As Japan's Navy Minister, Kaguyama Shiki became dissatisfied when he saw that other ministers had begun to lean towards the Prime Minister's opinions.
As a tough soldier, Huashan Ziji always believed that the future of the empire was external expansion. Now the Qing Dynasty has begun to challenge the empire. How can this be tolerated?
"Everyone, if we don't intervene this time, what will happen to the Ryukyu issue? Who knows whether the Qing Congress will push forward and go north to Ryukyu to regain its status as the King of Ryukyu."
Huashan Ziji said harshly to the cabinet ministers: "At that time, our navy only had a few small ships and dared to land in Taiwan, forcing the Qing government to cede territory and pay compensation. What's more, our navy is strong today, but it is slightly inferior to the opponent in terms of tonnage. Is it possible?
Can we always let the other side seize our land?"
These words of Shiki Kayama struck a chord with the Minister of War.
Takashima Tomonosuke sat up straight and said to the people present: "The economy has been bad in the past few years, and the reduction in funding has made many people in the military complain very much. If they are not given an outlet, I am afraid they will leave alone.
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This is already a naked threat to the cabinet ministers present.
Masayoshi Matsukata was silent for a moment, and then said loudly to the Minister of War and the Navy: "Since the meeting cannot reach an agreement, we will go to the palace together and present it to the Emperor."
After Masayoshi Matsukata finished speaking, he stood up and walked out of the conference room. The only hope in the prime minister's heart now is that His Majesty the Emperor can calm down and not be bewitched by the military.
But his idea was quickly shattered. Emperor Meiji was also a fanatical war activist, and he had been going smoothly for all these years. How could he allow others to challenge the authority of the Japanese Empire?
Therefore, after receiving the news, he immediately ordered the navy to send warships to the Diaoyu Islands.
However, Emperor Meiji was also a smart man. He did not ask the navy to retake the Diaoyu Islands, but only asked the navy to confront the Qing Navy near the Diaoyu Islands, which made the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands an unresolved issue.
After receiving the emperor's order, Kaguyama Shiki returned to the Navy Ministry and immediately ordered the navy's new warships to form a joint fleet, and immediately went south to the Diaoyu Islands to confront the Qing Dynasty.
At this time, the Japanese Navy had already built a number of relatively new cruisers.
This time after the Japanese Navy received the order, in view of the strength of the Nanyang Fleet, it came out in full force.
They use the "Naniwa" cruiser as their flagship, and the fleet includes: "Takachiho" cruiser, "Chiyoda" cruiser, "Takao" cruiser, "Hiei" cruiser, "Chikushi" cruiser, "Fuso" coastal defense ship, plus some gunboats and transport ships
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The Japanese Navy can be said to be all elite. Since the commander of the Combined Fleet is still waiting to receive new warships in the UK, the commander of this fleet is Togo Heihachiro.
This was the first time Togo Heihachiro led a fleet of this size on an expedition, so when he set off from the base to the waters of the Diaoyu Islands, he was in high spirits along the way.
However, by the time the Japanese combined fleet arrived in the waters around the Diaoyu Islands, Liu Hai had already finished his work on the Diaoyu Islands.
The two main islands of Diaoyu Island now not only have boundary monuments from the Qing Dynasty, but also have two small outposts.
Liu Hai had long known that the Japanese would not give up, so the Nanyang Fleet was not prepared to leave immediately. Instead, it wandered between the Diaoyu Islands and Okinawa, intercepting the Japanese combined fleet at any time.
Sure enough, Liu Hai was right. On August 12, the cruiser Xuzhou, which was searching in front of the main fleet, discovered the whereabouts of the Japanese warship.
After receiving the report from the Xuzhou, Liu Hai immediately led all the warships of the Nanyang Fleet to meet the Japanese Combined Fleet.
At this time, Togo Heihachiro also discovered the cruiser Xuzhou wandering near his fleet.
When he saw this warship, he knew that the Qing fleet was nearby.
Togo Heihachiro carefully observed the Qing cruiser with a telescope and found that its speed was very fast. All the cruisers in his fleet could not keep up with its speed.
This made Togo Heihachiro feel a shadow in his heart for a while. At this moment, a lookout suddenly came to report that a large number of smoke pillars were found at 5 degrees due north.
After receiving the reward, Togo Heihachiro knew that he had encountered the main force of the Qing Dynasty, and immediately ordered the fleet to be on alert.
Sure enough, within a short time, more than a dozen plumes of smoke rose above the sea level. The first ones were two large ships. Their broad bodies made Togo Heihachiro take a breath of air when he saw them.
Togo Heihachiro once saw the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships of the Beiyang Navy twice and thought they were the largest ships in Asia.
But now that he saw these two giant ships, he realized that the Qing Dynasty not only had the Beiyang Navy, but the Nanyang Navy was also a serious threat to the Japanese Empire.
However, in this situation, Togo Heianro could not retreat. Now he gritted his teeth, gritted his teeth, and led the fleet to slowly approach the Nanyang Navy.
At this time, Liu Hai was also on the ironclad Jiangxi and saw the whereabouts of the Japanese combined fleet. He curled his lips in disdain at several Japanese warships.
