The three capital ships of the Ming fleet, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangxi, all gathered in Kowloon Port, as well as the 5,000-ton Guangzhou, Huizhou, Gaozhou and Shaozhou, and four new ironclad cruisers named after the provinces of Guangdong. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Among the three capital ships, the Fujian is built in the United Kingdom, and the tonnage of the British Warrior-class battleships is the same, with 9,000 tons, but in fact, it is actually the same class ship of the Minotaur-class ironclad ship recently built by the United Kingdom.

The Jiangxi was also a British warship, but it was not sold to Daming by the British, but by Li Xiucheng. It was the British Warrior ironclad that was damaged by the Krupp cannon at that time, the first British ironclad ship, which was sunk by the Taiping Army, and Daming asked Li Xiucheng to buy it and gave a high price, the purpose was not the ship itself, but to find out the reason why the ship was damaged, so as to gain experience in the era of ironclad against similar opponents.

After inspection by the Ming engineers, it was believed that the armor design was defective.

Immediately improved the same defects of the Fujian and the Guangxi iron armor under construction, and covered the armor belt to the tail rudder, but for the disposal of this ship, Daming asked the British if they were willing to buy back the ship, but the British did not want it, they felt that it was too embarrassing, and directly removed the establishment of the ship in the navy, and all officers and soldiers at all levels who escaped from the ship were abolished.

In the end, Daming had to re-improve the Warrior, the first British ironclad ship, and put it into service with the Ming Navy, and the name was Jiangxi.

As for cruisers such as the Canton, they are also new all-iron warships, but the ironclad is much thinner than the capital ship, the thickest point is only 100mm, and the average thickness is only 50mm, which is only half of the capital ship.

In addition to these seven ironclad ships, there are another 30 warships of about 6,000 tons, all of which are also wearing ironclad, but they are rebuilt from wooden battleships with armor, whether it is speed or protection ability, in fact, they can not keep up with the main ironclad ships of this era, but the Ming Dynasty does not have the strength of the British Empire, which is building ironclad ships like dumplings at this time to update its own fleet, so it can only build the navy in this economical way, even so, the Ming Navy is still the first navy in Asia.

A total of 37 warships of various types were concentrated in Kowloon Harbor in preparation for military war.

From Zhu Jinglun to the army and navy, this time he was really ready for war, he really planned to fight a war, nominally he lent troops to Ryukyu, but in fact it was the Ming Dynasty who participated in the war, and the Ryukyu government-in-exile really couldn't decide the combat methods of the Ming army.

Along with these more than 30 warships, there are 100 steamships ranging from 500 tons to 5,000 tons, all of which are chartered civilian ships, among which the largest 20 5,000-ton steamers are all leased from Tongwen Bank, and Pan Shicheng, the head of Tongwen Bank, who has always been accustomed to relying on the government to do business, is very happy to lease his merchant ships from the government, even if he has to reduce the business of transporting supplies to the Taiping Army for this reason.

However, the navy did not let him suffer, and decided to compensate him for his losses, not to mention, and paid him the rent of merchant ships at three times the market price.

A transport organization developed from the Tanmin people, the Tanmin Boat Gang also provided 20 steamships, ranging from 500 to 1,000 tons. In addition to fishing for a living, in addition to the fishing season, they run boats to subsidize their families, so they have a history of running transportation.

But the main run before the Tan people are inland river transportation, but also mainly on the river migration, the Ming Dynasty strengthened the management of the Tan people, all the Tan people have been registered, the migration habits of the Tan people make their household registration and ordinary household registration can not be the same, their household registration does not have a place of origin, but to everyone sent a household sticker, holding the household sticker can be unimpeded in Daming, which greatly facilitates the transportation business of the Tan people.

Therefore, in the past ten years, the Tanmin people have developed from running inland river transportation on the Pearl River to carrying out entrepot trade between Daming ports and northern ports such as Shanghai. But their organization is very distinctive, not to the business house or to the company, but to the boat gang organization as a link, the Tan people's ships belong to an individual or family, but everyone is linked to the old organization to form a boat gang, in the name of the boat gang to take over the business, and then the internal distribution, but it does not affect the development, but in terms of efficiency, obviously can not be compared with the modern transport company.

The Ministry of Industry intends to help them, but the Tan people are more xenophobic, and they refuse to change, so they can only do it.

In addition, there are 10 merchant ships of 2,000 tons to 3,000 tons provided by the Fu Jian Association, which are also given the same preferential treatment.

The Fujian people have a long history of maritime transportation, and before Westerners entered East Asia, they were the maritime overlords of this generation, and the internal maritime transportation of the Qing Dynasty was basically their world.

From the Northeast to the South Seas, there are merchant ships of Fujian people to and fro. Like the Tan people, in the past, the Fujian merchant ships were mainly operated in the form of boat gangs, but in the Daoguang period, with the development of strength, the Fujian boat gangs changed themselves, and they established Fujian clubs in various places. This is a merchant club similar to the Shanshan Guild Hall, but the difference is that the Shanshan Guild Hall is mainly based on business names and ticket numbers, while the Fujian Guild is mainly engaged in marine transportation business. The Shanxi Hall is dedicated to Guan Gong, and the Hokkien Hall is generally dedicated to Mazu, so it is often called Tianhou Temple.

