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"China has been betrayed by the whole world, and the empire will fight for survival."

It was a headline in the newspaper, referring to the news that Britain had refused to sell warships to China and had refused to provide a supply port for the fleet's return.

"Japan threatens war."

This is another headline in the newspaper referring to the diplomatic clash between China and Japan over the salvage of warships, and the kind of headlines that have been overwhelming in China over the past few months, especially after the armistice between Japan and Russia.

"China will face the danger of national destruction"

"The whole country forges ahead to seek the survival of the country"

"Can the Navy emerge victorious?".

"On the way home, the Zhiyuan was tested with great success."

"Zhiyuan's ship" Jingyuan of the same class "is undergoing comprehensive sea trials"

"Zhijing 2 will shake the ocean"

……

The headlines in bold letters in daily newspapers often reflect everything, the fear of war, the anger at the betrayal of other countries, the determination to fight for the survival of the nation, and of course, a kind of expectation, the expectation of victory.

At this moment, when faced with a possible attack by Japan, when the will of the nation is undergoing the greatest test, once it was put into service, it caused a sensation in the whole world, and was regarded as the strongest battleship in history, the battleship cruiser "Zhiyuan", which naturally became the hope of the people.

The Imperial Royal Guards Navy battle cruiser ship "Zhiyuan", with a standard displacement of about 18,500 tons, is equipped with 8 343 mm guns, 10 190 mm guns, and 12 light rapid-fire guns, with an establishment of 786 officers and men, a maximum speed of 24 knots, and a cruising capacity of 5,000 nautical miles. Almost everyone in Chinese can recite the data of this cutting-edge warship that made history and eliminated all warships in the world as soon as it was born.

This is the information reported in the newspapers, and even in the eyes of some optimistic people, as long as there is a Zhiyuan ship, the Imperial Navy can win the naval battle and defeat all enemies.

When the Zhiyuan won attention, the "Jingyuan" battlecruiser, which was the sister ship of the Zhiyuan battleship, also attracted people's attention, of course, people paid far less attention to it than the Zhiyuan ship, although it was more advanced and powerful.

Sanduao, the best harbor in China's 18,000-kilometer coastline, is also the largest and most modern military port of the Chinese Navy, and this largest and most modern is somewhat helpless, because this is the only natural harbor belonging to China, and it is also the only modern military port of the Chinese Navy.

Although the navy has always intended to turn Sanshawan into a pure military port, but because the Qing government was forced by foreign pressure to open Sanduao as a foreign trade port seven years ago, after the opening of Sandu port, Italy set up a consulate here, Britain and the United States have built docks, and then since then, Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan, Russia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Portugal and other 24 countries have built berths, offices or representative offices here, and four countries have set up money here.

At least before it has enough strength to make the great powers face up, it is impossible for the navy to expel the consulates and commercial houses of these countries from Sanduao, and the pure military port and exclusive use of Sansha are still only a dream for the navy, at least for now, and it is precisely because of this that the barge races in Australia, the fishing boats sing late, and the business names are lined up, which can be described as a microcosm of the heyday of economic development in the southeast region.

On March 18, 1902, the gong sounded to announce the departure of the ship. The hull of the "Nishishu Maru" on which Kazuji Kawamura was riding quietly sailed away from the Kaohsiung dock.

A day later, the "West Zhou Maru" docked at the Xiamen wharf. A receptionist sent by the club came to the pier to greet it.

"You were sent by the club, right? There are many words, my name is Lin Shaozhi. ”

"Welcome to your hard work all the way"...,

"Please take care of it in the future"

A few days later, in the four-year-old Taiwanese sugar store in Sanduao, there was an additional president sent from Taiwan.

In Sanduao, where there are many merchants, not far from the western-style building of Sanduguan of Fuhai Customs, there is an independent building, and on the doorpost of the building hangs "Kaohsiung Sugar Store", which is a Taiwanese sugar store that has been doing business here since the opening of Sandu, the sugar industry has always been the pillar industry of Taiwan, and in the past, in addition to Japan, China was also the main market for Taiwanese sugar.

