In terms of the number of battleships, the Russian Navy has already taken advantage, but although the number of battleships in the Japanese is relatively small, it has a large number of armored cruisers, and in the era when the 12-inch main guns of battleships are generally useless, and naval battles can only wash the deck with small and medium-caliber rapid-fire guns, the firepower of armored cruisers is actually not much worse than that of these former dreadnought battleships.

However, the speed of armored cruisers was much faster than those battleships, and in addition, taking into account the previous naval battles between Japan and Russia, the quality of the Japanese navy's warships and the navigation and gunnery level of the officers and men were far superior to those of the Russian navy, so although the Russian navy had an advantage in the number of battleships, it actually did not have any advantage.

During the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Navy was inferior to the Beiyang Naval Division during the First Sino-Japanese War, and the Beiyang Naval Division was lost in the performance of the battleships, especially the performance of rapid-fire artillery, but the training level of officers and men did not belong to the Japanese Navy, while the Russian Navy was not much weaker in the number and performance of warships.

At that time, after a series of major battles, the combined fleet of Japan was forced to return to Japan for rest and replenishment because it had experienced thousands of nautical miles of formation to catch up and intercept and follow-up operations, leaving only a small number of ships off the coast of Arthur to monitor the fleet in the port of Arthur.

At that time, it was the most beautiful month for the Russian Navy since the outbreak of the war, and in that short month, the Russian Navy successively sent a small fleet out of the port to attack the Japanese sea transport line in the Yellow Sea, sank a number of Japanese transport ships in succession at the mouth of the Yalu River, and also exchanged fire with the Japanese fleet escorting the ship.

It is worth mentioning that there is also a battleship in the Japanese Navy escort fleet that is familiar to later generations: Zhenyuan!

This ship was captured by the Japanese during the First Sino-Japanese War, and since then has been incorporated into the Japanese Navy as a battleship, and its name is still "Zhenyuan", and the ship has historically been incorporated into the 5th Sentai of the Third Fleet of the Japanese Combined Fleet and participated in the Battle of the Tsushima Strait between Japan and Russia.

The Battle of Tsushima has not yet broken out in this time and space, but there was a naval battle in the Yellow Sea before, in which the Zhenyuan ship was incorporated into the Third Fleet, and the 5th Sentai was formed together with Itsukushima, Matsushima, and Hashidate to participate in the big melee with the Russian Navy. The Third Fleet remained on the western coast of Korea to undertake escort missions because of the minor damage.

In just one month, the Russian Navy sank six Japanese merchant ships or transport ships in the coastal waters from the Yalu River to the western coast of Korea, and also damaged a number of Japanese naval warships.

During the Russo-Japanese War, in order to speed up the progress of the project, although the Japanese military temporarily gained the ability to temporarily open traffic through the method of directly laying military railways in Guò, the volume of this temporary military railway was very small, and it was simply unable to maintain the operational needs of hundreds of thousands of troops in Mukden.

Therefore, if the Japanese navy cannot open up the sea transportation line as soon as possible, their army units in Mukden will be finished first without fighting themselves.

At the same time, however, the situation of the Russian defenders of Arthur was not good, and after more than a year of onslaught by the Japanese, they simply did not have enough ammunition to continue holding Arthur.

The strength of the army has also caused too much damage because of the repeated struggle for the 203 heights, which has become a place for the consumption of troops and artillery shells by both Japan and Russia, and the current strength of the Russian army simply cannot maintain this state of contention for long. Is it okay to continue to cower in the Lushun Fortress?

It is naturally possible for the internal defenders, but once the 203 heights are abandoned it is very bad for the Russian Navy, when the heavy artillery of the Japanese army will be able to cover the entire port area, and then the Russian Navy will have to abandon Arthur, and once it leaves Arthur, the Russian Navy will not be able to rely on the nail of Arthur to continue to attack the Japanese sea supply lines.

In other words, if the 203 heights are lost, then the Lushun fortress will lose its strategic value to continue to defend, and the only value left is to contain tens of thousands of days.

Seeing that the 203rd Heights were about to be lost, and because the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet was repairing and replenishing at this time, Rozhtestvensky did not hesitate too much to lead all the ships in his fleet that could run quietly out of port on the night of July 3......

