Liu Ting was praised, her face was slightly red, and she was a little shy and childlike, Chen Zikun said in her heart that although this woman is not as good as Yao Shen and the two ladies, she has an unknown intellectual beauty, but unfortunately the rabbit can't eat the grass next to the nest, if she accepts the house, there is no less than a capable secretary.

Yan Su said: "Secretary Liu is really well-read, the military book you read is probably the Ming Dynasty's "Ambition to Prepare for Arms", which records a lot of firearms of the maritime water division, but unfortunately later the Qing Dynasty was listed as **, China's hot weapons also stagnated for a period of time, these backward weapons hundreds of years ago can only harass the enemy, but can not cause fundamental damage. ”

Speaking of this, he sighed and asked Chen Zikun very earnestly: "Dashuai, don't become a tiger riding a difficult situation." ”

Chen Zikun said: "Now the arrow is ready to be sent. ”

Yan Su said: "In this case, we can only harden it and arrange for sappers to build a few more fake artillery positions, so that the British can't figure out our reality clearly, so they set up suspicious soldiers, true and false, and put up an empty plan." ”

Liu Ting interjected: "Chief of Staff Yan, since you know the "Wubei Zhi", you must know the underwater Dragon King Cannon." ”

Yan Su thought for a while, and suddenly smiled: "Xiao Liu, there is really you, this is okay." He turned to Chen Zikun and said: "There is no way, you have to use the local method, Secretary Liu said that the underwater dragon king cannon is a kind of floating thunder floating on the bottom of the water, with cow urine bubbles filled with gunpowder, with a goose feather tube and sheep intestines to ventilate, incense ignited, if the black powder is replaced with yellow explosives, the original incense fuse is replaced with a detonator, as long as the amount of medicine goes up, the effect must be very good, but ......"

"But what?" Chen Zikun's eyes were blazing.

"But it can only come in handy if someone with good water ability drags the underwater dragon king cannon under the British ship, and it will be a life-long job." Yan Su sighed.

"It's okay, the Marine Police Corps has white stripes in the waves." Chan said.

Without further ado, the manpower and material resources were organized that night for the production of the underwater dragon king cannon, which is an offensive weapon, unlike bamboo mines, which require a lot, a few are enough for the British to drink a pot, but the quality requirements are very high, and everyone is mobilized.

Liu Ting ran home to rummage through the cabinets, her father and mother were woken up by her, rubbed her sleepy eyes and got up to ask what was the matter, as soon as she heard her daughter say that she was going to find a military book to make weapons to deal with foreign devils, Liu Cunren's spirit immediately came up, lit a kerosene lamp to help turn it over, and found a woodcut version of "Wu Bei Zhi" during the Ming Dynasty Apocalypse from the pile of old papers, put on a coat, and accompanied her daughter to the office.

Yan Su gathered a group of skilled craftsmen, leathermen, carpenters, craftsmen in the provincial capital, sappers in the army, technicians in the repair shop, physics professors of Jiangdong University, lecturers in mechanical schools, all gathered together, three stinkers and Zhuge Liang, not to mention these capable people from all walks of life, everyone knows that this thing is against the British, more devoted, collective efforts, based on the Ming Dynasty underwater dragon king cannon, it took one night to develop a new generation of underwater dragon king cannon.

This new type of dragon king cannon, with plastic waterproof, detonator detonation, waterproof and reliability is better, and the sheep intestine air duct is omitted, more hidden, the heroes of the marine police corps have also been summoned, Zeng Jiao will be the best brother in the water form three formations, each team of two dragon king cannons, always on standby.

The next morning, John Walker went to the telegraph office in the provincial capital to send a telegram to the consulate in Nanjing, and the contents of the telegram were quickly sent to the commander's office, but no one could decipher the diplomatic code of the British, but there was no need to decipher this mouth, according to the arrogant temper of the British, there would definitely be a war.

Chief of Staff Yan quickly made arrangements, and the coastal artillery withdrew from the main position and moved to a reserve position, where there were still cannons, straw men, flags, etc., camouflaged by trees.

