Chapter 234: Battle clouds are thick

Lieutenant Commander Rejoko stood on the bridge of the cruiser Kaisheng, observing the fleet in the distance, and the other party apparently saw that he had hoisted the stop flag, because they had made a move, and four of the ships in that fleet suddenly deflected direction, forming a small formation, blocking the front of the other eight merchant ships...... Could it be that the other party is going to let these four ships come to send them to death?

"Lieutenant Colonel, what about the lookout post, I observed that the front deck of the merchant ship that the other side came to intercept is equipped with a huo cannon," a Jūnguan hurriedly ran in to report

"Huoo?" Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds was stunned, the ships of the opposite fleet were of different sizes, and according to his experience, it was judged that there should be merchant ships ranging from 1ooo tons to 25oo tons, but how could it be possible to install HUO guns on merchant ships? Large European merchant ships were also equipped with weapons to guard against pirates, but they were not equipped with huo guns, because it was almost impossible to control and maintain them without professional artillery. ΖⅩΖJ5.bsp; But now in this situation, he definitely can't let go of these merchant ships, the other party actually installed a HUO cannon, which obviously has a lot to do with the Nanyang naval division that the fleet is going to deal with Thinking of this, Lieutenant Colonel Lei Ruoke immediately ordered, "All approach, enter the effective range and attack immediately, and strive to annihilate them all"

"Yes," Jūnguan immediately went down and conveyed the battle order.

For the other party's behavior of sending him to death, Lieutenant Colonel Lei Ruoke naturally did not have any mercy, and above the sea, he naturally used cannon barrels to talk to the four ships on the other side, at best, there were only a few huo guns, and on his side, even the small 47o tonnage Night Cat gunboat next to him was also equipped with 18 large and small huo guns.

Of course, the so-called huo guns of this era are all ǔqì including the Haqikaisi 11mm machine qiang, and although his own cruiser has been in service for almost 6 years, the 17omm caliber of the front main gun must have steadily suppressed the small guns installed on the ship, plus 3 12omm secondary guns, 2o Haqikaisi 47mm, 37mm, and 11mm machine guns, which completely suppressed the opponent in quantity and quality.

The two French warships quickly pursued, but their degree was not satisfactory, the opposite merchant ship had 9 knots, and they all pursued, but they could only reach 12 knots...... However, the difference of 3 knots was enough for them to close the distance easily

Qian Xi, the commander of the Nanyang shipping fleet, saw that the four training ships were about to form a formation at this time, but he also looked good, in the end, he was also a recruit who had been trained for more than half a year, and the instructors who were responsible for the training were all selected by JŪN, and the old led the new, which was the only rule formulated by Qin Kai when he expanded the naval division, and this long-term sea training had a very significant effect.

He looked at the sky, and silently prayed to the god of the sea in Mazu in his heart, whether it was a mule or a horse, and now was the time to wander

Mawei Harbor is as calm as ever, but in the camp of the Nanyang Naval Division, the general order has been issued, and Lu Han, who is on first-level alert, is convening an emergency meeting, and earlier, two fishing boats that went out to sea to fish came back to report, saying that they had encountered the boat people who had escaped from Taiwan, and that it was Keelung's side that was fighting, but asked in detail, if there was more accurate information

He immediately realized that this might be a retaliatory counterattack by the French against the Zigong attack, so he immediately reported the news to Zhang Peilun, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and Ding Richang, the governor of Fujian. YZUU POINT

Xu Shoushan's Guangzhou fleet has not yet been able to rush back, but it has already sent a telegram from Olongapo, and it will be back in about ten days, if the French fleet occupies an important supply point Keelung coal mine at this time, then the attack range of the other fleet can completely reach Tianjin in the north and Guangzhou in the south.

However, he judged that the French wanted to attack Mawei Port the most likely, and Qin Kai had repeatedly cared for this, and the French might raid Mawei Port at any time

What makes Lu Han puzzled is that the current Nanyang Naval Division is not at the same level at all compared to more than two years ago, if it is to deal with the attack of the French with the wooden hull ships and breech guns of the Nanyang Naval Division for more than two years, and the other party will come with two ironclad ships, it will be useless.

According to the report of the spies in Saigon, the results of the last attack were observed in the port, and the French had at least 6 warships seriously injured and lightly damaged, one of which was a large guy of 6ooo tons after being sunk and salvaged, but it was almost useless, and the others were ironclads and armored cruisers.

But now the existing strength of the French, there is no definite news, if the French come to attack this time, there is no reason not to do their best, so the task now is intelligence,

At present, there are not many warships of the Nanyang Naval Division in the port, only 5O1 ironclad ships, 6O1 light armored cruisers, and Chengqing ironwaki-hulled cruisers.

In addition, there is also an ironclad ship that has just been put into service, that is, the ironclad ship named "Hengshan" after being modified from the captured Japanese "Fuso", because in the last naval battle, the waist gun room of the "Hengshan" was hit by two heavy guns, and the DAN system was completely destroyed, so the overall refit took more than half a year.

