Chapter 408 Play slowly
If the result of the Battle of Vladivostok is the victory of the white people over the Asians, it will make European and American countries proud.
For St. Petersburg, the result of the Battle of Vladivostok was a crazy slap in the face.
The Pacific Fleet with seven battleships was blocked by the Combined Fleet in Port Arthur and could not get out.
The Siberian Fleet, which did not have a single battleship, defeated the Combined Fleet in Vladivostok. It not only sank the "Izumo", but also captured the "Haruhi", which was a fruitful victory.
Never mind how the "Izumo" was sunk.
Just say sink, sink!
This can also explain why St. Petersburg did not celebrate the Battle of Vladivostok.
George knew why.
After Nicholas and Alex got married, their four consecutive children were all daughters.
Alex became pregnant again last winter and is due in August.
Now let alone St. Petersburg, the entire Russian Empire is paying attention to Alex's belly.
The controversy about the Crown Prince of the Russian Empire has been going on for a long time in St. Petersburg.
Three years ago, the fourth princess Anastasia Nikolayevna was born, and the controversy about the crown prince reached its peak.
The four children in a row were all daughters. Nicholas had no choice but to make the eldest princess Olga Nikolayevna the crown prince.
This decision was opposed by almost everyone.
It is not that there were no female czars in the history of the Russian Empire.
Almost all the memories left by the female tsar to the Russians are painful. If there is another female tsar, what if it is Ye Er again.
If you don’t make the eldest princess, then you have to wait for Alex to give birth to a son.
But Alex already has four daughters, what if she can’t give birth?
Nicholas had no choice but to make his younger brother Georgi the crown prince.
Georgi was ill and bedridden, so he was not a suitable candidate for the crown prince.
After Georgi's death, the third brother Mikhail automatically became the crown prince.
Mikhail is not a suitable candidate for crown prince either.
Mikhail was born in 1878 and was 22 years old when he became the crown prince.
Like other Grand Dukes of St. Petersburg, Mikhail loved various dances and plays, and had close relationships with actresses and countesses, and there were frequent rumors of romantic affairs.
And the key point is that there were rumors in St. Petersburg that when Yasan died, the Queen Mother Maria intended to make Mikhail the tsar, just because the emperor's uncles, headed by George and Sergei, firmly supported Nikolai's succession. The empress dowager didn't succeed.
So Mikhail was made the crown prince, and the position of tsar went back and forth, but in the end Mikhail succeeded him. Is it true that Mikhail is the one destined by destiny?
This is so scary.
Making Mikhail the Crown Prince does not mean that Mikhail will become the Tsar.
As long as Alex gives birth to a son, the position of Tsar will still belong to the Crown Prince.
The last battleship of the Pacific Fleet is named "Crown Prince".
Let’s just talk about how eager Nicholas is for his son.
In this case, let alone the Battle of Vladivostok.
Even if Siberia is sunk by a meteorite and turns into the Siberian Ocean, Nicholas doesn't care.
Although Nicholas valued family ties, he really didn't care much about political affairs.
Last month, nearly 100,000 people in Poland lost their jobs and workers marched.
The Governor of Poland reported to Nikolai, and Nikolai actually wrote in the official document: What does this have to do with me——
Okay, the 100,000-person strike in Poland and Nikolai It doesn't matter.
The defeat of the United Fleet by the Siberian Fleet had nothing to do with Nicholas.
Arthur's Fortress was besieged by the Japanese army, which naturally had nothing to do with Nicholas.
After the Japanese army landed on the Liaodong Peninsula, they completed the siege of Arthur's Fortress from land, cutting off the connection between Port Arthur and Fengtian.
Kuropatkin organized a reinforcement of Arthur's Fortress, but was repulsed by Dashanyan.
Alexeyev then ordered that all Russian troops around Arthur's Fortress withdraw from the fortress and wait for reinforcements.
Kuropatkin was very dissatisfied with Alexeyev's overstepping of orders.
He was even more dissatisfied with Stessel, the commander of the Arthur Fortress garrison, in executing Alexeev's orders.
Alexeyev was a close confidant of Grand Duke Alexei, and Kuropatkin did not dare to target him.
So Kuropatkin vented his anger on Stessel, ordered the dismissal of Stessel, and appointed Smirnov as the commander-in-chief of the fortress.
The rarest scene in the history of human war happened.
Stessel did not transfer the position to Smirnov, or even tell Smirnov the news.
So Smirnov had no idea that he had become the commander-in-chief of Arthur's Fortress.
In order to capture Arthur's Fortress, Japan formed a Third Army and appointed Nogi Nogi as commander-in-chief.
Nogi Nogi, who is regarded as the "Military God" by the Japanese Army, has only one core strategy: attack!
Different from Suvorov, who was victorious in every battle and was regarded as the "Military God" by the Russian Army.
The reason why Nogi Nogi Nogi is regarded as the "Military God" by the Japanese Army is not because of how brilliant he is, but because of his attitude of doing whatever it takes for the empire.
After the Japanese army landed on the Liaodong Peninsula, Nogi Nogi's eldest son Nogi Katsunori died in Jinzhou in the Battle of Nanshan.
In order to conquer Highland 203, the strategic high point of Arthur's Fortress, Nogi Hidenori's second son Nogi Shoden died in the battle on the northwest slope of Highland 203. Nogi Nogi had four children in total, three sons and one daughter. The third son and the eldest daughter both died early, leaving only these two sons.
In addition to these two sons, Nogi Nogi also has an adopted son.
This adopted son also died in the Russo-Japanese War.
This is not the end.
When Meiji died in 1912, Nogi Nogi and his wife committed suicide at the same time, martyring Meiji.
This is the reason why Nogi Nogi is regarded as the "God of War".
On the first day of the attack on Arthur's Fortress, 3,947 Japanese soldiers were killed. This was the heaviest loss for the Japanese army since the First World War.
As a result, the battle report reached the base camp. The base camp thought that the battle report was written in error. After repeated confirmation, they realized that so many people had really died.
In order to capture Port Arthur, Nogi Nogi mounted a machine gun and forced the soldiers to charge and fight hand-to-hand with "meat bomb" tactics, and implemented the human sea tactic, thus inventing the "pig attack".
Nogi Hodenori was not hacked to death by Nogi Nogi, but was hit by a stray bullet while conveying orders to the 203 Highland Attack Force. His body was found a week later.
The machine guns that Vladivostok delivered to Arthur's Fortress before the war played a huge role in the attack and defense of Arthur's Fortress.
Faced with the crazy machine gun fire, the human sea tactic had no effect. The Third Army's first attack on Arthur's Fortress lasted only a week and was forced to stop.
The Third Army has three divisions with a total strength of about 50,000.
In just one week, the losses of the Third Army reached 21,000, and all of them would be dead if they did not stop the attack.
George No matter how badly the Japanese army fought at Fort Arthur, on August 12, Alex finally gave birth to a son.
Nicholas cried with joy.
The Russian Empire is celebrated.
The empire finally has a real crown prince!
Nicholas did not name his son Nicholas, nor Alexander, but Alexei.
After having a son, Nicholas was finally in the mood to take care of political affairs.
After the Battle of Vladivostok, Port Arthur was blocked by sunken ships and mines, and the Pacific Fleet was still unable to get out.
On August 15, Nikolai overrode the Admiralty and ordered to equip the battleships "Bear" and "Tiger" to the Siberian Fleet.
This kind of thing is becoming more and more common in the Russian Empire.
Peter was happy, but not happy with the names "Bear" and "Tiger".
The two names "Bear" and "Tiger" are named after the continuation of the "Eagle" of the "Borodino" class.
Due to George's repeated smoke bombs, the naming of the Siberian Fleet warships was a bit confusing.
You can’t blame George. The names of Russian Imperial Navy warships are inherently confusing.
The names of the two dreadnoughts under construction have been confirmed as "Yuryev" and "Romanov".
After the "Bear" and "Tiger" were commissioned into the Siberian Fleet, they were named after the two most famous mountain ranges in the Russian Empire, the "Urals" and the "Caucasus" respectively.
Since battleships are mountains, cruisers are rivers.
So the names of the two heavy cruisers are "Amur" and "Yenisei".
Where there are mountains and rivers, there are naturally animals, and the "bear" and "tiger" went round and round to the light patrol.
Being named together with "bear" and "tiger" are also lions, leopards, wolves, and foxes.
Peter was sad and happy, the Siberian fleet finally had a powerful battleship.
However, because these two battleships use traditional power systems, their maximum speed is only 18 knots. Otherwise, Peter would not have gained nothing in the chase after the Battle of Vladivostok.
However, the battleship itself is not used for pursuit, so Peter can accept it.
If you want to be fast, build more heavy patrols.
George is already under construction, and two heavy cruisers at the Vladivostok Shipyard have begun laying the keels, but they will not be put into service until the end of next year at the earliest.
The officers and soldiers of the Siberian Fleet need time to become familiar with the performance of the battleship.
Peter was not in a hurry and led the cruisers to begin harassing Japanese coastal cities.
Dongxiang felt very sad.
After the war broke out, Japan urgently purchased two armored cruisers. The Sixty-Sixth Fleet had a total of 6 battleships and 8 heavy cruisers.
So far, six battleships hit mines and sank two in Port Arthur, one heavy cruiser was sunk in Vladivostok, and one was captured. Count the Sixty-Sixth Fleet, which was the number one in East Asia before the war. , actually lost less than half.
During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, the Japanese navy not only suffered no losses, but its strength greatly increased after capturing Zhenyuan.
Now the Japanese finally know why the Navy is burning money.
The battleship built with a lot of money and effort by the country was directly sunk by a mine.
Who the hell can stand this?
Japan lacks resources and technology, and large warships are purchased from abroad.
The large warships of the Russian Empire are all manufactured by themselves, and their costs are much lower than those of Japan.
After the war broke out, Japan itself began to try to build large warships, but progress was slow due to lack of funds.
The Russian Empire has been building warships, and the Vladivostok Shipyard is constantly laying keels. The St. Petersburg Shipyard will also have two "Borodino" class battleships in service this year. As time goes by, Japan and the Russian Empire The gap between them will become wider and wider.
This is also where George’s confidence lies.
(End of this chapter)