The Anti-Japanese War Begins with the Northeast Army

"Then...what should we do?"

Li Shitou was so angry that he slapped his thigh repeatedly, "We can't let these bastards occupy the Japanese waters and prevent any of our ships from entering, can we?"

Jiang Cheng smiled: "Of course not--"

"But in this matter, the devils have to bleed."

…………

Just when Duan Congbin was scratching his head anxiously, news came back from the sea:
It was an American merchant ship named "Josephine" that staggered into the port of Vladivostok.

The top administrator was extremely surprised and delighted, thinking that the "drama" in the Sea of ​​Japan was over and the shipping route was open again.

But when he saw the captain, this joy quickly disappeared.

Because how could the devils be so kind? How could they easily give up the route before forcing Jiang Cheng to hand over the right to build the railway?
But since the route was not given up, how did this merchant ship escape the siege?
Upon further questioning, I learned that the combined fleet exercise was an exercise, but it seemed that there were some minor troubles recently.

The captain from Arizona had a heavy accent. Duan Congbin had to talk to him for a long time before he could roughly understand what he was saying:

At the beginning, the combined fleet blocked the entire route, and not a single ship could pass through... The small boats chose to go to Yingkou and Andong;
But the two ports were limited in size and could not accommodate and load and unload large ships - they had no choice but to drop anchor nearby, looking for fresh water and other supplies while waiting for a possible opportunity to cruise to Peter the Great Bay.

"In other words, you found a gap in the combined fleet and went around it?"

Duan Congbin finally understood, but he couldn't believe it:

The Japanese came here to blockade the port. How could they let the ships come in so easily?
This is a strange signal.

Duan Congbin immediately returned to the office and called Jiang Cheng in Harbin to report:

But the person on the other side told him that Mr. Jiang had left Harbin four days ago and no one knew his destination.

As soon as he put down the phone, news came from the Vladivostok headquarters that Jilin's top leader and his leader had just stepped off the military train and arrived in this coastal city with his staff.

He hurried back with his men and reported the matter of the Josephine to his leader. Unexpectedly, Jiang Cheng smiled faintly and told him that merchant ships should arrive in the next few days and asked him to get busy.

"What happened?"

Duan Congbin looked at Jiang Cheng very unnaturally, and his heart skipped a beat: Could it be that he couldn't hold on any longer and reached some agreement with the Japanese?
However, just as this thought came into his mind, Jiang Cheng asked again: "Yuanhe, it's been more than a year... Is our military port almost finished?"

Although he didn't know why he asked this, Duan Congbin answered immediately.

According to the original design, he and technical personnel including Yang Yucheng and Song Shichang made continuous reviews and modifications, and initially built a large military port comparable to the Port of Hiroshima based on the sheltered harbor on the side of Peter the Great Bay.

As for the garrison, Zhang Xuecheng had brought together a group of nearly 3,000 people through repeated selection at the Jilin Military Academy and rigorous training at Songhua Lake over the past year.

"But I'm afraid our ships are no match for the combined fleet."

Duan Congbin spoke cautiously.

But he had a feeling that Jiang Cheng's presence here must be related to the naval battle...

“Yes, our ships are no match for them, but the Belarusian ships are.” After he said this, he took the lead and occupied the large office of the Vladivostok headquarters with his staff.

The guards of the brigade started to get busy as soon as they entered the room. They emptied out all the things inside, posted military maps on the walls, put out desks and chairs, brought in files... placed a sand table in the middle of the room, and so on.

Everyone was working in an orderly manner, just like a clockwork machine that had been wound up in advance. Jiang Cheng was discussing with Sun Zhengnan, Zhang Tinglan and others. Duan Congbin, who was confused, suddenly understood -

The White Russian Navy that escaped from Vladivostok was incorporated by his superiors!
After the White Army suffered a series of defeats, Wen Lina, the highest governor here, actually still had a navy.

But as the situation became tense and the Japanese were about to capture the city, the entire navy fled and simply became "pirates" along the Sea of ​​Japan.

Highway robbery, coastal plunder... became their regular livelihood.

It's not just the northeastern coast, but even the coasts of Japan's Sado Island, Honshu Island, Oki Islands and other places are affected.

In fact, a big reason why the combined fleet went into battle this time was indeed to force Jiang Cheng to surrender; but there was also a more important reason, which was to destroy these pirates.

Duan Congbin's eyes immediately became full of respect:

How capable was his Master Jiang, that he was able to contact this group of pirates and negotiate terms with them and recruit them?
In fact, if you think about it carefully, you will know it.

Because even if you are a pirate, you can rob things at sea, but you have to go ashore at some point:
To sell stolen goods, buy food and supplies, or even to find a few women to play with, these gentlemen have to go ashore.

The places they have the most contact with must be those with close trade exchanges... and people in the underworld must be easier to contact.

Jiang Cheng solved the problem with just one phone call: Boss Huang in Shanghai quickly helped him contact the pirate leader Ivanov, and promised that he could become his deputy in the Jilin Navy in the future, etc.

With the "amnesty" document, Ivanov led his troops without saying a word and attacked the combined fleet.

They have always been bullying nearby merchant ships and making a living by collecting tolls. How could they have ever encountered such a group of desperate Russians?

Besides the direct confrontation, the White Russian navy also took advantage of their familiarity with the route and the high speed of their warships to chase the Japanese around:

Sometimes they would cause trouble along the Japanese coast, and sometimes they would drag them to waters full of reefs... The most shameless thing was that their artillery had a longer range and they would run away after a few shots, making the Japanese fleet so angry that they had no idea what to do.

Under such circumstances, the route in that area of ​​water occasionally gave up a navigable area, and the Josephine took this opportunity to bypass Vladivostok.

But Jiang Cheng knew very well that although these White Army soldiers had many tricks, it was impossible to force the Combined Fleet to retreat by relying on these tricks.

And doing so has completely angered the devils——

I'm afraid this naval battle is absolutely impossible to avoid.

So in this situation, Jiang Cheng had to personally supervise the battle, and he did not come empty-handed.

That’s right, Zhang Tingshu, who went to study in the UK for several years, is back!

In addition to the brothers who studied abroad at the Naval Academy, he also returned with two British dreadnoughts...

Jilin Navy is about to set sail! (End of this chapter)