Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Military doctors and general surgeons have very different treatment styles and habits. For example, when it comes to manual hemostasis, a normal surgeon would rarely take such a bold approach.

However, when Li Che was in the army, he had also seen more unrestrained army medics. On the battlefield, when treating wounded soldiers with severed limbs, if the arteries were difficult to stop bleeding, they would even pull the blood vessels out alive, tie a knot, and then wave them away. At this time, anesthesia was usually not needed because the wounded soldiers had basically gone into shock from the pain.

However, the manual hemostasis was indeed effective, and Liu Duncheng's bleeding had visibly decreased. Then, the military doctor called over a stretcher, and with his hand still inside the abdominal cavity, he carried the commander to the operating room on the warship. Although the conditions for surgery on the warship were far inferior to those on land, there was no time to worry about that now.

After watching Liu Duncheng being carried away, Li Che turned to an officer beside him and asked, "Is the radio still working?"

“There is a backup radio available,” the officer replied immediately.

"Send a message to the Zhenyuan, instructing them to take over command," Li Che said, then continued, "Send it in my name."

"Send it by telegram?" The officer was taken aback, because the Zhenyuan was right behind the Dingyuan, and if it was just to notify the Zhenyuan, flag signals would have been sufficient.

Li Che noticed the officer's doubts, so he frankly said, "This telegram is not only for Zhenyuan, but also for General Cheng Hengqi. General Liu just said that if we rendezvous with the vanguard fleet, General Cheng will take over command. However, General Cheng is currently engaged in battle with the Federation's vanguard fleet, and we do not know the situation of their battle."

The fighting on our side is relatively stable for now. If we rashly summon General Cheng back immediately, and if the situation on their side becomes very favorable and they are about to achieve a victory, they might be forced to abandon their gains and return immediately. Therefore, sending this telegram, although not urging him, is enough to let General Cheng Hengqi know our current situation. General Cheng Hengqi will surely be able to judge whether the current situation warrants an immediate return.

Li Che's words made the officer nod repeatedly. He hadn't expected that the Crown Prince's request to send a telegram had such a hidden meaning. So he didn't hesitate any longer, saluted, and immediately rushed to the backup electrical room.

Meanwhile, on the opposing Federal Navy battleship USS Washington, McGiffin received news from behind that they had successfully hit the bridge of the Ming Navy's flagship.

"Can we confirm the existence of the Texas?!"

This news really excited McGiffin. Although the Federation Navy still had the upper hand on the surface, the enemy was actually winning in terms of the exchange ratio. This made McGiffin a little irritable. But at this critical moment, his men delivered such a great gift. How could he not be overjoyed?

Chapter 158 The Madness Before Sunset

"The engagement distance has been reduced to 1 meters! We must achieve a decisive victory before sunset!"

McGiffin didn't want the battle to drag on until after dark. After the Battle of East Xinluo Bay, the entire Federal Navy had developed a fear of night battles, at least the officers and men of the large surface fleets.

After all, after such a defeat, no one would be unafraid of the sea under the cover of night, especially not far from the mainland.

Although the Bashi Channel is some distance from the mainland, it is not far from Taiwan. If the Tang army has the intention, their torpedo boat force can launch an attack at night.

Logically speaking, the fact that the Dongda University deployed so many torpedo boats during the Dongxinluo Bay naval battle can be considered an overexploitation of their coastal torpedo forces. It is impossible for them to reorganize such a large number of torpedo boats to launch another night battle like this.

It's not that the Tang Dynasty didn't have enough production capacity to assemble so many torpedo boats. Although torpedo boats and the torpedoes they consume are not cheap (torpedo boats require high-speed internal combustion engines, and torpedoes are always very expensive), in wartime, economic issues are often not the biggest problem. Many pieces of equipment are not cost-effective from an economic perspective, but become cost-effective in terms of man-hours, such as the aluminum engine of the T-34 tank.

