Seeing that the Russian fleet had been defeated, Heihachiro Togo did not order a pursuit, but immediately regrouped his troops. It turned out that at this time, Togo Heihachiro had already received a message from the port of Incheon and knew that the KPA Navy was all dispatched.

As soon as the KPA navy left the port, it was known to the Japanese spy personnel stationed in Qingdao, and they immediately sent a telegram to Japan. After receiving it in Japan, he was also shocked, and hurriedly sent a telegram to Incheon to inform Togo Heihachiro and ask him to prepare early. However, by this time, the combined fleet had already left the port, but fortunately, there were still a few notification ships in the port. They all went out to sea in a hurry, rushing in the direction of Lushun on the one hand, and sending a wireless telegram desperately on the other.

Although the transmission distance of wireless telegraphy in this era is limited, people can finally find a way, that is, within the transmission distance of wireless telegraphy, arrange ships equipped with wireless telegraph equipment, and then relay transmission, although it is a little troublesome, but after all, it is feasible, because it is a war at sea, and it is impossible to use cable electricity to transmit information, so such radio communication is still of great value. However, by the time it passed from Qingdao to Tokyo, then to Incheon, and then through Incheon to Togo Heihachiro, it was already around 5:30 p.m.

Although the East China government has provided Japan with five batches of materials, with a total weight of more than 30,000 tons, allowing Japan to save a lot of manpower and material resources, Togo Heihachiro has always regarded the People's Army Navy as a potential opponent of Japan, once Russia is defeated, then Japan's next enemy must be overseas Chinese, so in addition to fighting against Russia, it has also been paying attention to the movements of the People's Army Navy. Togo Heihachiro naturally had to take precautions at this time, but fortunately, he had now defeated the Russian fleet, so he immediately ordered the group to be reorganized, and ordered the 1st Destroyer Fleet to go out to inquire about the movements of the KPA Navy, while the rest of the warships returned to Incheon Port.

At 6:20 a.m., the KPA Navy received a message from the Xiangyang warship that it had discovered that a Russian warship had broken through the interception of the Japanese fleet and sailed in the direction of Qingdao, asking the fleet to prepare for interception.

At 6:45, the Xiangyang ship sent another message that the Japanese fleet had retreated, and confirmed a number of three warships that had escaped, including the cruisers Ascolid and Deaina, and a destroyer.

Originally, the KPA Navy conducted many reconnaissance surveys of the Japanese and Russian fleets, and collected the radar signatures of the main warships of both sides, so that it was possible to pinpoint all the warships with radar scanning alone.

The Ascolid and the Deaina were both large protective cruisers, with a displacement of 5,900 tons, a speed of 24 knots, and 12 152 mm guns, while the Deaina had a displacement of 6,600 tons, a speed of 23 knots, and eight 152 mm guns, while the destroyers of the Pacific Fleet were all small ships of 3,500 tons, so the radar signals were not carefully distinguished.

At 7 o'clock, the Xiangyang ship again confirmed a batch of warships, a total of 4, led by the cruiser Novik, and 3 destroyers. The Novik was a small protective cruiser with a displacement of 3,000 tons, a speed of 24 knots, and eight 125 mm guns with its main guns.

After receiving the report from the Xiangyang ship, Wang Hailong immediately ordered the take-off of the Yueyang ship's carrier-based helicopter to focus on searching the range mentioned by the Xiangyang ship, and at the same time ordered the 1st Cruiser Detachment to take the 1st Destroyer Detachment to intercept the Ascolid and Deaina, and ordered the Dengzhou and Laizhou of the 2nd Cruiser Detachment to take the 2nd Destroyer Detachment to intercept the Novik, so that these two groups of Russian ships must not be allowed to escape.

At 7:20, the news came from the Xiangyang ship again, this time the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, the crown prince, was discovered, and the Qingzhou and Yizhou, who were watching the battle, were closely following the crown prince.

After Wang Hailong heard this, he couldn't help but have his eyes shining, the crown prince is no more than other warships, it is a battleship, and it is also the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, this is really a big fish, if the crown prince can be captured, it will be extremely beneficial to the East China government both militarily and politically.

So Wang Hailong immediately ordered the battleship detachment to attack to intercept the crown prince, and ordered the Dongchang and Jining of the 2nd cruiser detachment to also accompany and assist.

The Crown Prince is a battleship purchased by Russia from France, with a displacement of 13,000 tons, a maximum speed of 18.5 knots, and two twin 305 mm guns with two main guns, which are mounted in the most advanced electric armored turrets at this time, which can be loaded at full rotation angles, so the main guns have a faster rate of fire.

The biggest feature of the crown prince is that the armor material is made of high-strength nickel steel, which is the latest invention in France, but the armor of the whole ship is nearly 4,000 tons, and the defense is extremely strong. However, on the whole, the Crown Prince is still a very good warship, the most powerful warship in the Pacific Fleet.

