"Since the strategic operations on the Hokkaido side have been transferred inland, and the main force of the enemy fleet has been deeply trapped in the port of Vladivostok, it is planned to abolish the First Mobile Fleet and the Hokkaido Strategic Support Fleet composed of the main force of the fleet, and reorganize their forces, and most of them will be included in the Combined Fleet, so as to meet the needs of the Combined Fleet's planned force for a complete blockade of the port of Vladivostok. Alert mission in the sea south of the sea. The Third Mobile Fleet of the Sino-Korean Joint Force was abolished, and the main forces were subsumed into the Joint Fleet......"

On the imaginary vast beach, Wen Yi lay on the waterbed empty-handed, basking in the mild sun, and slept soundly. Next to him, Yang Zhengjin, who was lying with a beautiful woman in his left hand and champagne in his right hand, softly, hummed a song related to heaven and hell. People's dreams are sometimes really connected, do you believe it?

In the middle of the night on October 1, 1903, 15 nautical miles (about 27 kilometers) south of the port of Vladivostok, a series of jet-black shadows were rapidly skimming the gray sea.

Navy Lieutenant Commander Shu Shide cowered on the cramped command platform of the flagship "Baixue", his eyes widened and searched the sea, and there was nothing within 180 degrees in front of him.

Lieutenant Commander Shu Shide's first squadron of expulsion troops poured out that night, commanding a total of eight "Songxue"-class destroyers with a standard displacement of 850 tons: "White Snow", "Flying Snow", "Pine Snow", "Forest Snow", "Deep Snow", "Twilight Snow", "Mountain Snow", and "Falling Snow".

Each destroyer carried 16 mines in an attempt to lay a small minefield 10 nautical miles (about 18 kilometers) south of the port of Vladivostok.

In addition to the expulsion of the 1st Squadron, Major Fu Kesi's 5th Torpedo Squadron also took part in the operation, which had under its jurisdiction eight large torpedo boats with a standard displacement of 480 tons, namely "Hanshui", "Jiangshui", "Heshui", "Weishui", "Liaoshui", "Lishui", "Xiangshui", "Yongshui", "Huaishui", and "Ganshui".

This is the thirteenth time since the beginning of the war that the Chinese Navy has carried out mine-laying operations around the port of Vladivostok.

Schusdeh is well aware of the dangers of such operations.

From midnight on 14 September to the early morning of 15 September, the mine-laying fleet led by Colonel Wang Luogong encountered the Russian patrol fleet while sailing to the scheduled minelaying site, and the Chinese army sank the Russian cruiser "Pauyalin" and the destroyer "Terrible" with heavy artillery and torpedo attacks, and their own losses were slight, but in the subsequent mine-laying operations, the Chinese cruisers "Spring Rain" and "Autumn Rain" and the destroyer "Pingyue" were damaged by mines, and the mission failed, killing 498 people overnight. After this battle, the combined fleet decided not to integrate the cruisers into the minecht fleet.

On 17 September, the Chinese army formed a mine-laying flotilla with seven destroyers of the Fifth Squadron and eight large torpedo boats of the Fifth Squadron to carry out the fifth mine-laying operation.

On 22 September, the Chinese army expelled eight destroyers of the Third Squadron and six 70-ton small torpedo boats of the Third Torpedo Squadron to form a mine-laying flotilla to carry out the seventh mine-laying operation.

In view of the fact that the Yuezi destroyer had too deep a draft and was prone to mine-susceptibility, starting from the eighth mine-laying operation, the Xue destroyer, which had a relatively shallow draft, took the leading role in the mine-laying warfare, and sent large torpedo boats carrying mine-sweeping devices to escort it. Sure enough, from the eighth to the twelfth operation, there were no more mine-striking losses in five consecutive operations.

"But if you start an encounter, the firepower of the Snow Character is weaker than that of the Moon Font."

Shu Shide thought, gently stroking the railing of the "Bai Xue" command platform, and suddenly had some inexplicable distractions.

