It was a difficult good weather on the Bohai Sea, the sea was as calm as a mirror, and the battlecruiser Tsukuba, the flagship of the Combined Fleet, was like a floating hill on the sea, its sharp bow ploughing through the blue-black water, and strings of white bubbles appeared on the sea.

There are still seven days to go before the ultimatum issued to China by the political axe, and the combined fleet has already blockaded the Bohai Bay, and it is best to prepare for landing at the mouth of Dagu at any time. The bigwigs of the navy know that the so-called Dasheng Yarn Factory incident is just a trick directed by the thief to chase the thief, and it is absolutely impossible for Yuan Shikai to hand over the real murderer, even if Yuan Shikai is perfunctory and says that he is looking for a few substitutes for the dead ghosts, he will categorically refuse.

War is already inevitable!

The Tsukuba raised the flag of the Second Fleet, and Vice Admiral Yuzaburo Kato, commander of the Second Fleet, stood on the bridge looking out over the sea, and next to him was a chair and an old man in the uniform of an admiral wiping a lavishly decorated long knife.

The chrysanthemum family emblem on the scabbard shows the extraordinary identity of the owner of this knife, and in this book, only the royal family can use the chrysanthemum family emblem. This old man is none other than the spiritual leader of the Tsumoto Navy, Prince Fushiminomiya. The leader of the navy is Admiral Gonbei Yamamoto, and the second person is Vice Admiral Yuzaburo Kato, and behind them is the Prince of Fushiminomiya.

With the Tsukuba as the flagship, this fleet had four battleships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, the Shubo, Iwami, Tango, Okishima, and Mijima, which could be regarded as a strong force. However, these warships are not even familiar to me, and the Russians should feel very familiar by comparison.

These battleships were all "greeting gifts" given to him by the Russian Tsar during the Russo-Russian War, the Zhoufang was the Victory of the original Russian Far East Fleet, the Iwami was the only Porodino-class battleship in the Baltic Fleet that was not sunk, the Tango was the Poltava of the Far East Fleet, the Okishima was Admiral Apraksin of the Third Pacific Fleet that Nebogatov brought to surrender in the Tsushima Strait, and the Mijima was Admiral Xeniavin.

These decrepit battleships, which are generally more than ten or even twenty years old, would have been sent to the iron works to be made into molten steel if they had been placed in the naval powers of Britain and the United States, but they were still regarded as treasures in the combined fleet.

Among the task forces of five old battleships and the battlecruiser Tsukuba, a strange-looking ship stood out.

On board the Wakamiya Maru, sailors are using a winch to suspend a French-made Falman biplane moored on the deck and place it in the sea. This ship was also a gift from the Russians, a Russian 6,000-ton merchant ship captured by the Russians during the Russian War, which was converted into a seaplane aircraft carrier, equipped with four French-made Falman biplane seaplanes.

Valman is currently the most advanced seaplane in Europe, flying at an altitude of 300 meters, a flight distance of more than 80 kilometers, and a maximum take-off weight of more than a ton!

From 1908, the Frenchman Anri? The first French aircraft developed by Valman rose fifteen meters into the air, and the flight distance was three hundred meters, and it has only been six years since then, and the Valman company has made great progress, and this biplane wooden seaplane is already the most advanced aircraft on the European continent!

A plane was propelled into the sea, with a loud roar, like a flying fish splitting through the water, rushing into the blue sky, straight to the land twenty kilometers away.

With the reconnaissance of the seaplanes, every move of the Chinese defenders could not be hidden from the eyes of the combined fleet. In fact, the defenders can't play any tricks, in any case, the army's 75 mm caliber mountain guns are no match for the navy's 305 mm caliber naval guns.

Cangchang!

With a loud sound, Prince Fushiminomiya pulled out the family heirloom sword, and the light of the orchid glowed in the sunlight, and the cloud pattern formed by the carbon element after thousands of tempers carried a palpitating beauty.

Prince Fushiminomiya stood up, slashed twice in the air, and thrust the knife into the scabbard with satisfaction.

"Kato-kun, why aren't you in a good mood?" Fushimiya asked with a smile.

