On April 10, the Russian Far East Fleet left Vladivostok under the leadership of Lieutenant General Makanov and prepared to go south to fight the Qing fleet.

At this time, the overall strength of the Russian Far East Fleet was better than that of the Qing army's joint fleet. In addition, Makarov himself was known as the best general of the Russian Navy, and his experience in decisive battles in the ocean was much higher than that of the Qing army's commander Liu Buchan, so he did not take the Qing army's joint fleet seriously at all. He just rushed towards the Korean Strait with a swagger.

On the morning of the 12th, the Russian fleet arrived at the Korean Strait as scheduled.

The Korean Strait is located between the Korean Peninsula and Honshu Island in Japan. The entire sea channel is divided into two parts by Tsushima Island. One part is between the Korean Peninsula and Tsushima Island. This sea area has many islands and is relatively narrow in waterways. It is called the Busan Strait. The other part is between Tsushima Island and Honshu Island in Japan. The waterway is wider, and there are no other large islands except one Iki Island.

There are two choices placed in front of Makanov: First, the fleet attacks Busan directly, and then walks through the Busan Strait to the East Ocean. Second, bypass Tsushima Island and walks through Tsushima Strait to the East Ocean.

For Russia, Busan is worthless now. Makanov's fleet's target is the Qing naval joint fleet. As long as he defeats the Qing navy and obtains sea control, he can land from Busan or Incheon, or even from Tianjin. Therefore, Makanov decisively abandoned Busan, which has little military value and chose the Tsushima Strait.

There is another reason that prompted Makanov to choose the Tsushima Strait. The Busan Strait is densely packed with islands near the coastline, which is very suitable for small ships to hide. The waterway in this section is only a few dozen kilometers wide. If the Qing army deployed torpedo boats between these innumerable islands, when the fleet passes, once the Qing army launches an attack, the Russian fleet will not have time to defend at all, and will definitely suffer losses. This will be unfavorable to the decisive battle with the Qing fleet in the future.

Although the waterway between Tsushima and Iki Island is narrower, it does not provide a place for torpedo boats to hide. Even if the Qing army deployed torpedo boats here, it would be easy to be discovered by its own destroyers and it would be difficult to pose a threat to the core of the fleet.

Even so, Makanov carefully slowed down the fleet's speed before arriving at the Tsukuma Strait. He did not choose to pass through the Tsukuma Strait on the night of the 12th, but waited until the early morning of the 13th.

At 5:30 in the morning, the Russian fleet entered the Tsushima Strait. Soon after, the Russian fleet's reconnaissance ship and the Qing fleet's reconnaissance ship discovered each other. Then, the Qing army's frigate, "Tian Ji", did not contact the Russian army, and turned around and drove southwest.

On the Russian fleet's flagship "Prince", Makanov is discussing tactics with Chief of Staff Weittevt.

"Hisser Commander, I admire your cautious and meticulous command style very much, but I have to say that you have too high the combat effectiveness of the Chinese. According to intelligence, the Chinese still have two armored cruisers fighting the Dutch in South Asia, and another battleship is also guarding against the French in Shanghai. The only warships they can invest in this war are three battleships and two armored ships. In contrast, Andre of the Empire has four first-class battleships and four cruisers. I really don't understand, what are you still worried about?"

Makanov smiled and said, "Indeed, to what you said, our fleet has an absolute advantage. Moreover, I think the training level of the soldiers of the Imperial Navy will definitely be better than the Chinese who have just entered the ocean. However, as the commander of the Imperial Fleet, in addition to winning the Empire, I must also protect the Empire's property as much as possible. Moreover, reducing the losses of the fleet as much as possible will help to occupy a more favorable position in the subsequent Far East competition. Isn't it?"

Weitteft shrugged: "Yes. I think you are right. So, should we send cruisers and destroyers to drive away any small shrimps?"

Makanov nodded: "Send the 'Letvizan', his 20 50-caliber 75mm guns and 24 Hachikas 43-caliber 47mm rapid-fire guns, are definitely enough for small torpedo boats to bear. In addition, he added seven destroyers as frontline detachments, and searched forward with a speed of sixteen knots. The remaining four cruisers and seven destroyers followed the team forward."

Weitteft gave a relaxed salute: "Abide by the order, Commander."

With the signal from the flagship, Major General Vizofort commanded the "Letvizan" and several destroyers to speed up the speed. At the same time, the fleet's fleet still maintained a speed of ten knots and moved forward steadily. Soon, the distance between the search fleet and the team gradually widened.

At this time, on the ocean about twenty nautical miles away from the Russian fleet, on the Qing army's flagship "Qi Huangong" took the telegram from the "Tian Ji" that he had just received and walked into the command room.

The Fleet Chief of Staff Sa Zhenbing took the telegram and took a look, smiled slightly, and handed the telegram to Liu Buchan: "Sir, they are here!"

Liu Buchan quickly browsed the telegram, then looked in front of the chart for two minutes, and then ordered: "The fleet is on standby. After discovering the enemy ship, he does not need to wait for the order, and fire immediately. Send a telegram to Busan and order the destroyer detachment to start surrounding the enemy's back. He fired three red signal flares, notify the assassin, and prepare to take action."

Liu Buchan's order was quickly passed on. Ten minutes later, the fleet completed two column formations. At the same time, after a radio telegram transfer from four ships set in advance on the Korean Strait, the destroyer detachment far away in Busan also began to operate.

Although wireless telegrams have been developed now, the signal is still very weak and unstable. For such maritime information transmission, several transit stations must be required to be in place.

On the ocean surface of the strait far away from the Russian fleet route, six strange-shaped ships floated quietly on the water. Compared with the Russian fleet gradually approaching in the distance, these six small boats seemed so thin. This is one of the Qing Navy's trump cards - the Assassin.

When Zai Tian inspected Qingdao Shipyard in the 23rd year of Guangxu, while criticizing the submarines that had been completed in Qingdao Shipyard, he also made a brilliant idea to shock all the technicians at that time. Subsequently, under the leadership of Chen Zhen, Holland, Simon Lake and others, the submarine manufacturing team immediately conducted argumentation and experimentation on Zai Tian's suggestion and found that the suggestion of His Majesty the Emperor could indeed greatly improve the survival and combat capabilities of the submarines. Therefore, the new-class submarine started construction in the 24th year of Guangxu. These six "assassins" are part of the "Qing Chu" class manufactured by Qingdao Shipyard in three years.

Lin Jianzhang stood on the bridge, looking at the three red signal flares slowly rising in the sky, and said to himself: "Red means that the Russians have indeed walked through the main channel of prediction, so we have saved a lot of effort. The three signal flares mean that the Russians' fleet is still three nautical miles away from us. However, the Russians may speed up after seeing our signal, so in at most fifteen minutes, the Russian fleet will pass by us."

After muttering a few words, Lin Jianzhang ordered the staff adjutant to say, "Send a signal to the other five 'assassins' and set off at the ambush site No. 1, and enter a submersible state after sailing for five minutes!"

"Yes!" The adjutant turned around and was about to send a report. Lin Jianzhang stopped him: "Wait..."

"Sir?"

"Tell the other brothers that this is the first time that submarines in this world have participated in a large-scale naval battle, so that the brothers can do a beautiful job!"

"Yes!" The staff officer grinned and turned around and left.

Because of distance issues, Makarov did not see the signal flares sent by the Qing army, but he received a message from the "Letvizan" from the communication ship. "It seems that the Qing people did not adopt the multi-point encirclement tactic. Vizofort said that the Qing fleet ahead of them included at least four large ships, which should be the main force of the Qing Navy."

Weitteft shrugged: "It seems they are still hoping to win the final battle at sea."

Makanov shook his head and said, "Maybe they just hope to consume our strength as much as possible. But it doesn't matter. Since the main force of the Qing army has appeared, then our performance will be next. Order our team to pressurize the boiler and speed 16 knots, and we will catch up."

At this time, in the distance, the search detachment of the Russian ship formation, which had reduced its speed, began to exchange fire with the main fleet of the Qing naval that was pounced on.

"Report!" A messenger came to the command room eagerly: "Your Excellency Commander, a signal was sent from the front that the Qing army's torpedo boat speed was far beyond our expectations. General Vizofort said that it was initially judged that the enemy's rapid torpedo boat speed was at least more than thirty knots, and our army's destroyers could not keep up with the opponent's speed. Moreover, the enemy's torpedo boats had a large number, please be careful to defend!"

At this time, Makanov was able to see the smoke rising from afar in the telescope, and the outlines of the "Letvizan" and several large enemy ships were also clearly visible. It would probably take not long for the fleet to support the search detachment.

"Reply to General Vizofort, our team has taken defensive measures. Please hold on as many minutes as possible, and we will be there soon!"

"yes!"

