The sudden change of fortune of the French really caught Rozhdestvensky by surprise. According to his previous plan, the fleet would call at the colonial ports of various countries in Africa during the voyage in order to obtain the necessary maintenance, and France was undoubtedly the most important link in it: they occupied nearly a third of the entire African territory, Mauritania, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, ...... A series of other areas had good harbors for the Russian fleet to stop and rest, and were important coaling sites for the Russian fleet to plan. If the French closed the door to the Russian fleet coming from afar, where would the Russian fleet go?

After a night of hard thinking, Vice Admiral Rozh decided to adopt a compromise strategy: the deputy commander led a group of warships of small tonnage and unsuitable for long-distance voyages, such as the old battleships "The Great Sisoy" and "Navarin", into the Mediterranean Sea and advanced through the Suez Canal, while he himself led the remaining seven core capital ships to continue south along the African coastline according to the predetermined route, and the two sides met on the French island of Madagascar. Of course, this inevitably made the Russian diplomats whisper their hot faces to the cold butts of Britain and France; Although the Russians were very angry in their hearts, they still understood the truth of how people dared not bow their heads under the eaves.

His Majesty's decision to pat the thigh always caused countless people to wipe their butts and clean up the aftermath of his whimsical assumptions, but Nikolai himself was never aware of the situation.

Thankfully, the Russians did not get things done. After some negotiations, the attitude of both countries was invariably hard and then soft: Britain claimed strict neutrality, implying acquiescence to the passage of the Russian expeditionary fleet through the Suez Canal, and France promised to provide their colonial port in Madagascar for the Russians to stop over. The successive changes in the faces of the two countries were not due to the arbitrary entourage of the Tsar, but for a deeper reason.

For the UK, checks and balances have undoubtedly been at the heart of their foreign policy for so many years. The British naturally fought-for-tat with the Russians' vain attempt to establish a yellow Russia to swallow up the south, and supported Japan as their military puppet in the Far East; However, Britain did not want anyone but them to dominate the Far East, even Japan, which was an ally. At present, the rapid rise of the Japanese navy has made the British feel a little uneasy, and the military strength of five battleships and eight armored cruisers is a force that should not be underestimated even in Europe, and if the Japanese navy is allowed to continue to strengthen and dominate the western Pacific waters, it will definitely not be a good thing in the eyes of the British. On the contrary, if the Japanese and Russian navies are allowed to fight to the death, and both of them suffer heavy losses in the end, it will naturally be better for Britain! The 15 of the latest British Bar Syard 6-foot rangefinders currently on the Russian fleet are the best example of this mentality of the British. Therefore, despite the sound of the shelling of fishing boats in the North Sea, and the rising anti-Russian tide in the country, the British government reluctantly gave the green light to the Russian scum warship to use the Suez Canal to operate.

As for France, not to mention. Without the help of Russia, they would not have been able to withstand Germany in the next war on their own, so no one understood better than the top of the French government how important the Franco-Russian alliance was to France. The original intention of the French was only to teach the Russians a lesson, not to really do anything; If the Russians were to be completely opposed to each other on this issue, it would squash Russia's anger against France's actions, and the final result would inevitably outweigh the losses. Moreover, the Russian fleet had already been sent out, and the self-righteous Tsar would never have been able to transfer them back to the Baltic; Then France's obstruction would be meaningless, and would only add to the gap between the two countries and benefit Germany. French diplomats are arguably the most far-sighted figures of our time, and it is only natural that such questions can be seen through and through.

However, the French ports except Madagascar were still closed to the Russian fleet, and the British overseas bases did not need to be thought of, and the fuel crisis of the Russian fleet suddenly became extremely acute. In order to solve this problem, Rozhdestvensky ordered the fleet to do everything possible to load as much coal as possible in the port of Tangier, where it is currently berthed. According to this directive, the Russian fleet rushed into a restaurant like a beggar who had been hungry for three days, frantically plundering the burning coal available for the fleet's navigation with a jaw-dropping appetite; In addition to the fact that the coal bunkers of the ships were filled to the brim, the Russian officers and men used their imagination to create an unprecedented miracle in the history of the loading of battleships with fuel.

