On the sea outside the port of Bokou on Sakhalin Island in the Far Eastern Province, a detachment consisting of four all-steel battleships, two large fast armored cruisers, four fast protection cruisers, and two destroyers of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet escorted hundreds of Japanese transport ships with three divisions to the area. ∮ ∮ ∮ little ∮ said,

In the bridge of the all-steel battleship Aoba, the captain of the Aoba, Rishishi Sekiya, and the commander of the 25th Division, Vice Admiral Shoichi Minagawa, the commander of the 26th Division, Vice Admiral Haruo Ueno, and the commander of the 27th Division, Vice Admiral Rikumae Ikawa, were observing the situation at the port of Haruguchi with binoculars.

The captain of the Aoba, Sekiya Lizhi, was the temporary commander of this detachment, and Sekiya Lizhi put down his binoculars and said to the three division commanders: "Three generals, according to the situation in the port of Bokou, I am ready to launch an attack by the warships of our navy first, and strive to annihilate this small fleet of the Northeast Navy in the port of Bokou, destroy the three batteries on the shore, and clear the obstacles for the landing of the army." The all-steel battleship Aoba will also participate in the battle, so can the three generals go to the transport ship and wait for the news of our naval victory? ”

The three of Minagawa Shoichi, Ueno Haruo, and Rikumae Ikawa looked at each other and frowned, and Minagawa Shoichi, who was appointed as the temporary commander of the landing force, said: "Sekiya-kun, using the naval guns of warships and the large-caliber coastal defense guns of the batteries to bombard, it seems that the warships will suffer a loss. ”

Sekiya, who had always looked down on the army, said confidently: "Please believe that our combined fleet can destroy the enemy!" ”

Arrogance, this is the evaluation of the three commanders of the Japanese army division on the navy in front of him, and what else does Minagawa Shoichi want to say. But the division commander of the 26th Division, Haruo Ueno, preemptively said: "Then our army will wait for the navy to destroy the enemy's fleet and shore defense artillery, Sekiya-kun." Please! ”

Guan Gu Lizhi said proudly: "The three generals can rest assured, the strength of the small fleet of the Northeast Navy in Bokou Port is much different from ours. There are only three batteries on the shore, and under the attack of our fleet of four all-steel battleships, the land will soon be able to carry out landing operations. ”

After that, Shoichi Minagawa, Haruo Ueno, and Ikawa Rikumae left the all-steel battleship Aoba in a lifeboat with their respective subordinates and boarded a transport ship with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons.

Boarding the transport ship, Mikawa Shoichi frowned and asked Haruko Ueno: "Why don't you stop that naval idiot, I don't know how he became the captain of an all-steel battleship, and he actually wanted to use a warship and a battery to bombard, this is irresponsible to the precious warships of the Empire!" ”

Haruo Ueno sneered and said, "Recently, the navy has become more and more rampant. In particular, His Majesty the Emperor paid for the construction of 8 majestic class all-steel battleships and 8 Asama-class large fast armored cruisers again, so that the tail of the navy was lifted to the sky, and now the navy suffers a little loss, so that the troops of our three divisions are ready to rush to the beach and land, only those fools in the navy will not be able to capture the port of Bokou, and when the navy suffers a loss, he will come to us. ”

Lu Qianjinghe also said: "It's time to let those arrogant guys learn some lessons." ”

Minagawa Shoyi sighed and said, "I just feel sorry for those warships that our empire spent a lot of money to build. Alas—"

At 9:45 a.m. on September 11, 12 warships of the Japanese Navy began to approach the port of Hakuguchi, preparing to launch an attack on the Tohoku Navy's garrison fleet at Maruguchi, as well as three batteries on the coast of the port.

In the bridge of the all-steel battleship Aoba. The first mate of the Aoba frowned and asked the captain of the ship, Sekiya Rishi, "Captain, there is no need for us to fight with the shore defense artillery, as long as we destroy the small fleet of the Northeast Navy in the port." Cover the land of the army and capture the battery. The port of Hakuchi will fall into the hands of our Imperial Japan. ”

"Lin Daxin's troops have not occupied Sakhalin for a long time, and I don't believe how strong the forts they built can be. This beach-grabbing landing operation at the port of Bokou is the first large-scale coordinated landing operation between the naval and land forces of the Japanese Empire, and if our navy wants to keep the army on the top, this time our table is very important, I hope that our navy alone can destroy the fleet and batteries in the port of Bokou, alas--I don't know what His Excellency Commander Togo thinks, if we send us an imperial marine, our navy can capture the port of Harukou by itself, and there is no need for those hillbillies in the army to share the credit of our navy! ”

The eight warships of the garrison fleet at the port of the port were also in motion, cruising in the harbor, maintaining a distance of about a kilometer from the batteries on the shore, preparing to cooperate with the six 230-mm and six 193-mm large-caliber coastal defense guns of the three batteries to resist the warships of the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the Japanese Navy's four Aoba-class all-steel battleships Aoba, Kinugasa, Furutaka and Kako, as well as two Asama-class large fast armored cruisers Tama and Kiso, at a distance of about 7,000 meters from the shore of the port of Hakuguchi, lined up in a battle line and fired a salvo of the first ** caliber naval guns.

