After Liu Hai ordered the blockade of all the opponent's ports, all the cruisers under his command could be said to be out in force.
At this time, the port of Japan was very busy. Almost all the ships were blocked in the port and could not go out.
Originally, Japan was a resource-poor country. Many materials needed to be imported, and the port was bombed again by Liu Hai. Now, although emergency repairs have been carried out, some ships can barely be berthed. However, with Liu Hai's blockade of Japan's coast,
This time, all the emergency repairs done before were in vain.
Moreover, due to the blockade of the Tsushima Strait, the Japanese army on the Korean Peninsula also suffered a severe test.
When it comes to food, these armies are not short of food. Whenever there is a shortage of food, go to the Korean countryside and grab it, and you will have everything.
But there was no way to replenish their guns and ammunition on the spot. The guns were okay, and the gun repair shop accompanying the army might be able to repair them, but the ammunition and their little skill were completely useless.
Therefore, all soldiers in the interior of Korea and the Qing Dynasty have stopped attacking and are defending on the spot. At the same time, the ministers and ministers require their soldiers to save bullets and never shoot if they can solve the problem with bayonets.
And the Qing government is not a fool. Since all the treaties signed before Liu Hai started war with Japan again are now invalid, the Qing government's troops in Northeast and Shandong have begun to regroup.
When the Japanese government saw that the Qing government did not abide by the agreement and threw the agreement that the two countries had signed into the wastebasket, it immediately lodged a solemn protest with the Qing government and demanded that it implement the agreement immediately.
However, the Prime Minister of the Qing Dynasty, Wang Yikuang of Qing County, had nothing to do about this matter. Although he accepted money from the Japanese country and said a few good words for the Japanese country in front of the Empress Dowager Cixi, this related to the expenditure of 200 million taels of silver. Cixi
To be honest, the Queen Mother was filled with hatred.
King Yikuang of Qingjun was scolded by the Empress Dowager Cixi for interceding with the Japanese, and almost dismissed him. Now he was considered honest. No matter how many gifts the Japanese gave him, he would accept them, but he would not do anything.
This time the Japanese were completely disappointed. They were now waiting for the Geely people's fleet to arrive to see if they could defeat Liu Hai's Nanyang Navy before making a decision.
This time, the leader of the blockade operation against Japan was Liu Da, the captain of the Jiangsu-class armored cruiser.
This time Liu Da was so majestic that he led several cruisers to leave Wusongkou Pier in a mighty manner, and then still arranged the three cruisers in the Tsushima Strait according to Liu Hai's original allocation? They were used to replace those already waiting there.
Five old cruisers that have been around for a while.
Under the leadership of Liu Da, other warships arrived at the eastern seaboard of Japan and began to carry out the task of blockading various ports of Japan.
The largest ports in Japan are mainly Jingdong Port and Handa Port. Some other ports can only dock small ships? They were bombed again by bangs and are now unusable.
Only these two ports were included in the list of emergency repairs by the government due to their important role to the Japanese state.
In the past few days, they have managed to repair a channel? And a few berths, which can barely allow ships to dock.
After the port was built, they immediately made a request to the Kyrgyzstan and the United States and imported a large amount of weapons and equipment to them, asking them to immediately transport them to the Japanese country on their own ships.
Geely Country is a long way away, so if you want to transport supplies from the mainland, it will take a lot of effort.
But the United States is very convenient in this regard. After receiving the Japanese request, the Americans immediately prepared a large number of weapons and equipment for them for the sake of money, and then sent their own ships to ship them immediately.
Under the escort of two cruisers, it sailed to Japan.
Why does the U.S. Navy dare to deliver military supplies to Japan when a war breaks out? One reason is that the U.S. always values money. As long as someone gives money and sells something, they will not stop it.
The second reason is that during this period, the United States has relied on its strong industrial base to expand its naval power. They have now jumped from the original seventh in the world to the fifth-ranked navy in the world.
From 1884 to 1889, the U.S. Congress approved the construction of 8 more armored cruisers, 3 unarmored cruisers, 6 steel gunboats, 3 heavily armored cruisers and several low-side ironclads.
In 1890, the U.S. Congress approved the construction of three more battleships with a tonnage of 10,288 tons, the "Indiana", the "Oregon", and the "Massachusetts".
By 1895, all these battleships were completed, which greatly improved the naval strength of the United States.
Although the U.S. government has discovered from various intelligence sources that the Nanyang Navy has four huge battleships, they do not believe that the tonnage of these battleships exceeds the Indiana-class battleships they built themselves.
Because the United States knows how difficult it is to build these warships. With its military strength, it is also very difficult for them to build warships without the help of the Geely people.
Therefore, Americans do not believe that the Qing Dynasty can rely on its own strength to build warships that surpass all countries in the world.