The original 4 24omm Krupp heavy guns in the waist gun house were all dismantled, the ship's 17ommhuo guns and the stern 12omm guns were also dismantled and reequipped, and the 2 36omm torpedo tubes in the hull were completely abandoned.

The design of this refit was originally commissioned by the Mawei Shipyard to be designed, after the run-in operation, the Mawei real yàn room is now greatly improved with the industry, after receiving the task, immediately by the Mawei real yàn room committee for a quick demonstration, formed by Qing Ying, Hu Changchang deputy team leader, Wu Yun, Lin Deping and 6 senior technicians of the HUO Artillery Bureau, 2 fleet Jūnguan composed of a working group.

Now, on the original outdated shipside gun room, 4 24omm heavy guns have become a double 254mm, 35 times the diameter of the heavy guns, and the ship's secondary guns and stern guns have all been changed to the latest achievements of the HUO Artillery Bureau 15OMM, 4O times the diameter of the guns.

On the whole, the "Hengshan" heavy gun was reduced from 4 to 2, but in actual combat, due to the use of turret shì shooting, the front and rear dead angles of the shooting are 3o degrees, and the firing range is far larger than the ship's waist gun room, and the increased 1O 15omm, 4o times the diameter of the new guns, in the effective range of 4ooo meters, the shooting efficiency is far stronger than the original old shì breech gun.

The biggest change comes from the GX11 baseline rangefinder at the top of the shipside turret and the command tower, which is the eye of the god of war, the new pipe band Tang Qingshan was originally born in shooting, and he naturally knows this very well, the only thing that makes him unhappy is that there are too few heavy guns, but he quickly dug and liked the metamorphosis of the newly installed 15OMM and 4O times diameter guns.

And with these four warships guarding Mawei Harbor, plus Zhang Peilun extorted money from Qin Kai and engaged in more than 40 large and small caliber huo guns armed with gold medals and several forts in Changshan, Lu Han was not sure for a while whether the French would slip their feet temporarily, and a normal thinking sea jūn commander Guan would definitely not let the fleet attack Jūn Harbor with batteries and fleet assistance, after all, the number and accuracy of the fort HUO guns were far more convenient than the battleships

However, even if it was a good hand, Lu Han would not take it lightly, and immediately formulated a perfect patrol system, and found Ding Ruchang, the governor of Beiyang, who had been in Mawei for several days, and the two sides agreed to send a warship to patrol the waters outside the mouth of the Min River in a 12-hour cycle to prevent any possible attempts by the French.

And 6 Zhiyuan even received a secret mission, went out overnight, and went north to escort Qin Kai, who was rushing back.

Lu Han didn't know at this time that just over 2oo kilometers off the sea, a completely unexpected sea battle was underway, he just sent a few spies, hired a British cargo ship at a high price, and let them go to sea overnight to Keelung Port to find out the news, the reason why the British ship was used is only because everyone understands.

Because since the Sino-French and Vietnamese conflicts, John Bull naturally did not intend to help the British Empire's old rival France, but it was not entirely because of the old rival, the British Minister to China, Sir Wittoma, secretly sent a telegram to the British government that this war in North Vietnam, no matter who wins or loses, can contribute to the global strategy of the empire on which the sun never sets.

The economic recession that has just shown signs is the most sensitive to London, the center of global finance in this era, but compared to the world's factory Britain, France's economic situation is much worse, and the large amount of money invested in the Far East for two consecutive years has not produced considerable returns as expected, and if the French finally lose, then the French government and economy will suffer a harsher winter.

And if the French win, it will completely help the British government understand the bottom line of this huge empire in the Far East, Vietnam is only a small place, and the large area of Southeast Asia adjacent to the British colony of India will become another new British colony, and obtain new resources for the strength of the empire on which the sun never sets.

Therefore, the British minister announced the neutrality of the British Empire at the first time, and the free port of the Far East, Hong Kong, will not provide any supplies to the warring parties in wartime, which is the only reason why the French can't wait to attack Keelung Harbor, the most needed thing for warships to run at sea is coal,

Lu Han naturally did not expect that in the afternoon, on a British ship entering the port, several Frenchmen did the same thing that he was secretly doing now, and at this time several Frenchmen were hiding in the cabin, with solemn expressions, discussing the information they had gathered.

In charge of this espionage operation was Lieutenant Jūn Martin of the French Sea, and they did not encounter any expected obstruction when they entered the port, and it was clear that Jūnguan, who was patrolling the Nanyang Naval Division, could not distinguish between the British and the French at all, just as Westerners looked at the Easterners, and they saw Westerners with only a few faces, and it was impossible to recognize the French from the British ships.

After entering the port, they disembarked and began to collect information about the Nanyang Naval Division in the harbor, however, there were several armored cruisers in the harbor, and they were also hoisting the dragon flag of the Qing Dynasty, but they never saw the battleship of the Nanyang Naval Division described by the rear admiral.

