Chapter 4, Two Ships Sinking Together

It turned out that a large amount of water had flooded one side of the Zhiyuan ship, causing the hull to tilt. Lin Fei fell onto the deck and instinctively waved his arms, trying to grab onto something, but he couldn't hold onto anything. Lin Fei soon crashed into the railing and rolled directly off the railing into the water

Lin Fei then recalled that before the outbreak of the Battle of the Yellow Sea, Admiral Ding Ruchang of the Beiyang Fleet had left most of the small boats at the Lushun Port base to eliminate any intention of escape among his subordinates. As a result, the Zhiyuan ship had no lifeboats at all. Without lifeboats, sailors who fell overboard were in great danger. It was impossible to wait for other warships of the Beiyang Fleet to come to their rescue, as each warship was busy engaging in combat and had no time to attend to the fallen sailors. Moreover, after falling overboard, the sailors did not dare to swim near their own warships. If they were caught in the wake of a warship's propeller, they would be gruesomely shredded by the propeller. Therefore, the Zhiyuan ship had no lifeboats at all. Without lifeboats, sailors who fell overboard were in great danger. It was impossible to wait for other warships of the Beiyang Fleet to come to their rescue, as each warship was busy engaging in combat and had no time to attend to the fallen sailors. Moreover, after falling overboard, the sailors did not dare to swim near their own warships. If they were caught in the wake of a warship's propeller, they would be gruesomely shredded by the propeller.

Lin Fei asked, "What about Manager Deng?"

The ram pierced through the armor, yet the ship continued to advance. The bow, carrying the weight of several thousand tons from the Zhiyuan, crashed heavily into the Yoshino, producing a thunderous sound that shook the earth and sent Lin Fei and the sailors from both ships flying. Despite the heavy impact, the Yoshino did not stop; it maintained its original course. The ram of the Zhiyuan acted like a sliding knife, cutting a deep gash into the Yoshino until it became lodged in the ship's stern keel, at which point it finally came to a halt. The Yoshino, having endured the heavy collision, did not cease its movement and continued on its original path. The ram of the Zhiyuan, like a sliding knife, inflicted a severe cut on the Yoshino until it was stuck in the ship's stern keel.

At this moment, Liu Daming said, "Old Lin, Old Yangyu, we need not worry about finding a way to escape. In my opinion, we have a better method than running away!"

The Zhiyuan ship and the Yoshino ship were getting closer, and Lin Fei could even clearly see the Japanese sailors on the Yoshino ship, witnessing their panicked and bewildered faces. At this moment, the Zhiyuan ship had tilted to the left by 12 degrees, with its chimney emitting black smoke, and its entire body was engulfed in thick smoke and flames. To the Japanese sailors, it seemed that the Zhiyuan ship could sink at any moment. No one could believe that such a warship had actually broken through the barrage of shells and torpedoes to reach the front of the Yoshino ship.

Yu Xier said: "After the sinking of the Zhiyuan ship, we all fell into the water. The Japanese dispatched small boats to capture us. We were no match for them and were taken prisoner. You were knocked unconscious by something and floated on the surface of the water. The Japanese recognized you as the artillery officer and captured you."

Uncertain how much time had passed, Lin Fei felt a sudden jolt in his body and slowly opened his eyes. He saw a person sitting in front of him, shaking his shoulders. Upon closer inspection, he recognized the person as Liu Daming, the torpedo officer on the Zhiyuan ship. Upon seeing Lin Fei awake, Liu Daming said: "Old Lin, you finally woke up. You are not a spy; I misjudged you."

Lin Fei turned his head and saw a blond-haired, blue-eyed Englishman standing before him, dressed in a military uniform similar to his own. However, on his epaulet was an emblem of a boiler. Lin Fei suddenly recalled that the chief engineer on the Zhiyuan ship was an Englishman named "Yuxier," who should be the person standing in front of him.

The purpose of Kawahara's command was simple: to accelerate, steer, and avoid a deadly collision with the Zhiyuan. Unfortunately, although the Yoshino was the fastest cruiser in the world at that time, its acceleration was insufficient to evade the impact in an instant. As Kawahara watched the approaching Zhiyuan, a wave of astonishment rose in his heart: "Our Yoshino is the most advanced cruiser in the world; why are we being rammed by the Chinese warship?"

Yu Xier shook his head and said, "I am not sure."

It turned out that the boiler of the Yoshino ship had exploded, and the point of impact of the Zhi Yuan ship was precisely near the boiler room of the Yoshino ship. A large amount of seawater surged into the boiler room, and the scorching furnace met the icy seawater, resulting in an immediate explosion. Steam burst out from the rupture, causing an explosion! At this time, the Yoshino ship was traveling at a speed of 18 knots, and such speed was entirely driven by high-pressure steam. One can imagine how high the pressure of the steam was, and naturally, the explosion was extremely violent

Lin Fei saw that there were only himself, Liu Daming, and Yu Xier in the cabin, and could not help but ask: "Did the Japanese only capture the three of us?"

Liu Daming let out a long sigh and turned his head. At that moment, a stiff voice speaking in Chinese came from the side: "Mr. Qiangpao Chang, here is the Japanese warship Xijing Maru, we have all been captured"

Lin Fei pondered for a moment and asked, "So where are we going now?"

