Italy's blending has not yet come to fruition, but the war waits for no one, and neither Japan nor Russia can stop fighting.

First of all, after the Japanese attacked Port Arthur, they immediately sent their army to land in Pusan and Inchon on May 9 and 12, and quickly took control of the small Korean court.

Subsequently, on June 2, more than 30,000 people of the Japanese First Army carried more than 100 artillery pieces, and under the leadership of General Kuroki Weizhen, they landed north from Nampo, North Korea. In late June, the landing Japanese troops reached the left bank of the Yalu River without encountering resistance, and eyed the Russian troops stationed in the northeast.

And by this time, Russia had already made a move. General Stark, who first showed his incompetence in this Japanese sneak attack, was dismissed from his post and replaced with Lieutenant General Makarov, the last famous Russian general.

Makarov, worthy of the rank of famous general, took a series of emergency measures as soon as he took office, intensifying the actions of the Arthur fleet.

First, he decided to lay mines along the coast of the Liaodong Peninsula to prevent the landing of Japanese troops and threaten the Arthur base from behind. At the same time, it improved the defense of Port Arthur, stepped up the repair of damaged ships, regularly sent fleets to the sea, and strengthened combat readiness training. He also ordered the Vladivostok fleet to actively attack the Japanese sea lines of communication in the Sea of Japan in order to distract the Japanese pressure on Arthur.

This series of actions quickly restored the morale of the officers and men of the Russian Navy, especially after he personally led the troops to attack several times in succession and repelled the attacks of the Japanese fleet, which was even more recognized by the officers and men of the Russian Navy. I believe that if he is given some more time, the Russian Pacific Fleet will give the Japanese Combined Fleet a headache.

In fact, after the arrival of Makarov, the combined fleet had a headache for him. For this reason, the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, and the chief of staff Akiyama Shinyuki, and others came up with a solution that was not a solution, since this Russian Vice Admiral Makarov was so difficult, then shoot the man first, shoot the horse, capture the thief first, capture the king, and get rid of this Vice Admiral Makarov first.

To this end, the Combined Fleet made meticulous preparations, first sending warships to secretly lay mines outside Port Arthur in the middle of the night on 2 June, and then sending warships of the Third Fleet to lure the enemy outside Port Arthur at dawn the next day.

At that time, the Russian destroyer was returning from an overseas activity and was besieged by Japanese destroyers. Makarov hurriedly sent the battleship "Bayan" to the rescue, but was besieged by the warships of the Japanese Third Fleet. As a result, Makarov personally led the fleet out of the harbor to meet the battle, and rose up to chase the retreating Japanese ships.

When he found that the main fleet of the Japanese army was already in formation, he immediately made a decision and ordered all ships to return to the sea. On the way back, the battleship Victory on which he was riding unfortunately struck a mine in the open sea 15 kilometers away from Lushun, and the violent explosion severely damaged the Victory. However, thanks to Italy's good underwater defense system, the Victory was only heavily damaged, and the Victory watched as it struggled to return to Arthur.

Heihachiro Togo took the main force of the combined fleet and slammed the Victory all the way. In the fierce artillery bombardment for half an hour, the Victory suffered heavy losses, with 7 secondary guns and 2 main guns, more than half of the officers and men on board were killed and wounded, and the whole ship was covered with scars. If it weren't for the excellent performance of the Krupp armor steel on the Victory, and the structure was also very reasonable. Replaced by any other Russian battleship, it would have been sunk long ago.

The Victory, with its scars, finally hid in Arthur under the stunned gaze of the officers and men of the Japanese fleet.

At this time, Lieutenant General Makarov, who did not know that he had escaped a killing, suffered only some minor injuries. However, he looked at the seriously injured Victory, but his face was sad. Because the current seven battleships of the Pacific Fleet, the Crown Prince and the Pelthwaite, were torpedoed and are still under emergency repairs, and now the Victory is seriously damaged, there are only four battleships available to the fleet at present.

Although there were four battleships left, they were all four of inferior performance. Three Petropavlovsk-class battleships, which could only reach a maximum speed of 16 knots, although two twin 305 mm L/40 guns of the 1895 model; The firepower of the 4-seat twin and 4-seat single-mounted 1892 type 152 mm L/45 secondary guns looks good, but the tonnage of the standard displacement of 10,960 tons leads to the lack of defense of the ship, although the defense on paper is good, the waterline armor belt is 254 ~ 368 mm, but its armor width can be imagined, it must be a very narrow armor belt.

As for the other Oslibya, the ship's speed protection is not bad, but the firepower of 4 254-mm guns and 11 152-mm secondary guns is not too weak?

It can be said that the three most combat-effective warships of the fleet at the moment have been damaged and repaired, and the idea that Vice Admiral Makarov will continue to attack can only come to an end.

On the side of the Combined Fleet, the Victory was seen struggling back to Port Arthur under the siege of many ships. Disappointing the Combined Fleet Ichigan and others, Heihachiro Togo, as the commander of the fleet, immediately sent a telegram to Tokyo, asking the government not to allow the Russians to obtain Italian battleships under any circumstances, especially the three Genoa-class battleships, which were too resistant to beating.

Of course, Heihachiro Togo still gave very high praise to the two purchased Garibaldi cruisers, although the ship is super expensive, but the performance is too powerful. With a displacement of 15,000 tons, it can run at a high speed of 23 knots. What's more, the 8 254 mm guns it is equipped with are even more powerful, and it can be called a cruiser killer.

As long as they are seen, don't even think about running away. Therefore, these two cruisers were commanded by Hikonojo Uemura, and several other cruisers were ready to capture the Pacific Fleet cruisers in the port of Vladivostok.

However, although the Japanese patrol formation was ready, the Russian warships hiding in the port of Vladivostok did not come out at all.

For this kind of countermeasure of being willing to be an otaku at home, Hikonojo Uemura can't help it, he can't rush into the port with a patrol.

Hikonojo Uemura, who had no choice, couldn't stay outside Vladivostok for a long time, so he had to leave first. However, as soon as the front foot left, the Russian cruiser formation on the back foot slipped out, and also wandered around the sea off Japan, sinking and capturing several merchant fishing boats, which made Uemura Hikonojo feel guilty in his heart, and as a result, when he pursued all the way with the fleet, the other party retreated to Vladivostok, which made people jump in a hurry.

At this time, the Japanese Navy was a little uncomfortable, the Russian fleet was hiding in the harbor and couldn't come out, and there was nothing they could do with the other side. Fortunately, Japan still has an army, and at this time it needs the help of the army. However, if you want the army to help, you need to at least temporarily block the threat of the Russian navy.

So for the commander of the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, this is a tricky question. Because the Russians are not stupid, you can block the port of Arthur if you want to, he has sent two batches of ships to block the port before, and it is difficult to avoid the sight of the Russians to block the port.

However, this time, in order to ensure that the army could land on the Liaodong Peninsula, Togo Heihachiro was ruthless and took out more than a dozen ships in one go to block them, so on the night of July 4, more than a dozen Japanese blockage ships, under the control of the death squad, directly swarmed towards the port waterway.

Although they were subjected to heavy shelling by the Russians and a blockade by mines on the way, these death squads, who did not want to die, rushed past the interception without hesitation, and five boats rushed to the mouth of the waterway. Immediately afterwards, the five ships loaded with the blockage opened the sea gate and directly blocked the waterway with the sunken ship.

At this time, even a famous admiral like Makarov has no way for the time being.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Russian navy was blocked in the port and could not move, Japan launched an offensive from the Yalu River on the one hand, and within two days the Russian army's Dongman detachment was defeated and retreated from Jiulian City and retreated in the direction of Liaoyang.

At the same time, the Japanese Second Army, more than 40,000 men, commanded by General Obaogong, landed on July 9 from Piziwo in the southeast of the Liaodong Peninsula in an attempt to capture Lushun from the north.

On July 13, the Japanese Second Army arrived at Jinzhou, where the Russian 4th Infantry Division was responsible for the defense. The Japanese army took the opportunity to occupy Jinzhou and Dalian, and at this time, Lushun, a strategic point, was completely surrounded.