Sanshawan is located in the southeast of Ningde City, Fujian Province, at the midpoint of China's 18,400-kilometer golden coastline. It is the "gateway to entry and exit, the throat of Wuyi" in the east coast of Fujian, the topographic mouth of Sanshawan is small and large, and it is embraced by the Dongchong Peninsula and the Jianjiang Peninsula, with a water area of 714 square kilometers, and the water outlet has only the only Dongchong mouth, with a width of only 2.6 kilometers.

Sandu Aokou is lined with Qingshan, Doumao, Jigong, Dong'an, Hengyu and other islands, which are intertwined with the coastal mountains and headlands, becoming a natural barrier to block the wind and waves from the Pacific Ocean. In the 714 square kilometers of Sansha Bay, 173 square kilometers of water above 10 meters and other deep waters, a US Navy general once visited Sanduao, and was deeply attracted by the unparalleled natural conditions here, he declared, "Whoever controls this harbor can control the entire western Pacific Ocean; If the United States acquires Sanduao, the Pacific Ocean will become an American lake. ”

It is precisely because of the special strategic position of Sanduao in the military that the Chinese Navy, which suffers from the lack of a place to stand, chose Sanshawan as a naval base, and at the beginning it only built a steel-concrete structure trestle and a military camp on the Dongchong Peninsula and excavated it into the cave.

During last year's tariff negotiations, after China made a promise that it would never lease Sanduao to another country without authorization, the originally not lively Fuhai Customs was canceled, and after the ruling axe funded the purchase of foreign companies and church buildings on Sanduao Island, the entire people around Sanshawan were relocated.

Since then, the navy has begun to plan and build Sansha Bay according to the naval base camp, and there are a large number of naval factories such as naval special steel works and naval shipyards along the bay, although these projects have not yet been completed or even started, but it is destined to become the largest naval complex in South China.

Although there are only dozens of steel stacks in Sansha Bay, this is an exclusive naval base owned by the Chinese Navy after losing Weihaiwei and Lushunkou, and Sansha Bay will be the place where the dragon's fleet sets sail again...... It should be the determination of the Chinese Empire to go to the sea.

No, at this time, compared with the forts and fortresses on the mountains, this huge natural harbor really does not have much of the appearance of a naval base, let alone the appearance of a "naval base camp", only the wharf, shipyard, and cave warehouse under construction under the lights remind people that this will be the first base camp of the Chinese Navy.

The battleships "Zhenhai" and "Dinghai", these two battleships were ordered during the arms race between Chile and Argentina in 1901, and became the army of the Chinese Navy after several setbacks. With a displacement of about 11,800 tons, it was equipped with the standard firepower of a second-class battleship - 4 10-inch MK and VI main guns, 10 of 14 7.5-inch secondary guns, mounted in well-protected gun frames above the main deck, and 14 14-pounder guns, although both the British and Chileans regarded it as a battleship, but because of its light armament and protection, and its speed, it was more like a "super armored cruiser".

But these two "super armored cruisers" have been the capital ships of the Chinese Navy or the current Imperial Chinese Navy since they returned to China, and they are the only two capital ships of the Imperial Navy.

At this time, after two weeks of training in the East China Sea, on the third day of returning to Hong Kong, preparations for the sea began at the base on the Tung Chong Peninsula, which was unprecedented. In the light of the harbor lights, the two "battleships" were reloading supplies, trying to saturate all their supply and ammunition holds. Fill the cold storage with fresh meat, and the food storage with flour and vegetables.

The conveyor belt of the military port is loaded with anthracite produced in Shanxi Province to the coal tank. This kind of low-sulfur and high-calorie anthracite, which is not inferior in quality to Welsh anthracite, is the high-quality coal that the navy found only after searching thousands of large and small coal mines across the country.

In the boiler room, where the temperature at the bottom of the ship's cabin was nearly 40 degrees, the shirtless sailors were wielding shovels to send Datong anthracite coal into the blazing boiler, and while they were desperately adding coal to the boiler to warm up the boiler so that the battleship could have enough steam to move, the rubber pipes filled with water were filling the tank with fresh water.

Of course, the most important thing is to load the ammunition compartment with shells. A small, smoke-spewing narrow-gauge steam locomotive was parked on the side of a long open-top train loaded with ten-inch shells. The ship's crane was hoisting 500-pound shells into the air before slowly lowering them.

In this way, the 10-inch cap-piercing shells and high-explosive shells manufactured by the Jiangnan Naval Manufacturing Bureau passed through the layers of decks and loaded into the ammunition compartments deep under the waterline, and at the same time, 200-pound 7.5-inch auxiliary shells and the propellant packs of the main and auxiliary guns were hoisted onto the ship.

