On the Yangtze River, a fleet of hundreds of big boats, mighty down the river, each boat has more than 100 stone pillars and earth soldiers and their baggage tents, weapons, mules, horses, carts, when the first big ship is the largest, it is a building ship, there are three floors, it is the sword specially rented for Qin Liangyu and other generals. The living conditions are better.

At this time, Qin Liangyu and the others were standing in front of the railing on the third floor of the ship, looking at the scenery on both sides of the strait, chatting over and over again. The generals were very happy, and it was so comfortable to go out this time. A soldier who has been training for a month. Then get on the boat and head down the river. People sleep directly in the boat, you can also watch the scenery, and the meal is ready to be sent into the cabin, which is really enjoyable. The poor generals of the stone pillars received such treatment.

The servant sword carried the atlas and stayed by Qin Liangyu's side, constantly answering Qin Liangyu's questions. This time, the boat on the Sichuan River was a little more difficult, and when I arrived in Hankou, I changed to a big boat arranged by the sword, and basically did not suffer any crimes along the way. And keep the physical strength good, if you walk out of Sichuan, Shu Road is not easy to walk.

On this day, according to the introduction of the sword, Jinling is not far away, and this day I stopped at the Taiping Mansion and purchased some food and vegetables. Qin Liangyu remembered Li Jing's words, and there were many purchases of materials along the way. so as not to go to Liaodong to catch the blind. At this time, Ma Wenting suddenly shook Qin Liangyu's arm and said, "Mother, don't you see that Brother Li's yacht is moored by the river." ”

At this time, everyone looked and saw that on the south bank of the river, a new wharf was being built, more than ten meters long big wood, scorched black by the barbecue, and the stone hammer hoisted by the pulley block was smashed into the river, and there were many piles that had been laid on the riverside, and many had been paved with wooden planks to make a trestle bridge. The trestle leads to the deep water area, where large ships can be moored directly. The water depth of the Yangtze River here is already relatively deep, not less than ten meters, and sea ships can drive in. Due to soil erosion caused by indiscriminate logging in the upper reaches of the market, the siltation is serious, and the water depth of this generation is only six or seven meters. But this era is still very deep.

Li Jing's beautiful snow-white yacht was moored on the edge of the trestle, and two soldiers in black leather trench coats were guarding with guns. Not far ahead, in a dry dock near the river, a battleship with stone pillars that everyone had never seen before was moored at the trestle, it was Li Jing's Flame Phoenix. The slender hull, with a forward extension mast and three main masts, is in a state of falling sail at this time, and the stern is not beautiful.

The fourth-class battleship "Flaming Phoenix" resembles a wooden castle building rising above the water, with a beautiful stern lined with three gold-rimmed portholes, floor-to-ceiling glass doors, and a floating corridor. It looks like a palace floating on the sea. The aft deck autonomously mast is rearward, taking up almost half of the entire upper deck.

The aft deck is the place of activity for the officers on board the ship, as well as the entire stern of the "Flaming Phoenix". Under the hierarchical system of warships, no ordinary sailor is allowed to enter the aft deck or aft unless summoned by his superiors or required to perform some special task. The areas of activity of ordinary sailors are the upper gun deck, the bow tower and the lower gun deck.

Qin Liangyu looked at the huge black battleship, and the gun windows on both sides opened here, stretching out 12 six-pounder guns on each side. Look murderous. Some sailors dressed in white are lining up to rub the deck with a slab called a "holy stone" (so named after the millstone said to be the size of the Bible) to remove cracks from the deck and keep it smooth and tidy. And constantly tied a rope to the iron bucket on the aft top deck, fetching water from the river, pouring water on the deck, and the dirty water was left back into the river from the flowing water hole in the bulwark. Shouting the trumpet while cleaning the deck. The officers supervised in the back, commanding with a whistle.

Other craftsmen appear to be riveting five-millimetre steel plates with rivets to the waterline to the ship and outside the gun windows and bulwarks. Some riveted steel plates, some craftsmen hang with ropes, are painting, Li Jing's seawater antirust paint is made of flaxseed oil heated and natural resin (rosin, lacquer), paint (tung oil, soybean oil, fish oil, etc.), resin and other mixed ingredients, after a high-temperature reaction. Steel is seriously corroded in seawater, and must be painted regularly, and steel without painting will corrode off half a millimeter every year in the seawater waterline. Where the waves can't hit, the salt spray in the air corrodes off a tenth of a millimeter a year. Later, when the zinc ingots are refined, zinc ingots will be installed on the waterline of the steel shell to prevent rust. Zinc is more reactive than steel and preferentially reacts with seawater salinity to protect steel. The principle is the same as the magnesium rod in our electric water heater, which preferentially reacts with limescale, and protects the stainless steel liner from leaking and running off due to corrosion and rust.

Qin Liangyu muttered: "Is this the naval division battleship of the Fujian and Guangdong General Town Mansion, it looks so shocking." Ma Xianglin and the generals were all in a daze, it was the first time they had seen such a large warship. Ma Zuochen said at this time: "Look, big marshal, it seems to be the battalion barracks of Nanao Town in the distance. As he spoke, he handed Qin Liangyu the stainless steel monocular that Li Wei'er and Li Yue'er gave to Qin Liangyu. Qin Liangyu cherished these two monoculars very much, and kept one for himself, and Ma Xianglin took one away.

Qin Liangyu opened the telescope and looked, only to see that not far away, a lot of piles were driven with a large blackened log, and the part exposed to the ground was about ten meters, with a diameter of more than one foot thick. It's just that these piles are nailed with a lot of barbed wires, some of which are straight, and many of which are rounded on the outside. At the back of the piles are walls about one and a half meters high, and these breastworks are piled up with sacks. Behind was clearly patrolling with muskets with bayonets. The trench was dug ten meters wide outside the wall, and no deep trench could be seen.

Inside the camp, the roads are vertical and horizontal, and there are pieces of temporary canvas tent areas, each area is a battalion formation, and the camp flag is hung in front of the big tent in the middle. Very neatly planned.

On a high flagpole in the middle of the school field, a vertical black flag is hung, and in white font, it is written vertically "Nanao Town, the general town of Fujian and Guangdong".

In Li Jing's planning, the town is the battalion unit he set. Equivalent to a brigade. Each town was fully staffed with ten battalions, each with five hundred soldiers, divided into five hundred sentry, three flintlock sentry, one cavalry sentry, and one artillery sentry. In addition, there are 3,000 auxiliary soldiers and 500 personnel directly under the town. A total of 8,500 people. It is equivalent to the strength of a division in later generations.

Zhen is also the largest independent combat unit under Li Jing. Generally, there are regiments under the town, and each regiment has three battalions. There is a guard battalion directly under the town, plus the personnel of the town's organs, such as the staff office, the military justice office, the baggage logistics office, the military police office, the finance office, the communication and liaison office, the ordnance office, the engineer post, the reconnaissance post, the field hospital, and so on, and there are 500 people.

In addition to the 500 soldiers, each battalion was given an additional 300 auxiliaries, all of whom used cold weapons. Mainly used for auxiliary logistics work, it can also be fought in wartime, and the main equipment is that the short and medium weapons are Kangxi swords, and the armor is a millimeter plate armor. The long weapon is a four-and-a-half-meter-long ash pole cross gun. The cross spear is in addition to the spearhead and the horizontal horizontal blade, each with a foot long on the left and right, which can be both assassinated and hooked, and the main function of this weapon is to prevent the enemy from squeezing in the gap between the spears and slashing the spearmen with short knives.

At this time, Qin Liangyu saw that some soldiers were walking in a row, and there were gunshots and smoke rising under the saddle-shaped mountain in the distance, as if they were conducting shooting training.

At this time, several small boats were heading towards their fleet. They are all ordinary small, lanky fishing boats. But it seems to have been transformed. Strange as it may seem, these fishing boats are riveted to their hulls and above the waterline to wrap thin steel plates, and their hulls are not covered with the usual bamboo sheds and canopies. Rather, it is an arched steel shed, and the outside is painted red. It is very eye-catching, and there are many sliding windows on both sides of the steel shed, which seem to be able to shoot outward. The tail is square, more than a meter higher than the arched canopy, and the shutters are opened on all sides, and this steel shutter can be pulled, and the angle can be adjusted to observe the situation on all sides and prevent arrows.

In the bow of the ship is a medium Furlong cannon. At the same time, it plays the role of a counterweight to maintain the balance of the bow and tail center of gravity. There is a square bay in the upper part of the middle canopy, a steel pipe mast sticks out, and there are very crossbars on both sides of the steel pipe, which can be climbed, the height is about ten meters, and the top is a small lookout.

I didn't see anyone paddling or pending, but it was coming at a fast pace. The officer at the bow of the ship was dressed in a black leather military uniform that was not the costume of the Ming Dynasty, but looked very handsome and handsome, and was draped in a leather trench coat. There are a lot of metal ornaments on the clothes (collar badges, eagle backs, military ranks) and long leather boots that are shiny and delicate.

With a white steel helmet on his head, an armband on his arm, and a red armband with the word gendarme written on it, Qin Liangyu didn't know what it meant. Then the officer picked up a trumpet made of iron sheet and shouted, "Please report which soldier is on the other side, and stop the ship immediately." ”