At this time, the Qing fleet Baiqi and three other 2,000-ton destroyers had turned the bow to the left and attacked the rear of Hiei. Soon, the rear of Hiei was shot again. The shell not only penetrated the deck, but also ignited the coal storage in the cabin.

Hiei, who was shot continuously, attempted to escape from the battlefield. However, the Qing destroyer "Leyi" chased him. At this time, the Japanese guerrilla fleet, Takachiho and three other ships rushed forward quickly, trying to rescue the besieged Hiei. The Qing army's fast cruiser Bai Qi and destroyer Lian Po, Li Mu immediately accelerated, guarded the flanks of Leyi and launched an attack on the three Japanese ships.

When the Chinese and Japanese fleets first started to contact each other, everyone was driving to the other side, with the intention of using side firepower. However, whether it was the Chinese fleet or the Japanese fleet, the speed of their ships was very different. Therefore, after the war, the Qing fleet was divided into two parts, the guerrilla squadron and its own team, and the Japanese fleet was gradually pulled into three sections: the first section was Chiyoda and other three ships, the second section was Matsushima and Itsuki, and the third section was Fusang, Hiei, and Akagi.

It was at this time that the Qing guerrilla fleet saw the advantage and surrounded him and prepared to eat the three Japanese ships first. However, just after Akagi was destroyed, the Japanese fast fleet rushed over, and the situation turned into four Qing warships against three Japanese ships. Hiei took advantage of this and rose up Yu Yong and slipped away as quickly as possible.

The Qing army's guerrilla fleet included two latest warships, one was the fast cruiser "Bai Qi" with more than 4,000 tons, equipped with up to twelve six-inch rapid-fire cannons, and the other was weaker, with a displacement of only half of the "Bai Qi", but also equipped with extraordinary firepower, including four six-inch rapid-fire cannons and two four-point seven-inch cannons.

If Zhiyuan and Jingyuan were added, the firepower that these four warships could project at the same time had reached twice that of the Japanese fast fleet. This is why, in less than ten minutes of fire exchange, Fusang, Hiei and Akagi were injured to varying degrees, Akagi was even sunk, and Hiei could not continue to fight.

But Heyuan must be completely unafraid because he believed that the fire projection density did not equal the fire strike intensity, because he believed that the Qing army's tactical training and shooting training were far behind that of himself.

Because the two ships Bai Qi and Le Yi had just entered service and had no time to give the Qing army some running-in and familiarity. The Bai Qi had just completed a fleet training.

Under such circumstances, the officers and soldiers on the ship cannot exert all the power of the warship. As long as they cooperate with their friendly ships, they will definitely find a breakthrough.

So he immediately sent a signal to Hirahachiro Togo and Sadashi Nomura. Later, they immediately understood what he meant.

The breakthrough of the Qing fleet was the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan. Oh, the Japanese didn't know that these two warships had been renamed Li Mu and Lian Po.

Although they are also organized in the guerrilla fleet, the speed of the Li Mu and Lian Po ships cannot keep up with the speed of Bai Qi and Le Yi because of the old boilers. There is no way to do this. Although the Jiangnan Factory once tried its best to solve this problem, the boilers of the two ships have been in use for seven years, and it is impossible to restore to their original speed. However, the Bai Qi and Le Yi have just entered service, and the speed even exceeds twenty knots.

In this way, although they were in the same team, Li Mu and Lian Po had a large distance from the other two new ships. This distance was the breakthrough point of Heyuan.

And at this time, the Leyi was leaving the guerrilla fleet and chasing the Hiei. So the three Japanese warships immediately seized the space and inserted between the Baiqi, Li Mu and Lianpo.

Therefore, the battle between the two fast fleets of China and Japan became the three Japanese ships using the left side firepower to deal with Li Mu and Lian Po, while using the right side firepower to deal with Bai Qi. It seemed to be three to three, but in fact it became a three to two and three to one situation.

In this way, the Li Mu and Lian Po ships immediately fell into crisis.

Although the three Japanese ships were the same as the Qing army in terms of armor thickness, neither side could withstand the opponent's main gun strikes, so whether it was Li Mu of the Qing army, Lian Po's 210mm main gun or Gao Qiansui, and the 260 mm Krupp main gun with a wave speed, they all performed the same effect. In terms of the number of 150 mm rapid-fire guns, Li Mu and Lian Po's three 150 mm rapid-fire guns on the side can also match Gao Qiansui and Langsui, but don't forget that the Japanese army also had five 120 mm and 40 times the diameter of Armstrong rapid-fire guns from Chiyoda to support them.

