Seven Seas Beacon Fire

"this........."

"The side armor ends here?"

"It's normal that it's gone, right? The underwater part is meant to deal with torpedoes, not cannonballs. I even think that our Longyuan underwater armor belt is a bit too extended. Removing that armor would probably make it even lighter."

Of course, compared to the various discussions about the merits and demerits of this structural diagram, Sa Dingming was more concerned with a more crucial question: "Your Highness, how did you come across this diagram?"

Although the drawing that Li Che casually sketched was as rudimentary as he could possibly imagine, the Crown Prince was so certain that he drew it out, and it was clear from the drawing that details such as the sloped armor, the internal main armor, and the strange sloped extensions on both sides of the horizontal armor could be seen.

How did you know these details?

Putting everything else aside, just look at the structure of this strange horizontal armor – have you actually seen it before?

"Would you believe me if I said I dreamt about it?" Li Che spread his hands: "I dreamt about Mazu a while ago."

After a moment of silence, Li Che did not face the doubts he had predicted. Instead, someone poked their head out and asked curiously, "Your Highness, what did Mazu look like in your dream?"

Li Che then described the appearance of an actress from another world who unfortunately didn't have the chance to play Teacher Bai.

"It's Mazu appearing in my dream..." After hearing this, Sa Dingming nodded in deep agreement: "Then that explains it..."

No, I haven't even figured it out myself yet, how do you guys make sense about this? The Navy has always been superstitious, but this is going way too far!

"Yes, no wonder the Crown Prince has never attended a naval academy, yet he knows so much about naval technology but doesn't understand it in depth. It seems this is all because Mazu appeared to him in a dream." Someone muttered to himself, looking like he had seen through everything.

So this makes sense to you?

Is this in the river? (jpg)

This Ganges River.jpg

Since no one questioned him, and he also had the aura of being appeared in a dream by Mazu, Li Che said more directly: "I think the reason why the Royal Victoria Navy designed the protection of their warships in this way is probably related to their own organized target practice tests."

"Target practice?"

“Once when I was fishing, I forgot to bring my landing net. I happened to catch a very big fish. I realized I couldn’t pull it up, so I took out my handgun and fired several shots at the fish underwater. The fish was right where I could see it, but I missed every shot.”

At this point, Li Che began to tell (make up) his own story: "At first I thought it was a problem of light refraction, but one of the guards next to me hit the fish with his rifle in one shot. The guard told me that pistol bullets quickly become unstable after entering the water, while rifle bullets have a longer bullet tip and can remain relatively stable and glide in the water for a distance after entering the water. The big fish was still a bit far underwater, so the pistol could not hit it."

When the Royal Navy of Victoria conducted live-fire tests on their last two Bavarian-class battleships a year ago, it seems the main focus was on testing their 15-inch guns and the accompanying armor-piercing shells. While the 15-inch armor-piercing shells currently used by the Royal Navy of Victoria have undergone changes in cap, fuse, and propellant charge compared to their predecessors, the shell itself should remain largely unchanged...

Just like the Type 15 armor-piercing rounds we have, the only difference between the two is that our Type 15 armor-piercing rounds still use a soft cap, while theirs already use a hard cap.

"Your Highness, do you mean... a problem with the artillery shells?"

Li Che nodded and looked around at everyone present at the meeting: "I remember that our Longyuan is equipped with 420mm naval guns. At the beginning, we also considered whether to take the high-speed light shell technology route or the current medium-speed heavy shell technology route. And I remember that the two different styles of shells are different in terms of shell length."

“Yes.” Cheng Mingna, who had the most dealings with the General Bureau of Guns and Cannons among the attendees, nodded and said, “The two types of shells have a different length-to-diameter ratio. After all, the most effective way to increase the weight of a shell, besides reducing the propellant charge, is to increase the length-to-diameter ratio of the shell.”

"So I wonder if the Royal Navy Victoria used shells with a generally short length-to-diameter ratio during the tests, and because the Royal Navy Victoria Victoria conducted firing tests at insufficient distances in pursuit of accuracy in simulated firing, the shells would quickly become unstable after falling into the water even if they did not hit the target, and thus the threat posed by the shells to the underwater environment was not noticed?"

After all, in another world, IJNs fired bullets into water during target practice, while RNs produced a bizarre water skipping projectile...

