Just when Li Yongji was in full swing to engage in Sino-foreign exchanges, Zhang Xinda suddenly stopped the action of transporting horses, which made Li Yongji, who was planning to continue to engage in the dragoon division, very puzzled.

"Why don't you send the horse? Because I think that's stupid. Faced with Li Yongji's question, Zhang Xinda just shrugged his shoulders, "I used to think that you wanted to use these horses to fight the Taiping Army, and the tactics are still very good, but if you want to use these horses to take your troops north to fight the British and French forces, the teleportation horses are really worth the loss." ”

"Why is it that the gains outweigh the losses?"

"Because you don't know at all about the reality of a long march." Zhang Xinda said, "Actually, I didn't know much about it before, so I accompanied you crazy for a while, but then I happened to find a little information, that is, the endurance of horses is worse than that of people, and they need more logistics support than people, and if the long-distance march exceeds 500 kilometers, the marching speed of horses is not as good as that of people." ”

"What marching speed is inferior to a man? Why can't I understand? Li Yongji asked.

"Let's put it this way." Zhang Xinda said, "In the era when there were no trains and no cars, if you want to walk from Shanghai to Beijing, if you travel lightly, it will take a month, if you are riding a horse, then it will take at least two months from Shanghai to Beijing, do you understand?" ”

"How is that possible?" Li Yongji said, "I understand walking for a month, but how can it take two months to ride a horse?" ”

"Because horses have less stamina than people." Zhang Xinda said, "When the horses are usually in the pasture, they basically eat all the time, and if they don't eat grass and eat grain and feed, the consumption is also amazing." Well, knowing that you have a golden finger, but a horse has to eat at least 10 kilograms of concentrate a day, and 20,000 horses have to eat 200 tons of grain a day, is your tonnage enough? Anyway, my teleportation tonnage is not enough, so you can't just get food, you also have to have weapons and ammunition and other supplies. ”

"But ......"

"Listen to me." Zhang Xinda said, "Even if you let the horses eat enough every day, but the horse's endurance is not as good as people, within 500 kilometers, the speed is much faster than people, but after walking 500 kilometers in a row, the horses must stop and rest for a period of time, if you continue to walk, you will get sick, you will be tired to death, and during this period of rest time for horses, people can continue to walk, and they have long surpassed horses."

To make a vivid analogy, people and horses are like tortoises and rabbits racing, people can keep walking, but horses run fast at the beginning, but soon have to rest halfway, if they don't rest, they will get sick or die of exhaustion. Therefore, those so-called eight-hundred-mile expedited are constantly changing horses, and if they don't change horses, they will be tired to death.

There have long been statistics in this area in history, that is, if you march strategically, the speed of people should exceed that of horses, for example, Napoleon said that the speed of marching is first infantry, the second is cavalry, and the third is artillery, which illustrates this problem.

For example, in the following American Civil War, many times the infantry had to stop and wait for the cavalry after walking for a while, which meant that the horse's endurance was not good. In other words, the horse's mobility is good, but at the tactical level, or at the campaign level, if it rises to the strategic level, the horse's mobility is much worse than that of a human on foot. ”

"If you say so, how did the Mongol cavalry do it?"

"Can that be the same?" Zhang Xinda said, "The Mongolian cavalry is more horses than people, one person, two horses or three horses, to support the war, and the mobility of the Mongolian cavalry is not very strong, but it is stronger than the infantry mobility at that time, but the infantry mobility at that time is just as poor, not to mention that the Mongolian cavalry in the strategic maneuver, in order to sympathize with the horsepower, is also dismounted and walking." In modern times, the mobility of infantry has been greatly enhanced, and when it comes to strategic maneuvers, it is faster than that of horses. In short, you believe me, a long-term march, the speed of people is much stronger than that of horses, you can walk from Shanghai to Beijing in a month, and you will never be able to reach it on horseback, so if you plan to go to Beijing by horse or carriage, you will die as soon as possible, even if you can, the consumption of horses alone can exhaust you. ”

"Then you mean to say that I will march on foot to Beijing to fight the Anglo-French army?" Li Yongji said, "But in that case, the variables are too great, after all, it's a month, not to mention that I am an army, not a person walking lightly, plus this road condition, I will definitely not be able to reach it in a month." ”