Yuzaburo Kato smiled bitterly and said, "Your Highness, I'm worried about the fate of the Imperial Navy!" ”

"Oh, why?" Fushiminomiya smiled playfully.

Yuzaburo Kato straightened his ship-shaped naval hat and said with a solemn face: "It seems that the plan of the 88th Fleet has not been approved by the Congress, but if the 88th Fleet is not built, the empire is in danger of extinction!" ”

His worries were not unfounded, because in 1907, just after the end of the Russo-Russian War, Britain built the "Crossbow-class" battleship Dreadnought. The Dreadnought battleship had a standard displacement of 18,400 tons, a long bow shape, no bow ramming angles, full heavy guns, and five twin turrets equipped with ten unified 12-inch guns. made it possible to adopt a unified fire control system. For the first time, the Dreadnought used four steam turbine propulsion units on a large warship, and its maximum speed was increased to twenty-one knots, allowing it to sail at high speeds for long periods of time and maintain a good and reliable surname. Compared with the old reciprocating steam unit, the power is higher and the reliability is higher. The Dreadnought's defense is case-hardened, with armor up to eleven inches thick in critical areas, providing comprehensive protection. The watertight compartment under the waterline of the hull compartment has canceled the horizontal contact door, strengthened the watertight structure, and improved the anti-sinking ability of the warship.

The advent of the crossbow-class battleships immediately made the Katori and Rchikushima battleships, which were ordered from Britain during the Russo-Japanese War, and the cruiser Tsukuba, which was built on its own, immediately obsolete.

Before he could wake up from his shock, between December 1909 and April 1910, Britain built four Orion-class battleships with a standard displacement of 22,000 tons, including the Orion, the Sovereign, the Conqueror, and the Thor, also known as the "Super Crossbow-class battleships" or "Super Dreadnought-class battleships." The focus of the super-crossbow class battleship has been improved, and the original 12-inch caliber has been replaced by a new 13.5-inch caliber main gun, and the main gun turret is arranged along the longitudinal central axis of the hull, which is convenient for all main guns to carry out the same side firepower. The superballista battleship further strengthened the defensive armor in the vital area, with a thickness of twelve inches for the main armor belt, eleven inches for the turret front, ten inches for the gun mount, and eleven inches for the conning tower. In 1912, Britain installed a central fire control system on the Thor for the first time, which could concentrate on observing and correcting the impact point when the main gun was firing, and uniformly calculate the shooting elements, so that it became relatively easy for the artillery to adjust its direction and aim at the target according to the instructions, and the hit rate was doubled.

The bigwigs of the navy were dumbfounded, the navies of the Western powers were actually renewed once every eight years, and he himself gritted his teeth and tightened his belt, and he could only be renewed once in 25 years at most.

The Tsukuba Navy has made great efforts to build two battle cruisers with a displacement of 15,000 tons, "Tsukuba" and "Ikoma", which has already made the Tsukumoto Axe and the Diet complain, while Britain, the United States, and Germany are building super-dreadnought-class battleships at a speed of sausage-like production.

When the Americans built the Great White Fleet, headed by 16 battleships, as if they were blowing up balloons, in 1908, after a year of circumnavigating the world, these warships painted in flamboyant white anchored in the port of Yokohama, the entire navy was so frightened that they could not even speak.

After the Great White Fleet cruised the world, the triumphant Americans began to build eight more super-dreadnought-class battleships with a displacement of more than 20,000 tons. After the 1905 Bigu Park Burning Incident, the Navy always claimed that the United States was the enemy, but after seeing the Great White Fleet, no one dared to openly make such an uproar, for fear of arousing the dissatisfaction of the Americans.

"Your Royal Highness, the navies of the current Western powers will be updated in eight years, and the Empire's 88th Fleet plan is still unknown, and in the long run, the Navy will be unable to protect the Empire!" Yuzaburo Kato's melancholy is even stronger.

