"The foreign devil is gone. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

In the distance, the sunspot who was lying in the corner of a shop warehouse whispered to Zhu Xueyan.

Zhu Xueyan held a small telescopic claircase with a brass coat and looked out through the gap in the wall.

"The car was small, and he should be sitting on the edge of the baffle." Kuroko stared at Lin Yizhe's carriage and said, "That board shouldn't be very thick. ”

"The board is not thick, but even if the arrow is shot through, there is not much strength left, and it can't hurt him, but it is easy to startle the snake." Zhu Xueyan said softly, "Unless you use firearms and foreign guns......

"I brought a foreign gun, do you want to use it?" Kuroko said, backhanding out an old-fashioned single-shot pistol from his backpack.

"No, in broad daylight, the movement is too big, even if I can kill him, you and I can't escape." Zhu Xueyan said, her eyes still not leaving the clairvoyant.

"I'm familiar with the terrain here, so I'll go out after walking a few alleys." Kuroko said.

"This is the boundary of the government's government, and the officers and soldiers heard the gunshots, and they couldn't leave as soon as a few crossings were blocked." Zhu Xueyan couldn't help frowning when she saw Lin Yizhe's carriage in the clairmile mirror moving forward, and several red-clothed soldiers on horseback protected the carriage in the center.

She didn't expect that even when she arrived in the capital at the feet of the Son of Heaven, Lin Yizhe's sense of precaution was still so strong!

"Let's go! Look for another chance! Zhu Xueyan put away the clairvoyant mirror, got up and said.

Lin Yizhe sat in the carriage and looked out of the window a little leisurely.

This carriage was originally one of the daily cars given to Prince Gong by a Russian minister, and later Prince Gong donated it to Lin Yizhe for use when he was in Beijing. When Lin Yizhe left Beijing, this carriage was stored in the Beijing branch of the Chen family Xiangtuan shop, and this time he came to the capital again, the Beijing branch prepared the carriage and horses early for his use. Lin Yizhe was not used to riding horses, so this time he came to see off Wei Tuoma, and in order to hurry, he used this carriage.

The carriage walked into the street, Lin Yizhe took a good time to look at the street scene of Beijing, and the pedestrians on the street were very surprised to see the Western carriage and the red-clothed ship and navy soldiers who were guarding it around, and they stopped to watch.

Lin Yizhe couldn't stand people's gaze, and was about to lie on the back of the car seat and close his eyes to rest for a while, but suddenly felt that a pair of female star eyes that were staring at him in the crowd were a little strange.

Lin Yizhe straightened up suddenly, looking into the crowd, he wanted to see those eyes clearly, but the owner of the eyes turned around and disappeared into the crowd.

Although her body was completely covered by a black daze, Lin Yizhe still saw that when she flashed, the fluttering daze was raised, revealing the beautiful figure.

The hurried glimpse in the vast sea of people was fleeting, and Lin Yizhe didn't know that at that moment just now, he had already brushed shoulders with death.

"Senior sister, ...... just now" Kuroko was puzzled by Zhu Xueyan once again giving up the attack at the last moment, and after the two met in the depths of the alley, he asked with some hesitation.

"It's too far away." Zhu Xueyan said in a low voice, "Even if you shoot, you can't be fatal." ”

"Oh." Kuroko nodded, "Actually, I wanted to use a musket just now, this is a downtown area, and the crowd was frightened after the gunshot, so we can just take advantage of the chaos to get out." ”

"Your gun is so old that it can only shoot one shot, and if you miss it, their guns will be ready to come. Have you noticed, the dog officer's photo is very bright, the fingers are slender and powerful, and the foreign gun should be used extremely well. Zhu Xueyan said, "Don't hit him when the time comes, but ask him to beat him." ”

"Yes." Kuroko recalled how he felt when he first saw Lin Yizhe before, and nodded again and again.

"To deal with him, you still have to have a foreign gun, preferably a plum pistol, which can be hit continuously." Zhu Xueyan remembered the revolver used by the foreign missionary when he rescued the nocturnal merchants on the way to the capital, and said, "I have to get two of them, and the guns." ”

Hearing that Zhu Xueyan was determined to use a Western pistol against Lin Yizhe, Heizi was a little excited, "This matter is wrapped up in me, I'll go get two such guns." ”

"This kind of plum blossom pistol is generally carried by foreigners or fake foreign devils, and ordinary people are afraid that they don't have it in their hands, so it's not so easy to get." Zhu Xueyan looked at the sunspot, "What, you have a way?" ”

"At the pawnshop, I have acquaintances." Kuroko smiled and said.

