If it is in those parliamentary countries, whether to decide to go to war or not may be debated by many people, but in the monarchical **** country, this kind of thing only needs a decision of the monarch.

Lin Zhe wanted to use this Hawaii incident to expand the situation, and then see if there was a chance to take back Hong Kong, so when he had this kind of thought, the entire empire acted according to Lin Zhe's wishes.

The Imperial Navy canceled all the leave of its officers and soldiers, and the officers on leave were urgently recalled to their units, and the capital ships ceased their inconsequential activities, but returned to the harbor one after another to recuperate, and began intensive training near the harbor.

Major port bases, especially Guangzhou and Shanghai, have also stepped up daily patrols.

By the time the First Fleet began to assemble, a number of warships were already heading for Japan from the coast of China, including a wooden cruiser Shaoxing, four semi-armed transport ships, and two coal carriers.

This fleet will first go to Japan's Edo, then join up with several other warships of the Pacific Fleet to form the Hawaiian Reinforcement Fleet, go to Hawaii, and finally join the Hawaiian Task Force.

According to the navy's plan, the reinforcement fleet will be mainly composed of the Shaoxing wooden cruiser, and will also carry two Zhenguang-class offshore ironclad ships and eight transport ships

The task of the reinforcement fleet is mainly to escort transport ships, which will carry a special infantry battalion, two artillery batteries, and a company of marines specially arranged by the army.

Then it also carried a large amount of supplies, mainly military supplies such as bullets and shells.

Of course. Coal is also essential!

When the reinforcements arrive in Hawaii, the Marines will remain in Hawaii. This would allow the Empire to garrison more than 1,200 regular marines in Hawaii, and if necessary, it would be possible to mobilize the sailors of the fleet to assist in the battle. It is enough to expand to more than 2,000 people, of course, the premise of sailors going ashore is that the fleet has completely failed, and it is impossible for the navy to abandon the warships and then transfer all the sailors ashore to fight.

Since the number of troops stationed in Hawaii will reach more than 1,000 people, this strength is no longer comparable to the existing battalion-level establishment, and at the same time, the troops sent in the past are mainly land forces, and to be honest, they are fighting on land. The Navy's Marines are still not as proficient as the Army, so the military intends to set up a Hawaiian garrison regiment in Hawaii, which will be headed by an army officer, and will have an army infantry battalion and two artillery companies, and two infantry companies and an artillery company in the Marine Corps.

The total number consists of five infantry companies, three artillery batteries and a number of other auxiliary units.

The garrison's mission was not just to defend the port of Honolulu, but to encompass the entire Hawaiian Islands. For now, of course, their mission is mainly Oahu.

The reinforcement fleet's wooden cruiser Shaoxing and two Zhenguang-class offshore ironclads will join the Hawaiian task force directly upon arrival in Hawaii.

Previously, the Hawaiian task force had four wooden cruisers, but now it has lost two. Only the Taiyuan and Wuchang remained, and it was impossible for the Imperial Navy not to strengthen the Hawaiian task force in the face of the British, French, and American fleets that could return to Hawaii at any time.

However, considering that Lin Zhe already intends to use the situation in Hawaii to expand the situation. Even the main warships of the Imperial Navy, which wanted to recover Hong Kong. In particular, it is definitely impossible to send those ironclad ships used in decisive battles to Hawaii, and these warships need to stay in the country. Then prepare for the Anglo-French fleet.

On the Hawaiian side, whether it is the Empire, Britain, France, the United States and other countries, the number of troops that can be sent in the past is actually very limited, and they will not send the main warships over, but some old wooden cruisers.

But in the Asia-Pacific region is different, once a full-scale conflict breaks out between the empire and Britain and France, the strength of the French fleet in the Far East is nothing, but the naval strength of the British is not to be underestimated, the British have a small number of warships in Hong Kong, but there are still many warships in Singapore, and more importantly, they have more warships in India, and they also have cutting-edge main ironclad ships, these are the real imaginary enemies of the Imperial Navy, a sword hanging over the head of the Imperial Navy.

In this case, the main ironclad ships of the Imperial Navy could never be dispatched, and the only ones that could be sent to Japan or Hawaii to carry out missions were those wooden cruisers.

Before the Imperial Navy, there were a total of eight regular ocean-going wooden cruisers, three of the Shaoxing-class and five of the Nanjing-class, four of which were sent to Hawaii before, and now one more Shaoxing was sent over, so there are only three left in the country.

In order to replenish the Offshore Fleet, especially the Pacific Fleet stationed in Japan and the Hawaiian Task Force stationed in Hawaii, the Imperial Navy had to take out the small offshore ironclads that were originally planned for coastal defense.

Especially the Zhenguang class, this small ironclad ship of only 450 tons is actually not suitable for ocean navigation and combat, and the original design is intended to be used in coastal operations.

But now the Imperial Navy is not running out of warships, and there is an urgent need of warships in Japan and Hawaii, and the Imperial Navy is also worried that the Americans may send ironclad ships to attack Hawaii.

