Chapter 384: Mad Dog Fleet
The Yellow Emperor, the son of Shaodian and Fubao, takes Ji as his surname, has the Rui of Tude, and is honored as the Yellow Emperor. Historical Records? The Five Emperors Benji contains: "Born as a god, weak and able to speak, young and neat, long and sensitive, and wise and wise." At the time of Xuanyuan, the Shennong clan was in decline. The princes invaded each other and tyrannized the people, and the Shennong clan was able to conquer. So Xuanyuan was accustomed to fighting, so that he could not enjoy it, and the princes and guests followed. And Chiyou is the most violent, and he can't cut it. Emperor Yan wanted to invade the princes of Ling, and the princes returned to Xuanyuan. Xuanyuan is to cultivate virtue and revitalize the army, govern the five qi, cultivate the five kinds, soothe the people, measure the Quartet, teach the bear to Pixiu and the tiger, and fight with the Yan Emperor in the field of Hanquan. Three battles, and then get its will.
Later, he was defeated in the Battle of Zhuolu, and the world was prosperous. Changed the Great Wilderness to China, invented the Xuan crown to set the ritual system, made the stem branch system to musical instruments, and also invented the chronological calendar that is still used today. Later generations called him the ancestor of the Chinese nation and the first ancestor of humanity.
As the Han emperor who re-emerged after the Ming Dynasty, he sacrificed to the ancestor Yellow Emperor, and it can be said that the whole court has exhausted its efforts. The Ministry of Rites customized a set of rituals to worship the Yellow Emperor according to the ancient rites, and the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty also recognized it very much. It is nearly 200 kilometers from Xi'an to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, and it is only possible to walk 50 miles a day by carriage, which is said to be determined by ancient rites. Even if you are tired of putting the emperor's frame, although the current Dongfeng brand car is only 50 kilometers per hour, it is not good to drive for four hours, and it is boring to take a carriage on the road for four days, which makes Li Ming very unaccustomed. Finally, under Li Ming's efforts, the ministers compromised with the emperor.
On October 16, 1904, the new dynasty set up the emperor's guard of honor and carried out a grand book. From the Qujiang Palace all the way to the north, after crossing the Weishui, the guard of honor was withdrawn, loaded into the car, and the horse marched to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum near the front station. October 17 also happens to be the Chung Yeung Festival, and the bells, drums and silk music continue. The big driver went out of the camp and headed towards the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum. Twenty cameras with five truckloads of film will shoot in all directions throughout the trip. It is necessary to record this great sacrifice in its entirety.
Li Ming stood under the stone statue of the Yellow Emperor and looked up to this ancestor Yingying, who set the tone for Chinese civilization. It was he who created the only civilization in the history of the world that has survived to this day. The Chinese civilization has had a splendid glory, and no matter how weak it is, it will not fall. Today, I can finally show myself to my ancestors, and Chinese civilization will be brilliant again.
The whole ceremony was grand and magnificent, and its scale was even larger than that of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. A total of more than 300 instruments and utensils were used, more than 3,000 attendants, and more than 10,000 guards and peripheral garrisons. Flags spread all over the mountain, blocking the sun, and the mighty crowd stretched for dozens of miles.
Foreign reporters all sighed: Seeing such rituals in China makes people think that Europe seems to be a primitive society.
The Queen of England hated to see or even hear the Chinese emperor holding a celebration, because every grand ceremony made the master of the seven seas feel disgraced. The most envied was Kaiser Wilhelm II. He hadn't sent out a guard of honor for many years, and he was afraid of being embarrassed. But under the resolute opposition of his ministers, his honor guard could only be that pitiful. Only Nicholas II is roaring: China is showing off, let the Far Eastern Fleet kick the ass of these Oriental yellow pigs. But Nicholas II didn't know that his expeditionary fleet was in serious trouble before it left the port.
Since its departure from Liepaja on 15 October, there has been a strange atmosphere within the Russian fleet, which has become the world's largest market for rumors, which have come from nowhere and spread among all ships and men. The content is absurd to the point of unimaginable.
