"I've been working on this warship for five years! From the day it became a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy, I served on this warship! Never before has this warship been seen sailing at speeds of more than nine knots! So please forgive me! We can't do your orders! Captain Iizuka yelled at Shiki Kayama. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

As the commander of the power center of a warship, the chief engineer is quite respected on the ship, and when he heard Shiki Kayama scolding the chief engineer for "Yaga" just now, the faces of many Japanese sailors became ugly. Hearing Captain Iizuka's answer to Shikinori Kayama, the Japanese naval officers and sailors on the flybridge shouted in their hearts.

They have accumulated too much dissatisfaction with the arrogance of this army "layman" who was installed in the navy by a friend of Shan County.

"You dare to disobey military orders?!" Shiki Kayama couldn't help but be furious when he saw that a small chief engineer dared to openly contradict him, and was about to point the saber in his hand at Ryoji Iizuka, but was stopped by Keshinori Fukushima, who rushed over.

"General, your accusations are unreasonable, you can't treat my subordinates like this!" Keinori Fukushima looked at Shikinori Kayama and said loudly, "You must retract what you just said!" Apologize to my subordinates! ”

"What did you say?!" Shiki Kayama barely believed his ears.

"General! You must retract those rude words you just said! My subordinates have done nothing wrong! Keinori Fukushima said loudly and unceremoniously, "If you always treat them like this, I won't be able to command this warship!" ”

Hearing the threatening words of Keinori Fukushima and the hostile gazes of the Japanese naval officers and men around him, Shiki Kayama realized the seriousness of the situation, he looked at Captain Iizuka with his neck raised and stared at him, forced his anger to put away his saber, and said, "Okay! I retract what I just said inappropriately! I beg your pardon! ”

Hearing Shikinori Kayama apologize, Chief Engineer Iizuka was angry for a moment, and Keinori Fukushima immediately asked the Chief Engineer to go back and ordered the "Ryuchamp" to chase the Chinese steamer as fast as possible.

Shiki Kayama turned his head to look at the sea, and found that in the moment, the Chinese steamer and the Japanese warship had opened up some distance.

At the forefront of this time was still the large gunboat "Tsukuba" under the command of Ito Junyoshi Nakasa, which fired another shot at the Chinese steamer, but this time the shell fell even farther.

Although the "Tsukuba" is one of the fastest warships in the Japanese Navy, it is an old ship bought and refurbished by the British, and its fastest speed is only 10 knots, which is still too slow compared to the Chinese steamers that can run at 14 knots. Moreover, because the artillery was laid out in the same way as the "Ryuchamp", the gun positions were all on both sides (the "Tsukuba" was equipped with a total of 9 160 mm breech guns, that is, 4 guns on each side, and 1 mast type), it was impossible to shoot directly at the front, and in order to shoot at the Chinese steamer, it was necessary to adjust the ship's position, and just when the sailors on the Japanese ship were busy preparing for the next fire, the Chinese steamer ran farther.

Seeing the shells fired by the Japanese ship falling far away on the sea and exploding, Wei Rugui, the commander of the Sheng Army, who was standing next to the cannon on the aft deck of the "Daya" transport ship, sneered.

"No need to fight." He said to the gunner, who had already reloaded the shells.

"My lord, you really don't need it?" The gunner asked with some hesitation.

"! A cannonball is so expensive! They were all bought with white money! Save some for Lao Tzu! Wei Rugui scolded, "Didn't you see that the warships of the Japanese are gone?" And a fart! ”

The gunner stopped laughing, but still looked at the sea with some nervousness.

At this time, looking from the stern of the "Daya", the Japanese warship that was originally chasing after it with great momentum is now almost invisible.

"Now that's good! Thanks to our steamer running fast! A Sheng military battalion commander let out a sigh of relief and said.

After listening to the words of his subordinates, Wei Rugui remembered the scene of the sudden encounter with the Japanese ship just now, and he also had palpitations.

