Maputo, the Qing army battalion, the headquarters war room.

In front of the wide sand table, Feng Zicai pointed along the railway line with his hand pole, "The European coalition forces have carried out the clearing of the wall, which has completely angered the Boers, and at present, the Boers have taken the initiative to attack, concentrating superior forces to find an opportunity to annihilate the small force of the coalition army, judging from the feedback news, the effect is not bad, and the opponent has been annihilated by 5,000 people in half a month." But........ ”

As he spoke, he moved his hand and pointed to a small blue flag, "This is Mahadoop, the Boers have gained confidence and pride after several successive victories, and they have met with stubborn resistance when they encircled and annihilated a regiment of the French army here, and the two sides fought fiercely for a long time, and finally the French reinforcements arrived and rescued the besieged troops, and the casualties on both sides were not small, more than a thousand.

This battle was the only defeat of the Boers in the past half a month, in general, in this half a month, the Boers took the initiative to attack, suppressed the arrogance of the coalition army, forced the coalition army began to shrink the force, although the Boers also suffered more than 3,000 casualties, but the morale was high....... ”

"It's good that morale is high." Li Hongzhang twisted the short whisker on his chin and said: "Try to provide the Boers with guns, ammunition, food and grass, so that they can fight with the Europeans." ”

Feng Zicai said: "The Boers hope that we can provide a large number of land artillery and 120 mortars, saying that we are going to carry out a large-scale counteroffensive. ”

"Give!" Yi Zhengxing said simply: "The morale of the Boers is high now, we can't pour cold water, European countries now have rapid-fire guns, and we don't need to hide them anymore." ”

Li Hongzhang said: "You can't give it for nothing, let them buy or exchange it for war horses, sooner or later we will have a big war with the Europeans, and there are not too many war horses." After a pause, he continued: "In addition, the repair of the railway should be accelerated, and since the five countries have declared war, reinforcements will inevitably be dispatched soon. ”

Johannesburg, Allied Battalion.

The commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, Du Bailei, stared gloomily at the large map of South Africa on the wall, destroying the railway line and the clear field of the fortified wall to prevent the rapid advance of most of the Qing army, but it attracted the crazy retaliation of the Boers, in just half a month, the coalition army lost more than 5,000 troops, so that he had to shrink his forces, and also made him begin to reassess the combat strength of the Boers.

In the past, the Boers only harassed the war, and mainly harassed the logistics supply convoys, whistling and whistling, which gave him a big headache, but did not attract enough attention from him, and in the past half a month, the troops of the coalition forces attacked everywhere to burn, kill and plunder the troops were frequently sniped by the Boer Defense Forces, and suffered heavy losses, which attracted his attention.

Although the Boer Wehrmacht is not a lot of troops, but there are a lot of cavalry, and they are good at guerrilla warfare, they will fight if they win, and if they can't win, they will leave, and they will not fight head-on with them at all, this style of play is more of a headache for him than facing the Qing army, after all, the Qing army can fight head-on, and these Boers, unless he takes the initiative to attack you, he can't find their trace at all, it is too passive.

In the face of this unconventional style of play, he can only shrink his troops, stick to and wait for reinforcements, he believes that all countries are unwilling to give up this Johannesburg, no one wants to spit out the fat in their mouths, Germany has already increased its troops, and the other four countries will soon increase their troops, as long as they hold until the reinforcements arrive, this completely passive situation will be reversed.

Report ——。 An operations staff officer walked into the war room and said loudly: "There is a call from Paris, the five-nation combined fleet has gone south, and there are 250,000 reinforcements with it. ”

"Two hundred and fifty thousand? Reinforcements? ”

"Yes, 100,000 German troops, 50,000 each for our country, Austria-Hungary, and Italy."

After reading the telegram, Du Bailei was overjoyed, "Forward it to the garrisons everywhere, and clearly tell them that we only need to hold out for a month at most, and the reinforcements will arrive." ”

Shanghai, Yangpu Road, Institute of Electromagnetism, Radio Wave Branch.

The Institute of Electromagnetic Research is one of the famous large research institutes in Shanghai, which is highly valued by Yuanqi, because of its large scale and large number of personnel, it gradually began to be subdivided, and the radio wave branch was divided out in the later stage, specializing in the study of radio waves.

In 1873, the British physicist and mathematician James Clark Maxwell publicly published the classic masterpiece of electromagnetic field theory "On Electricity and Magnetism".

