The temperature at the end of September was very hot and dry, the river breeze brought a bit of coolness to the body, the wharf was full of people, and there were crowds of people standing outside the cordon drawn out by the army, inside and outside, no less than 30,000 or 40,000 people, and the leading figures and representatives from all walks of life in Shanghai stood in the cordon with Xiao Zhenlei and chatted.

Xiao Zhenlei originally wanted to bring Wang Yanan and Cheng Biyao together, but considering that he had not married the two women at this time, taking them would have a bad impact on attending such an occasion, so he did not bring them, after all, the social atmosphere in this era is still very conservative, but Wang Yanan is here as a reporter to interview.

Xiao Zhenlei was wearing a straight military uniform, a big cap, and an armed belt around his waist, with a pistol and a command knife hanging on the armed belt, looking quite mighty.

A few people were chatting, and Li Pingshu asked: "Commander-in-Chief Xiao, I heard that Cheng Biguang returned to China this time and brought back two new British-made warships?" I wonder how powerful these two warships are? ”

Hearing Li Shuping ask this, the other business gentry were also curious, and Yu Qiaqing also asked: "Yes, the commander-in-chief can solve our doubts and let me know a little about these two warships?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei said with a smile: "Elder Li is right, General Cheng's return to China this time did bring back the two warships that my country had ordered in the UK, one of these two troops is called Zhaohe, and the other is called Yingrui. The Zhaohe is a training ship, but it is also fully equipped and can fight if necessary, this ship cost 210,000 pounds*, is 97.6 meters long, 11.89 meters wide, has a draft of 4.27 meters, a displacement of 2,600 tons, and a power of 6,000 horsepower. The speed is 20 knots, and the crew is 230. The coal carrying capacity is 550 tons, and the fresh water carrying capacity is 255 tons. The other Yingrui was a light cruiser. The cost is 204,000 pounds, the length of the ship is 100.65 meters, the width is 12.62 meters, the draft is 3.97 meters, the displacement is 2,460 tons, the main engine propulsion power is 6,000 horsepower, the speed is 20 knots, the crew is 230, and the ship's armament is 2 150 mm Vickers main guns and 4 100 mm Vickers guns. 2 Maxim machine guns and 2 torpedo tubes; With a coal load of 550 tons and a fresh water load of 255 tons, the firepower of these two ships is still very strong in terms of combat effectiveness at the same tonnage level! ”

Xiao Zhenlei still has some words in his heart that he has not said, there are many shortcomings of these two ships, the speed is a little too slow, the power is a little insufficient, the speed of ships of tonnage like Britain is generally above 25 knots, and the cruisers with a speed of less than 25 knots are basically absent in this era. The man who had ordered the two ships had been deceived by the British.

Everyone was elated when they heard this, and they were all happy that the naval strength had risen again after China added these two warships, and Li Pingshu sighed: "Okay, this time we finally have a few decent warships." By the way, I heard that the commander-in-chief also gave orders to the Jiangnan Shipyard and the Steamship Merchants Bureau and the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau to build six warships? That's a lot of money, but I don't know if these three shipyards will be able to complete this order. You know, they've never built such a large battleship with an all-steel structure! ”

Xiao Zhenlei waved his hand and smiled: "Yes, I have indeed placed orders with these three shipyards. Now the three shipyards are renovating the docks, and the drawings of the battleships are being designed. You don't have to worry, although they don't have the experience of building large warships on their own, but things are all done by people, and we have also invited advanced shipbuilding technology from the West to guide us, I believe they can complete this order, 10,000 steps back, even if they can't complete it, we just lose a sum of money, it doesn't matter if we lose a little money, at least let them have a certain experience in building large warships, the loss is worth it, as long as they have the courage and courage, we have taken a big step forward, Why can foreigners build large warships, but we can't? Are we inherently stupider than foreigners? This statement is obviously incorrect, and I believe that one day we will catch up with the countries of the West! ”

Li Pingshu nodded and sighed: "No wonder the commander-in-chief has such achievements today at a young age, with this kind of courage, it is not something that ordinary people can have!" ”

"yes, yes!" People chimed in.

At this time, a felt hat slowly emerged from the roof of a three-story building on the street in front of the dock, and a dark and cold face under the felt hat, and the two eyes on the face burst out with a cold cold light, and these eyes scanned the crowd in the cordon on the opposite pier, and soon he found a tall, straight military uniform, this person stood out in this group of people as if standing out, very conspicuous, this is his goal.

The eyes under the gray felt hat stared at the tall, straight figure for a few seconds, and then took out a telescope and looked again, not wanting to inadvertently expose himself with this action.

What kind of person is Xiao Zhenlei? At this time, it was about three o'clock in the afternoon, the sun was already in the west, and the sun's rays happened to shine on the telescope, and the lenses on the telescope immediately appeared reflective, Xiao Zhenlei found this light for the first time, but he didn't immediately turn his head to look in the direction where the light came out, he beckoned to Wang Yaqiao, who was standing nearby.

