The next day, the conference room of the Central Army Headquarters.

The elites of the Central Army gathered together, Liu Rushi, chief of the General Staff, and Liu Qingyan, chief of intelligence, sat in the first place on the left and right, and Huang Degong and Shi Lang, the commanders of the naval division, and the commanders of the infantry battalions and artillery battalions of the Central Army, a total of dozens of people, sat around and quietly waited for the arrival of the supreme commander Wang Pu.

Suddenly, there was a chaotic and heavy sound of footsteps outside the conference room.

"The prince arrives in ......"

With a loud trumpet, the two guards standing at the gate like javelins quickly raised their rifles, and at the same time kicked the ground with their right legs, saluting Wang Pu who was walking quickly, and almost at the same time, the officers waiting in the conference room stood up in an uproar, and their eyes turned to the door at the same time.

Wang Pu, who was dressed in military uniform, walked straight in, walked quickly to the rostrum, waved his hand and said indifferently: "Sit down." ”

The officers sat down again, looking solemn.

"I believe the purpose of convening this meeting today is already known to everyone." Wang Pu paused, turned his gaze to Liu Qingyan, and then said, "Now I would like to ask Chief Liu to briefly introduce to you the political, military, economic, and cultural information collected by the Intelligence Bureau in the past three years. ”

Liu Qingyan got up and said: "It is said that this is the ancient Wa Kingdom, after the Dahua Revolution, there are written and civilization records, its land area is about the size of three Zhejiang, the population is about twice the size of Zhejiang, there are about fifteen million mouths, Emperor Hou Guangming is the nominal ruler of the book, but the real power is in the hands of the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. ”

This point is somewhat related to the Ming Dynasty's belief that the Ming Emperor Longwu Emperor is only the nominal supreme head, and the real power is in the hands of the cabinet, or Wang Pu, the supreme commander of the Central Army.

Liu Qingyan continued: "It is not a centralized country in the true sense of the word, it has hundreds of princes large and small, each of whom has political, economic, and military powers, and the shogunate is the largest prince in the country, and its territory accounts for about a quarter of the country, in addition, the large and small princes are subject to the control of the shogunate. ”

"There are hundreds of large and small princes, each prince has the right to raise an army, some of the big domains have tens of thousands of troops, some of the small domains don't even have an army, they have to rely on the protection of the big domains, the strongest military is of course the Tokugawa shogunate, with a standing army of 15,000 people, this army is the same as our central army, composed of all professional soldiers, but in the book, these soldiers are called samurai."

"Once the country is in danger when the country is attacked, the shogunate can also gather more than 100,000 ashigaru, that is, light infantry, within a few months, and if the army of the various regions is gathered, it can even form a huge army of more than 500,000, of course, the combat effectiveness of such an army is not worth mentioning."

After listening to Liu Qingyan's explanation, Wang Pu continued: "Now I would like to ask the chief of the general staff to briefly introduce to you the plan for the war. ”

Liu Ru stood up and said: "Since the Ming Dynasty does not share a border, the operation against the Ming Dynasty is limited by the Navy's transportation and logistics support capabilities, and with the transportation capacity and overseas logistics support capabilities that the Ming Navy has at present, it can only guarantee cross-sea operations of five infantry battalions and two artillery battalions at most. ”

"With the powerful naval artillery firepower and the strength of the infantry battalion, it is not difficult to land in Yuben and occupy a local area, but it is impossible to conquer the whole of Yueben with these five infantry battalions and two artillery battalions, after all, the population of Yueben is as high as 15 million, and the reserve source is still very sufficient."

"In view of this, the General Staff thought that the war against the Tokugawa Shogunate should be divided into three steps, first by concentrating superior forces to capture Edo with lightning speed, and eliminating the Tokugawa shogunate, the de facto central power of the Shogunate, so that the princes of various regions would fall into a passive situation of fighting their own battles because of the loss of unified command, and thus become a plate of scattered sand."

"Then provoke a scuffle between the princes of Yuben, use the huge profits of the slave trade to induce them to attack each other, fundamentally weaken the manpower and national strength of Yuben, and when the national strength is weakened to the limit, finally gather superior forces to sweep the four islands of Yueben with the momentum of ploughing and sweeping holes, and completely annihilate the Yueben nation."

"Report!"

Liu Ru is voice fell, and a loud voice suddenly sounded outside the conference room.

