Because of the situation in Hawaii, the Imperial Army and Navy have already begun to operate, and this action is not specifically aimed at Hawaii, but against Hong Kong and even the entire Indochina Peninsula.

The Battle of Honolulu, which broke out between Britain, the United States, and France on the Hawaiian side of the Empire, affected not only the situation in Hawaii, but the overall foreign policy of the Empire.

Lin Zhe hopes to take this opportunity to completely let Britain, France, the United States and other countries know that the empire is definitely not the Manchu dynasty of the past, and in the face of challenges from the great powers, the empire will never compromise, and at the same time has enough ability to face any challenge.

If the Second Opium War in 1858 made Britain and France realize that the new empire was not a country that they could bully at will, then this time Lin Zhe wanted to make them, the empire not only something they could not bully, but also a power that could compete with them for overseas interests.

After Lin Zhe's idea became the will of the empire, the military acted quickly, the army began to mobilize locally, and the troops stationed in the Guangdong area began to send troops to the Kowloon Peninsula, and if necessary, they could directly land on Hong Kong Island in the next step.

Compared with the direct actions of the army, they are even only partially mobilized in the province of Guangdong, and the information is very different.

The Imperial Navy was much more cautious, and even in the hearts of many middle and high-ranking generals of the Imperial Navy, they maintained a certain pessimism about the conflict between the Empire and Britain and France.

Why is the Army so confident, but the Navy so pessimistic?

This has a great deal to do with the strength of the two, the Imperial Army does not dare to say that it is the first in the world, but it boasts that it cannot find an opponent in this part of East Asia. There are as many as 6,700,000 standing armies, and it is also an army equipped with the most advanced weapons of this era. It is enough to make any great power cautious when trying to attack China itself, because it is very likely that the Anglo-French army was completely destroyed in 1858.

Therefore, the Imperial Army was full of confidence. Because they have the confidence to face all challenges!

However, the Navy is different!

The imaginary enemy of the Imperial Navy is not a second- or third-rate navy, but the most massive maritime power of this era, the British Royal Navy.

How strong is the British Navy now?

Let's not talk about the rest, just talk about how many ironclads the British served in the six years from 1860 to 1866, and it can be seen how many ironclads were in service by the British, starting from the Warrior in 1860, the British Navy has so far served more than 20 ironclad ships, and among these ironclad ships, large ironclad ships occupy an absolute number.

Among them, there are six top-level 10,000-ton ironclad ships. They are two Warrior-class ships of more than 9,100 tons, and the Achilles of 9,800 tons, which were commissioned one after another last year, and three Minotaur class ships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons.

In addition, there are thirteen large ironclad ships between five thousand and eight thousand tons.

Then there are seven medium-sized ironclads between 1,000 and 5,000 tons.

The total tonnage of the above-mentioned ironclad ships is more than 160,000 tons!

This number is enough to suffocate the navies of other countries in the world, because so far, all the ironclad ships of the navies of other countries in the world combined, not as many as the British, not to mention other powers, as a comparison. From the development of ironclad ships to the present, how many ironclad ships have been commissioned by the Imperial Navy?

So far, it has two 1,800-ton Nünail-class ships, four Pangu-class ships of 2,400-ton tons, and two Yandi-class ships of 4,000 tons. The total tonnage is only 20,400 tons.

As for the five Zhenguang-class small ironclad ships and the eight Jining-class gunboats, these cannot be regarded as the ranks of the main ironclad ships. You can't participate in the final battle of the fleet, but even if you count these small ironclad gunboats. However, the total tonnage of ironclad ships in the Imperial Navy was only 24,000 tons.

This tonnage is compared with the 160,000 tons of the British, and there is no comparison at all!

At the same time, there is a more critical point. The British ironclad ships are mainly large ironclad ships, and most of the ironclad ships are more than 6,000 tons or even 9,000 tons.

As for the Imperial Navy, the largest Yandi class is only 4,000 tons, and the Pangu class is only 2,400 tons.

As for the 10,000-ton warships, they still exist only on paper, and there is no plan to start construction in a short time, at least until the eight-year plan for armored ships is successfully completed.

In addition to ironclad ships, the British also have a large number of various types of wooden warships, compared to ironclad ships, other people have more wooden warships, which makes the navies of other countries desperate.

Compared with the British Navy, the total tonnage, the performance of the warships, and even the level of training of officers and men were not on the same level.

In this way, it is not difficult to understand why the generals within the Imperial Navy are so cautious about this conflict, and even have a certain pessimistic attitude.

Simply because of a potential conflict, the Imperial Navy was pouring out, and the Imperial Navy fleet, which was already stationed in Guangzhou, included all of the Empire's capital ships.

Among them were all the capital ships of the First Fleet, two Yandi-class, four Pangu-class, and then three wooden battleships.

In addition, the Oriental Fleet's Nusnail, two Zhenguang-class small ironclad ships, the Nanyang Fleet's Bifang, and a Zhenguang-class small ironclad ship are also gathered in Guangzhou.

These warships will be personally led by the Imperial Admiralty Lord Lin Dabiao to face the possible British Navy!

The fact that the Imperial Navy almost poured out of the nest is enough to prove that the top brass of the Imperial Navy is not optimistic about possible future conflicts.

But in any case, the naval and land armies of the empire are already ready, and then it will depend on the reaction of Britain, France, the United States and other countries, especially the British.

On 12 March, the Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs, Song Guanqian, formally presented his credentials to the British Minister to China, asking the two countries to negotiate on the question of Hong Kong.

The Empire once again stressed that it did not recognize the series of treaties signed between the former Qing Dynasty and the British, let alone the cession of Hong Kong Island.

For this reason, the Empire hopes that the British will evacuate Hong Kong Island as soon as possible, and said that the Empire will regain sovereignty over the island in the near future.

This move naturally caused serious dissatisfaction on the part of the British, according to the two sides in the Sino-British negotiations in 1858. However, the promise to put the Hong Kong question on hold for the time being can also be seen as the Chinese Empire's acquiescence to British ownership of Hong Kong Island.

Now, however, the Chinese Empire is once again bringing up the Hong Kong issue. And put on a posture of retaking Hong Kong even if it was a war, which made the British quite unhappy.

As the world leader. The British had their own pride, and in the face of the Empire's attempt to reclaim Hong Kong, the British did not hesitate to refuse.

And it is directly dispatched to Hong Kong with warships stationed in India, Singapore and other places.

"Now that the British have refused, what should we do now?" In the internal meeting of the military, Lin Dabiao asked Shi Qingxuan with a worried face.

Shi Qingxuan didn't care: "Their refusal was expected, and no one would easily give up the meat that had been eaten in their mouths." ”

"Since they refused, then we can take appropriate action!"

"What action? Do you land directly on Hong Kong Island? Lin Dabiao asked.

Shi Qingxuan said: "Naturally, otherwise, wouldn't the troops we have hoarded on the Kowloon Peninsula be in vain!" However, I am afraid that the landing will require a lot of cooperation from your navy! ”

Lin Dabiao said: "To cooperate with the army's actions, our navy is naturally duty-bound. It's just that landing directly on Hong Kong Island now is afraid that it will completely anger the British, and we have already received information that the British are already assembling a fleet in the Indian Ocean, and I am afraid that we will face a lot of pressure at that time! ”

Unlike Lin Dabiao's cowering, Shi Qingxuan said: "What are you afraid of, if they dare to come, we will dare to beat them down!" ”

When the internal meeting of the military passed, soon the military generals of the sea and land arrived in the palace. This was a full-fledged Imperial Strategy Meeting.

After everyone sat down, Shi Qingxuan, as the person in charge of this matter, quickly explained directly.

"According to the current situation, it is already certain that the British will send the fleet over. In addition, we also expect that they may send some more army troops, but the exact number is not known for the time being! ”

"In accordance with the emperor's decree. The Joint Staff has prepared a detailed plan for this purpose, which is as follows:

In order to successfully recover Hong Kong Island. Forcing Britain and France to make concessions on Hawaii would require a series of tactical maneuvers by the Empire's naval and land forces.

In the direction of Myanmar. Put pressure on the Kingdom of Ning, force them to stand on our side, and once a large-scale conflict breaks out between us and the British, then our troops stationed in Yunnan will enter Upper Burma as soon as possible, and the Kingdom of Ning will launch an attack on the Lower Burma region, with the capture of Rangoon as the primary strategic goal!

In the direction of Vietnam, in order to force France to submit or withdraw, the empire will reinforce the troops stationed in Vietnam from the direction of Guangxi, and later launch an attack on the Nam Ki region with the troops of the Ning Dynasty of the Kingdom of Vietnam, with the core goal of destroying the French army in the Nam Ki area.

In the direction of Hong Kong, with the current 42nd Brigade as the core, it will directly land on the island, and at present there are not many British troops on the island for the time being, only about 1,000 people, and our army is fully capable of conquering the island in a short time!

In addition to the above three directions, the Central Asian direction can also be appropriately moved, if necessary, directly to the northwestern region of India to put pressure on the British! ”

"At the same time, in various non-combat areas, mainly in the coastal provinces, as well as Taiwan Island, Qiongzhou Island and other areas, it will be raised to a state of second-level combat readiness to prevent the possible landing of enemy troops!"

