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The Fourth Empire of China Piaotian Literature www.piaotia.com Chapter 361 Unequal Naval Battle

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    (Thanks to the book club for the tip of the command gun!)

    "Your Excellency, Commander, please relocate immediately. The 'Shikishima' was seriously damaged and is no longer suitable as a flagship!" Fleet Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Samejima Aki said anxiously.  In this round of attacks by the "Zhonghua", the "Shikishima" was very seriously damaged, losing its front main gun and reducing its firepower by half.  At the same time, the sharp loss of power caused the speed of the 'Shikishima' to begin to decrease sharply.  The Shikishima, whose speed has dropped, must withdraw from the battle line. At the same time, it will inevitably become a target of the Chinese Navy.  This will eventually cause the "Shikishima" to sink quickly.

    Togo Heihachiro glanced at the Shikishima with nostalgia and nodded.  He did not stubbornly choose to coexist with the ship. This was the captain's business. He was the fleet commander and also led the entire fleet in battle.

    Togo Heihachiro and Samejima Kanuki, along with several staff officers, got off the transportation boat that had been prepared and headed to the battleship "Ryujo". Although the performance of the "Ryujo" battleship was not as good as that of the "Shikishima-class" battleship  , but the battleship 'Ryuxiang' is now the only battleship that has not been damaged.  The battleship 'Asahi' in front also lost one of its main guns, reducing its firepower by half.

    Soon, the 'Ryujo' raised the flag of the flagship, while the 'Shikishima' lowered the flag of the flagship.  At this time, the speed of the 'Shikishima' had dropped to only about 8 knots, and was still declining.  The battle line of the Japanese fleet chose to bypass the Shikishima.  Changed to start from 'Asahi'.

    "Order the 'Shenzhou' to stay and sink the 'Shikishima'. In the following battles, the 'Zhonghua' is against the 'Asahi', the 'Yanhuang' is against the 'Ryujo', and the 'Huaxia' is against the 'Hizen'  ." Deng Shichang, Commander of the Chinese Navy's Home Fleet, issued the order.  Although the 'Shikishima' suffered heavy damage, as long as it has not sunk and can continue to fire, it will still pose a threat to the Chinese fleet.  Only by sinking it or capturing it would the battle be over.

    After Deng Shichang's order was issued, the "Shenzhou" slowed down, turned right and left the battle line, and aimed the four twin-mounted main guns on the battleship at the decreasing speed of the "Shikishima" battleship.  Naval bombardment is much easier to deal with slow or even stationary battleships than high-speed battleships.  Using the "Shenzhou" to deal with the "Shikishima" is even worse.

    At 10:45, the "Shenzhou" fired its first salvo against the "Shikishima".  Although this shelling did not directly hit the target, the eight shells were not far from the Shikishima.  If this continues, I'm afraid it won't be long before we can hit it again.

    At this moment, the "Shikishima" seems to be faltering like an old man at the end of his life.  However, even at this time, the 'Shikishima' continued to fire.  The main gun on the rear deck was still pouring firepower at the 'Shenzhou' at a rate of one round every three minutes.  At the same time, the 152mm single-mounted gun on the left also opened fire ping-pong-pong.  However, because the 'Shenzhou' kept firing from a distance of 10,000 meters, the 'Shikishima''s counterattack seemed so weak.  The main gun shells cannot hit the "Shenzhou" at all. The 152mm single-mounted gun poses no threat to the "Shenzhou" at all. The thick armor on the "Shenzhou" can easily withstand such shelling.

    At 10:55, after the "Shenzhou" was calibrated, it began the third round of bombardment.  This time, very good results were achieved. A shell hit the bridge of the Shikishima.  The bridge armor of the Shikishima is more than two hundred millimeters thick.  But it still cannot stop 305mm armor-piercing projectiles.  The shell penetrated the armor of the bridge and exploded, turning the entire bridge into a mess.  More than a dozen officers, including the captain, were all killed or injured in the explosion.  This caused the 'Shikishima' to lose command.

    At 11:02, the speed of the "Shikishima" dropped to only five knots, which made it easier for the "Shenzhou" to hit.  In the sixth round of salvo, this time the Shikishima was completely killed.  A 305mm shell cut through the front deck armor of the Shikishima and hit the ammunition magazine of the front main gun.  The shell exploded, and dozens of shells inside also exploded.  The violent explosion blew the Shikishima into two pieces and sank into the sea in less than a minute.

    "Your Excellency, Commander, the Shikishima has sunk!" Major General Samejima reported.

    "Keep fighting!" Togo Heihachiro said expressionlessly.  As early as the moment he left the Shikishima, he had already guessed the fate of the Shikishima.  The sinking of the flagship "Shikishima" put the Japanese fleet at a complete disadvantage. At the same time, it also had a great impact on morale.  A feeling of despair spread throughout the Japanese fleet.  They all seemed to have realized that this time they might really have to be loyal to the emperor.

