Chapter 183: Ambush

April 13, 1904, the 36th day after Vice Admiral Makarov took office as the commander of the Pacific Fleet.

In the past month, Vice Admiral Makarov has managed the Pacific Fleet very well, carried out many mine-laying missions, effectively blocked the transportation lines between the island country and the Korean Peninsula and the Far East, and also made the main force of the Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur less stressed.

This day is an ordinary day for the Pacific Fleet. Under the order of Vice Admiral Makarov, two cruisers set out from Port Arthur to harass the transportation lines of the island country. At the same time, after laying a minefield in a specific area, they successfully returned to Port Arthur.

This also made General Makarov very happy. The minefield laid by the two cruisers happened to be where Makarov decided to fight a decisive battle with the island country navy in the future.

Now make good arrangements in advance. In the future naval decisive battle, these mines may be used to give the island country a good drink.

Just as General Makarov was about to receive the report from the two destroyers, someone suddenly reported that several warships of the island country were chasing the two cruisers of the Tsarist Russian Empire. At present, one cruiser of the Tsarist Russian Empire had been damaged and was urgently requesting support.

As a famous naval general of the Tsarist Russian Empire, Lieutenant General Makarov naturally had a bad temper, otherwise he would not have criticized the officials of the Navy Department so bluntly.

Under the order of General Makarov, he personally led two battleships and four cruisers to help.

Just as General Makarov was about to board the battleship Petropavlovsk, he suddenly thought of something and asked the fleet chief of staff Lieutenant General Wittheft to lead the vanguard, while General Makarov himself went to summon all the main forces of the Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur to prevent the main fleet of the island country from ambush in the rear.

Because all preparations have been basically completed, General Makarov does not rule out a decisive battle with the island country navy now.

The Pacific Fleet has deployed at least a dozen minefields in the past month, which will be the best place for the island nation and the combined fleet to die.

It is worth mentioning that Vice Admiral Wittheft is the new fleet commander of the Pacific Fleet after General Makarov.

However, after Vice Admiral Wittheft took office as the commander of the Pacific Fleet, the series of measures taken were relatively conservative, which also led to the Pacific Fleet completely losing its advantage in the face of the combined fleet of the island nation.

The two cruisers of the Russian Empire were not far from the Port of Lushun, and General Wittheft led the vanguard to the place of battle quickly.

The fleet that entangled the two Russian cruisers was the Second Fleet of the Combined Fleet of the Island Nations, which had a total of one battleship and three cruisers.

This is also the reason why the two cruisers of the Russian Empire were beaten and could only ask for help. The current cruisers still have no room to fight back against the battleships, not to mention that the Second Fleet still has three cruisers.

The Russian Empire was already hostile to the island nation that had grown into its competitor. In addition, the Russian Empire was attacked by surprise in this war, which made the Russians even more hostile to the island nation, which did not follow any rules.

As the saying goes, enemies blush when they meet. After seeing the warships of the second fleet of the island nation, General Wittheft did not even need to give any orders. The vanguard directly joined the battle, and various shells flew towards the warships of the island nation as if they were free.

Now the advantage on the battlefield was instantly reversed. The Russian Empire had two battleships and six cruisers, while the second fleet of the island nation had only one battleship and three cruisers, which was a full double gap.

The second fleet was beaten by the vanguard of the Russian Empire and fled to the rear in panic.

General Wittheft was overjoyed. He felt that he had seen the first victory since the war, so he quickly ordered all warships to keep up and strive to wipe out all the warships of the island nation.

General Witt, who was overwhelmed by victory, did not notice the unusualness of the Second Fleet, nor did he notice that the vanguard, under his command, had gradually moved away from the Port of Lushun.

After chasing for about ten minutes, General Witt finally noticed something wrong and ordered the fleet to slow down.

In terms of the speed of warships, many of the warships of the Russian Empire have been in service for several years or even more than ten years.

The warships of the island country are basically new warships within ten years, at least in terms of speed, they are ahead of Russian warships.

But now, the frantically fleeing island fleet has maintained a delicate balance with the vanguard of the Russian Empire. It will not be too close to enter the attack range of the Pacific Fleet, nor will it be too far away, so that the Pacific Fleet loses the target of pursuit and gives up this pursuit.

From all indications, this pursuit is like luring the snake out of the hole. General Witt thought he was a hunter, but now it seems that it may not be.

"How long has it been since we set out from the Port of Lushun?" General Witt asked with a heavy face.

"It's been more than an hour, General." The subordinate replied.

General Wittheft felt bad. According to the normal speed of the fleet, the main fleet should not be too slow, and it has even caught up with the vanguard.

After all, the previous naval battle of the vanguard also took a lot of time, and this period of time is enough for the main force to catch up.

"Turn around immediately and return to Port Arthur. The enemy is likely to have set up an ambush ahead. This is a trap!" Wittheft made a prompt decision.

In the previous sneak attack by the island country, two battleships of the Pacific Fleet were damaged, namely the Crown Prince and the Perswitt.

If the two battleships led by General Wittheft were ambushed and damaged, the number of battleships that the Pacific Fleet could dispatch would be reduced to only four, and it would have no advantage against the fleet of the island country, and would even be at a huge disadvantage.

Such a loss is unacceptable for the Pacific Fleet. Once it loses its few current maritime advantages, the Russian Empire will be more vulnerable on land.

Let alone the issue of weapons and equipment and combat effectiveness, just looking at the number of people, the Russian Empire's Far East Army, which is less than 100,000 people, cannot be the opponent of the island country.

The most essential part of the Russian Empire is in Europe, and the number of people and soldiers stationed in the Far East is not too large.

In addition, the Trans-Siberian Railway was not fully open to traffic, so any losses of the Russian Empire in the Far East would have to face logistical costs that were several times higher than those of the island countries.

First update, please support!