April 13, 1904, the 36th day of Vice Admiral Makarov's assuming command of the Pacific Fleet.

In the past month or so, Vice Admiral Makarov has managed the Pacific Fleet very well, carried out many mine-laying missions to the outside world, effectively blocked the transportation lines between the island countries and the Korean Peninsula and the Far East, and also made the main force of the Pacific Fleet located in Port Arthur less stressful.

It was an ordinary day for the Pacific Fleet. Under the orders of Vice Admiral Makarov, the two cruisers set out from the port of Arthur to harass the island's shipping lines to a certain extent, and at the same time laid a minefield in a specific area, and successfully returned to the port of Arthur.

This also made General Makarov feel very good, and the minefield laid by the two cruisers was exactly where Makarov decided to fight a decisive battle with the island navy in the future.

Now make arrangements in advance, and when the navy decides in the future, maybe you can use these mines to make the island country have a good drink.

Just as General Makarov was about to receive a report from the two destroyers, suddenly a subordinate reported that several warships of the island country were chasing and attacking the two cruisers on the side of the Tsarist Russian Empire, and that one cruiser of the Tsarist Empire had suffered damage and was urgently requesting support.

As a famous admiral of the Tsarist Russian Empire, Vice Admiral Makarov naturally has a violent temper, otherwise he would not criticize the officials of the Admiralty very bluntly.

On the orders of General Makarov, he personally led two battleships and four cruisers to the aid.

Just as General Makarov was preparing to board the battleship Petropaplovsk, he suddenly thought of something, and asked the chief of staff of the fleet, Vice Admiral Witheft, to lead the leading forces, while General Makarov himself went to gather the entire main force of the Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur in case the island nation might ambush the main fleet in the rear.

Because all preparations have been basically made, General Makarov is not averse to a decisive battle with the navies of the island countries now.

In the past month or so, the Pacific Fleet has laid at least more than a dozen minefields, which will also be the best place for the island nation and the combined fleet to die.

It is worth mentioning that Vice Admiral Witheft, after General Makarov, will be the new fleet commander of the Pacific Fleet in the future.

However, after Vice Admiral Whithoeft took up the post of commander of the Pacific Fleet, he adopted a series of relatively conservative measures, which also led to the complete loss of the Pacific Fleet's superiority in the face of the combined fleet of the island nation.

The two cruisers of the Tsarist Empire were already not far from the port of Arthur, and General Witheft led the leading force to the place of engagement soon arrived.

The fleet entangled with the two Russian cruisers was the second fleet of the combined fleet of the island nation, with a total of one battleship and three cruisers.

This is also the reason why the two cruisers of the Tsarist Empire were beaten and could only ask for help, and the current cruisers still have no room to fight back in the face of battleships, not to mention, there are three more cruisers in the Second Fleet.

The Tsarist Empire was already very hostile to the island countries that had grown into its competitors, and the sneak attack of the Tsarist Empire in this war made the Russians even more hostile to the island countries and those who did not speak any rules.

When the so-called enemies meet, they blush. After seeing the warships of the Second Fleet of the island nation, General Witheft did not even need to give any orders, and the vanguard directly joined the battle, and all kinds of shells flew towards the warships of the island country as if they did not want money.

The advantage on the battlefield was reversed in an instant, the Russian Empire had two battleships and six cruisers, while the Second Fleet of the island nation only had one battleship and three cruisers, which was twice as long.

The Second Fleet was beaten by the vanguard of the Russian Empire, and the last ones fled to the rear in a panic.

General Witheft was overjoyed, he felt that he had seen the first victory since the war, so he hurriedly ordered all the warships to follow, and strive to completely annihilate all the warships of the island nation.

Admiral Witheft, carried away by the victory, also did not notice the unusual appearance of the Second Fleet, and even less the fact that the vanguard, under his orders, had gradually moved away from the port of Arthur.

After about ten minutes of pursuit, Admiral Witherft finally sensed something was wrong and ordered the fleet to hold off.

In terms of the speed of warships, many of the warships of the Tsarist Russian Empire have been in service for several years or even more than ten years.

The warships of the island countries are basically new-type warships within ten years, at least in terms of speed, they are ahead of Russian warships.

But now, the frantically fleeing island fleet actually maintained a delicate balance with the vanguard of the Tsarist Empire. Neither too close, into the Pacific Fleet's range of attack, nor too far away, so that the Pacific Fleet lost the target of the pursuit, thus abandoning the pursuit.

By all indications, the pursuit was like luring the snake out of its hole, and General Witherft thought he was a hunter, but now it seems that it may not be.

"How long has it been since we departed from Port Arthur?" General Witheft asked with a heavy face.

"It's been a little over an hour, General." The subordinate replied.

General Witherft was very upset. Judging by the normal speed of the fleet, the main fleet should not be too slow, and even now it has caught up with the vanguard team.

After all, the naval battle before the vanguard also took a lot of time, and this time was enough for the main force to catch up.

"Immediately turn around and return to Port Arthur. It is quite possible that the enemy has laid an ambush ahead, this is a trap! Witherft made an immediate decision.

In the previous sneak attack on the island nation, the Pacific Fleet has already damaged two battleships, namely the Crown Prince and the Perthwaite.

If the two battleships led by General Witheft were ambushed and these two battleships were damaged, the number of battleships that the Pacific Fleet could dispatch would be reduced to only four, and the fleet facing the island nation would have no advantage, and even fell into a huge disadvantage.

Such losses were unacceptable for the Pacific Fleet, and once it lost its few current maritime superiority, the Tsarist Empire would be even more vulnerable on land.

Not to mention the issue of weaponry and combat effectiveness, just in terms of numbers, the Far Eastern Army of the Tsarist Russian Empire, with a scale of less than 100,000 people, could not be the opponent of the island country.

The best part of the Russian Empire was in Europe, and the Far East was not too large in terms of numbers or soldiers.

Coupled with the fact that the Trans-Siberian Railway was not fully operational, any losses of the Tsarist Empire in the Far East would have to face logistical costs several times higher than those of the island nations.

The first is to ask for support!

(End of chapter)