Li Xiaofeng had a headache, he was not familiar with the navy, especially the Black Sea Fleet, and even if he wanted to help, he had nowhere to start. He can't rush to Sevastopol single-handedly to do all this, right?

After thinking about it, this guy decided to find someone who was familiar with the Black Sea Fleet, and first inquire about the truth and reality, which can be regarded as a little preparation in advance. After understanding, slowly find a way to solve this problem.

But this is easier said than done, and there were too few people among the Bolsheviks who knew about the navy. How so? As the most technical branch of the armed forces in this era, the navy's requirements for personnel quality are quite high, and to put it mildly, they are much higher than those of the army.

In a sense, the Navy is a well-deserved white swan, and compared to her, the army's mud legs are at best ugly ducklings. For the Bolsheviks of this era, they could not even handle the army at the level of mud legs, and the new Red Army had to find officers from the old army. For the big and coarse Bolsheviks, the ugly ducklings were unattainable, let alone the white swans.

In other words, in this era, the Bolsheviks had an extremely poor understanding of the navy, and even the current People's Commissar of the Navy, Debinko, could only be said to have a superficial understanding of the fleet under his command.

Anyway, Li Xiaofeng knew that he was going to find Debinko to find out about the situation of the Black Sea Fleet, and it was basically no fun. I am afraid that the people who really understand the Navy are the old officers. However, he had never had any dealings with the old officers of the navy, and he didn't know where to go to the old officers of the navy to find out about the situation for a while. Thoughts come and go, and a certain immortal thinks that he can only go to Brusinov.

As the former commander-in-chief and supreme commander of the three armed forces, Brusinov was born in the army. But I have also dealt with the Navy to some extent. At least there are a few people who are really familiar with the navy. Follow his instructions and then look for someone according to the map. It should save you a little bit of trouble.

"You ask me about the Navy?" Brusinov was a little stunned by someone's intention, and if someone else asked him about the navy, he would probably drive him out directly. If you don't take the former commander-in-chief like this, Lao Tzu is a mixed army.

However, he still has to sell the face of a certain immortal, and if someone does not invite him out of the mountain, he may not be able to wait for death in some corner of Petrograd. And not now, rejuvenated the second spring, became the general adviser of the Red Army.

Don't underestimate him as a general counsel. In a sense, he was more comfortable as the general adviser than the commander-in-chief before him. It was a chore to make Lvov and Kerensky commanders-in-chief, those two who did not understand military affairs and liked to give random orders, and a Korensky offensive made him lose his old age, and then he was abandoned like garbage, and you say that Brusinov can feel better.

And now, although he is only an adviser, the formation and training of the Red Army have already formulated all aspects of the military plan. The Bolsheviks were all asking for his opinion, and the chairman of the Military Commission, Trotsky, also gave him great courtesy. Compare the hatchbacks. Brusinov felt more comfortable and happy to work with the Bolsheviks. Naturally, he was also grateful to a certain immortal who sincerely invited him out of the mountain.

"I don't know anything about the Black Sea Fleet!" The old man was a real man, and he told the truth directly, "Especially after the outbreak of the revolution, the situation was chaotic, and no one cared about the situation of the Black Sea Fleet......"

Li Xiaofeng did not give up and asked: "Then do you have any old friends and colleagues, do any of them know about the situation of the Black Sea Fleet?" ”

The old man's face became even more helpless, how could he look like constipation: "I am an army officer, how can I have friends in the navy...... Uh......"

Halfway through his words, Brusilov suddenly stopped, he seemed to remember something, and after a while he said: "It seems that there is such a person......

Li Xiaofeng's eyes lit up, he just wanted to try his luck at first, when Brusilov refused just now, he said that if he was not disappointed, it must be fake, but who would have thought that suddenly the peak would turn around?

The creature couldn't wait to ask, "Who is it?" ”

Brusinov's expression seemed to be rather strange, and he held back for a long time before he said a name: "Andrey. Augustovich. Eberhart. ”

Li Xiaofeng had never heard of this name, and after being stunned for a moment, he asked suspiciously, "Who is he?" ”

Brusinov looked at a certain immortal like an alien, and asked strangely, "Do you know him?" He is the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet! ”

This answer made Li Xiaofeng a little embarrassed, he was looking for people who were familiar with the Black Sea Fleet all over the world, but he didn't know that the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet was in Petrograd, and he hadn't even heard of this name, which was somewhat unreasonable.

But this can't be blamed on Li Xiaofeng, he is not a native of the Russian polar bear, as a traverser, for the history of Russia, he will only pay attention to those more eye-catching names, such as he knows the Dao Kolchak, knows the Dao Bojiangjin, but he really has never heard of this Eberhardt! It seems that even a hundred poisons can't find this person?

Indeed, as an admiral, Eberhardt does not seem to have as much fame as Kolchak, and even the absolute majority of people know that Kolchak is the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, and they all know that Kolchak's mine-laying blockade tactics have achieved a lot of results. However, not many people know that Kolchak only became the commander of the Black Sea Fleet in the second half of 1916, and no one knows that his mine-laying blockade tactics were not created, but only followed.

Before the blind and fearless Admiral took office, his predecessor, Vice Admiral Eberhardt, had been in the bathtub of the Black Sea for two years with the Turks, and, to put it mildly, two years were quite difficult!

The story is about to start from the beginning, after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Russia's naval strength plummeted, although the Black Sea Fleet was not as miserable as the Baltic Fleet, and it lost all its old bottoms. However, the morale of the Russian Navy was generally not high, and even not only was it not high, and the Black Sea Fleet mutinied every once in a while.

One of the most famous and repercussions was the famous Potemkin, and the story of Eberhardt in the Black Sea Fleet began with the Potemkin. In 1906, the mutinous Potemkin was extradited from Romania to Russia. On the one hand, the top brass of the Russian Navy renamed the ship Pantelemon. On the one hand, a new captain was appointed - participated in the Battle of Tsushima. And experienced Eberhardt.

The boss of such a thorny warship is not easy to do, but Eberhardt has brought the former Potemkin to life with his talent and enthusiasm. As a result of his excellent work, Eberhardt rose through the ranks, becoming chief of the Naval Staff in 1908 and commander of the disheartened Black Sea Fleet in 1911.

The situation of the Black Sea Fleet was still not good, the shadow of the Potemkin affair had not yet dissipated, and in 1912 a new conspiracy was brewing on the flagship of the fleet, Yevstafi, after Eberhardt heard the news. Act decisively and take advantage of the fleet's sailing to wipe out all the conspirators...... More than 200 people were implicated in the whole incident, and 11 people were executed. It should be said that this does not bode well, and before the war is about to break out, Eberhardt is left with a mess.

Even Russia's enemy, the German Navy, was not at all optimistic about the prospects of the Black Sea Fleet. In 1913, the German Navy Command, in its assessment of the strength of foreign naval forces, did not even list the Black Sea Fleet as a potential adversary, describing it as: "Outdated equipment and low morale." It's unimaginable to be able to fight! ”

Indeed, the Black Sea Fleet at that time could only bully the weak Turkish Navy. There was not a single dreadnought in the entire Black Sea Fleet, and the two former dreadnoughts Yefstafi and St. John, launched in 1911 (the literal translation of the ship should be called John Chrysostom, in honor of Patriarch John I of Constantinople, who was known as "Chrysostom" because of his eloquence).

But don't look at the young age of these two battleships, but the combat effectiveness is really quite that, standard dreadnought, with two 12-inch twin main guns and four 8-inch secondary main guns, and the maximum speed is only a pitiful 16.5 knots (pay special attention to the speed of Russian ships, it is very important).

In addition to these two newly built obsolete ships, the Black Sea Fleet had three older battleships, namely Pantelemon (Potemkin), Three Saints and Rostislav. The Three Saints are the old ships of 1897, and the Pantelemon and Rostislav ships are slightly younger, commissioned in 1905 and 1900 respectively.

These three battleships were weakly armed and had low speeds, such as Rostislav, whose main guns turned out to be ten-inch guns, and their maximum speed was only a pitiful 15.6 knots, and after more than ten years of attrition, this maximum speed may not be able to run. Basically, it can be said that these three old ships can only serve as training ships, and their ability to go to sea is worrying.

Overall, the Black Sea Fleet was a retirement home, as the newest dreadnought, the Queen Maria-class, was still on the slipway at the outbreak of war and was not commissioned until July 1915.

When the war first broke out, the pressure on Eberhardt was not too great, after all, his opponent, the Turkish Navy, was even worse, and there was not a single dreadnought, and with his numerical superiority, he could completely crush his opponent.

But on August 10, 1914, just two months after the outbreak of war, Eberhardt was struck in the face. The German Vice Admiral Sushun miraculously escaped the encirclement and arrived in Constantinople with the Moltke-class battlecruiser Goeben and the Magdeburg-class cruiser Breslau.

As we all know, the Germans played a trick and nominally gave away the two ships to Turkey, but in fact the two cutting-edge warships were still under the control and command of the Germans, and Su Shun and his officers and men just took off the uniforms of the German Navy and put on the uniforms of the Turkish Navy and put on the fez hats.

Even more fearful, these two battleships were bait for the Germans to lure the Turks into joining the Central Powers. On October 29, 1914, Su Shun suddenly attacked the Russian Black Sea Fleet with the Goeben and Breslau!

It must be explained that both the Goburn and the Breslau are brand new ships, just commissioned in 1912, and the maximum speed of both ships exceeded 25 knots, of which the Goburn was designed to have a maximum speed of 25.5 knots, but during the sea trials, a record of 28.4 knots was created at 85,000 horsepower output, and the Breslau could easily run to 27 knots.

And for several old-fashioned dreadnoughts of the Black Sea Fleet, the maximum speed of the formation cannot exceed 15 knots, and compared to their opponents, it can be said that they are lame. Before the Empress Maria-class battleships were put into service, Eberhardt could only use this old-fashioned ship to fight against the German elite (in fact, the Empress Maria-class was a cut worse than the Goburn, and the armor defense was about the same). However, the Queen Maria class has a maximum speed of only 21 knots. Of course, in terms of firepower, the Queen Maria class is stronger. 12 12-inch guns against 10 283. Eberhardt can't count on it)

Under the conditions of being completely unfavorable, and extremely unfavorable, Eberhardt did not let the Germans take advantage of anything. In the early morning of October 29, when Su Shun suddenly attacked Sevastopol. When he was preparing for a surprise attack to settle the Black Sea Fleet in his home port, Eberhardt gave him a blow in the face.

Under Eberhardt's tutelage, the Black Sea Fleet was no longer the demoralized and demoralized broken fleet, when Su Shun confidently assured the War Minister Enver: "I." The Black Sea Fleet will be destroyed! He was almost destroyed by the Black Sea Fleet.

In Sevastopol, Su Shun, who had just begun to bombard the port, was fiercely returned fire by the Russians in the blink of an eye, and the flagship Goeben was hit three times in an instant. Shocked, Su Shun immediately turned around and ran.

On the way back, Su Shun's formidable fleet and a small detachment of the Black Sea Fleet were encountered—three old destroyers and an auxiliary minelayer built in 1879, the Prut River. Although outnumbered, the four old armies did not choose to surrender, and the three destroyers immediately launched an attack on Su Shun's fleet, and the last destroyer, Lieutenant Pushkin, was wounded by Goeben's 150-mm secondary guns, under the cover of friendly ships. Struggling to get out of the battlefield.

As for the old Prut River, it knew that there was no hope of escape. But the captain of the ship, Alexander. Unwavering in the face of Su Shun's persuasion, Rogusky ordered the sailors to dismantle the fuses of the 110 mines loaded on the deck and throw them into the sea, and destroy all the cipher codes.

Enraged by the actions of their weak opponents, the Germans frantically rained down bullets on the Prut River, and in the face of this desperate situation, none of the officers and men of the ship fled from their posts, destroying all the mines before abandoning the ship to escape, while the captain Rogusky chose to sink with the ship.

Although the tragedy of the Prut River seems to be not uncommon in the history of naval warfare in the world, for a navy that was demoralized a year or two ago, such a big change has taken place in just two years, and it is impossible not to admire Eberhardt's leadership.

Moreover, Eberhardt did not sit idly by for the provocations of the Germans and Turks, and immediately after being attacked, he proposed a bold plan to return fire, preparing to lead the battleships in the fleet capable of fighting to the sea in an attempt to destroy Su Shun's fleet.

It took a lot of courage to know that it took a lot of courage, not only because of the overwhelming superiority of his opponents, but also because Eberhardt's style in the navy had always been cautious (which was one of the excuses for his later dismissal as commander of the Black Sea Fleet). In this extremely unfavorable state, he dares to take the initiative to fight, and he can't be said to be a conservative commander, right?

Unfortunately, however, Eberhardt's request was rejected by the Russian Foreign Ministry on the grounds that Turkey had not declared war on Russia, in order to avoid Turkey joining the Central Powers and to prevent a two-front war. The Foreign Office ordered that Eberhardt must refrain from doing so.

It wasn't until a few days later, when the Turks officially joined the Allies, that Eberhardt immediately chose to take the initiative against the tigers in the mountains. At that time, he commanded the main force of the Black Sea Fleet, and the troops were divided into two routes, with the cruisers Rostislav and Kagur, under the cover of six old destroyers, to shell the port of Zongurdak on the western shore of the Black Sea, disrupting the coal supply of the Turkish Navy. And he himself led the main forces under the cover of four new destroyers to the Bosphorus for offensive mine-laying.

Of course, God played a joke on him, when he attacked, Su Shun also chose to take the initiative, and the two sides staggered past each other and did not meet. After this battle, after rest, it was not until November 17 that the two sides collided again at Cape Saleh, and a naval battle was not vigorous.

The battle of Cape Saleh was not large-scale, and it was completely incomparable with the collision of the British and German armies. However, Eberhardt also inadvertently set a record - dreadnought vs. dauntless. And the result was not too bad, at least it injured the Goburn and made Su Shun take the initiative to retreat.

It should be said that Eberhardt has done everything he can, when he was the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, he carried the new dreadnoughts with the old former dreadnoughts, and through active and effective offensive mine-laying and attacks on Turkish coal supply lines, Su Shun's fleet gradually became an existing fleet.

However, Eberhardt was not appreciated by his superiors, and Admiral Grigorovich felt that he was too cautious to lead the Black Sea Fleet to the initiative and not to completely destroy the Turkish Navy. In particular, the former commander-in-chief of the Russian Army, Nikolai Murphy, who was deposed and fought in the Caucasus. Grand Duke Nikolayevich, who blamed the ground forces for the failure of the operation, blamed Eberhardt, believing that the Black Sea Fleet did not cooperate well with the army, and that Eberhardt should not devote all his energy to laying mines and blockading the Bosphorus.

With the infiltration of German submarines into the Black Sea in 1916 and the failure of the ambush of the Goeben, Eberhardt was relieved of his post as fleet commander. In his place was Kolchak, a rising political star in the Baltic.

Ironically, however, the highly-anticipated General Kolchak seems to be no better than his predecessor, and is still thoroughly implementing Eberhardt's mine-laying blockade strategy. And even more ironically, the former has been blamed for it, while the latter has been hyped up.

After listening to Brusilov's introduction to Eberhardt, Li Xiaofeng became more and more interested in the former commander-in-chief of the Black Sea Fleet, and he couldn't wait to say: "Take me to visit this Andrei immediately. Augustovich! ”

For the urgency of a certain immortal, Bruslov really wanted to say something, "That...... I think...... Let's put it this way, his temper is not too good. I'm worried if you're going to have a conflict! (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you for the second kill potato and comrade hzwangdd! In addition, I didn't plan to write about Eberhardt in too much detail, but after thinking about it, it's not bad to let everyone know about him, after all, this master can be regarded as a character.