Hu Chuyuan guessed correctly.

It is said that the combined fleet really set up an ambush on Jiaodao in the Nanpu sea area.

At 7:15 a.m. on August 17, 1890, after a night of preparation, Ye Bojun's four Fuzi battalions, with a total of 7,425 troops, took three troop carriers, three material ships, and four other transport ships used to transport Huai troops out of Korea, and sailed together towards the North Korean port of Nampo under the protection of the first detachment, the main force of the North Sea Combined Fleet.

This was an ad hoc plan, and the Third Detachment of the North Sea Combined Fleet was stationed in Nampo, North Korea, with two Guardkang-class ironclad ships, six cruisers, four defense ships, and a number of gunboats, patrol boats, and torpedo boats, which were responsible for protecting the port of Nampo, protecting merchant ships and transport ships in the surrounding area, and driving out the warships.

However, no one could have imagined that the second naval battle in the Yellow Sea would break out.

The commander this time was Ye Fu, who he hadn't expected before, and they thought that Lin Yongsheng, who Hu Chuyuan relied on, was the old opponent last time.

At 4:35 p.m., the first Beihai detachment was no more than 80 nautical miles from the port of Nampo, and at about 10 p.m., the fleet would arrive at the port of Nampo.

Ye Fu stood on the Dingyuan-class ironclad ship, silently looking at the ocean on the east side, and was also thinking about the changes in the entire battle situation in his heart.

Like Hu Chuyuan, he also firmly believed that the entire war must rely on the strategy of delaying to gradually change from passive to active, and attack head-on, even if the navy can win, the gap in the strength of the army is still obvious.

The problem of the army was precisely that Hu Chuyuan's own requirements were too high, and the decisive battle time was placed from 1893 to 1895, and the Makqin machine gun was repeatedly strengthened and designed at the Auckland Military Factory, and the design of derivative varieties was delayed.

The Jiangnan rifle was only an alternative, but it was delayed until the beginning of 1889 that the second refinement was completed and officially put into production, and the Browning rifle, which Hu Chuyuan really had high hopes for, was still being tested.

In other aspects, although the new artillery system products were finalized, Hu Chuyuan did not accelerate the production until the beginning of 1890.

Of course, Ye Fu didn't know these things, he just felt that the gap between the Qing army and the army system was relatively large, especially with the assistance of Britain and France, the army was stronger than the Hunan and Huai armies in terms of establishment, training and equipment.

This is completely different from during the Sino-French War.

In order to reach Nampo as soon as possible, Ye Fu chose to sail in a straight line, and just in case, he let the two "fastest" Xinyangwu-class cruisers in the fleet patrol the surrounding waters in advance.

The sky is getting dark, and the sky in the distance is red, and the bright golden light falls on the sea, which is particularly beautiful.

Ye Fu couldn't help but sigh a little in his heart, the navy could fight a decisive battle, but it was impossible for him to choose a decisive battle in the navy, relying on the compression of the army and landing operations to force the decisive battle of the navy - bullshit, look at the bird-like appearance of the Huai army, half of the Huai army of more than 60,000 people was almost wiped out.

He couldn't help but sigh a little.

At the moment when he was thinking, a cannon suddenly sounded in the sea in front of him, and a red signal flare shone in the sky, which shone exceptionally brightly, far better than the red glow.

The number of flares was very large, about a dozen.

This means...... The Xiangwu on the northeast side found that there were about a dozen ships on the other side.

Ye Fu was overjoyed and shocked, and immediately ordered the whole ship to be reorganized, and the transport ships returned en masse, leaving two destroyers to accompany the protection, and the rest of the warships began to speed up, approaching the Xiangwu at a speed of fourteen knots.

At this moment, Ye Fu's heartbeat suddenly became very rapid, he really couldn't imagine that the courage of the Yue army was too great, and he actually ambushed the navy in the northeast area of West Korean Bay.

If they chose to be in the southeast region, Ye Fu could still understand that even if they found that the Qing army was very strong, they could still choose to return to the Haizhou Port they had occupied.

Is Ben a gambler?

Ye Fu was almost suffocated, his heartbeat was even more frenzied, he couldn't help but think, how else is this navy going to gamble?

Will all the main forces take a risk?

Impossible, half a month ago, Hu Chuyuan just said that many ironclad ships of the main force of the Navy have returned to the Yokohama shipyard for refit and collectively replaced rapid-fire guns with 150 mm caliber.

Done so quickly?

Or is it just a deception at all, saying that the navy has not changed its outfit at all, and continues to gamble with small-caliber rapid-speed guns, taking risks and recovering some of the disadvantages of the navy?