Li Che's words could no longer be described as inducement or implication; they were practically an explicit statement.

"Your Highness means that the newer generation of shells with a longer length-to-diameter ratio may continue to move forward in the water after entering the water, and hit vulnerable parts below the waterline that are not protected by heavy armor? Is this... also a dream from Mazu?" Cheng Mingna was good at summarizing, and it seemed that this beautiful woman was not so superstitious, her beautiful big eyes were full of doubt.

“Of course.” Li Che nodded seriously: “If Mazu didn’t tell me these things, who else could have told me? I’ve never attended any of the major naval academies.”

"Does Mazu understand all this now?"

"Even the Goddess Mazu keeps up with the times."

Chapter 359 Target Practice: A Horror Story for Ship Girls

Whether or not Mazu (the goddess of the sea) understands these large warships and cannons is another matter, but it is true that the navy is preparing to conduct large-scale live-fire tests again, led by the Ministry of the Navy.

Target practice is divided into many categories, ranging from simulated shooting to range shooting, and even live-fire tests conducted under simulated combat conditions. Some target practice tests can be organized by the gun factory itself. For example, at the gun factory's own range, a reduced-charge propellant test can be used to simulate the final impact velocity of a shell at long range, testing the shell's penetration, fuse reliability, and projectile strength under ideal conditions, among other performance aspects.

Some live-fire tests may need to be organized by the fleet command. This type of test is not much different from the previous one in terms of scenario. However, in order to prevent some gun factories from "preparing for the test" by specially selecting high-quality shells or using inferior steel for scoring, the tests organized by the fleet command often require the navy to send special personnel to conduct random inspections of the artillery and ammunition, and at the same time test whether the performance of the armor steel meets the test indicators.

Compared to the manufacturer's own testing, this kind of testing is roughly equivalent to the China Insurance Automotive Safety Index (C-IASI) crash test in automotive testing. The testing process is more standardized and the test results are more authoritative.

The last type is to actually tow it out to sea and bring over a real target ship. This target ship is not for artillery training or testing, but is only used to mark whether the shells hit the target. Instead, it has a protective structure comparable to that of a capital ship, and is used to test the shells' various impact effects on heavily armored targets under the most realistic combat conditions.

After all, those who have played War Thunder know that although the armored vehicles swallowing shells on Antonstar often stem from server sanctions, it is undeniable that this is indeed a certain degree of realism.

Because in reality, armor that seems certain to be penetrable can always stop shells in strange ways. The M829 was even swallowed whole by a T-72 Ural during testing. Even the T-55, which seems impossible to stop mainstream top-tier steel armor, still has a hull and turret frontal projection area that even a 120mm DM63 can't penetrate.

In actual combat, there are many strange and unexpected things that can make you think that a shell can penetrate it but it can't, and there are many weaknesses in protection that cannot be revealed without actual vehicle testing.

For example, a prototype of the Explosive Orb 2 (BOO 2) unexpectedly suffered a hull crack during actual protection testing when it was hit by a 100mm APCBC (Airborne Polymer Block Cylinder). This forced the designers to go back and reinforce the hull structure. Who would have thought that the main frontal armor of a third-generation tank could be structurally fractured by a World War II tank gun? This is something you can never detect in simulation tests without actual testing. (Simulation tests directly test isolated armor modules.)

For countries during the treaty period, the opportunity to conduct such high-level target practice was extremely valuable, as the number of target ships that each country was allowed to retain was quite limited, although no one would stop you if you found a civilian vessel, modified it, and then used it for target practice.

But even a fool would know that, not to mention the modifications a civilian vessel would need to undergo to achieve the same structural strength and armor protection as a military vessel—the costs and expenses involved in that process would be enough to make any country reject such an unrealistic idea.

The two Longyuan-class battleships that were retained by the Tang Dynasty as target ships were those with relatively high structural completion but without a propulsion system. After these two ships were selected as target ships, the shipyard stuffed the dismantled old boilers into the ship's hold, then sealed the horizontal armor of the ships and handed them over to the Naval Ordnance Bureau for management.

One of the two target ships underwent several simulated medium-range shell acceptance tests last year, a response to the live-fire tests conducted by the Royal Victorian Navy, which was among the first countries to conduct live-fire tests after the end of the war.

The targets they were testing were naturally the two Bavarian-class battleships they had retained; they truly believed they would rather shoot them down than give them to the Gauls.

