【2nd Update】

Deng Shichang came to visit Lu Hong a few times, originally to understand the problem of new artillery skills, however, on this issue, for the current artillery system of the Beiyang Naval Division, if there is no technical improvement, Lu Hong obviously did not find any artillery technology that can be implemented, so improving the artillery shells has become the only possibility, and this possibility, so that these naval officers are overjoyed, both the power of flowering shells and armor-piercing shells, this seemingly compromise plan, is the best choice to deal with the Xiao Yueben battleship.

Tang Wenjin, who was born as a gunnery officer, and Xi Habermen, a German gunnery instructor on the Zhiyuan ship, had a very strong conversation, and a room of people discussed this new type of shell until midnight, and put forward a lot of ideas and opinions about the shell, which made Lu Hong have to admire the dedication of these guys.

After sending off the vote, Ouyang Hao, who was guarding the door, walked in solemnly and said loudly: "Report, my lord, I heard that we are going back to Shanghai......

Lu Hong looked up at this guy, he had been tossing for most of the night, and was about to go to sleep, what else was there to make this thing happen, "Ouyang Hao, you don't want to go back?" Or do you have any other ideas? ”

"My lord, if a conflict breaks out between China, I think Lushun will definitely be a key point of contention between the two sides, so I think that if I leave here and go back to Shanghai, I will lose the opportunity to fight with Xiao Yueben!" Ouyang Hao immediately stood up straight and said loudly.

Lu Hong was taken aback by these words, this Ouyang Hao is definitely a natural good soldier, trains hard, and has a flexible brain, and more importantly, this guy also likes to read and think, which is an excellent potential to become an excellent officer, but after just going to Lushun, this guy actually came up with such an opinion...... This is fully in line with the historical process that I understand.

This made him suddenly interested, and he pointed to the opposite position, "Ouyang Hao, how did you come up with this inference?" ”

Ouyang Hao pursed his lips, immediately came to Lu Hong's table, and pointed to the simple map made by Lu Hong, "My lord, although this Lushun Military Port is well defended, it is indeed an out-and-out place of death, if the naval battle is lost, there is no way out...... Once a national war breaks out, it is definitely not just a battle of the sailors, and it is impossible for me not to understand the important surname and weak back road of Port Arthur! ”

"Ouyang Hao, you probably forgot, the defense of Port Arthur has won the praise of Lord Zhongtang, and the forts are all built by the Germans, which are extremely strong, and if I want to take it, it will be very difficult!" Lu Hong immediately smiled and set up this guy, from Lushunkou to the outer Tuchengzi, there are more than ten defensive fortresses, theoretically speaking, it is indeed indestructible!

"If the sea passage is unblocked, this Lushun fortress must be impregnable, but, didn't you say it all, my lord, the Beiyang Naval Division may not be able to beat him...... If the sea route is lost, the land route of this Lushun fortress will be cut off, I am afraid that it will be chaotic without a fight! Ouyang Hao deduced it like a river, and it was quite similar to the battle situation in later generations.

This made Lu Hong look at this guy a few more times, during this time he carefully observed the batch of army seedlings he selected, one by one did make a lot of progress, of course, there were a few dissatisfied manpower, he began to consider another arrangement, but the absolute majority still gained his trust, and with the military aircraft department to prepare for the establishment of a military discipline battalion order, it is obviously possible to master a real sense of the army.

However, his current position is really nameless, fortunately, he can pull Wang Renkan's banner, otherwise he really can't do anything, after praising Ouyang Hao fiercely, Lu Hong also revealed two sentences of his own arrangement, "Ouyang Hao, if it really starts a war, you don't have to worry about not being able to go into battle, Lord Wang will definitely not watch from the wall...... But now that you have only a few men, are you going to be a Warlord...... As for the present, how to maintain this sea power is the most important thing! ”

The literal meaning of "sea control ......" is very easy to understand, after Ouyang Hao smashed his mouth, he immediately understood, and he bowed unhurriedly and retreated.

Early the next morning, Lu Hong did not rush to see Wang Renkan, but found Tang Wenjin and the German Habermen, personally ran to the South Bullet Depot, and got out seven or eight heavy artillery shells and armor-piercing shells.

Several models of flowering shells were carefully removed and disassembled, but it confirmed Habermen's assertion that the trigger fuse on the tip of the shell was indeed extremely sensitive, and after hitting any solid target, it would immediately penetrate the thin copper skin under the fuse and finally ignite the primer and cause the shell to explode......

If it is the explosion of a 350-kilogram large flowering bomb in Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, it may cause serious damage to a steel plate of about 100mm, but the power of a flowering bullet of about 200mm has plummeted, and if it explodes outside the steel frame, it will not be enough to complete a serious blow.

After drilling a 260mm armor-piercing bullet, Lu Hong was immediately dumbfounded, and there was a lot of sand flowing out of it, and Habermen and Tang Wenjin next to him said very calmly that this is an armor-piercing bullet made by the Jiangnan Bureau, mainly considering this caliber heavy artillery, and it is too wasteful to use solid armor-piercing bullets, so there is a wrought iron shell, filled with sand to increase weight!

It turned out that later generations despised Beiyang for using inferior shells...... It turned out to be the accepted standard of this era!

Lu Hong benefited a lot from the artillery shell research work that day, and he also had a full understanding of the technician level of the big dock here in Port Arthur, and more importantly, he had a deeper and more rational understanding of the current domestic military technology! Government ...... It is indeed the only way to destroy the industry, and the technical specifications of these shells are obviously still stuck in ten years ago...... Maybe even 15 years ago!

After going back and thinking carefully in the house for a day, Lu Hong immediately ran to see Wang Renkan, and picked out the key points about the cannonballs he talked about with Deng Shichang and his gang yesterday, and this person immediately became interested, "Lu Hong, are you sure that the shells of the Beiyang Naval Division can be improved today?" ”

"I don't dare to say that I am 10% sure, ** into that! However, ......" Lu Hong showed a confident expression, although there are a large number of unqualified shells in the warehouse, but it is indeed not difficult to select a part of the qualified products for the transformation of the surname, but the difficulty is to transform in batches!

Wang Renkan frowned, "But what?" This is a major matter related to the country, and we must not abandon the public for private reasons! ”

Wang Renkan obviously thought that Lu Hong was going to make some small moves through this matter, so he set the tone immediately, which caused Lu Hong to secretly raise his middle finger at him again, "My lord, we are dedicated to the public, but we need a large number ......of machines, raw materials, and manpower to do this."

Now Wang Renkan understood it, thought about it for a while, and immediately smiled, "This matter is naturally handled by me, you go and think carefully about the transformation of the shell, I will personally ask Li Zhongtang and Weng Ge Lao for money, raw materials, and manpower...... If it does, I'll take credit for you personally! ”

On the same day, Wang Renkan drafted a telegram and sent it to Li Hongzhang and Weng Tongxi, and in the evening, the telegram from Li Hongzhang's side had arrived, and Lao Li's reply was only six words, "But follow the meaning of Qincha!" ”

In order to commend Wang Renkan's achievements in supervising military discipline, the official position was promoted from the third-grade bachelor to the second-grade Hanlin master, which is a very noble position, and he was also given two eyes to wear a flower feather.

Lu Hong, who Wang Renkan was promoted in the excerpt, was promoted again and promoted to the promotion from the five-rank promotion division, but there was no real shortage, and he continued to work as an errand in Qincha, Yan Fu, Tan Xianpin, and Feng Hesheng all had their own awards, and Yan Fu finally got a real position as a general judge in Haizhou, Jiangsu, but he would not go to office now, which is more important, he couldn't understand it better.

On 31 May, Keisuke Oshima, the Korean minister to Korea, had already learned of the news that the Joseon King Yi Hee had ordered a request to the Qing government to send troops, and the present side immediately reacted very decisively.

After explaining in detail the situation of the Qing Army, War Minister Dashan Yan made it even clearer that the Army could completely defeat the loosely disciplined squadron in a local war, and might even win a victory in suppression......

On the same day, Ito Hirobumi ordered the establishment of a war command headquarters with Navy Minister Saigo and War Minister Oyama Iwa in charge of the Korean military operations, and at the same time, 7,000 men of the Third Division were transferred to form the Korean Conquest Mixed Brigade to prepare for war.

On the same day that the cabinet decided to send troops, Keisuke Otori, the minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Korea, personally called on Yuan Shikai and deliberately asked about China's dispatch of troops to Korea, and repeatedly said that he had no intention of intervening in Korean affairs and hoped that the Qing Dynasty would send troops to assist the Korean royal family in pacifying the Donghak faction who were attacking Jinju.

In the afternoon of the same day, Morita Cheng, the consul of the Qing Dynasty in Tianjin, went to the Governor's Office of Zhili to meet with Li Hongzhang, and also clearly expressed his desire for the Qing Dynasty to quickly send troops to Korea......

After receiving the expected reply, on the morning of June 3, under the escort of two Beiyang naval warships Zhiyuan and Jingyuan, Nie Shicheng, the chief officer of Taiyuan Town, led 900 troops to land in Asan in North Korea on a British merchant ship, and Yuan Shikai, after receiving the telegram, immediately informed Keisuke Otori of the dispatch of the Qing Zheng axe.

And when the news reached Wang Renkan, who had already arrived in Shanghai, the development of the North Korean incident had already reached the situation predicted by Lu Hong earlier, which made him also very shocked. Will things develop according to Lu Hong's plan? Naturally, these became his top priority! (To be continued.) )