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According to the strategy decided by Song Xiaofei, in the early stage of the partition of Russia, China still supported the Bolsheviks on the surface. In order to confuse Lenin, after Deng Shichang led the Chinese Far East Fleet to seize Odessa from Tsar Nicholas II, China sent fifteen warships and 30,000 troops to surround the port city. It was a window city to the Black Sea, and after the completion of the railway to Kiev and Lviv at the end of the 19th century, Odessa became the second largest port in Russia in the Russian Empire after St. Petersburg.

On the lands of Odessa, there was once an ancient Greek colony, where the Tatars of the Crimea lived at that time, which were later replaced by the Turks. The Turks built a fortress here, and it was not until 1789 that Odessa was occupied by the Russians, and in 1791 it was incorporated into Russia.

In 1794,

Russian Empress Catherine II followed Peter the Great's example in building St. Petersburg, a port city on the Black Sea to expand trade with Europe, and in 1819-1859 opened a commercial port, and by 1906, Odessa became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire in terms of population and economic power, after St. Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw.

The traditional way of warships entering the western regions of Russia and Belarus is through the port of St. Petersburg in Russia and the port of Krapeda in Lithuania, which not only takes a long time to transport, but also affects the transportation of ports at high latitudes and freezes and closures in winter, which greatly affects transportation. Black Sea ports have the advantage of being freezing, which solves the problem of slow shipping times and freezing. A good alternative line. Through the port of Odessa, you can go to Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova and other regions. Once China occupies Odessa, it will control the Black Sea passage of Tsarist Russia and its gateway to Europe. Therefore, Tsar Nicholas II was not willing to give up this strategic place easily. It took great cost for the Tsar to take back this important city from the Bolsheviks, if it was taken by the Chinese. The tsar simply could not accept such an outcome.

"This time, we will destroy the Chinese fleet, and China will soon become a country without a navy." In the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the tsar's admiral, Havelan, promised Nicholas II a confident smile and said: "Great Your Majesty, soon." The whole world will know that the Russian navy will achieve a great victory. Our latest five Borodino-class armored battleships will let the Chinese know what the glory of the empire is! ”

The Battle of Borodino was a battle during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. In the summer of 1812, the French Emperor Napoleon recruited an army of more than 600,000 men from the French mainland and its European allies and vassals to invade Russia. The Russian army has built full-fledged fortifications near the village of Borodino, 125 km west of Moscow. Forcing the French to engage the Russian army on terrain unfavorable to them. Napoleon wanted to concentrate his strengths. An impact to achieve the annihilation of the Russian army became a de facto decisive battle. As a result of the battle, both sides suffered heavy losses, and the initiative in the war gradually shifted to the Russian side. The Battle of Borodino had a significant impact on the entire course of the Russian-French war of 1812. Although it did not directly lead to a fundamental turning point in the course of the war, it marked the beginning of the fall of Napoleon's army. Napoleon later wrote: "Of all the battles of my life, there has been no more terrifying battle than the battle under Moscow." In the battle, the French army should have won, but the Russian army gained the right to be invincible. ”

Russians have a tradition of naming historical heroes and historical victories. This time, the name of this great battle was deliberately used to name the battleships of the latest class of the Russian Imperial Navy, showing the great power of these warships.

After the defeat of the Sino-Russian war. Nicholas II launched the "Great Naval Plan" and decided to build 8 of the latest warships, but Russia could only build 5 battleships at the same time due to its own limited shipbuilding capacity. Russia first ordered two new warships from the United States and France, which represented the highest shipbuilding technology of these two countries

The "Trevizan" and the "Prince" were then built at the same time in their own country with reference to their designs, five new warships that integrated their advanced technology and technology, and finally summarized the advantages and disadvantages of the American and French warships to build the strongest super battleship. The Americans were steady, well-balanced, and took the path of mature technology, and did not quite meet the appetite of the impatient Russians, and built only one "Potemgold class" imitating the design of the "Trevizan". On the other hand, the French-designed "Prince", although it was discovered that there were problems in the early stages of construction, still won the favor of the Russians for its powerful firepower and excellent protective performance. After integrating the strengths of the "Prince" and modifying its shortcomings, Russia formulated a unified standard for warships, and built five new warships, namely the famous "Borodino class", namely "Borodino", "Duke Surovov", "Alexander III", "Eagle" and "Glorious", several of which were named after previously sunk warships.