As one of the star warships of the last World War, and the most powerful battleship actually built by the Leitanian Empire, the two heavily armored Bavarians were indeed very suitable as whetstones to test the sharpness of the new sword in the hands of the Royal Victorian Navy.

The Royal Navy chose to use the HMS Queen Elizabeth battleship, employing the Royal Navy's mainstay MK1 15-inch guns with reduced propellant charges, to simulate a Bavarian-class battleship encountering Greenboy armor-piercing shells fired from 15,000 yards away at a distance of 3 kilometers.

The results of this test naturally satisfied the Royal Navy of Victoria. The first shell easily penetrated the 250mm superstructure of the Bavaria-class battleship and exploded at the funnel. This shell was said to have essentially rendered the Bavaria-class battleship powerless by almost half. After all, the Bavaria-class battleship only had two funnels, and the destruction of the funnel of one of them had a huge impact on the ship's propulsion system.

The second shell hit the edge of the turret ring. Although it bounced off the ring, the armor-piercing capped shell still managed to create a hole in the 350mm thick turret ring. By naval standards, this shell wouldn't be considered a penetration; it would only affect the turret's rotation before repairs. After all, naval warships are large, and a few holes are not a big deal. If this were a tank, the shrapnel alone would be enough to kill the crew, making this shot a true penetration.

The most impressive shells were the next two. One shell pierced the main armor belt on the side and exploded in the coal after penetrating 350 mm of Krupp armor. Since the coal bunker of the battleship being tested was not filled with coal, the shrapnel from the explosion also penetrated into the engine room.

For the Bavaria-class battleship, although this shot penetrated the main armor belt, it wouldn't threaten the actual core area if there was coal. However, the fourth shell hit the front of the No. 2 turret accurately, landing squarely between the two gun barrels.

The 15-inch green shell pierced through 350 mm of Krupp armor in the blink of an eye, then exploded completely inside the turret, utterly destroying all the internal mechanisms of the No. 2 turret.

Of course, since the battleships of the Leitanian Empire had excellent fireproof doors, it was unlikely that a shell that pierced the turret and hit the front would directly set the ship on fire in actual combat.

The once noble young lady of the Leitanian Empire is now being mercilessly kicked and stomped on by the Victorians; this is a disgrace worthy of being depicted in many paintings.

This test has demonstrated to the Royal Navy the protective crisis faced by battleships with top-notch protection during the last World War.

Not only the Bavarian ships being tested, but also the standard battleships of the Colombian Navy and the Dingyuan-class battleships of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, whose once proud protection could no longer be relied upon as confidently as before in the face of the Royal Navy of Victoria's new armor-piercing shells.

The impact of this test was particularly noticeable on the Colombian Navy. Victoria's newspapers published photos on their front pages showing the Bavarian turrets being penetrated. Although the Colombian Navy's standard battleships had 18-inch thick armor on their turrets, which was absolutely excessive for the time, the hull's 13.5-inch armor was certainly not enough to withstand the impact.

It's even uncertain whether the 16-inch gun mount armor could withstand it—the Colombian Navy has become somewhat ideologically influenced after seeing the Victoria Navy's test results.

Of course, another point that the Royal Navy Victoria did not disclose was that, about a week later, the Royal Navy Victoria organized another test on the battleship HMS Royal Oak. Unexpectedly, this time the shells failed to penetrate the main armor of the Bavaria at the same simulated distance as before.

During the subsequent investigation, the Victoria Navy discovered that some of its arsenals had cut corners. For example, the same 15-inch hard-capped armor-piercing shells produced by Armstrong and Vickers had different penetration limits. Even within the same factory, different batches of shells showed significant performance differences.

During the World War, the Royal Navy of Victoria, which had suffered heavy losses in the early stages of the war due to shell problems, naturally took this matter very seriously. However, this kind of thing involved too many parties. Commissioner Lewis was backed by all sorts of important figures and nobles, and it might even involve the royal family. On the other hand, this kind of issue, which involved national face and naval deterrence, was not suitable for public disclosure. Therefore, the Royal Navy of Victoria had been conducting an internal investigation into these quality problems ever since.

However, as everyone knows, internal investigations that are not made public are often unable to completely eradicate the root cause of the problem.

