Chapter 193: The Fourth Fleet

On June 3 of the first year of Guangming, the Second Combined Fleet of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire returned to the military port, Port Arthur, which is one of the important military ports of the Chinese Empire, and there were more than 20,000 marines stationed here, but many people were forced to retire home during the recent political movement. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

And because too many officers have been investigated and punished by the Department of Discipline Inspection, the current commander-in-chief is Peng Yulin, chief of the general staff of the Marine Corps, who personally sits here to ensure the safety of the first military port in the Far East.

At this time, Huaxia had already started a war with Japan on various fronts, and the people of the whole country were full of confidence that Huaxia could defeat Japan, but with the deterioration of the situation in Korea, it seemed that the people in the north knew that this Japanese seemed to be a little capable.

There was still the last warship left in the North Korean Navy, and it was finally towed back to the military port, and most of the sailors of these North Korean warships, after the consultation of Deng Shichang and Park Zongsheng, were assigned to the warships of the Chinese Imperial Navy, fortunately, these people were all fluent in Chinese.

In the first year of Guangming, on June 16, Wang Fengzao, the minister of the Chinese Empire to Japan, returned to Tianjin, and Zhang Sheng Xuanhuai of Tianjin City led people to welcome this colleague back to China at the dock.

But the Ministry of the Interior ordered him to go to Beijing first to receive the award! Because Wang Fengzao has done a lot of work in this evacuation and protection of the assets of the Chinese Empire in Japan, the Ministry of the Interior specially applied for honor to the Emperor Guangming!

Because there are still a lot of merchant ships coming and going in Tianjin, Tianjin Port is still the busiest port in the north, so Wang Fengzao's oil tanker has an empty dock at ten o'clock at noon, and Wang Fengzao, who got off the ship, saw Liang Qichao of the Ministry of the Interior and Sheng Xuanhuai, the mayor of Tianjin!

Wang Fengzao has been in Japan for many years and has not returned to the Chinese Empire, but he is still very familiar with Sheng Xuanhuai, an old friend, although the times have changed now, Liang Qichao, a young man who has no beard, has stood in front of Sheng Xuanhuai, the creation of fate!

After seeing Wang Fengzao get off the boat, Liang Qichao and Sheng Xuanhuai came to Wang Fengzao and said; "Lord Wang Fengzao has worked hard! Welcome back to China! ”

Wang Fengzao said; "How dare you do it down there! Failure to do your duty! What a shame! ”

Sheng Xuanhuai said at this time; "Don't be humble anymore, now is a time of crisis, the people don't know that this is a battle of national fortune, you and I must do our best as ministers in the palace!"

Wang Fengzao didn't understand what Sheng Xuanhuai meant!

Sheng Xuanhuai is Li Hongzhang's money bag, since the Huai Army's power expanded to the north, Sheng Xuanhuai's assets and career have also expanded to the north, after the independence of Korea, Sheng Xuanhuai invested a huge amount of money in North Korea at that time, but did not expect that this time Japan attacked North Korea will be so clever and ferocious. Moreover, the imperial army did not make effective resistance in Korea at all, and North Korea was lost like this, and Sheng Xuanhuai suffered heavy losses!

He has asked Li Hongzhang many times, but this time Li Hongzhang just refused to confide half a word, since the start of the war, he has been staying in Weihaiwei and not going anywhere!

Sheng Xuanhuai's health is very bad, there is a problem of prolapse of the anus, this is a chronic disease, cold and hot will be very uncomfortable, when he is sick, he is lying on a stretcher to work, and has made a great contribution to the development of Tianjin's civil industry, although a large part of the industry has his shares, but it is undeniable that in general he will make the cake very big.

Sheng Xuanhuai had no way to stand firm at this time, and said to Liang Qichao; "Liang Neixiang! Don't be embarrassed, Wang Fengzao is an official of the state, and he will understand the difficulties of the Ministry of the Interior and Emperor Li Jie! ”

Wang Fengzao clasped his fists with both hands and saluted, looking at Liang Qichao and said; "Liang Neixiang! I am a public servant of the country, and I should serve the country! ”

Liang Qichao said; "Japan has carefully prepared for this war, and China cannot be careless in dealing with this war, but now the international situation is changing strangely, and many situations are not very favorable to our country, so the emperor wants to send people to visit Europe and the United States, and the actual situation shows the international, not to ask for international mercy, but to ask the international community to treat it fairly!"

