As the secondary capital ship of the Daqian Imperial Navy, Shen Shouchang has always been eager to command "Ning Yuan" to make meritorious contributions. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Qianguo Navy has never been as strong as it is now.

In response to Japan's provocations, he was bent on giving a fierce response.

But what he didn't expect was that the opportunity would come soon.

5:30 a.m.

"Soot found in the northeast!" The lookout shouted.

Shen Shouchang immediately raised his telescope and saw several faint columns of smoke in front of him.

"It's the Japanese." Betty said in a deep voice.

The speed of the other side was obviously very fast, and since the two sides were traveling opposite each other, one after another, Japanese warships appeared on the sea level.

Six Japanese cruisers formed a single column formation and galloped in a uniform formation.

"It's so fast! Sure enough, it's a new Armstrong cruiser! Seeing the flagship of the Japanese fleet, Betty couldn't help but admire.

"Identify the Japanese ship." Lu Wenjing said expressionlessly, his long black beard and long hair shaking under the blowing of the sea breeze.

"Report to the chief, and identify the Japanese ships as 'Yoshino', 'Takachiho', 'Akitsuzu', 'Naniwa', 'Tsukushi', and 'Takao'." One officer was talking as he was identifying, and the other officer was looking through the atlas, finding the line diagram and data sheet of the Japanese warship whose name was announced, and sending it to Lu Wenjing.

"Except for 'Tsukushi' and 'Kaohsiung', the four forward ships are all new British ships." The officer said.

"It's not good!" Shen Shouchang looked at Lu Wenjing and said.

"It's supposed to be here to intercept our troop carrier." Lu Wenjing glanced at the four transports in motion and nodded to Betty, "All arms for war." ”

Betty gave the order loudly in English, and soon, a series of signal flags were raised, the sailors on the deck ran to their respective battle positions, the middle and senior officers went to their respective parts of charge to supervise the command according to the usual deployment, and the ammunition compartment began to busily deliver ammunition to the deck, the gun masks of the large and small gun emplacements were all removed, and the fixed chains on the gun carriages were loosened one by one......

"Now the two countries have not declared war, so ...... Will it work? Fang Boqian, the general manager of the Tianjin Water Master School, who had not spoken, hesitated for a moment and expressed his concerns.

"The Japanese made it clear that they were here to intercept us, and before leaving, I asked Ding Junmen for instructions, if the Japanese ship attacked, how to deal with it, the military gate has an order: the column can fight back." Lu Wenjing glanced at Fang Boqian quietly, and said to Betty, "As long as the Japanese ships open fire, our army will attack immediately." ”

"Understood!" Betty replied loudly.

At this time, the escort fleet had arrived near Toshima and was about to sail out of Nanyang Bay. Toshima is one of the many small islands that are densely covered outside Nanyang Bay, the north is wide and the south is narrow, the widest part of the whole island is 1388 meters, the highest point is 174 meters above sea level, because it is just in the center of the entrance of Nanyang Bay, it is extremely dangerous, the southeast island reef of Toshima is dense, the big ship can not sail, only the channel between the northwest and Gongjing Island is deeper, it is the only way to enter Nanyang Bay and trace Asan Baekseoul-ri.

The convoy quickly passed through the narrow channel between Toshima and Kokeijima, and the Japanese fleet was clearly displayed in front of the convoy at this time.

Betty did not keep an eye on the Japanese fleet on the opposite side, but looked at the situation of the other ships with a telescope, just like the usual training, the other warships of the escort fleet were ready for battle, like the "Ningyuan" ship, and would not hesitate to return fire if provoked.

"Japanese...... Do you really dare to risk the condemnation of the world and fight against us without declaring war? This is a violation of public international law...... "Fang Boqian muttered.

As the general manager of the Tianjin Sailor School, he should not have come to the sea, but this time, many students of the Tianjin Sailor Academy went to the "Ningyuan" ship for internships, and he was ordered to go on the ship to take care of him, so he came.

Although he is an old man of the shipmaster, he actually does not go to sea many times.

After leaving the gunboat "Jianwei", he accompanied Lin Yiqing to visit Europe, and since then he has been engaged in naval affairs, and later recommended by Lin Yiqing to serve as the general office of the Tianjin Naval Academy, and has never served as the captain of any warship again.

