Japan, Niigata, Headquarters of the Commander of the First Fleet of the Combined Fleet.

"General, our minesweeper team has lived up to its mission and has now cleared a safe passage outside the harbor! It's just that German submarines are very likely to come at night to increase the number of mines, and if you want to leave the port, it's best to do it now! "The one who came to report was a stocky, broad-faced, fisherman-like Japanese officer, but his rank of naval officer, the medal of merit on his chest, and the precious long saber on his left waist were not possessed by fishermen and the like.

Standing opposite him was a scholar-like officer, probably with a pale complexion and a somewhat weak countenance, who looked younger than his actual age, but whose eyes were unusually cunning. The officer was wearing a dark blue Japanese Navy cold uniform, with a gold background double flower on the collar and epaulettes, which were the hallmarks of the vice admiral.

"And Mura-kun, it's really hard for you! Well, pass on my order, and the whole fleet will immediately raise fire and anchor, and in an hour head out to the open sea! ”

The "fisherman" bowed 90 degrees, a posture that showed that his hips were very strong.

"Hey! I wish the general success and great achievements! ”

The "weak scholar" took the big-brimmed hat with an embroidered pattern cockade from the adjutant, "Taguchi-kun is too polite!" Attacking Vladivostok, your minesweeper team will probably still have to take the lead! ”

"It is the glory of the contemptible people and the officers and men of the whole minesweeper squadron to charge for the Empire! It is an honor to follow the general and the officers and men of the whole minesweeper team! The "fishermen" were busy patting their asses.

I don't know whether he thought the sycophant was comfortable or laughed, the "weak scholar" smiled and put on a blue-gray placket coat with a fur neckline, and after hanging a pair of binoculars that were not too big, he was the first to walk out of the warm room and walk towards the warships moored on the dock.

Snowflakes smaller than fingernails were flying in the sky, and the docks and harbor shores were gradually dyed white, and in this huge harbor, heroic warships with steel bodies were quietly moored.

The one who quickly raised the commander's flag was the famous "Nagato". The Japanese Navy's plan for the new 88th Fleet began with this 3.08-million-ton battleship, which was also one of the more successful battleships in Japan and the first of Japan's capital ships to adopt a tall tower bridge. This kind of bridge not only makes the battleship more powerful, but more importantly, it can meet the needs of the ship's large-caliber main guns to test the impact point and command in long-distance artillery battles, and on the battleship "Nagato", the 410-mm guns with stolen twin guns are the largest caliber naval guns among the capital ships of various countries at present, plus a total of more than 60 127-mm, 76-mm, and 25-mm secondary guns, the whole battleship looks from a distance like a steel fortress with many gun barrels.

Not far from the "Nagato". The "Mutsunoku," "Amagi," and "Akagi" are all capital ships whose combat power cannot be underestimated; the "Mutsu" is the sister ship of the "Nagato," and its completion was only one year later than that of the "Nagato," and there is basically no change in structure, while the "Amagi" and "Akagi" are the first-class battle cruisers planned by the New 88th Fleet, and the assumed opponent is the Lexington class of the United States. The hypothetical target of the Japanese Amagi-class battle patrol became the German Mackensen-class, and to the delight of the Japanese Navy, the Amagi-class was above the Mackensen-class in terms of displacement and firepower, and its defensive mileage and maximum speed were only slightly inferior. One of the German Mackensen-class ships, the "Prince Fitley", arrived in Qingdao as part of the Hipper's fleet before the start of the war. At present, it is assigned to the German Pacific Fleet and is stationed in Jiaozhou Bay.

When the eye swept over this harbor, in addition to the four powerful warships mentioned above, the "Awaji" was also a very eye-catching big guy. And its body shape is completely different from other warships, the reason is very simple, because it is an aircraft carrier, to be exact, a 4.2-class heavy aircraft carrier, this aircraft carrier was originally the third of the four Kii-class battleships in the 88 plan, so it has both the defense and speed of the battleship, and in addition to the carrier capacity of 100 format carrier-based aircraft, powerful anti-aircraft firepower is also a major attraction of this aircraft carrier, 8 203 mm guns, 35 25 mm anti-aircraft guns and 30 13 mm anti-aircraft machine guns, Suffice it to say that the firepower was in no way inferior to that of a heavy cruiser.

