While the East China government and Japan were engaged in open and covert battles on several fronts such as diplomacy, politics, and intelligence, the war between Japan and Russia was still going on, and the scale of the war was getting bigger and more brutal.

The Pacific Fleet failed to break out, and only nine ships escaped back to Port Arthur, including five battleships, the Retvizan, Poltava, Sevastopol, Peresvet, and Victory, the armored cruiser Bayan, and three destroyers. No ships of the Japanese Combined Fleet were sunk, but only a few destroyers were sunk.

However, after the failure of the Pacific Fleet's breakthrough, although the Russian warships remaining in Port Arthur still had 5 battleships and 1 armored cruiser, due to the lack of auxiliary warships and insufficient maintenance capabilities, they actually lost the ability to compete with the Combined Fleet. And the Russian fleet, which had fled back to Port Arthur, was completely lost

However, this did not guarantee that Japan would be able to fully control the sea, because there was also the Vladivostok detachment. Now the greatest threat to Japan is not the Pacific Fleet, but the Vladivostok Fleet.

So on the second day after the end of the naval battle, Togo Heihachiro received a notice from home, only to know that the fleet of the East China government was only intercepting the Russian warships that had escaped from the battlefield, and had no other intentions, Togo Heihachiro was also relieved, and immediately ordered the 4th Sentai to rush back to Japan and assist the 2nd Sentai to capture the Vladivostok detachment. Because Togo Heihachiro considered that the Pacific Fleet had broken through from Port Arthur and that the only foothold would be Vladivostok, and the Vladivostok Squadron was likely to go south to meet it, this was a great opportunity to defeat this detachment and send the 3rd Sentai back to Japan, which was to increase the strength of the remaining fleet, and strive to annihilate this small fleet that had caused a huge threat to Japan's sea lines of communication in one fell swoop.

Heihachiro Togo was not wrong this time, and it turned out that before the Pacific Fleet broke out, he sent a telegram to the Vladivostok Detachment on 9 August, informing them of the fleet's plan to break out, and asking the Vladivostok Detachment to attack and meet it in the Korean Strait. However, there was no direct telegraph connection between Arthur and Vladivostok, and it was necessary to relay it from Mukden, but the telegraph line in Mukden failed, and as a result, it was not until August 11 that the Vladivostok detachment received the telegram from Mukden, and by this time the breakthrough of the Pacific Fleet had failed.

However, due to poor communications, the Vladivostok detachment could not know the results of the Pacific Fleet, and could only prepare to go to sea according to the order, and at six o'clock in the morning of August 12, Rear Admiral Ethan commanded the armored cruisers Grombowie and Rurik, and the protective cruiser Warrior to set sail,

At about 1 a.m. on August 14, the fleet led by Ethan arrived in the waters off Ulsan in the southeast of the Korean Peninsula and was spotted by the Naniwa of the 4th Sentai cruising in this area, and the Naniwa immediately reported to the 2nd battleship.

The commander of the 2nd Sentai Squadron, Hikonojo Uemura, immediately led the fleet and arrived at the scene at about 5 a.m., where he met the Vladivostok detachment and immediately engaged in a fierce battle.

Japanese ships in number, firepower, The four warships participating in the war are all about 9,700 tons, the total tonnage is close to 40,000 tons, the main weapons are a total of 16 203 mm guns, 52 152 mm guns, the armor is Krupp armor, the speed is 20.5 knots, and they are all in service after 1898, and the two armored cruisers of the Russian ship are not left behind, the displacement is about 12,000 tons, each with 4 203 mm guns, 16 152 mm guns, but the ship is older, the Grom Bowie was commissioned in 1896, and the Rurik was commissioned in 1892, the armor is made of older Harvey nickel steel armor, with a speed of less than 20 knots, and the Warrior is only a protective cruiser, 6600 tons, with only 12 152 mm guns in the main gun, which seriously dragged the Russian ship back.

At the beginning of the battle, the Japanese fleet attacked Rurik with the Izumo and Azuma, the Iwa against the Grombowie, and the Tokiwa focused on the Warrior. Since both sides were cruisers and their speed was relatively fast, the distance was rapidly closer, and the artillery battle was very fierce, and even the small-caliber guns on each ship also participated in the battle.

After 30 minutes of fierce fighting, the Rurik was the most severely damaged by the two Japanese ships, with a total of 20 shells, the most serious of which was a 203-mm shell hitting the port side, the shell penetrated the armor and penetrated into the No. 1 boiler room of the Rurik and exploded, causing the Rurik to lose a quarter of its power in an instant, and the speed dropped to less than 15 knots, and a 152-mm shell hit the tail rudder, causing the Rurik's steering gear to be destroyed, while the other shells severely damaged the Rurik's superstructure, and the deck was on fire for many days。 However, under the stubborn counterattack of the Rurik, the Izumo was also hit by 7 shots, 3 152 mm guns and 1 75 mm guns, which were destroyed, and the Azuma was hit by 5 bullets, and the ammunition hoist of the main gun was damaged.

