In the afternoon, the sun is shining, the waves are swaying on the Yellow Sea, and the sea breeze is blowing, bringing a unique feeling of salty warmth. On the black-blue sea, a huge fleet is spitting out a faint soot that is clearly visible, cleaving the waves and moving rapidly.

On one of the tallest and most majestic warships, a middle-aged general in his fifties stood at the very top of the bridge, quietly observing this powerful battle group. His forehead was bald and shining, the two gray-white beards under his chin were swaying in the sea breeze, his sword-and-axe-like face was still majestic, and his blue eyes were shining. Looking at the fleet of ships flying the blue and white battle flag of St. Andrew, Makarov did not have the slightest smile on his face; His eyes opened and closed, but he showed a solemn expression.

Three days earlier, Japan had officially announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the Russian government, and Makarov immediately realized that war was imminent, and issued a series of orders to strengthen the guard. All 10 battleships in the port of Dalian sailed into the inner harbor, and the cruisers in the outer harbor lowered the mine protection nets; Torpedo boats patrolled outside the harbor, and garrison shore guns were on standby. Late that night, a Japanese torpedo boat arrived unexpectedly and quietly touched the periphery of Dalian Port under the cover of night.

It stands to reason that the Japanese torpedo boats would not be able to achieve any results after the Russians were on guard, but the Russians apparently did not expect that there were four terrible Japanese torpedo boats with a speed of 32 knots. While the Russians were still dealing with the experience of dealing with 24-25 knots of traditional torpedo boats, these Sea Dragon-class torpedo boats rushed forward at the Russians' jaw-dropping speed, entered the harbor, and fired torpedoes at the motionless Russian cruisers at a very close distance. Although most of the torpedoes were stopped by the mine nets, one torpedo jumped into it like a biochemical corpse dog reopened the barbed wire and crashed headlong into the side of the cruiser "Parada".

With a whirling column of water and a loud sound that shook the entire harbor, the poor cruiser suddenly made an irretrievable tilt, and disappeared into the water in less than ten minutes. Although due to the shallow water in Dalian Port, the capsized battleship could still be salvaged, repaired and reused, but that was at least half a year later; During this period, the 6,800-ton fast cruiser will disappear into the operational sequence of the Russian Pacific Fleet, which is even worse for the Russian fleet, which is already stretched thin on reconnaissance forces. After the sinking of the Parada, the huge Russian main fleet could only rely on four protective cruisers to carry out the task of avant-garde reconnaissance; Compared with the dignified lineup of eight standard-equipped ships in the Japanese Combined Fleet, the situation of the Russian reconnaissance fleet can only be described as miserable.

In addition to the huge disparity in the strength of the reconnaissance fleet, there is also a considerable gap in the combat strength of the main fleets of the two sides.

As the finest admiral of the Russian Empire, Makarov knew nothing more about the situation of his fleet. On the surface, the Russian Far East Fleet claims to have 10 elite first-line battleships, but 6 of them are all in the protective layout of the ironclad era; Barely 7 feet (2.135 m) tall with waterline armor, these ships were no longer capable of the high-intensity combat missions of the rapid-fire gun era, and if they engaged in a fierce head-to-head confrontation with the Japanese fleet, their vast unarmored areas would be easily destroyed by the Japanese fleet's rapid-fire guns. What's even worse is that once the waterline of the warship is pierced into the water and the freeboard is lowered, then the low main equipment is very likely to sink directly into the water, and it will no longer play any protective role. At that time, the entire waterline of the ship was completely exposed to enemy fire without defense, and it was only a matter of minutes before it sank! Therefore, these "elite" warships can only play their due role in bullying those small trash fish whose tonnage is much smaller than their own, or in providing fire support on the opposite shore; As for the battle with the Japanese fleet, even Makarov himself did not have the confidence to win.

Ironically, although the strength of the Russian navy ranks third in the world and the total tonnage is second only to Britain and France, among the Far East fleet, which has assembled all the elites, there is not a single domestic cargo that they can handle; The real mainstay of the warship is the international brand goods built for them by France, the United States and Germany. Borodino, the Emperor, the Crown Prince, Retvizan, these 4 battleships are the soul of the entire Russian fleet. At present, Borodino and the Emperor were only delivered to the Russian Navy at the end of November last year, and it will take at least three months of training until they really form combat effectiveness.

Due to the great disadvantage in terms of overall combat strength, Makarov decided to adopt an active defensive strategy: that is, the relatively fast Prince and three Peryvestre-class second-class battleships, together with a few cruisers, formed a fast fleet and cruised to attack the Yellow Sea, while the rest of the warships moved in the port of Dalian. If they encounter a small Japanese trash fish, they will be annihilated, and if they are unable to do so, they will be dispatched by the main force in the harbor to cooperate with the fast fleet to destroy them, and if they find that the combined fleet is pouring out, they will immediately return. Since the effective engagement distance of the current naval battle is less than 5,000 meters, the Russian fleet can completely turn to evacuate in a calm posture after the lookout on the mast spots the enemy ship.