Yi Zhicontent, who has always attached importance to the new science and technology of Western countries, quickly ordered the Institute of Electromagnetism to set up a radio wave branch after reading "On Electricity and Magnetism", and recruited and arranged a large number of researchers to conduct research experiments, and a large number of university graduates, graduate students, and even doctors of mathematics and physics were transferred to the radio wave branch.

Yizhizu knows better than anyone the importance of electromagnetism, especially radio waves, because it means that wireless communications, whether it is the Navy or the Air Force, are urgently needed, and of course, for the Army, the importance of wireless communication is also self-evident.

Three black cars slowly drove into the quiet compound of the institute, and the director Fan Chengshan, with a few main researchers, walked up quickly, and as soon as the car door opened, Yi Zhifen, who was wearing a suit and a bowler hat, shook hands with a few people very cordially.

During this period, because of the war, a large number of foreign researchers from major research institutes left and returned to China, but there were also many foreign researchers who were reluctant to give up the experiments and research at hand and were in a state of vacillation.

For the arrival of Yi Zhifen, all large and small research institutes have a warm welcome, Yi Zhifen is the big treasurer of Yuanqi, with a large amount of research funds, and has extremely keen insight and accurate judgment, anytime and anywhere to influence and influence the research direction of the Institute, and from time to time put forward a variety of unbelievable research topics.

In addition to Yuanqi's abundant research funding and open model of brainstorming, Yizhifen's guidance on research directions has also contributed to the frequent achievements of various research institutes and laboratories in Shanghai in a short period of 20 years, which has established Shanghai's status as a world science and technology center and attracted the attention of the world.

In the conference room, Fan Chengshan reported in an orderly manner, "....... Through experiments, Maxwell's theory has been verified, electromagnetic waves do exist, and they travel through space, and what is even more exciting is that electromagnetic waves travel extremely fast, ........ the speed of light. ”

After the other party finished reporting, Yi Zhishu pondered a little before he spoke: "Since electromagnetic waves do exist, and the propagation speed is equivalent to the speed of light, then, electromagnetic waves have a wide range of uses, first try to use electromagnetic waves to transmit information, and what needs to be solved urgently at present is that naval warships can maintain wireless communication ....... the vast sea." ”

When Yi Zhishu returned to Changle Book House from the Radio Wave Research Institute, the sun had already set in the west, and Yan Yangtian quickly chased after the study, "Principal, a call from Moscow——, Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Italy jointly dispatched sixty ironclad ships, and another 250,000 troops rushed to South Africa. ”

Yi Zhizhi said coldly: "Li Lingzhi is dizzy. ”

"It's not entirely confusing." With the voice, Zhao Liewen stepped in, "The Transvaal gold mine is not only high in production, but also more fearful in terms of large reserves, my country is currently in a stage of strong rise, and its military strength and economic strength are growing rapidly."

If China is allowed to occupy the world's largest gold mine for a long time, over time, China will inevitably replace England as the new world hegemon, and the east wind will inevitably overwhelm the west wind, which is unbearable for the European powers.

What's more, now that European countries are implementing the gold standard one after another, the thirst for gold has reached the point of no return, how can they be willing to spit out the fat that has been swallowed into their stomachs? Naturally, it will be at any cost for this. ”

Yi Zhizu took the telegram and said with a smile while reading: "Huifu has read it thoroughly. ”

Zhao Liewen said with a smile: "It's the big shopkeeper who has the courage to use the Transvaal gold mine as bait." ”

"Now that the fish has bitten the hook, let's start preparing to close the net." Yi Zhishu said slowly: "Order the Second Fleet to set sail." ”

"Yes." Yan Yangtian responded, and then said tentatively: "The army strength of the Five-Nation Alliance in South Africa exceeds 300,000, do you need to continue to increase your troops?" ”

"No, you don't." Yi Zhizu waved his hand, "Once our country controls the sea dominance, it will cut off the supply lines of the coalition forces, and no matter how many troops there are, it will be vulnerable." ”

Maputo, Mozambique.

With the outbreak of war, Maputo has become a sprawling military camp, full of heavily armed and camouflage-clad soldiers, and the hustle and bustle of the past has disappeared in favor of a tense and hectic atmosphere, and the entire city has been subjected to military control.

The unruly blacks were not accustomed to this, but when some of the leading birds who took the lead in violating martial law were ruthlessly and bloodily suppressed, all the blacks became quails shivering in the cold wind, and no one dared to neigh.

