Under the instruction of Qin Kai, the captured Japanese weapons were handed over to the Ryukyu Army, and Shangping, the king of Wu of the Ryukyu Kingdom, was naturally very satisfied with the generosity of the Qin Lord of the Great Qing Kingdom. Soon, the Ryukyu Army quickly expanded to a rabble of more than 1,000 people, mainly with the indigenous people of the Ryukyus

As for the battle on Ryukyu Island on February 2, the Japanese mainland did not receive any accurate information before February 6, but only fragmentary information from the British Embassy mentioned that there was a war on Ryukyu Island, naturally because all the Japanese cargo ships in the port of Naha were seized or sunk, and the last news came out that a Japanese army team was stationed in the port of Lianten, above the island of the Ryukyus.

This small detachment consisted of only a pitiful 50 men, who had survived to maintain local power, and on February 4, during a routine patrol outing, they encountered several stragglers who had escaped from Naha, and then were besieged by more than 200 Ryukyu militias and 50 guardians, although they successfully repelled the siege of the rabble of the militias, but under the subsequent firepower of the guardians, they suffered heavy losses.

Squad leader Takeda Masaichi fell after the gate, on the origin, his ancestors were the daimyo Takeda clan in the Warring States period, and it can be seen that he also inherited some of the wisdom of his ancestors, he immediately made a decision, left two groups behind, broke through with another group of people, and fled to the port, and immediately escaped from the Ryukyus on a merchant ship that happened to transport supplies and the Mitsubishi chaebol.

The Beiyang Naval Division's fleet, after three days of sailing, finally arrived at Naha Port at noon on February 5, to their surprise, as the fleet's vanguard Lin Tai had gone to the port to reconnoitre, immediately came the signal to enter the port, Liu Buyun was puzzled and rushed to the port with the fleet, only to find that the dragon flag flying high had been planted on the fort outside the port

This made Liu Buyun very surprised, but he didn't expect that the Nanyang Naval Division had already succeeded, and the fierce battle that he thought was ending quietly...... When they arrived in the harbor, the ships of the other countries had already left, and only the British two-day cruisers "Maria" and "Samae" were still moored in the harbor, presumably preparing to observe the battle below.

In addition, to the surprise of the Beiyang officers, there were four black ironclad warships moored in the harbor, if it were not for the dragon flag hanging on them, they could not believe that this powerful fleet was actually a Qing fleet, and at this moment, even the most conservative Lin Taizeng had great confidence in this operation to recover the Ryukyus.

Qin Kai personally went to the dock to meet the fleet of the Beiyang, the battleships dispatched by the Beiyang this time are all iron-hulled new warships, and the Zhennan and Zhenbei mosquito ships are even too thin, only less than half an inch of iron, but they are also iron-hulled ships, which are essentially different from wood-hulled ships

Liu Buchan, Deng Shichang and Qin Kai have long been familiar with each other, but they didn't expect that the new governor of Guangdong would also follow the battleship to the front line, and they also admired Qin Kai's example very much.

And Lin Taizeng and Ye Zugui were also very surprised when they heard Liu Buyun's introduction that the young man in front of him wearing a second-grade official robe turned out to be Qin Kai, the governor of Guangdong and the minister of Nanyang, who was now in the limelight in the Qing Dynasty, and they were busy saluting.

After Qin Kai heard the names of these two people, he was also quite emotional in his heart, these two are also famous figures in the history of Beiyang, but he didn't expect that this time he was forced out of the coordinated operation to meet, seeing that the two of them were going to make an official salute, he hurriedly smiled and stepped forward to stop, only saying that the battlefield did not need a big salute, and directly invited a few pipe belts into the port headquarters.

There was an accident in this, Ye Zugui actually ran to meet Xu Shoushan, and the two talked very speculatively, which made Qin Kai unclear, Lu Han on the side told Qin Kai, it turned out that Ye Zugui was sent to Xu Shoushan to be a shipwright on the "Feiyun" warship that was a pipe band at that time, and Lao Xu was Ye Zugui's master, and the relationship between the two was very good

This is an unexpected gain of Qin Kai, this Ye Zugui is also a character, he is the only survivor of the pipe belt of many large ships in the Beiyang, and he is also very active in the naval battle, and finally in the fierce battle with the Japanese army in the port, the battleship was sunk and rescued.

When he arrived in the barracks, Qin Kai introduced his pipe belts to the generals of Beiyang one by one, and counted them, most of the people who gathered together were from the Mawei Ship Master School, which made him feel that the investment in the Mawei Ship Master School was very worthwhile, it was really the real cradle of the Chinese Navy, and with his own participation, it was bound to play a greater role for the Chinese Navy. ,

Deng Shichang saw that in this very simple command room, in addition to hanging a few maps, the tea he also brewed was also a very ordinary green tea, thinking of the situation in the Yamen of the Minister of Beiyang, he also felt a lot of emotion about this Qin brother who had no shelf, he thought about it, the purpose of this Beiyang army is really a little impure, and he still needs to mediate in the army, and he can't spoil the relationship between the two sides.

"Governor Qin, Governor Zhang has an order, let us do our best to assist the Nanyang Navy Division to conquer Ryukyu, I don't know what the situation is now?" The pipe bands of Beiyang were naturally very concerned about the battle situation, and they all turned their eyes to Qin Kai, wanting to hear the latest news.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the central islands of Ryukyu Island have been conquered by our department, and we have not yet launched an attack on the northern island of Anmei Oshima, yesterday, we encountered a group of Japanese stragglers in the northern port, and at my behest have allowed them to flee the port, and within three days, the Japanese side should be able to get some incomplete news from the Ryukyus."

Qin Kai talked eloquently, but this news surprised several pipe bands in Beiyang, the war at sea was obtained by warships, but Japan occupied the Ryukyus for many years, and there must have been an army stationed in the area to maintain its rule, and the Qin governor completed the siege of the city on land in just two days.

You know, even if the army of hundreds of people relies on the city wall to resist, it is not a day or two to conquer, they have a good relationship with the Huai army battalions, Weihaiwei also has a large number of Huai troops stationed, for this era of the Qing army siege tactics is very familiar.

However, as the commander of the fleet, Liu Buyun was a little embarrassed at this time, the Ryukyu Island was finished, if it was said that it was necessary to add a Beiyang merit to the credit book, this was really a very embarrassing thing, but if the Beiyang division returned in vain, it was obviously impossible to make a difference......

It's just that this coordinated operation is news from Ding Richang, and it must have been instructed by Qin Kai, thinking of this, he also guessed that Qin Kai might have further plans, so he didn't answer, he was waiting for Qin Kai to say the next arrangement

A nautical chart was spread out on the table, and several sea marching routes were drawn on the map, Qin Kai arched his hand and said with a smile, "Lord Liu, let's talk about the plan."

In the middle of the night on February 6, 1882, after two days of sailing, Captain Takeda finally delivered the news to Sasebo Port, a naval base in southern Japan

This shocking news was immediately sent to the Japanese Navy Minister Saigo in the middle of the night, which made Saigo, who had just finished planning the major incident of sending troops to Korea, completely passive, and according to the arrangement of the army general Aritomo Yamagu, the navy would begin to escort the Japanese army landing in Korea in 10 days.

Although the number of people who landed this time was small, only an advance force of 500 people, as a follow-up contingency, the navy also needed to prepare for the possible escalation of the Korean crisis, which meant that after the first plan to send troops to Korea, the entire Japanese navy would be operational and fully engaged in the struggle to annex Korea.

He had just issued an order yesterday to mobilize the main force of the navy, the "Fuso" ironclad ship and the "Hiei" armored cruiser, to the Sasebo naval base to prepare for the next landing plan

However, the facts are in front of us, the Qing warships escorted a large number of land forces to forcibly land on the Ryukyu Island, and quickly controlled the local situation, the thousands of naval and army soldiers stationed in the Ryukyu were completely unable to resist the attack of the other side, and the current news is that the other side may have completely controlled the main island of the Ryukyu State.

The Qing state did not agree to the loss of this vassal state at all, and the scope of the other party's occupation happened to coincide with the other side's plan for the control of the Ryukyus, which was obviously one of the premeditated plans of the other side

It was necessary to divide the Ryukyus with Korea, and it was obviously much more difficult to reoccupy the Ryukyus, which were controlled by the Qing ** team, than to occupy them from the Ryukyu king...... Moreover, the most terrible thing is that so far, the soldiers who have fled back cannot even figure out the specific information of the opposing navy.

The stragglers who escaped reported that there was only one high-powered two-chimney fast ironclad ship in the entire attack of the Qing State, and that the person responsible for transporting the Qing Army should be an ordinary merchant ship, and these news were confirmed by many people and believed to be credible.

Thinking of this, Saigo's carriage has come to the official residence of the Secretary of Internal Affairs Ito Hirobumi, although it is late at night, but it is obvious that the Secretary of the Interior Ito-sama has not rested, and after the soldiers at the door went in to report, Ito Hirobumi quickly met Saigo in the study. ,

"Lord Saigo, it's coming late at night, could it be that something big happened in North Korea?" Hirobumi Ito still has a calm expression, the situation in Korea is under the control of the War Department, is developing in the direction of favoring Japan, and occupying Korea, and then peeking into the north of the Qing Dynasty, this is the unanimous opinion of people of insight in Japan, and he is naturally full of confidence in Japan's thriving economy and national strength.

"Lord Ito, it's not a Korean strategy, I just got urgent news from the Sasebo Naval Base, the Qing fleet has launched an attack on Okinawa, Japan, and it has already controlled most of the land of Ryukyu Oshima no later than three days ago, and Japan is about to lose an important island chain in the south" Saigo knew that this matter was no longer something he could handle, and threw it directly to Ito.

Hearing this, Ito Hirobumi was also a little stunned, this news is completely impossible for anyone to expect, after all, the Qing country's attitude on this matter is very strange, the first was unwilling to conduct any form of negotiations, and then in the negotiations, but Ito Hirobumi has long seen the ambivalent attitude of the Qing country, on the one hand, instructed the minister in the Qing country, Fumio Yano, to delay the negotiations, and on the other hand, he stepped up the occupation and control of the Ryukyus.

However, Qing Guo's action this time was completely out of the routine, and it was unexpectedly swift, on the Ryukyu issue, the Japanese side according to the pre-arrangement, just announced the recall of the minister, make a gesture, did not expect the other party to catch the chicken feathers as an arrow, directly sent someone to hit the door, and simply defeated the Japanese army on Ryukyu Island.

Ito thought of this, and was also puzzled, the big man in the Qing government's court, Lord Li Zhongtang, heard that the power center that was temporarily separated, it stands to reason that such a large-scale battle would have to be controlled by him before it could happen, in fact, he had a deep understanding of this minister who controlled almost all the elite troops of the Qing government, as long as there was a possibility of a negotiated settlement, this big man would not be willing to resort to force to consume the army under his control

Moreover, Ito Hirobumi also made a full trade-off, judging that the army controlled by the Qing government would not and did not have the strength to contend with Japan on the Ryukyu issue.

Obviously, the facts told him that his judgment was completely wrong and the factors that caused his misjudgment, he soon realized that it might be the new Nanyang naval division of the Qing Kingdom, but at this point, Saigo could not provide any proof that the Qing Navy that appeared this time only had such a vague concept as "a high-speed warship".

The two men quickly formed a high degree of unity in their opinions on the handling of this matter, and they must immediately launch a counterattack within the scope of their strongest capabilities and reoccupy Ryukyu Island, otherwise Japan will suffer a heavy blow in foreign affairs, so the military operation against Korea prepared in the early stage was temporarily canceled.

