The moon shines brightly and brightly in the Berlin night.

"News has just come from the Far East that the Japanese and Russian navies have launched a fierce battle in the Tsushima Strait that lasted for three days. The black soot cloud rising from one spot of the two fleets was visible even to the inhabitants of the Japanese island of Honshu, more than 100 kilometers away. The battle ended with the near total annihilation of the Russian fleet: the Russian 2nd and 3rd Pacific Fleets were completely annihilated, and all 14 capital ships, including the warships we built for Russia, were sunk or captured by the Japanese; The Russian First Pacific Fleet, which came to meet them, also suffered heavy losses, and the core capital ships Borodino and Emperor were all lost in the battle. In the end, only three armored cruisers, including the Bayan, were able to escape from the battlefield. In the spacious Kaiser's study, Tirpitz, with two large parted goatees, sat respectfully at the bottom, reporting to the Emperor the latest war on the other side of the world. There was a look of excitement on his face that his long-cherished wish had been fulfilled, and he said angrily: "From today on, the Baltic Sea has truly become the internal lake of my German Empire, and the Russian Navy, which has always threatened the coastline of the empire for 200 years, has completely ceased to exist!" ”

Hearing Tirpitz say this, William stood up from his seat with a screech, his face full of disbelief and surprise, and then his heart rushed with excitement and ecstasy. After a while, Wilhelm recovered from this sudden and astonishing incident, and he had a strong dizziness in his mind that happiness came too suddenly, and he couldn't help asking: "That's a fleet of 350,000 tons, and the lineup is hardly inferior to the entire German Navy!" Alfred, how exactly did the Japanese do it? ”

"The situation of the Russian expeditionary fleet is exactly the same as predicted by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. A third of the fleet consisted of peasant sailors who were recruited on an ad hoc basis when the warships were completed. The 7-month voyage of suffering had left them in a state of complete physical and mental collapse. The threat of death has been unable to make them burst into any desire and potential for survival. Because for them. Martyrdom after a losing battle is undoubtedly a relief of luck. ”

Tirpitz explained softly, with an unconcealed schadenfreude in his words: "And in the quality of the warships, the Russians are equally fatally flawed. Their self-built warships had very low main armor heights, which were of limited use in naval warfare in today's rapid-fire gun era, as evidenced by the Russo-Japanese naval battle of Okinawa that broke out last year. It is not true that the armor coverage area is not high, but the Russian designers always like to equip the ship with more weapons after the design drawings are determined, so that the battleship is further overweight, and the height of the main armor exposed above the waterline is even lower; The design of the battleship is overweight, and it is okay. However, in order to reach Vladivostok safely, the Russians overloaded the warship with a large amount of coal, making its protective area even more unbearable! The main armor of the old Russian battleships undoubtedly sank below the waterline when the battle broke out, not only did it not play any defensive role, but it would further increase the speed of the battleship sinking after entering the water. I think that even if God commanded this fleet, it would have been wiped out by the Japanese without any suspense, right? ”

"But the Russian fleet, in addition to their own self-built ships, also has warships that we have built for them. Counting the 1st Pacific Fleet, which came to meet the company, the Russian fleet had a total of 4 battleships and 3 armored cruisers, which made the German shipbuilding industry a fine product, and their armor covered a very wide area, which was difficult to sink in battle! In the Battle of Okinawa that broke out between Japan and Russia last year. Didn't the 2 Borodino-class battleships also return to base safely after withstanding a lot of artillery fire? At that time, we were all still regretting that we had provided the Russians with too good ships. William asked, puzzled.

The corners of Tirpitz's mouth twitched, and he finally couldn't help but laugh loudly without an image. A few birds perched on the branches of the trees outside the window also cried in surprise and fluttered away. In William's confused and slightly disgusted eyes, Tirpitz gradually stopped laughing and said apologetically: "Your Majesty, please forgive me for my gaffe just now. This time, the Japanese were able to almost completely annihilate the three Russian Pacific Fleets, which was also directly related to their change in tactics. He immediately told William in detail about the naval battle.

It turned out that after the Battle of Okinawa between Japan and Russia, Japan found that it was difficult for artillery shells to hit Russian battleships with large areas of hardened armor protection, so they decided to change the normal tactics of forming a battle line with the main Russian fleet. In the course of an engagement with the Russian fleet, the Japanese capital ships would first inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy ships with artillery fire and destroy their rapid-fire firepower, and then launch a surprise attack with torpedo boats, thus establishing the victory or defeat of the naval battle in one fell swoop. Prior to this, due to the small number of sorties of the Russian First Pacific Fleet, and the cruisers with a speed of no less than 20 knots every time they went out, it was difficult for Japanese torpedo boats to have a chance to make contributions; However, the Russian expeditionary fleet made a big move eastward, which provided an excellent stage for Japan's torpedo tactics to be displayed.

