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The whistle sounded on the river, and four Western-style sailing ships of different tonnage were moored on the river, these sailing ships were all locomotive ships with steam engines without exception, two of which were paddle sailing ships and two were propeller sailing ships, their tonnage was unequal, most of them were more than 1,000 tons, and the small ones were hundreds of tons, this was just four Western-style merchant ships, but at this time, the stern of these four sailing ships was without exception hoisting a red flag with a big sail. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The red flag, that is the symbol of the rebels.

Under the action of the river wind, the square flag is fully displayed, and you can clearly see the "Han" written with the Han seal on the flag. This "Han" flag at the bottom of the word "Han" just indicates the identity of these four Western-style sailing ships -- warships.

In fact, a few months ago they were only merchant ships, armed merchant ships belonging to British or American companies, but now they are warships of the Yangtze River Fleet of the Xinghan Rebellion.

At this time, more than a dozen sand boats were towed behind these four "warships" that had galloped across the ocean, and each sand boat was without exception crowded with soldiers with loaded guns, and on the dock, there were more soldiers lined up there, waiting to get on the boat, and each sand boat was rowed into the river with oars and tied to ropes to form a fleet after being filled with soldiers.

In the midday sun, Zhu Yifeng boarded the "Pingtao" warship in a small boat, the 1,272-ton "Pingtao" in the Yangtze River Fleet is the largest tonnage warship, it is a wooden-hulled paddle gunship, in fact, it used to be just a wooden-hulled paddle merchant ship, but now it is the "capital ship" of the Yangtze River Naval Division, and the two 68-pounder caron guns in the bow are even more powerful.

But it's a merchant ship after all!

When stepping on the deck, Zhu Yifeng could feel its vague "merchant ship" atmosphere, in addition to the two guns in the bow, that is, the four 18-pounder cannons in front and rear of the paddle wheels on both sides, their firing range is much higher than the caron guns used on the rebel ships, and one of the simplest reasons why other ships of the rebels use caron guns is because although the caron guns have a short range, they are lighter. But these four "warships" without exception are dominated by cannons.

"When can I go?"

Facing Shen Ming and the others who came to greet him, Zhu Yifeng asked.

"Governor, just wait for the infantry to board the ship, and then you can set off!"

Nodding, when Zhu Yifeng saw Major Crawn standing beside Shen Ming, he smiled at him and said,

"Well, Captain Cloun, in your opinion, is the fleet ready for actual combat now?"

This Captain Clun was an officer of the East India Company's fleet hired from Hong Kong, and he retired from the East India Company two years earlier, and has since been the captain of the merchant ship "Senk", and the "Senke" is the "Pingtao", which was "bought" along with the people and the ship.

For the past three months, he and five other East India Company fleet officers have served as instructors at the Naval Training Institute, teaching the officers of the Yangtze River Fleet and to 120 young men selected from Wenshan Yishu, who have learned from them the tactics of Western naval warfare, gunnery, navigation, shipbuilding, arithmetic, mechanics, surveying, astronomy, geography, and history.

In a fundamental sense, the Naval Training Institute in Hankow, like the Wuchang Army Military Academy, was the earliest "Western-style officer education institution" in Asia, but in reality, both were "straw stands", just as the instructors of the latter, except for Linus, were adventurers.

Even Crowne, how could he be a qualified instructor?

But for Zhu Yifeng, he didn't have much choice, just like now, when the fleet is dispatched, he has to "move" the naval training center to the ship, because the fleet needs the guidance of those Western instructors every time it sails.

"It's just a training session!"

Clounn's face was British-style arrogance as he spoke,

"For them, this is a routine training, as for the ...... of war"

Clone shook his head.

"Without more than three years, it is simply impossible for your fleet to fight at sea, Your Excellency, once again I hope that you will consider my request, that is, if you want to build a fleet, you must consider it at sea, not on the Yangtze River! They will never be able to grow into a navy on a calm river! ”

Perhaps Crawn was extremely arrogant, but Zhu Yifeng could not help but admit that his suggestion was justified, and the navy could only be built on the sea, as for the river...... It's just a sailor who has practiced.

"Believe me, I'm thinking about it too, but, Captain, I don't have any other choice right now!"