No one on the flybridge paid any attention to him, and everyone stared at the Japanese fleet opposite.

Fang Boqian didn't know that at this moment, there were many people on the Japanese warship opposite who were as afraid as him.

Since leaving the port of Sasebo on the afternoon of 26 February, the Japanese Combined Fleet Group, including the "Yoshino," "Takachiho," "Akitsuzu," and "Naniwa," has been on wartime alert since leaving the port of Sasebo, and since 20 o'clock, each ship has arranged for four rounds of sentries to be on duty overnight, and except for the lead ships of each detachment, all the other ships have turned off their lights and sailed in the vast darkness. At 3 o'clock on the 27th, the Japanese Combined Fleet bypassed the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula and headed north.

After sailing to the west coast of Korea, according to the order of the commander of the Combined Fleet, Yuhiro Ito, the 1st Guerrilla Squadron led by Kozo Tsuboi was responsible for overtaking the group and assumed the task of reconnaissance and search for the lead 2-3 days in advance, while the main unit of the Combined Fleet waited at the Gunsanpo anchorage on the west coast. At 4:30 a.m. on 1 March, when the No. 1 Guerrilla Group arrived near Anmian Island in the southern part of the Taean Peninsula in Korea, it encountered warships such as Yaeyama, Oshima, and Musashi, which had been sent in advance to cruise along the coast of Korea and were in charge of reconnaissance and intelligence. The captain of the "Yaeyama" went to the "Yoshino" in a small boat to report to the No. 1 Guerrilla Unit on the situation that had been reconnoitred yesterday: "'Yaeyama' said: There is nothing to do in Incheon, and a large number of Korean civilian ships were anchored in Asan yesterday, and it is suspected that they were requisitioned and sent by cadres to assist in the preparation ......of reinforcements for landing."

Upon receiving this important information, the fighters could not afford to be missed, and Commander Tsuboi Kozo immediately ordered the 1st Guerrilla Formation to increase its speed to 12 knots and go straight to the area around Nanyang Bay in the order of "Yoshino," "Takachiho," "Akitsuzu," "Naniwa," "Tsukushi," and "Takohsiung." At 6:30 a.m., when the No. 1 guerrilla group sailed to the vicinity of the dark sand of Chang'an Dui in the southwest of Toshima, the lookouts in the foremast of the "Yoshino" discovered that several steam ships were sailing out in the direction of Toshima, and their identities were unknown. The target in front is very likely to be a Qianguo warship or troop carrier, and Tsuboi Kozo immediately ordered the formation to increase its speed to 15 knots, and accelerated in a column battle formation to sail in the direction of the target, and the trumpeter of the flagship "Yoshino" blew the "battle", and on the open-air command platform at the stern, two Japanese signal soldiers nervously wore several signal flags, and then a group of "battle begins" signal flags quickly rose from the open-air command platform to the oblique truss of the rear mast, and the follow-up "Takachiho", "Akitsusu", and "Naniwa" The three warships then sounded a terrible "battle" horn one after another, and Japanese sailors in white summer uniforms and Japanese officers in dark blue military uniforms with swords at their waists rushed to their respective combat positions, and the long-awaited battle moment of the Japanese Navy was approaching.

At 7:20 a.m., shortly after the lookout of the "Ningyuan" confirmed the identity of the Japanese warship, the Japanese warship also accurately identified the five warships of the Qianguo Navy, "Ningyuan," "Jianjing," "Jianyi," "Hailong," and "Haihua," which were sailing from afar.

At this time, the two sides are 5000 meters apart.

Seeing that the Qianguo warship that came first turned out to be an ironclad ship, the commander of the First Guerrilla Force, Tsuboi Kozo, and the captain of the "Yoshino" warship, Kawahara, were all surprised.

Although the displacement of the "Yoshino" is about the same as that of the "Ninen", and the body of the "Yoshino" is even longer than that of the "Ninen", the other side is an ironclad ship with a huge armor cannon, while the "Yoshino" is a cruiser.

