The night covers the sea, empty and silent.

It was a cloudy night, and every time the clouds in the sky obscured the light of the moon, and the sea was dark with no fingers visible, as if it were covered with a black cloth.

The armed merchant ship Fuso "Nisshin Maru" carried out the strictest light control, like a ghost in the night, roaming around the Tsushima Strait and peeking around intently, looking for traces of the Tsarist Grand Fleet.

"Fujita-kun, I really want to smoke a cigarette at this time!"

"Don't blame me for not reminding you, you can smoke enough after you get off duty tomorrow morning, and if you dare to smoke a cigarette at this time, you will be found by that guy in Nomura, I'm afraid you can only apologize for your seppuku."

"Hachige, Nomura, this inhuman fellow, one day I will cut off his head with a mistake."

"Don't talk about it, pay attention to the ...... on the sea"

At this time, the armed merchant ship "Nisshin Maru" not only stood at the top of the mast with keen eyes, but also on both sides of the deck there were silent sailors, all of whom widened their eyes and carefully searched the sea.

After the Russian supply ships entered the Shanghai port on 25 May, the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Heihachiro Togo, ordered four armed merchant ships and two cruisers to patrol the Tsushima Strait in a dragnet style to look for traces of the Russian fleet.

About a dozen nautical miles in the rear, the Combined Fleet, which encompasses almost all the forces of the Fuso Navy, lurks quietly, and when it receives definite information, it will pounce on it and tear the enemy to pieces.

However, on this cloudy and dark moonlit night, the visibility on the sea surface was extremely poor, which posed a serious challenge to the Japanese ships in charge of the search.

If the enemy is let go, everyone from the captain to the sailors will have to commit suicide.

These days

Especially at night, the search fleet took out 120% of the scrutiny and searched repeatedly along the Tsushima Strait, not missing any clues.

According to the military department;

The greatest possibility of the Tsarist Russian fleet, which had traveled thousands of miles, was to break through the Tsushima Strait at night, and if this was the case, it would be a failure.

The Japanese Combined Fleet was not afraid of a desperate battle with the Russian fleet, and with its ultra-high-intensity training and victory in the Battle of the Yellow Sea between Japan and Russia, they firmly believed that they would be able to defeat the enemy and win the final victory.

The most feared thing is that the Tsarist fleet will not be seen, which will inevitably lead to the prolongation of the war, as a traditional world-class power, Tsarist Russia's national strength and military expenditure are several times that of the Japanese side, and it is supported by huge franc loans. It is enough to bring down the weak Fuso country.

After the Battle of Mukden

The large-scale battle for land in the Russo-Japanese War has come to an end, the Japanese side captured Port Arthur, completely annihilated the Tsarist Pacific Fleet in the port, and defeated Tsarist Russia at a heavy cost in the land war, won the Battle of Liaoyang, the Battle of Heitaigou and the Battle of Mukden, and expelled the Tsarist forces to the north of Changchun, Harbin line.

At this point, the land struggle came to an end.

The Tsarist Russian army was temporarily unable to counterattack after suffering heavy losses, and it was afraid of the enemy like a tiger, and the morale of the army was completely lost. The Japanese army had already connected Korea with the southern forces of the three eastern provinces, achieved the goal of occupying and consolidating the territory of the three eastern provinces, curbed the southward attempt of Tsarist Russia, and was conducive to further expansion into the Manchurian and Mongolian regions.

In order to achieve the above objectives

The army base camp paid a heavy price of hundreds of thousands of casualties, and the Japanese side mobilized 480,000 troops, of which more than 106,000 were killed, 193584 wounded, and more than 35 officers and soldiers were killed or wounded.

The Tsarist army mobilized more than 600,000 troops to participate in the battle, killed 56,000 people, wounded 186,000 people, captured more than 90,000 people, and broke the backbone.