To the right of the "Awaji" are moored another pair of sister ships - "Katori" and "Kashima". Both ships were purchased from Britain during the Russo-Japanese War, and were also the last class battleships ordered by Japan in Britain, although they ultimately failed to catch up with the Russo-Japanese War, but they did have a glorious history of escorting Hirohito, who was still the crown prince at the time, to Europe, but the 24-year-old ship and 16,000-ton displacement, and the mixed arrangement of 305 mm and 254 mm naval guns made them greatly behind the times.

At 11 a.m. on 4 January, amid a series of whistles, this huge fleet set sail from Niigata, with four battleships, two battle cruisers, one heavy aircraft carrier, one heavy cruiser, one light cruiser, 15 destroyers, 15 minesweepers, and 12 auxiliary ships heading for Vladivostok in the northwest.

The commander of this fleet. It was Vice Admiral Tachino Tokujiro of the Japanese Navy, and the accompanying generals were Rear Admiral Komaki Nami, commander of the 1st Fleet Battlefleet, Rear Admiral Hozo Toizaki, commander of the Rapid Guerrilla Force, Rear Admiral Kamiyo Goji, commander of the Carrier Force, Commander of the 1st Destroyer Fleet, Commander of the 1st Destroyer Fleet, Commander of the 2nd Destroyer Fleet, Commander of the 2nd Destroyer Fleet, Commander of the Minesweeper Fleet and Murashige Takesa, and Special Operations Commander Omahiro Osa.

Although the light snow reduced the visibility on the sea, it was difficult for such a large fleet to leave the port and sail in the Sea of Japan, where German submarines were active, not to be detected, and just half an hour after the fleet left the port, the German submarine U-333 spotted them on the channel between Vladivostok and Niigata, and the radio waves quickly passed through the snowflakes to transmit information to Vladivostok.

At this time, Admiral Spee and his 1st Pacific Fleet were preparing for retreat.

"The evil tiger is still out of the cage!"

A melancholy General Speeson stood in the command room of the flagship "Thessaloniki" and looked out the porthole at the dock, the snow of the past few days had covered this beautiful harbor with silver, despite the cold weather and the bleak north wind, one of the great advantages of Vladivostok was that it did not freeze all year round, and on those docks that had only been repaired three months ago, the officers and men of the army and navy of the German Far East Task Force were loading important supplies onto the ship, and the rumbling of cannon was still coming from the north, only compared to a week ago. The voice came closer. - "General! Looks like we have to get out as soon as possible, or we'll be stuck in this harbor by the Japanese fleet!" The speaker was the captain of the "Thessaloniki", Friedrich Friedrich. Rear Admiral Hartmann, a 52-year-old veteran, served in the German Pacific Fleet for the entire decade from 1910 to 1920, serving as a navigator on the cruiser Nuremberg, deputy captain of the Dresden, and captain of the Emden. Later, he was transferred back to the command of the ship to take part in the war against the United States, and after the war, he was promoted to rear admiral and officially became the captain of the "Salonika".

"It's a pity, the Japanese fleet would have come out two days late. Or even one day, so we can get out of here in full! Shi Pei said regretfully, "The order given to our submarine force to ambush the Japanese fleet along the way is a great gift for us to give them the wind!" ”

"Yes, General! In fact, most of the supplies we are going to ship have already been shipped, and besides, the rearguard units can also be transported by the air force, so we have nothing to regret! Hartmann advised, "Vladivostok lacks strategic depth, and it is reasonable to give up!" As long as we succeed in withdrawing to the island of Kuya.

Japanese people don't even want to live in peace! ”

"That being said. It's just a pity that those tanks of the army could have been loaded and transported away...... Forget it, just throw it away. It won't take long to recreate the land! Speeze comforted himself, as he said, once the fleet was withdrawn, the two armored regiments in the rearguard would lose the possibility of retreating, and the more than 100 tanks, especially the entire forty Improved IV tanks, would have to blow up on their own, at least for the time being, the Luftwaffe did not have a transport aircraft capable of carrying such heavy tanks.

After a moment of weighing and thinking, Spee finally made a decision: "Inform Brigadier General Butz that we will set sail in two hours, if there are any important supplies or personnel." Please send us before we go! ”

"Yes!" Hartmann breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and summoned the herald, "Order the ships to get ready, and the fleet will set sail in two hours!" ”

Spee's eyes were still fixed on the busy docks, but deep down, he was praying that his submarine force would slow down the advance of the Japanese fleet as much as possible, and that it would be nice if they could drive them back to port, but what was the chance?

Meanwhile, in the northernmost part of the city of Vladivostok. Fierce battles are raging.