After the French began construction of the battleship "Prince" for the Russian Navy, they made comprehensive improvements to its design flaws, and then built the more powerful "Sofin". The Russians also obtained the drawings of the "Sofin" and a large amount of technical data according to the agreement signed during the construction of the "Prince", and at the same time, according to their own needs and actual conditions, they improved the new battleship that was later named the "Borodino class". It can be said that the "Borodino class" is the Russian version of the "Sofin", and its design is also inherited from the battleship "Prince", which is the first self-built warship in the Russian Empire and truly has a world-class level.

The armor design of the "Borodino class" also showed all the typical designs of what came to be called "former dreadnoughts". It is designed in the shape of a bow ship, with a full length and a standard displacement of 1,350 coal-fired boilers, driving two steam engines, with a maximum power output of 16,500 hp and a maximum speed of 18 knots. At the same time, because it is designed to carry 2,000 tons of coal, it has a range of up to 8,500 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. Such a huge voyage is among the Russian self-built warships in the past. It's never been like this before. From this alone, we can see the great ambition of the Russian Empire for the open sea.

In order to overcome the shortcomings of previous command errors in naval battles, the "Borodino class" was the first warship in the Russian Imperial Navy to be designed with a full-fledged radio system. This has also solved the problem of liaison between the fleet and the command structure, and enabled the navy's top brass to conduct command and dispatch from thousands of miles away.

And the weapon system of the "Borodino-class" battleship is also very powerful: the main gun uses the strongest naval gun of the Russian Navy at that time, a 12-inch 40 times diameter model

Model 1895. This main gun was first installed on the battleship "Great Sisoya" and was more powerful than the old 12-inch 30-diameter model

The Model 1877 was greatly improved. Due to the problem of generalization of ammunition, both new and old guns used heavy shells, but because of the increase in the bore, the length of the barrel, and the use of new propellants. There has been a great improvement in the speed of the cannon ejection. model

The muzzle velocity of the shells fired in 1877 was only 580 m / s, and the model

1895 can reach 792 m/s! Such a high muzzle velocity of the shell also significantly increased the range of the shell, when the main gun of the "Borodino" was fired at a maximum elevation angle of 15 degrees. The maximum firing range can reach about 14000 meters, while using a model

The old battleship of 1877, but it was not yet able to reach a range of 10,000 meters! You can see a leap in performance. In order to speed up the ammunition supply, a new electric loaf machine was installed in the turret. As a result, the rate of fire was much faster than that of previous ships. All two twin turrets. The same standard, starting with the Great Sisoya, was installed on the central axis of the bow and stern. The secondary gun adopts a model

In the 1892 model, the turret-like design made its firing range superior to that of the profile-mounted battleship. At the same time, the motor-driven secondary turret has significantly improved its ability to respond to high-speed targets at close range, although the main target of the secondary gun is not the enemy's high-speed mine-strike ship. Six twin auxiliary turrets are symmetrically mounted on the left and right sides.

How to defend against the enemy's high-speed torpedo boats, which used torpedoes as the main means of attack, was an increasingly urgent task in naval warfare at that time. "Borodino" massively installed rapid-fire guns with a caliber of 75 mm for this. The 12 75 mm small-caliber rapid-fire guns were mounted in the form of gun profiles at the waterlines on the left and right sides, and the original design was to make them more effective against incoming enemy ships, and the muzzles of the guns could be fired at enemy ships that were basically at the same level without shaking. On mine and torpedo protection, below the waterline of "Borodino", it was covered with a layer of underwater protective armor with a thickness of 4 inches. And not only with armor protection. They also followed the example of the French and installed protective compartments under water on both sides of the battleship. These are when attacked by torpedoes or mines. The compartment, which can break into the water to reduce the damage to the hull of the ship by the explosion, greatly improves the survivability of the warship in the event of underwater damage.