Originally, Li Hongzhang and Li Zongxi, the governor of Liangjiang, discussed and dispatched steam warships from Nanyang to escort the Sheng army heading to Taiwan, but the Nanyang ships were unable to come for some reason, and the troop transport fleet had to set off on its own. Due to the large number of troops mobilized this time (a total of 9,500 people in the 19th battalion of the Sheng Army, plus a total of more than 15,000 people in the entourage), China Merchants used all the large ships to transport, Li Hongzhang was worried that there would be a mistake on the way, so he called the Fujian side to send a ship to respond, and Lin Yizhe sent three Beiyang ships to come to pick up and escort, while Wei Rugui's group stopped sailing because of the sea fog and was separated from the escort ship, and it was easy to wait for the fog to clear and start again, but he did not expect to run into a Japanese warship.

As soon as he saw the Japanese ship, Wei Rugui, who had never fought a naval battle, and the officers and men under his command couldn't help but panic, but for Wei Rugui, who was brave and good at fighting, it was obviously not his style to be restrained, and it was because he ordered the army's camp guns to be raised, intending to fight hard with the Japanese ships, but neither the captain of the "Daya" nor the Japanese gave him this opportunity.

In the face of the menacing Japanese ships, the first choice of the troop transport fleet without escort ships was, of course, to run away, it turned out that Wei Rugui was still worried that his ship would not be able to escape, so he was prepared to die and break the net, but what he didn't expect was that the Chinese steamer easily threw off the Japanese ship.

"The Harbour Master's ship is so well built, it runs like a Scud!" Wei Rugui looked at the Japanese warship that had disappeared from the sea, and couldn't help but sigh.

As soon as Wei Rugui's words fell, the soldiers behind him suddenly made a commotion.

"What's going on?" Wei Rugui frowned and asked loudly.

"Back to adults, that...... The imperial master who served in front of the army, if you can't do it......" a personal soldier ran and said.

"Wasn't it okay yesterday? Why can't you do it now? Wei Rugui remembered the imperial history who was sent from the capital to him to "serve in front of the army", and asked coldly.

"Yes, it's fine today, but as soon as I heard the sound of the cannon, my face turned white, and I lay there as if I had lost my soul, and I was frightened when I fired another cannon from the Japanese ship just now......" replied the soldier, "and now I am foaming at the mouth, and I see that I am going to lose my breath......"

"The Japanese ship only fired two cannons, and he was scared of this virtue!" Wei Rugui's voice was full of disdain, "These poor sour, just knowing that they chew their tongues and stab knives in their backs, they are really scared!" ”

"That's it, I still came to serve in front of the army, so that the Japanese can see that there is really no one in our Great Qing Kingdom!" One of the battalion officers laughed.

Hearing his words, the surrounding Sheng soldiers also burst into laughter.

After the news of the Japanese invasion of Taiwan reached Beijing, Emperor Tongzhi ordered Lin Yizhe to "regain his affection" and serve as the governor of Fujian and the minister of Taiwan affairs. As for the will, Gan Liliang, who had participated in the impeachment of Lin Yizhe with Ding Baozhen, the governor of Shandong, couldn't wait to write a letter to oppose it, but the empress dowager of the two palaces was furious, and she threw him to the end, "sent it to the front of the army to serve", "must not be offset by Taiwan fees", and sent him to the Sheng army.

As a small commander of the Sheng Army, Wei Rugui has never had any intersection with Lin Yizhe, but he has heard that Lin Yizhe has a good relationship with his immediate boss Li Hongzhang, and he naturally has a certain good impression of Lin Yizhe. As for this imperial history who stabbed Lin Yizhe in the back with bad water in his stomach, Wei Rugui, who is honest by nature, has a kind of rejection from his bones, because after this imperial history was assigned to him, Wei Rugui has never given him good fruit to eat.

One of Gan Liliang's main jobs in the Sheng army was to wash the trousers of the soldiers (this is the old system of the Ming Dynasty, inherited from the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, and this is the only place where the martial artists who are treated as dogs in the eyes of the civil officials on weekdays can take revenge on these civil officials). These words reached Wei Rugui's ears, which increased his disgust for this person even more.

Now hearing that this person was going to die, Wei Rugui actually felt a sense of relief.

When Wei Rugui and the others came to Gan Liliang, Gan Liliang had just swallowed his last breath.

Looking at Gan Liliang, whose frightened color had been frozen on his face forever, Wei Rugui shook his head and took a heavy sip with a frown.

"What a fucking bad luck!" He waved his hand impatiently, "Hurry up, throw it into the sea!" ”

Soon, several Sheng soldiers threw Gan Liliang's body, wrapped in coarse cloth, into the sea.

