In the southern port of Xinjing, three newly painted ironclad ships docked at the front of the port, followed by wooden warships and gunboats.

The inauguration ceremony of the Navy was held as scheduled, and Li Mingyuan, wearing a special navy white dress, rode a horse among a group of senior officers.

The open space on the shore of the harbor was full of soldiers, and 2,500 naval officers and men lined up in five neat phalanxes in a queue of 500 people, led by a group of young naval officers, eagerly waiting for the time when the navy would be formed.

"Stomp, stomp." More than a dozen guards soldiers rode into the naval camp on tall horses, and Chen Sen, Feng Guoan and other naval officers immediately stood up straight, their eyes at the gate of the camp.

The officers and men of the escort who first entered the naval camp were divided into two columns, replacing the naval soldiers on duty at the gate, and on horseback on both sides of the gate, more than 300 officers and men of the guard were stationed in an orderly manner to defend the camp, and then the senior military and political officials of Rio Grande do Sul headed by Li Mingyuan began to enter the camp.

A group of officers marched to the center of the barracks, and Chen Sen and others, who were waiting on the side, saluted neatly and expressed their welcome to Li Mingyuan, the commander of the navy.

There was an extreme shortage of naval talents in the Chinese troops, and the highest rank of naval officers such as Chen Sen who was promoted was only lieutenant colonel. As a technical branch of the Navy, the position of commander is not something that ordinary young officers can hold, so after careful consideration, Li Mingyuan personally assumed the post of commander of the Navy, and both the Army and the Navy were in charge.

Although Li Mingyuan attended the inauguration ceremony of the Navy as the commander of the Navy this time, his military rank did not belong to the naval system.

Under the current system of military ranks in the navy and army, the highest military rank awarded to a general is major general. And Li Mingyuan, as the monarch of Rio Gran do Sul and the commander of the two armies, the rank is a marshal tailored for him.

The rank of marshal is reserved for the monarch and is more like an honorary title in practical use.

Chen Sen and the others gave a military salute, walked quickly to Li Mingyuan's side, and said respectfully: "All the officers and men of the navy are here, waiting for the commander to review!" ”

"Let's get started!" Li Mingyuan returned a military salute and spoke.

The order was given, and the prepared naval soldiers immediately began to conduct armed exercises.

The three ironclad ships docked in the harbor activated their power plants, dense black steam smoke rose from the chimneys, the Chaoyang watchtower raised its combat flags, and the three ironclad ships quickly put on a combat formation and rushed towards the exercise target on the sea surface of the port.

The target ship was served as an abandoned sail warship, and all the sails on the warship were deployed, and when the exercise order was issued, the soldiers near the abandoned warship immediately untied the reins of the fixed ship, and the warship sailed downwind under the impetus of the sea wind.

On the Chaoyang, Hans, a Prussian officer who was in command of the exercise, stood in the command room with a telescope in his hand and ordered loudly: "Full rudder on the left, two cars into two, target the enemy ship on the left!" ”

"The left is full of rudders, two cars are in two, and the target is the enemy ship on the left!"

The helmsman repeats the command loudly while operating the rudder stick to correct the course of the ironclad.

The power of the two vehicles of the Chaoyang was all started, the corner speed increased, and the target warship in front of it was getting closer and closer.

"Target enemy ship, distance 1200, 20 to the right, one round of reloading, one shot of calibrated cannon,"

"Target enemy battleship, distance 1200, 20 to the right, one round of reloading, one shot of calibrated guns."

The sailors on duty relayed the order, and the gunners of the main guns on both sides of the battleship quickly loaded the shells.

"Ready, request command!"

"Put!"

"Put!" The gunner pulled down the bolt, and a loud "boom" sounded on the sea, and the shells fell in the water not far from the abandoned warship.

"Enemy ship in front of the target, distance 1130, 20 to the right, one shot, seven salvos, ready!"

Hans corrected the position of the abandoned warship and gave the order loudly.

The hasty battle order echoed on the Chaoyang, dozens of gunners hurriedly loaded the shells, the shells were loaded, Hans gave the order, and the abandoned warship was broken in two under a salvo of artillery strikes, and soon sank into the water.

