The bow of the battleship Daming ploughed a snow-white wave, and the track pointed straight to the southeast. Its destination, Naha Port in the Ryukyus, is about 370 nautical miles from Jokai and takes more than 50 hours at a speed of six to eight knots. The sailors on the deck were fiddling with a dozen 68-pounder front-loading smoothbore guns for artillery exercises, and with the officers' commands, the sailors nervously adjusted the shooting parameters and reloaded the practice shells repeatedly - this training of the South Sea Fleet was tight enough.

Shimazu Tadakyo and Komatsu stood on the back deck, observing their training with interest. Beside them, there were more than a dozen students of the Whampoa Naval Academy, under the leadership of a foreign devil instructor, practicing the use of the sextant - these were all officers who had just been on the ship for internship, and the commander of their training was the captain of the Daming, Xie Lide from the United Kingdom. Lieutenant Colonel Aspen. At the same time he was also the chief of staff of the Nanyang Fleet! He is responsible for the training of the entire fleet and the formulation of operational plans, and can be said to be the de facto commander of the Nanyang Fleet.

The so-called century-old navy is not just a matter of casual talk, and building a strong navy is by no means a matter of spending a little money and everything will be fine. Even if the shipbuilding skills of the Ming Dynasty are still passable, they can barely build a steam ironclad ship, but the shortcomings of naval talents cannot be made up for in a few years or even more than ten years. To put it mildly, if it weren't for this fierce Aspen who made the Chinese officers and soldiers of the entire Nanyang Fleet hate him to the extreme, this Nanyang Fleet would probably be a group of pirates with advanced naval vessels.

Shimazu and Komatsu, who were tasked with inspecting the Chinese Navy, turned their attention to the two large chimneys in the amidships of the Daming. In recent years, all the third and fourth class warships of the Ming Navy have been steamed. From a mere sail battleship to a steam-sail hybrid battleship. But now it's a tailwind. So the steam engine didn't start. There was also no smoke rising.

Behind the Daming, there was also a real ironclad ship, the Dinghai, whose boiler was burning, and smoke was rising from the two chimneys. However, at the moment, the steam engine technique is still very immature, and the horsepower is very small, which cannot make the heavy ironclad ship sail at a high speed, and if there is no sail battleship to tow, this ironclad ship can drive up to five knots at most. Obviously. Steam-powered ironclads are not suitable for the mainstay of naval fleets, and hybrid non-ironclads are the mainstream.

However, the black steel body with a displacement of 1,800 tons still looks very powerful when it rides the wind and waves on the sea. The bow gun compartment was open, and two 68-pound bronze cannons protruded from their muzzles, looking murderous. There were also vague sailors busy training around the cannons.

The training of the Ming Navy is really strict!

Xue Dingyue, the commander of the Nanyang Fleet, had already finished inspecting the whole ship at this time, and also went to the back deck, nodding slightly to the two Japanese guests.

In front of the commander of this elite navy, Shimazu Tadakyo did not hesitate to praise him: "The sailors under the general's rule are indeed the division of tigers and wolves." With such diligence in training, I hope that Japan will also be able to produce a navy comparable to that of your Nanyang Fleet. Defend the seas of East Asia together! ”

Xue Dingyue smiled, looked back at Asben, who was training people in English, and said lightly: "Actually, the navies of Europe and the United States are trained in this way, we just copied the British training regulations and invited British officers to help us train." If your country wants to develop its navy, it would be best to do the same. But ......"

He patted the guardrail on the back deck, and was a little angry: "This navy is a gold-swallowing beast!" A third-class battleship plus artillery is at least hundreds of thousands of silver dollars! It is also necessary to maintain and overhaul regularly, the sails and ropes must be replaced on time, the cannon must be operated once, and the materials must be maintained, and if the cost of live ammunition is even greater, a 24-pound Hochsky blasting shell will cost more than a dozen silver dollars! 68-pound Hodchsky blasting shells are in the hundreds...... And in a battle, even if it wins, the battleship will definitely be riddled with holes, and the repair cost will be hundreds of thousands. Our Ming court's annual income is now close to 10,000,000, and we still can't afford to play the big navy. The shogunate of your country only earns a few million a year, and it is better to rest the mind of the navy, and doing a good job in the army is the right way to defend the country. ”

