The news that the French were retreating on a large scale was immediately sent to Zhiling to be cold, which was already a matter of the afternoon of the same day, this very unexpected news, obviously made Zhou Ruidong very strange, the French spent a lot of shells, only to destroy part of the fortifications of 6 Erzhuang, and actually chose to give up in this situation......

However, the unexpected move of the French completely ruined Zhou Ruidong's pre-arranged plan, and the battle that was originally being arranged intensively was due to the unexpected withdrawal of the French, and the object of the battle was lost, and the general battle that he had planned for more than half a year was so easy and unexpectedly stillborn!

This made Tong Ruidong extremely unhappy, but the war is not on paper, no one can predict the next change, now it can only be said that the change is too fast, he immediately found Zhang Kui, Xue, and Ma Long to discuss, and must react quickly, otherwise the French really ran away, and the battle plan will be in vain!

After Zhang Kui heard the news, he smiled with his eyebrows, "Ruidong, I heard that this lone is a famous general in France, and he was always deflated by the instructor before, but now it seems that it is because the instructor is too smart, this guy is very cunning!" ”

, "Zhang Kui, it's all nonsense, say something useful!" Next to him, Xue interrupted Zhang Kui's ridicule, and said very seriously: "If it is about individual soldiers, in addition to the main force, our escort ** In addition to the main force, the combat power of the servant troops and the trained new army is estimated to be limited, and we take the initiative to pursue the French, I very much doubt the success rate of this, unless Guba is an idiot, there must be a backhand......"

"This old guy must have a back hand, in the front line of the army, he can be more than twice as many troops than those soldiers and horses stationed in 6 Erzhuang, I guess the old guy still wants a decisive battle, and it is a decisive battle in the way he expected" Zhang Kui smashed his mouth, came to the front of the map, pointed to the map and said: "Here, you see, south of Beining, north of the Red River, west of the Songdong River, what a big plain!" ”

Ma Long, who has a sound of voice, said at this time, "Lord Zhou, let's go first with the servant army of our four associations, go over to explore the virtual reality, and take turns to deploy in 6 Erzhuang during this time, these rabbit cubs can be regarded as growing up!" ”

Ma Long's four associations in the whole army are the most in line with Qin Kai's original "Admiral Vietnam Protector", even in the officer level, there are a large number of non-Chinese officers, and the soldiers are all non-Chinese ethnic elements in Vietnam.

He took this army of soldiers and horses, and practiced in Hue for more than a year, and nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses originally reorganized from the Hue battalion were cut off by 3 percent in training.

Zhou Ruidong stood in front of the map and was silent, while Zhang Kui was muttering and talking with Xue and Ma Long, all speculating about the French battle plan, after all, it is now known that the French have as many as 4 brigades and regiments participating in the battle in front of them, as well as some servant armies and Yellow Flag troops, the total number of which is close to 30,000, excluding the losses in the battles of 6 Erzhuang and Sanyuan Bridge and other places, "The total strength of 25,000 must be there."

The main force of the guard, the three main battalions of Zhou Ruidong's First Association are only 35oo people, but there are 11,000 servants in the logistics battalion under the command of Fang Jin, just more than 10,000 people, and only about 3,000 are really well-trained and combat-effective, and the others are just troops that escort military funds.

Zhang Kui's Second Association is strong and strong, "participated in the ground war in the Ryukyus, three battalions plus personal guards, the main force reached more than 45oo people, and Xue's three associations participated in the war with a small number of 1 plus left two battalions in Hue, only 5 standard Chinese battalions 25oo people, Liu Yongfu Department defended in 6 Erzhuang for more than a month, the loss was not small, the total strength was only about 2ooo, it was planned to replenish a part of the troops from the logistics battalion, and it was in urgent need of rest.

