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March 24, 1862 is a day worth remembering forever for the Chinese Empire, and even a new starting point for the entire Chinese nation. Then today is the turning point that will really determine the fate of the Chinese in the next 100 years!

The main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy under the command of Lin Haijiang faced the Eight-Nation Allied Fleet on the preset battlefield, losing eight of its own ships, four of which were sunk, four of which ran aground, and 26 of the 38 torpedo boats, and Qi Bin, the captain of Wen Tianxiang's brigade, and Liu Hongtao, the captain of Shi Kefa's brigade, were killed one after another, with 2,697 officers and men, including 1,965 killed, completely crushing the main fleet of the coalition forces, sinking 11 enemy ships, and the coalition forces running aground, being damaged, and capturing 17 enemy ships. Only seventeen battleships of varying degrees of damage managed to break through the coalition. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Lin Haijiang knew very well that this was a brilliant victory worthy of his great pride in the true sense, although the war on land had not yet begun, but the decisive battle at sea had already settled at this moment. The coalition fleet commanded by William was almost destroyed, new weapons, new tactics, preset battlefields, Zhenyuan and Dingyuan, two battleships of super-epochal significance, Lin Haijiang occupied the right time, place and people, and the Chinese Empire achieved the so-called victory, but this victory was very bitter for Lin Haijiang and the Chinese Imperial Navy.

In the fierce battle on the afternoon of March 24, 1862, the Chinese Empire lost four warships, seven captains were killed, and more than 370 naval officers at all levels were killed.

At the beginning of the declaration of war, Lin Haijiang wanted to make an open alliance with Prussia, but after the analysis of the Strategic Analysis Center, Lin Haijiang believed that Prussia would not join the camp of the Chinese Empire to confront the whole of Europe, unless Prussia went crazy, although the Chinese Empire was an ally of Prussia, but the relationship between the two sides was based on a large transaction of arms, technology, and metallurgical equipment. It is a very unwise thing to fight against the seven European countries with the Chinese Empire, so Lin Haijiang did not rashly propose an alliance to declare war against the enemy, and the diplomacy between countries in the world relies on military strength to speak, only this war, Lin Haijiang knows that the rise of the Chinese Empire has reached the point of unstoppability, and the only thing that needs to be considered is the international strategic measures of the Chinese Empire!

Lin Haijiang has realized the fact that when you are weak, you will only attract the devouring of wild beasts, but when you are strong, there will be friends who will appear, and even follow the little brother who is around you.

Although the battle in the South China Sea has come to an end, and there are only 16 warships that Lin Haijiang can hardly come up with, he still understands the truth that evil cannot be exhausted, and the fifteen third-class sail battleships and the training ships of Loyalty and Rigor of the Hainan Fortress Shipyard have all joined the ranks of emergency repairs, including transporting and towing captured and stranded ships of the coalition forces, it can be said that this is the first time that Hainan Shipyard has accepted such a large repair task. Previously, Dock No. 2 was also trying to build a new type of 4,500-ton full-protection fast cruiser equipped with a steam turbine theoretical machine with a combat speed of up to 18 knots.

The large-scale maintenance work provided the Hainan shipyard with the opportunity to conduct large-scale training for the next time, but due to the excessive number of damaged warships, even the two newly built 10,000-ton floating docks were put into use, and even so, most of the warships could only be simply repaired at the port, and after the allied naval forces were annihilated, they were sent to the Imperial Fortress Shipyard and the Guangzhou Shipyard for repair.

Although Zhenyuan and Dingyuan were hit by more than 500 rounds of bullets, none of them could effectively penetrate the protective armor of the Zhenyuan and Dingyuan ships, but the auxiliary gun positions on the left and right sides of the Zhenyuan and Dingyuan ships were basically destroyed, and the front of the armored control towers of the two ships was also riddled with bullets, so it can be said that most of the casualties of the two ships were basically concentrated in the secondary gun positions.

On April 1, 1862, April Fool's Day was a time to laugh at for these Westerners who were far away from Europe, and Duke Hanni, the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces who had just arrived in the port of Batavia, looked at several of the Dutch army commanders who looked down and slightly frightened and gave a stern reprimand, which was premised on the fact that Duke Hanni did not understand Dutch, and the Dutch could not understand his English!

Wang Dongxu's elusive attack on the Indonesian island left the Dutch retreating back into the ruined city of Batavia, and the Dutch did not know who their opponent had fallen. How many of them are there? How many weapons do they have? The Dutch, who only knew that the black devil was always hiding in the shadows, crept out and slit their throats, scalped off and hung the corpses upside down.

The sentries went from two to four at the beginning, and then to eight, and even then the sentries continued to be attacked, and the most bizarre thing was that after six of the eight sentinels were killed, the other two frightened people didn't even know when they were attacked, and the terrible black devil had become the code name for the third operation of the armed gendarmerie special forces.

