"Spread out, hurry up and spread out the formation!" Realizing the possibility of mines ahead, the commander of the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, shouted in horror. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

What the formation is most afraid of encountering is mines, because compared with a single ship, the density of the formation is greater, and in order to maintain a sense of compactness, plus the number of warships in the combined fleet is far less than that of troop carriers, so a Japanese warship needs to be responsible for the safety of four or five troop carriers, and troop carriers are slow, so the distance between them is closer, and there is one almost three or four hundred meters from the front and back, left and right.

At this time, once a troop carrier is sunk, the consequences are absolutely unimaginable. Although the ship behind may not collide, but after the previous troop carrier is sunk, a huge whirlpool will be formed on the water, and the warship is naturally not afraid, and it can also quickly escape from the scene with strong power, but those slow troop carriers may not be able to do it.

And Japan is a country in dire need of resources, especially steel, most of the only steel is occupied by the navy and army, civilian ships can basically only be built with wood, and those new ships that have only been built in recent years, most of them are also supported by wood inside, and the outside is wrapped with a layer of iron sheet, which can only become stronger than before, but in the face of this kind of mine weighing four or five hundred catties, as long as you eat one, you almost don't have to think about it, and you will definitely sink the ship within five minutes.

Therefore, before receiving a detailed report from the warship in front, Heihachiro Togo had already made a decision, and no matter how many mines there were ahead, he could no longer continue to move towards Okinawa according to the plan, and he had to turn around and avoid this possible 'minefield'.

'Wow! Wow! The sea kept lapping against the warship, and the steel giant floated on the water, up and down, swaying with the sea level.

On the Naniwa protective cruiser, 357 Japanese officers and men held their breath, staring at the giant mine that was swimming towards them, their hearts beating uncontrollably, and there was a trace of fear.

Matsukawa Prodigal only felt that he was finished, even if this mine could not sink the Naniwa protective cruiser, then as long as it had close contact with Naniwa, then Matsukawa Prodigal could only commit suicide by disembowelment. The Naniwa is of great significance to the Japanese Navy, although it has never served as a flagship even once, but two of the first three captains who could not stand him were admirals, one of whom was the current commander of the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, and the worst one was also a vice admiral.

If the Naniwa was struck by a mine right in front of Heihachiro Togo, how tragic would the picture be? Matsukawa couldn't imagine what would happen next.

The Combined Fleet was originally composed of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fleets, with a total of more than 100 ships of all kinds, but with the passage of time, some old warships were gradually decommissioned, coupled with the shortage of resources, and the Admiralty urgently needed to build new and more powerful warships, so those old warships were dismantled, and then sent to the steel mill for re-forging, and finally used to make new warships, and it is precisely for this reason that the United Fleet has maintained a scale of about 60 ships in recent years, although the number has decreased, But the combat effectiveness was not greatly affected.

Originally, the Admiralty planned to increase the size of the combined fleet to 80 ships within five years and 120 ships within 10 years, but now it seems that it is still a bit slow.

The mine almost grabs the stern of the Naniwa, and if the Naniwa is a little slower, then it is inevitable that it will be hit by a mine.

Luck finally sided with the Naniwa, and the Japanese sailors standing at the stern of the ship watched the huge mine float less than three meters from the tail of the battleship, and yes, the Naniwa escaped this disaster.

"Yaga, cunning Chinese......" Heihachiro Togo looked straight ahead in a daze, and in the distance in the sky, there was a faint trace of black smoke, which must have been a mine dropped by those people.

But why do the Chinese's mines move? Did they want to use it as a torpedo? So why not just use torpedoes? Wouldn't that be faster? More powerful? Warships are harder to dodge?

Heihachiro Togo never understood what the Chinese were thinking, but looking at the already messy fleet formation, he felt as if he had been insulted like he had never felt before.

The Chinese dropped seven mines, and originally only three were facing the fleet, but after the formation was disrupted, it was changed from the first three to four, but fortunately, the command skills of these captains were very good, although they looked a little embarrassed, but at least they avoided this batch of mine attacks.

"No, you must not just hold your head and run around, so that sooner or later you will be caught up by the Chinese." Heihachiro Togo immediately thought.

Everything on the battlefield has pointed to the unfavorable side of Japan, although Togo Heihachiro has made countermeasures before, but the speed of the Japanese fleet is hard, and there are super-fast fast ships in the Chinese fleet, these fast ships run to the front of the Japanese fleet and place mines along the way, which will greatly slow down the speed of the Japanese fleet.

