Shortly after the end of the Battle of Chenghuan, the Beiyang Rapid Fleet, which had been reorganized in Weihai, was finally going to fight again, but this time not in the Yellow Sea, but in the East China Sea. Xu Jie, who has studied history, knows very well that under the condition that there is not much difference in the strength of the two sides, the impact of the guerrilla formations, which have always been fast and flexible, on the overall situation is very huge. For example, in the Battle of Ulsan in the Russo-Japanese War, in order to deal with the three old Russian cruisers, Japan sent four new cruisers and two dome cruisers, and the result of the engagement was only Rurik sinking himself due to mechanical failure. The Spei fleet in World War I not only turned the Pacific Ocean upside down, but also caused Britain to transfer three valuable battle cruisers to encircle the Spei fleet, which even caused a relative shortage of the number of capital ships of the British Grand Fleet. As far as the current situation is concerned, the safety factor of the three fast cruisers operating in the East China Sea is quite high, and the Japanese fleet must ensure absolute control of the Korean Strait, and Japan's Kurama has not yet joined the battle sequence, and the Japanese fast fleet will never dare to come out and fight hard even if it knows Xu Jie's plan. And even if the Kurama is commissioned, the combat speed of the Japanese fast fleet is not as fast as Xu Jie's fast fleet, and in this case, Xu Jie has no need to be afraid. As for the earnings? The entire eastern and southern shipping routes and even seaports in Japan must be within the strike range of the Beiyang Fast Fleet, whether it is personnel, supplies or other war materials, Xu Jie can choose to strike targets, so according to Xu Jie's words: I am really sorry for my 3 cutting-edge warships if I don't go around the East China Sea!

And Xu Jie didn't directly enter the East China Sea, even if he blocked the road and robbed, he had to find out the situation first, so Xu Jie had to first collect some intelligence from the "national pirates" who had been wandering around the waters near Japan for a while! As the leader of these attack ships, Peng Haifeng naturally wanted to meet Xu Jie. In the agreed sea area, the two sides met, and Peng Haifeng also boarded the battleship of the Beiyang Fleet for the first time. Looking at this new cruiser, Peng Haifeng had mixed feelings. According to his private jokes, there are still Chinese shares in these battleships!!

"Boss Peng, there will be opportunities in the future, and soon you will see bigger warships, let's talk about business first, okay?" Xu Jie joked.

"Isn't it just the route situation? This is the route map and notes that the brothers got, all on this. There are two things to be aware of. One is that the Japanese Navy has recently begun to concentrate on escort ships, and these escort warships are not good goods, that is, some unprotected cruisers, but these goods, the brothers can't deal with them, and the efficiency is reduced, and recently they have robbed some merchant ships. Five days later, according to intelligence, a group of Japanese troops would arrive in Hiroshima by sea in several sea vessels and then go to Korea. I don't know if Lord Xu is interested in doing a vote with his brothers. Peng Haifeng said.

"Let's start with another thing. Joint operations require careful planning. Xu Jie thought for a while and said.

"Another thing is that the old man's boat intercepted a Japanese transport ship while cruising in the Sea of Japan, and found hidden shells on it. And it is strange that the owner of the cargo is Russian, and Japan, as the transporter, does not know that the cargo is mixed with shells. The destination is Muroran Port. Peng Haifeng said suspiciously.

"Muroran Port? What caliber shells? Xu Jie was shocked and hurriedly asked.

"8-inch shells, looking at the foreign characters on them, should be used by Maozi. Come on, let Lord Xu see the cannonballs we have captured. Peng Haifeng said, and then Xu Jie and Peng Haifeng went out together to check on a Russian artillery shell that had been transported without a fuse.

"Did you catch the captives?" Xu Jie asked with a gloomy face after reading the shell.

"Grab a few hairs. Would you like to bring it along? AND THEY ALSO HAVE THE 75MM SAMPAN CANNON PROVIDED BY MAOZI AS SELF-DEFENSE FIREPOWER, IF IT WEREN'T FOR THE MORE FIERCE FIREPOWER OF MY SHIP, MAYBE THEY REALLY LET THE OTHER SIDE ESCAPE. Peng Haifeng said. Then he asked his men to bring the Russians. …,

"It's his shoes off." Xu Jie ordered, and then several soldiers went up and took off the Russians' shoes.

"Take them away." After speaking, Xu Jie returned to the conference room without looking back.

"What's the situation?" Peng Haifeng, who walked in later, asked.

"This guy is in the navy, you look at the calluses on his hands, obviously he has climbed the mast and practiced guns, you look at the calluses on his feet, it is obviously sharpened by climbing the mast. In the Far East, it was obvious that those who could meet these two conditions were the people of the Russian fleet. In this way, it is easy to determine their purpose, they secretly transported 8-inch shells from Vladivostok to Muroran, and Murolan, which is the sphere of influence of the Russians, can only indicate one situation, that is, the Russians are preparing for war! And it was done behind the back of the Japanese. Xu Jie said with a look on his face.

"Could it be that the Russians want to eat both?" After pondering for a moment, Peng Haifeng was frightened into a cold sweat by his own inference. This Beiyang fleet may not even be able to fight the Japanese fleet at present, and with the Russians, it will be completely useless.