The Tang Dynasty also organized a test at that time. That test lasted for 12 days, and more than 80 shells of various calibers were fired. After all, the purpose of naval target practice is to obtain actual data. After firing a shot and confirming safety, people would be sent to the target ship to conduct on-site measurements. Because the target ship was very valuable, there was a feeling that they wanted to use it for a year.

However, this world doesn't have as many mindless online media outlets as the other world. Otherwise, there might be instances where people use the example of a target ship that survived being shot at for over ten days to demonstrate how survivable a warship is. Li Che once remembered that in the other world, some idiots on the internet were exaggerating the survivability of the Lighthouse aircraft carrier in this way—the reason being that the Lighthouse used an aircraft carrier as a target and it took 30 days of shooting before it sank.

Well, if some hothead were to sink an aircraft carrier on his very first day with something really powerful, his naval career would probably end before the very next day.

In this era, large target ships with battleship hulls were as precious as aircraft carrier target ships in later generations. Li Che remembered that in Yunyun's world, there was an aircraft carrier park in their country that had been purchased from a neighboring country to the north. The superstructure was burned down, but even such a half-destroyed aircraft carrier hull was still considered very meaningful because the People's Navy in that world had never conducted a destructive strike test on such a large warship.

The translation is that their ancestors were too poor, so they had never shot at such a large target before.

After the last test, the target ship did not sink, so it was towed back to the port for some minor repairs. This time, it was specially brought out for another strike test, and the focus of this test is on the waterline protection capability.

Although Li Che offered some guidance through Mazu's words, people of this era did not have much of a concept of underwater bullets. What they envisioned was testing the main armor belt's protective capabilities at the waterline and its underwater extensions, without giving much consideration to the threats that the ship might face at deeper depths.

After all, in most people's current understanding, artillery shells wouldn't penetrate to such depths underwater.

The shells selected for this test were divided into two batches. One batch consisted of the Type 20 armor-piercing shell, which was only deployed in small quantities at the end of the war and was officially finalized after the war ended. Due to the end of the war, it has maintained a low-speed production mode to this day.

This armor-piercing shell can be considered a Tang Dynasty version of the green shell, and it can also be regarded as the first hard-capped armor-piercing shell of the Tang Dynasty. However, this shell was hastily finalized and produced at the end of the war, and it still has many shortcomings.

For example, the shape of the shell's wind cap is not ideal from the current perspective, and it is slightly too small. This will result in poor velocity retention at long distances. In addition, the shape of the cap also seems to be somewhat unsatisfactory. In the last test, it was shown that the actual penetration capability against sloped armor is not as good as that against vertical armor of the same effective thickness. Especially when the angle of incidence exceeds 25 degrees, the penetration depth of the shell will drop precipitously.

These are the same problems that the current green shells are also facing. Another type of shell is a new type of ammunition that is currently under development. The main reason why the Type 20 armor-piercing shell is only being produced at a low rate and does not have a large stockpile is that the Navy is still not particularly satisfied with this type of shell. Therefore, it is preparing to iterate the shell technology through a small-step, rapid-progress approach. This new type of shell is a phased product of this development model.

Chapter 360 The Little Horse Trips Down the Big Cart

Although Zhu Miaoyun's due date was less than a month away, Li Che still personally observed the live-fire test. This test not only tested two different types of armor-piercing projectiles, but also planned to test two different caliber main naval guns currently in service with the navy.

目前大唐皇家海军所有的主力舰舰炮都已经统一为330毫米和420毫米，最老的4条海霆级战列舰已经全部完成了换炮工作，现在已经升级为拥有4座双联装330毫米舰炮的超无畏舰了。

These two types of naval guns will become the mainstay artillery of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy for the next ten years or so. Therefore, the test should also test the protection capabilities of these two caliber naval guns against the new generation of heavily armored targets that may be encountered in the future when using two different types of armor-piercing shells.

Because it was a comparative test, the ships brought in for target practice were the Kaiyuan, equipped with 330mm naval guns, and the newest Longyuan, both of which were equipped with Type 20 armor-piercing shells and new armor-piercing shells, respectively.

Speaking of which, the fate of the Type 20 armor-piercing projectile is somewhat similar to that of the J-35. It had just made its debut at the Zhuhai Airshow and attracted the world's attention, but only a few days later, after the sixth-generation fighter took to the skies, it became obsolete. The fastest obsolete in history is probably no better than this.

