On the turquoise blue Pacific Ocean, the waves are undulating, and after the cold current of the north howls through the city, it becomes light and cool under the stronger warm and humid air currents of the Pacific Ocean.

The sea breeze blew in their faces, and the sailors on deck were all refreshed.

There was neither a snowstorm nor a biting cold wind, and although they had almost arrived off the coast, the sailors were still wearing thin training uniforms and sweating like rain.

Standing on the tall flybridge of the Honolulu, looking at the large and small warships around him, Lan Jianshu excitedly took out a cigarette, trembling and lit the fire, and let the smoke turn around his lungs a few times before his mood gradually calmed down.

Beside him, it was the Sirius, which was injured in the last naval battle against Russia and had been renovated and upgraded in firepower, and the sailors were conducting a damage management exercise, and it could be seen that the captain Fang was very dissatisfied with the fact that the Sirius was the most seriously damaged of the four main battleships in the last naval battle, so he would increase his training in damage management!

Behind the Sirius, there was the heavy cruiser Determination, which had also been refitted, and the two Russian-made light cruisers that had been captured and the first to complete the replacement of oil-fired boilers and steam turbines, and the names of the two ships had not changed, they were still Cossacks and Dragich, not because they thought the names were nice, but because the Navy wanted to tell everyone in this way that they were their trophies.

On the other side, there is the flagship of this mission, the South Pole Star, the four destroyers attached to the fleet have disappeared from the horizon, they will become the eyes and ears of the fleet, relying on the radios they carry, so that everyone can quickly adjust and deploy.

Commander Long Guozhang did not set off with the fleet this time, and even the chief of staff of the navy did not accompany the ship, and the one who commanded the blockade operation was Ji Weishan, who was not yet 30 years old.

This is a test for that elegant Captain Ji, if he can complete the task well, then he may become the commander of a real fleet in the future, instead of having to take the position of captain as he does now!

From an ordinary captain to a battleship captain, it is already an unattainable dream for many people, and the commander of the fleet is the supreme dream of every admiral!

Ji Weishan, who is less than thirty, actually has a chance to win the crown now, in addition to his own ability, it is also inseparable from the training of the young master, the chief of staff and the commander-in-chief of the navy, which can't help but make Lan Jianshu secretly admire the mind and courage of the three, maybe this is one of the reasons why the Pacific Fleet can still defeat Yuben and Russia in a row with only five months before it is formed.

This is a young fleet, but it has always been full of self-confidence, because they are young, so they are more vibrant, more energetic, and more innovative, and self-confidence is because of their outstanding achievements so far, they have defeated Yuben! Defeated Russia! It also forced the United States to deploy more warships on the West Coast!

He came to Honolulu quietly after receiving Fang Boqian's letter, looking at the young faces full of confidence around him, Lan Jianshu admitted that he was a little "old", but age did not allow him to admit defeat, and it was precisely because of this unyielding momentum and desire for the sea that he became the first trainee captain of the Pacific Naval Academy from the town in Beiyang that year, and was luckier than Lin Taizeng and others later, and participated in the recent Battle of Tsushima as a trainee captain!

It was a battle he would never forget, whether it was the attack on Vladivostok, or the subsequent lure of the enemy, to the final ambush and annihilation! The Pacific Fleet defeated the powerful Russian Far East Fleet under his nose, not only swallowed the Russian fleet, but also took the three northeastern provinces with it, and even shelled Wonsan Port with one stone and consumed his own strength!

This is the Pacific Naval Fleet!

Compared with the luck of being in such a fleet, this mission almost made him killed by the fellow trainee captains with jealous eyes, because of the somewhat different Honolulu under his feet.

Because the Honolulu is only a test ship, it is not in the naval establishment, only affiliated to the Naval Academy, but because the previous test experiments were busy and busy, it has been temporarily taken over by the Navy, and led by Le Fei Reserve Officers and Soldiers, until not long ago it was officially transferred to the Naval Academy, in addition to testing all kinds of new technologies, it is also used to train all kinds of more professional new generation of sailors, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

The Naval Academy currently has three warships, one for nautical training and the other for command, artillery and shooting training. The Honolulu is a long-term combat experimental ship that has been at sea for a long time, and in the case of more wolves and less meat, the academy can only stipulate in the end that each trainee captain can get a chance to get a one-month chance to go to Honolulu, but everyone didn't expect that the first captain born was actually Lan Jianshu, and he also crashed into this big operation!

