The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 594 Waiting for the War to Come
Jemulpo is Incheon in later generations. It is now an open port and the port is jointly managed by the great powers.

The content of this mysterious telegram could not but shock these Russian generals!

Although the Japanese Combined Fleet had just been established, the name Combined Fleet was not unfamiliar to most of them. As a naval admiral and the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Alexeev was particularly familiar with the name Combined Fleet.

In the war with the Qing Dynasty a few years ago, the Japanese army concentrated almost all of the most advanced ships capable of sea combat in the country to form a combined fleet, which almost completely destroyed the Qing Navy.

The target of reorganizing the Combined Fleet at this time is undoubtedly the Russian Pacific Fleet.

Alexeev also learned from public information that this Togo Heihachiro not only studied in the UK for six years, but also was promoted very quickly recently. He was the most dangerous person in the Japanese Navy.

In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, it was this Togo Heihachiro who commanded the "Naniwa" to form the First Guerrilla Force with Yoshino and Akitsuzu as the vanguard of the Combined Fleet. They raided the Jiyuan and Guangyi ships of the Qing Dynasty's Beiyang Fleet in the waters south of Fengdao, thus provoking the Battle of Fengdao.

Even Togo Heihachiro, who was also the captain of the Naniwa, commanded the Naniwa to sink the British-flagged Qing troop transport ship Gaosheng.

The army-level organization is not a permanent unit in the Japanese Army. It is only temporarily formed in wartime. There is a precedent for this in the war between Japan and the Qing Dynasty.

This time, it was Alexeev who reacted first.

Just as the generals in the conference room were still astonished by the mysterious telegram that Molochev had read, Alexeev's fat body, as if equipped with a spring, had already "whoosh" jumped in front of Molochev, and grabbed Molochev's collar with his fat and powerful hands, shaking him hard and shouting hoarsely.

"Molochev, quickly pass on my order. Tell Stark to find a way to notify Witthoft at the outer harbor anchorage to immediately lead the squadron to weigh anchor and return to the port and shut down the anti-torpedo net."

Molochev, who was strangled to the point of being unable to breathe and whose face was already flushed red, was pushed fiercely towards the door by Alexeev. He took a few deep breaths of the turbid air filled with the smell of alcohol and tobacco to make his lungs feel more comfortable, and then he hurriedly spoke.

"Sir, after receiving the telegram, I immediately called the fleet headquarters and notified the duty officer. He said he would report to General Stark immediately."

"no no!"

Alexeev said angrily, "You take my car and rush to the port immediately. If Stark has not sent someone to notify Witteheft, you will personally issue an order on my behalf to ensure that Witteheft leads the fleet back to the port in time."

Seeing that Alexeev was almost in a state of panic, Molochev agreed and turned around and ran out of the meeting room.

Everyone knew that Alexeev, the Governor-General of the Far East, was most concerned about two things: taxation and his Pacific Fleet.

The former can make his pockets more and more full, and the latter is where his strength lies. With this powerful Pacific Fleet, he has great say in St. Petersburg, otherwise he will become a fallen aristocrat that no one cares about.

"Your Majesty the Governor!"

Alexeev's stress reaction also made Lianavich react quickly, but before he could speak, Smirnov had already spoken to Alexeev.

"In addition to ordering Wittheft to lead the fleet back to the port immediately, should we also order the fleet in the port to go out and meet them?"

"Neh! Nieh!"

Alexeev shook his head like a rattle and refused repeatedly, "On a night like this, the fleet in the port must not leave the port. It is easy to be attacked by local torpedo boats ambushing in the dark."

Lianavich knew that what Alexeev said was right. On such a dark night, even if the main force of the Pacific Fleet went out of the port to provide support, the 10,000-ton giant ship did not have an absolute advantage in front of the agile and fast torpedo boats, and being sunk by the torpedo boats was not an exaggeration.

"Your Mightiness."

Lianavich said hurriedly, "We should make corresponding deployments immediately. First, we should order the troops east of the nearest Amur River to enter Manchuria as soon as possible. Secondly, the East Manchurian Detachment should be immediately formed and sent to the Yalu River to deploy defenses along the river."

"Also, the port fortress has entered a state of combat readiness."

"Your Mightiness."