Duke Hanni was very dissatisfied with the stupidity of the coalition forces attacking the Imperial fortress of the Chinese Empire, because in the eyes of Duke Hanni, this was a completely meaningless action, because even if they captured the Imperial fortress, all they could get was a pile of stones? A pile of corpses and a pile of broken weapons? The plundering of the port of Batavia made Duke Hanni very excited, but he was also even more angry that no one had sent any loot to him, the titular commander of the coalition forces? Are these stupid guys making fun of themselves for April Fool's Day?

The main fleet of the coalition forces went to sea to engage in a so-called strategic decisive battle with the Imperial Chinese Navy before it arrived? Duke Hanni vs. James. William's ability is still very recognized, otherwise he would not have recommended him as the commander of the Allied Navy, of course, all this is for Jeanne's sake. William's five hundred Spanish gold coins on the face.

In the only intact port control building in the port of Batavia, Duke Hanni met with the French Admiral Plimpton, who was busy with the dispatch of supplies. Arthur, for James. Duke Hanni was still very happy with William's hand, but after all, the French were stunned, and the French, who were bent on competing with the empire for supremacy in Europe, put forward a request for peace talks in Sedan, and they were exhausted from going back and forth with Prussia, and it is said that the representatives of both sides had begun secret negotiations in Paris.

France has bullied Prussia for so many years, if Prussia is knocked to the ground, Duke Hanny believes that the Prussians will never be polite to the French, the Franco-Prussian War has detonated the sharp class contradictions and economic crisis in France, and the French will also lose the best opportunity to rise in Europe and compete with the British Empire, from the Crimean War to the invasion of the Qing Dynasty, in a series of actions to Indochina, the French have been trying to restore the territory of Napoleon's empire, but Duke Hanny knows, France chose the wrong opponent this time, the French navy was inferior to the Imperial Navy on the ocean, and Prussia could not be defeated on land, and the French could only recall the time when they were known as the first army power in Europe.

Duke Hanni was a little anxious at the moment, because the Russians and the Qing land army were already approaching Wuhan. If William did not destroy the naval power of the Chinese Empire as soon as possible and directly capture such rich cities as Guangzhou and Shanghai, then he, the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, would most likely return empty-handed!

Her Majesty Queen Victoria launched this expedition for the interests of the British Empire in the Far East, and the huge fleet along the way sailed in batches every other week, otherwise no colonial port on the way could meet the supply of such a large fleet, and when Duke Hanni arrived at the port of Batavia on the latest armored cruiser of the Empire's Ark Royal, there was still a supply fleet on the way from the docks in Liverpool, and all the supplies that India had been hoarding for many years were all transferred, mobilizing manpower and material resources of such a scale. For the sake of the core interests of the empire in the East.

Although Duke Hanni has not dealt with Lin Haijiang, he can feel his hatred of the British Empire from the rise of the Chinese Empire has been in previous battles, if Lin Haijiang unifies China, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, it is estimated that Lin Haijiang will abolish all the so-called treaties, the empire is just getting a penny from the East, if it is arbitrarily developed by this scholarly country, the empire's colonies in India are likely to fall into the hands of the other party, and the East is too far for Europe, That's why the empire will increase its investment in the Suez Canal, doubling the original design of the river with a double bottom, what a huge project will it be?

Duke Hanni knew very well that if the Suez Canal could not pass through more than 10,000 tons of warships, then it would lose its original strategic significance, as a canal connecting the ocean, its fundamental significance was to be able to easily make the main fleet of the British Empire can quickly appear in the Pacific Ocean!

In the evening, Duke Hanni, standing on the dock, greeted the first battleship of the coalition fleet to return to the port of Batavia, the Empress Victoria, with a deformed armored conning tower? Bullet marks all over the hull, dying wounded on deck? This is James. Is Admiral William joking with himself? Was this really the Queen Victoria heavy cruiser?

Duke Hanni found James. William's aide-de-camp Wellingt, who looked depressed, saw that it was Duke Hanni, and after saluting with a strong spirit, he sent James . Admiral William's pistol was handed into the hands of Duke Hanni and said, "Your Excellency, I am very sorry to take the place of James. His Excellency Admiral William informs you that we have been defeated, so to speak, a complete defeat. ”

How Duke Hanni wished it was a huge April Fool's joke? When he saw James. After William's foul-smelling body was carried out, Duke Hanny was lucky enough to faint, and several members of the Admiralty Senate and Congress, who accompanied Duke Hanni, met James Brown. William's maggot-covered nostrils and bullet holes in his head almost made him vomit out his bitter gall.

The first thing Duke Hanny did when he came to his senses was to ask Wellingt to go to Princeton. Arthur, the old French fellow still had some real material, and Wellingte had been gone for less than a minute when he rushed back and reported: "Your Excellency the Duke, Princeton. Admiral Arthur is waiting for you at the pier. ”

Duke Hanni, who knew that he had passed out for five hours, felt that his steps were a little erratic! James. William's fiasco gave him too much stimulus, and eighty percent of the warships built in the first phase of the Royal Navy's new program were used in this expedition, two years and seven months of construction, and more than three months of circumnavigation of most of the world, just to reach the East and achieve the rise of another country?

