Time flies, Lin Haijiang is like a clockwork top, 24 hours a day seems to be really too little for him, the construction and production of the old port, the construction and defense of Mawei, the intensive training of the Fujian mountain battalion and the adjustment of officers, almost every one Lin Haijiang has personally experienced.

Yuan Hong, who performed well in the bloody battle of Pengcheng, was simply promoted by Lin Haijiang to the position of commander-in-chief of the Fujian Mountain Battalion, which no one expected, including Zhang Zheng and Gao Qi, who were a little sour.

Yuan Hong's promotion of Lin Haijiang can be described as grateful to Dade, and he learned and sold all the things he studied in the old Hong Kong Marine Corps Branch, and added Lin Haijiang's mountain infantry for training and guidance, and the Fujian mountain infantry at the head of the ten battalions made him train so well.

In Lin Haijiang's subconscious, the officers of the navy should mainly rely on overseas students, while the sailors should be recruited and trained in large quantities, and what he lacks now is not sailors, but land soldiers, and the powerful sea power is only used to resist foreign humiliation and stabilize the existence of the iron triangle of the old port, Guangzhou, and Fujian, and in the future, he will also include Hainan Island, Taiwan, and the Ryukyu Islands into his sphere of influence.

China is not only a sea power with a long coastline, but also a landlocked power, so he still needs a large number of land forces to solve the so-called million green battalions and Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of the Qing Dynasty for him, for these two enemies, Lin Haijiang formulated a five-year development plan.

The most important part of this plan is to occupy Hainan Island, Taiwan, and the Ryukyu Islands, and use the island chain to deter and blockade internally and resist invasion externally, so that one's own forces and fleet can be flexibly maneuvered.

However, Lin Haijiang's plan was completely disrupted by the history that had changed the direction, and the British and French forces, which had not landed at Dagukou in 1860 and fought at the Weibali Bridge in Tianjin, were actually preparing to attack Yanjing City directly after the spring of 1857?

And Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, who was supposed to die of internal strife, is still alive and well at the moment, although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has a tendency to be inward-bound at the moment, but it is really hard to say whether he died as the East King or not! Lin Haijiang's large-scale sale of weapons changed the course of the Banbishan Campaign, and at this moment, it was unfortunate to replace the two battalions of the Qing army in Jiangnan and Jiangbei.

History has departed from the original track, and Lin Haijiang has nothing to do about it, after all, history has departed from the original track, and he has contributed a lot in this.

The affection of the Qing Dynasty and Xianfeng's repetition also made Lin Haijiang very annoyed, it was hard for him to imagine that Xianfeng, who loved Qing, was stabbing in the back, and as the Son of Heaven, he was unwilling to bear the slightest responsibility? He regards the interests of the country and the nation as a sacrifice that can be sacrificed at any time.

Lin Haijiang came from the era of great national unity in later generations, and had no concept of national contradictions, because he was stimulated by Xianfeng, Lin Haijiang had a great sense of disgust towards some people among the Manchus, but Lin Haijiang still believed that only a very small number of people did evil and betrayed the interests of the country, after all, he could not engage in those so-called exterminating extremes, and when the time was ripe, he would severely punish a small number of them, deter a large number of people, and treat the symptoms and root causes at the same time.

Lin Haijiang did not have the luxury of hoping to solve the so-called ethnic issue very thoroughly, because even in the 21 st century, the ethnic issue is still at the forefront of the problems that all countries urgently need to deal with, just like the contradictions and conflicts of religious belief.

The Spring Festival of 1857 was not very happy for Lin Haijiang, the commander of the Nanyang Navy who was seized of power and picked up the top, but actually mastered the two water divisions of Fujian and Guangdong, and in order to avoid the so-called embarrassment and embarrassment of Ye Mingchen and others, Lin Haijiang chose to go to the old port to celebrate the Spring Festival with his family.

In order to ensure the safety of Lin Haijiang, the navy of the old port can be said to have been dispatched with all its might, and Britain and France have already decided on their strategic direction and goals, so in order to avoid the spread of war, the old port must show force in an appropriate and high-profile manner, so that the British and French will not dare to easily attack the idea of the old port.

As the largest tonnage of the nine armored protection cruisers, the Zhiyuan has naturally become the flagship of the fleet, and as the flagship of the First Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy in the old port, the Zhiyuan is equipped with powerful armaments, and the chief of staff of the fleet, Zhou Yu, is in command with the ship.