The main reason that prevented the Tang army from launching such a large-scale torpedo offensive again was the loss of personnel in the previous battle. The Battle of Dongxinluo Bay not only disrupted the organization of torpedo boat units in various places, but more importantly, it also had a huge impact on personnel reserves. As of now, the number of combat personnel in these light torpedo boats has not yet recovered to the pre-war level.

After all, the crew members who operate these things are completely different from the sailors you recruit in wartime to serve on civilian ships serving on auxiliary cruisers. The training of these things is more like that of pilots, and the professional nature is very strong. After all, you can't expect someone who can only drive a ship at a speed of 10 knots on a daily basis to be able to drive a torpedo boat that can run at 30 or 40 knots right away, right?

Therefore, the number of torpedo boats deployed by the Tang army on Taiwan Island would not be too large. This was actually confirmed by the bombardment of several ports by McGiffin and his men. But even with so many reasons, McGiffin was still unwilling to engage in night battles.

Because under these circumstances, no navy with a numerical advantage would be willing to engage in night combat.

There were still two hours until sunset, and McGiffin believed that two hours would be more than enough time for him to break the deadlock. At the very least, these few Tang army dreadnoughts could not possibly withstand the attack of the Federation army's 15-inch gunboats for two hours.

Increasing the distance to 1 meters can significantly improve the hit rate.

These four standard battleships, equipped with British 15-inch naval guns, should have had the smallest gun dispersion among the standard battleships of the Commonwealth Navy. However, the hit rate of the Commonwealth gunners was still significantly lower than that of their British counterparts. After all, the Commonwealth's New York-class battleships also had twin-gun turrets, but their hit rate in actual combat was not much higher.

For the Federal Navy, if the triple gun turrets of a standard battleship couldn't hit their targets, it could be blamed on the fact that they were saddle guns, or on a design flaw. But if even the twin gun turrets couldn't hit their targets, it was simply bad luck, not the equipment's fault. Although the crew of the Colorado-class battleships were elite, they still needed to create better firing conditions if they wanted to achieve results as quickly as possible.

Not to mention, it took these few 15-inch gun battleships to take down the weakest dreadnought of the Tang army. The survivability of the Tang army's dreadnought was obviously too high. McGiffin would easily think of the ancient armored dome.

Old technology doesn't mean it's ineffective. Why have countries chosen to weaken the old dome armor on their modern dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts to a thin layer of armor that can only protect against shrapnel? Each country has different reasons. The Federation and the Leitanians are confident in the protection of their capital ships. After all, the Federation's standard battleships have 13.5 inches of side armor, and the Leitanians' super-dreadnought battleships all have 350 mm of side armor.

Of course, many countries are actually doing it to save money. Armor steel is not cheap, and they can even skimp on the protection of the main armor belt. So, for parts like the dome armor that you can't see, wouldn't it be natural to save money wherever possible?

However, the situation in the East was slightly different. Corruption and fraud certainly existed in the procurement of equipment for the Ming Dynasty navy. But the problem was that Emperor Yongning was a very "economically savvy" emperor. Although this was a disaster for the country, it was a stroke of luck for the Ming warships.

Because one of the main manufacturers of the armor steel used in warships was a company controlled by the royal family, meaning that the more armor steel you used, the more money the emperor made, and the happier the emperor was. Just as the United States in the 21st century had Commissioner Smith, the Ming Dynasty in the 20th century also had the emperor's wallet.

虽然皇帝对于海军的插手造成了一些不利影响——比如因为280毫米舰炮的生产厂家也是皇室控股的，所以明军在海霆级第2批次本可以配备8门330毫米舰炮按照超无畏来建造的情况下，依然选择按照无畏舰的标准配备280毫米舰炮完工。

However, in terms of armor protection, almost all of the navy's battleships now have 70mm of dome armor, which is really thanks to Emperor Yongning. Otherwise, the navy itself would have considered saving money (after all, in the early years, both 300mm and 320mm of side armor were considered to be strong enough), and the dome armor of these capital ships would now only be a layer of about 30mm of anti-scraping armor.

