The Great Song Dynasty and the Mongolian sailors fought at the mouth of the Yangtze River! As recently as April of this year, the Jinhe Imperial Fleet stationed at the mouth of the Yongjiang River was on a routine patrol and spotted a large fleet of at least 60 ships passing south along the coastline along the tip of the Shandong Peninsula. The news was immediately sent to the desk of Wu Qian, the coastal control envoy, and then the Southern Song Dynasty naval division also began to assemble northward from Wenzhou, Mingzhou, and Lin'an, and the two sides collided together in the sea area north of the mouth of the Yangtze River, and launched a unique sea battle.

"If the Great Song army is like a water division, the Mongolian army will not be able to cross the Huaishui and Han rivers without our help!" This is Kong Pei's evaluation after visiting the battlefield and watching the entire naval battle.

This naval battle lasted for three days and two nights, and although the Southern Song Dynasty naval division, which had the advantage in the number of ships and the individual inferiority, suffered relatively large losses, it achieved a strategic victory, and did not allow a single ship of the Mongolian naval division to break through the defense line and go south, almost 50 Southern Song Dynasty warships and more than 20 Mongolian warships were burned, and the casualties on both sides were about the same. The ships of the Mongolian sailors were larger, and the ships of the Southern Song Dynasty sailors were generally smaller, and the two ships did not have as many soldiers as the other ship. However, the tactics of the Southern Song Dynasty sailors were very flexible, and they were worthy of being serious sailors, with the use of big boats and the role of small boats, which were very well coordinated. If it weren't for the Mongolian sailors' mortars that were more powerful at close range, the Southern Song Dynasty sailors would have won completely.

The fleet of the Jinhe Empire did not participate in the war, because the Southern Song Dynasty court did not make this request, Kong Pei waited for two days, and even the Southern Song Dynasty sailors who went north from Wenzhou left, and still did not receive any notice, so he followed behind with two warships as a spectator.

"There are no artillery on the Great Song warship?" Hong Tao was not worried about whether the Southern Song Dynasty sailors would win or lose, but the number of warships. The Southern Song Dynasty defeated the Mongol Empire. The loss of a few dozen ships is a drop in the bucket. The main force of the sailors who really guarded Lin'an was not dispatched at all. From this point of view, these people in the court of the Southern Song Dynasty really deserve to die, and they still have half of the war left, and they have suffered in vain.

"Yes, it's about the same as our 80 guns, it's full of broken stones, the firing is wrong, the smoke is very large, and the range is not far enough. The power is also small, and it can only kill the sailors on the deck at close range, and it does not have much effect on the hull. On the contrary, their hard crossbows were tied with fire canisters, which could shoot more than 200 meters away, and many of the sails of Mongolian sailors were ignited by them. Kong Pei carefully explained the details of the naval battle between the two sides that he saw, focusing on the types and powers of the weapons used by the two sides, as for what formations and tactics, he couldn't look at them, and those things were basically useless after encountering a battleship equipped with naval guns.

"Lao Wen, it's better for you to run. As the foreign minister of the Jinhe Empire, he went to meet Zheng Qingzhi and asked him to give a clear answer to how he was going to deal with the empire. By the way, bring my opinion to him. I don't want the imperial court to spend its limited energy on naval warfare, holding the land defense line is the right thing, and the threat at sea to the empire will help the Great Song Dynasty solve it and solve it completely. If the Great Song Dynasty recognizes that our two countries are still allies, then we will sign a treaty, and by next summer or so at the latest, the Mongol naval division will not exist, and there will be no in the future, so that the land defense line will once again become the focus of the Mongol Empire's attack, and then the imperial navy will still be able to assist the Great Song army on the Huaishui and Hanshui lines. However, since it is two countries, the command of the fleet must be in the hands of the empire, and how to communicate with the Great Song army is a problem, and this point must also be discussed clearly, and it can no longer be as confused as last time. After listening to Kong Pei's account, Hong Tao felt that this arms race was almost over. The Mongolian sailors who went south this time was certainly not the whole thing, but a temptation. This means that they can't wait, why can't they wait? The money is almost spent, and it's time to see a return.

If he waited any longer, once the Mongolian sailors went south, the Southern Song Dynasty court would definitely panic. Once the Southern Song Dynasty is also involved in a large-scale ship-blasting situation, it will lose blood faster, which is invisibly equivalent to increasing its own burden. This situation is the most complicated, if Jinhewan starts a war with the Mongol Empire alone, it can be carried out in its own way regardless of it, but there is a Southern Song Dynasty court in the middle, not only to let it live, but also not to let it hurt too deeply. It's like two people fighting, and one of them has to pull a child, and this child is not very obedient, and it gets in the way, and the difficulty increases exponentially.

"Alright, I'll go and prepare, and it just so happens that I want to go back to Lin'an, where I still have a few of my old friends, and if possible, I want to persuade them to join the empire as well. There are so few people in the Imperial Government who know how to manage it, and yesterday I went to the parliament and listened to it, like a vegetable market. "Wen Nan entered the state quickly, and although his appointment had not yet been approved by the council, he had already regarded himself as an official official of the Golden River Empire and began to worry about the construction of the empire.