", you short-lived ghost, you've only been washing the military master's clothes for a few days - I knew I would let you wash it a few more times!" A Sheng Army soldier looked at Gan Liliang's corpse that was slowly sinking into the sea, and said a little unwillingly, which caused bursts of laughter from his comrades around him.

After a short time, a warship appeared in front of the troop convoy, and the Chinese soldiers on the deck couldn't help but cheer loudly when they saw the Chinese warship flying the dragon flag.

Unlike the Chinese troop carriers, at about the same time, their enemy, the third Japanese troop convoy from Nagasaki, was staging a tragicomedy with a different face.

July 5, 1874, Chicken Long Harbor, Taiwan.

At this time, outside the chicken coop harbor, the wind and waves were calm, a sense of tranquility and peace, several fishing boats were wandering outside the port, and a French merchant ship had just sailed out of the port. The beacon fire in the Tainan area did not affect here.

By noon, the fog had risen, and suddenly, in the distance, a ship had apparently come from afar and had behaved in a strange way.

As a result of the sea fog, visibility began to deteriorate, and neither the Chinese fishing boats nor the French merchant ships heading out to sea were able to notice the new vessel.

If visibility is better, people will notice that the ship's mast is flying a striking sun flag!

Soon, four more ships of the same size appeared. At 11 o'clock, five Japanese warships merged into one group.

The chicken coop is located in the north of Taiwan Island, at the entrance of the city, is a naturally formed haven, most of the cliffs on both sides of the bay are towering, the terrain is extremely dangerous, the use of the promontory cliffs protruding in the harbor, as well as the shallow water area along the coast, almost the whole Hong Kong is everywhere can be guarded and armed. Some dangerous locations in Jilong Harbor have been equipped with forts since ancient times, but the artillery models equipped are old and basically useless. After Wang Kaitai became the governor of Fujian, he built 6 pillboxes on the cliffs around Jilong Harbor, and built a fort on a lowland that was easy to land on the inner side of the harbor, which belonged to the old fortress-style battery, with a total of 5 gun ports on the sea, and installed 1 190 mm "Westworth" hexagonal breech gun, 4 160 mm "Fahuashi" breech guns, each of which was additionally protected by armor, and next to this battery was the road leading from the sea to the chicken coop coal mine.

After Lin Yizhe arrived in Fufan, Taiwan, on this basis, he built two new forts in the harbor, Baimiyong and Xiandongbi, and next to the big fort built by Wang Kaitai, he selected an old earthen fort to expand.

On the whole, the fort equipped with 5 guns was at the point of the harbor, and it was the main force of the entire Jilonggang battery group because of its fierce firepower and long range. Among the three newly built forts by Lin Yizhe, only the one rebuilt on the ancient fort has begun to take shape, equipped with three 190 mm "Westworth" hexagonal breech guns that have been eliminated by the shipmaster, and the other two have not yet been completed.

At this time, the defenders of Chicken Coop Harbor would not have imagined that they were about to usher in an unexpected battle.

"General, here...... Something seems wrong, right? ”

On the flybridge of the Japanese Navy's gunboat "Yunyang", the captain of the ship, Admiral Shozo Dewa Shigeyuan, looked at the Qing military fortifications looming in the sea fog in the direction of the coast, and said to the commander Rear Admiral Nakamuta Kuranosuke with some hesitation.

"What? Any questions? Nakamuta Kuranosuke asked rhetorically, not putting down the telescope in his hand.

"According to intelligence, the port where we are going to land is without fortifications." Izuwa Shigeyuan expressed the doubts in his heart, "Are we ...... Going to the wrong place? ”

At this time, I was far away and was not able to see where the main battery of the Qing army was.

"Maybe our intelligence is wrong." Kuranosuke Nakamuta wanted to take a closer look, but the fog grew louder and louder, and soon, everything on the shore became a blur.

"Damn fog!" Kuranosuke Nakamuta couldn't help but scold.

As the supreme commander of this troop transport fleet, he shouldn't have said such dishonorable words in front of his subordinates, but there were too many unpleasant things along the way, and it was really difficult for him to suppress the nameless fire in his heart.

