"Report to the Commander, the fleets are ready to set sail at any time. ”

Shang Jinfeng nodded, and through the porthole on the side, he looked at Xia Bohai, Qin Zheng, Xiao Jianjun and others who were still seeing off the fleet on the shore, and said, "Whistle, let's go." ”

With the sound of a flute from the Kunming ship, the huge hull slowly left the berthing dock and headed for the outside of Qingdao Port.

Shang Jinfeng stood in front of the porthole of the wheelhouse, looking at the front of the bow of the ship, the boundless sea, and his heart was also full of feelings, since defeating the German Far East Fleet, Shang Jinfeng only drove the ship once during the expedition to Java, but that time the Kunming ship did not fire a shot, that is, it went to Java to go around, although it also forced the Dutch colonial authorities to compensate for the loss, but also left Shang Jinfeng with a regret, after all, he could not fight another battle with a real gun. And now Shang Jinfeng is the Minister of the Navy, and he is in a high position, so it is impossible to have the opportunity to drive a warship out of the ship again. However, Shang Jinfeng is not yet 50 years old, it is the time when he is in the prime of life, and since then he has lived a life in the office, Shang Jinfeng's heart is somewhat unwilling.

And this time is a completely special case, because the stakes of this war are very important, it is the East China government since the rise of geostrategic superiority and the rise of the Guanjian War, the East China government has been preparing for this for several years, all the crossing warships must participate in the war. Although Han Chao, the deputy captain of the Kunming ship, can replace Shang Jinfeng to command the Kunming ship, but the Kunming ship is the flagship of the whole fleet, and Han Chao is obviously not enough to command the entire fleet, only Shang Jinfeng can hold this field, so Shang Jinfeng finally got another opportunity to participate in the war.

Of course, Shang Jinfeng also knew that this was probably the last time he drove a battleship to battle, but his last battle could be such a constructive battle, which could be regarded as satisfying.

In fact, the scale of the KPA Navy is not small at present, and the Russian warships intercepted last time have all been repaired, renamed, and incorporated into the fleet; the battleship Crown Prince has been named Weiyang and has been incorporated into the battleship formation; the protective cruiser Askelid has been named Heiko, the Deina has been named Heidi, and the Novik has been named Haino, all of which have been incorporated into the Third Cruiser Formation, and the three destroyers have also been incorporated into the battleship formation.

The four armored cruisers of the two types newly built by the East China government have been put into service and formed into armored cruiser formations, and the 7,000-ton armored cruisers still follow the principle of naming the city, because the construction of this type of warship is mainly technology accumulation, and it cannot be regarded as the capital ship, so it is still named after the big city, the first ship is named Jinan, and the second ship is named Tianjin.

The 10,000-ton armored cruiser belongs to the scope of the capital ship, which can jump out of the law of city naming, and the degree of freedom is much greater, and after the naval consultation, it was decided to name the name of China's famous war horse, the first ship is named Chitu, and the second ship is named Jueying, so this type of warship is also called the Mingju class, in fact, the navy has not thought of using a higher name, such as the divine beast, the stars, The name of the gods, etc., but after all, this is just a 10,000-ton armored cruiser, and the name is too high, so what will be used to name the bigger and stronger warships in the future?

Using the name of China's famous war horse to name a warship can not only reflect Chinese cultural characteristics, but also be appropriate, after all, war horses are also related to war, and some war horses are also familiar to Chinese, such as the red rabbit and the absolute shadow used this time are famous war horses in the [Three Kingdoms], most Chinese are very familiar. And it also leaves enough room for more powerful warships later.

In addition, the 12,000-ton battleship built by the East China Government in Germany left Germany on April 30 and sailed for Qingdao, which was also the result of the East China Government's request to prevent Germany from holding on to the warship on the grounds of neutrality after the start of the war. During the 20-year Sino-French War, in order to strengthen the naval strength of the Qing court, Li Hongzhang asked Germany to deliver the completed Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships. Although the relationship between the East China government and Germany is much closer than that of the Qing court, after all, Germany still needs the military technology of the East China government, but it must not be unguarded, and it is better to drive the warship away first.

Another battleship of the same type built by the East China government has entered the outfitting stage and is expected to undergo sea trials in September. And other accessories and materials needed for this warship have also been purchased, so there is no need to worry about getting stuck in the neck.

At present, the People's Army's navy has a battleship formation, an armored cruiser formation, four cruiser formations, and four destroyer formations, totaling 46 warships of various types, of which 20 warships were built after the establishment of the East China Government, and among the other warships, Germany and Russia have the most warships, with 6 each, and they are basically large and medium-sized warships of more than 5,000 tons.

After sailing out of the port, the Kunming ship took the lead, the Huaihua ship and the Xiangyang ship followed side by side, forming a triangular arrow, and the rest of the formations formed two columns, following behind, and the entire fleet was more than 10 kilometers long.

