Chapter 134 Tsushima (Part I) (Ask for a monthly pass!) Read! ）

On May 27, the anniversary of the accession of Tsar and Empress Nicholas II, at eight o'clock in the morning, the flagpole and two pillars of the first warship of the Russian Second Pacific Fleet were raised with the Andrei flag raised high.

The sailors seemed particularly happy and became talkative, some playing chess in a secluded corner, others reading, while another group of people were talking about the anecdotes of a certain colleague. It is almost hard to believe that these sailors are about to take part in a naval battle in which many will die, and perhaps there is a hint of bravery in their pretense of being indifferent to danger.

Why do they have such an attitude? The only indication is that the sailors were tired of the voyage, that they had been sailing on unfamiliar seas for almost eight months from last year until now, with few chances of landing, poor food, scorching tropical sunshine to which the high-latitude countries were unaccustomed, in a word, almost all of them had reached the limit of human patience.

Ever since leaving Liberia, almost everyone has been worried about the attack of the Japanese fleet all the time, and after passing Madagascar, they have become more and more panicked, and after a short rest in Sanduao, the situation has become even more difficult as soon as they go to sea, and everyone is worried about the night attack of the Japanese torpedo team every night.

And now, all the troubles have passed, and the end is at hand: for some, a tomb of the ocean, for others, they will return to their homeland, and there will always be a part of the fleet that will be able to reach Vladivostok!

At this time, Vice Admiral Rogersstewinsky was thinking about how to show his humility and loyalty to His Majesty the Tsar, although the enemy fleet may have gathered on the horizon and was laying a net to intercept this fleet that had made a "great voyage", but Rogerstvinsky could not forget this day, today was the anniversary of the Tsar's coronation, and the fleet should raise the colorful flag to commemorate it.

On the battleship "", the whistle blew and the duty officer shouted loudly.

"Pray!"

"Pray for the Fleet!"

After the order was given, the sailors prayed on the main deck, and the priest was already dressed and standing in front of the icon, his fiery red, untrimmed beard was a little untidy, and his dull eyes showed his uncertainty.

He even prayed unceremoniously, indicating that his mind might be at work, and the faces of the people were gray and cold, some of them were immovable, others were drawing crosses there, and at last all the sailors sang "God bless the Tsar" before they dispersed.

While the prayers were praying, the fleet changed to a new formation, with the armored cruisers of the 1st and 2nd Squadrons sailing forward at full speed to lead the battleships in the left column, the transports remaining behind the right column, covered by the cruisers, and the five torpedo ships of the 2nd Squadron cruising around the cruisers, which changed the fleet from a sailing formation to a battle formation.

At this time, the Second Pacific Fleet had already given many Japanese sentinels the opportunity to observe in detail, and the coded telegrams sent by the sentinels clearly told the telegraphers of the Russian fleet that they were constantly reporting information about this fleet, but for the Russian naval officers and men of the Second Pacific Fleet, they did not know where the main force of the Japanese army was, how close or far it was.

At this time, the Tsushima Strait is shrouded in a mist, and maybe they can rush out of the fog at any time, but what should we do if we are attacked?

Hundreds of sailors of the Russian Navy are thinking about this in their hearts. Finally, in front of the left ship at a distance of sixty chains, four enemy ships appeared, one of which had two chimneys, and the other three had only one chimney.

"The one with two chimneys is the Zhenyuan captured by the Japanese from the Chinese!"

Putting down the binoculars, Kanovilikov said to Markov, the chief engineer beside him, who nodded.

"They are all second-class battleships, old and slow, with a displacement of four thousand to seven thousand tons!"

While Markov was speaking, the "Suvorov" sounded the horn "Ready for battle", which made Kanovilikov finally laugh. ,

"Your Excellency our Commander-in-Chief has finally given the order, if it is correct, we should send the fastest battleships of the Second Sentai and our most powerful cruisers, such as our "Oleg" and "Aurora", these four Japanese warships will be sunk by us before the reinforcements arrive......"