Prince Fushiminomiya said with a smile: "The empire is such a financial resource, half of the current state budget is invested in the army, most of which has been given to the navy, and the citizens of the empire really can't afford it." ”

Yuzaburo Kato argued: "But compared to the survival of the empire and the Meiji Emperor's ambition to create a 10,000-mile sea frontier, what is the sacrifice of the people? ”

Fushimi Palace waved his hand and motioned for him to sit down: "Now it is not a question of whether the people are willing to sacrifice or not, but even if the people take out the last copper plate in their pockets, they will still not be able to meet the needs of the empire???? Do you know why this time, I personally came to participate in this war? ”

Kato Yuzaburo was stunned: "I don't know, please let His Highness know." ”

Prince Fushiminomiya's expression also became serious: "A few days ago, I saw Akiyama Shinyuki. ”

Kato Yuzaburo was a little jealous, and said sourly: "Oh, that Major General Akiyama Mayuki who never takes a bath? ”

Fushimi Palace smiled faintly: "He told me that he had just made a long trip in China, from Manchuria to Mongolia, then to Shanghai, Wuhan, and finally to Jiujiang, where he met his teacher, Major General Ma Han. ”

Yuzaburo Kato exclaimed: "Rear Admiral Mahan, the author of "Sea Power and History", the founder of the theory of sea power, and the father of the US Navy? ”

Fushimiya nodded, "Yes, he is now the president of a naval university in China. ”

Yuzaburo Kato was stunned and couldn't speak for a long time??? Mahan, to the world's navies, he is a god-like being.

Fushimi Palace frowned and said: "This is not the most terrifying, Akiyama Shinyuki told me that in Shanghai, Wuhu, and Jiujiang, he saw that the people of China were making bicycles out of precious manganese steel. ”

"Oh my God, make a bicycle out of manganese steel? That's not true, is it? Yuzaburo Kato's face was frightened.

Fushimi Palace smiled bitterly: "Of course I hope it is fake, but I sent someone to Shanghai, where I personally bought a bicycle, light and strong manganese steel, the price is only twenty Chinese silver dollars, the price is only one-third of the bicycle produced by the Empire and the Germans, and now there is no market for imported bicycles in China!" ”

Yuzaburo Kato's mouth is open, almost can be stuffed into his fist, said that the book has always lacked the technology to produce high-quality alloys, the quality of the ships is always unsatisfactory, some time ago I was training in the Pacific Ocean two hundred and fifty nautical miles east of Iwate Prefecture, after a typhoon, the front deck of the battle cruiser "Ikoma" was washed away by huge waves, the bow deck of the heavy cruiser "Asama" cracked, the bow rivets of the light cruiser "Okayama" cracked, the bridges of the four destroyers of Mei, Nan, Katsura, and Kaede were blown down, and the worst was the destroyerThe "Bamboo" and "Ju" are gone, and the part in front of the bridge is gone, and the capital of the ship does not know where it was blown by the typhoon. More than fifty people died in the fleet, and countless others were wounded.

The significance of high-quality alloy steel for the navy, no matter how overestimated, is not too much, I said that I bought high-quality alloys all over the world, and at the same time begged my grandfather to tell my grandmother to get the smelting technology of high-quality alloys, but they were arrogantly rejected by the great powers, including my ally Britain. To this day, it is said that he does not have armor-piercing projectile technology, and the so-called armor-piercing bullet is still a solid bullet with cement mortar counterweight.

The actual protection capability of the warships of the Combined Fleet is only eight inches equivalent to that of the powerful ships of Europe and the United States, and the armor-piercing ability of the cannons is only two-thirds of the guns of the same caliber of the same European and American powers.

Because of this, Samoto had to continue to use Shimose gunpowder, which was extremely unstable, and Ijiin Shinkan, which was too sensitive. If you can't penetrate the enemy's warship, then burn it, and as for the self-detonation of Shimose gunpowder and Ijiin Shinguan, then you can only complain about the bad life of the sailors.

The Chinese actually use high-quality manganese steel to produce bicycles, which is simply a tyrannical thing!

"Kato-kun, are you scared? Don't be ashamed, I'm afraid, the potential of this country is really terrifying??? A big country, people are a big country! Prince Fushiminomiya used a self-deprecating tone, and the last sentence was an imitation of the tone of Yama Prefecture Aritomo.