As the manager of Kaohsiung Sugar Store, Lin Shaozhi can be said to be well versed in the way of management, whether in the past or now, he is quite popular in Sandu, and in frequent social activities, he is left and right. Through small favors, he successfully made a large number of friends with considerable status.

For the outside world, Lin Shaozhi, the manager of the sugar store, is undoubtedly a patriotic Taiwanese businessman, whether it was before or after the recovery of Taiwan, especially after the recovery, he has shown his patriotism on many occasions, taking the lead in donating to the Navy Foundation, donating sugar to the Navy, etc.

It was precisely at these patriotic rallies that he always quietly obtained from his friends who attended the rallies and even pretended to be interested in military affairs, and extracted a large amount of information about the naval base facilities, shipping lanes, and moored ships from the mouths of the officers who participated in the prostrations.

But who knows that this Lin Shaozhi is actually a spy sent by the Japanese Navy Staff Headquarters, but the original purpose of his coming here was because of the interest shown by various countries in Sanduao and the vigilance of Japan, so he was sent to collect intelligence at this time, and now his task has become to collect intelligence from the Chinese Navy.

In the past year, almost since Sanduao was designated as a military port, he began to carry out a wide range of activities in Sanduao, mourning a large amount of military intelligence.

After the tension between China and Japan became more and more tense, the Imperial Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Intelligence Department began to monitor the Japanese living in Sanduao more and more closely, and also began to monitor the Taiwanese businessmen in Sanduao. But even so, Tokyo sent a secret order to intensify the collection of intelligence.

It was also under the instructions of this secret order that in order to collect as much as possible, Lin Shaozhi made his face dirty and his hair unkempt, Qiao pretended to be a farmer and a fisherman, and then observed the military port up close on the pretext of helping in the fields and fishing boats.

Viewed from farmland or fishing boats, Sanduao Military Port is close at hand. In the period that followed, he appeared here frequently. As time passed, a series of intelligence statistics on his black notebook were gradually improved.

After casually dressing up as a fishing idler, Lin Shaozhi came to this carefully chosen location with the same appearance as in the past, and when fishing, the expression on his face seemed to be no different from that of ordinary idlers.

In the past few weeks, during his "routine walk", he found that there were obviously more temporary gun emplacements at the mouth of the Sanshawan estuary, dense coastal defense guns of about 150 mm caliber, hidden on special flat ground between the hillsides, and the number of soldiers had also increased greatly, especially in the Sanduao Army.

Based on past experience, Lin Shaozhi understood that this may be the last stage of the Chinese's preparation for war, and more and more transport ships sailed into Sanduao, more and more army soldiers appeared near Sansha Bay, and the overhaul of fortifications on the mountains around the bay strengthened his understanding.

"How's today's harvest?"

Just as he was looking at the army soldiers who were building fortifications at the pass of the Dongchong Peninsula and speculating on the progress of their projects, a sudden greeting made him stunned, and when he turned around, he saw a young sailor looking at him curiously. …,

"Hehe, I caught a few big yellow croaker, there are a lot of big yellow croaker here"

When he spoke, in order to dispel the other party's doubts, he even deliberately pulled out the fish bag to show off.

As soon as the young sailor saw the fish, he was also quite interested and sat down, and from the first time he saw this sailor, he attracted Lin Shaozhi's attention. The coat of arms worn by the sailor on his left arm is clearly engraved with the image of a battleship. With his rich naval knowledge, Lin Shaozhi immediately recognized that it was the most powerful capital ship of the Chinese Navy, the "Zhiyuan" battle cruiser, and the turrets of the Zhiyuan cruiser were his most conspicuous mark.

However, Lin Shaozhi knew that although the officers and men of the Chinese Navy had their own insignia on the uniforms of the ships they served, the Zhiyuan ship was obviously not in Sansha Bay, and the Zhiyuan ship was about to return to China, but it had not yet returned to Sandu Macao, could it be ......