Duke Hanny knew that no matter what the outcome of this battle was, his career would definitely be over, and with the close relationship between himself and the empress, the title would naturally be worry-free, but this result was really difficult for him to accept, and he wanted to take the opportunity to make a big profit to alleviate the crisis faced by the family business, and now the crisis does not seem to be a big problem, but he himself has put all his future into it.

On the dock, Duke Hanny looked at the thirteen allied warships that had escaped back to the port of Batavia after many hardships, and Wellingt said sadly on the side: "Due to the difference in the coal carried by the battleships, I am afraid that the ones who have not returned now are already more auspicious!" ”

There was chaos on the dock, a large number of wounded were carried off the battleship, the dock was placed everywhere, most of the wounded who were unable to wail were dying, and even the battleship with bruises was still emitting black smoke, and the bullet holes on the armored control tower seemed to show the world the fierceness of the previous battle, and now no one would think that this was an easy trip to fortune, especially the Indians in the British and Indian troops began to panic, they have always been the preferred targets of revenge for those demons of the Chinese Empire lurking in the jungle, Staying away from the jungle and cherishing life has become the mantra of the Anglo-Indian troops, and many white officers even secretly ripped off the military badge representing the Anglo-Indian troops on their shoulders, for fear that they would become the priority target, if an Italian army officer stood with a British army officer, then it was the British who must die first.

If a British soldier and an Indian soldier stand together, then the first person to be cared for by the sniper on the other side must be the Indian, and if a person from the Anglo-Indian 10th Division and a person from the Anglo-Indian 15th Division stand together, the first person to be hit in the head must be a person from the Anglo-Indian 10th Division.

Plimpton. Seeing Duke Hanni arrive at the dock, Arthur greeted him with a solemn face and said: "Your Excellency Duke Hanni, the situation is far more serious than I expected, now the main force of our army is all in the opponent's imperial fortress, a full three divisions and five infantry regiments, if they retreat, we will directly face the threat of the opponent's fortress artillery fire, these unimaginably large cannons are used to block the strait, even if it is a second-class sail battleship, it only needs one cannon!" ”

Duke Hanny was suddenly extremely surprised: "Then why don't we take this damn fortress?" Aren't there more than 30,000 people who have already invaded the other city? ”

Plimpton. Arthur really wanted to tell Duke Hanni what kind of city the Imperial Fortress was, the smooth invasion of the coalition forces was just the result of the opponent's tactical retreat, if the opponent held the first line of defense, I am afraid that the attacking troops would still be repeatedly entangled in the docks and beachheads!

Plimpton. Arthur hesitated for a moment and said: "The main body of the Imperial Fortress Imperial Firmament is different from the ordinary fortress, its main fortification can withstand the bombardment of the largest caliber coastal defense artillery in the empire without limit, and its condescending position, the turret placed above has almost no dead ends, the Chinese Empire is equipped with enough troops and firepower in the fortress, and the materials it prepares are conservatively estimated to be able to be used for more than five years, it can be said that the imperial fortress at that time was a fish bone smeared with poison prepared by Lin Haijiang for the coalition army, Now stuck in the throat can not spit out or swallow, we have clashed with the Chinese Empire many times, its strategic decisions cannot be predicted by conventional ways of thinking, so we also have to surprise the victory! ”

Duke Hanny looked at Plimpton dumbfounded. Arthur was surprised: "Surprise? What Odd Soldier? Where do we still have military strength? Just those battleships that are already covered in bruises? If they can sail without being silent, it will be a blessing! ”

Plimpton. Arthur said very seriously: "We still have seven battleships that serve as patrols intact, plus nine of the thirteen battleships that have been returned with minor damage, and we still have sixteen warships to deploy, according to the investigation and inquiry of Adjutant Wellingt who has returned to the fleet, the Chinese Empire was already at the end of the crossbow at that time, if it weren't for the darkness and the fact that they used new weapons to carry out suicidal attacks, the victory of the coalition forces was already undoubted, and we couldn't give the enemy time to restore their combat effectiveness, You must know that it will take at least a few months for our reinforcements to reach the East, but in two months, the Chinese Imperial Navy will be able to recover at least about sixty percent of its combat effectiveness, which will be a catastrophic consequence for us. ”

Duke Hanny hesitated and said, "Princeton. Admiral Arthur, I wonder how sure we would be if we took the initiative to attack? You know, the current coalition fleet is still facing the final collapse, the naval warships of Italy, Russia, the Netherlands and other countries can be said to be exhausted, if we fail once, it is not only the failure of the navy! You must know that our overall strategy is to force a landing in Canton after destroying the sea power of the Chinese Empire, and to flank the Chinese Empire from the north and south with the Russian and Qing armies. ”

(To be continued)