"Commander, the guerrilla fleet is here." Mitsushita Katsumi pointed at the smoke where the water and the sky meet in the distance and said.

"They are quite on time." Huashan Ziji looked at his pocket watch and nodded with satisfaction.

"According to the intelligence department, the Guiyuan ship of the Beiyang Fast Fleet was seriously injured and is still lying in the dock. The main force of the Beiyang Fleet is in Zhenyuan, Dingyuan and Zhenhai. The only other ships that can participate in the battle are Zhiyuan, Kaiyuan and Ji.

It is far enough to fight. Those 1,570-ton third-class cruisers and Guangjia are completely repaired. Even if they participate in the war, they will not play any role." Sanshan Keji said seemingly casually.

"Mr. Sanshan is very dissatisfied with the imperial intelligence department?" Huashan Ziji said with a smile.

"The intelligence they provided to the navy was not accurate. First, there was no news about the Battle of Toshima and the dispatch of the Beiyang Fast Fleet. Then there was no news about the Beiyang Fast Fleet escaping to the East China Sea, and then there was no news about the Battle of Gunshan Bay.

, those intelligence agencies did not send even a piece of information!" Sanshan Katsumi became more and more angry as he spoke.

"But none of this is important anymore. After several battles, although the combined fleet suffered huge losses, we also gained an advantage over the Beiyang Fleet." Kawasaki Shiki enlightened.

"As for our blockade mission at the mouth of the Datong River this time, if nothing happens, in order to rescue the tens of thousands of Qing troops in North Korea, I think the Beiyang Fleet will come out." A proud smile appeared on the corner of Huashan Ziji's lips.

"Yes, those army guys have always wanted the navy to attack them, but little did they know that our navy used the army to besiege Nie Shi as bait to lure the Beiyang Fleet into battle, so that it could wipe out the Beiyang Navy in one fell swoop." Sanshan Katsumi said quite proudly.

.

In the established plan of the base camp, the navy was originally to ensure the security of the Gunsan Bay anchorage and the Korean Strait, and the Korean issue was led by the army. But when it took Shanchi Genji more than two months to finally compress the Qing army to Pyongyang, he suddenly discovered

.The Qing army with sufficient ammunition was so difficult to fight! Although Yamachi Motoharu adopted new tactics, the attack rhythm was obviously slowed down, which directly caused serious dissatisfaction among political bigwigs such as Ito Hirobumi and Saionji Konobo.

Under pressure from high-level political circles, the Ministry of War had to ask the Navy to continue moving north so that it could cut off the Beiyang Army's supply lines and retreat routes. "Damn it, Army, you are here today too!" was the reaction of the Navy bosses after seeing the Army's collapse.

Just two words - happy!! After the happy time, Huashan Ziji and the captains discussed and decided to postpone it for the time being.

This is not all out of selfish motives. The Japanese fleet needs time to regroup. To be on the safe side, Huashan Ziji decided to take all his belongings with him after completing the assembly on the Japanese mainland and then go to the mouth of the Datong River. Because although the current Japanese army

gained the advantage over the Beiyang Fleet, but

With the loss of a large number of warships, the Japanese army only has 12 main ships. The others are small gunboats and torpedo boats. There is really no room for mistakes. If they separate, if one of the teams encounters the main force of the Beiyang Fleet,

Then the navy behind here will be difficult to fight.

For this final battle, Kawasaki Shiki gathered all the strength of the Japanese combined fleet. The fleet was still divided into two teams. The main team was Fuji, Yashima, Itsukushima, Matsushima, Hashidate, Izumi and Chiyoda. A total of

Seven battleships. The guerrilla fleet is Kurama, Asari, Yoshino, Naniwa and Takachiho, a total of 5 battleships. In order to avoid the problem of the fleet being out of touch here, both the main fleet and the fast fleet must move at the speed of the lowest speed battleship.

.

