Tainan City is lost, and Kaohsiung and Nanping will definitely not be able to hold it either. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The 19th Division of the Lanfang Army had already occupied Taoyuan on September 12, approaching the city of Taipei.

However, at this time, the Japanese 16th Division also figured out the strength of the Lanfang Army, the Lanfang Kingdom sent a total of about 50,000 troops to Taiwan, occupied Taichung with 10,000 people, occupied Tainan with 20,000 people, and the remaining 20,000 people were advancing towards Taipei. The troops of the Lanfang Kingdom are equipped with a large number of 75mm mountain guns, and the artillery of the above caliber is not equipped for the time being; The navy of the Lanfang Kingdom is destroyers and torpedo boats, but the speed is very fast, and no warship of the empire can catch up at present, which is the biggest hole card of the Lanfang Kingdom's navy.

In view of the situation of the navy and army of the Lanfang Kingdom, the governor of Taiwan, General Sakuma Sakuma, and the commander of the 16th Division, Vice Admiral Nobuyi Yamanaka, jointly sent a telegram asking for help to the War Department and the Navy Department, making a detailed report on the strength of Taiwan's Lanfang Army, if the empire can send reinforcements, it is better to send more battleships and armored cruisers, if you send light cruisers, torpedo boats, etc., they are not opponents of the other side's destroyers, the opponent's warships are fast, and the rate of artillery fire is fast, If you send battleships, you can crush the navy of the Lanfang Kingdom with your firepower superiority; Now the navy of the Lanfang Kingdom is powerless against the Penghu Islands, so it can only besiege but not attack, capture the imperial merchant ships in the Taiwan Strait, and force the imperial navy to fight a decisive battle with them.

Zhang Wei originally wanted to occupy the Yaeyama Islands in person, but seeing that it was too late, he sent a telegram to the five submarine teams and asked them to meet in Taichung City.

Li Zhaoshui and others felt that they should occupy the Penghu Islands as a temporary supply port for destroyers and submarines.

Zhang Wei told them that if they wanted to give Japan a little hope, they would definitely come to the rescue, and that that was the best time to completely annihilate the Japanese fleet.

Everyone was very suspicious of Zhang Wei's plan, and it was impossible for Japan to send a powerful navy to the rescue for the Penghu Islands.

Zhang Wei explained in detail: "The advantage of our destroyers and torpedo boats is that they are fast, the artillery range is long, and the rate of fire is fast; if Japan sends small warships such as light cruisers, torpedo boats, and destroyers, it will give us war merits, so they can only send battleships or armored cruisers, and the number of warships sent cannot be less, they are slow, and they can only rely on the number to surround our destroyers. ”

"What if Japan doesn't send battleships? Didn't we wait in vain? ”

"Unless they don't want the island of Taiwan anymore, and merchant ships will no longer pass through the Taiwan Strait; If the army sent out does not have a strong naval escort, then we will send them to feed the fish; No matter what, we won't lose. ”

The Japanese navy and army respectively received telegrams from the governor of Taiwan asking for help and an analysis of Lan Fang's military strength, and they all wanted to send troops to reap the benefits of the war, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs never received a reply from the British, and the loan was still far away. In the end, the emperor was decisive, using Taiwan's salt tax and camphor's franchise as collateral to borrow money from the domestic chaebol, and first wiped out the Lanfang army on the island of Taiwan, otherwise, after the Lanfang Kingdom occupied Taiwan, it used Taiwan as a supply base to threaten the interests of the empire on the Korean Peninsula and the northeast of the Qing Dynasty.

In order to make up for his mistakes, this time he personally stepped out as a veteran to persuade the chaebol to contribute, otherwise the empire's interests in the northeast of the Qing Dynasty and the Korean Peninsula will be greatly threatened, and even lose these interests, then the empire's economy will regress for more than 30 years, which is not good for everyone.

The Japanese chaebol also relied on Japan's expansion to develop, if Japan was beaten back to its original shape, then all the zaibatsu will also disappear, for the common good, the chaebol accepted the emperor's conditions, a total of 50 million taels of silver to the empire as military expenses, and another 20 million taels of silver free aid to the imperial government.

With money it is easy to do, and the army and navy moved quickly.

After consultation, the Japanese War Department decided to send six divisions with the most combat effectiveness, namely the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 12th, and 13th divisions, and each division was equipped with one heavy artillery brigade equipped with howitzers; In addition, one more heavy artillery wing was dispatched, equipped with howitzers, with a total of 90,000 people; The commander-in-chief was the most well-known field commander in Japan at that time, and General Kuroki was Juni.

After many consultations, the Japanese Admiralty decided to send a powerful fleet of battleships to escort the army to Taiwan, and to cut off the sea supply line of the Lanfang Kingdom and wipe out the destroyer fleet of the Lanfang Kingdom in the Taiwan Strait.

The commander of the Combined Fleet was Admiral Heihachiro Togo, the head of the Naval Command Department, and hoped to rely on this admiral who had always had good luck to get good luck again.

