The Japanese offensive came to a standstill, and Utsunomiya knew that the current morale was at a low point, and the attack could only be futile at this time. Watching the enemy occupy their own territory, being a soldier and powerless, is so frustrating that it drives people crazy.

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Japanese army did not attack again throughout the day, but instead bombed the Japanese army in five waves with 30 airships that arrived one after another.

In the evening, Utsunomiya sat cross-legged on the ground, holding a chrysanthemum katana in his left hand, surrounded by several high-ranking generals, and the atmosphere was low and terrifying.

Looking around at the temporary barracks filled with gunsmoke, the medical soldiers running back and forth, and listening to the complaints of the soldiers and the cries of the wounded, Utsunomiya breathed a sigh of relief and said: "In the two-day battle, we lost more than 20,000 people and more than 300 artillery pieces, such losses are even more terrifying than the Battle of Lushun, but fortunately, the main force of our 14th Division has not been damaged, and there is still the strength to fight. The enemy's airship bombardment did us little direct damage, but the morale of the soldiers was low, and it is up to you to find a way to boost the morale of the soldiers and continue to attack tomorrow. ”

Major General Mito: "Hey! This is our land, even in the face of great difficulties, we must continue to fight, airships seem invincible at the moment, but our soldiers of the Japanese Empire are even more invincible! ”

"Reinforcements from Honshu and Shikoku have arrived in Saeki, and it is expected to arrive here tomorrow morning, that is more than 50,000 soldiers in six temporary brigades, and the total number of troops of our army on the Makuen front line will reach 130,000, which is already the limit of all the active and reserve armies of our country, plus more than 500,000 soldiers on the northeast front, soldiers from North Korea, Taiwan and the mainland, there is no more support!" Takasaki said.

"Not bad. The rise and fall of the empire is in this battle, and His Majesty the Emperor is watching us, and tomorrow he will attack desperately to break through the enemy's position! "Utsunomiya resolves to yes, there is no more support. The armies of Taiwan and North Korea were unable to return to China because the sea route was cut off by the Chinese navy, and the armies in the northeast were even more difficult, and only by defeating the Chinese army here could there be any hope of victory.

The Japanese upper echelons also know how terrible the current situation is, and they are trying their best to reverse the situation, but it seems that it is impossible to achieve victory on Japan's own strength at present.

Ito Hirobumi staggered to the British consul and pleaded with Britain to organize various countries to intervene in the war: "The interests of the British Empire and Japan are in the same line, Japan is defeated, Britain will lose all its interests in the Far East, and Tsarist Russia and China will divide the Far East continent and sea areas equally." The presence of the UK will be reduced to a minimum. Your Excellency Consul, I hope that the British Government will lend a helping hand at this critical time to help Japan tide over the difficulties, and Japan will become Britain's most loyal ally in the future! ”

The British consul Laudral is actually more anxious than the Japanese, and the British high-level officials, including the London Parliament and the Prime Minister's Office, have been discussing and debating this matter for a long time, and the war in Japan has become their core issue. But like the helplessness of the Japanese government, the British could not think of a better way.

Much of British power in the Far East was pinned down in Burma, and India was threatened. India is more important to Britain than Japan. The root of life is grasped. What did the British do to support Japan? Without the British taking the lead, neither the French nor the Americans would have waded into this troubled water, let alone the other relatively weak powers.

Lauderrow reluctantly said to Ito Hirobumi: "The British government attaches great importance to its relations with Japan, and this war is concerned with the hearts of many elites and people in Britain, and it is very helpless that Britain cannot support Japan with greater strength in the Far East." The organization of coalition forces as in 1900 was rejected by most countries, and the countries represented by Germany gained huge benefits in China, and the cost of joint intervention was too great and the benefits were too small. In addition, the war materials produced by the British organization for your country were blocked by the Chinese fleet, and I am afraid that they will not be able to enter the Japanese mainland! ”

Hirobumi Ito's last hope is lost, and it is. The British were frightened by the super battleship of Huaguo, and tried every means to get information about the Chinese fleet, and would not rashly intervene until they were sure that they could defeat the Chinese fleet. And this short time is the time of the demise of Japan!

The suicide of this elder, a national treasure, did not cause much turmoil, because the entire upper echelons of Japan were in chaos and panic, and there was not much energy to pay attention to the death of an old man.