The second defensive line of the German army seems to be strong, but it is far from meeting the requirements of chemical warfare, in the face of the Japanese attack troops with poison gas as the head, armored troops and infantry follow-up, and Russian fortress artillery support behind the Japanese attack force, this line of defense has long shown signs of instability, after today's continuous two waves of fierce attacks, the Japanese ground forces began to infiltrate into this line of defense, and the total number of German troops has been sharply reduced from more than 10,000 at the beginning of the campaign to less than 5,000 at present, and the attrition is mainly concentrated in the officers and soldiers wounded by poison gas, Most of them had been airlifted to hospitals in Qingdao and Kuye Island for treatment, and although some of the garrisons in Qingdao were also urgently transferred to Vladivostok by air, the number of Japanese troops engaged in the offensive increased even faster - with the addition of the 3rd and 10th divisions of the Kwantung Army, the strength of the Japanese attacking Vladivostok had increased to more than 100,000 men in 4 divisions and 1 tank brigade. In addition to more than 100 large-caliber fortress guns from the Russians, nearly 1,000 Japanese artillery pieces were bombarding the German positions in turn, and even the army composed of iron men could not support such a fierce offensive.

In the sky, the German and Japanese pilots are still fiercely competing, the German side in fighter performance, pilot quality and experience and other aspects of the advantage is being offset by the number of the other side, although the initial attack on Vladivostok of the Japanese air force is less than 1 air force nearly 300 aircraft, but as the war progresses, there are constantly Japanese fighters from the home field to the Vladivostok front-line airfield (Vladivostok to Hokkaido, Japan is more than 500 kilometers), the current total establishment has reached 4 air corps, The total number of fighters is close to 1,100, although the performance of these fighters is uneven, but wheel warfare is continuing to weaken the combat effectiveness of the Luftwaffe, although there are still nearly 300 German fighters stationed in Vladivostok, but they can only defend in a small area around the city of Vladivostok and the port.

After a loud bang, a group of Japanese soldiers who had just been roaring and rushing were in a state of separated limbs, and dozens of Japanese soldiers who followed behind began to retreat under the pressure of the German steel beasts. Less than 50 meters ahead, the Germans lost a barricade half an hour earlier, and now more than 30 German Army soldiers and a dozen Marines are launching a counterattack led by an IV tank. The 25-Tun chariot moved forward slowly and steadily, the bullets flying in the distance and the shrapnel from the shells falling nearby kept hitting its bullet-riddled body, perhaps only it knew how many bullets and shells it had been hit, anyway, the headlights on the front of the hull were long gone, and the machine gun under the turret was no longer usable, but the eye-catching Iron Cross logo on the side of the turret was still there, and the German soldier's will to fight was still there.

After a slight pause, the tank fired a shell, and the barricades in front of it suddenly shrapnel and rubble, cheered on by the characteristic rattling sound of the German machine guns, the infantry in gray winter army coats quickly rushed forward, some were knocked down by bullets in the middle of the way, and the shells or Taisho ten-style grenades that fell from time to time were also mercilessly killing and wounding these infantry, but the warriors were still advancing, Tank IV quickly fired a second shell, and some infantry took advantage of the situation to throw the long-handled grenades in their hands over, After a series of explosions, this small position was finally returned to the Germans.

At the end of December and the beginning of January, there were too many such scenes in the north of the city of Vladivostok, and the German soldiers who were obviously inferior in number relied on these tanks to regain the lost positions again and again, but on the morning of January 6, the German High Command finally issued the order to retreat, and the soldiers had to reluctantly stuff grenades and explosives bags into their beloved tanks, and before the Japanese army and navy combined to encircle Vladivostok, the last German Army soldiers boarded transport planes and flew away from this sad place. More than a dozen hours ago, the Spee fleet had sailed away.

The Germans retreated, to be precise, they lost the Battle of Vladivostok, but they did not let the Japanese occupy Vladivostok comfortably, in the land offensive and defensive battles, more than 20,000 Japanese officers and soldiers died in front of the German positions, during this period the loss of 625 fighters made the Japanese land-based aviation units hurt their bones, and the Tachino fleet that rushed to the end was even more unlucky, but it was a distance of 400 nautical miles that caused them to lose "Kashima" and 1 light cruiser, 2 destroyers, and the "Awaji" was also filled with thousands of tons of seawater because it was hit by two torpedoes, What made the Japanese even more depressed was that the Vladivostok military port could not be restored without a few months of repair.