minute.

"At the same moment, I even saw three huge flames rising from the sea, followed by three loud noises. In less than 30 seconds, the three Russian torpedo boats were torn into pieces by the violent rain. Faced with high-explosive and shrapnel attacks, the Russian torpedo boats were almost undefended. Except for a few torpedo boats that were lucky enough to reach the torpedo launching distance, and then hurriedly fired a few torpedoes, they also followed in the footsteps of their companions. "It was broken into pieces in the following minutes." Count Spey described the Russians' first lightning strike in his report after the war. In addition to explaining their courage, the actions of these Russian naval officers and soldiers did not do anything for China. Navy poses no real threat!

Under the desperate cover of the torpedo boat force, the remaining four Russian cruisers finally completed their tactical maneuvers. At this time, the two Russian lead ships, the fast battleship Peter the Great and the Ekaterina, had already begun to move towards the Pinghai Sea of ​​the Chinese Navy. and Jinghai fired. The two seven-provincial fast battleships also completed their turn to attack the opposite Ninghai and Taipei. After sending off a wave of torpedo boats, the four armored cruisers behind the Russian Navy had already fought with Liu Guanxiong. Five of his armored cruisers were engaged! Graf Spey's Scharnhorst fought against Rurik first, and the two PS-type armored cruisers Tianjin and Dalian fought against Varyag and the Dutch armored cruiser Rotterdam respectively. The two Garibaldi-class armored cruisers fought against the Zeeland!

When the two sides formed two parallel battle lines, Essen suddenly discovered a strange phenomenon. The two fleets were not completely parallel. The Russian fleet and the Chinese fleet seemed to be divided into two parts, led by the Peter the Great. The four fast battleships maintained a distance of 7 to 8km from the three Ninghai-class ships and the Taipei. The Chinese navy's armored patrol fleet suddenly approached to a distance of only about 5km from the Russian armored patrol formation. The fleets of both sides were directly engaged in the battle. Split into two pieces! Judging from the current situation, the Chinese Navy obviously wants to rely on its five dominant armored cruisers to defeat the four armored cruisers behind it, and then draw out its forces to support the operations of the leading fleet!

The current situation is basically equal, and both sides have weaknesses. In the eyes of Cheng Biguang and Liu Guanxiong, the outcome of this battle depends entirely on who can destroy the opponent's weak ship the fastest. If the Russians destroy the Taipei first, then The Armstrong at the back can put the Chinese fleet into a crisis whether it attacks the Pinghai or the Scharnhorst. On the other hand, if the Scharnhorst destroys the Rurik first, then in Scharnhorst The Horst can also focus its fire to attack the Varyag behind or the Armstrong in front, and the Chinese Navy's advantage will be further expanded!

Therefore, in this case, Liu Guanxiong moved his fleet close to the Russian fleet, hoping to obtain results in a short time, and the close distance would allow the two Garibaldi-type armored cruisers to maximize the projection capacity of their secondary guns. You must know that the side of the Garibaldi-class armored cruiser has five 6-inch guns and three 47-inch guns!
Chapter completed!