The Zhiyuan slowly sailed into the port of Guangzhou under the escort of the Zhenyuan and Dingyuan, and six ships, including Jingyuan, Laiyuan, and Weiyuan, formed a formation to patrol outside the port.

Lin Haijiang swaggered aboard the Zhiyuan ship, and the captain Ma Jiang personally got off the ship to greet him, looking at Ma Jiang's snow-white uniform, Lin Haijiang smiled and said: "If there is no warship, I can hardly tell you two brothers." ”

Ma Jiang immediately responded with a smile: "Our brothers are twins, but my brother is so active and I am so quiet, and it is really difficult to distinguish from this appearance." ”

As soon as he saw Lin Haijiang boarding the ship, Haijiu, who was escorted by his entourage, quickly ran to Lin Haijiang's side and immediately shouted, "Lord Lin take me?" ”

Lin Haijiang glanced at Haijiu and deliberately lowered his voice and said, "I'm going to plot to pull the flag and rebel now, do you want to go?" ”

Haijiu was slightly stunned for a moment, and then said solemnly: "I'll go, the court treats you like this, if you don't rebel, there will be no reason, and this one who pulls the flag and fires the cannon will also be counted as my share!" ”

Lin Haijiang was stunned and said, "You yourself are a serious banner man of the clan?" Do you make your own rebellion? ”

Hai Jiu looked around at the gods and said mysteriously: "I know a lot of brothers from the Hong Gang and the Heaven and Earth Society, in the early years, we gathered in Yanjing, but we were blocked by the old dog of Hasselblad. ”

Hai Jiu said this, and suddenly changed his words: "Someone must take care of the injustices in this world, if this evil breath in the master's heart does not come out, the master will go in vain for the world!" You can't trust me, I can go and vote. ”

Lin Haijiang didn't have the leisure to talk nonsense with Haijiu, and immediately glared at Haijiu fiercely and said: "I'm talking nonsense here that I'm covering you, and when you go out, you must know how to restrain yourself, otherwise you don't know how to lose it!" ”

"Thank you, sir!" Hai Jiu laughed and got on the ship.

Ma Jiang looked at the backs of Lin Haijiang and Haijiu following in a daze, and was surprised in his heart, there were still yellow-belted banner people who were jumping and shouting to rebel against themselves? Is the world crazy?

On the bridge of the Zhiyuan ship, Zhou Yu gave Lin Haijiang a detailed report on the plan and arrangement of this military deterrence, and the fleet made the worst plans and countermeasures for a possible conflict.

After the Zhiyuan set sail to join the formation, nine armored protection cruisers cruised outside Victoria Bay in a 30-degree formation on the side of the board, and for a time the British and French battleships inside and outside the harbor hoisted warning flags and battle flags.

On the one hand, there was the old port fleet, which had come prepared to smoke and make trouble, and on the other hand, the unprepared British and French fleets, raising their mainsails, raising their side sails, and slowly turning their rudders, but not a single ship dared to leave the port, and the ships anchored in the waters outside the harbor did not dare to move.

This is because, according to the practice of international naval warfare, one side raises the battle flag, and if the other side lowers anchor and does not raise the flag and sails, the other side shall be regarded as an unarmed vessel and shall not attack.

James. William stared nervously at the nine behemoths that were swallowing clouds, and all the previous doubts and conjectures became reality, and the worst scenario was true.

James. William's hand holding the telescope was trembling slightly, and the green tendons on his hand were twitching, but he didn't realize it. William silently calculated in his mind the speed of the nine ironclad ships that did not have their mainsails and only had their auxiliary sails.

The results of the calculations made James. William's cold sweat ran down his neck, if the other party used a steam engine to assist the sail line, then it would surpass his flagship General Yemo at least 3 knots in the same wind direction, this result was really terrible, and James. William also noted that the opposing ships had been preempting the T-head in formation along the battle line.

And the thirty-degree sailing angle is the dead angle area of the ship's side guns. William really put away his contempt, because he saw in the telescope a young man in a straight white military uniform who was also holding a telescope and looking at his side.

Lin Haijiang and James. William can be said to have known each other for a long time but has never been masked, and neither of them knows each other, but both sides feel a strong fighting spirit in the telescope.

After the cruise, the Old Port Fleet left Victoria Bay, and the British and French fleet commanders inside and outside the port breathed a long sigh of relief, if there was a real exchange of fire just now, they did not think that the other side could abide by the so-called international maritime engagement convention, after all, the Old Port forces were a force that was free from the regular system and different from the pirates.

