Chapter 272 First Fleet

In the Governor's Mansion on the mountain, Han Wu, who was not wearing a military uniform and only wore a shirt, stood up from the table and paced around the office in deep thought.

In the past few days, he received one telegram after another every day. When he received the telegram that the Japanese army might mobilize the First Fleet to attack Lianyun, he fell into an unprecedented melancholy and uneasiness.

We clearly know what this means. Between Lianyun and Jiaoao, Lianyun is far more important than Jiaoao.

The reality that Yuan Shikai refused to send troops for reinforcements made the situation further deteriorated. It can be said that with Yuan Shikai's refusal to send troops for reinforcements, the situation in Jiaoao suddenly became serious.

And just a few hours ago, the Army Air Force took advantage of a pause in the rain to send planes to conduct reconnaissance at Wangegezhuang Bay. The Japanese army had built a simple dock there, and had built nearly three simple light railways.

kilometer.

Simple light railways have always been what Han Wu was worried about. When he was studying at the Army Sergeant School, he studied the Battle of Lushun. In the Battle of Lushun, the 18 280mm heavy howitzers transported to the front line by light railways played a great role.

The effect is beyond imagination. The impregnable fortresses in Lushun are almost like paper in front of the heavy howitzers.

The light railway and the 280mm howitzer will take a month to build, while if 18 heavy howitzers are transported to the front, it will take 50 days to assemble them before they can enter combat status.

"three months"

Frowning in thought, Han Wu understood that if the current stalemate was not broken in three months, then with the emergence of large-caliber siege howitzers at the front, the fate of Jiao'ao would be fundamentally reversed, and the fortress would be captured.

, the fall of the city, the war, at least the tragic ending of Jiao'ao will not be spared.

As soon as he thought of possible failure, his whole chest was instantly shrouded in a feeling of sadness and anger. As a soldier, as long as he thought of those two words, he would feel a sense of guilt in his heart.

"We just want to win"

Thinking of the words sung in that song, the original melancholy look on Han Wu's face slowly dissipated, leaving only the same perseverance as before. He then sat at the table, picked up a pen, and began to write quickly.

"Jinglue envoy Junjian:

Now, when Jiao'ao is still holding on, our army has succeeded one after another on the Jiao'ao front, but it cannot be considered a victory... I heard now that the Japanese First Fleet intends to get involved in Lianyun, Lianyun, Jiao'ao is definitely a

The land of China, Lianyun, is the foundation and must not be occupied by the enemy. If Lianyun is fought by the Japanese, it will cause great shame and humiliation to the future of China, and the aftermath will be unimaginable...

Under the Ministry of Civil Industry, our only best strategy is to take advantage of the time when Jiao'ao can still defend independently without falling, use air power to defeat the main force of the Japanese navy first, and then consider the battle of Jiao'ao after seeking to preserve Lianyun.

…

pray for victory

"Han Wu"

He read the letter again, then called the messenger and ordered him to deliver the letter to the airport immediately for delivery to Lianyungang. Dozens of minutes later, a liaison reconnaissance plane took off from the airport and flew in the direction of Lianyungang.

go.

The "Yunhe" contact reconnaissance aircraft in the sky emerged from a cloud and flew leisurely in the air. Occasionally, this small "Yunhe" would descend from the high school, and then fly hundreds of meters above the ground, and then

, its 245-horsepower engine roared and flew high into the sky.

"There is no hostility"

Xiao Mingyuan, who was driving the "Yunhe", stretched lazily. Long-distance flights are undoubtedly lonely. There is no one to talk to him during the flight. For him, the only way to relieve his loneliness is when he dives up and down.

, at this time, he obviously forgot the hundreds of kilograms of letters he carried behind him. Although those letters were all letters written by frontline soldiers to their families, and there were even confidential letters written by senior officers, Xiao Mingyuan, who was flying the plane, was far from

Any sense of completing an "important mission".