The Type 20 armor-piercing projectile was once considered a "new type of armor-piercing projectile," but it's now on the verge of becoming obsolete. It's foreseeable that if the new armor-piercing projectile performs better than the Type 20 in this test, the Type 20, which has not been produced in large quantities so far, may be discontinued.

This naturally made the manufacturer of the Type 20 armor-piercing projectile somewhat nervous at the test site today. Normally, a country's navy would not upgrade the performance of its armor-piercing projectiles so quickly, after all, it is peacetime now, not wartime, and the performance of the Type 20 armor-piercing projectile is considered to be world-class.

Just like the status of the AIM-120D air-to-air missile in the world today.

But who could have predicted that the Royal Navy of Victoria would produce two monsters, putting forward higher requirements for future armor-piercing projectiles? As a result, Tangshan Metal Company's product, which had previously competed with the Type 20 armor-piercing projectile for the new armor-piercing projectile, was eliminated in the first round due to its slow development progress. Who would have thought that Tangshan Metal did not stop its development after being eliminated, and now they have just run into the Navy's new round of testing.

Li Che noticed the complicated expression on the face of the person in charge of the Jinling Artillery Factory. He could understand the worry of this person at this moment. It was like General Dynamics putting out the M10 to compete for the MPF project, only to find that the ever-present XM8 had also been put out under a different name, and the other party's proposal was obviously better than their own.

In the United States, the M10 could at least win the bid thanks to Commissioner Smith. Although it was eventually canceled due to its poor performance, it was still a partial victory. But in the present Tang Dynasty, no one dares to create a Commissioner Zhang Wei under the Crown Prince's nose.

If the test results are poor, there could be serious consequences.

The first test was conducted on the Kaiyuan battleship's 330mm guns firing Type 20 armor-piercing shells. As veterans who fought almost the entire war in the last World War, the officers and men on the Kaiyuan battleship naturally possessed quite good gunnery skills. Among the three triple-mounted turrets, the stern turret, which was specially designed to be far away from the mainmast rangefinder, was chosen to minimize the impact of the smoke generated by the shells on the rangefinding.

These skilled veterans naturally performed exceptionally well. Although it was just a simulated shelling at a distance of 15,000 meters, they achieved a hit in the first round of firing, and very accurately hit the main armor belt of the target ship.

This can be considered a combination of skill and luck. However, the 330mm Type 20 armor-piercing shell performed very poorly when hitting 305mm of 15-degree sloped armor at a simulated range of 15,000 meters. Although the effect was very impressive on the spot, everyone saw the fire produced by the shell explosion.

Armor-piercing shells don't have a large explosive charge. Generally speaking, if they penetrate the ship's hull and explode, the target ship, which is not loaded with any fuel or ammunition, will not show a noticeable flash from the outside. If a flash is visible, it means that the shell did not penetrate.

After the smoke cleared, looking through the binoculars, the armor steel at the hit point showed obvious deformation, but there was no doubt that the shell had not penetrated the armor. Although this result was not very surprising, at this distance, the 305 mm 15-degree sloped armor had an equivalent protection capability that was even better than Bavaria's 350 mm vertical armor.

The 330mm armor-piercing projectile exploded on the main armor belt, but the kinetic energy and chemical energy of the explosion did not shake the main armor of the Longyuan Capital. Although it did not penetrate, this was an expected result. Li Che and the naval officers around him exchanged glances and nodded secretly.

Although the shell did not penetrate the armor, this was actually an expected result. In fact, the shell detonated after it was embedded in the armor belt, meaning that the shell body did not shatter without penetrating the armor. The fact that it could "explode and smear" the armor itself demonstrates the excellent structure of the shell body.

"Are these shells also made of dolomite steel?" Li Che asked.

"Yes, all of the Navy's large-caliber armor-piercing shells are now made of dolomite steel, but this shell is exceptionally well-made even among dolomite steel."

Rare earth steel can indeed improve the quality of artillery shells. Given the level of metallurgy at this time, no one knows exactly how much this black box technology can improve the quality of artillery shells. The quality of artillery shells is like rolling dice.

It looks like this person got a leopard (triple).

Over the next hour or so, the Type 20 armor-piercing rounds were fired three more times. The testers carefully recorded and evaluated the results of each test, and the outcome was, of course, extremely brutal.

