Luo Yue stood on the bridge of the destroyer Yongcheng, looking at both sides, there was a surging river, the white waves were rolling, and the shoreline was almost invisible, as if the sea was boundless, but from time to time you could still see the remnants of the river embankment on both sides of the river that were washed across by floods, as well as a few canopies and roofs, which reminded Luo Yue that this was sailing in the Yangtze River, not in the sea.

Seeing such a scene, Luo Yue not only felt a lot of emotion in his heart, but said, "I didn't expect this disaster to be so serious. ”

He Ping, the captain of the Yongcheng who was beside Luo Yue, said: "Yes, chief, when I first sent the Luzhou resettlement camp, the river embankments in this area had not yet been crossed, but now they have all been washed away by the flood. The common people here have suffered. This is much worse than what happened to my brother and me 7 years ago!"

Luo Yue smiled and said: "You two brothers are good, your brother is now the captain of the cruiser, and you have also become the captain of the destroyer, when I saved you two brothers, I didn't expect that you two would have today's achievements." ”

He Ping is 22 years old this year, and his brother He Xin are two fishermen's children who were rescued by the traverser when he first came to this era, his brother He Xin joined the People's Army Navy very early, and has now served as the captain of the second-class cruiser, the military rank is major, and He Ping's age is young, so he first studied in the Hope School, and officially joined the People's Army Navy before the Far East War, a convoy frigate for the use of supplies.

The Yongcheng destroyer is the latest type of destroyer in the KPA Navy sequence, but the low-profile version of the high-density class of the previous destroyer, with a length of 60 meters, a width of 7.5 meters, a draft of 2.85 meters, and a standard displacement of 720 tons excluding ** launch tubes, including ** launch tubes 760 tons, speed 22 knots, endurance of 12 knots / 3,000 nautical miles, the ship's armament is 1 105 mm main gun at the bow and stern, two 50 mm rapid-fire guns, 2 50 mm rapid-fire gun mounts on the left and right sides of the hull, 3 Maxim machine gun mounts, and 4 550 mm gyratory ** launch tubes. Among them, the 50 mm rapid-fire gun in the middle of the hull can be configured and installed according to the operational needs.

There are five ships of the same class, namely Yongcheng, Zhecheng, Yucheng, Kaocheng, and Dancheng, and form a destroyer detachment, and the commander of the detachment is concurrently served by He Ping, the captain of the flagship Yongcheng, and the names of these five warships are all the names of the county towns of Guide Prefecture in Henan Province, because they all have the word "city", so this destroyer detachment is also called the five-city fleet.

Since this is a disaster relief mission, none of the five warships are equipped with ** launch tubes, but all rear guns and machine guns are fully equipped. And the average escort ship consists of only two destroyers and two river patrol boats.

The river patrol boat participating in the escort is 45 meters long, 6 meters wide, 2.3 meters draft, standard displacement of 355 tons, speed of 20 knots, endurance of 10 knots / 2800 nautical miles, shipboard weapons are: 1 75 mm main gun in the bow of the ship, 2 50 mm rapid-fire guns, 3 50 mm rapid-fire guns in the stern, 1 50 mm rapid-fire gun mount on the left and right sides of the hull and 2 Maxim machine gun mounts, because it is an inland river patrol boat, so there is no ** launch tube installed.

This type of patrol boat has four ships, namely Jiangwan, Shipu, Tangqiao, and Nanqiao, all of which are named after towns in Shanghai, and are also the largest type of inland river combat boats, and also take into account the function of coastal patrols, and are also the only warships installed with medium-caliber guns in inland river boats, and other river boats are only equipped with 50 mm rapid-fire guns and Makqin machine guns, so this type of warship has strong combat effectiveness, and it is also the only large river combat boat detachment in Shanghai's river fleet. However, due to the large tonnage and deep draft of this type of warship, it cannot go deep into the disaster area to provide disaster relief, and can only be used as an escort warship.

However, this time Luo Yue traveled with the fleet to inspect the various disaster resettlement camps, and the accompanying escort army had two battalions, and there were also 20 transport ships, because now 12 disaster resettlement camps have been established, and more than one million victims have been accommodated, and the amount of materials needed is very huge, so the scale of the formation participating in the escort this time has also expanded, and a total of 3 destroyers have been dispatched, Yongcheng, Zhecheng, Yucheng, and 4 inland river patrol boats have also been dispatched.

The first stop of the fleet was the Luzhou resettlement camp, because He Ping had traveled 3 times to and from this waterway, and he was also very familiar with it, and said: "Chief, in almost 1 hour, we will leave the Yangtze River and enter the Xinyu River." ”

Luo Yue nodded and said, "Okay." ”

At this moment, the Jiangwan, which was piloting ahead, sent a signal and spotted an unknown vessel 10 kilometers ahead. Since it was in an area controlled by the Qing court, it was not daring to take a ship into every voyage, and it was inevitable that a warship would be sent forward to lead the voyage at a distance of 4-5 kilometers from the fleet, and once a danger was discovered, it could be warned in advance.

