Chapter 124 Vietnam and the Ryukyus

Using the Fujian Naval Division as a framework? Qin Kai pondered for a while, and also understood that this was also a nominal problem, Zhang Peilun did not directly govern the Nanyang Naval Division, that was Lao Ding's power and responsibility, this Fujian Naval Division...... But a big piece of féi meat, although the ships are all sailboats, but the soldiers and horses of this sailor are real old sailors!

However, what Lao Zhang thinks, he can't judge it, if he just wants to train an army under his control, then he won't get involved in this matter by slapping his mouth.

He looked sincere, and said happily: "My lord, with you personally running this new army, it will definitely be feasible!" ”

"Huh...... Gale Wind, how can I train the army, with you as a big expert, I don't need you, that's a stupid act to buy and return the pearls," Zhang Peilun is obviously very self-aware, his interest is not in this military power, but in this meritorious service, after thinking about it, he continued: "Gale Wind, I am going to build a new army with Governor Ding to the imperial court, and assign the Fujian Navy Division to the unified command of Nanyang, and the new First Army is the 6th Naval Division, how many people do you think it will take to be sure?" ”

When Qin Kai heard Zhang Peilun's decision, he was naturally overjoyed in his heart, but his current face was basically about the same thickness as that of an ironclad ship, so naturally he would not show the slightest hint, so he pretended to think about it, "Five thousand regular soldiers and five thousand auxiliary soldiers, at least, this recruit is full of manpower, and it will take at least more than a year to train an army!" ”

Zhang Peilun said, he knows a little about the time of this military training, but Qin Kai said that it was at least a year, which was still a big surprise to him, after all, the great movement that swept China twenty years ago, the Hunan army and the Huai army that rose from the ground were all formed on the spot, and finally became the strongest 6th army in the Qing Dynasty...... He was somewhat puzzled by this.

For Lao Zhang, a military layman, it is quite a difficult problem to explain the training cycle, so he arched his hand and said: "My lord, now the war is won by muskets, and casualties have been seen hundreds of meters away. ”

The second thing is naturally the issue of the reorganization of the Fujian Navy Division, the Fujian Navy Division was the army directly under the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang at that time, Qin Kai still had a lot of ideas about this, and the old men such as the Admiral of the Fujian Navy Division should not be reorganized, he only needs the soldiers and ordinary officers below, and even proposed that as long as the sailors know how to drive ships, he can recruit others by himself, and only need Lao Zhang to give a name.

As for those high-ranking officers, he naturally did not explicitly say no, but expressed his thoughts very tactfully.

Zhang Peilun is also very active, thinking of the matter of the Qin Kai training camp, he issued an order, so that a special training camp was also set up in the Fujian Naval Division, which was assigned to the Nanyang Naval Division, and the Fujian Naval Division still operated according to the usual practice, but the scale of this training camp, Lao Zhang threw off the burden, so he gave a warrant, asking Qin Kai to go and talk to Peng Nanchu, the commander of the Fujian Naval Division, about this matter first.

But this time, to Qin Kai's surprise, Zhang Peilun agreed to raise money for this new army very much, but this old man did make Qin Kai cry and laugh, his salary was calculated according to the rules of the green battalion soldiers that had been completely furnished, the battalion officer was 2o taels, the sentry officer was 4 taels, the sentry chief was 2 taels, the chief was 2 taels, the pro-soldier was 2 taels and 5 yuan, the lowest foot soldier was only 8 yuan a month, and the auxiliary soldiers of the long husband were only 5 yuan, so calculated, the salary of these 10,000 soldiers a month was less than 9,000 taels, which was very money-saving.

Qin Kai naturally knows that these recruited soldiers can't directly train officers quickly, and the senior officers of the three battalions of the three battalions of his current lineage are basically from his own students, since Lao Zhang has set up such a stage, the protagonist on the stage is naturally him, but fortunately, Lao Zhang and Ding Richang are similar types of characters, and they don't interfere too much in practice.

