At the same time, the armpit fleet, which was advancing eastward through the coast of the Xianguo, finally blocked the mouth of the Wangqin River as expected, and on the day of its arrival, the width and depth of the mouth were carefully observed and measured.

After determining that this was the only major river outlet along the Beihai coast of Xian and Jin, they used ironclad canning boats to carry out intensive artillery bombardment of the fortress batteries of the Xianjun army on both sides of the Wangqin River, and the Xian army used 160 millimeter fortress guns to return fire.

This 160 millimeter (about 144 mm) fortress gun is upgraded from the 100-8 pound 645 fortress gun, using a double-base gunpowder pack or cartridge to provide gunpowder kinetic energy, and the firing range has increased from the previous 26 miles to 28 miles, barely on par with the range of axillary shipborne howitzers.

After suffering the loss of the Guangxin artillery battle in 653, Bailiyan adjusted production, and produced and transformed a batch of 108 pounds of 645 fortress guns, and the Xian army is currently the only cannon that can match it.

However, it was limited to the coastal defense fortress, which could not be used for land warfare due to the technical defects of the original design, the weight after the renovation was too heavy, the medium truck could not be towed, and the road was difficult to bear.

After more than 20 years of development and construction, Jiangdong and Dongyuan counties are still the economic center of the eastern part of Xianguo and the center of shipbuilding industry.

The economy of Jin and Xian is highly concentrated here, the loss of Guangxin has been incalculable, Jiangdong and Dongyuan were destroyed in the war again, even though the Xianguo family is thick, but the Jin State is counting on Jiangdong County, an old hen that will lay golden eggs, to earn a surplus of precious metals from Xianguo.

For this reason, the king of Jin called many times, asking the Xianguo to defend the sea, the king of Xian Jiang Yan ignored this at all, whether it is war or defense, it is always the Xianguo who suffers, what qualifications does the king of Jin have to point fingers at him now.

The state political supervisor, Jiang Yu summoned the cabinet and the Taiwei and Sima governments to ask for advice on the artillery battle of the Qinjiang River:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the armpit fleet has been shelling for several days, but it has not taken the initiative to attack, you know why."

Lu Gao stepped forward and said:

"The minister thinks that it is a trick of the enemy to lure and probe the enemy, and his intention is to test whether the main force of our navy is here, and judging by the number of enemy ships that have been found at present, it is not enough to land in the two counties to expand the invasion. Moreover, the Northern Army of the Jin State was stationed in Jiangdong, and our country had the advantage of troops and equipment, and there was absolutely no possibility of its landing succeeding. ”

"Then how can we retreat from the enemy ship and prevent the recurrence of Guangxin's mistakes."

"At present, the enemy has blocked the entrance to the sea of Wangqin, and the navy has no geographical advantage, and the rash dispatch can only be annihilated in the inland river, and the minister does not advocate the main force of the navy to fight."

The main support of the Xianwang Jiang Yu came from the two counties of Jiangdong and Suidang, so the invasion of the armpit fleet into the Wangqin River undoubtedly seriously stimulated the interests of the magnates of the two places and the sensitive nerves of the Xianwang Wang.

Receiving Lu Gao's reply, Jiang Yu was of course very annoyed, but he also knew that even if it was a warship now, it was his private property, and he would definitely not risk taking hundreds of warships to gain a slim chance.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Yu asked Chen Qu:

"General Chen, can you lay mines in the river to block the entry into the river?"

"Back to the king, the cloth can be clothed, but once the mines are laid, it will be extremely troublesome to remove them. In addition, in the short term, if we think clearly about cleanliness, it will not be an overnight thing, and it will seriously affect our army's going to sea and the merchant ships going to sea. ”

The mines equipped by the Xian army are mainly anchor mines, and there are not many floating mines, and the anchor mines are relatively fixed mines, which are sunk under the water with iron anchors to make them have roots, and the mines float slightly below the water surface. Floating mines, on the other hand, do not have them, and they can go with the flow.