A destroyer, a small thing of eight or nine hundred tons, is ridiculously weak compared to a capital battleship of more than 10,000 tons, but when torpedoes are widely used, a capital ship without a destroyer escort is pitifully weak. Two or three torpedoes worth hundreds of pounds, or even one or two cheap perverted mines, can send an armored giant ship costing tens of millions of pounds to the bottom of the sea. But in any case, the role of the capital ship is still irreplaceable, destroyers, torpedo boats, etc., no matter how you look at it, it is just a miscellaneous task for the capital ship, reconnaissance, minesweeping, patrolling, escorting, lightning strikes, and when necessary, it is necessary to do a backing, "ready to sacrifice yourself for the capital ship at any time." If you really want to do it, you have to rely on the capital ship to support it, a bit like a beast chess, elephant eats lion, lion eats tiger, tiger eats wolf, wolf eats cat, cat eats mouse, mouse can plug into the elephant's trunk and stuff the elephant to death, so the mouse can eat the elephant again, to quote it to naval operations, that is, the torpedo boat eats the capital ship, the capital ship eats the cruiser, the cruiser eats the destroyer, the destroyer eats both the torpedo boat and the capital ship, but of course the truth is not so simple, The dense artillery on the capital ship could still drive the torpedo boats and destroyers far away in broad daylight. Not to mention what the effect is, just think about the wide hull, the towering mast, the chimney and the bridge, the huge main gun barrel and turret, the dense secondary guns and portholes, and think about the majestic posture of the 10,000-ton giant ship cleaving the waves in the waves, how can you not give birth to heroic feelings, how can you not give birth to envy?

"If nothing else, the food on the capital ship is definitely better than that on this little thing."

Shu Shide immediately remembered today's dinner, the recipe repeated 10,000 times, and he would lose two-thirds of his appetite just by listening to it.

"Hurry up and get promoted, work hard, work hard, you must get on the battleship, at least it is a patrol, if you patrol lightly, it won't be much better, three thousand tons and eight hundred tons, so if you think about it, it's not much worse."

Although Shu Shide was not optimistic about the light cruisers, it was Colonel Liao Shengzhen's light patrol fourth squadron that provided close support to his breech fleet that night, and the squadron was under the jurisdiction of four "heavy rain" class light cruisers with a standard displacement of 3,620 tons, namely "Summer Rain", "Heavy Rain", "Thunderstorm", and "Mountain Rain", and the six Yuezi destroyers "Songyue", "Shuiyue", "Jiangyue", "Huyue", "Haiyue", and "Guiyue" of Major Licorice's Third Combat Squadron were responsible for escorting the cruisers. The close support force was hovering 20 nautical miles (36.5 km) south of the port of Vladivostok, and the Brecht fleet should move closer to the support fleet as soon as possible if it encountered a superior enemy.

Six or seven nautical miles south of the close support force, Vice Admiral Lin Taizeng personally led the main force of the Combined Fleet, which consisted of six battleships, six armored cruisers, four cruisers, and six destroyers.

This is the three-tier defense system of the combined fleet, which is composed of an outpost reconnaissance fleet, a close support fleet, and a main fleet that are half an hour's distance from each other, plus the minefields at the forefront, and special combat boats (small submarines) deployed in turn, in an effort to tightly enclose the Russian fleet in the military port of Vladivostok.

After looking at the gloomy sea for a long time, Shu Shide felt a little pain in his eyes, so he entrusted the battle position on the command platform to the captain of the ship, and walked to the chart room by himself to confirm the route.

The space of the destroyer was very small, and the chart room was not very large, except for the chart table, which was just enough to squeeze six people, and there were already two nautical staff officers lying there to mark the route.

Shu Shide did not disturb them, and only stood quietly to the side looking at the charts, and one of the staff officers, sensing his arrival, was about to rise up and salute, but was stopped by him with a gesture.

"Presumably there is no problem, let's go back to the command platform."

Shu Shide thought so, and was about to step on the gangway to the command platform, but he heard the captain's shout from above: "The shadow of the ship was found in front of the port side, the route is facing the ship, the main gun is ready, and the torpedo is ready!" ”

Shu Shide hurriedly took three steps and two steps, jumped onto the command platform almost enclaves, raised his binoculars and looked ahead to the port side, and sure enough, he saw a long series of ship shadows, emerging one after another from the dark night.