In the end, Lan Jianshu had to pay a month's allowance and buy a few cigarette factories for the latest Chinese cigarettes before he got out of the jealous gaze and took the Honolulu into the fleet! However, when he saw the huge fleet, he immediately felt that the price of a few cigarettes was too much to pay!

As a test ship, the Navy has never thought of letting the Honolulu go into battle, after all, the safety of all kinds of new equipment carried on the test ship is more important than grabbing combat merits, and the reason why it came out this time is that in addition to continuing to test the triple gun in the bow of the ship by taking advantage of the low-intensity conflict, it is also ready to test the new torpedo that has just been installed.

Of course, it was also because the Sky Survey and the Sea Patrol had not yet been replaced with their power systems, and the fleet was in dire need of dexterous and high-speed ships to be included in this blockade operation.

But since the artillery is to be tested, it must be fired! As long as he thought of being able to command the artillery battle with his own hands, the blood in Lan Jianshu's whole body boiled! It's no wonder that the young colleagues in the academy are passing on the young master's words.

"It's a big time! It is the era of our generation of hot-blooded men to make contributions! ”

As more and more warships join the Navy, it is no longer a dream to command combat ships by yourself in the future!

The cigarette shortened little by little, until his fingers were burned, Lan Jianshu woke up from his dream, quickly extinguished the cigarette butt, and was just about to walk into the bridge, his eyes suddenly lit up, only to see a large puff of black smoke suddenly coming out of the three chimneys of the Cossack on the outermost side of the formation, and the bow of the ship began to shift to the left.

"Accelerate? Leaving the formation? What happened? Lan Jianshu's eyelids jumped, the sailing exercise had just ended a few hours ago, and the destroyer formation had all been scattered an hour ago, if there was no accident, it was impossible to disrupt the formation, you must know that a fleet attaches great importance to the formation whether it is sailing or fighting, and no ship is allowed to move without an order, even if it is hit, it must be reported before it can exit!

Now that the Cossacks are in the lead, they must have discovered something, it is said that they themselves ?!

"Report, received an order from the flagship, ordering our ship to accompany the Cossacks and Dragich to support the Cod." Behind Lan Jianshu, the words of the navigation staff officer came.

"Intercept the fleet!" The staff officer finally added a sentence, and this sentence also made all the naval cadets of the Honolulu boil! ——

More than 40 kilometers away from the Pacific Fleet, a flotilla of seven freighters was sailing slowly, and at the outermost part of the fleet, in addition to two destroyers flying the flag of the Japanese army, followed the fleet, and one cruiser in the front and rear was also protecting.

Kenkichi Kato stood on the mast a little bored, the old telescope shell in his hand had been worn a little white, but the empire did not have enough funds to replace each lookout with a new one.

Kato sighed, it had been almost ten days since he went to sea this time, and he didn't know why the base camp suddenly asked them to set off immediately to protect the fleet and return home, but he knew that this was not an ordinary mission, because General Yamamoto Gonbei had come to see him off in person.

What's on this fleet?

He was both curious and nervous, for the more attention he paid to the base camp, the more it became clear that the trip was very dangerous, and that such a task would never have been protected by old cruisers and torpedo ships in the past, but now they had to be sent, because the navy's only two new cruisers needed to protect the base camp.

But this kind of talk is coming to an end, the new four capital ships are about to return, and if it waits until next summer, then even the odious Pacific Fleet will not be an opponent of the new Imperial Combined Fleet!

Kato smiled at the corner of his mouth, fortunately, he could arrive in Yumoto in half a day, and his tense nerves could finally be relaxed. No, a few sailors were waving to themselves on the nearest merchant ship, or it would be an honor to see the Imperial Navy for those of them who had been adrift at sea all year round.

Kato Kenkichi looked at the sailors who were waving to him with a smile, and waved his arm vigorously, which was considered a return gift.

But soon he realized that something was wrong, because the sailors were still waving their arms desperately as if they were themselves, because they were too excited about their answers? Still is......?

Kato Kenkichi immediately turned his head, and before he could raise the binoculars, his face changed, because several thick plumes of smoke had appeared on the horizon, and when he saw the pillars of smoke, his heart suddenly hung in the air.

"Is it the fleet or the ......?" Kato Kenkichi hurriedly raised the telescope and aimed it at the direction of the smoke column.

On the other side of the lens, several black dots emerged from the horizon, but unfortunately the telescope in his hand was too poor, and the mast of the destroyer was too low to detect the enemy more than 10,000 meters away like a battleship, so it was not immediately accurate to tell which type of ship it was.

