Nishimura Xiangji's absence immediately made the Japanese panic. At this time, Yuryu was half-dead, and the Murasui was launched, and the Chunyu had basically lost its combat capability. It can be said that the combat effectiveness of the Fourth Destroyer Fleet had been lost, and there were still Xili, Asahi, Fengyun and Xiayun who were struggling to support it.

Of course, there is also good news for the Japanese. The Myoka, Hachi, Kumano, Suzuya, and Mikuma, and the top of the Fifth Cruiser Team of the Fifth Cruiser Team have followed. On the battlefield are six Japanese heavy patrols, four destroyers against four heavy patrols of the Red Navy, one light patrol and one destroyer. It should be said that this battle still needs to be fought.

"The situation is a bit bad, and the enemy is much stronger than expected," Gorshkov recalled. "There were large clusters of light spots on the radar screen one by one, and each such point represents a Japanese ship. What's worse, there are more and more light spots!"

It was true that Gorshkov said he was not nervous at the time. The only good news was that the battlefield was now quite chaotic, and the newly arrived fleet of Japan did not dare to launch torpedoes casually. Moreover, destroyers closer to Gorshkov were easier to deal with. If the Japanese heavy cruisers could sink or destroy more enemy destroyers before they could fully enter the battle, the combat situation would be much better.

Of course, while preparing for combat, Gorshkov also nervously called for reinforcements. Kuznetsov later recalled: "The situation on Comrade Gorshkov was very serious. Both he and the RO-2 reconnaissance aircraft emphasized that there were a large number of enemy cruisers on the battlefield, and the initial estimate was more than six. This discovery made me very nervous. Why did so many enemy cruisers appear here? You should know that the Nagamoto Takaichi fleet in the north do not seem to have such a powerful surface formation."

In view of the grim situation, Kuznetsov immediately asked the First Fleet of the Battlecruiser to accelerate the reinforcement of Gorshkov. In addition, he ordered the Kronstadt to lead the Storm and the Unforgettable Destroyer to reinforce.

To be honest, this is very risky, because except for the four battle patrols and the Kronstadt formations, the remaining escort formations of the Kiev and Minsk are two light patrols and four destroyers. Once they encounter the Japanese fleet again, they may not be able to fight back.

However, Kuznetsov believed that this possibility was not great. He accurately judged the situation at that time. He believed that this night battle was more like an encounter that neither side prepared, not like the result of careful planning by the Japanese. Then, it was obvious that the main force of the Japanese fleet should be in the stern direction, so the Minsk and Kiev were safe. Based on this idea, he once wanted to order the other two light cruisers to go to Gorshkov, but later considering that the other two light cruisers were at the front of the fleet, it took too much time to go to the battlefield. In the end, he had to give up.

Gorshkov heard that the battlecruiser was coming soon and felt relieved. Now, all he needed to do was to deal with the enemy as much as possible. To achieve this, he believed that the most important thing was to gather the formation, so he made a quick decision to order Lieutenant Colonel Kokolin and Major Yulisic to approach him.

At the same time, he also issued a very interesting order: "Release smoke! The more the better!"

It is not uncommon to cast smoke in naval battles at all. When the weak side is preparing to escape, they will use this method that weasels are very good at. But as mentioned earlier, Gorshkov does not intend to escape. He is preparing to continue fighting, so why do you release the smoke at this time?

He just wanted to interfere with the Japanese's sight. Through the fire exchange just now, he discovered that the Japanese's night battle ability is indeed very strong, almost comparable to the Red Navy with radar. In order to play to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, he believed that it was necessary to interfere with the Japanese's aim.

The optical aiming system is still very disturbed by the environment. Even if the laser is a little helpless to smoke such as "haze". As for the Japanese who do not have lasers and infrared observation devices, relying solely on optical lenses and eyes, it is easier to interfere.

Releasing large amounts of smoke is a good choice. After all, even destroyers of the Red Navy have a complete radar system, which is equipped with air and sea search radars. Even if the optical system fails, the radar can guide it to shoot accurately.