"Searchlight ready!"

The captain gave the third order.

"Send the signal, the whole team is ready to fight the enemy on the port side!"

Shushide gave the first order.

"Send a signal, the whole team is ready to fight the enemy on the starboard side!"

Lieutenant Colonel Yereseev, commander of the Russian destroyer fleet, issued a battle order, and his squadron included 10 destroyers, including "Tenacity", "Mighty", "Thunderbolt", "Astute", "Silent", "Dreadnought", "Cruel", "Feverish", "Enduroy" and "Guardian", whose mission was to patrol outside the port of Vladivostok and expel the possible Chinese mine-laying fleet, and now they have discovered the mission target.

The searchlights of both sides were turned on almost simultaneously, and at a distance of three to four chains (one British naval chain is equal to 185.31 meters), the shadows of the warships of both sides were clear and large, and Lieutenant Commander Shu Shide even saw through the telescope "the excited expression of the bearded officer on the command platform of the other side when he waved his hand and gave the order to open fire."

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

The flash of the cannon tore through the darkness, one after another, and pierced people's eyes, and at a distance of several hundred yards, the hit rate of the guns on both sides was astonishingly high, and soon several warships were beaten and burned, and the broken boilers and steam pipes spewed out large clouds and mist, which shrouded the damaged warships, and the clouds reflected the flashes of fire, lights, and muzzles, adding an alluring dreamy atmosphere to the battlefield.

"Boom, boom!"

Shu Shide's eardrums were numb from a series of loud noises from behind, and when he turned his head, he saw that the "Flying Snow" that was closely behind the flagship had turned into a large bright and huge fireball, presumably the mines on board had been detonated.

"Damn, what are the torpedo boat units doing!"

Shu Shide complained, and when he looked back, he saw a torpedo boat speeding from the starboard side to the front of the flagship, and after inserting the flagship's route, it turned to the side of the enemy fleet.

Shu Shide was amazed at the skill of the crew on this boat, when a dazzling fireball suddenly flashed behind the enemy ship.

"Hit, torpedo, it's the torpedo that boat put it, well done!"

Schussted knew very well that the fireball was not something that could be produced when a shell hit or an ammunition exploded, it was the exclusive sign of a 460-millimeter torpedo hitting a light target.

"The enemy ship turns left!"

The flagship captain reported.

"Order, the whole ship turns left, and pursues at the maximum combat speed!"

Schusdeh waved his hand and ordered, he had just experienced the intense excitement of his first night battle, and was now desperate to devour all the enemy ships in one go—tearing them up and swallowing them like shredded beef.

A few minutes after the exchange of fire, Lieutenant Colonel Yereseev saw clearly the lineup of the Chinese army - a whole sixteen destroyers and large torpedo boats!

※※※

The concept of destroyers in the Russian army is rather vague, and some torpedo boats of 70 or 80 tons are also classified as small destroyers, most of which have a displacement of less than 600 tons, while in the Chinese Navy, ships under 500 tons and with torpedoes as their main attack weapon are all classified as torpedo boats - although these so-called torpedo boats will also be loaded with too many small and medium-caliber guns.

Lieutenant Commander Yeresenov's 10 destroyers, all of which were under 600 tons, and the caliber of their main guns did not exceed 75 mm. The "Weifeng" was smashed to pieces by the 100-mm cannon of the destroyer Xuezi of the Chinese Army, and the boiler exploded and soon capsized. "Nauro" was hit by a torpedo fired by a torpedo boat of the Chinese army, broke into two and quickly sank. Several other Russian destroyers were also on fire, and Yeresenov, seeing that the situation was not good, hurriedly ordered a left turn and retreat, and sent a telegram for help to the fleet command.

