The fleet departed from the Vladivostok naval base in late March and would arrive at Wakkanai Port in Ezo, the port of Ezo that had been leased to the Imperial in the treaty between the Empire and the Japanese Hontokugawa shogunate a few years earlier.

Although it was a small port, it was an important place to control the Soya Strait, and it was also one of the important passages for the Imperial Navy to enter and exit the Pacific Ocean in the north.

Wakkanai Harbor is small, but it can still supply the fleet with coal, fresh water, and food.

After leaving Wakkanai Harbor, the fleet could only continue to the east, and there was no port on the way to dock and replenish.

This is also the reason why there is only one warship in this fleet, and the other four are all transport ships, to be precise, only the Taiyuan is performing military missions, and the other four transport ships are all to support the Taiyuan and the officers and sailors of the Navy in combat missions.

After leaving Wakkanai Harbor, this fleet will gradually sail eastward along the Kuril Islands, and then stop and stop on the way, and whenever they come across an island, they will find a big rock on it, and then engrave a few words, basically this island belongs to the territory of the Chinese Empire and so on.

Sometimes some fresh water is replenished on the islands, but coal and food are less likely.

According to the plan, the fleet will sail along the Kuril Islands at a slow pace and then reach Kamchatka, but they will not directly land and attack Kamchatka, a large part of the island is frozen soil and the only town is Petropavlovsk. The city is a natural and excellent port, and it is also a port that can be navigated all year round. This is quite difficult for the northern coastal ports.

However, there are quite a few Russian troops stationed there, although they don't have any warships. But there are still a lot of land troops, especially after the conflict with the empire in the Far East intensified, Vladivostok, Temple Street and other Pacific ports were conquered and occupied by the Chinese army, and now the Russians have only one Petropavlovsk left in the Pacific port, and the Russians are also paying more attention to the city, gradually reinforcing a lot of troops, at present, this port city has a garrison of about 1,000 people. In addition, there are many people who can mobilize the militia if necessary.

However, there were not many warships, and over the years of continuous conflict, the North Sea Fleet of the Imperial Navy and the Russian warships deployed in the Pacific fought relatively frequently for control of the Heilongjiang River valley and the North Sea (Sea of Okhotsk).

Although this series of battles took place in the inland rivers and coastal waters of Heilongjiang, the scale was also very small, and the ships participating in the battles were generally small warships of several hundred tons, not to mention attracting the attention of the world, even within the Imperial Navy.

And in this series of engagements. Eventually, the Imperial Navy's North Sea Fleet took full control of the Heilongjiang River valley and the Sea of Okhotsk, and most of the Russian ships deployed in the Pacific were sunk or captured.

At present, the Russians have only a few ships left in this area, and most of them are wooden sailboats, and their strength is quite weak.

However, the naval strength of the Russians was weakened. However, considering that the Russian army in Petropavlovsk has a lot of troops, and to capture the city, it is necessary to conduct a landing operation.

It's not as difficult as landing in Hawaii, but it's not small. What's more, the city is now a trapped dead place, and it is impossible to threaten the security of the empire in the North Sea and the Far East. Therefore, the empire had never thought of taking the city before.

During the Crimean War, the Anglo-French forces also tried to blockade or even capture the city. Two military campaigns were carried out, both of which ended in failure, not because the place was too far to defend, but because it took months to go back and forth, and there were no nearby ports for the British and French forces to supply.

Now the strength of the Alaskan task force, naturally, it is unlikely that it will be said that it will land directly to capture the city, they just came to go around in a circle, and then symbolically fired a few shots in the port, and before the Russians could return fire from the shore artillery, they had already turned around and continued to sail east.

Then continue eastward and reach the Aleutian Islands, where you will land on the islands repeatedly, and then find a large stone carved with the claim of sovereignty.

Due to the long distance of the voyage and the speed of consumption of supplies, it is estimated that their supplies will be almost exhausted by then, so they will return after exploring some of the islands of the Aleutian Islands.

As for the real military landing operation, we will have to wait for the second expeditionary fleet!

Before the Alaska task force returned, the Navy and Army were already discussing how to capture Petropavlovsk.

Although the city could not actually threaten the strategic security of the Empire, given its strategic position, it would almost be possible to claim control of Kamchatka after taking control of the city, and if the ice-free port was used as a forward base, the Imperial Navy would be able to enter the Aleutian Islands and Alaska more conveniently, and the round-trip voyage could be shortened by at least one-third.

And crucially, this is an ice-free port!

Unlike several other major bases of the Imperial Navy's North Sea Fleet, they all belong to frozen ports.

At present, the North Sea Fleet of the Imperial Navy operating in the Sea of Japan and the North Sea is mainly based in Vladivostok and Temple Street. Vladivostok is an excellent deep-water port, while Temple Street is the estuary of the Heilongjiang River.

However, these two ports are both frozen ports in winter, and the freezing period is particularly long, so under normal circumstances, in winter, most of the ships of the North Sea Fleet will go south for the winter, except for ships that have to stay in the local area under certain circumstances.

