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Chapter Thirteen The Weird Warship

"Is this a warship from which country? Why is it so weird?"

"No matter which country's warship or what kind of warship it is, our Navy of the Great Japanese Empire will not be afraid. Anyone who dares to give in to our Navy of the Great Japanese Empire will pay the price for it. Well! Notice the other ships and prepare for battle."

"Hi!"

Although I said this, Iwasaki Master is also full of doubts. From the perspective of this era, the shapes of the two warships in the distance are indeed too strange. The ship's side is low and flat, and there are neither towering masts nor thick chimneys on it. Moreover, the position of the bridge is extremely low, which is completely different from the shape of the warships in this era. Of course, Iwasaki Master is only seeing the fronts of these two warships. If you change the angle and see the full picture of these two warships, Iwasaki Master is probably even more surprised, because the side side of these two warships has a very obvious fold line, floating below the fold line to outside the sea, and the inward tilt above the fold line looks a bit like a hexagon from the cross section.

Although Iwasaki Master is not a ship designer, he is a member of the navy and the captain of a cruiser. He is still an insider in the shape of the ship. Although the styles of these two warships are completely different from those of his own understanding, such a design is not completely unreasonable. There is no tall superstructure. The advantage is that it reduces the center of gravity of the entire ship and is conducive to the stability of navigation. The disadvantage is that it reduces the field of vision of the entire ship. In addition, the surface of these two warships is very smooth and flat, and the line shape is simple. Since it is a larger ship, the hull and the building on the deck are completely dissolved into one, the level of craftsmanship is by no means low.

If the design of the ship type can only be considered and difficult to determine the advantages and disadvantages, what puzzles Iwasaki Master is the weapon configuration of these two warships. Although from the current perspective of Iwasaki Master, the approximate size of these two warships cannot be confirmed, it is certain that the displacement of the two warships is definitely greater than that of their Akitsushi. According to Iwasaki Master's estimate, the smaller one should have three to four thousand tons, while the larger one should be more than five thousand tons, and even seven to eight thousand tons is not impossible.

In theory, for such a ton-class warship, the equipped artillery is at least twenty, and the main gun has a caliber of at least 150 mm and a normal 200 mm. However, the small warship only has one double gun at the bow, and the caliber is only about 100 mm, and the maximum is only 120 mm. The large warship is actually equipped with only one gun, with a caliber of even smaller, about seventy or eighty mm. Moreover, there are no other secondary guns in addition to the main guns of these two warships. It can be said that the tonnage of these two warships and the caliber of the artillery are completely unequal.

Of course, Iwasaki master knew that in this era there was a warship designed with waist guns, which was to set the main guns in the middle of the hull, rather than the bow of the ship. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the two main iron-clad ships of the Beiyang Navy, the Zhenyuan ship, equipped with two two-unit main guns at the front of the middle and front of the hull. However, these two warships obviously did not have such a design, because the hulls of these two warships were completely integrated with the buildings on the deck, that is, the bridge and the hull were the same width. If the main gun was set in the middle of the hull, the bridge would block the forward direction of the main gun.

In addition, these two warships are arranged side by side, with the bow against the enemy, rather than a linear column in front and back, which shows that the main firepower of the two warships is concentrated in the bow, and it is even more impossible to install the main gun in the middle of the hull. Therefore, Iwasaki Master had to despise the designers of these two warships. What a stupid design this is, what kind of country would build such a useless warship.

But there is only one thing that is certain that these two warships will definitely not be warships of the Beiyang Fleet. Not only because the two warships have strange shapes, but also the triceratops of the Beiyang Fleet are not flying on the masts, but a flag with a red and yellow five-pointed star that I have never seen before.

Of course, it is not a big deal to have unknown nationality. It is common for deliberately hiding one's nationality in the navy. The nationality of a warship cannot be judged by flags. But now the main guns of these two warships have been removed from their cannon suits and pointing their own ships. This intention is naturally obvious and it is definitely not a friendly expression.

But Iwasaki Master was not worried, because although the tonnage of these two warships looks quite large, the firepower is not strong and the combat power is definitely not very good. Therefore, with the strength of his own fleet, he can completely defeat the opponent. Even if he can't beat him, he can escape unscathed.

At this time, on the Akitsusu, the Japanese naval soldiers had already prepared for combat. All the artillery's cannons were removed, and the gunners were in place. The cannons were filled with shells, and the spare shells were also placed beside the cannons. However, they had not yet entered the range of the cannons, so they were all triggered and not fired. In addition, the soldiers responsible for the loss were prepared with various tools for damage and stood on standby in each cabin. As long as the Akitsusu was hit by the opponent's shelling, they would immediately catch up and repair the damage to ensure the combat effectiveness of the Akitsusu.