China's industry started too late, and large-scale industrial products could not compete with Europe, so China's economic layout focused on traditional agricultural and sideline light industrial products such as tea, silk, porcelain, and raw materials such as rubber. Just a month before the departure of the Russian expeditionary fleet, a Chinese convoy of up to ten ships loaded with these products entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal. I don't know how it was transmitted. It was this fleet that reached the Russian expeditionary fleet and became a group of Chinese torpedo boats or destroyers, who were to be ambushed in the Danish Strait or somewhere else in Northern Europe waiting for them to die. In a word, the omnipotent, terrifying Chinese fleet will not let them out of the Baltic. As for the fact that the Chinese fleet has not yet begun to assemble in the Far East, or it is not known. Or if you know it, you don't believe it. In short, the atmosphere up and down the fleet is terrifying. Or extreme horror.
At this time, the Chinese Navy was still worried about how to resist the Russian expeditionary fleet, and even withdrew the Lanfang fleet sent to the Indian Ocean to fight piracy in the South China Sea, while the Russians thought that the Chinese fleet had been ambushed in the Danish Strait? When the news came, the entire Chinese military command went crazy, the Chinese Navy entered the Indian Ocean with a lot of effort, and the British would agree to the entry of the Chinese fleet into the Atlantic? Not to mention a destroyer, even a rapid-fire gun on a cargo ship will not allow you to cross the Suez Canal. When the Chinese command, who really couldn't understand the thoughts of the Russians, was scratching their ears and cheeks, they only understood when they saw that CIA Director Zhou Qin still looked as usual. It's a good thing that the Russians are scared, at least the Chinese navy officers have calmed down a lot after hearing the news.
In fact, fear is not a bad thing for a commander, although fear is not a necessary condition for becoming a commander, but this kind of psychology can often stimulate the commander's inspiration or sixth sense, through which he can fully estimate all kinds of unexpected situations that may occur and be prepared for contingencies. It's just that a good commander can successfully hide his inner fear of being twice as superhuman, so as to motivate or fool his subordinates to fight, and conversely, a commander who can't hide his fear is the worst commander, and unfortunately Roger Stevensky is a person who can't hide his fear.
Vice Admiral Rozhestwinsky was no less afraid than anyone else in the fleet, except that he believed that every ship could be a Chinese destroyer or torpedo boat, so he gave the order: "Do not undress when sleeping, take off all the main and secondary guns, load them with live ammunition, and aim at every ship that approaches." ”
Because the Baltic Sea is an inland sea, all kinds of ships from coastal countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom are shuttling non-stop, including of course, Chinese cargo ships engaged in trade, and each ship may be a small Chinese destroyer who has come to destroy such a large fleet. The non-stop aiming and non-stop operation made the nerves of the entire Russian fleet highly concentrated, and the accumulated terror and fatigue finally broke out.
Just as the Russian fleet passed through the Danish Strait. The sudden acceleration of one of the large number of cargo ships waiting not far away triggered an artillery bombardment by the Russian fleet. Although only one cannonball was fired and did not hit any ships, all the cargo ships were scattered like birds and beasts. The last cargo ships to arrive in Hong Kong accused Roger Stevensky of being a madman: Didn't he see that the Chinese cargo ship was speeding away from it?
Roger Stevensky was unimpressed, he was satisfied with the state of the fleet. After sailing out of the Baltic Sea, the fleet passed through the North Sea. The North Sea is a big fishing ground, and October is the golden season for fishing, and the North Sea fishing grounds are crowded with fishing boats, and each new fishing boat makes the Russian destroyer suddenly excited like a convulsion. On the night of October 21, the Russian fleet passed through the Doggo Shoal. There are many such shoals in the North Sea, which are good places for fish to live. At this time, the work ship Kamchatka, which had fallen behind due to mechanical problems, suddenly sent a wireless telegram: "Attacked by Japanese destroyers". Rogerst Winsky immediately asked: "Quickly report the number of enemy ships and their directions". Kamchatka's answer made the entire fleet gasp: "Eight ships, from all directions". Suddenly all the ships turned on their searchlights, and under the illumination of the searchlights, they saw that there was indeed the shadow of a group of small boats, and the Russian warships, which had always been loaded with live ammunition, fought without saying anything. At this time, the signal from the battleship Eagle was sent out again, "The enemy cruiser has been spotted and is attacking us", and it turned out that the Eagle took the cruiser Aurora on the side for the Japanese in the dark, and switched the muzzle of the gun and attacked Aurora. Of course, Aurora will not be restrained, and people will even dare to fight the Winter Palace later, and they are afraid that you will be an Eagle battleship? Hurry up and fight back, and fight indiscriminately. The Russian fleet also spared the lives of a soldier and a chaplain.