The other two modern warships, the Yueyang and Sanya, had already left the port to carry out their tasks in early May, and the Yueyang was responsible for keeping an eye on the Russian fleet and reporting the movements of the Russian fleet to the crossing fleet at any time.

At the same time, the Second Army of the People's Army stationed in western Liaoning and the marines stationed in Yantai also received notices asking them to be on standby at all times and wait for orders that the Second Army must launch an attack on the Japanese troops guarding the east bank of the Liao River within one hour of receiving the order, while the Marines demanded that they board ships and set sail within one hour of receiving the order.

The Russian fleet arrived at about 9 a.m. on May 10 at the eastern sea of Shanghai, about 2 0 0 0 km from Vladivostok, where the Russian fleet carried out its final coaling.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the refueling of the ships was finished, and then the commander Rozhdestvinsky ordered the 12 transport ships with the fleet to leave the fleet and sail for Saigon, Rozhdestwinsky also estimated that the Japanese would not easily let themselves go through the Tsushima Strait and reach Vladivostok, so there must be a fierce battle, and the ineffective transport ships were sent out of the fleet first. The fleet changed course to "73 degrees north east" and sailed towards the Tsushima Strait.

After sailing out of Qingdao Port, the KPA Navy immediately contacted the Yueyang ship, which was monitoring the Russian fleet, and learned that at this time the Russian fleet had sailed to the southern waters of Jeju Island, which was about 300 kilometers away from the Tsushima Strait, and the Russian fleet was sailing at a speed of 8 knots, and it would take about one day or so. Qingdao is about 600 kilometers away from the Tsushima Strait, so Shang Jinfeng ordered the fleet to sail at a speed of 14 knots, which is expected to arrive in the Tsushima Strait 2-3 hours later than the Russian fleet.

At this time, the Japanese Combined Fleet was still entrenched at the mouth of the Tsushima Strait, waiting for the arrival of the Russian fleet, and a naval battle that would change the situation and fate of the region would be opened.

As a matter of fact, Japan has always been on guard against the East China Government, but Japan's defense is mainly on the line of the Liao River and in the direction of Lushun, and it does not anticipate that the People's Army will attack the Combined Fleet, and this is not that Japan did not expect that the East China Government would launch an attack while the United Fleet and the Russian Fleet were in a fierce battle, but first, it was imperative to intercept the Russian fleet, because Japan would never let the Russian fleet reach Vladivostok, so even if it knew that the East China Government might attack the Combined Fleet by sea, it must make a sortie to intercept the Russian fleet; second, with the reconnaissance technology of this era, it was extremely difficult to find a fleet on the sea, although it was during the First Sino-Japanese WarThe Japanese warships intercepted the fleet of the Beiyang Naval Division twice, and that was because the route of the Beiyang Naval Division's fleet was basically along the coastline and there were rules to be found, and this time the combined fleet intercepted the Russian fleet in the Tsushima Strait, and it was fighting in the open sea, and unless the East China Government knew in advance that the combined fleet would set up the battlefield in the Tsushima Strait, it would be difficult to find the combined fleet.

First of all, Japan has deployed a large number of reconnaissance ships from Taiwan to the Tsushima Strait to form a tight reconnaissance network, and although the main purpose of these reconnaissance ships is to reconnoiter the Russian fleet, they can also be used to deal with the People's Army Navy. At this time, intelligence personnel from Yantai and other places also took action to monitor the movements of KPA naval warships at the port, and as soon as KPA warships made large-scale movements, they immediately notified the Japanese mainland, and the country relayed the radio to inform the Combined Fleet and make preparations. Japan believes that with these two early warning lines, it is completely sufficient, and as long as the combined fleet receives the early warning, it can at least be invincible, after all, if it cannot win the war, it can still run down.

However, after the East China Government announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Japan, it not only ordered the expulsion of Japanese diplomats and overseas Chinese businessmen, but also attacked Japanese intelligence personnel, smashing eight Japanese intelligence bases in Qingdao, Yantai, and other places overnight, arresting 52 intelligence officers, and paralyzing Japan's intelligence agencies in Qingdao, Yantai, and other places.

Moreover, the East China government was also afraid that there would be fish that would slip through the net, and since Japan also had traversers, it set up one or two deeply hidden intelligence points in Qingdao, so after the fleet set sail, it ordered the telegraph offices in Qingdao to be closed for one day, and except for the administrative organs, other industries, mines, merchants, and peasants could not transmit news to the outside world through the telegraph, so that even if there were a few fish that slipped through the net in Qingdao, they would not be able to transmit the news back to Japan. As a result, the first of the two layers of early warning lines set up by Japan has been broken up by the East China government, and the fleet of the KPA Navy has left the port, and Japan is still ignorant of this.