When the Russian fleet appeared at Wusongkou, the Southern Dynasty from Ye Zhao to the military headquarters did not expect them to come so quickly.

The dark clouds of black pressure rolled in the sky, and on the ships, the blue flag of the Tsarist Russian Navy with the St. Andrew's Cross fluttering high was full of oppression and aggression.

In the east side of the hall, there were all naval officers, including several foreign instructors who had just come to Jinling from the Guangzhou Ship Master School and a French power expert.

In fact, just an hour ago, Ye Zhao was still discussing with this power expert how to replace the seawater added to the boiler with the pure water formed by the condensation of the waste steam discharged from the engine, because the seawater in the boiler will precipitate salt while producing steam, and over time, the seawater will leave a large amount of salt scale in the boiler, which will be cleaned every few hours, so that the pressure of the boiler will be reduced.

At the same time, Ye Zhao hoped that the battleship of the 6,000-ton project being designed would completely abandon the sails and build a completely steam-powered ocean-going heavy ironclad ship.

The two-stage engine of high and low pressure cylinders, which has long been used on civilian ships, will be introduced into warships on a trial basis.

Just when Ye Zhao was discussing with several shipyard technicians, there was an urgent report from Shanghai that the Russian fleet appeared at Wusongkou.

In the east side hall, the atmosphere was extremely solemn, and all the naval officers looked at the telegrams copied in their hands, and several of them were instructors of the Ship Master School, who led the third phase of the Ship Master School to receive the Yanjing and other three gunboats.

Ye Zhao was also looking at the telegram in his hand, the information about the Russian fleet in the telegram was only a visual inspection, very general, fifteen ships, large and small, mostly covered with iron armor in key parts.

According to intelligence, after the defeat of the Crimean War, the Russians began to abandon what was once known as the largest sailing fleet in the Baltic Sea, but this feudal serfdom country, limited by financial and technical means, its ironclad production is not smooth, but the use of old ships, the installation of steam systems, for its vital parts to put a few inches of ironarmor and other means, although many modifications have ended in failure, but this successful modification of armored ships, there is no doubt that the fastest degree of enhance the combat effectiveness of the Russian Navy.

In the Russian Far East Fleet, there is only one newly launched armored ship, the flagship St. Petersburg, and the rest of the ships are mostly modified or wooden battleships, but compared with the Dutch wooden sailing ships, their combat effectiveness is completely different.

"The prince, Li Daolin and the British sailors all refused to get on board." A naval officer hurriedly walked into the hall and knelt down on one knee to pray.

Although the Russian fleet will most likely not enter the inland waterway of the Yangtze River due to the pressure of the anti-aircraft artillery on the banks of the South Korea, its blockade at the mouth of the Yangtze River and the Huangpu River is enough to cause tremendous pressure on the South Korea, not to mention that at its critical moment, it will even intercept military supplies from the south, because the main artery of the South China Railway is not open, and in many cases, it has to rely on the more convenient way of sea transportation.

Expelling it from the coastal sea is the only choice for the Southern Dynasty, although the military department is not determined, but the sailors naturally have to be ready for battle, who knows, Li Daolin and other British [***] officers and sailors heard that they were going to fight with the Russians, and they were not willing to give their lives to the Chinese, Li Daolin even tore up the employment contract he had just signed with him, if it was a good fight, then it would be a bloody war with the Russians? There is a danger of dying at any time, and it is not possible to sell the lives of the Chinese.

Ye Zhao nodded and didn't speak.

At present, there are not many ships that can be mobilized in Jinling, and only the four ironclad ships Changsha, Yanjing, Chengyuan, and Jingyuan are really capable of combat effectiveness, of which Yanjing, Chengyuan, and Jingyuan are ships that have just been stolen from the northern country, and Li Daolin and other mercenary officers and sailors disembarked, and those three ships were immediately paralyzed.

Moreover, in the Wusongkou area, the sediment accumulation situation is serious, and it has gradually interfered with the passage of large ships, and the Southern Dynasties are preparing to set up the Huangpu River River Bureau, and next year will start a plan to clean up the sediment and dredge the Huangpu River at a cost of about 1 million silver dollars.

At present, several ironclad ships enter the sea from Wusongkou, one by one, and if the Russians intercept them, the situation will be even more unfavorable.

"These guys who see the wind and turn the rudder!" A young officer with thick eyebrows and big eyes gave his fist a fist high-five, his name is Li Chengmou, a native of Zhijiang, Hunan, as early as five years ago, his regimental battalion was defeated by the Taiping Army in Jiangxi, and then he was incorporated into the Pingyuan Army, and then entered the Ship Administration School to study, with excellent grades, brave combat, repeatedly promoted unusually, participated in the Nanyang Naval Battle as the first mate of Zhenhai, and is now appointed as the right-wing staff general of the Pingyuan Naval Division, and the Changsha pipe belt.

