February 12, 1931.

On the Yellow Sea, a large fleet is moving rapidly north along the coastline of the Korean Peninsula.

One Fuso-class battleship, one Ise-class battleship, two Kongo-class battleships and two Furutaka-class heavy cruisers, two Aoba-class heavy cruisers, two Tenryu-class light cruisers, four Kumo-class light cruisers, two Izumo-class first-class coastal defense ships, eight Fengfeng-class destroyers, and eight Sea-Breeze-class destroyers......

There were forty large battle ships, and the billowing smoke almost obscured the sky, such a spectacular scene made the sailors on the deck moved. In addition, the object to be fought this time is only the defeated generals of the Imperial Japanese Navy more than 30 years ago, and there is not even a single battleship, not even a decent heavy cruiser, and the Shina Navy! Although those stupid people in the army have suffered in the hands of the Chinese people in recent years, no matter how powerful those Chinese people who should have no problem in the navy are, they will not reach the point where they can deal with battleships with 150 mm naval guns, right? A total of forty 356 mm cannons on four battleships! It should be enough to destroy the entire China Navy.

However, Vice Admiral Koichi Shiozawa was not as optimistic as ordinary officers and sailors in the command tower of the flagship battleship Fuso, and Shiozawa was even a little restless when standing in front of the charts.

That's right, it's just a little fidgeting.

In his heart, he was not optimistic about this mission to break into the Bohai Bay, not because he was worried that he would be defeated by the weak Chinese navy, but because he was worried that the losses would be too great. Although he had long been mentally prepared for the loss of the battleship, he was inevitably a little reluctant when it came to the end.

But those guys in the army were so stupid that they launched such a war in Manchuria, and called the powerful Kuomintang army from the southern branch to Liaoxi! Now that a fortress has been built in Huludao, and Shanhaiguan and Qinhuangdao have been captured, it won't be long before there is another impregnable fortress... How long will this Manchurian incident be tossed to what year and month? What other way could the navy get the empire out of the mud pit of Manchuria?

To make matters worse, according to accurate information, the naval aviation of China already has a new dive bomber capable of carrying 200 kg of bombs, and in the past two days they have already sunk nearly 20 ships of various kinds in successive sorties. If it's just these dive bombers, it's not a big problem, but the Chinese Navy should also have deployed a huge submarine force in the Bohai Bay, and these submarines have laid an unknown number of mines at the entrance to the Bohai Bay in the past few months, and maybe there are also mines in the Bohai Bay!

Airplanes, submarines, and mines, if these three threats come one by one, Shiozawa is confident that they will deal with them, but if they are put together, this is no joke. Because if you want to deal with the aircraft, you can only choose to attack at night, and to avoid being detected by submarines lurking under the surface and attack, you can't turn on the searchlights, or if you don't turn on the searchlights, you can break into a bay full of mines at night, I'm afraid only God knows. If you're unlucky, maybe all four battleships will be struck and sunk on the same night, and he Shiozawa is the biggest joke in the history of the world's navies, the sinner of the great Japanese empire through the ages! Of course, it is also possible that all the warships rushed into the bay intact and smashed the Huludao fortress of the Chinese army to pieces.

But now, he has no way out, even if he doesn't want to fight, he has to bite the bullet.

However, he did not intend to take forty percent of the Imperial Japanese Navy's belongings to his death in a careless manner, and the route and speed of this sortie were all carefully calculated to ensure that he could avoid the threat of the Shina planes and break into the Bohai Bay after the sun went down today. But even so, Shiozawa still didn't dare to take it lightly, after setting off from Wu Jungang, he had a strong feeling of uneasiness in his heart, a feeling that his prey was being tightly watched by the hunter.

Two A2B reconnaissance bombers painted sky blue pierced through the clouds of more than 3,000 meters one after the other, and the two pairs of sharp eyes on the planes were staring closely at the sea surface, and they were two land-based reconnaissance planes ordered to search the waters of the DPRK.

"Sea Harrier II, have you found anything?"

"No, the sea is calm."

"Okay, we have to search carefully, we are running out of fuel, and we will be back in twenty minutes."

"Understood."

