As usual, after a hearty dinner with Black Sea caviar and vodka, Stepan. Vice Admiral Makarov began to tour his flagship, inspecting the artillery, damage control, and maintenance and operation of the power system, talking to officers and giving lectures to sailors. www.biquge.info The Russian-Japanese war is imminent, perhaps tomorrow will break out, and the vice admiral wants his battleship and everyone on board the battleship to be in the best condition.

However, he found this seemingly simple idea a little difficult to implement. There were no problems with the battleship, the battleship "Petropaprovsk" was a new ship commissioned in 1898, and even with the level of maintenance of the Russian sailors allowed her to maintain a relatively good condition, the problem was the officers and sailors on the warship, who either did not take the Japanese as one thing, or did not take their duties seriously, and few of them entered the state of war.

And not only the officers and sailors of the battleship "Petropaprovsk", but the officers and sailors of the entire Pacific Fleet.

To the chagrin of the admiral, there was little he could do to change the situation: talking to officers, giving lectures to soldiers, punishing servicemen who violated discipline and failed to do their duty, which he could do, but the officers and sailors remained unchanged, as if they were not afraid of punishment at all. Of course, there must be a way to get these guys into shape, but the vice admiral couldn't find them, because he didn't know most of his subordinates any more than he knew about a stranger.

Makarov's appointment as commander of the Pacific Fleet had taken place two months earlier, and he had arrived at Arthur and begun his duties twenty-five days after his appointment.

Such a little time was simply not enough for him to get acquainted with every officer of the fleet, not to mention the fact that Vice Admiral Stessel of the Arthur fortress always wasted his time, either inviting him to the army's drinking party or inviting him to his private party. Makarov knew why, those banquets were not all about social events to bring people together, and Vice Admiral Stessel's other purpose was the orchestra of the fleet.

He didn't have a good orchestra, so he wanted the fleet's orchestra to play at his banquet, but he knew he couldn't make the request straightforwardly.

For his sake.

Lieutenant General Stessel was the second problem that bothered him.

There is a third, Petersburg. Makarov still does not understand why the Minister of the Navy appointed himself commander of the Pacific Fleet. It originally had a commander, Rear Admiral Scaludlov, and a number of suitable replacements, such as Port Arthur Commander Oscar. Rear Admiral Stark[note 2], who had been in Arthur in 1898, commanded the Pacific Fleet, knew everything about it, and there was absolutely no need to send him here. Perhaps Petersburg wanted to show with this appointment how much it attached importance to the Far East, however......

It's not a good idea.

"Too bad." Makarov grunted.

The officers who followed him were silent—every day, the vice-admiral repeated the word, they knew what he was complaining about, and had become accustomed to it; And there are some people who feel that if one day the vice admiral stops mentioning that word, they will be surprised and slightly uncomfortable.

And the officers knew what they were supposed to do: shut up, be quiet, wait, and follow the vice admiral to the next place.

There's no need to make superfluous, unscheduled activities, it's all a hassle.

Today, however, Makarov did not immediately move to the next post of preparation for inspection, as he used to be. He stood uncharacteristically beside the side of the ship, staring at the narrow entrance to the harbor, and asked in a low, more self-to-himself voice, "What is that?" ”

Rear Admiral Stark took a step forward, stared in the direction of the Vice Admiral's gaze for a moment, then shook his head slowly. "I didn't see anything." He affirmed, "It's too dark." ”

His statement makes no sense. Makarov was still staring in that direction, motionless. His demeanor and tone were as affirmative as that of a rear admiral, even more affirmative than he was. "There's something there."

The officers were confused, exchanged glances, and finally decided to let the captain of the "Petropaprovsk" ask questions on their behalf.

"General, what do you see?"

"I'm not sure, it could be a ship." Makarov replied, still holding on. "But I did see something there."

"Boats? At this time? "The officers could hardly believe their ears.

As the commander of the port, Rear Admiral Stark stated in an unmistakable manner: "I beg your pardon, Vice Admiral Makarov, as far as I know, all of our ships have been anchored, and none of them are still active......"

His words had the opposite effect of what was expected. The vice admiral not only did not change his point of view, but had a new, complementary one. "If what I see is not our ship, it is the ship of the Japanese." He turned to the captain of the "Petropaprovsk". "Immediately the alarm was raised, and everyone went into combat positions to shine a searchlight on the sea."

"General?" The stunned admiral did not act - he felt that if it was not his own ears or Makarov's brain - he retorted: "We didn't see anything!" ”

"But I saw it!" Makarov raised his voice, "Immediately carry out my order!" ”

The admiral still hesitated. It was then that he heard the voices of some sailors - others did.

"Look, what's that!"

He turned his face sideways, Makarov and Stark turned back, and the officers all huddled to the side of the ship. Their eyes were all on the water. With the faint moonlight, the officers didn't waste much time in finding two churning, advancing white waves, dragging straight tracks, rushing towards them.