At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai still fell, and the entourage next to him was very skilled in carrying the old man onto the stretcher!

Sheng Xuanhuai said on a stretcher; "When it comes to the United States, Lin Lianhui and Lin Lianhui must cooperate closely to promote the United States to maintain neutrality and stop exporting materials to Japan, Japan will lose this war, and then it will be poor and have nothing left!"

At this time, Wang Fengzao roughly understood what the two meant!

Liang Qichao said; "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the capital has appointed you as the vice minister of foreign affairs, and at the same time, the Ministry of the Interior has appointed you as the director of the foreign affairs department to send envoys to Europe and the United States, and they will leave immediately!"

Your appointment has been electrified nationwide!

It should have been more formal, but at extraordinary times, you can only use extraordinary means!

Wang Fengzao knew that this time, he had nothing to hide, and he must be on it!

Wang Fengzao bowed in the direction of Jingshi and said; "Liang Neixiang! I accept the appointment! ”

Sheng Xuanhuai said; "Then don't wait! See the Mossou? Your entourage and usage documents have been prepared for you, and if you don't agree, you will be sent! ”

Wang Fengzao was in a cold sweat! These two are too domineering! But I like it very much, after all, I was promoted!

。。。。。。

Only seven days have passed since the Chinese Empire declared war on Japan on 23 May, and the entire Japanese cabinet has felt tremendous pressure.

The Japanese army in Inchon has begun to march towards Seoul, the capital of Korea, as long as this city is captured, Korea will be Japan's territory, and now that the situation is open, Japan is already determined to win, and the general of the Chinese Imperial Army guarding Seoul has only one division, less than 20,000 people. Now all Japan has to do is get rid of the Korean militia and guerrillas that are entangled with them!

As long as more than 20,000 troops were gathered around Seoul, it was possible to carry out siege warfare against Seoul, so at this meeting, the Japanese headquarters issued an order to Lieutenant General Daeshanam, commander of the Second Army in Incheon, ordering him to immediately begin attacking Seoul.

At the same time, he ordered Lieutenant General Sakuma Zomathei, commander of the 2nd Division of the 2nd Army, who had already marched to Gwangju, not to get entangled with the local militia. Accelerate to the north, converge with Dashanyan as soon as possible, go north together, and make every effort to achieve the strategic goal.

The last item on the agenda is to appoint Ito as the commander of the Imperial Japanese Combined Fleet and lead the Japanese fleet to the sea!

At this time, Japan had already begun to use all its strength, and Yama Temotomo, who was originally the chief of the Japanese General Staff, personally sent the commander of the Japanese First Army, and he wanted to lead this army to carry out the most important combat mission. Now it's up to Ito Yohei!

In the open sea of Japan's Sasebo Military Port, two battleships, the "Tsukushi" and the "Takohsiung", were moored after the defeat in the Yellow Sea battle, but they were not allowed to enter the military port, and the news of the defeat could never be transmitted back to Japan!

Now the Japanese base camp sent a message of victory to the whole country, and in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, Japan's Second Combined Fleet and the newly formed Fifth Combined Fleet defeated the navy of the Chinese Empire, and now they have occupied the port of Incheon, where their warships are anchored.

So the two warships received an order to go south to guard the Ryukyus!

This means that none of the officers and enlisted men on these two ships will ever be promoted, and will never return to their homeland, and they will henceforth be a group of people who should die in the Japanese military unless Japan does achieve all the victories.

。。。。。。

On June 21, the first year of Guangming, the South Tatartan Sea of the Chinese Empire, which Japan called the Sea of Japan, was still windless and very calm, and since the declaration of war between China and Japan, Japan blocked the Korean Strait from Heilongjiang Province to the southern coastal area of the Chinese Empire.

The position of the Heilongjiang Fleet at this time was very important, and Li Hailong was like the Navy Command issuing an application for combat at the beginning of the battle, and at this time, because the strength of the Fourth Fleet was weak, it was appropriate to take the initiative to attack.

