Does Russia have formal diplomacy at all? This in itself is a question. It has become common knowledge in Europe that even if the empire forms an alliance with other countries, it will simply abandon the alliance for its own reasons. Perhaps the Russian nation is a nation without diplomacy, or a nation that does not need diplomacy, and even Count Witte, who is considered to be the most enlightened, openly said: "Russia's prestige exists only because of its military strength, and without military strength there is no Russia itself". Unfortunately, the time has come to begin to lose this "military power".

On the contrary, the French were diplomatic geniuses, and neither the military defeats of World War I nor World War II prevented the French from finally becoming victorious. The French instinctively know who to be friendly with and when.

There are basically no port facilities in Kaben, only a small port. Rodger Stevensky believed that "there is no need to rush into such a small port to find any trouble. So the whole fleet stayed in the open ocean and dropped anchor there. Since it is outside the territorial territory, it is not necessary to obtain permission from the French government.

At this time, a captain of the French Navy came to the flagship: "You are loading and unloading coal here, it will embarrass us." ”

"This is the high seas." Roger Stevensky flicked them back with this sentence in response to this obstruction.

The man sent by the governor of France replied: "We know that we do not want to discuss international law with you, but here we ask you whether you can find a remote harbor where coal can be loaded and unloaded."

There was no need to raise another international issue in this poor African country, and Roger Stevensky remained silent, loading and unloading the coal on his own. Then something even more unpleasant happened to Rozhestvensky, when a telegram from Petersburg gave an instruction to their Kaben anchorage: "Do not make the French friends unhappy. Even on the high seas, don't stay near Kaben. Move somewhere else. ”

"What does the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs do for food?" The aides were indignant at their own country's diplomacy, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Petersburg was indeed infuriating. This fleet was abandoned by world diplomacy, and about this, to borrow Nobikov? In Plyboi's words, they have become a "wandering fleet". But Roger Stevensky is very obtuse at this fact, and in other words, he can be said to be bold. He also ignored the instructions from his homeland. Continued to load and unload his coal.

"Where is the fleet going?" Just as the Russian fleet crossed the equator, Rozhestvensky asked himself this question, but could not get a conclusion. The fleet still went on, not for any other reason, but simply because it was the will of His Majesty Tsar Nicholas II. Because the tsar is going to go down, the subordinates will not care why, whether they should continue the crusade to the east, anyway, this country, this navy is the tsar's, and it has nothing to do with others. If there is a relationship. That's how to get some benefit from this crusade.

Roger Stevensky's troubles are much more than that. Russia at that time was already full of socialists, their enemies were the tsar and the tsarist system, and the Baltic Fleet would not lack socialists, at least not socialist sympathizers. The Kamchatka, a work vessel lying about military information in the Dogo Shoal, exited the line shortly after departing from Dakar, signalling a "mechanical failure". In fact, the machinery of Kamchatka, where the engineers of the whole fleet were concentrated, did not malfunction at all, and there were protest riots on the Kamchatka. The requisitioned firemen and the engineers, who were treated like officers, fought, and the captain hurried to hang up the fault flag to attract the attention of the whole fleet, otherwise the iron fist of the Slavic firemen was no joke.

The events of Kamchatka became epidemic like a plague. Day and night. The light signal to report the rebellion of the soldiers or the firemen was continuously sent to the flagship Duke Suvorov, and Rozhestvinsky, like a gendarmerie corporal, constantly gave orders for repression and punishment. Rogerst Winsky was a perfectionist who read all the records of court-martials, not even misspelling words, let alone the perfunctory nature of the trial itself.

Fleet to Gabon. But he did not expect that the betrayal of the French would be so blatant that the German company would not be allowed to refuel the Russian fleet at sea. Rogerst Winsky, who is known as the most polite gentleman in dealing with people other than his subordinates, is also on fire this time: "Mr. Governor, this is the high seas!" ”

The French governor did not budge: "It's the high seas, but it's the high seas near Gabon." ”

As a result, the Russian expeditionary fleet, already known as the "Wandering Fleet", could only wander elsewhere again, this time to find a colony of the small country of Portugal. Big Fish Bay, Angola. Maybe the Russians are thinking that in any case, the Russian Empire will not be mixed up to the point of being bullied by Portugal.

