Airships...lots of airships!
Not one or two airships, but a total of twenty-five airships formed into two columns, flying from the sky above Shikoku Island to the sea in the southeast direction.
Boehme quickly raised his telescope to look at the sky, and carefully distinguished the appearance of these airships and the cabins hanging below. He discovered that these twenty or so airships in the sky were not "aid" from Britain to Japan (aid for which money was required). That kind of small airship is a large long-range airship that only the Ming Empire has!
These airships apparently took off from the Jueying Island base of the Ming Navy in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, flew over Japanese territory (there is no concept of airspace yet) and flew over the Jiyin Waterway to support their fleet.
But the question is...how did the Ming Dynasty Navy airship force on Jueying Island know that their warships had "intense friction" with the British Royal Navy and the Japanese Shogunate Navy because of a misunderstanding?
Now that only a few hours have passed since the two sides started fighting, it is impossible for the Ming army's ship to sail back to Jueying Island to report the news. Even if their airship was hidden in the sky at that time, it would take at least four or five hours to fly from the Jiyin Waterway to Jueying Island... Even if the airship arrives at Jueying Island, the Ming Army's airship troops will set off immediately. Now they It’s impossible to fly over Jiyin Waterway!
Could it be that Ming Dynasty's airship could reach a speed of 200 kilometers or even 300 kilometers per hour? Or did they have telegraphs or telephones that didn't require wires? But whatever the reason, it is not good news for the Royal Navy’s fleet visiting Japan.
Colonel Boehme has not yet figured out how those airships that were "firing" in the sky flew to Jiyin Waterway in such a short time? The fourth wave of shells has been roaring and flying over from nowhere!
Because someone on the destroyer Hinchang acted as the eyes and ears for the two cruisers on the other side of Cape Muroto, guiding the 20 155mm cannons on the two cruisers to fire, and the fire was concentrated under radio command, so those cannons were surprisingly accurate. , the first two waves of salvos have achieved close misses and cross-fires, the third wave should have hit!
I saw only one shell after another, whizzing and falling around the Lidian. Except for the ones that hit, most of them can be regarded as near-misses. The armor-piercing bomb that hit the Lidian was impartial and hit the cruiser's stern deck, and directly hit the officer's rest room below the stern deck. The violent explosion caused by picric acid immediately caused a disaster in the officer's cabin!
Picric acid has the effect of arson, and the luxurious interiors in the officer's cabin, as well as the wood and various textiles that can be seen everywhere, are all flammable and were quickly ignited by the burning picric acid. The fire quickly began to spread. In just a few minutes, the fire burned all the way to the deck. Soon the "butt" of the 4,300-ton cruiser was burning red.
Of course, the Lidian's disaster was not over yet, because the fourth wave of salvos came immediately after, and still 20 155mm picric acid shells roared in. These shells were all fired from a sling, and most of them were A near miss, and two more shots hit the Lidian's weakly protected deck. One of the shots did not penetrate because the picric acid charge exploded prematurely. Instead, it exploded a huge fireball on the Leander's deck. The burning picric acid flew everywhere with the blast of air, not only Many cables and ropes were set on fire, and corpses were scattered all over the place around the bow turret. The lying corpse blocked the bow turret, making it difficult for the powerful 7-inch cannon to move.
Immediately afterwards, the fifth and sixth waves of salvos came... again and again! A total of four 155mm armor-piercing rounds hit the target in these two salvos! One shot hit the building below the bridge and exploded on the spot, causing everyone inside the bridge to stagger. Two other shells hit the port side deck of the Lidian, and one penetrated and exploded in the coal bunker below the port deck of the Lidian, causing a fire.
The deadliest one penetrated a chimney, but the shell filled with picric acid did not explode immediately. Instead, it fell along the inner wall of the chimney and fell into the Leander's boiler room. Then came a central bloom, a big explosion in the boiler room. The boiler exploded on the spot, the pipes were damaged, and all the British men responsible for burning the boiler were killed.
Liduan's motivation was soon completely lost!
Up to this point, the Lidian had already suffered six 155mm picric acid armor-piercing bullets, plus dozens of near-misses. The 4,300-ton cruiser caught fire and lost power. The surface of the ship was also pocked with shrapnel from near-missiles. It was "painful" to look at it. If the Lidian could talk, it would be howling by now. called.
But even after the cruiser was blown up into this state, it still floated on the sea very stubbornly, refusing to sink... What a stubborn ship!
However, Colonel Boehmer clearly realized that the ship was no longer available, and immediately gave the order to abandon the ship, and also asked the destroyer Hippopotamus to come in to rescue people. But just after giving the order, a naval officer next to him told him that the smoke-filled Ming Navy destroyer was no longer smoking, and was shelling the Hippo with another Ming destroyer!
"What? This... is a trap?" Colonel Boehmer looked back and immediately fell into despair!
Because he found that the situation of the Hippopotamus was worse than that of the Bidean. It was not only two Ming destroyers that bombarded it, but also those cannons hidden somewhere!
Only shells were seen falling like raindrops around the Hippopotamus, which was only a few hundred tons. Suddenly, a huge fireball burst out from the Hippo not far away.
In the thick smoke, Colonel Boehmer could only see that the several-hundred-ton destroyer seemed to have been cut into two pieces by a giant sword, and then it sank rapidly at the same time, completely disappearing from people's sight in the blink of an eye.
Although it was only a destroyer that sank, Boehme still felt the death's scythe swinging over his head. As an old navy man, he knew very well that the reason why the Lidian was able to survive until now was because the Ming Dynasty's 155mm artillery shells were not powerful enough. If it were replaced with artillery shells of 200 mm or more, one shot might sink the Lidean.
But now the Ming Navy does not need 200mm cannons to sink the Li De'an, which has lost its combat effectiveness... Just let the two destroyers come up to launch torpedoes.
Thinking of this, Boehmer could only order in a trembling voice: "Abandon the ship... I order everyone to abandon the ship..."
However, contrary to Colonel Boehme's expectations, the two destroyers of the Ming Navy did not fire torpedoes at the burning Lidian. Of course, they did not stop the British who abandoned the ship from rowing small boats or swimming to Shikoku Island. They just circled around He fired randomly at the abandoned Lidian... as if the battle was still going on.
Of course, Boehmer, who was sitting on a small sampan, didn't know that the reason why these two Ming destroyers did not sink the Lidian was actually to use it as bait to attract the Indomitable formation, which was approaching at a speed of 15 knots. Rescue the Leedian.
The Indomitable is an ironclad ship of more than 10,000 tons, and it is still flying the flagship flag!
Guan Tianpei, who had already flown over the Jiyin Waterway, could see the "chubby" Indomitable with a high-power telescope... He was so salivated by the sight!
If this battleship could be sunk by an airship, the naval aviation of the Ming Dynasty would become famous.
Guan Tianpei pointed the telescope in his hand at the sea northwest of Cape Muroto, and then stared at the Indomitable, which was rapidly heading south under the protection of a destroyer.
"Give power to the Vladivostok and Port Arthur... Tell them that the Indomitable is coming, and there is only one destroyer beside it. The opportunity to sink it has come. Please ask the Vladivostok and Port Arthur to come to support immediately. Let's kill it together. Indomitable!"
"Yes, sir!"