"Pawnshop?" Zhu Xueyan couldn't help but be stunned when she heard Heizi's answer.

"Senior sister doesn't know, the Eight Banners Green Camp in this Beijing camp, as long as there is no exercise, many people's guns are in the pawnshop, so that they can get two dollars to spend." Kuroko smiled, "There are all kinds of guns there, there are all kinds of guns, we can pick two, borrow them and return them after using them, they are unaware and safe." ”

Listening to Heizi's words, Zhu Xueyan suddenly realized, and the corners of her mouth couldn't help but show a smile.

"Okay, that's it."

At this time, neither Lin Yizhe nor Zhu Xueyan will know what kind of story will happen between the two of them in the future.

As soon as Lin Yizhe returned to his residence in Xianliang Temple, a servant sent a telegram, and Lin Yizhe noticed that the telegram was sent by Li Hongzhang, so he quickly opened it and read it.

“…… As you expected, the Rongdeng Naval Division mutinied, and Dongfu could not control it, and now the Beiyang Naval Division is in Weihai Bay, and plans to transfer troops to the bomb pressure ...... one or two."

Lin Yizhe finished reading this short telegram, and a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Ding Baozhen, stupid and old, you can go!"

Shandong, Jinan, Governor's Office.

"Over there in Guangdong, is there any news about the ship we ordered?" Ding Baozhen asked his master.

"Back to my lord, I've been urging me a few times, but I haven't seen a reply yet." The master sensed the dissatisfaction in Ding Baozhen's tone, and quickly replied.

"I don't know what they're messing around with over there! Is it more laborious to build a few wooden boats than to build a steamer? Ding Baozhen said with some annoyance, "Then send a letter to urge!" ”

"Yes, yes, sir." The master listened to Ding Baozhen's order and agreed in a stack.

"Isn't there a telegraph line now? If it doesn't work, send a telegram from Tianjin! Ding Baozhen ordered again.

"Yes! Be! Master! The master agreed, he looked at Ding Baozhen's face, and couldn't help but remind, "Master, the will of the imperial court, but I won't let the sailors build wooden boats anymore, and they will all be changed into steamships......"

"You know what! The will of the imperial court is not immutable! Ding Baozhen became angry when he heard this, "The steamer is troublesome and expensive to build, and it is not easy to operate. Aren't most of the steamers built by the Harbour Master made of wood? I want this wooden boat to prove to the court that the wooden boat is still usable! Let the court know the wrong of the previous purpose and change its course! ”

Under the reprimand of Ding Baozhen, the master didn't dare to say anything, but only said yes.

Those who are familiar with Ding Baozhen know that Ding Baozhen has his own set of "opinions" on the important affairs of coastal defense.

Up to now, Ding Baozhen has served as governor of Shandong for nearly ten years, and he has been actively building water conservancy, developing agriculture, paying attention to people's livelihood, and paying a lot of attention to foreign affairs and coastal defense construction (and only "attention"). After he took office, in view of the corrupt situation of the Shandong Naval Division, he carried out a "drastic" rectification, set up a commander of the Naval Division, unified command of the Naval Division, and set up the Rongcheng Naval Division Battalion and the Dengzhou Naval Division Battalion.

Although he also believed that he should learn from the West, because he insisted on the "great defense of Yixia", his understanding of foreign affairs always stayed only on the side of "tools".

With regard to strengthening coastal defense, Ding Baozhen insisted that the construction of forts should be the first and the naval division should be the second.

Ding Baozhen has his own ideas and plans for Shandong's coastal defense. As early as three years ago, he began to consider building forts along the coast of Dengzhou, because the original 13 forts in Dengzhou were in disrepair, most of them collapsed, and most of them were built with bricks and stones, which were too brittle and thin, so he had to re-select the site to build a new fort. Ding Baozhen put forward some specific ideas for the construction of the new fort, and particularly stressed that the new fort should be built entirely of Sanhe clay and without the use of masonry and stone, so as not to increase the lethality of the enemy's artillery. His opinion could not be wrong, because at that time the explosive shells were not widely used, and their power was limited, and most of the shells were still special round or pointed-shaped solid shells, which were extremely destructive to the masonry fortress, and the masonry was hard and fragile, and once hit by the shells, the broken pieces would kill and injure the officers and soldiers defending the platform.