Through this Yaobing, the strength of the Old Port was fully displayed, but Bao Ling, James. William, as well as Groween, Plimpton. Admiral Arthur and others did not believe that this was all the power of the Old Port, because the cultural heritage of the Chinese was different from that of European countries, and if Britain and France and other countries had large-scale advanced fleets, then the first action of their political axe was to make a so-called friendly visit, and then cooperate with diplomatic efforts with military strength in order to obtain more returns and benefits.

But Bao Ling, Ge Luo and others think that the Chinese are different, they like to save good East Tibet, just like rich businessmen always talk about being poor, without the fierce battle between Guangzhou City and Dapeng City, no one would believe that a local Qing force has so many advanced rifles?

If it weren't for the allied fleet to coerce Guangzhou, I'm afraid that Lin Haijiang's old port forces would not have surfaced, and the ironclad ships built by Prussia were all built for the old port forces? A so-called regional power has the strength of the national level? All ironclad ships? It seems a little too terrifying.

The admirals who have experienced the Crimean War are aware of the advantages and weaknesses of the ironclad ships, but the ironclad ships they face today have completely subverted their concepts, in addition to failing to see the firepower of the other side, the speed and armor of the other side today have exceeded the experimental ships used by various countries in the Crimean War, especially the fleet formation tactics show that the other side is a well-trained army.

Lin Haijiang was able to cooperate with the Dutch and the Prussians? This was a surprise to both Bao Ling and Gro, but they both knew very well that the Prussians belonged to the destabilizing factor of Europe, and that this rigid discipline was a very warlike nation at heart, and they would do whatever they saw in it.

Even if the pressure from Britain and France may not have a great effect, and the strength of the Netherlands in the South Seas is estimated to have been intimidated by the old port forces, and if they want the Dutch to contain and restrain the old port forces, the surname may be less than or equal to zero.

Bao Ling looked at James. William said seriously: "If we first defeat the old port and relieve our worries before sending troops to Dagukou to attack the capital of the Qing Kingdom, how sure are you?" My Excellency, Admiral. ”

James. William took a deep breath and said: "The attack on the old port is not only for the navy, but also for our army, according to the previous intelligence summary, the old port has twelve large and small fortresses, known as the Zodiac fortress, these fortresses are outside the shooting angle or elevation angle of our naval guns, but their fortress guns can easily hit our warships or bombard the attacking army." ”

Bao Lingde's face suddenly became ugly, he couldn't win the opponent in Guangzhou and Dapeng, and changed the place where the opponent had an absolute advantage, could there still be a fight in this battle?

James. Seeing Bao Ling's embarrassed expression, William smiled slightly: "A strong attack is just a means, we can use the navy to blockade, use the outside line to besiege the inner line, there are many ways to solve it, but the key point is whether we really need to occupy the old port, and whether the old port is worth the price we pay to occupy?" ”

Bao Ling was pondering, but Gro on the side shook his head and said: "The old port is not a simple fortress, the entire island of Sumatra is rich in fruits and rice, and now there is an industrial system and military factories built by the Prussians. ”

"The Spring Festival of the Qing people is coming, right?" Bao Ling suddenly burst out of a sentence.

Erjin on the side wiped his forehead with a handkerchief and said: "Indeed, that is the festival that the Qing people attach the most importance to, do we want to use this festival to attack the other party?" ”

Before Bao Ling could speak, James. William said coldly: "If there is ice near the landing port, then the landing army will not be able to get supplies and any support. ”

In terms of military affairs, Bao Ling is naturally inferior to James. William is authoritative, and Bao Ling doesn't want to take the so-called responsibility if the military operation fails, and the proposal just now is just a precaution, Bao Ling despised James who didn't even know how to be tactful just now. William.

As his son, Lin Haijiang first returned home to greet his father Lin Hanlin and his mother, and by the way, he visited the lilies and purple cuckoos, and the warmth of home and the joy of the New Year dispelled the cloudy atmosphere of war.

The Chinese in Old Hong Kong have accounted for eighty percent of the total permanent population, of course, this is also inseparable from Lin Haijiang's efforts on the issue of immigration, the sultans of the island have already regarded Lin Haijiang as their own people, Lin Haijiang has given the aborigines the most preferential conditions, encouraged them to immigrate, dilute their consciousness, and the influx of a large number of luxury goods has made the Aceh people's ambition and bravery be wiped out little by little.

Although some people of Aceh have noticed this, they have not yet formed a climate.

(To be continued)