Auxiliary machinery room, steam engine room, officer's quarters, aisle, dining room, toilet, bathroom, deck, turret top...... As long as the terrain on the battleship was flat, Russian sailors were piled up with all kinds of large bags of black coal, even lifeboats and transport boats. The aisle of the warship, which was already slightly narrow, was only a shoulder-width width of coal, and once they met, they could only be squeezed through with physical contact like good friends, and the only place on the battleship where there was no coal pile was the ammunition depot deep inside. The five Russian battleships with a design displacement of 13,500 tons were designed to carry only 1,450-1,600 tons of coal at most, and thanks to the unremitting efforts of the Russian sailors, none of them carried less than 4,000 tons of coal. The main armor belts of the 3 self-built Glory-class battleships of the Russian self-built have completely sunk into the sea, becoming a scum role that is more rubbish than a protective cruiser; The two German-built Borodino classes were no better, and the aft freeboard, which had been lowered by one floor, was now overloaded to the point of just over 2 meters, and from time to time waves washed up, making the coal ladles piled on the aft deck wet. Russian sailors were forced to fix solid wave-proof planks on the aft deck railing, but this still did not solve the fundamental problem caused by the overload.

The Russian fleet spent four days in Tangier, collecting tens of thousands of tons of coal, and when they finally set off, the scene was spectacular! A large group of "shallow water heavy gunboats" with extremely low freeboard spews out billowing soot that was several times thicker and heavier than before, and sailed at a tortoise speed on the vast blue sea. In order to load as much coal as possible, the overloaded coal has completely blocked the horizontal firing range of the main gun, secondary gun, and rapid-fire guns of anti-torpedo boats, and all the artillery cannot make any rotation - and now the Russians are not afraid that Japanese torpedo boats will come to carry out a sneak attack!

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As the fleet headed south, the weather began to get hotter. The African equatorial sun is scorching with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius all year round, and the cute little black devil of soot spreads sharply on the Russian warships with the high temperature, and all the warships have become dusty hells; They attached themselves to the skin, corners of the eyes, mouth and respiratory tract, causing great damage to the health of Russian sailors, and the number of Russian sailors suffering from infections, skin and respiratory diseases increased day by day. In order to prevent these permeable coal particles from penetrating into the ship's holds, Rozhdestvensky ordered all ventilation ducts to be closed. In this way, the problem of coal ash was solved, but the interior of the warship became a hot furnace, and the temperature inside the cabin, which had no air convection, was always above 40 degrees. The hairy people who live in the northern cold zone all the year round have the heart to die, and every day is like struggling in the water and suffering in the fire. Due to the painful heat, many Russian sailors suffered a nervous breakdown, and the wards and hospital ships of the ships were overcrowded. The rest of the Russian sailors were also devastated and dying, and had no faith in fighting at all.

To the great pain of the Russian sailors, the seasons in the southern hemisphere were very different from those in the northern hemisphere, and December was still the height of summer in the southern hemisphere. This means that even if they leave the equatorial region, they are still greeted with unbearable scorching torment. After the pile of coal on the deck ran out, the Russian sailors finally had the opportunity to open the windows for ventilation, and they suddenly found that the equator of more than 30 degrees was so cool! However, the good times were short-lived, and the coal fleet of the Hamburg-American Company approached the Russian fleet to fulfill the contract for coaling; Since the coal from the German coal carriers was to be temporarily purchased in the ports of the Great Powers and then supplied to the Russian fleet, it was not known when the next time they would meet again; Looking at the begging eyes of his subordinates who were about to cry, Rozhdestvensky, who was covered in prickly heat, gritted his teeth, and still ordered to load as much coal as possible!

Scorching heat, pervasive dust, mechanical breakdowns, equipment repairs, food decay, lack of fresh water, mutiny among sailors, suicide and self-harm...... Countless pains continued one after another. In order to reduce costs, greedy German merchants took the large sums of rubles paid to them by the Russians to buy the worst slag coal for the Russians to use, which further exacerbated the extent of the coal ash on the Russian warships. Despite the grave indignation and strong protest expressed by Lieutenant General Roži, this was doomed to be a feeble moan. Because even this kind of slag and slag coal with a small calorific value and a large amount of ash was only willing to be provided by the Germans to the Russian fleet, leaving Rozhdestvensky with the only choice but to endure.

Faced with this situation, even the energetic Rozhdestvensky was a little unsupportable. The perverse and irascible side of his personality began to become more and more serious, and he often tortured and tortured the sailors who made mistakes, which caused the morale of the Russian army to drop to a freezing point. The fleet, which carried the glory of the Russian Empire, made its way to its destination on this hellish journey.