Last year, it started from the Baltic Sea, ran from the North Atlantic to the South Atlantic, bypassed Africa to the Arabian Sea, crossed the Indian Ocean through Malacca, and finally traveled north along the South China Sea.

After arriving at Spell Indochina, the Russian Navy's Pacific Second Fleet, which had bypassed most of the world, finally took a short break in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, and waited for the Pacific Third Fleet to depart from the Baltic Sea.

In this fleet expedition, which is known as the largest and farthest in human history, the Germans and the French made a lot of efforts from it, and the Germans were a country that co-opted a country to oppose the British, so they provided the Russian Navy with seventy or eighty coal ships along the way, otherwise the huge fleet of the Russian Navy would not have been able to go to the Far East.

As for France, it was also out of the factor of wooing Russia, and provided many colonial ports along the way as a rest base for the Russian navy.

The Russian Navy's Second Fleet had actually arrived in French Cam Ranh Bay in April, and had been resupplying and resting for almost a full month.

In other words, in fact, the situation of the Second Pacific Fleet is not as bad as later generations imagined, but after a long voyage, the seaworthiness of the ships has decreased, and Cam Ranh Bay lacks a large shipyard to maintain it, so the condition of the ships is not very good, but this good or bad does not affect the main combat effectiveness of the Second Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy.

More critically, in terms of personnel and supplies, the Second Fleet was actually in good shape, the sailors rested in Cam Ranh Bay for more than a month, the officers even held several balls in the French base on the shore, and more importantly, Lushun still did not fall.

This point is very important for the Russian Navy, if Arthur is captured by the Japanese, then the Russian Navy that has been reinforced will lose the foothold of Arthur, and can only be forced to go to Vladivostok, so that it needs to pass through the extremely dangerous Tsushima Strait, but now that Arthur is not lost, then if the Japanese Navy wants to intercept the Russian Navy reinforcement fleet on the periphery, then it can only be in the Taiwan Strait, the Luzon Strait or the Miyako Strait.

The environment of these straits is not as suitable for ambush interception as the Tsushima Strait, and in these straits, which are hundreds or even hundreds of kilometers away, relying on the current sea surface search distance, let alone ambushes, it is still unclear whether the Russian naval fleet can find the Russian naval fleet that passes through these straits.

If the above three places were not intercepted on the periphery, then the Japanese navy would have to concentrate its main forces to intercept the waters off Arthur or in the Tsushima Strait.

However, this is a problem, if the Japanese navy gathers the main forces off the coast of Arthur, the Russians are not stupid and naturally will not directly collide with it, if they do not go to Lushun but go through the Tsushima Strait to Vladivostok, the Japanese navy will be dumbfounded.

In the same way, if the Japanese navy had gathered the main forces in the Tsushima Strait, and if the Russians had gone straight to Lushun, the Japanese would have been dumbfounded.

The Japanese navy has only a limited number of capital ships, or even much less than the three Pacific Fleets of the Russian navy, so it cannot run around and divide its forces, and must crush the main force of the Russian navy with a single blow.

Therefore, for the Japanese Navy, how to catch the main force of the Russian Navy is the key, and for the Russian Navy, how to evade the interception of the Japanese Navy and reach Lushun or Vladivostok is the key.

In addition, for the Japanese navy, there is another problem, that is, although the Russian Navy's remnants of the First Fleet in Port Arthur have been greatly damaged and have been blockaded in Port Arthur for a long time, due to the breakthrough operation in August as in history, and the fact that the Arthur Fortress has not been contributed in the past year, there is still a little strength in it.

Naturally, it is not possible to take the initiative to go out and fight the Japanese navy, but if the Japanese navy leaves the waters off Arthur, then the remaining warships in the First Fleet will be able to leave the port and then attack the Japanese sea transportation line in the Yellow Sea.

Therefore, the Japanese navy has always maintained a certain size of fleet in the waters off Arthur for blockade, which has led to many deficiencies in the preparation of the Japanese navy for the Russian navy.

On 15 May, Heihachiro Togo, the commander of the Combined Fleet, concluded that the Russian Navy would open the Taiwan Strait, so he led a fully equipped Combined Fleet south to Taiwan, ready to launch an interception operation at any time.

On 22 May, the Second and Third Pacific Fleets of the Russian Navy had already arrived in the waters south of Taiwan, and because they were worried about the interception of the Japanese Navy, they sent advance reconnaissance cruisers to the Taiwan Strait and the Luzon Strait respectively, while the main fleet was ready to enter the Taiwan Strait or the Luzon Strait at any time.

In the afternoon of the same day, one of the two Russian cruisers that entered the Taiwan Strait discovered the Japanese Combined Fleet that had been ambushed in the Taiwan Strait in advance, and promptly transmitted the news back to the main fleet in the rear by radio to the rear area.

However, at this time, the Russian navy already knew that the Japanese navy was ambushing ahead, and then chose to enter the Luzon Strait without hesitation and continue northward along the waters east of Taiwan.