But this mood lasted only a while, and when the "Oleg" asked for further orders, the "Suvorov" again issued the banner of "waiting for further orders".

"Damn Rogerstinsky, he will definitely be sent to the gallows, and his stupidity will ruin the entire Russian Navy!"

Looking at the order, Kanovilikov cursed loudly, while Markov, who had been silent before, looked at the last of the departing enemy ships, the "Zhenyuan".

"Maybe when the war is over, there will be a few more Russian ** ships in the Japanese fleet!"

Markov had no confidence in what victory it would take, or a quiet ride over Tsushima.

"I wish we were alive there! I hope that the captains will be brave and give the order to sink themselves when the situation is not good, at least ...... At least to preserve the honor of the Russian Navy, I don't want to tell my son that there is also the battleship "Oleg" in the Japanese Navy, and it was in Tsushima that captured ours"

In the morning, Kantaro Suzuki, of the four destroyers belonging to the 4th Destroyer Group, led Asagiri, Chūn Yu, Asaha Cháo, and Baiyun to finally arrive in the Tsushima Strait and discover the Russian fleet.

"Discover the Japanese fleet!"

As the alarm bell sounded, the entire Second Pacific Fleet boiled, and then the sailors saw the four Japanese warships appearing forty chains away, and the fleet's cannons immediately aimed at them, and while the gunners traced the enemy ships, they were surprised to find that the commander-in-chief had not given the order to open fire.

“……？”

Kantaro Suzuki, who was standing on the destroyer Kiri, was sailing against the Russian fleet when he looked at the Russian fleet with a telescope, and he couldn't see the Russians' approach clearly.

"Command! The ships sailed in battle formation at full speed to the front of the Lù fleet, and turned right to cut to the starboard side of the Lù fleet! ”

An order was given from the mouth of Kantaro Suzuki.

"Sir?"

The officers on the bridge stared at the commander in disbelief.

"Execute the order!"

After repeating the order again, perhaps sensing everyone's confusion, Kantaro Suzuki explained.

"I can't see the approach of the people of Lù on the side of the fleet of the Lù country, so I have to rush to the front of the people of Lù to look at the people of Lù!"

Although the captains of Chūn, Chao Cháo, and Baiyun even thought they had misheard this order when they heard the signal soldier, they carried out the order.

If Shinanomaru and Izumi are stupid and bold, then Suzuki Kantaro Nakasa is undoubtedly crazy in comparison. The four destroyers, Asagiri, Chūn, Asakao, and Baiyun, were fast enough to drive out of the Second Pacific Fleet, but only the Second Pacific Fleet made a cross-cutting movement and ran from the port side of the Russians to the starboard side.

This cross-cutting movement startled Rozhestvinsky, who was standing on the bridge of the "Duke Suvorov" and had been observing the four destroyers from a distance.

"The Japanese destroyer was laying mines on the road ahead!"

With a cry of surprise, Roger Stevensky would no longer dream of the "great admiral", and he would have to live his dreams.

"Immediately raise the signal and order all ships to turn 90 degrees to the right at the same time, from a column to a horizontal formation!"

Although he was a general from the palace, he had also studied at the naval school, and in the face of the mine array in front of him, Rozhest Stevensky still gave the order according to the textbook.

"Turn 90 degrees to the left and form a column to avoid the "mine array" dropped by the Japanese destroyers. ”

There seems to be nothing wrong with the standard textbook-like evasion order, but there was a problem when the first left turn occurred, and the Alexander III, which was following behind the flagship, missed the signal and followed behind the flagship's butt without turning around, and the subsequent warships immediately wondered if they had misread the signal, and everyone had to follow the front.

However, the Second Fleet and the Third Fleet did not misread the signal and completed a right-turn action, so that after the two turns were completed, in just a few dozen minutes, the battle column of the first line became a two-way column for several days.

"Damn Soren Wowski!"

The scene in front of him was so angry that Roger Stevensky scolded and ordered the signal to be raised again.