But whether it is an anchor mine or a floating mine, it is sunk slightly below the water surface, even if there is a mine, it is very difficult to sweep away the anchor mine, the anchor mine is only relatively fixed, depending on the degree of contact between the iron anchor and the sea riverbed, it will still drift because of the ocean current, the current.

In the absence of sonar and electronic equipment, it is very difficult to clear underwater mines, and can only be eliminated by frogmen or diving, which is quite a lot of work and difficulty.

As the largest outlet to the sea in the Beihai region of the Jin and Xian countries, the Wangqin River has countless ships coming and going every year, and Zhiguo also carries goods through the Wangqin River.

Taking a step back, the Xianguo Navy Military Port is located here, which is the nearest outlet into the sea, and it is also the only relatively safe large-scale inland river water area in the country at present, and there is no reason to cut off the way out.

Just when everyone was at a loss, the blue telephone in King Xian's hand rang loudly, Jiang Yu picked up the phone, and the other end of the phone was an exchange station located in the palace:

"Wang, Lord Si Nong called from Liang County."

"Take it in."

"No."

When the phone was connected, the voice of Bailiyan rang on the phone:

"But the king."

"It's the widow, what is the Yongxing Marquis to report."

"Chen Qu is here, and the minister has an urgent military situation."

"Can't you tell the widow first?"

"This matter will be clear for a while, and when Chen Qu understands, he will talk to the king."

Jiang Yu was quite unhappy in his heart, but he still transferred the phone to Chen Qu, and at the same time picked up another internal phone, through which he could hear the content of the phone in Chen Qu's hand.

"Lord Si Nong, in Xia Chen Qu, I don't know what the military situation is."

"General Chen, the armpit artillery shelling out of the sea, and the delay in looking into the Qinjiang River is not a test and temptation, Ben Hou judged that he has a small boat that can dive underwater and can launch key thermal explosives from underwater. Therefore, they only need to dispatch underwater ships carrying torpedoes equipped with key thermal bombs, and once they discover our military ports and ships, they can carry out a devastating blow against us from underwater. ”

Hearing this, Chen Qumeng was taken aback, and he hurriedly asked:

"Lord Si Nong, how can the ship dive underwater and sail, won't it sink!"

"No, it's called a submarine, and it can sail underwater. The armpit industry technology is limited, this kind of underwater submarine will not be too big, the diving will not be very deep, you immediately mobilize the fishermen of Jiangdong and Dongyuan counties into the river to line up, throw fishing nets and tow them, and at the same time evacuate our warships and shipyard shipwrights to avoid the worst situation. ”

"This ......"

Chen Qu was skeptical, he couldn't figure out how the ship could sail underwater, and then Bai Liyan on the other end of the phone heard his concerns, so he said:

"General Chen, whether this matter exists or not, let people go to intercept it first, and we must not slack off."

"I see."

When he hung up the phone, Xianwang Jiang Yu was also confused, and he asked Chen Qudao:

"General Chen, can the ship really dive underwater?"

As soon as this remark came out, everyone was shocked, and Taiwei Zhang You also asked:

"General Chen, is what the king said true?"

Chen Qu didn't really believe it completely, but he couldn't help it, he said:

"King Qiqi, the armpit national strength is not known to us, since the iron ship can be launched and the airbag can go to the sky, it is not impossible to come to the iron boat to dive. And if it is true, only one key thermal explosion bomb can destroy our military port and most of the ships, and the consequences are unimaginable. ”

As soon as the words came out, Lu Gao was taken aback:

"What, the key is a hot bomb, Si Nong just said that the armpit will use this bomb!"

At this time, Jiang Yu answered:

"Yongxing Hou did say so, although the price is very huge, but our navy military port and ships are also worthy of the armpit thief to exterminate human nature. General Chen, as soon as Yongxing Hou said, immediately organized the fishermen to go on and off the river to catch boats, and evacuated our navy and shipwrights to avoid annihilation. ”

"Your Ministers obey."