"Torpedo!" The captain was the first to react, "Battle alert!" ”

The order was too late - in any case, it was impossible for a battleship with an anchored boiler without a fire to escape a torpedo attack. The people on the warship could only watch as they rushed towards them and then made a loud "bang" - there was not much they could do at this moment.

The most they can do is keep themselves safe - just do their best.

"Get out of the ship's side! Everybody get out of the boat! Makarov shouted, and he had already retreated from the side of the ship.

Most of the officers retreated to the rear, like him, but there were also some who did not move. Rear Admiral Stark stared at the torpedo's track and shouted, "They're going to—"

The explosion interrupted the shouting of the rear admiral. The battleship "Petropaprovsk" with a displacement of 11 thousand tons shook violently, and this shaking was so violent that not a single person could stand still, either falling on the deck or falling into the water. Then, her stern began to sink slowly.

Soon, the sailors alarmed by the explosion poured out of every hatch, all of them looking panicked, either scurrying around, or somewhere stunned and not knowing what to do, or jumping directly over the side of the ship and into the water, as if their battleship was about to be finished.

"We're sinking!" The panicked sailors screamed, "We're going to sink—"

Makarov, who had struggled to get up from the deck, stared at the chaos on his flagship with a grim face, then grabbed the admiral by the collar, dragged him in front of him, and roared at him: "Pull your men back into their combat positions, immediately carry out damage control, and order the gunners to enter the gun position." Colonel, find me the Japanese monkey torpedo boats and kill them all. ”

No sooner had he finished than a violent explosion shook the harbor again, and then again.

"Look, the Sevastopol was torpedoed!" An officer shouted, adding a few seconds later: "My God, the 'Poltava' was also hit!" ”

Makarov's body shook for a moment.

"General?"

"Leave me alone, take care of your warship!" Makarov pushed the Colonel away, "Carry out my orders, move fast!" ”

"Yes, General. Yes, General. The captain hurriedly saluted him, and ran away to recoup the damage caused by his mistake.

More shouting soon rang out. The officers began to drive the sailors away and return them to their posts, causing new chaos.

In the midst of the chaos, new voices soon came in: the fleet's cruisers and destroyers opened fire. Artillery, machine guns, and machine guns of all calibers began to fire wildly, pouring shells and bullets into every seemingly suspicious piece of darkness. A little later, all the guns of the starboard side of Petropaprovsk and the coastal guns of the Arthur fortress joined in the huge fireworks display.

Finally, the artillery groups of the battleships "Sevastopol" and "Poltava" also ended the silence that had been maintained.

The Russian soldiers have finally shown their other side, fanatical, unrestrained, inconsiderate of the results, it seems that it will not stop. There was only one problem, and their ferocious fire hit nothing.

There were no explosions, no fires, and the areas swept by artillery fire remained silent, with no trace of Japanese monkey torpedo boats. These cunning enemies sneaked away, just as they sneaked in, as it seems.

However, the sailors and army artillery did not stop their movements. Unable to fire first, they fired violently and kept firing to make up for it.

Makarov stood next to the side of the ship, watched all this with a frown, and then turned his gaze to the berths of the battleships "Sevastopol" and "Poltava". Although they could not see the damage, the flames on the water and the constant shouting showed him that the situation of the two battleships would not be much better than that of the "Petropaprovsk".

Perhaps their situation is even worse.

Makarov is now both angry and frustrated. The Pacific Fleet had only three battleships, and now, all of them were torpedoed, and if they did not sink, they would be temporarily incapacitated—for the time being, "for a few weeks," and at least -- and until the arrival of the "Letvizan" and the three American battleships it had purchased, the Pacific Fleet would be able to stay in Arthur, not going anywhere, and doing nothing.

Moreover, whether the nine warships from the United States could reach Arthur is still a question to be studied: since the Japanese had decided to go to war and had already attacked Arthur, they would not ignore those warships; To make matters worse, those ships remained ignorant of what had already happened and would not have any defense.

They will be exterminated. And again, he could not change the situation - there was no way to inform the fleet at sea. While the Baltic Fleet has begun to use a device called the radio, which the Americans began to use a few years ago, the Pacific Fleet has not.

He couldn't do anything.

"Hell!" Makarov cursed.

But there are still things that can be done and must be done.

The vice admiral slowly turned his body around, showed a tired look to the adjutant standing behind him, and then ordered: "Inform Petersburg that ten minutes ago, without a declaration of war, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on Arthur......"

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Note: Rear Admiral Skrydlov, I really don't know what to translate into good

Note 2: Oscar. Viktonovich. Rear Admiral Stark, commander of the Pacific Fleet at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, the person who was replaced by Makanov (to be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please land on the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )