An escort fleet was set up, and all the ocean-going capital ships of various local fleets were transferred to the escort fleet, and at the same time, Duan Hongxiao, the commander of the escort fleet, was appointed as the commander of the escort fleet.

This move is an important move for Lin Ziran to develop and control the navy.

And other people can also see this, such as Jiang Weizhi, chief of the Navy Staff, who sees it clearly.

But he was against it, and he even supported it.

This support is not to say that he is personally loyal to Lin Ziran, but for the overall interests of the navy.

He also wanted to integrate the Nanhai State Fleet, which is now full of factions, and establish an ocean-going fleet that has always been under smooth command, just like the Nanhai State Fleet in the era of Duke Meng.

Jiang Weizhi, like many naval officers in his early years, was in the Nanhai State Fleet in the era of Duke Meng, when he was already the captain of the capital ship.

Later, Nanhai Prefecture was divided, and he, like most naval generals, maintained the Nanhai Prefecture fleet as much as possible without excessive division, and ostensibly owed allegiance to the successive county guards of Luohai County.

There is no way, Luohai County has a large-scale shipbuilding industry, and it also has the largest military port, if you are not loyal to Luohai County, the Nanhai State fleet will not even be able to survive.

However, this allegiance relationship is, to some extent, more like attachment.

The navy needs Luohai County to maintain it, but the navy doesn't care who is the commander of Luohai County.

Moreover, as a coastal county, it is also the outlet of the Luo River, no matter who is the county guard of Luohai County, it is impossible to give up the navy.

Jiang Weizhi and other core generals of the navy worked hard to maintain the navy during this period, and persuaded the successive county guards of Luohai County to maintain the navy and build warships, so that the Nanhai Prefecture fleet would always be maintained in a state of consistent scale and technology.

After this situation lasted for twenty years, Lin Ziran rose rapidly and quickly captured Luohai County, when Jiang Weizhi was already the commander of the Luohai Fleet, and he and other high-ranking naval officials decisively led the Luohai Fleet to declare allegiance to Lin Ziran.

With the best cooperation of the Navy, the Luoan Fleet and the Luohai Fleet were able to be smoothly integrated.

After the merger of the Luohai Fleet and the Luoan Fleet, Jiang Weizhi became the chief of staff, and to some extent, he belonged to the leader of the Luohai faction of the current Nanhai State Fleet.

However, Jiang Weizhi doesn't think so!

He not only regarded himself as the leader of the Luo Hai faction, but also regarded himself as the leader of the entire Nanhai State fleet.

The development and expansion of the Nanhai State Fleet is still the most important goal in his heart!

Lin Ziran's measures will inevitably damage the interests of the Luo Hai faction and all other factions, but Jiang Weizhi has given firm support.

This is because only in this way can we break the current situation in which the various local fleets are fighting their own battles and can we establish a truly unified fleet.

In Jiang Weizhi's view, the local detachment is simply out of date and should be eliminated.

For this reason, Jiang Weizhi expressed firm support for Lin Ziran's policy of setting up an escort fleet, and at the same time secretly warned the uneasy elements in the Luo Hai faction to stop making trouble.

If you have the ability, you should use all your skills, give full play to your talents, and compete for positions in the escort fleet, instead of complaining in the back.

Of course, even those who don't listen to warnings!

Not only the people of the Luohai faction, but also the Luo'an faction, the Guang'an faction, the Hetai faction, and the Dongding faction all raised objections.

What did Lin Ziran do about this?

Without Lin Ziran doing it, Jiang Weizhi directly made a list of the names of these people and sent them to Lin Ziran.

"Some of the people on the list are due to personal reasons, and some are due to lack of comprehensive quality, and they are already insufficient to bear the burden of active work, and they can be transferred to the reserve!"

Lin Ziran himself was surprised by Jiang Weizhi's list, this person was also ruthless enough, and he was going to turn more than a dozen senior naval officers into reserves at this time, and he was not afraid of causing turmoil within the navy.