The Warrior also suffered 15 shots, 9 of its 12 main guns were destroyed, and almost all of the buildings on the deck were destroyed, but fortunately the power was not damaged, and the waterline was still in good condition, which was better than that of the Rurik. Although the Warrior also hit the 6 guns of the Tokiwa, the damage to the Tokiwa was not great.

Only the Iwate was at a disadvantage in the duel with the Grombowie, and was hit by the Grombowie with 1 2 guns, 2 main guns, and 6 152-mm guns destroyed, 38 people under the commander of the detachment, Captain Haraguchi Tsuruji, and 37 people below the commander of the gunnery, *, and the commander of the detachment were wounded;

At this moment, the five warships of the 4th Sentai of the Combined Fleet also rushed to the battlefield, although these five warships were 4 protection cruisers and 1 communication ship, and they were all under the Warrior in terms of combat effectiveness of a single ship, but at this time, they became the last straw that broke the camel's back. Rear Admiral Ethan knew very well that as soon as these five warships entered the battle, he was in danger of being completely annihilated, so he immediately ordered a retreat.

However, at this time, the Rurik was only 13 knots, and the rudder was broken, unable to turn, and could only turn in circles on the sea, so the captain of the ship, Colonel Trosov, waved the flag "I can no longer accompany the Grombowie", and Rear Admiral Ethan saw it, and had to give the order to abandon the Rurik, and only two warships retreated.

Hikonojo Uemura ordered the 4th Sentai Naniwa, Takachiho, and Tsushima to besiege the Rurik, and he led the remaining warships to continue the pursuit of the Russian ships.

The two sides chased each other while firing at each other, and when they chased about 20 kilometers or so, the tail gun of the Grombowie hit the number, killing 13 people and wounding 25 people, and at this time only a quarter of the 203 mm shells of the Izumo remained, and only 5 152 mm shells remained, and the officers and men of the whole ship were also in extreme fatigue, and the situation of several other warships of the 2nd Sentai was similar, after all, in order to capture the Vladivostok detachment, the 2nd Sentai had been performing a sea mission for nearly 1 month, and they were indeed exhausted, so Uemura Hikonojo decided to suspend the pursuit。

In fact, at this time, the Grom Bowie and the Warrior had also reached the end of the crossbow, and both ships suffered heavy losses, with a total of 140 killed and 319 wounded, and several shots were respectively shot near the waterline, which had been flooded, and Rear Admiral Ethan had ordered the Warrior to arrange a self-detonation device on the ship, and if the Japanese ships continued to pursue, there was a great chance of sinking the two ships, at least one could be sunk.

On the other side, the Rurik was besieged by a Japanese ship, although it was shot again, the captain of the ship, Colonel Tsersofos, the first mate Lieutenant Colonel Vlotovsky and other five officers were killed, but it was never sunk, and under the command of the chief navigator Captain Ivanov, he tried his best to repair the rudder, hoping to break through and leave, but when he saw the pursuing Japanese ship turn back, Captain Ivanov also knew that the general situation was gone, so he ordered to open the sea valve and let the warship sink by itself, and the rest of the officers and men jumped into the sea to escape.

At 10:40, the Rurik sank, and the Battle of Ulsan ended. However, the Japanese warship did not evacuate, but rescued the Russian officers and soldiers who fell into the water on the battlefield, it should be said that the Japanese soldiers in this era were relatively normal, and in the end, 625 officers and men of the Rurik were rescued, and the remaining 224 were killed. In this battle at sea, the Japanese lost 45 killed and 81 wounded.

Although the Japanese fleet only sank one Russian ship in this battle with absolute superiority, this was also the first Russian main warship officially sunk by the Japanese fleet in a naval battle since the beginning of the war. But tactically, the battle was not entirely successful.

However, the other two Russian ships of the Vladivostok detachment have suffered heavy losses and will need at least half a year of repair before they can fight again, which also means that the Vladivostok detachment is indeed unable to threaten Japan's sea routes for a certain period of time, so for this reason, it can also be said that after several repeated battles to pull the ground, most of Russia's naval forces in the Far East have indeed been broken by Japan, and for a considerable period of time in the future, Japan will completely control the sea from the East China Sea to the Sea of Japan. The army can also launch an attack on the Russian army without any scruples.

In fact, the Japanese Army has long begun to dispatch troops and prepare to launch a large-scale ground offensive from the north and south fronts, with the 3rd Army under the command of General Nogi Noshinori on the southern front to attack Lushun, and the 1st and 2nd under the command of General Oyama Iwa on the northern front. The 4th Army, attacking Liaoyang, these two battles can also be said to be decisive battles, once it wins, even if it only wins one, it will enable Japan to occupy the strategic initiative, and victory in the Russo-Japanese War is just around the corner, and if the two fronts of the battle do not go well, then the strategic advantages obtained in the early stage will also be lost.

Therefore, both Russia and Japan are also deploying troops, and a new round of war is about to begin. At this point, the war at sea has also come to an end, the focus of the war will also shift to land, and the Russo-Japanese War has entered a new stage.