"It's possible. The only thing the Russians could send to the Far East now was the newly established cruiser formation. Most of the Russians' ironclad ships are coastal defense warships, they can't sail far, their speed is not enough, and for the safety of their homeland, they don't dare to move, so this kind of cruiser formation is all the possessions that Russia can send. And the main guns in this batch of battleships were more than 8 inches. Coming from the ocean, the Russians were afraid that there would not be enough shells, and it was very likely that they would move the Vladivostok stockpile, and the 2 capital ships in Vladivostok had already been sold to the Japanese, and it was useless to leave the shells there. Lin Yongsheng said.

"Without further ado, immediately send someone to land and send a telegram to Lord Zhongtang, Admiral Luang Weili and the British. The Japanese fleet must be dealt with before the Russians arrive! Xu Jie made a quick decision. That night, someone left the fleet on a clipper and returned to Weihai. Three days later, three telegrams were sent.

The port of Serra, Italy, accompanied by a shrill whistle. Three 10,000-ton ships flying the flag of the Italian Navy began to light fires and raise anchors. The minelayers, minesweepers, and supply ships that accompanied them also began to make pre-departure preparations.

"It's our turn." Standing on the bridge of the latest warship in Beiyang, Weihai (the official name of Italy is PISA), Lang Weili said with mixed feelings. It was as if he had gone not to fight a powerful enemy, but to attend a banquet.

"We've been preparing for this for four years." Deng Shichang, the pipe band of the Ninghai (the first ship of the Italian Garibaldi-class battleship) standing next to Lang Weili, said thoughtfully.

"The powertrain is okay, right? In order to join up with General Xu's troops as much as possible, the fleet needs to speed up. The auxiliary ships in the back may have to be thrown away. That's a big supply problem. Yang Yonglin said with some embarrassment.

"It's okay, the Royal Navy has thought of it for me." Lang Weili said with some pride, and then he pointed to a traffic boat that was heading towards the Weihai and said.

"Captains of the Beiyang Fleet, I am Colonel Jericho of the British Royal Navy, and in order to show the support of the British Imperial Navy for the Qing Beiyang Fleet's resistance to Japan's barbaric aggression, the British Empire will provide supply support to the Qing Fleet along the way, and I will be responsible for contacting the relevant matters as a liaison officer." Jerry Coo said after boarding the ship.

"I am very grateful for the friendly act of the British Empire, but I wonder if the Japanese and Russians have known about it so far?" Deng Shichang asked.

"If the Japanese knew, I think their best option now would be to stop the war immediately. And if the Russians knew, they wouldn't want to challenge the First Fleet in the Far East with a few cruisers, and judging from the itinerary, the Russian fleet, which could not get enough supply points, would not have been able to reach the Far East before the Beiyang Fleet was assembled, and I think Lieutenant Xu would use this precious time to deal with the Japanese fleet. Jericho said unhurriedly. …,

"May the traditional friendship between the British Empire and the Great Shimizu Priest be further after this war." After Deng Shichang finished speaking, he stretched out a hand and said. "But I want to remind Mr. Jericho that Mr. Xu is not a lieutenant general at the moment."

"Hehe, slip of the tongue, but even in the British Royal Fleet, the commander of 3 2nd class battleships and 3 light armored cruisers is also a lieutenant general." Jericho said indifferently.

At the same time when the three capital ships of the Beiyang embarked on the journey home and received great help from the British, Makanov, who was waiting to sail in the Baltic Sea, encountered many obstacles that he did not expect, first of all, the British Empire expressed great confusion that Russia had sent such a powerful fleet to the Far East at this sensitive juncture, and hinted that the British colonial authorities would refuse to provide supply services for the Russian voyages, because Russia's behavior seriously violated the neutrality of the Russian government at the beginning of the war. Without a place of supply, how did you let the Russian cruiser fleet get to the Far East? Do you grab it along the way? Obviously, it is impossible, and France, as a friendly country, also said no to the Russians this time, for very simple reasons, first, Britain, the maritime hegemon, set an example, and second, you must know that the reason why France is trying to win over Russia is to deal with Germany together, and if Russia throws its main force into the Far East, then it will be meaningless for France to win over Russia. So France absolutely refused to make it happen.

"Do you want my cruiser fleet to go to war in the Far East with more than 10 supply ships?" Makanov looked at the diplomatic document and said angrily.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is negotiating, I want to give the French some benefits, and I can still get some supply points." A staff officer said.

"Well, I personally believe that the purpose of this voyage is not to fight, but to give the Russian Navy the ability to move across the ocean with almost no replenishment!" Makanov said rather angrily.

After receiving the telegram in Tianjin, Li Hongzhang couldn't worry about a head-on conflict with the Russians, the ultimate combat power of the Beiyang Fleet, the hope of the Qing State to win was about to return, and he had to make some preparations, first ordered the docks in Lushun and Weihai to be vacated, and then specially established an independent telegraph line to keep in touch with Luang Weili and others as much as possible along the way, and transferred manpower and equipment to prepare for the maintenance and maintenance work after the war in the future, after all, Xu Jie mentioned in the telegram, The Beiyang Fleet had to fight the Japanese before the arrival of the Russian fleet, and although the Russians had an uncertain date of arrival for various reasons, they were prepared as soon as possible on the principle of preparedness. After all, this is a key battle that will determine the future of Beiyang and even the Qing Dynasty, and it must not go wrong.

Hey, it's been a bleak week, don't talk about anything--! Let's help~~