In order to cover the Kongo, the two ships Hiei and Kirishima were hit hard one after another.

At 6:39 p.m., Hiei had already hit 7 rounds of 305-mm shells, 19 rounds of 155-mm shells, and 108 rounds of 75-mm shells, and the hull of the ship was seriously damaged, and fires broke out in many places, which were difficult to extinguish.

Eventually, the fire burned through the aft deck ammunition depot, causing an explosion that destroyed the entire rear third of the hull and flooded with seawater, sinking at 6:42 a.m.

The Kirishima was no better, it was hit by 4 305mm shells, 28 155mm shells, and 110 75mm shells, and the hull was scarred, and more than half of the personnel were killed or wounded, but fortunately, the fire was extinguished in time, and the fight could continue to cover the evacuation of the Kongo.

Ironclad ships can theoretically only be sunk by ironclad ships of the same level, but even so, it is very difficult to sink an ironclad ship, especially if the opponent does not fight you at all, but blindly escapes, it is even more difficult to sink the opponent.

Seeing that it was getting dark and the visibility was getting worse and worse, there were already Japanese Navy frigates rushing to reinforce them.

Near the coast of Japan, some water radium was also deployed, and when the Zhiyuan ship accidentally touched the radium, Chen Shaoyi decisively stopped the pursuit.

If the Zhiyuan ship is sacrificed in order to sink the King Kong and Hiei, it is not cost-effective, God knows if he will touch the radium again if he continues to pursue, Chen Shaoyi will accept it when he sees it, he has already won a big victory, there is no need to take any more risks.

The Zhiyuan ship was towed to a nearby reef and stranded for repairs, while other warships were responsible for guarding. Chen Shaoyi led the three ships Dingyuan, Zhenyuan and Jingyuan to return to the vicinity of the Fusang, and angrily sank the Fusang.

After a night of rush repairs, at dawn the next day, the Zhiyuan ship finally repaired the big hole that was blown open by the water radium, and was dragged away by other warships again.

Chen Shaoyi led the fleet back, and on the way, eight other cruisers came to converge one after another. The Haiqi and Haidai successfully sank the fleeing Qiujinzhou, and most of their own damage was repaired.

In the evening of the next day, the main force of the Chinese Navy arrived at the Weihaiwei Naval Base in Shandong, where the Zhiyuan and some of the wounded warships were repaired, and the other part returned to their home naval base for repairs.

When Li Weiguo arrived in Tianjin, the battle report had already been delivered to the Forbidden City. A special person hurriedly forwarded it to Tianjin and handed it over to Li Weiguo's imperial tour.

Li Weiguo was very happy to see the good news, this was a premeditated naval battle plan for him, calculating the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy, and the result was successful.

According to Chen Shaoyi's battle report, in the naval battle between China and Japan in the East China Sea, two 10,000-ton ironclad ships, the Fuso and Hiei, the flagships of the Japanese Navy's joint fleet, were sunk, the Kongo ironclad ship was severely damaged, and the Kirishima ironclad ship was disabled. The sinking of cruisers Chikuma, Haguro, Akitsuzu and Misumi four ships, sinking a total tonnage of 41,800, it is estimated that at least 5,000 Japanese naval officers and men were killed, and basically destroyed the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet.

The Chinese Navy only paid a small price of 11 soldiers killed and 71 wounded, and as for the battleship, the battleship did not sink in battle, and the three ships of Zhiyuan, Haiqi, Haidai, and Haiyue were severely damaged, and Chen Shaoyi did not report the details. Li Weiguo didn't ask any questions, but he wanted to reward his merits. As soon as he opened his golden mouth, he immediately rewarded the Navy with 1 million yuan as a reward, and the specific distribution was handed over to the Admiralty to deal with itself.

The war between China and Japan in the East China Sea came to an end, and the news spread quickly, and the Chinese people did not react violently to it. Because in their eyes, Japan is only a small country, and the defeat of the Japanese navy by the Chinese navy is a necessary and inevitable result, far less euphoric than the elation of the defeat of the British Asian fleet last year.

But as the news spread all over the world, it attracted great attention from all over the world.

This was because of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese naval battle in the East China Sea. The Japanese envoy plenipotentiary was in London, England, to hold final negotiations with the British Government on the formation of an alliance, and Britain and Japan formally announced the Anglo-Japanese alliance in the afternoon of the same day.

This is Chi Guo's slap in the face of Britain and Japan!

The ingenuity of the Chinese Navy's choice of time cannot but be admired by governments around the world.