Shimazu Tadashi nodded, convinced. And Komatsu behind him just smiled, Xue Dingyue's words were not malicious, for a country like Japan, sea and land are absolutely incompatible. But what is the use of developing a strong army in Japan? The only great power around Japan was the Ming Dynasty, and for the Ming Dynasty, Japan had no value to conquer at all - everyone knew that the Ming were interested in sparsely populated lands, not densely populated countries. Even a country like North Korea, which has almost no defense, is now living under the wings of the Ming Dynasty, let alone a samurai country like Japan?

So the idea of developing an army to defend Japan is completely wrong, what Japan really needs is a strong navy! It is a navy that can keep pace with the Ming Navy in the Pacific. No, it's not! The Ming Dynasty focused on the mainland, and Japan's galloping on the sea is the most ideal state for the East Asian nation!

Thinking of this, Komatsu, the founder of the Satsuma Navy, couldn't help but lose his mind a little. I didn't even bother to listen to what Shimazu Tadashi and Xue Dingyue said. He is just an elder of the Satsuma Domain, so how can he be qualified to influence the general direction of the development of the Chinese and Japanese navies? It's really too much to think about. When I was in a trance, the jingling bell suddenly rang.

"Enemy ships! Enemy ships were spotted, about 10 nautical miles ahead, flying Russian and American flags! Quantity, more than 10 ships! ”

A staff officer on the Da Ming trotted over, gave a military salute to Lieutenant Colonel Asben, who had just finished teaching, and loudly reported the latest discoveries at the lookout post in English.

"What !!" Xue Dingyue also participated in a year and a half of training at the Whampoa Naval Academy, so he could understand English, and his face immediately became gloomy. The Russian fleet actually went to sea, and there was an American fleet acting together, what was this for? Ready to escape from the Ryukyus?

At the same time, the cruisers USS Mississippi and the battleship Queen Anna sounded the jingling sirens – their lookouts had also spotted the Chinese fleet ten nautical miles away.

"Your Excellency, the Chinese fleet has adjusted its course...... They want to intercept us! ”

On the back deck of the battleship Queen Anna, Nevelskoy raised the telescope with his left hand and held the armrest tightly with his right hand, and the green tendons on the back of his hands were all bulging, showing the tension in his heart.

It is clear that the Chinese fleet is here to fight!

"Has war been declared!?" Baron Wrangel also got nervous. He knew that now the war in Europe was on the verge of breaking out! If war has been declared, it will not be China and Russia at war, but Britain, France, China and Turkey will fight Russia. And here in East Asia, Britain and France have deployed quite powerful navies, and now the Chinese fleet is appearing in the waters near the Ryukyus, does it mean that the British and French fleets are also ......

"The British and French fleets were not found!"

The staff officer's report reassured the baron a little.

"Raise the flag and ask whose side the American fleet is on?"

The Americans had four warships, two of which were quite combat-ready new out-wheeled fast sailing ships, of which the cruiser USS Mississippi had a full load displacement of 3220 tons and was armed with 2 10-inch guns and 8-inch guns. The cruiser Suskehana also had a full load displacement of 2,450 tons, 2 150-pound guns, and 12 9-inch guns - the Americans of this era had a certain advantage in casting large-caliber iron cannons (the casting method invented by the American engineer Rodman was quite advanced, but it was still being perfected and was not fully mature until the Civil War), so the new American steam warships were often equipped with larger caliber guns. If two American steam cruisers could enter the war, Baron Wrangel would have a better chance of winning.

"Your Excellency, the U.S. fleet will be strictly neutral." The staff officer's answer was a little disappointing to Baron Wrangel, but it was expected. A country like the Ming Dynasty is not easy to provoke, and the appearance of the Ming Navy near the Ryukyus is likely to mean that China, Britain and France have jointly declared war on Russia! How dare the Americans wade into such troubled waters?

Wrangel exhaled and turned his head to look at Nevelskoy: "Colonel, I would like to hear your advice, to fight, or not to fight?" (To be continued......)