Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 228: Battle for Hegemony at Sea (4)
Although the Dreadnought is unparalleled, it also has a weakness that has been criticized. When it was designed, the crazy designer White resolutely abandoned the 225mm secondary guns used by large warships, because he believed that it had thicker armor and 10 180mm guns. With the main gun that shoots at a high speed, there is no need to worry about any problems at all.But today, in the course of the Intrepid's first sea battle, an exception was encountered. This exception was the three Jiangyuan, Guangjia and Henghai ships that were on the verge of sinking.

Within this distance, it can be said that the Intrepid has nothing to do with the three mosquito ships, and can only rely on one frigate and four gunboats to block the enemy's attack.

"Fire!" Lin Guoxiang yelled loudly, and the only remaining eight secondary guns on the starboard side sprayed flames at the same time, and the shells hit the port deck of the Intrepid one after another, finally tearing a gap more than one meter wide there.

At the same time, the remaining two main guns of the Guangjia also participated in the attack, focusing on the superstructure of the Intrepid. The four torpedo compartments at the bottom were all opened, and the sound of explosions was heard endlessly. Explosion!

The Hengkai also crossed the hull, hitting the frigates and gunboats around the Intrepid with its side artillery, trying to attract the opponent's firepower with all its strength.

Hamilton was shocked, and had already been protected by the sailors in the command tower. He shouted angrily: "Protect the Intrepid! Let the warships move closer here!"

Both ends of the T-shaped formation of the Far East Fleet approached the dreadnought at the beginning. The artillery pressure faced by the three Jiangyuan ships was extremely huge, but the formation of the British ships had been completely disrupted by this time.

From this moment on, the battle situation began to change.

Liu Buchan seized this rare opportunity and ordered all the warships to move forward at a speed of 10 knots. At the same time, he ordered Zhaohe, Yangwu, Yingrui, Chaoyong, Nanrui, and Nanchen to quickly insert from the left and right directions. Support the Jiangyuan three ships caught in the firepower of the British ships.

Yangwu led Gao Tengyun to shoot at the British ships while approaching Jiangyuan at high speed, but the protective cruiser Severn blocked its way.With a displacement of 4080 tons, the Severn not only has perfect dome protection, but also adopts advanced underwater designs such as watertight cabins.On the other hand, Yangwu did not install side armor, and only a layer of copper plate was laid on the upper part of the boiler room as a protective deck.There is a world of difference in the protection capabilities of the two.

However, even the firepower that the Yangwu has always been proud of is not as good as the Severn.The two 203mm main guns of the Severn are arranged in the two balcony turrets, while Yangwu is still a product of the era of shipboard guns, and the main guns are arranged in the cabin under the first deck.In addition, the Severn has as many as 10 152mm secondary guns, not only the caliber of the secondary guns is larger than that of Yangwu, but the number of secondary guns is twice that of Yangwu.

This is not a one-on-one duel of equal strength at all. Even if Yang Wu hits the Severn, the shell will be blocked by the dome armor after entering the hull and will not cause fatal damage. The shells from the secondary artillery were enough to cause major damage to Yang Wu.

Severn quickly adjusted the angle and fired the cannon first. The flying 203-meter caliber shell just hit the rear deck of the Yangwu and ignited the ammunition in the cabin below the deck. Fireballs shot out in all directions, and a fireball exploded above the starboard side of the ship. At the entrance of the cave, the fire burned rapidly with an unstoppable momentum.

Gao Tengyun ordered the sailors to fight the fire, and fired back fire at the same time. Since the opponent's side deck was very thick, Gao Tengyun ordered to increase the elevation angle and concentrate firepower on the upper tower of Severn.This strategy really worked. The broadside rapid-fire guns and machine guns hit the target one after another, smashing the tower of Severn into a honeycomb shape, and many British sailors were killed in the intensive artillery fire.

Ying Rui and Zhao He are planning to support Yang Wu, but they encounter the Orion and the Warspite oncoming. The addition of these two warships makes Ying Rui and Zhao He suddenly restrained everywhere.Orion and Warspite are equipped with the same steel-faced armor as the Dingyuan class, and even the protection method used is the same iron-clad fort design as the Dingyuan class.As an equally powerful existence, although the armor around it seems to be less than that of Dingyuan, it has a high speed that Dingyuan does not have.If described by the arms in ancient warfare, Dingyuan can be regarded as heavy infantry wearing thick armor, while Orion and Warspite can be regarded as heavy cavalry wearing armor but still not losing mobility.

Fortunately, at this time, Nan Rui and Nan Chen received Liu Buchan's order to temporarily change course and join the battle group.Chaoyong continued to support the three Jiangyuan ships that were trapped.With five vs. four, at least they can get a little comfort in terms of numbers.The battle situation fell into a stalemate for a while, and the artillerymen of the warships on both sides were using their fastest speed to shoot out the shells in the barrels.For a moment, the sea was filled with thick smoke, raging fire, loud noise, broken hull, and mutilated corpses.

At this time, Liu Buchan led other ships headed by Dingyuan, driven by high horsepower, about to rush into the Far East Fleet formation, and soon cut a column of the British army into three sections. Liu Buchan's tactical purpose is very Obviously, it is necessary to divide and annihilate the British ships.At this moment, a scuffle was about to begin.

However, the British Navy once again demonstrated their tactical qualities as the overlord of the sea. Before they were cut into three sections by the Chinese fleet, they quickly disconnected themselves, and the three sections of British warships quickly turned around on their own. A large column It became three small verticals.

At this time, several Chinese warships headed by Dingyuan and the British ships formed a side attack.The Triumph, Victory, and Tong'an ships are all ironclad ships with side guns whose firepower is far greater than that of the bow. At this time, they are facing three Victoria-class ironclad ships.The three British ships were larger in tonnage, while the three Triumph ships had sharp artillery. As a result, the two sides were attacking and defending each other, passing each other at high speed.At this time, Dingyuan and Weiyuan were already surrounded by 6 warships, while Zhenyuan, Hurricane and five gunboats surrounded the opponent's flagship Intrepid.

Zhuang Mingwu, the leader of the Triumph, was faced with a choice at this time. The three Triumph ships he led had just passed the large column in the area. At this time, should they go back to rescue the besieged Dingyuan and Weiyuan, or continue to move forward?The third Triumph ship was already very close to the place where the fifth ship Yangwu fought with the British ship. Zhuang Mingwu looked back and finally chose to move on. Even if he went back to rescue the two ships Ding and Wei at this time, it would not be of much help. Busy, and if you add your own tactical unit to the fleet that is fighting fiercely, it will play a decisive role.

Zhuang Mingwu quickly played the banner of "accelerate the speed and follow me", and ordered the engine room to adopt forced ventilation and increase horsepower to drive forward.Below the deck, under the dim light, the engine room was roiling with heat.The engine room has entered a state of high pressure, and the officers and soldiers are sweating profusely in the high-temperature working environment, constantly filling coal into the boiler.However, Triumph, Victory, and Tongan are ironclad ships after all, not cruisers, and their speed is only 13 knots, which is not much faster even after forced ventilation.

(End of this chapter)