Lin Fei secretly cursed: "What a foolish Deng Shichang! Even if the Zhiyuan ship cannot reverse, it doesn't have to sink. Isn't it better to abandon the small boat and escape?" As Lin Fei thought of this, he looked up at the middle section of the ship and saw that the place where the small boat should have been was completely empty; there was no sign of the small boat at all.

At that moment, Lin Fei, who was hiding behind the protective shield, felt a gentle tremor in the ship's body, accompanied by a faint metallic scraping sound coming from the deck. Lin Fei understood that the bow of the Zhiyuan had collided with the Yoshino, propelled by tremendous inertia! The impact had occurred! Immediately afterward, a strange sound emanated from the deck, an extremely sharp and piercing noise, as if a steel knife were scraping against the eardrum; this was the sound of the bow piercing through the armor.

Lin Fei said, "This ship cannot drift on the sea forever, can it? It will eventually dock, and we will also go ashore. I think we should escape when we reach the shore."

Lin Fei heard Deng Shichang's command, took a deep breath, hid his body behind the guardrail, and gripped the handrail tightly. As a warship equipped with a ram, the Zhiyuan had numerous handrails that could be used for gripping.

In the ramming tactic, once the impact is successful, the ramming ship must immediately reverse and retreat, completely withdrawing the ram from the enemy ship, allowing seawater to rush in through the breach. At that moment, Deng Shichang's voice resonated throughout the ship: "Brothers! The transmission compartment of the Zhiyuan has been hit, and now the Zhiyuan can no longer reverse. We have no choice but to sink together with the Japanese ship!"

The Zhi Yuan ship erupted in exuberant cheers. From the Battle of the Yellow Sea until now, the Beiyang Fleet's flagship, the Yang Wei, and the Chao Yong have been sunk, while the Japanese Combined Fleet has only suffered significant damage to the Seikyo Maru, which has not yet sunk. Everyone in the Beiyang Fleet has been holding their breath, and at this moment, the Zhi Yuan ship collided with the Yoshino ship, finally releasing the pent-up frustration of the crowd

Yu Xier stated: "They separated the officers and sailors for detention, and the sailors were all confined to other cabins."

The boiler explosion created a larger breach on the port side of the Yoshino, causing more seawater to rush in. The Yoshino tilted instantly, reaching an angle of ten degrees in less than a minute. The shockwave from the explosion also affected the severely damaged Zhiyuan, accelerating its sinking. However, the ram of the Zhiyuan was still lodged in the hull of the Yoshino, causing the Zhiyuan to sink together with the Yoshino.

Yu Xier shook his head with a bitter smile and said, "Mr. Cannon, how could we possibly escape? The hatch is a watertight door, sealed from the outside and cannot be opened from the inside. We can't possibly dig a hole in the hull to escape, can we? Even if we could dig a hole, it would be useless; there are hundreds of Japanese soldiers on the ship, and we would never be able to fight them off."

Yu Xier shook his head and said: "I am not sure; I fell directly into the water from the boiler room and do not know about the situation at the command tower. Deputy Liu should also be unaware, as he fell into the water from the torpedo room."

Lin Fei was taken aback and asked, "You wouldn't be thinking of surrendering to the Japanese invaders, would you?"

Lin Fei was pondering countermeasures when he suddenly heard a loud "boom" coming from underwater. This sound was very similar to the explosion of a shell, but much louder. Lin Fei immediately felt the ship shudder violently, causing him to fall to the ground involuntarily. Before he fell, he saw the Yoshino ship lurch suddenly, as if it had been pushed hard by a giant hand. A plume of white steam erupted from the center of the ship, sending various parts from the mast flying.

Lin Fei said: "No matter where we go, we are definitely prisoners of war. Old Liu, Old Yu, what we should do now is to find a way to escape."

Captain Kawahara of the Yoshino was pale with anger, fully aware of the consequences of a collision with the Zhiyuan. At that moment, the bow of the Zhiyuan was directly aimed at the hull of the Yoshino. If a collision occurred, the Yoshino would surely sink. Kawahara shouted an order: "Hard to starboard! Proceed at full speed!"

Lin Fei's body was lifted by the buoyancy of the water, and he instantly thought, "I need a life buoy right now! With a life buoy, I won't have to expend energy to float to the surface for air." As he was searching for a life buoy, he suddenly felt something flying above his head. Before he could look up, he felt a heavy blow to his head, and everything went dark before him, leaving him unaware of anything.

Lin Fei looked around—at the painted cabin walls and the tightly sealed watertight door—and realized that this was indeed a ship's cabin. Lin Fei asked, "How could we have been captured?"

Lin Fei gently rubbed the bruise on the top of his head and asked Liu Daming, "Where is this place?"

Lin Fei looked at the two sinking warships and felt a sense of foreboding. At that moment, he sensed the deck tilting to one side, causing him to lose his balance and fall heavily onto the deck, subsequently sliding into the water

Yu Xier let out another bitter laugh and said, "You were unconscious when you came in, so you don't know that when the Japanese soldiers escorted us, the bayonets were pressed against our backs, and we had no way to escape"