He said to Liu Yu, the commander of the ironclad Jiangxi who was standing next to him: "The strength of the Japanese fleet is now at a low point. If we can defeat it, we can interrupt the development of the Japanese fleet. Otherwise, in a few years the Japanese fleet will be able to
Because of our ability to compete with each other.”
Liu Yu took a telescope and looked at the Japanese fleet in the distance. He frowned and said, "Although these warships are not very advanced, their operators are very skilled and they seem to be elite."
After hearing this, Liu Hai felt murderous in his heart. These current Japanese fleet personnel will be the main operators of the future combined fleet. As long as these people are eliminated, the combined fleet will have warships but no personnel to operate them. So does he.
In vain.
So Liu Hai directly ordered: "All warships seize the prefix T."
With the issuance of Liu Hai's order, the warships of the entire Nanyang Navy began to rehearse according to the original formation during the exercise.
The outermost layer is 6 new cruisers, and the middle layer is the Jiangxi ironclad and Jiangsu armored cruiser. These 8 warships are the main force in the war against Japan.
The remaining five old cruisers did not join the main force. They dispersed four weeks away from the main force to block the approach of the opponent's fast cruisers.
When Togo Heihachiro saw that the Nanyang Fleet in Iri had begun to seize the battleship, he hurriedly ordered the troops to turn around and target the Nanyang Fleet with the most artillery, ready to launch a war at any time.
In this way, the two sides slowly approached in a strategic line.
Ten thousand meters, eight thousand meters, five thousand meters.
At this distance, it has entered the range of the main artillery of both sides, and a certain degree of accuracy can be guaranteed. According to a regular naval battle, both sides can already fire at this time.
However, the Qing Empire and the Japanese Empire have not declared war on each other, and the waters they are in are public waters, so although the two sides are slowly approaching, neither of them has fired.
When the two sides were close to 3 kilometers, Liu Hai ordered to send a signal to the other side: Ask the Japanese fleet about the purpose of coming here.
After Liu Hai’s semaphore at Pingbalang Street in Dongxiang, read the reply: The Imperial Japanese Navy is training here and requires the Qing fleet to give up the passage immediately.
Liu Hai's reply was: The Diaoyu Islands ahead were the territory of the Qing Empire, and the Japanese fleet was required to change direction immediately and not to enter the waters of the Diaoyu Islands.
After hearing this, Togo Heihachiro's eyes started to spit fire. Although he wanted to teach the Qing fleet a lesson immediately, he looked at the warships beside him and then looked at the opponent's mighty military formation, and still gritted his teeth and ordered.
Your own fleet remains restrained.
At this time, another message came from the lookout, eight smoke pillars were found in the northeast, and they were quickly approaching here.
After hearing this, Togo Heihachiro immediately felt that something bad was going on. The only one who could come here at this time was the Beiyang Navy. Because on such a day, the Navy was already out in full force and there was no strength to come back to support.
Sure enough, after a while, eight warships appeared on the sea level. At the front were two giant ironclads, followed by six cruisers. They slowly approached the confrontation scene, and then outflanked the Japanese combined fleet from behind.
Hoto Township Heihachiro looked through his telescope and found that the leading ships were indeed the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships.
Now Togo Heihachiro has an idea in his mind, that is, this Diaoyu Islands dispute was deliberately provoked by the Qing Dynasty, with the purpose of drawing out the navy of the Empire of Japan and then annihilating it.
Otherwise, there would never be such a coincidence.
The Japanese fleet here had just confronted the Nanyang Fleet, and the elite Beiyang Navy came out in full force on the other side.
What Togo Heihachiro is thinking now is that he must not fall into the Qing Dynasty's plan, otherwise, the elite of the Japanese navy will be wiped out again.
After Togo Heihachiro had this idea, he immediately ordered his hand to send a signal to the opponent: The Imperial Japanese Navy has no intention of threatening the Diaoyu Islands and will now turn back to Okinawa.
Then Togo Heihachiro ordered the fleet to slowly sail southward from the sealing zone of the Nanyang Navy and the Beiyang Navy, and then made a large circle toward Okinawa.
At this time, Liu Hai ordered the Nanyang Navy to move closer to the Beiyang Navy.
The Beiyang Navy also slowly merged with the Nanyang Navy. Immediately the two major navies of the Qing Empire formed a combined fleet, whose combat capabilities are second to none in East Asia today.
Even the British fleet and its forces in East Asia did not dare to challenge this combined fleet.
After the two warships rendezvoused, Liu Hai took a transport boat to the Dingyuan ship to meet with Beiyang Navy Admiral Ding Ruchang.
Ding Ruchang warmly welcomed Liu Hai's arrival, and then Ding Ruchang invited Liu Hai to his captain's room to discuss the joint operation of the two fleets this time, to which Liu Hai readily agreed.
After the two arrived at the captain's room, Ding Ruchang followed British custom and gave Liu Hai a cup of coffee, then sat down opposite him.
"Admiral Liu, I haven't seen you for a long time. How are you doing?"
Liu Hai picked up the coffee in his hand and took a sip. He felt a bitter taste rushing to his head. He was not used to this, so he quickly put it on the table.
"I've been having a pretty good time these days. Is it Mr. Li's order for you to come here this time?"