Both sides of the war suffered heavy casualties and paid a price of 30% more than in the original history, which was due to the effective logistical and material support of the Somali company, so that the gray cattle of Tsarist Russia fed their stomachs and fought more resolutely, and the Fuso people also paid an even heavier price.

The Russo-Japanese War, which lasted an unprecedentedly bloody one-and-a-half years, has been entangled so far, and both sides of the war have basically reached the end of their crossbows and have no ability to go further.

The Tsarist army was defeated in successive battles, and when it fled, it not only lost all its logistical baggage and most of its weapons and ammunition, but also lost its morale, and there was a sense of fear, despair and extreme weariness from top to bottom, and if it was forced to continue fighting, the army could mutiniate at any time.

Although the Fuso soldiers had a strong will to fight, the successive bloody battles had exhausted the elite of the army, and the attacking Japanese army crossed the trenches filled with the corpses of the soldiers and charged to the death, and the huge cost of the war dragged the country to the brink of financial collapse, and now it can only survive on large loans from Britain and the United States.

Do the math

After 10 years of preparations, Fuso's "post-Sino-Japanese War rearmament" expenses totaled 2.7 billion yen, all of which came from low-interest loans from Britain and the United States, which was a huge expense.

Today's yen is still very valuable, one yen is equivalent to one German mark and one silver ocean, and 2.7 billion yen is equivalent to 135 million pounds. It is almost the total financial revenue of Fuso for 9 years, and it is simply a crazy gamble.

This money is easy to use, but it has to be repaid after all.

Now the world looks at the Far East, and the Far East looks at Fusang, and the Fuso Army can no longer fight, so it can only confront the Tsarist Russian army in the three northeastern provinces, one occupies the south, the other occupies the north, and no one can help anyone.

Whether or not to end the Russo-Japanese War and win the final victory can only depend on the performance of the Fuso Navy's combined fleet.

So, the eyes of the whole world are on the Tsushima Strait.

May 27, 2:40 a.m

The small formation of the destroyers Diamond, Pearl and Svetlana of the 2nd Tsarist Fleet, 6 auxiliary ships and 2 hospital ships, all of them carried out the light control order, and quietly entered the Tsushima Strait under the cover of dark night, sailing silently all the way.

"Look...... What is that? ”

"Amaterasu blessed, it's the ...... of the Tsarist fleet"

"Yo Xi, hurry up and report to the commander of the Combined Fleet Togo that our ship has found a target in the Tsushima Strait, this is a ...... A hospital ship with brilliant lights. ”

After a brief commotion, the armed merchant ship "Shinano Maru" immediately sent out a wireless telegram to report this important news to the Japanese Combined Fleet, which was hovering more than a dozen nautical miles away.

At this time, on the dark sea

A brightly lit Tsarist hospital ship unwittingly sails into the Tsushima Strait, and a grand ball is being held on board, completely ignoring the light control orders conveyed by the superiors, and the drunken Russian naval officers mingle with the laughing female nurses......

They didn't care at all that this was the Tsushima Strait, which was related to the safety of the entire fleet, and they didn't care if their whereabouts were exposed, the key was that there was wine and women to have fun in time, and they wanted to have an all-night party.

At 2:45 a.m., the all-night hospital ship was exposed and was targeted by the Japanese search fleet.

If the original history had not changed, the huge warship formations composed of the Second Pacific Fleet and the Third Pacific Fleet of Tsarist Russia would have faced a catastrophe and become a stepping stone for Fuso to become a world power.

Deep in the Tsushima Strait

The dense Fuso Combined Fleet moved slowly in the night, like a huge ghost floating on the sea, quietly waiting for the fat prey to collide with it.

On the battleship "Mikasa", the flagship of the Combined Fleet

The officers and soldiers standing in the command tower did not make a single sound, as if they were dolls carved from clay and wood, and the solemn atmosphere turned into substance.

