The news of the recovery of Haiphong, with the help of Ding Richang and Zhang Peilun, soon arrived in the capital, which actually produced a strict deviation, the imperial court, which had always been quite jealous of the French, seemed to see something from a series of victories, and the military aircraft was in the process of dealing with the contract with the French, and the attitude became extremely tough, and directly instructed Zhang Shusheng, the governor of Zhili, not to back down in the negotiations......

Above the court, the topic of Qingliu's denunciation of the French has changed from whether or not it is a peace talk to whether it should be a decisive battle, forcing France to confirm the status of the suzerainty of Vietnam in the Great Qing Dynasty, and even many excerpts have put forward a demand for French reparations and an apology for the invasion of Vietnam

When these old and young people who can only move their mouths, and the backbone of the clear stream are splashing pen and ink in the capital and pointing out the war, Wu Changqing's department stationed in Vietnam quietly sent a telegram to Zhang Shusheng, and this telegram obviously made the current new leader of the Huai army quite depressed...... A qiē looks too good

Wu Changqing is very not optimistic about the situation in northern Vietnam, as long as a general with a little brain can see the water in the so-called several victories in northern Vietnam, and a little analysis can see the moisture in it, and there is no need to mention the battle of the Black Flag Army ten years ago, the French are just one hundred and ten people in an expedition team, and they are not professional soldiers.

And the last two victories, according to the war report, one was in Shanxi City by the artillery battery to sink a few French gunboats, naturally regarded as a victory, but it was only four or five hundred French troops, and before they went ashore, they had already been beaten by artillery and lost their temper, and the 3,000 guards stationed there, it was naturally not a problem to eat the French Reservoir Dogs.

In the second battle of Hanoi, the French were only more than 1,000 regular soldiers, and more than half of them were Vietnamese indigenous soldiers, and they actually fought nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses in Hanoi, and the subsequent annihilation of the enemy was mainly concentrated in the siege battle outside Hanoi, and then the French quickly withdrew, and there was not much chance of frontal combat.

Wu Changqing had a close relationship with Zhang Shusheng, and the two were both close associates of Li Zhongtang, and they cooperated a lot in the early years, so Wu Changqing directly proposed to the new governor of Zhili that the 8th battalion of the "Shengzi Battalion" be transferred to Vietnam to participate in the war

Zhang Shusheng obviously underestimated the situation in Vietnam, and thought about the unusual behavior of the French now, which made him even more puzzled, and urgently recruited Zhou Fu, an important minister of the Huai army, to discuss this matter in Vietnam

At this time, Qin Kai had already left Mawei Port in Fuzhou with the newly established First Fleet of the Nanyang Naval Division, and crossed the sea to stand in the command cabin, Qin Kai looked at the battleship following behind him with high interest, and his heart was surging, although this fleet was not strong, but it was enough to complete this secret mission.

On the table, there is the largest action plan in the history of the Nanyang Naval Division, and the participants include, fleet commander, 501 ship pipe belt Lu Han, fleet deputy commander, 701 heavy patrol pipe with Xu Zhishan, 601 light patrol pipe with Lu Zhiyuan, "Huashan" ironclad ship pipe belt Chen Mo, "Chaowu" iron wakashi with Huang Chong, "Dengyingzhou" iron waki, cruiser pipe with Wan Dafu......

These outstanding commanders in the Nanyang Naval Division, the fleet members have been trained at sea for more than or nearly two years, and have accumulated rich practical combat experience through long-distance training and many naval battles, and this newly formed huge fleet, with a total tonnage of more than 17,000 tons, is already an absolutely powerful force in today's Far East

Although from a purely technical point of view, those few wooden-hulled warships were somewhat suspected of pretending to be tonnage, but considering that in this era, even the most powerful British Imperial Navy had more than 20 or more old wooden-hulled warships in its total tonnage, Qin Kai felt quite good about himself

After the fleet left the Mawei meeting, it did not go all the way to the north, but all the way to the east, and sailed into the Keelung port on the opposite bank, where four large cargo ships had already arrived here to wait for the rendezvous, and the two treasurers of the Mawei Sea with the ship hurriedly disembarked and went ashore to run errands, while another unexpected person appeared on the dock.

Zhang Kui had a stern expression on his face, which was obviously a little different from his previous style, and hurriedly boarded the 501 ship to meet Qin Kai.

Seeing this guy's stern expression, Qin Kai jokingly asked, "General Zhang, what's the big deal with your serious book?" ”

Zhang Kui smiled, arched his hand towards Lu Han and the other officers, and turned his face to Qin Kai's side, "Instructor, I'm thinking that this plan is a bit risky, teacher, do you have any secret weapons?" Let my soldiers practice throwing iron balls for more than a month",

Qin Kai smiled, his own student really knows himself, this time he transferred 2,000 soldiers from the Second Association of the City Guard, that is, he hopes to bring this army out for actual combat training, Zhang Kui has nearly a thousand veterans under him, although he is not the kind of experienced in a hundred battles, but he is also a team with strict discipline and dares to fight. And participating in this operation will undoubtedly make this team have a qualitative leap.

He took Zhang Kui to the ammunition compartment of the 501 ship, and asked people to open a wooden box next to it, only to see that it was divided into dozens of grids with wooden grids, and in each grid there was a black iron ball

"Zhang Kui, how about you look at this thing?"

"What's it, instructor" Zhang Kui scooped up an iron lump and looked at it carefully, the stamped shell showed an angular shape on the surface of the stone, which was heavy in his hand, and on the tail of the iron lump, there was a small wooden handle, which could be seen to be hollow, with a small lid on it.

"This is a grenade developed by the Bomb Bureau for a long time, and some have been produced before, but the performance of the explosives is not good, and the firing device is unstable, so it has not been officially installed, and now it has finally been improved, this is a powerful bomb used by individual soldiers in the attack"

Speaking of this grenade, Qin Kai has long been thinking about developing it, but at the beginning of the friction ignition device stability is insufficient, the mute rate is too high, so it has not been equipped with troops, with the improvement of stamping technology, the original use of the round stick design, but also changed to an oval stamping design, plus the mass production of TNT explosives, this infantry ultimate weapon finally entered the equipment sequence.

It's just that in terms of design, what makes Qin Kai a little embarrassed is that the final product turns out to be a combination of an old-fashioned grenade and an oval grenade, mainly because the firing pin ignition device is more steel-intensive and not easy to process.

Zhang Kui's expression was already thrown into the sea at this time, scooping this thing and weighing it, and laughing, "Instructor, each of my battalions will be ...... 10 pieces, where you point, I can scoop it down there."

Qin Kai glared at this guy fiercely, "Zhang Kui, when this is an egg, ten people are not afraid to kill you, this thing is also newly produced, there are 50 boxes of 3,500 pieces on the 701 ship, you save some use, this iron lump is thrown out, but it is more than 1 tael of silver."

Zhang Kuile got off the ship, and after a while, he took a large number of people to unload things from the 701 ship.

Early the next morning, the fleet set sail again, and by this time the entire fleet had swelled to 10 ships, and it was heading east......

Sail into the afternoon... At that time, news came from the lookout post that a small island appeared in front of the left, and Lu Han immediately drew the route on the chart and measured the deviation, which of course belongs to the traditional sea area of China, Qin Kai scooped the telescope and looked at the island in the distance...... It was the Diaoyu Islands, which China and Japan had wrestled with for nearly a hundred years in later generations, and in his time and space, a high-level fierce battle even broke out

Of course, this era, there is no doubt here, is China's territorial waters, China's islands, but it is also this era that has laid the groundwork for the future crisis of this small island, and now, since God has given me this opportunity, let me do my best It's just that if he wants to reverse the trajectory of history, he doesn't take the word "grasp" lightly at all.

However, his arrival is not a new opportunity for these dignified men who are now around him, giving them the opportunity to rewrite that humiliating history

Qin Kai's surging thoughts, Lu Han had already completed the nautical chart at this time, seeing him looking at the island outside in a daze, he was also interested, this Lord Qin's vision is very unique, he grabbed a lot of land in the north of Vietnam, and dug out a large piece of iron and coal, is there anything strange about this island.

I leaned over the telescope and looked around for a while, and the bare stone island was estimated that I couldn't even find a place to farm, so I turned my head and asked curiously: "Gale Wind, what are you looking at, what is so special about this island so concentrated?" ”

"Ah......" Qin Kai was pulled back to reality by Lu Han's anachronistic question, sooner or later, this stage will be the world of a responsible man like Lu Han, he laughed, "It's nothing, I just think that this vast sea is our journey right, Zhang Jian's Nanyang Military Academy, now there is enough students, it is all for our Nanyang Naval Division, but the training there is the rules of the army, cousin Geng, I plan to add a naval academy to it, what do you think?" ”,

"Great, Gale, we want to build a first-class Nanyang naval division, refuse the foreign powers outside the country, and continue to cultivate excellent talents, that is the only law, but in terms of the tactical research of the navy, I feel that there are too few measures and hands, and the officers can only talk about this war on paper."

Talking about the development of the navy, Lu Hanna was full of interest, he put pen to paper, and struggled in the Nanyang Naval Division for nearly ten years, from the beginning of the enthusiasm, to the later gradually calmed down, until he met Qin Kai's accumulation, he found that his original choice was so correct, the navy is a promising career.

From a pipe belt that was not reused, to the current commander-in-chief of the Nanyang Naval Division, he participated in the planning and implementation of every battle, and achieved brilliant results, but now, those victories do not seem to excite him, and the insights he heard from Qin Kai and the future prospects of the navy are his highest pursuit

Lu Han had obviously been thinking about these problems for a long time, and seeing that Qin Kai wanted to build a naval academy, he naturally wanted to put them forward together and strive for a package solution.

Qin Kai nodded, this is indeed a problem, the army in later generations relied on frequent exercises to maintain the army's battles, but the difference between the navy and other arms is that the cost of the exercise is incomparable, to be honest, every time he sees Lu Han take people out for live-fire exercises, it is really painful to burn money

However, this money, he understood, must be spent, the battlefield often determines the outcome of the battle in that short period of fire, how much combat power is exerted, all depends on the training on weekdays, fortunately, he immediately thought of a good idea to toss Lu Han these energetic naval officers......