Ding Baozhen had taken a boat many times to inspect the coastal situation in Dengzhou, and surveyed the specific location of the fort construction on the spot, but it was never finalized, so the matter of building the fort was put on hold, until the imperial court issued an edict and determined that the coastal defense construction was an "urgent task", and Ding Baozhen picked up this matter again in a hurry.

In December 1874, Ding Baozhen first asked the imperial court to transfer his old subordinate, Zhang Yinhuan, an alternate Daoist from Hubei, to Shandong to be specifically responsible for the construction of the fort. Zhang Yinhuan is a native of Guangdong, familiar with foreign affairs, especially in the construction of forts, "often pay attention to Westerners, and have heard a lot", and has relatively rich knowledge and experience. After Zhang Yinhuan took office, Ding Baozhen immediately sent him to Yantai to join Gong Yitu of Denglai Qingdao and Li Zongdai of the Commander of the Ship, to conduct on-the-spot inspections of various places along the coast and put forward a specific plan for the construction of forts.

Zhang Yinhuan and others suggested that Shandong should focus on fortifying Yantai, Weihai, and Dengzhou, and give priority to strengthening Dengzhou's defense. As for Yantai coastal defense, "a large defense battalion was set up in Tongshengang, and 3,000 troops were stationed to consolidate the rear road"; At the foot of Yantai Mountain, the Eight Wax Temple, and the sea to the west of Zhifu Island, a "floating iron fort" is set up; In the east of Zhifu, the first to build a "sand zigzag fort".

Ding Baozhen basically agreed with Zhang Yinhuan's plan, but he only expressed different opinions on the part concerning Yantai, saying that the viewpoint of giving priority to strengthening Dengzhou's defense was too "narrow" and that "at this time, we should pay attention to Beiyang and take into account the eastern province in handling defense." If we proceed from the overall situation of Beiyang, we should give priority to Yantai's defense rather than Dengzhou. He advocated that in Tongshengang, Yantai, "first build a polder, place cannons along the wall, set up a watchtower in the middle of the polder, and place the cannons of the walking wheels." The "Wei" mentioned by Ding Baozhen is actually a castle that can garrison soldiers. Because the "floating iron fort" was still a new type of weapon at that time, China could not afford to manufacture it, so it had to buy it from abroad, and foreign countries were also very scarce, and it was difficult to guarantee timely purchase. Therefore, Ding Baozhen did not adopt Zhang Yinhuan's suggestion of setting up a "floating iron fort", but planned to "build a circular fort" at the Bawax Temple and "build a zigzag fort" in Zhifu Dongzhuang, so as to support each other with the Tongshengang Fort.

At that time, Shandong was under the jurisdiction of Beiyang, and all coastal defense construction was supervised by Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang. Ding Baozhen once sent Zhang Yinhuan to Tianjin to inform Li Hongzhang of the plan and ask for support. Later, Ding and Li exchanged letters and discussed the specific details of the construction of the fort.

Ding Baozhen's opinion on giving priority to strengthening Yantai's defense was affirmed by Li Hongzhang. In a letter to Ding Baozhen, he said: "Yantai, Weihai, and Dengzhou chose the first place to build Taiwan, especially Yantai, which is the most important. Ding Baozhen asked Li Hongzhang about the construction method of the fort, and Li Hongzhang wrote back that not only the forts built in various parts of China were different in style, but the forts built in Western countries were also different, but they "mostly built the foundation with sand, and built the outer and top of the fort with thick sand", so that the fort could be durable. He promised to send the drawings of the Western-style Sanhetu fort that had just been built in Tianjin New Town and the newly collected model of the Prussian fort to Ding Baozhen for reference.

In order to ensure the success of the fort construction, Li Hongzhang once suggested that foreign technicians be hired to preside over the construction of the Yantai fort, but Ding Baozhen did not think so, and he still insisted that the Chinese should be responsible for the construction. At the beginning of 1875 (the first year of Guangxu), according to Ding Baozhen's overall plan, under the specific auspices of Zhang Yinhuan, the construction of the Tongshengang project began. Ding Baozhen then went to Yantai to inspect the newly built Tongshengang Fort. In his recital to the imperial court, Ding Baozhen gave a detailed introduction to the overall situation of the Tongshengang Fort.

