Chapter 399 One-day trip to Nagasaki
The dance of the Pacific Fleet did not end until 4 a.m. on the 9th.
Stark stayed up all night. On the one hand, he directed the rescue of the stranded "Letvizan" and "Kronprinz". On the other hand, he ordered the forts along the coast of Port Arthur to prepare for battle and prepare to meet the main Japanese force. The arrival of the fleet.
Stark was a bastard, but he was by no means a fool. He knew that the Japanese Combined Fleet was more eager to confirm the damage to the Pacific Fleet than he was, so Stark ordered the forts not to fire rashly and to wait for orders from the headquarters. .
The first to arrive on the battlefield was the Third Fleet composed of four protected cruisers, led by Shigeto Dewa.
Dewa Shigenuo had two tasks. The first was to confirm the losses of the Pacific Fleet. The second was to induce the main force of the Pacific Fleet to leave the port and lure the main force of the fleet to the preset battlefield.
Stark was not fooled. Not only did the main force of the Pacific Fleet not be dispatched, but the coastal forts also did not fire. Dewa Shigeyuan did not dare to go deep, and walked around in a circle outside Port Arthur and passed by in a hurry.
At 11 a.m., the main force of the combined fleet arrived at Port Arthur, and an artillery battle broke out immediately.
Cost of 20 million rubles, Fortress Arthur is a three-dimensional combat system centered on Port Arthur and composed of military port, fort, land fortress, stationed fleet, fortress garrison, and garrison army.
Although the construction of Arthur's Fortress has begun in 1901, due to various reasons, only the sea fort is currently in good condition. The land defense system has not been completed, and only sporadic areas have been built permanently. Solid fortifications.
There are 18 seaside forts in Arthur Fortress, mainly composed of the Golden Mountain Fort and the Laotieshan Fort.
The position of these two forts is very clever, forming a corner, covering the entrance to Port Arthur and the outer sea. Any enemy ship that breaks into this area will be attacked by the 305 shore produced by the Vladivostok Arsenal. Anti-cannon fire.
When the main force of the Japanese fleet arrived off the coast of Port Arthur, the lanterns hung for the dance party last night on the deck of the Pacific Fleet flagship "Petopavlovsk" had not yet had time to be cleared.
Stark took full advantage of the terrain and ordered the Pacific Fleet to huddle in Port Arthur, making use of the forts as much as possible to shoot at the Japanese combined fleet.
At 11:55, the Japanese Combined Fleet flagship "Mikasa" opened fire first, bombarding the "Victory" battleship anchored in Arthur Harbor from a position of 8,000 meters.
The combined fleet adopts one or two warships to concentrate firepower to design a target shooting tactic, drawing a front of 3 nautical miles at a distance of 8,000 meters.
The "Asahi", which followed the "Mikasa", chose the battleship "Peresvet" as its opponent.
"Fuji" and "Yashima" set fire to the armored cruiser "Bayan".
"Shikishima" and "Hasuse" focused on the battleship "Letvizan" that was damaged and stranded last night.
After the Combined Fleet opened fire, the coastal defense forts responded quickly. The location of the Golden Mountain Fort was very clever. It was one of the 13 forts built by the Qing Empire. It was later reinforced and expanded by the Pacific Fleet, posing the greatest threat to the Combined Fleet.
The Huangjinshan Fort is located on the mountainside of Huangjinshan. It is 100 meters long and 50 meters wide. It is equipped with 5 gun positions, each equipped with two 305mm coastal defense guns, three 254mm coastal defense guns, and a range-finding gun.
There is a ravine behind the Huangjinshan Fort. When viewed from the sea, it will give people the illusion that the Huangjinshan Fort and Huangjinshan are integrated into one.
When shelling the Golden Mountain Fort from the sea, if the distance is slightly closer, it will fall into the cliff, and if the distance is further, it will fall into the ravine behind the fort. It is difficult to directly hit the fort with a width of only 50 meters.
Soon after the artillery battle began, the "Mikasa" damaged the "Victory".
Subsequently, the "Mikasa" was hit by coastal defense artillery from the Gold Mountain Fort, and Togo's handsome flag and battle flag were shot down. Although the backup battle flag was quickly raised, it was quickly penetrated and became tattered. .
At 12:15, the Mantoushan fort hit the front bridge of the "Fuji", and the "Chitose" and "Kasagi" were also damaged. With the rapid increase in casualties, Togo Heihachiro finally realized that with the firepower of the combined fleet alone, It was impossible to destroy the shrinking Pacific Fleet.
At 12:20, "Mikasa" sent a retreat signal, and the Japanese combined fleet withdrew from the battle in turn.
An hour after the Battle of Arthur, the Russian Empire declared war on Japan.
At this time, Japan had not yet declared war on the Russian Empire.
I have to say that I was really peace-loving in my childhood!
George got the battle report of Torpedo Night immediately and was not surprised by the result.
The Russian Empire has long known that Japan is actively preparing for war, but it has not paid enough attention to it. Although the Russian Empire has also carried out some mobilization, the preparations for war are not proactive and sparse, which is very Russian.
Japan tasted the sweetness of sneak attacks during the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-1894. It repeated its old tricks against the Russian Empire and regarded the shameless method of undeclared war as its special skill. This is also in line with the character of the Japanese.
