At 10:03 p.m., when the tide came on time, Ding Ruchang immediately ordered all ships of the Beiyang Naval Division to enter the main channel, take advantage of the high tide, and sail through the originally narrow and silted Feiyu Gorge waterway and reef beach to Incheon Port.

Before the main fleet moved, the lightning strike fleet had already entered the main channel an hour ago, following Wang Chenhao's mine fleet along the navigation mark.

When Wang Chenhao's mine fleet cleared the last mine on the main channel, it was still 12 kilometers away from the interior of Incheon Port.

At the beginning of the month, the moon and stars are not very bright at night. Wang Chenhao's mine fleet did not dare to turn on the lights, and all the way forward was carried out in discredit, relying on the insufficient starlight to move forward slowly.

Of course, the vanguard was always bitter, and the luminous beacons they left behind could only be convenient for the teams behind.

Everything was carried out according to the plan, and Wang Chenhao seems to have been influenced by the military philosophy of later generations, requiring that all planning links must be carried out on time according to the schedule, not sooner or later.

Most of the waters of Incheon Port are pitch black, with only the occasional dim lights on the shore pier.

To the east is a civilian wharf with a wide range of ships moored as far as the eye can see. The west side was requisitioned by the military as a military dock for military ships to dock and supply.

The military wharf is divided into two parts, with the ships of the Combined Fleet berthing on the left and more than 40 troop carriers berthing on the right.

At this time, the Combined Fleet was anchored in the harbor with Akitsuzu, Matsushima (the flagship of the Combined Fleet), Chiyoda, Takachiho, Hashidate, and Itsukushima; There are also Katsuragi (the flagship of the West Sea Fleet), Tsukushi, and Tenryu of the West Sea Fleet. In addition, the warships carried torpedo boats Shanying, No. 7, No. 12, No. 13, No. 22, and No. 23; In charge of patrolling the harbor were the gunboats Atago and Maya.

Originally, the Kaohsiung and Yamato 2nd ships of the West Sea Fleet were still in the port at noon, but they were suddenly transferred back to Sasebo, and Wang Chenhao did not pay attention to the lack of these two warships, and as a result, they escaped by luck.

At 11 o'clock in the evening, the 26 torpedo boats of the Beiyang Naval Division's Thunderbolt Fleet were divided into eight attack squads and quietly entered the port of Incheon in batches.

At this time, the main fleet had already traveled halfway to the main channel, and according to the plan, it was ready to start.

As the deputy commander-in-chief, Wang Chenhao immediately ordered the lightning strike fleet to take action on time, and the leading ships of the eight torpedo boat squadrons quickly sailed toward the enemy fleet with the target indication maps assigned to them by Wang Chenhao.

Most of the officers and men on the ships of the Navy have already fallen asleep, but there are patrol officers on each ship. Although the torpedo boats of the Beiyang Naval Division's lightning strike fleet tried their best to slow down and prevent making loud noises to alarm the enemy, after all, in the middle of the night, 26 torpedo boats suddenly appeared on the sea in the dead of night, and their voices were still very loud.

Since the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, the gunboats Atago and Maya have been following the combined fleet, serving as ports and anchor guards, when the war first broke out, they were relatively diligent, but with the Beiyang Naval Division avoiding the war, they found that there was no need to worry at all, and they were not much vigilant at this time.

In the dark night, as the Beiyang Naval Division's lightning strike fleet approached the Tsumoto fleet, the Atago and Maya two ships, which were on guard on the periphery of the fleet, finally heard the abnormal situation.

On the bridge of the Maya, Corporal Kojima, who was on duty, was the first to hear the roar of the approaching motor of the ship. In the dark, the visibility was less than 100 meters, and he couldn't see the situation in the distance, so he had to immediately wake up the others and quickly turn on the searchlights.

With a thud, as several searchlights on the bridge turned on one after another, they suddenly saw the approaching torpedo boat.

