After the war against the British, Zuo Zongtang's tasks were very complicated, on the one hand, he had to train the naval fleet, enrich the personnel and equipment, and on the other hand, he had to salvage the British battleships that had sunk at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Salvage of shipwrecks is a big task, there are many technical problems, China has always been a problem is that the marine industry is not good, so it took a lot of effort, in desperation, but also to Portugal and Spain and the Netherlands and other small countries to solicit technical personnel, these countries are now afraid of China, especially Portugal, occupied China's Macao, always in the calculation, they are very worried that the Chinese government put forward, with China's strength to want to take back, it can be said that it is easy, but this small country can not pull down the face to return directly, Just waiting for the fate of being beaten, as soon as I heard about technical cooperation and salvage of sunken ships, I was very excited.

Over the course of several months, fifteen sunken ships were salvaged, four of which were battleships and three heavy cruisers, which were repaired and joined the Chinese Navy for use as training ships.

After the battle at the mouth of the Yangtze River, China's East China Sea Fleet suffered heavy losses, leaving only three battleships and six cruisers, and the Dalian shipyard quickly built two cruisers and more than a dozen gunboats, which were replenished in time,

It is gratifying that the Yangtze River basin has once again become the birthplace of the Chinese navy, and before the declaration of war against France, the French fleet in the Yangtze River valley was devastated.

In this chapter, the squadron has always been reluctant to be humane, and the French are also ashamed of being humane, so it has almost become a blind spot topic in the world.

The reason is that the squadron took measures in advance to clean up the French warships in China.

The so-called clean seal means that all the French battleships were captured without wasting a single shot, including two battleships, one heavy cruiser, and six light cruisers.

Before China declared war, there was no sign of falling out with France, so the French were quite complacent in China, maintaining their trade or something, because according to previous treaties, French ships had the right to sail freely in the waters of treaty ports.

In the face of a strong enemy, Luoyang adopted a Japanese-style foreign military strategy, sneak attack,

Moreover, it was a sneak attack before the declaration of war,

In Jiujiang, two French battleships, two cruisers, escorting more than a dozen merchant ships were swaggering away, suddenly, there were Chinese merchant ships in front of interception, and then, an official from Jiujiang came forward, saying that the government department had important matters to discuss with the French, so the French anchored, the commander landed, in Jiujiang, unexpectedly found the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period of the general Li Xiucheng, he was the commander of the Nanjing Military Region,

Li Xiucheng specifically asked the French ** officer to attend the banquet in Jiujiang City, because he wanted to discuss with the French fleet, borrow French technology, to assist Zuo Zongtang in salvaging the sunken ship, and other things to discuss, as a result, the French were not guarded, Li Xiucheng also invited almost all the French captain-level officers to the city for a party, and dispatched hundreds of literary and artistic female soldiers to perform songs and dances, etc., to the ship to give condolence performances, inside and out, the French officers and soldiers were so fooled that they lost any vigilance, and suddenly, one day, the officers of a small French fleet who were drunk and smoked, All of them were taken, and then, the officers of the forced people gave the order and the ships were confiscated.

The rest of the warships, basically similar,

Poor French sailors, don't have to care, since then, nine French warships, become the treasure of China's East China Sea Fleet, because of the British and French fleet, the East China Sea Fleet quickly recovered and improved its strength, so, as soon as he heard that little Japan dared to invade China's treasure island Taiwan, Zuo Zongtang was furious: "Okay, the old minister will definitely kill all the thieves who dare to invade, one by one." ”

The principle of re-emphasizing the use of chaos is particularly evident in the generals of the Hunan army, Zeng Guoquan killed indiscriminately, Zeng Guofan shaved his head, and Zuo Zongtang also tried his best to take revenge when he quelled the rebellion in the northwest.

Zuo Zongtang is the commander of the Navy to aid Taiwan, and concurrently serves as Taiwan's military.

After the establishment of the Huaxia Heavenly Kingdom, Taiwan's affairs were handed over to two people to govern, one was the old general of the Taiping Army as the Taoist of Taiwan, and the other was the former Qing Dynasty general Liu Mingchuan as the commander of the garrison.

Because the task of China's national defense is very heavy, Luoyang deliberately strengthened the troops of the four major military regions, Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and adopted modern weapons, while many local troops in the border and inland are still poorly equipped, which is caused by insufficient financial resources.

Zuo Zongtang with the scale of four battleships, eight cruisers, carrying eight gunboats, four supply warships, mighty towards Taiwan, for the Japanese army, Luo Yang through his own intelligence network, already has a clear understanding, so, Zuo Zongtang got the telegram of instructions, strengthened confidence,

"Even a broken soldier like the damn one dares to intrude on my dignified Huaxia Heavenly Kingdom." Zuo Zongtang stood on the bridge of the battlefleet and felt incredible: "The Japanese people are really frogs at the bottom of the well, and they don't know heaven and earth." ”

After five days, China's East China Sea Fleet arrived in Taiwan, and then came to the landing place of the Japanese army.

The Japanese fleet is actually very poor, it is still four warships transformed from ordinary merchant ships, two cruisers purchased from the West, the maximum displacement is 2,000 tons, there are 30 cannons on it, and the caliber is 75 mm.

The Chinese fleet gradually approached the Japanese fleet and saw the enemy clearly, and the Japanese fleet also saw the Chinese fleet clearly, anyway, on the top of the mast of that fleet, the national flag and the military flag fluttered so loudly that anyone could see it clearly.

The Japanese fleet was a little flustered, after all, they immediately turned around and put on a fighting posture.

The six Japanese battleships, with great momentum, saw that the Chinese fleet was still approaching, and its commander, Murakami Akira, shouted, and the entire fleet rushed towards the Chinese battleships,

Because they couldn't see how big the Chinese battleship was from a distance, the Japanese officers and soldiers were very good, but when they arrived, the Japanese officers and soldiers gasped and were secretly surprised.

The two 10,000-ton battleships captured from Britain and France, as flagships in front, were divided into two ways to encircle, six on the left, six on the right, and a number of gunboats, gradually approaching, entered the firing range, and immediately opened artillery bombardment, the Japanese warships were on the verge of the coastline, fighting on their backs, this is the navy, and the effect of the decisive battle against the ground is the same, so the bravery and desperate confidence of the Japanese officers and men are beyond vulgar doubt, "Long live the emperor." "The country is mighty in all directions." "Long live the Great Japanese Empire."

The squadron did not let down its vigilance, and the consul said that the Japanese army was very fierce and must be taken seriously, and they were more difficult to deal with than the British and French troops.

Zuo Zongtang saw that it was already within the firing range, and immediately ordered the cannon to be fired, and continued to advance while fighting.