I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 399 One-day trip to Nagasaki
The dance party of the Pacific Fleet did not end until 9 a.m. on the 4th.

Starck stayed up all night. On the one hand, he directed the rescue of the stranded "Letvizan" and "Kronprinz". On the other hand, he ordered the forts along the coast of Port Arthur to prepare for battle and prepare to welcome the arrival of the Japanese main fleet.

Starck was a bastard, but by no means a fool. He knew that the Japanese Combined Fleet was more eager to confirm the damage to the Pacific Fleet than he was, so Starck ordered the forts not to fire rashly and to wait for orders from the headquarters.

The first to arrive on the battlefield was the Third Fleet composed of four protected cruisers, led by Dewa Shigehara.

Dewa Shigenuo had two tasks. The first was to confirm the losses of the Pacific Fleet. The second was to induce the main force of the Pacific Fleet to leave the port and lure the main force of the fleet to the preset battlefield.

Starck was not fooled. Not only did the main force of the Pacific Fleet not dispatched, but the coastal forts also did not fire. Dewa Shigeyuan did not dare to go deep and walked around in a circle outside Port Arthur and passed by in a hurry.

At 11 a.m., the main force of the combined fleet arrived at Port Arthur, and an artillery battle broke out immediately.

Arthur's Fortress cost 2000 million rubles. It is a three-dimensional combat system with Port Arthur as the center, consisting of a military port, a fort, a land fortress, a garrison fleet, a fortress garrison, and a garrison army.

Although the construction of Arthur's Fortress has begun in 1901, due to various reasons, only the sea fort is currently in relatively good condition. The land defense system has not been completed, and only permanent fortifications have been built in scattered areas.

There are 18 seaside forts in Arthur Fortress, mainly composed of the Golden Mountain Fort and the Laotieshan Fort.

Subsequently, the "Mikasa" was hit by the coastal defense artillery of the Golden Mountain Fort, and Dongxiang's handsome flag and battle flag were shot down. Although the backup battle flag was quickly raised, it was soon pierced and tattered.

Starck made full use of the terrain advantage and ordered the Pacific Fleet to huddle in Port Arthur and use the forts as much as possible to shoot at the Japanese combined fleet.

"Fuji" and "Yashima" set fire to the armored cruiser "Bayan".

"Shikishima" and "Hasuse" focused on the battleship "Letvizan" that was damaged and stranded last night.

When shelling the Golden Mountain fort from the sea, if the distance is slightly closer, it will fall into the cliff, and if the distance is further, it will fall into the ravine behind the fort. It is difficult to directly hit the fort with a width of only 50 meters.

After the combined fleet opened fire, the coastal defense forts responded quickly. The Golden Mountain fort was strategically located. It was one of the first 13 forts built by the Qing Empire. It was later reinforced and expanded by the Pacific Fleet and posed the greatest threat to the combined fleet.

The "Asahi", which followed the "Mikasa", chose the battleship "Peresvet" as its opponent.

At this time, Japan had not yet declared war on the Russian Empire.

At 12:20, "Mikasa" sent a retreat signal, and the Japanese combined fleet withdrew from the battle one by one.

There is a ravine behind the Huangjinshan Fort. When viewed from the sea, it will give people the illusion that the Huangjinshan Fort and Huangjinshan are integrated into one.

Shortly after the artillery battle began, the "Mikasa" damaged the "Victory".

When the main force of the Japanese fleet arrived off the coast of Port Arthur, the lanterns hung for the dance party last night on the deck of the Pacific Fleet flagship "Petopavlovsk" had not yet had time to be cleared.

The combined fleet adopts one or two warships to concentrate firepower to design a target shooting tactic, drawing a front of 8000 nautical miles at a distance of 3 meters.

Japan tasted the sweetness of sneak attacks during the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-1894, and repeated its old tricks against the Russian Empire. It regarded the shameless method of undeclared war as its special skill. This is also in line with the Japanese character.

At 12:15, the Mantoushan fort hit the front bridge of the "Fuji", and the "Chitose" and "Kasagi" were also damaged. With the rapid increase in casualties, Togo Heihachiro finally realized that with the firepower of the combined fleet alone, Unable to destroy the shrinking Pacific Fleet.

The Russian Empire had long known that Japan was actively preparing for war, but it did not pay enough attention. Although the Russian Empire also carried out some mobilization, the preparations for the war were not proactive and sparse, which was very Russian.

At 11:55, the Japanese Combined Fleet flagship "Mikasa" opened fire first, bombarding the "Victory" battleship anchored in Arthur Naval Port from a position of 8000 meters.

The position of these two forts is very clever, forming a corner, covering the entrance to Port Arthur and the outer sea. Any enemy ship that breaks into this area will be violently hit by the 305 coastal defense guns produced by the Vladivostok Arsenal.

An hour after the Battle of Arthur, the Russian Empire declared war on Japan.

I have to say that I was really peace-loving in my childhood!
George got the battle report of Torpedo Night immediately and was not surprised by the result.

The Huangjinshan Fort is located on the mountainside of Huangjinshan. It is 100 meters long and 50 meters wide. It is equipped with 5 gun positions, each equipped with two 305mm coastal defense guns, three 3mm coastal defense guns, and a range-finding gun.

After George learned that the war broke out, he immediately ordered the Siberian Fleet, which was performing a training mission in Coconut City, to take the initiative.