For strategic purposes, the Japanese fleet gave up on strangulating the Beiyang Fast Fleet. Because after many actual combat and deduction exercises, it was found that the protection and speed of the Guiyuan-class cruiser gave it great survivability. If the Guiyuan-class cruiser

The Japanese army wants to withdraw. Except for Kurama and Yoshino, which can catch up, the other ships are not fast enough, but these two ships alone cannot defeat the opponent. So after thinking about it, it is okay not to fight the Beiyang fast fleet.

In this way, the focus of the Japanese Army has become to rationally encircle and annihilate the Beiyang Fleet, and to de facto expel the Beiyang Fast Fleet. In order to achieve this strategic goal, the Japanese Fleet will abandon the past tactics of crossing the Beiyang Fleet.

The two fleets carried out outflanking from the left and right wings, and at the same time sent a formation of torpedo boats to launch lightning strikes to disperse the Beiyang Fleet. (At that time, because the fighting distance was close, outflanking from both wings was still possible within the visible range.)

After completing the plan formulation and the assembly and supply of warships, the main force of the Japanese combined fleet finally sailed out of Nagasaki Port and headed for the mouth of the Datong River. Looking at the two groups of warships arranged in columns and the torpedo boats in front of the fleet that were on guard duty. The Japanese Navy

From fleet commanders to ordinary sailors, they are full of confidence.

Although after many bloody battles, the Japanese army suffered huge losses. However, the total number of battleships that the Beiyang Fleet can dispatch is less than 10. Among them, there are still more than 2,000 tons of old ships used to make up for the number. Facing the Japanese army with all the elites coming,

The arrival of the military fleet and the Beiyang Fleet can only be the merits of the Japanese fleet. Looking at this fleet, which has been built with Japan's national strength for decades, the hearts of the Japanese officers and soldiers are full of pride!

The bow of the Fuji parted the sea water and turned the waves into water mist and discharged it to both sides. The thick and long 9.2-inch main gun pointed forward. The densely arranged artillery on the side string showed the power of the Fuji. Side by side with the Fuji was the guerrilla fleet.

The flagship Kurama, this 7000

The ton-class first-class cruiser has been upgraded again after several months of repairs. Its slender hull, dense artillery, and ultra-high speed have made this ship the leader among Japanese cruisers. The two flagships are also

Send sailing to lead the main fleet to the distance.

As for the Yashima behind the Fuji, although it is not as beautiful as the Fuji and Kurama on the surface, in fact this armored cruiser equipped with 8 8-inch guns and 10 6-inch guns is the most powerful in the Japanese fleet.

Strong battleship. Rigao Zhuangzhicheng believed that if it was purely a comparison of firepower, his Yashima was the strongest among the warships on both sides.

Side by side with him is the Asahi class, which also comes from Russia. Inheriting the Russian tradition of warships stacking up cannons at the time, the Asahi class is also the warship with the firepower second only to Kurama in the Japanese cruiser fleet. However, it is different from the new cruisers such as Kurama and Yoshino.

In comparison, this battleship that retains its sail equipment looks a bit old. The mere 6-inch main equipment is not worth relying on.

Behind them are various second-level cruisers of the Japanese army. There are the Sankei cruisers produced by the Japanese army to deal with Dingzhen, and the Armstrong-type cruisers Naniwa and Takachiho specially purchased after abandoning the Sankei ship successors. These cruisers are lined up.

Two columns follow.

Although the twelve battleships were much smaller than the Japanese combined fleet at the beginning of the war, most of the elites still stayed, and now, they will rush to the unknown battlefield to welcome their victory.

Or fail! The fate of the Qing and Japanese wars, and even the national destiny of both the Qing and Japanese sides, will be written by them and the Beiyang Fleet!

Thanks to book friends Dadaitou, jialiufan, Tianji Scholar, Kong Chen, and Zhong** for their monthly support. By the way, I clicked on the subscription query last night, and holy shit!! The new chapter only received less than 300 subscriptions a day? This
Chapter completed!