Soon, the Japanese who rushed to the battlefield discovered that the cruiser of the beautiful animals was releasing a large amount of smoke, making the night that was not very visibility more "hazy".

"Lost the target!"

"Lost the enemy's trace!"

Similar reports made Lieutenant General Takeo Takagi and Keno Kurita frown because they thought it was the enemy who was preparing to escape. This made them hesitate. What were they hesitating? According to the two of them, they were preparing to launch a torpedo offensive. Now that the enemy is about to run, the lightning strike rate may be worrying at this time.

At this time, should we keep the formation and continue to pursue, or torpedo first?

After a brief thought, the two decided not to release the torpedo for the time being and chased after it, because the release of the torpedo was not effective at this time. The sea surface ten kilometers away was already white. Even if the Japanese continued to fire flares, they still could not accurately locate the position of the "beautiful livestock".

This made many Japanese naval soldiers feel that "beautiful animals" are just like this, and they don't even have the courage to fight. They are very angry and want to rush up and teach their opponents a lesson.

But what the Japanese did not expect was that Gorshkov's fleet did not retreat. He hid his fleet in the smoke well, and used a fire-controlled radar to lock the enemy firmly. After adjusting the formation, he decisively ordered to continue firing.

At first, the Japanese didn't care much about these shells flying out of the smoke. They thought that this was the escaped young beasts firing blindly, with the purpose of harassing them and preventing them from "pursuing victory."

The first thing I found was that Keno Kurita was wrong. The lieutenant general first discovered that the firepower of the American livestock in the escape was not reduced. Generally speaking, the artillery on the bow of the ship that retreated and escaped was basically unavailable, and he could only use the artillery on the stern of the ship to fight back. Generally, the fire density should be reduced by at least one third. However, Keno Kurita observed that the enemy's fire density had not decreased at all. There were so many before, but there were still so many now, which means that the enemy seemed not to be running away.

This is the first point, and the second point is that Keno Kurita found that the accuracy of the enemy fleet had not been significantly reduced, which made him even more incredible. The vast smoke covered his sight. How did the beautiful beast aim? You said they were confused, but they could only be confused once or twice. It would be impossible to be confused if they were always like this!

Yes. Just before Keno Kurita, the destroyer Yuri was first swept on the sea by a rain of bullets. In those minutes, the poor destroyer seemed to have been fired by dozens of artillery guns. The water column formed by the shells falling into the sea never stopped for a moment. The continuous shooting made the destroyer like a leaking sieve. The poor Xiri could only turn the rudder and evacuate the battlefield clumsyly.

The unlucky one was not just the USS Xili. The Aoyun, behind the USS Xili, was not much better. The ship's bridge was shot one after another, and the captain was dragged out. The deputy captain who succeeded to command immediately fell down again, followed by the navigator, and in the end, almost all the main officers of the ship were killed. This was not the most terrible, because the continuous shots were shot, and a raging fire ignited on the ship's hull above the waterline. Under the scorching flames, people could hardly stand on the deck. First, the shells were burned one after another, followed by the spare Type 93 acid torpedo. Keno Kurita later recalled: "After a dazzling flash, the Aoyun disappeared on the sea..."

The last big explosion may have been the ammunition depot exploded. The Japanese on the Fengyun, who was closest to it, recalled: "The Chaoyun was completely shattered, and the flying hull fragments 'attacked' our ship. The magnetic compass and rangefinders on the nautical bridge were destroyed, which directly caused our ship to lose the ability to continue shooting..."

In fact, even if the rangefinder on the Peak Cloud was not broken, the Peak Cloud couldn't fire, and there was no target at all. How could it fire? Gorshkov also recalled: "After the smoke was released, the pressure of the fleet was immediately reduced. The enemy's shelling became chaotic, and most of the shells fell on the sea more than a thousand meters away behind us."

