Regarding the telegram sent by Yuan Shikai, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang just looked at it and threw it aside.

Reinforcements? It's a good thing, but if this reinforcement is still in the northeast...

Counting the time for assembly and transportation, it would have been good for these two divisions to arrive in Shanghai within a week. By the time they arrived in Wuhan, perhaps Feng Guozhang and the others had already fought the Nationalist Army in Yichang for a few rounds.

After throwing the telegram aside, Duan Qirui said to Li Yuanhong on the side.

"Song Qing, what's going on over there?"

"It's not going well, although there are a lot of artillery pieces in the port, but Vice Chief Tang leaves every time he finishes fighting, so the effect is quite good, and now Vice Minister Tang is on his third mission."

Hearing Li Yuanhong say this, Duan Qirui nodded.

"That's good..."

――――――――――

While Duan Qirui and Li Yuanhong were talking in the Governor's Mansion, Tang Qianming was lying on a recliner, enjoying the gentle sunshine and the deck breeze of the Flying Eagle.

Just when Tang Qianming was still enjoying there, Lin Haicang, the captain of the Flying Eagle, suddenly walked over. "Vice Chief Tang, it's almost noon, do you want to go to the restaurant to eat first?"

Shaking his head, Tang Qianming, who opened his eyes, raised his head and said to Lin Haicang.

"Captain Lin, how much time is left until Padang?"

Hearing Tang Qianming ask, Lin Haicang looked at the watch on his wrist.

"It's probably an hour or so away."

"In this way..."Tang Qianming nodded and lay back on the recliner. Eat first, and I'll stay a little longer. ”

"Yes."

After Lin Haicang left the deck, Tang Qianming continued to enjoy the sunshine and deck wind while recalling the cause of this mission.

Five days ago, Li Yuanhong's spies in Padang suddenly reported that the National Army was expanding the original wharf in Padang.

After learning the news, Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui quickly judged that the Socialist Army wanted to build Badong County into a bridgehead and transit station to Hubei. As long as Badong can be built into a bridgehead and transit station with sufficient throughput, then relying on the help of the Yangtze River, the Nationalist Army will not need to worry about logistics problems when it enters Hubei. If the SSA wanted to reinforce Padang, it would only need to transport the troops to Padang by boat.

And these are all things that Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui can't tolerate.

Now there are only two ways for Beiyang reinforcements to reach Wuhan, one is to transport the troops from Yanjing to Wuhan by train through the Jinghan Railway. The other is to transport troops by sea, that is, from the ports of Andong (Dandong), Lushun, and Tianjin, from these ports to Shanghai, and then to Wuhan.

Compared with the National Social Army, which is basically at the doorstep, it takes a long time for Beiyang reinforcements to reach Hubei.

If the National Social Army really gains a foothold in Badong and comes out of a port with a huge throughput by the way, it is estimated that Yuan Shikai will need to think about whether to fight in another place.

So in order to stop ...... At least to delay the progress of the expansion of the port of Padang, Duan Qirui asked Tang Qianming to take his fleet outside the port to carry out the task of harassment. That is, there is nothing to fire two cannons, and destroy the port that the workers have built with great difficulty.

At the beginning, this task was still very easy, after all, Tang Qianming's arrival in Padang's National Social Army was unaware.

However, after the expansion of the port was first harassed, Zhu Qinglan deployed all the 105 and 120 caliber cannons in the army near the port.

In Zhu Qinglan's view, after deploying so many 120-caliber cannons, if Tang Qianming still dares to come, these cannons can definitely teach him a profound lesson. However, Zhu Qinglan obviously forgot one thing, that is, at a distance of seven or eight kilometers, it is not easy for the coastal defense ship guns to hit the warship floating on the water. Of course, it is more difficult for the naval guns on the warship to hit the target, it's just ...... Compared with the small warships on the river, the port on the shore is obviously much larger, and the gunners on the warships can easily hit the dock in the port without even deliberately aiming...

Moreover, the wooden dock in the harbor is simply vulnerable in the face of shells, such as Flying Eagle, Jiang Li, Jiang Yuan, and other warships, only need a few random rounds to make a mess of the dock, and at this time, even if the artillery group responsible for defense is lucky, it only hits one or two shots...

Every time Tang Qianming's fleet wreaked havoc in the port of Badong and left, Zhu Qinglan, who rushed to hear the news, looked at the chaotic port and Tang Qianming who was leaving, and had the urge to jump into the river and fight with him.

But there is no way, even if he really jumps into the river, he is not Tang Qianming's opponent.

You must know that even the Yangtze River gunboats, which are the slowest among the five warships, have a maximum speed of 13 knots, and the speed of the Flying Eagle, the Lake Falcon, and the Lake Eagle has reached 23 knots. Although Zhu Qinglan is also good at swimming, even if his speed is ten times faster, he can't catch up with them...

"Whew..."

After lying on the recliner for more than ten minutes, feeling that he had blown enough, Tang Qianming first stretched his waist and got up and walked in the direction of the restaurant.

