The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 891: Naval warfare requires “reason”—the bigger the stronger, the smaller the faster!

1882年4月17日 08：08，瓦胡岛以南海域。

The main force of the Eastern Pacific Fleet of the United States, under the command of Vice Admiral John A. Dahlgren, finally emerged from the shadows of the south. The 12500-ton flagship battleship "Constitution" was like a fortress on the sea, with two twin 305mm main turrets arranged one after the other at the bow and stern of the battleship. Following closely behind were her sister ships "United States", "New York", and "Virginia", as well as the vanguard protected cruisers "Boston", "Atlanta", "Chicago", "Richmond", "Harrisburg", and "Claudeland" and four destroyers. Dahlgren's strategy was quite "brilliant": using the "Charleston" squadron as bait, he led the Western American fast fleet, Luo Xinhua's "Dinghai" and "Zhenhai" squadrons, which were eager to rescue Pearl Harbor, into the destructive range of his own battleship's main guns.

As long as those yellow monkeys were fooled, he could crush them completely with the four "Constitution-class" 16 305mm cannons! If those yellow monkeys also knew the same naval strategy and hid their two "invisible battleships" in the Hawaiian Islands, it didn't matter. Four is better than two! According to the truth of mathematics, victory still belongs to the United States of America!
Suddenly, a megaphone buzzed in the command tower of the Constitution, followed by a report from the lookout: "Enemy battleship formation spotted, Battleship 2"

Battleship? The atmosphere in the command tower of the USS Constitution suddenly became tense.

Although the United States had long learned from its powerful British father that the so-called California Militia Navy had secretly ordered two 2-ton battleships from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom five or six years ago, the American intelligence agencies had never taken photos of these two battleships in the past five or six years.

This deliberately maintained sense of mystery made the Navy men of the United States look up to them - after all, no one knew how much "surplus" the 1.5 tons was. After all, militias could have battleships these days! There was nothing wrong with a 1.5-ton surplus over 1 tons, right? The standard displacement of the "Constitution-class" was 1.5 tons, and there was no "surplus". It was no problem for them to fight the 8000-ton "Dinghai-class" but they would not dare to fight against two large battleships of more than 2 tons.

Vice Admiral Dahlgren, who was very cautious, stepped out of the bridge and stood on the wing bridge. He raised his binoculars and searched the sea. He found the particularly tall mast of the Dinghai class.
Luo Xinhua rested his forehead against the cold observation window, staring at the tall superstructure of the "Constitution-class" that appeared on the sea level!

Although there were only 1.5 tons and no extra battleships, they still gave people a huge sense of oppression when they appeared on the sea one by one. If there were no two "Hailong II" ships behind him, Luo Xinhua would have ordered the fleet to flee without hesitation.

After all, naval warfare is so "rational" - it's based on physics, the bigger the stronger!
"Tesla No. 18 has completed the proofreading!" Communications officer Zhou Mosheng broke through the silence, "'Qianlong' is in position, speed 217 knots, bearing southwest !"

Luo Xinhua quickly turned around and rushed to the chart table. Vice Captain Shen Moqing was already lying on the table and started to work on the chart. Shen Moqing was the "top scholar" in Luo Xinhua's class. He ranked first in every subject. Otherwise, he would not have been assigned by Wang Yan, the boss of the Navy Department, to be the deputy of Luo Da Shizi. In just a short while, the Navy's top scholar had already calculated it, 38.85 nautical miles - with decimals, and guaranteed that it would not be wrong! This was the "standard answer" of the 18th term of the Naval Academy. Luo Xinhua knew this very well.

"According to the current course and speed, 'Qianlong' will enter the bombardment position within 2 hours!" Shen Moqing reported while beginning to plan the engagement route on the map.

"Plan a battle route!" Luo Xinhua said, "Mark the enemy battleships as A and B."

"Do you want to seize the T-position?" When Shen Moqing asked the question, he had already planned a route that could seize the T-position.

"No, just keep a distance of more than 7000 yards from A and B and conduct artillery battles." Luo Xinhua said, "Our goal is to delay the enemy and try not to take risks. In addition, the engagement sequence is 'Dinghai' against 'A', 'Zhenhai' against 'B'!"

"It's ready!"

As soon as Luo Xinhua finished speaking, Shen Moqing had already planned the route.

"Pass the order!" Luo Xinhua deliberately raised his voice, "Load the main gun with armor-piercing shells, and open the boiler room for high-pressure ventilation!"

From deep within the ship came the metallic hiss of tightened chains. Thousands of tons of seawater were pushed aside by the bow of the Dinghai, and the barrels of the six 200mm main guns slowly turned, pointing at the Constitution in the distance. Lieutenant Colonel Shen Moqing stood next to the megaphone behind Luo Xinhua on the left, and the Ningbo-accented voice echoed in the megaphone: "Change the double column to a single column artillery formation! Advance at battle speed!"

