The ironclad battleship Zheng He, which was being maintained in the dockyard, temporarily canceled its maintenance and quickly undocked, and then replenished weapons, ammunition, and materials at the Wusongkou Naval Base in the Eastern Theater of Operations, preparing to leave the Eastern Ocean for the Ryukyu Islands.

At the same time, the Eastern Theater Command also received an order from Li Weiguo to transfer the second town of the Chinese Shence Army, the most elite unit of the Eastern Theater, to Shuri of the Ryukyus to ensure that the current Ryukyu Kingdom would not be annexed by Japan.

The docks of the Wusongkou Naval Base were very busy, and the Navy's Eastern Ocean Fleet had been assembled, with the ironclad battleship Zheng He as the temporary flagship, and 11 sail battleships were temporarily grouped together to escort the army to Shuri.

Before leaving, Li Weiguo personally arrived at the wharf of the Wusongkou Naval Base to see off the fleet, and repeatedly exhorted Yu Tao, commander of the Navy's Eastern Ocean Fleet, and Zhang Qiang, commander of the Army's Second Town Division.

"Remember, you have to be tough against the Japanese, so that they will fear you."

"The first task is to send the second town to Shuri, as long as our army goes ashore safely and supplies are sufficient, then the Japanese will not dare to act rashly!"

"If you fight, don't take the slightest thought, use the shortest time and the strongest force to completely crush the Japanese and break their backbone!"

In the end, Li Weiguo shouted: "Do you understand? ”

"Got it! Please rest assured that Your Majesty will resolutely complete the task! ”

Yu Tao and Zhang Qiang replied loudly, with resolute expressions, this is the first time for the two of them to go abroad, and they are very excited in their hearts, and they must not embarrass His Majesty and the country.

Under Li Weiguo's gaze, the Eastern Ocean Fleet set off.

This trip is destined to kick off the war between China and Japan ahead of schedule.

At the same time, Li Weiguo received another major piece of news, that is, Tsarist Russia finally made a move.

Previously, Li Weiguo led his army to raid the Far East of Tsarist Russia in the northeast, and wiped out tens of thousands of Tsarist Russian troops in one fell swoop. As a result, the Tsarist power in the vast Far East was wiped out overnight.

Li Weiguo always thought that it would be at least half a year after Tsarist Russia got the news from the Far East, and it would be next year to send troops to the Far East in response, but he did not expect that the intelligence officers of Tsarist Russia became smarter, and they transmitted the news back to Shanghai and used the European and American telegraph systems to forward the news several times. So in less than three months, the St. Petersburg side knew everything that was happening in the Far East.

The tsar was furious, the serfdom reform had achieved certain results, and the tsar, who had two coins in hand, immediately became angry and decided to take revenge on China.

However, the Russian tsar was also well aware that it would be very difficult to transfer troops from Europe to the Far East without railways. Sending fewer troops to the Far East is also to send food and experience to the Chinese Shence Army, and if there are more troops, it will be difficult to supply. It is unrealistic to save some money financially, and it is unrealistic to fill it all in on military spending.

Soon, the Tsarist government discussed the result, St. Petersburg and the Far East are too far apart, but next to Xinjiang and Outer Mongolia, Tsarist Russia can quickly send troops from Central Asia to attack, if it can successfully capture Xinjiang, Mongolia and other places, it will force the Chinese government to return the Far East to Tsarist Russia.

Thereupon. Tsarist Russia dispatched 50,000 troops all the way into Xinjiang, Outer Mongolia and other places.

Requests for help from Xinjiang and Outer Mongolia were quickly sent to Li Weiguo, and he looked at them. Li Weiguo was immediately happy.

Although China was formally unified, the tribes of Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner and Outer Mongolia were only nominally subservient, but in fact they were divided into vassal kings, and the decrees of the new government were not implemented at all, or they were disobeyed.

Now the opportunity has finally come, now that Xinjiang and Outer Mongolia have asked the central government for help. This means that the central government can justifiably send troops to Xinjiang and Outer Mongolia.

The 50,000 Tsarist Russian troops were a formidable enemy in the eyes of the people of Xinjiang and Outer Mongolia, but Li Weiguo did not take it seriously at all. He immediately prepared the three theaters of the Western Theater, the Northwest Theater, and the Northern Theater, and the 39th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, and 43rd Towns, which were originally prepared for these places. Among them, 39 towns will be stationed in Ili (Xinjiang), 40 towns will be stationed in Uriya Sutai (Outer Mongolia), 41 towns will be stationed in Ulanqab (Inner Mongolia), 42 towns will be stationed in Krawusu (Tibet), and 43 towns will be stationed in Erut (Qinghai) in the West Sea.