In view of the special situation in Liang County, he found that he suddenly discovered that the various actions of the armpit fleet at the mouth of the Wangqin River were similar to those of Liang County, and they were all methods of secretly crossing Chen Cang.

In the absence of any doubt that the navy and military port of the Xianguo State were in Wangqinjiang, it was impossible to make efforts at other technical levels in order to carry out reconnaissance in Wangqinjiang at the minimum cost under the nose of the Xianguo fortress, and even pinned hopes on transferring the main force of the Xianguo Navy through artillery bombardment.

Baili Yan thought about it, and the only possibility could only be a submarine.

The earliest practical submarine was born in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the internal combustion engine was just emerging and was not yet perfect, so this kind of submarine needed more than ten people to step on the transmission mechanism, push the propeller to work, and use the ordinary trigger fuse shell installed at the nose end of the submarine and equipped with a long rod to hit the ship to obtain the results.

However, based on the technical conditions of the axillary people, it is not excluded that the alcohol multi-cylinder internal combustion engine will be used as the power pack to drive the propeller propulsion. At the same time, subject to industrial capacity and processing technology, it is impossible to build a submarine that is too large and the structure cannot be complex.

As a result, the submarine has limited diving capacity, plus the internal combustion engine needs to consume oxygen, and they obviously do not have electricity, electric motor and battery technology, so they need a snorkel to supply oxygen to the submarine to supply oxygen to the internal combustion engine.

It shelled the sea for many days in a row, with the intention of diverting the attention of submarines from entering inland rivers for reconnaissance, and at the same time taking advantage of the blind spot of human knowledge of underwater weapons to carry out military operations.

Once they find a large port or military target, they will not hesitate to use compressed air torpedoes as a weapon, carrying a key thermal bomb to carry out a devastating attack on the target.

On the fourth day after the order was issued, the fishermen of Jiangdong County found an abnormality under the river, and they made great gains under the siege and interception.

"Oh, General Gao really got something out of the water!"

Gao Pei on the other end of the phone said quickly:

"It's true, so far a total of three diving iron ships have been found, one has been caught, and the other two have disappeared and are difficult to find."

"Okay, I'll report to the king at once. General Gao and General Gu continued to search the river, making sure to block the diving boat. ”

"No!"

Hanging up Gao Pei's phone, Lu Gao hurried to Bailing Garden, where King Xian was relaxing to get rid of the fatigue of the past few days.

"King Qiqi, I'll see you outside Lu Sima Garden."

Yan Cong said, King Xian looked at Yuan Nan and said:

"Call him."

"No!"

Yan Cong is now the head of the inner government and the secret agent, responsible for the daily life of King Xian, although his father Yan Ping is old, but he is still old and strong, controlling the forbidden army, under the protection of the father and son, Jiang Yu's status and authority are increasingly consolidated.

After a while, Lu Gao came and bowed first:

"See the king."

"Lord Lu is exempt, I don't know what to see the widow."

"King Qiyu, the fishermen of Jiangdong County caught one underwater iron boat and found two."

Jiang Zhen and Yan Cong were taken aback when they heard the news, and Jiang Zhen hurriedly asked:

"Lord Sima's words are true, the iron boat can really dive underwater boats!"

"Exactly, the iron boat has been towed to the shore of Jiangdong, and it will be able to farm ashore in a few days, and the photos will be taken for the king to see the true face."

"Good, very good!" King Xian applauded again and again, and then said: "This ship is fished on land, can our country copy it?" ”

"This ......" Lu Gao was embarrassed, because he did not know the industrial processing and manufacturing capacity of Xianguo, and after thinking for a while, he said: "According to Lord Si Nong, the skills of China's hundred craftsmen are not inferior to those of the axillary eye, or even slightly stronger than them, so the minister thinks that it should be imitated. ”

Jiang Yu has always been jealous of Bailiyan, and every time others mention what Yongxinghou or Bailiyan say, he is displeased.

"Quickly let people fish the underwater iron boat ashore and transport it to the capital county, and the widow wants to see its true face."

"No!"

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