Therefore, this time was a rare few days of leisure after the Qing Army entered Japan, and the army was stuck in place and waiting for reinforcements, because the time of Tokyo was too great, and the local Japanese did not dare to make a fierce resistance, and everyone was worried that the city they lived in would become the second Tokyo

The nine warships led by Yan Fu, namely "Changsheng", "Undefeated", "Riding the Wind", "Breaking the Waves", "Daqing No. 1", "Daqing No. 2", "Guangjia", "Guangyi", and "Yangfan", returned from the Sea of Japan and came to the vicinity of Nagasaki without encountering the Japanese fleet

The nine warships "Zhenyuan", "Dingyuan", "Jiyuan", "Weiyuan", "Flying Eagle", "Sea Lion", "Jingyuan", "Laiyuan", and "Zhiyuan" led by Deng Shichang sailed south from the Pacific Ocean to the East China Sea without noticing the Japanese fleet

"Damn, did the Japanese warship disappear out of thin air?" Deng Shichang took the binoculars and scolded to himself

At this time, the nine warships were arranged in three columns, with three warships as a team, one of which advanced about 400 meters, and the columns on the left and right flanks were slightly behind, so that the three warships of each horizontal group could form a triangular formation

In the late 19th century, the transition from the era of sail battleships to modern naval warfare was of particular importance: the combination of individual ships and the proper use of queues helped to exert the power of the cluster, so that the combat effectiveness and survivability of the warships were multiplied

However, at that time, the command method of the ship formation at sea was relatively primitive, mainly for the flag command, even if it was used to command a ship formation that was too numerous and stretched for several nautical miles, it was obviously inadequate, not only the ship that was too far away from the flagship might not be able to recognize the clear signal, but at the same time, once the meaning to be expressed was too complicated, the simple flag language was easy to cause ambiguity, and in wartime, the flag command would be fragile, and the rope and sail for hanging the signal flag would be fragile. and signal corps will be the target of the enemy's firepower, and the smoke of coal dust and gunpowder in vaporized naval battles will make the battlefield cloudy and foggy, even ships close to the flagship may not be able to distinguish the contents of the signal flag

Taking these factors into account, if we only rely on the flagship to use a simple flag order to command a large-scale fleet to change formations or conduct operations, it is obviously extremely technically difficult and infeasible, so the prevailing norm in the naval circles at that time was to split the large fleet into a number of tactical detachments composed of a small number of warships, and Yu Si, a diplomat of the Chinese embassy in Britain who had participated in receiving the "Wu" class ironclad cruisers back to China, summed up the norms of the British Navy regulations in his book "Lou Ship Diary", and summarized this as "...... At the time of the battle, it is most appropriate to divide three ships into one team and several teams into one army, which is the most appropriate ......." That is, every three warships are organized into a tactical detachment, and then several tactical detachments are combined to form a combat fleet

The North and South Ocean Fleet, which was heavily influenced by the British Navy, also absorbed this idea, and although hundreds of formations were listed in the naval formation specification "Ship Formation Diagram" compiled by the Jiangnan Naval Academy, the most basic tactical units of each formation were the traditional three-ship detachments

Therefore, when the troops were divided into two ways to encircle the Japanese fleet, they all used three warships as the basic battle group, and the formation used can be called the triangular fish formation, which is generally a three-column formation, which belongs to the standby formation, this formation can be used for berthing, and can also be used as the basic formation for daily sailing, but the triangular fish formation is different from the simple three-column formation, and each horizontal row of 3 warships in this formation is a tactical detachment, and the relative positions between the 3 ships of the detachment are slightly staggered. The method of arranging the horns, which are not listed in a straight line, is strictly in accordance with the tactical standards of the navy at that time that "the whole ship should not be parallel like one word, nor should it be like one word in a row, and should be like a chessboard shape in one row", so as to facilitate maneuvering and avoid collisions and accidental damage from artillery fire, and there is no such requirement in normal navigation formation in peacetime

The cruiser "Flying Eagle," at the forefront of a formation led by Deng Shichang, suddenly discovered that thick smoke was rising from the southwest and was moving in the direction of its own fleet

However, soon, the sentries on the mast of the "Flying Eagle" reported that the ship was a US ** ship, and the officers and men on the warships immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and the captain of the ship, Ding Ruchang, immediately ordered the sentry: "Tell them that we are on a combat mission and let them keep their distance."

The warship flying the American flag did not seem to see the flag clearly, but rushed a little closer, and it was not until the "Flying Eagle" could clearly see most of the warships in the fleet by visual inspection and the "Flying Eagle" made a second flag, that they replied with the flag of "do not misunderstand" and turned around

This episode did not affect the good mood of the officers and men of the ships, and now the smooth progress of the war is almost a matter known to the whole country, although the sailors did not achieve any important victories, but they are all prosperous, and the sailors are also stained

"Boom ......" "Boom ......"

After entering the East China Sea, Deng Shichang's formation, which had been heading for Nagasaki for eight knots to join Yan Fu's formation, actually heard the shelling of warships coming from near Nagasaki

"Report, the Flying Eagle reported that two fleets had been found to be engaged near Nagasaki, and it is currently impossible to identify whether our Daqing fleet met with the Japanese fleet," a communications officer reported truthfully

"Order all fleets to sail 13, target Nagasaki, all forward," Deng Shichang ordered

"Yes," the communications soldier turned and left

From the Sino-Japanese war to the present, Deng Shichang has hardly had a chance to perform, and the four elite German Improved-class ironclad ships under his command, Zhen, Ding, Ji, and Wei, have never had a chance to perform, so far they have only attacked the batteries of Nagasaki and Yokohama, and Deng Shichang has also held back his strength to show his value in the head-on confrontation with the Japanese fleet