The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 905 You must study hard, because not being able to do the questions on the battlefield is life-threatening!

"Boom boom boom"

The roar of steel clashing tore through the air and sea! A 210mm armor-piercing shell from the seventh salvo of the "Jinghai" pierced the base of the port side B turret of the "Thor" like a bullet! That was precisely the weak point where the Harvey-hardened steel armor met the ordinary structural steel! With a piercing metallic tearing sound, the armor ripped and shattered inwards like a hot knife through butter! A violent internal explosion followed!
"Turret B! Turret B is disabled! The warhead and turret ammunition supply channels have been destroyed! The fire is spreading towards the ammunition hoisting shaft!" Inside the bridge of the USS Thor, the desperate roar of the damage control officer below came through the intercom, mingled with the shrill screams of ruptured steam pipes and the muffled explosions of detonating explosives! Thick smoke, carrying the acrid smell of gunpowder and burnt flesh, flooded the bridge, choking Commodore Howard and causing him to tear up. His heart pounded with fear!
This was the seventh salvo from the "Jinghai," and the third time it had hit! The first two salvos hadn't hit any vitals, and Howard had just started to think that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's naval witches weren't so amazing after all, when his B turret was gone!
Meanwhile, due to frequent maneuvers and significant errors in the initial trajectory, the gunnery of the USS Thor had only just managed to fire its first straddle shot! A first hit was still a long way off!

The enormous "gap in problem-solving skills" was laid bare at this moment! Actually, there wasn't a technological gap in hardware; both the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Americans had the same equipment! But in terms of "software," the Americans were at a disadvantage. There were no mechanical computers to help the British calculators solve problems, so they had to rely on arithmetic. In the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with its 150 million people who had received seven years of compulsory education, even selecting the top students would yield 15,000 out of 10,000, or 1500 out of 100,000! In the US, with at most 10 million people who had received seven years of compulsory education, even selecting one out of 10,000 would only yield 1000 out of 10,000. Moreover, Americans were significantly less skilled at arithmetic than the Chinese; they simply didn't have as many problem-solving experts! That's why the calculators on the USS Thor, even after nearly breaking their slide rules, couldn't out-calculate compared to the Chinese.
Inside the bridge of the "Jinghai" warship, Luo Xinhua, with a solemn expression, already dressed as a renowned naval admiral, said in a pretentious manner, "Continue firing freely! Keep the guns firing at the midsection core area of ​​the 'Thor'!"

boom! boom! boom! boom!
The eighth salvo arrived as scheduled! This time, the two 210mm armor-piercing shells seemed to have eyes! One slammed into the lower edge of the gun shield of the C stern turret of the USS Thor. Although it didn't completely penetrate the heavy armor, the enormous impact and shockwave instantly shattered the turret's rotating mechanism, rendering it completely useless! The other was even more lethal—after a brief flight, it slammed into the steel plate below the armored observation window on the starboard side of the USS Thor's bridge, like a precise scalpel! This shell didn't explode violently, but the devastating kinetic shockwave and high-speed flying armor fragments it generated swept mercilessly through the confined space of the USS Thor's gunnery bridge like the Grim Reaper's scythe!
"Thud... Thud..." The sickening sound of metal tearing through flesh, mixed with shrill screams, suddenly erupted! The calculation soldier in charge of fire control, the operator watching the rangefinder, the communications officer transmitting data... were almost instantly turned into a bloody mess!

If you can't answer a question in the exam room, you might as well go to work as a laborer; but if you can't answer a question on the battlefield, you'll really be sent to your death!
The megaphone no longer carried reports, but desperate, dying screams and the crackling noise of electricity! The brain and eyes of the USS Thor—the gunnery bridge—were physically wiped out by this single shot!
Brigadier General Howard was only a few steps away from the eye of the deadly storm. Cold liquid (it was hard to tell if it was blood or condensation from the bulkhead) dripped from his forehead. The immense fear completely destroyed his last shred of fighting spirit.

"Witchcraft! This is definitely the devil's witchcraft!" he roared hysterically. "Retreat! Full speed retreat! Left rudder! Maximum speed! Smoke screens! Everyone, get the fuck to smoke screens!"

He abandoned all semblance of generalship, ripped open his uniform collar, and roared into the megaphone, spitting as he spoke. The crew of the few remaining 120mm secondary guns frantically bombarded the sea, creating white curtains of water to obscure visibility. Trailing thick smoke and flames, its hull bearing horrific damage, like a gaping, bleeding wound, the USS Thor, hull wrecked and scrambling westward towards the horizon, shrouded in artificial smoke and black fumes from its own boilers.

