At five o'clock in the morning, Rear Admiral Wizofort was awakened by a knock on the door. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 At first, he was going to ignore the noise that was disturbing his sleep, but it kept ringing, as if it wouldn't stop until he opened the door. The enraged major general had to leave the warm bed, cursed, and opened the door to the room.

"What's the matter?" He asked. However, when he saw the chief of staff of the fleet, two operational staff officers, and the captain of the "Letvizan" lined up neatly behind his lieutenant, he decisively changed the question into: "What trouble are we in?" ”

"The lookout post has spotted a fleet on the right side of our front, fourteen nautical miles away, approaching." The chief of staff replied.

"Fleet?"

"Probably the fleet of the Japanese."

The Chief of Staff used a cautious description, "Probably", although everyone knew that in the Far East they were likely to run into only the Pacific Fleet, the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet, and the Japanese fleet - but if the other side was the Pacific Fleet, or the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet, the Sentinel would have stated it in the report; And none of them had any reason to be near Guam at this moment, otherwise the fleet would have been informed when it was resupplying Guam.

Only the Japanese fleet could have sneaked up here and not put its naval and national flags out - but this inference also implied ......

Hostilities, war.

Rear Admiral Wizofert's face turned white. "What should we do?"

He was a man who lacked assertiveness, like most generals and bureaucrats in the Russian Empire, accustomed to obeying and mechanically carrying out St. Petersburg's orders rather than thinking about it himself. But now, St. Petersburg did not give him orders and did not tell him what to do with the current situation, although everyone knew that Russia was about to go to war with Japan.

After all, it was only "imminent", the two countries had neither formally declared war nor severed diplomatic relations, war had not yet replaced peace, and a rash armed counterattack against the actions of the Japanese Navy would cause a lot of completely unnecessary trouble.

Vizofort didn't want to get into those troubles.

His chief of staff was well aware of his concerns, and had a solution to them—and at the same time to the benefit of the fleet. "Commander, we should sound the alarm and order all sailors to go into combat positions and stand by, load all artillery shells, and replenish spare shells and kits." "If the Japanese fleet leaves, we lift the alarm, and if the Japanese fleet opens fire on us, we bomb it." ”

"What if I go off the rails?" Wizofort asked.

"If we go off the rails, it's an accident, and if the Japanese go off the rails, we still blow them up." The chief of staff explained that it was both to Vizofut and to the captain of the "Letvizan" beside him. "Tell our sailors what it means, let them understand that we will never be the first to fire, but when we start shooting, we must let the Japanese know what it means to be cool."

He bit the "first" so hard that everyone present understood what his purpose was. Wizofert nodded and announced, "That's it." Raise a combat alert. ”

The order was carried out, and the alarm soon echoed on every battleship of the fleet, and the sailors, cursing all the objects they could, rushed to their respective combat positions. It didn't take long for all the artillery to be loaded with shells, as recommended by the chief of staff, and the ready-to-fire shells and projectile packs were delivered to where they were supposed to go.

This information was then fed back from every post on every battleship in the fleet, and finally sent to the ears of Vizofort, who had already boarded the bridge.

"We're ready."

"Very good...... I hope there won't be any mess. Still worried, the rear admiral raised his binoculars and looked in the direction of the Japanese fleet.

"What about the Japanese?" He asked.

"Four battleships, two armored cruisers, at least five cruisers." The chief of staff replied, "We are running into the First Fleet of the Japanese Navy. ”

"I want to know what they're doing."

"No action for the time being." The chief of staff continued, "But, my commander, it will never be a surprise that we have encountered the main fleet of the Japanese here, it must have come at us. ”

"Maybe you're right, Colonel, but the Japanese haven't fired at us yet." Wizofort shook his head and said, "We have to wait. ”

Waiting, let the time pass minute by minute, and the Japanese fleet was also approaching, and the distance between the two fleets slowly shortened to less than seven nautical miles. The mood of everyone on the bridge became heavy - it was about to go into the range of the main guns.

"We have to do something." Said the captain of the battleship.

Wizofert ignored him.

As if anticipating this outcome, the captain continued: "Maybe we should change course......

"General." An officer interjected, "The lookout post reports that the Japanese cruiser has broken away from formation, changed course and is accelerating. ”

"Japanese battleships?"

"Still maintaining speed and course."