Seeing this, Wang Yaqiao walked over quickly and said, "President? ”

Xiao Zhenlei said: "Just now I found a light coming from the roof of the three-story building opposite the pier, I suspect that someone is snooping there with a telescope, at this critical time, I don't want any accidents to happen, no matter if there are people there, you immediately send someone over to see the situation!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei believes that there should be no sniper rifle invented in this era, and the light just now is either emitted by a mirror, or someone is observing this side with a telescope, no matter what, there are so many people at the scene, there must be no riot, so Xiao Zhenlei called Wang Yaqiao over, but this also reflects that the security capabilities of Wang Yaqiao and others need to be improved.

Although Xiao Zhenlei said it very lightly, but Wang Yaqiao didn't dare to be careless, he immediately turned his head to look over there, Xiao Zhenlei just wanted to remind him not to look over there, but he didn't want to be in time, he immediately grabbed Wang Yaqiao.

The assassin on the roof found Wang Yaqiao looking over here, and was shocked, and immediately understood that he had been discovered, but this was the only chance, and it would be difficult to complete the task if he missed this opportunity, so he gritted his teeth and immediately put down the telescope, and took out a spear from his side to aim at the tall figure.

Xiao Zhenlei, who was aimed, immediately instinctively felt that the hairs on his body stood up, dangerous, he immediately grabbed Wang Yaqiao and fell to the side, but it was still a little too late, he felt a tingling pain in his left arm, and instantly numb, a ball of blood splashed out, and when he and Wang Yaqiao fell, the sound of gunfire came from a distance.

"Bang-"

"Ah, someone's shooting!"

Due to the relatively long distance of the gunshots, and there were many people on the dock, a large number of noises greatly covered up the gunshots, although many people heard the gunshots and were a little scared, but they did not panic, but when they saw Xiao Zhenlei and Wang Yaqiao falling to the ground, Xiao Zhenlei's arm was still bleeding, people finally panicked.

Xiao Zhenlei gritted his teeth and got up and covered his wound, Wang Yaqiao was fine, and he then got up too. Seeing the signs of chaos when the crowd came, Xiao Zhenlei immediately shouted: "Don't mess up, don't mess up, everyone, the gunman is far away, and he can't threaten here!" ”

His voice was loud, but at this time the people were already panicking, and it had little effect, and because there were military guards at the gate of the dock, so many people could not rush out for a while, and it was even more dangerous for people to huddle together. Xiao Zhenlei was anxious in his heart, and ordered Li Pingshu and the others not to run around in the cordon, so he said to Wang Yaqiao: "You quickly order someone to pursue the assassin!" ”

"And here?"

"I'm here, don't worry!"

After Wang Yaqiao left, Xiao Zhenlei picked up a guard and climbed to the top of the car next to him and took out the pistol on his waist, and fired three shots in a row with the muzzle of the gun pointing towards the sky, and the three gunshots immediately shocked tens of thousands of people on the dock, and everyone stopped and looked back at Xiao Zhenlei.

Xiao Zhenlei immediately arrived: "Don't panic, everyone, the assassin is here to kill me, I was just shot in the arm, it's okay, the assassin was on the roof far away just now, and now he has run away, it doesn't threaten everyone's safety, the people from the police station have gone to hunt down the assassin, now it's safe here, you can rest assured to stay, if you want to leave, you can also go, but don't worry, go out one by one, don't push others, it's easy to cause a stampede and hurt innocent people!" ”

"Commander-in-Chief Xiao just injured his arm, it's okay, it's scared to death!"

"yes, yes, that assassin is so hateful!"

"I think it was Yuan Datou in the north who did it, he must have done it!"

The people who were quiet were relieved to hear Xiao Zhenlei say this, most of them stayed, only a few people slowly left the dock, and the dock, which was about to have a large-scale riot, disappeared because Xiao Zhenlei endured the pain and climbed onto the roof of the car to explain the situation.

"Go find the doctor, get there!" Ma Boyang, who had already served as the director of the Police Department under the East China Governor's Office, shouted to his director when he saw that Xiao Zhenlei's arm was still bleeding.

The people on the dock were worried when they saw that Xiao Zhenlei's entire arm was stained red with blood, but fortunately, the soldiers and police were nearby to maintain order, so that no one would riot again.

"It's okay, it's okay, tell everyone not to be nervous, it's just a little injury!" Xiao Zhenlei pressed the wound and said to Ma Boyang.

There was an infirmary on the dock, and soon someone ran over with a medicine box under the soldiers' open path, and the doctor cut Xiao Zhenlei's sleeve and took a look at it and said: "The bullet is stuck in the bone, and it must be sent to the hospital to take out the bullet!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei hurriedly said: "No, no, no, we are here to pick up people, and now that no one has arrived, what does it mean for me to leave?" In this way, doctor, you stop the bleeding for me first, cover it with gauze, and then I will go to the hospital to take out the ammunition when I pick up someone, and they should be almost there, it won't be delayed for long, okay, that's it! (To be continued......) R1292