This time, Li Weiguo did not choose to drive the expedition in person, nor did he set up the commander-in-chief of the Western Expeditionary Corps, to deal with the 50,000 Russian troops with backward equipment, it was enough to have the strength of the 39th Town. Under the banner of the Western Expedition, the other towns went directly to Tibet, Mongolia, and Qinghai to strengthen their control over these areas.

Of course, Li Weiguo didn't want to eat a fat man in one bite, he knew the truth of boiling frogs in warm water, first sent troops into these areas, stabilized for a period of time, and then slowly weakened the rights of the local tribal nobles, and finally achieved the goal of complete control.

However, Li Weiguo didn't dare to be too careless, and he didn't want to jump over the wall if Alexander II was forced to rush away. Since the empire had just been reunified, its control over the Northwest Frontier was too weak, and it was too difficult to transfer troops from the Central Plains to the Northwest Frontier, which cost the people and money, and did not conform to the national interests of New China. Therefore, Li Weiguo also secretly told the commanders of each town that they only needed to recover the lost territory.

The armies of all walks marched to the frontier, but the road was long and difficult, and it would be at least three months before the battle began.

After arranging the expedition to the west, Li Weiguo turned his attention to the Ryukyus.

There is no way, who let the Ryukyus involve little Japan and touch the sensitive nerves in the depths of Li Weiguo's heart.

Three days later, at the Shuri Wharf, the flag was unfurled, and Shang Tai brought more than a dozen aristocratic officials to greet him in front of the wharf.

"Look, it's the Great Shimizu Master who has arrived!" On the dock, someone suddenly shouted excitedly, full of yearning and expectation for ****.

"What are you shouting about? He died early in the morning, and now it's called Great China! Someone who was well informed immediately spoke out to correct it.

"No wonder there is such a huge warship, even the Great Qing Kingdom has been defeated, so it must be able to defeat the dogs, right?" The people who came to greet the Chinese navy were all pro-China factions, and naturally they did not have a good impression of Japan, and they exported evil to each other.

The battleship Zheng He slowly docked at the dock, and the huge hull pressed down in front of him like a mountain. The muzzle of the black hole is full of cold air, and even if you just look at it, you will feel the hairs stand upside down.

Mighty!

Domineering!

This was the first impression of the battleship Zheng He on the Ryukyu people.

Firecrackers and drums sounded.

When Yu Tao and Zhang Qiang stepped off the battleship, Shang Tai and the others immediately rushed forward, as if they were old friends who had been separated for decades.

“￥&￥&%￥%——）（+**&）……”

"What are you muttering?"

Yu Tao and Zhang Qiang glanced at each other. It's all a wry smile, and I can't understand the indigenous language at all.

Fortunately, there is also a two-knife translator, and the basic communication is still no problem.

Shang Tai didn't understand military affairs, so he handed over full authority to Xiang Dehong after being polite and polite. Shang Tai was also a little hesitant to send troops to the ****, but compared with the urgent annexation pressure from Japan, he still yearns for China deep down, after all, China is a **** power, and Japan is just a small island country.

Although there was still a part of the Ryukyu aristocracy that was pro-Japanese and resolutely opposed. But they also did not dare to openly oppose Shang Tai's decision, and could only report it to the Japanese in secret.

Naha, the Japanese forcibly changed the Ryukyus to Okinawa Prefecture and Shuri to Naha.

At this moment, the governor of Okinawa Prefecture, appointed by the Japanese emperor, Takahashi was in a hurry, and although he received the news that the Chinese emperor might interfere with Japan's annexation of the Ryukyus, he never expected Li Weiguo's reaction to be so quick that he would directly send a fleet and army to the Ryukyus. This caught him off guard.

A group of Japanese officials quickly gathered to discuss countermeasures.

"What can I do?"

"The imperial government is still debating whether to clash head-on with China. I am afraid that it will not be possible to send back the news in less than a month, but the Chinese navy and army have already entered Naha, and if they cannot be driven out while they are still on a firm foothold, it will be very troublesome once they are ready in the Ryukyus. ”

"So what do we do now? There were also 15,000 soldiers who came with us to take over the Ryukyus, and I don't know if they can beat the Chinese army. ”

A Japanese military attache said with some shame. In the face of China, which has ruled Asia for thousands of years, not every Japanese has the courage to go to war with China.

"Now it's not a question of whether we can fight or not, but whether the imperial government has decided to go to war with China. If the emperor doesn't make a decision, we can't move! ”

Takahashi finally sighed, without the emperor's instructions. He didn't dare to make random decisions, because once the war started, he would be gambling on the fortunes of the country, and he didn't dare to bear the terrible consequences.