"In addition, order the destroyer detachment to speed up to the battlefield and support General Vizofort. I don't want to lose a battleship just as the battle begins."

"yes!"

The continuous orders were issued, and soon, seven destroyers defending around the fleet accelerated to leave the team and rushed to the battlefield. At the same time, the three armored cruisers also increased their speed. The entire Russian fleet quickly formed a seven-three-three formation and rushed to the battlefield fifteen nautical miles away. At the same time, the Qing fleet also discovered the Russian fleet that was coming quickly. Then two battleships and two armored cruisers left the Russian army search fleet with several destroyers and rushed towards the Russian army.

At this time, no one noticed a few small black dots that were difficult to distinguish on the naked eye on the sea several hundred meters west of the Russian fleet.

Lin Jianzhang, who was observing the local fleet through the periscope, smiled slightly and issued his first combat order: "It is now, launch!"

With Lin Jianzhang's order, the three torpedo tubes of the Assassin One fired three torpedoes in sequence, and his target was the "Crown Prince"!

"Haha, of course, the flagship must be terminated by me personally..." Lin Jianzhang smiled treacherously as he looked at the torpedoes drew the white lines away.

On the "Crown Prince", Makanov was ordering the main gunner to adjust the gun position and preparing to give a fatal blow to the oncoming Qing army warship. At this moment, the sailors' screams came from the side: "Torpedo!"

Makanov was stunned. In the telescope, the enemy fleet had just escaped from the entanglement of his search fleet, and was at least five nautical miles away from the team. Where did the torpedo come from? It was this short moment of stunnedness that the first torpedo had hit the first half of the "Crown Prince".

The huge impact force lifted the first half of the 13,000-ton "Crown Prince" high, but before the bow of the explosion was lifted into the water again, the second torpedo exploded in the middle and rear of the hull, followed by the third!

The huge destructive power generated by three 533mm torpedoes made the giant ship tilt quickly. In just a few minutes, the first-class battleship was built by a French shipyard and specially built to suppress the Qing navy and disappeared on the sea.

Before the crew of the "Pellesvet" and "Victory" could sigh, several other torpedoes had already come to them. However, these two battleships were lucky. Because of the launch time, the torpedoes that were fired at them were about thirty seconds slower. It was this critical thirty seconds that saved the two first-class battleships.

The moment they saw the "Crown Prince" being hit by the first torpedo, the first mate of the "Pellesvet" and the "Victory" subconsciously turned the ship into the right rudder. This subconscious behavior made them avoid the two torpedoes that were shot at the bow and tail of the ship, but they could not avoid the one that was shot at the middle of the warship.

Two 533mm caliber torpedoes exploded in the middle of the "Pellesvet" and "Victory". The huge power tore a huge hole in one side of the ship. The crazy influx of sea water caused the two battleships to tilt extremely severely, and their speed dropped rapidly to less than three knots.

At the same time, the other three armored cruisers also encountered the same fate. The "Petropavlovsk" was directly sunk, and the "Sevastopol" was severely damaged. During the sinking process, the only "Poltava" that escaped misfortune also completely lost its motivation.

Within just one minute, two main battleships were sunk, four main battleships were severely damaged, and the Russian Far East Fleet had completely lost its combat effectiveness. However, until this time, the crew members of the four surviving battleships did not know where the attack came from.

This is the "assassin"! With the determination to die, get close to the target, and kill with one blow!

The Poltava, which had completely lost power, managed to rescue the surviving crew members who fell into the water, while using various ship-based firepower to shoot aimlessly in the direction of the torpedo attack. Influenced by the Poltava, the Pelesvet and the Victory were trying to drain the water while also firing with ship-based firepower.

"Dive down, dive down, dive... reload..."

In the submarine, several commanders issued orders in a stack of sounds. The "Tian Chu" class submarine carries a total of six 533 mm caliber torpedoes, and in addition to the torpedo launch tubes, there are three other missiles. However, it is a considerable project that requires a lot of time to place such a huge torpedo into the torpedo launch tube in a narrow submarine warehouse. During this period, in order to prevent accidental injury from the enemy's firepower, infiltrating underwater is undoubtedly the best defense.

Several destroyers who finally figured out what was going on also rushed back at this time and began to search for enemies around the only four remaining battleships. Unfortunately, the "assassins" had already penetrated underwater at this time. If it weren't for this destroyer, the hundreds of rapid-fire guns on the battleship might have really been able to hit a dead mouse and hit an "assassin". Now these destroyers have become the amulets of the "assassins".
Chapter completed!