The sea was still silent, there was nothing but a few seabirds, and only two reconnaissance planes flew along the course alone, and as the sun appeared, the clouds thinned and visibility grew.

Suddenly, the observer-telegrapher on the Sea Harrier 2 noticed a thin mast on the sea level far to the east, and the telegraph operator, who was in good spirits, immediately patted the pilot in front of him on the shoulder and stretched out his finger to the east.

"Sea Harrier No. 1, the ship's mast appears on the east side, it is suspected to be a Japanese fleet, is it close to observe?"

At this time, the observer on the Sea Harrier No. 1 also spotted the fleet heading north to the east: "Yes, lower the altitude to 1,500 meters, and immediately go and observe." ”

"Understood!"

As soon as the pilot pulled the joystick, the seemingly bulky plane immediately flew in the direction of the west.

When the two Kuomintang reconnaissance planes flew over the Japanese fleet, they were taken aback, a large fleet appeared in front of them, and the lineup of dozens of ships heading north made several people a little dumbfounded.

"Oh my God, is Japan's combined fleet out of the nest?" One observer shouted in surprise.

"Shut up and take a picture! We're running out of fuel! The observer of the Sea Harrier No. 1 hurriedly raised his wings, and while reminding him, he did not forget to turn on the Siemens radio station, which had only recently been equipped for naval aviation, and hurriedly sent a telegram: "A large Japanese fleet of about 30 warships, four battleships, and four heavy cruisers ...... discovered."

"Click, click, click" The sound of the camera shutter rang out at the same time.

The two planes swaggered around the Japanese fleet, bursts of white light flashed, and the filming lasted about a few minutes. The entire Japanese fleet saw them, but unfortunately the Japanese did not send aircraft carriers and it was outside the range of the squadron's dive bombers, so there were no land-based aircraft to cover them, so the Japanese just watched the two planes circling around their heads and shooting without a solution, unless they sent the seaplanes on the battleship out for air combat.

Qingdao, Shandong. "Hum Lee Prince Hotel. This elegant and comfortable hotel built by the German colonists is now the headquarters of the Beiyang Fleet of the National Revolutionary Army Navy. And the commander of this so-called Beiyang Fleet, Rear Admiral Zhao Zheng, stood in a large room by the window on the third floor, looking at the white sand beach, the turquoise water, and the pleasant scenery of Laoshan Bay. It's such a great place, no wonder Germans and Japs love it. But now this belongs to the Beiyang Fleet, and this Qingdao fortress is now the home port of the Beiyang Fleet.

Well, in fact, there are no warships in this fleet...... But a Haiqi-class cruiser, a Canton-class air defense cruiser, a Königsberg-class cruiser, six Type 21 destroyers, twenty-four U2. submarines, as well as gunboats, minesweepers and other types of ships. However, the Beiyang Fleet has a formidable and powerful strike force, that is, the naval aviation assigned to it, including a combat aviation regiment, two bomber aviation regiments and two reconnaissance bomber groups, a total of more than 400 aircraft, all of which are the most advanced f2A, A2A, and A2B series. This already includes almost all the combat power of the Kuomintang naval aviation, and even all the aircraft on the two Zhongshan-class aircraft carriers have been transferred to the Beiyang Fleet.

With such a powerful aviation combat power, Zhao Zheng really has some sympathy for those warships that do not have much air defense capabilities. I wonder where these fools have been now?

"Commander, discover the Japanese fleet." The voice of Lieutenant Colonel Meng Hailong, chief of staff of the Beiyang Fleet, suddenly rang out.

"Where is the fleet of the Japanese devils?" Zhao Zheng turned around and asked loudly. The room he was in had now been set up to look like a war room, with large charts spread out on the map table, naval staff officers passing orders and information from one side to another, and a model of the Japanese naval fleet on the charts was being placed off the coast of Korea.

"We have just received a telegram from the Weihai base that more than 30 Japanese warships have arrived in the southeast of the Liaodong Peninsula, and about 80 nautical miles from the Port of Arthur, our reconnaissance plane in Weihai has already seen them. ..., Meng Hailong walked up to Zhao Zheng with an excited face: "Commander, there are at least four battleships and four heavy cruisers, there are no aircraft carriers, and no aircraft escort has been found."