Stessel still ignored Lianavich and spoke to Alexeev.

"Although the content of the previous telegram about the Japanese monkeys wanting to break off diplomatic relations with our Russian Empire has been confirmed, what is said in this telegram is all military secrets. Not only does it contain the name of the so-called commander of the combined fleet, it even contains the name of the commander of a squadron, and also includes the combat plan of this combined fleet?"

"There are also the names of the commanders of the army corps that have been formed and are about to be formed, as well as the troop organization of the First Army and the Second Army. Such military secrets are not even known by our Russian Empire's intelligence personnel in Japan. How could the person who sent the telegram know them?"

Stessel shook his head and said, "I dare say that even the Japanese Consul General in Qing Dynasty could not know such a secret. How could this mysterious person who is in Qing Dynasty and most likely in Tianjin know such confidential information?"

Seeing that his doubts were shared by the majority, including Alexeev, Stessel glanced at Lenovich with some pride and continued.

"Especially, the Japanese now have more than 20 divisions. If they want to go to war with us, how could they only mobilize six divisions?"

"Therefore, I have every reason to believe that this mysterious man does not understand the Japanese military situation, and it is very likely that these are fabricated by him."

Everyone in the meeting room thought that Stessel's doubts were reasonable. Not only did Alexeev nod his head repeatedly, but most of the others also had doubts on their faces.

Stessel snorted and said, "So, I don't think it's necessary to react hastily now. At least the troops in the fortress area will not enter a wartime state of alert."

After Stessel picked up the glass in front of him and took a sip of wine, he continued.

"The Qing people are about to celebrate their Spring Festival. I don't want my soldiers to stay in the cold trenches while the Qing people are celebrating their festival."

Alexeev was questioned by Stessel and was a little undecided. He thought for a while and said.

"Although it is necessary for Wittheft to lead the fleet to withdraw to the port as soon as possible, even Kuropatkin has relayed Makarov's advice to the Pacific Fleet in a telegram. He also believes that we should not continue to use the outer harbor anchorage."

"But now, we cannot conclude that the Japanese really want to go to war with us based on just one mysterious telegram."

"Unless they are crazy, they would never dare to challenge the dignity of our mighty Russian Empire."

Lennovich had understood that Alexeev was still only concerned about his fleet.

Lennovich sighed secretly and smiled bitterly, "Your Excellency the Governor, I remember that the fleet also has warships in Jemulpo Port. Should we also put the warships in Jemulpo Port on alert?"

Alexeev nodded and said, "You are right, but we only have one gunboat, the Korean, and one armored cruiser, the Varyag, in Jemulpo." Alexeev turned to an attendant and said, "Send a telegram to the Russian Consulate in Jemulpo and ask them to tell the captain of the Varyag, Colonel Rudnev, as soon as possible to strengthen the vigilance to prevent the Japanese navy from attacking. At daybreak, light a fire and leave the port immediately and rush back to Lushun."

After Alexeev had given instructions to his servants, he seemed to have completely recovered from the extreme shock he had just experienced, and said with a smile.

"Generals, let's come together tonight to test the authenticity of this mysterious telegram."

After Alexeev finished speaking, he gave instructions to a servant.

"Bring me and the generals some more vodka, and some bread, caviar, butter, bacon, and sausages."

Just as Alexeev and his men were enjoying Russian caviar and smoked sausages from the Caspian Sea in the meeting room of the Far Eastern Governor's Office.

In the outer harbor of Port Arthur, in the dark night sky at the anchorage of the Pacific Fleet of the Tsarist Russian Navy, underneath a huge blue-gray spindle-shaped airship that reflected no light was floating quietly, in a rectangular pod fixed to the belly of the airship, Teng Yuzao was sitting in the dim light, talking loudly with the Navy Minister Ye Zugui, who was dressed in military uniform and looked excited, and the Chief of Operations Zuo Baotian, at a small table fixed on the silver-gray metal floor.

Because the pod was thousands of meters in the air and the temperature was very low, the three men were all wearing black leather coats that were only available to senior officers of the Zhili Army.

This airship is none other than the Yunying airship that was developed secretly by the Ordnance Department.

However, this airship is the largest of the dozen or so airships that have been built by the Ordnance Department and have undergone many test flights. It is one of the four airships belonging to the Zhili Army General Staff.

