In order to better understand the situation, Essen led the most elite fast fleet of the Russian Navy to sail out of the port of Muroran and sailed in the direction of the East China Sea, with the Russian as the flagship, and led a group of Rurik and Aurora to cruise in the open sea, while at the same time two armored cruisers of the Sea of Azov and the Prince also left the port of Muroran and sailed towards Vladivostok through the Kamatsu Strait. Now Japan and Russia are already in a quasi-war state, so, before departure, Makanov had to put the Prince into the Vladivostok detachment, so Essen can only take 3 warships out of the cruise, until now, from the newspaper and the Russians' own plan to draw two aspects, the Qing emperor's fire has entered the countdown, in order to prevent his fleet from being blocked in the port or going to the East China Sea to meet the main force of the eastward Beiyang Fleet as soon as the war starts, Essen has to bring the fleet out in advance just in case.

Essen's voyage was very unpeaceful, just entered the high seas and found that there were some unknown ships in the distance tracking him from afar, needless to say, Essen also knew very well that this was either the Japanese or the Beiyang, but now Russia's war preparations have not been completed, Essen because of a reckless move to destroy Russia's overall plan, in desperation, Essen had to lead the fleet to speed up to get rid of these stalks. and made a big circle to the south, and then waited for an opportunity to enter the East China Sea.

Perhaps because the route of the Essen fleet was too southerly, shortly after entering the East China Sea, Essen noticed that a slender battleship appeared in the southwest direction of the fleet. Through the telescope, Essen can see. The opponent's twin main guns in the bow and the single main guns in the stern, and judging from the rear admiral's flag hoisted by the other side, this battleship should be the flagship of the light cruiser detachment of the Beiyang Fleet, the Guiyuan.

Almost at the same time, Lin Yongsheng on the Guiyuan also spotted the Essen fleet in the distance, and in the face of the opponent's three warships with a total displacement of nearly 30,000 tons, a smile appeared on the corner of Lin Yongsheng's mouth. "Finally found it. Keep up and keep in touch with them. Then, a telegram was sent to notify the other reporting ships to send a telegram to the Beiyang Headquarters to report the situation. Lin Yongsheng ordered.

For the behemoth of the Far East Fleet, Xu Jie and others are still very jealous. Especially once you enter the open sea, it is really not easy to find, and the scale is small. It is easy to be hit hard, and the scale is large and the search scope cannot be expanded. It's okay to send camouflage ships out to search, but once the war starts, these slow ships will definitely be cleared as soon as possible, and there is no guarantee of continuous tracking. What's worse is that the radio at that time was only 200+ KM communication distance, in the vast ocean, such a distance is simply not enough! So how to search and track the opponent's partisan fleet on the open sea is a big question.

But this is difficult for Xu Jie, who is a traverser, and Xu Jie's point of view is to have more points on the tracking problem. A large number of camouflaged notification ships were scattered, and once the Russian Navy sailed into the open sea, it was only a matter of time before they were discovered. It doesn't matter if you can't keep up, each notification ship is only responsible for one sea area. Once discovered, the notification ship in the adjacent sea area will immediately inform the notification ship of the opponent's situation by radio, and after the enemy fleet sails out, the notification ship in the adjacent sea area will carry out relay tracking. Of course, the news will definitely continue to pass on until it reaches the headquarters of the Beiyang Fleet!

This method seems to be good, but the actual effect is very mediocre. Because the process is very long. And even the notification ships in the adjacent area are difficult to contact immediately. By the time the information reached the land, it might have been a few hours later, but fortunately, Beiyang and Japan had reached an agreement to use the cable telegraph line in Japan for communication. After the Beiyang Naval Division gets the information, it will send a Guiyuan-class cruiser to be responsible for tracking, with a speed of up to 23 knots enough to run away under the opponent's attack, and at the same time ensure that it will not be lost in the daytime.

The Russian fleet because of fuel problems, can not easily travel at high speed, the so-called maximum range is only about 12 knots, if it is higher, the range will be greatly reduced, and if the range is reduced, the Beiyang is equivalent to indirectly curbing the opponent's action to break diplomatic relations. And today, the hapless Essen found out that he was being followed, and he was followed by the experienced Lin Yongsheng!

"Can we dump him?" A staff officer next to him said with resentment.

"I'm afraid it can't, the other side is faster than us, and as time goes by, more warships of the Beiyang Fleet will come here." Another officer said helplessly.

"What do we do now? Do you move on or go back? I don't want to be stopped by a bunch of armored cruisers in the North Ocean. The staff officer said that there was a cold war. As a veteran of the First Sino-Japanese War, he was deeply touched by the intensive firepower of the Beiyang Fleet.

The current situation makes Essen very embarrassed, and it is impossible to covertly enter the coastal waters of the Qing State to break diplomatic relations. However, if we go back like this, I am afraid that it will be difficult for my fleet to enter and leave the port of Muroran freely as soon as the war begins, and it will be inconvenient to enter the Yellow Sea through the Korean Strait. At least the mine arrays laid out by the Japanese annoyed the Russians. However, as a rare expert in the Russian Navy, Essen sorted out his thoughts after calming down and came up with a fairly feasible solution.