This sentence is all too familiar to the bigwigs in the political and military circles, and this is a sentence that was said in 1908 when a friend of Shan County visited Europe and the United States.

At that time, both the victorious and defeated sides of the Qing War sent people to visit Europe and the United States, and the defeated Li Hongzhang was treated with a very high standard, whether it was the United States, which had always had good relations with the Qing court, or the arrogant Russian tsar, including Germany, which advocated the "yellow peril theory," and Prime Minister Youpeng Yama was given a cold reception everywhere. So much so that German reporters were a little upset for him, and Youpeng in Shan County had no choice but to laugh at himself: "The Qing country is a big country, a big country!" ”

Wherever the Beiyang minister of the defeated country went, he rode in the royal carriage to watch the welcoming crowd in the middle of the road, accompanied by the emperor and the president personally, and the state banquet was of the highest standard, while the prime minister of the victorious country ignored it.

Although China is poor, it is better than a vast territory and a large population, "Every inch of Chinese shirts can make all British textile mills work twenty-four hours a day!" ”

A population of 450 million was, in the eyes of the Western powers, an infinite amount of purchasing power and untold amounts of money.

China is a big country, and this is a huge advantage that cannot be compared with the Western powers, and it is also the biggest reason why the Western powers have always attached importance to China and despised it.

The original book could also rely on the reason of serving the British as a watchdog to contain Russia, and received some help from the British, saying that the victory in the Russo-Russian War and the destruction of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the Baltic Fleet made this fragile alliance possible to collapse at any time. Colleague, the combat effectiveness of the army also made the European and American powers feel threatened, and they made the decision to alienate the Japanese without thinking.

He felt loneliness like never before, and fear that went deep into his bones.

"Kato-kun, the most important point of why I support the decision to start a war is to nip the path of industrial development of the Shina people in the bud, and once the country is unified, then they will achieve an unimaginable huge take-off in industry and militarily??? In East Asia, there can only be one powerful country, either the original or the China, and this has been the case for two thousand years??? The empire must step on the corpse of the Chinese people in order to embark on the road to strength! If the side that wins the final victory is the Shina people, it will be the moment when the empire sinks! ”

"Your Royal Highness, what are you going to do?" Yuzaburo Kato asked respectfully.

Prince Fushiminomiya's face suddenly brightened, and he smiled and said, "Fortunately, there is a genius in the Imperial Navy, his name is Akiyama Shinyuki, Kato-kun, please come to my cabin and see the plan he has drawn up to deal with the Shina people!" ”

It's Akiyama Shinyuki again, is it possible that there are no decent talents in this navy except for Akiyama Shinto, who never bathes?

Yuzaburo Kato's heart is sour!

"Hey, why hasn't that plane come back yet?" Prince Fushiminomiya let out a light "huh".

Kato Yuzaburo said disdainfully: "The plane is an expensive toy, and only the use of giant ship cannons is the key to the real victory." ”

According to his estimates, the Falman seaplane probably fell into the sea due to a mechanical failure, which is all too common. The aircraft of this era, whether in the theory of development, as well as in aerodynamics, or in the degree of mechanical reliability, have huge shortcomings.

According to the calculation of probability, ten flights can meet one mechanical failure, and if you encounter bad weather, it is even more life-or-death. Since the "Wakamiya Maru" was transformed into a seaplane aircraft carrier, three planes have fallen from the sky, so much so that the navy has nicknamed the pilots "Bomb Six", and they will go up to the sky with a bang, get a subsidy of six cents, and then ???? And then there is no more!

"Send another plane over to find it, damn it!" Yuzaburo Kato cursed in a low voice.

Another seaplane was pushed into the sea, another pilot pulled up the longitudinal pole, and a second Falman seaplane rose into the air, following the path of the plane and began to search, and gradually he disappeared from view.

Fifteen minutes later, Yuzaburo Kato became a little restless, and according to the radius of the Falman plane, the second plane should also be back, otherwise it would have run out of fuel and fall into the sea.

Could it be that this one also had an accident?

Yuzaburo Kato's head is full of black lines, his right eyelid is beating wildly, and he has a faint sense of foreboding!

(To be continued)