() At the beginning of the year, the Boxers were mostly active in Shandong, Zhili and other places, and the Qing government also sent troops to exterminate them many times. However, because there were too many Boxers, and many court officials also deeply hated foreigners, they did not want to oppose the Boxers and foreigners.
If you turn a blind eye, these pacification and extermination actions will have little effect.
Starting from April, a small number of Boxers from the Boxer Rebellion began to appear in Bei Jing. By June, there were more and more Boxers in Bei Jing, and the embassies of various countries could not sit still, and they all requested to send troops into Bei Jing to protect the safety of the embassies.
When Liu Fu received this news, he thought that the Eight-Power Allied Forces had begun to take action, so he named the submarine force and set off for the waters near Tianjin and Tanggu, preparing to ambush the warships of various countries.
An ancient saying goes: A book is used only when it is learned. Liu Fu, who has a poor history, guessed wrong this time. A sneak attack formation composed of 6 "Tuna-class" submarines, under the cover of a cargo ship, rushed thousands of miles to Dagu, southeast of Tianjin.
The waters near the port and Tanggu, but not to mention the fleets of various countries, except for an American freighter, they are all coast patrols and merchant ships of the imperial court.
The submarine force stayed day and night, holding on for half a month, but still did not find a large number of warships. After receiving the telegram from the submarine force, Liu Fu knew that he had guessed wrong, but now he could not change it, so he had to call
Let the submarine force continue to hold on
, because Liu Fu clearly remembered that the Eight-Power Allied Forces must attack the Dagukou Fort. In his last life, he had been to Tanggu, visited the Dagukou Fort, and even took photos. According to the tour guide, this is where the Eight-Power Allied Forces entered the Haihe River.
, captured Tianjin.
In mid-June, hundreds of troops from various countries entered Bei Jing, and they clashed with the Boxers in Bei Jing from time to time, with casualties on both sides. At this time, Liu Fu received a telegram from the submarine force: near Tianjin and Tanggu
In the sea area, German, Russian, and British warships were discovered, but the number was not very large, less than 10 in total.
Liu Fu once again ordered the submarine force to follow the plan and launch a sneak attack at night when the fleets of various countries began to attack. There was no need to telegraph the details to Taiwan. He only wanted the results, not the process.
On June 14th, warships from eight countries including Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and Austria had assembled in the waters off Tianjin, totaling more than 50 ships of various sizes, and began to head for Dagu Port.
The Dagukou Fort is the gateway between Tianjin and Beijing. It is located on the west bank of the Haihe River, more than 50 kilometers southeast of Tianjin, across the river from Tanggu. When Zhu Di, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, moved the capital to Beijing, a fort was built here to guard against incoming waves from the sea.
Threat. After hundreds of years of construction during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Dagukou Fort has become a coastal defense fortress with five fort groups and hundreds of cannons.
The navies of the eight countries began to bombard the Dagukou Fort at 9 a.m. It took a long time before the Dagukou Fort began to fire back sporadically.
Wu Mingxue led 6 submarines and lurked a few nautical miles behind the Eight-Nation Attack Fleet. He looked through the periscope at the thick smoke rising from the direction of the fort but was helpless. It was daytime, and there were many auxiliary ships from the Eight-Nation that were moored around. If an attack was launched,
Attack will definitely be discovered. Once discovered, such large-caliber shells can also damage submarines at periscope depth. Moreover, the offshore water depth at Dagu Port is insufficient, and the activities of submarines are very restricted. Therefore, if you want to attack the ships of the Eight Nations, you can only
I can wait until it gets dark.
The artillery battle at Dagukou lasted until noon, when troop carriers from the Eight Nations began to transport landing troops to the coast. The specific battle situation could not be seen clearly from the submarine, and because the warships of the Eight Nations participating in the artillery battle began to withdraw backwards, making way for the landing troops
When leaving the berth, the submarine force had to move back to prevent the periscope from being discovered by an approaching warship.
Waiting until dark, the gunfire from the Dagukou fort was no longer very fierce. Wu Mingxue knew that the fort was basically lost, and most of the Eight-Nation Army had already landed on the coast. The previous plan was to attack the Eight-Nation Landing first.
The purpose of the troops has not been achieved. But it doesn't matter that there are no landing ships to attack. There are dozens of eight-ship submarines parked in a bunch on the east and west of the sea. Even if all the torpedoes of the six submarines are fired, they will not be seen.
We must be able to destroy all these ships.
Taking advantage of the cover of night, the six submarines slowly moved to a position 1 kilometer away from the fleet group, and launched the first wave of torpedo attacks against the Russian fleet closest to them.
