Beneath the sea, Kojima Mitsuru's body gradually sank, but his eyes remained wide open, clearly a look of unresolved grief. It was no wonder Kojima Mitsuru was so unwilling to close his eyes. After all, no matter how incompetent he was, he was still a high-ranking general. How could he accept the thought of dying so young in his prime? Moreover, he had several newly married concubines and several newly purchased geishas at home. What would become of them after his death? He was afraid that they would most likely be divided among the other officers of the Navy.
…
Mitsuru Kojima was dead. As a naval admiral, he was drowned. Of course, Yamamoto, who was still in the distant port, was still unaware of all this.
Yamamoto only knew that the warships of his headquarters were still there. Even if he knew that one of his warships was sunk, he could never have imagined that the first warship sunk was Kojima Mitsuru's command ship.
But Yamamoto still felt a little uneasy. After all, as a naval commander, he had no experience in major battles.
"Watanabe, tell me, can we win this battle and completely wipe out the invading enemy?"
Watanabe thought for a while and said, "Marshal, this place is too far away from the battlefield. Apart from being able to see the location of the battlefield clearly, we can basically only rely on guessing for everything else. This is not a solution. Why not send a few ships over there to check out the battle situation? As a general, it is very important for you to know the situation on the front line clearly."
In fact, Yamamoto was waiting for this sentence. He had long wanted to send one or two ships to see the situation on the battlefield. However, he was the Grand Marshal and had already sent several times more ships than the invading enemy. If he were to send warships to observe the situation on the front line at this moment, it would be a manifestation of lack of confidence.
So it would be better if this suggestion did not come from him, but fortunately, Watanabe was the first to say it.
Yamamoto nodded and said, "Yes, Watanabe-kun, find two of your trusted confidants and drive a gunboat to take a look. No matter what happens on the battlefield, report back immediately."
…
On the battlefield, due to the disappearance of the Japanese fleet's command ship, the remaining 19 Japanese warships were almost all fighting on their own. They had no orders and therefore did not know how to act, so they were just fighting instinctively at this moment.
But this kind of instinctive fighting was unsystematic, and the commanders aboard the warships had long since panicked. Even Kojima Mitsuru's command ship could disappear at will, so what about them? Could their warships also disappear at will?
What frightened them the most was the speed at which the fifty gunboats disappeared. Although the value of the gunboats was not high, there were still fifty of them. In the impression of those Japanese generals, the fifty gunboats seemed to have disappeared after only three rounds of artillery fire from the Ming army warships and a burst of explosions. The speed was really too fast, so fast that it was shocking and frightening.
However, what happened next was a terrifying scene.
Because the Ming army warships had already surrounded them from both sides, five on each side, at a very fast speed, the rumbling sound of the cannons became even stronger.
Due to the lack of a command ship, the remaining Japanese warships moved very slowly. When faced with the overwhelming artillery shells, they could only rely on instinct to steer their ships to a position away from the artillery fire.
Therefore, the following scene was even better than Zhang Dingbian had expected.
The remaining Japanese warships were all heading inward, with the aim of keeping a distance from the Ming warships. In this way, they could reduce the damage caused to their own warships by artillery fire to a certain extent.
Doing so can indeed have a certain effect in a short period of time, but in less than a quarter of an hour, all the generals on the Japanese warships discovered that this subconscious action would be fatal.
Because in the center of the battlefield, their warships have gradually formed a terrifying density, and even the closest warships are more than ten feet apart.
At such a close distance, a collision that should never have happened was bound to happen.
The Japanese themselves knew that if such a large warship was hit by a few cannonballs, even if a few holes were smashed below the horizontal line, there would be no shipwreck as long as the holes were blocked in time. But if two ships collided, it would be a different matter. With just one collision, there would be a gap of ten feet in the hull. With such a large gap, once the seawater flowed back, it would be difficult for the other side to survive.
However, just when all the Japanese were worried about this matter, it still happened.
There was a loud bang, and the two warships really collided with each other. The bow of one ship was damaged, which did not look serious, but the serious thing was that the bow was embedded in the hull of the hit ship. Obviously, it would be impossible to separate them in a short time. Besides, the seawater poured back into the hit warship in an instant. If such a big hole could not be blocked as quickly as possible, it would never be blocked. What's more, such a big hole could not be blocked.
The Japanese soldiers under the deck of the rammed ship quickly ran onto the deck. In this situation, it would be safer to stay on the deck anyway. As long as there is still hope of survival, who would choose to die?
However, when this group of Japanese rushed onto the deck, they were greeted by the whistling cannonballs. For a moment, there were constant screams.
Moreover, the scene that just happened is still happening again and again.
"Baga, baga, this is not a solution. That rubbish Xiaodao Man is already dead. Now we have to find a way to save ourselves and rush out. If we really can't rush out, then we have to crash into it. Even if we die, we must drag a Ming warship with us to be buried with us."
In a desperate situation, someone finally made the right choice.
A Japanese warship rushed towards the Ming warship, and the other Japanese saw this and most of them reacted. If not now, when?
It's not that these Japanese are brave, but now, only by fighting can they have hope of survival. If they stand here and keep getting beaten, then this navy will be on the verge of being completely wiped out.
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