Just as Luo Xinhua was about to ask the navigation elder Jiang to plan the pursuit route, Xueye Qianzhe's clear and urgent voice rang out in the command tower, and at the same time, she handed Luo Xinhua a telegram containing a distress message.

"Captain! The Xi'an is in urgent danger! The Mississippi is under heavy fire and has multiple breaches! There is a risk of secondary explosion in the ammunition magazine!"

Luo Xinhua quickly turned his gaze to the other side of the battlefield.

About five nautical miles from the battlefield of the USS Thor, the 5000-ton Xi'an-class second-class cruiser Xi'an is in dire straits. Its opponent, the USS Mississippi, is a 10,000-ton Rafale-class armored cruiser with four powerful twin-mounted 6-inch Armstrong rapid-fire guns! The disparity in strength between the two sides is too great; it's beyond the reach of a few test-takers.

The eight medium-caliber rapid-fire guns on the USS Mississippi demonstrated an extremely terrifying delivery efficiency at this time!
boom! boom! boom! boom! boom! …

Shells rained down on the aging Xi'an like hail! Its horizontal armor was thin, and its superstructure was already torn to shreds. Several fires above the waterline were still burning, flames soaring across the deck! Even more deadly, a 152mm shell appeared to have penetrated a storage compartment below the main deck, igniting a violent internal fire! Thick black smoke billowed from multiple breaches! Its speed had noticeably decreased, making it appear incredibly clumsy against the agile, high-speed pursuit of the USS Mississippi. Lieutenant Commander Johnson, the USS Mississippi's captain, was clearly a seasoned hunter. He commanded his ship like a hungry wolf eyeing a wounded prey, maintaining a relentless pursuit position behind the Xi'an, making effective counterattacks difficult, like a leech relentlessly tearing at its prey with rapid-fire artillery.

"Target B (USS Mississippi)! Starboard 35 degrees! Full speed ahead! Chief gunner, take it out with all your might!" Luo Xinhua decisively abandoned the wounded and fleeing "Thor" without any hesitation! The old ship "Xi'an" not only carried the lives of hundreds of officers and soldiers, but was also a shield protecting the entire transport convoy! Once it sank, the remaining slow-moving transport ships would be lambs to the slaughter in front of the "USS Mississippi's" eight rapid-fire guns!

The massive "Jinghai" turned again, its raging steam engines roaring deafeningly as it hurtled toward its new prey at high speed!
Meanwhile, on the bridge of the USS Mississippi, Lieutenant Commander Johnson was still reeling from the unreal feeling of an impending kill. However, when he caught a glimpse of the frantic flag signals from the stern lookout—"Thor is badly wounded and retreating! A large enemy ship is charging towards us! Speed…over 24 knots!!!"—Johnson's heart sank as if into an ice cave!

"What?!" He lunged at the binoculars, the sight of the colossal gray ship, cleaving through the waves and radiating an aura of destruction, sent shivers down his spine! Just two minutes ago it was bombarding the flagship "Thor"... and it's already got its sights on him?! How is this possible?! How did it get here so quickly?! Could it be... that those legendary Eastern witches who can shrink distances are real?!

And what about the "Thor"? It's a "Rafale-class" cruiser, a top-of-the-line vessel weighing 12000 tons, an upgraded version of the "Rafale," so how... how did it escape?
He finally spotted the "Thor" fleeing in the distance, trailing a plume of black smoke. Although he couldn't make out the hull of the "Thor," anyone with a brain could figure out what had happened: that coward Howard had deserted in the face of battle!

No, I have to escape too! I must escape! Johnson was sweating profusely: "Hard to port! Maximum speed! Retreat towards the flagship! Turn the turrets to port... Firepower... Suppress the pursuers with firepower!" His commands were trembling.

The USS Mississippi abandoned the readily available Xi'an, abruptly turned to left, its boilers blazing wildly, its chimneys belching even thicker black smoke, and its speed was instantly pushed to its design limit of 22.5 knots! This was already the best it could do! However, its "mad dash" was still 1.2 knots slower than the Jinghai, whose maximum speed reached 23.7 knots!
This means that in one hour, the Jinghai could close the distance by 1.2 nautical miles, and in two hours it would be about 2.4 nautical miles! The Mississippi's high-pressure ventilation could only be maintained for a maximum of two hours.