For a battleship like the Longyuan with its level of protection, the 330mm Type 20 armor-piercing shell was no longer a threat. The only areas that could be penetrated were the secondary armor belts at the bow and stern and the upper armor on the sides. The performance of the Type 20 armor-piercing shell has also raised doubts about the performance of the new 330mm armor-piercing shell. Even if the performance of the new armor-piercing shell is improved compared to the Type 20, it is unlikely that it will be able to threaten a battleship like the Longyuan.

After reporting the damage results, the on-site assessors bluntly stated that, given the current performance of 330mm armor-piercing projectiles, if the navy's battleships equipped with 330mm guns were to encounter super battleships from other countries, then firing semi-armor-piercing projectiles might be more effective.

Then, under Li Che's instruction, the Type 20 armor-piercing shell slightly adjusted the angle of the muzzle and moved the aiming point from the side of the target ship to the sea surface about 10 to 20 meters in front of the side.

For a traditional artillery shell, landing in such a spot would simply be a miss. However, for the type of shell that Li Che favored and anticipated, entering the water at this location could still cause considerable and devastating damage.

However, during these rounds of firing, the shells disappeared into the water as if they were mud in the sea, leaving only the water column from the shells; the target ship seemed to remain unaffected.

In fact, when the target ship was towed back, divers found a 330mm armor-piercing shell stuck on the TDS at the bottom of the ship. This shell proved that for the Type 20 armor-piercing shell, entering the water at a distance of more than ten meters in front of the hull does have a chance of hitting the underwater hull.

However, the Type 20 armor-piercing shell quickly became unstable and tumbled after entering the water. The shell's kinetic energy was rapidly consumed in the process, and the final result was that the shell only "lightly" got stuck on the TDS and on the outer hull of the underwater torpedo protection compartment. Because the kinetic energy was almost exhausted, it did not even cause much water ingress.

This test result naturally disappointed Li Che somewhat, after all, he had previously used the goddess Mazu to endorse the water bullet to some extent, and if he couldn't fire it today...

When the sun was high in the sky, it was time for the new armor-piercing projectile to be tested. However, some of the generals who were observing the test began to assert with certainty: "Judging from the performance of the Type 20 armor-piercing projectile, this new armor-piercing projectile is probably no match. The data that Tangshan Metal measured before was only slightly higher than that of the Type 20 armor-piercing projectile."

"Yes, with the same caliber of shells, how easy is it to significantly improve the armor-piercing capability of a shell under the current technological conditions? I don't think there is any target in the world that the Type 20 armor-piercing shell can't penetrate, but the new armor-piercing shell can."

After overhearing the conversation around him, Li Che thought to himself, "These remarks sound so familiar. It's like when I was chatting in a group in another world. Those who were using War Thunder were describing the power of the third-generation missile and some other steel needles with penetration below 600mm in the same way."

But when those guys who said that actually fight the Chinese contingent, their first tank will definitely be the long-gun 99A. Don't ask, the answer is 588 > 577.

On the Longyuan, the sailors who had been watching on the deck had been dispersed by their officers. It seemed that the Longyuan was ready to fire. It seemed that the officers and men on the Longyuan did not think that the Kaiyuan could find anything out by continuing to use another type of 330mm shell.

Faced with the armor of a super battleship, we must use the firepower of a super battleship!

The first official test firing of the new 330mm armor-piercing shell took place. After a brief flight, the shell plunged into the sea – only then did the onlookers realize what had happened. The crew of the Kaiyuan battleship seemed to have made a mistake: their guns were still adjusted to the angle used in the previous underwater firing test. Furthermore, the new armor-piercing shell was slightly heavier, causing the shell to land at a greater distance – roughly 30 meters from the ship's side.

The captain of the Kaiyuan, somewhat disgruntled, spoke into the ship's intercom to the gunners in turret number 3: "His Highness the Crown Prince is watching! How could we make such a basic mistake? I think you've become too lax since the war ended! Starting tomorrow, all of you, get extra training! We're the Royal Navy! Not here for you to go to brothels every day..."

However, amidst the reprimand of the captain of the Kaiyuan battleship, a sharp-eyed observer noticed that the target ship seemed to be acting strangely. Just now, he seemed to have vaguely seen the target ship shake slightly. At the time, he thought it was because the shells had entered the water and caused the shaking, but how much time had passed?