The thin body of General Heihachiro Togo sat motionless in the command position, and the two eyes under the dim moonlight were bright and fearful, like an old wolf devouring people, and there was no look on his face.

After discovering that the Russian supply ship had entered the city of Shanghai on 25 May, the Combined Fleet stopped all training and quietly moved to the depths of the Tsushima Strait to prepare for the imminent outbreak of an unprecedented naval battle.

Two days have passed, and there is still no trace of the Tsarist Grand Fleet.

The air was filled with an extremely dangerous aura, as if it was suppressed before a rainstorm, and it was simply breathless.

General Heihachiro Togo has maintained this attitude of silent waiting for two days, during which time there are very few words, and the fate of the Daifuso Empire and the Yamato nation is pressed on his shoulders, and he can't laugh even if he wants to.

Just like the rise of other countries in the world, since the "Meiji Restoration" in modern times, the Fuso Kingdom has produced a large number of talents, and the political circles have not talked about it for the time being, and the military has a series of outstanding generals such as Miken Aritomo, Oyama Iwa, Nogi Noshinori, Togo Heihachiro, and Dewa Shigeto, and a large number of rookie generals of the army and navy have emerged, and there has been a blowout of talent.

As a leading figure in the Imperial Navy, Admiral Heihachiro Togo, the older generation, was well aware of his historical responsibility for the rejuvenation of the nation and the prosperity of the country, and also knew the importance of this war.

It is necessary not only to win, but also to win beautifully, to win crisply, and to win thoroughly, so that the victory of the Russo-Japanese War can be laid.

According to his careful judgment, the Russian Grand Fleet would attempt to break through the Tsushima Strait, mainly on the basis of the Russian supply ships that sailed into the city of Shanghai on May 25.

Before entering a possible theater of operations, disbanding the logistics fleet of supply ships and coal ships to avoid becoming a burden in battle is almost a necessary procedure before the war of modern navies.

Judging by the time, the Tsarist fleet at this time should be in the sea near the Yellow Sea, and if it passes through the Pacific Ocean east of the Fusang Islands, then it is very likely that it will be discovered in advance by the Japanese warning posts scattered on the small islands in the southern sea, and the time is too late.

Who would have thought;

Vice Admiral Rozhestvensky, commander of the Tsarist fleet, originally wanted to go through the Tsushima Strait, but he hesitated and did not make up his mind, and after receiving a warning near the Ryukyu Islands, he suddenly changed his mind and took the Soya Strait?

By mistake, this outstanding Fuso admiral misjudged.

"Report to Your Excellency Commander, the armed merchant ship Shinano Maru was five nautical miles north of the entrance to the Tsushima Strait, and found the hospital ship of the Tsarist Russian fleet sailing north, and traced it, and found other warships controlled by the lights, because they were afraid of exposing their targets and arousing the vigilance of the other side, so they only followed from a distance."

"Boom, our old friend is finally here."

Hearing this exciting good news, the suffocating atmosphere on the battleship "Mikasa" was immediately swept away, and the officers and men looked at the old wolf sitting in the command position with unconcealed excitement.

At this moment, General Heihachiro Togo, whose face was covered with wrinkles, seemed to have a chrysanthemum blooming, showing a satisfied smile that he hadn't seen for many days.

God pity!

The tremendous pressure of these days has made his tea and rice not fragrant, and if he does not hear any more news of the Tsarist fleet, his suppressed emotions to the limit are likely to go crazy.

Well, the Tsarist fleet arrived as scheduled, and the rest was simple, the combined fleet had been waiting for more than half a year of hard training day and night, and it was this day that he had full confidence that he would be able to defeat the enemy and win the final victory in the war.

"Order the whole combined fleet to go out and sail to the northeast, 15 degrees north, we must quietly follow, and after dawn, the distance between the Tsarist fleets will be shortened step by step, and the time has come for the brave and fearless soldiers to show their loyalty to the empire."

"Hi Yi ......"