"The fleet is heading in the direction of Hokkaido, but do not return to the port of Muroran, anchor near the small harbor and contact General Makanov, and ask him to contact the French to send a stoner ship to the Western Pacific pre-supply sea. We waited outside the range of the return class. Esse thought for a moment and said.

Tonnage does not lie, all aspects of the performance of any warship are piled up with tonnage. When Xu Jie piled up a large number of armament armor and power systems on the battleship, it was impossible for the battleship's sea trials and range not to be affected. Although it can be compensated for to a certain extent by the design of the ship. But it is impossible to let the 5,000-ton return ship and the Russians play a long-distance race with 10,000 tons of equipment. The Rurik's maximum coal carrying capacity of 2,000 tons is no joke!

And when Essen led the fleet to turn to the open sea, Lin Yongsheng also understood the other party's intentions for the first time, wandering in the vast ocean, once it was night, it was inevitable that he would be lost, at this time, whether the Russian fleet bypassed itself and headed for the East China Sea, but returned to Hokkaido. In the face of this dry consumption situation, Lin Yongsheng had no choice.

"One more night, if the other side sails to our cordon, then we will return. In the report, Mr. Yang said that a Russian detachment had left the port and waited for an opportunity to enter the East China Sea, hoping to strengthen the patrol work of the coastal cordon. Lin Yongsheng said after thinking for a moment. Since it is impossible to complete real-time monitoring, it is the best choice to shrink the vigilance force and ensure the vigilance density of the main routes, since the Russians are breaking diplomatic relations and guerrillas, then they will inevitably advance in a roundabout way in the direction of the East China Sea, in this case, it is better to wait for the arrival of the other side in the coastal waters.

In this way, the Russian fleet and the Guiyuan sailed one after the other, and the two sides remained within line of sight. Keep in touch, but at the same time not too close. And such a scenario is not only in the Western Pacific, and not only in the North Ocean Fleet and the Russian Far Eastern Fleet, the same thing is happening in the Sea of Japan!

"General, that battleship in the distance should be the battleship Prince that the Russian Navy bought from the French." An adjutant said, pointing to the steel fortress-like battleship in the distance. The introverted side chords and complicated superstructure of the French clearly tell every Japanese who they are.

"This is really a big guy, it's not something that the Chuyun can deal with." Looking at the battleship in the distance, Mayuki Akiyama said with mixed feelings. A 12-INCH GUN AT THE BOW AND STERN AND A 274MM MAIN GUN ON THE AMIDSHIPS. Coupled with a large number of rapid-fire guns of two calibers densely packed on both sides of the ship's side, it undoubtedly does not indicate the strength of this battleship!

"It doesn't matter, now the Empire and Russia have not officially started a war, we are just tracking and not fighting. Even if the Russians saw it, they didn't dare to do anything to us. A staff officer pretended to be relaxed and said, in the face of such a battleship that he would definitely not be able to beat, or even run, it was impossible to say that the pressure was not great, but now, this staff officer could only comfort himself with this method.

"Childish! Putting one's own safety on the so-called international law and the inaction of the other side is simply a crime against one's own life and country! Do you think the Russians will follow these? They only recognize strength! Only when we are strong enough that the other party does not dare to despise us will we be safe! Akiyama Shinyuki scolded loudly!

And soon, the Russians' actions were, as Akiyama said, very unfriendly! "It's annoying that these abominable creatures are buzzing around you like flies." The captain of the battleship Prince contemptuously looked at the unbroken Hakumo in the distance and said.

"We should warn those Japanese monkeys that they have entered the territorial waters of our country!" Greatly put forward their own opinions.

"Very well, this is a way to tell them that they have entered the sacred Russian territorial waters, get out of the water immediately, or we will attack." The captain nodded in satisfaction. Then the cutting-edge battleship immediately turned around and sailed towards the Hatsukumo like a giant beast.

"What did they say?" Mayuki Akiyama asked.

"The Russians said we had entered Russian territorial waters and were going to attack us." The deputy captain said with a blue face and gritted teeth. Just as he was finishing, a shell flew from the opposite side and landed 200 meters on the port side of the Hatsuun. This move clearly shows that the Russians are not talking about playing, don't look at the three Russian warships dare not do anything to Guiyuan, that is because behind Guiyuan are powerful Beiyang Naval Divisions and Foreign Naval Divisions. What's behind the Japanese? There are only 2 armored cruisers in the whole of Japan, and the Prince is certainly not afraid!

"Let's retreat first, just follow from a distance." After Akiyama Shinshita issued this humiliating order, he made up his mind that once the war started, he would definitely join forces with Inoue Yoshishin to clean up this battleship!

In this way, before the war began, the tripartite navy had already begun a secret war, and the contest between guerrilla and counter-guerrilla, tracking and counter-tracking was staged on the oceans of the Far East!

Thanks to the monthly ticket support of the best people in the book friends, the big drama is about to be staged. Let's support it a little more. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )