Not far from West Borneo, a huge fleet sailed south.

The sky was clear. On the deck of the flagship "Nanyang No. 1" in the center of the fleet, Tan Tiyuan and Zeng Guoquan, Ding Ruchang, You Romantic, Alfred? Feng? The five of Schlieffen stood in front of the deck, Tan Tiyuan held a telescope, looked at the end of the blue sea, and his face was calm: "I have already passed that desert island, and I am only two days away." Take advantage of the wind, sail at full speed and make sure to arrive in Sarawak before dark tomorrow. ”

Two months ago, when a spy in Jiaying Prefecture, Guangdong, and four laborers who had fled back from Nanyang, they found out a shocking news: The Bullock Dynasty, the ruler of Sarawak in Borneo, had borrowed more than 100 British soldiers from the Governor of the Straits and recruited more than 500 local soldiers to carry out a retaliatory massacre of the Chinese miners of the 12th Company of the local Chinese community that had captured the Bullock Palace, and slaughtered a total of more than 3,000 Chinese miners and their families who had emigrated from the Chaozhou area of Jiaying, Guangdong.

Fan Ruzeng, director of the Department of Special Affairs, quickly reported the news to Emperor Feng Yunshan, who was angry at the tragic death of his compatriots, and secondly felt that this was a breakthrough point to intervene in Nanyang, so he immediately bypassed the General Staff Headquarters and personally ordered to send the Nanyang Fleet to Sarawak with the 38th Infantry Division stationed in Vietnam and Qiongzhou to take revenge. The 38th Infantry Division, led by division commander Zeng Guoquan, quickly assembled at Saigon in Ni Nam Province shortly after pacifying Vietnam.

After several days of turbulence and turbulence, we finally arrived on the northwest coast of Borneo in the South Sea.

Tan Tiyuan and Lin Shifa because of their young age, they are the only two of the Guangxi brothers who followed Feng Yunshan to enter the Huangpu Military Academy system to study, Tan Tiyuan was originally the deputy head of the Holy Army, since graduating from the Huangpu Military Academy, after the regiment commander, deputy division commander to division commander, because Luo outline stepped down from the post of commander of the Nanyang Fleet and became the newly formed Minister of the Navy, the position of commander of the Nanyang Fleet was vacant for a month, Feng Yunshan thought twice, The position of commander of the most important fleet of the three fleets was handed over to Tan Tiyuan, who had both a long history of actual combat and a systematic background, but because his qualifications were not enough, his official position was that he was the deputy chief officer of the Nanyang Fleet and the captain of the first fleet. Naturally, Tan Tiyuan used to be Feng Yunshan's personal guard and cronies is also the main reason, after all, the Nanyang Fleet is the largest fleet of the Chinese Empire, and almost half of the warships are concentrated in the Nanyang Fleet, Feng Yunshan will naturally hand it over to the person who is most loyal to him, as for the qualifications, except for Luo Xuan, Lu Shunde and Liang Peiyou, no one else has this qualification.

As for Zeng Guoquan, the commander of the 38th Infantry Division, he never dreamed that he would have such a glorious moment!

Zeng Guoquan was defeated in Wuchang City, and after his brother Zeng Guofan committed suicide, except for the fierce general Bao Chao and the naval generals Chu Ruhang and Xia Luan, the rest of the other Hunan army generals, including Zeng Guoquan, all surrendered to the captive army in accordance with Zeng Guofan's last wishes.

At the beginning, Zeng Guoquan, like Liu Rong and others, still had some resentment in his heart for the defeat of Zeng Guofan by the captive army and his suicide, plus the two nephews were still studying in the capital, and they had scruples in their hearts, and they did not want to come out to lead troops or be officials, and lived in seclusion in their hometown in Xiangxiang for more than half a year, but later, Feng Yunshan sent agents from the Secret Service Department to sneak into the city of Beijing and rescued Zeng Guofan's two sons Zeng Jize and Zeng Jihong, who were being monitored in Beijing. Luo Zenan and other generals of the Hunan Army finally agreed to come out.

However, after half a year of training at the Whampoa Military Academy, Zeng Guoquan decided to be transferred to the commander of the 38th Division, and the 38th Division had already cooperated with the 37th Division to capture Vietnam. Just when Zeng Guoquan deeply regretted it, an order made him ecstatic, the Han people were slaughtered in Nanyang, and he was asked to rescue him and occupy Nanyang by the way.