Without the interference of Japanese artillery fire, the gunners of the Red Navy naturally fired calmly, according to Gorshkov's requirements. The six warships attacked two targets at each time, concentrating superior firepower to attack Japanese ships. This set of tactics quickly paralyzed the Xili and Chaoyun. In the next ten minutes, the Fengyun and Xiayun, who were rushing in the front, exited the battlefield for emergency repairs.

At this point, Keno Kurita and Takeo Takagi were not sure about the "beautiful animal" plan. Then their military career was considered to be a dog. They were extremely depressed and could only order them to speed up and shorten the distance while attacking the depths of the smoke!

The so-called fierce attack naturally requires torpedoes to be launched. However, this is quite a headache for the Japanese chief of the fish, water and mine department. He can't see clearly how to set up the target to launch the elements? You can't really shoot blindly, right? Now, you're really shooting blindly!

However, blind shooting must also be shot. Takeo Takagi and Keno Kurita know very well that measures must be taken to force the opponent out of the smoke. The only way now is to use torpedo-covered shooting. I have to say that the Japanese cruiser's cruiser's lightning strike ability is really important. The heavy patrol of the Miao-level and the highest-level also maintains a very powerful lightning strike ability. So when these heavy cruisers and four destroyers of the Eighth Destroyer Team projected the torpedo together, the scene was still quite spectacular.

In order to force the "beautiful beast" out of the smoke, this wave of torpedo shooting was completely covered. According to the ideas of Takeo Takagi and Keno Kurita, they did not seek to get many hits, as long as they could drive the enemy out. But what made these two lieutenant generals depressed was that after the launch of the torpedo, there was no reaction in the smoke on the opposite side, neither a violent explosion nor an enemy ship rushing out in a panic way. These batches of torpedoes were like small stones thrown into the pond, and had no effect.

More than ten minutes passed, Keno Kurita was sad to find that the enemy was still hiding in the smoke and attacking coldly, which fully demonstrated that the previous lightning strike was meaningless. But he couldn't figure out that so many torpedoes could not have hit a single one. How could the Japanese Navy be so lucky?

This is really not a matter of luck. The reason why the Japanese won no chance is not that they are too bad, but that the Red Navy hides in time. So how did the Red Navy escape the Japanese torpedo shooting?

Sonar! This group of Red Navy ships volunteered to join the US Navy, and above all destroyers, have temporarily installed the latest high-precision active sonar produced by Nokia. This active sonar can detect small targets within a range of 900 meters and can be used to fight torpedoes and mines.

At that time, the maximum speed of Japan's Type 93 oxygen torpedo was 50 knots (92.6 kilometers per hour). In the conversion, it can run about 25.71 meters per second, which is more than 35 seconds at a distance of 900 meters. The reaction time of these 35 seconds is particularly precious. Apart from the time spent on the transmission of enemy situations, the reaction time for the Red Sea ships is about 25 to 30 seconds. Although these times are very tense, if the reaction is timely, you can still avoid it.

So after the war, Gorshkov was very grateful to a certain immortal because this batch of temporary sonar was specially ordered by a certain immortal to fight against Japan's powerful lightning strike ability. The facts proved that this active sonar was indeed effective. As long as the sonar was turned on, it would generally avoid these deadly torpedoes. The only thing that made Gorshkov regret was: "Because of the cost and volume, this system could only be installed on cruisers at that time. If the Supreme Unit had this system, it would not have suffered such heavy losses."

With the help of sonar, Gorshkov's formation avoided the deadly lightning strike without any danger. The most depressing one was Yulisic. His Kokang did not have such sonar installed, so he danced on the tip of the knife. Of course, when the battle broke out, Kokolin ordered him to leave the formation, because according to Gorshkov's tactics, the Kokang did take a lot of risks. However, Yulisic flatly refused this order. He believed that the power difference between the enemy and us was huge, and every ship that could fight must stay and continue to fight.