Big Fish Bay is a Portuguese territory, and as its name suggests, there are plenty of fish there. There are about 10 families dotted along the coast, and there are no urban facilities. However, there was always a Portuguese gunboat guarding the area. It was one of those very small gunboats, and its name was Limpopo. It looked old-fashioned, with peeling paint on it, burning low-quality coal and billowing black smoke. But the Limpopo received an order from the Admiralty: "The Russian fleet is not allowed to enter the port." ”

This is also forced for the Chinese, and in order to set difficulties for Russia and make them even more exhausted, China has begun to do everything. The Chinese government informed the Portuguese government that Russians would not be allowed to enter the port. Of course, the Chinese government is not unreasonable, because of the strength of the Russian warship, as long as Portugal shouts before the Russian fleet enters the port, since the Russians want to force the port is also Portugal's limited strength, China will not pursue the case. But if you can't even save face, then Portugal will do it on its own. Indeed, the French don't pay attention to it, and tiny Portugal is nothing. Of course, if it is done, there will be a reward, and I heard that Portugal wants to build a Portuguese gathering area in Macau, which the Chinese government can agree.

As a result, the Russians saw a Portuguese gunboat of less than 100 tons, and the old ones couldn't see what color the original paint was, and they couldn't help but say that they blocked the channel in a big way under the signal of "no entry into the port". Commander Luo was furious. When did the great Tsarist Russia get to the point where even a little Portugal dared to refuse? This time, however, Commander Luo ignored the warning. The loading and unloading of the coal began immediately, and after twenty-four hours of loading and unloading, it immediately left the port. At this point, Commander Luo could only continue his voyage by stepping on all the country's sea checkpoints.

The world's top fleets turned around obediently in front of this small gunboat like a stripped old dog. The smaller Portugal is, the more it cares about the attitude of the big countries. Roger Stevensky has only just figured this out.

The next port of call for the Russian fleet would be the port of Anglebeckvin in the German territory.

"I should be hospitalized this time." All the crew were at ease. This will be the port of the first call in a German territory during this troubled voyage. Germany and Russia were not only allies, but they showed extreme friendship with Russia during the Sino-Russian War.

The commander of the German army in Pek, Angola, was very friendly and sent someone to greet him: "This officer is only a soldier, not a diplomat, and what this officer cannot see in the window of the headquarters does not exist". In other words, as long as you don't stop at the old man's window, the old man can't see it.

"He's a good guy." Roger Stevensky was very pleased with this. Since the other party had already said "I didn't see it", it was inconvenient for the Admiral to formally invite him to visit. Nevertheless, a messenger was sent to thank him for his kindness.

For the first time in the two months since the voyage, the officers and men of the Baltic Fleet have gotten rid of the feeling of losing their dogs, and they can finally take a rest, and the most wonderful thing is that they can still see the newspapers published in Cape Town, 900 kilometers away. There was even news of the Russo-Japanese War in the newspapers, but it was not good news for Russia.

The city of Novosibirsk was lost, and the Far Eastern Railway was completely cut off. Departing from Omsk in an attempt to recapture the troops of Novosibirsk, the train derailed halfway through. Hundreds of people were killed and wounded on the spot. When the reinforcements arrived, there was nothing left of this vanguard force in the cold wind and snow. The Chinese Northwest Army also began a counteroffensive. One of the detachments has already reached Lake Balkhash. In other words, Russia spit back the lands occupied by the Qing State for hundreds of years, and by the way, lost the whole of Eastern Siberia.

Of course, the information in the newspapers is not necessarily accurate, and even if it is, no one knows what orders His Majesty Tsar Nicholas II will give, before the tsar changes his mind. You can only move forward according to the established plan. Round the Cape of Good Hope and turn north.

The sky above the Russian fleet was always smoky, because there was an entire fleet that only Japanese coal was available, but this inferior Japanese coal could not produce steam no matter how it was burned, and only produced a large amount of choking gas. Roger Stevensky did not want to burn Japanese low-quality coal. He had enough reason to believe that the coal was actually exploited by Xinhua from Japan and sold to the Germans, and then let them hand it over to himself! It's just that at the moment, he can't buy any coal except Japanese coal.

