On September 27, 1902, when the bell of the "Orilo" struck twice, and after the bell stopped, the familiar aftermath of the wake-up call echoed in the ears of the sailors, and the trumpeter, who stood on the upper deck, leaned the polished lama against his lips, and the brass trumpet glittered in the morning light, and he blew the loud palace horn, and then the whistle of the captain of the sailors sounded. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

"Get up! Hop on a hammock! ”

"Hurry up, get up, the soldiers go to the deck together!"

Some of the sleepy sailors were jumping faster than usual, for the weather was pleasant, perhaps because they were expecting snowflakes, and in the middle of the night there was news that it was snowing!

Yes, since the 40 degrees south latitude, the weather has become more and more pleasant day by day, and when approaching the Le Maire Strait, although icebergs sometimes appear on the sea, almost every day there are snowflakes in the sky, and the weather of zero or minus two or three degrees Celsius even reminds the sailors of late autumn in St. Petersburg. The pleasant weather made the sailors feel as if they were on vacation, and they hurriedly washed their faces and hands, and the morning passed as usual, with breakfast, and washed the deck.

A clear sea breeze blew from the southwest, a gray mist shrouded the waves, and a purple-red, huge sun slowly rose. Under the blazing sun, the two-column fleet sailed westward at a speed of 5 knots, and the course was heading towards the Le Maire Strait, which was the first time that the Russian naval fleet sailed through the Le Maire Strait, and in fact, this voyage, they had already created too many firsts for the Russian Navy.

The formation of the fleet was the same as the night before, the right column was under the command of Vice Admiral Rozhestvinsky, with the "Suvorov" as the lead ship. The left column was led by the battleship "Grand Duke Nikolai", on which Rear Admiral Nepogatov was carrying. The three sentinel cruisers "Svetlana", "Diamond" and "Ural" were in front of the fleet. Keeping the wedge forward in formation, in the early morning, just after five o'clock, the lookout of the "Orijo" Shcherbachev noticed a flash of light on the promontory of the island of Estados through his binoculars, and then disappeared, he did not pay attention to it, only thought that it was the reflection of the ice edge of the cape. But he didn't know that the reflection was a secret outpost on land sent by the Zhenyang Fleet.

At the time of the 2nd Pacific Fleet's entry into the Le Maire Strait. Another lookout spotted a ship, approaching rapidly from the port side, and when they were about thirty nautical miles away, he changed his way, and went in parallel with the fleet, and after a few minutes, as the fleet entered the Strait of Le Maire, his bow turned to the right, and disappeared into the fog at a speed of no less than sixteen nautical miles in the first hour. Although its flag was not clearly visible, the officers and men of the Second Pacific Fleet knew it. This should be a Chinese sentinel - a whaling ship of about 1,000 tons, they are extremely fast, not inferior to the old cruisers, the fleet should have sent two fast cruisers to chase it, but they did not do it, it seems that for Rogerstwinsky, those sentinels are worth mentioning, just an unarmed "fishing boat", at least, he will not order the fleet to enter combat readiness until it enters the Pacific Ocean.

In fact, after the cleaning of the decks, when the fleet entered the Le Maire Strait, the whole fleet was in an extremely calm atmosphere, and all the sailors seemed to be on vacation, and they did not realize that the war was approaching.

At this time, the sailors, who had sailed tens of thousands of nautical miles, seemed to be particularly happy, and they also became talkative, some playing chess in a secluded corner, others reading, while another group of people were talking about the interesting story 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.

Of course, the most fundamental reason is that they do not know that war is near!

On the cruiser "Orijo", the whistle whistle sounded again, and the duty officer shouted loudly.

"Pray!"

"All staff pray!"

The officers and sailors stood on the main deck to pray, and Father Percy was already dressed and standing in front of the icon. The people's expressions were extremely solemn, and the prayer service as in the past was soon over, and by the time the prayer was over, the fleet was about to cross the Le Maire Strait.

