As a result, Li Hui finally realized that his previous development strategy was too cautious, and that it was true that the biochemical soldiers were gold-swallowing beasts, but they could also bring him huge wealth, and theoretically it was completely possible to achieve such a snowball development as "recruiting troops, making money, recruiting more soldiers, and making more money," thus greatly shortening the time required for unifying the whole country and developing and building.

Moreover, with the stable income of the gold mine at the bottom, Li Hui actually does not need to leave much money to prevent it, and it is the most efficient way to use the silver if he has it.

As a result, Li Hui made an important decision, leaving enough precious metals in the system's warehouse to pay for two months' salaries for the biochemical soldiers, and the rest were all converted into biochemical soldiers and materials to accelerate the development as much as possible

Another important reason why Li Hui calmed down and did not make a move was that the speed and intensity of the reconstruction of the Japanese Combined Fleet exceeded his expectations.

Although with the strength of the Haitian-class armored cruisers, two of them were enough to easily defeat the seemingly powerful Japanese Navy, and with the low cost of the system, the purchase cost of the ship was less than 350,000 taels of silver. However, until the deep-water port and ship repair yard in Laizhou were built, warships alone were of little use.

Moreover, the more than 1,000 officers and men on the two warships can only be filled by biochemical soldiers, and the recruitment cost will be nearly 1.5 million taels of silver, which is much more expensive than the cost of warships

Therefore, no matter which angle he considers, Li Hui feels that it is safer for him to endure for a while.

And at this time, there was also the new commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Vice Admiral Inoue Yoshino

Due to the huge cost of rebuilding the Combined Fleet and the long-delayed Korean War, the financial pressure on the Japanese government was increasing, and even though Ito Hirobumi knew that it was not advisable for the navy to go to war too early, he could not help but ask Inoue Yoshishin again and again when he would be ready, and invisibly exerted tremendous pressure on him.

When the news of Korea's complete victory in the Battle of Hwangju reached Japan, the whole country rejoiced, but Inoue Yoshishin was even more worried.

Sure enough, the army soon proposed to send a combined fleet to intercept the Beiyang Naval Division to ensure that the army could completely annihilate the remaining six or seven thousand Qing troops.

Inoue wanted to refuse, but against the backdrop of successive big victories in the army, if he told the truth, the navy would never think of raising its head in front of the army in the future.

"Maybe the Beiyang Fleet won't be able to arrive in time? Or only a part of the warships came? And the Japanese gambling personality made Inoue Yoshixin somewhat lucky, and in the end, Vice Admiral Inoue Yoshixin still accepted the task head-on.

However, when Inoue Yoshishin led the ten cruisers of the Japanese Combined Fleet to Jianghua Bay, the little luck in his heart was suddenly shattered, and almost all of the Beiyang Naval Division came over (except for Pingyuan, whose speed was too slow, the other eight warships all came. ）

Although the number of Japanese ships was larger and the performance on paper was stronger, thinking of the clumsy performance of his subordinates who even made mistakes in the flag language from time to time during their training, Inoue Yoshishin really did not have the confidence to fight a decisive battle with the Beiyang Naval Division, so he decisively gave the order to retreat.

But to Inoue's surprise, the Beiyang Eight Ships actually left the transport fleet and chased after them!

The new three giants of the Beiyang Naval Division are very clear that for the newly built Japanese Combined Fleet, which is almost equal to the newly-built, the biggest shortcoming is always the quality of personnel, so the later the decisive battle is in their favor, so that there will be more training time.

If the Japanese are provoked to return to the division to counterattack, it is naturally the best, even if they are willing to be a turtle with a shrunken head, they can at least hit the morale of the other party.

However, in terms of the specific way of pursuit, the three giants of Beiyang have different opinions, Liu Buyun and Lin Taizeng both thought that they should be cautious and pursue on the premise of maintaining the integrity of the queue, but Deng Shichang was much bolder

During the meeting, Liu Buyun suppressed Deng Shichang's opinion through Lin Taizeng, the admiral of the sailor, but what he didn't expect was that within a few minutes after the pursuit began, he saw that the Haitian that rushed to the front was getting faster and faster, and gradually distanced itself from the brigade

There was such a situation, either Lin Taizeng was soft-eared and persuaded by Deng Shichang, or Deng Shichang "coerced" Lin Taizeng to agree to the Haitian to leave the queue and pursue it alone, either of which was intolerable to Liu Buyun, and he was immediately so angry that his face turned pale.

And when the Haitian rode into the dust and left the two high-speed cruisers of Zhijing far away, Liu Buyun's anger turned into worry again, "Even the strong pressure ventilation has been turned on, Zhengqing, aren't you afraid that you will go deep alone and be killed by the Japanese and fall into the encirclement?" ”

In any case, Liu Buyun could not sit idly by and watch the Haitian, the flagship and number one capital ship of the Beiyang Naval Division, fall into danger, and seeing that the flagship had gone away, Liu Buyun immediately ordered the Dingyuan to raise the handsome flag to take over the command of the fleet.

Because of the prestige that Liu Buyun had established over the years and the highest rank among the four slow ship pipe bands, Yang Yonglin, Lin Yongsheng, and Qiu Baoren, the pipe bands of the three warships that were relatively close, all sent signals from the flag soldiers that they were willing to obey his command.

Liu Buyun finally breathed a sigh of relief now, Lao Li's personnel adjustment really choked him enough, so that Liu Buyun began to worry that he couldn't command these former little brothers.

After getting the command, Liu Buyun immediately ordered the Jingyuan, which rushed to the front because of the fastest speed, to follow the course of the Guangbing. With the huge difference in the maximum speed between the Dingyuan and the Haitian, it will not be long before the latter will completely sail out of his field of vision, and if he wants to avoid losing the target, he can only use the Guang C, a warship in the middle of the range, as a reference.

At the same time, the queue of four slow ships also completely turned into a single column. After the Haitian, which has strong sideboard firepower, entered service, the Beiyang generals had a heated discussion on whether to change to column tactics, and there is still no clear conclusion, but now that we want to speed up as much as possible, it must be the most advantageous to line up in a single column.

In fact, not only the four ships dragged behind, but also the three ships of Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, and Guangbing in front, if you look down from a high altitude, the long column of the Beiyang Naval Division has been broken into three sections.

Well, to be precise, it should be four, because the Zhijing 2nd ship has gradually distanced itself from the Guang Bing after turning on the strong pressure ventilation