At 02:45 on May 27, 1905, the Fuso armed merchant ship "Shinano Maru" discovered a medical ship in the Russian fleet. Although the 2nd Russian Squadron ordered the implementation of light control, the hospital ship ignored the order and was discovered by the Japanese ships for holding an all-night carnival due to the brilliant lights.

The news came

The Fuso Combined Fleet was boiling in an instant, and under the orders of the fleet commander, Admiral Heihachiro Togo, it adjusted its course and quietly trailed away.

The 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Sentai of the Combined Fleet, under the leadership of Vice Admiral Shigeto Dewa, Vice Admiral Kuayu Waiyoshi, Vice Admiral Shichiro Kataoka, and Rear Admiral Togo Masaji, respectively, concentrated in the direction of the discovery of the Russian fleet.

Aboard the Japanese battleship Mikasa anchored in the bay of the town, Heihachiro Togo ordered the entire army to be dispatched, and a huge net surrounded the direction of the target.

5:00 a.m

Carefully examined by the faint morning light, the armed merchant ship "Shinano" sent the second telegram; Only eight suspected cruiser-class large ships (6 military auxiliary ships plus two hospital ships) and three suspected small and medium-sized destroyer targets were found, and no other large fleets of Tsarist Russia were found in the nearby sea.

Due to the dim light, it was impossible to tell whether it was a combat ship or a military auxiliary ship, so it was only possible to judge the shadow on the surface of the sea.

However, such news was like a basin of cold water in his head, which made Admiral Heihachiro Togo feel cool in his heart, this fleet of 11 ships was certainly not the main force of the Second Pacific Fleet and the Third Pacific Fleet of Tsarist Russia with a total of more than 60 ships, but just a detachment.

So, where are the main forces of the Tsarist fleet?

Admiral Heihachiro Togo, the old devil, had a gloomy face that could drip water, and his dry old face wrinkled like an old nest melon gave orders;

"Bage, the fifth team immediately sent fast ships to expand the search range, we must find the traces of the Tsarist Russian Grand Fleet, please work together. The other teams are on standby. ”

"Hey."

Order

The cruisers belonging to the Fifth Sentai in the Japanese Combined Fleet, the destroyers immediately scattered in all directions, thick smoke billowed from the battleship's chimney, and the steam engine urged the steel hull to ride the wind and waves at high speed, chasing in the direction of the Russian fleet.

The waiting time was tormenting every minute and every second, and the news from the front was even more frustrating, and after dawn, the Japanese search fleet found that it was a small Russian fleet consisting of three destroyers and some military auxiliary ships that had entered the Tsushima Strait at night.

This discovery almost made Admiral Heihachiro Togo flash his waist, and his old face changed color because of extreme resentment, so he ordered; "Sink them all."

At this time, on the rough sea, the Russian Diamond, Pearl and Svetlana destroyers had already discovered that something was wrong, and the overwhelming black and oppressive Japanese battleship Tarzan swooped over, so frightened that their souls flew away, and they immediately accelerated to escape.

As for the slow hospital ships and military auxiliary ships, they knew that they could not escape the poisonous hands, so they raised the white flag and surrendered.

Feeling that the Japanese warships were being tricked, they ignored the fact that the Russian auxiliary ships had surrendered, opened fire and bombarded fiercely, and soon sank one ship after another, including the Russian hospital ship that was happy in time, which was torn apart by the fierce Japanese artillery fire and sank into the icy sea in a howl of pain.

In the northern waters of the Tsushima Strait

The three destroyers of Tsarist Russia, the Diamond, the Pearl and the Svetlana, ran wildly, and behind them were a large number of Japanese destroyers chasing at high speed, like wolves driving rabbits, and they started the chase, which was spectacular for a while.

It was 11:00 a.m

After more than two hours of chasing on the sea, the destroyers Pearl and Svetlana were torn apart by the guns of the pursuing Japanese ships, and only the "Diamond" escaped at high speed by taking advantage of the fog on the sea surface and finally picked up a life.

At this time, Admiral Heihachiro Togo faced a dilemma; Will you continue to defend the Tsushima Strait or will you lead the main force of the fleet to the north immediately?

This small fleet may be the bait released by the main force of the Tsarist fleet, and in his judgment, there are only two possibilities for the main fleet of Tsarist Russia;

One is that it is still lingering somewhere in the waters south of the Tsushima Strait, and the Japanese side has already sent a large number of ships to search for it, which is unlikely.

The area of the Yellow Sea south of the Tsushima Strait is both large and large, and it is neither big nor large, and it is easy to expose its traces under the all-out search of Japanese warships, and then the Tsarist fleet will face an extremely dangerous situation.

As long as the Fuso Combined Fleet firmly controls the bottleneck of the Tsushima Strait, the main fleet of Tsarist Russia is like a turtle in an urn, and from common sense, no admiral dares to take such a risk.

But then again, the possibility is still there.

Another situation is that the main force of the Tsarist Russian fleet has abandoned this small fleet by means of breaking its tail to survive, and the main force is heading north at full speed around the Pacific waters east of the Fuso Islands, and is expected to break through the Soya Strait this night.

