The smell of gunpowder smoke wafted over the Solomon Islands, and the wreckage of wrecked warships floated everywhere on the sea, some of which were still burning, and black smoke billowed into the sky like an erupting crater.

After a full day of fierce fighting, the battle gradually died down as the sun began to tilt westward.

The Chinese and British navies competed in the Pacific Ocean for more than half a year, fighting wits and courage, and finally a naval battle broke out in the Solomon Islands, which finally ended with the victory of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

The naval battle of the Solomon Islands is destined to go down in history because it is a world classic in terms of scale and tactics, and it deserves everyone's attention.

In terms of scale, the Battle of Solomon was the largest naval battle in the world to date, and it was also the pinnacle of naval warfare in the age of steam.

In order to win the Pacific War and maintain the world hegemony of the British Empire, the Royal Navy mobilized 90% of the British maritime armed forces, more than 300 warships of various types participated in the war, with a total tonnage of 525,000 tons, and mobilized 85,000 outstanding soldiers of the British Royal Navy.

The Imperial Chinese Navy is also the main force, but there are only more than 100 warships of all kinds, with a total tonnage of 306,000 tons and 39,000 naval officers and men.

In terms of the number of warships, the Chinese Imperial Navy was in an absolute weakness, but in terms of the quality of warships, it had an advantage.

The British navy tried in vain to overwhelm quality with quantity, and finally destroyed the Imperial Chinese Navy, but failed miserably.

After a few hours of statistics, the Imperial Chinese Navy quickly got the first-hand battle report of the naval battle of the Solomon Islands, and Chen Shaoyi immediately took this battle report to the Huatuo hospital ship and read it to General Yang De, who was lying on the hospital bed.

General Yang De was the number one contributor to the naval battle of the Solomon Islands, without him blocking the main fleet of the British Navy from entering the Blanche Waterway, the Imperial Chinese Navy was in danger of being annihilated by the enemy.

"General Yang. I'm Chen Shaoyi, our Imperial Chinese Navy has won, can you hear me? The British Navy lost a total of 147 warships, 17 ironclad ships were sunk by our army, 5 were captured, 23 cruisers were sunk, 11 were captured, and more than 90 other frigates and Fish and Radium boats were sunk. You are the greatest contributor! On behalf of all the officers and men of the Imperial Chinese Navy, I would like to express my high respect to you and all the officers and men of the Fourth Fleet, and I will personally report to His Majesty the Emperor and ask for credit to you! ”

"Good, good!" General Yang De suddenly opened his eyes, and tears of joy flowed from his tiger eyes. He was already old, seriously injured, and was already on the verge of dying, so he held on to his last breath and waited for Chen Shaoyi's victory report.

"Deng Shichang is a good seedling. I'll leave it to you! ”

At the last moment, General Yang De pointed to Deng Shichang, the guard battalion next to him, and Chen Shaoyi understood that this was supporting Gu. Immediately stepped forward and said: "Don't worry, the old general, I will train him well and let him become the star of the Imperial Navy in the future!" ”

In the end, the old general Yang De slowly closed his eyes.

"All of them. Salute to the old general! ”

"The old general goes all the way!"

At this moment, even Chen Shaoyi left tears, without bitterness. Only respect.

Except for the brilliant victory, Chen Shaoyi did not mention to Admiral Yang De the losses and casualties of the Imperial Navy itself, especially the situation of the Fourth Fleet.

In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Fourth Fleet was completely annihilated, although the four ships of Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan and Haidai finally ran aground on the beach and belonged to unsinkable warships, but after more than six hours of fierce fighting, the Haidai had already been beaten into a pile of scrap iron, and the three ironclad ships suffered at least 300 shells on average, the hull was full of large holes, the superstructure was in ruins, and the internal structure was also broken, leaving only a bunch of iron lump shells, which was equivalent to scrapping.

In this battle, the Imperial Chinese Navy lost four Dingyuan-class ironclad ships and six Haiqi-class dome cruisers, as well as 28 Fuzi frigates, and also lost some auxiliary warships, including 6 mine-strike ships, and the only one reconnaissance ship, the Sea Eagle. Two Hsiungfeng-class battleships, the Hurricane and the Tempest, ran aground after being hit by Ray, and the armored cruiser Zhongning was almost sunk by a suicide attack by a British frigate while loading B, and more than 2,000 officers and men of the Imperial Chinese Navy were killed, mainly soldiers of the Fourth Fleet.