Coupled with the four assistant servant army led by Ma Long, Zhou Ruidong secretly calculated that the jīng rui who can really be used is about 9,000 people, and Liu Yongfu's department can only be used as a reserve, while Fang Jin and Ma Long's side can barely use only 8,000 people, and the number of the remaining servant troops is scared to death, about 13,000 people, but these indigenous soldiers who only have three or four months of formal training, he really has no confidence in using them, and can only go into battle at the last moment.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ruidong called the intelligence officer Wang Hai, after his original intelligence department leader Ouyang Qing was robbed by Qin Kai, Wang Hai, who was in the last battle of Hanoi, was promoted to this position. What he wanted to know now was the location of crossing the Songdong River, and the Long Beach occupied by the French was definitely not going to work, and he had to cross the river from a position close to Zhiling, and he needed to quickly establish a shore defense position. ,

Soon, a new place of operation was confirmed, and the order to fight was issued!

Later that day, the belated news finally arrived, and that was because Qin Kai, who claimed to give the French two days to reply, because the fleet's shells and coal consumption were at their limit, and there was no suitable supply point in southern Vietnam, so the whole fleet rushed back to Fuzhou to replenish, and after returning to Mawei, Qin Kai took a telegram and passed the news to Zhou Ruidong.

At the same time, in the telegram, Qin Kai gave a general description of the battle situation in the entire northern Vietnam, on the Guangxi side, about 10,000 people from Feng Zicai's department and 4ooo people from Su Yuan's chūn department are about to participate in the war, and on the western front, about 20,000 people of the Yunnan army of Cen Yuying, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, are also about to launch a counterattack on the western front according to the agreement, and the decisive battle is imminent!

And Qin Kai returned to the horsetail. The first major event he heard was undoubtedly the change in the palace of the Korean country, and in his memory,

This "Japan" interference incident born in North Korea should have happened earlier, but now because of its strong destruction and attack on Japan last year, the Japanese country's actions against North Korea have obviously stagnated.

The power struggle between Dayuanjun and Concubine Yue, which originated at the end of last year, gradually escalated because of the drought in North Korea and a series of contradictions caused by the dictatorship of Concubine Yue's relatives, and this month it escalated into a domestic violence.

The process of this calendar, Qin Kai naturally understands the cause and effect very well, the desperate struggle between the two power groups is just a life-and-death struggle, there is only one result, you live or die, but for him, between the prince of the courtyard or the concubine Yue, he doesn't care who wins and who loses, the only thing he cares about is what benefits this incident in North Korea can bring to himself and the big group of Nanyang.

If he wants to handle the matter of Hancheng, this is beyond his authority, and the humble side is under the control of Li Zhongtang, the minister of Beiyang, and when the Nanyang naval division returned, Ding Ruchang had already led the Beiyang fleet back to Tianjin to receive orders, and it is estimated that it is likely that he is now on the way to Korea.

However, there are some variables in this, and the news came from Ouyang Qing's eyeliner, which Pan Dingxin, who was responsible for using troops against North Korea this time, which made him think that the Qingzi army, which was supposed to deal with this matter, was now dragged by himself on the defense line of the Sanyuan Bridge in North Vietnam, but it was just ...... Which young man named Yuan Shikai doesn't know if this lost opportunity in North Korea is still a chance to trace!

However, what he is more concerned about now is how Xiao Riben still has the ability to continue to increase troops in South Korea after the fleet has been annihilated? Could it be that 1 Bu [Ri] Ben obtained the battleship through what channel? In this era, it was indeed very difficult to spy on information, and the personnel sent by the Intelligence Department to Japan could only act in the capacity of Smith & Co.

Recently, however, there have been some introductions from Huang Zunxian, and Du Ping, who is in charge of Japan's affairs, has come into contact with some low-level officials in the embassy in Japan, and has established a stable intelligence relationship with some of them, and more importantly, control over the Kobe Iron Works Office.

Kraber of the Kobe Iron Works is undoubtedly a typical British adventurer, after this guy was in the crazy business of building warships, after proposing the idea of building warships for the Japanese Admiralty a year ago, the Admiralty of the Japanese did not take the construction of the Englishman seriously at all, but this feudal book finally went to the hands of the Admiralty Minister Xi Congdao.