Lin Shaozhi's mind immediately came up with another warship, the sister ship of the Zhiyuan, the "Jingyuan", the Jingyuan recently underwent a full-scale sea trial in the East China Sea, and it is speculated that it should be coming to Sanduao soon. Therefore, it was concluded that this young man must be from the "Jingyuan". After having this speculation, Lin Shaozhi immediately chatted with the young man "enthusiastically".

"Hehe, it seems that you didn't go to the South Seas with the fleet."

"Huh?"

The sailor was stunned for a moment, then brightened again, and then said proudly.

"I served on the Jingyuan"

After all, the sailors even made a point of emphasis.

"But in a few days, we will go to Nanyang"

Go to Nanyang in a few days

The sailor's words attracted Lin Shaozhi's attention, and that night, he used a telescope to find the Jingyuan battle cruiser parked in the berth area from the hillside, and then he immediately wrote down the information he had into a secret letter and handed it to the contact, and the next morning, a coded telegram was sent from the Ningde Telegraph Office to Japan.

At 9 a.m. on October 27, the Imperial Telegraph Office in Tokyo received a telegram from a specific address, which was delivered directly by the receiver to the surveillance officer in the telegraph room, and a few minutes later, the telegram in the envelope was handed over to the courier, but the telegram, which had originally belonged to a company, was forwarded to the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, and at close to noon, the telegram finally reached its recipient.

The content of the telegram was not simple, but only a few simple sentences, and after verifying the location of the telegram, the Navy lieutenant who received the report immediately opened the code book, looked at the nautical chart on the wall next to it, and said to his colleague.

"Okay, the battle cruiser "Jingyuan" is about to go out again, and now he is in Sanduao. ”

As he spoke, he pointed to the charts and said.

"Right here."

Then he turned around and instructed his subordinates on the side.

"Immediately forward the same telegram to the Combined Fleet"

At 11:35 p.m., the telegram was sent to the "Shikishima", the flagship of the Combined Fleet, and in the commander's office of the Shikishima, Akiyama Shinyuki was stunned at first, and then sighed.

"Finally on the move"

As he spat out these words, he hurriedly left the restaurant, and Heihachiro Togo noticed that there was a little helplessness in his expression, even a hint of sadness.

"Hey"

The same sigh came from the mouth of Togo Heihachiro, the short Togo, who spoke weakly, walked only to see his toes, how he didn't look like a soldier, let alone a general, when this sigh was issued, it made the "general wind" lined by the military uniform on his body disappear.

Unlike Akiyama Shinyuki's sigh, his sigh was for Akiyama Shinyuki, Akiyama Manakasa completely changed after this war, he suffered from severe schizophrenia, became chattering, often convulsed, he was originally a literary scholar, but also a highly talented student who was admitted to Tokyo Imperial University, but unfortunately participated in the war, his talent made a great contribution to the defeat of the Russian fleet, but the cruelty of the war also caused serious damage to his nerves, especially the explosion and sinking of the ammunition depot at the back of the Mikasa battleshipAt the same time as the Imperial Navy was severely damaged, some people blamed Akiyama Shinyuki Shaosa for one of the reasons for the explosion and sinking accident, burying his head in religious research. …,

"Akiyama, you must know that the best way for a navy to die is to die in a naval battle, and the same is true for a warship."

Yuzaburo Kato, chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, interrupted the exclamation of the two with a remark, which in his opinion was just a naval battle.

"A naval battle of bullying"

In addition to sighing, Akiyama Mayuki sighed, but as he spoke, he walked to the chart table, where several gray ship models could be seen on the chart.

"Now, the Southern Fleet, which is heading to the South Seas for adaptive training, is here"

Placing the model of seven warships on the map table just a few centimeters from the Luzon Strait, Akiyama Shinyuki looked up at Togo who was standing there.

"And the "Jingyuan" is here."

Another model of a ship was placed in the position of Sanduao, and then Akiyama said.

"Although the speed of the Southern Fleet is far from being able to catch up with the Jingyuan, if it is assumed that the Jingyuan left the military port three days later and entered the South Seas, then, according to the route, it is speculated that it will be here at about 8 a.m. on the fourth day, here at 3 p.m. on the fourth day, and here at 3 a.m. on the fifth day......

Immediately after marking the four encounter locations on the chart, Akiyama Shinyuki at this time has completely lost the decadence of the past, and some are just the sensitivity of a naval staff officer to war and details.

"According to the speculation after the Jingyuan left the Yangtze River, the Jingyuan should be equipped with a Haizi-class cruiser for sailing training, while the Nansen fleet has the Fuji, Iwami battleships, Bayan, Izumo armored cruisers, and the protective cruisers Takasago, Kasaki, and Chitose. Disperse the fire with three triple 13.5-inch naval guns and attack three of the battleships or armored cruisers respectively, if they concentrate their firepower to attack one in order to sink it, they can concentrate three battleships to attack Jingyuan, and the southern fleet can still use one battleship or armored cruiser to carry out an unhindered attack on the Jingyun, and after sinking the Jingyuan, consider firing torpedoes on it......"

Then a series of naval tactics spit out from Akiyama Shinyuki's mouth to intercept the Jingyuan, which was a request from the headquarters after receiving a telegram from the "Jingyuan" going to sea for a test after setting off, and the reason for his request was very simple, that is, he was already preparing to fight against China, so it was necessary to defeat the Jingyuan and sink the Jingyuan, which could psychologically inflict heavy damage on the Chinese Navy and thus prepare for the next operation.

"So where is the Zhiyuan?"

Heihachiro Togo frowned and asked rhetorically, as the commander of the combined fleet, he is not opposed to "cutting off the enemy's finger" before the war, whether it is the Zhiyuan or the Jingyuan, for the Chinese, they are a powerful and invincible warship, if they can sink the Jingyuan before the naval battle is in full swing, then it is unimaginable to the Chinese Navy and even the people's psychological damage, and may even shake their confidence in continuing the war.

The reason for choosing Jingyuan is very simple, Jingyuan has just been in service for 24 days, although the Chinese hastily completed the preliminary sea trials, but in fact, there are still a large number of test subjects that have not yet been completed, and this is not the most important, the most important thing is that the Jingyuan is young, inexperienced officers and sailors who have just received Jingyuan, they do not know their own equipment, which undoubtedly increases a bargaining chip to win the naval battle, and may even win as easily as Tsushima.

The overwhelming victory of sinking the Jingyuan will not only severely damage the morale of the Chinese Navy, but also greatly boost the morale of the combined fleet, and the sinking of the Jingyuan is very likely to cause the Chinese to lose confidence in the Zhiyuan.

"The Zhiyuan ship left Surabaya three days ago, according to our intelligence, the Zhiyuan will sail to Singapore today, it will be in Singapore to comfort the expatriate, and at the same time invite the British Navy to visit the ship, it is expected to take about two to three days, if we encounter the Jingyuan ship at the latest at the No. 3 interception point, then even if the Zhiyuan sails at full speed at the top speed of 24 nautical miles after learning the news, the southern fleet will have enough time to intercept and sink Jingyuan."

"And what about the Second Fleet?"

"Sir, the Second Fleet is still in the Mediterranean, has not yet entered the Suez Canal, and according to the speed of the voyage and the speed of the Russian Third Pacific Fleet, it should arrive in the South Sea around Christmas, and two months is enough time for the South Fleet to repair the warships and prepare for the next interception operation."

Sensing the fleeting doubt in the chief's eyes, Akiyama Shinyuki continued.

"Although the first interception of the Jingyuan made the naval battle disappear suddenly, judging from various factors, it was of great help to our army."

After Akiyama Shinyuki finished speaking, Heihachiro Togo didn't say anything, just looked at the model that represented the Jingyuan.

"The best home for a warship is the sea, and the best grave for a sailor is the sea" ......,