When Izuwa Shigeto returned to Japan with the dilapidated fleet, Ito's face changed when he learned that he had lost 4 cruisers and that none of the 6 armored cruisers of the Urayan fleet had sunk. @这次没留下浦盐舰队, I don't know how much trouble they can cause when they come out again.

Soon, the First Fleet of the Combined Fleet, which was staying in the temporary anchorage of the Satoyama Islands, also knew the bad news, and the chief of staff, Shimamura Suo, was also screamed in shock, Akiyama Shinyuki couldn't even speak, and Togo Heihachiro's reaction was somewhat unexpected, and his face was calm and asked to send a report to the Military Command Department, so that Dewa Shigeto and the three cruisers Chitose, Suma, and Akashi, who were damaged and not strict, immediately rushed to the Satoyama Islands to join the First Fleet.

It didn't take long for Dewa Shigeto to arrive with the fleet, and then boarded the Mikasa, the flagship of the combined fleet, to report the situation to Togo Heihachiro, and saw Izuwa Shigeen, whose arms were hanging on his chest and his face was colorless, Togo Heihachiro calmly poured a glass of whiskey for Dewa Shigeto and placed it in front of him, and said to Dewa Shigeen, who hadn't understood yet: "Dewa-kun, hard work, don't commit suicide, the battle will continue." ”

After this loss, there are not many protective cruisers that the combined fleet can use, and a general like Dewa Shigeyuan is an extremely valuable officer, Togo doesn't want to see Dewa come to apologize, and then these only remaining warships do not have a suitable commander, and these protective cruisers of the Third Fleet are of great use in Togo's plan.

In fact, what the Japanese side did not know was that Essen's fleet did not pay a price, and after returning to Vladivostok, after inspection, the Rurik ship's guns were basically burned to iron lumps, and the two steam engines of the Russian could not operate, and such injuries were not repaired by the facilities in Vladivostok's port, so these two ships. In the following war, I can only be a bystander.

The injuries of the Izmail and the Kimborn are relatively minor, but with Vladivostok's maintenance capacity, it is estimated that it will take 3-4 months, so during this time, the Essen fleet can only stay in the harbor honestly.

But now the Japanese don't know about it, the British don't know about it, and Britain is an ally of Japan. Naturally, he was extremely concerned about the situation of the war, and even the Mikasa was accompanied by British naval officers, so it was not long before Whitehall knew that its allies had suffered a great loss at the hands of the Russians.

The Russians' appearance surprised the British, the Russian navy was so capable of fighting, and the British, who were already optimistic about the huge disparity in strength between Japan and Russia and the situation in the Far East, felt that Japan's chances of winning the war between Japan and Russia were really slim.

The Count of Selborn, the Minister of the Admiralty, expressed his great distress at this situation, and the Russian Navy proved itself as the third naval power in the world with a landslide victory in a naval battle. And the news that two more battleships of the German Navy had begun to test the power system in the Baltic Sea made the Count of Selborn, who was the Minister of the Admiralty, feel Alexander.

Although in 1901 the Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Beechcraft warned him to refute it mercilessly, and uttered a famous phrase that has been passed down to posterity: "It seems to me that all the expenses of this country are in maintaining its bank credit and its navy." And won the special funds for the construction of additional ships for the Navy through the Cabinet of Ministers.

However, this did not mean that the Earl of Selborn really turned a deaf ear to the tremendous pressure from all sides, but the contradiction between the Russian and the German expansion made him feel extremely urgent to continue to maintain the superior power of the Royal Navy.

In addition, at this time, the supervision and management of the British Navy in terms of expenditure was very loose and disorderly, and neither the Treasury nor the Admiralty were willing to allow Parliament to send special personnel to supervise their own expenditure process. The Ministry of Finance has only 3 part-time officers who oversee the implementation of the Navy's budget. The role of the Treasury Committee of the Admiralty is only to "assess the relationship between the progress of expenditures and the budget."

As a result, the Navy was only responsible for asking the government for money, and the Treasury Committee of the Admiralty never considered its own management responsibilities from a financial point of view. The government can only feel the pressure from the navy's funding, and it is unable to effectively assess whether the funds requested by the navy are reasonable, nor can it supervise the direction and effect of the expenditure.

In this way, the Earl of Selborn, who was caught in the middle, was also very dissatisfied with the Admiralty Finance Committee. In his opinion, these officials who only know how to stretch out their hands to ask for money should also change their mentality.

So the need for someone to help him solve this problem is urgent, and Admiral Cole, the First Sea Lord, will leave his post this fall. The man who will succeed the conservative Admiral Cole must be able to deal effectively with the financial dilemma.