Two hours passed quickly! The massive gray silhouette of the "Jinghai" loomed over the "Mississippi" with an unparalleled sense of oppression! The distance between the two ships closed at an astonishing speed to 6000 meters!
"Bridge artillery! Target B! First salvo—fire!"

Tsubaki Onodera's calm voice pierced through the vibrations and wind of the high-speed voyage. The eight 210mm main guns roared once more! The first volley of shells landed several hundred meters to the left and forward of the USS Mississippi—the impact points were somewhat scattered, but the direction was correct.

"Fire correction successful! Target covered in dispersion area!" The observer's voice was filled with tension and excitement. The USS Mississippi's high-speed maneuvering to avoid a collision increased the difficulty of fire control calculations. But as long as the "problem solvers" could calculate faster than the USS Mississippi's turn, the Jinghai could deliver a few heavy blows to the USS Mississippi with its 210mm guns.

A 10,000-ton armored cruiser actually has a very slow turning speed.
"Correct the orientation to the left by 0.5 degrees! Decrease the scale by 200! Continue!" Onodera ordered again.

The second salvo came swiftly! Columns of water skimmed the bow of the USS Mississippi, creating towering waves! This was a clear signal for successful crossfire!

"Target caught in the crossfire! Initiate firing! Prepare for continuous rapid fire!" Luo Xinhua's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement—his first sinking victory was about to be achieved, and it was a "Rafale-class" vessel.

The next instant, the hellish symphony belonging to the "Mississippi" began to play!

boom! boom! boom.
……

The Jinghai completely ignored the futile harassment from the USS Mississippi's port-side secondary guns (these small-caliber shells only left a few shallow dents in the Jinghai's thick main armor belt). Its eight 210mm rapid-fire guns unleashed a furious barrage of armor-piercing and semi-armor-piercing shells at a near-two-round-per-minute rate of fire! Like a plowshare sweeping through a cave!
Third salvo: A 210mm semi-armor-piercing shell penetrated the main deck of the USS Mississippi and exploded violently in the officers' mess at the stern! Flames shattered the portholes! A massive fire broke out at the stern!

Round 4: Two shells simultaneously struck the port side amidships! One blew off a 152mm gun turret! The other tore through the armor plating near the waterline! Seawater began to rush in!
Round 5: A single shell precisely shattered the lookout tower at the top of the foremast! The two sergeants in charge of observation and their precious rangefinder were reduced to ashes!
.........

Before the smoke from the eleventh salvo had even cleared—

Boom! ! ! ! ! ! !

A deafening explosion, a hundred times more powerful than any previous shelling, a soul-shaking roar, resounded! A 210mm armor-piercing shell, carrying all its luck, precisely pierced through a weak point in the USS Mississippi's armor, near the engine room, a section deformed from frequent hits, guided by the precise calculations of the "Jinghai" gunnery crew! The shell hurtled downwards, unstoppable, finally plunging into the 6-inch main gun ammunition magazine area right next to the engine room!

The light of death suddenly erupted!

A massive, near-perfect orange-red fireball, interspersed with countless flames, thick smoke, scorching shrapnel, and the entire steel ribs of the ship, like the gaping maw of a demon from hell, violently burst open from the beautiful midsection of the USS Mississippi, expanding upwards, outwards, and in all directions! It ripped the 10000-ton steel behemoth apart from its midsection like a thin piece of wood!
The USS Mississippi arched its back in agony! Its entire midsection was instantly and completely destroyed! The keel emitted a grating, agonizing groan of breaking! The bow section, propelled by the recoil of the massive explosion and the immense suction of the surging seawater, sank at a visible speed! The stern section, however, rose tragically upwards amidst flames and thick smoke! Then it plunged into the endless depths of the sea. In less than thirty seconds, this once-mighty "sea hound," along with its more than four hundred officers and men, vanished completely into the icy waters churning with massive whirlpools and floating debris…

Between the sea and the sky, there was utter silence!
In the distance, deafening cheers erupted from the decks of the "Gaosheng" and the transport fleet, a testament to the relief of survivors! Supported by Yumi, Luo Xinzhong, disregarding his disheveled state, frantically waved to the "Jinghai"!

Inside the bridge of the "Jinghai" warship, Luo Xinhua slowly exhaled, withdrawing his gaze from the vortex of death. He glanced through the porthole at the "Thor" warship, which was fleeing westward in a sorry state, growing smaller and smaller, and muttered in a barely audible voice, "Next time, next time I'll definitely sink you!"

(End of this chapter)