The Taiping Army divided the 200 ships into three detachments, the first two detachments were composed of 66 ships, namely 33 transport ships, 23 gunboats, and 10 frigates, while the third detachment consisted of 68 ships.

In this way, the Armada was divided into three detachments of similar size.

These three detachments are tentatively called the first, second, and third detachments, with the commander of the first detachment being Li Hongzhang, the commander of the second detachment being Luo Bingzhang, and the commander of the third detachment being Huang Xu.

Originally, everyone wanted to nominate Li Xiucheng, the commander of the Tenth Legion, to temporarily serve as the commander of the third detachment, but Huang Xu personally asked Ying to be the commander.

Therefore, for safety reasons, the third detachment had two more ships than the other two detachments, and the third detachment was placed in the last position for strict protection.

said that Huang Xu is the emperor of the dignified empire, how can his safety be child's play.

According to the deployment, the three detachments of the Armada advanced in two formations.

One is a fan-shaped formation, that is, the first detachment rushes forward and is in the center, the second detachment is slightly behind and is on the left, while the third detachment is parallel to the second detachment and is on the right.

Traveling in such formations, they are closely connected with each other, and they can prevent sudden sneak attacks by Japanese troops.

The other is a vertical formation, that is, the first detachment rushes forward, the second detachment follows, the third detachment is in the last place, and the three detachments are separated by a certain distance. But still on a horizontal line.

The advantage of such a formation is that it can increase the mobility of the formation and disperse the range of the enemy's strike, so as not to be wiped out by the enemy.

In the course of its journey, the Armada constantly changed its formation in order to achieve the goal of confusing the Japanese.

In this way, the Invincible Armada advanced more than ten nautical miles without danger, the coastline of Japan was already in sight, the island of Kyushu was about to unveil its mystery, and Nagasaki Prefecture would also be exposed to the Taiping army.

A qiē looks so good.

However, the more at this time. Huang Xu. Li Hongzhang and the others are becoming more and more uneasy in their hearts, because the Japanese are indeed too quiet, and the silence makes them feel terrible.

This is not the character of the Japanese.

In this case. Huang Xu, Li Hongzhang and others had to order the whole army to be on alert. Be on high alert at all times. In case of a sneak attack by the Japanese.

Because everyone knows that the Japanese are the best at it, and the tactic they like to use the most is a shameless sneak attack.

The Taiping army not only had to defend against attacks. Moreover, it is necessary to guard against the sneak attack of the Japanese.

Moreover, the closer you get to the goal, the more cautious you must be.

So, in a cautious atmosphere, the Armada moved forward cautiously, paying close attention to the changes around it.

"Boom!"

A sudden, loud bang broke the constant calm.

The loud roar was followed by a loud roar, and there was a hint of horror in it.

Li Hongzhang stood on top of the first flagship and raised his telescope to look at the place where the sound was made, and he found that in the first detachment he led, a transport ship was on fire, and the roar was from the mouth of the Taiping soldiers on the ship.

Apparently the situation is not very good.

Just as he was about to order someone to find out the situation, another shell exploded on the sea next to his flagship, and the huge waves caused by the explosion of the shell splashed Li Hongzhang's body.

Suddenly, he understood.

Enemy attack! It's time to come or it's coming!

The Japanese Navy finally appeared.

At this time, a large number of ships of the Japanese Navy appeared in Li Hongzhang's eyes, and their number far exceeded the number of ships under the jurisdiction of the third detachment led by Li Hongzhang.

Faced with such a situation, Li Hongzhang urgently ordered all the ships of the first detachment to deploy in battle formation, with gunboats in front and frigates behind, and transports in the rear.

Moreover, after carefully observing the situation of the Japanese navy, he felt that the situation was very strict, so he made a decision to let the transport ship land first.

The Taiping soldiers transported on the transport ships were the most vulnerable in naval warfare, and they were the most vulnerable to enemy attacks, so the safety of the personnel on board could only be guaranteed after landing.

Therefore, after the fire on board the transport ship was extinguished, it rushed towards Kyushu Island under the cover of some gunboats and frigates, along with other transport ships.