Therefore, they sent an armored cruiser and two cruisers as a convoy, believing that they were enough to deter the Nanyang Navy.
As a result, a few days after the small fleet carrying military supplies set off, the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai sent an urgent telegram to the mainland.
It turned out that Liu Hai returned to Shanghai with the Nanyang Fleet, and at this time, the American consul had already seen these four behemoths. Therefore, he urgently reported the situation to the country.
The U.S. Navy became anxious only after it obtained the Nanyang Navy, which indeed had four huge battleships. If the U.S. Navy really clashed with the Nanyang Navy at sea, based on the current naval strength of the two armies, the U.S. would be completely
is at a disadvantage.
But now the transport ship has left the United States and has probably passed Hawaii. At this time without wireless telegraphy, there is no way to contact the naval escort fleet.
Therefore, in order to avoid direct maritime conflict with Liu Hai, the U.S. Navy sent a telegram to the troops in Guam, asking them to send warships to intercept this small maritime escort fleet.
But it is not that easy to search for such a convoy on the vast sea. After a few days of searching, the naval ships dispatched from the military base in Guam were forced to return due to range problems. In the end, this convoy was not found.
fleet.
In this way, this small fleet consisting of three escort cruisers and two transport ships escaped numerous interceptions and quickly sailed towards the vicinity of the Japanese country.
The flagship of this small fleet is the USS Olympia, which has just been launched by the US Navy. It is a typical protected cruiser with a standard displacement of 5,676 tons, a full load displacement of 6,694 tons, a length of 105 meters, a width of 16 meters, a draft of 6.55 meters, and 6 units installed.
Boiler and 2 steam engines, output power 17,000 shaft horsepower, dual-shaft propulsion, speed 21.7 knots, can load 1,060 tons of coal, endurance is 6,000 nautical miles/10 knots.
The main guns of the "Olympic" are four 203mm naval guns, which are installed in two twin turrets, respectively located on the center line of the bow and stern of the warship. In addition, 10 127mm naval guns are installed in the gun profiles on both sides of the superstructure.
In addition, there are 14 57mm guns, 6 37mm guns and 6 450mm torpedo tubes. The defense structure of the "Olympia" adopts the popular dome armor design at the time. The inclined part of the armored deck is 121mm thick, and the horizontal part is 121mm thick.
51 mm, the main turret armor is 89 mm, and the turret base armor is 110 mm. The total ship personnel is 33 officers and 395 soldiers.
At present, this armored cruiser can be said to be a very advanced warship, especially its speed can exceed 21 knots, which is something that many light cruisers cannot achieve. And its firepower is already comparable to the armored Jiangsu
The cruiser is exactly the same.
In addition, it uses Harvey steel armor technology that is currently unique to the United States, so its protective power is almost the same as that of the more than 8,000-ton Jiangsu cruiser.
Facing this cruiser, Jiangsu can be said to be completely lagging behind.
Therefore, Captain Lewis of the cruiser Olympia is still very satisfied with the cruiser under his command.
Although he was informed by the Navy Department when he left the mainland of the United States that he might be intercepted by the Qing fleet, he still didn't worry about it, thinking that as long as he didn't run into an ironclad ship, he would be very safe.
Sure enough, Lewis was right. The Nanyang Navy warships cruising near the Japanese country were all cruisers, and there were no ironclads or battleships.
Therefore, when Liu Da led the cruiser Jiangsu and two heavy cruisers to confront the American fleet, he was immediately at a disadvantage.
Lawrence, the captain of the Olympia cruiser, after discovering the fleet led by Marshal Liu, immediately ordered the two transport ships to turn around and sail southwest to avoid the intercepting fleet, while he himself led the escort fleet to meet it.
Block Liu Da's driving route.
The blockade fleet led by Marshal Liu immediately approached the fleet after discovering that it was pointing at it. The fleets of both sides got closer and closer, and stopped approaching when they were 2 kilometers apart.
Next, Liu Da ordered the flag bearer to deliver the message to the other party and ask the other party about the purpose of coming to the Japanese waters.
After receiving the signal, Lawrence responded directly: The American ship was sailing on the high seas and the Nanyang Fleet had no right to intercept it.
Liu Da immediately replied: This is a war zone. According to the principle of neutrality, the American navy is not allowed to approach Japanese waters.
Lawrence knew that the other party was blockading the Japanese country, but this time he received a lot of money and promised to send the supplies to the Japanese country. Therefore, he gave a tough reply: The American navy was ordered to escort, and no warship of any country had the right to intercept.
After Lawrence finished speaking, he immediately ordered the warships to enter combat readiness, and all the artillery was aimed at the interception fleet led by Liu Da.