After receiving the warning from the Jiangwan, Luo Yue and He Ping both picked up the binoculars and looked ahead, and sure enough, they saw the sails of more than 10 ships, lined up horizontally on the river, which was obviously not a normal voyage, but an intention to intercept. So He Ping immediately issued an order, ordering the Jiangwan to return to the fleet, and all warships were on alert and ready for battle, and ordered all transport ships to stop sailing and anchor on the spot.

After about 20 minutes, the Jiangwan had returned to the team, and at the same time, the distance between the ship and the unknown fleet in front had also been shortened to within 10 kilometers, and Luo Yue and He Ping also saw clearly that the flags of the Qing court and the governor of Anhui were displayed on the ship, and they could see that the soldiers on the ship were indeed in the clothing of the Qing army.

This also made Luo Yue somewhat surprised, he didn't expect the Qing court to plan to intercept the fleet of East China's ** on the river, it seems that he has a bit of courage. However, the number of ships on the other side is quite large, there are 15 or 6 ships, at least more than half of the escorting KPA fleet, but most of them are still wooden sailing ships powered by sails and oars, and although it can be seen that they are steam-powered, because there are no sails and chimneys, they do not look like warships, but are modified with civilian ships, so such a fleet, although there are quite a few of them, their combat effectiveness is really limited, and it can never be the opponent of the KPA fleet.

At this time, the lookout sent a report, and it turned out that the other party sent a flag, demanding that the ships in East China be suspended, inspected, or returned.

He Ping said: "Chief, how should we reply to them." ”

Luo Yue sneered and said, "Tell them to leave this area of water immediately, otherwise we will regard it as a hostile act and will immediately go to war." After closing the distance, a warning shot is conducted. How to fight, you command. ”

He Ping said: "Yes." He immediately ordered the standard-bearer to reply, and then ordered the fleet to line up in a horizontal formation and enter battle mode. The fleet of the People's Army quickly adjusted its position, with the Yongcheng in the center, the Zhecheng and Yucheng on the left and right of the Yongcheng, arranged in a "pin" shape, while the Jiangwan and Shipu were on the left, and the Tangqiao and Nanqiao were on the right, spreading horizontally.

Luo Yue said: "Captain He, be careful not to let them pass through our battle line and attack the transport ship behind us. ”

He Ping said: "Don't worry, I won't give them this chance." ”

At this time, the distance between the two sides has been shortened to about 6,000 meters, and the signal from the main gun position has been completed, and the setting of the firing unit has been completed, and warning shooting can be carried out, so He Ping ordered: "Fire, warning shooting." ”

It turned out that the fleet that intercepted the East China ** fleet was sent by Anhui Governor Enming, who originally ordered local officials in Anhui Province to expel the disaster relief personnel in East China, but local officials everywhere were not stupid and put East China ** The disaster relief personnel drove away, what to do if the disaster victims exploded, not to mention that they couldn't drive away, each disaster resettlement camp was guarded by the People's Army, so they all complained to Enming, saying that they could not do anything, and the Luzhou government even sent an official letter to Enming, saying that the disaster in Luzhou was serious, the treasury was empty, the military revolution was insufficient, and there was no power to drive it away.

And Enming was also so angry that he was angry, and immediately sent a telegram to Beijing to impeach Lu Chengxiang, the prefect of Luzhou, but the impeachment can be sent by telegram, but the Qing court wants to remove Lu Chengxiang from his post or punish the crime, it is necessary to send the official official document to the governor of Anhui Yamen, and then from the governor Yamen to Luzhou Mansion, under normal circumstances, this process is generally about 1 month, but now there is a flood in Anhui, and Henan Province is also occupied by East China, although East China did not cut off the north-south connection of the Qing court, but such an official document, the Qing court did not dare to go from Henan, so it could only take a detour, which would take at least 3 or 4 months, so when Lu Chengxiang, the prefect of Luzhou, was demoted, the flood was probably about to end.

But the imperial court is to ask for the expulsion of the disaster relief personnel of East China, not a few disobedient officials, so after Enming sent the telegram of the Impeachment, he also put this matter aside first, and immediately ordered the gathering of troops, and really planned to go to Luzhou Mansion to expel the disaster relief personnel of East China.

Fortunately, Enming's staff is still a clear person, and knows that this is absolutely unacceptable, so Anhui is seriously affected, there is a shortage of money and food, and the army has not been in battle for a long time. In fact, Enming is also impulsive, of course he also knows that sending troops to fight requires money, not to mention anything else, that is, as soon as the army is pulled, the soldiers' settlement must be handed out, otherwise no one will move the nest at all, even if the army is forced to pull out, it will not work the battlefield, and this battle will not be fought at all.

But a soldier's settlement silver is at least 2 or 3 taels, based on the dispatch of 5,000 troops, which is tens of thousands of taels of silver, and the army has to prepare grain and grass materials and ships before the army is drawn, these are also money, but now the governor's treasury has long been empty, so what can be done with this money? In addition, Anhui Province does not have any elite troops, or rely on the original old green battalion soldiers, Enming also knows what kind of virtue the old green battalion soldiers are, it is indeed useless, so this soldier is really unable to come out.