Chapter 77: The Final Battle at Sea
On the turbulent Yellow Sea, shells whistled through the air, smoke filled the sky, and the deafening explosions were like summer thunder. Two massive fleets clashed, two sworn enemies locked in a battle of life and death.
One side with the glory of defending their dignity, the other with the determination to kill for a future, with steel, with flesh and blood, with life in the ocean of life's origin, slaughtering each other amidst flying shrapnel and raging flames. The cannons roar with deadly fury, no one retreats, no one is timid, because everyone knows this is the final battle, the decisive battle between two nations. The winner will gain the future, the loser will be cast into hell.
Before this war, Li Hongzhang even went to Liu Gong Island to cheer for the fleet because all his elite troops had been deployed in Korea. Nie Shichen, Ye Zhichao, Zhang Gaoyuan, Xu Bangdao and others including Liu Shengxiu from Pingdu can be said that the main force of Huai Army was all deployed in this war. If he loses this battle, he will lose everything, not for the future of the country or nation, but for Beiyang, for Huai Army, and for his own future, he must win.
The Japanese First Division has arrived in Daito, if the naval battle is lost and the logistics are cut off, considering the consumption of ammunition by each front-line army, they can't hold out for half a month and will be exhausted. What can they use to resist the more than 20,000 Japanese troops at that time? The Japanese Second Division in the north has also landed in Wonsan and is rushing to Pyongyang day and night. Adding Song Qing and Liu Sheng's forces in Pyongyang, the total number of troops will not exceed 20,000. Without ammunition, how can they fight against the 30,000 Japanese troops?
"For our Huai Army, this battle must be won!" With Li Hongzhang's words in mind, Ding Ruchang stood on the deck, wielding his sword and directing the cannons to fire, just as he had commanded cavalry years ago.
Both sides' tactics did not change, and this was also the best tactic they could choose. From the start of the battle, the four ships of the Eastern Fleet's First Flotilla cut into the right wing of the Beiyang Fleet and sank the Chao Yong at the fastest speed possible. Unfortunately, however, they were unable to fulfill Commander-in-Chief Pinggui's dying wish as he lay in his sickbed.
"We must go around them from behind!" The military god of Dongxiang was also echoing the roar of his predecessor in his mind at this time.
Damn it, how am I supposed to get around?! He glared at the two destroyers that had suddenly appeared in front of him again, their speed leaving him agape with rage.
Today, these two small destroyers are like a bone worm that has locked onto him and the First Torpedo Flotilla. Originally, because these two ships had been wandering in the distance without joining the Beiyang fleet, he thought those foreign mercenaries didn't want to fight desperately. Who knew that as soon as he sank the Chao Yong, these two guys killed their way to the front. Although the eight 76mm guns were not very threatening, the nearly 200 rounds per minute of ammunition projection instantly turned the Kō Chiyo into a sea of fire. If it weren't for the four ships simultaneously transferring all their bow and stern firepower to attack the enemy's flagship, they would have directly charged into range and fired torpedoes at the Kō Chiyo.
Kaohsiung was saved, but at the cost of Tatiyama losing more than half of its artillery in the crossfire between Jingyuan and Laizhou. The two culprits turned around and escaped from the battlefield at a speed of 36 knots. When they tried to outflank the Beiyang Fleet again, they emerged from their own front and launched a head-on attack. The three 152mm guns on the bow of the Yoshino were directly overwhelmed by their rapid fire.
Just as the First Torpedo Flotilla and the three ships were entangled with two destroyers, the main force of the Combined Fleet suffered a heavy blow. The 305mm shells were too powerful, and less than two minutes into the battle, the stern of the Yamato was torn open by an explosion from a near-miss shell, causing flooding and listing of the ship.
And the opposite Tingyuan, which has been hit by more than a dozen shells so far, can almost be said to have not suffered any damage. Seeing this scene, Ito Heihachiro was so angry that his teeth itched, but unfortunately, he had no way to deal with this giant ship with armor as thick as iron. The 152 cannon, even if it was equipped with a bitter acid shell, was almost useless against the 30 cm thick steel plate armor, and the only thing in his hand that could cause fatal damage to Tingyuan were the two 320 caliber cannons.
Just as Ito Heihachiro was watching the Jingyuan II, suddenly a shocking explosion shook the sky, and he looked in the direction of the sound to see that his weakest warship, the Jin Gang, had been hit by a torpedo from the Fulong. The old ironclad ship had originally been facing off against the Guangjia and Guangping, two of the weakest wooden ships with iron ribs. Although it had just sunk the Guangjia in cooperation with another old warship, the Fusō, it was caught off guard by Cai Tinggan's torpedo team, which took advantage of the opportunity to launch a Blackhead torpedo from less than 100 meters away.
Originally, in history, he attacked Saikyo Maru because of the torpedo depth setting problem and failed to achieve his goal. This time it won't happen again, because Kongō's draft is deep enough. In fact, its draft is almost on par with Jingyuan. Compared to the merchant ship converted Saikyo Maru, it's not in the same league. Ito Sukemori watched as Kongō sank to the bottom of the sea.
