Xixiang went to North Korea to find Liu Mingchuan to take revenge, but unfortunately Liu Liumazi, as a "cowboy-type" tiger general, was naturally very busy, and he didn't have time to hang him, where did he go, everyone will know in a while.

Saigo's opponent this time was Song Xiaofei, a military academy student who was familiar with the history of the late Qing Dynasty in the 21 st century, and before he met Li Hongzhang for the first time, he had carefully studied Clausewitz's "Theory of War" and was familiar with more than 130 wars and conquests that took place in Europe from 1566 to 1815, as well as Robbins's "Professional Theory of Artillery" in 1783 and Gibel's "Introduction to Tactics".

On November 29, 1875, a cold north wind was blowing in the Jianghua Sea that day, and it was already winter, and the sky was gray, and it was raining lightly and not much hail after a while.

At about 11 o'clock in the morning, the warship "Longxiang" anchored at the mouth of the Jianghua Island River detected the white smoke emitted from the warship in the northeast sea, and Song Xiaofei ordered the soldiers on the ship to quickly raise the fire, organize the formation, and adjust the gun body to prepare for battle, and the Yellow Dragon Flag of the Great Qing Kingdom fluttered in the wind on the mast.

When Margery saw the white smoke on the deck of the "Long Xiang", he shouted to get off the ship, and asked Song Xiaofei to go with him, Song Xiaofei asked: "What are you kidding, escape from the battle?" When Brother Liu comes back, he will definitely throw you into the sea to feed the sharks. ”

Margery spread his hands and said, "Friend, what can be done, I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid of death!" Looking at the white smoke, I knew that it was a large warship with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons. Our gunboats have a displacement of only three or four hundred tons, and I don't want you to send them to death, let's go together. ”

Song Xiaofei asked: "How many warships are there in total?" ”

"I asked my old friend Wittoma about it, and I said that I had chartered an American warship and a British warship this time. ”

Song Xiaofei said: "There are only two, that's okay, it's not certain who will die." Immediately launch signal flares, so that the 'Huwei', 'Feiting', and 'Cedian' will quickly come to the port of Ganghwa Island and come to me to prepare for battle. ”

Margery asked, "How did you expect that I would not go to the Han River this time, but come to Ganghwa Island again?" ”

Song Xiaofei said: "I know that Xixiang follows the road, and where he falls, he gets up from there, which is his consistent combat style. ”

Sure enough, half an hour later, the "Enterprise" and the "Dreadnought" appeared side by side in front of Jianghua Port and entered the sight of the Qing army.

At this time, Ding Ruchang, Liu Buyun, and Deng Shichang also rushed over with the warships "Huwei", "Feiting", and "Cedian".

Half an hour later, under the leadership of the "Long Xiang," four "mosquito" ships of the Qing Dynasty formed a geese-shaped array in the coastal waters of Jianghua Port, preparing to meet the warships.

When the two sides were four or five nautical miles away, the "Longxiang" opened fire first, but unfortunately the distance was too far and it did not hit.

Saigo Congdao was born in the army and was not very familiar with naval warfare, but he was very conceited and ordered the "Intrepid" to turn the rudder to the inside of the four "mosquito" ships of the Great Qing Dynasty in an attempt to break through Song Xiaofei's formation.

Song Xiaofei ordered the "Long Xiang" and the "Huwei" to transform into a zigzag and bombard the "Dreadnought" from the side.

Margery was afraid of Liu Mingchuan, and was persuaded by Song Xiaofei to go out and fight with him, he stood on the fort and commanded, and kept shouting "fire, fire". Ding Ruchang also commanded the "Huwei" to open fire. For a while, the six guns spewed out angry black smoke at the same time, the chambers of the guns burned red, and countless shells flew towards the "Intrepid" of Saigo Congdao. A shell landed right on the deck of the Dreadnought, killing a lieutenant and three gunners who were firing their guns on the battery.

However, the captain of the "Enterprise", Gonbei Yamamoto, was a relatively powerful figure in the Navy, graduated from the regular naval academy, joined the Navy in 1868, and went to Germany to study in 1874, and became the captain of the ship after returning to Japan. He commanded the "Enterprise" to stay away from the "mosquito boats" of the Qing Dynasty, and then took advantage of the "Enterprise's" speed and artillery fire to attack the "Flying Thunder" and "Cedian" from a long distance. This trick was very effective, and soon, Liu Buchan's "Feiting" was hit on the port side by artillery fire, gradually tilted, and turned over after hitting the reef. Deng Shichang's "Cedian" was hit by artillery fire, and the steering rudder and battery were also blown up, but the "Cedian" could still maintain power, Deng Shichang gritted his teeth, "Damn, fight", he commanded the warship, and rushed straight towards the nearby "Intrepid".