The British government was very entangled, Benjamin was asked by reporters about his views on this matter, his face was flushed, he knew very well that the Anglo-Chinese war had just ended, and the British Navy had not yet taken a breath, and at this time it was absolutely impossible to start another war with China because of Japan. However, as soon as Britain and Japan formed an alliance, the Japanese Combined Fleet was almost completely annihilated by the Chinese Navy, which made Britain's original intention of forming an alliance with Japan and using the Japanese Navy to contain the Chinese Navy's strategic purpose of using the Japanese Navy to play a role, but it could not help but take care of Japan's feelings.

As a result, in the end, Benjamin had no choice but to claim that Britain and China had not formally formed an alliance when the Sino-Japanese naval war in the East China Sea broke out, so Britain could not fulfill its alliance and start a war with China.

The British chose to give in temporarily, but the Japanese side was full of complaints.

When news of the fiasco of the Japanese Combined Fleet reached Tokyo, the Emperor of Japan quickly convened a meeting to investigate the cause and pursue responsibility, and lodged a solemn protest with the Chinese Imperial Court through the consul in China.

In response to the protest of the Japanese consul, the Chinese Imperial Court replied to them in righteous words that it was the Japanese navy that tried to attack the Chinese escort fleet with the intention of hijacking the Chinese emperor, which eventually led to the Sino-Japanese naval war in the East China Sea. Instead of any responsibility, the Chinese government issued an ultimatum to Japan, demanding that Japan severely punish war criminals and compensate the Chinese Navy for the losses of warships and personnel.

The Japanese consul was already very weak in diplomacy with China, but now that the combined fleet is almost completely wiped out, he has no confidence to confront China.

When the news reached Japan, Emperor Meiji felt humiliated and outraged, and he urged the Japanese consul in China to engage in a diplomatic debate while conducting an internal investigation.

Saigo Takamori changed his normal behavior in the military court, insisting that he was only leading the combined fleet to conduct military exercises in the West Sea, and that he had no intention of intercepting the Chinese escort fleet and hijacking the Chinese emperor, and that it was entirely the Chinese navy that took the initiative to attack, and the Japanese navy was forced to defend itself, and in the end it could not defeat the Chinese navy and returned defeated.

Saigo Takamori insisted that he was not guilty, but that he had merit, because he had succeeded in bringing back the Kongo and Kirishima, otherwise the entire army would have been wiped out. Obviously, the preservation of the two ironclad ships is very important for Japan.

Emperor Meiji was entangled, and he clearly guessed that Saigo Takamori had secretly kidnapped the Chinese Emperor Li Weiguo, but he was defeated instead of succeeding. It is clearer that the main fleet of the Chinese Navy came to reinforcements so quickly, which was clearly premeditated. Deliberately lured the Japanese Combined Fleet to the bait, and then annihilated it in one fell swoop.

Whether it is Saigo Takamori or the Chinese Emperor Li Weiguo, at this moment, in the eyes of Emperor Meiji, these two guys are lying, and they are not good things.

The Japanese military tribunal had nothing to do with Saigo Takamori. Because the officers and men of the only remaining Japanese ships, the Kongo and Kirishima were unanimously silent and did not mention that Saigo Takamori had taken them to kidnap the Chinese emperor, and insisted that it was a military exercise that was suddenly attacked by the Chinese navy.

This is because the Japanese Combined Fleet was defeated, and it was necessary to find an excuse for the defeat, and if Saigo Takamori told the truth, then he was finished, and if the only remaining Japanese naval officers and sailors told the truth, then their reputation would be ruined and their future would be ruined.

Saigo Takamori promised to give all the martyred Japanese naval officers and men a generous burial and a well-deserved allowance. If the truth is revealed, then those Japanese naval officers and men who died in defeat will not receive a penny of subsidies, but will have to bear the infamy of the nation. Therefore, the lesser of two evils, all the officers and soldiers sided with Saigo Takamori.

Of course, there is another important reason, that is, Saigo Takamori was not stupid enough to let everyone know that he wanted to sneak attack and kidnap the Chinese emperor, and most of the orders received by the Japanese army were military exercises, and only a few high-ranking officers knew about it. But they are all Saigo Takamori's henchmen, so naturally they won't say it.

Thereupon. China accused Japan of attempting to kidnap the Chinese emperor, but Japan could not find out the reason, so it could only accuse the Chinese navy of a sneak attack, according to Saigo Takamori.

On April 3, 3972, May 1, 1872, in order to give an account to the Japanese people. The Japanese emperor issued an edict rejecting the Chinese ultimatum and declaring that Japan and China were in a state of hostility.

The reason why it was a state of hostilities rather than a state of war was that Japan had intended to declare war on China, and anyway, the Japanese navy had almost been wiped out, and it was impossible to engage in a naval war. The Japanese firmly believe that they can defeat the Chinese Shence Army on their homeland, so they do not care about declaring war, but want to express their protest against China and restore the dignity of the Japanese through the declaration of war.