Although Lin Ziran's purpose is to integrate the navy, weaken the factions, and build a large fleet with the escort fleet as the core, he is not willing to cause turmoil in the navy because of this matter.

Now the sea control of Shayang Bay still needs to be guarded by the fleet, otherwise, the navies of those feudal towns in the north will dare to bombard Luohai City.

It is true that Lin Ziran wants to integrate the navy, but he also does not want to make the navy turbulent.

So he looked at Jiang Weizhi: "Will there be a problem with retiring so many senior generals at once?" ”

Jiang Wei said straightly: "In the tone, there may be some problems, but they are controllable, the people on the list have alternative candidates, and this will not affect the work of the escort fleet, at most, it will affect the local fleet!" ”

Lin Ziran nodded slightly after hearing this: "Since this is the case, then follow your wishes!" ”

Lin Ziran himself is not used to these admirals on the list, all of them are typical examples of opposing the establishment of an escort fleet, and he just took this opportunity to make an example of the monkeys, so as not to make the current old admirals think that without them, the navy will not be able to operate.

Putting down this list, Lin Ziran continued: "How is the construction of the Pingbo, I said that it would be put into service last month, why is there no news yet!" ”

When Lin Ziran moved into Luohai County, the ship had already completed most of the construction, and at the beginning it was ready to install front-loading rifled guns, which was still a row-side layout for the ship.

However, after Lin Ziran stayed in Luohaicheng and took over the navy, because of the appearance of rear-loading rifled guns, the navy took the initiative to modify the design of the ship.

After intense construction, it could have been put into service last month, but Lin Ziran has never been able to get the news of the ship's service.

Lin Ziran had seen the design sketch of the Pingbo before, and this thing is to some extent the top embodiment of the industrial power of contemporary Nanhai State!

Although it only has a displacement of more than 6,000 tons, and the tonnage is not as good as the 10,000-ton ironclad ship built by Luohai Shipyard for the Orr Kingdom, the ship-building technology and design concept used by the ship are closely following the pace of contemporary first-class powers.

In addition to artillery, its power system and the armor used are the top industrial products that Nanhai Prefecture can take out at present, and although the overall technical level is not as good as the level of those top powers, it also maintains the level of the first-class end.

How to say well, the difference is a little worse, but it can be used, and it will not be opened up by those powerful countries!

And it has an advantage in firepower, because it is equipped with rear-loading artillery, and at present, the navies of various countries have no other navies equipped with rear-loading naval guns.

In a sense, this is the first battleship on the Blue Star to be specially designed for rear-loading guns, even if it is only a half-baked design change in the middle of the process.

Jiang Weizhi himself was also quite concerned about the Pingbo, but he sighed: "Last month, the Pingbo had completed all the construction and sea trials, but during the power test, the steam engine failed to withstand the expected pressure, and there was an accident, and now it is being repaired urgently!" ”

"If you want to join the active service, you have to be half a month away at the earliest!"

In this regard, Lin Ziran has nothing to say!

It is normal for Nanhai Prefecture to build this kind of main warship that closely follows the level of a first-class power on the Blue Star with the power of one state, but it is still the same sentence, it is almost not important, the important thing is to keep up with the pace and not fall too far behind.

Fortunately, the Pingbo is not needed for the time being, and there is still a vote of old warships available in the Nanhai Prefecture Navy, and these old warships can also be used for temporary replacement of rear-loading guns.

Lin Ziran also expected Duan Hongxiao, the new commander of the escort fleet, to be able to use the fleet equipped with rear-loading naval guns under his command to teach the navy of the northern feudal towns a heavy lesson.

Just like the army's use of rear-loading artillery, Liankedongdingzhou, and Zishengzhou, Lin Ziran hopes that the navy can also give full play to the tactical advantages of rear-loading artillery to lay the foundation for naval warfare.

And some generals in the navy also think so, wanting to consolidate the position of the navy through a big victory, otherwise, when Lin Ziran unifies Daheng in the future, the navy will probably be reduced to a supporting role, and there will be no sense of existence.

However, the Daheng Navy for more than fifty years is one of the top five existences in the world, the overlord of the Endless Sea!