With less than an hour to go before he reached the waters near Patong, he didn't want to eat while fighting.

As for the danger of this mission? When he heard that the National Social Army had a Sichuan naval army stationed in Yucheng, Tang Qianming was also vigilant, after all, he himself knew how weak his fleet was. But after he led this fleet to attack and harass the defenders of Badong many times in a row, but the Sichuan Navy still did not appear, Tang Qianming's vigilance also faded.

"That's right, after all, the navy is not just buying a few warships, but also needs to train naval officers and other technical arms, and it also needs to have a certain foundation in logistics and maintenance. Although the nouveau riche surnamed Yan bought a lot of gunboats from Germany, he probably hasn't even recruited all the sailors to drive the warships..."

Thinking so, Tang Qianming walked into the restaurant inside the Flying Eagle ship.

As far as common sense is concerned, what Tang Qianming thinks in his heart is not wrong at all, a century-old navy, a good navy needs years of accumulation, this kind of accumulation is not just to buy some equipment――――― our great third brother is one of them...

But...... It is precisely because he is very aware of this that when choosing German-made gunboats, Yan Guang also "purchased" a large number of "German-made" technicians by the way. These technicians are not only responsible for providing support capabilities for Yan Guang's naval equipment, but also for training Chinese trainees.

With the help of these technicians, the proper rate of the Sichuan Navy can be said to be quite high...

Of course, Tang Qianming, who was still on the ship, would not understand this.

――――――――――

After having dinner with Lin Haicang and other officers in the dining room, Tang Qianming quietly tasted the freshly brewed Tieguanyin alone...... This is Tang Qianming's favorite tea.

While Tang Qianming was tasting tea, other people, such as Lin Haicang, were also silently doing their own things.

As for wartime planning or something? Not at all, in Tang Qianming's opinion, this mission is the same as the previous times, as long as the naval artillery is used to destroy the dock that the workers have worked so hard to repair.

It's just that when Tang Qianming and the others were still wandering in the restaurant, a rapid alarm suddenly sounded from the Flying Eagle, and at the same time, a naval officer suddenly ran in from outside.

"What's wrong?"

Looking at his subordinates' panicked appearance, Lin Haicang asked after frowning.

In the past, Lin Hai has been teaching his subordinates to stay calm no matter what happens, and to keep his face unchanged when Mount Tai collapses, and now that his subordinates are like this, Lin Haicang naturally feels a little unhappy.

However, at this time, the officer couldn't care about Lin Haicang's thoughts at all, he just pointed outside and said loudly.

"Outside...... A fleet has appeared outside! ”

"What?"

Hearing what the officer said, Tang Qianming and Lin Haicang both stood up, and then walked out quickly.

Behind Tang Qianming and Lin Haicang, a group of officers of the Flying Eagle also walked out.

When Tang Qianming and Lin Haicang walked into the bridge, they found that there were 15 warships coming directly in front of them.

Then looking at these 15 ships, almost all of them were the same as the Flying Eagle under his feet, no, it should be said that it was a warship that was a little bigger than the Flying Eagle, Tang Qianming felt that his eyelids jumped several times.

"Sichuan Water Army?"

Looking at the naval fleet in front of him, which was simply a behemoth compared to his own, Tang Qianming's mouth popped out of these four words.

At this time, Lin Haicang, who put down the binoculars on the side, also looked at Tang Qianming.

"Vice Chief Tang, what should we do now?"

"What should I do..."Tang Qianming smiled bitterly. Let the two ships of the Lake Falcon and the Lake Eagle fire torpedoes to disrupt the formation of the Sichuan naval army, and then we will turn to ......... Escape back to Wuhan..."Just now Tang Qianming glanced at it with a telescope, the group of gunboats on the opposite side had four 120 caliber naval guns on the foredeck alone, if it really started, today's more than 100 catties of meat would probably be sacrificed to the Dragon King of the Yangtze River.

However, hearing Tang Qianming say this, Lin Haicang frowned and said to Tang Qianming while signaling the herald to give orders to the other 4 ships.

"But Vice Chief Tang, if you do this, I'm afraid that Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li won't be able to escape..."

The speed of the two gunboats Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li is 13 knots, while the gunboats of the Sichuan Navy in front of them have a speed of at least 20 knots.

"Now it's better to run away from one and run away from one, and it's better to die two than to die both..."

As he spoke, the Lake Falcon, the Lake Eagle, and the Flying Eagle had already fired nine torpedoes at the oncoming 15 German-made gunboats.

And the 15 German-made gunboats were the same as Tang Qianming thought, and after seeing the 9 white stripes, they maneuvered to avoid torpedoes.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Flying Eagle and other ships turned around and returned to the way they came.

And at this time, after evading 9 torpedoes, the 15 guns on the foredeck of the 60 gunboats of 120 caliber had already carried out the first round of shelling towards Tang Qianming's fleet ...

(To be continued)