"Immediately send someone to send a war report to Luzon and forward it to the Imperial War Department!"

"Yes!"

Chen Shaoyi paused, and then said: "Order the officers and men of all ships to quickly clean up the battlefield, treat the wounded, and after a day's rest, we will immediately set off for Guam to completely lift the siege of Guam." ”

At this moment, suddenly a soldier came to report.

"Report to the Commander, Matt committed suicide, biting his tongue!"

Chen Shaoyi was not too surprised, Matt did this because he didn't want to face the consequences of this defeat, he was a shame for the British Imperial Navy to live, although Matt had done his best, and if it weren't for some accidents and coincidences, the outcome might be the defeat of the Chinese Imperial Navy. It can be said that Matt deserves to be a famous British naval admiral, but unfortunately he was born at the wrong time, and the last night is not guaranteed.

In the face of an opponent like Matt, Chen Shaoyi is full of respect.

"Bury him thickly and allow the British prisoners to mourn!"

"Yes!"

On this night, all the officers and men of the Imperial Chinese Navy were reveling and celebrating the victory. The prisoners of the British Navy were locked up in makeshift concentration camps, listening bitterly to the laughter outside, smelling the wine and barbecue outside, and sighing one by one.

Three days later, Li Weiguo, who was inspecting the Zhili Shipyard, learned the news of the victory in the naval battle of the Solomon Islands, and laughed wildly at the sky regardless of his image.

"Go back to Beijing, go back to Beijing immediately!"

After Li Weiguo smiled, he wiped away his tears of joy and immediately returned to the Forbidden City.

The next day, in the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, Li Weiguo went up to the court with a pair of panda eyes.

I was so happy and excited last night that I had insomnia, and finally I couldn't think of a way, summoned seven concubines, and fired more than a dozen shots, and finally fell asleep tired at dawn.

Of course, there is a beautician in the palace, so naturally Li Weiguo will not let people see it with panda eyes. After putting on makeup, Li Weiguo summoned hundreds of civil and military officials to the court to celebrate the great victory of the navy.

The civil and military officials had already heard the rumors, and they were also happy that the Imperial Navy had won a great victory, and they had already prepared a congratulatory message to take it to the main hall.

"Your Majesty, the reason why this battle was won was thanks to the fact that General Yang De led the Fourth Fleet to turn the tide, and the minister asked for a grand commendation to General Yang De!"

Li Weiguo had thought of it a long time ago, and even knew through the deeds of General Yang De that Deng Shichang's little pen friend turned out to be his guard. This made Li Weiguo very interested.

"The specific details of the commendation can be reported to me by the General Staff, and I will write a couplet and send it to General Yang De."

Soon, a female official in front of the palace took out the couplet written by Li Weiguo for the civil and military officials to pay respects.

It's not so much a look at it, it's more like Li Weiguo's own red fruit showing off.

"On this day, the world is full of tears, and there is a strong navy!"

"Good sentence! Tragic and high-pitched! ”

"It's the right time! Because although the Imperial Navy won the victory, in the process, it turned defeat into victory. It was even more at the expense of General Yang De and the Fourth Fleet, which was a huge loss to the imperial court and the people! ”

Hearing the praise of the civil and military officials, Li Weiguo was also amused in his heart, if they knew that this elegiac couplet was originally reserved for Deng Shichang. Now it is used on Deng Shichang's teacher, General Yang De, I don't know if it will be a divine horse expression.

"Give this pair to Deng Shichang, let him remember this sentence and not live up to General Yang De's expectations of him!"

Li Weiguo's words today are somewhat special. It seems that it is not for General Yang De, but for Deng Shichang, a student of General Yang De.

What kind of person is this Deng Shichang, who can be so valued by His Majesty. In the future, it will be reused, and we should walk around with this Deng Shichang a lot.

Hundreds of civil and military officials are figuring out Li Weiguo's thoughts, and they pay special attention to Deng Shichang. Deng Shichang didn't know that since then, his career in the Imperial Navy has risen step by step, and with his hard work, he has rapidly grown into a dazzling star in the next generation of the Chinese Imperial Navy.

Li Weiguo continued: "What do you think about the next war? ”

Li Weiguo began to ask the civil and military officials for advice, he was not like this before, he would first express his opinion, and then let the civil and military officials supplement. With the continuous improvement and strengthening of his imperial mental skills, he gradually understood that as an emperor, he should be obscure and unfathomable, and he could not easily let the civil and military officials guess his thoughts.