Their opinions were quickly elevated to the order of the Japanese Imperial Minister, and it was quickly sent to the commander of the ironclad ship "Fuso" who had just completed the supply of the Sasebo Military Port, Arai Ariko Daisa, and the latest situation on the Ryukyu Island, Saigo could only provide it, but the last sentence of the order attracted the attention of Arai Daisa.

In the order of the Imperial Governor, it was emphasized that it was necessary to formulate a strict plan to break the Qing army's control of the Ryukyus in one fell swoop, to dispel any form of attempt by the Qing to the Ryukyu State, and to force the other side to finally return to negotiations between the two sides on the Ryukyu issue

As the commander of this operation, Arai Ariko naturally understood the arduousness of this operation, and if the Ryukyus were nearly three days away from Sasebo, if he was the commander of the other side, if he did not have enough sea power, he would not actively seek to confront him at sea, but would instead seek a decisive battle on land.

This obviously involved the affairs of the Imperial War Department, and at this point, the Imperial Governor also issued an order at the same time for Rear Admiral Katsura Taro to command the formation of an army to land in the Ryukyus, and the formation of the army was obviously much slower than the original system of the navy, and it was necessary to sail from the garrison to Sasebo Port, so he had to start doing something now to prepare for the landing battle later

Obviously, it was necessary to prepare for a naval battle and plan for a landing battle, so Arai immediately applied to Saigo Aramichi to increase the naval strength of Sasebo, and urgently transferred the "Kongo" ironclad ship, the newly joined "Tsukushi" ironclad cruiser, and the "Amagi" iron-hulled cruiser "Amagi" to Sasebo Port.

Since this punch is going to be made, it must be a heavy punch.

In Tokyo, Japan, in the British Bismarck in Chiba Port, Du Ping, who is in charge of Mawei Shipping's goods in Japan, is waiting for news at this time, although Mawei Shipping's shadow companies in various parts of Japan are not responsible for conducting news reconnaissance and other work, but in the scope of daily business, he naturally intersperses this affair. ,

Bismarck is now one of the well-known British foreign companies in Tokyo, and the nominal boss Smith is now more concerned about his daily income, with the expansion of the ponytail industry, the output of ready-to-wear has doubled a few times, and the Japanese market is gradually saturated, but this income is indeed very rich, which makes him determined to continue to follow the ponytail industry

Today, he was entrusted by Du Ping to visit Mrs. Arima, who often came to the foreign company to shop, and in the chatting with this chattering Japanese aristocratic woman, he soon learned that Arima Shin-sama had left Tokyo yesterday to go to Sasebo, of course, this news was only deduced from the content of a few words, and even Mrs. Arima may not remember the specific details of the chat.

But Du Ping naturally understood the value of this information, Arima Shinichi Nakasa, that was the commander of the Japanese Navy's cruiser "Kongo", stationed in the port of Tokyo for a long time, this departure itself revealed too much content, and in this sensitive period, as the whereabouts of the main warship of the Japanese Navy, the value of this information is immeasurable

Soon, the news was sent to a British cargo ship, which would pass by Naha in two days, and the ship's messenger would deliver the news

On 11 February, at the Sasebo Naval Base, Japanese Navy Minister Saigo Arimichi saw off the newly formed Japanese Combined Fleet, which consisted of four naval ironclad ships and two Tewaki wooden-hulled gunboats, with Arai Awai, commander of the "Fuso," taking full command of the naval battle, and four requisitioned Mitsubishi Shipping ships to transport 2,000 landing army units to accompany them.

Before leaving, Minister Saigo specially instructed Arai Yougong to be sure to act in secrecy and attack it unprepared to ensure the complete defeat of the Qing Naval Division and the army

At this time, the mixed fleet of the Nanyang Naval Division and the Beiyang Naval Division had already left the port of Naha, and the actual control of Naha was in charge of Zhang Kui's Second Concord and the newly formed Ryukyu Army, after all, there was not only one port suitable for landing on this Ryukyu Island.