At 11:30 pm, the closed fleet arrived in the southeast of Laotik, outside the Port of Lushun. At this time, the sea was calm, the night was dim, the moon appeared and disappeared, the stars were dim, and the surrounding mountains were hazy, which was a good weather for sneak attacks.

The 5th Destroyer, which approached the port of Lushun in advance to test the enemy's situation, retreated at 1 a.m. They had met with Russian patrol warships and launched an attack, but did not hit the Russian warships.

At 3 a.m., the closed ships were lined up in a row, led by Tianjin Maru, followed by Baoguo Maru, Incheon Maru, Wuyang Maru, and Wuzhou Maru, and sailed along the land shore to Lushun Port. Since the five ships were filled with cement stones, they could only move forward at a speed of 8 knots at this time.

However, since the 5th Destroyer Fleet had alarmed the Russian fleet, Lushun Port had entered a state of alert at this time. The searchlights on the shore were fully turned on. Although it could not be said to illuminate the sea as bright as day, it could basically sweep the sea. As a result, before the quarantine fleet arrived at the outer port of Lushun, it was discovered by the searchlights. The firepower of the quarantine on both sides was fully opened. Moreover, in the inner port of Lushun, the battleship LeTevizan also opened fire to assist in the fire. Therefore, the shells were like raindrops and rushed towards the quarantine fleet.

Although the five closed ships braved the rain of bullets and braved the rain of bullets, the commander and helmsman were unable to correctly identify the direction under the interference of shelling and searchlights. The leading Tianjin Wan deviated westward before entering the port of Lushun, and ended up stranding in Laotieshan East.

Commander Arima Liangju ordered a red light indicating that "sinking position is incorrect" to prompt the closed ship behind; on the other hand, he ordered the detonation and abandoned the ship to escape. However, the soldiers made a mistake in their busy schedule. They first hung up a white light indicating that "sinking position is incorrect", and then found that they were wrong, so they changed to the red light. Arima Liangju was afraid that the ship behind would misunderstand, so he went to the stern to shout to the Boguomaru behind.

Takeo Hirose, the commander of the Bokunma Maru, heard the sound of Arima Liangjuku, so he turned to the right and took Incheon Maru behind him toward the Lushun Outer Port. However, Wuyang Maru, who was ranked 4th and 5th, was confused by the change of light signals. While hesitating, Wuyang Maru's servo was hit and could not turn, and it detonated and sank beside Tianjin Maru. This time, Wuzhou Maru completely misunderstood. Even though both ships sank here, they thought they were probably at their location, so they immediately sank, and the positions of these three ships were far away from the predetermined location.

Bogu Maru and Incheon Maru who broke into the outer port of Lushun were divided into two groups. Bogu Maru targeted the battleship Letevizan, which participated in the shelling in the inner port of Lushun, while Incheon Maru chose to change direction to the searchlight of the Golden Mountain. Soon, Incheon Maru stranded near the south bank of the Golden Mountain and broke down and exploded; while Bogu Maru was shot several times in the cross artillery fire of the fort and the Letevizan, and still insisted on moving forward.

However, the steering rope of Bokumaru was broken, and even the self-sinking * was cut off. Finally, about 300 meters away from the Retvezan, a fire was ignited by a shell. Commander Takeo Hirose judged that the fire was enough to detonate the loaded * and sank the ship, so he ordered the abandoned ship to escape. However, by chance, Bokumaru's sinking position was basically at the predetermined location.

At around 5 a.m., the crew of each closed ship was transferred to the receiving boat. At this time, the sky was getting higher and the Japanese boat team was afraid that the Russian fleet would attack, so they retreated one after another.

At 9 a.m. on February 24, the commander of the joint fleet, Togo Heihachiro, met with the withdrawn commander and crew of the closed ship on the flagship Mikasa. However, the reception boat only brought back the crew of Tianjin Maru, Jokun Maru and Wuyang Maru. Only one of the 48 crew members was killed and four injured. However, the total number of 29 crew members of Incheon Maru and Wuzhou Maru was missing.

In addition, from the results of the crew reports of each ship, it can be basically confirmed that only one ship, Bokuru, sank at the scheduled location, and the other four ships are far away from the scheduled location. Only one Bokururu is certainly not enough to block the waterway of the Port of Lushun. Therefore, it can be said that this blockade battle ended in failure.

Although 29 crew members were missing, Togo Heihachiro did not dare to stay here for a long time and ordered the fleet to return and arrived at Incheon Port at noon on the 25th.

However, as soon as he returned to Incheon Port, Togo Heihachiro received good news. The 29 crew members who were missing from Incheon Maru and Takeju Maru were found. It turned out that they were all asked by Qingzhou of the East China government, and are now taken to Qingdao and received good hospitality. The East China government has notified Japan as soon as possible and sent a ship to pick up people.

It turned out that at 6:30 a.m., the Qingzhou received a notice from Qingdao, asking the Qingzhou to return, so the Qingzhou bid farewell to the joint fleet and then returned to Qingdao.

At around 7 o'clock, the Qingzhou family received another order from Qingdao, and this time they were asked to go to the designated waters to rescue the lost Japanese sub-crew crew.