The only drawback is that the artillery arrangement is not very clever. In addition, in terms of the thickness of its armor, it can be said to be unprecedented among Russian warships - not because of how thick it is, but because its armor is really scary thin by traditional standards! The broadside armor belt between the two main turrets is only 7.5 inches thick, and the bow and stern armor belts are 100 millimeters, making the ship's most heavily armored main turret and conning tower only 10 inches. This level of armor protection would have been unthinkable in the days of 14-, 16-, or even 18-inch (457 mm) broadside armor. Because the Russians have learned from the "Retvizan" and "Prince" the technology of making a new generation of reinforced armor plates on their own, and applied them to the "Borodino class"! This is the first time that Russia has used two innovative technologies of "nickelized steel" and "dimensional heat treatment" on their own warships, so the armor installed on the "Borodino class" is not inferior to any other advanced warship in the world at that time. Although in terms of the thickness of the main armor belt, it was not possible to meet the original design requirements due to various practical objective reasons.

Generally speaking, in terms of firepower, the "Borodino-class" battleships had all the typical characteristics of the latest cutting-edge main warships of various countries at that time, and they were absolutely not lost to any opponent.

Due to the growing threat of China in the Far East, the tsar ordered to speed up the construction of five "Borodino" class battleships, and by June 1905, all five battleships were completed ahead of schedule, which can be said to have created an unprecedented miracle in the history of Russian shipbuilding.

But. Compared with the three newly built 15,000-ton battleships "Beijing", "Republic", and "People", the "Borodino" class battleships are only a little inferior, but Tsar Nicholas II himself did not think so. In his opinion. The Chinese made it "top-heavy" because it has twelve main turrets, and Nicholas II is very much looking forward to seeing the scene of the Chinese battleship "falling apart" with a salvo, according to Mahan, the "titan" of the world's navy. The Minister of the Navy, Havelan, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Wette, at this time, absolutely did not dare to tell Nicholas II the truth, except for flattering the Tsar, and they did not know that China had replaced torpedo boats with submarine destroyers at this time.

Looking at the confident Admiralty Havelan, Chancellor of the Exchequer Werther exchanged glances with him and said nothing. Tsar Nicholas II heard that the newly built battleships of the "Borodino class" could go into battle. A happy smile appeared on his face, as if the victory of Russia was imminent, and said: "It is better to be so." Havelan, otherwise I will never spare you this time. The price of losing Odessa is a result that the empire must not accept now. ”

At this time, the Russian Minister of War Alexei, who was the most observant of Tsarist Russia. Nikolaevich. Kuropatkin stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty. Feel relieved. Even if our Navy fails. Our army will also hold Odessa. The fortress here is the strongest fortress we have built, guarded by the most loyal Russian imperial ** troops, it is an impregnable Constantinople, and the Chinese want to attack this fortress in vain. The War Department has already transferred ten Zeppelin-type airships purchased and modified from Germany to the front, and if the Chinese airship units encounter our airships, I think there will be no other result than destruction. ”

It turned out that Tsarist Russia was in the last Sino-Russian war. After suffering a big loss from the bombing of the Chinese airship troops, they imported a number of LZ-2 hard airships from the German Zeppelin company. These airships have been modified in accordance with the requirements of the Russian Army, with improved pods and other equipment, and have also been equipped with machine guns, so that they can be shot down after encountering Chinese reconnaissance airships in the air.

In order to buy these world's most advanced aircraft, the Russian Ministry of Finance spent a lot of money, so the Minister of Finance Witte said: "The main forces of the Chinese navy and army are firmly contained in Odessa, and when the Chinese have no strength to break their heads and bleed under this fortified city, it is the moment when Russia will achieve the final victory." ”

The tsar was stunned by the rhetoric of his ministers, as if the victory of the Russian Empire was at hand. If he knew at this moment that China no longer uses airships, but military aircraft, they would not be so optimistic.

At this time, there was another minister of the tsar who was sober, that is, the talented imperial uncle of Tsarist Russia, Nikolai. Grand Duke Nikolayevich reminded Nicholas II: "We now have to prevent the possibility of China and Turkey joining forces against Russia." ”

The land feud between Russia and Ottoman Turkey can be said to have lasted for thousands of years. Because Russia has been fighting for centuries to wrest control of the Black Sea straits from the Turks in order to open up new access to the sea. In layman's terms: the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire were feuding! Only in 1853 in the Crimean War. At the Sinop Bay anchorage, the Russian Black Sea Fleet completely annihilated the Ottoman Turkish Navy. Coupled with the outbreak of ten Russo-Turkish wars, Russia's seizure of Batumi and Kars from the Ottoman Turks, and the liberation of Bulgaria and Serbia from Turkish control as "little Slavic brothers" were enough to make the Turks hate them to the core. Turkey is now an internationally isolated empire. Situated at the border between Europe and Asia, this country often faces threats from many neighboring countries due to its geographical location, the largest of which is the largest threat. It's from Russia.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Witte believes that "this scenario is unlikely. ”

