The Battle of Tsushima, the most important node of the Chinese intervention war, was originally supposed to break out on May 27, 1905, and in order to accurately grasp the time of the outbreak of this space naval battle, the Moscow Branch of the Investigation Bureau began to collect intelligence on the Russian Navy as early as early 1904.

At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Tsarist Russia drew ships from the Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet to form the Second Pacific Fleet, which was ready to sail to the Far East to engage Japan. This mixed fleet, consisting of 38 warships of various types and 20 auxiliary vessels, was commanded by Vice Admiral Rozhdestvinsky and set out in October 1904.

The fleet was not fully prepared, some of the ships went to sea before they were fully built, the officers and men lacked even a minimum of training, and the radio stations were useless after the German technicians were withdrawn. The officers and men suffered from a serious fear of Japan, were highly nervous, and were all soldiers, blindly aiming their artillery at foreign fleets, damaging fishing boats, and even firing at ships of their own fleets that were far away! The poor quality of the coal used in the warships caused the ships to sail extremely slowly, which greatly increased the mental burden on the officers and men.

Britain, together with France and other countries, did everything in their power to create problems for this fleet, pressuring neutral countries along the way not to open ports to the Russian fleet, and in order to solve the fuel problem, the fleet refueled the sea with coal, so that the decks, engine rooms, baths, officers' bedrooms, etc., were full of coal. You must know that there is not a single base to use along the way for an expedition of tens of thousands of kilometers, which is a huge disaster for the crew at sea. By December 1904, the fleet had reached the Strait of Madagascar, and the bottom of the ships had been severely eroded by seaweed, and suicides and mutinies were occurring.

It was intended to dock temporarily in Cam Ranh Bay, but due to the severe protests of the Japanese government, the French naval authorities ordered the Russian ship to leave the country. The suffering fleet could only meet the coming sea battle with an extremely tired spirit.

This voyage was a big joke, a manifestation of the ignorance of the emperors and bureaucrats of St. Petersburg, doomed them to failure. Lack of preparation, long distances, no port calls for recuperation, lack of supplies. But Lu Liang did nothing to do with this, and the fate of the Russians had nothing to do with him, and the Russian cattle were dragging down hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops in the northeast, which had created an excellent opportunity. He did not expect anything from the Russians at sea in this war, everything was on his own.

From the end of the Northern Expedition to the present, Lu Liang has spent almost all his energy on preparing for this battle, and now it is finally approaching, it is false to say that he is not nervous, he often behaves very strangely when there are only genetic people around him, or laughing, or gritting his teeth, if it weren't for the occasional Wu Yue by his side. Maybe Lu Liang couldn't bear the pressure anymore and went crazy.

You can't blame him for his fragile psychological quality, although he was also a strictly trained agent in his previous life, but there is still a difference between an agent and a politician, not to mention that he is a field agent who carries out protection tasks, and his psychological tolerance is not half a star worse than those politicians whose skin is thicker than the city wall.

To relieve his stress, Lu Liang ran around the presidential palace several times every morning and sought comfort from Wu Yue at night. Sometimes, when he was hey, hey, hey, Lu Liang's mind would come up with questions such as what to do if the naval battle failed, what to do if it fell into the quagmire of the Japanese mainland, and what to do if the great powers sent coalition forces to intervene.

To put it bluntly, it's a big gamble. The purpose is to knock Japan down at one time, fortunately. Every time I see the data about steel and the army, and see the warships in my eyes, I will give Lu Liang's empty heart full of confidence.

From 1904 to 1905, China's steel output was 3.5 million tons, surpassing Russia and France, and second only to the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, while Japan's steel production was only 110,000 tons more than 20 years after the Restoration. There is no comparison with Huaguo at all. Of course, Japan's military strength cannot be equated with steel production, after all, after years of accumulation, it does not need to build too many railways at home, and most of its warships are purchased from outside.

And Huaguo's more than 3 million tons of steel did not meet the needs of domestic construction. This year, more than 700,000 tons of scrap steel and steel rails were imported from the United States, and one-fifth of these steel was used in the military.

The Chinese Army's three group armies, nine infantry corps, and three mountain brigades totaling 490,000 men are standing armies, well-equipped and well-trained. In addition, there are 300,000 members of the security corps, who are mainly responsible for local law and order work, and played a huge role before the police system was fully established. With the improvement of the police system, the security regiment gradually transformed into a militia reserve, receiving more professional military training, and more detailed divisions, including infantry, engineers, artillery, etc. In addition, there are more than 300,000 militiamen, who train about once a week, for half a day each time, basically have no combat effectiveness, but they are no strangers to the army, and can quickly adapt to the rhythm of army training when large-scale mobilization is needed.