To further close the distance, McGiffin wanted his 15-inch cannon to completely crush the thickest layer of the enemy's armor.

However, after he issued the order, the captain of the battleship Washington came to his side and quietly reported the damage to the warship.

The small 280mm water pipes on the other side could not possibly pose any real threat to the core area of ​​the Federation's most powerful Colorado-class battleship. The greatest achievement of the Tang army's dreadnoughts was that a shell jammed one of the Federation Colorado's 15-inch gun turrets, and a 15-inch gun barrel on the USS Maryland was broken. Apart from that, there was no other damage to the core area.

However, the damage to the front and rear armor belts was considerable. The Federation soldiers had noticed that something was wrong with the "armor-piercing shells" being fired from the other side, because the explosive power of these armor-piercing shells felt almost equivalent to that of a 14-inch cannon shell. Soon, the gunner guessed that the enemy was probably firing semi-armor-piercing shells.

The penetration power of semi-armor-piercing projectiles is certainly not as good as that of true armor-piercing projectiles. In fact, these semi-armor-piercing projectiles may not be able to reliably penetrate 150 mm thick armor. After all, semi-armor-piercing projectiles have more explosive charge and the projectile body is inherently weak. Some semi-armor-piercing projectiles are simply high-explosive projectiles with delayed stealth technology added.

However, this type of shell was surprisingly effective against the Federation's standard battleships—at least better than the 280mm armor-piercing shells that couldn't penetrate the armor. After all, for the Federation's standard battleships, which were truly all or nothing, the 13.5-inch side armor, the 16-inch gun mount armor, and the 18-inch turret front were like a wall of sighs for 280mm guns. You couldn't find any armor of medium thickness on the Federation's standard battleships.

At this point, the larger explosive charge of the semi-armor-piercing shell could cause greater damage if it hit the non-critical protected areas at the bow and stern. In addition, the Tang army's 280mm naval guns are known for their high rate of fire. The Federation's 15-inch naval guns take more than 40 seconds to fire a round, but the 280mm naval guns can fire three rounds in a short period of time.

Although the firepower of these Tang battleships has been severely damaged—the 300mm turret armor is not reliable against 15-inch Midwell armor-piercing shells—since the start of the engagement, after losing one battleship, they can still muster 31 main gun barrels, while the Federation has 29 15-inch gun barrels. Considering the difference in the rate of fire, the Tang dreadnoughts still fire 80% more main gun shells than the Federation.

The battleship USS West Virginia was in the most dire situation, having been hit by more than seven shells in the bow, resulting in more than 800 tons of flooding.

While this level of damage was still within acceptable limits for these Federation's strongest standard battleships, McGiffin had to consider unforeseen circumstances, such as...

"General! A telegram from Major General Daniel!"

A staff officer approached McGiffin with a newly received telegram: "They have broken contact with the enemy's two battlecruisers."

"How is the situation?" McGiffin immediately asked.

"The Marco Polo is in relatively good condition, but the Pensacola and Salt Lake City are not in very good condition. The Pensacola battlecruiser is now only 20 knots."

"It's good that they didn't sink." McGiffin breathed a sigh of relief. Although the Federation's fast fleet did not lure away all four of the Tang army's battlecruisers as expected, it was a good thing that they did not lure away all four ships. Otherwise, in a 3 vs. 2 situation, some ships would already be seriously damaged. If it were a 3 vs. 4 situation, the two Habsburg battlecruisers would probably be dead by now.

Even if the Marco Polo fast battleship were incredibly powerful by then, it would still be no match for four battlecruisers.

"Did they inflict any damage on those two battlecruisers?"

"The telegram from Major General Daniel said...they should disable one of the Jingyuan's turrets..."

"Gone?"

"Nothing."

"They fought for almost 50 minutes and only managed to take down one enemy turret?" McGiffin's eyelids twitched. "Did they just take hits for those 50 minutes?"

The staff officer wanted to say to himself that it was probably true, but he didn't dare to say it directly.