Tsar Nicholas II said: "We should have a comprehensive view of this war, but for the time being, we must ensure that the outlet of Odessa is in our hands." ”

The tsar's calculations soon fell through. On April 6, 1905, the Black Sea was stormy and the Chinese and Russian fleets launched a major battle, and the weakness of the "Borodino-class" battleships was undoubtedly exposed.

Because the main force of the French Navy is basically in the calm Mediterranean, with Italy, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, etc., the "Borodino-class" battleships and the French "Dauphin" are similar in design on the whole, with a high freeboard and not good seaworthiness. When the side of the board is hit by a triangular wave, the waves can even reach the top of the superstructure! To lose weight. The Russians not only lowered the height of the aft deck, they also cut the thickness of the main armor belt.

There are also practical problems such as insufficient efficiency of the steering gear and slow reflection of the hull, which were completely exposed in the formation change exercise. Because these are basically mistakes in the design that have become irreparable. During the artillery firing training, the 4th ship of the "Borodino-class" again suffered a malfunction of the main gun lifter, which led to the failure of the main gun to fire a single shell for half an hour after the order to shell the target was issued. During the anti-mine ship exercises, the problem of improper design of the sights of the 75-mm rapid-fire gun also emerged, although this was also due to the quality of the personnel.

The war was brutal, and it was impossible to give the Russians another chance to improve. When Deng Shichang, who was superb in gunnery and properly commanded, commanded the Chinese Far East Fleet on the "Beijing" and waited for a decisive battle with the Tsarist Black Sea Fleet, Deng Shichang confidently sent a telegram back to Song Xiaofei: "Russia is actually much weaker than I thought!" ”

Deng Shichang's naval battle strategy. It has always been "the thief captures the king first".

The "Duke Suvorov", the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, was the focus of the first wave of attacks determined by the Chinese fleet in its tactical arrangement. At 14:07 p.m., the warships "Beijing," "Republic," and "Dingyuan" had formed a flank attack. More than forty main guns began to fire in a salvo, exerting great power, and a 12-inch shell of the "Peking" pierced the rear turret of the "Duke Suvorov". There was a thunderous bang. The entire turret of the "Duke Suvorov" was blown apart, and the heavily armored command tower was also directly hit by more than a dozen shells, and the command system of the Russian fleet was paralyzed in the shocking waves and a sea of black smoke and fire. In the ensuing engagement, the squadron made the "Duke Suvorov" completely ineffective in just 15 minutes. The "Duke of Suvorov", which was on fire everywhere and lost power, was almost ignored by the Chinese fleet. However, the damage to the hull of the ship was not serious, it was only slightly flooded. Until about 19 o'clock. With the hard work of the officers and men on the ship, he regained his self-propelled ability and prepared to escape.

Sa Zhenbing, the captain of the "Republic", stood on the command platform. The "Duke Suvorov" was spotted in the monoculars and wanted to run, and immediately ordered to deliver the final blow to the battleship.

Sa Zhenbing was also a member of the Chinese Navy, a poor family when he was young, and he was diligent and studious. At the age of 11, he was admitted to the Mawei Ship Master School, studied astronomy and driving, and ranked first when he graduated. After graduating from Tongzhi in 11 years, he was assigned to the "Haidongyun" ship as a trainee second officer to participate in the anti-smuggling and theft patrol in the waters of Fujian and Taiwan. In the winter of the second year of Guangxu (1876), he and Ye Zuqi, Liu Buyun, Fang Boqian, Yan Fu and others were sent to the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England to learn driving. Before leaving, his father inscribed the couplet: "There are athletes at home; The national emperor is stubborn and recalcitrant Lai Dongliang", sending his son to the UK. In the sixth year of Guangxu, he returned from studying in the United Kingdom and served as the "Weiyuan" pipe band, with rich practical experience.

