Episode 57 Tsushima Strait: The arrow is ready

On June 28, at the invitation of the British Royal Navy and the German Navy, the "Yongle" battleship squadron of the Ming Empire Navy left the main base on Zhoushan Island and began to travel to Europe for a friendly visit to the two navies.

This squadron consists of the battlecruiser "Zhurong", the battleship "Yongle", the heavy cruiser "Yuefei", the heavy cruiser "Shizhong", the light cruiser "Mengtian", the light cruiser "Leyi", and

It consisted of twelve destroyers, with Yongle as the flagship, and eighteen warships, moving southward along the East China Sea.

But at the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ming Dynasty was still negotiating with the Soviet secret envoy. The Ming Dynasty's strategy was to delay and prolong the negotiations as much as possible. Regardless of whether the Soviet Union declared war in the end, it must first get as much American supplies as possible. At the same time, it sent

The fleet's "goodwill visit" to Britain and Germany was also to put pressure on the Soviet Union, so that Moscow would not dare to declare war easily during the negotiations, and to let Stalin know that Ming Dynasty was not without countermeasures.

Stalin completely saw through Ming's "drag" tactics. Within a few days, he repeatedly ordered the secret envoy to make a request: During the negotiations, no more supplies could be imported. Except for a few ships that had already been shipped, the remaining goods were not allowed to be shipped from the United States.

The Ming Dynasty will definitely not do this. What Nanjing wants is delay, and the purpose of delay is to get as much war materials as possible. The Soviet Union's request is tantamount to seeking the skin of a tiger.

The so-called "concession" proposed by the Soviet Union, that is, the Soviet Union gave up the occupied Hami and Turpan in exchange for Ming Dynasty recognizing the independence of the "Ili Kingdom", was also unacceptable to Nanjing.

So two days later, on June 30, another squadron sailed out of Zhoushan Port. The flagship of this second squadron was the battleship "Zhengde", accompanied by the heavy cruiser "Li Guang" and six destroyers.

After the eight warships left the Zhoushan Islands, they headed directly to the northeast, which is the direction of the Tsushima Strait.

This destination could not be clearer. It was clearly aimed at Vladivostok. For a time, the atmosphere in Northeast Asia became extremely tense. The eyes of the whole world were fixed on this squadron.

At noon that day, the Ming Navy Minister announced on the radio that in order to test the Ming Navy's combat capabilities in different sea conditions, the Ming Navy will conduct a military exercise in the high-latitude northern seas. The selected sea area is the Sea of ​​Japan, which will last throughout July.

Early ten days.

"Since the Sea of ​​Japan is a high sea," the Navy Minister said, "any country can conduct exercises in this sea area. This exercise is purely a military discussion. We hope that relevant parties or countries will not make unnecessary far-fetched remarks to avoid

It will adversely affect the peace and stability of the region."

…

On the evening of the 30th, Stalin also delivered a very tough speech on the radio. He said that although the Soviet people are peace-loving, they will never be intimidated by imperialist military intimidation. If the Ming fleet sails through the Tsushima Strait,

, stepping into the Sea of ​​Japan will be regarded as a challenge to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union will regard it as an act of war.

As a result, this bomb that could explode at any time was thrown back into the hands of the Ming Dynasty. Now the Ming Dynasty government faces two choices: One is to pass through the Tsushima Strait and enter the Sea of ​​Japan for "exercises" as usual. That may trigger the Soviet Union's

Declare war. The second is to turn around and return without entering the Sea of ​​Japan. This can relieve the tension, but Ming will slap itself in front of the whole world and become disgraced.

No one in the Ming government expected that Stalin would be so reckless. According to normal international concepts, military exercises are just a form of "dialogue" and are far from escalating to the edge of "war." Both sides are still

There were many escape routes. Unexpectedly, Stalin suddenly cut off all escape routes for both sides.

Obviously, the Ming Dynasty does not want to be "declared war." Although the two sides are already at actual war, once the war is officially declared, the supplies from the United States will probably not be transported. Of course, from another aspect, the Ming Dynasty also

You can let go and deal with the Soviet Union in various places other than the Central Asian battlefield. This is tantamount to losing both sides, a "lose-lose" approach. And the Soviet Union obviously doesn't care.

If the Ming Dynasty wanted to avoid declaring war, it could only make decisions here in Japan.

On the morning of July 1, when the Masanori squadron was still ten hours away from the Tsushima Strait, a destroyer of the Ming Dynasty's Nanyang Fleet seized a Japanese cargo ship in the Malacca Strait on the pretext of receiving a tip and suspecting

The ship carried Dutch East Indies

The stowaways of the Ming Dynasty wanted to smuggle these East Indian natives to the Ming Dynasty's Sumatra Island. Of course, since Sumatra became the territory of the Ming Dynasty, it has gradually become one of the candidate places for people of all ethnic groups in Southeast Asia to stow away. This is also

It's not out of nowhere.

Then, the Ming Dynasty spies lurking in Tokyo began to use various methods to distribute leaflets. They distributed them secretly, hired people to distribute them, sneaked into newspaper offices and sandwiched the leaflets in the newspapers for sale... The blood written on the leaflets was boiling, as if the Ming Dynasty had already risen.

If you shit on Japan's neck, it seems that Japan will perish if it continues to be cowardly. Especially the spies lurking in the Japanese army, they fanned the flames impassionedly and aroused the anger of a group of young officers. There were 2.26

A repeat trend.

As expected by the Nanjing politicians, before noon on July 1st, the whole of Tokyo was boiling. Angry Tokyo citizens took to the streets, roared, and gathered in front of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister's residence, unanimously demanding that the empire take measures to deal with the epidemic.

Declare war.

Of course, although many cool-headed politicians, scholars, and experts do not agree with declaring war on Ming, they also feel that some tough measures should be taken against Ming. For example, banning the Ming fleet from passing the Tsushima Strait, prohibiting the Ming fleet from entering Japan, etc.

exercise.

Those angry Japanese youths with white sun flag cloths tied on their foreheads surrounded the Ming Dynasty Embassy. They kept throwing stones and bricks in. Some people were burning the Ming Dynasty flag.

There was even a Japanese high school student who knelt in front of the Emperor's Palace, poured gasoline on himself, and lit a fire...

…

The Japanese Prime Minister was worried for a while. He summoned several relevant ministers for an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures. Several old foxes in the Japanese cabinet had already seen clearly Nanjing's tricks. They knew that Ming Dynasty wanted to provoke Japan to take "tough measures."

The Ming fleet is prohibited from passing through the Tsushima Strait. In this way, the Ming fleet can return home justifiably - it's not that we don't dare to go to the exercise, it's because Japan won't let us pass, and we have no choice. This is just giving you an advantage, the Soviet Union.

Japan has long wanted the Ming Dynasty and the Soviet Union to fight as big and hard as possible. It is best for both sides to fall into the quagmire of war. The more this happens, the greater the chance of victory for Japan after joining. Now it is obvious that the Ming fleet must be allowed to enter

Sea of ​​Japan. Not to mention that the Ming Dynasty seized a Japanese cargo ship. Even if the Ming army planes flew over Japan and dropped bombs, Japan would still have to endure it and welcome the Ming army fleet to cross the strait with a smile.

But now the whole country is agitated. Especially in the army, the emotions of the young officers can no longer be suppressed. These politicians are really afraid that their heads will fall off again, just like the previous coups.

Now they were looking at the clock on the wall, and time was passing by quickly. In four hours, the Ming fleet would sail into the Tsushima Strait. To let them pass, they must come up with an accurate plan immediately.
Chapter completed!