After scolding, Li Chengmou knew that something was wrong, the regent was here, what kind of system did he shout about? I looked sideways and saw that the regent's face was as usual, and then I felt a little relieved.

"Lord Wang, do you want to send a telegram to the Russian consul in Shanghai to inquire about the situation." The speaker was an old and serious officer, Zheng Youxian, who is in his thirties and is also an instructor at the Harbour Master's School.

Before Ye Zhao could speak, an officer hurriedly entered, his face panicked, and he knelt down and said loudly: "Report!" The Russians opened fire on our merchant ships and sank one of the Taihe trading steamers. He held the message in both hands.

Inside the hall, the air condensed violently.

Almost before and after, the Russian consul in Shanghai sent a telegram, saying that Vladimir, commander of the Russian Far East Fleet, was invited by the Emperor of China to lead a fleet to volunteer to serve the Emperor of China, which had nothing to do with the position of the Russian political axe, and although His Majesty the Tsar believed that the Yanjing regime was the only legitimate political power in China, the Russian political axe would not intervene in the counterinsurgency action of the Chinese emperor.

One telegram after another from Shanghai, the Russian fleet sailed away from the Bund in Shanghai and began to look for southern ships on the sea.

I am afraid that it will take more than ten days for the fleet of the South China Sea to reach the mouth of the Huangpu River, and in ten days, how many southern merchant ships will the Russians sink? Even if the merchant ports were to be telegraphed now to suspend the departure of merchant ships planning to come from the south, the loss would be astronomical, and the merchants of the southern country would be hit hard, and I don't know what would happen. Both the Russians and the Six Kings clearly saw this very clearly.

The Russians, who are even more ruthless and beyond people's imagination, are now at war, blockade of trade ports, looting and sinking the other side's merchant ships are all conventional means, but they suddenly intervene to fire on the merchant ships of the South Korea, completely ignoring the order gradually forming in the Far East.

When China and the Netherlands were at war in the South Seas, the Chinese ships did not rashly fire on the Dutch merchant ships, but only sank a few of their coal carriers, a limited war of restraint, which also made the Chinese sailors win respect, and a kind of Far Eastern order guided by the south gradually took shape, and the Russians, apparently with complete contempt for this order, as a nominal volunteer army, attacked the merchant ships of the other side without limit.

"Humble and ask for war!" Li Chengmou knelt down on one knee and said loudly: "The Changsha pipe takes Li Chengmou to ask for battle!" The lowly and subordinate officers and soldiers would rather die than peel off the skin of the Rakshasas! ”

Ye Zhao frowned slightly, in fact, the four ironclad ships such as Changsha and Yanjing are almost equivalent to the combat power of half of the Southern Dynasties' naval divisions, with the advent of the era of ironclad ships, the real main ships of the Southern Dynasties are nothing more than Jinling, Dinghai, Jinghai, Zhenhai, Guangzhou, Lingbo and Changsha, Yanjing, Chenghai, Jinghai and other ten ironclad ships, and in Ye Zhao's view, the three ships of Dinghai, Jinghai and Zhenhai, as armored ships converted from wooden sailing ships, can be gradually retired and trained sailors and officers as training ships.

However, the technical gold content of this fleet is already enough to be compared with other European countries except Britain, France, and Russia, but because most of them are light armored ships, only one Jinling with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons, and in addition to the quality of officers and sailors, whether the actual combat effectiveness can confront the second-tier divisions in Europe remains to be tested.

However, in the Far East, except for Britain, the European hegemon that no country dares to provoke easily, because of the supply problem, the only opponent of the Southern Dynasties is the Russian Far East Fleet, and it is difficult for the rest of the countries to maintain their fleets in East Asia without the cooperation of Britain.

In fact, the British are now so powerful that throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, the British never fought any serious naval battles, because any country knew that there was no chance of winning a challenge to the British at sea, and that this kind of hegemon that could maintain the global order by relying solely on deterrence could be said to be unprecedented.

As for France, it is clear that it is gradually looking to the interior of Europe, and to contain the rise of the Prussians and prevent the unification of the German regions is now its primary goal.

However, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Ye Zhao's biggest fear was that the French would take the opportunity to intervene, and their ambitions to get involved in Vietnam never stopped, and they began to influence Vietnam decades ago, missionaries were active in the Vietnamese countryside, and among the Vietnamese aristocracy, there were many pro-French people.