Rogerst Winsky must have had naval experience in the Age of Sail, so he wasn't exactly a straw bale. When he heard the phrase "the enemy cruiser was found", he felt that something was wrong, and immediately ordered a ceasefire and turned on the lights. When I turned on the light, I realized that I had really hit my own person, and then I looked at the opposite side. What Japanese torpedo boats are there, aren't they just poor little British trawlers?
And that group of small boats was a British trawler fishing for cod. They were just small boats of about 100 tons, seven or eight people, and they were fishing in front of their homes, and they didn't know who was committing them, and a burst of artillery fire fell from the sky. The Crane, the closest to the Russian fleet, was the most unlucky, being sunk and the captain and another crew member died. Inexplicably, I was beaten by those British fish flowers in Haibian, and I went home crying at half-mast. Because of the "doggerbank", Vice Admiral Rogerstvinsky's title of "mad man" was honored to be upgraded to "mad dog", and the fleet he led was naturally named "mad dog fleet". Having said that, the level of these pirates is also real, a battleship fleet fought for half a night, and actually sank a fishing boat, a total of four dead? The British couldn't think of what these people were doing in the East, could it be that they treated the Chinese as trawlers who also carried some cod fishing? Otherwise, these Russian fools would not have the slightest chance of victory.
The British reacted violently to the battlefleet, which attacked the fishing fleet and did not resort to any means of rescue to the fishermen. The next morning, the whole of England was boiling, and the fishermen of the British Empire, who were the masters of the seven seas, were actually robbed in the North Sea at their doorstep, and this was repaid. The British Navy, of course, was mobilized, and the British Foreign Office sent a note to the Russian ambassador in London: "The Baltic Fleet is not allowed to continue sailing until the matter has been properly dealt with, otherwise the British Empire will be at war with the Russian Empire in a week." ”
It's just that in fact, Britain was not prepared for a direct war with Russia, so later France came out to mediate, and Britain accepted it. So there is no other thing to say except that Rogerstinsky is unlucky, the expeditionary fleet is by no means pirates, they just went into hallucinations due to excessive fear, but the most unfortunate thing about Rogerstinsky that he offended was the overlord of the sea, and now he has to pay the price, and this price is the face and honor of Russia.
The day after the incident at the Dogo Shoal, the Baltic Fleet passed through the English Channel. The cruisers of the British Mediterranean Fleet were watching next to the Baltic Fleet, while demonstrating various formation maneuvers. The morale of the Russian fleet had just come down from the peak of fear and had fallen to the bottom of depression. A Russian officer wrote in his diary: "The fleet opposite is the real navy. And we Russians are just prisoners under their escort".
However, it was this incident in Dogo that caused alarm in China, and the Russians actually had radio? Radio has always been China's secret weapon. From top to bottom, there are extremely strict secrecy conditions, and the Chinese army's ability to be the last to strike first in war is also through this secret weapon. This secret weapon is not only available in the army. It is also available on some of Pacific Cargo's cargo ships. In the well-concealed compartment, the sailors on the cargo ship with the name of retirement followed the cargo ship in and out of the ports of various countries, and they sent all the information they could collect about the various ports, warships, voyages, and so on they saw and collected back to China through wireless telegrams. That is, China is staring at the entire sea through the omnipresent cargo ships at sea.
In fact, the CIA has long received information that there may be people in Russia who are studying radio, but after confirming it, the researcher has been protected by the Russian military, and ordinary accidents can no longer solve the researcher. The CIA applied for an assassination by force but was rejected by Li Ming, who knew very well that the effect of his plundering plan could only be to slow down the pace of European technology rather than stop it, and that after hundreds of years of industrial revolution, Europe had accumulated enough knowledge among the people, even if Tesla went to China, he also abducted Marconi. But there were others who studied and discovered radio, and this time it was Popov.
Maybe Popov was not very famous in later generations, and even Li Ming didn't know that there was this Russian. By taking advantage of the foresight of Li Ming, he attacked European scientists in advance, which also caused other scientists to break out in Europe, which had lost these famous scientists in later generations. Li Ming knew that even if "Popov" was solved, there would still be "Mimiv", and after all, Europe was so big that it would be impossible for the CIA to spy on everyone, no matter how bad it was.