"That's right, that's why I said, you're a stupid idea." Zhang Xinda shook his head, "Actually, you should have told me about the idea that you were going to fight the British and French forces, so that I wouldn't have to waste so much tonnage to transport horses for you." Do you know that there are more good ways to fight the Anglo-French alliance without worrying and effort, and it will not expose yourself. ”

"What method? Say one and hear it. ”

"For example, fighting battleships." Zhang Xinda said, "During the Second ** War, the logistics and supplies of the British and French forces were basically transported from the rear by ship, such as weapons and ammunition, which were brought by themselves. At that time, whether they were capital ships or supply ships, they were all sail ships, and even if there were some auxiliary ships with steam engines, they were all wooden-hulled ships. Among them, I checked the information, during the Second ** War, the British and French forces had a total of only 26 main warships, and the strongest warships were only about 6 third-class sail battleships, which was the absolute main force. Of course, your plane may be different, but it is not much worse than that. ”

"So what." Li Yongji said, "Do you want to teleport me a few steel gunboats and let me take people over to fight a naval battle?" ”

"I would like to, but the navy is not so easy to build, even if you are given a ship, you don't have a dock, and you don't have qualified seamen." Zhang Xinda said, "Actually, early in the morning, I wanted to get you a small submarine, for example, Iran's Qadir-class small submarine is good, with a displacement of only 120 tons and a small tonnage, and I have no problem transmitting it to you."

This type of submarine has two torpedo tubes, has a small crew, is simple to operate, and can be used quickly. Moreover, there was no such thing as submarine warfare in your time, and everyone did not have the awareness of guarding against submarines, so if you use modern torpedoes to hit sail warships, it is definitely one ship after another did not run. But alas, I later overturned this method myself. ”

"Why? That's a good idea. Li Yongji nodded, "It's definitely a good idea to use a modern small submarine to fight a wooden sail battleship of this era!" Why, why did you overturn this idea? Is the submarine too expensive? Short of money? ”

"Not really." Zhang Xinda said, "The price of this kind of submarine is not expensive, but after all, it is a military product, and it is difficult to buy it, at least for me at present." Well, or rather, time doesn't allow. ”

"Time doesn't allow it?"

"Yes." Zhang Xinda said, "I have inquired, to buy this kind of submarine, from the negotiation of the project, to the actual receipt, the whole process is quite troublesome, it is impossible to succeed without a small half a year, even if I receive it, I have to invest personnel to learn how to operate, I will give it to you again, you learn again, okay, a year will pass, even if you will use this submarine, the fire in the Old Summer Palace has long been extinguished." ”

"Then you can buy it from other countries, such as North Korea, I remember that North Korea also has small submarines."

"You're talking about North Korea's Shark-class submarines, I've already asked." Zhang Xinda shook his head, "The problem is that I'm in South Africa, and it's easier to buy from Iran, but it's even more difficult to buy from North Korea." Not to mention the formalities, North Korea is now blocked very strictly, and it is basically difficult for me to get it. ”

"What then? If you say it, you don't say it. Li Yongji was dissatisfied.

"Don't worry, I've already found someone to talk to the Iranian side about the submarine, and it is estimated that there will be a letter in a while, but don't expect the Iranian submarine to fight the British and French forces, time can't keep up." Zhang Xinda said, "However, if you want to fight the warships of the British and French forces, you don't necessarily have to be submarines, you can also engage in frogman special forces." ”

"Frogman Agenta?" Li Yongji blinked, and instantly understood, "You mean to say that let the frogmen go and plant bombs under the battleship?" ”

"That's right!" Zhang Xinda said, "According to the records of my side, the Anglo-French alliance of the Second ** War attacked Beijing at the end of April 1860. The British army of 15,000 men and the French army of 7,000 men occupied Zhoushan as the first base under the escort of warships; then after a short rest, at the end of May and early June, they set sail again, occupied Dalian and Yantai, set up two advance bases, and blocked the Bohai Bay at the same time; finally, in August, they attacked Dagukou and began the third battle of Dagukou, this time because of the stupidity of the Qing army's top brass, so that the British and French forces were victorious. Well, I've said so much, have you thought of anything? ”

"You mean to let me find a way to infiltrate the other party's base and blow up the other party's ships?"