Heihachiro Togo of the Japanese Combined Fleet looked at the wreckage of the Russian cruiser on the sea, and with a dark face, he quickly ordered to go north, and at the same time sent a telegram asking for assistance to the country, in order to find out the Russian naval fleet that had entered the Pacific Ocean east of Taiwan, countless Japanese fishing boats and passenger ships for a time were heading towards the waters around the Miyako Strait, which was hundreds of kilometers long.

"If we find them, we can still stop them!" Heihachiro Togo said to his group of subordinates.

However, time passed little by little, but no one found any trace of the Russian Navy!

Two days later, Heihachiro Togo, who still couldn't find any traces of the Russian Navy, made a choice again: "Go north to Lushun at full speed!" ”

He was also making a choice this time, he judged that the Russian Navy would go to Lushun, not to Vladivostok, for the very simple reason that the Russian Navy would certainly be able to obtain safety if it went to Vladivostok, but the Russian Navy could not be in danger of Japan's sea supply line in the Yellow Sea across a North Korea, and as long as the combined fleet went to the sea off Vladivostok, it would basically be a repeat of Arthur.

However, if the Russian Navy goes to Arthur and joins the First Fleet, the combined fleet will not have much upper hand in fighting after the strength increases, and with the nail of Lushun, the Russian Navy in Arthur will be able to come out at any time to threaten Japan's maritime supply lines in the Yellow Sea.

Based on the above factors and the so-called military intuition, Heihachiro Togo judged that the Russian Navy would go straight to Arthur, so he also ordered the fleet to gallop towards Arthur at full speed.

On the 25th of May, a Japanese fishing boat finally informed the nearby Japanese naval vessels that he had discovered a large fleet in the northeast and northwest of the Ryukyus half a day earlier.

"There is no doubt that this fleet is the main fleet of the Russians, and judging by their routes, they should have avoided the waters east of Taiwan and the waters near Miyako, but chose to pass directly through the southern waters of the Ryukyus and go straight to Arthur!" In the huge battle room, Heihachiro Togo and a group of high-ranking admirals of the Hitomoto Navy sat together.

Dressed in navy blue uniforms and wearing golden ribbons, some of them were holding magnifying glasses and constantly looking at or calculating on the charts, while others were sitting in the most standard sitting position with their hands flat on their legs.

The commander of the 2nd Sentai Team, Shimamura Suo, continued: "It can be seen that our previous prediction was correct, and the enemy's destination is Lushun! ”

At this time, the chief of staff, Yuzaburo Kato, said: "Although the route of the Russian Navy is now to Arthur, what if they change direction to Vladivostok halfway?" ”

At this time, the head of Togo Heihachiro said with a heavy face: "If the Russian army does not go to Lushun, then it will not be a good thing for us!" ”

Indeed, if Russia went to Vladivostok, at least for a short time, the Japanese army would not worry about the supply lines in the Yellow Sea being cut off, and when the combined fleet had rested, it would go straight to Vladivostok, and then as long as they were blocked in the port of Vladivostok, it would still be a victory for the Japanese navy.

If we go to Arthur now, even if the Japanese navy arrives off the coast of Arthur ahead of schedule by relying on the advantages of distance and speed, it will not be possible to get any time for replenishment and rest, which means that the situation of the combined fleet will not be much better than that of the Russian navy departing from Cam Ranh Bay.

Not to mention that the Russian First Fleet in Port Arthur will definitely come out to meet at that time, then when the time comes, the combined fleet will need to face the remaining First Fleet in Port Arthur and the entire strength of the Russian Second Fleet and the Third Fleet in the Pacific that have been reinforced.

When the time comes, the number of enemies and friends will be obvious, and whether they will still be able to achieve victory is a question worth considering.

On 28 May, a cruiser of the Japanese Navy once again discovered the Russian fleet in the waters of the Yellow Sea, and that night the Japanese Navy gathered a group of mine-striking ships to launch two night torpedo attacks on the Russian naval fleet.

However, several relatively fast Japanese destroyers followed the Russian Navy and reported the movements of the Russian Navy to the Combined Fleet throughout the whole process.

At 10 a.m. on 29 May, the Russian Navy's Second Pacific Fleet arrived 100 nautical miles away from Lushun, just east of Shandong, China. At the same time, in the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy in the northeast of the Russian Navy, Heihachiro Togo ordered an "all-fleet sortie."

An hour later, at 11:15 a.m., a tentative exchange of fire broke out between the Japanese advance cruiser and the Russian naval fleet.

At the same time, the Russian Navy's First Pacific Fleet, which had been preparing to leave the port for a reception several days earlier, officially rushed out of the waters off Arthur after most of the day of lighting fire and adjusting preparations.

In order to meet the reinforcements, the remaining First Fleet even dragged out the scarred battleships, but then there was an exchange of fire with the Japanese navy that remained behind to blockade Port Arthur, and the Japanese fleet left behind, which lacked capital ships, launched the so-called "daytime torpedo assault battle", and several of its destroyers and more than a dozen torpedo boats launched a near-suicidal torpedo attack.

At the same time that the First Fleet of the Russian Navy was engaged in a battle with the remaining fleet of the Japanese Navy, the battle between the Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy and the Second and Third Fleets of the Russian Pacific Ocean 80 nautical miles away also entered a climax!

The Battle of the Yellow Sea, which really decided the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War, has already broken out!