An hour after the Nanhua Fleet left, Chiyoda arrived in the waters off Sulu Island.

On the sea, the chimneys of some merchant ships are still exposed. This is because the sea water in the Sulu Islands is not deep.

After being attacked, the merchant ship deviated from the waterway and ran around randomly, and was sunk in shallow water.

"Nani!" The captain of the Chiyoda couldn't believe the scene in front of him.

After spending so much money and fighting the enemy for so long, we still failed.

"Didn't you say that Nanhua only has four warships? Why? Why are there still warships attacking merchant ships!" The captain couldn't understand.

"Captain! What should we do now? We still don't know if the people who attacked the merchant ship have left." The first mate said depressedly.

"Go back!" The captain was furious and incompetent. He searched the sea for a long time and found no survivors, so he had no choice but to return to his team.

"Do you know what you are talking about!" When Yamamoto Gonbei heard this, he almost twitched.

"The Imperial Navy spent so much military expenditure, but only achieved this result." Yamamoto Gonbei just thought about it for a moment, and immediately thought further.

"The result of the naval battle... was that we sank three of the enemy's cutting-edge warships and three old-fashioned warships. The enemy was powerful. When our army was fighting with them, they attacked merchant ships. Our army was involved in the war and could not rescue them. Do you understand?"

Yamamoto Gonbei looked at the two captains in front of him fiercely.

"Hi!" Murase Kazutaka breathed a sigh of relief, at least he didn't have to commit seppuku outside the Imperial Palace.

boom!!

"A huge explosion occurred in Naniwa!"

A violent, unprecedented explosion came, followed by hysterical cries from the watchtower.

"Haga!" Yamamoto Gonbei looked at the thick smoke in the distance, pulled out his command sword, and struck it on the table.

Boom~!

"Gao Qianhui is seriously injured!" the messenger said breathlessly.

Turn the time back to when Takachie was helping Naniwa with damage control.

There were more than a dozen holes on the Naniwa's waterline, the largest of which was half a meter wide. Sea water rushed into the coal bunker, and the ship became heavier and heavier, tilting to the right.

In order to avoid capsizing, the second officer Naniwa ordered the left side to be filled with water, and at the same time organized the pumping of water on the right side, blocking the water inlet, etc.

As for the fire in the cabin, there is no human intervention for the time being. Anyway, the torpedo cabin and ammunition compartment have been filled with water.

After the damage control soldiers on Gao Qianhui climbed onto the ship, some of them were directed by the second officer to put out the fire, while the rest blocked the water inlet.

But as luck would have it, the person Gao Qianhui sent to assist with damage control was also the second officer.

The situation was urgent at the moment, so he listened. After the water inlet was blocked, he watched Naniwa's soldiers sit and rest while his own soldiers were sent to work...

"Everyone is here! Put out the fire in the middle of the ship first. When you are tired, find a cabin that is filled with water and pump out the water."

Therefore, Takachie's damage control soldiers organized work together (catching fish). Naniwa's damage control soldiers saw someone doing it, so they rested peacefully.

At this time, the front of the ship was near the bottom warehouse, Naniwa's hospital, and several sparks fell on the gauze that had been baked for a long time.

"Let's go, the torpedo room must be filled with water. Let's go somewhere to rest for a while." Several damage control officers who came to support dragged a pipe to the torpedo room, which is the cabin below the hospital.

Gradually, the gauze ignited the flammable alcohol, ignited the wood, and the fire gradually became bigger.

But no one noticed, no one went to check, everyone was sitting, and the two second officers were bickering.

At eleven o'clock sharp, the water in the torpedo room was completely drained and several people left. At the same time, someone finally discovered that there was a fire in the hospital and began to put out the fire.

But it was already too late. At 11:20, after twenty minutes of baking, the temperature of the torpedo cabin reached 400 degrees, and the moisture in the wooden items quickly evaporated.

At half past eleven, shortly after Chiyoda returned to the fleet, the woodwork of the torpedo room was ignited, but no one noticed and everyone went to put out the hospital fire.

Under direct heat, the torpedoes exploded violently. Six torpedoes exploded at the same time, directly tearing off all parts in front of the Naniwa bridge.

That was the loud noise that Yamamoto heard.

"Not only that, because Gao Qianhui was too close, the flying 260mm Krupp cannon hit her midship, causing a large hole and the transmission system was scrapped. In addition, the countless debris generated by the explosion caused a large number of casualties to Gao Qianhui.

Casualties, that’s basically it…”

It was already a month after the naval battle, and until the end of September, this fleet, which lacked coal and had to drag one warship away, finally returned to Japan with great efforts.

At this time, Yamamoto Gonbei was making a battle report to the Naval Staff Headquarters.

