Zhu Jishi quietly looked at Weng Tongyi, a "historical celebrity", and came over for a long time before he asked lightly: "Weng Qing, if you have any suggestions, just say it directly!" ”

Weng Tong pondered for a moment and said seriously: "Your Majesty, the minister feels that the power is not firmly in his hands, and everything he says is in vain!" If Jia Xing misses this opportunity now, will there be a chance in 20 years? Will Tokugawa Keiki give up the big position that he finally got his hands on? The ministers did not believe in this.

And the key to holding power is that the barrel of the gun is the handle of the knife. In this regard, the Japanese imperial court has no capital at all, they only have an empty name, why should they point fingers at the issue of the succession of generals? Now the advantage is all in the hands of Concubine Ming and Jiayuki, and tens of thousands of Japanese new troops are the private soldiers of the Tokugawa family, and Jiaxing is already the governor of the Tokugawa family, and he has the name and power to mobilize these troops.

If you can't do it, you can buy the hearts of the army with silver, and now the financial resources of the shogunate are far greater than that of the Japanese court, and the deposits in HSBC alone are tens of millions. The most important thing is that Concubine Ming and Jiaxing still have the backing of the emperor! In this political struggle in Japan, they are completely undefeated, and now they only need to use a little thunderous means to drive the new army into Kyoto and arrest a few ministers and royal families who are stirring up trouble! ”

Weng Tongyi took a deep breath and stepped forward: "Your Majesty, this is a God-given opportunity for us to control Japanese politics!" The minister is not talented, he is willing to go to Dongying to help Concubine Ming give advice, no matter what, let Japan be the head of His Majesty! ”

Zhu Jishi thought for a long time with a straight face, and repeatedly pondered Weng Tongxi's words in his heart, as if this was indeed the case. Now it is true that Akiko and Iyuki can't back down! Otherwise, Japan may still embark on the old path of militarism! And. Wait until this time the war against Russia ends. The British probably have to think about how to contain the Ming Dynasty, right? In addition to Russia, there is still a bit of a threat in the periphery of the Ming Dynasty, that is, Japan. Therefore, Japan as a country is better controlled by itself behind the scenes......

Thinking of this, he nodded slightly: "Go and send a message to King Zheng and ask him to come to Chengde quickly." In addition, call the queen and ask her to come to Chengde with Shugong. He looked at Weng Tongyi. After a pause, he said, "Weng Qing, I ordered you to accompany King Zheng to Japan as a deputy envoy." Remember, you are only a deputy envoy, and you can't overstep your responsibilities, do you know the way? ”

Weng Tong bowed and said loudly: "The minister knows that the emperor has said, please rest assured that the emperor will not let the emperor down." ”

……

"Chen Tong Haifeng, Lu Maofeng, Feng Ziye, Chen Daoyuan, Yu Beigui, Wang Yao, see the emperor!"

Not long after Weng Tongyi left. Six young naval officers, all in their early twenties, were brought in, all dressed in handsome sky-blue naval uniforms. Much more beautiful than the gray army uniform. They were joined by Liu Jiong, chief of the General Staff, and Wang Dehu, the secretary of the Admiralty.

"Qing and the others are all graduates of the first phase of the Whampoa Navy?" Zhu Jishi lightly looked at the six upright naval soldiers in front of him.

"If you go back to the emperor, I will graduate from the first banner of the navy, and I will only graduate in June this year."

The reply was a navy lieutenant with a Hunan accent, with dark skin - almost no one in this line of work was white, and his eyebrows were bright.

"What's your name?"

"Chentong Haifeng."

Zhu Jishi nodded: "When did you get on the ironclad ship?" ”

At first, he was a trainee officer on the Dinghai, and learned to operate the ship and steer with the technicians of Nanyang Xing. Later, he was assigned to Chongming, Taiwan, Qiongya, Ryukyu, Penghu and other ships as first mate and acting captain. ”

"How's this ironclad going? Is it possible to fight? Zhu Jishi's gaze swept over the remaining five naval lieutenants who had no chance to speak, "Say them one by one, and all five of you will answer." ”

Tong Haifeng seemed to be the most clever of the six, and he replied first: "The biggest advantage of the ironclad ship is that it is strong, even a 68-pound solid bullet can't penetrate the shell of the ironclad. Chen believes that there is no kind of cannon in the world that can pose a threat to the defense of ironclad ships. Therefore, ironclad ships are extremely powerful in coastal and river defense, and can completely replace land batteries. ”

At present, the cannons used by the navy are all smoothbore guns, which do not have much armor-piercing ability, and it is a little difficult to deal with strong wooden ships.

