Chapter 347: The Arrival of the Flotilla + Contradictions between the Two Sides (4,000 words)

Just when Li Zhen and Li Shimin were secretly fighting for each other's reasons, far away in the South Pacific, Liu Renliang had already led the fleet to the sea area where the Salen fleet had an accident.

"Dudu, the sea ahead is where we are attacked, you better be careful, the enemy may appear at any time." As a navigator of Salen's fleet, this time it was Qi Bin who followed the fleet on the expedition, but Saren didn't come - his injuries were actually not so thorough, plus because he was on a ship at the time, the medical conditions were poor, and his injuries were just casually stitched and hurriedly wrapped, to be honest, it was a miracle of life that he could come back alive.

But his injuries were too serious, and the treatment at that time was very simple, even the bones were just corrected casually, and they were not even fixed with anything, so he actually survived, even his attending physician Chen Tianlu couldn't help but sigh at the strength of his vitality when he opened his old thread and opened his chest cavity - his chest was almost a mess, and there were even broken bone stubble on his lungs that had not been taken off, so he didn't die from such an injury. And it gradually recovered, if this is not considered a strong vitality, then what is a strong vitality? It's not even powerful anymore, it's just against the sky.

Saren is undergoing treatment and can't come, so as the only remaining No. 2 person in the fleet and a navigator at the same time, Qi Bin must follow. What's more, this was not Li Zhen forcibly ordered him to come, but he took the initiative to ask for it - in fact, it was not only him, as long as he was in good health on the Saren fleet last time, he came with him this time. After all, that failure was so inexplicable that they didn't understand what happened until now, and if they didn't find out the truth of the matter, they wouldn't be blind even if they died.

"How far is it from the island you're talking about?" Liu Renliang asked with a solemn face, although there was a reasonable guess about the enemy's court, but the guess was just a guess after all, and there were still some questions that had not been solved.

For example, if the leader of the enemy is Li Daoyuan, then this Li Daoyuan will inevitably die a little too easily? After all, as the leader, he usually has to sit in the rear, and basically he will not easily go into battle in person, but Li Daoyuan not only went into battle in person, but also did not follow any guards around him, otherwise he would not have been killed as easily as Du Bin.

Also, the enemy's ships are all small ships, it seems that the technology should be very backward, there should be no such thing as a telescope, so how did they discover the Salon fleet in advance - you must know that when the Salon fleet found the island, it was still some distance from the island, and Salon even needed a telescope to see the situation on the island vaguely, and at the beginning, he couldn't even see the ship on it and the island clearly, and mistook it for something else.

However, as soon as the Salen fleet saw the island, the enemy's ships had already sailed over, which showed that they had been prepared, which means that they had discovered the Salen fleet earlier than the Salon fleet discovered them, but how did they do it without binoculars?

……

There are many more questions like this, none of which can be explained, and the only way to find answers is to find this enemy and get answers from them.

"There are still about thirty nautical miles, and you should be able to reach it in an hour." Qi Bin replied, his eyes flashed with pleasure, the last defeat was really aggrieved, and now he is back, and he has brought back the most powerful fleet of Datang, even if the enemy is strong, it will definitely not be the opponent of the Datang fleet.

"In that case, let the fleet spread out, put on a battle formation, and be ready for battle at any time." Liu Renliang instructed, this time he brought a fleet and a half, there are forty-five third-class battleships alone, and there are countless small ships such as fourth- and fifth-class battleships and transport boats, in order to form the strongest strike effect, it is necessary to spread out the battleships in advance to form an array - not to mention the origin of the name battleship, because the battleship needs to be lined up in a first-line column of battleships, sail parallel to the enemy fleet, and use the gunwales on one side of the fleet to concentrate fire on the enemy salvo, so it is named "battleship", This in itself is how they fight.

"Yes." An elderly scholar dressed as a person standing on the side immediately responded, this person's name is Sun Fujia, don't look at his unattractive appearance and inconspicuous appearance, in fact, his real identity is the deputy governor of the Yuezhou fleet, that is, the person who is second only to Liu Renliang in the entire fleet.