Wang Puhuo Ran raised his head and said loudly: "Come in." ”

A young staff officer hurriedly walked inside with a folder in his hand and saluted: "Zhenhai Shipbuilding Bureau urgent!" ”

"Zhenhai Shipbuilding Bureau?" Wang Pu muttered a whisper, and Huo Ran said, "Read! ”

The young staff officer opened the folder and read aloud: "The large ironclad ship has been completed and launched, and the trial voyage was successful yesterday!" ”

The young staff officer's voice fell, and the conference room immediately sounded a thunderous cheer, the large ironclad ship was successfully tested, which is great news for the Ming Empire, with this large ironclad ship, not only the strength of the Ming Navy will increase by leaps and bounds, but even the navy's maritime transportation capacity will be greatly improved!

"Okay, great!" Wang Pu couldn't hold back the excitement in his heart, and slammed the knot, "The launch of the large ironclad ship is really timely, just in time for this battle, Xiao Yueben's luck is really good, then let them become the first victim of the Daming ironclad sailor!" ”

After being excited for a long time, Wang Pu found that the young staff officer had not left, and he looked like he wanted to speak and stopped.

Wang Pu frowned and said, "What, is there any other news?" ”

The young staff officer nodded, and said stubbornly: "President Song of the Academy of Military Sciences was overworked, and on the night of the successful trial of the ironclad ship...... Pass away. ”

"What did you say!?"

Wang Pu's face changed dramatically, Song Yingxing's death was definitely a great loss for the Ming Empire, if he had a choice, Wang Pu would rather take the ten infantry battalions of the Central Army to exchange for Song Yingxing's surname, but unfortunately, the ten infantry battalions of the Central Army could not be exchanged for Song Yingxing after all, and this great scientist still passed away.

"Pass on my order,......" Wang Pu ordered in a solemn tone, "Nanjing City and Yanziji Camp will lower the flag at half-mast, and all the people and all the officers and soldiers of the Central Army will wear black yarn, and then wrap the body of Mr. Song with the national flag and transport it back to Nanjing, where it will be buried in the Purple Mountain Imperial Martyrs Cemetery, and will be admired by future generations forever." ”

"Yes!"

The young staff officer solemnly complied and took the order.

The officers in the conference room were a little frightened while being sad, the Beijing and Yanziji camps lowered their flags at half-mast, and all the officers and soldiers of the Central Army wore black yarns, but the most shocking thing was that Wang Pu ordered the body to be wrapped in the national flag and transported back to Nanjing, and then buried Song Yingxing in the Purple Mountain Empire Martyrs Cemetery, what a sad honor?

It is clearly stipulated in the Da Ming Law that only the supreme head of the empire or a person who has made outstanding contributions to the country and the nation is eligible to be wrapped in the national flag after death and buried in the Purple Mountain Empire Martyrs Cemetery! In the eyes of these officers, Song Yingxing doesn't seem to be worthy of such mourning, only Wang Pu knows that Song Yingxing is completely worthy of such a mourning honor!

"In addition...... Wang Pu's majestic gaze slowly swept over everyone's faces, and he said word by word, "This newly completed and launched large ironclad ship is officially named 'Yingxing', in order to commemorate Mr. Song's great contribution to Imperial Science and Technology and the Imperial Navy!" ”

■■■

Half a month later, Wang Pu led four infantry battalions and two artillery battalions to Zhenhai and joined Zhang Yanlan.

At this time, the Daming Navy Division had carried out a large-scale expansion, and officially changed its name to the Pacific Fleet of the Imperial Navy, with Huang Degong as the commander-in-chief of the fleet, under the jurisdiction of the first, second, third, and fourth fleets, the first fleet was stationed in Nanjing Yanziji, directly under the command of Huang Degong, the second fleet was stationed in Quanzhou, the fleet commander was Shi Lang, the third fleet was stationed in Zhenhai, the fleet commander was Zhang Yanlan, the fourth fleet was stationed in Ningbo, and the fleet commander was Li Ang.

In this campaign, in order to send four infantry battalions and two artillery battalions to Osaka, Wang Pu collected several hundred large merchant ships, and even Dutch flat-bottomed merchant ships anchored in Nanjing, Ningbo, Wenzhou, and other ports were forcibly requisitioned.

When Wang Pu arrived at Zhenhai Port, Zhang Yanlan was already waiting at the port with all the officers and men of the Third Fleet.

Unlike the Central Army, the color of the uniform of the Ming Navy is dark blue, looking from afar, like a dark blue ocean, but at this time Wang Pu did not have much heart to inspect the officers and soldiers of the Third Fleet, at this time Wang Pu's heart had already flown to the large ironclad ship moored in the harbor, that is, the just-named "Yingxing".