The two discussed this specific matter again, Qin Kai has experience in forming a security regiment and protecting ** in this regard, so he naturally talked about the key points of building the army, and picked the key points to explain one or two, although Zhang Peilun is not familiar with military affairs, but in the end, he also learns quickly, but he also hears a lot of ways from it, and he also has high expectations for this component of the new army.

Leaving the Governor's Palace, Qin Kai went directly to find Ding Richang, this matter needs Lao Ding's action no matter what, since Zhang Peilun mentioned that he and Lao Ding have a play, there are naturally two people who have a tacit understanding, this matter depends on these two bigwigs anyway, and his ability to deal with things in the court is not very mentally retarded, but it is definitely not a matter of strategizing, and the relationship between them is complicated, and it is absolutely impossible to see. ,

Ding Richang's answer was very simple, when he saw the new battleship launched that day, he knew about it, and Lao Ding looked at Qin Kai again, "Gale Wind, what do you think about this?" You must know that in this conquest, victory is nothing, defeat is great loss! ”

Qin Kai said solemnly: "My lord, having said that, but if this land of Ryukyu is occupied by the Japanese State for a long time, and I have no expression in the Qing Dynasty, wouldn't it be a shameless act of acquiescing in this Japanese State!" ”

Lao Ding naturally heard Qin Kai's words, it really makes sense, Zhang Peilun picked out this matter, it is indeed an opportunity, but this is not something that Lao Ding is worried about, he made it clear that he will only second, and will not be strong, this matter is basically thankless, and on the other hand, since this matter is the head of the Qingliu cadres, the big members of the court and the Beiyang faction will naturally take action, after all, this is a big reason, and it is completely possible to make a big fuss.

As for Qin Kai's intention to c, he was too lazy to think about it so much, just reminded him, after all, his duty is still in Vietnam, and the matter of protecting ** is already very dangerous, and the work of fighting an outpost for the Huai army is so easy to take, the Qingzi army has entered Vietnam, and it has to be dealt with over there.

After saying goodbye and leaving, he went directly to Sun Fu to discuss the matter of settling with Peng Nanchu, the governor of the Fujian Navy, Sun Fu naturally understood Qin Kai's idea of looking for him, isn't it just that he can't handle this Naval Commander, it's no wonder that this Fujian Naval Commander is a member of the first grade, and this Fujian land is directly under the Governor's Yamen, even Ding Richang can't be transferred.

Sun Fu pondered for a while and said: "Gale Wind, give me 30,000 taels of silver, I will try to get this done, I can't go alone, but there is a ready-made person who can use it!" ”

"Master Zeng?"

For Qin Kai to guess at once, Sun Fu was also a little surprised, he smiled, and nodded, "I heard that Master Zeng has a share in your steamship bureau in Galele!" That's a good idea! ”

Two days later, the formation of the Nanyang Naval Division left Mawei Port, this time accompanied into Vietnam is Chengqing, Wu two warships, both ships have completed the initial modification, the power plant is not not not considered to replace, but the shipyard supervisors, Hu Changchang, Wang Ruijie, Liao Dechang a few have met too much, the consensus is that there is no room for modification at all, to change the power, it is better to build a new one, after all, now the process of marine steel is improving rapidly, this wooden-hulled ship is not hand-to-hand.

As a last resort, Qin Kai had no choice but to dismantle the outdated 18omm breech gun on the ship and convert it into 4 gun silhouette 15omm and 3o times the diameter of the gun.

And on this trip, Qin Kai went directly to Guangzhou to meet Consul Schleyer, and he didn't see Consul Schleier for half a year, this guy was actually fat, and it could be seen that it was obviously the result of a wide heart and a fat body, but this guy was busy apologizing as soon as they met, and Qin Kai asked him to find a lot of all kinds of engineers, but the quality and quantity were far from the agreement reached at the beginning.

