"Your Excellency Prime Minister, the strongest fleet of the Liaodong Navy at present is the Arthur Fleet, and its combat effectiveness is far below that of our Combined Fleet. Liaodong also definitely knows that if you want to attack our mainland, you must first defeat our combined fleet. Speaking of this, Inoue Xin pointed to Sasebo's position and said: "At present, all of my combined fleet is in Sasebo, and my subordinates think that the Liaodong Fleet's departure from Lushun must be to attack our Sasebo." ”

Sasebo? Ito Hirofumi frowned, not enough for him to be a little unconvinced, does Lushun look down on himself so much, the strength of an army dares to attack Sasebo, you know, you have placed three divisions here, you don't need to fight, it is saliva, you can drown the 23rd Army alive.

It is estimated that Inoue Shin saw Ito Hirobumi's constitution, lowered her head and thought about it for a while, and Inoue Shin said the crux of the problem.

In Sasebo, there are three divisions of troops, this is indeed a fact, however, there is one thing, that is, the strength of these three divisions is not in Sasebo, but in Sasebo more than ten kilometers away from the defensive position, if the Liaodong Lushun fleet first eliminated the coastal defense batteries and warships in the military port, adjusted the gun ports, and covered the landing of the army with naval guns, then it is very easy to occupy Sasebo, not to mention three divisions and regiments, that is, two are coming, Don't want to gnaw on Sasebo, which has been jointly defended by the 23rd Army and the Navy in Liaodong.

What is even more terrifying is that if the follow-up troops of the Liaodong Army arrive at this time, land in Sasebo, and launch an attack on the three divisions, how can the three newly formed divisions and regiments resist the wolf-like Liaodong Army.

Sounds very reasonable, Ito Hirobumi nodded, acknowledging Inoue's statement, bowed his head and thought for a while, Ito Hirobumi looked at Inoue Shin: "What do you mean?" ”

Inoue Xin was just postponing, but it was good just in case, after pondering for a moment, Inoue Xin said: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, we can let the Combined Fleet search within thirty nautical miles around Sasebo, and once we find the Arthur fleet, we will immediately return to the port and cooperate with the shore defense batteries to repel the attack of the Arthur fleet." ”

Good idea, Ito Hirofumi slapped his palm with a snap: "That's it, you go to the order immediately." Just do it your way. ”

"Understood," Inoue nodded fiercely, turned and walked out.

In the Sea of Japan, after two days of sailing, the First Fleet, led by Li He, had reached a position less than fifty nautical miles from Tanegashima.

It was getting close to dusk. The sun has appeared on the sea level, and the entire fleet is shrouded in a burst of blood red China, on the bridge of the battleship Hongzhang, wearing an admiral's uniform, Li He is picking up the binoculars in his hand and looking at everything around.

The armored cruiser Ruojing, which was located on his right, sounded an alarm, and Li He, who heard the siren, hurriedly moved the telescope in his hand to the mast of the Ruojing.

"A Japanese fishing boat was spotted ahead. The signal soldiers kept waving flags and telling the situation.

Ahead, thinking of this, Li He shifted the telescope, and he found that fifteen nautical miles away, a Japanese fishing boat about 50 meters long and about two or three hundred tons appeared on the sea, and it seemed to be turning the rudder and preparing to escape.

"Immediately let the Flying Eagle Flying Fish attack, intercept this fishing boat, and force it to stop." Coldly, Li He gave an order to Yan Fu beside him.

"What if it doesn't stop?" Yan Fu lowered his head and thought for a while and asked.

"Sunk," Li He didn't hesitate and coldly ordered.

Although the Japanese army in Tanegashima had only one brigade, they were fighting by surprise by themselves. Then take Tanegashima, he didn't want this plan to be interrupted by this small fishing boat.

"Yes." Yan Fu nodded, turned around and walked out.

The signalmen on the mast lookout quickly issued the order.

Woo woo received an order to quickly leave the group of the Torpedo cruiser Flying Eagle Exocet, which was located in the right front of the fleet. He began to surround the fishing boat as fast as he could.

Ten minutes later, there was a burst of cannon sound in the distance, and Li He, who was in the command tower, estimated that this small fishing boat was his toast and did not eat and drink, so that the flying eagle and the flying fish were destroyed.

Sure enough, after a while, the iron door of the command tower was opened, and Yan Fu, who had come in from the outside, walked in and told himself. After nearly ten warnings from the Exocian, the fishing boat did not stop at all, and the eagle had no choice but to sink it.

If it sinks, it sinks, and it is not his own country anyway, Li He nodded without any expression and stood up and walked to the map. William, who was on the side, saw Li He walking towards the map, and he knew that Li He was going to arrange a task, so he also walked in front of Li He without saying a word.

Li He had the plan in his heart, that is, to carry out a large-scale bombardment of Tanegashima's defenses with huge fleet firepower, at least two hours to blow him up, and blow up the shore defense batteries and Japanese positions on Tanegashima, so that the 23rd Army could land, and he would assist from the side, but once the 23rd Army left the range of the naval guns, he would have no way, so it would depend on the army's own.

Tanegashima was garrisoned here by the 30th Brigade of the 17th Division of the Japanese Army.

After Japan's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army was limited by the "Tianjin Treaty" because of the navy, so it could only vigorously develop the army, and the Meiji Emperor did not know if it was wrong, so he actually organized 20 divisions in one go. Stationed all over Japan.

After the start of this war against Japan. Germany and Tsarist Russia also declared war on Japan at the same time, and Japan frantically expanded to 30 divisions, and basically all the young people in Japan were arrested.

The 30th Brigade is a brigade that has just been formed for less than two years, and the brigade commander Ono graduated from the Imperial Japanese Military Academy and successively served as an instructor in the infantry section of the Imperial Military Academy.

It was already about one o'clock in the afternoon, and Ono, who was a little bored at the headquarters, was ready to pick up his shotgun and go out hunting to kill this boring day.

It's not that he didn't know that there was a war in Liaodong, Japan, but he never thought that the place he guarded where birds don't would be attacked by the Liaodong Army, so since he led the troops here, he has never seriously dug a position on the island, but only conducted daily training in case of contingency.

"Report, smoke spotted at sea level." A soldier ran in and shouted.

Soot? Ono frowned, put the shotgun in his hand on the table, turned and walked out.