Now the two armies are only one thousand meters apart, and the shells of the 120mm rapid-fire cannon are enough to penetrate the armor of Qing warships. Even the thickest part cannot resist it.

At this time, the two Qing army's warship leaders Ye Zugui and Chen Jinkui made the same moves.

They also fired torpedoes at the Japanese fleet, and at the same time, they were ruddering on the right and rushed towards the Japanese ship with all their might.

If the Japanese ships dodge, then the two ships can meet with the Bai Qi and become a three-to-three situation again. If the Japanese ships do not dodge, then the two ships may really collide with the Japanese ships. This may not necessarily mean how the officers and soldiers of the two ships are so sacrificed, but because this is already the only way to survive at the moment. If this is not the case, it will take less than ten minutes for the two ships to be sunk by the Japanese three ships, and there is no suspense.

With a distance of one thousand meters, the two warships could complete it in less than two or three minutes even if they were injured, and the torpedoes fired in advance were faster. Because they were launched at almost the same time, the four torpedoes of the two ships were almost in a row and shot at the three Japanese ships. However, because of the hasty shooting, the two torpedoes shot at Takachiho in the middle, and the other two shot at Chiyoda in front.

Among the three Japanese ships, Chiyoda was the fastest, so it was at the forefront of the formation and at the same time it reacted the fastest. When he saw the torpedo attack, he immediately turned around and tried to avoid the two torpedoes. However, in this way, the shells fired by the ship could not pose a threat to Li Mu and Lian Po due to their location issues. So Sadashi Nomura followed suit and fired the torpedo in the hope of preventing the Qing ship from rushing to Takachiho and Langsu.

With Chiyoda's adjustment, Takachiho also began to turn to avoid the attacking torpedoes. At this moment, Takachiho's firepower on the ship also lost its effect, but the Li Mu, who was rushing towards it, could use the front main gun on the ship to shoot. On Li Mu's right, the Lian Po also wanted to use the front main gun to shoot, but the Langsu was not attacked by the torpedo, so the artillery on the ship could aim calmly, completely suppressing the firepower of the Lian Po and even smashing the head of Lian Po.

On the other side, in order to avoid being "careful" by the side firepower of three Japanese warships at the same time, the Qing army's Baiqi had taken measures to lower the speed and hang behind the Japanese stern ship Langsu. Huang Jianxun saw that his friend's ship was launching a desperate assault, and in desperation, he could not take care of anything else. While firing artillery, he also ordered the ship-based torpedo launch.

Time has passed less than two minutes.

Then a scene appeared on the sea: the Li Mu, who rushed forward at full speed, was hit by the torpedo fired by the Chiyoda. Before that, Li Mu, who fired the last shot, hit Gao Chiho with two 210mm shells. The 210 main gun shot at close range not only penetrated Gao Chiho's armor, but also penetrated Gao Chiho's ammunition chamber, which triggered an explosion in the ammunition chamber. Then, the two ships sank one after another. Almost at the same time, the wave speed ship

Lian Po, whose firepower hits many bombs in close shooting, was enough to penetrate Lian Po's armor at a distance of several hundred meters, not to mention the 260mm main gun and 150mm secondary gun. Therefore, before Gao Qiansui sinks, Lian Po had already begun to sink, but before the Lian Po was shot, perhaps before sinking, because the time interval was very short, it was difficult to distinguish - fired the last two torpedoes.

While sinking Lianpo, Langsu immediately began to avoid the torpedo launched by Baiqi, and it also succeeded. However, the torpedo launched by Lianpo before dying was too close and there was no time for Langsu to evade, so unfortunately, Langsu was also shot.

While being hit by torpedoes, Langsu was also hit by Bai Qi's two 120mm artillery, so Langsu became the seventh sunken warship in this naval battle.

The first one sank was Akagi, and the third one was Hiei.

Yes, Hiei didn't run away.

Although Hiei successfully escaped from the battlefield with the rescue of his own rapid fleet, the "Leyi" then chased after him. At this time, Hiei not only had the tail gun knocked off, but only half of the 150mm gun on the ship could be used, and the speed dropped to less than ten knots. So he was easily caught up by Leyi, and took advantage of the favorable conditions for the lack of firepower at the tail of the ship to directly sink it with the two-unit six-inch rapid-fire cannon on the head of the ship.

So what about the second ship?

It's coming far away.

From the beginning, the Qing army fleet was the one who suffered the most firepower attacks. Because of its slow speed and Dingyuan, these three warships became the main targets of the Japanese fleet.

