The sea breeze is blowing, the waves are swaying gently, and on the rough ocean, an extremely large fleet is slowly moving forward. The blue-and-white banners of St. Andrew's hung limply on the masts, like dead people in the last years of the wind and candles; The billowing soot rising from the chimney polluted the originally white clouds into gray-black, and it looked so discordant in the clear blue sky.

On the flagship "Duke Suvorov", Rozhdestvensky stood quietly in the conning tower, and his lieutenant general's uniform was still so clean and tidy. But if you look closely, his originally heroic face is now a withered complexion, sunken eyes, and as withered as an old beggar; And under the coercion of clothes, his body is even thinner than half a year ago. Looking back on the 30,000-kilometer expedition, Rozhdestvensky feels the joy of arriving successfully and a little pride in creating unprecedented history; However, more than that, there are endless bitter tears, as well as worries and confusion about the future path.

Since the departure of Tangier, West Africa, near Gibraltar, with a full load of fuel, the Russian fleet has hardly had a day of peace; The soot and heat scorched the Russian sailors severely, and frequent mechanical failures added countless problems to the expedition of the entire fleet. The long and severely overloaded voyage caused frequent failures of the ship's mechanical components, steel plates falling off, steam leaking, pipe bursts, and mechanical jamming...... All kinds of problems emerge one after another; The power is also due to the lack of maintenance for a long time, which causes serious fouling of water pipes, serious reduction in heat transfer efficiency, and poor quality coal provided by German companies. Its real effect can only be described as miserable. In order to alleviate this situation, Rozhdestvensky made every effort to find a port where the Russian fleet could dock and rest. However, both Britain and France invariably closed the door to the arrival of the Russian fleet; The fleet marched to Gabon, and the betrayal of the French was even more blatant. They even forbade German coal carriers to refuel the Russian fleet on the high seas outside their own ports! Even Rozhdestvensky, who was known as the "most polite gentleman" in front of his subordinates, couldn't help it at the moment, and after cursing the evil French countless times in front of him with "bitter words of extreme hatred", the grief-stricken Lieutenant General Rozh could only slip out of the sight of the French, silently adding coal in a corner and wiping his tears of humiliation aggrievedly.

And in the port of Dayuwan in the Portuguese colony of Angola in the southern hemisphere, the Russian fleet suffered an unprecedented humiliation. In the face of the huge Russian ships that stretched like mountains outside the harbor, the small Portuguese gunboat with a displacement of less than 100 tons in charge of the port guard was like a dying leper dog with its whole body plucked out; However, it was such a scum with a negative combat effectiveness that even played the tough banner of "it is strictly forbidden to enter, otherwise you will bear the consequences", and swaggered in the way! The arrogance of the Portuguese gunboats made the irascible and perverse Lieutenant General Roge tearful. No doubt. Behind the obscene and shoddy Portuguese, the shadow of the British Empire is revealed everywhere, and the Russian fleet also depends on the owner to fight dogs!

Although the Tsar's Kaiser's cousin was still righteous and opened the German colonial port of Angola Peck adjacent to South Africa to the Russian fleet, this was only a drop in the bucket and did not solve the problems caused by the Russian fleet's long-distance expedition. The real difficulties began when Rozhdestvensky's main fleet and the Vlksum fleet took the Suez Canal and set out from Madagascar.

Since it would be too far to make a detour north along the African continent, Rozhdestvensky ordered a direct crossing of the Indian Ocean to the Strait of Malacca, which saved a lot of time and travel, but the problem of logistical supplies was also immediately highlighted. The Russian fleet, sailing in the deep sea, would have been difficult to detect by German coal carriers. Frequent storms and bad weather have further reduced their supply space; In addition, sailing in ferocious waves is also a great test for the ship's machinery. Fortunately for the Russians, the long-term homeless voyage had trained the Russian sailors to become coal refuelers, and the sailors of the Duke Suvorov were able to maintain a rate of 120 tons of coal per hour for the battleship for a long time. It has far surpassed the previous world record of 102 tons per hour set by the British. As soon as the German coal carriers arrived, these fellows were able to pack large quantities of loose coal and coal into the warehouses of their warships with great skill. And through this ultra-long-distance voyage, the Russian sailors also exercised their repair skills. Its mechanical overhaul and troubleshooting are so skilled that it is impossible to add more, and it is difficult for ordinary faults to stump these sailors who deal with the ship's machinery all day long!