Iwasaki master was very satisfied with the performance of the officers and soldiers of the ship. This is the quality that the Japanese Navy should have. What he needs to do now is to pay attention to the distance between the two sides, choose a suitable time to turn, seize the "t" character, and launch a strike against the enemy ship.

Because the distance between the two sides was about ten kilometers at this time, and it was still a while before the Japanese ships opened fire, the officers and soldiers on the Akitsusu were also waiting patiently for the distance to be closer.

But at this moment, a staff officer suddenly said, "Hey" and said, "Sir, why are there no one on the decks of these two warships?"

Iwasaki's master was stunned for a moment and then realized that the staff member was right. The fore decks of the two warships were indeed empty and there was no one. The Japanese officers and soldiers were also very surprised. Although during the battle, unrelated personnel would not appear on the upper deck of the warship, there were always some combat personnel, at least a few gunners, unless they were fully enclosed turrets installed, in this era, only large ships with more than 10,000 tons were installed with fully enclosed turrets, and only the main guns were limited to the main guns, and the secondary guns only used semi-enclosed turrets. Moreover, with the size of the turrets of these two warships, it was impossible to have fully enclosed turrets. So where did the soldiers on these two warships go?

The entire bridge was silent, and everyone felt that these two warships were indescribable.

In fact, at this time, Iwasaki Master also had a vague premonition in his heart, but he knew very well that as the leader of a ship, every move would have a significant impact on the officers and soldiers of the ship. Because at this time, he would never be able to mess around first, so Iwasaki Master said in a deep voice: "No matter what tricks they are playing, let us just use artillery to greet them?"

Sure enough, after Iwasaki's words, the spirit of the Japanese officers and soldiers in the entire bridge was also boosted, and no one paid attention to the strangeness of these two warships.

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"Captain, Xiangyang Ship reported that their naval artillery fire control radar has locked the target and wants to fire the gun."

Wang Hailong held a paper cup in his hand, holding half of the cup of green tea he had just shot, and laughed and said, "Xie Fuzhan, do you want to grab the first prize? No, this first shot must be driven by our Yueyang ship, tell the Xiangyang ship, our Yueyang ship will fire first, and then the Xiangyang ship will continue to shoot. What's going on? Don't lose the face of our Yueyang ship in the first round of artillery attacks."

Cheng Wensuo, the squad leader of the main gun squad, said: "Report to the captain, the fire control and lightning strike have locked the target, with a distance of 7,630 meters, and can fire at any time."

In fact, Wang Hailong did not allow the Xiangyang ship to shoot the first shot, but not to compete with the Xiangyang ship, but because compared with the Xiangyang ship, the overall performance, combat power and informatization of the Yueyang ship are one level higher. Although the power of the artillery is smaller than that of the Xiangyang ship, the accuracy and fire control system of the artillery are much stronger than that of the Xiangyang ship.

The naval gun equipped by Yueyang ship is a PJ26 single-barrel 76mm naval gun. The total weight is 16.5 tons (including the lower deck loader), with a maximum range: 15.5 kilometers and an effective range of 11.5 kilometers; the maximum rate of fire is 120 rounds/min, and there are two types of fire rates outside, which are 30 rounds/min and 60 rounds/min; the total weight of the shell is 12.4 kg and the projectile weighs 5.9 kg. The fire control system of the naval gun is a platform in front of the main mast to install a LR-66 naval gun fire control radar. The deck below is also equipped with a GDG-775 photoelectric radio control instrument, integrating an infrared thermal imager, a ccd camera and a laser rangefinder, which can also be used to guide the 76mm naval gun.

Although the firepower of the pj26 single-barrel 76mm naval gun is not large, it has extremely fast fire speed, good reliability, and advanced fire control and high informatization. It not only has strong sea shooting capabilities, but also has strong air defense capabilities. In previous military exercises, the pj26 single-barrel 76mm naval gun has had many battle examples of shooting down enemy missiles.

Therefore, the Yueyang ship's first attack on the Akitsushi can ensure the hit rate of the first round of artillery shells, disrupt the layout structure of the enemy ships, and give a good start to the Xiangyang ship's next artillery shelling.

Wang Hailong drank the tea in the paper cup in one sip, then waved it hard, and said, "Okay, the rate of fire is 60 rounds per minute, and shoot continuously for thirty seconds, and fire, let the little Japanese compensate us for our greatness."

The operator of the main gun had already entered Wang Hailong's instructions into the fire control system. Cheng Wensuo immediately said: "The main gun fires." As he said that, he pressed the cannon's button vigorously.

"Boom boom boom boom boom!" The PJ26 single-tube 76mm naval gun of the Yueyang ship immediately began to bombard. In just thirty seconds, thirty shells were fired in one breath. A series of explosions immediately sounded on the front deck of the Akitsushi, and several water columns also rose on the sea around the Akitsushishi.
Chapter completed!
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