When the six cruisers and destroyers of the First Division of the Pacific Fleet of the Western Navy of the United States on the sea completed the formation change and rushed forward in a single column artillery formation, four mountain-like gray outlines on the sea in the distance were also approaching rapidly - "Constitution", "United States", "New York" and "Virginia". Four "Constitution-class" battleships also formed an artillery column and rushed towards the First Division at a speed of 6 knots. The four steel giants combined into a moving sea wall. At 16:08, the 35 16mm main turrets of "Constitution", "United States", "New York" and "Virginia" completed the final fine-tuning. As the firing order was issued, the muzzles spewed out dozens of meters of orange-red flames and thick gray-white smoke.

boom! boom! boom! boom! boom! boom!
The salvo of 16 305mm heavy guns was like the collapse of the sky and the crack of the earth, shaking the sea surface. The whistling sound of the shells tearing through the air was numbing. The several tons of shells crossed a distance of 9000 yards and fell fiercely on the sea surface more than 300 yards outside the port side of the Dinghai and Zhenhai, creating a wall of water.

"This accuracy" Luo Xinhua saw the impact point of the enemy's shells, and his heart was relieved a lot - the gunnery of the US East Navy still needs to be improved! With this accuracy, it is impossible to form a cross-fire without more than 10 rounds. The theoretical maximum firing rate of the 305mm recoil gun can reach 1.2 rounds/minute, but that is only theory. In fact, it is good to fire one round every 4 minutes. If we take into account the time required for calibration, it takes at least 5 minutes to fire one round during the test firing stage, and 10 minutes for 50 rounds of calibration.
Theoretically, the 200mm rapid-fire guns of the Dinghai and Zhenhai ships can fire 8 rounds per minute! In fact, during the calibration phase, it is certain that one round will take 2 minutes. If a cross-fire can be formed after 7 rounds of calibration, rapid firing can begin after a quarter of an hour!
If they are lucky, the two patrol ships Dinghai and Zhenhai can even severely damage the enemy's two battleships when they are two against four.
"Boom boom boom"

Just when Luo Xinhua was making his plans, the steel plate under his feet suddenly shook violently, and the first round of calibration firing of "Dinghai" began!

15 minutes later, when the artillery columns of both sides drew two white parallel lines on the sea and the distance was shortened to 7500 yards, the six 6mm cannons of the "Dinghai" finally fired the first round of cross-fire!
Huge water columns shot up into the sky, the highest reaching tens of meters, and white water sprays bloomed around the Constitution like flowers of death. The shock wave caused by a near miss hit the Constitution's hull violently, making a dull "boom" sound, and the sailors on the deck were shaken to the ground, and loose objects flew everywhere.

"Report damage!" Vice Admiral Dahlgren grasped the handrail tightly, his body swaying with the vibration of the ship.

"No direct hit! The armor belt near the B turret was scratched by fragments of a near miss, causing a slight dent! Maintain speed at 16 knots!" The damage control officer's voice came through the megaphone, with relief at having survived the disaster.

That's a 200mm armor-piercing shell!
If it hits, except for the most heavily protected parts of the Constitution, other places will be blown into a big hole!

"Damn the British!" Vice Admiral Dahlgren gritted his teeth and started to curse the British. He was not an Irish redhead. The reason he cursed the British was because the British 254mm rapid-fire guns were out of stock - the British wanted to use them first to equip their own Rafale (Tornado-class battlecruisers), so the first batch of four Constitution-class ships could only be equipped with 305mm recoil guns.
But the firing rate of this recoil gun is too slow!
Now that they have crossed the line, we still have to wait a few minutes to fire a round, and we don't know if we can "cross" after another half an hour? If the enemy can fire two rounds a minute, 6 cannons can fire 12 rounds a minute, which means 360 rounds in 2 minutes, with a 8% hit rate, the Constitution will be hit by 200 mm armor-piercing shells.
"Long live!"

"Long live Western America."

In the bridge of the Dinghai, all the officers and sailors who had nothing to do cheered! The first cross-fire was fired in the 7th round. If nothing unexpected happened, within 30 minutes, the Dinghai could fire 10 200mm armor-piercing shells at the head of the Constitution-class ship opposite. Those 10 200mm armor-piercing shells! The luck of the Constitution-class ship was almost gone.
Luo Xinhua was dreaming of making great achievements in the Pacific War when he sank the battleship with an armored cruiser and remained unscathed, but then an accident happened!

"Cannon light, lots of it"

Someone shouted loudly, and then Luo Xinhua saw a flash of fire amidships of the "Constitution-class" ship opposite - that was the muzzle flame!

After a while, the lookout sentry's report came through the megaphone: "Enemy shells are hitting, 100 yards off the port side, 8 rounds!"

Luo Xinhua also saw the water columns stirred up by the shells, and then he realized that it would be difficult for his "large armored patrol" to sink the other party's "small battleship" - a battleship is a battleship after all, even if it is a small one, and it is not something that the "Dinghai-class" armored patrol can bully casually. Even if the other party is equipped with unreliable 305 recoil guns, they still have Armstrong's 6-inch secondary guns, with 8 guns on one side, all rapid-fire!
"Pass the order, main guns fire 10 rounds rapidly, and secondary guns fire freely!" Luo Xinhua also gave the order for the secondary guns to fire. He did not have 150mm first-level secondary guns, but he still had three 3mm secondary guns on one side. Although this caliber was not enough for a battleship, it was better than nothing!

At 08:55, the Dinghai and Constitution began to fire at full power, and the Pacific Ocean boiled for the first time!

(End of this chapter)