In fact, if the Russian Navy does not go, but continues to rely on Arthur to attack the Japanese supply lines on the sea, it is really difficult to say whether the Russian army in Lushun will not be able to hold on first or the Japanese army in Mukden will not be able to hold on first.

A few hours later, the Japanese Army in the direction of Lushun urgently informed the Japanese Navy that most of the Russian Navy had left the port.

In the last battle of the Yellow Sea, two battleships of the Japanese navy were seriously injured, and two armored cruisers were also damaged by different cruisers, not to mention other cruisers.

Now that it is known that the Russian Navy is departing from Vladivostok, the Japanese Navy does not know what to do for a while, and is it relying on the existing fleet to intercept it? Or let the Russian Navy cross the Tsushima Strait into Vladivostok?

"The Russian fleet must not be allowed to cross the Tsushima Strait, otherwise there will be endless trouble!" Vladivostok is not Lushun, and if the Japanese navy exerts huge pressure on the Japanese army on the side of Lushun, it may be able to forcibly conquer Lushun with tens of thousands of lives, but don't think about Vladivostok, once the Russian fleet enters Vladivostok, then the navy will not want to live in peace in the future, after all, the Japanese navy can't always squat outside Vladivostok to blockade it.

Heihachiro Togo could almost foresee the future, and the Japanese navy would be forced to engage the Russian navy in a scattered battle in the Sea of Japan and the Tsushima Strait, and whether the Japanese navy would be able to maintain the sea supply lines was a big question mark.

"They must be wiped out at sea, and if they can't, they must be forced back to Arthur!" Relatively speaking, it is better to keep the Russian Navy in the dangerous city of Arthur than to let them go to Vladivostok.

After Togo Heihachiro made his decision, the combined fleet of the Japanese and the main fleet was once again assembled, and although the two battleships were more seriously wounded, they could not control so much, and pulled them directly from the slipway and went into battle with the wounded, and at the same time ordered the Third Fleet in the western waters of Korea to search for and track the Russian fleet.

On the 5th of July, most of the main forces of the First and Second Fleets of the Japanese Combined Fleet had arrived in the Tsushima Strait, and Heihachiro Togo tried to conduct an interception battle here.

However, what is different from history is that this time, whether it is Rozhtestvensky or other naval officers in the Russian Navy, they all know that the Japanese Combined Fleet is in front of them, and this time they will definitely fight with the Japanese Combined Fleet.

At three o'clock in the afternoon of July 5th, the fleets of both sides had entered the Tsushima Strait one after another, and then a major battle broke out between the two sides without surprise!

This time both sides can be said to be prepared, one wants to stop the opponent, and the other wants to rush through the enemy's blockade to Vladivostok!

Although history has been completely different, a naval battle broke out between Japan and Russia in the Tsushima Strait, but unlike history, this time both sides were well prepared, and the Russian army did not have any situation of coming from afar and being exhausted, and the Japanese side did not miss the traces of the Russian Navy at the beginning, but kept tracking the Russian Navy.

From three o'clock in the afternoon to seven o'clock in the evening, the two sides fought fiercely in this small sea area for four hours, and there was no fog, no accidents, no scuffles during the day, and the two sides engaged in a traditional and regular fleet decisive battle!

Rozhtestvensky learned the lesson of the last naval battle in the Yellow Sea, and when he could no longer gain the advantage of speed, he strictly ordered all formations to increase their speed privately, and it was necessary to ensure the uniform speed of all formations to ensure that the formation was not disordered.

The Japanese navy, on the other hand, adopted a tried-and-true mobile combat method, relying on high speed and intensive firepower to constantly seize the T-shaped head and fire a large number of shells at the Russian army.

Under such circumstances, the naval battle between the two sides is much more brutal than any other naval battle in history!

Both sides have adopted a strict line battle method, which has once again proved to the global navy that line battle is still the unshakable mainstream combat mode of the navy today.

In particular, when Heihachiro Togo ordered the fleet to maneuver to the front of the Russian fleet to make a U-shaped turn, although in the process of turning the Japanese navy paid the price of one battleship being sunk and two armored cruisers being severely damaged, but after completing the turn, the Japanese combined fleet was heavily wounded to the Russian navy, and the battleship Admiral Nakhimov of the Russian Navy was sunk on the spot, and the battleship Borodino was heavily damaged and forced to abandon the ship, and then the Russian navy chose to sink itself. Most of the other ships were also seriously damaged.