Ding Baozhen said in the recital that the weizi was built along the mountain, with a height of one zhang and two feet, a width of one zhang and six feet, a thickness of two zhang and one foot at the bottom, and a circumference of two hundred and ninety-five zhang. A camp gate is set up in the south of the polder, and another layer of outer polder is added outside the door. Three small balancing platforms were built on the east side of the polder to prepare for contact. There are 6 forts built in the polder: a double-decker circular fort is built in the northeast and southeast directions; An open-air fort was built in the southwest and northwest directions; Two small forts were built due west. Among them, the double-decker circular forts in the northeast are mainly responsible for defending Haikou, the two forts in the southeast and southwest are mainly responsible for defending the rear road, and the forts in the northwest are mainly responsible for defending the sand bank and the Zhifu land route.

The two circular forts in the northeast and southeast can be said to be the main forts of the Tongshengang Fort. It is divided into two floors, the upper floor is open-air and is used for the installation of cannons. The lower level houses artillery firing, as well as ammunition depots, soldiers' quarters, etc., and is topped by a layer of lids, called "taigai", inlaid with iron plates for protection. Ding Baozhen believes that the construction method of these two forts is "no different from that of Western law." The other projects are also "new and coordinated", which makes him very satisfied.

During the construction of the Tongshengang Fort, "all projects were built with Sanhe soil". It was only in the construction of a watchtower in the northeast corner for lookout that "masonry and stone" (the so-called triple earth is a common name and there is no precise definition). Some say that after the sand is mixed with a certain proportion of lime, it is rammed, from one foot to two inches; It is also said that lime, glutinous rice juice, clam ash, cow hair, etc. are mixed with the soil, and then rammed, from four inches to eight points. At the time, it was said that this kind of triple clay was harder than iron and stone, and it was difficult to cut down the whole piece even if it was cut with an axe. Therefore, most of the imitation Western-style forts built during this period were made of Sanhe soil).

After inspecting Tsunobuoka, Ding Baozhen felt that the fort as a whole still needed to be further improved. He thought that another fort should be built on the mountainside of the Duoshan Mountain, two miles north of the Weizi, so as to form a horn with the Weizi; At the same time, it is necessary to build a small bunker-type fort at the bend of the mound on the east side of the polder. After conducting an on-the-spot investigation, Ding Baozhen asked Zhang Yinhuan and others to seize the time to purchase land and repair the two forts.

Although Li Hongzhang expressed his support for Ding Baozhen's ******** on the fort repair, he also reminded him many times that he should also pay attention to the construction of the water division. In order to strengthen the defense of the Beijing-Tianjin gateway area, Li Hongzhang suggested to Ding Baozhen that the powers of affairs be unified, and that the Shandong Naval Division and the Beiyang Naval Division be "united in one army" and set up a unified commander to conduct and command, so that they could "work together to resist the enemy" in the event of an invasion by foreign enemies, but this was resolutely opposed by Ding Baozhen.

The reason why Ding Baozhen opposed the merger of the Shandong Naval Division and the Beiyang Naval Division was very simple: he did not intend to lose control of the Rongdeng Naval Division and the corresponding right to allocate funds for coastal defense.

Since Shandong is a province that only has a governor but not a governor, although Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, is nominally one level higher than the governor of Shandong, in fact the governor of Shandong is at the same level as the governor of Zhili, and the two sides can only discuss the issue of coastal defense construction, because under the resolute opposition of Ding Baozhen, Li Hongzhang can only give up the idea of merging the naval divisions.

And Ding Baozhen didn't want to let go of the small steamer of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau this time, and went all the way to Guangdong to order a boat, also to bypass Li Hongzhang.

As for Lin Yizhe, the newly appointed Minister of Naval Affairs, Ding Baozhen didn't pay attention to it at all.

Ding Baozhen was thinking about whether to write a letter to Zhang Zhaodong in person to urge him to catch up with the boat, but saw a master leading a dirty general manager to walk in quickly.

"What's going on?" When Ding Baozhen saw them, his eyes widened in surprise and he immediately asked.

"Gift...... Report to...... Futai-sama! Oh no! Rongcheng Water Division Camp and ...... And...... Dengzhou Sailor Battalion ...... There was a mutiny! When the general saw Ding Baozhen, he immediately knelt on the ground and said breathlessly.