At the same time, artillery shells continued to explode on the sea, and the gunboats of the Japanese Navy concentrated their firepower to launch a fierce attack on the Invincible Armada.

The gunboats led by Li Hongzhang resisted vigorously, especially the gunboats equipped with large-caliber guns made a powerful counterattack on the Japanese fleet, but the Invincible Armada was worried about the safety of the transport ships, and could not let go of their hands and feet.

Moreover, if this development continues, the third detachment led by Li Hongzhang will be in danger.

What Li Hongzhang never figured out was where the Japanese navy was hiding from beginning to end, and why the Taiping Army sent so many sentries to find out where it was hiding, and in the end it was inevitable that these Japanese would shoot black artillery behind him.

It turned out that the Japanese navy, under the arrangement of Ito Hirobumi and under the command of Takayoshi Togi, took refuge in a secret harbor about ten nautical miles from Kyushu Island when the Invincible Fleet set sail from the port of Incheon in the Korean Autonomous Region.

The hearts of the Japanese are really big.

However, the harbor where the Japanese Navy is hidden is really a hidden place, it is a natural formation, and it is difficult for ordinary people to know that there is such a place, and the Japanese only learned about such a place after a few Japanese fishermen discovered it when they were fishing, so even in Japan, not many people know about this secret harbor.

The Japanese Navy was hiding in such a place, and it was no wonder that the Taiping Army could not find it.

This is also understandable.

However, it was precisely such extenuating circumstances that caused the Taiping Army's Invincible Armada to suffer a secret loss, and laid a solid foundation for the Japanese Navy to successfully carry out a sneak attack on the Invincible Armada.

Of course, the luck component of this is clearly the majority.

Under the fierce attack of the Japanese navy, the first detachment led by Li Hongzhang not only fell into passivity, but also, as the battle progressed, some ships also began to be hit by the Japanese army, and some casualties began to appear.

Faced with this situation, Li Hongzhang was worried, but there was nothing to lose, while he ordered a desperate counterattack, he also hoped that the other two detachments behind him could catch up and come to his aid.

It's a pity that Li Hongzhang is afraid to be disappointed.

Because, the other two detachments were also attacked by the Japanese navy and were also caught in a struggle with the Japanese navy.

What's going on?

It turned out that the Japanese navy had drawn up an operational plan in view of the situation of the Invincible Armada a long time ago, and they only dragged down the second and third detachments of the Invincible Armada with a small number of troops, and then concentrated their main forces to attack the first detachment led by Li Hongzhang first.

Their goal was to eat the first detachment and then fight the other two detachments of the Armada with their main forces.

In this way, the Japanese army sought to intercept the Taiping army on the sea and eliminate it, if not all of them, but also to eliminate some of them, so as to relieve the pressure on the defense of the Japanese mainland behind them.

That's what the Japanese planned, and that's what they did, and judging from the current situation, the effect is not bad.

And when the news that the second and third detachments were dragged reached Li Hongzhang's ears, Li Hongzhang was also a little panicked.

Without the support of the second and third detachments, the shape of the first detachment under the command of Li Hongzhang would be worrying!

And this is exactly the case, under the fierce attack of the Japanese artillery several times more than his own, the gunboats led by Li Hongzhang could only resist and completely lost the strength to fight back.

And this situation was not the worst, just when Li Hongzhang led the gunboats to desperately resist the attack of the Japanese fleet, the transport fleet, which had advanced to Kyushu Island ahead of them, was attacked by the Japanese shore artillery.

The Japanese army seems to have been prepared.

Having suffered certain losses, the transport fleet had to retreat beyond the range of the Japanese shore artillery.

At this time, Li Hongzhang's first detachment could be said to be suffering from the enemy on their backs, and they were in a dilemma, and the shape was becoming more and more unfavorable.

To put it more bluntly, without the support of outside reinforcements, it would have been impossible for the first detachment to think of escaping for the most part.

It can be said that the shape shì has taken a sharp turn, and Li Hongzhang and his first team seem to have entered a desperate situation.

While Li Hongzhang commanded the army to resist desperately, he was also well aware of the current situation, and it was the first time he felt pessimistic for the first time.

He felt that this time it was really going to be over. (To be continued......)