At this time, the main force of the Japanese combined fleet was still hovering near the Tsushima Strait, and if the patrol fleet under it was to go north at high speed, there was still a certain possibility of intercepting the main force of the Tsarist fleet, but the first and second fleets, which were composed of the main battleships, were relatively slow, and they would certainly not be able to catch up.

Even if Admiral Heihachiro Togo is arrogant, he does not dare to send the patrol team under the United Fleet to the mouth of the main fleet of Tsarist Russia, the two sides are not a level of warships at all, and sending them is equivalent to meat buns and dogs~ There is no return.

At this point, the last option is the only option;

That is, the fleet went north and laid a blockade line in the waters off the port of Vladivostok, which was closer to the Tsushima Strait, to prevent the main force of the Tsarist fleet from escaping into the port fortress for evade.

May 27, 1905 at 11:47 a.m

Admiral Heihachiro Togo, who had been thinking about it for a long time, hated it so much that he could only stomp his feet and lead the combined fleet to quickly go north, arrange a blockade line in the waters off the port of Vladivostok, and wait for the main fleet of Tsarist Russia to break through.

On the night of May 28

Vice Admiral Rozhestvensky led the main fleet of Tsarist Russia to break through the Soya Strait, although the traces were found by the Japanese cruisers, but in the face of this huge Tsarist fleet, the Japanese cruisers could only follow from a distance, and did not dare to approach, watching the other side swagger through the Soya Strait, it was so angry that it was almost angry.

After breaking through the blockade of the Soya Strait, after the Tsarist fleet entered the Tatar Sea, it was like a bird returning to the forest and a fish entering the sea, and it was not easy to find the traces of the fleet.

At this time, the situation became extremely unfavorable for the Japanese Combined Fleet.

Of course, some people are happy and some are worried about this situation, and people with a discerning eye can see it;

In the vast Tatar Sea surrounded by the Far Eastern mainland and the Fuso Islands (Japan-Honko Sea shielding, temporarily replaced by this), the Tsarist fleet had many options, and the mainland coast of more than 2,000 kilometers from Sakhalin Island to Vladivostok belonged to the territory of Tsarist Russia, with more than 10 small and medium-sized ports.

The drawbacks are also obvious; These ports are mainly civilian ports and fishing ports, standing in remote and cold areas, sparsely populated, extremely lacking in materials, not having the supply capacity of the large fleet, and it is impossible to provide safe harbors for the Tsarist fleet.

But now the situation has reversed, and the initiative is on the side of the Tsarist fleet, there is no doubt about this.

If the blockade line of the Fuso Combined Fleet was broken through at night, the Russian fleet would have a high chance of escaping into the port of Vladivostok, protected by the shore artillery fortress group, and successfully escaping from the danger.

Butterflies in the Amazon rainforest flipped their wings, creating a hurricane in the central Pacific Ocean a month later......

The original history

On May 27, the Fuso Combined Fleet discovered and successfully intercepted the Russian expeditionary fleet in the Tsushima Strait, and launched a devastating one-sided naval battle, in which 21 of the 38 Russian warships were sunk, 7 were captured, 6 were detained by neutral countries, and 3 returned to port, with a total loss of 270,000 tons, 4,830 killed, and 6,106 captured.

The Japanese lost only 3 torpedo boats with a displacement of less than 300 tons, 117 killed and 583 wounded, and Fuso achieved an unprecedented victory.

It is worth mentioning that the Fuso people consumed more than half of the ammunition in the pre-war training, and brought a catastrophe to the Tsarist Russian fleet with accurate artillery bombardment.

No one knew that because of the three orange pennants hoisted by the "Flower Moon", the original history took a small turn, and now everything is different.

June 1 at 1:00 a.m

Four days after the Russian fleet broke through the Soya Strait, 27 nautical miles from the port of Vladivostok, the armed merchant ship Fuso "Nisshin Maru," which was in charge of searching, collided head-on with the Tsarist Russian fleet.

The armed merchant ship of the Fuso "Nisshin Maru" immediately fired more than 10 signal flares, and the signal flares that rose into the sky exposed a large area of black and oppressive ship formations, and the "Nisshin Maru" immediately sent out a crucial wireless telegram, and only four minutes later, it itself was torn to pieces in the artillery fire of the Russian ships.

An unexpected night battle broke out

In the face of the Fuso Combined Fleet that swooped up violently, the commander of the Russian fleet, Rozhestvensky, was confused at the critical moment, stared at blood-red eyes, and ordered the fleet to prepare for battle, he ordered to change the formation to facilitate the battle, and ordered the first and second detachments of the main battleships to accelerate to 11 knots and sail in front of another column to cover the other warships to break into Vladivostok Harbor at night.

Since there was no order to slow down another column of ships at the same time, and the level of operation of the ships by the soldiers was not high, the formation of the entire Russian fleet fell into disarray.

After 40 minutes

The Japanese and Russian sides approached 10 nautical miles, and the Russian fleet had not yet restored its chaotic formation, and was still adjusting its formation in the chaos.

At 1:55 a.m., Heihachiro Togo imitated Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar and sent a signal that "the rise and fall of the imperial kingdom is in this battle, and all members work hard", encouraging all members to fight bloody battles and strive to win the final victory.

At this moment, no one can retreat, and a step back is the abyss, only to stare at the blood-red eyes and fight, with artillery fire and a passion to verify the quality of the navy.