Is there no way, because Hubei is inland, far from the sea, in the absence of a coastline, how to build a port, even if you send them out and let them sail to the sea, where do they anchor? What if you encounter Qing troops on the road?

"I understand that what you need is a port, a place where the fleet can anchor!"

Crawn shrugged his shoulders, and then his voice paused slightly, as if remembering something, and then said tentatively.

"If you wish, maybe you can buy a piece of land outside of China near the sea, both as your colony and as a home port for your fleet......"

What the?

Crawn's proposal made Zhu Yifeng stunned, he looked at the other party in surprise and asked.

"What? Buying a piece of land? Colony? Port? ”

Although he had the intention or idea of "going to Africa", he was well aware of the difficulties he faced, and of course the greatest resistance did not come from the European powers, which at this time were not taken seriously by the European countries, in fact, the division of Africa by the European powers was not taken seriously by the European powers thirty years later, at the Berlin Conference, before which anyone, whether a state or a private company, could set up trading posts and colonies in Africa, and of course most of them ended in "failure".

However, Zhu Yifeng has not yet had the heart to run Africa, after all, it is too far away from China, and perhaps after overthrowing the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the future, he can run and develop Africa in the name of the country, and as for now, Africa is not in the scope of his own consideration at all.

But now Crawn's proposal made Zhu Yifeng's mind float, for no other reason, it was because of the fleet!

On the surface, he established the Yangtze River Fleet to control the Yangtze River, but he set up a naval training institute and hired people such as Crawn as instructors with high salaries, in order to lay the foundation of the navy and prepare for the future development of the navy.

However, in the establishment of the navy in Hubei, even the Yangtze River Fleet was subject to various restrictions, and in addition to environmental restrictions, it was not even possible to guarantee the raw materials for shipbuilding -- not only did the iron for shipbuilding need to be imported, but even the source of timber was insufficient.

In this case, how to build a fleet?

Although it is explained that he knows that the future is the era of ironclad ships, and even Huang Deqin needs to order the equipment needed for the ironworks there when he goes to Europe, and that Wuchang will build iron ships in the future, whether it is due to the natural environment or development potential, it is necessary to obtain access to the sea in order to build a navy.

Why do you have to get access to the sea?

If, as Crawn said, an island could be purchased or leased outside of China, wouldn't it be a home port for the fleet, where the navy could be trained, or the fleet could sail there for ocean-going training, then the Yangtze River fleet, well, could be used as a "reserve station" to supplement its soldiers and officers.

But now you can afford to raise two fleets on your own?

No, to be precise, can your own officer corps be able to support two fleets?

Look at the officers who were commanding the sailors, they were all halfway monks, and there were even many young men on board to command the sailors, they were the first cadets of the workshop, but now, when they decided to join the fleet, all of them had to play their responsibilities at their posts, because the newly formed fleet had not solved the problem of manpower shortage until now.

Wouldn't it be too risky to throw them out to sea when they can't even sail independently of the Yangtze River?

"If you want to learn to swim, just throw him into the deep water!"

Suddenly, such a voice appeared in Zhu Yifeng's mind, and at the same time, another thought appeared in his heart - learning war in war!

Maybe they can't sail the Yangtze River alone, compared to the Yangtze River, the sea navigation conditions are more harsh, but it can make them grow up more quickly!

That's right!

Just like the rebels, if there were no previous adventures, how could there be today's rebels? Rebels can mature in war, why can't they grow on the sea?

"Perhaps, Captain, in the next few days, we can talk about this properly!"

Zhu Yifeng, who had made up his mind, looked at Crawn and said.

"Well, of course, I can give you a good suggestion if you want to!"

Seeing that the other party seemed to be moved by his own words, the seemingly calm Cloune was a little excited in his heart, because he did have a very good proposal, and of course, more importantly, he also had a certain interest in himself - he could get a good commission.

"Then I really want to thank you, Captain, I think right now, the most important thing for us is the next battle, Captain, I hope you can be my fleet staff officer, and give me advice on water combat in the next battle, how about it?"

Zhu Yifeng can naturally distinguish which is more important, no matter how much Clouen's proposal is in line with long-term interests, it is more important to take Hunan at the moment. In the face of this invitation, Crawn, who knew that this was his own duty, naturally did not refuse, and he hurriedly gave a standard British military salute.

"Your Excellency, it will be my pleasure!" (To be continued.) )