No matter what action the Japanese Navy was prepared to take, the Second Fleet was left alone to hunt for the Fung. The task of Essen's cruiser detachment was to take part of the arduous work of drawing a part of the warships blockading Arthur, and the disaster off the coast of Japan continued, and the rear admiral commanded his fleet to attack one target after another. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

On the first day, it sank six cargo ships;

The next day, four cargo ships and nine fishing boats fell victims;

On the third day, two villages were destroyed;

Day 4......

On the fourth day, the fleet returned home.

Of course, the commander of the Combined Fleet and the commander of the Second Fleet, who had been overwhelmed by a series of reports of losses and protests, accusations, and reprimands from all sides, did not know the traces of this fleet - otherwise they would not have had to worry about it - and Heihachiro Togo, who was furious, gave Uemura Hikonoshi a sternly worded order that if he could not stop the naval attack of Lucia's fleet, then he would apologize to the emperor and the whole people on behalf of the navy.

Uemura knew what he meant, and knew equally well that even if there was no order from above for him to take matters into his own hands, if he still couldn't deal with Lucia's fleet, the people who destroyed his private residence would kill him as much as they did - in comparison, seppuku might still be able to maintain the last remaining bit of dignity.

Again, though, this was not what he was expecting.

The Vice Admiral had a better arrangement for his future, and now, now that it was seriously threatened, he had to act decisively and devote redoubled his enthusiasm and efforts to his task.

The Second Fleet was like a mad hound, with wide red eyes, searching the sea for the cunning Lucia fox.

"However, the Japanese Navy still did not send warships to escort the army's transport ships."

Harrington's last sentence made Qin Lang sneer: It would be surprising if the Japanese Navy sent warships to escort the army's transport ships, of course, this kind of cooperation is not completely absent, but it usually does not end well.

Qin Lang believed that Lieutenant General Jun Imamura of the 16th Army would definitely agree with his views.

Thinking of what happened to Lieutenant General Imamura when he landed in Java, he smiled again, and then turned his head to the two partners sitting opposite. O'Connor looked calm, his face still with the indifferent expression on his face that had before Harrington began to introduce the latest information, and it seemed that there was no problem, but Yi Shui, his right index finger on the side of his mouth, and his clumped eyebrows already indicated his state of mind.

"What are you thinking?" Qin Lang asked.

Yi Shui turned his face sideways. "If our previous guess was correct, von. The raids of the cruiser detachment in Essen were supposed to be on the orders of Makarov, in order to attract the Japanese fleet blocking Arthur. ”

"Yes." Qin Lang nodded.

"But the Japanese fleet blockading Arthur showed no signs of maneuvering - the Japanese did not get hit." After waiting for a few seconds, Yi Shui added as if complaining: "According to our speculation, the Japanese should be tricked." The current situation does not match our predictions. ”

"Does this bother you?"

Yi Shui didn't deny it, but he didn't quite admit it either. "A little."

Compared with the troubles brought to him by the error between reality and prediction, he was more concerned about Togo Heihachiro's thoughts, because Qin Lang had a good evaluation of this Japanese vice admiral, but he gave him a somewhat inexplicable nickname in private, "Togo Tohachiro". Qin Lang rarely treats others like this, even Kuroshima Ren, so Yi Shui is full of interest in the commander of the combined fleet.

And at this moment, Togo Heihachiro is faced with a difficult choice, whether to prioritize the removal of the threat from Vladivostok or to deal with the Russian fleet in Arthur, no matter what he will choose, Yi Shui wants to know his reason.

Although it was the right thing to do to ask the parties for verification, Yi Shui could only set his sights on Qin Lang.

And Qin Lang set his sights on Harrington again. "Lieutenant Colonel?"

"According to what we heard from the British Embassy, Japan's Admiralty Minister has given an order to the Combined Fleet to reinforce the Second Fleet, but Vice Admiral Togo has indicated that this order will need to be delayed for some time." Harrington explained.