At 23:50, at the military port of Vladivostok, on the flagship of the Russian Pacific Fleet, "Petropavlovsk", the commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Makarov, held a telegram for help from Lieutenant Commander Yeresenov and calmly ordered: "Order, first, Rear Admiral Leizinshtekin to lead the cruisers Rulik, Thunderbolt, Diana and Askold, and four destroyers of the 3rd destroyer detachment to sail along the safe channel to rescue Major Yeresenov's destroyer detachment. Secondly, the armored ships Petropavlovsk, Sevastopol, Dawn and Victory were immediately raised and departed from the port, accompanied by the cruisers Novik and Hercules, and six destroyers of the 2nd destroyer detachment, ready to support the fleet of Rear Admiral Leazinshte. ”

Almost at the same time, 25 nautical miles south of the port of Vladivostok, Vice Admiral Lin Taizeng, commander of the Combined Fleet, received a report from Lieutenant Commander Shu Shide on defeating the enemy's patrol fleet on the "Ruixiang," the flagship of the Combined Fleet, and immediately ordered Colonel Liao Shengzhen's close support force to meet Shu Shide's Bretch fleet, and the main fleet moved five nautical miles north for follow-up.

At 0:30 a.m. on 2 October, on board the destroyer "Baixue," Lieutenant Colonel Shu Shide, commander of the First Destroyer Squadron, was in full swing and frequently ordered the mine-laying fleet under his command to turn or speed up, bite the retreating Russian patrol fleet, and block the retreat of the enemy ships with heavy artillery fire and frequent torpedo attacks. Forty-five minutes had passed since the battle, and Schusshide's fleet had lost the destroyer "Blizzard" shortly after the battle began, but in the ensuing battle, Schusshide had witnessed his own ships smash at least three Russian destroyers to scrap metal.

Captain Wang Zhiyi, the captain of the "Bai Xue," saw that his side had been pursuing for too long and was worried that the fleet would fall into enemy minefields or encounter enemy support forces, so he suggested that Shu Shide temporarily stop the pursuit.

"It's enough to sink one more, and we should avenge the Flying Snow, besides, we will follow the enemy ship closely, and we don't have to worry about the minefield, as for the enemy's support forces, if it is a destroyer, it must not be our opponent, and if it is a cruiser, we can also break away with the advantage of speed."

Shu Shide said.

Captain Wang Zhiyi has nothing to refute this.

Shu Shide glanced at him and added: "You also want to avenge your third brother." ”

Wang Zhiyi nodded, said no more, and continued to command the battle seriously.

Wang Zhiyi is the second oldest in the family, the eldest brother Wang Shouzhong joined the army and served as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, Wang Zhiyi and the third brother Wang Zhijie joined the navy and were both captains of the navy before the war, Wang Zhiyi served as the captain of the flagship of the first destroyer squadron "Bai Xue", and Wang Zhijie served as the captain of the third squadron of torpedo boats. At midnight on 8 September, Wang Zhijie led the 3rd Torpedo Squadron to raid the port of Vladivostok, and his boat, the "Shan-2," was destroyed by heavy artillery fire from the Russian battleship, and Captain Wang Zhijie and the other 23 officers and men on board were killed immediately.

Why didn't Wang Zhiyi want to avenge his brother, but on the battlefield of this era, the situation is unpredictable, and he can kill the generals and capture the flag and break the enemy army with the idea of revenge?

Wang Zhiyi just couldn't resist the orders of his superiors.

A few minutes later, an observer on the right side of the command platform suddenly shouted: "The shadow of the ship has been found on the starboard side, the number of four, five, six...... Number eight, preliminary speculation, two battleships, two cruisers, four expelled ships! ”

"What! The battleship is also out! ”

Shu Shide exclaimed, hurriedly raised the mirror to look, and sure enough, he saw that in the series of ship shadows in front of the starboard side, the first two ships were quite large, and they must be more than 10,000 tons, and carefully identified, and found that these two ships were not armored battleships, but two first-class cruisers "Rulik" and "Thunderbolt", the former had a displacement of 11,690 tons, and the latter had a displacement of 13,880 tons, which was no less than the battleships in the same fleet. Although he recognized that the enemy ships were not battleships but first-class cruisers (i.e., armored cruisers or heavy cruisers), Schussted still felt a great deal of pressure, and the "Rulik" and "Thunderbolt" were each equipped with 4 203-mm guns and 16 152-mm medium-caliber secondary guns, and the rest of the 152-mm secondary guns were innumerable, surrounded by a circle of destroyers and light cruisers (in fact, the 5,900-ton Diana and Ascold), if they were caught by this large group of enemies, These thin destroyers and torpedo boats in their hands should not be able to eat and go around.

