The situation in Jiaozhou is similar to that of Laizhou (the port of Qingdao is also expanding, but because Li Hui intends to build it into a naval base, construction is relatively late, and it is far from being completed at this time). ), but the garrison is less than 1500, and the difficulty is even less.

Although the rebel army cut off the telegraph line, making it difficult for it to ask for help from Weihaiwei in time, as long as the time does not drag on too long, the Beiyang Naval Division will definitely not be able to rush to the rescue, but the officials and Qing troops in the two places can still escape by sea, and this retreat must be blocked in advance in order to obtain the greatest results, and at the same time let the news of the uprising spread as late as possible.

As early as after the design of the Haitian-class patrol, Li Hui thought about building his own fleet, but first, there was not so much money at that time, second, warships could not always drift on the sea, there must always be a naval base, at least a seaport that could be stationed, and third, he was afraid of attracting the attention of the Western powers, especially the British, too early, so it has been delayed until now.

With the low cost of the system, in fact, the warship itself does not cost a few dollars, but the warship needs people to drive, Li Hui only has biochemical soldiers available for the time being, and the sailors are expensive, and the demand is large, a Haitian-class patrol needs at least 500 officers and soldiers, and the cost of recruitment alone is almost 700,000 taels of silver, and one is not enough anyway, how can there be three or four ships, then the cost is terrifying

Fortunately, with the warmer weather, the output of gold mines in the base area and North America has increased significantly, especially the latter, the output in April exceeded 200,000 taels, and in May it reached more than 300,000 taels, plus the gold output of the Shandong base area, a total of no less than 600,000 taels.

If it is exchanged for silver according to the market price, there will be at least 17 million taels, and there is so much silver, not to mention one or two thousand sailors, even if it is tens of thousands, it can still be recruited.

Due to Li Hui's skillful use of the convenience of the system to deploy materials, the construction speed of the base area was frighteningly fast, and the large-scale expansion project of Laizhou Port was completed in late May, so the problem of the fleet stationing was initially resolved.

After the expansion, the water depth of the main channel of Laizhou Port is more than 8 meters, and ten Haitian-class ships can be berthed in the port at the same time

On the one hand, the rapid growth of the strength in his hands brought him unprecedented self-confidence, and on the other hand, because the Haitian was too dazzling in the naval battle of Jianghua Bay, it had already aroused the vigilance of the Western powers, and even if Li Hui wanted to continue to maintain his glory, it was impossible to hide it.

As soon as the Western powers communicated with each other to investigate, the venture capital companies that appeared out of thin air were immediately discovered that their origins were purely fabricated, and then the British were the first to arrest people, and if there were no message boards that could warn others in time, those who were operating in the West with the sign of venture capital companies would be wiped out if they did not do well, and they would not just lose a few people

Although not all of the biochemical soldiers sent out acted as employees of venture capital companies, and the most critical step of exchanging gold for silver was still done, the economic losses were still not small and sustainable (ocean trade basically did not want to run away).

Only then did Li Hui finally make up his mind, and then he built a whole five Haitian-class armored cruisers at once!

Since it is no longer possible to continue the route of taoguang and obscurity, it is better to show strength and deter potential enemies from acting rashly, and there is nothing more deterrent to the Western powers than a strong navy to invade China by sea.

With the strength of the Haitian-class armored cruisers, this fleet can completely go sideways in the current Far East, even the British Royal Navy has to come out of the nest to have the certainty of defeating them, and how can Britain send so many warships to China thousands of miles away regardless of Europe and the vast colonies?

The appearance of the 10,000-ton giant ship not only sealed the way out for the Qing troops to flee from Dengzhou and Yantai, but also directly destroyed their determination to resist, and the attacking troops had just fired a few shots before the Qing army surrendered one after another, and Li Bingheng, the governor of Shandong from Qingliu, could not control the troops and could only commit suicide by taking poison in despair

At the same time, the three cavalry brigades gave full play to the advantages of mobility, and swept most of the Qingzhou Prefecture all the way westward, and the forward troops fought all the way to the vicinity of the mouth of the Yellow River

In this way, in just two days, the rebel army had already taken one-third of Shandong's territory, killing and capturing more than 30,000 enemy troops (of which nearly 20,000 were Qing troops, and the rest were government officials and militia groups). ）。 And it is worth mentioning that because radio communication had not yet been invented, the rebel army cut off the telegraph line and the main road at the first time, resulting in the Qing army in Weihaiwei still not knowing that a major change had occurred, until the rebel army came to the door to suddenly alert, but at this time it was too late

Even if you don't count the garrison and the Beiyang Naval Division on Liugong Island, the total number of Qing troops in Weihaiwei is close to 10,000, and it is of great significance to take this main base of the Beiyang Naval Division.

Therefore, even if he knew that their performance in history was unbearable, Li Hui still paid enough attention to it, and sent a full three infantry brigades, and another infantry brigade was sent to attack the neighboring Rongcheng County, adding up to nearly 30,000 people

As a result, as soon as Miss 75's cannon sounded, the defenders of each battery ran away, and even before many places were attacked, the Qing army had already run out

It's just that they didn't know that a net had been laid outside Weihaiwei, and as a result, none of them escaped, and all of them became prisoners of the rebels

At the same time, five Haitian-class armored cruisers that had completed the blockade of Dengzhou and Yantai also arrived here, and such a powerful fleet was powerless to compete with even the Beiyang Naval Division, which was once again praised as the first fleet in the Far East after the Battle of Jianghua Bay.

Prior to this, the 200 technicians of the venture capital company and the hundreds of sailors who had secretly developed it had taken the lead in attacking at the celebration banquet held within the Beiyang Naval Division, controlling Deng Shichang, Liu Buyun and even all the generals of the Beiyang Naval Division who were above the garrison