"This matter must not be spread. Let's publicize it according to Gonbei's report!" When a group of people fell silent, Ito made a decision.

"General Oyama, how long can the army hold on alone?" Ito looked at another minister who was also listening to the report.

Shanxian didn't come, so we had to ask Dashanyan.

"Food can be found on the spot, but the ammunition is only enough to last two battles." Dashan silently thought about the amount of supplies he arrived with the army last time.

"Ministry of Foreign Affairs, negotiate with Nan Hua first to delay time."

"At the same time, speed up the ship purchase process and try to buy warships that are about to be completed or are already in use!"

"Contact the British to discuss the possibility of obtaining supplies from the colonies."

Ito had no choice now. Of the twenty ships, one warship sank, one was seriously damaged, and four were slightly damaged.

More than 300 people died, more than 100 people were injured, and two divisions were left alone overseas. Now a truce is called surrender, and Japan cannot afford to lose.

…

Liu Yiming didn't know about the sinking of Naniwa either, but he knew that his strategic goals had been exceeded.

"Okay, at least we will be relaxed and happy for three months." This is what Liu Yiming told Xu Hui.

"Why? Any new news from the front line?" Xu Hui thought it was the Army's decisive victory.

"No! My order is to defend and retreat.

The remaining Chinese in the Japanese-occupied areas have long been gathered together. After our army gathers the Chinese and wealth in a place, it will retreat in large strides." Liu Yiming gave Xu Hui the information on the captured four transport ships.

"Great! There is a shortage of ships recently." Xu Hui was happy from the bottom of his heart. He went everywhere to rush for transportation, but there was no ship.

Only after Xu Hui asked people to take delivery of the four ships did he remember what he had just said.

"Killing with a borrowed knife? Will the natives collude with the Japanese?" In Xu Hui's mind, the two were already of the same kind.

Not only Xu Hui, but also Liu Yiming are vigorously promoting Great Chinaism and establishing national political power. Coupled with what the Japanese have done, Japan's image has returned to the Japanese pirate era.

"You are worrying too much. The Japanese did something in the occupied areas that we wanted to do, but it was not easy to do, and it was time-consuming and labor-intensive. Now that it has started, I will not let it end. Guess where their food will be without logistics?

Come?" Liu Yiming smiled evilly.

"Okay, I'll leave it to you. The Navy is back and I have to go take a look." Liu Yiming saw Xu Hui's secretary come in with a lot of documents and immediately left.

"Prime Minister, the British are looking for you." Before he could run out of the door, his secretary came.

"Is it Cyril? Let him wait." Liu Yiming knew what was going on. Cyril had already approached him before.

Because of the Franco-Russian military alliance, the Conservative Party was completely defeated in the British general election in mid-July, and Britain changed its strategy.

One of the new strategies is to support Japan, replace the role of the Qing Navy, and block Tsarist Russia at sea.

This plan also involved France in order to sow discord, but France readily agreed to the plan.

Because France believes that Tsarist Russia, which has suffered a bloody blow in the east, can turn its attention to the west and Germany to reduce the pressure on France.

See, this is world politics, it only cares about interests and nothing else.

"Mr. Consul, I heard that you are looking for me in an emergency?" Liu Yiming opened the door and Cyril was sitting upright.

"Good day, Mr. Prime Minister."

"The Japanese minister made a request to London to mediate the war between the two countries. I am here for this matter." Cyril adjusted his dress.

"Oh? What can they pay? Money? Land? Or what?" Liu Yiming asked.

"Mr. Prime Minister, this is mediation, for the sake of peace." Cyril's mouth twitched, he shouldn't have taken this job.

"That means they don't want to give anything? Pretend that nothing happened?" Liu Yiming smiled.

"Okay, but there are a few requirements."

"You said, I will tell the Japanese side." Cyril decided to listen to the request first.

"First, no Japanese ship or person is allowed to enter our waters and sphere of influence."

"Second, Britain will not accept any form of Japanese refugees, prisoners, etc."

"Third, we will not cease fire during the negotiations."

"Sir, this is not a negotiation attitude..." Cyril didn't know what to say.

"Unless the United Kingdom can guarantee that Japan will not obtain any ship from the international community during the negotiation period and one month after, otherwise this is the bottom line." Liu Yiming still doesn't know that the Japanese are using negotiations to delay time, and then make a sneak attack.

"This..." Cyril obviously couldn't agree.

for this war.

Some people in the UK support South China, some support Japan, and some advocate maintaining a balance, which is none of my business.

"Let's go, the fleet is back today, want to take a look?" Liu Yiming invited.

"What an honor!" Cyril jumped up. This was also his purpose, to observe the success or failure of warships in order to improve them. The navy really wanted the kind of patrol equipment customized by Nanhua.
To be continued...