Like a deep, gripping silent pantomime, and like the moment of tranquility before all the conspiracies are staged, the sea of Toshima at this moment, although it is already full of thrilling before the thunderstorm is about to arrive, and the air can feel a strong atmosphere of war, but the two protagonists on the stage are just silently watching each other's movements, as if neither of them can grasp the heat, and dare not easily break the suffocating silence.

Although the Qianguo warships under the dragon flag knew that the Japanese warships were not good, the two countries had not yet formally broken up, and in line with the purpose of not provoking themselves, no one would offend us, and I would not offend anyone, although the "Ningyuan" and other five warships were ready to deal with the battle, the initiative for the next change in the situation was not in their hands. The Qianguo, which is locked in the city of "benevolence, righteousness and morality" and cannot extricate itself, would rather pay the price of sacrifice and blood than destroy the pedantic "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, and faith." In the face of the four powerful Japanese cruisers, Fang Boqian prayed silently in his heart, praying that everything in front of him was a false alarm, hoping that the Japanese would not provoke, and that the Japanese warships would turn the rudder and leave. Under Betty's order, the flagship "Ningyuan" sent a signal to the four merchant ships "Airen", "Flying Whale", "Gao Sheng", and "Changbo", and the four merchant ships immediately sailed to the other side of the escort fleet, avoiding the Japanese fleet.

The 6 warships of the 1st Japanese Guerrilla Force were sailing at high speed at a cleaving wave, and the momentum was overwhelming. However, the atmosphere on the warship was not relaxed. Commander Tsuboi Kozo, who was shouldering the heavy task of provoking the war, was standing on the flybridge deck of the "Yoshino" at this time, facing the sea breeze, holding binoculars, and staring at the five Victorian-painted warships that were gradually approaching in front of him. Although he had four world-class cruisers on his side, and the initiative to start a war was completely under his own control, what Tsuboi Kozo could not be sure about was whether the Qianguo warships would take the lead before his own warships occupied the superior position, and he knew very well that the large-caliber guns of the Qianguo warships would have a range advantage at a long distance, and the position he was currently in was not conducive to giving full play to the advantage of broadside firepower. At the same time, like any Japanese naval officer at the time, Kozo Tsuboi could not predict the combat capability of the Qianguo Navy, although the Qianguo Navy had not added a new ship since 9094, but it had the reputation of being the first in East Asia and the sixth in the world, and the training comparable to that of Europe, before it really fought each other, what was the combat quality of this Longqi Navy, which had been active in East Asia for a long time? It can only be a mystery to be solved. Now this high-achieving student of the Annapolis Naval Academy is thinking repeatedly about how to effectively destroy the Qianguo warship in front of him.

After 7 a.m. on 1 March, when the Japanese fleet spotted each other in the waters near Toshima in South Korea, the Japanese No. 1 Guerrilla Squadron sailed in a column formation, and the formation of the Qianguo escort warships, which also came in columns, were roughly advancing head-on. Moreover, at that time, the Japanese First Tour Formation was in the open sea area outside Toshima, and the Qianguo warships were in the narrow channel between Toshima and Gongjing Island, and if they approached the attack, the narrow channel was not conducive to the fleet's maneuvering. After repeated consideration, Tsuboi Kozo and Captain Kawara Yoshiichi of the "Yoshino" agreed on a strategy, deciding to take advantage of the fact that the distance between them and the Qianguo warship was still far away, first take the initiative to maneuver to the outside of the right rear, wait for the Qianguo warship to sail out of the narrow channel and enter the open sea area, and then turn back, and take advantage of the characteristics of its high speed to quickly occupy a favorable attack position on the side of the Qianguo warship before attacking, so as to fully develop the might of the gunside firepower. On the whole, it is indeed a good move that can tighten the throat of the Qianguo fleet.

At about 7:30 a.m., the track of the 1st Japanese guerrilla squadron began to change, and the helmsman in the armored command tower under the flybridge of the "Yoshino" received an order, and the eight hydraulic steering wheels immediately turned rapidly, and the bow of the ship stirred up bursts of waves, and began to make a great turn of about 240 degrees to the right rear, drawing a large "N" shaped trajectory, turning its course and turning its course away from the Qianguo fleet. According to the Japanese Navy's pre-war directives, and considering that the reliability of the flag command system was not high on the battlefield filled with gunpowder smoke and shrapnel everywhere, in order to ensure that the fleet would not lose its unified command in wartime, the warships in the formation had to closely follow the movements of the previous warship, but perhaps this maneuver to change course came too suddenly, and when the turning order was issued, the "Takachiho" ships following "Yoshino" did not immediately carry out the turning action, and a wave of confusion was caused in the formation of the First Guerrilla Force.

