Chapter 668 Special Soul Fleet (I)

The blue sea is long, and a fleet is sailing on the East China Sea. The first was the protective cruiser "Haiqi", followed by the protective cruiser "Haichen", the protective cruiser "Hairong", the protective cruiser "Haichou", the light cruiser "Feihong", the light cruiser "Zhaohe", the light cruiser "Yingrui", and the sea supply ship "Partridge".

This is almost the core strength of China's existing capital ships, and now, they have formed a special soul fleet, commanded by Cheng Biguang, commander of the first fleet.

In fact, the main force of this special soul fleet comes from the cruiser fleet, that is, the first detachment of the navy.

Because China's naval strength is far inferior to that of the Japanese Navy, the General Staff did not intend for the naval fleet to engage in a head-to-head confrontation with the Japanese Navy from the very beginning of the Sino-Japanese War, and the position of the General Staff was very clear about the role of the navy in the Sino-Japanese war, that is, to conduct guerrilla attacks at sea, to wait for an opportunity to annihilate the enemy, to avoid a decisive battle of the fleet, and to respond to the actions of the army.

In fact, this strategy is more straightforward, that is, "preserving strength", at least that's how Cheng Biguang understands it.

Of course, the Navy's submarine units are not included in this naval operational guidelines, and in fact, from the very beginning of the establishment of the submarine units, the submarine units have been under the direct command of the Commander-in-Chief. The Admiralty only plays a logistical role.

To tell the truth, Cheng Biguang once held a wait-and-see stance on how much combat value this new weapon can be, but just a few days ago, when he received a secret report from the Admiralty that the submarine had performed well in the Lushun raid, he almost immediately changed his negative view of the submarine, and he immediately suggested to the Admiralty that he request the Commander-in-Chief to transfer the command of the submarine unit to the Navy.

However, before the Admiralty raised this issue with the Commander-in-Command, Cheng Biguang had to command the Special Spirit Fleet to begin the first combat patrol mission of the Navy's surface ship unit since the beginning of the war.

Long before the official start of the Sino-Japanese war, all the main ships of the Chinese Navy were transferred to the mouth of the Yangtze River, and after the war, in the face of the fierce main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet, the Chinese Navy hung up the card of exemption from battle, concentrated the main fleet in Jiangyin, Shanghai, and other places, while stepping up training, while raising combat materials, and waiting for the order of the center.

Some admirals and middle- and lower-ranking officers jointly wrote to the Admiralty, requesting that they take the initiative to attack the southeast coast and protect the coastal routes, but this request was unsurprisingly rejected by the Admiralty. After all, the difference in naval strength between China and Japan was too great, and the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet was cruising along the southeast coast at that time, and if it rashly attacked, it would be tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg, and not only could it not protect the coastal routes, but would cause unnecessary combat losses, and this operational principle also ran counter to the naval strategy formulated by the General Staff.

However, just a few days later, the situation changed, because the Chinese Air Force task force successfully carried out an air assault on Arthur and Dalian, dealing a heavy blow to the First Detachment of the Japanese Combined Fleet, this air assault changed the maritime strategic situation in the Bohai Sea and even the Yellow Sea region in just one hour, forcing the Japanese government to transfer the main force of the Combined Fleet cruising along the southeast coast to the direction of the Yellow Sea to rescue the First Squadron trapped in Port Arthur. The maritime threat to China's southeastern coast quickly disappeared, and the stumbling blocks blocking the Chinese surface ship forces from attacking the East China Sea disappeared, so with the approval of the General Staff and the Commander's Command. The Admiralty decided to take advantage of this rare opportunity for a daring sea assault.

So there was this attack in the East China Sea by the special soul fleet, and before receiving the order, Cheng Biguang repeatedly consulted the Admiralty about whether the intelligence was reliable, he didn't want to lead a fleet with only cruisers against a combined fleet with battleships and battlecruisers.

In order to confirm this information, the General Staff sent reconnaissance planes to follow up and reconnaisance the Japanese Combined Fleet on several occasions, and all the intelligence showed that the Japanese Combined Fleet really intended to go north to the Yellow Sea.

After receiving the guarantee of the Admiralty, Cheng Biguang issued an official order for the special soul fleet to attack, and this fleet was loaded with war materials, quietly left the mouth of the Yangtze River in the dark night, sailed into the East China Sea, and then went all the way south, aiming directly at the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan Island, the pearl of China's southeast coast, is rich and beautiful, not only an important barrier for China's southeast defense, but also a treasure island rich in natural resources, but in the Sino-Japanese War, it became the first colony that Japan seized from China.

From 1895 to 1914, in nearly twenty years, the Japanese government not only established a complete set of colonial rule on the island of Taiwan, but also 'groped' a good way to extract the economic value of the colony. On the island of Taiwan, Japanese merchants and enterprises established modern factories, such as wood processing, paper making, sugar refining, and steamship transportation...... Since the beginning of the establishment of Japanese colonial rule, the resistance of the islanders has not stopped, but due to the disparity in power, in the end, these rebellions were all suppressed by the Japanese colonial authorities, and Japan's colonial rule on the island not only used high-pressure means, but also used Huairou means at the same time, using the incompetence of the Manchu court to deliberately support a so-called "Japanese Taiwanese" class, These obedient people on the island are not only superior to others on the island, but even when they go to Fujian, they often adopt the arrogant posture of "two devils" and often belittle those compatriots who speak the same language as them.