For the next 3 weeks. Rozhdestvensky managed to pull the fleet through the hellish Indian Ocean with all his might. The rendezvous search, mechanical repairs, refueling at sea, and replenishment of supplies were all incredibly difficult. At this time, France's attitude towards the Russian Expeditionary Fleet gradually softened for various reasons, and the Russian Second Pacific Fleet was able to move north from the South China Sea and stumble into Cam Ranh Bay, the French port in Vietnam. When the Russian warships, the bottom of which was covered with thick marine plants, slowly sailed into the French port, observers, journalists, spies, and their friends from all over the world were stunned; There is no doubt that the Russians created an ultra-long-range expedition unprecedented in the history of human navies, and its distance and difficulty are not at all the same level as the 1898 American battleship Oregon, a lone wolf, who made a detour through the Strait of Magellan and then went north to join the war! If Rozhdestvensky had died of illness at this time, like his lieutenant Volksam, his name would have gone down in the history of the Russian and even the world's navies; It's a pity that this guy's physical foundation is very good, but he has been slightly mentally and physically destroyed, and this is destined to give him a miserable old age with a bad reputation.

Just as Rojjejesters's Stevensky fleet was breathing a sigh of relief as it entered Cam Ranh Bay, catastrophic news suddenly came from the north. With the fall of Dalian, the defeat of Mukden, and the revolution that overthrew the government everywhere in the country, the Tsarist government telegraphed him to take "bold and decisive action" and win a brilliant victory in the naval battle to salvage the entire unfavorable situation. Such a heavy burden suddenly pressed on him, making the burden of this newly promoted lieutenant general, who had only been promoted in recent years, increase sharply; Originally, he wanted to leave the "self-sinking ships" of the Third Pacific Fleet sent by the Tsar to support him to go to the destination alone and rendezvous with Makarov before considering offensive action, but now this idea is obviously no longer able to be implemented. St. Petersburg's intention was clear: to assemble all its naval forces for a head-on showdown with the Japanese fleet, and to extinguish the flames of revolution in the country by a real victory; And the Third Pacific Fleet, although it will not help to achieve victory in the naval battle, but they can also share the shells for the main fleet!

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On May 9, the "floating irons" of the Third Pacific Fleet finally rendezvoused with Rozhdestvensky in Haiphong, Vietnam. Unlike the calamitous Second Pacific Fleet, this Russian fleet had a smooth ride on its previous voyages, and in peacetime, these offshore ships could have made such a smooth voyage to the open sea. Due to the long voyages of these "automatic sunken machines", the current maximum speed can only barely be maintained to 12 knots, and Rozhdestvensky has completely abandoned the intention of being able to quickly cross the Tsushima Strait without a fight. Unlike in history, which had no illusions about the victory over Japan, Rozhdestvensky in this plane was not completely hopeless, although he was also quite worried about the road ahead; Because the lineup of the two Russian fleets after the rendezvous was quite strong, with a full 14 capital ships, it already fully possessed the strength of the Japanese Navy in World War I.

The core strength of the Russian fleet is 7 new capital ships of the 3rd class. Among them, the Duke of Suvorov and the Orel both belong to the "Borodino" class, with the powerful firepower of 4 12-inch and 8 10-inch guns and a large area of 7.5-inch armor, which can be called the most powerful battleship in the world in the dreadnought era before the armor-piercing shell was not born. The other two Bayan and Palinda are of the same level, with a standing displacement of 11,000 tons, a speed of 22.5 knots, equipped with 4 10-inch main guns and 16 6-inch secondary guns, and the waterline armor is up to 7 inches thick. The only fly in the ointment is that these warships have stalled by more than 3 knots due to the lack of maintenance for a long time, completely losing their original design intention. In addition, the Russian fleet also has three self-built battleships modeled after the Prince, such as the Glorious, Pavel I and St. Andrew, and the tall superstructure of the large-angle inward inclination hull all reveals a strong French style. Their performance is roughly comparable to that of the Prince: with a displacement of 13,500 tons, a speed of 17.5 knots, four 12-inch guns and 7.5-inch thick armor. However, due to severe overloading of coal, only a small part of their main armor was exposed above the water, which would have been their fatal flaw in the ensuing battle.

Despite the fact that only 7 of the capital ships of the Russian fleet were truly combat-ready, and the other 7 were scum-class waste, Rozhdestvensky did not lose confidence in defeating the Japanese fleet. Because of Vladivostok, which was far away to the northern destination, Makarov also had 3 battleships and 2 armored cruisers in his hands, which was enough to contain a large part of the strength of the Japanese Navy. As long as the two Russian fleets in the north and south cooperate with each other, it will be possible to defeat the Japanese navy! (To be continued......)