Therefore, although Li Weiguo knew the current war well and had a strategy in his heart, he no longer said it, but let the civil and military officials think for themselves.

This is a great progress, and it also makes the cunning civil and military officials even more jealous, and carefully serves His Majesty the wise and martial emperor.

"I believe that the British navy will soon be defeated and will lose its naval supremacy in the Pacific region, and even in other sea areas it will be challenged by France, Germany, and Italy, the traditional European powers, and I believe that Britain will soon sue for peace with us."

Wu Yong, the minister of military machinery and military machinery of the Ministry of War, threw bricks and stones, which has almost been his recent compulsory course.

"The minister suggested taking advantage of the great defeat of the British navy to mobilize forces to attack Singapore, Australia, and Canada, and completely drive the British power out of the Pacific and its Pacific Rim, and the entire Pacific should be controlled by the Empire." Chen Jingnan followed suit, and although he had been transferred to the ministry, no one would ignore his authority in the military field.

"Isn't this front too long, for the Empire at the moment, the annexation of these regions will cause panic all over the world, and it may become an enemy of the entire European and American powers. Besides, the finances are also tight! After the naval battle of the Solomon Islands, the ammunition was almost exhausted and needed to be replenished, the rifling of the barrel was smoothed and needed to be replaced, many warships were sunk and needed to be repaired, many warships were destroyed and needed to be repaired, thousands of dead and wounded people had to be compensated, and the logistics department had to spend tens of millions of yuan in material supplies, which made Fu Xuexian feel very distressed.

The last sentence is the truth when the finances are tight!

Seeing Fu Xuexian's miser-like expression, all the ministers were happy.

"The minister also thinks that Lord Fu's words are reasonable, and now the empire's top priority is to end the war, digest the entire Pacific region, and then slowly figure it out." Li Hongzhang supported Fu Xuexian, because Li Hongzhang now managed the import and export trade, and the import and export trade during the war was almost stagnant, which made him idle and painful.

"The British provoked the war, and it can't just end there. A war breaks out between China and Britain every five years, and it used to be because we were weak and forced to accept the situation that the British had fought and made peace again and again, and now the main force of the British Navy has been finished, and the Imperial Navy will replace Britain as the world's maritime hegemon, and the British overseas colonies should also be taken over by us. Li Hongzao seems to be born with Li Hongzhang, the two have similar names, but they are not related by blood.

After the court discussion, there were those who fought the main battle and those who made peace, and the reasons were very good.

In the end, the ball was kicked back to Li Weiguo, which made Li Weiguo roll his eyes, and it didn't seem easy to be an emperor who wanted to play Tai Chi to balance.

"War, our Chinese Empire is naturally not afraid or afraid, but whether war is valuable or not depends on what benefits can be obtained!"

Li Weiguo's words show an attitude that he will not fight all the time, but he will not make peace easily.

With the current population of the Chinese Empire, 250 million, controlling 15 million square kilometers of land in the Western Pacific seems to be manpower tight and cannot be managed. Therefore, it is impossible to swallow up the British colonies all over the world now, for example, Canada is too big, and the resource area is close to the Great Lakes of the United States, once the troops of the Chinese Empire reach the Great Lakes, the Americans will definitely feel a great threat, which is not in the interests of the current Chinese Empire. But Australia and Singapore are going to fight.

Australia's iron ore is easy to mine and of high quality, which is of great help to the steel industry of the Chinese Empire, and Australia's wool will also become the raw material source of the textile industry of the Chinese Empire. Overall, Australia will become a resource supplier to the Chinese Empire, which must be snatched from the British.

Singapore is the last British stronghold in Southeast Asia, and if you remove Singapore and control the entire Malay Peninsula, you can pocket the whole of Southeast Asia, hold the Malacca waterway, and protect the shipping safety of the Chinese Empire.

In the end, Li Weiguo made a decision, and the central theater and the southeast theater of the Chinese Imperial Shence Army began to assemble, and after the navy rested and replenished, it launched a full-scale offensive against Australia and the Malay Peninsula.

In addition, the Western Xinjiang, Far East, Ryukyu, Lanfang and other states will also enter the countdown to the counteroffensive, completely defeating the British and Japanese invading forces, and the Korean Ly-Hee regime is also coming to an end, and the Chinese Imperial Shence Army will be ready to intervene. (To be continued.) )