Fortunately, the Kokang was lucky that night, and he passed by Death several times. It is said that two acid torpedoes were almost rubbing against their hull. Anyway, the Kokang crew members were frightened.

After dodging the torpedo, Gorshkov knew that the chance of winning would be greater in the next place, and continued to release smoke to interfere with the enemy's sight. It was entirely possible to strive for a little more battle result. Anyway, he was full of confidence.

However, the Japanese were not a good meal. Takeo Takagi and Keno Kurita saw that the torpedo attack had no effect, and the enemy was still hiding in the smoke and releasing cold arrows. Continuing to sit and get beaten was not a solution, so they began to maneuver frequently and tried to speed up the approach of Gorshkov.

It has to be said that the power system of Japan's heavy cruiser is still very powerful. For example, the highest level can reach 37 knots, the Miao-level level can reach 35 knots, and Kaohsiung can reach more than 35 knots beyond the design indicators. Even after the modification and reinforcement of the structure, the speed has been slightly reduced, and it can generally reach about 34 knots. The heavy cruisers of the Red Navy generally do not have that high requirement for maximum speed. They generally only require a speed of about 32 knots, and have undergone certain modifications during wartime (such as the high-precision active sonar is installed at the bow. Shanghai has reduced the speed to a certain extent), so the distance between the two sides is gradually shortened.

During this period, Gorshkov also seized the opportunity to attack the enemy, and successively damaged the Chaochao and Huangchao destroyers, forcing the two ships to withdraw from the battle. By the time the distance between the two sides approached about three thousand meters, the naval battle had become a battle between cruisers. Apart from the "unsociable" Kokang also "stubbornly" staying on the battlefield to destroy the atmosphere, there was no other destroyer.

When the distance between the two sides was shortened to within three thousand meters, the Japanese's dog-eyed eyes finally played a role again. Although they could not fully see the movement and position of each Red Sea ship, at least a considerable part could be identified. Moreover, because the distance was quite close, the shooting hit rate of both sides increased sharply.

At this time, the competition is about who is more resistant to beating. Overall, the quality of the Red Navy's heavy patrol is better, because it was built later, and many new technologies were applied, the main armor was thicker, the watertight compartment division was more reasonable, and the fire protection and pipe damage equipment were better.

Of course, the Japanese are not without advantages. For example, in terms of firepower, their heavy patrols have certain advantages. Gorshkov's four heavy patrols are all standard three-seat 203mm main guns, and then a 76mm high-level dual-purpose gun. The Japanese are different. The second-level, the Kaohsiung-level and the best are five dual-mounted 203mm main guns with four dual-mounted 127mm secondary guns. The main gun is one more than the Red Navy, and the caliber of the secondary gun is two levels larger, which has certain advantages in close range shooting.

Of course, the Red Navy also has weapons that the Japanese do not have. In this three-kilometer shooting, the Red Navy's ak-630 played an unexpectedly good effect. This rapid-fire cannon with a maximum rate of fire of 3,000 rounds per minute can sweep the Japanese deck. Although the power of the 30 mm grenade is relatively small, the defense level of the Treaty heavy patrol is just that. Except for the thicker main armor belt, other parts are not much different from naked runners.

The ammunition of ak-630 is extremely lethal to personnel, and the short shot (fifty shots in a group) is surprisingly high. The operators of ak-630 basically fire at the enemy ship's sub-cannons, and paralyzed the opponent through fire shooting. Later, the Japanese were shocked to find that the gunners at the gun positions above the deck were seriously injured, almost "all of them were broken".

Keno Kurita was also shocked by the fierce firepower of "American Animals". He admitted that he had never seen such a fierce shooting and did not understand how the enemy's "heavy machine gun" had such great power. Yes, the lieutenant general mistakenly regarded the ak-630 as an air-defense heavy machine gun, believing that the Americans had developed special armor-piercing bullets for their air-defense machine guns. After the war, he strongly asked his superiors to immediately develop similar ammunition to make up for the gap... (To be continued.)

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Chapter completed!