When Saigo was worried about the total annihilation of the Japanese navy, although he had already ordered new warships from the British side and was about to obtain a new fleet of warships through special channels, he was immediately interested when he heard that the Kobe Iron Works invested by the British wanted to build warships for the Japanese navy.

He immediately agreed to order the first battleship from Kraber, Saigo, and made a request that the Kobe Iron Works pay for the battleship after it was built.

Crabber was naturally ecstatic to get the contract of the Admiralty of Japan, and it seemed that his idea of creating a shipbuilding industry kingdom was finally on the right track, and the first one he launched last year, the "Taihu Maru" iron-hulled steamship, was soon bought by the Admiralty of Japan, which allowed him to obtain the start-up capital for the manufacture of iron-hulled warships.

You must know that in this era, the Nagasaki Shipyard, Hyogo Shipyard, Yokosuka and Harimato Shipyards were very backward in technology, and they could not build iron-hulled warships at all, and even steam engines and ship keels needed to be ordered from foreign merchants, but Kobe Iron Works was the only exception in Japan. ,

Although there are actually too many problems in terms of design and craftsmanship, the iron-hulled ship "Taihu Maru", which has just been purchased by the Admiralty of Japan, is an important equipment on this ship, the second expansion steam engine is made by Kobe Iron Works, and what is even more ironic is that the reason why they can imitate the second expansion steam engine is also because Crabber hired a technical engineer from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau in Shanghai, China, who had nothing to do.

In terms of the current technology of their shipyards, it was absolutely second to none in the era of Japan, and after the "Taihu Maru" steamship was bought by the Admiralty, the test capacity of the first iron-hulled steamship built in Japan completely exceeded that of all the shipyards in Japan, which greatly surprised the officials of the Admiralty, and they immediately reported this information to the Admiralty Minister Saigo Tomichi.

Saigo didn't have much hope for the purchase of the Kobe Iron Works' homemade warships, of course, as a good politician, he naturally understood the importance of the ability to make his own warships, and soon, the situation at the Iron Works was sent to his desk.

A shipyard run by an Englishman, with just a small amount of money, was more technically powerful than the many shipyards that had been built by the Japanese government with millions of yen, which surprised Saigo Congmichi, and a complete yīn conspiracy was introduced.

Crabber soon received news from Hidesashi Yoshida from the Admiralty of the Admiralty, and the Minister of the Admiralty Saigo was very satisfied with the professional and technical capabilities of the Kobe Iron Works Works, so the Admiralty decided to add the production of warships, but hoped to reduce the shipbuilding construction period as much as possible.

Soon, the new battleship remodeled and redesigned on the basis of the "Taihu Maru" and made by the first generation of Kobe Iron Works was named, the "Kobe" class ironclad gunboat, with a design tonnage of 12oo tons, in addition to the replacement of the self-produced two-expansion steam engine power system, the "Kobe class...... All the steel keels, iron armor, and even the iron nails of the battleship were made by Kraber directly from the British.

But even so, no shipyard in Japan has the ability to complete "Kobe"

When he heard that the Admiralty was going to add his own warships, Crabber was very excited, which meant that the future sales of his shipyard were opened, and what he had to do was to build new ships desperately.

However, shipbuilding is not a simple project, Crabber tentatively asked about the construction period, Yoshida Hidesaku said that the Admiralty hopes to complete the order of two "Kobe" class gunboats within a year and a half, but the Admiralty can only provide 2o% of the payment as start-up capital, and the rest of the final payment must be paid immediately after the battleship Jiāo is paid.

Kraber didn't expect this to be a big trap today, and immediately signed the contract with joy, but when it came to the year before, Kraber suddenly appeared, because he had ordered a large amount of materials from China, and he had already squeezed him out, and he still owed the bank more than 400,000 yen for the balance to be repaid immediately.

He went to the Admiralty to contact Yoshida Hidei at this time to discuss, whether the Admiralty would raise a part of the payment first, and got an answer that was indeed completely contractual, and then wanted to find the Admiralty Minister Saigo Norimichi, it was impossible to meet, and when he returned to the shipyard, he met a bunch of creditors.