Under the stimulation of Cai Tinggan, other torpedo boats in the Beiyang Fleet also opened their eyes to find opportunities for merit. However, except for Zuo Yi, they did not have the strength to attack on such a large battlefield. It is worth noting that Fulong was successful because it had a displacement of 100 tons and a speed of over 20 knots. Zuo Yi had a displacement of 90 tons and a speed of over 20 knots as well. But the remaining five torpedo boats had speeds of less than 15 knots, which would be suicidal to enter such a battlefield. Therefore, they focused their attention on Saijing Maru. At this time, Saijing Maru and its escort, Tenjin Maru cruiser, Oshima gunboat, were fighting alone with Pingyuan, the slowest ship in the Beiyang Fleet that could not join the fleet, outside the battlefield.
Although it was one against three, the Pingyuan was clearly not at a disadvantage. This 2,000-ton coastal defense ship, despite its slow speed, had excellent armor protection, including a waterline belt, a command tower citadel, and even luxurious horizontal armor - this was a true ironclad warship. In comparison, the merchant-converted Saikyo Maru looked like a tin can. As for firepower, the Pingyuan had one 152mm quick-firing main gun forward, with one 150mm Krupp secondary gun on either side. Although its firepower seemed weak compared to the dozen or so 120mm quick-firing guns of the enemy ships, the problem was that these caliber guns would not cause any damage to the Pingyuan's armor, which was over 10cm thick.
So until now, it's still a tough battle with Minister Kajiyama Hiroshi.
At this moment, the group of torpedo boats surrounded them, including five with left and right characters, even four brought by Dingzhen himself. Suddenly, all of them treated Katsuragi Keikyo and his three warships as fat meat, especially the four boats from Dingzhen that looked like small submarines. These torpedo boats with only two torpedo tubes quickly rushed to the front of Taisho Island, and the first one, Dingyi, fired a whitehead torpedo without hesitation. However, unexpectedly, this torpedo actually passed under Taisho Island, and before anyone could react, Dingyi was sunk by the small-caliber rapid-fire guns on Taisho Island. The other torpedo boats hastily retreated in disarray.
Captain Li He of the Pingyuan looked at these guys speechlessly, and immediately let the signalman send a flag signal to notify them to adjust their depth. Although this task was more cumbersome in this era, fortunately, the torpedo boats had plenty of time. These guys quickly retreated far away from the battlefield to re-adjust their depth, but just as they did so, the four ships of Kiyoshima were still unable to shake off the entanglement of those two destroyers.
These two guys are almost driving the Dongxiang crazy, as long as they see him slightly at an advantage, they immediately rush up to launch a surprise attack at high speed. Because of their speed advantage, they can choose the angle of attack with ease, either from the front or rear of the fleet. Although they have not had a chance to fire torpedoes yet, they use their crazy firing rate of 76 guns to make all the warships of the First Flotilla suffer, and more importantly, the three ships in the vanguard never miss such a good opportunity, even the Zhendong on the main battlefield sometimes uses its main gun to launch a surprise attack on this side.
The two fleets have now formed a peculiar shape, with the Beiyang Fleet's Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Jingyuan, and Fujing blocking Matsushima, Itsukushima, Hashidate, and Akitsushima, while the large torpedo boats Fulong and Left One are looking for opportunities to launch a surprise attack. Itsukushima is already severely listing and is expected to withdraw from the battlefield soon. All of the Beiyang Fleet's ships have been hit multiple times, with Zhiyuan suffering the most severe fire damage, but still maintaining its combat effectiveness. The weakest ship, Guangbing, is currently engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy's weakest ship, Akitsushima, and both are badly damaged.
The right wing of the fleet, however, formed a three-ship formation against Yino's four ships. But near Yino's fleet, there were two destroyers wandering around. These two guys relied on their crazy speed of 36 knots and now only the Viper had been hit by a single 120mm shell, while the Cobra remained unscathed to this day. However, seven Chinese and Japanese ships were almost both defeated, especially Chiyoda, which was hit by a 305mm shell from Chenyuan's sneak attack, its tail was blown up miserably, and it was now taking on water, with its hull starting to tilt. At this time, the power of the gun caliber had been shown, no matter how many 152mm shells were hit, they would not cause damage to the hull structure of even small protected cruisers like Laiyuan and Jiyuan, but a single 305mm shell could potentially damage the ship's structure wherever it hit, even the 4,000-ton Matsushima-class could not withstand it.
Outside the main battlefield, Heihachiro Togo was continuing to single-handedly challenge three enemy ships. Despite being battered and bruised, its nearly excessive armor protection allowed it to maintain sufficient combat effectiveness. In contrast, its opponents seemed to have suffered significant losses. Especially the wooden cruiser Tenryu, this poor warship was purely a helpless move by Ito Hirobumi, who couldn't find anything else to protect the Minister's office. The Otowa was just a small gunboat, thinking about the tragic end of its predecessor, it was clear that such a small ship was meaningless, so they had to reluctantly find a cruiser that could barely keep up with it.