No, a group of torpedo boats to be exact.

So many torpedo boats rushed at high speed, and the distance was already less than 400 meters, which immediately frightened all the sailors on duty such as Kojima.

"Enemy attack!" Kojima screamed.

When the gong sounds, six times each is struck to represent an emergency alarm in the sound of the naval siren. At this time, the army was still relatively poor and could not afford to be equipped with hand-cranked sirens. However, the penetrating power of the gong at night should not be underestimated, and the army was well-trained and immediately got up and acted after hearing the sound of an emergency siren.

It is said that the army is alert, but unfortunately it is too late.

The boats of the Beiyang Naval Division's lightning strike fleet immediately pushed their motors to the highest level and sprinted towards the ships at extreme speed at the maximum output horsepower.

This kind of extreme speed at full power output can only be maintained for more than ten minutes, and the wear and tear on the hull is huge, and it is almost not used in peacetime, and is only used at the most critical moment of battle.

Undoubtedly, the torpedo boat group of the Beiyang Naval Division has entered a critical moment, so it will use the top speed gear.

When the Saimoto sailors on the Maya rushed out and ran to the combat position, the Beiyang Naval Division's torpedo boat, the Fulong, which was the first to approach, opened fire.

"Da Da Da!" The bunker-like command tower on the bow of the Fulong was equipped with a 37-mm five-barreled rapid-fire gun from the ship's Haqikais, which immediately spewed out tongues of fire and fired at the ship Maya.

The first to fire is just to prevent the ship's firepower counterattack, both sides are small boats, the distance is so close, half a catty against eight taels, whoever fires first will take advantage.

Sure enough, the sailors of the Maya were fiercely attacked before they could enter the battle position, and six or seven people were killed and wounded in an instant.

With a "bang", the fastest Fulong was the first to enter the 200-meter torpedo attack range, and under the cover of the ship's rapid-fire guns, it was the first to fire the first 14-inch black-headed torpedo.

Immediately afterwards, the Fulong made an emergency right turn, split a wave several meters high, and drew a huge "L" shaped trace, away from the ship. Because the explosive power of the torpedo is huge, it is quite dangerous within two hundred meters.

Five seconds later, the torpedo rose from a hundred meters away to a depth of 2 meters above the water, dragged a long bubble, and rushed to the port side of the Maya at a speed of 28 knots.

"Torpedo!" Someone aboard the Maya screamed.

The officers and men of the Navy had just rushed into the firing position, and some of them could not wait for the officer's order to open fire on their own.

"Da Da Da!" The shipboard Haqikes 37 rapid-fire guns on the Maya gunboat hurriedly aimed at the speeding torpedo to fire, but only five or six seconds after pulling the trigger, the torpedo had already hit the Maya.

With a loud "boom", the blackhead torpedo with a charge of 140 kg exploded, and the Maya was blown to pieces in an instant. The violent blast wave of the explosion carried thick smoke and waves over a radius of more than 100 meters, and the huge fiery red mushroom cloud that rushed up was more than 100 meters high, illuminating most of Incheon Port in an instant.

The sailors on board the Maya were swallowed up by the explosion before they could even jump into the sea to escape.

Almost at the same time, another alert gunboat, the Atago, a mile away, also exploded violently. It was hit by a 14-inch torpedo fired by the flagship of the Beiyang Naval Division's 2nd Detachment, the Zhongjia torpedo boat, but it was happier than the Maya. The reason was that the torpedo fired by Nakaka hit the bow of the Atago, and after the explosion, half of its stern remained, and five or six sailors on it were able to jump into the sea to escape, unlike the Saimoto sailors on the Maya, all of whom were killed in an instant.

After the sinking of Maya and Atago, two small gunboats on guard duty at Incheon Port, the torpedo boat squads of the Beiyang Naval Division frantically rushed to the shore pier, aiming directly at the group of ships at anchor.