But in any case, the completion of the design of this new ship, which has not yet been named, at least further strengthened Li Hui's confidence, especially when Li Hui learned more clearly and comprehensively about the current situation of the British army from the report on the performance of the troops that captured Hong Kong, his confidence swelled to an unprecedented level.

Even before the Battle of the Yangtze River Estuary began, the Chinese army launched an attack on Hong Kong by land and sea. Due to the unstable situation in the region, the British garrison in Hong Kong has been increasing in the past two years, and if the police are included, the total number of troops is no less than 10,000, so Li Hui was somewhat uneasy at first.

Although it will not be impossible to take it anyway because of its strength beyond the other side, but if it drags on for too long, the British will have time to destroy facilities and hide money, and the significance of capturing Hong Kong will be greatly reduced.

However, what Li Hui did not expect was that it took only one day for the attacking troops to completely occupy Hong Kong and the Kowloon Peninsula, killing 621 enemies and taking all the rest prisoner, while the total casualties of the attacking troops were less than 100.

Li Hui was really overjoyed at that time, and was about to give a heavy reward, but he received a report from the Shanghai Concession that although the troops attacking there had also succeeded, because the resistance of the foreigners in the concession was very tenacious, so it was unable to completely control the situation, and in the end it was delayed until the next day, when the Chinese troops who were ordered to attack completely stabilized the order, and the number of casualties was as high as several hundred, and the number of foreigners' armed forces in the Shanghai Concession was only a fraction of that of Hong Kong

"That's not right, it's not that the troops attacking Hong Kong are fighting well, but that the combat effectiveness of the British army is not good!" After carefully comparing the reports on both sides, Li Hui came to a conclusion that he had not thought of before.

"More than half of the British troops in Hong Kong are Ah San, which should have a considerable drag on combat effectiveness, but even the troops sent from the mainland are not much better, and even their weapons and tactics are so backward, which is really beyond my expectations." Li Hui is not talking nonsense, in the report, observers found that almost all the rifles used by the British army were fired with black powder, and it was rare to see a pull-and-lock rifle using smokeless gunpowder, and most of the cannons were old and worn, and there was no new type of "fast artillery" to be seen, only the hand-cranked machine gun posed a certain threat, but because it was also black powder, probably the usual maintenance was not done well, and it often jammed after only a few dozen bullets

The British army in Hong Kong lagged behind not only in weapons, but also in their tactics, not to mention the fact that the offensive and defensive and personnel spacing were too dense, and they did not know camouflage and concealment at all, and as a result, they were slaughtered like targets by the Chinese army's new rifles and machine guns with excellent rate of fire and accuracy

In addition, the training level of the British army was not very good, a little stronger than the Qing army, which could not shoot accurately at all, but it was only this concept, and the actual shooting accuracy was a mess, and the Japanese troops on the Korean battlefield were much stronger than them in terms of hit rate alone.

The armed forces of tens of thousands of people, but after suffering thousands of casualties (Note 1), they completely gave up resistance, and this will to fight was not as good as that of the more elite Qing army, and even the armed expatriates in the Shanghai Concession showed much more tenaciousness than them

Li Hui figured out a lot of things from this, "It seems that the British army fought like a bear in the Boer War, and it may not be completely because the Boers fought well, it is likely that the British army itself is too bad." Hehe, the Boer militia didn't have a single serious cannon, and they actually played a five-fold exchange ratio, and the old and weak women and children of the Boer who died in the concentration camp could only be leveled by counting them."

"It seems that, like any great empire in history that has expanded to the limit, Britain has now lost the incentive to move on, and it is the military that has been most affected by it. The current British army is probably only able to deal with those armies that are more backward in weapons and tactics than them, such as the Mahdi in Sudan, and when encountering the Boer militia, an enemy whose weapons have no generation difference and are tactically bold and innovative, the British can only fight for national strength", Li Hui commented, and he also saw an opportunity from it, "Britain in history is still relatively lucky, the Boer War sounded the alarm bell for them, Britain is an industrial country after all, and it has been adjusted within a few years." However, the key is that the strength of the Boers is too weak, even if the British are defeated, they will only lose some face, so as not to break their bones, and if they encounter an enemy at that time who is a hundred times stronger than the Boers, I don't know if the 'British Empire' can recover from it."

In fact, not only the army, but also the British Royal Navy left in Hong Kong did not perform very well, perhaps because of a stronger sense of honor, at least the navy could resolutely sink the ships in Victoria Harbor as much as possible, did not throw a large number of weapons and ammunition to the enemy like the army, and there were many officers who committed suicide and martyrdom, but in the face of the overwhelming strength of the old Beiyang six ships, they did not have the courage to forcibly break through, and it can almost be said that they surrendered without a fight, and from the perspective of killing and injuring the enemy, they were even inferior to the army

In addition, the British Navy's weapons and equipment are also problematic, although not counting Li Hui's system, Britain's shipbuilding capacity is still the world's first, but from the details, it can be seen that the country is no longer as enterprising as it was back then, and it also lacks a sufficient sense of crisis.

Russia's coveting of Northeast China and Korea threatened British interests in the Far East, and the rapid rise of Germany gave Britain a potential rival, but it is clear that the British government only regarded it as a "nuisance", and did not think that any of the great powers (all of whom had the power of the great powers) could or dared to act directly against the British Empire in recent years.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why so long had passed since the Battle of Dadonggou, and the naval shells captured by the Chinese army in Hong Kong were all filled with black powder, and there was no trace of picric acid or any other high explosives. From this point of view, even if the main gun of the Haitian-class patrol is not equipped with a scope, the result of the battle at the mouth of the Yangtze River will not change at all.

Note 1: The high mortality rate is mainly due to street fighting, many stabs, short shooting distances (pointed bullets will roll), and the army under Li Hui also has the habit of mending knives for the injured and unconscious (whether true or not) (to be continued). )