The British destroyer formation originally had three ships, one of which was damaged by a mine and had to retreat to Nanjing, while the remaining two opened fire at two o'clock in the afternoon, and 127-mm shells whistled down on the artillery positions of the Jiangdong Army, blowing up clouds of smoke and dust and tree dry and straw men.

The artillery regiment immediately launched a counterattack, all the mountain artillery and field artillery opened fire together, 75 caliber Krupp, 57 caliber Grussen, and even 60 mm mortars also joined the bombardment, the British ship belonged to the smaller tonnage destroyers, not heavily armored cruisers, in the face of intensive artillery bombardment, while returning fire, while dodging the earth-made mines, maneuvering left and right, as far as possible to the north shore, but encountered the strafing of the Makqin heavy machine guns on the high ground on the north bank, so that the sailors did not dare to take the head, the captain hurriedly ordered to separate the side side guns to bombard the north shore.

The planes were the lifeblood of Chen Zikun, and he did not dare to use them to play with his life, but he just flew high, dropped two small bombs, and blew up two high water columns near the warship, although they did not cause any damage, they frightened the British sailors very much.

After an afternoon of fierce fighting, the two sides suffered mutual damage, and the British ships temporarily retreated.

In the evening, Walker diplomats broke into Chan's residence and lodged the strongest protest against him, demanding compensation for the damage and punishment for the officers who fired the guns without permission.

Chen Zikun said awe-inspiringly: "It was you who provoked the conflict first, causing great casualties on our side, and I haven't asked you to protest yet, but you came first, which is in response to an old Chinese saying, telling the wicked to sue first." ”

Walker was furious: "Your Excellency, do you know the consequences of this, all the British ** ships in China's inland river navigation will sail into the Huai River and blow your city into ruins, which is the end of angering the British." ”

Chen Zikun sneered: "Wait and see, send off!" ”

The atmosphere of war continued to spread in the provincial capital, the rich families were almost gone, and the foreigners were also evacuating, Walker was a very responsible diplomat, because there were no foreign consulates in Jiangdong, and those Dutch, Belgian, and Italian expatriates also asked him for help, and Walker did his best to contact ships and vehicles for them to leave the provincial capital, but he had to face a problem, that is, no Chinese were willing to help them.

……

That night, on the fifty-mile river east of the provincial capital, two bullet-riddled British destroyers were moored, they met unprecedented resistance, more than a dozen sailors were wounded, and now they were waiting for reinforcements to arrive, as soon as the cruisers arrived, the Chinese would taste the bitter fruit.

The searchlights on the ship strafed back and forth on the river, and there were sailors patrolling with guns on both sides of the ship, shooting at any suspicious object, and the Chinese were too cunning to guard against it.

At midnight, there was silence on both sides of the river, there was not a single boat on the river, and the mines that had been flowing down the river for the past few days were also extinct, and suddenly there was a bang, and the huge body of the destroyer of 1,500 tons trembled, followed by another sound, and another warship not far away also exploded, and the alarm sounded, and the sailors jumped up from the bunks quickly and carried out the damage management work in an orderly manner.

The captain of the ship checked the damaged position of the warship with a blushing face, below the waterline of the sideline, fortunately it was not next to the ammunition depot engine room and other critical positions, after intense rescue, the breach had been blocked, but the hull had poured 15 degrees.

"Captain, the consulate is in an emergency!" The communications soldier handed over the telegram, and after reading it, the captain took a deep breath and said, "Evacuate!" ”

The two wounded British ships dragged their slanted stumps downstream with black smoke, and several swarthy men on the shore grinned.

"Dragon King Cannon, so good~"

……

Walker diplomat slept very uncomfortably in the Chinese bed of the hotel, sleepless all night, fell asleep in the early morning, and was woken up by the noise in the morning, climbed up to the window to see that the Chinese on the street were elated, as if they were celebrating something.