After hurriedly inspecting the officers and men of the Third Fleet, Zhang Yanlan greeted Wang Pu on the flagship of the Third Fleet, the "Yingxing", and before he boarded the gangway, the first thing that caught Wang Pu's eyes was the iron armor covered on the hull of the "Yingxing", Zhang Yanlan introduced to Wang Pu very proudly: "Lord Wang, the surface of the Yingxing's hull is covered with three layers of iron armor, no matter how far or near the rifle bullets can not penetrate, and the Hongyi cannon from the West 500 meters away cannot penetrate the iron armor, and can only make a dent. ”

The iron armor of the "Yingxing" can only resist direct fire from the Hongyi cannon 500 meters away, if it is within 500 meters, these three layers of iron armor are obviously not enough to resist, but this is enough, because the "Yingxing" is equipped with 20 generals' naval guns, and the range of this general's naval guns is more than 10,000 meters, and it has been sunk by the naval guns on the "Yingxing" long before the enemy ships enter the effective range of the Hongyi cannons.

Accompanied by Zhang Yanlu and more than a dozen naval officers, Wang Pu strode onto the deck of the "Yingxing."

Unlike other ships of the Ming Navy, the deck of the "Yingxing" is also covered with a thin layer of non-skid iron plates, which is of course to prevent the enemy ships from approaching after the fire attack, with the non-skid iron plates on the deck and the armor on the surface on both sides, the entire ironclad ship has completely become a monster wrapped in steel, and it is invincible before the battle.

Due to the different driving forces, the structure of the "Yingxing" ironclad ship has also undergone significant changes compared with the pure wooden sailing ship, the most obvious is the two huge chimneys erected high in the middle of the hull, the main mast that was originally in this position was forced to be canceled, but the other eight masts were retained, after all, the coal reserves on the ship are limited, and the steam power is generally only turned on during combat, and it still has to rely on the wind to drive it in peacetime.

In addition, the superstructure of the deck of the "Yingxing" has also changed similar to that of modern warships, the most obvious is the appearance of the bridge, which is equipped with a command and combat room, a wheelhouse and an open-air command post, if the two steam engines are the heart of the "Yingxing", then the bridge is the brain of the "Yingxing".

Climbing the escalator to the bridge and just after visiting the command war room, Wang Pu suddenly remembered that he had not seen Fang Yizhi and Stephen and other experts from the Academy of Military Sciences until now, and couldn't help asking: "What about Dean Fang and Stephen, aren't they doing the final test work on the ship, why didn't they see them?" ”

Zhang Yanlan hurriedly said: "Mr. Fang, in order to test a few parameters, they were busy until the second half of the night last night before they fell asleep, didn't the prince send a special letter half a month ago, asking the lowly students to take care of the diet and physical condition of the experts of the Academy of Military Sciences, so I didn't dare to wake them up this time." ”

"Huh?" Wang Pu frowned and said, "Didn't you say that you would work according to your schedule?" How do you keep them busy until the middle of the night? ”

"Ugh." Zhang Yanlan sighed and said helplessly, "I have persuaded many times to be lowly, but Mr. Fang, they just refuse to stop the work at hand, and say that this work cannot be interrupted, once it is interrupted, it will be wasted, and if you don't understand it, you can only follow them, and ask the prince to punish you." ”

"Forget it this time." Wang Pu waved his hand and said helplessly, "Don't take it as an example." ”

After Song Yingxing died of illness due to hard work, Wang Pu issued an order, strictly ordering the experts of the Academy of Military Sciences to allocate work in strict accordance with the work and rest time, and also took special care of Zhang Yanlan, commander of the Third Fleet, and asked him to keep abreast of the physical condition of the experts at all times, so as to prevent the tragedy from happening again.

Speaking of which, Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi's personalities are too noble, and their sense of national pride and national honor is too strong, for the sake of the country and the nation, they don't take their personal lives seriously at all, which is too different from the world before Wang Pu crossed over.

In the original world, most of the so-called experts and professors were scumbags who sold their fame and reputation, and in their eyes they only had material desires, greed, and selfish desires, and the interests of the country and the nation were simply a fart in their eyes, and they could sell their souls and personalities at any time for money and beauty.

As he spoke, he entered the wheelhouse of the "Ying Xing".

The wheelhouse faces the bow of the ship, and there is no mast or sail in front, so the bow and the sea in front of it are unobstructed, and the bulkhead of the wheelhouse is hung with a nautical chart drawn during the period of the Three Treasure Eunuchs, and a thick nautical book is placed on the table under the nautical chart, and there are drawing tools such as compasses, rulers, and charcoal around it.

(To be continued)