At the end of the Le Maire Strait, on the cape of the island of Estados, an iceberg of more than ten kilometers in size blocks people's view, making it completely impossible to see the other side of the iceberg in the strait, and on the other side of the iceberg, after several hours of sailing, the Zhenyang Fleet cruiser arrived here, which is lurking behind this iceberg at this time, the fleet is lined up in three columns, thanks to the heavy oil with higher combustion efficiency, so that the chimneys of the warships are only spewing faint smoke, if you don't pay attention, It is almost impossible to detect that the boiler of a warship is burning.

"It's a blind spot!"

Ding Guozhong, the chief of staff of the cruiser's fleet, drew a corner on the chart, and he pointed to the iceberg that had just been marked on the chart, which may have just floated over in the last two days, and now, the iceberg was like an island, completely obscuring the figure of the entire cruiser.

"We don't see the Russians here, and the Russians can't see us!"

Yes, icebergs hundreds of meters above sea level obscured the view of the Russians, and likewise from the fleet.

"I think we should consider ...... here"

Ding Guozhong's finger drew an "X" point on the chart.

"We should consider fighting here, but in doing so, it will inevitably expose our own ......."

When Ding Guozhong was talking, Huang Zhongying unexpectedly held a teacup, he stared at the chart without saying a word, as if he was thinking about something, and the other staff officers were also talking about it, as if it was a normal thing.

With the help of icebergs as cover, when the Russian fleet passes, kill from its flanks, and then, everything seems to be normal! A typical standard tactical manual for naval warfare.

However, this is not what Huang Zhongying wants, to be precise, this very mediocre tactic. It's hard to get into his eyes. But he didn't speak. But while the staff officers were discussing the plan, he walked out of the staff room, walked all the way to the bridge, and then came to the railing outside the bridge, staring at the huge iceberg with his eyes, at this time, he even had a sense of luck, in the process of sailing at full speed. They didn't encounter even a single iceberg on their route.

The gusts of sea breeze blew the snow on the iceberg in the distance onto the warship, and when the snowflakes fell on his hands, he felt the coldness of the snowflakes, and heard the footsteps behind him, without looking back, Huang Zhongying also knew that it was Wang Wei.

"Bingsan, what are you thinking?"

Although the two come from different backgrounds, Huang Zhongying knows that Wang Wei is often more sympathetic to his own thoughts.

"Sir, what you're thinking about ......"

Walk to the railing. Wang Wei's eyes turned forward, and he said in an extremely calm tone.

"Borrow this iceberg!"

"Hmm!"

Nodding. Huang Zhongying did not hide his thoughts, but his eyes looked at the waves in the distance, the wind and waves in the distance were high, but here the wind and waves were calm - the icebergs and capes in front of the cape formed a natural "shelter", so that there was not a trace of wind and waves here, and more importantly, it was impossible for ships sailing in the strait to find the fleet behind the icebergs and capes.

"The conditions here are good!"

"But the Le Maire is wide, and no one can guarantee that they will sail as we want!"

"Try it, no problem! What if you're lucky? ”

After pondering for a moment, Huang Zhongying nodded vigorously and then ordered Wang Wei.

"Send the observers up!"

At the same time as the armored cruiser Zhenbo lowered the dinghy, Huang Zhongying glanced into the distance, and finally shook his head and said.

"Hopefully, you'll make that choice!"

The cool sea breeze gently blew on his face, and Lieutenant General Rogerstwinsky felt only an indescribable comfort, and there was no more pleasant weather, and even as they entered the strait, the sun obscured by the dark clouds was already revealed, and the winter sun shone on people, even making people feel a little lazy.

The island of Estados, which had been a faint black dot on the horizon half an hour ago, was now revealed to everyone. On the shore of the island opposite the fleet stood a steep cliff hundreds of meters high, and a thin layer of snow and ice shrouded moss or other vegetation, and they covered some of the bare rocks with a layer of green, which stood out in the snow and ice.