Attacking the Japanese port of Songjiang, this is the thorn in the flesh of the Fourth Fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy, and he has long been unpleasant to look at, but the reply he got is that he should cooperate with the empire's grand strategy, do not act rashly, and the duty of defending the territory comes first.

But Li Hailong is not a general who obeyed orders, after receiving Li Hongzhang's order, the first thing he did was to scold Li Hongzhang in the command headquarters for being incompetent, and any grand strategy formulated was all bullshit, so he insisted on taking his fleet to the sea to patrol.

Since the Battle of the Yellow Sea on May 23, the sea seems to have become very calm, the Japanese fleet does not know where to go, and now the Chinese Empire is very much in need of oil, timber, and coal from Heilongjiang Province.

Although the railway has been repaired to Changchun, Jilin, but it is still more economical to ship by sea, so driven by profits, there are really merchant ships through the Korean Strait and come to the port of Vladivostok, which makes Li Hailong see his usefulness, and he began to escort passing merchant ships back and forth in the Korean Strait.

On that day, the four surface warships of the Fourth Fleet were repaired at the base of Ulleungdo, waiting for the assembly of merchant ships, and escorting the merchant ships through the Korean Strait. After seeing each other, they all began to speed up, firing a few cannons, each escorting their own merchant ship or troop transport. There's no point in dwelling on it!

At 15 o'clock in the afternoon of June 22, the Fourth Fleet began to prepare, and in order to protect the safety of merchant ships to the greatest extent, the fleet was ready to escort these merchant ships through the strait at night, and the Second Fleet would meet them on that side!

The merchant ships assembled at Ulleungdo received orders from the warships and began to pull anchors and adjust their course. Following behind the warship, began to pass through the strait, now because of the war, the price of materials is rising, this time as long as you can pass through the strait and return to Tianjin or Dalian, it is twice the usual profit, so it is worth taking a little risk, is it in danger of wealth and wealth?

In order to reduce the probability of being discovered by the Japanese on this voyage, all the ships used anthracite, which is the best industrial coal distilled and processed coal, and the smoke and dust after combustion are very small, and no black smoke will be seen until the near future.

In addition, the waves on the sea surface are neither big nor small, which masks the sound of the hull engine, so Li Hailong's heart is still very relieved.

The sunset of the night was red, and at 18:50 it fell below the sea level, the sea and the sky were connected, there was no radar, there was no satellite, the high technology of navigation was accurate calculation, and accurate timing!

These two things have been well solved in the current Chinese Empire, so the various warships and merchant ships are maintaining their own rhythm, following behind the large army, because of the implementation of light control, when all the ships look at each other, they are all black shadows, and the black shadows are moving in the established direction along with the waves.

The night was tense, all the personnel on the warship were on combat posts, no one was joking at such a moment, even the usually cynical fleet commander Li Hailong was very serious all night.

In the early morning of June 23, the sea and the inland are different, his hot and cold always have to be a beat slower, after the night has passed, the early morning sea surface blows a cool cold wind, the temperature difference is usually very large, especially in the Tatartan sea, all the naval officers and soldiers are equipped with special military uniforms, and the outer clothes are particularly heavy cotton clothing.

The east has been white, and the fiery morning glow is below, which indicates that it will be a good weather for a few days, and after coming to Qingshan Island, it will be under the jurisdiction of the Second Fleet, and the task of the Fourth Fleet will be completed.

The sun had risen completely, and the eighty or so merchant ships that followed behind the Fourth Fleet had woken up from the darkness and began to speed through this water, so that there was no need to worry when they reached the Yellow Sea, where the Empire was absolutely safe.

At this time, a huge whistle sounded on the sea, and the ironclad ship "Yiyuan" battleship was the first to see the Fourth Fleet and began to greet them, and the "Longwen" cruiser commanded by Li Hailong also sounded the whistle, but his heart was very unhappy, why don't we have an ironclad ship!

Qiu Baoren, the captain of the "Yiyuan" ironclad ship, issued a flag and invited the Fourth Fleet to come together for an exercise, but Li Hailong saw that his warship was not as large as the other people's border cruisers, so he simply ignored Qiu Baoren and ordered his fleet to turn around and "go home!" ”

When he was released back into the Tatan Sea, he encountered Japanese troop carriers in the Korean Strait again, and this time Li Hailong did not mean to let them go, and vented all the anger in his heart on these troop carriers here!