This domineering order made Zeng Guoquan fall for it. Only then did he realize how stupid and short-sighted he was to work for the Manchus. It turns out that the world is so big, this is what a husband should do.

Ding Ruchang and You Rongrong were the captains of the Second and Third Fleets, and Shi Lifen was the deputy division commander and chief of staff of the 38th Division.

Ding Ruchang and You Romantic are okay, although they are young, but after all, they have been promoted to this position after several wars due to the accumulation of merits, and Schlieffen is purely because Feng Yunshan is superstitious about the fame of his later generations, so he was promoted by leapfrogging, and in less than a year, he was directly appointed to the rank of major from a second lieutenant in Prussia, and then after two promotions, he jumped to the level of colonel today, which made Schlieffen grateful and envied other Prussian officers.

However, Schlieffen did not disgrace Feng Yunshan and Zuo Zongtang, who directly handled this matter, and since joining the Capture Army, in less than half a year, he was able to communicate in simple Chinese, and in terms of military staff, he initially showed outstanding military command ability. He owes his credit to the rapid success of the capture of Vietnam, with very little damage. This time, Feng Yunshan asked him to partner with Zeng Guoquan, which was to let him assist Zeng Guoquan, and at the same time, it also allowed the two of them to cooperate with each other and supervise each other.

Ding Ruchang had just rushed back to the Nanyang Fleet from Korea, and he brought back to the Nanyang Fleet all the original flagship of the Nanyang Fleet, the "Extinction Ocean," and other warships that had been loaned to the Oriental Fleet for attacking Korea.

The predecessor of the "Extinction" was the captured flagship of the U.S. Perry Fleet, the cruiser "USS Mississippi", which was borrowed to the Oriental Fleet when it went to Korea as the flagship of the fleet commander Lu Shunde, but this time the Nanyang Fleet went on an expedition, but it could only be used as an ordinary main warship, and Wu Chongyao proposed that the Extermination might cause misunderstanding and strong reactions from foreigners, and suggested that the name be changed, so the "Extermination" was renamed "Nanyang No. 5", that is, the cruiser composed of the original "Mississippi" outboard fast sailing ship. With a speed of 8 knots, a full load displacement of 3,220 tons, 380 sailors, 400 infantrymen, and 2 10-inch smoothbore guns and 8 8-inch smoothbore guns, the ship can only rank sixth.

The former flagship of the renamed "Nanyang No. 5", now not only the flagship of the Nanyang Fleet can not be used, not even the sub-flagship of the second fleet, Ding Ruchang dislikes its speed is too low, only 8 knots, now Ding Ruchang's second squadron flagship is a 3950-ton displacement of steam engine-driven sail fast battleship, named "Nanyang No. 2", in addition to the sailing speed of 12 knots, the ship is equipped with 2 front-loading smoothbore guns 10-inch guns and 4 8-inch guns assembled by the Boston Shipyard. Later, at the Changzhou Shipyard outside Guangzhou, two Krupp 260mm front-loading rifled guns and four Krupp 150mm rear-loading rifled guns were installed on their own, and their firepower was more than twice as strong as that of the "Nanyang No. 5".

The warship distribution of the Imperial Navy tended to the Nanyang Fleet, and the distribution of the main warships of the Nanyang Fleet tended to focus on the First Fleet. It's no wonder, after all, it's the first fleet, and it's the deputy commander of the fleet, Tan Tiyuan, who personally serves as the captain.

The entire Nanyang Fleet was divided into four squadrons, and only the first three squadrons were dispatched on this expedition, and the fourth squadron was divided into two parts and was still cruising in Saigon and Humen. The first detachment was personally led by Tan Tiyuan, with a total of six warships, the main warships were all purchased by Wu Ruxiao from the United States, namely the flagship "Nanyang No. 1", "Nanyang No. 4" and "Nanyang No. 7", all of which were steam engine-driven sail-mounted fast warships of more than 3,500 tons, and cruisers with modified Krupp rifled guns, in addition to two 1,500-ton frigates and one 300-ton gunboat.

The second squadron was led by Ding Ruchang and also consisted of six warships, in addition to the two main warships of the flagship "Nanyang II" and "Nanyang V", there was also a 1,500-ton frigate and three gunboats.

The third squadron was led by You Romantic, and it also consisted of six warships, the flagship "Nanyang No. 3" and "Nanyang No. 2" were the same size, plus the original "Keyang" was renamed "Nanyang No. 6", and two 1,200-ton frigates and two gunboats.