Wizofer turned his gaze to his chief of staff. "Colonel?"

"My opinion is that the Japanese intend to make a detour of their cruisers to our flanks or rear." The chief of staff affirmed, suggesting: "I think our cruisers should be entangled in them." ”

Vyzofut turned to the captain of the "Letvizan" and nodded the order. The five cruisers in the fleet quickly picked out a course that would allow the Japanese cruisers to intercept them before they reached the flanks of the fleet, and then sped up and broke away from the formation.

The tension was added to the tension.

But the wait goes on – it must continue. Vizofort was reluctant to change the initial decision that his fleet would definitely not open fire until the Japanese fleet fired its first shells.

It's just a bit difficult. Whether his fleet would open fire first or not did not depend on his personal will, but on the will of the sailors who operated the artillery. If someone's nerves are too tense or they drink too much vodka this morning, war breaks out immediately.

One can only pray. There is no other option but to pray.

Vizofort drew a cross on his chest.

And five nautical miles.

The two fleets continued to approach.

Four nautical miles.

"General!" The officer who had just reported to him came again, "The lookout post reported that the Japanese battleships and armored cruisers had turned. ”

Good news. Vizofort breathed a sigh of relief. But when he turned around and saw the officer's expression, he realized he was a little too early in his joy.

"How?"

"The Japanese intend to seize the firing position."

"You goddamn idiot!" Vizofort roared. He couldn't understand how such a dull officer on his flagship could split an important piece of information into two parts, making people misjudge and wasting time. For a moment, he was tempted to reprimand the errant severely, but he immediately came to his senses and realized that it was also a waste of time to do so.

He turned to the captain of the "Letvizan". "Give a signal to the fleet to follow my flagship turn, keeping parallel to the Japanese battleship formation."

"Yes, General." The captain paused and asked, "Do you need to give the order to open fire?" ”

"No, Colonel." "The original order is still maintained, and our ships can only fire after the Japanese have opened fire—"

"The Japanese opened fire!" The chief of staff shouted - he saw in his binoculars the flames of the battleship's main guns firing.

A few moments after his words fell, four columns of water rose around the "Letvizan".

The bridge of the battleship suddenly became a mess. Every officer was shouting into a microphone or a junior officer: "The Japanese have opened fire!" Shoot back, immediately return fire and shoot all our shells! ”

They were passionate about fighting and quick to react, but they all forgot about one problem: the fleet still maintained a single column, and the Japanese had seized the T-shaped crosshead. It was of no practical significance that only the front guns of the "Letvizan" could fire at the Japanese fleet until the fleet had completed its turn, and it was impossible for two guns to fight against twenty-four guns, and even if they had an astonishing 100 percent hit rate compared to the opponent's only one percent, the situation would still be irreversible.

And, from the point of view of the facts, the gunners of the Russian Navy will not have a higher hit rate than their Japanese counterparts, at most just as high.

Vizofort panicked again. "Turn, turn now!" He shouted to the captain of the flagship, "Otherwise, we're going to be targeted!" ”

"We've become targets, General." The chief of staff said on the side, shaking his head pessimistically.

He was right, "Retvizan" had become a target, the only target of the Japanese fleet. The entire main gun and port gun groups of four battleships and two armored cruisers were firing at it. Twelve-inch, eight-inch, and six-inch shells rained down like hailstones, and in almost a moment, the battleship was surrounded by columns of water.

Vizofort smelled death. Although not a single shell has hit the target yet, it will be sooner or later.

"Hurry up and do something!" He shouted at the officer beside him, a little hoarse.

However, he knew it didn't make much sense. The battleship was changing course, and the two twelve-inch guns in the bow were firing at full force. If she could hold out until the whole formation had completed the turn, there would have been a lot more that could be done, but the rear admiral doubted that she would be able to hold out until that time.

As if to confirm his fears, the "Levitzan" suddenly shook.

"Shot on the starboard side!" An officer shouted.

His voice was immediately drowned out by another explosion, and another shell hit the starboard side of the battleship.

Vizofert's panic intensified.

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Note: Wilgelm. Vitgeft, Rear Admiral Witzoft, he was Makarov's successor, led the First Pacific Fleet to break through from Arthur and was killed by a shell, his death led to the failure of the breakout operation and the destruction of the First Pacific Fleet (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.) )