Sekiya Rishi, the commander of this detachment of the Japanese Navy, believed that the large-caliber shore defense guns of the three batteries were the greatest threat to his fleet, and as for the berth garrison fleet, which did not even have a single battleship or a large armored cruiser, Sekiya Rishishi did not pay attention to it at all.

The first round of gunning on the Aoba-class all-steel battleships was 2 single-mounted 40-caliber 305 mm main guns, and 2 single-mounted 40-caliber 274 mm secondary guns, and the first round of gunning on the Asama-class large fast armored cruisers was 2 double-mounted 40-caliber 203 mm main guns, so that the six Japanese warships fired 24 large-caliber shells in the first round, which fell around the three batteries.

These three forts were built by the Marines after they occupied Sakhalin Island, although the Marines occupied Sakhalin Island for a short time, but these three forts in the port of Bokou were built very perfectly, and the Marines mobilized a large number of officers and men to work overtime to build them, all of them were reinforced concrete structures, and the thickness of the front, side and top of the forts reached nearly 1.5 meters.

Although the 3 batteries add up to only 12 large-caliber guns, which is less than half of the large-caliber naval guns of the 6 Japanese warships, the gunners of the marines in the batteries are not afraid of the naval guns of the Japanese Navy at all.

After the four salvos of the large-caliber naval guns of the six Japanese warships were completed, the six Japanese ships formed a battle line and were still about 7,000 meters away from the shore of the port of Bokou, and the Japanese ships did not pull the distance to the port of Bokou. At this time, the commander of the detachment of the Japanese Navy, Sekiya Tachito, shook his head helplessly, it seemed that his idea could not be realized, and it was seen from the telescope that in the fourth round of salvo, two large-caliber shells directly hit the two batteries on the coast, but the two batteries were not destroyed, and they did not even bring any interference to the gunners in the batteries, and the shore defense guns in the batteries continued to fire fiercely at their own fleet.

At this moment, a violent explosion sounded, and the all-steel battleship Furutaka was hit by a shell from 1 shore defense gun, and smoke rose.

Sekiya was determined to see that the all-steel battleship Furutaka had been hit, and immediately ordered all warships not to entangle with the shore defense guns of the forts, and to concentrate their firepower to destroy the small fleet of the Northeast Navy in the harbor first, so the Japanese naval guns gave up bombarding the batteries on the shore and turned their attention to the eight warships of the garrison fleet at the port of the port.

Sekiya still did not order the warships to approach the port of Bokou, but at a distance of about 7,000 meters, he bombarded the eight warships of the garrison fleet in the port.

Yin Jian, the commander of the garrison fleet at Bokou, frowned when he saw this situation, his eight warships were at least more than 6,000 meters away from the Japanese ships, that is, the 152 mm main guns of the two protective cruisers Yongfeng and the 138 mm main guns of the Yongle were difficult to hit the Japanese ships at this distance.

Yin Jian gritted his teeth, this dilemma of being beaten and unable to fight back must be changed, so Yin Jian ordered in the bridge of the Yongfeng: "Attention all ships, listen to my orders, launch an attack on the Japanese ships outside the port, and pull in the distance between them and the Japanese ships, Pearl, Jade, Jade, Big Flying Fish and Little Flying Fish, try to get as close as possible to the Japanese ships within 2000 meters, and then carry out torpedo attacks, brothers, this is the first battle of our Bokou garrison fleet, for the honor of the Northeast Navy, all ships are at full speed, rush!" Rush! Rush! ”

After Yin Jian's order was issued, the eight warships of the garrison fleet at the berth rushed towards the Japanese ships outside the harbor like wild horses that had escaped from the brisle.

In fact, it is not easy for Japanese warships to have 7,000 meters from the shore of the port of Hakuguchi, and the large-caliber coastal defense guns on the coast of the port of Hakuguchi are constantly tilting the shells of the Japanese warships, although at a distance of 7,000 meters, the hit rate of the shore defense guns is also very small, but after the all-steel battleship Furutaka was hit by a shell from a shore defense gun, the Asama-class large fast armored cruiser Tama was also hit by a 230 mm shell that pierced the right waterline armor and exploded inside the Tama, caused a fire. (To be continued......)