At this time in 1904, the Siberian Fleet already had 24 battleships, including 2 heavy cruisers and 6 light cruisers.

2艘重型巡洋舰的排水量虽然都没有超过1万吨，但是其8门203和10门152，在面对日本联合舰队时，也并非没有一战之力。

The key point is that the Siberian fleet warships are very fast. If they can't be defeated, they can at least run away, and the combined fleet cannot catch up.

After receiving the order, Peter immediately lit the fire and weighed the anchor, joined the Aceh naval formation to go to sea, blocked the Strait of Malacca, and seized Japanese merchant ships.

The Sultanate of Aceh did not declare war on Japan.

Therefore, the Aceh Navy is only cooperating with the Siberian Fleet, commonly known as supporting the scene.

The Siberian Fleet warships remaining in Vladivostok also took the initiative and attacked all Japanese ships within sight.

Forget about the port.

The battleships of the combined fleet could not hit the fort. The two heavy cruisers of the Siberian Fleet are both in Coconut City, and only two light cruisers are left in Vladivostok. If you dare to harass the port, you are courting death.

Attacking Japanese ports cannot rely on warships.

So George's secretive airship finally came in handy.

The Vladivostok airship can stay in the air for more than 40 hours, the fastest speed can reach 70 kilometers per hour, and the maximum load can reach 3 tons.

These are nothing.

The most critical thing is that the maximum height of the Vladivostok airship exceeds 3000 meters. As long as there is no problem with its own power, no weapon can pose a threat to the airship.

At 2 noon on February 9, the "Eagle" airship took off from Busan, fully loaded with aerial bombs, targeting Nagasaki, 12 kilometers away.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, the "Eagle" arrived over Nagasaki and bombed Nagasaki at an altitude of 1500 meters.

The bombs carried by the "Eagle" were not high-explosive bombs, but incendiary bombs developed by the Vladivostok Arsenal.

This is the first time in human history that aircraft have been used in war.

The Siberian Fleet used to have a concession in Nagasaki.

Although the concession has now been taken back by Japan, Nagasaki is still the most familiar city in the Amur Military Region.

As Japan's most important port, Nagasaki has Japan's largest cargo transit yard.

Under the guidance of former concession tax collector Joseph, the "Eagle" threw a full 2 ​​tons of incendiary bombs into the Nagasaki cargo yard.

For the Japanese people, airships are definitely a rare novelty, so when the "Eagle" flew over Nagasaki, all the people in Nagasaki walked out to watch the excitement. Some even knelt down to the "Eagle" and prayed to heaven. According to the blessing of God.

To prevent earthquakes, most buildings in Japan are made of wood.

At this time, the wind force in Nagasaki was about level 4.

Since Nagasaki did not have any anti-aircraft weapons, the "Eagle" hovered over Nagasaki for nearly 40 minutes, calmly found the most suitable position, and then opened the cargo hold to unload.

On the airship, only clusters of orange-red flames could be seen rising into the sky. Then the entire cargo yard was enveloped in black smoke, and the fire quickly spread to the surrounding area.

The "Eagle" did not stay too long over Nagasaki. After throwing all the incendiary bombs, it returned to Busan and prepared for the next bombing mission.

On the 9th, a total of six Japanese cities were attacked by airships.

George was in no mood to care about the results of the airship battle. Due to the interruption of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Amur Military District finally received the task of replenishing Port Arthur.

Only then did George learn that Port Arthur's artillery had an average of only 400 rounds of ammunition per gun, and there was a serious shortage of heavy artillery shells, with an average of only 210 rounds per gun.

After receiving the order, George ordered all 1200 305 artillery shells in stock in Vladivostok to be loaded onto trucks and sent to Dalini.

Also supplied with the vehicle are a large number of bullets, food, clothing, quilts and other daily necessities.

So St. Petersburg had been preparing for the war for half a year, but it didn't even have the artillery shells and bullets ready. It was basically lonely.

"We would like to remind Alexeyev to be careful of Japan's recent landing in Kanto."

Milyutin was worried, worried that Alexeyev, that idiot, would mess things up.

George wasn't worried because Alexeyev was going to screw up.

After the war broke out, Alexeyev did not send military supplies stored in Fengtian and Liaoyang to Arthur, but sent more troops to Arthur.

The garrison of Arthur's Fortress at this time has exceeded 4 people, so what Arthur's Fortress lacks is not people, but materials.

While adding troops to Arthur's Fortress, Alexeyev ordered the Russian troops everywhere to stand still and wait for reinforcements.

George was not sure about the situation in other places. The Russian army on the Niuzhuang front line only dug a simple trench at the station and did not build any other fortifications.

This only trench had no hiding holes or communication trenches, and the height was even less than 1 meters. This resulted in the Russian army having to move in the trench with their waists bent.

Those idiot generals under Alexeyev were so confident before the war broke out that they claimed that once the war broke out, they would push across the Tsushima Strait and launch a direct attack on the Japanese mainland.

After the surprise attack on Port Arthur, the generals in Kanto were excited. Lieutenant General Zasulich, who commanded the "Eastern Manchuria" detachment, gave his first order not to strengthen the defense line, but to confiscate all the properties of Japanese merchants in the defense area.

This is the real money grab.

(End of this chapter)