These 18 warships escorted nearly 100 merchant ships converted into troop carriers, which were lined up in a mighty row and scattered across the waters of the South Sea.

Ding Ruchang and You Romancy just felt that the warships of their Nanyang Fleet were huge and their artillery was sharp, and attacking the poor sailors of the Manchus and North Korea was completely crushing, without comparison, and they didn't care much. And Tan Tiyuan and Shi Lifen are different.

Tan Tiyuan was systematically familiar with the situation of artillery in the world today when he was studying at the Whampoa Military Academy, and knew that even Western warships are now equipped with most of the front-loading smoothbore guns, and later I heard the staff officers of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff say that front-loading rifled guns have begun to appear in the Crimean War, but there are not enough, but the effect has come out, and I believe that all countries will use them in large quantities in the future.

And Schlieffen just came out of the Prussian Army, he is very familiar with the artillery equipment of the armies of Western European countries, of course, the secret weapons may not be clear, but the general assembly is still mainly front-loading smoothbore guns, that is, the Chinese Empire called Hongyi cannons. But after coming to this ancient empire in the Far East, he found that the primitive and backward ancient country that still used cannons in the 17th century in his impression secretly hoarded a large number of rifled guns, which they called Krupp cannons.

Moreover, this Krupp cannon is not only a front-loading rifled artillery, but also a lot of rear-loading rifled artillery, and he is proficient in the performance of artillery, and after a little understanding, he was so shocked that he called God for several days, if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed that there were such advanced firearms in the ancient country of the Far East. The accuracy, range and rate of fire of the artillery were very exaggerated, and this was the reason why the gunners had not been trained for a long time and the intensity was not enough, and he sometimes even imagined in his heart that if his homeland Prussia could introduce this kind of artillery technology, it would be great, not to mention defeating Austria, even defeating France, and it was possible to dominate the European continent.

However, Schlieffen would shake his head and tell himself that he was also doing well in the East now. He was just an ordinary second lieutenant in Prussia, and even if he did well, he didn't know when he would come out on top, and here he felt his worth and the meaning of existence! Think about it, being personally received by the emperor, he was promoted several times in less than a year, and he was deeply used, so what is there to be dissatisfied with? Except for the occasional reminder of his hometown, where he is not well adapted to the customs and habits around him, he is very satisfied and grateful for the honor and status that this country has given him. The rigid character of Prussia told him to be loyal! And the good man is ambitious in all directions, and the rest is to serve the emperor who gave him the grace of his acquaintance.

Since Zeng Guoquan came to the flagship of the Nanyang Fleet with the troop carrier, he was stunned to see the two 8-meter-long Krupp cannons, weighing more than 24,000 catties. At the same time, I am also glad that I can follow such an army to go on an expedition and become famous overseas.

A few people put away their thoughts and looked at the sea in the distance, which was connected to the sky.

It is not the first time that You Romance has sailed on the sea on a warship, he has followed Luo Xuan around in the past two years, and he is already a qualified admiral. However, the first time I crossed the South Seas, I couldn't help but feel a little excited, but when I thought of the so-called Bullock Dynasty that slaughtered the Hakka compatriots, I was indignant in my heart, and I couldn't wait to rush to avenge the deep-sea blood feud immediately. You must know that he is especially romantic, and most of the villagers in his hometown, almost all of them moved from Jiaying Prefecture to outside Guilin. is also my own luck, if the ancestors were the same as those Hakka compatriots who were slaughtered, they moved from Jiaying Prefecture to Nanyang to make a living, maybe they were slaughtered. Therefore, it can be described as empathetic and particularly intense.

As soon as he heard Tan Tiyuan say that he could see the land, You Romanticly suddenly remembered something and asked: "Commander Tan, this time, three of the four detachments of our Nanyang Fleet have been dispatched, and nearly a hundred ordinary merchant ships of the Liangguang Ocean Company have been used as troop carriers. ”

Tan Tiyuan was right to think about it, and nodded: "Not bad." But how can the brutes who slaughtered my Chinese people be allowed to escape? Tan has already made arrangements, and the purpose of summoning you here is to discuss this matter. What I mean is that before dark today, the troops will be divided into three routes, led by those guides from Jiaying Prefecture, each fleet will go all the way, directly in three ways, and attack from the west, north, and east of Sarawak at the same time, so as to completely wipe out those beasts in Sarawak. ”