More importantly, Japanese businessmen and enterprises took advantage of the geographical characteristics of the island of Taiwan being not far from Fujian to use the island as a base to unscrupulously carry out 'smuggling' activities to the mainland, which seriously interfered with China's foreign trade.

The root of all this is on the side of the Japanese government, and without the colonial rule of the Japanese government on the island of Taiwan, these bizarre scenes would not have appeared. If the Chinese military can regain the country, all this bizarre will gradually dissipate.

As members of the Navy, of course, they also want to regain their homeland, but the question is, with the current national strength, can they do this? The island of Taiwan is an island far from the mainland, if the navy is not strong, then it is basically impossible to recover by force, even if the army and air force can defeat the Japanese army, the Japanese government is afraid that it will not give up the island of Taiwan easily, after all. Japan has been operating here for almost two decades, and for Japan, the interests of the island of Taiwan have been closely linked to the Japanese Empire.

In the past, trade between the island of Taiwan and the mainland accounted for more than half of the entire trade outside the island, but now, through the 'fine' planning of the Japanese colonial authorities, the volume of trade between the island of Taiwan and the mainland has dropped to an insignificant level, and on the contrary, the trade volume between the island of Taiwan and Japan has accounted for more than 90 percent of the trade volume of the whole island, and the island of Taiwan has indeed become an important part of Japan's colonial trade system in East Asia, and the "India of the East" is indeed not just a blueprint. Nippon Masachi is turning this blueprint into reality.

However, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything, and Japan's inclusion of the island of Taiwan in its East Asian colonial trade system has certainly brought a huge source of wealth to Japan's chaebols and businessmen, but on the other hand, because it is isolated overseas, the defense of the island of Taiwan is heavily dependent on the naval fleet, and once the Japanese naval fleet cannot take care of it, then the sea course connecting the island of Taiwan and Japan will be extremely vulnerable to attack.

It is precisely because of this that the Chinese military will transfer the Special Spirit Fleet to the East China Sea to carry out the task of attacking and harassing at sea, while dispersing the Japanese naval forces, it will also strike at Japan's foreign trade, sinking or capturing a number of Japanese merchant ships and cargo ships, this is only one aspect, and the more important significance is that these naval attacks will seriously shake the confidence of Japanese businessmen, and Japan's weak domestic economy will be even worse.

If war does not start, it is enough, and once a war starts, all the people must show the courage to look at death as if they were at home, and this is a strategy that has been determined by the center before the war begins, because the center knows very well that the Japanese government will never be reasonable. If they do not hurt the Japanese, they will not compromise, let alone make concessions to China, and the Japanese must be made aware of a basic fact: In order to safeguard the interests of the country and the people, the central government of China will not hesitate to fight to the death with Japan with the idea of ending up together, and the Chinese army also has this strength.

Of course, this strength of the Chinese military does not seem to include the surface ship force of the navy, and Cheng Biguang knows this very well, and it is precisely because of this that he is eager to integrate the submarine force into the navy's direct control force.

In this sortie to attack the East China Sea, the submarine unit also sent two ocean-going submarines to assist the Special Spirit Fleet in its operations, and those two submarines had already gone to the waters near Taiwan Island to carry out reconnaissance missions long before the war began; unlike other submarines, those two submarines would not have taken the initiative to attack the Japanese ships before Cheng Biguang, commander of the Special Spirit Fleet, gave the order to attack, so as not to startle the snakes.

Compared with the Air Force, submarines are more flexible in carrying out maritime reconnaissance missions; due to the relationship between their range, it is very difficult for ordinary reconnaissance planes to carry out tactical reconnaissance in the waters east of Taiwan Island, but submarines can carry out reconnaissance missions on the Pacific side of Taiwan Island, and they have also done a very good job.

Now, Cheng Biguang is sitting in the captain's room, studying a telegram he has just received, which was sent by the ocean-going submarine "Ray" operating in the waters of Taitung just five minutes ago, and the content is the activities of the Japanese fleet; according to the intelligence on the telegram, there are not many Japanese warships active in the waters of Taitung, and most of them are light warships such as gunboats and minelayers, and these warships are not only small in number, but also scattered, and they are no match for the Chinese Navy's special soul fleet. It's the perfect time.

"Call back to the 'Ray', our fleet has arrived in the predetermined sea area and is waiting for reinforcements to arrive, and before the special soul fleet arrives in the No. 1 sea area, the submarine force must not launch an attack without authorization."

Cheng Biguang quickly drafted a reply, 'handed over' it to the adjutant, and ordered him to go to the telegraph room to shoot the hair, and then walked out of the captain's room, boarded the 'Lutian' bridge, raised his binoculars, and looked out at the southern sea.

He was looking for the "reinforcement fleet" that had arrived to reinforce the destroyer fleet that had sailed north from Guangdong, and according to the Admiralty's deployment, the destroyer fleet should have been in the nearby waters by now.

Once the destroyer fleet arrived, the special soul fleet truly lived up to its name.