Heihachiro Togo was able to sit in the position of admiral, and so far, he is the only person who has served as the commander of the Combined Fleet with the rank of admiral (in the past, it was always held by vice admiral, and in history, Heihachiro Togo was the fourth, and the first three and the last three were all vice generals). In addition to managing a good network, Togo Heihachiro is also a god of the Japanese Navy, and the army god Nogi Noshinori is the second great god of war in Japan.

Heihachiro Togo knew very well in his heart that the timing was already unfavorable to Japan, and there was no point in continuing to flee at this time, and that only a war could solve the current predicament, otherwise, it would be difficult for them to run to Okinawa.

"Command!" Heihachiro Togo made a quick choice, very helpless, in order to ensure the safety of the troop carrier, he had to do it, and he had to weaken the strength of the combined fleet.

"The 1st Fleet Mikasa, the battleships Asahi, the 1st and 2nd Destroyers continue to escort the troop carriers to Okinawa, and the rest of the fleet immediately turns around, adjusts the battle formation, and prepares for battle!"

"Hey!" The staff officer answered the call and immediately hurried out, ordering the standard-bearers to wave the flags towards the Mikasa, the Asahi and the 1st and 2nd Destroyers to inform them to continue escorting the formation, and on the other hand, to have the flag-bearers in charge of the flagship battle flag immediately raise the battle flag.

The battle flag is on every warship, and there are many flags that are generally used for communication, but basically there are only two, one is used for liaison intelligence, that is, two flags, which are generally in charge of the deputy on the watchtower, and the other is the battle flag, which is the kind of flag that hangs on the warship with a long list of colorful colors.

Those who don't know how to do it seem to be chaotic, even chaotic, but as soon as the flag is raised, the ships in the fleet will know what the flagship is up to and what their mission is.

……

"Report to the commander, the Japanese fleet has been divided, one fleet continues in the direction of the Ryukyus, and the other fleet is moving south." The staff officer reported.

At this time, they were not far from the Japanese fleet, so they could quickly discover the movements of the Japanese fleet, so the black smoke in the sky had just parted, and it was not until it was confirmed a few minutes later, and the staff officer directly reported this information to the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Sa Zhenbing.

Sa Zhenbing stood up, looked at the chart in front of him, just glanced at it, and had a general confidence in his heart.

"Hehe, the Japanese are not stupid and want to lure us far away so that their troop carriers can reach the Ryukyus safely." Sa Zhenbing sneered even more, if such tactics were in the past, of course, they would not have any way to deal with it, so they could only go to the Japanese battle fleet and sit back and watch the troop carrier formation arrive safely in the Ryukyus.

But now the situation is different, although they cannot send the main fleet to attack the Japanese troop transport fleet in a short time, but the frigates can also play with them, seven frigates face more than a hundred troop carriers, plus a small number of warships, as long as they are aiming, just put a torpedo, there will always be one or two unlucky people.

As for whether the Japanese army will land in the Ryukyus, this Sa Zhenbing really doesn't care, his first task is to destroy the Japanese Combined Fleet, as long as the Japanese navy is defeated, what can these land forces do even if they survive? Of course, it would be great if these armies could be eliminated, so as to reduce casualties for the subsequent landing of the troops in the Ryukyus.

"Order the convoy in front of you, keep a safe distance, and look for an opportunity to release torpedoes and mines to attack the Japanese formation." Speaking of this, Sa Zhenbing suddenly thought of a brilliant idea, and continued to add: "If you have the opportunity, enter the Ryukyu port route, where to deploy mines, and block these fleets outside the port." ”

The Japanese did not deploy too many troops in the Ryukyus, and the soldiers were only the size of a brigade, after all, there were more than 200,000 people in the Ryukyus, and most of them were still indigenous, and there was no combat effectiveness at all.

The Japanese also did not pay much attention to coastal defense, first, because they lacked resources and did not have so many resources to build shore defense artillery, and secondly, the Japanese navy was strong enough that they did not think that anyone would be able to break through the blockade of the Japanese Combined Fleet and enter the Ryukyus.

Even in Japan, only a few important military ports and Tokyo Bay have shore defenses, and there are basically no shore defenses in other areas.

This information was obtained by the empire from Xiang Mingde half a month ago, after all, the Ryukyuan people can't fight, if they can't even do some local intelligence work, then don't talk about the restoration of the country, Xiang Mingde's father is also a well-known nobleman in the Ryukyus, and there are many people under him who want to restore the country, and these information is obtained through these people.

At the mouth of the Ryukyus, the Japanese only symbolically deployed four 305-mm shore guns, and these shore guns were also decommissioned from dismantled old warships.

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