Kamchatka was a working ship, and only the captain and a few people could be considered soldiers, and most of them were requisitioned workers. The workers did not have the sense of mission and discipline that a soldier possesses, so they have been plagued by their rich imagination. "Anyway, I went to be killed by the Chinese" or "The Chinese navy seems to be better than the British navy." They exchanged such imaginary things with each other, and all of them entered into a common state of horror fantasies. On the way to Madagascar, they created a new problem.

The 150 tons of coal on the Kamchatka were of particularly poor quality, and the miners complained: "What kind of coal is this, it's just mud." "So they started grinding. The captain had no choice but to signal to Roger Stvensky: "I want to throw those 150 tons of inferior carbon into the sea." This brought Roger Stevensky's anger to a climax.

Mom's, no matter how inferior it is, it's coal! The whole fleet was using such inferior coal, and it was not only Kamchatka. Last time, because they dragged down, they sent a telegram that they were attacked, and they had to beat up a few small fishing boats for half a night, and there was a farce of bombardment against each other, and finally they almost fought with the British Navy first, and now they dare to throw away the precious coal! To this, Roger Stevensky replied: "Throw the rebels down first." "Trying to throw away such precious coal, even if it's low-quality coal, is a treason.

The wandering fleet continues to drift on the sea, and this time they celebrate Christmas (Russian calendar) on the ocean. There are chapels on warships above the cruiser. The prayer ceremony was held there, and it was on the deck of those small destroyers. In the end, in order to celebrate the birth of Christ and pray for God's blessing on the fleet, each ship fired a 31-round salute. This world-class fleet was immediately surrounded by black emitting smoke. Because there was no wind, the gunners' view was obscured by smoke.

"It is said that Chinese gunpowder will not have so much smoke, I don't know if it is real or fake." Many sailors whispered this. In fact, the TNT explosives that China is now equipped with are indeed much better than the old gunpowder of the Russian Navy, and although the crews of the fleet do not have a lot of knowledge in this area, they cannot escape the shadow of terror.

At this time, the battleship Borodino gave a signal: "There are four strange ships chasing us in the tail." "This made the whole fleet tense up like psychopaths all at once. The shadow of the ship was then spotted by an observation post climbing on the mast. It was confirmed that four strange ships were on the same course as the fleet at a great rear. Three of them turned around and disappeared beyond the horizon a short time later, with the remaining one still trailing. Finally the ship turned on its lights, changed course, and gradually disappeared into the darkness.

"The Chinese cruiser wants to attack us." The whole fleet had such an idea. The fear that the Chinese fleet would attack them in ambush somewhere now made the fleet's nerves even more nervous. That night, the whole fleet went into a state of alert. On this day, the gunners slept by the guns, and the various combat units did not sleep all night.

"It's not possible." Roger Stevensky comforted himself that he thought it was just other countries' warships helping China spy on them. But this time he was wrong, these four were none other than the Chinese Dinghai-class light cruisers. The General Staff of the Chinese Navy counted the days. Four light cruisers departed from Pontianak and passed between Java and Sumatra, meeting back the oil and water supply ships that had departed in advance north of Mauritius, and finding them on the sea after replenishing their fuel.

Under the strong means of Rogerstwinsky, the Russian expeditionary fleet, which had been sailing all the way, finally managed to sail smoothly towards its next destination, Nosibe, Madagascar.

Nosiebe, a modest port in the French colony of Madagascar, was scheduled to be for the fleet to load and unload coal at the port of Jagus Ales, but France was again protested by China. This embarrassed the French, although China also protested to Germany, but only protested. Unlike when protesting against France, he still gathered a large army at Zhennanguan, perhaps beating the French once twenty years ago. So the Chinese are not afraid of France. Only this time, under the joint pressure of the United States and Britain, China agreed not to attack French Annam, but asked France not to lend good ports to Russia. Although the 2nd Mountain Division withdrew from Annam, from the division commander to the soldiers, had great opinions about the imperial court, this diplomacy was exchanged for the Chinese merchants to take care of the future fuel supply to the Russian fleet.

