Some things really made Ito Hirobumi speak, his words that were originally used to stabilize the hearts of the army suddenly became a reality, the Japanese reinforcements really came, but they couldn't enter Incheon, and they couldn't save Ito Hirobumi.

The Japanese fleet transporting reinforcements has been blocked in the sea outside the port of Incheon by the invincible armada led by Li Hongzhang and Luo Bingzhang.

The two fleets are in a standoff.

But how could the Armada be here?

According to the original plan, the Taiping Armada needed to arrive at the port of Inchon three days later, but in order to reach the destination as soon as possible, the Armada marched day and night at the highest speed, and finally arrived at the destination three days earlier than originally planned.

After studying the shape of Incheon Port, the Invincible Armada found that the port of Incheon was still in the hands of the Japanese, so they could not enter the port yet, so they could only temporarily block the port of Incheon, preparing to cooperate with the army in the city of Incheon to take down Incheon if needed, and prevent the Japanese army from withdrawing from the port of Incheon.

Soon after the armada arrived at the port of Incheon, the Japanese naval fleet also came, but before coming, they did not know that the armada of the Taiping Army had arrived at the port of Incheon, and they were only transporting reinforcements and supplies for the Ito Hirobun Department who was trapped in Incheon, but when they were about to arrive at the port of Incheon, they accidentally discovered the armada of the Taiping Army.

As a result, the Japanese army set up a position at a certain distance from the Armada, facing the Armada at a distance.

A big war seemed inevitable.

And since there is going to be a battle, let's first take a look at the strength of the two sides and the arrangement of the formation.

The Armada had two hundred warships. They were now lined up in three parts, with the gunboats in the front, the transports in the middle, and the frigates in the last, which was conducive to protecting their weak links well.

And people with a little naval common sense may know that in the process of normal navigation or combat of a huge fleet, there will be prior arrangements for what kind of formation should be used between various ships, for example, in this confrontation with Japanese ships, the formation method of the Invincible Armada is to use gunboats in front and transport ships in the middle. The frigate was in the last way.

And there is a reason for this.

The transport ship is huge in size. However, it lacks attack power and has poor self-protection capabilities, so when the transport ship is out. Gunboats and frigates are generally required to escort the ship.

And the gunboats have a strong attack power. So. It has always been placed at the forefront of the entire fleet, acting as a vanguard.

And the frigate is relatively strong in defense, so he is placed in the tail of the fleet. to prevent someone from going around.

In this way, the entire fleet is in a favorable situation of attacking and defending.

At this moment, the entire Invincible Armada is already in a state of first-class combat readiness, all weapons and personnel are in place, as long as the commander gives an order, it can immediately launch an attack on the Japanese ship.

And after talking about the invincible armada of the Taiping Army, let's talk about the Japanese Navy.

The Japanese navy dispatched about 120 ships in this fleet, which is about 70% of the strength of the entire Japanese navy.

Among them, the number of transport ships reached 50, and these 50 transport ships mainly carried 100,000 reinforcements ready to go to Incheon and some supplies urgently needed by Ito Hirobunbu, who was trapped in Incheon.

The other 70 were gunboats, like the Taipings, mainly used to escort transport ships.

After these two main ships, there are several auxiliary ships, which are mainly used to rescue and support other ships.

After discovering the invincible armada of the Taiping Army, the Japanese ships were also ready for battle, and the battle formation they discharged was that the gunboats were in front and the transports were in the rear.

The main duty of the gunboat was to attack the Taiping ships and protect the safety of the transports, while the transports and other auxiliary vessels were protected by the gunboats.

And in this comparison, it is not difficult to find that the strength of the Taiping Invincible Armada is higher than that of the Japanese army.

In terms of numbers, the invincible armada of the Taiping Army had thirty more frigates than the Japanese army.

From a psychological point of view, the Taiping army also had a certain advantage, the Japanese army had to take into account the safety of the 100,000 Japanese troops on the transport ships, while the Taiping army did not have this worry, their transport ships were empty, and these transport ships were only intended to be used to transport the Taiping troops who went to Japan to fight after the Battle of Incheon.

So, if on paper, the Armada has absolute superiority in almost everything .

However, it is not yet known whether they will be able to turn these advantages into final victories.

And the confrontation is going on like this, no one dares to pick a head attack, because this is a matter that affects the whole body, if anyone moves first, then there is no way out, only to fight to the end, so everyone wants to wait until they have a great deal of certainty before making a move.

However, it is difficult to say whether the Japanese army was determined to fight to the death at this time, and it is understandable that the Japanese army was now bent on dealing with the invincible armada of the Taiping army and was anxious to send reinforcements to Inchon to reinforce the Ito department.

As the confrontation progressed, the atmosphere at the scene became more and more tense, and even a trace of solemnity filled the air.

At this time, on the flagship of the Invincible Armada, there were two Taiping Army officers in first-class official uniforms, who were holding telescopic binoculars and observing the movements of the Japanese side.

And these two are the chief and deputy commanders of the Invincible Armada, Li Hongzhang and Luo Bingzhang.

"Brother Shaoquan, what are your good ideas?" Luo Bingzhang put down the binoculars in his hand, turned to Li Hongzhang, who was standing side by side with him.

Li Hongzhang sighed, put down the binoculars in his hand, pointed to the direction where the Japanese ship was moored, and said, "It's a little difficult!"

Difficult? Luo Bingzhang didn't know what Li Hongzhang meant for a while.

"Forgive the little brother for being stupid, I don't know what the difficult thing that Brother Shaoquan mentioned in his mouth is?" Luo Bingzhang said the question in his heart.

"Brother Humen, you should also see that the Japanese ships are rigorously arranged, and the number of gunboats is comparable to ours, and the sailors on the ships should be of good quality, presumably they are all accustomed to naval warfare and can recruit people who are accustomed to war, not like us, although they have the name of the navy, but there is no navy, this expedition, we are still the first time to enter the sea, so, compared with the Japanese army, we are still just a chick." Li Hongzhang is not worry-free.

Li Hongzhang's remarks can be regarded as exhausting the core gap between China and Japan, although the strength of the Invincible Armada is strong on paper, but when it really fights with the Japanese navy, I am afraid it will be a vicious battle, and it is really unclear who wins and who loses for a while and a half.

And this is where Li Hongzhang is in trouble.

Luo Bingzhang listened to Li Hongzhang's words, and couldn't help but feel a little nervous, he knew that the emperor Huang Xu had great expectations for the Invincible Armada, if he couldn't defeat Japan in a battle this time, or if he also suffered a defeat, it would not only be as simple as a defeat, what they might lose was where their emperor's hope was.

That's a big deal.

"Brother Shaoquan, what you said, brother, I'm really a little uneasy." Luo Bingzhang expressed the uneasiness in his heart.

Such a big matter, if it really can't be handled well, even if his head is cut off ten times, it will not be enough to atone for his fault.

"Haha, Brother Humen, this is the first time I've heard you say such a vain statement." Li Hongzhang couldn't help laughing when he heard Luo Bingzhang's words.

Luo Bingzhang used to be able to shock a generation of famous ministers in the northwest of the empire, and if he wanted to make him weak-hearted, it was not simple.

"Brother Shaoquan, don't make fun of me, tell me, how should this battle be fought?" Luo Bingzhang's face trembled, and he said with a little embarrassment.

"Brother Humen, don't worry, although it's a little difficult, it's challenging when it's difficult, isn't it?" Li Hongzhang's eyes lit up and said to the place where the Japanese ship was.

Looking at him like a hungry wolf staring at its prey.

Li Hongzhang has already calculated, this time, he will definitely let the Japanese army taste the power of the invincible armada, and he will take advantage of this battle to play the prestige of the invincible fleet and the prestige of the invincible ship.

Looking at Li Hongzhang's greedy appearance, Luo Bingzhang couldn't help laughing, and he laughed with a special taste, and Li Hongzhang was stunned at first, and then seemed to understand something, and he also laughed.

After laughing for a while, Li Hongzhang said with a straight face: "Brother Humen, I think so, you and I will each lead a group of gunboats to attack the Japanese fleet from the left and right directions, and leave the frigate to guard the safety of the transport ship."

"Okay,!" Luo Bingzhang said cheerfully.

It's the best they can make at the moment.

Therefore, Li Hongzhang divided the gunboats into two, and he and Luo Bingzhang each led 35 ships, preparing to attack the Japanese ships from the left and right sides respectively, and these 35 gunboats included 10 gunboats carrying large-caliber guns.

After a little preparation, the gunboat turned its bow and sailed out from the left and right, and then accelerated to the place where the Asahi ship was.

The movements of the Armada had already fallen into the eyes of the Japanese, and they soon made corresponding arrangements to respond to the upcoming attack of the Taipings.

The Japanese also divided seventy gunboats into two and defended them in the left and right directions.

However, as the Japanese said before, they did not put that kind of large-caliber artillery on the ships like the Invincible Armada, and the gunboats were equipped with some conventional caliber cannons.

Therefore, I wonder what method the Japanese army will use to deal with the attack of the large-caliber artillery equipped with the Invincible Armada.

The Japanese are closely watching the movements of the fleet led by Li Hongzhang and Luo Bingzhang, their gunners are already in position, the shells are ready, and once the Armada is within the range of the cannons, the Japanese will attack.

However, before the Armada could reach the effective range of the Japanese troops, it suddenly stopped, and then, their ten gunboats with large-caliber guns on the left and right began to slowly turn around, and then the huge muzzles of the guns were exposed.

Then the muzzle of the gun was pointed outward, aimed in the direction where the Japanese ship was located. (To be continued......)