"Why?" Yi Shui didn't ask, "He saw that it was Makarov's plan?" "- This is such a stupid question, everyone knows what the commander of the First Pacific Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy wants, including the Japanese.

They certainly did not want to dance to Makarov's rhythm, even if they had to attend his ball.

Harrington confirmed his suspicions. According to insiders, Vice Admiral Togo hoped to achieve an ideal state in which the Second Fleet would have enough strength to deal with the Russian detachment of cruisers, while staying behind to continue blockading the warships in Arthur would also prevent Makarov from leading the fleet from escaping. According to this plan, he needed some time to pick a battleship. ”

"But he didn't have many options, and the Japanese Navy had only a few cruisers capable of engaging an opponent like Rurik." Qin Lang picked up his speech, "And Makarov's ultimate plan is not to escape. ”

Of course, a commander like Makarov will not lead the fleet to escape when Lushun has not yet fallen, all he needs is a chance to take the initiative, once Heihachiro Togo dispatches warships to assist the Second Fleet, Lushun's Russian warships will pour out, and in the face of that situation, the few warships left to prevent Makarov from escaping may be just the target.

Unless Heihachiro Togo singled out to continue the blockade mission were the six battleships of the First Fleet.

It's not impossible. Qin Lang secretly thought to himself. It was indeed possible for Togo to blockade Arthur with battleships, although the minelaying activities of the Japanese and Russian navies had made that area extremely dangerous - in the war on another timeline, the Japanese navy was sunk by mines while blockading Arthur - but that Japanese navy could barely afford such losses, after all, it still had six armored cruisers, and did not lose large ships in battle, but now this Japanese navy ......

The Combined Fleet only has six battleships, and although there are three more to join, will Heihachiro Togo still be so risky?

Qin Lang began to be interested in what was being considered in the vice admiral's mind.

However, instead of thinking deeply about it, he immediately came back to his senses. "In short, the commander of the combined fleet needs to make a difficult decision." He accentuated the word "difficult," adding, "Of course, I'm sure he'll announce the answer soon, and the Japanese government and people won't give him much time to think about it." ”

"Maybe he's already made the answer known." O'Connor abruptly interjected into the conversation.

"Maybe." Qin Lang shrugged.

"So we don't need to care too much about what this vice admiral thinks." O'Connor continued, "It's you, Qin, that you've asked our people to get so much information about submarines, aren't you planning to build this new weapon?" ”

"I plan to sell this new weapon."

Another answer to his question. However, O'Connor was not surprised at all, when he saw those materials, he had a clear understanding of Qin Lang's plan, and only one question remained unsolved: what was he going to do, buy the electric ship company, or start from scratch and establish a new company.

He thought about it for a moment, but decided to get straight to the point. "Are you going to buy an electric ship company?"

"Nope." Qin Lang shook his head.

The idea of "buying an electric ship company" never entered his mind. On the one hand, the electric ship company will become the electric ship branch of General Dynamics in the near future, and then think about the behind-the-scenes controller of the General Dynamics Group, who of course will not meddle in its business - only God knows whether the big names of Wall Street have put their hands on the electric ship company, even if he is no longer as afraid of the big men as he was at the beginning, and it is still more than worth the loss to clash with them for the power ship company; On the other hand, and more importantly, the electric ship company has no more experience in the field of submarine construction than a new company that has never set foot in the industry, and it is not worth spending money on acquisition at all - yet the owners of the company and the professional managers who manage it want to sell it for a good price, if they have not already done so.

But Qin Lang didn't want to give these people a chance, and he didn't want to waste time on them.

"My plan is to build a new shipbuilding enterprise on the West Coast." He explained to O'Connor and Yi Shui, "Caterpillar had experience building ships, and although they were small yachts or fishing boats or things like that, the submarines were only slightly bigger than them. And Caterpillar is working on a new diesel engine. ”

"You're going to put this new company under the Caterpillar name?"