After a long voyage of 18,000 nautical miles that lasted seven months, the Russian battleship was mechanically worn out and the bottom of the ship was built to an unimaginable level: the flagship Duke Suvorov, designed to reach a speed of 18 knots, could only run 14 knots under strong pressure and ventilation, and the Bayan-class cruiser of 22 knots could only reach a normal speed of 17.5 knots on the day of the engagement. The rest of the Russian capital ships, which were already slow to death, were now crawling like turtles, trudging and struggling on the surface of the sea at a maximum speed of more than 10 knots. In addition, the morale of the officers and men is extremely low and the state is extremely poor, and the ability to evade torpedoes can be imagined.

During the three-day naval battle of the Russian fleet through the Tsushima Strait, the Japanese Navy always maintained a synchronized operation with the Russian fleet and launched attacks, not only covering the Russian fleet with artillery fire during the day, but also sending a large number of destroyers and torpedo boats to launch a sneak attack on it at night. In order to prepare for this naval battle, the Japanese navy gathered nearly 70 torpedo boats and destroyers to continuously attack the Russian fleet during the three nights of the engagement. The combined number of destroyers of the three Russian Pacific Fleets was less than 20, and it was simply impossible to prevent a large number of Japanese torpedo boats from rushing into action. Some Japanese torpedo boats refused to leave even after the victory, choosing instead to wait for a new round of torpedo reloading before returning to the war. After three nights of repeated attacks, almost all of the Russian fleet was killed here, and even the two ships of the First Pacific Fleet, the Borodino class, which were in good condition, were not spared by the Japanese offensive in these seven stages, one sank directly, and the other was forced to sink due to too much water. This class of battleships, which abandoned TDS and piled up heavy artillery in large quantities, was far more vulnerable to torpedo attacks than German capital ships of the same tonnage, and although they were delayed by lightning for more than a year, they finally realized Qingying's original intention and original intention of doing so.

Most of the destruction of the Russian fleet was due to torpedoes rather than shells, and the German-made capital ships of the Russian fleet were also sunk by the Japanese in this way. If this were not the case, even if the Japanese had exhausted the shells in the ammunition depot, they would not have been able to sink all of these battleships with large areas of armor protection.

However, the Japanese fleet also paid a huge price for this victory. The ships of the First Pacific Fleet, which came to support, were in very good condition, and the Russian expeditionary fleet also had two Bayan-class armored cruisers with fast base speeds, and these battleships, which had not been hit by torpedoes for the previous two nights, combined with the large Russian fleet, inflicted heavy damage on the Combined Fleet in the daytime artillery battle. A total of 3 battleships and 4 cruisers of the Combined Fleet were sunk in the naval battle, but they captured the last 2 ships of the surrendered Orel, Letvizan, Nicholas I and Ushakov-class coastal defense ships, and the lineup was somewhat replenished.

Tirpitz smiled leisurely and said: "Under the continuous attack of the Japanese for four days and three nights, the Russian fleet on the expedition collapsed as quickly as frost and snow under the scorching sun, and after the last round of torpedo attacks on the third day, the Russian fleet had been scattered and fled in a single ship. Some ran aground off the coast of Japan, some sank due to heavy damage, and some fled to neutral ports and were disarmed, and only Bayan, Diamond, and two destroyers of Rozhdestvensky's hodgepodge fleet were lucky enough to reach Vladivostok. The mass surrender of Russian warships to Japan took place in this desperate scattered escape. At present, the only remaining Russian force in the Far East is three armored cruisers, of which the Lucia is still a seriously outdated old ship; And I can almost conclude that these ships will continue to serve in the Russian Pacific Fleet even after the end of the war, and will not return to the Baltic. There is no longer any threat from the Russian Navy, and we can use all our strength to confront the provocation from Fisher across the Strait. ”

William nodded slowly and said, "The affairs of the navy, whether it is design and planning, training and recruitment, technology research and development, or fighting for the budget in the Congress, I have full authority for you to arrange." But now, I have something more important to do. My poor little Nicky cousin has been beaten up by the yellow-skinned monkeys again, and must have been extremely confused and fragile inside, and at this time ......"

His eyes flashed, and he said, "It's time for me to comfort him." (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket voted by Brother Xu, a book friend, and PLA-1234