After departing from the port of Nagasaki, Nakamuta Kuranosuke's fleet encountered a rare storm, not only the wind and waves were bad, but also a large whirlpool appeared on the sea, and the compass suddenly failed (probably broke into a place like the "Dragon Triangle"), which once made Nakamuta Kuranosuke and others lament "I am done", but fortunately, with the blessing of Amaterasu, after tossing the Japanese to a pulp, the storm was miraculously calmed down, but the Japanese fleet lost its way.

Although the storm stopped, the failure of the compass and the appearance of dense fog at sea once again plunged the Japanese fleet into great fear. After the dense fog dissipated, with his excellent navigation skills, Nakamuta Kuranosuke brought the fleet to the waters of Taiwan without the help of a compass, but after arriving here, the sea fog reappeared again, creating trouble for this troubled fleet.

"Maybe it was a temporary fortification built by the Qing people! Do not worry! Under the cover of a dense fog, we can carry out the landing operation just right! Nakamuta Kuranosuke decisively gave the order to fight.

"However, if we are shelled, our army will be in danger!" Dewa said worriedly.

"Those are just temporary artillery positions of the Qing people, and the artillery used by the Qing army is all earthen artillery! Our naval artillery fire is quite capable of suppressing them! Nakamuta Kuranosuke said with confidence.

Under the order of Nakamuta Kuranosuke, the largest tonnage in the troop transport fleet, the "Ganxing", approached the coast, at this time Nakamuta Kuranosuke did not know that his reckless actions placed the "Ganxing" at the intersection of the fire of the Qing army's 4 batteries, of course, it can also be said that it was arranged in a position that could shell the Qing army's 4 batteries at the same time.

The "Ganxing" is a gunboat purchased by the original Satsuma Domain, dedicated to the Meiji government of Japan in 1870, with a displacement of 522 tons, a length of 55.3 meters, a width of 7.2 meters, a draft of 3.1 meters, 150 horsepower, a speed of 8 knots, and is equipped with two 70-pounder guns, two 6-pounder guns and four 4-pounder guns. Because according to the information obtained before, Nakamuta Kuranosuke believed that the batteries of the Qing army in Taiwan were all equipped with earthen artillery, and it was because he dared to approach the shore so boldly, and the supporting role of the "Yunyang" ship was shallow (the displacement of the "Yunyang" was only 245 tons, and it was equipped with 1 70-pounder gun, 2 6-pounder guns, and 2 4-pounder guns), and was ordered to go directly to the shore as a cover and take on the task of initiating countermeasures from shallow water.

After receiving the order, the three troop carriers "Hitachi Maru", "Yukomaru" and "Sanbang Maru" began to lower their boats and transport the Japanese troops to land.

"I said, Lao Chen, did you hear that? There seems to be movement on the sea? ”

On the main fort of the Qing army, gunner Li Baozhong seemed to hear a burst of noisy sounds, and whispered to his comrade Chen Dingmiao, who was also on duty.

"Yes! How it seems that a lot of people came! Chen Dingmiao also heard these strange voices and nodded.

"This fog is really fucking evil!" Another comrade, Wu Xiang, seemed to be a little scared, and his teeth couldn't help but stand up, "It won't be...... Yin soldiers cross the border, right? ”

"Yin soldier, your grandmother is big! Be silent! Don't scare Lao Tzu there! General Yang Qingshan heard the discussion of his subordinates and couldn't help but scold.

He had been drinking in the barracks just now, but the strange sound somehow made him feel a little uneasy, so he climbed the fort to check, and happened to hear the discussion of several gunners, and couldn't help but reprimand.

After listening to the words of the commander, the gunners were all silent.

Yang Qingshan came to the fort, raised his eyes and looked around, and there was a white expanse in all directions, and he couldn't see anything clearly.

Yang Qingshan listened carefully, and when he heard clearly which language the voice was, his face couldn't help but change greatly.

"Fire!" He yelled and gave the order.

"Fire? My lord, this ...... Where are you going? ...... "The gunners were blinded.

"Lao Tzu told you to fire! Come on! ”

The gunners did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly rushed to the cannon, busily stuffing a twisted hexagonal long cannonball into the chamber.

Soon, after the loading was completed, the gunners pulled the arquebus.

"Boom!" The huge hexagonal muzzle erupted tongues of fire.