From the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War to the present, Japan had a standing army of 370,000, and then it continued to mobilize, and so far 1.18 million reserve soldiers have been mobilized. Among them, more than 230,000 were killed and wounded in the battle with Tsarist Russia, about 80,000 soldiers could not be mobilized in North Korea and Taiwan, 570,000 soldiers trapped in the northeast, and 50,000 people in the local areas could not be mobilized.

The Japanese upper echelons hope to mobilize 1.5 million soldiers again in a short period of time, but they absolutely do not have the weapons and ammunition to arm these soldiers, and can only use foreign aid.

At about 3:30 p.m. on June 30, 1905, a British fleet passed through the Taiwan Strait and headed for the Japanese mainland. This fleet consisted of more than 100 transport ships, all loaded with strategic supplies from India, including rifles, ammunition, food, medicine, and other materials that Japan urgently needed at present. The escort was carried out by three cruisers of the British Far East Fleet.

A much larger fleet of ships transported from mainland China is still in the Mediterranean, but it is not surprising that India has been able to organize so many supplies. The British built a basic and perfect light industry system in India, which can produce many commodities such as guns, ammunition, clothing, medicines, etc., and India is also a large agricultural country with no shortage of food, so the British urgently organized this batch of materials from India to Japan, hoping to help Japan win the war.

The British fleet, which had just entered the Taiwan Strait, was discovered by the radar units stationed along the coastline that the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong were the key areas of China's coastal defense, and that the industrial output value of these two places now accounts for more than 70 percent of the country's total, and they are the most core areas.

The radar crew quickly reported the news, and the General Staff Department transmitted it to the Chinese fleet cruising north of the Taiwan Strait and south of Japan, and Lu Hai sent two Nanhai-class cruisers to intercept it.

Based on the estimates of the route and the excellent radar on the battleship, the Nanhai-class cruiser Fujian and the cruiser Hubei spotted the traces of the huge British fleet, and the two sides met two hundred nautical miles north of the Taiwan Strait.

The two Chinese cruisers followed the flotilla all the way, and because it was on the high seas, the Chinese battleships had no right to inspect the British fleet. The British escort cruisers also kept moving closer to the Chinese battleships, one was to drive away the Chinese battleships, and the other was to get as close as possible to the Chinese battleships and take pictures for observation. The Chinese warships were in the limelight in the naval battle, and the peculiar shape and artillery settings made all the naval powers very curious, especially the United Kingdom, which was full of curiosity about the Chinese warships, especially the super battleship, and now had the opportunity to observe them up close, of course, they would not miss it.

The two Chinese cruisers fully satisfied the curiosity of the British, but as soon as the British warships entered the attack distance, they would speed up, and the chase between the two sides on the sea was like a game, but fortunately both sides maintained restraint and did not have too much tension.

However, after crossing Japan's territorial waters, the Fujian and Hubei took the initiative to move closer to the British fleet and sent a signal to stop the British fleet from advancing further.

"In front of you is a sea area of war, in order to ensure the safety of your fleet, please turn around and leave, our country will not be responsible for accidental injuries!" The Fujian and Hubei constantly gave repeated signals and blocked the battleships in the course of the British fleet.

"This is the fleet of the British Empire, and the warships in front will leave immediately!" The British, in anticipation of their usual arrogance, repeated the above signal and approached the two cruisers of China without the slightest sign of slowing down.

In terms of stubbornness, there is no nationality that can compare with the genetic people, and the order they received was to prevent the British fleet from approaching, so the two captains of the genetic people ordered the cruisers to firmly block the course - there is a kind of you who will collide, you are a 10,000-ton cruiser, and your thin 3,000-ton cruiser wants to die!

The distance is getting closer and closer, the confrontation is becoming more and more tense, the three British cruisers really dare not be directly loaded, those two Chinese warships are simply the configuration of the capital ships, the huge tonnage makes the three national cruisers like a child, if they are directly loaded and sunk, it will definitely not be the Chinese warships.

"What should I do?" The British leader sent a telegram to the rear to inquire and ordered the fleet to slow down, but without receiving an order from his superiors, it was not easy for the fleet to turn around and leave, and it was impossible for the proud British to do that kind of thing that greatly damaged the face of the empire. (To be continued.) )