At this moment, Rear Admiral Daniel, who was outside the main battlefield, was still unaware of why the two enemy battlecruisers had suddenly turned around and left.

He originally thought that he would have an advantage in a 3 vs 2 situation. The Marco Polo's hardware advantage was undoubtedly stronger than that of the Jingyuan, and although the two battlecruisers behind it were not as good in terms of hardware, they should be able to hold their own in a 2 vs 1 situation.

It turned out he was completely overthinking things.

The integration between the officers and crew of the three temporarily leased battlecruisers and the warships was clearly quite unsatisfactory. The gunners of the Marco Polo battlecruiser performed even worse than the Federation forces during the Battle of Sulu.

The Tang army's two battlecruisers were not only sharp in their cannon fire but also highly maneuverable. If the Marco Polo could still hold out thanks to its armor, then after another 20 minutes of fighting, at least one of the two Habsburg battlecruisers would surely be defeated.

And the other one certainly won't be able to support itself for much longer.

However, the enemy's two battlecruisers actually turned back and attacked.

For Major General Daniel, this was truly a narrow escape in the literal sense.

However, at that moment, Major General Daniel saw black smoke rising from the distant horizon, which made him tense again. A bad thought appeared in his mind, and soon that bad thought became a reality.

Because what appeared in the distance at this moment were the four Tang army battlecruisers that the Federation airships had previously scouted as lagging behind. These battlecruisers were now speeding along at a speed of over 25 knots. It was believed that the boiler crews on these battlecruisers must be running like they were running a marathon at this moment. Perhaps they had even put the military band into the boiler room as backup manpower.

Given the state of the fleet led by Rear Admiral Daniel at this time, encountering these four Tang battlecruisers would mean certain death.

Major General Daniel thought he had figured out why the enemy had suddenly turned around and abandoned them—it was because reinforcements had arrived!

A dilemma confronted Rear Admiral Daniel: should he fight alongside his allies on the two warships behind him, or should he preserve the precious battleship Marco Polo and leave the battlefield first?

If we stay and fight, in our current state, we absolutely cannot defeat four dreadnought battlecruisers. Even if they use 280mm guns, it won't work, because they can easily take out two half-dead battlecruisers now. And if the enemy's four ships are determined to close the distance, they can't penetrate your 300mm armor beyond 10,000 meters. Do you think they still can't penetrate it when the engagement distance is shortened to that of the pre-dreadnought era?

Eight 15-inch guns trying to take on 32 280mm guns? What are you thinking?

Don't you remember that in the Battle of Jutland, the British's most powerful Fifth Battle Squadron, whose performance could easily surpass any battleship in the Leitanian High Seas Fleet, was only a little slower and barely made contact with the High Seas Fleet, resulting in the near death of a Queen Elizabeth II and two Queen Elizabeth-class battleships being crippled?

Faced with sheer numbers, your slight advantage in quality is utterly laughable.

To Rear Admiral Daniel's surprise, the Tang Dynasty battlecruisers, despite clearly seeing his fleet, did not choose to engage him. They did not even fire when they passed each other. All four battlecruisers continued to speed forward at 25 knots, passing each other at a distance of 18,000 meters without firing a single shot. This strange "peace" appeared on the battlefield.

At this very moment, on the bridge of the battlecruiser Suiyuan, Yang Yuchen once again raised his hand to look at the watch on his wrist.

"Please hang in there a little longer, we'll be there soon."

I need to take a break. Double update tomorrow.

I'm really at my wit's end, so I'll just write a little bit and post it. It's a bit too short, I'll finish it after I wake up from my nap. Sorry everyone.

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Chapter 159 The Subtle Writing in Telegrams

Initially, Yang Yuchen was actually the first choice to be the commander of the First Fast Fleet, since he was older than Cheng Hengqi in terms of both experience and seniority.

Even if it weren't for the fact that Yang Yuchen had been leading the fast fleet before, he would be more qualified than Liu Duncheng to be the commander-in-chief of the entire Dragon Flag Fleet.