Thirty-six strategies, taking the best policy, in the face of a strong enemy, this is also a helpless thing, the "White Snow" inlaid with the golden dragon pattern of the small bow briskly drew an arc wave on the sea, with a large series of snow destroyers and water torpedo boats behind, full speed along the route of the rapid escape.

Although the movement of the Shushide fleet was swift, because the distance between the two sides was less than five chains (about 930 meters) when it encountered the Russian support fleet, the Russian ships still had enough time to turn on their searchlights and pursue the Chinese ships with heavy artillery fire. The Russian destroyer, which had been hunted down, now turned around and beat the Chinese ship in the ass.

In the dark night, the beam of light of the searchlight swept through the water column like a forest, which made people fall into a dream.

The "Falling Snow", which was at the end of the battle sequence of the first battle team, could not escape the dense rain of bullets, and was first broken by the steam pipeline, and the whole ship was like falling into the clouds and fog, and after the steam dissipated, the "falling snow" could not catch up with its own fleet, and fell far behind (alas, who called it "Falling Snow"), and was beaten by the Russian battleship with large-caliber artillery, and the surface of the ship was almost blown up, and it was slanted into the water, and only 18 of the 115 officers and men of the whole ship survived.

The commander of the Russian support fleet, Rear Admiral Leuzinshtekin, also seemed to be in a hurry, ordering his destroyers to chase after him, and the cruisers to press in the rear, in an attempt to eat one or two more Chinese warships.

The so-called praying mantis catches cicadas, the yellow finch is behind, the Russian destroyer is chasing happily, but unexpectedly a group of Chinese warships are killed in the oblique stab, it is Colonel Liao Shengzhen's close support troops, four Yuzi cruisers and six Yuezi destroyers are at full power, and they turn on the searchlights together, illuminating the Russian army dizzy, and take the opportunity to hit it with artillery, each ship of the Yuzi is equipped with 4 150mm main guns, 10 120mm rapid-fire guns, and each ship of the Yuezi also has 3 120mm rapid-fire guns, The Russian destroyers, which were only equipped with a few 75mm guns, turned their rudders and retreated. The destroyer "Tenacity", flying the flag of Lieutenant Commander Yereseev, could not escape, its engine was damaged by artillery fire, and the torpedo in the starboard torpedo tube was detonated again, and the whole ship burned into a dazzling fireball, which gradually disappeared and fell silent. Lieutenant Colonel Yereseev was then captured by the Chinese torpedo boat "Weishui".

Colonel Liao Shengzhen saw that the enemy destroyer had been repulsed, and he wanted to accept it when he saw it, but who knew that Lieutenant Colonel Shu Shide was chased all the way, and he held his breath, and now that he had the backing, he led his troops to chase him back, and Liao Shengzhen was afraid that something would happen to him, so he had to lead his troops to follow closely.

Shu Shide chased all the way, and then suddenly thought that the Russian destroyers must be followed by those huge cruisers, and hurriedly sent a message to Liao Shengzhen's flagship "Xia Yu": "Stop the pursuit, there are enemy armored cruisers in front." ”

Liao Shengzhen listened to the herald's translation of the lantern language, and said angrily: "Tell him that the fleet is starting to sail back, and ask him to make a free decision." ”

As soon as the words fell, the Russian destroyer rushed back again, with four large ships pressed behind, with large-caliber searchlights open, and the ship's cannons bombarded over, knocking out the right front main gun of the "Xia Yu" at once.

