On the battleship Revenge, George Elliot also rushed to the bridge after hearing the news. He was holding a telescope and looking at the chase that was taking place 20,000 to 30,000 yards away with a confused look on his face.
His trip to Japan was going very smoothly until he was woken up from bed by his orderly just now. The Japanese side did not realize that he was here to support the fire, so they acted extremely enthusiastically. Not only did a navy officer equivalent to the Minister of the Navy be sent to Mito Port to greet them, but after receiving an airship provided by the British (for a fee, of course), they also cordially invited the Iryuu fleet to visit the Yokosuka Military Port located in Edo Bay - —That is the home port of the Shogunate Navy and is never open to the public. The Eryu formation is the first foreign naval formation to enter there!
After leading the formation into Yokosuka, George Eryu was also invited to go to Edo and entered the Edo Castle of the de facto ruler of Japan, General Tokugawa Ienashi, and paid an audience with a very high standard in the Ohiro Room. General.
Although, he also accompanied the general to the castle tower of Edo Castle and watched the performance of the shogunate naval aviation together. Seeing the airship dropping lantern shells from the sky, the general seemed very satisfied. A group of ministers also said nonsense like "No longer afraid of the Ming Dynasty", as if they were ready to take Japan to fight with the Ming Dynasty.
After meeting the general, Iryuu, accompanied by Tokugawa Saaki and Shimazu Sairyo, went to the famous Edo Yoshihara to observe Japanese customs for a few days... Well, that was quite a lot. "Vulgar"!
Just after Eryū had a sufficient understanding of Japanese customs, he received an invitation from the Emperor to go to Kyoto to meet the Holy Spirit...and experience the customs of Kyoto again.
This is really a great honor!
Since the founding of Japan, there have been countless foreign envoys who have met the Tokugawa generals, but the number of foreign envoys who have met the Emperor can be counted on one's fingers, and all the foreign envoys who have met the Emperor are from the Ming Empire. Yilu is also the first Westerner to have this honor. Based on this alone, you know how successful his trip to Japan was.
So before he was woken up by the orderly, George Elliot was lying on the bed in his cabin, dreaming of pushing Japan into a pit of fire to consume the Ming Dynasty... As soon as he woke up from the dream and arrived at the bridge, he encountered did things he never dreamed of.
A formation of two Ming Dynasty cruisers and destroyers were chasing four merchant ships flying the flag of the East India Company!
"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, what is going on? Isn't this Japan's territorial waters?"
The confused George Eryu saw that Shimazu Sairyo, the Japanese shogunate naval staff officer who accompanied him to Kyoto, had also arrived at the bridge, so he hurriedly asked him a question.
"Your Majesty, Admiral," Shimazu Sailiang said, although he has never studied in the UK, but he can still speak fluent Japanese English...at least Eritsu can understand it, "Although this is Japan's territorial waters. , but the warships of the Beiyang Fleet of the Ming Navy always come when they want, and they don’t care about the territorial waters at all. They call this free navigation!”
"This is so unreasonable..." Yilu frowned, "Then why are the warships of the Ming Dynasty chasing merchant ships flying the flag of the East India Company here? By the way, those merchant ships are really the East India Company. Really? They run so fast!"
"Those four merchant ships should be affiliated to the East India Company...Ya Pian smuggling ships!" Shimazu Qi Liang said, frowning, "Ya Pian is subject to extremely strict regulations in the Ming Dynasty and in our country. Control is difficult to buy, so the price is very high. It is inevitable that some people will take risks... Therefore, the smuggling ships active in the Ming Dynasty and the coast of Japan are all modified and seem to be ordinary on the outside. Merchant ships, but they were usually very fast and some had guns mounted on them.”
He paused and then suggested in a low voice: "Your Majesty, Admiral, how about we just pretend we didn't see anything?"
"Pretend you haven't seen anything?" George Elliot frowned and thought to himself, "Can you pretend you haven't seen this? The merchant ships of the British Empire were in the territorial waters of Japan, a British friend, in front of the British Royal Navy fleet. Being chased by the Ming Dynasty fleet... and the strength of the Ming Dynasty naval formation is much smaller than that of the British fleet! In this case, the British fleet will not dare to let go of anything, and the accompanying Japanese will What do you think? When the news reaches Europe, what will the great powers following Britain think?"
"Sir," George Elliot's cousin and chief staff officer Charlie Elliot came up and reminded in a low voice at this time, "This is Japanese territorial waters, and those merchant ships are flying the flag of the East India Company. According to international public law, the Ming Navy We have no law enforcement power, and our strength is obviously superior, so we can completely force them back!"
George Yilu nodded, deliberately showing a contemptuous smile: "Yes, we have twelve battleships, they only have four, and we also have the most powerful battleship in the world!
Turn around and rescue our merchant ships... In addition, send a signal to the Ming Dynasty Navy to tell them that this is the territorial waters of the Japanese Empire. According to the agreement between the British Empire and the Japanese Empire to mutually guarantee the freedom of trade in territorial waters, we are obligated Protect the freedom and safety of navigation in Japan’s territorial waters and ask them to leave immediately! "
"As you command, sir!"
...
"Sir, the British-Japanese joint formation has turned and rushed towards us!"
"Sir, they also played lanterns, saying that this is Japanese territorial waters and asking us to leave immediately..."
"Sir, it has been confirmed that the opponent has a total of twelve steam warships, including ten British ships and two Japanese ships. Among them are two ironclad ships, including a Sovereign class! In addition, they also have four camouflaged assault ships!"
In the bridge of the Port Arthur, the air had become very tense as the staff officers and signal officers made announcements one after another!
From the perspective of the people on the bridge of the Port Arthur, what is happening now is clearly that Britain and Japan colluded to set up a trap against themselves. The purpose is probably to eliminate these four warships!
This is sixteen against four, the advantage lies with the enemy!
And regardless of tonnage or firepower, the opponent has obvious advantages! Even if they compete for speed, the opponent will not suffer too much. Although the two battleships cannot run fast, the British cruisers and destroyers are not slow either. If they are allowed to chase and fight, the consequences will be serious!
At this moment, Chen Jian, the deputy commander of the Lushun, suddenly said: "Commander, what should we do now?"
Now all eyes are turned to a certain Zhuge strategist who can figure things out!
Zhuge Weidao was also complaining in his heart. The first time he boarded the ship, he unexpectedly encountered such a thing... The opponent had two armored ships!
"Can you confirm the opponent's ship type?" Zhuge Weidao asked about the opponent's strength while trying to calm down his nervousness.
Wang Wendao: "Currently it can be confirmed that there is one Sovereign class, one Indomitable class, three second-class protected cruisers, five destroyers and two Japanese wooden-hulled gunboats... Sir, the enemy's strength far exceeds ours!"
Zhuge Weidao pinched his fingers and counted while whispering: "Junquan class... Unyielding class... If the bow of the ship is facing the enemy, there will be two useless 13.5-inch breech-mounted guns and four An even more useless 16-inch front-loading rifled gun..." As he spoke, he suddenly shouted: "We have it!"
"What's there?" Chen Jian looked at Zhuge Weidao with beads of sweat on his forehead.
"Fight!" Zhuge Weidao said, "The brave one wins when we meet on a narrow road!"
"But the enemy has twelve battleships and four camouflaged attack ships, and their strength far exceeds ours!"
Zhuge Weidao shook his head and gritted his teeth and said: "It doesn't matter, we are fast and can quickly seize the T-position and focus 20 155mm naval guns on the leading Junquan. As long as we severely damage the Junquan, we can escape safely! "
"That's the Sovereign Class!" Chen Jian said in shock, "The Sovereign Class has two 13.5-inch cannons on the bow! The Indomitable Class behind the Sovereign Class uses a diagonal turret layout, with four 16-inch cannons. You can fire forward!"
"It won't hit!" Zhuge Weidao said with confidence, "I have already calculated that the six giant cannons of the Sovereign Class and the Unyielding Class are very slow to reload and have poor accuracy. They will definitely not be able to hit us, and our 20 The theoretical rate of fire of a 155mm rapid-fire gun can reach 6 rounds per minute, and the combat rate of fire can reach 4 rounds per minute. As long as you have 10 minutes, you can fire 800 rounds, and you can hit 40 rounds with a 5% hit rate!"
He paused, then turned back to the signal staff officer and said: "Send a message to Admiral Li and tell him all my analysis and suggestions... Then tell him that this is our only chance to win, and it may also be The only way to survive!"
