Hidden Dragon in Qing Dynasty

The sky was filled with stars, and lights were flickering in the straits. The endless streams of ships formed a torrent of lights as they moved along the narrow straits.

The center of the channel was occupied by the endless Russia Expedition Fleet. The Tsar had gone all out in order to reach the Far East, and all the Baltic Main fleet s were almost all gathered there. The Iron-armored battleship that had just been remodeled was brought to the battlefield before it was even tested.

Xiao Letian was their whetstone. The Far East was an important exit for the Russia to fight for the benefit of the Pacific Ocean. They definitely could not lose it.

The flagship St. Peter, Captain Lieutenant General EdStefanski, the main commander of the Expeditionary forces. This wooden shell was covered with Iron-armored battleship s, and had a draining capacity of 3800 tons. The metal armor was 180 mm thick, and to Russian, this was an iron turtle that no one could bite off.

In order to save the boiler and the amount of coal used, the St. Peter kept the front and back masts, the pure white sail of the ship was painted with the Russia's double-headed eagle.

It had to be said that the engineers of the Russia knew that the cannons set up by the St. Peter had advanced with the times.

Giving up on the traditional way of using numbers to win, St. Peter's ship had four gun barrels on both sides of the ship, with a diameter of 180 mm. Furthermore, all of the cannons were fixed ammunitions, their power was incomparable to the cannons in the past.

The eight cannons are mounted on sliding gun mounts and can be easily adjusted in an angle of 180 degrees. One could imagine how carefree it was for such a mighty steel turtle to take advantage of the wind and waves to rush into the enemy's army, then bloom left and right, then punch through the enemy's soft belly and then dig through his intestines.

Russian's shooting train of thought was actually the mainstream thought of the European warship designers at that time. It was a kind of small upgrade that extended from the shooting line of thought in the sail battleship era.

This was a delicate balance between a new technology and an old tradition. Although it was not as subversive as the Zhiyuan Warship, for an old and large empire like the Russia, it was already very difficult to achieve this.

Behind the St. Peter s, was the second flagship Diamond, Captain Major General Venia. The ship's discharge was 2,100 tons, its wooden hull was covered with iron armor, and the artillery arrangement was the same as the St. Peter s, it was also 180 caliber.

However, the Diamond had abandoned the sail and chosen the pure steam power, so the modern aura of the battleship was a little stronger.

He Mansiji, the battleship's discharge amount was 3,400 tons. It was still made of wood shell and iron, maintaining the sail, and had four main cannons on both sides, with the diameter of 160.

The average tonnage of the other nine main battleship s was around 3000-3300 tons, the caliber of their cannons was between 120 and 160.

A total of twelve main battleship s lined up in a long line. The sailors at the bow of the ships couldn't even see the tail of the fleet, and their gigantic size stunned all the merchant ships along the way.

Not only were there twelve main battleship s, there were also fifteen that guarded the left and right of the one word army.

Volga, Captain Dmitry. Discharge 1800 tons, speed up to 15 knots. Cannon's caliber was 85, with eight cannons on its left and right.

Polar horn, Captain West. Discharge 1600 tons, the maximum speed 16 knots, the caliber of the artillery 85, left or right eight.

The rest of the warship tonnage is around 1500 tons, the caliber is basically under 100 mm.

Between these main battleship s, there were also a total of 18 light cannons and torpedoes boats. These small battleships were very small compared to main battleship s, so their water displacement had already exceeded 500 tons.

At first, Molière was very surprised, he did not know why Russian brought these small warships to fight across the entire Earth. Wasn't these small ships the cannon fodder on the battlefield?

But after conversing with General EdStefanski later on, he finally understood how much wild hopes the Russian had for the Far East.

The main battleship's goal was to carry out a strategic deterrent, and the appearance of the 12 newest main battleship in the Pacific Ocean would be able to destroy the dominance of the British. Although the Russian was not stupid enough to engage in a Pacific Ocean War with the British, the deterrent effect of so many warships on the British would be huge.

As long as he could maintain this deterrence, the Russia would be able to share an extra piece of cake in East Asia. Many British people would have to let the Russian join in on the business even if they did not want to.

But the fifteen protective battleships were actually the main players in the battle. These fifteen thousand tons of Iron-armored battleship were definitely not enough to deal with the English and French, but it was enough to deal with Xiao Letian, Japan, Korea and even Daqing.

These battleships could at any time teach those barbarians a lesson, and show the might of the Great Russia Tsar.

As for the eighteen small warships, they were used for offshore defense, the Haishenwai couldn't just let the main battleship defend, so the heavy responsibility of defending would still be on these small warships.

They would patrol along the sea and drive to Yangtze River Basin, Haihe, Heilongjiang, and Wusuli River's basins in Daqing to travel and scare the local officials. These little gunboats were definitely useful.

From a military point of view, the formation of a mixed fleet of three echelons was disorderly enough, but from the political point of view and from the strategic point of view of East Asia, the formation of these three terraces had already reflected the czar's brilliant strategic thinking.

The Alexander II was indeed worthy of being called a strong figure in the history of the Russia!

Such a huge special task force, with three rows of them moving side by side in the middle of Malacca Strait, the white sails covering the sky and the clouds, the spraying black smoke covering the sky and the sun.

All the merchant ships and fishing boats along the way had to make way for them. Even the two British warships stationed in Singapore had to make way for them at this moment.

The Russian was going crazy, the Russian was going crazy because of Xiao Letian, the Baltic Sea Fleet had almost emptied their fleet. Such a terrifying combat power was unleashed in all over East Asia, scaring the British people who were constantly mobilizing military ships from the Indian subcontinent to support Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Of course, such reinforcements were not for the sake of fighting, but for the sake of increasing his deterrence. To put it bluntly, this was the same as a sophomore learning how to steal territory from the underworld.

"Just you wait, I'll get someone to go …"

"Don't leave. If you have the ability, don't leave …"

In the end, the two of them got a group of people to stand by and support them. However, most of the time, they wouldn't fight. At most, they would only curse each other, "What are you worrying about …" What are you doing... Try another one... "I'll give it a try …"

In order to prevent the Russia's warships and local ships from colliding or clashing, two British sail battleship s were at the very front of the group, helping the Russia's flagship to split up the channel. All the merchant ships would have to go around to the two sides.

It was because they were so close that the British soldiers could clearly see all the flags and lighting signal s.

"Look!" Holy Peter hung up his lighting signal s, the flagship called for all the Captain to gather for a meeting! "

"Something important must have happened. Why would the Russian fleet convene an emergency meeting in the middle of the night? Quick, quick... Immediately inform the officer, inform the Governor of Singapore … "