In fact, at the beginning, the Yuezhou fleet did not have a deputy governor, because Liu Renliang's ability was enough to control the operation of the entire fleet, but today's navy is no longer Li Zhen's personal force after all, but the army of the imperial court, and the imperial court could not see the Yuezhou fleet become Liu Renliang's Yiyantang, so it sent him a deputy governor as an assistant, which is also the meaning of supervision.

And this Sun Fujia is not easy to say, don't look at his weak writing, in fact, this is the champion of the Wude period, and the first recorded champion in Chinese history, in the fourteenth year of Zhenguan has already done Dali Temple Zhengqing (President of the Supreme Court), is a high-ranking member of the three grades, second only to the Zhongshu Ling, the subordinate servant and the six Shangshu.

It stands to reason that with his current status, it is impossible for him to become the deputy governor of a fleet, you must know that although the captain of the fleet was designated as the second rank in the last court meeting, the status of the deputy governor is much lower than that of the governor, at most it is from the third rank.

Sun Fujia changed from Zhengqing of Dali Temple to the deputy governor of the Yuezhou fleet, which seems to be a flat tone, but the real situation is that he has changed from the chief officer of a yamen to someone else's subordinate, from a boss to someone else's high-level news, and from a civilian official to a military general - it is said that it is human nature to be the head of a chicken rather than a phoenix tail, but I don't know whether Sun Fujia has a brain convulsion or something else, he actually took the initiative to ask for transfer to the Yuezhou fleet, which really doesn't make sense.

However, Li Shimin saw that he looked sincere, and his performance on weekdays was also extraordinary, so he agreed to his request.

Although Sun Fujia's request for transfer this time was a bit unexpected by everyone, he really didn't have any conspiracy, but he still came to assist Liu Renliang sincerely - if he had any plans, then he should have been promoted and made a fortune.

Sun Fujia knows very well that with his ability to do Dali Temple Zhengqing in this life, it is actually the limit, and it is basically impossible to get one step closer (in fact, he guessed right, in the later period of Zhenguan in history, he was only transferred from Dali Temple Qing to Shaanzhou Thorn History, and did not go further), if you want to progress again, you can only do other ways, and the deputy governor of the Yuezhou fleet is the way he thought of.

Don't look at the governor of the Yuezhou fleet is only from the second grade, but don't forget that Liu Renliang has another identity, that is, the commander of the Lingnan Naval Region, which is the second grade. The Lingnan Naval Region has a total of two fleets, one is the Yuezhou Fleet, the other is the Quanzhou Fleet, if the imperial court does not parachute, then there are only three candidates for the position of the deputy governor of the Lingnan Naval Region, namely the Quanzhou Fleet Governor and the Deputy Governor, and the Yuezhou Fleet Deputy Governor is his Sun Fujia, of which the Quanzhou Fleet Governor is Li Jiyao, basically he has nothing to do, and people are not rare, so the Deputy Governor of the Lingnan Naval Region can only be fought for by the remaining two Deputy Governors.

Not to mention that Sun Fujia and Liu Renliang both belong to the Yuezhou Fleet, and belong to the first month near the water, let's just say that the Quanzhou Fleet and the Yuezhou Fleet are now in conflict - this matter has to start with the Yuezhou Shipyard, which said that the Yuezhou Shipyard delivered the first batch of orders to Li Zhen after Li Zhen was completed, because the Quanzhou Fleet was still training at that time, and it was not completed, and even the fleet base was not completed, so the ships that originally belonged to the Quanzhou Fleet were temporarily kept by Li Zhen in the boathouse of the Yuezhou Fleet.

Li Zhen didn't think much about it at that time, but the Yuezhou fleet was full of veterans, how bad were they? How is it possible to honestly help others watch the boat? - So when they were on a mission, they actually pulled out the ships of the Quanzhou fleet and used them, and instead put their own ships in the boathouse for maintenance (because the ships of the fleet all have names, and it is clear which name to which name is whom).

At first, it was nothing, but the problem soon came - when the training of the Quanzhou fleet was completed and all the facilities were in place, they asked the Yuezhou fleet for the warships that belonged to them, and the Yuezhou fleet was also very happy to return all the warships that should be given to them to the Quanzhou fleet.