This rectangular pod is 18 meters long and 6 meters wide, but the space inside is not very large. Half of it is separated. Although the two 24-horsepower diesel engines there are not running at this time, there is a small diesel generator that is working with a "booming" sound.

This engine not only provides lighting power for the airship cabin, but also provides heating power for the people in the cabin.

At this time, the engine and generator make very loud noises when working due to technical and manufacturing reasons.

Except for the structural frame, which is made of aluminum alloy independently developed by the Ordnance Department, the rest of this pod is made entirely of thin aluminum plates.

In order to keep warm, beige felt is fixed on the four walls inside, and the floor is covered with thick asbestos felt pads. All the tables and chairs inside are not only made of aluminum alloy, but also fixed.

Not far from Teng Yuzhao and his companions, there was a large radio transmitter on a fixed table on one side of the pod. Two radio operators from the telecommunications department, wearing leather jackets over their military uniforms, sat at the table, waiting for orders.

A few meters forward, in front of the portholes on both sides, on the left, right and in the middle, there are monocular telescopes of equally large size with thick barrels fixed on brackets.

In the middle of these three telescopes, there is another identical telescope, but the barrel of this telescope extends out of the cabin through a circular opening on the floor, leaving only a barrel more than half a person's height inside the cabin.

At this time, in front of each of the four telescopes, there was an observer with his eyes pressed to the lens, observing the sea surface below the airship. Directly below the airship, there was a small patch of flickering lights.

This patch of light is exactly where the eight warships of the Russian Pacific Fleet are anchored in the outer harbor.

At the rear of the pod, there was a table where two communications staff members from the general staff sat.

"Commander."

Amid the noisy noise, Ye Zugui spoke loudly.

"Old Russian Governor, can you receive our telegram now?"

Both telegrams sent to Alexeev were written by Teng Yuzao. Originally, only Wei Jinghai and the confidential communications staff of the Communications Department of the General Staff, as well as a few relevant communications department personnel knew about this matter. Ye Zugui had just heard Teng Yuzao talk about it with him.

This time, Teng Yuzhao brought Ye Zugui with him because he wanted to let this veteran of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 take a closer look at the combat methods of the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet.

It is undeniable that the Japanese have put a lot of effort into the navy, and have closely followed the British Empire, a naval power, in terms of strategy and tactics. In naval warfare, the Japanese Navy is now among the world's naval powers.

Its naval combat capability is no longer inferior to that of old naval powers such as France, and is even slightly better than the US and Russian navies.

Teng Yuzhao looked at the watch on his wrist and said with a smile.

"He should have received the telegram Ning Bo sent him by now, but it is too late for him to notify the squadron remaining in the outer harbor anchorage in time."

Ye Zugui hesitated for a moment and asked with some doubt.

"General, there is something I don't understand. Please enlighten me."

Teng Yuzao smiled and nodded, indicating that Ye Zugui should tell him his problem.

"Marshal, since we already know the Japanese navy's battle plan, why don't we inform the Russians earlier so that they can have a bloody fight with the Japanese navy and both suffer heavy losses. Then our fleet can take advantage of the situation and attack to completely destroy the Russian and Japanese fleets."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Tong Hou, if what you said is true, although it can cause both navies to suffer losses, it can only consume their naval strength, which is not completely consistent with our goal."

Teng Yuzhao picked up the hot tea that had just been brewed in front of him and took a sip, then wrapped his fur coat tightly around himself and continued.

"What we are pursuing is not only to deplete the naval strength of the two countries, but also to greatly deplete their army strength, and even their entire national strength."

"Now these two countries have been making corresponding war preparations half a year ago. The Russians are worried that our Zhi army will go out to recover the lost territory, and they are mainly targeting us."

"The Japanese are mainly targeting the Russians. They want to ensure their logistical interests on the Korean Peninsula and then attack our coast to gain greater benefits."

"But the Russians are greedy and won't give in to the Japanese."

"If we only severely damage the navies of the two countries at this time, the two countries are likely to join forces to deal with us."

"In order to avoid this situation, we cannot come forward for the time being."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Tong Hou, you haven't read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, have you?"

(End of this chapter)