This officer is none other than Huang Jianxun, the pipe band of the "Feihong" high-speed notification ship!

At this time, Huang Jianxun was calmly looking at the huge Japanese Navy "East" ironclad ship in front of him, pondering the strategy of breaking the enemy. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Perhaps inspired by the "Feihong", the old sail warships of the Chinese Penghu sailors, who looked old and looked like they had come out of the Middle Ages, also caught up one by one with enough strength to catch up and stop at the front of the Japanese fleet.

After Huang Jianxun set off on the order of Lin Yizhe, he sailed straight to Penghu at the fastest speed and mobilized the Penghu Water Division Association to help defend it.

The Penghu Naval Division Association is a military unit set up by the Qing court in Penghu, Taiwan in 1684, which is subordinate to Taiwan Town, and the highest commander in the Naval Division Association is the deputy general, with a total of two battalions of soldiers and soldiers, with a strength of 2,000 people. In the process of recovering Taiwan, the Qing army realized that the Penghu Islands were actually the gateway between the main island of Taiwan and Zhangquan in Fujian. Therefore, the purpose of setting up the Naval Divisions Association here is to choke the throat of the Taiwan Strait.

After Huang Jianxun arrived in Penghu, he showed Wu Qixun, the deputy general of the Penghu Naval Division, the warrants of Li Henian, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and Lin Yizhe, the governor of Fujian.

However, compared with the steam warships that could move forward at high speed, the Penghu Naval Division, which was all armed with old-style Fu ships, was too slow, but fortunately, Huang Jianxun had a brilliant mind and came up with a way to use the "Feihong" to drag the sailboat forward to solve this problem.

Because Lin Yizhe and Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, had always maintained close correspondence and telegraph contact, the "Feihong" high-speed notification ship, like the other three sister ships, often traveled to and from Tianjin to Fuzhou on the route. When passing through the sea transport route, Huang Jianxun can often see such a spectacular sight: a small steamer towing five to 10 or more wooden sand boats, waddling across the sea.

After China's traditional inland waterway shipping industry fell into an unprecedented crisis, Lin Yizhe, in order to solve the dilemma faced by China's sand ship shipping, proposed a solution to Li Hongzhang, who established the steamship China Merchants Bureau, that is, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau would build small steamers (small steamers) and buy them by the owners of sand boats, so as to facilitate the transformation of China's traditional sailing ship transportation to steamship transportation. Li Hongzhang adopted Lin Yizhe's suggestion and ordered the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to start building small steamers, "purchasing them with capital and people" and "changing the ship type." Since the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau already had mature experience in the production of "90-day gunboats", the production of small ships was naturally not a problem. Soon, a large number of small steamers were purchased by giants in the sand boat transportation industry such as Wang Yongsheng, the king of sand boats.

Because there were still a large number of traditional sand boats in China at that time, in order to "make the best use of things" and avoid the loss of a large number of sand boat sailors, Wang Yongsheng creatively invented the method of towing sand boats with small steamers for transportation.

Due to the square head, square tip, flat bottom, shallow draft of the sand boat, its length-to-width ratio is large, with the characteristics of wide, large, flat and shallow, not afraid of the beach, can be sailed in the sea area of the sandy seabed, and can also be navigated in rivers and lakes. The bottom of the sand boat is flat and can sit on the beach, and it is not afraid of running aground. Safe in the wind and waves. Especially when the wind direction and tide direction are different, because the bottom is flat and the draft is shallow, it is less affected by the tide and is safer. In addition, the sand boat has excellent performance in offshore navigation. The sand ship has many masts and sails, can sail against the wind, and can sail long distances on the ocean. The sand boat has a tall mast and high sails, which is conducive to the wind, and it has a shallow draft and low resistance, so it can sail quickly on the sea. The sand boat can not only sail with the wind, but also sail against the wind, and even sail against the wind and water, coupled with the good navigation performance of the sand boat, the seven-level wind can sail without hindrance, and can withstand a certain amount of wind and waves, so on the north and south sea routes in China, a large number of sand fleets towed by small steamers appeared, and they traveled through the sea in groups, becoming a maritime wonder that foreign passengers will inevitably see when they come to China.

And it was this scene that inspired Huang Jianxun that made him come up with a way to use the "Feihong" to tow the old style fortune boat of the Penghu sailors to Langqiao.

Due to the relatively strong horsepower of the "Feihong", after towing back and forth (the first batch first dragged a few larger fortune boats for a while, and then let go to let these boats continue to walk, and then turned back to drag the second batch), the Penghu sailors actually rushed to the Langqiao coast in time.

But what Huang Jianxun and the Chinese naval officers and men on the "Feihong" did not expect was that when they arrived at the place designated by Lin Yizhe with the Penghu Naval Division, they did not see the main fleet of the shipmaster led by Lin Yizhe!

What appeared in front of him was a huge Japanese troop transport fleet escorted by three Japanese warships!

Huang Jianxun stared at the "East" ironclad ship in front of him, and his hands were already white.

He glanced back at the old-style division ships rushing around him, and couldn't help but sigh secretly in his heart.

He knew that now, before the arrival of the main fleet, only he commanded the "Feihong" to deal with the three Japanese warships!

"Fire! Stop sailing! Huang Jianxun said in a deep voice.

"Bang!"

With the sound of a cannon, a thick cloud of black smoke erupted from the breech muzzle of one of the 75-mm guns of the "Feihong," and then a high column of water rose not far from the bow of the "East."

Seeing that this weak Chinese warship actually opened fire to stop sailing, a trace of contempt flashed in Ito's eyes, and he glanced at his brother Ito Yuma, but his brother just stared at the Chinese warship in front of him, did not look at him, and did not give any orders.

"Prepare for battle!" Saigo lowered his binoculars from the road and ordered loudly.

Hearing Saigo's order to prepare for battle, Ito Yuma was taken aback.

"Saigo-kun! Do you really want to go to war with the Qing army? ”

"The war has begun!" Saigo turned his head and glared at Ito Yuma from the road, and said angrily, "Didn't you see that they were firing at us?" ”

"That's when they asked us to stop sailing! You figured it out, Saigo-kun! Hearing Saigo's nearly two-hundred-and-five answer, Ito Yuma couldn't help but roll his eyes when he looked up to the sky, "That's not shooting at us!" ”

"Don't wait for the shells to land on our ship before you make a decision!" Saigo said viciously, turned around, and yelled at Ito Yuhyung, "I said, the battle has begun!" Daisa Ito! ”

Ito nodded, ignoring his brother's angry gaze, ran into the command tower, and gave the battle order.

Soon, the order to fight reached the bow gun room of the ironclad ship "East". In the dark gun room, several Japanese gunners, under the command of the barrel of the gun, laboriously maneuvered a huge 11-inch (279 mm) Armstrong smoothbore gun in the center of the gun room, turning the muzzle of the gun to the side gun window.

"My lord, they're coming!"

Zhou Fengzhi, the chief officer of the "Feihong" notification ship, couldn't help but look a little flustered when he saw the huge Japanese ironclad ship rushing over like this, without the slightest sign of slowing down.

"Prepare for battle!" Huang Jianxun gave the order loudly, took over the steering wheel, and turned it, and the "Feihong" immediately sailed quickly to the side, avoiding the impact of the "Dong".

The "Dong" ironclad ship (the standard displacement of the "Dong" is 1,358 tons, and the "Feihong" is a quick upgrade of the "Meiyun"-class small gunboats, the standard displacement is only 835 tons) passed by the side of the "Feihong", and at this moment, Huang Jianxun saw a Japanese military flag and a battle signal flag quickly raised on the mast of the "Dong".

"****!" Huang Jianxun couldn't help but scold.

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a "boom" when one of the three gun windows on one side of the ironclad ship "East" suddenly erupted a cloud of black smoke, accompanied by a piercing scream, and a shell fired from a 70-pound (5-inch) Armstrong gun swept over the "Feihong" and fell into the sea on the other side, splashing a high column of water.

"Fire!" Huang Jianxun gave a loud order while steering the rudder.

Soon, the 75-mm Krupp breech gun of the "Feihong" opened fire, and the fighting quality of the Chinese gunners was obviously higher than that of the Japanese, and a 75-mm shell accurately hit the iron armor on the side of the "East", emitting a black-red fire with thick smoke, accompanied by a loud bang.

Although the Chinese gunners hit the first shot, it was clear that the 75-mm shells did not cause more damage to the thick-armored "Dong". At about the same time, a 6-pounder gun and a 4-pounder gun in the other two gun windows of the "East" also fired, but probably because of the angle of fire and the close proximity of the two sides, the shells fired by the Japanese still did not hit the "Feihong", but flew over the "Feihong" and fell into the sea water on the other side.

The two warships staggered by, and the huge "East" did not stop sailing, but rushed straight into the Penghu Navy fleet, and the huge French-style big nose angle smashed a Chinese fortune ship that could not dodge into two!

Seeing the wooden sailboat whose hull was smashed to pieces and the officers and men of the Penghu Naval Division struggling in the water, Huang Jianxun's eyes almost burst into flames.

The Japanese gunboats "Nisshin" and "Meng Chun" were closely following the "East," and when they saw the "East" and "Feihong" staggering, and the "Feihong" rushed to the side of the "Rijin" and "Meng Chun," the two Japanese warships felt that the opportunity could not be lost, and immediately opened fire.

Shells swept past the "Feihong" and fell into the sea, causing huge waves. The salvo of the two Japanese warships can be said to be terrifying, but what made the Japanese feel depressed was that not a single shell fired by them hit the "Feihong"!

"What a fast ship! Awesome captain! Watching the "Feihong" pass by his warship, the captain of the "Hisshin", Togo Heihachiro Nakasa, couldn't help but praise loudly.

Although he was recalled from England and appointed captain of the gunboat "Nisshin" after failing to achieve academic success, the British merchant marine school where Togo Heihachiro studied had always trained cadets according to the standards of naval officers, and it was Togo Heihachiro's education that made him now able to shoulder the heavy responsibility of commanding a gunboat.