The Rise of the Empire

On the one hand, there are the other two Japanese cruisers that are about to be included in the bag, and on the other hand, they plunge into the siege and rescue the besieged main fleet. The former has nothing to do, while the latter may trap itself! Yang Yonglin hesitated for less than a minute! "Bring the Japanese fast fleet away! We can at least keep two ironclad ships!" In the end, Yang Yonglin chose the latter, and drew the opponent's most powerful unit away from the sub-battlefield. The two ships can at least stabilize their position!

"From a strategic point of view, my only choice at the time was to give up the prey I got. Destroying the last two Japanese cruisers would not only waste time, but more importantly, it would consume a lot of ammunition! Kaiyuan performed very well, After a long artillery battle, the hull loss is very limited, but the ammunition consumption is huge. It is hard to imagine what will happen when we face the most elite fleet of Japan and there is not enough ammunition!"

"What's more, the Takachiho and Chiyoda have been severely damaged. Even if we give up the attack, they will not be able to return to the war for a long time. We are equivalent to using 3 warships to force the opponent's 6 warships from the siege of the two warships in Dingzhen. Eliminate it from the sequence!" After the war, when Yang Yonglin was asked why he chose to give up, he replied like this!

Many years later, the world's naval circles generally believed that Yang Yonglin was the best admiral in the entire Sino-Japanese War, largely because he had a good grasp of the overall situation! He will hardly overdraw the combat power of his own fleet, and he can always think of the whole from a local battlefield! If he hadn't left enough ammunition to face Japan's No. 1 Guerrilla Fleet, then the Beiyang Fleet might not be able to evacuate more than 3 ships in the end!

"The Beiyang cruiser is gone!" When the Hashidate was destroyed and Takachiho's captain Nomura Sada hardly reported any hope of surviving, the Yang Yonglin fleet on the opposite side actually gave up attacking him and turned around on the sea. Get out quickly! At this time, the two remaining Japanese cruisers naturally did not dare to catch up. The ship was almost turned into a mountain of flames, so find a place to put out the fire first!

"The Mainz is coming!" When the Japanese fleet had just beaten the Kaiyuan to death, and was about to work harder to deal with the opponent, an officer pointed to the three Beiyang cruisers galloping in the distance. The entire Japanese First Guerrilla Fleet is very nervous!

"Is that God of Death really coming?" Hirai Kozo glanced bitterly at the opponent in the distance! "Give up Pingyuan, we are ready to meet the enemy!" At this time, the only thing that can block the opponent is our own fleet. The other warships are not even as good as the Sanjing Ship, and they will die if they go up!

"Your Excellency, Commander, we should not give up! Concentrate firepower to destroy Dingzhen, and we will seal the victory!" Just after Kasuga's signal flag conveyed this order, the new captain of the Yoshino cruiser behind, Togo Heihachiro A counter-proposal was made immediately! He asked to be dragged by other warships and continue to attack Dingzhen!

There is also a reason why Togo Heihachiro became Japan's military god. At least now, he can clarify the relationship between short-term and long-term interests, tactical advantages and strategic advantages! It is true that the other two cruisers in the queue are just to send them off, but as long as they can delay for half an hour, Laiyuan and Jingyuan will be dead!

Under the pincer attack of Hiei and King Kong, the Pingyuan was finished, and the Beiyang Fleet was left with Dingzhen! Moreover, the temporary artillery installed in Dingzhen was a temporary one after all, and there was a huge gap in protection from the original artillery. Without enough close-in fire protection, more than a dozen torpedo boats would definitely be killed if they swooped up. Exchange 3 or even 4 old-style cruisers for the opponent's two most powerful ironclad ships, this deal is sure to make a profit! What else can you complain about? Dongxiang Heihachiro saw it very clearly!

And Togo Heihachiro can figure it out,

It doesn't mean that other people can figure it out too! At least now Hirai Kozo is a bit haloed, but fortunately there is no radio in this era, Togo Heihachiro can't tell the other party what he thinks, but Hirai Kozo looked at the murderous Yang Yonglin fleet, hesitated for a few minutes and decided to meet the enemy ! The Japanese fast fleet immediately abandoned the two battleships Pingyuan and Jingyuan to intercept the Yang Yonglin fleet that came over!

And with the departure of the powerful first guerrilla formation, the situation of this sub-battlefield changed immediately! There are still 5 warships floating on the water in Beiyang! The opponents to face are Matsushima, King Kong, Hiei, Chikushi who have rejoined the battle, and Fuso, who hangs his breath like a floating torch on the sea! The number is even! Although Pingyuan, Jingyuan, and Laiyuan suffered heavy losses, especially Laiyuan, it is not too much to say that they are hanging on their shoulders! But the quality of Dingzhen is too high!

King to King! True King vs. King! The most elite cruiser fleets of the two countries finally collided together! Kasuga and Yoshino first concentrated all their firepower to attack Kaiyuan, while Takasago and Akashi dealt with the two Beiyang cruisers behind. After the two sides started fighting, Yang Yonglin immediately felt that the situation was not good!

The powerful firepower of the Kaiyuan was forced to spread to the two warships, and the projected volume of the opponent's sidestring firepower was a level higher than that of its own. On the side of Kaiyuan, there were 2 280MM guns and 6 150MM guns (one gun was blown off. barrel). Moreover, there is also the problem of insufficient ammunition, so naturally it cannot be used arbitrarily.

The opponent's side firepower is Kasuga's 2 234MM artillery, 5 6-inch guns plus Yoshino's 3 6-inch guns and 4 4.7-inch guns! When it comes to the number of 12-pound guns, the opponent has an advantage! Kaiyuan's small guns began to suffer huge losses. After all, the so-called gun positions are protected, and not all artillery are protected! And just now the first guerrilla formation was slaughtering broilers, except for the shells, there was no loss at all!

But it doesn't matter, the projectile is a bit short, and you don't have to be afraid of Kaiyuan, after all, the skin is rough and the flesh is thick, you can't move it! But Zhiyuan and Jingyuan in the back are different! The one behind is Chile's former cruiser Blanco Encaraca! In history, it is called by foreigners as the existence of Qing and Japan who wins and who wins!

Whether it is the Yoshino or the Haitian when Beiyang was rebuilt later, it is not as powerful as this guy! The firepower of 2 8-inch cannons and 10 6-inch cannons! Even thinking about it is scary! The two cruisers Takasago and Akashi have an absolute advantage over the two Zhiyuan-class cruisers in terms of tonnage, firepower, and ship condition! The strength gap between the two sides can no longer be made up by the quality of personnel, Yang Yonglin will definitely suffer if the fight continues!

"The Kaiyuan ship's action saved the Beiyang Fleet, but it put me in a desperate situation. I can't beat it, and I can't escape!" Freemant couldn't help but sighed looking at the 7 cruisers that were huddled together in the distance. From the perspective of a neutral person, he admires the other party's courage and vision very much! Use yourself as a bait to allow the main fleet to temporarily stabilize the situation and rebalance the already tilted battle situation.

Of course, the price of this decision is that his own situation is very critical. The combat effectiveness of the latter two Zhiyuan ships is really weak, and their speed is slow. According to Fremantle's estimation, Yang Yonglin's rear team may have problems within half an hour at most.