With the Fujian Club as a link, the Fujian Boat Gang is no longer a single gang, but with a bow as the core, and can often have the capital nature of multiple merchant ships, but it is still not as efficient as the modern transportation industry. But the Fujian Association did not refuse the help of the government, after the Ming Dynasty seized Fujian, with the help of the Ministry of Industry, the Fujian Association introduced a modern accounting system, the ships at the bow of each ship were managed in a unified manner, divided into shares, and operated together. Although the name is still Fu Jian Kaikan, it is actually a modern shipping company.

However, although the Fujian Club has a long history of operation, a complex relationship network, and a relatively comprehensive transportation network, it cannot be compared with the giants of the Thirteen Lines era like the Pan family, in terms of steamship transportation, the guild enterprises composed of small shipowners spend a lot of money to purchase large merchant ships, do not hesitate to hire foreigners to help drive them, and at the same time train their own technical personnel, they really do not have the courage of giants like Pan Shicheng, so they can only provide 10 large merchant ships, otherwise it will affect their operation.

The 100 civilian ships hired had formed a formation under the guidance of the navy and pilots who were familiar with tomorrow's trade routes, and completed the evacuation operation in Japan, successfully evacuating more than 3,000 Ming expatriates and businessmen in Japan. It would obviously not take 100 large merchant ships to evacuate 3,000 men, but if it were a war, it would take so much.

Therefore, the previous evacuation activities were also essentially a military exercise, and if we could make a direct flight to Japan at one time, and then evacuate the overseas Chinese, then we would be able to transport enough troops to Japan at one time.

Now everything is ready, and after the evacuation of overseas Chinese is completed, the Ming Dynasty issued an ultimatum to Japan.

It is required that within 24 hours, Japan release the king and scholars of the Ryukyu Kingdom, abandon Japan's so-called "Ryukyu Punishment" policy, and begin to withdraw the Satsuma police in the Ryukyu to restore the sovereignty of the Ryukyu State, otherwise the Ming Dynasty will borrow troops from the Ryukyus and recover the Ryukyus.

At the same time as the ultimatum was issued, the Ming Army began to assemble in Kowloon Port, and the combat strength was the most effective unit of the Capital Military Region, and the commander of the troops was Wen Kite, the chief soldier of the Capital Military Region.

Wen Yuan presided over the Ming Military Reform Committee at that time, just like Jiang Ziya was a god, he divided the Ming Dynasty into four military regions, and appointed Heigou, Deng Shicai, Chen Jishi and Zhang Kaishan as the chief soldiers of the four military regions, but he himself had no position, Jiang Ziya could not give himself the title of god, this is the characteristic of Chinese culture, pay attention to one for the public, can not be selfish, especially in the reform of this kind of thing to offend people, if there is selfishness, it will cause criticism.

Finally, when the military reform was completed, Wen Yuan's identity was very embarrassing, and the reform committee could not exist forever, so Zhu Jinglun personally intervened, and specially set up a capital military region for him, from the Guangdong Military Region, the elite Xin'an Army was transferred, and recruited soldiers in Panyu County and Nanhai County under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou, and two new armies were established to form the Capital Military Region, and Wen Yuan was appointed as the chief soldier.

Based on the veterans of the Xin'an Army, the Capital Military Region has adopted the strictest method of recruiting recruits, from inspecting the soldiers' bodies, to conducting military training, and officer training, etc., all of which have adopted the latest methods after the reform, which can be said to be completely on par with Prussia, and is also equipped with the latest weapons, including the imitation of the Krupp rifled cannon, which was just Yang Wei on the Franco-Prussian battlefield a few years ago, and is currently one of the most advanced cannons in the world, including the rear-loading rifled rifles designed by the Mao brothers. It is also one of the most advanced weapons, which was designed by the Mauser brothers based on the Chasepol rifle equipped by the French army in the Franco-Prussian War.

The last time there was a conflict with France in Vietnam, these young Zhuang officers, even those who stayed in France, strongly advocated a war with France, and those officers who stayed in France were the most enthusiastic, in addition to cleaning them of suspicion of pro-French tendencies, there were also reasons why they were very confident that they could defeat the French.

Now the Ming Dynasty sent this elite, which obviously attaches great importance to fighting Japan.

The 30,000 troops of the Capital Military Region took the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway to continuously assemble at Kowloon Port, and it took only three days to complete the assembly with the help of convenient railway transportation; in addition to proving that the Ming Army already had the ability to transport troops over long distances, it also tested the ability of the army to quickly transfer troops, as well as the army's ability to use modern modes of transportation, and the ability to cooperate between different departments of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry.

In the past three days, Japan has not replied to the Ming ultimatum, according to the Western concept, the two sides are already in a state of war, in the Ming Dynasty's statement, it is forced to start the loan program to help the Ryukyus recover the country.

The war has broken out, the army is ready, and all that remains is to act.

In 1880, the sixth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, the thirteenth year of the Meiji era in Japan, and the fourteenth year of the Ming Dynasty, on February 25, just after the Lunar Lantern Festival, Wen Yuan issued a military order in the name of the Ryukyu royal division, and the navy and army will act together, and the goal of the first battle is to recapture Shurijo, the capital of the Ryukyus.