In Hu Zhen's heart, he thought of the threat of the English fleet, the threat of the French fleet, the threat of the German fleet, and even the threat of the fleets of the United States and the Japanese Kingdom, but he never took the threat of the Qing Dynasty fleet seriously, but what Hu Zhen didn't expect was that the Qing Dynasty's fleet came.

It turned out that with the vigorous rescue of the Nanyang Huaxia Association, but in more than half a year, without the awareness of the central organs of the Qing court, more than 3 million young and middle-aged victims of the Yellow River were transported to Nanyang and became a key industrial construction labor force of the Huaxia Association.

There is no impermeable wall in the world, and during this period of time, the Huaxia Army defeated the Dutch army, annihilated the two fleets of the Dutch army, seized 1 million square kilometers of land in the South Seas, and then borrowed money from the English to buy colonies, and then transferred 3 million victims.

The Empress Dowager Cixi, the supreme decision-maker of the Qing Empire, learned about this incident and summoned Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, and asked: "What is the matter with the three million victims of the Yellow River bursting to Nanyang?" ”

Unlike most of the Chinese who rejoiced at the defeat of the European Dutch by the Huaxia army in Nanyang, Cixi was very jealous of this, fearing that the ruling class of her minority would be swallowed up by the resurgence of the Han Chinese.

With a person like Li Hongzhang, how could he not know what was happening in Nanyang? He had been watching the development of the Nanyang with cold eyes, and ordered his staff to secretly collect information on the Huaxia Army and the Huaxia Guild.

"Empress Dowager Qiqi, this Nanyang realm is not only full of miasma and dampness, insects and flies, crocodiles are rampant, the plague is spreading, people's livelihood is not easy, resulting in a sparse population, this Huaxia Guild just took advantage of the Dutch unprepared, fought a victory and seized a little land, and now it may be that it wants to move some disaster victims to the past to reclaim!"

According to Li Hongzhang's meaning, it is better to have more than one thing, and it is better to let these victims make trouble in the country. It's better to let them go abroad to fend for themselves, as long as nothing happens in the territory of the Great Qing Dynasty, it is the victims' own business, anyway, the Huaxia Guild has never shown the idea of coveting the Qing Dynasty. He had made up his mind that he didn't want to worry about it.

"Send some of the victims away. It is also a good thing to let them not make trouble, but it seems that my Qing Dynasty treats the victims harshly, so as not to be said by outsiders that my Qing Dynasty does not treat the people well! ”

"The imperial court has sent Li Hongzao to relieve the victims. And allocated 100,000 taels of silver! It has shown the love of the Qing Dynasty for the victims! Although this Li Hongzao and Li Hongzhang are only one word apart, they are not related by blood, and they are old rivals, and there are constant contradictions between them.

"What's going on in the South Seas? You still have to send Ding Ruchang to lead the Beiyang Navy Division to Nanyang to have a look, don't let the victims of our Qing Dynasty gather there, and attract all the countries to laugh and be generous! lest something happen in the future, but the Qing court was caught off guard. "It turns out that Cixi's real purpose is not to be at ease with the strength of the Nanyang Huaxia Guild, which even foreigners can defeat. I am afraid that in the future, the Han people will run there, and the pressure on the Qing court will be like Mount Tai.

"Yes, the old minister obeys!"

Li Hongzhang finally understood what Cixi wanted to do, but he was extremely reluctant to do so.

Not to mention the need to ensure the renewal and maintenance of the weapons of the fleet's ships, even the salaries of the sailors' crews could not be paid on time, and many warships in the fleet were used to carry merchants between Lushunkou and Yantai in Shandong Province to earn a meager transportation fee. And many of the sailors are in order to support their families. I had to run some tobacco houses and restaurants in Lushunkou, Weihaiwei and other places to make a living.

Li Hongzhang knew that sending the fleet of sailors to inspect the Nanyang would cause great mechanical losses on the ships of the navy, not to mention the hot weather in the Nanyang for the Beiyang sailors who had lived in the north for a long time. Definitely a chore. The ships at this time were different from those of later generations, and the temperature in the steam engine room was already as high as forty or fifty degrees after the ship was started. In addition, Li Hongzhang did not have the money to give some rewards to the sailors and pay the opening fee, which would inevitably cause some complaints. As a result, the morale of the Beiyang sailors was low, and if war really broke out, the situation would be even worse.