In order to let the Zhenguang-class arrive in Hawaii smoothly, the Zhenguang-class ship was full of coal when it set off, and then it was specially equipped with a coal carrier for replenishment in the first half of the journey, and it would stop many times on the way, and then supply coal and other materials from some Spanish-controlled islands.

As long as they can cross the Pacific Ocean and not be unlucky enough to encounter a big storm on the way, then the Zhenguang class will be able to reach Hawaii with difficulty, and once these two small ironclad ships arrive in Hawaii, then their combat effectiveness will even exceed those wooden cruisers of more than 1,000 tons.

It can be said that the Shaoxing in the reinforcement fleet has more than 1,000 tons, but after arriving in Hawaii, the role of the Shaoxing is actually not as big as these two Zhenguang-class small ironclad ships.

At the same time that the Imperial Navy sent reinforcements to Hawaii, the First Fleet was also undergoing combat preparation.

The capital ships were concentrated in the port of Shanghai, and then underwent a short rest and replenishment in order to keep the ships in the best condition.

The Yandi-class No. 2 ship, that is, the Shaohao, which has just completed outfitting, was put into service ahead of schedule, and the training and sea trials were carried out directly after entering active service.

The Pangu-class No. 4 ship Fuxi, which is still under construction, has entered a tense overtime construction period in the Qingdao Naval Shipyard, and the ship was originally expected to complete outfitting in June this year, and the official service time should be in August or September. Now, it is hoped that the outfitting will be completed three months earlier, that is, it is expected to be completed in March this year, when the time comes, while serving and training for sea trials.

In fact, the empire is not the only one under construction, according to the imperial navy's shipbuilding plan over the years, there are always two main warships under construction on the slipway, and they have been one large and one small since the previous few years.

Now the Imperial Navy still has a 5,000-ton warship based on the Yandi class that is being built on the slipway, and at the same time, the fifth ship of the Pangu class is also undergoing preliminary construction, but both ships are still in the early and middle stages of construction, even if they work overtime, but they will not be able to complete and serve until next year at the earliest, so they can't rush to come.

However, some other small-tonnage ships can greatly shorten the construction period, such as the Zhenguang-class and Jining-class small ironclad ships, the Jining-class small ironclad ships have a tonnage of only 150 tons, which has little impact on naval warfare, and is positioned as inland river operations and port patrols.

However, the Zhenguang-class small ironclad ship has some merits, its firepower and protection of 450 tons are still barely strong, and it is naturally unreliable to fight the ironclad ship with a larger tonnage than it, but there is no problem at all in dealing with wooden battleships, if conditions permit, this Zhenguang-class small ironclad ship relies on fighting with those wooden battleships of several thousand tons.

Because although the Zhenguang-class ironclad ship is small, it is an ironclad ship, and the power of the ship's guns in this year is okay against wooden battleships, but it is actually very reluctant to deal with ironclad ships.

The early ironclad ships were actually tortoise shells, whether it was tens of thousands of tons or hundreds of tons, they were not so easy to gnaw, otherwise they would not have made the caliber of the battleship's naval guns larger and larger, and later developed to two-stage main guns, relying on the way of sweeping the deck to destroy the enemy, the reason is very simple, because in the early stage of the development of ironclad ships, the existing naval guns and shells could not threaten the protection of ironclad ships at all.

Because the ship's guns were not very powerful, it even caused the ramming angle to be installed on the battleship again.

At the same time, because of the small tonnage, many medium-sized shipyards can manufacture the Zhenguang class, and the technical requirements are relatively low, the steam engines used are all mature products of the old model, and the naval guns are also front-loading rifled guns used by the navy for many years, and the overall cost is very low.

The purchase price of a small offshore ironclad ship of the Zhenguang class, including the hull, power system, and naval guns, is about 160,000 yuan, which is equivalent to more than 35,000 pounds.

The price is not much higher than that of a wooden battleship of the same tonnage, but the combat effectiveness is very different, the firepower is not very powerful, it can only be said that it is average, but the protection ability is quite good.

Of course, the cheap price will definitely have disadvantages, that is, the seaworthiness is a little worse, the endurance is a little worse, and it is difficult to use it for ocean-going operations.

Because the Zhenguang class is relatively cheap, and the technical requirements are small, and if the situation in the empire is tense for a period of time in the future, the demand for this kind of offshore ironclad ships will also be relatively large, and it can be used in Vietnam, Japan, and the coastal areas of China at that time, so in addition to the many orders at the beginning, the navy has added six orders for improved ships, making up a dozen dozen ships.

After the Navy assembled the First Fleet, it soon left Shanghai Port in the name of training, and then the First Fleet went to a military port in southern Taiwan, where it could hold the Taiwan Strait and at the same time go south to Guangzhou at any time to cooperate with the two Nuluo-class offshore ironclad ships stationed in Guangzhou to attack Hong Kong.

The navy is moving, and the army is naturally not idle, and after receiving the mobilization order, the troops stationed in Guangdong have already moved quickly, and their target is Hong Kong! (To be continued.) )