1890 King of Southeast Asia

Boom!

A huge water column rose several dozen meters to the port side of the Settsu battleship, and the splashes fell on its deck.

"Danger!" The first mate of the Settsu threw the captain, Saburo Sakutori, to the ground.

The action was so fast that when Saburo Sakutori reacted, he was already pressed down by the first mate. Fortunately, it was a false alarm.

"It's the 356mm main gun equipped on the Xuchang class. Their shooting accuracy is really high." After standing up, the first mate said with lingering fear.

The South China Fleet was on its right side, and the shells exploded not far from the port side. In the naval sense, it was already very accurate, and it could even be said to be a hit.

If the Japanese fleet did not turn, the South China Fleet only needed a little bit of luck to really hit the Settsu.

"Yes! But what I am more worried about now is that we haven't found the figure of the South China Navy's new battleships until now. Will our plan be discovered?" Saburo Sakutori rubbed his shoulders. He was hit when he was thrown down just now, and it hurt.

"This possibility cannot be ruled out. Should we warn Sasebo?" The first mate was silent for a moment and asked.

"We sent a message, but we still couldn't find the South China Arabia, Hawaii, and the new battleships. We only have four battleships of the Xuchang class and the Pinghai class in front of us." Sakutori Saburo said absentmindedly.

The Japanese goal is to mobilize the South China fleet, which is an open conspiracy.

The huge fleet with six battleships as the core needs to be treated with caution even by South China.

If South China does not care, the feint fleet will become the main fleet and attack in the direction of Ryukyu.

If it is mobilized to encircle and annihilate the Japanese fleet, at least six battleships need to be concentrated, so that the safety of the transportation operation can be guaranteed.

As for the feint fleet, it not only has the powerful force of six battleships, but also a number of auxiliary warships, especially torpedo destroyers.

When the feint fleet encounters a large group of enemies, it only needs to entangle for a while, then launch a torpedo to release smoke, and retreat.

"I hope the Haruna and Kirishima have better luck and can escort the transport ship and get away unscathed!" Sakutori Saburo said regretfully, looking at the huge fire in the distance.

"Telegram from the Fuso, the commander ordered the entire fleet to turn 20 degrees and accelerate towards the enemy." The communications officer came in with a telegram.

"Reply, the Settsu received it." Sakutori Saburo was silent for a while, then nodded and said with a little melancholy.

In the last battle, the Kawachi, a ship of the same class as Settsu, was severely injured, with only one turret left to use, and the Aki was hit so hard that it was almost scrapped and towed back to the port.

Afterwards, the Japanese Navy conducted a full investigation of the three injured warships. The results showed that the four warships of the third level that participated in the battle could not withstand the attack of 356mm artillery.

After reviewing the battle, it was found that the Japanese Navy fleet's hits were not less than those of the South China Navy, but they could not cause much damage, and the 305mm artillery could not penetrate the enemy's hull.

Settsu, as the second ship of the Kawachi class, of course also faces the embarrassing situation of being unable to penetrate and defend.

To be honest, it is understandable that Saburo Sakutori transferred the Haruna and Kirishima, which have stronger artillery power, but bringing Settsu here can only be used as cannon fodder.

Compared with the third and fourth ships of the Kongo class, the 343 mm equipped can at least pose a greater threat to the enemy, and Settsu's 305 is not of much use, at most it can only boost momentum.

However, orders cannot be disobeyed, especially in the case of "seizing the opportunity".

Fuso, Yamashiro, Ise, Hyuga, four Fuso-class battleships, joined a damaged Kongo-class Hiei and a Kawachi-class Settsu, and began to turn right and face the Nanhua fleet obliquely.

The Fuso class is basically the same, equipped with six twin-mounted 343 mm main guns with a total of twelve guns, a speed of 22 knots, a waterline armor belt of 303 mm, 303 mm above the waterline, and 102 mm below the waterline.

To be honest, looking at the data on paper, this data is still very scary, but the six main guns are arranged along the central axis, and the biggest problem is that they are forced to bend down.

Just like the famous battleship Ichijo, the data on paper is very beautiful, but everyone doubts whether its main guns can fire in unison.

The main guns of the Fuso class are arranged in two in the front, one in front and one behind the No. 1 chimney, and two in the back, basically covering the entire ship. When the main guns fire in unison, the muzzle storm will interfere with the entire ship and affect the sighting system, causing it to adopt an alternating firing strategy and unable to maximize its firepower advantage.

However, no matter how many problems there are, there are four ships here, with a total of 48 343mm main guns, plus 20 305mm main guns, a total of 68 guns, which are still very powerful.

In the direction of the Nanhua Fleet, the two Xuchang-class ships have a total of 16 356mm main guns, and the two Pinghai-class ships have a total of 24 305mm main guns, a total of 40 guns.

In terms of projection capability, Japan has nearly double the South China Fleet, and the number of projections is more than 42%, which is a clear advantage for me.

So, the Japanese wanted to do something.

