Chapter 4: Three Hundred White Bone Spirits (Part 1)

  The flagship of this Japanese expeditionary fleet was Matsushima, with Admiral Heihachiro Togo, who had just been promoted to Rear-Admiral.

  Matsushima was a Matsushima-class protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, built to counter the Russian Protected cruisers Dmitrii Donskoi and Vladimir Monomakh. Three ships were built in this class: Matsushima, Itsukushima, and Hashidate.

  Hashidate was built at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in Japan and launched in 1891. The three ships were named after famous Japanese scenic spots, "Matsushima", "Itsukushima Shrine" and "Amanohashidate", so they are also called Sankeikan (Three Views Ships). However, Hashidate was lost during the previous landing fleet, now only Matsushima and Itsukushima remain.

  This time Matsushima served as the flagship, and Itsukushima followed suit. In addition, there were four armored cruisers "Yoshino", "Takachiho", "Akitsushima" and "Naniwa", as well as six wooden cruisers. The Japanese government was determined to send out all its main warships, leaving only a few old gunboats at home to guard the door, vowing to pull out the thorn of Taiwan that had been stuck in their throat.

  Tōyama Suketsune learned from the previous two times and did not bring the troop ships with him, but left them in Ryukyu, leading only 12 warships to Taiwan. Moreover, he no longer took the shortest route, but chose to go south around the Yaeyama Islands and then west to attack Hualien Port. With the troop ships gone, the fleet's speed also increased to 15 knots.

  On the night of June 17, after 10 o'clock, the Eastern Fleet approached the waters near Potsdam Island, only 100 nautical miles from Hualien. At this speed, it can reach Hualien Port before dawn and launch an attack.

  According to Tōgō's plan, the fleet was supposed to launch a bombardment of Hualien before dawn, then send the "Jingei" back to inform the transport fleet to set sail and rendezvous with the attacking fleet off Hualien. By that time, his own attack fleet should have thoroughly destroyed the defenses of Hualien harbor, allowing the army's divisions to land there and occupy all of Taiwan. Tōgō thought he had been extremely cautious in making these arrangements; occupying Korea and the ports of Lüshun and Weihai had not been so troublesome, yet those were guarded by hundreds of thousands of Qing troops, whereas this island of Taiwan probably had only tens of thousands of soldiers at most, with hardly any ships. So why had the previous two attacks failed?

  If Hanyang Ziji and Kaitaro Izumi were aware, they would definitely go up to the Dongxiang River to take a beating. If they could foresee the danger, these two senior Japanese naval leaders would be so suffocated that they sank to the bottom of the sea? Isn't it just that we don't know?

  As Higashionna Heitarō advanced according to plan through the westernmost small island of Hateruma Island in the Yaeyama Islands at night, he did not know that his fleet had been constantly monitored and reported by submarines outside the port from its appearance in Ryukyu to its assembly and departure.

  Now behind his fleet were following several Taiwanese submarines, which sent all the information of the Donghai Fleet to Taiwan with antennas dragged on the water surface. At this time, just a few miles ahead on the sea floor, more than 50 black giants were silently waiting for his fleet to enter the ambush circle, these black giants all stared at a single eye, poking out of the sea, searching around.

  As it was a nighttime voyage, each ship in the fleet had its navigation lights on. In an era without radar navigation, navigation lights were essential equipment for nighttime formation voyages; if they weren't turned on, the fleet's formation and distance couldn't be guaranteed, and it was likely that they would end up crashing into each other before even reaching the enemy.

  Although in the vast ocean, dozens of small lights can't attract people's attention from afar, but in a periscope with a purposeful search for targets, they are the eyes of nocturnal prey, small and bright.

  "Order all ships, launch the attack at 11 o'clock sharp. There are still 15 minutes left, each ship adjusts its attacking position, assigns targets in order of the enemy." In a submarine underwater, Wu Mingjie, the commander of the first submarine squadron who had participated in two ambush battles, stared at the periscope and gave combat orders to his deputy captain beside him.

  The night formation of the Oyama fleet was a single column, which was simple and easy to implement, just suitable for nighttime convoy operations, and the distance between ships was also relatively easy to control. The head of the fleet was the Japanese protected cruiser "Naniwa", this ten-year-old cruiser was known for its speed in the Japanese fleet, this time it went out with its sister ship "Takachiho" and took an important position at the head and tail of the Oyama fleet.

  At this time, in the command tower of "Yamato", Funaki Ryōtarō, who replaced Higashinada Heitarō as the captain, was looking at the sea chart and occasionally asking about the current speed to determine his position. As the flagship of the fleet, both route and speed had to be accurate, and slight deviations would cause the entire fleet to make mistakes together.

  "Boom...". In an instant, the entire hull was thrown up, and then a loud explosion sounded. A fireball burst out of the left bow of the ship. At the same time as "Nagato" caught fire, several ships in the fleet behind it, including "Kaga", "Akagi", "Hiei", "Chikuma", and "Kinugasa", almost simultaneously erupted into fireballs, some at the bow, some at the stern, and some with multiple fireballs bursting out in succession. Only two wooden cruisers at the rear of the fleet were not attacked, it is unknown whether the torpedoes missed or if the shallow draft due to their wooden hulls allowed them to evade the torpedo attack.

  "Kotaka" and "Akebono" were both hit by more than two torpedoes, with the entire port side almost blown open. The ship capsized immediately after the explosion, and was basically beyond salvation. "Nagatsuki" and flagship "Matsushima" were each hit by only one torpedo, although fires broke out on board, there were no signs of sinking.

  "The Biwei" was cut in two and sank into the sea amidst flames. The remaining wooden cruisers were basically all blown apart and shattered, with not even a semblance of their original shape left, leaving only a heap of burning wood and debris on the surface of the water.

  At this time, Tōgō Heihachirō, who was standing on the flagship Matsushima, finally understood how the previous two landing fleets had disappeared. However, his own fleet had lost nearly half of its ships in an instant, and most of the remaining ones were on fire. Tōgō himself also felt that he would not be much luckier than the two predecessors before him. Nevertheless, as the commander of the fleet, Tōgō tried to calm down and gave orders to the officers in the command tower to rescue themselves and report the enemy's position.

  Where is the enemy? The sea surface was pitch black, except for the ships of their own fleet burning, and the surroundings were dead darkness. The lookouts held binoculars, staring with wide eyes, but didn't see a glimmer of light or a shadow of a ship, only the sea wind and the screams of the sailors.

  The two wooden cruisers that had not been torpedoed were accelerating to catch up, trying to get close to the flagship and asking in flag language whether "Matsushima" needed to change its flagship. However, before "Matsushima" could respond, these two wooden cruisers were destroyed by a fierce explosion.

  Watching the two cruisers shatter like firecrackers right before his eyes, Togo knew that this time he was done for, the fleet was done for, and Japan's national destiny was also done for. He adjusted his uniform, took out his command sword, knelt in front of the helm, and with the standard posture of a Japanese samurai, fulfilled his duty.