Ye Fu subconsciously felt that he should believe the latter, intelligence could be deceived, especially when he already knew that there were spies within the navy.

In just a moment, Ye Fu also decided to make a gamble, whether he succeeds or loses, it is a fight to the death anyway.

He immediately ordered the reorganization on the spot, so that all seven transports that could participate in the battle would follow the fleet and prepare for battle, but instead the troop carriers carrying more than 7,000 soldiers would completely stop moving.

Half of the transport ships used by the North Sea Combined Fleet are converted from merchant ships, and many are produced purely from military transport ships, which have a certain amount of armor and modification potential, and temporarily add a number of 120 mm rapid-fire guns that do not require mechanical power and do not waste steam during the war.

Such a transport ship can be converted into a lightly protected cruiser during the war, but the disadvantage is that the structure of the merchant ship is not as particular as that of a warship in terms of overall protection and anti-sinking design.

Ye Fu did this for two purposes, the first was to increase the firepower and the number of opponents' targets and disperse the opponent's firepower, and the second was to cover up the news of the other three troop carriers, so that he believed that all the ships to be escorted were here, and no longer sent other ships to reconnoiter the surrounding waters, and concentrated all the ships to fight a decisive battle with the North Sea Fleet.

Troop carriers used old-fashioned, inexpensive coal-fired boilers, which produced a lot of smoke when sailing on the sea, which was the main reason why merchant ships and warships were easy to spot when they sailed on the sea during this period.

Therefore, Ye Fusuo asked the three troop carriers to stop sailing and stand by on the spot.

Ye Fu is also gambling.

He asked the whole ship to speed up, the front was organized into two rows, the transport ships were placed on the south side, the main ships were lined up on the north side, and the Dingyuan ships, Zhenyuan ships, Zhiyuan, and Yingyuan were ahead of the line.

Zhiyuan and Yingyuan are both Zhiyuan-class ironclad ships of the same class, and Dingyuan and Zhenyuan are all built in Volkeng Shipyard in Germany, but the Zhiyuan-class uses cold-pressed nickel-chromium steel as the main armor steel, and the overall design features are relatively narrow and long, and the ship's side is very high, which is more like the British style.

The officers and men of the Dingyuan ship and the Zhenyuan ship have changed their sets, and the Nanyang sailors brought by Ye Fu just filled this vacancy, he was the admiral of the Beihai Combined Fleet, and the Dingyuan ship became the flagship of the Combined Fleet again.

The Dingyuan ship has just been renovated from Germany, replaced with a new boiler, steam engine and artillery system, and has also been modified to a certain extent in the hull layout.

Rushing forward to the northeast side at a speed of 15 knots for half an hour, Ye Fu saw the Xiangwu dragging thick tail smoke from the telescope, this is the seventh of the new Yangwu-class cruisers, at the end of 1889 just completed in the Luoyuan Bay Shipyard and hurriedly put into service, compared with the new Yangwu, it has improved the metal materials of the steam engine and boiler, so that the power of the engine is enhanced, and the ultimate speed can reach 24 knots, which is also the fastest cruiser in the North Sea Fleet at present.

The design displacement tonnage of the new Yangwu class is 3,145 tons, which belongs to the medium-sized dome cruiser, in order to increase the speed, the dome armor has been thinned after using Hawe steel, and the thickness of the steel armor has not been improved.

The advantage of the Xiangwu is that it is fast, and it was considered to make a new ship for Hu Chuyuan.

The Xiangwu was obviously shot, and the black smoke of the boiler was mixed with the yellow smoke unique to the picric acid shells, seeing this, Ye Fu couldn't help but feel a little nervous, but he still asked the whole ship to make basic combat preparations for the fleet in accordance with the regulations, and at the same time adopt the fourth plan to fight.

The two destroyers of the Spring Rain were immediately inserted into the queue and formed into the ironclad camp.

In the distance, Vice Admiral Ariji Shinoyoshi, known as the "last force of the navy" in Tsurumoto, was standing silently on the command tower, and the battleship at his feet was the most powerful battleship in Tsumoto, the Ise class.

The Ise and Shima were ironclad ships that entered service in the Yamato Navy at the end of 1888, with a design displacement of 8,000 tons, and it was originally expected to build six first-class ironclad ships to fight against the Qing army's Zhiyuan, Dingyuan, Jingyuan, and Guangyuan.

However, Hu Chuyuan's diplomatic activities caused the British to deliberately delay the construction of the last four, resulting in the seizure of the Kumano and Shiga, which had been completed by the end of 1889, until after the declaration of war between the two countries, the two ironclad ships and the remaining Yuenan and Miyazaki were seized.