"Change the two-way column into one column."

But the fleet is by no means a mere collection of warships, but a collection of well-trained officers. First of all, the First Fleet had to speed up, and secondly, the Second Fleet and the Third Fleet, which were almost parallel, had to slow down, but now everyone knew that a big war was just around the corner, and they were anxious to go faster, and no one would slow down. ,

After the signal was issued, in the face of the fact that the fleet still maintained two columns, Rozhest Stevensky had no choice but to recognize the formation of the two columns.

At this time, the Russian Second Pacific Fleet, there were more than two columns, and there was also a cruiser formation on the right escorting armed merchant ships, work ships or something, roughly divided into three columns, but in fact, it was not clear how many columns should be counted.

At this time, the artillery of the entire Russian Pacific Fleet was aimed at these four destroyers, but surprisingly, the commander-in-chief still did not give the order to open the cannon, and suddenly a cannon sound broke the silence at sea, and due to the gunner's distraction, a six-inch gun of the turret on the port side of the "Orilo" opened fire, and everyone was startled, and the shell fell near the bow of the second Japanese destroyer.

As soon as the cannon rang out, the other ships of the entire fleet took this as a signal, and they also opened fire together, and the deafening sound of cannons echoed on the entire sea, and the Japanese also began to fire back, and the shells went straight to the nearest Russian ** ship, the battleship "Oleg" Makarov was surprised to see that almost all of the Japanese shells exploded in an instant close to the water, not only blowing up a huge column of water and black smoke, but after the explosion, the sea was even filled with flames, This is a test shell and a rangefinder bomb that the Japanese use to calibrate the accuracy of aiming.

"New shells?"

"Their shells can burn on the surface of the sea, and they should be filled with shells that are used to gargle and blow up, ten years ago, the Beiyang Fleet of the Qing Kingdom was defeated by this kind of shells, but until ten years later, half of our shells are still used with black fire, the same as the Beiyang Fleet!"

While Kanovilikov was complaining, the inferior Japanese warships had withdrawn at high speed, and the battle lasted ten minutes, with no shells on either side hit.

When the Japanese warships were withdrawn, the flag was raised on the "Suvorov".

"Don't làng fee cannonballs!"

And on the ship "Oleg", many sailors blew up this encounter on a xiǎo scale as a big victory, and the chief sailor Sayem, who was standing on the upper deck, sneered and looked in the direction in which the Japanese warship disappeared.

"We've already told those Japanese to see how powerful we are, and they're running into opponents who are much stronger than the Arthur Fleet."

Warrant Officer Volbekov nodded in agreement.

"As long as we don't run into Shui Xuan, nothing else will be a problem, as for firing the cannon, we will definitely be able to give them a good beating!"

Listening to the big guys' chatter, Markov said.

"There's no way they're throwing mines here, and when it comes to artillery, gentlemen, you have to admit that their gunnery is good, and they have missed a lot of bullets!"

Listening to his words, Volbekov immediately shouted.

"Sir, don't praise them, they missed the bullet and missed it!"

Let's not hit either, and we didn't shoot a few near-misses at all, and despite the thought in his heart, Markov did not speak, showing respect for his colleagues with silence.

"The flagship signals the soldiers to take turns eating!"

After a short "jī battle", perhaps to boost morale, lunch aboard the "Oleg" was very rich, a bowl of bean pig ròu roasted from Sanduao with bread and beetroot soup, and even a glass of Chinese red wine for everyone, after which everyone was allowed a moment to rest.

"Just in time for a nap!"

Kanovilikov, who had found a comfortable open space under the turret on the deck, lay there lazily and stretched, as if there was nothing more pleasant, but Markovi lay there and picked up a cigarette, lit it, and looked at the magnificent sea, full of indifference.

"You know what?"

"Huh?"

"When I left Sanduao, I wrote a letter to Natasha, and I was very happy because ......"

"Because of what?"

"Because that's the last letter I'll ever send alive!"

[.b.m]