Similar to the officers who were suspicious of the Qianguo Navy, due to the expansion and purchase of a large number of new warships in a short period of time, most of the sailors in the Japanese Navy at that time were newcomers who had just been recruited, and their technical proficiency was far lower than that of their counterparts on the Qianguo warships who had served for more than five or six years. Before the war, the Japanese Government made full use of the media of public opinion to wantonly exaggerate the combat strength of the Qianguo Navy for a long time, in order to pave the way for public opinion to develop the navy with reckless force, but this trick has also brought about many negative effects; the generation of young sailors on the Japanese warships who have grown up in the "theory of the threat to the Qianguo" are not only mixed with a trace of lack of confidence in their own technical proficiency at this moment, but are also shrouded in fear of the upcoming battle and the long-standing fear of the Qianguo Navy. An atmosphere of unease spread among the Japanese sailors.

On the ship "Takachiho" immediately after "Yoshino", the commander of the ship, Admiral Sadashi Nomura, was extremely dissatisfied with this atmosphere, and Nomura Sada, who graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy and had a long experience at sea, was rude and aggressive, and was an active member of the war against the Qianguo. After seeing that the "Yoshino" ship in front of him was starting to make a big turn, the flagship turned its back on the Qianguo warship without a fight, which made the warlike Nomura Sada, like a deflated ball, thinking that it must be the commander Tsuboi Kozo who was cowardly and afraid of the battle, and was unwilling to miss the battle that could be started in vain, and immediately ignored the strict hierarchy of the navy, ordered the flag to be hoisted, and asked why the flagship had changed course. Tsuboi was extremely unhappy with Nomura's rude move, but out of the overall consideration of maintaining the unity of the formation, he had to patiently explain, and under the personal supervision of the captain of the "Yoshino," the signal corps raised a series of complicated flags to the oblique truss of the foremast of the "Yoshino": "The current position of the fleet is not conducive to the mobile operation of warships!" ", and then hung the command "Follow the flagship sailing!" ”。 The unruly "Takachiho" was crushed by a bullet, and honestly followed "Yoshino" to turn, and Nomura Sada's fall was very boring. The "Akitsuzu" ship after "Takachiho" also turned around, and her captain was Fukushima Keisenori, a veteran captain who had participated in the Battle of Moss Bay, had fought with the Qianguo Ship Administration and Naval Division, and had rich experience, and understood Tsuboi Kozo's intentions, so that he did not do the stupid act of Nomura Sada.

In addition to Nomura Zhen on the "Gao Chiho" who was puzzled by the change of course, there was also Fang Boqian on the Qianguo warship "Ningyuan" in the distance. Fang Boqian, who had been nervously observing the movements of the Japanese fleet from the flybridge since the discovery of the Japanese warships, suddenly saw the surprising movements of the Japanese fleet in the binoculars, and immediately judged that he "suspected that he did not want to fight." He believed that the scene in front of him showed that these Japanese warships were not here to fight, but might just be the reconnaissance detachment in the lead. Fang Boqian let out a long sigh of relief, and he had already begun to plan to marry the two beautiful concubines after returning to Weihai.

But Lu Wenjing, Betty and Shen Shouchang are not as relaxed as him.

Betty's gaze never left the Japanese warship.

He knew that the Japanese, who were accustomed to playing tricks and tricks, would not leave so easily.

Sure enough, Fang Boqian's ease lasted only a moment, and not long after, the Japanese fleet, which had turned away, "spun and took advantage of the momentum," and almost at the same time that the "Ningyuan" sailed out of the narrow channel, the Japanese No. 1 guerrilla force made a great turn of about 200 degrees to the right, turned a "U" figure, and after opening a certain distance from the Qianguo warships, turned back to it, and used its high speed to penetrate directly into the flank of the Qianguo fleet, forming two slightly parallel battle lines with the Qianguo fleet.