Generally speaking, most ships will go directly to Qingdao, Shanghai and other ports, on the one hand, to survive the winter, and on the other hand, to take the opportunity to carry out maintenance and repair.

However, if there is a military need, then some ships will choose to go to the nearest port in Shikinai, which is a Chinese concession port, and it is also an extremely difficult ice-free port. Although the water depth of the port was insufficient to moth large-tonnage warships. And the security is not very good, so it is not very suitable as a military port. But it is not easy to find an ice-free port in the northern region, and it is quite good to have a Wakkanai port to use.

However, you can also go to Busan, North Korea.

However, in Wakkanai Port and Busan, these ports can only berth and then replenish coal, fresh water, etc., and due to the infrastructure of the local ports, it is impossible to say that the maintenance of ships and even ammunition cannot be replenished.

It can be seen from this that an ice-free port is quite important for the northern latitudes. And Petropavlovsk is such an ice-free port.

Therefore, even if its actual strategic value is limited, it has a value that cannot be replaced by many other ports, not to mention that it is so close to Alaska, and the voyage from here is one-third shorter than from Vladivostok.

In order to capture this ice-free port city, the navy is ready to make great efforts, and it is ready to succeed at one time!

In order to obtain some detailed hydrographic information near the port of Petropavlovsk, the diplomatic department also secretly made a deal with the British, through seven turns. In the name of a private fishing company, hydrographic data in the area were privately purchased from the British Navy.

The British fought twice during the Crimean War, and although they were unsuccessful, they certainly had a lot of information. At least much stronger than the Empire knows.

Now the Reich's knowledge of Petropavlovsk is limited to an approximate number of troops, in addition to the occasional glance from a distance. What exactly is the situation to understand the starboard side.

"If you want to fight, then you have to hit it down. You can also let the soldiers conduct actual combat drills appropriately! Lin Zhe's words sound like advice, but in fact, he is giving instructions to the navy. It is necessary to let the navy free and send a few more warships over, so as not to capsize in the gutter when the time comes.

Hearing Lin Zhe say this, Lin Dabiao was a little hesitant, although the strength of the Imperial Navy is not weak, but the pressure on the Imperial Navy is even greater!

Although the Four-Power Treaty was signed and the war with Britain was stopped, the British East India Fleet was always there, and Singapore was the main base, and several large ironclad ships were deployed in Singapore.

It was impossible for the Imperial Navy to turn a blind eye to the British East India Fleet, so in any case, the Imperial Navy needed to keep a decisive fleet to meet the British East India Fleet at any time.

This can be seen from the fact that the Imperial Navy began to build Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui Port on a large scale and set up the headquarters of the South Seas Fleet here, the Imperial Navy intends to build Hong Kong into a core naval base, and in the future, a large main fleet will be deployed here to meet the attack of the British East India Fleet or other countries' fleets.

In this case, it is impossible for the Imperial Navy to randomly transfer too many warships to Petropavlovsk to fight!

However, Lin Zhedu has already instructed the Navy to pay attention to Petropavlovsk, and Lin Dabiao naturally cannot be perfunctory.

In the end, the navy deliberated in detail for several days before determining the size of the fleet, and among the battleships that went into battle, it was naturally impossible to be the capital ships used for the decisive battle, and none of the three Yandi class could go.

As for the Pangu class, because the No. 5 ship has also been commissioned, one of them can be transferred to the North Sea and join the North Sea Fleet.

And then two wooden cruisers!

The above three ships are the main force, followed by several coastal warships, including two Zhenguang-class small ironclad ships, as well as a one-ticket transport ship and the like.

There are more than forty large and small ships combined, most of which are transport ships.

A mixed brigade will be carried to Petropavlovsk for landing operations, including an infantry regiment of the Army, an artillery battalion, an infantry battalion of the Marine Corps, an artillery battery, etc.

The total strength is about 3,000 people!

When necessary, the fleet will also send sailors to form a temporary sailor unit to fight ashore, and under the limit of circumstances, it can mobilize nearly 3,500 troops to carry out landing operations.

After the coordination of the Navy and the Army, the North Sea Fleet of the Imperial Navy almost poured out, and then there was the Pangu-class ironclad ship Fuxi, which belonged to the First Fleet of the Imperial Navy, and the wooden cruisers Jinan and Wuchang, a total of the North Pacific Task Force was formed.

The fleet carried about 3,000 soldiers from the army and marines, as well as a large amount of war supplies, etc., from Vladivostok, and then sailed eastward, and after arriving at Wakkanai Harbor, they made the last replenishment, at this time they also met the Alaska task force that had just returned, and soon the Taiyuan in this task force was also urgently resupplyed, and then joined the North Pacific task force in the combat sequence.

And then the fleet went straight to Petropavlovsk!

This announced the official dispatch of troops to Kamchatka by the Empire and detonated another large-scale conflict between the Empire and Russia! (To be continued.) )