It was precisely because of this scruple that the second town of the Chinese Shence Army quickly set up camp around Shuri, and the cement from the Jiangwan factory in Shanghai arrived with the fleet, and soon a series of trench positions and machine-gun bunkers were built.

Since Japan did not yet have an advanced means of communication such as the telegraph, not even a train, it took at least a long time to travel from Shuri (Naha) to Edo (Tokyo), and the civil and military officials were arguing about whether to start a war against China, so that the optimal time for an attack was delayed.

The Meiji sent envoys to the Ryukyus to negotiate with the Chinese side, and Yu Tao and Zhang Qiang negotiated with the Japanese envoys on the partition of the Ryukyus, but they did not forget to step up the construction of fortifications and occupy valuable and important military targets around Shuri to prepare for war.

The two sides quarreled for more than two months, and a large amount of military supplies arrived in the Ryukyus from Shanghai, and the Eastern Theater was ordered by Li Weiguo to transfer the 27th Town of Zhejiang Town to Shuri to cooperate with the Second Town to prepare for war. Seeing that China's various military preparations were ready, the attitudes of Yu Tao and Zhang Qiang became more and more open-minded and tough, so the Japanese became anxious.

The Japanese Navy saw that only one Zheng He of the Chinese Navy was an ironclad ship, and the other warships were all wooden sail warships, although the Zheng He was a giant warship of more than 10,000 tons, but the Japanese Navy had many ironclad ships, although they were all ironclad ships of several thousand tons, and the tonnage was a little small, but if they were on the same page, they should be sure to win.

With this fluke mentality, the West Sea Fleet prepared to sneak attack the Chinese Navy in the harbor.

Intelligence shows that the warships of the Chinese Navy are docked in the harbor, and their guards are lax on weekdays.

Late at night, the West Sea Fleet quietly approached the port of Shuri.

Shuri Harbor was quiet, the beacon fire on the shore platform was looming, and you could vaguely see the huge hull of the Zheng He battleship, which was quietly docked at the pier, and other Chinese Navy warships were lined up in a neat and orderly manner.

On the watchtower on the shore, the guards patrolled back and forth as usual. It seems that the approaching Western Sea Fleet was not spotted.

"Great!"

"Immediately signal the flagship and inform Kitano-sama that it is time to attack!"

On several small boats, Japanese scouts successively signaled the safety of the attack.

In the distance, on the Izumi ship, the commander of the West Sea Fleet, Kitano Minami, saw the signal and immediately ordered the whole fleet to attack.

Eleven Japanese warships quickly headed for Shuri Port, and the Monchun Maru was the first to enter the port.

Kitano Minami saw the Zheng He moored in the harbor at a glance. The giant ship, tall and mighty, was more beautiful than any woman in his eyes.

"While they are defenseless, Mighty can capture this battleship!"

Kitano Nan's mind suddenly fantasized about the mighty appearance of him commanding this giant ship after capturing the Zheng He.

At this moment, a loud bang completely shattered his illusions.

Boom!

There was a loud bang, and the ironclad ship of the Yangchun Maru, which was rushing to the front, suddenly exploded. The entire bow was instantly blown up into a sea of fire, lighting up the entire night sky.

Immediately afterwards, there was also a big explosion between the Yunyang Maru and the Hongqiao Maru, especially the Hongqiao Maru, which was a wooden battleship, and the 3,000-ton hull was blown to pieces in an instant, and the scene was terrible.

"What's going on?"

Kitano Minami and other Japanese soldiers were stunned for a moment, why did the Yangchun Maru ironclad ship explode inexplicably.

It was the water radium arranged by the Chinese Navy, and the Japanese army had obviously not yet learned such a "high-tech" weapon.

Originally. The Chinese Navy had been prepared for a long time, and it only deliberately sold a flaw to the Japanese Navy. Lure the enemy into the bait. Use Water Radium to take out a few Japanese warships first.

At the same time, I saw that the shore of the pier, which was originally relatively dim, suddenly lit up with clusters of flames.

Immediately afterwards, the battleship Zheng He moored at the dock suddenly emitted billowing smoke and whistles, the turret rotated, and the muzzle of the black hole hole was aimed at a Japanese ship Longxiang that had entered the port. Other wooden-sailed battleships also quickly raised their sails. At the same time, the gun doors fell one after another, and rows of ship's waist guns aimed at the Japanese battleships in their respective lines of sight, and opened fire quickly.

Knock knock......