Schleier nagged and said all kinds of reasons, it was nothing more than that it was difficult to find talents, he couldn't get out of Guangzhou, and the German Berlin side was not well manned, but the torpedo technology and engineers promised to be provided in the last round of transactions were fully fulfilled this time, and he showed an official document showing that the relevant equipment was being shipped from Germany, but he also bluntly said that this set of torpedo production equipment was not the most advanced torpedo in Germany, but only a machine that imitated the British white-headed torpedo.

However, this is indeed good news, this torpedo technology needs to be developed by Mawei itself, it does require a lot of energy, there are ready-made technologies for reference, he believes that there will be a breakthrough soon, this torpedo is a sharp weapon in naval warfare, if you can't master the technology as soon as possible, there will undoubtedly be a strict research on the battleship after zhòng.

This time Qin Kai also brought two technical achievements, one is the type II multi-group catalyst for the synthetic ammonia industry, his catalytic effect is at least 30% higher than the previous catalyst, which makes Schleier almost excited to go crazy, since Germany obtained the technology of the synthetic ammonia industry, immediately put into industrial production, and the most important of which is this catalyst.

He is now a popular figure of the German Minister to China, and this qiē cannot but be said to have a direct relationship with Qin Kai, and the technology he has obtained has been affirmed by the German high-level, such as Bismarck, and in just two years, he has won two very rare commendation orders.

The second is the new sulfuric acid production line program provided by Qin Kai, this program Mawei Shipyard has only been carried out in the real yàn room, but considering that the cost of industrialization is too high, and Mawei currently has no place to obtain sufficient ore, so it has not been implemented, so Qin Kai will provide this program, but he has cooperation requirements, and needs Germany to provide learning opportunities for 5o people, so that when production is needed in the future, it can avoid many detours of industrialization. ,

Of course, in return, he proposed to build a marine steel plate rolling mill with German aid, a number of physical and chemical equipment, and the well-known assistance of skilled workers, and the two agreed on the speedy completion of the deal, so they quickly reached an agreement.

Schleier was the most reluctant to pay cash, but it seemed that this Lord Qin also had a tacit understanding of this, and he had no regrets about the series of practical equipment and instruments listed by Qin Kai.

The last agreement is about the intention of the exchange of military instructors, Qin Kai proposed to hire some German active duty officers to participate in the training of the army in Mawei, Schleier has no opinion on this, in his opinion, the German ** team has been idle for almost ten years, completely idle, this plan of mutual training of officers, he increased the number of people by 3oo in one go, anyway, if sent to Qin Kai, he has to take care of the food.

Before breaking up, Qin Kai told Schleier about his next destination, and by the way, threatened him, and the French news obtained by the German intelligence department should be reported to him by telegram, otherwise if he was killed by the French, your shortcut to promotion and wealth would be gone!

When the fleet arrived at Hue City, the threat of Qin Kai obviously played a huge role, and Schleier took news from Guangzhou that the Raffarin cabinet, which succeeded the Jouferi cabinet, was negotiating the Sino-French peace agreement signed by Baohai and Li Zhongtang, but according to the analysis of the German intelligence department, the probability of the conclusion of the contract between the two countries this time is very low.

Qin Kai immediately called back, asking Schleier to pay strict attention to the news in this regard, and be sure to transfer the news to him as soon as possible.

Xue was proudly introducing the defense system that Hue had built up in the past six months, and due to the large number of cement factories put into operation, the construction of large artillery batteries on two high ground next to the open harbor had been completed, and as many as 12 heavy guns were enough to block the port arranged by mines.

What made him more relieved was the training degree of the 6th Army of the Xue Division, under the banner of the 3rd Battalion of the Protector ** stationed in Hue, it now controls the main force composed entirely of Chinese and the Vietnamese servant army.

Among them, the number of Chinese battalions has reached 1,000 people, and the number of Vietnamese servant troops has reached an astonishing 6,000 people, among which the greatest contribution is Xue.

Qin Kai is not easy to estimate the actions of the French, but his historical experience tells him that there is only one possibility - war is inevitable, so the French will have to act sooner or later.