"In the direction of Hawaii, it is necessary to hold on to Oahu!"

After Shi Qingxuan finished talking about the deployment of the army, he was talking about the navy!

"On the navy side, the purpose is to intercept the incoming attack of the British and French fleets, and to encircle the coastal security of the empire, please ask Minister Lin for details!"

This time the conflict with Britain, France and the United States, whether in Hawaii or Hong Kong and other places, the core role is actually not the army, because when the army appears, it means that the imperial navy has failed, and can only rely on the army to defend the homeland!

Therefore, the extent of this conflict will directly depend on the outcome of the battle with the Imperial Navy and the British and French Navy.

Lin Dabiao immediately said: "In order to meet the possible challenges, the navy has assembled most of the main warships in Guangzhou, and at present, all members of the fleet are undergoing intense training, and the ships are also being maintained at all times to ensure that our army is in the best condition when the enemy fleet arrives!" ”

At this time, Lin Zhe opened his mouth and asked, "If the British and French fleets attack, will the navy be able to stop them?" ”

Faced with Lin Zhe's direct question, Lin Dabiao did not answer it immediately, because he didn't know if he could do it.

The Imperial Navy was nothing more than a nascent sea power, still very young and very weak, and the odds of victory against such a behemoth as the British Navy were actually very small.

And whether the Imperial Navy can stop the British Navy depends not on how strong the Imperial Navy is, but on how many warships the British send over.

If the British had drawn a large number of large ironclad ships, there would have been no possibility of winning the naval battle at all, and if the British had fewer warships, then there was hope of stopping the British.

This initiative was not in the hands of the Imperial Navy, but in the hands of the British.

Therefore, Lin Dabiao could only say with a resolute face: "Your Majesty, tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the navy will do their best to control and defend the imperial sea frontier!" ”

This statement of determination sounded very good, but everyone present could hear that Lin Dabiao was indirectly saying that the navy was not sure to stop the attack of the British and French fleets.

Although Lin Zhe himself had already expected this situation, he couldn't help but sigh when he heard Lin Dabiao say this, the navy has been built for so many years, when will it be usable!

A large amount of money is invested in the construction of the navy every year, but the navy is different from the army, and if the army wants to expand its strength, as long as the funds are in place, the army is sure that the number of active troops will reach more than 1 million within six months, and within a year it will be able to expand to 1.5 million or even more.

However, the navy is not good, because the navy is a branch of the armed forces that eats its old roots, and it will not be able to improve its combat effectiveness at all in a short period of time.

A qualified naval officer needs many years of training, and the time from the start of construction to the service of a capital warship is often three or four years, even if the time is compressed, but it will take more than two years.

It will take at least 10 or even 20 years for a country's navy to be built to have combat effectiveness, abundant funds, shipyards and other technical capabilities.

And if you want to have the spirit of the navy or something, you don't have more than 50 years to build a strong army on the sea.

Now, even if dozens of ironclad ships suddenly appeared, the current Imperial Navy did not have enough talents to drive these warships and form combat effectiveness.

The current strength of the Imperial Navy is still too weak, the capital ship is only 20,000 tons, plus other messy auxiliary ships, small gunboats and the like, the total tonnage is less than 30,000 tons. The British alone have three Minotaur ironclad ships, and the three add up to more than 32,000 tons.

It's not at all!

However, the weakness of the Imperial Navy does not mean that it does not dare to clash with the British.

In 1858, the nascent empire did not even have a full-scale naval fleet, and at that time it could not even defend the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the navy could only retreat to Jiangyin, but it was not the same victory?

It even achieved the record of annihilating 30,000 British and French troops.

And now, the empire is stronger than it was in 1858, and in this case, if Lin Zhe still has to endure and dare not take back Hong Kong, he will be a coward.

After a strategic meeting in front of the Imperial Palace, Lin Zhe directly approved the joint staff's battle plan.

The first step of the plan was to land on Hong Kong Island, and the empire was to occupy Hong Kong before the British reinforcements arrived.

On 18 March, the commander of the Imperial Navy's First Fleet sent an ultimatum to the British forces on Hong Kong Island, demanding that they abandon resistance and withdraw from Hong Kong Island within 12 hours.

The British, naturally, refused without hesitation!

In the early morning of the next day, the First Fleet of the Imperial Navy approached Hong Kong Island to carry out artillery bombardment and cover the landing of the 42nd Brigade of the Army!

The Hong Kong landing battle has officially begun! (To be continued.) )