Ever since capitalism existed in the world, the so-called business operation has become such an incredible thing. It will always be people everywhere who produce weapons for the enemy to fight themselves. The Japanese coal sold to the Russian fleet was exploited by Chinese merchants from the Japanese. It is not the first time that Chinese businessmen are providing fuel to China's enemies, and this strange thing will not be the last.

The best coal for warships is the most expensive Welsh coal, and of course the British, who have a conflict of interest with Russia, will not sell it to the Russians anymore, and certainly not to the German company Hamburg America, which coalizes Russian warships. Instead, it was sold to Chinese merchants who were buying coal everywhere. In order to stop the Russian expedition as much as possible, Chinese merchants went crazy to buy coal, so that the price of coal rose. The British, on the other hand, did not prevent this behavior of the Chinese merchants, but facilitated it in many ways. But the books of the Russian Admiralty show that the Russians have been buying embargoed Welsh coal. In fact, the Russian fleet used the cheapest and worst-quality Japanese coal that the Hamburg company had managed to collect from the Chinese. If so, forget it, but Chinese businessmen artificially add sulfides, an acidic substance to the inferior coal, which can damage the boiler and produce toxic gases when burned.

The verbal lawsuit with the German company over the coal did not make a name for itself, because the senior Admiralty officials in St. Petersburg had decided not to get involved in the matter and gave Rozhest Stevensky carte blanche blanche to him. But Rozhestvensky and his fleet headed for the port of Nosibe, and the Black Sea Fleet, which had arrived before 28 December, prepared a grand welcoming ceremony for the whole division. The expeditionary fleet made its way around Cape Doamble, the northernmost point of Madagascar, and entered a sea full of small islands and reefs not far from the Island Sea, where it encountered the destroyer Buinui, which had arrived first, sent by Rear Admiral Filiche Rosamu. However, it was already the time when the sun was setting on January 8, and it was easy to get into trouble if he continued to sail, so Rozhestvensky decided to wait for the sunrise the next day in the outer ocean.

As a navigator, Roger Stevensky's discretion was top-notch, and he did not know that there was a telescope standing still in the wind and waves not far away from the sea. If he continued, the submarine would immediately notify the four light cruisers below sea level to approach and attack them in the middle of the night. It's a pity that Roger Stevensky didn't give them that chance.

Damaged warships need to be repaired, and uninjured warships need to be cleaned up. After a period of immersion in the sea, seaweed and shellfish attach to the bottom shell of the warship. This kind of attached seaweed and shellfish is the enemy, he will seriously reduce the speed of the warship, and waste fuel, so the warship has to enter the dock every once in a while to remove these attachments, to save fuel and ensure the speed of the warship. However, this kind of operation must be carried out in the dock, otherwise it cannot be completely removed. The ships of the Russian expeditionary fleet have been immersed in the sea for half a year, and the seaweed and shellfish on the bottom of the ships have long been in layers, and they are growing gratifyingly. However, the Russian fleet had only a handful of chances to enter the harbor and anchor during the painful march of half a year, so how could it be the luxury of entering the dock to clean up.

As soon as he arrived in Nossibe, Rogerstvinsky was very serious about asking the ships to find people to put on diving suits and go out into the sea to clean up, although this method itself could not be completely cleaned up, but it was better than not cleaning at all, but the morale of the fleet was unprecedentedly low. But the fatigue of the long voyages, combined with the constant bad news from the Far East, gave the Russian sailors a fierce fear of these never-before-seen Chinese navies, and almost no one in the fleet thought they would survive to the end of the war. But for Rogerstvinsky, for the first time since the start of his fleet, he had a fixed port to rest, and at last he no longer had to wander, and in any case, the small fishing port of Nosibe was now crowded with Russian warships.

Originally, there must be enough vodka wherever there are Russians, but now the area around Nosibe has become the world's largest ** place, and the warblers gathered from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East plus more than 20,000 Russian soldiers taken care of by the local natives, the scene is absolutely beautiful and magnificent.

It's just that their good days only lasted three days. In the early morning of the fourth day, the light patrol formations of the Chinese voyage launched an artillery attack on the dense Russian fleet docked in the port of Nosibe. (To be continued......)