Popov was a rigorous scholar, and although he had not made any outstanding inventions before, he was still on the CIA's list of solicitors, and it was the CIA's interference that made him decide to find a quiet place to study his findings. At this time, he happened to come into contact with the Grand Duke of the Admiralty, the Minister of the Navy, through a friend, and Alexander Rovich, knowing the function of the radio, persuaded His Majesty the Tsar to allocate part of the small funds to Popov for research and strengthen the defense of him. And the official armament of the radio fleet was also the biggest reason why Nicholas II believed that it was possible to defeat China.
It's just that the Russians blocked the radio too tightly. So tight that if Popov wasn't there, there would be no one to repair this thing. So in the events in Dogo, it was Popov who sent a telegram by radio to Rodger Stevensky at the request of the captain. It's just that none of them know that China not only has radio, but is also more advanced than them. Not far away, a Chinese cargo ship was waiting to receive domestic instructions, when it suddenly received a bunch of communication codes that did not belong to them. This made them wonder. Upon confirmation of receipt that no telegram had been sent by a Chinese ship during this coded period, it immediately became clear that there were people in Europe who had also mastered radio technology. And the greatest possibility is on the Russian expeditionary fleet.
It's a big deal, but it's not a problem. Because there have been preparations for a long time. After the first generation of radios was put into mass production to equip the army, Li Ming ordered Marconi, who had just deceived China, to form a team to develop countermeasures. Li Ming knew very well that even if there were no enemies, he had to create enemies himself, so that he could maintain the momentum of progress. It's just that it must be an internal struggle, and this initiative is always much worse, plus the interference of other affairs, after ten years, it has only just developed a third-generation radio that can break through the second-generation wireless jamming equipment. The primary radio, which was not used against Popov, was sufficient. So the Chinese government began to arrange for Tesla to prepare for the first-generation radio display, and on the other hand, the Yellow Sparrow, disguised as a cargo ship, loaded the first-generation jammer in Lushun and headed south.
Rogerst Winsky's biggest fear now is coal. The first time the Russian fleet docked was the Spanish port of Vigo, where the fleet was supposed to refuel coal, and the officers and men who had been at sea for a week also wanted to go to land to relax. At this time, only the Royal Navy of Great Britain, the hegemon of the seven seas, had coal reserves all over the world, and the first problem encountered by the navies of other countries on expeditions was how to solve the problem of coal supply. The Russians were helped by the Germans in this matter, and a German transport company called Amerika Hamburg contracted the operation. The ship arrived in Vigo, and the German ships were about to come up to load coal, when suddenly a Spaniard went to the flagship Duke Suvorov to inform the Russians: "The Spaniards do not want to break neutrality. The Russian fleet could not carry out replenishment activities in Spanish ports". Behind this short, obscene-looking middle-aged Spanish man. There is no doubt that stood the British Empire and the Royal Navy. The Russians could only bow their heads and promise to pay the British fishermen 66 in the Russian Foreign Ministry. After paying £000 in compensation and handing over the Baltic Fleet officers who had caused the incident, the Spaniards finally promised on the third day that each battleship would be able to load 400 tons of coal. In order to be able to move as soon as possible, the Russians even released the soldiers who had been locked up to participate in the loading of coal.
Rogerst Winsky was a bureaucrat, unimaginative but managerially unique, for he was a natural commander of the gendarmerie. Roger Stevensky patrolled the ship all day, looking for all the disheveled soldiers and finding all the unscrubbed corners. Otherwise, sit at your desk and search for all the typos in the report, and then either order the officers, or you yourself, to punish the poor worms who have made mistakes, and take the whole fleet from the horror of being attacked by Japanese torpedo boats to the terror of being whipped by the commanders. Then again, without the perverted iron-fisted management of Rogerstvinsky, it would have been impossible for the Baltic Fleet to complete this voyage of 16,000 nautical miles.
The Russian fleet, which was not filled with coal in the Spanish port of Vigo, spent four days in Tangier, Morocco, a colony of the allies of France, filled with coal, each of which was more than 4,000 tons. But the Russian fleet, which had always filled its deck with coal, sank all the way to below the waterline. At this point, a destroyer with enough torpedoes would have been enough to sink the entire fleet, because the turrets full of coal could not be turned at all.
All warships have become a dusty hell, and the southern hemisphere has entered summer, but all the windows on the warships cannot be opened. The room temperature in the cabin is up to 50 degrees. The Russians, accustomed to the Arctic Circle, went east on such a journey to hell. However, even such a hell is a luxury. From Tangier, on November 3 the Russian fleet reached Dakar, Senegal. It was also a French colony, just as the relieved Russians were preparing to enter the port to refuel coal. The French Governor of West Africa replied: "Permission from our Ministry of Foreign Affairs is required for entry into ports and refueling". The Russians felt five thunders: Isn't it a friendly country? How could France, a friendly country that also guaranteed coal for the Russian fleet in Tangier, have such an answer?