Through the telescope, Youdi Zhiyun silently watched the North Sea Combined Fleet in the distance, and basically confirmed that the opponent was the first detachment of the North Sea Fleet that he was looking for the most, with four ironclad ships of the Zhiyuan-class and Dingyuan-class.

The moment of the decisive battle has finally arrived.

The future of the empire and countless children will be determined by ...... today!

"Let the Great Emperor and His Majesty the Emperor be proud of us!"

As the last vice admiral of the Satsuma valve, Ariji no Yun made the flagship Ise play an encouraging flag and at the same time let the whole ship enter the final preparations for the decisive battle.

He stood coldly on the command tower, continued to look at the first detachment of Beihai in the distance, and couldn't help but sigh with the adjutant next to him, Ijiin Goro Osa: "If it fails, the empire and our descendants will lose their future, please swear to fight to the death, and there is no way back for this empire!" ”

"Hey!"

Ijiin Goro paused vigorously, and then said: "Please rest assured, Commander, we are ready to die, and we must annihilate our opponent here, even if we pay all the price." ”

"このRed Deer!"

Youzhiyun warmly taught Ijiin Gorou a lesson, and said, "The dead should be an old antique like me, and a young man like you should live...... I've lived enough, and although I can't see the empire become a world power, I'm already satisfied to be able to see the empire now. It would be a shame for you not to see the empire become the strongest country. So, Ijiin-kun, please work hard, just for the sake of my grandson's life...... So stay alive! ”

"Hey!"

Ijiin Goro was silently grateful.

Both sides are sprinting forward with the determination to fight to the death, approaching the battle line at the fastest speed, and the recent successive victories of the Satsuma army have brought new hope and morale to the Satsuma Navy, which is another special shame.

They took up the most money and support in the first attack, but instead of achieving a decent victory, they lost ten ships in the first sneak attack.

Fortunately, they still have the capital to turn the game around.

In recent months, relying on the three major military shipyards, the company has temporarily converted dozens of merchant ships into warships, and as always, it has gambled and installed a sufficient number of rapid-fire guns of 120 mm caliber, and it is still necessary to take advantage of the advantage of artillery fire to do its best to inflict large-scale casualties on Qing warships.

Because of the existence of these gunboats, he dared to continue to gamble.

The ambush operation here was carried out by the main force of the combined fleet of the Zoben, with 2 main ironclad ships, 2 second-class ironclad ships and 1 Fuso-class waist ironclad ship, 4 ironclad cruisers, 4 dome cruisers, and 6 converted gunboats.

A total of 19 battleships.

In the distance, the Yiwu also returned from patrolling in the southern seas and joined the main force of the first detachment in the North Sea.

Ye Fu quickly saw that there were also six modified ships hidden on the north side of the opponent's fleet, but unlike the transport ships of the North Sea Fleet, they were purely modified warships, with good firepower output, and almost the weakest defense among the warships.

There was no doubt that targeting the gunboat was the best choice, but Ye Fu believed that the opponent had made sufficient preparations and would not allow him to succeed easily.

However, it is not possible not to exterminate.

Ye Fu quickly considered this problem, quickly adjusted his strategy, and decided to attack the opponent's weakest link with the strongest link, and try his best to get a first win, just like playing Go, using the big dragon to eat the scattered points of the opponent's external game.

At 17:54 p.m. on August 17, 1890, the sky was getting dark, and the Second Battle of the Yellow Sea, known as the Battle of the Korean Gulf, broke out because it took place in the West Korean Gulf in the area of 124 degrees east longitude and 39 degrees north latitude.

The Ise was unable to concentrate the Dingyuan with the help of a huge 310 mm cannon to fire its first shells, but it also announced the beginning of the naval battle.

The two sides quickly carried out a column-type encirclement attack, and because they both used smokeless gunpowder, they did not pay attention to the upper and lower winds, and the battleships of the Japanese were obviously transformed with electronic control technology, and the artillery hit rate was greatly increased.

Similarly, both sides used picric shells, which had more side effects, and produced large amounts of toxic smoke and chemical flames on each other's ships, which had a great deterrent and intimidating effect on soldiers.

Many seemingly major breakthroughs are actually just small technological changes, such as the snorkel of submarines, the uniform shaking of the glass industry, and the same picric cannonballs.

In order to solve the problem that picric acid is easy to react with metal and produce more sensitive picrate, the method used by me is to paint the metal layer of the inner shell of the shell, and the method of the Americans and the Qing army is to add a layer of kraft paper.

These two small methods can make the picric shell serve in a large area, and at the same time greatly reduce the possibility of accidental explosion.

For the soldiers on the ship, this is nothing short of the end and hell.

(To be continued)