After the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, the Petpavlovsk, was hit by a mine and sank, the Crown Prince became the new flagship of the Pacific Fleet, and in this breakthrough battle, the Crown Prince naturally took the lead, and in the battle with the flagship of the Combined Fleet, Mikasa, and gave full play to the advantage of its faster rate of fire of its main guns, in the battle, the main guns hit the Mikasa a total of 4 times, and one of the guns hit the bridge in front of the Mikasa, so that the captain Chijiro Iji, staff officer Kenkichi Ueda, Kogura Kanichiro and others were seriously wounded, and the deck was strewn with corpses, but fortunately, Togo Heihachiro was unharmed, and after the war, statistics counted that the Mikasa had a total of 32 killed and 78 wounded. As a result, Mikasa almost completely lost its combat effectiveness.

However, Russia's luck was too bad, and it was also hit on the bridge, but the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Wittgeft, and several officers around him were killed, and the steering gear was broken, causing the entire fleet formation to be in chaos. Moreover, a few minutes later, the command room was shot again, and the main command personnel, including the captain Ivanov and the navigation and gunnery dignitaries, were killed and wounded, and the chief of staff Matsevich could only take over the command of the warship, but the Prince still relied on the heavy armor protection to successfully break through the encirclement in the rain of bullets from the Japanese warship and sail south.

"Your Excellency Chief of Staff, the Japanese warships did not catch up, but the two warships still followed us. ”

Rear Admiral Mattsevich looked to the left of the warship, and in the twilight light it was still clear that at a distance of about 7 kilometers to the left, there were two warships, one in front of the other and one in the back of the Crown Prince.

Although the Crown Prince suffered heavy losses in the afternoon battle, paying the heavy price of the death of both the fleet commander and the captain, the power of the warship was not damaged, so after highlighting the blockade of the Japanese warships, Matsevich ordered the warships to speed up, even using strong pressure ventilation, and the speed of the warships soared to nearly 20 knots at one point.

But at some point, on the left side of the Crown Prince, two warships appeared, always following the Crown Prince in parallel. At first, Matsevich thought it was a Japanese warship, but soon Matsevich knew that it was not a Japanese warship, because the light was still good, and when viewed from the side, he could clearly see the bow of the ship with a large bevel angle.

The Japanese and Russian navies have been at war for half a year, and Russian officers are very familiar with Japanese warships, of course, there is no warship of this form, and Matsevich knows that there is only one warship of this shape, and that is the People's Army Navy of the East China Government.

The three warships were parallel for nearly two hours, although some people suggested to Matsevich that it was better to fire a few shots to scare away or sink the two warships, but after thinking about it for a while, Matsevich rejected this suggestion, because the distance kept by the two warships was very clever, just at the maximum distance of the naval guns, at this distance, the hit rate was extremely low, and it was nearly 8 o'clock in the evening, although it was now mid-August, the days were long and the nights were short, and it was darker on the sea, but after all, it was almost dark, and after dark, it was possible to get rid of the pursuit of these two warships。

In fact, Matsevich has another idea in his heart, he is the chief of staff of the Pacific Fleet, and he naturally knows more things, before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Russia also tried to pull the East China government and divide the cooperation between the East China government and Japan, although after the war between Japan and Russia, the East China government provided Japan with a large number of materials, but after all, it did not participate in the war, and the Russians did not dare to touch the East China government's business in Lushun, which is also an important reason.

Moreover, the current war situation has always been unfavorable to Russia, so it is naturally unfavorable to Russia to openly offend the East China government at this time, not to mention that Matsevich is not sure what the other party's intentions are, after all, the Yellow Sea also belongs to the Shandong waters, and the East China government has warships in this area, and it is not surprising that they are even cruising, and it is not surprising that the warships and ships that are monitoring the going side.

Sure enough, about ten minutes later, it was dark, and when I looked at it again, I could no longer see the silhouettes of the two warships, so Matsevich was also relieved, and finally got rid of the pursuit of these two warships, and now it was time to take advantage of the darkness and run as far away as possible. Although it was dangerous to sail at high speed in the dark, given that it was in unfamiliar waters, Matsevich still ordered the warship to maintain a speed of 15 knots.

After sailing for nearly an hour, the sky was completely dark, the sky was like ink, the sky was full of stars, and a crescent moon was shown, although it was not out of sight, but even if there was starlight and moonlight, the visibility was not more than a few hundred meters.

At this time, Matsevich was also reassured, and was about to check the nautical charts so as not to go in the wrong direction in the dark, but at this moment, he saw two sparks suddenly burst in the sky in front of him, and Matsevich's heart trembled, knowing that it was a flare. As the range of the spark expanded, a large area of sea was suddenly illuminated, and the shadows of six warships appeared, stopping in front of the crown prince.

And immediately above the left side of the Prince, a flare also lit up, and the officers and men on the Emperor Taiqi realized that the two warships that had been parallel to themselves were still there, and they seemed to be closer.