Chapter 205: Advance Booking Miners

The sailors on Hong Kong Island are training and recruiting at the same time, and because they have high requirements during the primary election, they have a good foundation for being able to get on the ship, and they will soon be able to be qualified for their respective positions. According to Zhao Tianyou's instructions, Du Hu separated the gunners from the personnel of the powder magazine, and did not mix with the sailors and ordinary soldiers on the ship.

The main personnel are all veterans of the original firearms battalion, and they have to take the trouble to explain every day and train the recruits to operate firearms skills and precautions, Zhao Tianyou does not want his gunboat to be blown away by his own shells, so the safe operation of firearms is a general rule on board, and everyone must strictly abide by it.

Thirty-six large gunboats were equipped, and almost all the artillery and ammunition produced overtime on Hong Kong Island were consumed, and the newly recruited soldiers were also used up to 2,788, so 2,000 recruits were drawn from the cavalry training camp and supplemented the ships as ordinary archers.

Fortunately, there has been progress in the research and development of the sub-cannon, and the loading position of the sub-cannon has been newly designed, and the direction of the force has been transferred to the sub-cannon, which has shortened the service life of the sub-cannon, but after all, it can be produced and put into actual combat.

The life of each sub-cannon can only ensure the firing intensity of ten times, so that the standard of six sub-cannons for each mother cannon will be doubled. These projects were simply piled up with silver, and after the final compromise was determined, dozens of skilled craftsmen were relieved, if they continued to fail and could not be put into production, they would not have the face to be mixed up on the island.

Recently, Zhao Tianyou has also racked his brains and is exhausted, this time his knowledge reserves are no longer enough, but he does not intend to develop the brains of craftsmen, he only knows the general principles and methods, how to improve the yield strength of steel, has exceeded the scope of his knowledge.

While cheering on Hong Kong Island to celebrate the official commissioning of the sub-mother cannon project and the advent of another weapon of mass destruction that can change the direction of the battlefield, Zhu Qing led his own fleet, a fleet of more than 200 ships, in an attempt to bypass Hong Kong Island from afar and prepare to pass through the three islands of Macao to block the estuary of Guangzhou.

Zhu Qing's plan is good, and his thoughts are good, because he has already tasted the power of the gunboat last time, and he can't say to Boyan that he is afraid, so he can only come hard, and it is best to bypass the waters of Hong Kong Island, with the idea that I can't beat you and I can't hide.

However, although his idea is good, how can such a large fleet move be concealed from Hong Kong Island, which has always been the number one in intelligence work, since his fleet left Mui Long Bay, the general trend has been grasped by Zhao Tianyou.

"General Zhao, you have to stay on the island, we have forty boats, although Zhu Qing's boat is smaller, but he has a fleet of more than two hundred, once the war starts, we are likely to fall into a siege, it is too dangerous, let's sit on the island and supervise the battle." Du Hu's head shook like a drum, last time Zhao Tianyou left the island alone to go to Yashan, although it was a big victory, but the old people on the island sprinkled their anger on Du Hu.

"Forty against two hundred? Our odds are too great, it's all about bullying them, it's better to surround them all, we need supplies on the ship, and we need prisoners on board. "It's really hard to be in charge of a house, but fortunately, there are many people who share it, and only when there are problems that can't be solved, such as lack of money, lack of people, and lack of materials, Zhao Tianyou must find a way.

As the scale of steelmaking and ironmaking grows, the demand for coke is thirsty, and the coking workshop is always clean, and as soon as the finished product is baked, several other workshops will rush to move it.

Relying on long-distance coal has begun to become a constraint, and coking chemical plants have begun to suspend work in a planned way to control the pace of production in the next process and avoid large-scale outages and gaps.

There are large coal mines in Qingyuan and Shaoguan, Zhao Tianyou knows in his heart, but because of the war and slaughter, Qingyuan has been abandoned for more than a year, there is no complete city wall and station, and there is no fixed military force stationed in Guangzhou, only a team of 100 people and a scout station.

If you want to occupy Qingyuan steadily, in addition to repairing the original city accident, you also need a large number of laborers to go to the mountains to mine coal, if you have to hire people to do these jobs, the money spent Zhao Tianyou is almost unable to get it.

But here is a more urgent need day by day, if there is no sufficient supply of alternative coal, the development of Hong Kong Island will come to a standstill, Zhao Tianyou is anxious and there is no way, it seems that no matter what time it is, the importance of energy is irreplaceable.

Zhu Qing would not believe it even if he broke his head, the future of his fleet and the soldiers under him had been arranged in advance by Zhao Tianyou, and let them go to Qingyuan to open a coal mine as miners, and Zhao Tianyou felt that it was no longer suitable.

"General, we are short of money and people, but in this war, we must respect the opponent, Zhu Qing is also a pirate who has been on the sea for more than 20 years, but he is not made of paper paste!" Du Hu saw Zhao Tianyou's thoughts, shook his head and was helpless, who told us that our family has a thin foundation and lacks everything.

Zhao Tianyou gently drew a circle on the simple nautical chart spread out, pointed to the place and said: "General Du, you take ten gunboats and hide them on the back of Longtangzui in advance, waiting for Zhu Qing's fleet to pass through, and you pass through Butterfly Mountain to block his back road."

I led the main force through the large and small islands, intercepted Zhu Qing head-on, and informed Zhang Zhensun to send a large number of their small boats to ambush in Heisha Bay, with only archers on board, and after hearing the sound of artillery, they would join the battle and be responsible for receiving the enemy's surrender. ”

Du Hu looked at the map and nodded, this is the narrowest and calmest sea area, there is absolutely no problem with the tactics of encircling on three sides, but I don't understand what kind of encirclement method is it for a hundred ships to surround Zhu Qing's more than two hundred warships. This is not to mention that the small boats under Zhang Zhensun who fought in the river were not fully loaded with sixty or seventy people, and the number that could participate in the battle was only forty or fifty of them, and they had to directly accept the surrender of the enemy.

Du Hu's lack of confidence is not to blame him, the power of the Hongyi cannon is vividly reflected in the city, he is absolutely confident that he can fight one against three against four at sea, and he will not have any disadvantage in strength. What worries about the personnel of the gunboat, ninety percent of them are newly recruited recruits, even if there are veterans of the firearms battalion to lay the foundation, it is inevitable that many problems will occur, and the overall situation will be affected at a critical time.

"Transfer back the firearms battalion soldiers stationed in Guangzhou City, even if it is only a few hundred people, and fill each boat with ten veterans, I really don't worry about these recruits."

Zhao Tianyou said with a smile: "The hundreds of thousands of troops of the Yuan soldiers are already on the way, and the war over there doesn't know when it will happen, and the soldiers in Guangzhou City can't be transferred back, if we finish the battle first, we have to send people to reinforce them." ”

"Let's finish first? There are tens of thousands of people in Zhu Qingke, and the ships are five times as large as ours, even if we stretch our necks and let us cut them, we will have to cut them for a few days! ”

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