When it came to silver, Qin Kai couldn't help but have a headache, and now that the funds invested in the navy, training camp, protection, and Nanyang Military Academy, He Xing had already alerted himself many times.

The Nanyang Navy Division's salary has exceeded 500,000 taels a year, which is only a sailor with only 2,500 people, and as soon as the battleship starts on weekdays, it is money, not to mention the expensive shells, a 254mm shell plus a propellant pack, calculated at the cost price of the Mawei Chemical Plant and the Artillery Bureau, is worth 120 taels of silver.

And the 150mm rapid-fire artillery shell is also worth more than a dozen taels of silver, which is the price after removing the recovered copper shell, and now Qin Kai still has an army that eats and drinks in Vietnam and relies on his own, not counting the servant army, the number has reached 11,000 people, when Qin Kai heard this number, he was also frightened, and inexplicably took charge of more than 10,000 soldiers.

This military salary is more than 1.2 million taels a year, plus the expenditure on logistical supplies such as ordnance, clothing, and ammunition, medical treatment, and the addition of two new warships built this year and more than 30 self-made and acquired merchant ships.

Fortunately, last year, all business operations were exclusive, and the profits were huge, and the Mawei shipping company operated well, and the trade in Nanyang was profitable, but it did not feel any economic difficulties, but when the governor of Guangzhou was appointed, he built factories and built roads, which was a job that could not be carried out.

Last month, due to the large investment in Guangzhou, coupled with the construction of the Zhanjiang Heavy Industry Zone in Leizhou, and the purchase of a large number of machines and steelmaking equipment from Schleier again, the Mawei shipbuilding system suffered a huge loss in monthly income for the first time in three years.

Although the profits of tobacco, garments, textile machines, stamping small commodities, raw silk, and overseas trade are all growing steadily, and the monthly profit of steady dìng exceeds 2.5 million taels, there was a loss of nearly 3 million taels last month.

However, Qin Kai is very confident and sure that these huge investments, in the near future, will bring more huge benefits to himself, and more importantly, these investments will lay a solid foundation for the entire industrial system in Guangdong, and his own ideas are built on the cornerstone of this industry.

The large fleet maintained this neat formation, and sailed in the established direction until the next morning, when it anchored beside a beautiful island, and Lühan began to give further orders, and the 601 light cruiser went out alone and sailed directly east of the island.

Lu Zhiyuan was naturally very excited at this time, and gave an order loudly, "Lower the dragon flag, raise the bow of the chimney, turn 30 degrees to the left, cruise at 12 knots, and pay attention to the lookout post to report all the situation."

At the back of the main chimney of the hull, with Lu Zhiyuan's order, a chimney seven or eight meters high really rose, but normal people whose brains have not been burned out naturally would not think that this chimney that suddenly appeared could achieve some smoke exhaust effect. In fact, the chimney is entirely a decorative thing. ,

This is a detachable thing made of iron bars and canvas by the Mawei factory under the instruction of Qin Kai, when this thing appeared on the battleship before it set sail, so everyone was stunned, and more than half of them almost thought that Lord Qin was not having a high fever and wanted to make such a fake chimney......

When Lu Zhiyuan stammered and asked about the magic of this thing, after hearing it, he immediately admired Lord Qin's whimsy, it turned out that even a chimney had so many wonderful uses...... What is the most important feature of warships in this era? It was undoubtedly the chimney that stood tall, and if there was one more out of thin air, it would definitely be the most effective way to confuse the enemy.

Lu Zhiyuan is a horsetail cadre from a low-level officer in the training camp, he has been training on merchant ships for more than four months, and then finally it is his turn to drive the battleship, and now he has become the vanguard of the fleet, and some of the tactics that Qin Kai has at his fingertips have surprised him very much, and he has benefited a lot.

After serving as the new ship pipe belt, although the tonnage of the 601 ship is comparable to that of those battleships in Dengyingzhou, it ...... These are two completely different types of warships. From the moment he took command of this fast cruiser, he found himself completely hooked on this battleship, and the super high speed combined with the amazing rate of fire of the guns was definitely the perfect combination.

When Lin Deping, the general office of the Artillery Bureau, came, he took special care of himself, the kind of copper shell with a red circle painted on it, that is, high-speed shells, which made him very surprised, after owning such a long-range shell, even if it was a heavily armored ironclad ship, he could completely rely on his speed to achieve a decisive advantage

The battleship spat out black smoke and sped away, and the chart marked that the island, which the Chinese people called "Sesame Island", was only 20 nautical miles from the port of Naha in the Ryukyus, but he did not know that this small island was marked as Jima Island a few years later......

The port of Naha in the Ryukyus, which is only a few miles away from Shuri, the capital of the Ryukyu king, is an important port on the East China Sea trade route, and European fleets going to Japan to trade will pass through Naha to replenish fresh water and food.

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