"After the loss of Vladivostok, I learned that the port of Muroran had become an isolated island, where it could no longer serve as a base for the huge Russian fleet against the North Seas, lacking adequate facilities, lacking sufficient defenses, and lacking the support of other auxiliary ports. And it's too close to the North Ocean, so it's easy to be blocked. Still, I insisted on keeping Hokkaido. Makanov wrote this in a letter to the Minister of the Navy.

"In 5 years at most, His Royal Highness the Tsar will start a decisive battle in the Beiyang, this battle will affect the fate of the empire in the Far East, although we failed this time, but General Makanov, as the best commander of the empire, I need you to plan for the next war, the imperial navy cannot accept this humiliating defeat." The Secretary of the Admiralty wrote in his reply.

"There are still five years to go, and we have another contest with the Beiyang Fleet. But at this time, we no longer have a completed military port system, and things are difficult to do. Makanov looked at the Minister of the Navy's reply and shook his head involuntarily and said. For Makanov, the fleet is not a problem, and when the Russian bear decides to fight with a certain country, once a strong state breaks out, then there will be absolutely no shortage of fleets. But the question is, how can a powerful fleet come to the Far East and maintain sufficient combat power!

Without a base, let the fleet run tens of thousands of nautical miles and then fight to the death with the mighty Beiyang Fleet? This is to die, not to fight! This is absolutely not possible, but looking at the Far East as a whole, are there ports that can provide shelter for the Russian fleet?

There is definitely no East Asia, and we can only go to Southeast Asia to find it. The French have a nice port in Vietnam called Cam Ranh Bay. But the French had no interest in getting involved in a conflict with Beiyang, and Vietnam and China were next to each other. What should I do if someone kills me? The French want to leave their energies in Europe against Germany, but they do not intend to fight a land war with a big country in the Far East!

And then what, the British had quite a few good ports, but lent them to the Russians? Dream on! Spain? It seems impossible that the reason why the Spanish government was able to win the victory against the United States was that Beiyang played a very large role in it, although there was no such thing as repaying the favor in the exchanges between the major powers. But the Spaniards won't at least set themselves on fire!

By the way, there is also the Netherlands, which has a place in Southeast Asia called the Dutch East Indies. That's more than a million square kilometers of land, and it's rich in products. It stands to reason that the Netherlands, a small country, should not dare to provoke Beiyang, but what. Long before the Sino-Japanese War. The Beiyang Fleet once carried out a shock to the Netherlands! Since then, the Chinese in the Dutch East Indies have become first-class people, and as the Beiyang Fleet gradually expands its influence in Southeast Asia, the conflict between the Chinese and the Dutch has become more and more intense. The contradictions between the two sides have become irreconcilable.

However, the weak Dutch did not have the strength to resist the mighty North Sea. Joke, 8 years ago, it was defeated in one fight, but now. The Northern Fleet wanted to kill the colonial fleet of the Netherlands is not a matter of fingers? But the Netherlands can't sit still. Otherwise, when the direct war between Beiyang and the Russians is over, I'm afraid that General Xu Jie, who has never forgotten the East Indies, will lead his fleet to sweep Southeast Asia, right? So the Dutch had to find a way to find an ally for possible actions in the other side of the Beiyang, and the Russians were natural allies!

In this world, the only country that has the ability and intention to help the Netherlands solve this problem is Russia! In the face of the behemoth of the North Sea, the Dutch had no choice, as long as they still wanted the vast East Indies, they could only choose to cooperate with Russia. In fact, Russia did not have to pay much from the Dutch, it was just a military port where warships could dock.

And how would Russia help if it could use Dutch ports in the East Indies? A stable military port, a base from the southernmost point of the Beiyang has a military port in the Qianhai Sea. And the Russian warships in this military port can even attack any Beiyang ships entering from the South China Sea, and almost all the transport lines of the Beiyang are held in their own hands!

Faced with this situation, Beiyang had no choice but to trek thousands of nautical miles to the East Indies to fight a decisive battle with himself! And you can defeat the Beiyang Fleet from afar! It's a wonderful idea! The offensive and defensive momentum of both sides is directly converted, and the advantages and disadvantages are also converted!

Despite this good idea, Makanov still advised Nicholas II to keep Hokkaido. There are two reasons for this: first, although Makanov is eighty percent sure that the Netherlands will choose to cooperate with Russia, if the Netherlands refuses under British pressure, the Russian navy will have nothing to play with! The second point is that the Russian Navy needs to leave a large number of attack ships in Hokkaido, which on the other hand threatens the north-south transportation line of the Beiyang. When the main fleet led by himself and the Beiyang Fleet confronted each other in the South China Sea, if there was a surprise force that threatened the rear of the Beiyang Navy at all times, then the situation would be more favorable to Russia!

But there is another reason that Makanov does not dare to say explicitly, that is, Makanov already has a shadow on the Beiyang Fleet, and deep down, Makanov is trying his best to avoid fighting the Beiyang Fleet, which is in good condition from the beginning. This shadow had already fallen as early as the first battle between the two fleets during the Sino-Japanese War. The Beiyang Fleet's strong ships and guns, as well as the quality of its officers and men, made Makanov a little ashamed of himself.

Although Makanov took the initiative to attack once in this war, it was also based on attacking a weaker detachment after distracting the opponent by mobilizing the opponent. And what about the ending? The calculation of the other side failed, but was calculated by the other side, and the main fleet, which concentrated all the elite cruisers of the Far Eastern Fleet, was defeated by the opponent's mounted cruisers. And the main fleet was even worse, colliding with Liu Buchan's battlefleet. Then there were heavy losses and the ability to fight a decisive battle was completely lost.

Although the Russian army failed in the Battle of the Eighth Outdoor Sea, Makanov was not discouraged at this time, and he planned a series of battle plans with Essen, and put all the elite of the Russian Far East Fleet into action. But for a few weeks, the fleet caused some trouble in the North Ocean, but the almost total annihilation of the fleet made Makanov depressed. No, not just depressed, but a deep sense of powerlessness.

"A decisive battle or a broken engagement with the Beiyang Fleet in the coastal waters will not be successful, and the Beiyang Fleet has enough troops and auxiliary forces to turn the entire coastal sea into a forbidden place like an iron barrel. Therefore, the only hope lies in the decisive battle in the open sea. We must get the Beiyang Fleet out of the base and the support of the coastal forces, preferably in a decisive battle with the Beiyang Fleet in the waters relatively close to our bases. In the document persuading the Russian government to join forces with the Netherlands, after much hesitation, Makanov added this paragraph.

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