The reason couldn't be simpler. On the one hand, the Army Air Force shot down Japanese Army and Navy aircraft and controlled the air superiority. On the other hand, although the "Yunhe" was only a liaison reconnaissance aircraft, it was equipped with a nose machine gun.

It is not as good as the ZhanGong-1 aircraft, but if it encounters a Japanese aircraft, it can still shoot down the Japanese aircraft easily. Moreover, this place is far away from Qingdao, so it is impossible to encounter Japanese aircraft. Even if it encounters a Japanese warship, they may not be able to shoot down the "Yunhe".

But the most important thing is the pilot's trust in the performance of "Yunhe".

It is this kind of perseverance and fearlessness that makes Xiao Mingyuan fly the "Yunhe" for "practice" as boringly as he is now. Yes, for Xiao Mingyuan, his only dream now is to be a pilot.

A fighter pilot, and now, at best, he has just realized his dream of flying.

“I really don’t know if there is still a chance to become a fighter pilot.”

When this thought came to his mind, Xiao Mingyuan suddenly became lethargic. Because of the aviation team's pilot selection principles, although his flying skills were good, he was accidentally assigned to the liaison reconnaissance squadron because of his excellent map recognition results.

, for this reason, he felt extremely uncomfortable from the moment he drove this "Yunhe".

And after hearing about the record of shooting down enemy planes from the air force stationed in Qingdao, it made him scratch his heart like a cat, which made him scratch every time he sent mail to and from Qingdao.

They all hope to find a lone Japanese plane, if there are still planes in Japan.

Of course, he knew that this was just a fantasy. The few pitiful planes of the Japanese army and navy had long been chewed up by the wolves in Qingdao, not to mention that it was hundreds of miles away from Qingdao.

kilometers, and there is a vast sea below, how could there be a Japanese plane?

At this time, in the sea and air, the lonely Yunhe was flying at an altitude of 1,000 meters with the equally lonely Xiao Mingyuan. The sky was dark and the visibility was not good because of the dark sky. Xiao Mingyuan opened the cockpit.

The hot air removed the fog, but there was still an unpleasant layer of light vapor condensed on the canopy.

The air at sea was a bit humid. Xiao Mingyuan stuck his head out and looked down. In his sight, all he saw was the sea. There were no geographical marks on the sea. However, flying at sea did not rely on geographical marks. He checked himself

He lowered his head to check the map in the folder on his waist, then adjusted the course, turned to the mainland there, and then flew towards the land. This was not his rule. After entering Jiangsu, there would be ground observation

Station, if he deviates from the route and returns to the base, I wonder how he will be punished by his superiors.

Just when Xiao Mingyuan pulled up the plane and flew up to the clouds, he looked toward the northeast and unexpectedly found some black smoke from the gaps between the clouds. Although it was not clear, he could still tell that it was definitely not a cloud.

The black smoke spewed by a ship, but - a fleet

In 1903, out of the need to prepare for war with Russia, the Japanese Navy carried out reforms, and the core of the reform was to divide the standing fleet into the First Fleet and the Second Fleet. Of the two fleets, the First Fleet has always belonged to the Japanese Navy.

The essence is that when preparing for war against Russia, the First Fleet was filled with new warships purchased in the third phase of the military expansion plan. Eleven years later, the First Fleet was even equipped with all the Japanese Navy's crossbow-class and super crossbow-class warships.

Settsu, Kawachi, Anyun, Satsuma, Kurama, Tsukuba, Kongo, Hiei, this class of battleships are all the refinement of the Japanese navy. After the declaration of war against Germany a month ago and the temporary formation of the first fleet, this class of battleships

Part of a huge fleet left the naval garrison and headed to the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea to perform "warning" missions against Germany. Compared with the mission of the Second Fleet to cover and attack Qingdao, the mission of the First Fleet was not easy.

In fact, for the Japanese Navy, they were never willing to take the risk of the First Fleet, which had all the essence of the Imperial Navy, to Qingdao, so they overskilled them and let these main warships perform vigilance tasks that only a few cruisers could complete.