Liao Shengzhen gritted his teeth and said: "Okay, your surname is Shu, I will clean you up when I turn around, give the order, turn the rudder and return to the ship, and retreat at full speed!" Fall back! ”

The Chinese army retreated in a hurry, but the Russian ships did not stop and pursued them even more fiercely. Russian General Leizinshteying held back in Hong Kong for three weeks, and was bombed by airships and planes every day, and he was already depressed.

The praying mantis catches the cicada, the yellow finch is behind, the yellow finch is behind, the shotgun is waiting, Rear Admiral Leuzinshteying saw the Chinese army being killed on the "Rulik", and ran away in a panic, and his heart was proud, and suddenly heard a panicked report from the observer from the top of the command platform: "The shadow of the ship was found in front of the port side, and the number was six, eight, nine...... Twenty-two! Armored ships and large cruisers twelve, small and medium-sized cruisers and destroyers ten! ”

Major General Leizinshteying jumped up in shock and hurriedly slapped the railing of the command platform and shouted: "Retreat, give the order!" The whole ship retreats! ”

On the "Ruixiang", the flagship of the United Fleet, Vice Admiral Lin Taizeng put his hands behind his back and shouted in a deep voice: "Turn on the searchlight and prepare for the main gun fire."

In an instant, six battleships and six armored cruisers turned on their searchlights one after another, 26 main gun turrets slowly swirled, and 52 305-mm cannons with a diameter of 40 times the diameter were pointed at the Russian ships one after another.

With a loud sound, the three main guns of the "Ruixiang" opened fire first, followed by the main guns of the eleven battleships one after another, and the blinding flash shook the fragile soul of Rear Admiral Leuzinshtekin, and then a 305-millimeter shell from a distance of less than 2,000 yards simply took the fallen soul to heaven or hell.

The upper part of the bridge of the "Rulik" was shattered, except for Rear Admiral Leizinshtekin, the captain of the ship was killed, and none of the observers and operational staff officers on the command platform survived. Major Talabesu, the first mate of the "Rulik", automatically took over the command and continued to direct the battle from the spare command position under the rear mainmast, and Major Talabesu ordered the ship to turn around, return to the base, and return fire on the Chinese ship with all large and medium-caliber guns.

By the time the "Rulik" completed its turn, there was not a single Russian ship behind its buttocks.

At this time, the "Thunderbolt," which was originally following the "Rulik," had already turned its rudder at full speed and broke away, and the "Diana" and "Askind" behind it also fled with the "Thunderbolt." After the Russian destroyer let off a burst of torpedoes, it suddenly disappeared at a high speed of 278 knots.

The delay of the main Chinese fleet in evading the torpedoes fired by the Russian destroyers enabled the "Rulik" to escape some distance, but its speed of 18 knots was not enough to escape the pursuit of the Chinese battleships and armored cruiser forces, not to mention the large number of Chinese destroyers that were closely surrounding it.

When Major Talabesu saw that all his ships had fled into the darkness, and that only his own ship was being chased and intercepted by many Chinese ships, he took out a nautical chart and hastily browsed it, and then ordered the "Rulik" to sail at full speed to a minefield that his side had laid not long ago.

Lin Tai even ordered the armored cruiser unit to detour back to the front of the "Rulik" at a maximum speed of 20 knots, while the destroyer unit frequently fired torpedoes to obstruct the ship's movements, in an effort to surround the 10,000-ton giant ship and devour it alive.

At 2:15 p.m., the port side of the "Rulik" suddenly exploded, and its speed dropped to 10 knots at once, and Vice Admiral Lin Taizeng of the "Ruixiang" believed that the torpedo fired by his own destroyer had hit the enemy ship, so he ordered the battleship unit to move closer to the port side of the enemy ship in order to launch a salvo of its main guns on it by taking advantage of the fire ignited by the explosion of the enemy ship.

A few minutes later, there was an explosion on the right side of the bow of the "Ruixiang", and the entire warship was shaken up and fell down heavily, with a terrible cracking sound from the inside of the hull, and the turbulent sea water poured into the anchor chain compartment and the sailors' quarters, and the 15,000-ton warship slowly tilted towards the front of the right side of the ship......