The German fleet, with three Brandenburg-class battleships as the main force, set out from its home port of Kiel, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean, entered the Red Sea from the Suez Canal, sailed out of the Gulf of Aden, sailed through the vast Indian Ocean, and then passed through the narrow Strait of Malacca, entered the South China Sea, and went all the way north to Jiaozhou Bay.

The German Emperor Wilhelm II, standing in front of the map, looked at the route he had personally chosen, as if he were standing on the flagship Elector, personally commanding this majestic fleet.

Wilhelm II's left hand was hidden under his right hand, and when he was born, due to the birth of a breech presentation, his left arm plexus atrophy, making his left hand look much smaller than his right, and his mother, Princess Victoria of England, was very strict with him and often asked him to exercise diligently, so he received strict military training from an early age, so much so that he was full of yearning for a strong army.

Just a few years ago, Wilhelm II went to England to participate in the commemoration of Queen Victoria's ascension to the throne, and the grand parade of the Royal Navy made him envious, so he formulated a huge shipbuilding plan, hoping to lay down an immortal German Empire through a huge fleet.

Three main battleships, five cruisers, plus six transports, this is all the battleships of the German expeditionary fleet this time, although the Beiyang Fleet has nine cruisers, including two ironclads, which seems to be superior in numbers, but the commander of the expeditionary fleet, Dietrich, is not worried, after all, naval battles are not battles that can be won by many.

The Dingyuan ship and the Zhenyuan ship are old ships with a service period of nearly ten years, such a ship, its boiler condition can be imagined, the maximum speed of the Dingyuan ship is 14.5 knots, but now I am afraid that it will not even reach 10 knots, and the warships of the German expeditionary fleet, especially the Brandenburg-class battleships, are all warships that have been in service within a year, and the average speed is about 15 knots, Dietrich thought leisurely: "If it starts, it will be a clash of cavalry and infantry!" ”

On November 3, 1894, the German expeditionary fleet entered the sea near Jiaozhou Bay, asked the Qing government to allow the fleet to enter Jiaozhou Bay, and asked the Qing government to assist the German fleet in evacuating overseas Chinese.

On November 4, 1894, the Beiyang Fleet's Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, and Zhiyuan ships arrived in Jiaozhou Bay from the Weihaiwei base to prevent the Germans from forcibly landing, and on the same day, the British government sent a note to the Qing government, hoping that the Qing government would take practical measures to protect the British citizens in the Qing, and the Russian government issued a statement that if the Qing government was unable to defend the Russians in the Qing, Russia would have to take necessary measures to protect the lives and property of Russian citizens from threats.

On November 5, 1894, the Chaoyong rammed the cruiser, the Yangwei rammed the cruiser, and the Pingyuan dome cruiser and other other ships of the Beiyang Fleet rushed to Jiaozhou Bay to rendezvous with the Dingyuan ship and the Zhiyuan ship that had arrived earlier.

At 9 o'clock in the morning of November 6, 1894, the calm Jiaozhou Bay welcomed an uninvited guest, the German expeditionary fleet Brandenburg-class battleship Wiesenburg, the captain of the battleship Const, was very heavy.

Unlike the fleet commander Dietrich, Const is an admirer of the theory of the supremacy of firepower, the two two-mounted 305 mm main guns on the Dingyuan ship still make him palpitate, and the Westenburg class only has three triple 280 mm caliber guns, what worries him even more is that although these six guns have the same caliber, the caliber multiples of the body barrels are different, the middle of the hull is 35 times the caliber, and the front and rear head and tail main guns are 40 times the caliber, the multiples are different, which means that the artillery ballistic data are different, This means that these six guns cannot share observation data!

Const's mission is very simple, enter Jiaozhou Bay and test the attitude of the Qing government, which is an ordinary diplomatic temptation, but history is often composed of a lot of mistakes and coincidences, and neither Const nor Dietrich thought that this temptation would break out into the first confrontation of ironclad fleets in human history!

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the Zhiyuan ship and the Pingyuan ship, which were on regular patrol duty, spotted it at a distance of 7,000 kilometers from the Wisenburg ship, and immediately sailed towards it and ordered it to sail out of the Daqing Sea with a flag.

From 10 o'clock to 10:30 a.m., the German warships did not heed the warnings of the Zhiyuan ship and the Pingyuan ship! The Zhiyuan and Pingyuan ships were forced to increase their horsepower to intercept the German warship.

If it was just a diplomatic temptation, it should have turned around and left after being discovered by the enemy warship, but the German warship ignored it, this matter has different opinions in history, historians generally believe that this incident reflects the pride of the German warship, but the fact is that the observer of the Wisenburg ship did not find the Zhiyuan ship and the Pingyuan ship in half an hour!

It was half an hour beyond historians' comprehension, but it happened! At a distance of five thousand meters, the Wisenburg ship finally found the Zhiyuan ship, and the Wisenburg ship turned away, and when it was turning, a piston steam engine for propulsion failed, and the previous Wisenburg ship had been heading towards the direction of the Qing army camp in Jiaozhou Bay at a speed of 12 knots, and when it turned the corner, it could only continue to drive at a speed of 8 knots.

The Zhiyuan increased its speed to 14 knots, and the Pingyuan increased its speed to 11 knots, driving away behind the Wisenburg, but the sudden deceleration of the Wisenburg was undoubtedly a provocation in the eyes of the two ships!

The observer of the Weisenburg ship found out, but the captain Const refused to explain the mechanical failure, he thought that this would damage the face of the German Navy, and at the same time he issued an order: order each main gun to open the gun covers, prepare ammunition at each gun position, point the gun muzzle at the Zhiyuan ship and the Pingyuan ship, and prepare for battle.

Later historians lamented that without this order, then nothing would have happened!

At this time, the distance between the two sides was less than four thousand meters, under the telescope of the observer of the Zhiyuan ship, every move of the Wisenburg ship was clear, Deng Shichang, the pipe band of the Zhiyuan ship, thought that the other ship opened the gun cover, prepared ammunition, and turned the muzzle of the gun to itself to attack itself, after all, both sides were within the range of the other party, so he also ordered the main gun to prepare!

In the process, neither the Zhiyuan nor the Pingyuan slowed down, which alarmed Const, and he ordered the boilers to be ventilated under strong pressure to obtain higher steam pressure, hoping to increase the speed, but in this way, the boilers were overwhelmed, and one boiler could not bear it, so it had to be temporarily shut down, so that the speed could only be reduced again.

At this moment, two shells were fired from the main guns of the Wesenburg and landed between the Zhiyuan ship and the Pingyuan ship, and the German warship opened fire!