What they observed was naturally the 6O1 ship that had just gone north, but the degree of this battleship and the cannon barrels on the ship also shocked them, and he immediately carefully recorded the information of this enemy ship, and the other battleships they observed were Beiyang warships, Yong, Yangwei and 4 Zhenzi-class mosquito ships, a total of 6 iron-hulled warships

Lieutenant Martin also guessed that the battleships of the Nanyang Naval Division should have another port of Jūn, and in addition, he also observed that there seemed to be fortifications in some places on the slopes on both sides of the harbor, so they did not return to Keelung immediately, but decided to take advantage of the night to reconnoiter nearby

These French people didn't know that the real masters of the Mawei territory were a team called the Mawei Security Corps, and these were all natives, although they didn't know the difference between the British and the French, but they knew everything about where foreigners on the docks liked to go and frequented.

After nightfall, the four security guards on duty in the lighthouse of the pier immediately showed an unusual situation, the sparse foreigners who disembarked from the ship usually disembarked directly, and then boarded the carriage of the port to go into the city to have fun, or went to the bars run by the Nanyang Shipping to the east of the pier.

But the two foreigners who got off a British ship, who looked at the scenery on the dock for a while, did not look for a carriage when they left the port, but turned left directly...... To the left of the harbor there was nothing of interest to foreigners, but there was a hill on which was a fortification of the sailors, behind which was a barren hill, and in the distance was the factory of the Mawei Shipyard.

There is a problem, there is a big problem, the two soldiers on duty immediately jumped up, hurriedly ran down to inform the core group of the Mawei Security Regiment, and sent two more people to run out to inquire about the secret post outside, and sure enough, the dark post reported that the two foreigners went out and walked directly into the path up the mountain next to them, and quickly disappeared into the woods.

The news quickly came back, and the security team on duty in the port returned to calm, but the number of undercover posts had increased fourfold, countless pairs of eyes were fixed on the roads in the port, and the core team in charge of special tasks had been dispatched.

Lieutenant Martin quietly climbed the hill with one of his men, and he quickly verified his previous suspicion that there was indeed a fortification in the middle of the hill, but there was no window to the outside of the fortification...... In fact, there are active openings, which are carefully hidden, so Martin can't judge the purpose for a while, but the water surface facing this fortification is the channel of the Min River......

He wanted to get closer, but soon he saw that there were a large number of soldiers patrolling near the fortifications, and he lay there for half an hour, and he didn't feel any chance to get close, so he had to give up, and then he spent an hour climbing to the back hill, and in the distance he could see a large factory with bright lights

That piece of factory was still working non-stop in the middle of the night, and through the telescope, he even saw two warships working on two open docks...... It was indeed a warship, and it could be seen that it was an armored warship, which surprised him 120,000 times, when would this backward eastern country be able to produce warships that represent the latest technology?

This is important news, if the fleet can get in, it must destroy the dock over there, Lieutenant Martin excitedly recorded this important news, two battleships under construction

However, as soon as he walked back, he met the soldiers of the core group of the security regiment who were ambushed at the bridgehead of the mountain, Martin saw that the situation was not good, and tried in vain to pull out qiang to resist, but as a result, several soldiers on the opposite side demonstratively hit a shuttle 8o charge qiang Zidan in front of him, in the face of such a powerful ǔqì, he had no choice but to raise his hands,

It's just that this shuttle boy Dan also caused sequelae, and the two remaining French scouts on the British ship also realized that something was wrong, and immediately decided to sail away.

Lu Han immediately got the news, and when he heard it, he only said six words, "pry his mouth open"

In the wee hours of the morning... At that time, Martin was a tough bone, but another French soldier was very cooperative, and when Lu Han got the general situation of the French Far East Fleet, he was also surprised.

In the previous two years of the battle with the Nanyang Naval Division, the French Far Eastern Fleet lost one-third of its tonnage, nearly 18,000 tons of warships, but the current warship tonnage of the Nanyang Naval Division is less than 18,000, and the Beiyang is even more pitiful, with less than 6,000.

This surprise attack on Saigon, 6 battleships were injured, the French at least 20,000 tons of warships can not be put into the next naval battle, if it is repaired, it will take at least three months to a year, which makes the Nanyang naval division get an unprecedented opportunity to fight, so Qin Kai will be eager to join forces with Beiyang and strive for a decisive victory.

But now this list, to win, it is really not an easy thing, this time the French commander Guan is Rear Admiral Miller, the first and second fleets have a total of 11 battleships, of which only 1 Kaisheng is an iron-hulled cruiser, including 2 gunboats, the remaining 1o battleships are all ironclad ships.

The total tonnage reached 28,000 tons, of which, according to the French, three Palop-class armored cruisers were new warships that had just been launched at the end of last year, and because the Far East Fleet had suffered heavy losses, they were urgently transferred to help.

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