"You go to Guangzhou to find Cixi in this matter, he knows what to do. If there is a suitable candidate to join, of course I welcome it, and you can arrange the position yourself, and you can report the results to me. Don't meddle in the affairs of the council, everything has to have a process, I think it's better to be noisy, it's better to quarrel now than in the future. "Hong Tao is not worried that Wennan will be calculated and bring back some guys with evil intentions, so naturally Cixi will help him check in this regard. The matter of immigration has not yet been officially opened, and a few tests of the waters will only benefit from the official launch of the immigration policy in the future.

"Minister Qi, how many salmon-class ships can be completed within six months?" Wen Nan left, and Hong Tao began to arrange the next step. If you want to fight, you have to strengthen the strength of the fleet, and in the past year or so, the Imperial Shipyard has launched another Jiaosha-class and four new salmon-class ships, plus the Jiaosha-class that has been almost completed before, the main fleet has eight Jiaosha-class and seven Salmon-class. For the sake of safety, Hong Tao felt that it was not a waste to add a few more Salmon-class, these armed cargo ships were warships when they were fighting, and they could be used as cargo ships to sail away after the war, which was more cost-effective than building too many pure warships.

“…… If you count the shipyards in Phuket to rush to work, by the end of May next year, up to four more ships can be built, but the progress of replacing the guns will slow down, and we don't have so many 80mm deck guns in stock, so we need to step up casting. In addition, the reserves of artillery shells and gunpowder are too sufficient, and in the past six months or so, they have been busy with restructuring, and many productions have been delayed. Qi Zu and Wen Xiaoqi exchanged opinions and gave an accurate answer.

"It's okay, it's scheduled to be delivered at the beginning of May next year, and I'm going to put a bill on the parliament to prepare for the state of war law. This time, Hong Tao did not think about it anymore, and directly set the direction of production of the Imperial Shipyard and the metal industry group in the next few months. Now he not only has to exercise the rights of the Prime Minister of the Reich, the Speaker of the Parliament, and the Minister of Defense, but also uses the power of the Emperor to declare war, so that the Empire, which has just been established for more than a year, will enter the first state of war, which can be regarded as an actual combat exercise.

Big Character Poster! The big-character posters signed by the emperor soon filled the newspaper columns on every street in Jinhe City, and Bo Zhu, the propaganda minister, carried out the emperor's husband's order 100%, and the parliament just passed Hong Tao's proposal, so that the residents of the Jinhe Empire knew that the empire was going to war!

"For the sake of the future of the Empire, and to destroy all enemies that threaten the Empire, the Emperor hereby declares the Golden River Empire to be in a state of war in accordance with the powers conferred on him by the Constitution and the Parliament. I hope that all the inhabitants of the empire will work hard to produce, all the soldiers of the empire will fight bravely, and all the officials of the empire will be honest and honest, and unite to win this war. ”

The content of the poster was simple, and it did not even write about the causes and consequences of the war, but it was enough for the inhabitants of Golden River to ask the councillors for specific information, who, in addition to quarreling in the parliament, had a responsibility to explain to their constituents the reasons for each bill they approved. How to say it, in what form, that is the duty of the parliament, Hong Tao will not interfere, he is now wandering around the various departments of the imperial government, inspecting and guiding the work of the cabinet government. Although it is said that declaring war or not declaring war has basically no impact on Jinhe Bay, how can it be that the fleet sails and then returns to the DPRK victoriously, this kind of drama Jinhe people have long been accustomed to, but this time it is still different in the implementation link. In the past, it was Hong Tao who gave an order, and everyone set off without saying a word, but now it can no longer be operated so extensively, and each department must fulfill the responsibilities of each department and do a good job in the work in hand. It doesn't matter if you don't do it well, as long as you do it wholeheartedly, Hong Tao is the first time to be the emperor, and these government officials are also the first time to be, everyone is trying, let's start to speed up the run-in from now on.

"I don't think the cannon alone is enough to completely weaken the Mongol Empire, the northerners are good at wine, but the north has little grain, and they won't make high-grade wine. If the Ministry of Commerce could organize a special transport fleet to import a large amount of rum into the north and sell it to the Mongol aristocracy through Xu Liangzhi's connections, it would definitely be able to obtain great profits for the empire, and at the same time, it would also cause a massive outflow of wealth from the Mongol Empire and accelerate their financial deterioration. There is no contradiction between selling wine and fighting, it can be carried out quietly and secretly, the front is fighting on the one hand, and the rear is selling wine, and our shell money should also be paid by the Mongols. ”

Li Niang, the dual minister of the Imperial Department of National Taxation and Customs and the Ministry of Commerce, is a standard second-generation figure in Jinhewan, she is different from Weng Ya, who likes to drive a warship on the sea with real knives and guns, while Li Niang likes to sit in the office, looking at a large number of business materials and wondering how to harm others and benefit herself. As long as it is beneficial to the Golden River Empire, no matter how cruel it is to other countries, she does not think it is wrong.

(To be continued.) )