When the South and the North Korea went to war, the French were likely to actively intervene in Vietnamese affairs, and even directly sent troops to land in Vietnam, creating an established fact that Vietnam would be designated as its protectorate, and when the Chinese civil war ended, no matter which side won, they could only accept the situation that was a foregone conclusion.

The British will take the opportunity to strengthen their infiltration into the countries of South Asia and Southeast Asia, annex the small countries of South Asia by force and coercion, form a large Indian colonial area, and may even get involved in Tibetan Province, because this is different from history, when the British were most active in South Asia and the borders of Tibetan Province, China also had a relatively powerful central political axe, which also made him involved in Tibetan Province with many concerns.

Now that the war between the north and the south is going on, there is no time to take care of the frontier, and it would be strange if the British local colonial officials did not take the opportunity to stir up trouble.

Think about it, the situation facing the south can be extremely precarious.

This is also one of the reasons why Ye Zhao is determined to start a war as soon as possible, the later the war starts, the more severe the encroachment of Britain and France and other countries on the surrounding areas, because a few years later, the southern half of the country can not talk about any substantive support for the small countries on the southwest border, and can only watch them slowly be eaten away by the British.

At that time, waiting for the civil war, I was afraid that the British would directly target Tibetan Province, at least for now, there are still many buffer zones in the southwestern frontier.

Britain and France aside, the Russian Far East Fleet is an unprecedented threat to the south because of the supply and maintenance base of Zhigu.

It can be said that the current strategic environment in the south is extremely dangerous, and this is still the danger of direct interference by some countries that has been avoided after many years of operation.

These thoughts flashed in Ye Zhao's mind, what is in front of him, what should he do in front of him?

To lift the blockade of the Russians, in addition to the four ships of Guangzhou and Yanjing, the two ships of Jinghai and Lingbo that could take part in the battle were still anchored in Dinghai Naval Port.

But the problem is that the Yanjing, Chengyuan, and Jingyuan ships have just been obtained, and the British mercenaries have all refused to participate in the war.

Li Chengmou asked for battle, and his loyalty and courage were commendable, but the hundreds of officers and soldiers of the Changsha were just sacrificed in vain.

Seeing that Ye Zhao was silent, Zheng Youxian knelt down and said in a loud voice: "Your Highness, the three ships of Yanjing, Chengyuan, and Jingyuan can be trained as generals!" Your Majesty is willing to command a ship and hold a spear for His Highness! ”

As an instructor at the Harbour Master's Academy, Cheng Youxian has always been a veteran and a strong advocate for battle, and it is clear that he also knows the harsh situation he is facing today.

"Trainee general?" Ye Zhao frowned slightly, Zheng Youxian led dozens of trainee officers from the Ship Master Academy to receive Yanjing and other three ships, originally prepared to be able to read the three ships as soon as possible with the help of Li Daolin and others, in fact, the sailors don't matter, the sailors of the three ships transferred from the Guangzhou Navy Base have been in place, including gunners, boilermen, riflemen, firefighters, medical officers, etc., but technical officers and technical non-commissioned officers, such as captains, co-officers, pilots, pipe wheels and helmsmen, etc., take time to adapt, and cannot be achieved simply overnight. Although all of these trainee officers had interned on the ships of the Southern Dynasties, and even more than half of them participated in the Battle of the Netherlands in the South Seas as trainees, the three ships of the Yanjing were different from the ships of the Southern Dynasties, and it was difficult for them to participate in the naval battle.

Zheng Youxian fell to the ground, "Your Highness, the minister is not blindly seeking death!" A few days on the boat drill, all the sailors have a lot of experience, now the situation is critical, the ministers and other people are smeared with liver and brain, for His Royal Highness to share worries! ”

Ye Zhao looked at him quietly and said, "Do you know that those who came out of the Ship Master Academy are all my backbone for the future and my beloved weapon?" ”

Zheng Youxian said loudly: "The minister knows! Your Highness, you can ask them, do you want to hide in Nanjing like this, or are you willing to fight to the death! Today, His Royal Highness's love device should serve his life! Dance spears and shoot tigers to drive wolves for His Royal Highness! ”

When he was outside the gate, Zheng Youxian was the escort of Ye Zhao, who once followed the prince and Brother Suna, and the madman generally fought with the Rakshasa people with bayonets, and even watched Li Sanshui and Brother Li die tragically in the arms of the prince.