However, after all, Britain and Japan have been allied, and the British government does not want Japan to declare war on China, at least not now.

Britain intervened covertly, and Japan also needed the full support of Britain, so in the end a state of hostility came to an innocuous state.

At the same time, Britain also expressed its attitude to the Chinese Imperial Court through its ambassador to China, hoping that China and Japan would not go to war.

In response to this situation, the Chinese Imperial Court was very resolute at first, threatening to prepare for war against Japan.

However, in the end, when Li Weiguo made a statement, Li Weiguo shook his head, and had no intention of going on an expedition to Japan.

In the eyes of outsiders, this is a bit incredible, only Li Weiguo knows in his heart that once the war against Japan starts, China's Shence Army will have to go on an expedition to Japan, although the war has begun, military spending has surged, but China's finances can still support it.

But the question is whether the war is worth it, Li Weiguo has to consider the whole picture, what benefits the expedition to Japan can bring to China, Japan is poor and ruined, and there are no resources for the development of industrial countries to plunder.

In addition, Japan is a fighting nation, if it attacks the Japanese mainland, it will encounter an unprecedented cliff of resistance, if it cannot conquer Japan in a short time, then it will fall into an endless war of attrition, the Vietnam War, the Afghanistan War, etc., all show that even the superpowers of later generations, the United States and the Soviet Union, will be dragged down by a small country.

China has just begun to rise, and Li Weiguo does not want to block the national fortunes for a Japan that has no war value. Of course, Li Weiguo also wants to clean up Japan in his heart, but not now, according to Li Weiguo's grudge character, when he has an atomic bomb, the cliff will not just throw two.

In the end, Li Weiguo deliberately gave the British a step down, and only asked Japan to compensate the Chinese Navy for the loss of one million yuan for repairing warships, ammunition consumption and personnel compensation, and at the same time asked the Japanese capital Tokyo to change its name, because Tokyo is another name for Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty of China, and the Japanese capital was not allowed to be called Tokyo.

The former demand is neither high nor low, and the British government put pressure on Japan, which was quickly resolved, but the latter problem is purely that Li Weiguo is deliberately finding fault and disgusting and humiliating Japan.

But in the end, Britain and Japan still chose to give in, after all, they can't do China now, so they can only endure it.

As a result, the Japanese emperor issued an edict, and Tokyo changed back to its original name, still called Edo, which can be regarded as a submission to China.

Edo, which had just been renamed Tokyo for only two years, quickly became a joke all over the world, and the Japanese held a grudge and vowed to defeat China one day, and changed Edo back to Tokyo in a dignified manner.

The Japanese were calculated by Li Weiguo, and they were humiliated by the secret losses they suffered and had to pay compensation, which also stimulated their will to revenge and accelerated the alliance and cooperation with the British.

Previously, the Anglo-Japanese alliance was not strong, as many unequal treaties were signed between Britain and Japan. With the crushing defeat of the Japanese Combined Fleet in the Battle of the East China Sea, the Japanese government became more aware of the importance of the navy, so it could only turn to Britain for help.

The British government was still happy with the defeat of the Japanese navy from a certain point of view, so that Japan became more dependent on Britain and became Britain's younger brother and pawn to help Britain contain China in Asia.

As a result, the British government soon passed a resolution to provide Japan with interest-free loans and low-interest loans to help Japan develop its economic and military strength. The interest-free loan came from the UK government bank and amounted to about £10 million. The low-interest loans came from British private capital businessmen, about 40 million pounds, and the total amount added up was about 50 million pounds. This huge amount of money will greatly help Japan to carry out modern industrial construction and military construction.

At the same time, Britain is also helping Japan restore its naval strength, agreeing to export four new 10,000-ton ironclad ships and four new 5,000-ton armored cruisers to Japan, and the cost is almost the same as the purchase price of the British Navy.

However, Japan's finances in the 70s were very tight, and even if Britain did not make money selling Japanese warships, the Japanese government could not bear it.

In order to solve the financial problem, the Meiji Emperor had to take the lead in tightening his belt to save money, and at the same time, Japan had no resources to export for economic development, so he encouraged Japanese citizens to work abroad to earn foreign exchange.

However, Japanese women are basically engaged in prostitution, and they can earn a lot of foreign exchange, and gradually more and more Japanese women have fallen into the dust, supporting Japan's economic development from generation to generation.

However, Japanese women are not popular in China, on the one hand, from the imperial court to crack down, not to create any opportunities for Japan to earn foreign exchange, the implementation of an economic blockade on Japan. On the other hand, because of the war in the late Qing Dynasty, there were more women and fewer men in China, and there were many women. In order to make the country's dusty women have income, the Chinese government naturally has to crack down on foreign goods. (To be continued.) )