Vladivostok is Russia's only ice-free port in the Far East and is the main base of the Pacific Fleet.

The inner harbor of the port of Vladivostok is narrow, shallow and has only one entrance and exit.

The Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy is permanently stationed here, in fact rarely sails, and trains less than a few times a year.

The defenders of Vladivostok numbered more than 10,000 men, plus the artillery of the port batteries, adding up to about a hundred.

There has never been a joint exercise, and the army guard forces, shore-based defense, and navy are all in charge of each other.

On the night of the severance of diplomatic relations between Japan and Russia, the main forces of the Japanese Navy left the port with two targets, one was naturally the port of Vladivostok, and the other was the Russian warship in the port of Incheon.

At this critical juncture, Russian officers and soldiers remained in a state of peaceful paralysis.

The Pacific Detachment is anchored in the outer harbor of Vladivostok, and the warships are still on guard in accordance with the regulations set forth in peacetime.

However, in fact, the Russians are not stupid, although they completely believe that Japan will not dare to do anything to themselves, but Japan has severed diplomatic relations and issued orders.

By the time the Japanese fleet left port, the Kremlin had already given the order for the Russian Pacific Fleet to increase its vigilance.

However, when this order came down, it was set to be carried out five days later.

That is, five days later, the Russian Pacific Fleet will decide to take additional measures to strengthen vigilance.

At night, the lightning protection net was not opened, but the searchlights on the warships illuminated the entrances and exits of the inner harbor.

The commander of the Russian army in the Far Eastern theater, Kuropatkin, was a typical military bureaucrat who lacked practical experience, was indecisive and resolute.

And the chief of staff of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Witheft, also said that "the war cannot be fought."

Blind faith and arrogance, an attitude that did not take the Japanese seriously in the eyes at all, but in the end it really ushered in war.

Three days after the departure of the Japanese Navy, while the Russian army was still relaxing, the fleet led by the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, had quietly arrived near Vladivostok.

With some time left before the attack, Heihachiro Togo officially issued the first order of the fleet: "Our combined fleet is about to arrive in Vladivostok to annihilate the enemy fleet in Vladivostok and the port of Incheon..... This battle is indeed related to the safety of the country, and you must work hard. ”

Standing on the battleship Mikasa, Heihachiro Togo's mood was like the ups and downs of the Sea of Japan, and it was not calm.

Although Japan launched a war against Russia without a choice, as the commander of the Combined Fleet, he knew better than anyone that this was a big gamble by the Japanese Empire.

In Heihachiro Togo's view, even if the Japanese Navy can sneak attack at night and make the Russian Pacific Fleet lose its combat effectiveness, but in the end, the victory or defeat of this naval battle, Japan's chances of victory are not even four CD.

Naturally, this kind of thing cannot be known to the people around you, and this will greatly damage the morale of the fleet, and Japan must win this war.

As an Asian, Heihachiro Togo knows very well that the Western world is strong, and even if he exerts all of Japan's national strength, he will not be able to defeat Russia, but can only severely damage Russia's military strength in the Far East, and then end the war with Japan's victory under the mediation of the West.

At this moment, the person Heihachiro Togo admires the most is Luo Haiping.

The mysterious fleet under Fan Yize's command, under the command of Luo Haiping, annihilated the British Far East Fleet in just two hours, and negotiated peace with the British with a powerful attitude, so that the British did not dare to retaliate immediately.

This was the first time that the Asians had defeated the Europeans, and it was also a head-on defeat of the British powerful Far East Fleet.

And Luo Haiping, who commanded this naval battle, also appeared in front of the whole world.

The Chinese admiral, even the British, was highly praised and was called the "Nelson of the East".

In the past few days, Heihachiro Togo has been analyzing the naval battle in the Java Sea, and although the British did not tell all the details of the naval battle in some concern for their own face, they also gave the Japanese a detailed description of all the tactics used by Luo Haiping in the naval battle.

Although it is undeniable that Luo Haiping was able to defeat the British quickly with the help of the technical superiority of battleships, Luo Haiping's tactics and flexible maneuvering always occupied a superior firepower position in naval battles.

This is something that Heihachiro Togo admires, after all, the commander of the British Far East Fleet, Philmantle, is also a famous general in naval warfare, and all kinds of factors in such a helpless defeat are worth studying carefully.

In the past few days, Heihachiro Togo has also deduced the naval battle of the Java Sea several times, putting the Japanese Combined Fleet in the position of the British Far East Fleet, but each time the result has made him extremely disappointed, because even if the Japanese Combined Fleet replaces the British Far East Fleet, the end will not be much better.

After each deduction, Heihachiro Togo couldn't help but think that if Russia could be defeated, then Japan's biggest enemy in the future would be Fan Yize.

This is also the most helpless fact, Togo Heihachiro has a forty percent chance of destroying the Russian Pacific Fleet, but he is not half a sure that he can defeat the fleet commanded by Luo Haiping.

Unless Japan can have warships on a par with it, he will have the confidence to fight such a navy.

Fortunately, Heihachiro Togo believed that Japan would soon have more powerful warships, because one of the reasons why the British ransomed all their prisoners was to collect data on enemy ships related to naval battles in the Java Sea and speed up the development of more advanced warships.

If it weren't for the alliance between Britain and Japan, and Britain also wanted Japan to contain Fan Yize, otherwise Heihachiro Togo would not have known such news.

It's hard to say whether the war in front of him will win or lose, and Heihachiro Togo, who has already considered the next war, is actually a relationship that he is very confident in this sneak attack at night.

Intelligence on the movements of the Russian Navy, transmitted through the wireless telegraph communication of the flagship Mikasa, confirmed that the Russian Navy was still defenseless, and the main forces of the fleet remained on the periphery of the port of Vladivostok.

The time slowly came to midnight, the fleet arrived at the intended attack position, and Heihachiro Togo also put away all his distractions and gave the second order: "The drive fleet is set off." ”

The operational tactics have already been worked out, and the destroyers in the fleet are well aware of their tasks and missions.

Immediately, the six destroyer fleets in the fleet quickly broke away from the combined fleet, and under the cover of night, headed towards Vladivostok, which was brightly lit in the distance.

As time passed, the hearts of all the people in the Japanese Combined Fleet hung in the air.