"We sent not only the 2nd Pacific Fleet, but also the 3rd Pacific Fleet, and in order to defend the interests of the Russian Empire in Asia, we will also send the 4th Pacific Fleet, if necessary, until the complete defeat of Chinese,......"

After the outbreak of this war, the British position became more and more naked, they not only helped the Chinese diplomatically, but even directly intervened in the war affairs. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Perhaps Britain did not send its own troops to intervene in the war, but Britain did everything possible to prevent Russia from buying warships and helped the Northeast Navy to buy warships.

It was also with the help of Britain that after the outbreak of the war, the Northeast Navy purchased more than 10 warships from Britain, Italy and other countries, and in order to offset the expansion of the Northeast Navy, Russia had to transfer more warships from the Baltic Fleet to form the Third Pacific Fleet to enhance the strength of the Second Pacific Fleet.

However, when the temporarily formed Third Pacific Fleet was leaving the Baltic Sea, the Second Pacific Fleet, which had been on a "goodwill visit" to the United States for more than 50 days, was about to conclude its visit, and they were ordered to join the Third Pacific Fleet in French Guiana.

On 7 September, the Second Pacific Fleet, which had concluded its "visit" to the United States, arrived in French Guiana under the bright Caribbean sunshine. The sea is calm, and the sailors enjoy the bright sunshine of the Caribbean Sea, and the mood is extremely happy.

French Guiana is the only European colony on the South American continent, a territory entirely covered by tropical rainforest. Even before the outbreak of this war. Many well-informed Russian naval officers did not know about this land, and the same was true of Simonov, who knew Brazil. Mexico and other South American countries. But they didn't know that there was a French colony in South America. But now, this is the place where they will rest and anchor in the future.

"Until the Brazilians agree to let us into their port, I think we're going to have to stay here!"

Although the team has not yet reached Kulu, which is located at the mouth of the river...... That was the destination of their voyage, but the situation there had already spread in the fleet.

Kourou is a small estuary town, where there is neither a well-equipped port nor a ship repair yard, except for the natural typhoon shelter of the estuary, so to speak. There are no other facilities. But even so, this is still an extremely rare respite for the Second Pacific Fleet. The French were undoubtedly generous compared to the time constraints of other countries, and although they could not provide a naval base for the Second Pacific Fleet, they could stay as long as they wanted, at least within French territory.

"My friend, at least we can go ashore,"

"You know, it's tropical, and there's all kinds of fruit."

Now the vast majority of sailors are not able to look at the problem in the same way as Simonov. Bright sunshine for those ordinary sailors. A wide variety of tropical fruits, a paradise in itself.

Officers and sailors gathered on deck, enjoying the bright sunshine and looking out over this strange land, where the coast of French Guiana was covered with tropical forests, the white buildings of the European expatriate on the coast, like eye-catching specks, were hidden in the greenery, and in Harbin, there were even a few aboriginal boats.

By the time the fleet reached the mouth of the Kulrou, two German coal carriers had been moored there, and the fleet began to load coal after a day's repairs.

At the same time, the sailors were informed that they could apply to go ashore as if they were on their own soil, and in fact they did not even need to go ashore - around almost every warship were crowded with the canoes of the natives, who were carrying all sorts of tropical fruits such as bananas, and even all kinds of pheasants and other birds to sell to the sailors.

For the sailors, the small city of Kuru really has nothing to attract except the feeling of stepping on the ground, and the city seems to them to be a countryside at best.

In this remote and wild place chosen as the meeting place for the navy, it is difficult to get information. Simonov was extremely disappointed by the difficulty of reading books, which made him even more nostalgic for his time in the United States, but for the sailors, they did not have the right to choose, and even Russia did not have the right to choose the port of call.

That is, from that day on, the Second Pacific Fleet began a long wait in the natural shelter of this estuary, waiting for the arrival of the Third Pacific Fleet.

During the long wait, all kinds of rumors began to spread, and one of the most worrying points was that China bought several of the latest cruisers from Britain, formed its own Atlantic Fleet in Britain, and they ambushed the Third Pacific Fleet in the Atlantic, and these rumors were spread from the flagship, and no one knew whether they were true or not.

But hardly anyone would doubt these rumors, and at first, for the sailors of the fleet, the bright tropical sun was tempting, but as time went on, the tropical sun was not attractive, and people began to feel the tropical scorching sun, especially for the level in the boiler room, which had to endure the high temperature of the boiler room at the same time.

Despite this, the vast majority of sailors did not become discouraged, after all, they had more time to go ashore than in the past, which even prospered the local economy of Kulu, which alleviated the discontent of the sailors.

Of course, in addition to bad rumors, there will also be some good rumors, some people say that Russia has bought six armored cruisers, and they even swear that those armored cruisers belong to Chile, Argentina, and even Brazil, and they will join the fleet on the next voyage. Whether it's true or not, no one cares, and for people, it seems that good news is better than bad news, even if the good news is fake.

As the days passed, the fleet waited for the arrival of the Third Pacific Fleet at the estuary mooring, during which time the fleet repeatedly resorted to the mooring ground to train on the high seas, and the training of the tropical navy was extremely hard. Whenever night comes. And the people were exhausted. Lying on the ground, ignoring the dew of the night, they slept directly on the deck, and during the day they were tormented by the scorching heat, for these sailors who had sailed from the northern hemisphere, they had never experienced such heat, such thirst, and on the sea they drank the seawater distilled by the seawater stills of the warships, and they were warm. It's disgusting, but of course, if you add a little lemon, it tastes slightly better.

During this long wait, the enemy became more and more vigilant - because of the news that the Chinese had purchased a dozen destroyers from Xinguo, and they were likely to launch a sneak attack like a fleet, so every day there was a cruiser scouting overseas, and two destroyers were keeping watch in the harbor, and the sun was setting. Torpedo Fence 9 was immediately lowered, and all traffic between the shore and the key was halted. The small motorboats were not allowed to pass without Rozhest Stevensky's permission, and at night the battleships drove the small airboats with searchlights and small-caliber guns beyond the mouth of the river, and when the torpedo defense nets were cast, a button sounded the bell to summon the sailors to their positions, to check that the gunners were in place, that the searchlights were ready, and that the guns on duty were loaded with shells ready to fire at any time, and then the lights were extinguished, and the rockets were randomly plunged into darkness, only the shouts of the sentries broke the silence of the night from time to time, and at the same time in the distant open sea, the searchlights of the small airboats in charge of the vigilance swept over the surface of the sea like the tail of a comet!

All this went on in an orderly manner, and the sailors' confidence in their commander was restored, at least he knew his duty, and she would never let the enemy succeed. It seems that everything is not so bad.

Despite the fact that Kuru was a wild place, the fleet received a large number of mails - letters and newspapers - during the long wait.

The articles published in the magazine "New Times" by Colonel Krato, who was sent to testify at Dover, became the center of the officers' conversations,

"In this war, the supremacy of the sea is arguably of great importance, and the degree of hope that the whole of Russia now places on the fleet under the command of Rozhestvinsky to Asia makes us ask ourselves the question worth considering: Is our fleet certain of victory in this naval battle, which is bound to break out in the near future? To answer this question, we don't have to face up to reality......"

The author goes on to calculate the main forces of our sides, which are unknown to ordinary sailors, the Chinese have eight combat ships and 13 armored cruisers, all of them are equipped with 12-inch and ten-inch guns, and they also have 15 to 20 cruisers, and as for their torpedo teams, Klado believes that there have been 50 since early on, some of which are destroyers, and the rest are relatively small.

In contrast, the Second Pacific Fleet, which confronted this powerful fleet, had seven newest battleships and three older ones.

After comparing the combat effectiveness of the two fleets, Crapo came to the conclusion that the Northeast Fleet was superior to the Russian fleet by two to one, or even two to three.

Of course, this is not the whole story of the article, Simonov walked here, and someone immediately interjected.

"Clearly, we're finished!"

Undoubtedly, this sentence reflected their common psychology, and the people on the aft deck immediately became excited, and another voice rang out.

"What's more, he just compares the capital ships, and if the small warships are also included, I'm afraid our situation will be even worse than what he said."

"Wait a minute, don't be in such a hurry, don't forget that we are the whole fleet, and Chinese......"

Simonov said, looking at the sailors around him.

"The current fleet of the Chinese, but not only deployed in the mainland, in Hawaii, but also their Pacific detachment, the Chinese's fleet seems to be huge, but they are scattered, my friends!"

Looking at the sailors in front of him, Simonov continued.

"So we will only face 1/2 of their warships at most, and when we reach the Viceroyalty of Nikolai, we will have 17 battleships, and then we will ......"

Before Simonov could finish speaking, someone interjected.

"But will we be able to reach the Viceroyalty of Nicholas safely?"

Yes, that's the most worrying thing.

"We should rejoice!"

At this moment, a voice came, it was the helmsman Gromov.

"Thankfully, the Viceroyalty of Nikolai is a few hundred nautical miles from China. Fortunately, the Chinese did not launch a landing battle like Konstantin, otherwise perhaps by the time we reached Governor Nikolai, Konstantin had already been captured by the Chinese, and the First Pacific Fleet would not have been able to avoid the fate of destruction. Now ......"

Gromov took a puff of his cigarette and said in a slow voice.

"Now, although we have not achieved any advantage on land, but the Viceroyalty of Nikolai is very safe, and it is a good thing that the fleet is blocked in the port, if they break through, it is very likely that they will be besieged by the Chinese navy, and they will undoubtedly be defeated at that time, and now, as long as they are there, they will attract the attention of Chinese, and it will be impossible for Chinese to mobilize their fleets to intercept us, not to mention ......"

Then another voice came, and it was the boatswain who spoke.

"I said it's really not a big deal, really, you know, the Pacific Ocean is very big, and it's very difficult to find a fleet in the vast Pacific Ocean. Even if they tried to intercept us, they probably wouldn't be able to find us, after all, the sea was too vast. ”

There seemed to be no more reassuring words, yes, it was very difficult to find a fleet in the Pacific, and how could it be possible to intercept them if they could not be found?

But at this moment, just when the sailors were all breathing a sigh of relief, another voice of disapproval came.

"Don't forget, there are many distant-water fishing boats in China, and when we were in the United States, they kept watching us in the harbor, and right here, maybe there are Chinese fishing boats in the open sea, how can they not find us? Perhaps, they are waiting for us in the Pacific right now. ”

Listen to everyone. Simonov was silent, he did not want to participate in this war at all, and even sometimes he felt that he was forced to participate in this war.

"Even if they want to intercept us, there must be enough warships, and don't forget that the First Pacific Fleet is still there waiting for them, and believe me, the more urgent thing for the Chinese now is probably to launch a landing operation on the Viceroyalty of Nikolai before we arrive, so that they can defeat the First Pacific Fleet." God can testify, the Chinese must think so! (To be continued.) )