If the Russian fleet had acted in accordance with this strategy, it would have been able to pose a real threat to Japan's sea lines and avoid a direct decisive battle between the main forces of the two fleets and delay time. With Makarov's commanding art, it was almost impossible for his cruising fleet to fall into the trap of Akiyama Shinyuki. As a result, Japan will not be able to control the sea completely, and its sea transportation will inevitably be unsmooth, and its land battles will not be very smooth. As long as Japan is unable to open the situation on the battlefield and drags on day by day, a large amount of Russian army supplies will continue to arrive in the Far East from Europe; At that point, the balance of war will inevitably deflect, eventually tilting entirely in favor of Russia.

However, this steady and important active defensive strategy was completely destroyed by the cumbersome troop transport fleet.

As of March 6, the Russian troop convoy consisting of more than 20 large and medium-sized ships had arrived in Manila, German Philippines. According to international law, if a ship of a belligerent is anchored in the port of a neutral country, it must be expelled within 24 hours, otherwise it is a serious violation of neutrality. Although the German side agreed to extend the stay of the fleet to 72 hours on the grounds that "the ownership of the transport ships does not belong to Russia but to Germany," this still did not solve the problem fundamentally. As long as the three-day period expires and the fleet is ordered to leave the country, where should the fleet go?

It's obviously impossible to go back. With Japan and Russia already declared war, the ports of neutral countries will no longer open their doors to this fleet; Whether from the perspective of coal consumption or material supply, the idea of returning to the Baltic Sea from the Philippines is obviously a fantasy. Therefore, the only option for this fleet is to continue to row to the destination Dalian for unloading as planned. If nearly 50,000 troops and more than 70,000 tons of war materials can be transported to the front line in Manchuria, it will certainly play a great role in promoting the land war, and it will not be difficult to even drive the Japanese from the Liaodong Peninsula down the Yalu River.

But the idea is beautiful, but the reality is cruel. Once the troop carriers left the Philippines and headed north, they entered the sphere of activity of the Japanese Navy; Even if the ships were German, and each of them had more or less German sailors as shields, it was impossible for the Japanese to sit idly by and watch the fleet go north without making any moves. Even if they did not directly sink the ship in consideration of Germany's attitude, they could have forcibly rerouted it to a Japanese port by force and coercion. And this situation is clearly absolutely unacceptable to Russia! Therefore, in order to ensure that this fleet can pass the long journey from the Philippines to Dalian safely, it is necessary to send a strong enough force to escort it. Tsar Nicholas II sent a telegram to Makarov at the beginning of the declaration of war between the two countries, telling him to immediately lead all the warships of the Far Eastern Fleet south along the coastline to the Philippines to meet the fleet loaded with Russian land hopes.

For this decree, Makarov had no choice but to carry it out. Although he was only a naval general, his thinking vision was definitely not limited to the narrow field of naval warfare, which can be seen from the fact that he was the first to advocate the intervention of the three countries in the restoration of Liao. He clearly knew that whether or not this troop convoy could reach Dalian safely would have a direct bearing on the success or failure of Russia on the Manchurian front and even on the entire war. If the fleet can arrive safely, not only will Russia's strength in the Far East be greatly strengthened, but the morale of the army will also be injected with a shot of strength, which will play an extremely effective role in promoting the victory over Japan in this war; And once the fleet loses, both on and off the battlefield, Russia will inevitably be broken, and the consequences will not be easily borne by Russia!

However, the Russian fleet at this time could hardly compete with the Japanese Combined Fleet. In order to successfully complete this operation, it was necessary to disperse the forces of the Combined Fleet so that the Japanese interception forces that finally appeared in front of Makarov's fleet could be dealt with by the Russians, 10 new and old battleships of all nations. Therefore, one hour after receiving the order from St. Petersburg, Makarov ordered the Essen fleet stationed in Vladivostok to immediately make a big sortie to attract the attention of the Japanese fleet; And he led all the main forces out of the port overnight and went to the Philippines to rendezvous with the convoy.

The only thing that made Makarov feel fortunate was that because he issued the order of first-class combat readiness on the day of the severance of diplomatic relations between Japan and Russia, the Russian Pacific Fleet did not need to have time for mechanical maintenance, the gathering of personnel on leave, and the pre-preparation of coal-fired shells when war was declared, and the whole army was in the best condition after nightfall. I just don't know if the 20 hours won can be the key point that determines the success or failure of this trip?