September 14, 1903, Vladivostok (Vladivostok), Governor's Palace of the Far East.

It was dusk, and Vice Admiral Makarov, the Imperial Russian Navy, and his chief of staff, Rear Admiral Wittgeft, walked briskly into the door of the Doge's Palace, decorated with a pile of smoke-emitting rubble, bowed their heads, and saluted them with their guns raised, one of them with a bandage on his forehead.

Makarov and Wittgeft hurried through the hall with its elaborate chandeliers, and came to a richly decorated oak door on the right hand side of the hall, where a lieutenant who stood by the door pushed open the door for them, and the two men took off their military caps, held them in their hands, and walked into the room with their chests held up.

Admiral Alekseev, the Governor-General of the Far East, greeted him with his big belly: "You are here, very good, General Klers and General Stexel will be there soon, please take a seat." ”

Makarov and Wittgeft nodded to the Governor, and sat down next to each other at the long table in the center of the room, and before their buttocks were on the stool, they heard a more rapid footstep, and several men rushed in with the wind on their feet.

Alekseev greeted him with a smile that he had managed to put together: "My generals, please take a seat." ”

"Sit down, Lord Governor."

The first to reply was Lieutenant General Stessel, commander of the First Army in the Far East, with a broad, shaved face, a broad forehead, a high, straight nose, plump cheeks and chin, and gray hair combed flat and neat, making his yellow head look like a ploughed terrace, his body leaning back, and his fat chest standing high.

To his right was the commander of the Vladivostok fortress, Lieutenant General Kreel, a tough old man, with gray hair, thick cheeks, and deep wrinkles on his forehead, but gray-blue eyes were still very spirited, and his tall body stood like a stake, and he had been the commander of the Vladivostok fortress since the completion of the first phase of the fortress.

They were followed by several people who were their subordinates, including Major General Kontrachenko, Chief of Staff of the First Army of the Far East, Lieutenant General Nazarubayev, Chief of Staff of the Third Army of the Far East, Colonel Les, Chief of Staff of the Vladivostok (Vladivostok) Fortress, Major General Bere, Commander of the Fortress Artillery, and others.

In the afternoon of the same day, two waves of 16 Chinese planes and eight other airships attacked the port of Vladivostok, blowing up a number of warehouses and barracks, and the bombs even fell in front of the governor's palace, so frightened that Governor Alekseev hid in the cellar where vegetables were stored, and did not dare to come out until it was close to dusk.

After everyone was seated, Alekseev opened the meeting, the main topics of which were the defense of the fortress and port of Vladivostok, the next steps of the detachment, and the planning of the actions of the 1st Army in the Far East for some time to come.

The commander of the fortress, Lieutenant General Kreel, spoke first; “…… The attack of the enemy's air weapons has had a very bad effect on the morale of the officers and men of the fortress, and we urgently need equipment capable of resisting the enemy's air weapons, and in the current severe situation in which we are under attack Chinese on all fronts in the Far East, it is unrealistic to hope for support from Petersburg, and we should mobilize local craftsmen and military scientists to rebuild the existing artillery on the fortresses and warships, and develop shells with special fuses to enable them to fire effectively at the enemy's air weapons......"

Alekseev immediately instructed impatiently: "General Kler's words are very right, this is very important, this work must be carried out as soon as possible, General Kreel, I order you to immediately form a relevant committee to preside over this work, and whoever you need and what materials can be put to me, and I will definitely meet all their requirements." ”

"The detachment also has to send people to participate in this committee, and yesterday we all saw that the enemy's air weapons focused on striking the fleet, so that now we only have 4 armored ships left to leave the port, and the work of transforming the guns on the warships cannot be delayed!"

The commander of the Pacific Detachment, Vice Admiral Makarov, added.

Alekseev nodded: "That's right, well, let General Kreel take charge of this, then General Makarov, before the appearance of artillery capable of effectively striking the enemy's air weapons, do you have any way to guarantee that the fleet will not suffer further losses?" ”

"Your Excellency the Governor, I will send observation posts to the surrounding high grounds, and as soon as I detect the approach of the enemy's aerial weapons, I will send a signal to the fleet, and the capital ships of the fleet will always be ready to fire, and as soon as the signal is received, I will immediately lift anchor and maneuver outside the harbor, according to yesterday's observations, it is difficult for the enemy to launch an effective attack on the ships moving rapidly."

"In addition, we have sent destroyers and cruisers to lay mines outside the harbor to prevent enemy ships from approaching the harbor, and night patrols and vigilance measures have been better arranged, but we still lack usable destroyers, we only lost one destroyer yesterday, half of the 32 destroyers in the harbor are far from meeting the design standards, we still lack destroyer parts, and maintenance is difficult......"

Alekseev interrupted him: "General Makarov, I know this, this is a matter of no way, Petersburg did not give us enough destroyers and parts for destroyers, now it is too late to complain about this, let's talk about the next move of the fleet, what are your plans for your fleet?" ”

Makarov twisted the gray beard that stretched to his chest and said: "The battle outside the harbor five days ago proved that without the support of coastal heavy artillery, it is difficult for the detachment to confront the enemy fleet with a great advantage in firepower, and now we have 3 armored ships and 1 armored cruiser that cannot sail, and other capital ships that can sail also need to be repaired, so for a period of time in the future, I plan to only send cruisers and destroyers to carry out patrols and minelaying tasks outside the harbor, and try not to confront the enemy fleet head-on, if the time is right, We can send capital ships out of port to lure the enemy and introduce the enemy fleet into our minefield for consumption. ”

"Very well, just do as you say, as for the specific matters of the defense of the harbor, you and General Claire will discuss and decide."

After Alekseev finished speaking, he turned to Lieutenant General Stessel, commander of the First Army in the Far East: "General Stexel, now let's talk about your army group, what new moves has the enemy made in the past two days?" ”

Stessel nodded to the Governor-General, and ordered the Chief of Staff, Major General Kontrachenko, to unfold the map of the theater of operations on the long table, bow down, and point at the map: "Your Excellency the Governor, I have to regret to report that the 11th Division of the Chinese Army captured Pokrovka and Kopovci last night and at noon today, respectively, and is approaching Ussuriysk (Shuangchengzi) from the west and northwest, and the 13th Division of the Chinese Army is storming Khoroli, and if it is lost there, the enemy will threaten the railway line to Boli, And to press Ussuriysk from the north. The 1st North Korean Division is still attacking Kolfovka, and Colonel Nissechiv's troops have been resisting for five days and are very stubborn, but the Cossacks of the 5th Division have found that the troops of the 13th Chinese Division are making a detour to the rear of the village, and I have ordered Colonel Nissechiv to withdraw his troops from their positions this evening. The Japanese 2nd Division, having captured Kraskino and is advancing towards Zarubino, intends to abandon Zarubino and concentrate forces near Slavyanka to strike a hard blow at this Japanese division. ”

Alekseev pulled his monocle from his pocket and held it to his nose, his gaze squirming on the map with Stessel's fingers.

"Yes, strike at the Japanese division first, then how to deal with the Chinese and Koreans? Shouldn't they be fought back? ”

"Your Excellency the Governor, we don't have enough troops to launch a full-front counterattack."

"So do you have to sit back and wait for them to approach Ussuriysk?"

Stessel shrugged: "My lord, that's all we have to do, we have to shrink to Ussuriysk." I have ordered the 6th Division, which is a reserve, to build a field position on the periphery of the Ussuriysk fortress, the 4th Division, which has been repelled by two Chinese divisions for 50 to 60 kilometers, should also concentrate most of its forces in Novoshakhtinsky, north of Ussuriysk, and the 5th Division, which is stationed on the right bank of the Suifen River to the mouth of the Tumen River, should shrink to the banks of the Suifen River in time. to slow down the enemy's advance. In addition, the 3rd Division, which was stationed on the right bank of the Ussuri River to Lake Xingkai, should immediately shrink south and retreat to the area from Spassdali to Novoshakhtinsky, in order to prevent the Chinese troops from making a detour from the southern shore of the Xingkai Lake to the rear of the defense line of the army group......"

Alekseev looked worried: "Won't this completely cut off our contacts with Khabarovsk (Boli)?" ”

"My lord, Boli is being flanked from the south and west by two main Chinese divisions and a reserve division, and three days ago, the 7th Chinese Division had captured Likin and cut off the railway line to Khabarovsk here, and in fact, we were already surrounded."

"Then let the 3rd Division attack north and open up the railway line!"

"This is impossible, my lord," exclaimed Stexel, "my lord, we need the 3rd Division, there are four Chinese and Korean divisions rushing from the west, and there are four reserve divisions behind their butts, and we cannot use only three infantry divisions of 18,000 men to resist the attack of the enemy's 80,000 divisions of 30,000 men." ”

"Don't we still have a fortress?"

"The enemy also has heavy artillery!"

Stessel exclaimed, perhaps feeling that such a loud shout was too disrespectful to the Governor, so he lowered his voice and explained slowly: "Your Excellency, forgive your Majesty, but I still feel the need to describe the situation more clearly. From five days ago, on the Khabarovsk front, 53 thousand troops of our army were attacked by more than 100,000 enemies. On the Blagoveshchensk side, the 125,000 troops of our army were attacked by more than 120,000 extremely elite Chinese Janissary troops. On the Chita side, the scattered troops of our army of 15 to 160,000 were attacked by more than 150,000 enemy troops. With us, the 160,000 troops of our army were attacked by at least 250,000 enemy troops, the enemy was armed with a large number of air weapons and heavy artillery, the enemy's fleet had the advantage and seized the supremacy of the sea, and we were practically surrounded on all sides, and could only hold out with limited forces until reinforcements from the interior defeated the enemy and rescued us. So, even if the 3rd Division is sent to open the railway line, we will not be able to get assistance, because Khabarovsk is being attacked, Blagoveshchensk is being attacked, Chita is being attacked, and no reinforcements can be sent anywhere. But this is only temporary, the potential of the empire has not yet been realized, we still have many well-equipped and valiant soldiers in Europe, and it will not be long before reinforcements will arrive in a steady stream by train, and a large number of reinforcements will attack from west to east, constantly crushing the enemy, passing through all of Manchuria, coming here to join us. Yes, God forbid, our beloved father (the tsar) will come to our rescue. ”

"General, hearing your words, I feel much more relieved, so I will do as you say...... God bless Russia, God bless the tsar. ”

Alekseev said, drawing a cross on his chest, and the officers followed suit, wondering if God would have been really moved when he saw the scene.

At night, I wonder if God can see the dragon flag in the dark.

Late at night on September 14, Peter the Great Bay.

In the hazy night, you can faintly see the rain and a dragon in August.

In August, the eight destroyers of the Fifth Destroyer Squadron of the Combined Fleet, namely "Ningyue", "Jingyue", "Qingyue", "Pingyue", "Mingyue", "Tingyue", "Lingyue", and "Xingyue", are also the two light cruisers of the Second Light Patrol Squadron of the Combined Fleet, "Spring Rain" and "Autumn Rain", and the first dragon, and the minelayer "Xiaolong".

Led by Colonel Wang Luogong, commander of the Second Light Patrol Squadron, these 11 ships went to this unfamiliar sea in the middle of the night with only one purpose -- to lay mines outside the port of Vladivostok.

After the Combined Fleet engaged the main force of the Russian Pacific Detachment outside the port of Vladivostok during the day on 9 September, Vice Admiral Lin Taizeng, commander of the Combined Fleet, realized that the Russian Detachment was well-trained, properly dispatched, advanced and retreated in an orderly manner, and closely coordinated with the shore artillery, and was not a reckless and exaggerated army, and that the plan to lure the Russian Detachment into the open sea for annihilation was difficult to achieve, and that the only way to do so was to take measures to block the Russian Detachment in the harbor. The mine blockade is one of the main means of this port closure operation.

Mines are an ancient weapon of the navy, as early as the Song and Yuan dynasties, China invented the time-delay mine with incense as the fuse and the charcoal brazier as the trigger mine, and the mine with the mechanical trigger device was first used in the siege of Antwerp during the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740-1748. During the Aussio-Asian War, the two sides mainly used automatic depth fixing electro-hydraulic to trigger anchor mines. It is composed of two parts, the thunder body and the thunder anchor, the thunder body is usually spherical in shape, usually painted with black paint, and is not easy to find. The lower part of the mine body is the zha medicine chamber, which houses a hundred to three hundred kilograms of TNT zha medicine and electric detonators, and the upper part is empty, which gives the mine body a certain buoyancy. There are five horns on the mine body, called antennae, the antennae are equipped with a power generation device, and are connected to the electric detonator by wires, when the hull touches the antennae on the mine body in the water, the power generation device generates an electric charge and detonates the electric detonator, thereby causing the explosion of ZHA, the distance between the mine explosion center and the hull is very close, which is called a contact explosion. The energy of the anchor mine explosion is very large, it hits the hull with a strong pressure wave, and when the pressure wave exceeds the maximum pressure that the hull can withstand, the hull will burst, and the hull will enter the water, and the radius of destruction is generally 5-6 meters. If a small or medium-sized ship encounters one or two mines, it will often sink on the spot, and even if a large ship touches a mine, it will be difficult to protect itself if the part that is blown up is too critical. In order to ensure that the mine body is automatically laid at a predetermined depth under the condition of different sea depths, the mine anchor is equipped with an automatic depth fixing device, which is generally set at a depth of 2 to 10 meters depending on the condition of the sea area. At that time, most of the warships on both sides were equipped with minelaying devices, but the number of mines that ordinary warships could carry was limited, and the effect was not good when arranging large-area minefields, so both sides built a small number of specialized minelaying ships, before the war, the Russian Pacific Fleet had two minelaying ships (also known as destroyers) "Yenisei River" and "Amur River", which could carry and lay 120 mines at a time, while the Chinese army had three minelaying cruisers "Thunder Dragon", "Jiaolong" and "Qinglong". It is possible to carry and lay one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty mines at a time.

That night, the mine-laying fleet led by Colonel Wang Luogong carried a total of 290 mines, and planned to lay a rectangular minefield six to seven nautical miles east of the port of Vladivostok, and on the 11th and 12th, each mine-laying fleet had laid two minefields closer to the port, totaling 346 minefields. However, unbeknownst to the officers and men of this fleet, a convoy of Russian warships hovered around their destination that night.

At 20 o'clock on 14 September, Admiral Bubnov led a detachment of cruisers "Pauyalin" and "Hercules" and eight destroyers on a cruise. The day before yesterday, the minelayer "Yenisei" suddenly exploded while carrying out minelaying operations, sinking into the sea with most of its crew, and the cruiser "Knight," which was on its way to ascertain the condition of the ship, struck two mines in succession and sank completely within two minutes of the second strike. Vice Admiral Makarov believed that enemy ships must have come to lay mines at night, so he sent a mine-sweeping team to clear a narrow channel so that he could send a patrol to intercept the enemy's mine-laying fleet outside the harbor.

That night, the moonlight was weak, the sky was cloudy, and the vision was poor, and Bubnov was worried that the ships would fall behind, so he ordered the ships to turn on their stern lights to follow up. At around 21 o'clock, the operational staff officer reported that the destroyers "Terrible" and "Zealous" at the end of the line had disappeared and could not be contacted.

Bubnov could not help but be worried: In the past few nights, patrol ships have often reported that enemy ships have been spotted in this area, and there have been exchanges of fire from time to time, and if the two destroyers that have fallen behind encounter a large enemy fleet will definitely be more than lucky.

The operational staff advised him to stop advancing in order to wait for the staff officer to fall behind, but he refused.

"Go ahead and pay attention to the liaison with Lieutenant Yurasovsky and others."

Bubnov ordered.

Lieutenant Yurasovsky was the captain of the destroyer "Terrible".

At 23 o'clock, Bubnov's detachment circled the predetermined place several times and did not find anything unusual.

"Damn, there are no ghosts, why don't you come out today?"

Bubnov cursed a little timidly, and ordered to return home, he did not dare to stay here too long, for fear of encountering an enemy much stronger than his own, and besides, he wanted to go back as soon as possible to find the two destroyers that had fallen behind.

On the way, the signalman suddenly reported: "There is a warship sailing 200 meters ahead!" ”

Bubnov, believing it to be the returning destroyers "Terrible" and "Zealous", ordered to follow at full speed.

It was not until the dense shadow of the ship appeared that Bubnov realized that the other side was not a small destroyer in his own detachment, but probably the enemy's Brecht fleet.

"It's not good, it's an enemy ship, quickly counterattack!"

Bubnov shouted, only to hear the observer's report: "It's our warship, and that warship is flying the St. Andrew's flag!" ”

"What? How is that possible, wait a minute, don't fire! ”

Bubonov was puzzled, turned to the observer, and by the dazzling searchlight, he saw a blue-white St. Andrew's flag fluttering gently against the gentle sea breeze, but not far from the St. Andrew's flag, a Chinese Imperial Navy battle flag with a golden dragon on the red ground suddenly appeared!

"Enemy ship, fire!"

Bubnov screamed, but he was a step too late, a cluster of shells hit, right on the bridge of the "Boyarin", Bubnov and the combat staff officer and others were killed on the spot, and the captain of the ship, Lieutenant Commander Rashevic, who was slightly wounded, took over the command and ordered the ship to open fire on the counterattack.

During the scuffle, Rashevic noticed that there were two ships flying the St. Andrew's flag in the center of the Chinese camp, and they were beaten to the point of fire, and realized that the two ships were probably the "Terrible" and "Zealous" that had fallen behind, so he ordered his own ship to lead a team to rush to the rescue of the two Russian ships.

Rashevich was not wrong in his judgment, but why did the "Terrible" and "Zealous" suddenly appear in the center of the Chinese fleet?

It turned out that Yurasovsky, the captain of the "Terrible," was very worried about running into the enemy fleet after falling behind, and he was afraid that he would lose contact with the "Zealous," so he sent a signal to the "Zealous" and asked the "Zealous" to keep a distance of 50 meters from the ship, form a column formation, turn the rudder slowly, and prepare to return to the base through another safe channel before dawn.

At around 22:30, Yurasovsky spotted the silhouettes of several warships in front of him, and he thought it was Bubonov's patrol detachment, so he gave a signal to identify it. However, the other party did not reply as if he had not seen the signal.

Yurasovsky scolded: "Blind signal soldier! "Ordered to increase the number of lines and keep up with these warships.

The first mate reminded him that the other party was not volatilized, and whether it was not his own ship.

Yurasovsky confidently replied: "No problem, since they did not fire, it must be our ship." ”

The "Terrible" and "Zealous" followed the warships for 30 minutes, and the signalman suddenly reported in a panic, "Captain, the other side is an enemy ship!" ”

"What? Do you see it clearly? You're not going to be blind too! Yurasovsky was not convinced.

"It is a mixed detachment of cruisers and destroyers of the Chinese army, a total of 11 ships, all of which are flying the dragon flag of the Chinese Navy!"

At this time, Yurasovsky discovered that his ship and the "Zealous" had broken into the single column of the Chinese fleet.

"Turn the rudder! Fast! Turn the rudder!! Left full rudder!! No, the right full rudder, it's the right full rudder! Yurasovsky was so frightened that he almost forgot what order to give.

At this moment, the searchlights of the Japanese ships were turned on, and Yurasovsky looked in the direction of the pillar of light, and the shadow of the cruiser "Pauyalin" was clearly discerning.

"That's our fleet, quick! Left full rudder, want our fleet closer! ”

Yurasovsky shouted, however, everything was over.

The Chinese fleet discovered the reckless "Terrible" and "Zealous" that had slipped into their formations early on, but the captains of the ships, with their excellent qualities, did not act on their own initiative, but quietly made preparations for battle by transmitting information to each other by radio.

According to Colonel Wang Luogong, commander of the Chinese Army's fleet, "We were going to take those two ignorant enemy ships to the open sea after completing the mine-laying mission, and then surround them and quickly destroy them, but we did not expect to encounter an enemy fleet with two or three cruisers and more than six destroyers on the way, which disrupted our plans, but because the two enemy ships were right in the center of our column, of course they were beaten badly, and one of them was destined to not return to the base......

At 23:05, the Chinese ship suddenly opened fire on the Russian ship, and the "Terrible" was hit by shells from several hundred yards away, and the torpedo in the right torpedo tube was detonated, and the crew suffered heavy casualties.

Yurasovsky was about to give the order to return fire when another shell flew into the command compartment, instantly blowing the hapless commander to pieces.

First Mate Lieutenant Mareyev took over the command of the captain and ordered all the guns to return fire, and on the other hand contacted the "Zealous" and "Pauyalin" for support.

Who knew that the "Zealous" took advantage of the Chinese ship's concentrated attack on the "Terrible" and accelerated its rudder rotation in an attempt to get rid of the Chinese ship's blockade.

After receiving the distress signal, Lieutenant Commander Lashevic, commander of the "Bao Yalin," led his team to rush into the enemy's position, but unexpectedly, the Chinese destroyers "Jingyue" and "Qingyue" suddenly approached and fired four torpedoes at a time, but the "Bao Yalin" could not dodge, and one torpedo hit the No. 2 auxiliary gun on its starboard side, detonating the ammunition compartment of the auxiliary gun.

Seeing this tragic situation, the captain of the ship, Lieutenant Commander Krtoevsky, who was immediately following the "Hercules," knew that the situation was not good, so he ordered the rudder to speed up and get out of the battle.

The Chinese destroyers "Jingyue" and "Qingyue" refused to give up and wanted to pursue them, but they were driven back by a burst of indiscriminate artillery from the enemy ships, the boiler of the "Jingyue" was damaged, and the steam cloud enveloped the whole ship, so they had no choice but to be dragged back to the base by "Qingyue".

However, it was said that the poor "terrible" had been abandoned at this time, and was brutally surrounded by the Chinese ship, and a shell hit the torpedo tube on the other side of the "terrible", and the chain explosion destroyed all the power systems on the ship. The Terrible lay across the sea like a rotting dead fish.

"Report to the lieutenant, a large hole was blown open in the bilge of the ship, sea water poured in, and the hull tilted."

A second lieutenant jumped out of the bottom compartment of the warship, jumped onto the deck, and hurriedly reported.

"Abandon the ship and jump into the sea!"

Yurasovsky's death frightened Mareyev, who hurriedly ordered.

At 11:30 p.m., the "Terrible" completely sank to the bottom of the sea, and all the 22 surviving crew members were rescued and captured by the Chinese warship.

After dealing with the Russian ships that were encountered unexpectedly, Colonel Wang Gongluo led his mine-laying fleet to continue sailing to the predetermined sea area to carry out mine-laying operations.

At 11:55 p.m., an explosion occurred on the port side of the cruiser "Chunyu," which had just lowered the mine-laying guide rail and was about to lay mines, and the superstructure, including the command platform, mast, and chimney, suddenly shook to the ground, and Colonel Wang Gongluo, commander of the fleet, fell off the command platform and fractured the palm of his right hand. The "Spring Rain" immediately tilted to the left, and the "Autumn Rain" that followed closely behind it hurriedly approached to rescue, but unexpectedly, explosions also occurred on its left and right sides, detonating the mines carried on the ship, and I saw "a dazzling fireball, the sound of which was like a hundred thousand lightning strikes, and hundreds of thousands of meteors splashed into the sea around the fireball, and it was not immune to its heat wave from a thousand yards away, and the command platform of the nearest 'Ning Yue' ship was hit by a scorched corpse at that time, and the captain was shot and fainted......

The rear of the "Autumn Rain" was blown to pieces, and the wreckage quickly sank into the water, and only 23 of the ship's 350 officers and men survived.

The situation on board the "Spring Rain" was also very bad, as sea water poured in from a large hole under the port side waterline, and the hull of the ship continued to tilt, so Colonel Wang Luogong had to give the order to abandon the ship.

At this time, the 960-ton destroyer "Pingyue" took the initiative to rush to the rescue of the flagship, and Wang Luogong, who was about to board the lifeboat, shouted when he saw this: "Signal soldiers, send a signal quickly, let the ships stop advancing!" There are mines here! ”

After receiving the order, the signal corpsmen who had already boarded the lifeboat immediately climbed back to the warship, ran to the command platform, and signaled to the "Pingyue" with a signal signal of "stop moving immediately."

After receiving the light, the "Pingyue" was about to turn its rudder and slow down, when the bow suddenly exploded, and most of the bow, including the front main gun, was blown away, and the hull of the ship quickly sank forward, and the propeller and rudder were high above the water and slanted into the water. Of the 137 officers and men on board, only 19 survived.

The rest of the ships did not dare to move closer to the "Spring Rain" when they saw it, and avoided even greater losses.

At 0:40 a.m. on the morning of 15 July, the "Spring Rain," with a standard displacement of 3,620 tons, sank, and the surviving crew took a lifeboat to move closer to the destroyer not far away, and 317 of the 358 officers and men on board were rescued.

Colonel Wang Luogong stepped onto the deck of the destroyer "Ningyue" "without the slightest hint of Mercury" and, with the ship as its flagship, ordered the entire fleet to immediately stop mine-laying operations and release small boats to rescue the officers and men who had fallen into the water.

At 1:30 a.m., the rescue operation was basically completed, and Wang Luogong believed that he would encounter greater danger if he continued to stay, so he ordered the fleet to abandon the minelaying operation and return along the same route.

"On the night of September 14-15, the encounter between the Chinese and Russian armies outside the port of Vladivostok opened the curtain of closed operations, and since then, the two sides have launched a protracted tug-of-war around the laying and counter-laying of minefields, and the cleaning and counter-cleaning...... The battle was fought mainly between destroyers and torpedo boats of small tonnage...... Because...... Any warship with a draft of more than three or four meters will face the danger of being sunk by mines when it enters an area that has not been cleared...... But the battles that began between these insignificant ships sometimes led to the intervention of cruisers and even capital ships of both sides, both of which attempted to lead the other side's large warships into their own minefields...... Both sides have paid a heavy price for this......"

——Zhonghua Book Company, History of Modern Naval Warfare (Popular Edition), 1926, edited by Wang Luogong.