Located at the intersection of the largest street in the city, Taibai Restaurant is the most prosperous restaurant in Maputo, with a three-storey brick and wood structure and six doors.

In a large private room facing the street on the third floor, Li Hongzhang stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window and looked at the scene of Maputo's city, and said with emotion: "In just a few years, this Maputo is far better than the ordinary city in China in terms of scale and prosperity. ”

"It's not surprising." Yi Zhengxing said with a smile: "Behind Maputo is not only the Transvaal, but also Mozambique, not to mention that the gold of the Transvaal goes to sea from here, Mozambique itself is rich in resources, in addition to coal, iron, copper, etc., there are two rare and rare metals...... Tantalum and titanium! It is said to have a greater value than gold. In addition, there are ebony, mahogany, fragrant wood... ”

Li Hongzhang was stunned for a moment, "In this way, this is still a treasure land?" ”

Yi Zhengxing sighed lightly, "It's a pity that for my country, this is an enclave. ”

"What about the enclave?" Li Hongzhang said: "England's overseas colonies are not all enclaves. ”

Yi Zhengxing shook his head with a regretful face, the old man's attitude towards Africa has always been very vague, although he bought the land south of the Zambezi River from the Portuguese, but he has never included it in the territory of the Qing Dynasty, otherwise he would not have established a province and set up a county for effective management.

After pondering for a while, he said slowly: "If ......, if the Transvaal is incorporated into our country, it may be a turning point, a turning point to change my father's attitude. ”

Li Hongzhang nodded, "The prince once mentioned a model called the Special Economic Zone, maybe you can try ......." ”

Before he finished speaking, he listened to the report outside the door, "Your Highness, there is an urgent military situation." ”

Listening to the urgent military situation, Yi Zhengxing got up without hesitation and said, "Go back to the camp." ”

Hurried back to the war room of the headquarters, as soon as he entered the door, Yi Zhengxing caught a glimpse of Xiao Mingliang and Feng Zicai sitting and standing, one of them looked calm and calm, but the other was frowning, his face was heavy, and he couldn't help but wonder secretly, what is the emergency military situation?

Seeing the two of them coming in, Feng Zicai hurriedly sent the telegram on the table, then glanced at Xiao Mingming, and said tentatively: "Sixty ironclad ships, plus the existing ironclad ships in Durban, a total of more than eighty ironclad ships, which can be called unprecedented in scale, how to fight this battle?" ”

Xiao Mingliang glanced at him, and said indifferently: "The soldiers will block, and the water will cover it." What is there to worry about. ”

After reading the telegram, Yi Zhengxing's heart also sank, "This lineup should have surpassed the British naval strength ........" ”

Xiao Mingliang said slowly: "Your Highness, you can rest assured that the principal never fights uncertain battles. ”

Hearing this, Yi Zhengxing was still worried and said: "This lineup has exceeded our expectations. ”

"The bigger the lineup, the better." Xiao Mingliang said: "After this war, my country is a well-deserved overlord of the sea!" ”

After taking the telegram from Yi Zhengxing's hand and quickly sweeping it twice, Li Hongzhang spoke: "Is General Xiao planning to finish his work in one battle?" But got a plan? ”

Xiao Mingliang glanced at him and nodded slightly, "The enemy army is large and menacing, if it is expected to be good, it will definitely take the initiative to attack Maputo, and the battlefield of this battle is in Maputo Bay." ”

The only port that the Qing Dynasty carefully operated in South Africa was Maputo, and Maputo had a railway connection to the Transvaal, so it can be said that as long as the European coalition forces captured Maputo, this battle was already invincible, and in the case of absolute superiority in troops, the coalition forces would naturally target Maputo as the primary target.

Maputo Bay, on the other hand, is 110 kilometers long from north to south and 25 to 40 kilometers wide from east to west, giving even a large fleet plenty of room to maneuver and uncomplicated sea conditions, making it an ideal battlefield for coalition forces.

It is no wonder that Xiao Mingliang made this judgment, Li Hongzhang pondered for a while, and then said slowly: "If the battlefield is in Maputo Bay, it is naturally enough to complete the battle, but the coalition forces are very afraid of our country's torpedoes and torpedo boats, and they should also be suspicious of the true strength and combat power of our navy." In this case, it is unlikely that the coalition forces will come directly to attack Maputo. ”

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