However, as the black dot got bigger and bigger, Kato Kenkichi's face gradually changed, it was not an ordinary fleet, it was a fully armed fleet! It was a formation of three cruisers and two torpedo ships, and judging by the waves rising from their bows, they were approaching at full speed!

In the end, when the blood cloud dragon claw flag flying high appeared in front of him, Kato's whole person was stunned, it was ......!

Pacific Fleet!

How did they end up here? Is it passing by or?

Kato couldn't think about it anymore, and reached out to shake the alarm bell, but when his hand just caught the bell rope, the alarm bell on the deck rang first, and the alarm bell stabbed everyone in fear.

It turned out that the companions on the Izumi and the Suma had already spotted each other, and the signalmen were waving their flags vigorously to warn Kato's destroyer.

Standing on the mast and looking down from above, Kato could clearly see that dozens of sailors swarmed out of the cabin, hurriedly pulling open their gun jackets, the muzzles of the guns began to rotate, and even the torpedo launchers were quickly aimed in the direction of the enemy.

Looking at the partners below who were as big as himself and had not been in the Navy for a long time, Kato Kenyoshi felt a sense of sadness, compared with the battle-hardened Pacific Fleet, they were all students and sailors and fishermen who had not yet graduated, and now they needed to carry the heavy courage to rebuild the Imperial Navy!

A sailor slid in, and from the panicked look in his eyes after he fell to the ground, Kato could see the panic and nervousness, and even beads of sweat oozing from the corners of his eyebrows because of the nervousness.

But is there a way out for yourself? It's not fair though! But Ben must survive this injustice until all the capital ships return home in a few months!

"Come on!" Kato's heart suddenly rose with pride, raised the telescope in his hand, and began to calculate the distance of the opponent, in the shot, the hideous gun muzzle on the opponent's battleship began to turn, and hundreds of sailors in regular clothes were running at a fast speed.

"Maybe the Pacific Army won't open fire, maybe they're just passing by!" Thinking of the armistice agreement signed by Honolulu and Samoto, Kato couldn't help but feel a hint of luck in his heart.

However, his extravagant hopes were soon shattered by a flash of light, and several orange-red flames erupted from the guns of the Nadu cruiser that rushed to the front, followed by the rumbling of cannons billowing in the distance.

"Fired so far?"

After putting down the telescope and making sure that there was no problem with the scale on the lens, Kato was about to raise the telescope again, when several columns of water suddenly burst up from hundreds of meters away, and the calm sea was suddenly rolling.

Kato immediately raised the telescope again, but the scale on it was still 10,000 meters!

"Fire from 10,000 meters away?!"

Before Kato could react, the other party's cannon muzzle flashed again, and this time Kato saw clearly, it was a full three orange-red fireballs.

"Yaga! What's that, exactly? ”

Kato was going crazy at what he saw, he had never heard of three fireballs appearing after a turret fired. "Why are there three fireballs at the same time? Could it be that their artillery was triple-packed? A new artillery piece that can shoot from 10,000 meters away?! ”

Kato's heart couldn't control the violent beat, it was a brand new triple gun! Although he missed both shots, the water column that was getting closer and closer told him that the Pacific Army did have a new artillery!

One turret has three guns, and if the stern turret also fires at the same time, wouldn't there be six main guns? If they use this technology on other warships or even battleships, won't the capital ships returning home one after another have to face even more formidable opponents?

No way! Be sure to bring this situation back to the Empire!

"10,000 meters away!" Kato Kenkichi gritted his teeth and shouted to the below, as a lookout, he must report what he sees to the signal corps in a timely and accurate manner, and then they will relay it to the bridge and give it to the captain as a reference for engagement.

In the rumbling cannon, Kato Kenkichi shouted with a stroke, constantly reporting the opponent's movement parameters and distance to the communicator, while the other hand grabbed the railing tightly, because he knew that if the other party wanted to bring the new naval guns back to the empire, he must first live under the enemy's guns!

Although the other side can have three new naval guns and one more cruiser than himself, Kato is not worried, because the maximum speed of this torpedo ship under his feet can reach twenty-two knots! If it were to escape, not a single warship of the Pacific Fleet would be able to catch up with him.

When the first cruiser in the lead erupted again with three fires, Kato Kenkichi took a deep breath, but his right eye was re-attached to the camera, and the whole person was completely stunned!

Nine thousand meters! How can it be? It was 10,000 meters just now!

Boom!

Two red flames broke out on the rear deck of the Izumi, and this second-hand cruiser purchased from Chile was the first to be shot!

(To be continued)