Countless huge reefs under the cliffs stand fiercely on the surface of the sea, those waves that crash on the reef are smashed into flying fragments, and in the sunlight, a white lighthouse can be faintly seen, on this island, the lighthouse may be the only human civilization that exists.

Estados, the southernmost island in Argentina, is not an island suitable for human survival at all, in fact, there are no other creatures except seabirds and penguins, some are just a few lighthousekeepers, when the Russian Second Pacific Fleet passed through the strait, in front of the stone house next to the lighthouse, an Argentine lighthouse, with amazed eyes, looked at this huge fleet.

For the lighthousekeeper, he had never seen such a large fleet, and for the officers and men of the Russian Second Pacific Fleet, they did not know that there were people watching them on the coast, and of course, they did not know that a fleet had been waiting for a long time ahead, at the exit of the strait.

"Be vigilant, it's easy to be attacked here, and the whole fleet adjusts its formation."

Roger Stevensky put down the binoculars in his hand and turned to the captain and ordered, although he knew that it was impossible for the Chinese to cross the ocean to intercept his fleet, but out of caution, he still gave the order to be on guard. Maintaining formation on long voyages has never been extremely difficult, and now it's time to adjust your formation.

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

Vasilyevich replied loudly.

"Send a signal, and the whole fleet adjusts its formation."

"Sir, obey, sir! It's time to change the formation! Sir! ”

The order was handed down layer by layer, and after the flag signal was issued, the formation of the two columns was slowly adjusted to restore the neat column, of course, it was still two columns.

"Orders were given to the Svetlana and the Diamond to go out for reconnaissance. ”

Rogerstinsky solemnly ordered, in fact, from the time he left Russia until now, Rodgerstvinsky has shown the proper qualities of a qualified naval officer, and he has worked hard to maintain the formation, and there will be no slackness in the slightest.

"Sir, obey. Sir! Signaling. Convey the commander's orders to the "Svetlana" and "Diamond". ”

Vasilyevich meticulously relayed Rozhest Stevensky's orders.

Although the "Svetlana" and "Diamond" were already a little tired from the long voyage, they showed the results of their usual rigorous training, and immediately increased their speed and headed for the front of the strait, passing through this stormy strait as the outpost of the entire fleet.

Everything went smoothly, it can be said that the movements appeared extremely fluid, and the seafaring qualities of the fleet had improved a lot compared to the situation when it had just left Russia.

"Very good!"

Roger Stevensky nodded in satisfaction.

Through this seemingly perfect column adjustment, it can be seen that the quality of the fleet has been greatly improved, and the superb ship handling skills just displayed by the captains of the ships made Roger Stevensky feel a little gratified.

"Your Excellency, will we stay here for a while?"

Captain Vasilyevich picked up a cup of tea from the tray brought by the orderly, handed it to Rodgerstvinsky, and asked in a loud voice.

"It depends on whether we can find the right fjord, and you know, in such weather, an extra day of repair is like an extra day of vacation for the sailors."

Yes, there is nothing more pleasing to everyone than this weather, so it is for the sailors, and it is also for the officers.

"Understood, Your Excellency. If we may, I think, maybe we can stay here a few more days, sir. ”

"Hopefully, at least until the Chileans find out we're here."

Roger Stevensky picked up the teacup, took a sip of the sweet black tea, and then said with a smile.

"Vasilyevich, my friend. This is probably our last vacation, and as soon as we cross the Drake Passage, we enter the Pacific Ocean, and if it is not bad, now the Chinese fleet is now waiting in Hawaii to intercept us. ”

"They're in Hawaii?"

Vasilyevich said in surprise.

"This is just speculation, and I don't think the Chinese can risk letting us join the First Pacific Fleet."

Roger Stevensky held a teacup and looked at a flock of seagulls flying not far away from the railing of the bridge, and said in as calm a tone as possible.

"Of course, now only God knows, they will be ......"

Before he could finish speaking, a frightened shout suddenly came from the bridge.

"Enemy ship ...... discovered" (To be continued. )