Called Agui to ask, only to know that the Chinese were celebrating the victory in the water war, and the British ** ship fled with its tail between its legs, and it is said that Chen Dashuai used some kind of ancient weapon handed down by Zhuge Liang to sneak attack the warship and teach the British Yankees, if it were not for the Marshal's good life, these two British ships would not have a life left.

Walker was shocked that the British warship would lose to the backward Chinese, and he really couldn't believe it, but the Chinese's happiness was not pretended, and the Huaijiang newspaper that day also published a special issue in red, publishing a cartoon of the British ship dragging smoke and escaping.

"You've got it." Walker thought viciously that the British Empire's strategy against backward countries has always been retribution, and the Boer War is a precedent, even if you are brave and good at fighting, you can win once or twice, but victory ultimately belongs to Great Britain.

The first day passed, and Walker's expected multinational combined fleet did not appear.

The next day passed, and the British cruisers did not come for revenge.

The third day passed, and there was not even a shadow of a destroyer.

Walker felt that something was wrong, he came to the front desk of the hotel and asked if he had a telegram of his own, the usher glanced at him, lazily took out a telegram from the counter and slapped it on the counter: "Take it." ”

When I saw the date, it turned out to be three days ago, and I was furious, and asked why I didn't send the telegram to my room in time, and the receptionist said very politely: "You didn't ask, why did I send it to you." ”

Walker knew that the whole Jiangdong was now permeated with xenophobia, and it was not the time for theory, so he muttered, took the telegram back to the room, took out a Dickens novel from the suitcase, and translated the telegram word by word, and he was dumbfounded.

The consulate informed that xenophobic incidents had occurred in various cities in the Yangtze River basin, and warships rushed everywhere to protect British property and evacuate overseas Chinese, and the British Empire's armed forces in China were overstretched and had no time to take care of Jiangdong, so Walker had another task to return to Nanjing as soon as possible.

Anger, frustration, loss, anxiety, and panic hit John Walker's heart in waves, making him feel that the end was coming.

The British concessions in Hankou and Jiujiang were forcibly reclaimed by the Chinese, and the anti-British wave rose wave after wave, but all this was not formed in a day, from the distant Opium War to the recent Wuthi tragedy, the Shaji massacre, and the bitter fruit planted by the British themselves.

For a while, Walker suddenly felt that what Chen Zikun said was very reasonable, no one could stop the giant ship of history, hundreds of thousands of Beiyang troops couldn't, the gunboats of the British Empire couldn't, and his own small second secretary of the British Consulate couldn't.

Walker took a bottle of Scotch from his suitcase and drank it, and spent the afternoon in a daze, finally choosing to accept reality.

……

The next day, Walker led the last of the Western expatriates to evacuate the provincial capital, and there were no foreign steamers on the river, and all Chinese ships were unwilling to carry them, not even at the expense of money.

The stubborn Walker chose to go by land, he asked Ah Gui to spend money to hire a few mule carts, and set foot on the road to Nanjing with the expatriates, in order to prevent possible robbers and rebels on the way, the expatriates were equipped with Winchester shotguns, and Walker also took out the Webley revolver deep in the trunk, loaded it with bullets and inserted it in his waist.

The mule cart traveled through the land of Jiangdong, full of curious and indifferent eyes of the Chinese along the way, and the expatriates and Walker had a sense of walking in the western United States, full of crises and enemies.

After walking fifty miles, the mule cart puller stopped working, clamoring for more money, Walker was arguing with them, more than a dozen trucks whizzed by, kicking up a puff of choking smoke, Walker covered his nose with a handkerchief and looked over, the car was full of soldiers wearing steel helmets and bayonet guns, so frightened that he quickly turned his face.

Unexpectedly, the convoy stopped not far away, and the GIs scolded and jumped off the truck and walked over here.

The drivers who were clamoring for more money did not dare to make a noise, the expatriates trembled with fear, the women hugged their children and sobbed quietly, and the men were terrified and helpless.

John Walker took a deep breath, straightened his tie, and bravely greeted him.

~