After the initial contact, the three Qing army warships adjusted their combat formations and used Dingyuan to move to the Japanese fleet in the middle, Pingyuan and Laiyuan to separate the two wings. Since the Japanese army already knew that the rapid-fire guns they equipped could not penetrate Dingyuan's main armor, the Japanese army, who were in front, only aimed the main guns at Dingyuan, and used rapid-fire guns to suppress Laiyuan. Pingyuan's two ships, which caused the two ships to be shot the most.

The 120mm artillery of the Japanese ship hit the back deck of "Laiyuan" and detonated the small-caliber artillery shells piled up there. Because the Japanese gunpowder used by the Shise gunpowder caused a catastrophic fire to lit the tail of the "Laiyuan" ship. The fire continued to spread near the boiler compartment. The second deputy Xie Baozhang immediately led all the officers and soldiers of the ship to fight the fire. In order to prevent the fire on the upper deck from leading to the bottom compartment, all the upper wind buckets on the "Laiyuan" ship were urgently removed, so that the boiler compartment was surrounded by a fire and could not be ventilated. The temperature rose to 200 degrees Fahrenheit (about 90 degrees Celsius), like hell. At the same time, the ship also lost some power accordingly.

The speed of Lai Yuan was hit frequently in the subsequent attacks. The fire caused by Shimose gunpowder completely burned out the wooden parts of the superstructure on the ship, and the deck was seriously damaged. The ship's body was infiltrated, and the side of the ship was tilted several times, leaving only the front main guns to shoot. However, while the officers and soldiers on the ship tried to extinguish the fire, they still insisted on fighting.

As the battle progressed, the distance between several Japanese warships gradually widened. At this time, the Qing army's fast fleet had already circled to the rear of the Japanese fleet and began to attack the backward ships of Akagi, Hiei and Fusang. Similarly, the Japanese fast guerrilla fleet also surrounded the three ships of Dingyuan. The stern of the Laiyuan ship was exposed to the attack of Japanese artillery fire without any defense.

At this time, Laiyuan's power had dropped to about six knots, and it was impossible to escape the attack of the Japanese fast fleet. While using artillery fire, the Japanese army also used the weaknesses that could not be protected from the rear, used the speed advantage to get closer quickly, and fired two torpedoes to Laiyuan.

Two minutes later, the "Laiyuan" who could not dodge was hit by a torpedo, and the ship was broken into two sections and quickly sank.

At the end of the first two stages of the naval battle, the Japanese army was sunk four ships and the Qing army was sunk three ships. Both armies had four warships left, and their strength was basically the same.

But Yuyuki Ito doesn't think so.

Although the two main battleships of the Japanese Empire fleet are still there, there is only Chiyoda left in the fast fleet, and only Fusang is only one auxiliary ship, and the total displacement of the remaining ships is less than 15,000 tons. In contrast, the Qing army and the fleet flagship Dingyuan are still there, and there are still two fast ships left in the fast ships, and these two are new warships, and regardless of speed, firepower, and protection are far better than Chiyoda and Fusang.

The battle situation began to turn unfavorable to the Japanese army.

At this time, the Japanese ship Chiyoda left the fleet far away and faced the Qing army's fast cruiser, while the Qing army's "Leyi" began to attack the Fusang. Yuki Ito hurriedly sent a signal, ordering the Chiyoda ship to immediately try to get closer to the team and sail towards the Fusang ship at the same time, preparing to rescue the ship.

Just as the Songdo ship was about to change its course, two 305mm shells hit the ship one after another. This time, the Qing army was very lucky. One of the shells hit the Songdo main gun, causing the ammunition placed near the main gun to explode. While causing dozens of casualties, the main gun at the tail of Songdo was completely scrapped.

Subsequently, the rapid-fire shells fired by Pingyuan hit the port officer's room of Matsuda, penetrated the upper part of the port central torpedo chamber, and exploded at the lower part of the large mound. The rapid-fire shells of the Qing army used a new type of shell made by the country. The yellow explosives installed in the shells were different from the black explosives used by Dingyuan's main gun, but were similar to the Xiase explosives used by the Japanese army. After the shell exploded, a large fire was also ignited, and a torpedo was detonated. The port of Matsuda was severely damaged, and the sea water quickly poured into the cabin, the hull tilted, and the ship speed dropped sharply.

However, Pingyuan was also in a raging fire on the ship, unable to save himself and could not continue chasing Songdao, giving Songdao a breathing opportunity. At this moment, an unexpected thing happened.
Chapter completed!