"No, as I said, it's a new business, a new name, and of course I hope it doesn't have a public connection with the UMBRELLA group." Qin Lang said, "And I've already thought of its name, HDW." ”

Of course, which name could it be? HDW, of course. Qin Lang thought back to the past, thinking of the time when he first came into contact with military instructions, the first military industrial enterprise he remembered about this German shipyard, the main German submarine manufacturer, and the builder of the Type 209 submarine that was once extremely popular in the international arms market.

That was his first acquaintance with the company, and he later learned that it was the main contractor of U-boats in both world wars - what could be more appropriate than naming his submarine factory after it?

But no one else understood the idea that was full of his personal interest. O'Connor turned his gaze to Yi Shui and Harrington, and when he found that they were also confused, he could only spread his hands helplessly and asked, "HDW?" What does this abbreviation mean? ”

Horvaz Engineering - Deutsche Shipyard. Qin Lang said in his heart, with a little maliciously - although the predecessor of the Holvaz Project, the predecessor of the German Shipyard, had been established as early as 1838, and its name had been changed to the Holvaz Project around 1865, it was not until 1985 that it changed its name to the one that many military enthusiasts were familiar with—the beautiful time difference.

But now, he had to explain to O'Connor and Yi Shui, as well as Harrington standing next to him, what HDW meant, not what it meant to be, it had to be something else. Thankfully, he already has a set of rhetoric.

"What does it mean......" Qin Lang had just started when he was interrupted by the phone ringing.

Harrington turned and picked up the phone. "The Pentagon."

There was a hurried voice on the other end of the line, and Harrington's face grew serious, and finally, by the time he put down the phone, he looked as if he was about to speak before the president.

"The latest news, a Russian destroyer sank two Japanese cruisers."

"Lieutenant Colonel, you're not kidding?" Yi Shui screamed, and surprise also appeared on Qin Lang and O'Connor's faces.

One destroyer sank two cruisers on its own? How can it be!

In fact, Harrington thought the same thing, but it was indeed the message that the communications department conveyed to him, and if something went wrong, it was certainly not his fault.

And not the communications department: the source of the message is the Russians.

"The official version of the Russians is that the captain of the destroyer, with his resourcefulness, bravery, and cover of night, led two Japanese cruisers into a minefield, severely damaged one of them with mines, and then fired three torpedoes at the other while it was dodging the mines, all of them hit, and finally it fired a second torpedo at the wounded one."

"You mean, it's a night fight?" Yi Shui shook his head vigorously, "Sounds like a story." ”

"It's a story, indeed." Qin Lang said, and then asked: "Which are the two Japanese cruisers that were sunk?" ”

"It is not clear, because the battle took place at night, and the Russians claimed that the sailors on the destroyer did not read the name of the Japanese warship, and the Japanese navy refused to recognize the Russian war report, calling it a rumor. However, "Harrington paused," there was information that the two Japanese cruisers were sailing at speeds of more than twenty-two knots. ”

"Is the information reliable?"

"Not necessarily."

Not necessarily? Qin Lang's eyebrows jumped, but he still analyzed. "Only four Japanese cruisers were moving faster than twenty-two knots, 'Yoshino', 'Takasago', 'Kasaki' and 'Chitose' - if the Russians had sunk two of them, the life of the Combined Fleet would have been even more difficult than it had been now. However, I doubt that the Russians are telling the truth. One destroyer sank two cruisers on his own, and if the officers of the Russian Navy had such a skill, they would not have ......"

Before saying "lost two naval battles", Qin Lang stopped in time. However, in order to cover up this abnormal pause, he poured himself a Coke, picked it up and asked casually, "Who is the captain of that destroyer?" ”

"Alexander. Vasilyevich. Kolchak. ”

That familiar name almost made Qin Lang squirt out all the cola he had drunk into his mouth.

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PS: I said I want to update it every day, and I want to update it every day, but that's not the case at all...... What a hell to be done (to be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )