Just when the Sea of Japan detachment of the Russian Far East Fleet was cruising in the eastern part of the Sea of Japan. Just when all kinds of Russian transport ships were racing against time to transport the Russian troops stationed in Japan to the mainland. Just two hours after Katsukaishu officially issued the secret order for the war against Russia, the only two armored cruisers of the Japanese Navy entered the eastern part of the Sea of Japan under the cover of night and began their hunting trip.

It has to be said that the Japanese sometimes arranged very elaborate tactics, and on the night of March 4, 1899, the two armored cruisers Asahi and Hatsugumo avoided the Russian patrol ships near the Line of Control under the cover of night, and according to the information indicated by the intelligence, quickly headed towards their first target, which was a fleet of 2 Russian naval transport ships with an average speed of about 10 knots. THE FIRST SHIP WAS LOADED WITH 3,000 RUSSIAN OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS AND 18 107MM CANNON GUNS, AS WELL AS A LARGE AMOUNT OF AMMUNITION. THE SECOND WAS LOADED WITH 800 HORSES AND 2,000 CAVALRY AND INFANTRY, AS WELL AS 24 UN-UNOPENED 75MM RAPID-FIRE GUNS PURCHASED FROM THE FRENCH.

As early as three days ago, the Japanese military had received from spies in Hokkaido that there might be a transport ship carrying a large number of troops to Vladivostok in the near future. It is not difficult to get this news, a large number of materials need to be loaded and unloaded, and it is impossible for a large number of people to gather without being noticed by the outside world. What's even worse is that the arrival time of the Russian troops on these two ships at the port was too long, and when the Japanese were encircled and suppressed in Hokkaido, the Russians fought in small teams of several hundred people, and the distribution area was extremely extensive, and the roads were destroyed by the Japanese troops who rebelled, and the supplies were not smooth, and a large number of Russian troops arrived at the port late. Naturally, it could not escape the eyes of Japanese spies.

To say why there are no ships to escort you, first of all. The Russians simply could not find a strong enough battleship to escort each wave of the convoy, and the Prince and another cruiser did not return at Vladivostok. What's more, although Japan and Russia are constantly fighting in the dark, after all, there is no official declaration of war, and the regular Japanese troops have not launched an attack, and the Japanese cruisers, which have been hanging near the line of control between the two sides, have been far away some time ago. The cost of a battleship trip is huge!

The Russians think quite normally. However, the Japanese never play their cards according to common sense, you must know that in Xu Jie's plane, the Japanese can do things that cross half of the Pacific Ocean to bomb Pearl Harbor. In the present case. It is also very normal for the Japanese to go out of war without declaring it. What's more, the Japanese nation has never cared about moral pressure, they only know how to do everything to obtain benefits. As for what this will bring, the Japanese never think about it!

There is tactics but no strategy, and this is the biggest problem of the Japanese. However, Inoue Yoshishin and Akiyama Shinyuki are not aware of this problem, since there will be a war sooner or later, so why don't you catch a handful of them earlier? Taking advantage of the fact that the other party has not yet exerted his power, he directly fell down with a fat beating, which is stronger than anything else. This sentence is absolutely correct when applied to the Russo-Japanese War in Xu Jie's plane, but the current Japanese Navy, even in the face of a Russian battleship, cannot guarantee that it will be eaten! A child even takes a stick and slaps it first. It won't be a polar bear, but it will make the opponent even angrier!

And now that Kasuga and Hatsukumo are doing this is enough to make the Russians angry! After the sea fog gradually cleared in the early morning. Two cruisers searched the vast Japanese sea for a transport ship. After three hours of searching, two faint plumes of smoke finally rose from the sea level. The Kasuga then turned first towards the place where the smoke had risen. Akiyama Shinyuki's Hatsukumo followed, and the battleship began to accelerate from a cruising speed of 12 knots, and the boilermen sweated and added pieces of Welsh coal to the boilers, and the speed of the fleet soon rose to 17 knots.

"God, those two ships are not from the Imperial Far East Fleet." Soon, lookouts on two Russian transports spotted two uninvited guests, Victorian livery, twin 8-inch guns at the bow and stern, and a very British-style bridge. Let all the Russians fall into an ice cave.

"There is no election war between Japan and Russia, and they will not attack us." A sailor comforted himself with this.

"Don't dream, the first battle of the Qing-Japanese War was provoked by the Japanese first, and they didn't even declare war, these cunning and barbaric Japanese monkeys don't think about moral issues." An army officer said, of course, that he consciously ignored some of the actions of the Russian army, especially in Hokkaido. As if to verify what he said, an 8-inch shell came from 4KM away and landed 15 meters on the port side of the first transport ship.

"Sink them all, don't take them prisoner." Inoue Ryoshin looked at the Russian convoy that was fleeing in the distance and said coldly. Later, the Hatsuyun was notified through the flag. How could two transports outrun an armored cruiser of first-class speed? A few minutes later, the two battleships were enveloped in the artillery fire of the Japanese cruisers.

In order to save ammunition, the Japanese fleet used 6-inch guns and 12-pounder guns to attack, accompanied by the beating of the barrels and the flames spewed from the muzzles, one high-explosive shell after another exploded on the two Russian battleships, and yellow-green flames and poisonous smoke soon covered the entire ship. It was the Russian transport ship behind that raised the white flag, the Hatsuun was unmoved, and the shells hit the Russian transport ship without stopping, and thousands of pairs of eyes looked at the two Japanese cruisers in the distance in fear, and they finally knew that the Japanese did not intend to capture them, and thousands of Russians would be buried in the Sea of Japan!

"Damn Japanese monkeys, they're going to sink us." "God, these Japanese are demons who have escaped from hell, and they have no mercy." Soon, in desperation, the Russians finally began to stir, and a large number of Russian officers and soldiers scrambled to get out of the cabins and jump into the icy waters of the Sea of Japan. They didn't have time at the moment to think about whether the icy waters would make them unconscious in a matter of minutes!

Soon, the two heavy transport ships were beaten into two burning fires by the rain of bullets, the explosion of shells, the roar of the flames, the collapse of the hull structure and the screeching sound of the twisting of the metal supports, which looked extremely terrifying against the background of the raging flames. However, this is exactly what the Japanese have seen, and many Japanese soldiers cheered hysterically, and some even sang various tunes. Look at the Russians in the distance falling into the water like dumplings, and the Russians who are still struggling on the sea. Almost all the Japanese saw the dawn of victory, and the Russians had more than 100,000 people in the Far East, and this time more than 5,000 were defeated! How does this not excite the Japanese?

But at this moment, Inoue Yoshishin is still very calm, he knows that once this matter is reported, the Japanese fleet will face the full pursuit of the Russian Far East Fleet, and the Japanese fleet may only have a few days, or even 1 to 2 days, to hunt safely in the Sea of Japan, once this time has passed, the situation of the Japanese fleet will be quite difficult.

"Don't waste any more time, go up and launch torpedoes and send them all to the bottom of the sea and go." Inoue Ryoshin said with a little uneasiness. But before the Japanese battleship could move, the first Russian transport ship suddenly heard a loud noise, and soon, a dazzling fireball rose from the amidships, and a few seconds later, the nearly 10,000-ton transport ship broke in two and sank into the sea in less than 2 minutes.

"It should be that the ammunition transported above has exploded, so let's give it to the Chuyun, and let's leave quickly after the fight." Inoue Ryoshin was also shocked by the huge explosion, and then ordered. With a white wake, a 14-inch torpedo plunged headlong into the bottom of the hull of another Russian transport ship, and with a loud bang, the transport ship that had been baptized by artillery fire on the sea for half an hour finally died.

In just half an hour, a brigade of Russian troops died in the Sea of Japan, accompanied by hundreds of fish and horses, and a large amount of supplies. The greatest single battle loss since the Russian attack on Japan in 1895 was a great humiliation for the Russians! What made the Russians even more angry was that the Japanese attacked the Russian transport ships without declaring war and without issuing any notes or ultimatums.

And after being attacked from the sea, the Japanese Army finally launched an offensive. Tens of thousands of Japanese troops began to attack Miyako and Akita, which were occupied by the Russians. IN THE ATTACK, THE JAPANESE USED THE 240MM COASTAL DEFENSE GUNS PURCHASED FROM THE BEIYANG FOR THE FIRST TIME AS ENGINEERING GUNS, AND THE RUSSIANS HAVE BEEN BUILDING FORTIFICATIONS IN THE TWO PLACES FOR MORE THAN 3 YEARS, SO IT WAS DIFFICULT FOR BOTH SIDES TO DO ANYTHING TO EACH OTHER FOR A WHILE, AND THE RESULT WAS THAT WHEN THE JAPANESE FLEET WON A BRILLIANT VICTORY AT SEA, THE JAPANESE ARMY QUICKLY FOUGHT WITH THE RUSSIANS! It was only two days after the outbreak of the war at sea and on land that the Japanese emperor's edict declaring war was announced, and the Japanese once again declared war without declaring war, causing an uproar in the world. Immediately the Western powers, including Britain, condemned it. But this still did not affect the support of the British for Japan, and the business of other countries with the Japanese!

The Russians really have no intention of attacking Japan further in a short period of time, and the Russians have a good idea, first to beat the Beiyang down, at least after reaping some benefits from the northeast, and then to clean up the Japanese, but now, the Russian tsar in a fit of rage even intends to take this opportunity to completely wipe Japan off the map!

"Tell the emperor of the Qing State that the current imperial support for him will be temporarily reduced, let them carry out a coup d'état at least 3 months later, we need this time to completely crush the Japanese worm!" Nicholas II roared loudly that the tsar's order is the will of God, and even if some ministers do not agree with it in their hearts, it will not be able to change the overall situation.

In this way, the original plan of the Russians was completely disrupted. Originally, it was intended to gain some benefits from the imminent chaos of the Qing Dynasty, but now it seems that without suppressing Japan first, the Russians' plans will be impossible to talk about!

The war has officially begun, the new chapter subscription is not optimistic, and the author is in urgent need of fire support ~~~! (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )