On April 29, 1637, an important meeting of the Executive Committee was held to discuss the plan submitted by the Joint Staff Headquarters for a surprise attack on the Gambia.

After the meeting entered the voting procedure, Ma Qianzu, Peng Zhicheng, Wang Qinian, Xiao Bailang, and Shao Shude raised their hands in favor of this plan of the military department. However, this is only five votes, not a majority, and it cannot be passed according to the organizational principle.

That's when the drama came. Bai Siwen, who has been clearly expressing his opposition a while ago and actively acting as a key figure in the opposition series, raised his right hand without changing his face amid the eyes of everyone who were surprised, contemptuous, or mocking.

The conference room was so quiet that you could hear the sound of a pin falling on the floor, and the proposal was approved!

At the time when a big drama was being staged in the administrative building of the Executive Committee, two "Yangwu"-class fast cruisers were refitted in accordance with the advice of the Admiralty in the docks of the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, one kilometer away.

The first is that the Navy decided to remove some artillery after discussion, and the current 36 guns are not too suitable, especially for the "Yangwu" class, which highlights its high speed, too many guns will only limit her mobility. Moreover, for a clipper-like ship with an already small carrying capacity, 36 guns were too much of a luxury. After modification, the number of artillery pieces of the "Yangwu" class was reduced to 28, and the number of personnel was reduced to 110 people.

Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the newly hung mainsail of the "Yangwu" class fast cruiser. I saw a huge double-headed eagle on the sail under the midmast, the pattern of the yin and yang fish was impressive, and the dazzling purple pattern looked so beautiful.

In fact, this is just a canvas woven with dyed cloth and white cotton cloth, of course, its density is definitely much higher than that of ordinary civilian cloth. The chemical sector has now utilized the aniline component in coal tar through a reaction of strong oxidizing agents. Under the conditions of the laboratory, the first synthetic dye of the East Coast Republic of China, aniline violet, was prepared.

This purple dye, as well as a second dye in trial production, magenta, is more than a grade stronger than the current expensive natural dyes. It's not just colorful. Moreover, the dyeing fastness is high, and it is not easy to fade under soaking and exposure. One can imagine the huge repercussions of this dye once it was introduced to the market. Of course, at present, the chemical industry has only produced some finished products under the conditions of the laboratory, and large-scale industrial production is still far away, and the executive committee does not dare to let go of production and sale, for fear of attracting covetous eyes.

Part of the aniline purple produced in the laboratory was used by the General Administration of Textile Industry for dyeing experiments, and it was found that cotton cloth is not easy to adhere, so silk, wool, linen and other fabrics can be effectively dyed. Some of the dyed linen was required by the Admiralty to be blended with cotton. Two canvases are woven, which are the two mid-mast sails currently hanging on the "Yangwu"-class fast cruisers.

As soon as the canvas was hung up, it caused heated discussions among the navy, and even the army soldiers resting on the dock were whispering.

"Wouldn't the Navy be too arrogant? In this way, the British can see at a glance that it is us. Didn't you say a sneak attack? Army Lieutenant Jiang Zhiqing said to Chang Kaisheng next to him while sorting out his suitcase.

"Sneak attack? How to sneak attack? Chang Kaisheng glanced at his deputy and said: "The British have a very strict entry system, no matter which country's flag you fly, you must be inspected and allowed by them before you can enter their port. In other words, it is almost impossible to sneak into the port. The so-called 'sneak attack' is nothing more than taking advantage of the British to react and kill the door. ”

"yes, that means there are still tough battles to be fought." Jiang Zhiqing echoed and said, "These delicate and expensive guys in the navy will definitely not fight with the British forts. It is up to us to solve the problem by our army. ”

"Of course." Chang Kaisheng smiled confidently and brushed his new khaki military uniform dyed with indigo. Then he looked at the navy ship that was raising sails on the sea with pride, and said: "It's been nearly a year since I rested, guarding the place of Dingyuan Fort, and I didn't even have to fight the natives, so I would have been suffocated to death." I heard that the British stronghold is full of gold this time, and when the time comes, the brothers don't fucking diarrhea, and defeat the British in one go, and we can get more points from the navy if we rob the gold. ”

The two were chatting when three sharp brass whistles sounded on the dock, signaling to assemble and board the ship.

Zhu Liang, the former instructor of the first battalion of the New Army, the current head of the Guinean task force, and the captain of the army, loudly ordered the troops to assemble and board the ship, and a group of intern staff officers from the Dingyuan Army Military Academy around him passed on the orders one by one to the companies and platoons below.

The scale of this army dispatch is not small. According to the redefined military system, the army dispatched a company of the regular army, a company of the security army, plus some baggage, engineering, artillery, and other units, with a total number of more than 400 troops. Among them, the infantry company is equipped with 9 musketeer platoons (144 people) and 1 grenadier platoon (16 people), plus officers, cooks, gunsmiths, military doctors, military judges, heralds, etc., the standard establishment of each company is 172 people. The army of the two companies is 344 people, plus an artillery platoon (4 light guns) with 22 people, an engineering platoon with 16 people, a baggage platoon with 16 people, and the detachment team headquarters personnel, for a total strength of 410 people.

The army soldiers entered the Nanhai Transport Company's "Yingzhou" and "Penglai" transport ships in two groups, including some baggage, gunpowder, and even horses. Both ships also carried a large amount of supplies, including crates of canned goods.

The cans are made of glass, and the contents are sterilized by high-temperature steam and then sealed with a cork. There are many varieties of canned food, including canned fruits, canned vegetables and canned salted meat, which are very popular with sailors and army brothers. Especially sailors, who drift on the sea all year round, they often have a long or short period of time without eating fresh vegetables and fruits, and meat products can only eat some cured meat with spoiled maggots, which greatly affects morale. Now that they have these canned foods that can be stored for a long time, their journey to sea will not be so difficult.

Due to the perfection of the prior preparations, the landing action of the army was very rapid. After the army finished boarding the ship, two "Yangwu"-class fast cruisers, one on the left and one on the right, escorted the two transport ships, pulled anchor and left the dock of the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, and headed for the Zhenhaibao Naval Base. There, the navy's four remaining warships have been simply repaired and maintained, and are waiting for them to set off together.

And it is a great irony that the proposal in the meeting room of the Executive Committee's administrative building on whether or not to approve the actions of the military department has not even entered the voting process while they are setting sail.

Early in the morning of May 2, the four ships arrived at the pier of the Zhenhaibao Naval Base on time. At this time, in the captain's room of the battleship "10 August," Commander of the Naval Task Force, Commander-in-Chief of Joint Operations on Sea and Land, and Rear Admiral Lu Ming was presiding over a confidential military meeting, which included all the officers of the four battleships in the harbor at the rank of second lieutenant and above.

"This operation is a joint operation of land and sea, and the combat mission of the navy is to strike at and annihilate the merchant ships or warships that may exist in the enemy's docks, and to cover the landing of the army to attack the enemy's batteries. After the army captured the battery, the main force of our naval fleet entered the Gambia River and shelled the British trading station, once again covering the army's capture of the trading station. Unfortunately, due to insufficient intelligence, the plan for this operation could only be so sketchy. I hope that you will carry forward the spirit of our navy, fight bravely, command flexibly, and strive to capture the enemy's strongholds at the lowest cost, so as to deter the enemy to the greatest extent. Lu Ming sat in the chairman's seat and said calmly.

"How many ships were there in the Gambian river?"

"It's not necessarily." Second Lieutenant Sankai replied in place of Lu Ming, "Because there are often British or foreign merchant ships that pass by to dock there for supplies or trade. But in general, the number of ships there rarely exceeds five at the same time, and most of these five ships are merchant ships. ”

"So isn't this fortress very strong? How many defenders were there? How is the armament? ”

"The news of the fortress was also transmitted indirectly by the Portuguese." Sankai continued, "The fort was a mixture of brick and wood, small in size, and the walls were not very high. Approximately 'no more than a hundred' British soldiers were stationed inside, as well as a number of black Aboriginal servant soldiers. Weapons, most of them are arquebuses or cold weapons, maybe there are one or two iron cannons, in short, there are not a lot of them. ”

"What did I hear?" Army Commander Zhu Liang, who had just walked into the captain's room, said dissatisfiedly, "Such vague information is full of uncertain and inaccurate words such as 'approximately', 'maybe', and 'some', so how can our army fight." A hundred British soldiers plus a few black servants, and then defending the castle, is already a big trouble. Perhaps because of this vague piece of information of yours, my brothers need to fill it in with their lives. ”

Hearing Zhu Liang's tone that was neither yin nor yang, the navy people present couldn't help frowning. Although they were also troubled by the vague information, the accusations made by the army people in front of them at this moment made them feel a little resentful of the enemy.

Lu Ming quickly stopped the war of words that was about to break out between the two sides, and said in time: "Captain Zhu, you are here, let's carefully improve the details of the coordinated operation of sea and land." After all, this is a complete first for us. How to coordinate, how to liaison, and how to fight must be clarified in advance, so as not to be in a hurry and affect the combat efficiency. (To be continued......)