However, when the Quanzhou fleet received the warships, they were immediately angry - in addition to the thirty third-class battleships, the ships that originally belonged to their Quanzhou fleet also included more than fifty fourth-class battleships and nearly a hundred fifth-class warships, plus supply ships and other ships, adding up to a total of two hundred and thirty ships of various types.

But when they took over the ships, they found that of the two hundred and thirty ships of all kinds, only one-tenth were as new as new, and none of the thirty third-class battleships were new, and all of them were only ninety percent new—these were clearly used warships.

Of course the Quanzhou fleet doesn't do it, as I said before, you help us keep the battleship, and we won't let you work in vain, so we can pay you the corresponding storage fee. But what is the situation now? Ninety percent of the ships are eighty percent new, are you bullying our Quanzhou fleet no one? Compensation, you must compensate.

But the Yuezhou fleet is not a vegetarian, and with a wave of his hand, he said very boldly, of course, the compensation must be compensated, but in view of the fact that your storage fee has not been given to us, the loss compensation of this battleship will be offset by the storage fee, you don't care about our compensation, we don't ask you for the storage fee, we will clear the two.

Saying this, the nose of the Quanzhou fleet is crooked, is the loss fee and storage fee of this battleship of the same order of magnitude? You're clearly playing a scoundrel......

Then the contradiction intensified more and more, and finally almost developed into a fight of tens of thousands of people on both sides, such an important matter, even Li Shimin was shocked, and in the end, it was Li Shimin, the emperor, who personally mediated, that the two sides were relieved. However, the final result of mediation was a slap in the face, with both sides using half of the new ships and half of the old ships, and at the same time, because of the bad behavior of the Yuezhou fleet, the depreciation fee of the remaining half of the warships must also be compensated to the Quanzhou fleet......

Although this mediation was very fair on the surface, the two sides of the fleet were not convinced, although the Quanzhou fleet received compensation, but the anger in their hearts was not vented, and the Yuezhou fleet let alone the Yuezhou fleet, in their minds, this compensation should not be paid by themselves at all......

The two fleets are considered to have contradictions, and there has been no communication at all along the way, usually the Yuezhou fleet is in front, while the Quanzhou fleet is behind, and the two sides can be said to be distinct.

Under such circumstances, Sun Fujia did not think that Liu Renliang would choose the deputy governor of the Quanzhou fleet as the deputy governor of the Lingnan Naval Region, since Li Ji and his deputies could not serve as the commanders, then the most suitable person left was only himself - and in the Tang Dynasty bureaucratic system, the governor of the naval region was the second rank, and the deputy governor was the third rank, and the six Shangshu and Shizhong, Zhongshu Ling, Liubu Shangshu, Sixteen Wei Generals, Prince Guest, Taichangqing, Prince Zhan Shi, Zhongzhou Governor, and Shangdu Hufu were at the same level, It is one level higher than his original Dali Temple Zhengqing.

And this is still now, if he can make great contributions in future battles, he may not be able to go further, become the governor of a fleet or even the governor of a naval district......

"My lord, what about our merchant ships? Do you want them to go to the Spice Islands first? Sun Fujia left, and Qi Bin asked again, this time they went on an expedition not only to find Li Miyu's sins, but more importantly, to escort a super fleet.

This fleet is extremely huge, there are nearly three hundred merchant ships of the vertical and horizontal class and the Liaoyuan class alone, and the rest of the supply ships, medium-sized cargo ships and other small and medium-sized ships are even more numerous, the number is much more than one and a half fleets led by Liu Renliang, it can be described as a grand scale, spread on the sea, and the black pressure is a piece of black pressure, it is simply a god blocking and killing God, and Buddha blocking and killing Buddha - well, at least in terms of momentum, it is still very terrifying, and the enemy does not dare to offend easily.

This time, the target of the merchant ships was actually the Spice Islands, because there was an enemy who didn't know the details of the previous voyage and robbed the Salon fleet, so it was already very dangerous for a single fleet to travel between the Spice Islands and the Tang Dynasty, but it was too resource-intensive to use warships to escort them, so Li Zhen simply formed a super fleet and sent the Spice Islands a full half a year's manpower and supplies at one time, just following the fleet to act, saving from being attacked by the enemy again.

(End of chapter)