With mental calculation and unintentional, and unprepared with preparation, Li Weiguo has won this war at the starting line.

However, the arrogant army was bound to lose, Li Weiguo was very cautious, even if the news of the victory in the Battle of Chuansha came back, it did not make him get carried away.

However, if the enemy discovers the weakness of the shallow water heavy gunboats, the speed is slow and can only fight in the shallow sea, and the number is too small, only ten, and it is more than enough to defend the Yangtze River estuary, but it cannot defend the entire southeast coast, if the British and French fleets avoid attacking Shanghai and choose to attack other coastal provinces in the East China Sea, then the ten shallow water heavy turret ironclad ships of the East China Sea Fleet will be exhausted and lose the initiative.

This was Li Weiguo's biggest concern, so he gambled that the British and French fleets would continue to attack Shanghai.

was really gambled right by Li Weiguo, and soon the coastal reconnaissance clipper reported the news and found that a large fleet was advancing to the mouth of the Yangtze River.

It's just that the only thing that Li Weiguo can't understand is that the intelligence only says that dozens of foreign warships are all under the flag of the British Royal Navy, and no French Navy warships have been found.

"What the hell is this Nima?"

"Is it a division of troops?"

"This is not a good thing, if the British fleet is at the mouth of the Yangtze River to contain the East China Sea Fleet, and the French fleet is going to attack the southeastern coastal provinces, it will be very bad!"

Li Weiguo judged that if he knew that the French fleet was still parked in the port of Naha at this moment, and all this was just the French fleet commander Guba deliberately pitting the British Navy, it was estimated that he would wake up laughing at night.

Where there are people, there are thick and black rivers and lakes, and this saying applies not only to China, but also to all kinds of human beings around the world.

At this time, Zhuang Jiuxia, the head of the guard, brought Li Jing in.

"Lord Qiqi, S.H.I.E.L.D. has just intercepted information, and the imperial court has secretly sent a large number of arms to Haimen, and Li Hongzhang is ordering his troops to quickly replace them with new weapons."

Li Weiguo suddenly frowned and asked, "How much arms did Li Hongzhang get?" What kind of equipment are they? ”

Li Jing replied: "According to the exact information transmitted back on the 4th. The arms were part of a contract signed between Yi Xin and the British, and the weapons came from Britain, France and Prussia, including 3,500 Enfield P1858 rifles, 42,000 Enfield P1853 muskets, 80 18-pounder British guns, 40 24-pounder British guns, and a total of 5 tons of gun ammunition. From France, there were 3,000 Sassbo shotguns, 22,000 Napoleonic front-loading muskets, 80 French 25-pounder guns, and 3.5 tons of gun ammunition. From Prussia were 40,000 Druitt-type firing pin guns, 30 12-pounder, 30-pounder and 24-pounder Krupp guns, and 8 tons of ammunition. ”

Boom!

Li Weiguo slammed his fist on the table, very annoyed. After all, handing over such a huge amount of arms to Li Hongzhang is equivalent to instantly increasing the combat effectiveness of the Beiyang Army by several percent, which cannot be underestimated.

"What's going on with Yi Xin?"

Li Jing replied: "Back to the prince, Yi Xin and Yi Ke Tang led hundreds of thousands of Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banner Army to be stationed in Chongqing Mansion, except for stepping up the training of soldiers, there is no major action for the time being. However, Yixin took the remnants of the Hunan army in Sichuan as the banner. Secretly, he built warships in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and his intention was self-evident, preparing to lead the army down the river and attack the rear of our army. ”

Li Weiguo nodded. He knew all this, and he had expected it, and it seemed that Yixin did not do it immediately, I am afraid that it was just as inferred at the beginning. Once Li Hongzhang loses the initial battle, Yi Xin will change his strategy and use the hands of the Nanyang Army to destroy the Beiyang Army. After all, not only did the Nanyang Army have rebellious intentions, but Li Hongzhang was a big trouble for the imperial court like his Beiyang Army.

Now it seems that Yi Xin has adopted the strategy of holding his troops still, and he sent a large number of arms to Li Hongzhang, obviously wanting Li Hongzhang to exert his last residual heat and inflict as much damage as possible on Li Weiguo's Nanyang Army.

"Old fox!"