The Navy entered an explosive period in this year, and various warships were launched one after another and joined the fleet queue. At present, the Pacific Fleet of the Zhenguo Navy has a super battleship, the "Taishan," which is comparable to the heavy cruisers of various countries at the present stage, and even the capital ships of the 10,000-ton warships, nine "Nanhai-class" cruisers and 25 "Guangzhou-class" destroyers. Although the quality of the sailors still needs to be improved, and there are gaps between them and the British navy and even the Japanese navy soldiers, the advanced warships and the morale of the soldiers are enough to erase these gaps and surpass them.

Officers -- a crucial link in naval warfare -- are the point that Lu Liang is most sure of, and the middle- and upper-ranking officers composed of genetic people are enough to ensure the normal performance of the warships and issue orders scientifically and accurately according to the battle situation.

On May 1, 1905, the Chinese Pacific Fleet departed from Zhanjiang and secretly arrived at Zhoushan, a newly built naval port under the cover of night, where the Pacific Fleet would prepare for an attack. After more than a year of construction, the Zhoushan Military Port can not only dock super warships such as Taishan, but also use a large number of islands to provide cover for warships, and it is also a submarine base for the navy.

The straight-line distance from Zhoushan to the Tsushima Strait is more than 1,400 kilometers, and the fleet's short sailing time is conducive to entering the battle as soon as possible and withdrawing in time.

On 15 May, China received a diplomatic note from Tsarist Russia, hoping to provide the port of Guangzhou for the Russian Pacific Fleet to dock and replenish. Unlike the original history, after entering the Far East, all the way from Singapore to Vladivostok belonged to the British and French spheres of influence, and without their consent, Russia could not have obtained a port of call. Now the situation is different, the coastal areas south of the Yangtze River have become the new state of China, and this country is not dealing with Britain and Japan, and has objectively become a potential ally of Russia.

Russia's request made Lu Liang, whose head was swollen, eager to smash his head, why not plan early! I am really confused, it is definitely in my own favor to fight with the Russians' fleet fully prepared, and if it were not for the Russians' request, I would have ignored this matter!

"Agree to this, let the Russian fleet enter the port of Canton, not only that, but we will be able to give them sufficient supplies, replenish high-quality coal, and the shipyard can also repair their ships for them. However, we need to put forward some conditions, the Russians are not good birds, we have to knock on the bamboo pole! ”

Huaguo's reply made Japan go berserk, and made the strongest protest to Huaguo, Britain demanded that Huaguo refuse to allow the Russian fleet to enter the port, otherwise Huaguo would bear the price! Lü Liang ignored this and ordered the Russian fleet to be informed, a news that caused the crew and officers of the Russian fleet to revel, but what they did not know was that Tsar Nicholas II in St. Petersburg almost rejected the Chinese conditions because of this.

Lü Liang's demand that Russia give up its leased land in China (not all of China) and pay China two million pounds for supplies and repairs to the ships was not harsh, especially for Tsarist Russia, which was in a disadvantageous situation, and the miserly and arrogant Nicholas II had to accept Lü Liang's blackmail.

As a result, when the Russian Pacific Fleet on the verge of collapse was given an invaluable opportunity to recuperate, Heihachiro Togo's Combined Fleet was gearing up, but when it heard that the Russian fleet had entered the port of Guangzhou, the original battle plan had to be revised, and the Japanese military sent a large number of spies to Guangzhou to try to find out when the Russian fleet would leave the port.

The rest in Canton lasted fifteen days, during which more than 50 Russian sailors tried to escape, but were arrested by the Canton police and sent back to the Russian fleet. Even so, the Russian fleet still had a new look, the seaweed from the bottom of the ships was removed, and the efficiency of the Chinese shipyards was so amazing that it would not have been possible in the country for two months. In addition, the ships were replenished with high-quality coal, which saved the fleet from having to pile up low-quality coal all over the ships. The Chinese Navy also secretly gifted a batch of shells and torpedoes, which made the commander of the fleet, Rozhdestwinsky, full of confidence, and he came out of the weakness of the voyage and became a proud and arrogant fool. (To be continued.) )