After George learned that the war broke out, he immediately ordered the Siberian Fleet that was performing a training mission in Coconut City to take the initiative.
At this time in 1904, the Siberian Fleet already had 24 battleships, including 2 heavy cruisers and 6 light cruisers.
Although the displacement of the two heavy cruisers does not exceed 10,000 tons, their 8-door 203 and 10-door 152 are not without power when facing the Japanese combined fleet.
The key point is that the Siberian fleet warships are very fast. If they can't be defeated, they can at least run away. The combined fleet cannot catch up.
After receiving the order, Peter immediately lit the fire and lifted the anchor, joined the Aceh naval formation to go to sea, blocked the Strait of Malacca and seized Japanese merchant ships.
The Sultanate of Aceh did not declare war on Japan.
So the Aceh navy is just cooperating with the Siberian fleet, commonly known as supporting the scene.
The Siberian Fleet warships remaining in Vladivostok also took the initiative and attacked all Japanese ships within sight.
Forget about the port.
The battleships of the combined fleet cannot hit the fort. The two heavy cruisers of the Siberian Fleet are both in Coconut City, and only two light cruisers are left in Vladivostok. If you dare to harass the port, you are courting death.
We cannot rely on warships to attack Japanese ports.
So George's secretive airship finally came in handy.
The Vladivostok airship can stay in the air for more than 40 hours, the fastest speed can reach 70 kilometers per hour, and the maximum load can reach 3 tons.
These are nothing.
The most important thing is that the maximum height of the Vladivostok airship is more than 3,000 meters. As long as there is no problem with its own power, no weapon can pose a threat to the airship.
At 12 noon on February 9, the "Eagle" airship took off from Busan, fully loaded with aerial bombs, targeting Nagasaki, 270 kilometers away.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, the "Eagle" arrived over Nagasaki and bombed Nagasaki at an altitude of 1,500 meters.
The bombs carried by the "Eagle" are not high-explosive bombs, but incendiary bombs developed by the Vladivostok Arsenal.
This is the first time in human history that an aircraft has been used in a war.
The Siberian Fleet used to have a concession in Nagasaki.
Although the concession has now been taken back by Japan, Nagasaki is still the most familiar city in the Amur Military Region.
As Japan's most important port, Nagasaki has Japan's largest cargo transit yard.
The "Eagle", under the guidance of Joseph, the former concession tax collector, threw a full 2 tons of incendiary bombs into the Nagasaki cargo yard.
For the Japanese people, airships are definitely a rare novelty, so when the "Eagle" flew over Nagasaki, all the people in Nagasaki walked out to watch the fun. Some even asked the "Eagle" "Kneel down and pray for the blessing of Amaterasu.
To prevent earthquakes, most buildings in Japan are wooden structures.
The wind force in Nagasaki at this time is about level 4.
Since Nagasaki did not have any anti-aircraft weapons, the "Eagle" hovered over Nagasaki for nearly 40 minutes, calmly found the most suitable position, and then opened the cargo hold to unload.
On the airship, only clusters of orange-red flames could be seen rising into the sky, and then the entire cargo yard was enveloped in black smoke, and the fire quickly spread to the surrounding area.
The "Eagle" did not stay too long over Nagasaki. After throwing all the incendiary bombs, it returned to Busan and prepared for the next bombing mission.
On the 9th, a total of 6 Japanese cities were attacked by airships.
George was not in the mood to care about the results of the airship. Due to the interruption of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Amur Military District finally received the task of supplying Port Arthur.
Only then did George learn that Port Arthur's artillery had an average of only 400 rounds of ammunition per gun, and there was a serious shortage of heavy artillery shells, with an average of only 210 rounds per gun.
After receiving the order, George ordered all 1,200 305 artillery shells in stock in Vladivostok to be loaded onto trucks and sent to Dalini.
The supplies on board the vehicle also include a large number of bullets, food, clothing, quilts and other daily necessities.
So St. Petersburg had been preparing for the war for half a year, but it didn't even have the shells and bullets ready, so it was basically lonely.
“We want to remind Alexeyev to be careful about Japan’s recent landing in Kanto.”
Milyutin was worried, worried that Alexeyev, that idiot, would mess things up.
George was not worried, because Alexeyev would definitely mess it up.
After the war broke out, Alexeyev did not send military supplies stored in Fengtian and Liaoyang to Arthur, but sent more troops to Arthur.
The garrison of Arthur's Fortress at this time has exceeded 40,000 people, so what Arthur's Fortress lacks is not people, but materials.
While adding troops to Arthur's Fortress, Alexeyev ordered the Russian troops everywhere to stand still and wait for reinforcements.
George was not sure about the situation in other places. The Russian army on the Niuzhuang front line only dug a simple trench at the station and did not build any other fortifications.
This only trench had no hiding holes or communication trenches, and the height was even less than 1.3 meters. This resulted in the Russian army having to move in the trench with their waists bent.
Those idiot generals under Alexeyev were so confident before the war broke out that they claimed that once the war broke out, they would push across the Tsushima Strait and launch a direct attack on the Japanese mainland.
After the sneak attack on Port Arthur, the generals in Kanto were excited. Lieutenant General Zasulich, who commanded the "Eastern Manchuria" detachment, his first order was not to reinforce the defense line, but to seize the property of all Japanese merchants in the defense area. Confiscated.
This is the real money.
(End of this chapter)