The Earl of Selburn naturally had a choice in mind, John, who had already been promoted to admiral in 1903? Fisher. In fact, the Earl of Selborne did not like this stubborn, rude, ruthless and ruthless man who was called a madman by many.

But Selborn understands that there is no better fit than him, and he has a quick head. Resolute, upright and enterprising, from humble beginnings, without arrogance and conservative aristocracy, he was a recognized expert in the field of naval gunnery and tactics.

This alone is not enough, if you want to be a reformer, if you don't sit in the seat for long, then his reform will naturally be impossible. However, this problem was not a problem for Fisher at all, although he was not popular among the generals of the same rank, but the naval officers he co-opted formed the "Fisher Pond", which gave him a group of loyal subordinates, including Jericho, who would only win Jutland's victory for the British Home Fleet in the future, and Betty, who led the battle cruiser fleet in battle.

Not only that, Fisher also has many heavyweight friends in the political circles, because of the Anglo-Boer War British Army performance is bad, and a large number of scandals broke out, the prestige of the Army fell into a trough, in order to save the image of the Army in the people, Prime Minister Belfour formed the "War Office Restructuring Committee" to start reforming the War Department.

The committee was actually composed of three members, Sir Isher as chairman, Sir Clarke, the former Governor of Australia, and Fisher as recommended by Edward VII himself.

In this committee, Fisher contributed greatly to the reorganization of the War Office with his unparalleled energy and talent, which ran in an orderly manner and the crisis of public confidence in the Army and the country's military administration was largely eliminated. Fisher's actions made a lasting impression on many politicians, with Sir Clarke even hailing him as the "crusade of reform" that the whole country was looking forward to.

Therefore, the Earl of Selburn understood that Fisher was the most suitable person, he was not a soldier, and if he wanted to touch the fundamental interests of the navy, he had to cooperate with a general like Fisher.

Although the Earl of Selburn had originally planned to ask Prime Minister Balfour to dissolve the three-member council first, and then give Fisher a letter of appointment himself, the victory of the Russians made him think that even if Fisher had not yet sat down as First Sea Lord, he would need to talk to him first.

So the Earl of Selburn called Fisher and asked straight to the point: "John, do you know the outcome of the naval battle of the Russians in the Far East?" ”

"Yes, I saw the report, and it is not surprising that the superiority of the Russian fleet in strength would have such a result, but I did not expect this advantage to be so great.

The Japanese are very brave, 'fight when they see the enemy', this is the honor of the navy, the spirit of the navy, and it is very rare that those yellow people can also do this. However, bravery alone could not change the results of the war, and it was an indisputable fact that the Japanese suffered heavy losses, so a single qiē bravery was meaningless. Fisher nodded.

"Maybe God is not willing to help the yellow people who don't believe in themselves." The Earl of Selburn laughed a little self-deprecatingly and said, "But this is not what we want to see, so I would like to pray at this time that the merciful God will help us." ”

"This result is not surprising, the Russian fleet has too much advantage in the performance of its ships, judging from the report, the flagship of the Russians, the Izmail, was hit many times and caught fire, but after the fire was controlled, the combat power was basically not damaged, and the Japanese naval guns could not bring effective damage to the Russian warships, so it is understandable that this result would occur."

After a pause, Fisher added: "So the confrontation between firepower and armor in naval battles will become more and more severe in the future, so a large number of large-caliber naval guns are the design standards for future warships." ”

Hearing this, Count Selborn rolled his eyes in his heart, and here he is again, knowing that you have been promoting the design concept of a unified large-caliber naval gunboat, especially after the Italian published an article about "the most suitable battleship for the Royal Navy", and even more intensified his sermon within the navy.

Say something like "Italians can see this, why can't the Royal Navy" or "It's a stubborn bureaucracy that limits the technological progress of the Royal Navy", and it's no wonder that a bunch of admirals and designers don't want to see him, but you don't need to promote your stuff in front of me.

Without answering the question on this issue, Count Selborne said: "I am disturbed by the fact that three of the four best-performing armored cruisers of the Russian fleet were German-made and one was copied from Germany.

The German design capabilities and the progress of shipbuilding increased the pressure on the Royal Navy, and it was simply impossible for the Royal Navy to maintain its superiority over France and Russia while at the same time dealing with the development of German power. ”

"Yes, Your Excellency, there are already many objections to my country's maintenance of the two strong standards, and it is unrealistic to continue to raise the standards." Fisher responded: "But I think the comparator of our two-power standard should have changed. (To be continued......) R527