At this time, it was the moment when the 75-mm rapid-fire guns of the "Duke Suvorov" were arranged on both sides of the board to play a role, but God wanted to destroy Tsarist Russia, because the sea conditions at that time were not good, the wind was high and the waves were rapid, and the waves continued to hit the side of the battleship "Duke Suvorov", and the 75-mm gun frame that was installed too low was almost in the midst of the surge and could not play a role at all. One by one, the low-mounted gun cage was flooded by the waves, and the sea water continued to pour in through the cracks in the gun hole. In this situation, it is impossible to even aim at the target through the waves, let alone open fire! So, with almost no interference, the "Republic" easily fired torpedoes at the sides of the "Duke Suvorov". The "Duke Suvorov", whose power had not yet been fully restored and the rudder effect was very bad, could not avoid it and was hit by 5 torpedoes one after another. Twenty minutes later, the battleship slowly sank to the bottom of the Black Sea, and only 20 survived, and the blood of the Russian army stained the murky white waves of the Black Sea.

After the Chinese fleet severely damaged the flagship "Duke Suvorov", it shifted its firepower to the "Alexander III" and "Borodino" that followed closely, and especially the former was hit the most, and the accurate shooting of the Chinese fleet at the waterline of the Russian ship caused a lot of penetration on the waterline armor of the "Alexander III", and the waterline armor belt was forced to be reduced from 10 inches to 7.5 inches because of the weight problem, which showed the danger.

A large number of shelling, which penetrated the deck of the "Alexander III", seriously flooded the hull, which in turn caused an increase in the draft of the hull. Soon, the side armor belt, which was only 1.83 meters above the waterline, was transformed into "waterline armor" due to the sinking of the hull, and due to the continuous flooding, the sea water quickly flooded to the 75 mm rapid-fire gun profile, and the unsealed gun frame became more acutely flooded, and the unprotected hull on the armor belt was constantly easily penetrated by the shells fired by the Chinese fleet, causing more serious damage to the watertightness. In such a vicious circle, "Alexander III" sank earlier than the "Duke Suvorov", and the fate of hundreds of Russian troops on board was even more tragic, and only 4 survived after sinking.

Just when the "Alexander III" and the flagship "Duke Suserov" sank one after another, the life of the "Borodino" also came to an end. However, the ship will declare its destruction in a much more spectacular way.

At 19:20, at the same time as the flagship sank, the Chinese fleet turned its artillery fire to the "Borodino", which had already ignited a raging fire from the previous shelling. But the baptism of Chinese artillery fire did not last long, and in the fourth minute after the concentrated fire, a 12-inch shell from the "Beijing" hit the battleship's vital point - the auxiliary gun ammunition depot. Since the first pair of auxiliary turrets in the bow direction were mounted on the bow tower, the ammunition magazine was not designed to be placed below the waterline like other turrets, so a 12-inch shell of the Japanese ship pierced through the 7.5-inch side armor, and the powerful smokeless ** easily detonated the dead hole. The huge explosion spread to the other ammunition depots and completely tore the hull of the ship, and the battleship disappeared in an instant in the fragments of the violent explosion, and there was only one survivor on the ship.

In contrast, the Russian "Eagle" and "Glorious" were lucky, although they were damaged in the previous battles, and 1/3 of the boiler flameout main guns were completely ineffective, and did not take China's attention. But after surviving the terrible "torpedo night", the remnants of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, led by the old ironclad ship "Nicholas I", will once again face the same terrible fire bombardment as yesterday with the rising sun. Knowing that there would be no life or death in the resistance, the acting commander of the fleet, Rear Admiral Nebodyatov of Russia, finally chose to surrender.

The naval battle in Odessa, which lasted for two days, sank 25 Russian ships, including 3 "Borodino-class" battleships, and captured 10 Russian ** ships. When Tsar Nicholas II heard the news, he no longer had a smile on his face. He has an ominous premonition, come out to mix, sooner or later he will have to pay it back! It is sad and unavoidable that his family, as well as the Russian Empire, will soon also become history. China, the "sleeping lion of the East" in Napoleon's mouth, has obviously woken up now, and moreover, it has also shown its sharp teeth towards the Tsarist Empire, and the land plundered by Tsarist Russia from China in the past will inevitably be returned by the Chinese twice! (To be continued......) u