Beijing, China, although the situation in Vietnam is becoming more and more severe, but the Jingshi still looks like a peaceful and prosperous world, if this is just the idea of the ignorant people, then it is enough, the problem is that the entire Jingshi is full of people with this kind of thought. Recently, however, there has been a lot of discussion among the young and old in the Kyoshi about the tough measures taken by the officials of the Seiryu faction against the vassal Ryukyu Kingdom.

With Zhang Peilun, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, several factions in the court expressed concern about the current situation in the Ryukyus, and once they acquiesced in this kind of invasion of the land of the Great Qing vassal state, it would undoubtedly be a suicidal act. In this regard, the bigwigs in the court were also divided into several factions, and there were even results that were not completely consistent.

Prince Gong, the boss of the Military Aircraft Department, publicly showed his face and attended a banquet of his subordinates, and also clearly proposed that the Qing State must take necessary actions against the Japanese people, and this occupation must not be legalized, but his plan is that the Nanyang Naval Division will assist and the Beiyang Naval Division will be the main force to carry out this operation.

And Li Hongzao, another big man in the Military Discipline Department, was very cold about this mentions, and immediately publicly expressed his opinion, the Beiyang side had already given up the support for the Ryukyus two years ago, and now it is a big joke to let the Beiyang Navy Division do this.

On the Beiyang side, there was no official news at all this time, but Li Zhongtang of Tianjin Wei specially conducted a military drill and convened consuls from various countries at the same time, which is self-explanatory. In this land of the Qing Dynasty, there is only one who can speak with strength, Li Zhongtang.

The ministers of the court were divided into two factions, but so far, seventy percent of those who advocated asserting power advocated that the imperial court should exert pressure on the Japanese state, and they did not recognize the fact that Japan occupied the Ryukyus, but due to inaction, Japan completely transformed the results of aggression from the initial occupation to the establishment of Okinawa Prefecture.

Among the other thirty percent of the dissenting opinions, some of them were worried about cross-sea operations, after all, there was no precedent for the fleet of the Great Qing Kingdom to fight across the sea, and it would be fine if it was victorious, but if it failed, it would be a place to die and be buried. Some people were worried that if this was the case, they would push the Japanese to the side of the French, fearing that the situation in Vietnam would continue to deteriorate, and if the situation in Vietnam was inconclusive, it would be too difficult to engage in a war with Japan. ,

The Empress Dowager Cixi, who held absolute power in the court, unexpectedly lost her voice this time, and did not express any affirmative remarks about the noisy situation in the court, which made the controversy on this matter continue, and the Qing school used the public opinion position of "Fujian Xinbao" to quickly create an aggressive situation among the people.

Prince Gong Wang Yi specially entered the palace to meet the queen mother for this matter, and stated his opinion, in fact, as an assistant of the military aircraft department, the plan of the devil six in this matter is very simple, he must make a decision that is in line with the interests of the Qing royal family, the current strength of the Huai army, as long as it is a high-ranking official of the Manchu people, is deeply worried, so any action that can weaken this situation can be understood and supported.

But...... The Empress Dowager Cixi replied very clearly that Prince Gong really asked Huai Jun to do this, so isn't this Li Zhongtang's prestige as high as the sky, and there are other people in the court who can be compared with Li Zhongtang? In the previous dispute between fortress defense and coastal defense, the imperial court fully supported Zuo Dashuai's opinion, and the Manchu ministers naturally understood the meaning of this.

And Zuo Dashuai was really very competitive, and when he fought all the way to Xinjiang, those independent elements in Xinjiang were immediately wiped out, and even the Russians were beaten and submissive, completely losing the arrogance of some time ago, and honestly accepted the negotiations. Didn't Ji Zecai negotiate the border issue with the Russians!

And Zuo Dashuai is about to return to the imperial court in the near future, this reward must be had, and raising the Ryukyu issue at this time is undoubtedly a very important reason.