He is a scholar, early years of shipbuilding and naval warfare interested, soon after the signing of the Treaty of Guangzhou, he entered the shipbuilding school, is the first phase of naval officer cadets in the south, but also graduated with the first grade, and was favored by foreign instructors, stayed in school to teach, for a few years, he has been the deputy general of the Pingyuan Naval Division, the first-class instructor of the shipbuilding school, people are more and more stable, but thinking about the outside of the customs, often difficult for themselves, sighing to the moon.

Today, the Rakshasa people deceived the door again, Zheng Youxian felt that his blood was boiling, and he hated to fight to the death with the Rakshasa people with bayonets.

Ye Zhao looked at him quietly, and finally nodded slightly: "Okay!" I'm seeing you off! ”

…… Lu Dahua is a trainee second lieutenant of artillery affairs, he is 25 years old this year, tall and strong, swarthy and extremely strong, as a trainee officer who participated in the Nanyang naval battle, he has always performed well.

It's just that no one knows that he would actually prefer to be a gunner than the second officer of artillery, because he feels that he has the most sense of accomplishment when he sends the cannonballs out with his own hands and sinks the enemy ships fiercely.

There are more than 50 trainee officers who came to Jinling from Guangzhou this time, including almost all the students of the third phase of the Guangzhou Shipbuilding School.

After coming to Jinling, they were arranged to live in the barracks of the military dock, a compound covering an area of several tens of acres, bungalow dormitories, and the supply was the same as when they were in Guangzhou, or even better.

In the evening, the street lights were lit up in the courtyard, I heard that it was the power supply of the Beiguan Power Plant, I don't know what this electricity is, some people said that the electricity generated by the Beiguan Power Plant can light up tens of thousands of light bulbs at the same time, this is more magical than the trick, isn't it?

Next to the high blue brick wall, on the street lamp stone table, two young men were wrestling their wrists, both exerting their strength to feed, their faces were flushed, and when they were close, they could hear the creaking of joints, and a circle of people surrounded them, shouting loudly.

"Oh no, no!" The male duck barked, and a young man ran in from the courtyard gate, with a small nose and small eyes, his surname was Bao, and he was a second officer of the trainee driver, because the grapevine was the most, the sailors simply asked him to inquire about the bag, and immediately several people giggled around him to tease him, in this world of iron-blooded men, the mother-in-law's bag inquiry has never been respected.

"The Russians fired at our merchant ships!"

Just as someone took off his hat and threw it at each other to make fun of him, Bao Inquire's hoarse cry as if he was being choked by the neck immediately brought all the frolic to a halt and the whole yard fell silent.

"We're dead! A boatload of people, all dead! I heard that there are also children on the boat! Bao inquired and said while still inhaling.

"a Rakshasa devil!" The young man who was wrestling his wrists snapped and slammed his hat on the stone table.

"This time I went out to fight the Rakshasa devil, do you have our share?!" Someone grabbed Bao Inquire's collar by the neck, as if he were a Rakshasa ghost.

"I, I don't know...... cough ......" Bao inquired about the scratched face and coughed repeatedly.

"Let's fight!" Someone loudly proposed.

Immediately, the powder keg was ignited, "Yes, please fight!" "The courtyard was almost full of young people with strong blood, all of them were filled with righteous indignation and excitement.

The Harbour Master School let them know what the honor of the navy is, and the destruction of civilian merchant ships by enemy countries is an extraordinary shame for a country's navy, because the sea frontier is their heaven and earth, and it is an inviolable scale that they want to protect with their youth and blood.

"Master Zheng of the Harbour Master Academy has arrived!" The well-dressed heralds hurried in and shouted in a long voice, and the students were stunned.

"Line up! All of them! Stand upright! The young man who broke his wrists hurriedly put on his hat and ran to the front of the team and shouted, his name is Zhang Yunzong, he is the trainee captain, the first-class staff leader of the Pingyuan Naval Division, the highest rank among the cadets, and he is also the first squad leader of the third phase of the Shipmaster Academy.

In a few seconds, the young men were already lined up in a neat square, with blue and white checkered water uniforms, black leather boots, and straight lines.

Zheng Youxian hurried in.

"Salute!" Zhang Yunzong's high-pitched voice was loud and penetrating.

"Smack!" The whole phalanx was like a person, raising his leather boots and raising his hands to salute, and the neatness was incomparable.

Zheng Youxian looked at this group of proud and energetic young men, and suddenly felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, yes, what the prince said is right, they are all the future of the empire, but I don't know how many people will survive after the First World War.