However, Yang Yuchen himself declined both positions, and the reason was quite simple—the absolute core of this naval battle was naturally the super-dreadnoughts in the flagship fleet, especially the eight battleships that formed the absolute core.

For more than a year, he had been trapped in Surabaya Port, like a wanderer stranded on an island, completely isolated from the world.

Yang Yuchen did not think he was suitable to command the entire fleet at the moment, at least not as the commander of the ocean fleet. Of course, this was also due to Yang Yuchen's experience and shrewdness. He saw that Liu Duncheng had a lingering resentment because of the defeat in the Java Sea Battle. This resentment could only be resolved after he commanded the fleet and fought a real battle against the Federation.

When facing two fast fleets, Yang Yuchen still expressed his desire to bring his old subordinates whom he had always commanded. Although these four battlecruisers were now somewhat outdated, besides being nostalgic, Yang Yuchen also felt that it was precisely because the sword was no longer as fast that a highly skilled swordsman was needed to make the sword play a greater role on the battlefield.

His decision to spare a few Federation battlecruisers at this moment led some of his old subordinates to ask with some doubt, "Sir, shouldn't we deal with those ships first?"

When the captain of the Suiyuan saw the Pensacola, which was already emitting white smoke in the distance, he was itching to take action.

Unlike 21st-century internet enthusiasts who pay special attention to which warships emit black smoke, it's normal for warships to emit black smoke these days. In fact, many people will use post-processing to colorize the photos of warships to make the black smoke appear thicker, because people these days believe that the thicker the black smoke billowing from the smokestacks of a warship, the more imposing the ship is.

The most typical example of this is the classic photo of the Federation's Great White Fleet in the OTL world. The actual photo didn't show such thick black smoke at all; the black smoke in the photo was composited in post-production.

People of this era are more sensitive to the "white smoke" coming from warships, especially warships, because warships in this era do not normally emit "white smoke". If you find a line of white smoke coming out, it is actually not smoke, but water vapor.

The ship was spewing water vapor outwards, which means that the warship's propulsion system had malfunctioned.

It's obvious to anyone with eyes that the Pensacola is in a bad situation. If these four ships surround it, they can sink it in less than 20 minutes. Then, they can send one of the remaining two Federation battlecruisers to slowly crush the other Habsburg ship, while the remaining three battlecruisers can surround the Marco Polo. It won't take much effort to sink what is probably the world's strongest fast battleship right now.

But Yang Yuchen shook his head: "We don't need to worry about those three ships. Our most important task now is to rejoin the main fleet immediately. The main fleet is in a very bad situation. The flagship has been hit and command has been handed over. We shouldn't cause any more trouble at this time."

"Isn't this just creating unnecessary trouble, sir?" The captain of the Suiyuan disagreed. "If those Federation battlecruisers were to return now and rejoin their main fleet..."

“They won’t,” Yang Yuchen shook his head.

"No way?" The captain of the Suiyuan was even more puzzled upon hearing this. Did his commander have mind-reading abilities? Did he know what the opposing commander was thinking?

“Those ships have been decimated and have lost their will to fight. We just passed by them. If they dared to fire at us, we would have taken care of them first. But they didn’t fire at us. So we can put the cowardly enemy aside for now.”

Yang Yuchen explained, "The secondhand ships that the Federation bought from Europe, apart from the Syracuse ship which was indeed a good one, the other two Habsburg battlecruisers were essentially the same as the large light cruisers that the British made. The British never expected these large light cruisers to be able to fight against capital ships. The Federation's fast fleet looks like it has three capital ships, but in reality, it only has one, the Marco Polo."

After saying that, he turned his gaze to his familiar subordinates on the bridge: "On the battlefield, this is often the case: the cowardly live, while the brave die. Gentlemen, after we engage the main fleet of the Federation, our situation will probably be only slightly better than those few Habsburg armored cruisers. But now our motherland and our comrades need us. We are hussars of the ocean! When it is our turn to charge, we must charge without hesitation!"