Li Weiguo gritted his teeth with hatred and said: "Let you stumble for a few days first, and then turn around and beat you when this king destroys the British and French forces and the Beiyang Army." ”

Li Jing said: "Actually, the prince doesn't have to worry about Li Hongzhang, even if Yixin gave Li Hongzhang such a large number of weapons and ammunition, it is equivalent to sending Li Hongzhang to death, but it is just accelerating the speed of Li Hongzhang's demise." ”

Li Weiguo was curious: "What do you think?" ”

"Your Majesty is just a foolish opinion." Li Jing paused and continued: "The prince only sees that the amount of this arms is huge, and theoretically it can indeed greatly increase the strength of Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Army, but in practice it is not. Although this ammunition is huge, but the guns are varied, Britain, France, Prussia and other countries have them, front-loading muskets, rear-loading firing pistols, firing guns are all kinds of variety, not only the caliber of bullets is not uniform, the same is true of artillery models, the more huge the number, the more it will cause a serious logistical supply burden to the Beiyang Army. ”

Li Weiguo was surprised, and was immediately impressed by Li Jing. So he smiled and said: "You are right, Britain, France, and Prussia use weapons in different ways, and the preparation of ammunition is bound to be different, even if it is our Nanyang Army, it may not be sorted out, not to mention the Beiyang Army with low soldier quality, once the war starts, the Beiyang Army will definitely be killed by the chaotic logistics supply." ”

Li Jing said with a smile: "Not only that, the Beiyang Army has been using muskets to fight before, and they don't know how to use new rifles, even if they barely figure it out, they can't form combat effectiveness in a short time, not to mention that new weapons must be combined with new tactics, if you still use old tactics, you can't fully exert the power of new weapons." Even if Li Hongzhang immediately got 100,000 well-equipped Beiyang Army, when he arrived on the battlefield, he could only be cannon fodder, and the prince only needed to send a town of elites to defeat the other party. ”

Li Weiguo nodded, with the accumulation of time, he found that his subordinates became more and more capable, in the past, Li Weiguo needed to constantly mention and explain to make them understand, but now as his subordinates learn more and more advanced Western ideas and military theories, now they basically don't need Li Weiguo to bother more, they can put forward correct judgments.

This is a very good thing, which shows that the overall strength of Li Weiguo Group has adapted to the general trend of the times after the initial brewing, and now it has reached a period when the snowball is getting bigger and bigger.

However, Li Weiguo, as a leader, will naturally not be easily surpassed by his subordinates.

"You're right, but there's more information in this information!"

"More information?" Li Jing was surprised and immediately shook his head. Said: "Forgive your subordinates for being stupid, in addition to what you just said, your subordinates have not been able to see more news, please give instructions to the king." ”

Li Weiguo smiled slightly, and said: "Did you find it, the British and French only took out a few thousand rear-loading rifles, but gave more old-fashioned muskets, although the power and accuracy of front-loading rifled muskets such as P1853 are not lower than those of rear-loading rifles, but the gap on the battlefield is huge, with Yixin's shrewdness." It is impossible not to know that the Anglo-French forces with such weapons have already lost to us once, how can they still buy so many such obsolete weapons? ”

Li Jing felt reasonable, so he said tentatively: "Could it be that Yixin deliberately cheated Li Hongzhang?" Or do countries such as Britain and France not want to sell advanced weapons to Yixin? ”

"It's possible, but it's very unlikely!" Li Weiguo said with a smile: "There is only one explanation, that is, the production of advanced breech-loading rifles in Britain and France is very low, and even their own armies are not fully equipped, so it is impossible to sell them to Yixin in large quantities." But in order to win over Yixin, Britain and France can't help but sell, so they weigh the pros and cons. The two sides only reached a deal for a few thousand advanced rifles. ”

Li Jing nodded, but he still had questions, and said: "But Prussia has sold tens of thousands of advanced rifles, why is this?" ”

Li Weiguo continued: "This is the second message. Prussia Ken massively exported Drut rifles. It shows that the Prussians also paid attention to the last Battle of Songhu, and knew the great power of our advanced weapon, the Patriotic Rifle, and as a country that wanted to unify Germany, the Prussians must be concerned about this weapon to defeat the Anglo-French forces. Today, both Britain and France have acquired the technology for the production of patriotic rifles. The Prussians must have been afraid, so they certainly weren't far behind. Originally, the Drutt-type firing pistol used by the Prussian army was advanced enough to fight the British and French Enfield series of muskets. But it was still a big deal compared to the Great Patriotic rifle, and since the Prussians were able to talk about this secret weapon of the army on a large scale, it means that the Prussian army has also begun to replace it with more advanced rifles. ”

Li Jing suddenly thought of something and said: "One of the news from our European intelligence station is that the Prussian army seems to have passed a new rifle, and due to absolute secrecy, we haven't used to get the exact information for the time being, but it seems to be related to the Mauser Arsenal." ”

As expected, it must have been the Mauser Arsenal that developed the Mauser rifle, and the old Mauser had the inspiration and ability to do so, as long as he found a way to get a Patriotic rifle, it was easy to quickly develop a Mauser rifle.

"If the king is not mistaken, the Prussians should have received Mauser rifles from the Mauser Arsenal, which were in no way inferior in performance to the Patriotic rifles."

It is no secret that Li Weiguo's speculation has always been "divine approval", which is no secret within the entire Nanyang Group, and it is also a key factor in the crazy worship of Li Weiguo by everyone in the Nanyang Group.

Li Jing was puzzled: "Are the Prussians more powerful than the British and French?" ”

Li Weiguo nodded, he is not an expert in firearms, and the invention of the Patriotic Rifle is also based on the gourd, to put it bluntly, he stepped on the shoulder of the Mauser rifle. But the old Mauser is different, he is the real master of the ancestral level of the rifle, as long as you look at the structure of the patriotic rifle, it is like playing to invent the Mauser rifle.

Li Weiguo has no doubt about this.

"In less than ten years, Prussia will defeat France and unify Germany, and even less so!"

Li Jing has no doubt about Li Weiguo's judgment, even if he doesn't understand it now, but with his fanatical worship, he believes that he will understand it soon.

"Lord, if the Anglo-French alliance is defeated in our hands again this time, does it mean that the military strength of Britain and France on the European continent will be seriously weakened, and the Prussians will rise strongly, according to the judgment of the prince, the Prussians will unify Germany, and it will be impossible for Britain and France to launch a war of aggression against us in a short time in the future?"

Li Weiguo nodded with great satisfaction and praised: "You are very smart, you can understand a little, even if you are in the army, you can be in charge alone." ”

"Thank you for your compliment! Your subordinates are stupid, so you should learn more from the prince's side! Li Jing said modestly, but his heart was beautiful, and being able to get Li Weiguo's praise was a symbol of glory and strength in itself.

I only listened to Li Weiguo: "Therefore, after this war, Britain and France will have no time to take care of us, and we will have another five to ten years of peaceful development, during which we will complete the great cause of reunification as soon as possible, build a strong navy, and prepare for the next war." The Prussians were very smart, and they also found this rare opportunity, so the Prussians would spare no effort to sell a large number of advanced weapons to the imperial court, just to make the imperial court strong, to drag the attention of Britain and France as much as possible, and to buy valuable time for the Prussians to unify Germany. ”

Li Jing suddenly realized, and immediately admired: "The prince is wise, he has seen so much valuable news in this piece of information, and his subordinates admire it." ”

Li Weiguo smiled slightly, only to hear Li Jing ask again: "It's just that this Prussian can judge the situation in the Far East and use us to drag Britain and France back, and he may be the great enemy of the prince in the future." ”

"You're right!" Li Weiguo agreed: "Because they have a capable person named Bismarck, whose ability is comparable to that of Su Qin and Zhang Yi. This king is fortunate to be born in this era, but he must learn Bismarck's tricks. ”

Since he was born in the same era, Li Weiguo vowed to overpower Bismarck and let history remember.

At this time, the General Staff Office sent another report that the main force of the British Royal Navy's Asian Fleet had arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and Lin Jiyun, commander of the East China Sea Fleet, sent a telegram asking for battle.

"This Lin Jiyun has been lurking for five years, and his courage is still there, very good!"

Li Weiguo nodded, picked up the pen and signed the order, approving Lin Jiyun to lead the East China Sea Fleet to battle.

However, Li Weiguo would not underestimate the enemy, and he would not be naïve enough to think that just ten shallow turret ironclad ships could destroy the entire Royal Navy Asian Fleet, so he wrote another order.

"Order Huo Lan and Chen Cheng to go into battle, cooperate with the East China Sea Fleet, and inflict as much damage on the British fleet as possible!"

Holland, naturally, was the one who developed submarines at the Jiangnan Shipyard. As for Chen Cheng, he is a major commander of the East China Sea Fleet, and together with several naval elites, he was transferred by Li Weiguo to Huo Lan's side, and cooperated with Huo Lan to develop and supervise the construction of submarines, which actually made them adapt to submarines in advance and prepare to go to sea to fight.

Due to the short period of time, only a few months between the successful development of the first submarine and the confrontation with the British and French fleets, Holan adopted this strategy of sharpening his guns in battle.

Fortunately, in this era, the technology content is not high, and building a submarine of about 100 tons can be completed in two months at the earliest, of course, this will cost a lot of money, but in order to be able to win the war, Li Weiguo no longer cares how much money is spent.

Huo Lan and Chen Cheng were very excited when they received the order.

Holland wanted to prove that the submarine he developed was of great value, and Chen Cheng wanted to prove that he was an excellent naval officer, and both wanted Li Weiguo to impress them, so in recent months, they have worked quite hard and cooperated with each other to give full play to the performance of Holland's submarine.

Of course, the real value of submarines lies in actual combat, and the original water radium attack has been canceled during Li Weiguo's last inspection, and the use of fish and radium as a weapon has been changed instead.

And the development and production of fish and radium has only begun in recent months, and for this war, the design of fish and radium is relatively rough, just to put into actual combat.

Half an hour later, Huo Lan and Chen Cheng drove the Huo Lan C-type submarine out of the Jiangnan Shipyard, and under the protection of two frigates, they sailed to the mouth of the Yangtze River, preparing to participate in the next battle in the East China Sea. (To be continued.) )