…………

At 2:30 pm, the Japanese Navy began to turn at a distance of 11,000 meters and slowly approached the South China Fleet.

The Japanese tactical training is generally between 8,000 and 10,000 meters. An extra 1,000 meters may not seem to make much difference, but in the inherent thinking mode, the difference will not be small.

At 2:37 pm, the South China Fleet responded by turning right at the same angle and trying to distance itself.

From this moment until the end of the battle, the two sides have been in a state of mutual pulling.

At 2:40, the Japanese fleet turned right again by 30 degrees and went straight to the Nanhua fleet.

At this time, the Nanhua fleet was salvaging the crew of the wrecked destroyer, just not far from the route of Japan's advance.

In order to cover the destroyer to pick up people, at 2:42, Xu Sunming ordered a 20-degree left turn and full-strength shooting.

After several turns, Nanhua successfully got the T-head, but was also dragged into the battle rhythm.

At 2:48, within five minutes, the Ise, the leading Japanese fleet, was hit three times in a row.

However, only one was a 356mm shell, and the rest were 305mm shells, which only penetrated a few insignificant cabins and caused some fires.

The theoretical firing rate of the 356mm gun is one round in 45 seconds to one minute, which is actually slower, while the theoretical firing rate of the 305mm can reach two rounds per minute, and the number of tubes is also large, so this difference can be understood.

At 2:48, the Japanese fleet turned again, forming a vertical 90-degree angle with the Nanhua fleet.

Although this is a T-head, because the bow is facing the enemy, the shadow of the ship is reduced, and it is not so easy to hit.

The Japanese fleet can also use the bow main gun to fight back, which is also good.

(The distance between the two sides at sea is not constant, especially when they are constantly turning. The distance is always changing.)

At 2:52, the Pinghai battleship fired a salvo, and twelve shells flew towards the Ise, but directly passed over, and then passed over the second ship Yamashiro, and landed around the third Fuso.

Five of the twelve shells hit the Fuso directly, and because of the angle problem, all the shells avoided the main armor belt, and three of them hit the deck armor.

After penetrating the deck, several explosions were triggered at the bow of the Fuso, especially one shell that hit the center axis of the Fuso directly.

The shell passed through the deck and the second deck, fell on the turret compartment of the second deck, and exploded.

Fortunately, the turret was not cut corners, and the explosion did not penetrate the turret, causing a secondary explosion, but the powerful force directly made the front main gun of Fuso useless.

All the personnel in the No. 1 and No. 2 turrets were killed by the shock, the mechanical structure of the turret was damaged, the bullet lifter stopped working, and the steering system and pitch facilities were damaged.

At 2:58, the Japanese fleet turned again, this time to the left, in order to expose the flank and exert firepower.

This is an extremely dangerous operation-turning in front of the enemy, but it is not the first time that Japan has used it. They used this trick skillfully in the Russo-Japanese War.

Seeing this, Xu Sunming ordered all artillery not to change parameters, but to fire quickly, including secondary guns and some auxiliary warships that were enough, all joined the party.

At 3:02, after eating countless shells, the Japanese fleet completed the turn, and the long-prepared large-caliber artillery suddenly fired.

At this time, the main battleships of the Japanese Navy were more or less injured. The Ise and Fuso were the most seriously injured, and the Hyuga was the lightest, which was hit by only a dozen secondary gun shells.

The Settsu driven by Saburo Sakutori was also hit by a 356mm shell, but the shell hit the bow and the protective area, piercing through.

Another 305mm shell hit the main armor belt and was deflected by the main armor belt. Saburo Sakutori said he was lucky.

"The artillery is ready for a salvo." Saburo Sakutori ordered as the turn was made.

At this moment, he was still a little worried. In front of him was the injured Hiei, who had not recovered. If she was recognized, she would definitely be concentrated.

In this way, the Settsu at the end of the team might also be noticed. At that time, the relatively weak Settsu would definitely become the enemy's secondary target.

Saburo Sakutori did not want to sacrifice like this, it was meaningless.

"The enemy has started to turn again. This won't work, these cowards!" The first mate put down the telescope and cursed.

Just now, the Japanese fleet has been turning, with a low attack frequency, and can only use the front main guns. The pitiful two hits only caused a negligible loss to Nanhua.

However, all Japanese were injured, and the two turrets of Fuso were directly destroyed, losing 33% of its firepower.

Now Nanhua is turning again. The question before them is whether to chase or not? If they chase, they may face the situation just now.

"No, the enemy is releasing smoke, is it going to retreat?" Sakutori Saburo said with surprise while holding a telescope.

"Retreat? The enemy has the upper hand, why retreat?" The first mate raised the telescope in confusion and found the destroyer that was shaking left and right and releasing smoke.

"I don't understand, but now we can't catch up. I don't know how the commander should explain to the country." Sakutori Saburo shook his head.

This battle has not been decided yet, but Japan is obviously at a disadvantage. Many warships have been damaged, but there is no result. It must come up with a reasonable reason.