Throughout February and March of the second year of the Apocalypse, the Tiance Army was busy changing its uniforms, and the troops either reduced their personnel in accordance with the downsizing plan of the General Staff and arranged for the demobilized soldiers to retire, or they carried out the run-in with newly issued brand-new weapons, military uniforms, and other equipment. Hundreds of thousands of old weapons were recovered back to Danzhou and Jizhou. Except for some of the reserves, most of them were thrown into the warehouse. As for the damaged weapons and armor and other equipment, some of them were returned to the furnace for retraining, and some of them were sold to Xu Xingxia and other merchants who were preparing to go to Japan at sea. Xu Xingxia's ocean-going fleet is now quite large, with 17 1,000-ton iron-hulled freighters and 25 large wooden sailing ships, not counting the large and small ships of the canal shipping company. Under the priority supply of Tianjin Shipyard, Xu Xingxia's fleet has the best equipment in China, and this time to prepare for the matter of going to Japan, I heard that the Tiance Army also dispatched a naval escort, and the North Sea Fleet dispatched two ironclad warships to accompany it, which shows the importance of the Xu family in the minds of the high-level of the Tang Empire. In fact, to this day, the five wealthy businessmen who started with Tiance Army have unparalleled influence across the country, which is no longer comparable to other families and wealthy families. Because of their close relationship with the founders of this empire, and their close contacts with the leaders of both the military and the government, they had a lot of opportunities to easily get all kinds of projects from those in power in this era when the rule of law and fairness were just in their infancy.

However, this time Xu Xingxia bought a large number of old weapons and equipment with the intention of going to Japan to sell, and he has been thinking about this matter since the last time Li Xuanqing said that Japan has a lot of gold and silver deposits. During the Tang Dynasty, Japan was still relatively familiar, and after sending Tang envoys to Tang several times, plus the later Jianzhen monk Dongdu, if it wasn't for the war at the end of the Tang Dynasty, there should be another Tang envoy sent now. However, at this time, Japan should also be in chaos, so Li Xuanqing proposed to sell weapons.

However, there are also the Zhang family in Jinling City who have similar thoughts to him. Since Zhang Qiling took charge of the power of the Zhang family, the Zhang family fell into the arms of the Tang Empire, using the influence in the south of the Yangtze River in the early stage, and rose up to catch up faintly with a little bit to join the sequence of the five wealthy merchants, Xu Xingxia was preparing to go to Japan in Tianjin Port, and he also united with the Yun family in Guangzhou to prepare to go to the South Seas, and collected a lot of domestic specialties such as silk, porcelain, tea and other domestic specialties from Jinling and other places, and shipped them to Guangzhou Port for storage.

Originally, both of them had planned, but they were told by the Tiance Army stationed in Guangzhou not to go to sea in the near future, and the Jing Navy Naval Division had recovered its combat strength after this period of recuperation, and in the past few days, they were ready to go to sea to harass the coastal ports of the Tiance Army. The South Sea Fleet of the Navy Department has already begun to prepare for sea operations. Because the scale of the Nanyang Fleet is not as large as that of the Beiyang, and the ships are also the first generation of Fuxing-class five warships that have been eliminated, they are already operating at full capacity to maintain their combat status, and there is no spare force to provide them with escort.

However, at this time, among the ships that departed from Tianjin Pier were two of the latest ironclad warships, the Izumo and the Itosea. This is the second-generation warship designed and manufactured by Tianjin Shipyard, and because the first one was named Izumo, it is customary to call it the Izumo class. In the past, the navy set the classification method of warships, because the first and second generation warships were basically experimental in nature, so they were not adopted, but according to the navy's standards, the third generation warships will be named according to the official classification method. Although the Izumo is also an experimental ship, it has a displacement of 1,300 tons, is equipped with five of the latest naval guns, and in order to deal with personnel and other targets, it is equipped with four mechanical crossbow launchers on the top of the new bridge, which can launch dense rockets in all directions. For this era, such a basic configuration can be regarded as armed to the teeth. Moreover, under the guidance of Li Xuanqing, the new generation of warships began to move towards specialization and specialization, and the combat ships were ships that specialized in carrying out maritime strike missions, and the new-style landing ships also began to be designed and put on the slipway, although Li Xuanqing, a monster similar to the combination of troop carriers and landing ships in the previous life, could not stand it, but still agreed to start construction, and some things were not afraid that they were not perfect, but they were afraid that they did not have the awareness of this aspect. For Li Xuanqing, he needs to instill as much as possible the experience summed up by the industrial revolution in later generations, so that he can make the industrial revolution come to the land of China in advance.