.

But in the end, the stalemate on the Qingdao battlefield and the conflicts between the army and the navy brought this huge fleet to the forefront. However, at this time, although the fleet was heading towards the war zone, the people on board were completely unmoved.

There was a hint of tension before the war, but in comparison, everyone seemed extremely relaxed.

"..."

Cheerful singing echoed in the restaurant. A group of officers were singing there. They even drank wine. This was the last relaxation as usual. At this time, in the passage of the warship, sailors were lining up.

The fleet jumped into a temporary pool of canvas to do the final cleaning. In ten hours, the fleet will arrive at the sea outside Lianyungang. Although according to intelligence, there is not even a fort in Lianyungang, only a dozen 150mm mobile fortress guns.

But the First Fleet still prepares for war according to the textbook. They will despise the enemy, but they will never reduce any pre-war preparations just because the enemy there has no defensive power.

"Oh, the dignified First Fleet actually went so far as to bombard a Chinese city."

"If the Chinese Navy goes to war..."

"Haha, the China Navy was frightened by the combined fleet twenty years ago."

In the compass bridge of the "King Kong", a group of staff officers laughed and chatted easily. Indeed, the first enemy the combined fleet defeated was the Beiyang Navy of the Qing Dynasty. It can be said that the combined fleet's today's prestige is precisely because of the Qing Dynasty.

What the Beiyang Navy achieved, Yuhi's defeated generals are now huddled in the port, while the huge First Fleet is sailing towards a Chinese city with neither coastal defense nor navy. By then, the First Fleet's naval guns

There will be a bloody storm there.

"This mission is really..."

Kato Yusaburo snorted, his face full of deep dissatisfaction. As a traditional naval soldier, he was not willing to use fleets to attack cities, especially cities without any defense. In his opinion, that was not possible at all.

It's just massacre, which undermines the dignity of naval personnel.

What's more, after talking to the commander of the dispatched force, he already understood that to a certain extent, the First Fleet's bombardment of Lianyungang tomorrow was just a bombardment for the sake of bombardment, and did not have much practical significance at all.

It's a shame those people at the Army Staff can remember it.

The commander's distress was seen in Sato Tetsutarou's eyes, and he just smiled. How could he, the chief of staff, not understand the commander's distress?

“It’s so stupid.”

Taking over what the commander said, Sato Tetsutarou continued.

"But even if we are extremely stupid, we still have to cooperate with the navy. Without our cooperation, the beach of Lianyungang would really be dyed red. You know, the China Jiangsu Army is very good at coastal defense."

"That's the mountains of Jiao'ao, not the plains of Lianyungang. What's more, forget it, let's not talk about this..."

Knowing that things were inevitable, Yusaburo Kato had no choice but to walk out of the compass bridge and stand on the compass bridge of the Kongo battleship patrol ship. He looked at this ship, which can be said to be the only super crossbow-class cruiser in the Imperial Navy. His expression

There is still a sense of helplessness in this. This cruiser battleship with eight 356mm naval guns entered the battlefield for the first time. It was not fighting a warship, but a city without any defense capabilities. This is really overkill.

.

"What kind of war are we fighting?"

Looking at the sea, Kato Yusaburo asked Saten Tetsutarou, and then asked and answered the question himself.

"The army encountered a failure in Jiao'ao. In order to save face, they will attack Lianyungang and involve the entire navy. If they encounter a failure in Lianyungang, do we have to accompany them to Shanghai?"

Expansion, in Kato Yusaburo's view, the current Jiao-ao conflict is constantly expanding, and it is the army that has caused all this, while the navy is passive.

"Why not?"

Looking at the white clouds in the sky, Tetsuta Sato's eyebrows had a hint of melancholy.

"The Army's move is really... Now is certainly the best time to annex China, but unlimited expansion of operations in China like this will not only arouse resistance from the Chinese people, but will also arouse the vigilance of the Western powers.
To be continued...