In the berth area, the cruiser fleet consisting of the "Haiqi", "Haitian", "Hairong", "Haichou" and "Haichen" was ready to leave the port, while at another trestle, the Marine Brigade was waiting in line to step on the training ship.

Departure, departure, expedition!

This is another expedition of the dragon's fleet!

When the entire base was making final preparations for the upcoming expedition, a new detachment drove along the dock to reinforce the crew of the "Zhenhai" and "Dinghai".

This is a detachment of young officers. They are very young indeed, almost children. They were students who had not yet graduated from the Naval Officers Academy on Zhangzi Island, and these more than 100 young naval officers were ordered to enter the warship for apprenticeship. These young people are proud of their new identity and new uniforms.

With the peculiar activity of young people, they lined up in two squares and headed for the gangways of the two huge "Zhenhai" class warships. Soon they stopped at the gangway and continued to play, and the young men boarded the warship along the gangway with the precision and neatness characteristic of the army.

When the party reached the aft deck, the officer leading the group saluted the commander who was reviewing them on the ship, reporting the arrival of their team. At the end of the loading and unloading work on the dockside, an order was given to the team to face the bridge.

The officer who supervised the loading and unloading of the munitions on the dock shouted: "The last one! ”

An officer on the deck replied waving a flag in his hand.

"The last one."

The command was repeated several times before and after by several people! The crane staggered the last of the ten-inch shells, glowing with cold light, into the ammunition compartment. The groups of orderly workers who had been busy on the docks gradually dispersed, and only the sailors remained standing in formation.

"It's time to go on the march!"

Cheng Biguang, who was on the "Dinghai", sighed deeply, he knew what this expedition meant, this was the Chinese fleet once again sounded the horn of marching into the ocean, just like the telegram sent by His Majesty.

"The dragon's fleet is back in the ocean today!"

The Netherlands is undoubtedly only a small country, and its naval strength is even inferior to that of the Chinese navy before the return of the "Zhenhai class", and the only threat in the Dutch East Indies is probably only the "Seven Provinces Alliance" coastal defense gun.

If that's the case...... While Cheng Biguang was there pondering the reaction of the great powers, Vice Admiral Liu Guanxiong, who had a serious expression on the Zhenhai, left his cabin, and just today, he was newly appointed, the commander of the Imperial Royal Guards Naval Battlefleet.

He left the cabin and walked over to the megaphone on the bridge.

"Ladies and gentlemen! ……”

Standing in front of the loudspeaker, he began to speak. The young officers listened intently to the voice of the commander coming out of the radio, perhaps a feature of the Chinese navy, and the megaphone was a Chinese invention.

"The Chinese Empire has two armies, the army and the navy, although they are both adapted from the Liberation Army, but only our navy, in the founding of the empire, that is, by the emperor's majesty's love, granted the name of the royal guard navy, the empire and your majesty's expectations can be seen from this can be seen from ......this."

His speech was heard throughout the ship through a PA system, and unlike the Army, the Navy today bestows not only the name of Konoe but also the name of the Royal, and for the Navy soldiers, they understand that this title is more of an expectation than glory.

He then warmly welcomed the young officers to the ship and explained to them.

“…… You were specially selected by the Imperial Admiralty to take part in this voyage for the purpose of apprenticebing the process of naval warfare and quickly becoming a qualified naval officer, and now that you have boarded the Empire's newest and most powerful Zhenhai-class warship, you will have the most adventurous experience of all. No Dutch navy warship dared to match the enemy we were confronting, and no Dutch warship was spared from its guns. After nearly four months of rigorous training in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, the "Zhenhai" and "Dinghai" have become the most powerful and combat-effective warships in Southeast Asia today...... And our mission is to set up Zhenhai-class warships to prove to the Dutch the determination of the Empire to protect overseas Chinese, that is, to protect the rights and interests of our overseas Chinese at any cost! ”

Liu Guanxiong in front of the megaphone had a solemn expression, and finally he took a deep breath and settled his mind.

"I hope you will live up to the trust of the empire and the name of the royal guard!"

As soon as Liu Guanxiong's voice fell, the whistle of the fleet set sail sounded, and the young midshipmen standing at the stern of the ship saluted in the direction of the trestle at the same time, and the officers and sailors on the trestle saluted to see the fleet leave.

The sound of the whistle converged in Sanshawan, and the training fleet and the destroyer fleet that had not yet sailed gave out light signals.

"Wish! Triumph! ”

(To be continued)