"I said Commander Hu, don't look at it, now several major ports along the line are basically equipped with coal warehouses, and we can directly dock to replenish supplies." Guo Chongtao saw Hu Xiaosi walking out of the cabin and looking back on the bridge, and said with a smile: "Now the navy has priority supply rights in various ports, so there is no need to set off with a huge supply fleet." In this way, we can rely on eight ironclad warships to defeat the sailors of the Jing Navy and let them know the difference between ironclad and wood. ”

"Well, you're the Chief of the Navy, I'll listen to you." Hu Xiaosi shook his head indifferently and said: "Although we know the news of the Jing Navy's attack in advance, but my Xuanying Guard on the sea can't help you much, the General Staff said that at least they must not be allowed to cross the Qiongzhou Strait, otherwise Guangzhou and Shantou will inevitably be harassed, and the prestige we have built up in the hearts of the people will also be ruined, so your navy must completely eliminate the Jing Navy Naval Division and provide conditions for the land troops to defeat Qu Chengmei." "The Southwest Branch of Xuanyingwei has made a great contribution this time, successfully getting the information that Qu Chengmei sent sailors to attack in advance, and using the flying pigeon to transmit the book to Chang'an day and night. After receiving the news, Hu Xiaosi rushed to Tianjin almost non-stop, took Guo Chongtao south, crossed the high wind and waves of the Liuqiu Strait to arrive at the port of Guangzhou, and immediately led the fleet out of the mouth of the Pearl River to find the main force of the Jing Navy Naval Division for a decisive battle. Compared to the Tiance Army, which are all free-powered ships, the old-style Jinghai sailors who rely on wind power and oars are obviously not able to harass many routes. Guo Chongtao's Nanyang fleet immediately dispersed after bypassing the Leizhou Strait, looking for traces of the other side.

It's just very strange that there is no shadow of the Jing Navy sailor on the various routes that must be passed, and the other party seems to have disappeared all at once, so Guo Chongtao and Hu Xiaosi are puzzled, does the other party know that he is ready to ambush them and go home?

"Will you go to Lianzhou Port?" Hu Xiaosi said: "The largest port we have established here in the Beibu Gulf is Lianzhou Port, and if they attack there, they may be able to coordinate their army to attack Qinzhou and Lianzhou." ”

"Impossible, Luo Dahai and they came from Lianzhou Port to join us, if the Jing Navy Navy attacked Lianzhou Port, they would definitely be discovered. Don't forget that we came from Tianjin, and it's been more than ten days. Guo Chongtao stared at the map with a solemn face, but he didn't find anything for a long time.

Hu Xiaosi shook his head and said: "If I can't see it, let's go directly to Aizhou and Yanzhou, he beats him, and we beat ours." Hu Xiaosi was a little uncomfortable with the mode of naval warfare, if he had been on land, he would have thought of a hundred ways to reconnoiter the other party. However, the sea is boundless, and it is impossible to obtain information if you don't touch it. After going to sea, even the contact between himself and the land can only be transmitted by clipper, which is too delayed.

Although Hu Xiaosi's method was impossible, it also gave Guo Chongtao a little inspiration, the latter thought about it and began to ask the staff officer to pass the order, and asked Luo Dahai to lead two warships and several supply ships to set off for Aizhou immediately, preparing to divide troops to attack Aizhou, and force the Jing Navy Sailor to show his traces. And he himself led six other warships to continue cruising along the Beibu Gulf, centered on Lianzhou.

However, after Luo Dahai left the fleet, he found a few corpses floating on the surface of the sea the next day, as well as some fragments of wood. This is supposed to be caused by a shipwreck. It's just that at this time, at the time of the war, the Tiance Army had already ordered all fishermen not to go out to sea to fish, waiting for the war to end. So with doubts, Luo Dahai asked people to fish up these corpses, and suddenly found something abnormal.

"General, please look, these people have wounds cut by weapons." Originally, these corpses were basically indistinguishable after being soaked in seawater, but the wounds on one of the corpses were obvious, and they were cut by sharp weapons.

While inspecting carefully, Luo Dahai instructed the staff officers around him to check the charts to see which route this generation was close to. Soon the staff officer reported that this was the route out of Nanyang and Danzhou, and it was also one of the two forks in the road from Guangzhou to Nanyang.

"Oops, something happened in Danzhou." As soon as Luo Dahai heard the news, he immediately stood up and immediately ordered: "Hurry up and let the clipper go back and tell the director, just say that the Jing Navy is preparing to attack Danzhou, and let the army quickly send people to Qiongzhou to prevent the other party from capturing Qiongzhou Island." After the order, I saw the flags and horns on the Fuxing. Fuxing Hao and Yangwei quickly turned the rudder and galloped towards Danzhou, and several supply ships behind them also began to accelerate, thick smoke billowed out, and the black smoke column quickly dispersed in the northwest direction.

