Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 226: Battle for Hegemony at Sea (2)
Under Liu Buchan's command are two imperial-class battleships just bought from the British, plus the main configuration of four Dingyuan-class ironclad ships, but these six behemoths were buried in the middle of eighteen fast cruisers. Can't play the role of the main attack.

Eighteen cruisers, with a full-load displacement ranging from 7000 tons to 280 to 152 tons, are mostly equipped with two or more [-]mm main guns, coupled with a tail gun of the same caliber, and eight [-]mm fast guns on each side. gun.This is a fleet composed of the elite of the Chinese navy, and its strength must not be underestimated.But the consequences of being out of formation after a surprise attack could be disastrous.

After being modified by the Germans, the Haitian has more power than the 7200 horses of the Dingyuan ship. The area of ​​​​more than 70% of the entire ship has been protected by thicker armor. The ship's power equipment is still functioning perfectly.

The Yangwu behind it was also at full power at this time, and quickly plugged in from the left wing of the Haitian, forming crossfire with the Haitian to help the Haitian make a breakthrough.

Under the attack of these two heavy cruisers, the broadside artillery offensive of the three British ships that formed the joint blockade was broken.In particular, after a shell from the Haitian directly penetrated the top deck of the first floor of the Double Star, it destroyed the ammunition delivery device in the first floor, causing the Double Star, which was in a powerful firing position, to immediately lose its ability to supply ammunition, and had to retreat in embarrassment. far sea.

The Haitian broke through the defense line of the British ship, causing the formation of the entire fleet to be arranged at once.

The formations of both sides are being adjusted, and the artillery fire has temporarily weakened.The two parallel lines formed by the two giant steel dragons are approaching at high speed during the movement, and the unprecedented large-scale battleship sea battle is about to break out at this moment.Regardless of the total tonnage or the total weight of ammunition fired in a salvo, this will be the largest naval battle in history.

Liu Buchan ordered the four ships Dingyuan, Jiyuan, Zhenyuan, and Weiyuan to rush forward, and the two imperial-class battleships, Nutao and Hurricane, were distributed on the rear two wings, forming two rows of super fire offensives. Kaiji, Huantai, Jingqing, Thinly armored cruisers such as Yangwu, Haitian, Baomin, Jiangyuan, Jiangheng, Jiangli, and Jiangzhen formed the third echelon, while the rest of the torpedo ships and gunboats were distributed among the main ships, and each ship maintained a distance of 5000 meters. Adjust the distance and speed to 9 knots, and slowly approach the enemy ship.

At this time, the sea fog had begun to dissipate, and Liu Buchan could see clearly that the British fleet also began to change its formation. A huge main battleship slowly came out from behind the fleet, and four imperial-class battleships were distributed on its left and right wings. , each of which has a displacement of [-] tons, but compared to that capital ship, it's like four sharks surrounding a whale!
Hamilton stood on the deck of the Dreadnought-class battleship, watching the situation ahead with binoculars.Under his feet is the pride of the British Empire Navy. With a displacement of nearly 21 tons and a speed of 305 knots, it seems like an elephant with the speed of a cheetah.The front, middle and rear are equipped with 8mm main guns, and 180 of them have a theoretical shooting range of 15000 degrees and a range of [-] meters. The crazy designer William White really armed this battleship to the teeth.In front of the Dreadnought-class warships, the Chinese mosquito ships were simply vulnerable.

With a loud bang, a main cannon on the bow of the dreadnought roared, like a giant sea beast about to go mad, showing its terrifying teeth at the opposite Chinese warship.The scorching shock wave rushed out of the front of the gun barrel with the fire and white smoke after firing, and at the same time carried the suffocating smell of gunpowder.The advanced tube retreat gun mount is pushed up the retreat slope by the huge recoil force brought by the shooting.While people were still marveling at the power of this cannon, the cannonball grazed the mast of the battleship Kaiyuan and accurately landed on the bow turret of the cruiser Jiangyuan, blowing up the two-layer armored turret to pieces. The barrel was thrown into the sea by the powerful explosion force.If it weren't for the intensive artillery fire quickly fired by the Chinese warships, the British sailors had already planned to celebrate the victory in advance.

Liu Buchan, who pays close attention to the development of the world's navies, certainly knows about the Dreadnought class, but according to his information, the mysterious Dreadnought class should still be at the Portsmouth Shipyard, and he did not expect the British to send it out in advance this time.

"Signature, order Zhenyuan, Kaiyuan, Nutao, and Hurricane artillery to press on, and deal with Wuwei with all our strength." Liu Buchan wanted to use these four heavyweight warships to suppress Wuwei's fire offensive. The four Imperial Power-class battleships fired first, and the advanced rapid-fire guns on the sides reached a rate of 8 shells per minute, forming a powerful cross-fire network that covered the sky above the four ships including Zhenyuan. Raging Wave and Hurricane belonged to the Imperial Power-class battleships, Needless to say, although the displacement of Zhenyuan and Laiyuan does not reach the level of imperial power, the armor technology of the Germans and the firepower equipment of the French make the overall performance of these two warships not inferior to the imperial power level at all.The eight warships on both sides launched a fierce battle, and the white smoke and fire from the gun bore illuminated the entire mouth of Sihanoukville.

A shell fired from the main gun at the rear of the dreadnought penetrated above the gun position on the port gun deck of the Jiangyuan, then swept across the entire gun gallery, and then passed upward from the right side, on the starboard main deck of the Jiangyuan A frighteningly large hole was left, and the powerful shell penetrating force caused the entire hull to tilt close to 20 degrees. Many sailors on the starboard side were thrown into the sea by the sudden tremor.

Because the Jiangyuan is in the command position of the tactical unit, Fearless took Jiangyuan as the main target. Under the command of the Fearless artillery fire, five British gunboats and three torpedo ships inserted from the rear and cooperated with the Fearless to attack Jiangyuan. Number.

The high-precision calculation method of the fearless artillery was reflected to the greatest extent at this time, and a subsequent shell hit the Jiangyuan again, and the hit position was close to the previous shell, still on the port side, but this one The power of the shell was far greater than that of the one just now. The shell directly hit the mantlet of the No. 140 140mm secondary gun on the port side.The huge impact airflow and shrapnel produced by the explosion made the gun mantlet look vulnerable, and instantly turned into scattered steel fragments.The [-]-meter secondary gun that was originally shielded behind the gun mantlet was also attacked. The entire gun body was blown up, and then fell heavily, and the steel gun barrel was twisted into an incredible crescent shape.What's even more frightening is that since the Jiangyuan was not equipped with an advanced automatic bomb retrieval device, a large number of shells were piled up on the deck at this position, and the sensitive gunpowder reacted immediately after being hit hard. It's a huge powder keg about to ignite.

The Hongjiangyuan made continuous huge explosions, and the choking yellow poisonous mist immediately filled the ship.The impact force from the explosion of gunpowder tore apart a bigger gap in the port side of the ship’s shell, while roaring and penetrating through the various compartments inside the warship. The fire in the interior compartments of the warship burned endlessly, and the entire warship became Made a ball of fire.

(End of this chapter)