When the two sides fought fiercely for four hours, and at seven o'clock in the evening, the Japanese navy had sunk one battleship and two armored cruisers, while the Russian navy had sunk three on the spot, and many other ships had also suffered heavy damage.

After seven o'clock in the evening, the main fleets of the two sides disengaged, but the war did not end there, and the navy sent a large number of small ships to carry out lightning strikes against the Russian navy.

That night, the Russian Navy sank another battleship.

The next morning, the main fleets of both sides, already scarred, collided again, and the fighting between the two sides lasted almost the whole day.

In the afternoon, Duke Suvorov, the flagship of the Russian fleet, was sunk, and before the sinking due to the fact that the conning tower was hit, the soul of the Russian Navy, the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Rozhtestvensky, was killed on the spot, and after the loss of this powerful supreme commander, the entire Russian naval fleet suddenly fell into chaos.

Lieutenant Admiral Flekelsham of the Second Detachment immediately raised the command flag, and this person was the former rear admiral commander of the Second Detachment of the Second Pacific Fleet, who was promoted to lieutenant general during the recuperation period in Arthur after the Battle of the Yellow Sea, and served as the commander of the Second Detachment of the Pacific Fleet.

However, a few minutes later, Vice Admiral Wilhelm 61 Wirthofft, the former commander of the First Pacific Fleet and the current commander of the Third Pacific Fleet, also hoisted the command flag.

That is to say, at that time, there were two flagships in the Russian Navy, two commanders, and the ships in the Russian fleet did not know who to listen to, and then there was chaos in the Russian fleet, and at this time, even if Maklov and Rozhtestvensky were both resurrected, they could not recover the defeat.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, after seeing the chaos in the Russian army, Heihachiro Togo once again gave a decisive signal, led the fleet to rush into the Russian fleet, and then successfully cut off the second and third fleets of the Russian Navy.

In less than an hour, one of the remaining three battleships of the Second Squadron of the Russian Navy was sunk, one was severely damaged and completely lost power, while the other was set on fire and forced to abandon the ship.

At the same time, the Japanese navy was also counterattacked by Yan, and another armored cruiser was hit and caught on fire, and Yanzhòng tilted, and was forced to abandon the ship.

By this time, the three major squadrons of the Russian Pacific Fleet had a total of 14 battleships, which were less than half at this time, the second squadron was completely wiped out, the first squadron lost more than half, and several battleships of the third squadron were mostly old battleships, which could not compete with the remaining warships of the Japanese navy at all.

So by this time there was no one to snatch command with him, and Lieutenant General Wilhelm 61 Wirthoft ordered to speed up and get out of the battle.

Then the Russian Navy will be even more chaotic!

When the sun had set on that day, the Russian navy had been completely disrupted, and the detachments were left to fight alone, and Lieutenant General Wilhelm 61 Wirthoft led the remnants of his third squadron all the way to escape the night torpedo attacks of the Japanese and fled to Vladivostok with the remaining three battleships, two cruisers, and three destroyers.

And the other huge warships of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy were all left at the bottom of the Tsushima Strait!

On the day of this battle, the Japanese navy also suffered heavy losses, two battleships and three armored cruisers were sunk, and the other ships were also heavily damaged.

Although its own damage is not small, it is still a rare typical example in the history of naval warfare in which less wins more and the weak defeat the strong.

When the news reached Jinzhou, Zhao Dongyun sighed: "This Russian Navy is really a loser, the battleships and armored cruisers combined with more than 20 capital ships, just by the Japanese ' himself to wipe them out!" ”

However, Lin Yongquan next to him said: "The losses on Japan's side are not small, from last year to now, four battleships and three armored cruisers have been sunk, accounting for half of the combat strength of the Japanese navy!" In the first battle between this pair of horses, the elite of the Japanese and Russian navies was lost! ”——

PS,There have been a lot of recent revisions.,If you like to keep improving, you can read it every other day or go back and look at the old chapters!