Within half an hour, all six exercise ships were sunk, and two of the exercise ships were sunk by the Chaoyang.

The Chaoyang and Dawn were slightly injured in the Battle of Zoinvia and returned to the fleet after a month and a half of repairs, while the other ironclad ship was a seriously damaged battleship captured in the Paraguayan War, which was repaired by Prussian technicians for two months and was included in the naval sequence more than ten days ago, and was named the Victory by Li Mingyuan.

The main forces of the soon-to-be-established navy include three ironclad ships, the Chaoyang, the Dawn, and the Victory, 10 wooden warships of more than 1,500 tons, and 15 gunboats. and the supporting twenty-five troop carriers, supply ships, patrol ships,

The Chinese troops captured hundreds of large and small ships, except for the above-mentioned ships that remained as the main warships of the navy.

The Caribbean Fleet and the River River Fleet were divided into more than 70 ships, 90 ships of more than 500 tons of tonnage after carrying out transportation tasks, and more than 50 ocean-going ships purchased from other countries, and again made up the scale of 150 ships to establish the Rio Gran do Sul Ocean Shipping Company, which was mainly responsible for transporting Chinese immigrants, and at the same time carried goods from South America when the ships sailed empty, and sold them to merchants in the Nanyang region, who then sold them to other regions as middlemen.

At its peak, the Chinese naval division had more than 150 large and small ships, and after the reorganization of the army, there were less than 40 ships left in the main fleet.

Steam power was widely used in the maritime industry, and the electric motor powered by gasoline would soon develop in the next few decades, and the role of wooden warships became less and less, so Li Mingyuan tried to eliminate most of the wooden warships from the navy.

The obsolete wooden warships were not directly used for migrant transportation, but were first renovated in a civilian shipyard near the port of Xinjing, and a steam engine was installed as a power system to increase the speed of the ships.

After the exercise of the naval fleet, dominated by three ironclad ships, Hans and some naval officers and men disembarked one after another and reported to Li Mingyuan about the exercise.

Two months ago, Prussian experts and the officer corps arrived in Rio Gran do Sul and brought news from home that the Prussian government allowed the officer corps to join the Chinese army in a private capacity, and their treatment was the responsibility of the Chinese troops, and Prussia's permission for officers from the officer corps to join the Chinese troops was a country that Li Mingyuan sent to negotiate with them, and most of the more than 200 Prussian officers were lieutenant-level officers, Only a few Prussian staff officers who led the team and Hans, who had just been promoted, had the rank of major. Although the officers of the officer corps were not of high rank, the formal military education they received in the Prussian units was urgently needed by the Chinese troops, and in order to make them sincerely serve the Chinese troops, Li Mingyuan not only offered them favorable military salaries, but also encouraged them to join the Wehrmacht units, arranged good housing for them and additional military subsidies.

Under Li Mingyuan's lure with money and various conditions, three-quarters of the members of the officer corps agreed to join the Chinese army in a private capacity, and Hans was among them.

Li Mingyuan first affirmed Hans's achievements in person, and then took a letter of appointment from the guard, and said with a straight face: "Major Hans, in view of your excellent performance during the training and command of naval forces, I grant you the rank of lieutenant colonel of Rio Grande do Sul as the commander of the Navy of Rio Gran do Sul, and serve as the commander of the Second Fleet. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Hans received the letter of appointment with the traditional Steadiness and dignity of the Prussian soldiers, and at the same time Li Mingyuan took out a pair of lieutenant colonel epaulettes to replace the major epaulettes on Hans's shoulders.

After issuing the letter of appointment to Hans, Li Mingyuan successively appointed Chen Sen, Feng Guoan, and other naval officers to new positions, Chen Sen's military rank was upgraded by one level, and the rank of lieutenant colonel was responsible for commanding the First Fleet with Chaoyang and Liming as the main force, while the Second Fleet composed of the Victory and some wooden warships was in charge of Hans, and Feng Guoan officially served as the commander of the Marine Corps with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

After the completion of the award ceremony, Li Mingyuan personally announced the establishment of the Rio Gran do Sul Navy, and from this day on, the National Defense Force officially had the combat strength of the navy and the army, taking a key step in the development and growth of the Chinese in South America.