Saigo Congdao had never seen the Chinese [***] people fight so bravely, otherwise he would not have dared to take 3,000 soldiers to fight in Taiwan in 1874. He hurriedly ordered the "Dreadnought" to turn the rudder and retreat. But it was too late, and the "Ceden" drove at full speed towards the "Dreadnought", and the "Dreadnought" was destroyed, and the two ships crashed together, and both caught fire and sank, and the fire was soaring into the sky, and huge black smoke rose from the sea. Many of the soldiers on both ships caught fire in their clothes and jumped into the sea, suffering heavy casualties. Some were directly engulfed by flames several feet high, and the smell of burnt barbecue wafted in the sea breeze, and the scene was very tragic.

Saigo was seriously injured and fled in a dinghy to the "Enterprise" before the ship sank. Deng Shichang was seriously injured, but he did not die, and was rescued by Song Xiaofei's "Long Xiang", and Liu Buyun also escaped lying on a piece of wood.

After Liu Buyun was rescued, he looked ashamed and said to Song Xiaofei guiltily: "Why didn't Brother Song take advantage of the victory to pursue and delay the war to save me and Shichang, when we were studying in Mawei Academy, we thought that one day we would sacrifice our lives for the country, and it is not a pity to die." ”

Song Xiaofei said: "Stay in the green mountains, don't worry about no firewood." I admire the two brothers' loyalty to the country, but even if the eldest husband dies, he must die a worthwhile death. 'Mosquito' ships are not suitable for fighting in the open sea, and you don't have to feel guilty. Saigo has no face to return to his book, so he will naturally plot against Ryukyu, so let's wait for Brother Liu to clean them up. ”

In this battle, the Chinese navy was defeated and wounded, the Qing army lost the "Feiting" and "Cedian", and the "Huwei" returned to Jianghua port to wait for repair, suffering more than 600 casualties, while the Chinese army lost the "Dreadnought" and suffered more than 1,000 casualties.

In 1875, the military strength was not strong, only 30,000 people in the standing army, 4,000 people in the navy, and 15 small wooden warships, and many of them were damaged and could not go to sea. In these two major battles in Korea, he lost more than 1,300 navies, three of the most advanced gunboats, and the "Dreadnought" that he rented in.

When the "Intrepid" sank, the British offered to pay 700,000 taels of silver, and those who were originally opposed to the "Korean Expedition" attacked Saigo in front of the emperor, and incidentally attacked his elder brother Saigo Takamori. After receiving his brother's flying pigeon message, Saigo felt that he had no face to return to China, so he patted his head and said to the defeated generals with less than 2,000 remnants left, "Brothers, let's go, I can't get North Korea, follow me to get rid of Ryukyu." ”

The Ryukyus, between Taiwan and Kyushu, are now named Okinawa Prefecture, and the U.S. Seventh Fleet has troops stationed there, often disturbing the people and causing protests. According to Article 8 of the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation, which provides that "the conditions of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out, and the sovereignty of the Ryukyu Islands shall be limited to Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku, and such other small islands as we may determine," sovereignty over the Ryukyu Islands does not belong to the Honhon, but to China.

At that time, there was still the Ryukyu Kingdom, and from the 16th year of Hongwu, that is, in 1383, successive Ryukyu kings asked the Chinese emperor to be canonized, and the relationship between the vassal states was formalized. But in July 1875, the king of the Ryukyus forced the king of the Ryukyus to stop paying tribute to the Qing Dynasty, the king at that time was called Shang Tai, and he was also devoted to the Qing Dynasty, and he was fed up with the anger of the birds, so when Liu Mingchuan followed Song Xiaofei's suggestion and took the two large troop ships that came to Korea, and rushed to the Ryukyus with 3,000 Huai troops to support, Shang Tai was so excited that he burst into tears, and led tens of thousands of residents on the island to welcome him, but he didn't personally dance the "Zhongzi Dance" bare-chested.

This time, Xixiang Congdao unexpectedly met the enemy he was looking for: Liu Liumazi, the next battle, Liu Mingchuan with the help of the local indigenous people, took advantage of the time and place, plus Xixiang Congdao's 2,000 navy is not good at land warfare, Liu Mingchuan first lured it into the valley, and then burned the company camp, led the Huai army to kill, with both swords and guns, Xixiang Congdao's defeated army everyone wanted to grow eight legs, only two hundred people left, even rolling and crawling to escape back to Nagasaki on a warship, if you run a little slower, "enterprise" The warship may also have become a prisoner of Liu Mingchuan. Liu Mingchuan rode a horse to chase after the army of the eyes of the kind of momentum to erase himself from the earth, in Xixiang Congdao heart left a long-term shadow, since then heard Liu Mingchuan's name, Xixiang Congdao on the legs of weak, and later heard that the Qing court sent Liu Mingchuan as the governor of Taiwan, he immediately broke off the idea of plotting Taiwan.;