    ¡°Commander, ¡®Shenzhou¡¯No. requested to rejoin the battle line!  "The staff officer reported to Deng Shichang. The sinking of the 'Shikishima' made the morale of the Chinese navy even higher.

    "Agreed! Let the 'Shenzhou' go to the front of the battle line and attack the 'Asahi' together with the 'Zhonghua'!" Deng Shichang had a smile on his face.  Now, the losses of the Chinese navy are very slight. It has sunk one battleship of the Japanese fleet. It will not be difficult to sink the remaining three!  I have to admit that compared to the Japanese battleships, the 'Chinese-class' battleships are not on the same level at all.  This is like using swords and spears against muskets. It is completely out of the same era.

    When the 'Shenzhou' sank the 'Shikishima', the Chinese Navy had already achieved successive victories.  The 'Ryujo' and the 'Hizen' were each hit once, but the injuries were not fatal.  The 'China' was also hit once.  And it was the forward main battery turret that was hit.  However, the main gun armor of the "Zhonghua" is 305 mm thick, and it is still a new type of Krupp armor.  This kind of armor has a defensive power of 152 mm equivalent to 317.5 mm composite armor or 406 mm wrought iron armor.  The front main gun of the "China" was hit but not penetrated. However, the gunner inside was shocked to death and several soldiers on the deck were killed.  The backup gunner entered the turret and resumed firing.  This made the Japanese Navy very depressed.

    The battle between the Chinese Navy's heavy cruisers and the Japanese Navy's armored cruisers became even more intense.  During the period when the 'Shikishima' was sunk, in addition to the 'Iwami' that was sunk initially, another armored cruiser of the Japanese Navy was sunk, one was severely damaged, and the remaining three  Most of them were injured.  The armored cruiser Zhou Fang was sunk this time.  After the sinking of the "Iwami", the "Zhoufang" was jointly attacked by the "Shanghai" and the "Nanjing".  Soon it was shot and burst into flames.  At 10:58, the rear main gun was hit by the "Nanjing", which not only destroyed the rear main gun, but also caused the ammunition to explode.  The entire stern of the "Zhou Fang" was blown off.  A large amount of seawater poured in and flooded the power cabin, causing the "Zhou Fang" to lose power.  At the same time, as more and more seawater entered, the bow of the Zhou Fang was raised high.  In less than two minutes, this armored cruiser weighing more than 8,000 tons sank into the sea, leaving a huge spiral on the sea, swallowing everything around it.  As a result, no one of the hundreds of officers and soldiers on the "Zhou Fang" successfully escaped, and all of them were buried under the sea with the battleship.  Of course, the captain of the Zhou Fang had originally chosen to sink with the ship.

    The armored cruiser that was seriously injured was the "Tango".  The "Tango", which was besieged by the "Beijing" and the "Tianjin", performed very bravely. During a shelling at 10:40, it hit the rear deck of the "Beijing" and killed all the people on the deck.  More than a dozen sailors also destroyed the rear main gun of the "Beijing", causing the "Beijing" to lose half of its firepower.  But that's where its good fortune ended.  In the ensuing battle, the 'Tango' was hit by the 'Tianjin' and the 'Beijing' one after another. The main mast was blown off and the superstructure was almost flattened.  Subsequently, the stern of the ship was hit and the steering gear was blown off.  This caused the "Tango" to suffer serious trauma and had to withdraw from the battle line.  However, at this time, the destroyers of the Chinese Navy, which had already been eyeing it, swarmed up, preparing to launch a fatal blow to the Tango.  Several destroyers from the Japanese fleet guarded the Tango, trying to protect the heavily damaged warship.  However, under the suppression of the Chinese Navy's light cruisers, it was impossible to stop it.

    At 11:30, three Chinese navy destroyers rushed less than a kilometer away from the Tango and fired torpedoes.  Six torpedoes rushed towards the Tango in a fan shape.  The Japanese sailors on the "Tango" sensed the crisis and quickly bombarded the battleship with the secondary guns, hoping to sink the torpedoes.  However, all this is in vain.

    The 6 torpedoes are all 450 mm medium-sized torpedoes. It may be difficult to deal with thick-skinned guys like battleships, but there is no problem against thin-skinned battleships like armored cruisers.  Among the six torpedoes, except for three that missed, the remaining three hit the "Tango".  The current 'Tango' was unable to dodge effectively because its steering gear was knocked off and its speed dropped sharply.

    Three torpedoes hit the bow and amidships of the "Tango" respectively.  Among them, the ship was hit by two torpedoes amidships.  In the violent explosion, the 'Tango' was blown into three pieces and soon sank into the sea.  Of the hundreds of Japanese soldiers on the battleship, except for a few who escaped, the rest all sank to the bottom of the sea.

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