In this eight-nation fleet, the Russians have the most warships, with a total of 14, including 11 battleships. After a morning of bombardment, they were gathered into a pile and moored on the sea to rest. Most of them were
The sailors had already fallen asleep after a long day of exhaustion. Only the sailors on duty were still on the warship.
The one hit by the first torpedo was the Russian new battleship "Peresvet". This was a battleship that had just been launched the year before last, with a displacement of nearly 13,000 tons. Due to its strong French origin, this battleship has three
The thick chimney and the towering command tower look tall and powerful when viewed from a distance.
The various advantages mentioned above are the reason why he was attacked first. Looking through the periscope, he is the largest of the nearby ships. Who else will he hit if he doesn't hit him recently?
As the first ball of fire erupted from the starboard front of the "Peresvet", in less than 2 seconds, two larger fireballs erupted from the starboard side of the battleship. The huge shock wave shook the side of the ship.
Several of its secondary guns crashed into the sky, and the huge hull was blown to the left. Due to the tall hull and superstructure, the battleship, which had a high center of gravity, lay swaying.
It turned over directly.
As the "Peresvet" was hit, three warships in the nearby Russian fleet docked also burst into flames. Since they were at anchor, the first wave of 12 torpedoes attacked
No one missed the target, all hit the target. In an instant, the originally calm black sea seemed to have opened the door to hell, and all kinds of fire, explosions, cries, and screams rushed out.
The surrounding eight-nation fleets did not know what happened to the Russian fleet. Several warships that had not yet anchored and stalled began to slowly turn around and accelerate, intending to approach the Russian fleet to lend a helping hand. On the remaining ships, the watchmen and
The sailors and officers who had already rested came out of the cabin and stared blankly at the blazing fires on several battleships of the Russian fleet.
In less than ten minutes after the first explosion, several dazzling fireballs erupted from the British fleet anchored on the other side of the water, followed closely by various explosions and piercing alarms.
The sound resounded throughout the sea. People were busy weighing the anchor, people were busy igniting and boosting the boiler, and people were busy directing the secondary guns of various calibers to search the sea. It was a mess.
Since the Russian fleet and the British fleet were anchored at the outermost part of the waters here, if the ships of all countries wanted to disperse, they had to gradually go around in order on both sides. However, in the dark night, they were suddenly attacked again, and on the sea
The thick smoke rising from explosions and burnings made ships from many countries lose their direction. Sometimes blindly turning and scurrying around can be more powerful than the enemy's attack. Within ten minutes, three pairs of ships were involved in an attack.
Collisions and scratches.
The unknown attacks are very rhythmic,
Every ten minutes or so, there will always be a few ships exploding. The thick-skinned battleships can still withstand one or two attacks, but the remaining cruisers are not so resistant. Basically, a fireball represents an attack.
The cruiser was doomed. Even if it didn't sink, it took in water too quickly and rolled over, or ignited ammunition or torpedoes, blowing itself up into a big fireball.
The chaos lasted for an hour. As some of the bombed ships sank and some evacuated ships fled, there were finally no more ships that suddenly exploded on the water, only those injured that were still burning, capsized, and sunk.
Battleships and large oil stains, corpses, floating debris and people who fell into the water.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Eight-Nation Fleet this time, British Vice Admiral Edward Hobart Seymour, was standing blankly on his flagship battleship "Barfleur", looking at the burning sea in the distance. You can't blame Seymour.
Lieutenant General Moore's command was weak, and Lieutenant General Seymour's reaction cannot be blamed. It was just an attack.
It came too suddenly, too accurately, and too covertly. All the ships hit were at least seriously injured. Even the flagship "Bafleur" at the feet of the Vice Admiral was hit once. With its rough skin and thick flesh and the lack of boilers at the time, the attack was too sudden.
After turning off the engine, he quickly left the anchorage and broke out from a group of warships that were frightened and fled here and there.
What's even more frightening is that from the first explosion to the moment they rushed out of the anchorage and fled far away, the lookouts on the entire battleship did not find any enemy ships or artillery fire. For this kind of battle where the enemy could not be found, the Lieutenant General was really worried.
Nothing can be done.
All the eight ships that escaped slowly gathered together to form a temporary formation. They maintained combat speed and circled around the attacked sea area for more than half an hour. After confirming that there was no further attack, they sent out a few small ships.
The warship entered the sea area where the attack occurred to rescue those who fell into the water. At this time, there were no surviving ships on the sea. All the ships that could move ran out, and the rest sank into the water quickly or struggled.