However, Empress Dowager Cixi, as the supreme ruler of the Qing court, ordered by Li Hongzhang to obey unconditionally.

When Li Hongzhang gave an order to Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, he was vague and said that he would send the Beiyang Naval Division to the South Seas for a cruise, but he did not directly say what specific purpose he wanted to achieve.

"Lord Zhongtang, is it as simple as we just going to the South Seas to cruise?" This made Ding Ruchang feel inexplicable, as a naval general who often dealt with foreigners, of course he knew some ins and outs about the Nanyang Huaxia Guild.

"After you arrive in Nanyang, first, you want to investigate the truth there, and second, you want to deter that Huaxia Guild and let them not come to the Qing Dynasty to make any trouble!" Although Li Hongzhang said two goals, they were all false, and there was no aggressive goal at all, in the final analysis, Li Hongzhang didn't want to make any mistakes.

"Yes, Lord Zhongtang, Yuting understands!" Ding Ruchang surrendered to the Qing army from the Taiping Tian** team, and after becoming Li Hongzhang's subordinate, he loyally followed Li Hongzhang for more than 30 years until the Beiyang Fleet was defeated and died.

Li Hongzhang sent the Beiyang Fleet south, but he was not ready for war, but the people in the Nanyang Huaxia Guild were very nervous about this, for fear that the Beiyang Fleet would come to the Nanyang to rejuvenate the division and ask for guilt.

Hu Zhen didn't even think about it, so he scoffed at it: "This Qing Dynasty also has the ability to expedition to the South Seas? Save it! I don't know how many taels of silver the Qing court can allocate to the Beiyang Fleet, or is it ready to come to us to plunder the wealth because of the grain to the enemy? But be prepared for war, just in case! ”

The urgent telegram sent back by the undercover intelligence officers of the Intelligence Department after inquiring in Beijing said that the Beiyang Naval Division was indeed not ready for war when it went south: 1. There was a serious shortage of shells stored on the ships, with less than 100 shells per gun, and many of these shells were training shells and could not be used in naval warfare; 2. There were only more than 300 sailors of the Beiyang Naval Division that followed the Beiyang Naval Division southward, which was not at all sufficient to conduct an effective land war.

After receiving this information, Hu Zhen was very determined, summoned the generals of the navy and army, held a military meeting, and made arrangements for the navy and army.

At the military meeting, many people shouted that they would sink all the Beiyang Fleet, and then the Huaxia Army would go north to China to unify the entire Great China.

Liang Kunri is the one who shouted the most: "What bullshit Beiyang Fleet? It's all over! ”

Cui Jinfeng, of course, is the one who supports Liang Kunri the most: "Yes, this is a great opportunity, the Beiyang Fleet is destroyed, what else does the Qing Dynasty have to rely on?" ”

"Don't say it, I said, we want to unify Great China, our opponent is not these vulnerable Qing army, it is not easy to take down the Qing army, but behind the Qing army is the army of the European powers, the European powers will inevitably not want to see our Great China rise strongly, as soon as we make a move, the whole of Europe will come to interfere. Before we are sure of defeating the European powers, let's do a good job in the South Seas! As long as the Beiyang Fleet does not mess with us, we will not move the Beiyang Fleet! ”

As soon as Hu Zhen opened his mouth to speak, no one dared to refute it, so the military response work below proceeded smoothly.

After the military arrangements were made, Hu Zhen also held a meeting with the old men of the Huaxia Guild, briefed them on the situation of the Beiyang Naval Division, reassured everyone, and asked everyone to cooperate when necessary, stabilize the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Naval Division, and not let the Beiyang Naval Division have any conflict with the Huaxia Guild in Nanyang.

Finally, Hu Zhen also invited the bosses and executives of major enterprises and told them that this was an opportunity to open up the local market in China under the control of the Qing Dynasty, and that it could open a gap in the officers and men of the Beiyang Fleet, so that industrial products could be sold in a huge market of 400 million people.

When Hu Zhen made all the preparations, the Beiyang Navy Division slowly entered the waters of the South China Sea. (To be continued.) )