Lu Maofeng is a young man with a Zhejiang accent, tall and thin, with big eyes and clever eyes. He took the question and replied: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the steam ironclad ship will definitely be the general trend of the future development of the navy, but now it is constrained by the fact that the horsepower of the steam engine is too small and the driving force is insufficient, so the speed is too slow to be used for ocean-going operations. Chen felt that the Ming Navy should be equipped with ironclad ships with sails and steam hybrids...... As for the current 6 ironclad ships, they are not impossible to use for attack, and can be towed by sail warships to the hostile port for port blockade or port attack operations. ”

Zhu Jishi nodded, this person's thoughts are the same as his own, and it seems that the idea of towing 6 ironclad ships outside Naha Port is possible.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that if you can carry one or two rifled guns in the experiment on the ironclad ship, the combat effectiveness of the ironclad ship will be greatly improved. In particular, the lethality of blasting shells filled with starch explosives on wooden battleships was indescribable. ”

The idea of this young naval officer named Feng Ziye from Guangdong is also remarkable, Lan Fangxing has tried to produce several front-loading rifled guns in the past few years - almost the cannon version of the Besemai rifle, but due to the quality of the steel does not meet the requirements, the shell loading is very troublesome, etc., the shell processing is difficult and the price is too high, and the current rifled gun is not of high practical value. But it's a good idea to put it on an ironclad ship as a killer weapon for long-range attacks.

"Your Majesty, the minister feels that sail battleships will inevitably be eliminated in the future, and it is not appropriate for the imperial court to build sailboats on a large scale. Moreover, the sail and steam hybrid are also a transitional product, which will be completely replaced by steam-powered ironclads in the future. Therefore, the imperial court should concentrate on the development of steam ironclad ships, and should not waste resources on hybrid ships. ”

This Fujian Navy Major named Chen Daoyuan is the oldest of several middle-aged people, about 27 or 28 years old, I don't know if Lu Dao has done business before, or is quite economical.

Zhu Jishi thought to himself, this steam ironclad ship must be the trend of the times, but its skills may not be able to mature in 20 years. This transitional hybrid ship still needs to be developed.

At present, the navy's home port is only one Dinghai, and the number of important military ports is also very rare, and only a few places are available, such as Guangzhou Huangpu Port, Shanghai Wusong Port, Fujian Mawei Port, Liaoning Lushun Port, etc., and there are no important ports overseas."

"Yes, the navies of England and France have bases in the whole world, but our Ming Navy does not have a base in Japan......

I don't know if it's because of the problem of the ironclad ship, there is really nothing to say, Yu Beigui and Wang Yao simply shifted the topic to the naval base. The latter also made a request to establish a naval base in Japan, not to mention that this proposal was still very necessary.

Zhu Jishi nodded, and said warmly: "Okay, everyone, I see the future of the Ming Navy in you, and you are indeed the pillars of the navy." I will take your suggestions seriously. And I now have a very important task for you - to destroy the main force of the Russian Eastern Fleet in the port of Naha in the Ryukyus! Destroy with the ironclad ships in your hands! Do you have the confidence to accomplish this task? ”

"Confidence, the Ming Navy will win!"

The answer, of course, was one in unison. Zhu Jishi said lightly: "Very good, you can come up with the battle plan in Chengde, how many fleets need to be used to cooperate, how many landing troops need to be invested, you have to make a detailed plan, and the Admiralty will cooperate with you." He nodded at Wang Dehu: "Tiger, these young people are all rising stars in the navy, you, the senior, must take advantage of the backwards, my Ming navy, I'm afraid it will be carried forward in their generation." (To be continued......)