Dense shells shot towards the Japanese ships, weaving a network of streamers in the night sky.

"Not good. We've been tricked! ”

Kitano Nan instantly understood that the Chinese Navy had been prepared a long time ago, otherwise the sails would not have been raised so quickly, and the artillery seemed to have been loaded and waiting to fire.

Especially when he saw the battleship Zheng He moving instantly, he understood it even more, because he knew that if the steam engine was turned off, it would be impossible to make the battleship move in half an hour.

Obviously, all this is the full set of the Chinese Navy.

"Retreat! Retreat! ”

Realizing this problem, Kitano Minami hurriedly ordered a retreat, but unfortunately it was too late.

At this moment, three of the eleven Japanese ships had already sunk with radium, and in the face of the strong counterattack of the Chinese Navy's fierce artillery fire, the other Japanese ships were stunned, and they could not hear or see the command of the flagship at all.

Knock knock!

Zheng He's side side artillery group took the lead in opening fire, and when the fire shone brightly, one shell after another was fired at the Japanese ship Longxiang.

As the water columns rose into the sky on the sea near the Japanese ship Longxiang, the main guns of the Zheng He observed the impact point and quickly corrected the shooting Zhu Yuan, and the two twin 305 mm main guns opened fire.

Four 305-mm shells were fired, three fell into the sea, and one hit the apostle of the Longxiang.

With a loud bang, the 140-mm wrought-iron armor of the Longxiang was instantly penetrated by a 305-mm shell, and a large explosion occurred.

The Longxiang lost power and quickly stopped, and half a minute later, it was hit by a salvo from the Zheng He's side auxiliary artillery group, which continued to explode and then sank.

After killing the Longxiang, Zheng He was like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, directly killing the Japanese warships.

The Japanese guns aimed at Zheng He, thinking that as long as they sank Zheng He, they could turn defeat into victory.

I saw rows of dense shells bombarding the battleship Zheng He, constantly exploding, and the fire and smoke almost engulfed the giant ship, but the next moment, the Japanese soldiers on the Japanese ship were dumbfounded again.

The shells of the Japanese ships only left metal burn craters on the hull of the battleship Zheng He, which could not be penetrated at all.

What kind of ironclad is this, how can it be so powerful, such a close distance, such a saturation attack can't cause significant damage.

There was not much time left for the Japanese army to think, and just a dozen seconds later, the secondary artillery group on the right side of the battleship Zheng He opened fire at the same time, and rows of shells instantly pierced one of the Japanese ships, the Kanko Maru, and at the same time, the Zheng He suddenly accelerated, using the collision angle to hit the Japanese ship Sazu Maru, and the starboard side of the Sazu Maru, which was less than 3,000 tons, was suddenly knocked open a big hole, and a large amount of seawater poured into it, and it was sinking at a speed that could be seen.

In the same ironclad battle, four Japanese ships surrounded Zheng He, but not only did they not cause fatal damage to Zheng He, but Zheng He made an acceleration action and sank one and sank another.

Don't be so cruel!

Kitano Minami on the Izumi ship really wanted to kneel, but unfortunately he knew that kneeling was useless.

"Retreat!"

The Izumi had already completed its U-turn and accelerated towards the outside of the harbor.

In just ten minutes, eight of the 11 warships of the Japanese West Sea Fleet were sunk one after another, and the other two Japanese ships, the Kuaikamaru and the Huayang Maru, were blinded by their commanders after the battle began, and the thick smoke of the artillery fire obscured the already insufficient line of sight, causing the two ships to load each other and run aground together.

On the Zheng He, Yu Tao suddenly found that the Japanese ship Hequan was about to escape, so he accelerated the pursuit.

It's just that the Izumi ship is faster, and the Zheng He has been chasing thirty nautical miles outside the port of Shuri but has not been able to catch up, allowing it to escape.

However, what Yu Tao didn't know was that although the Hequan ship survived under the guns of the Zheng He, it was a pity that the fate was too miserable, the coal tank was destroyed, and all the coal was burned down, almost burning the entire Hequan ship.

When Kitano Minami extinguished the fire, he found that he had sailed into the depths of the Pacific Ocean, the coal had burned out, the sails had burned out, and the Izumi ship could only float in the Pacific Ocean.

Eventually, with a scarcity of food and fresh water, the Japanese officers and men on board gradually began to go crazy, and some of the wounded were infected, and everyone was infected.

Minami Kitano, who was driven crazy, committed suicide, and since then the Izumi ship has been floating in the Pacific Ocean until it was discovered more than ten years later, so novelists from all over the world have writing themes, and various suspense novels have come out. (To be continued.) )