In fact, Luo Dahai's judgment was correct, the Jing Navy at this time all gathered in the southwest of Danzhou, and countless Jing Navy soldiers swarmed towards Danzhou under the cover of the sailor troops, preparing to seize Danzhou City. Due to the short time that the Tiance army occupied Qiongzhou Island, there was almost no defense force on the island, and there was only one guard of the 76th guard of the National Guard in Danzhou City, and all dynasties had an indifferent attitude towards Qiongzhou Island, and Danzhou City was almost occupied by pirates before. After the arrival of the Tiance Army, the navy eliminated the pirates before it was officially brought under its rule.

At this time, how was the National Guard of a guard the impact of the opponent's 10,000-person scale, almost as soon as the two sides touched the tidal flat positions outside the city, they were strongly occupied by the other party, and they were crushed all the way and were driven back to Danzhou City by the Jing Navy to defend the city.

"Wei Shuai, no, we have to find a way to send someone out to report the news, otherwise we will be eaten by the other party sooner or later." Hundreds of people who entered the city surrounded Wei Zheng Li Tianxia's side, looking at Jing Haijun who was preparing for the project outside the city, and the guards around him gasped.

"Don't worry, everyone, I have already asked Xiao Liuzi to move the rescue troops in the direction of Yazhou." Li Tianxia nodded and beckoned the people around her to go and prepare to defend the city, and said sharply: "Although we are the National Guard, not the field troops of the Tiance Army, but since I, Li Tianxia, am wearing the uniform of the Tiance Army, I always keep in mind that the Tiance Army is my Tang Army, and the Tiance Army has never fled and surrendered since the emperor founded the Tiance Army." Tell the brothers, the head can be broken, the blood can be shed, Danzhou City is the land of my Tang Dynasty, and it must not be lost. ”

"Wei Shuai, don't worry, even if we die, we won't lose Danzhou to the enemy." The guard beside Li Tianxia who had just spoken pulled out his long knife and slashed angrily a few times: "I still want to kill a few more people and go back to join the regular army." His words ignited everyone's passion, these young men quickly forgot about the opponent's numerical advantage under the fiery feelings, and the Tiance army was invincible since the beginning of the army, so that all the soldiers had a kind of momentum to look at the world.

The Jing Navy naturally disdained Danzhou, which had only a few hundred defenders, and almost immediately put into attack after the siege equipment was assembled, countless Jing Navy soldiers rushed towards Danzhou City, and the long-range crossbow planes of the sailors docked on the shore also began to fire crossbow arrows to assist the ground troops in attacking the city.

Li Tianxia looked at the swarming Jing Haijun and sneered, "Brothers, bring me a big guy." As soon as the words fell, I saw dozens of soldiers behind him, braving dense arrows like locusts, sending explosives bags one by one to the city tower. This is also because on the island, the field troops of the Tiance Army before Danzhou have been staying, so they have a lot of explosives bags and other equipment and weapons of the regular army. At this time, it became the only reliance in Li Tianxia's hands, and Li Tianxia, who retired from the regular army, knew the power of explosive packets, so he personally took his guards to light more than a dozen explosive packs and threw them out. I only heard the "booming" explosion and then remembered that the city walls of Danzhou were shaken by the explosion at this close range, and the outside of the city, which had shouted killing before, seemed to be frightened by the explosion that rushed to the sky, and was silent a lot. Even the soldiers of the 76th Guard were stunned, they were basically recruits who had never been on the battlefield, and the battlefield was a stone's throw away, and at this time, when they saw the enemy outside being blown up by their own explosives bag, the sound disappeared, and they immediately poked their heads out one by one and prepared to look.

"Come back soon." Li Tianxia was about to stop his soldiers with a loud shout, but when she heard a sharp sound of metal breaking through the air in the air, she suddenly hurriedly shouted: "Get down, everyone get down." But at this time, it was too late, and I saw that the dozen or so soldiers who had just poked out their heads were shot into hedgehogs by the opponent's arrows almost instantly, and fell to the city wall.

"Fire up the ballista and fire the explosives pack for me." Li Tianxia's eyes were red, and he commanded the guards around him to quickly activate the only ballista on the city wall, loaded the explosive pack and fired it quickly, and at the same time quickly slapped the soldiers who were helpless because of the death of their companions around them, beckoning them to dodge the counterattack according to the essence of their usual training.

The sound of explosions outside the city came one after another, and the seventy-sixth guard on the city tower finally stabilized after killing and wounding dozens of soldiers, but Li Tianxia's face was extremely serious, and the shock of the explosive bag did not make the other party retreat, but let the other party see that he was false and real, and it seemed that this Danzhou City could not be saved.