It is now heading north along the coast of North Korea, and it is estimated that it will reach the sea off the Port of Arthur after dark tonight and begin to break through. Zhao Zheng patted his face: "Great, the Japanese are finally here, and they have paid a lot of money!"

The first credit for this battle belongs to our navy. He looked at Meng Hailong with a smile: "We're going to send it now!" "Commander, but the Japanese are still out of range of our dive bombers." Meng Hailong frowned, he was the acting captain of the aircraft carrier Canton (the second ship of the Zhongshan class) before he became the chief of staff of the temporarily formed Beiyang Fleet, and he was also one of the representatives of the Kuomintang Navy's aircraft carrier faction.

Zhao Zheng sneered: "These Japan are walking on the spot, of course, they will not let our dive bombers bomb easily." But now they just up, I don't want to blow up, our A1A can only carry a 200-kilogram bomb to blow up the unsinkable battleship...... If it is injured, maybe Japan will drive back to repair it as soon as it is distressed, and we will lose a lot. Let's let them in and fight again. He strode up to the chart and stared: "Where is Zhang Youshi's submarine detachment?" "Commander, Commander Zhang's twenty-four submarines have all been ambushed in the designated waters." Meng Hailong picked up a whip and pointed to a few red marks on the chart: "There are twelve submarines off Huludao and Qinhuangdao that are waiting for rabbits. Zhao Zheng didn't say anything about his fluent answer, the battle plan was drawn up by him personally, and he was familiar with the location of all the troops. This is just a final confirmation.

He continued to stop and asked, "Where is Chen Si's mine team?" Meng Hailong's expression was much more serious than Zhao Zheng's, he pointed to several islands at the entrance of Bohai Bay on the map, and replied: "Commander Chen's mine team, one heavy patrol, one light patrol, six destroyers, and four minesweepers are waiting in the area of the Changshan Islands. Just wait for the Japanese fleet to break into the Bohai Bay and go to lay mines, and give the devils a shut-off and beat the dogs. ，…

Zhao Zheng looked at Meng Hailong and asked lightly: "What about Huludao Fortress?" How is Yu Yanshou's preparations? The pressure on him is not light. ”

When he arrived at Huludao Fortress, Meng Hailong's eyebrows gradually wrinkled: "Commander Yu just called, the commander of the Northeast Theater has ordered the forty-eight 210mm heavy howitzers of the Second Brigade of Heavy Artillery to be transferred to Qinhuangdao, in addition, the Second Air Division of the Air Force has also been transferred to Qinhuangdao, and a large number of materials originally stored in Huludao are also being rushed. The artillery of the Huludao fortress now has only four 280-mm shore defense guns and one 380-mm train gun, as well as an anti-aircraft artillery battalion. However, these cannons are all placed on the Sanyin side of Taishan, and the naval guns that protect the Japanese ships from Taishan are not easy to hit, and we have an observation post made of reinforced concrete on Taishan to ensure the accuracy of shooting. But...... After all, there are only five large-caliber guns, and they are not automated armored batteries, so the rate of fire is very slow, and it is estimated that there will not be much success. After listening to the chief of staff's explanation, Zhao Zheng nodded and seemed to sigh: "Now wait for the Japanese to sharpen their heads and get into our trap." ”

He looked up at the rooftop, what a difficult plan! In the history of the world's navies, I'm afraid it's unheard of, right? There is not even a decent heavy cruiser, and it is necessary to rely on mines, submarines, and aircraft, which have always been auxiliary arms, to annihilate a powerful fleet with four battleships and four heavy cruisers! If this battle can be won, I am afraid that the balance of naval strength between China and Japan will be completely reversed in the next two years. After all four "Karl Marx" classes and four "Polish Regiment" classes are put into service, the Chinese Navy should be above the Japanese Navy.

At this time, Zhao Zheng felt the pressure, but he had great confidence. Although this battle is the first time that the Chinese Navy has participated in a foreign war since the First Sino-Japanese War, the Army has already proved that this nation and country have already risen with one victory after another, and now it is the turn of the Navy to prove itself.