The captain beside Yang Yuchen drew his military knife from his waist and held it up in front of him: "When two armies meet on a narrow path—"

"The brave shall prevail!"

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Tang Jun achieved another crucial victory: the No. 5 turret at the stern of the New York-class battleship USS Massachusetts was hit. Similar to the situation encountered by the USS Indiana after its turret was hit, the fire quickly spread down to the powder chamber. Although the fire doors were closed this time, the uncontrollable fire continued to test them. No one knew how long these early fire doors could withstand the fire. As the temperature inside the ammunition magazine rose, even though the flames did not spread in, the propellant barrels began to burn and explode.

Under such circumstances, a captain decisively ordered the sea valve to be opened, which, after flooding the ammunition magazines of the two turrets at the rear, seemed to prevent Massaju from following in the footsteps of his sister.

Unfortunately, as a New York battleship that was essentially a simple upgrade from a dreadnought to a super-dreadnought, its armor protection was indeed at the dreadnought level, and it was naturally incomparable to the standard battleships of the later-emerging Union Navy.

Therefore, although it did not die from the ammunition depot explosion, after being flooded with so much water at the stern and having its main armor belt penetrated multiple times, the USS Massachusetts left the battle line after sending a signal requesting withdrawal, since the ship was no longer fast enough to maintain the cruising speed of the formation.

Although they didn't sink any ships, the result is not much worse than expected. The Federation fleet has lost three ships, and the score is now 1:3. It seems like the situation is very favorable, but the Tang fleet is actually on the verge of collapse.

The Federation's four 15-inch gunboats at the forefront were simply too ferocious. Of the four dreadnoughts currently facing them, the last one, the Haichang-class battleship, was now on the verge of death, its life hanging by a thread. This type of battleship was about to become the first capital ship of its kind in this war to have all its sister ships sunk.

Although the other three Haiting-class battleships are larger and more durable, once the Tang army's fourth position is taken out, the opposing Federation forces will be able to use four 15-inch gunboats to attack the three battleships on this side, which will naturally accelerate the collapse of the battleships on this side.

Once this front line completely collapses, the Federation will be able to hunt down the Tang warships without restraint, and the four Federation 15-inch gunboats that are freed up will become the most terrifying battering rams on the battlefield.

At this moment, the mentality of the Tang and American sides is also different. From the perspective of the Federation, they are just one step away from victory! The Federation has finally used their fleet's thicker health bar than the enemy's to hold out until the Tang army is at its limit. The current Dragon Flag fleet is like a dilapidated house that is about to collapse. If you kick it again, the house will collapse.

Meanwhile, the Tang army's leading dreadnoughts had already incorporated their military bands into the damage control teams. After losing its sister ship, the battleship Haiqin lost two and a half of its four turrets within just 20 minutes. The dreadnought's vitality had been reduced to almost that of a pre-dreadnought. Its mere three 280mm naval guns were less of a counterattack and more of an attempt to prove that it still posed a threat.

In this situation, the Tang army decisively deployed its escorting destroyers to launch torpedo attacks on the Federation's 15-inch gunboats at the forefront, buying their own battleships a brief respite.

Faced with the torpedo troops deployed by the Tang army, the four Federal 15-inch gunboats, which had already taken a lot of shells in the battle, began to turn two compass points to the left under McGiffin's command, slightly increasing the distance. In those days, torpedoes had a longer range and posed a greater threat to capital ships. The Federal Navy's battleships generally used five-inch secondary guns, which not only had a relatively short effective interception range, but the losses of secondary guns by now were also considerable.

Therefore, when McGiffin saw the enemy begin to deploy destroyers, he had no choice but to give up the victory he was about to gain and create some distance. At the same time, he decisively deployed his own destroyers. The Federation Navy was not afraid of a battle of light ships. The Federation deployed almost three destroyer squadrons at once, twice the number of the Tang army. The battle between the light ships of the two sides was more brutal than the battle between the capital ships.