The capital chain was broken, even the next day's salary was distributed, and the huge debt of hundreds of thousands of yen made the mentally exhausted Kraber completely lose the confidence to live, and at this time, "a British businessman named Smith came to visit him, and 6o% of the shares of the Kobe Iron Works fell into the hands of Qin Kai."

As for the plan to wait for the Kobe Iron Works to go bankrupt, he will be changed to "Navy Onohama Shipyard"

The Admiralty did not understand the state of the Kobe Iron Works that had suddenly come back to life, but this was the property of the British, and although the Admiralty was so strong, there was no possibility of using brute force in this matter of property rights.

And Du Ping soon set up a lot of people to go to the shipyard, and the shipyard with the strongest technical ability in this era was also a way to understand the military strength of the Japanese army.

Getting this news, "Qin Kai smiled very much, let's this chokettle bottom chōu salary plan" at least made the shipbuilding exhibition of the small "Japan" delay for a few years, this era, no one knew that the Kobe Iron Works would be renamed "Navy Onoha Shipyard" in the future, and this now stillborn "Navy Onoha Shipyard" has an amazing value in the history of the Japanese industry. ,

Originally, as soon as Kraber died, the Admiralty immediately ordered the Kobe Iron Works to be changed to a state-owned enterprise, and this factory, which was capable of making iron warships, immediately became a real base for the training of shipyard technicians, and within ten years, a large number of ironworkers were trained for the shipbuilding industry, and more importantly, steam engine manufacturing technology was introduced.

However, now the direction of this qiē has been repositioned for it, and after the iron works have completed the two primitive warships, the technical force will be emptied, and then their technical talents will be tapped from other enterprises in Japan, and then they will be quietly sent to work overseas.

However, Qin Kai snickered proudly, but was interrupted by the designers of Qingying and Hu Changchang, who came in a hurry, they came to protest against Lu Han's barbaric acts, and after several warships captured and salvaged in Keelung Port were towed to the dock for repair and maintenance, the technicians of these ships were prepared to disassemble according to the plan.

As a result, this matter was somehow known by Lu Han and Xu Shoushan, and the two naval officers immediately sent people to inspect the battleships one by one, and then shamelessly occupied the armored cruiser Malodi and the armored cruiser Fellers directly and sent troops, saying that it was an urgent requisition.

These ships were all dismantled by Qin Kai, which was an excellent opportunity to understand the structure of the battleship, and these designers were waiting for it, so they would snatch two of them, so they naturally didn't agree, but Lu Han was better, and sent someone to come directly in the middle of the night to take the ship away......

When Qin Kai heard the news, his only feeling was that he couldn't cry or laugh, there were indeed two good warships captured this time, but now these designers can't afford to offend, the entire shipyard is supported by these technical talents, in the industrial age, the most important thing is talent!

Lu Han and Xu Shoushan, the two guys, don't know how difficult it is to raise a fleet by themselves, this fleet is not just to buy it, the maintenance fee, fuel, and munitions expenses of this battleship, the expensive one, a rich man with an annual income of 20 million taels, all shouted ròu pain, especially Xu Shoushan's guy, a total of 3mén heavy artillery, has already changed 12 cannon tubes, the cost of each tube Qin Kai thought of this, couldn't help grinning, and raised 10 million middle fingers to Xu Shoushan in his heart.

He immediately brought Lu Han and Xu Shoushan, two foodies, these two things in hand, but the attitude was full of respect, both sides of the good talk, plus Qin Kai mediated, finally said that in the future, the navy will return twice as many captured warships as the research object of the shipyard, that's it.

After accepting the two new warships, Lu Han and Xu Shoushan immediately sat on the ground and divided the piles, although the shells of the main guns of the French ships were limited, and the horsetail was not yet produced, but the 12omm stun guns could be used generally, so they made do with it, and after the supply was completed, they immediately went out of the port separately to continue their blockade war in Vietnam. a。