The soldiers of a wing of the 3rd Brigade of the commander of the 2nd Japanese Division, on the merchant ship "Yumoto Island", lacked good feelings for these Japanese soldiers who had fallen into the water, and the soldiers of the Huaxia Fleet could not have rescued them, and the Japanese really would not accept it!

Just as the Fourth Fleet of the Royal Chinese Navy was about to leave the waters of Busan, Li Hailong felt as if something was wrong! Why are the Japanese troop carriers not escorted by warships! It's so weird!

Li Hailong ordered all warships to be ready for battle!

When Li Hailong returned to Ulleungdo with the fleet, he found that their lair had been taken away!

The commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Ito Yuhiro, personally led the fleet to Tatartan and fought with Li Hailong.

Li Hailong raised the telescope and saw that there was no sign of resistance on the island, he knew that this base had been completely occupied by Japan, and now he was facing the main force of Japan's Combined Fleet, what should he do!

At this time, the battleship "Longcheng" next to the battleship "Longwen" waved the flag, "Bright sword!" "You must not retreat, you must "shine your sword!" ”

Li Hailong sounded the whistle, and the sound spread throughout the real harbor, and the Japanese warships also began to sound the whistle, and the two fleets began to speed up, the Japanese fleet lined up in an attack formation, and the fourth fleet lined up in an offensive formation.

The "Songdao" ironclad ship fired the cannonballs first, and the "Longwen" immediately began to return fire, and the opponent had a total of eight warships, and in the process of firing, the Fourth Fleet did not have an advantage in firepower, so after the first firing, Li Hailong led the fleet to retreat to the Vladivostok military port.

After all, the ships of the Fourth Fleet are small, so the Fourth Fleet has the advantage of being very fast, and it is impossible for Japanese warships to catch up with the Fourth Fleet.

Looking at the navy of the Chinese Empire, which was speeding away, Ito said; "If we don't gain sea supremacy, even if we control the largest sea area, it will be in vain, so we must destroy this fleet, accelerate it all, and attack the port of Vladivostok!

When Li Hailong led the fleet to Vladivostok, he found that at this time, the port of Vladivostok was also full of war, and the hidden artillery fire rang out from time to time, and in the open sea of Vladivostok, the Japanese fleet warships used the artillery fire of the warships to provide fire support to the Japanese troops who landed.

Seeing such a scene, the Fourth Fleet began to engage Japanese warships in the open sea, and the flagship of the second group of the Japanese fleet was the semi-ironclad ship "Hashidate" under the command of Hidaka Castle, and when it saw the cruiser "Ryumu" rushing over, it immediately began to shoot.

The four surface warships of the Fourth Naval Fleet were besieged by eight Japanese warships, and the cruiser "Naniwa" under the command of Heihachiro Togo, which damaged the battleship "Ryumu", was reinstated by "Takachiho", and sank in the sea off Vladivostok shortly after! Jia Yue, the commander of the battleship "Longwu", sank with the ship!

After exhausting all the torpedoes, the submarine forces withdrew from the battle, but the battleship "Longde" also failed to withdraw and was sunk by the ironclad ship "Matsushima", the Japanese flagship that rushed in. The officers and men of the battleship "Longde" sank into the sea together with the battleship.

Finally, under the "body fight" of the two submarines "Longhui" and "Longhuang". It was only by directly ramming the Japanese warships that the submarines pursued behind the "Ryubun" and "Ryucheng" gave the two warships a chance to escape from the battlefield.

The two battleships "Longwen" and "Longcheng" withdrew from Vladivostok with injuries, but because they were too seriously injured, they could not sail to the port of Temple Street.

On June 24, in the southern waters of the Tatartan Sea, another naval battle broke out, this naval battle because of the disparity between the strength of the two sides, the Fourth Combined Fleet of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire was defeated, losing all the surface warships, and two underwater warships, and the remaining remnants of the ships retreated to the Miaojie port at the mouth of the three rivers!