Looking at the young faces, Zheng Youxian suppressed the excitement in his heart, said slowly, word for word: "Colleagues, outside the Huangpu River, the Russians have once again provoked a war, because the military is insufficient, so!" You will be assigned to the three ships of Yanjing, Chengyuan, and Jingyuan, are you afraid?! ”

"Don't be afraid!" The neat and loud voice startled countless birds, and these young officers, everyone's faces were full of excitement, if it weren't for the presence of the officials, they were afraid that they would all be excited to talk about it.

Zheng Youxian looked around at them from left to right, and said word by word: "What you have to do is to send the cannonballs into the heart of the Russian pirate ship as if it were training, so that the Russians can taste defeat again!" Let the Russians know that the maritime borders of the empire are inviolable! Otherwise, it would be their bloody Shura field! ”

"Yes! Be! Be! The excited and high-pitched response resounded in the sky.

Zheng Youxian shook off a roll of yellow silk and read it aloud: "The regent oracle!" The third phase of the students of Guangzhou Shipbuilding has excellent results, and they are very relieved that the country is in trouble, and the foreign country is threatening, so you should fulfill your duties and fight bravely to kill the enemy! Lonely with small words, who said that the young man does not know sorrow, thousands of miles away, Tianshan snow, once the sword is drawn, 100,000 Xiyi dare to be the hero?! ”

"The glory of the empire, the glory of solitude, is with you!"

"Your Highness! Banzai! Imperial! Banzai! The young officers were hoarse with fanatical loyalty on their faces.

In the frenzied shouting, one by one the young naval officers boarded the battleship without hesitation, the night was like ink, the black smoke of the ship was billowing out, like the interweaving of blood and fire, the machine roared, carrying a young and hot heart, chopping the waves, showing a young and fearless bloody chest to the unknown darkness.

…… Lu Dahua was appointed as the second mate of the Yanjing Gunner, and the captain was his mentor Zheng Youxian, and the only thing that made him slightly dissatisfied was that Bao Dian was also assigned to the Yanjing as the second officer.

On the Yanjing, there is a deputy pilot, a first officer of the assistant pilot, a first officer of the pilot, a first officer of the gunnery, a second deputy of the gunnery, a third officer of the ship, a member of the third officer of the sampan, a member of the main gun, a member of the chief pipe wheel, two members of the chief pipe wheel, a member of the first class fire raiser, and two members of the second class fire raiser, etc., all of which are trainee officers.

How important are pilots and helmsmen in naval warfare? Can almost decide the life and death of a ship, Bao inquired? Lu Dahua really didn't have much confidence in him.

On the main deck, the Yanjing was equipped with 8 68-pounder front-loading smoothbore guns and 2 110-pounder breech-loading guns, which were its main guns, and on the front and rear decks, it was also equipped with weapons ranging from heavy breech-loading guns to 6-pounder cannons.

What displeased Lu Dahua was that the turret design of the Yanjing was not as perfect as that of the Jinling, it could not rotate in many directions, and the erected masts and sails, even if they fell in battle, would affect the steering of the artillery.

Eight 68-pounder guns that can fire three types of spherical shells, the traditional solid shell, the shotgun (which contains 90 iron pellets and is mainly used to kill and injure uncovered personnel), and a grape bullet with 15 slightly larger pellets.

In addition, it can also fire three types of flowering shells, including simple flowering shells with black powder, grenades with timed leads and hundreds of iron projectiles, and the third is arson, hollow spherical shells, which contain molten molten metal, and after hitting the target, the shell is broken, and the molten metal is splashed, which is safer than the hot shells of red-fired shells.

However, for the 68-pound artillery, the Southern Dynasty had already produced a more powerful smokeless gunpowder blasting projectile, so it replaced the outdated black powder flowering shell purchased by the northern country, but Lu Dahua felt that it was a bit wasteful, because the steel quality of its artillery did not seem to be as reliable as that of the southern country, so he was afraid that there would be any failure when firing the cannon.

Obviously, the ironclad ships purchased by the north are not the excellent products of the Europeans, but the design of the ironclad ships is extremely chaotic nowadays, and I heard that the Russians are even more tricky and keen to design the Round Castle type ironclad ships, so it cannot be said that the north has spent unjust money.

For the gunners on the Yanjing, Lu Dahua was quite satisfied, most of them were strictly trained, and they could basically reach the speed of one shot per minute.

Standing on the deck, Lu Dahua silently looked ahead, the blood of youth surging in his body, the formidable Rakshasa giant beast is raging in the sea frontier of the empire, blood and fire, sword and shield, he is willing to sacrifice everything, for the empire, for His Royal Highness, forever guard this sea frontier!

There's just death!

(To be continued)