France is a "friendly country" of Russia. But they are only friendly countries, not obligated allies, and the point is that they are also intimidated by China. On the second day after the Russian fleet refueled the port of Vigo, the Chinese government lodged a protest with the French minister to China and the Chinese minister to France to the French government, protesting against France's sabotage of the neutrality bill, and sternly questioning whether France intended to declare war on China together with Russia. The French are angry, why don't you protest when Russia adds coal to Spain, but you want to protest against France? The French did not intend to give any reply, and soon after the protests were ineffective, the Chinese 2nd Mountain Division began to assemble at Zhennanguan, the Nanyang fleet left for Jiaozhi, and the Lanfang fleet appeared in Cam Ranh Bay. It's just that France believes that this is nothing more than a deliberate act by the Chinese, and the Chinese do not dare to declare war on Russia and France at the same time.
As a result, when the French Governor-General of West Africa in Dakar asked the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs whether to allow the Russian fleet to anchor, the French government chose to remain silent. When Rogerstinsky replied that he was still waiting for instructions from Paris, Rogerstinsky "forcibly" carried out the coaling operation. And the French governor of West Africa also believed that as long as the instructions from Paris had not arrived, it meant that they could be loaded.
Li Ming, who came out of New China, smiled when he got the news. You have just protested that someone sent a warship to the edge of your territory, and the other party said that they would send an aircraft carrier to take a look, and the protest and warning are just a fart for others. Li Ming knows very well that big countries do not need to protest, small countries are not qualified to protest, and only countries that are neither big nor small, and who are strong and weak, need to use this word to win international sympathy. So Li Ming, who was still on the train back to Beijing, gave an order.
Liu Yongfu, who was standing at the gate in the south of the town, cried after receiving the telegram. When he went to Beijing ten years ago, the emperor made him ready to recover Annam. I don't want the original five years to be delayed into ten years. Liu Yongfu, who is now 63 years old, understands that in fact, there is not much time left for him, and this time may be the last time he will lead the army. The telegram from the imperial court told him to launch an attack within five days of receiving the telegram, because the 6th Regiment of the 2nd Mountain Division was still on the way. In order to achieve the suddenness of the campaign, Liu Yongfu decided not to wait, and drove out of Zhennan Pass with only two regiments on the same day, and successively broke through several Franco-Vietnamese coalition camps, approaching Liangshan in just five days. The speed was so fast that the staff headquarters could not even send reinforcements. On the sea, the two Chinese fleets blocked the French Far East Fleet in the harbor, and the fleet had completed aiming.
At the same time, Liang Huadian, who had just inspected the camp outside the city of Novosibirsk, after receiving the telegram order, led the Northwest Corps with the Second Division as the main force to suddenly launch an attack on the city of Novosibirsk in the cold winter. The sudden attack caught the Russians off guard, and after a day and a night of resistance, the city of Novosibirsk fell.
The Chinese Army's sudden two-sided fire really shocked Europe, and it is better than as the Chinese say, the failure of the Navy does not mean that the Army is also a waste. What is also unexpected is that the Chinese government has approached the United States, hoping that the United States will intervene to mediate the Sino-French war. China's demands were simple: as long as France did not undermine the Neutrality Act, China would immediately withdraw its troops from Annam and release all Franco-Vietnamese prisoners. Of course, France had to pay for the food and medicine of these captives. However, if France continues to undermine the Neutrality Act, China will continue to attack southward, and at the same time provide France with a suggestion that France can cancel the Far East Fleet.
After receiving the request for mediation, the United States was very active, and after inviting Britain to mediate the Sino-French conflict, the blockade of the French Far East Fleet lifted by the Chinese Navy after France paid the relevant expenses, and the army began to withdraw to the country, only Liu Yongfu's request to continue the attack was ruthlessly rejected.
The French did not do anything in Dakar, did not refuse the Russian fleet's request to enter the port, and only turned a blind eye to the Russian fleet's refueling operations in the Dakar port, and the Russian fleet was able to continue on the road after refueling. It's just that Roger Stevenster didn't know about the Far East, and he was leading his fleet to its next destination, another French colony, Kaben. (To be continued......)