In fact, the Qingzhou is just a cover. After all, it is dozens of kilometers away and you can't see anything. What can you see? The real surveillance battlefield is the crossing warship behind the Qingzhou. This time, the East China government dispatched the Sanya ship, which also released drones to monitor the battle process in the air. Moreover, since it was at night, the drones could conduct full monitoring at a low altitude below 500 meters and simultaneously transmit to the Sanya ship. Therefore, the crossing soldiers on the Sanya ship had a much better understanding of the battlefield than the joint fleet, and even could not match the closed fleet.

After the Japanese closure war ended, when the Sanya ship was receiving the drone, it found the lost Japanese closure crew, which was Incheon Maru, the crew on Takeshu Maru. It turned out that the sinking of the closure Maru was outside the Port of Lushun. Commander Lieutenant Shimazaki and 13 crew members were not threatened after boarding the lifeboat. However, in the dark, no ship was found to be connected, so he had to row south, hoping to find the joint fleet; while Incheon Maru rushed to the Port of Lushun, Commander Captain Saito Shigoro and 14 crew members boarding the lifeboat.

After the two lifeboats merged, the two estimated that the joint fleet had returned and could not catch up. They only continued to sail south and landed on the Shandong Peninsula, because this was the territory of the East China government, which could ensure safety and then try to return to Japan.

As a result, the two lifeboats were discovered by the radar of the Sanya ship. After asking Qingdao, they immediately contacted the Qingzhou and asked the Qingzhou to rescue the two lifeboats. The East China government believes that saving these two lifeboats would not be of great help to Japan, but the symbolic significance was significant. It would allow the East China government to gain a moral advantage in future negotiations with the Japanese government and could stabilize Japan to a large extent. No matter what, the East China government rescued Japanese soldiers, which is a great favor.

After receiving this news, Hirahachiro Togo also breathed a sigh of relief. Although on the surface, Hirahachiro Togo's emotions were not affected by the failure of this closed combat. Moreover, on the way back, Hirahachiro Togo also negotiated with Matsushi Akiyama, believing that the closed combat is still worthy of, and this failure was mainly due to insufficient experience. Therefore, Hirahachiro Togo asked Matsushi Akiyama to carefully summarize the experience and lessons learned from the failure of this closed combat and formulate a plan for the next closed combat.

However, the pressure on Hirahachiro Togo was quite large, because the navy's actions were of great importance and directly affected Japan's next battle plan. If the Russian Pacific Fleet could not be suppressed and the sea control power would be obtained, it would affect Japan's army operations.

Although Japan can use the Korean Peninsula as a springboard, it still has to go to sea from Japan to the Korean Peninsula. Moreover, the Korean Peninsula is surrounded by sea on three sides. If it cannot control the sea power, it will be full of loopholes. Although the Japanese Navy and the Army have always been in disagreement, on the one hand, the overall situation should be put first, and the conflicts between the navy and the army should be relaxed; on the other hand, the navy cannot lose face in front of the army, and if Japan wants to suppress the Pacific Fleet, it can only use closed combat methods.

Finding the 29 lost officers and soldiers will greatly alleviate the pressure of Hirahachiro Togo, because in this way, although the closed combat failed, only one soldier was killed. In any case, a ship was still sunk in the predetermined position, which is a pity. In this way, the second closed combat will not be hindered by the military command.

However, although the first closed-off battle was not successful, Japan still had full strength and promoted the campaign in the name of victory in the battle. The song "Death Squad" was specially created for 77 people. After all, only victory can arouse the enthusiasm of the people and the spirit of unity against the enemy.

But at this moment, the Army Department sent people to ask the Navy whether the Navy had returned from attacking Lushun and was defeated. It turned out that the Navy launched the Lushun port and the Army had not received any notice in advance. Of course, this is a normal thing in Japan. The navy and the army have always been in their own affairs and do not communicate with each other. However, on the 26th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a telegram from the Minister to Qing Dynasty, saying that the Russian communique stated that the Japanese fleet had returned from attacking Lushun and returned on the 23rd. Five Japanese warships were sunk by the Russian army. It turned out that during the battle last night, the Russian army did not know that Japan planned to block Lushun port, and thought that Japan was landing at night, and regarded the closed ship as a troop transport landing ship. Therefore, when the closed ship sank, he thought it was sunk by artillery fire. Now the Russian army also urgently needed victory to increase morale, so he exaggerated the victory of the battle.

The Army Department is not sure whether it is true or not, because now the Army Department is also formulating its own combat plan and preparing to divide its troops into two groups, one from the Korean Peninsula crossing the Yalu River to advance to the eastern part of the Liaodong Peninsula, and the other one lands in the Dalian Bay area at the southwest end of the Liaodong Peninsula, forming a slit-off force. However, if the Navy fails, the Army's plan will definitely not be completed. So he hurriedly contacted the Navy to inquire about the situation.

Minister of the Navy, Murata Yamamoto, hurriedly informed the Army of the results of the closed combat, and of course focused on the optimistic results of a closed ship sinking at the predetermined location, and only one person was killed in the entire army. He also said that the Navy is planning a second closed combat, and with the experience of the previous one, the second time will definitely be successful.
Chapter completed!