The six battleships of the powerful Combined Fleet were the Katori, Kashima, Asahi and Mikasa, as well as the captured Daqing Guozhen Ento and the captured Russian Hizen class; In addition, eight armored cruisers, including Kasuga, Nisshin, Izumo, and Asama, as well as more than 70 frigates and torpedo boats, were dispatched to participate in the escort operation. The remaining battleships such as the Fuji were responsible for securing the homeland.

Japan sent such a powerful fleet this time, which is to bully the Lanfang Kingdom now that there are no battleships, and it is ready to cut off the sea supply line of the Lanfang Kingdom and completely wipe out the 60,000 Lanfang troops attacking the island of Taiwan.

While financially supporting the dispatch of troops, the chaebols also helped the government actively organize cargo ships to transport the army to the island of Taiwan.

After the blow of the Lanfang submarine fleet, the number of merchant ships in the whole of Japan has now decreased by a few hundred, which is a heavy blow to Japan's overall shipping industry and economy, which is also one of the reasons why the chaebol supports the government to eliminate the Lanfang army, you know, most of the merchant ships that were sunk were Japanese chaebols, and they were sunk by the Lanfang Kingdom, and they can only support the Japanese government in a decisive battle with the Lanfang Kingdom, otherwise, this loss will continue forever, unless the Japanese chaebol cut off overseas trade.

On the 13th, in Taipei City, the Japanese 16th Brigade and the Japanese Taiwanese Mixed Brigade were still confronting the army of the Lanfang Kingdom, and there were artillery battles from time to time, and the Lanfang Kingdom tried to charge many times, but they were repelled by the Japanese army, and the mountain artillery of the Lanfang Kingdom was powerless against the strong fortifications of the Japanese army.

The 16th Division is ready to hold on to Taipei City, attract the main forces of the Lanfang Kingdom to Taipei, and wait for the arrival of Japanese reinforcements to eat the main force of the Lanfang Kingdom in one fell swoop; The Governor of Taiwan means that there are too few troops now, and they can't fight hard with the army of the Lanfang Kingdom, they must preserve their strength and wait until the arrival of reinforcements, you must know that it will take more than 6 days to sail from the sea of Tokyo, Japan, on the island of Taiwan, and it will be difficult to hold on until that time, so the army should retreat to Keelung Port first, and block the enemy with favorable terrain, even if the reinforcements can't arrive, they can easily retreat from the sea, which is better than being surrounded in Taipei.

The Japanese troops stationed in Taipei retreated towards Keelung, which was exactly what Lan Fang's army wanted, to receive at least a complete Taipei city, not a pile of ruins.

On the 14th, the combined fleet and reinforcements began to board the ship, ready to leave, the huge escort fleet, so that the Japanese who saw off and the soldiers who were about to set foot on the battlefield had a sense of pride from the heart, as one of the great powers, how could they be afraid of a Lanfang kingdom that had not been founded for 1 year? This time be sure to give them a lesson that will last a lifetime.

The navy has specially formulated measures to prevent mines, and at the forefront of the fleet is a formation to protect the escort ships and torpedo boats, opening the way for the entire fleet, and also to prevent minefields set up by the Lanfang Kingdom;

Then 2 armored cruisers led 10 escort ships and torpedo boats as the first echelon of attack forces to prevent the destroyers and torpedo boats of the Lanfang Kingdom from attacking;

Behind is a huge fleet of more than 200 cargo ships, including troop carriers and baggage cargo ships, and on either side of the flotilla is an armored cruiser leading 10 escort ships and torpedo boats to protect the flanks of the fleet;

Finally, there was the battleship formation, which was surrounded by 4 armored cruisers and 30 escort and torpedo boats.

The combined fleet has done a very good job of protection, and can deal with all kinds of sneak attacks in the Lanfang Kingdom. The army of the Lanfang Kingdom likes to sneak attack, and this has long been known all over the world.

At the same time as the Japanese Combined Fleet boarded the ship, Zhang Wei received a telegram from Tokyo.

On the afternoon of the 14th, the intelligence officers stationed in Tokyo sent Zhang Wei detailed information about the Japanese army.

6 divisions, equipped with heavy artillery, 90,000 troops, and the selection of the strongest Japanese combat effectiveness of the divisions, if these land forces are allowed to land in Taiwan, they must at least invest an equal number of land forces in order to win, even if they win, it must be a residual victory, the losses will be huge, they must be eliminated at sea, if these 90,000 people are eliminated, the overall strength of the Japanese army will be reduced by several grades, without these veterans, without these grassroots officers, even if it is reorganized, the combat effectiveness will not be very strong.

As for the naval ships dispatched by Japan, Zhang Wei's tactical requirements were fully met, and as long as these battleships and armored cruisers were eliminated, the Japanese navy would return to before the First Sino-Japanese War. The most advanced warships can be built and purchased for money, and these experienced naval officers and men cannot be trained in a short period of time.

With the detailed strength of the Japanese army and the intelligence of the fleet, Zhang Wei sent someone to invite Li Zhaoshui and asked him to come up with a plan to ambush the Japanese fleet, and strive to annihilate the army and navy, after which he could easily blockade Japan, and then slowly collect the Japanese troops stationed in Korea and the northeast of the Qing Dynasty. (To be continued.) )