"That's right!"

"But as you said, the other party has blocked Bohai Bay, and other ships can't get in. If the ship can't get in, how can the frogman fight? ”

"Submarines!"

"Submarines?" Li Yongji's eyelids jumped, "Didn't you say that it is very troublesome to buy a submarine, it will take at least half a year, and it will take a year when the training comes out?" Now again...... Are you hairy? ”

"Listen to me." Zhang Xinda smiled, showing his snow-white teeth, "Military submarines can't work, I didn't say civilian submarines can't either." You see, in view of the fact that there was no anti-submarine concept at all in your time, you can use civilian submarines to carry frogmen, and after arriving at the place, let frogmen go into the water at night, use underwater night vision equipment, sneak to the bottom of the battleship and put time bombs, and then return, run away, when the time comes, Peng! Perfect call-up! You see, in this way, the other party doesn't know who did it at all, and even if he suspects, he is suspicious of the Qing government, and he won't suspect you, how good. ”

"Is it easy to buy civilian submarines?"

"Of course it's easy to buy, and it's easy to operate." Zhang Xinda said, "The Chinese-made all-submersible sightseeing submarine is of the same level as the Haitai 1 sold to Thailand, and it belongs to the follow-up submarine. This civilian submarine is 24 meters long, displacement 170 tons, can carry 58 passengers, diesel-electric propulsion, underwater speed up to 8 knots, maximum dive up to 120 meters, can be equipped with night vision periscopes and other night vision equipment, but the range is a bit short, only 800 nautical miles. But the price is cheap, only 2.3 million US dollars, super cost-effective, the most important thing is that there is in stock, he produced two ships there, originally wanted to sell them to a buyer in the Philippines, but then people didn't want it, so they stayed, and I was cheaper. ”

"Eight hundred nautical miles? From Shanghai to Tianjin, the flight is not enough, right? Li Yongji said.

"Who said you were going to Tianjin?"

"Is that going to Yantai or Dalian? It doesn't seem to work, right? Do you want me to refuel halfway? ”

"It doesn't have to be that far." Zhang Xinda said, "Have you forgotten Zhoushan? Hehe, Zhoushan is the first base of the British and French forces, and it is also a place where ships gather, and it is also close to you, so ......"

"Oh, I see, great idea!" Li Yongji slapped his face, "I haven't heard that the British and French forces have occupied Zhoushan, but according to what you say, I'm afraid that soon they will be on the way, and they will soon capture Zhoushan, after all, it is almost the end of April." ”

"Yes, so you're going to move faster." Zhang Xinda said, "The submarine is easy to handle, I can return to China at any time to pick up the goods, and the frogman's equipment is easy to say, explosives, I have prepared a special high-explosive timed bomb with a suction cup for you, and the charges are all military high explosives." This kind of bomb weighs 50 kilograms each, and 5 explosives can blow up a 3,000-ton wooden hulled ship! Don't look at 50 kg is heavy, but under water you can borrow the buoyancy of water, so it is not difficult for frogmen to carry one.

Such a submarine can carry 50 frogmen and 50 explosive * bombs, a total of 2500 kg of explosive * charge! Two submarines can 5,000 kilograms of explosives. According to the calculation of an average of 5 bombs to blow up a ship, at least 20 warships can be blown up at one time! Of course, in fact, this is too powerful, and it can average 3 explosives per ship, so that at least 33 ships can be blown up at one time.

In addition, you can also keep up with a civilian ship at sea as a supply, so that the two submarines can use the explosives on the supply ship to send frogmen many times, and you can install bombs under all the ships of the British and French forces in one night, as long as the ship is finished, the British and French forces that rely on logistics will be finished! ”

"The plan is good, but it requires a qualified frogman unit." Li Yongji said, "Where did I get the frogman troops?" ”

"Frogman training isn't easy?" Zhang Xinda said, "You can find some reliable fishermen, even soldiers who can dive, and then use the equipment and train for half a month." There are diving equipment and underwater night vision devices, and there is no problem at night to act, but the British and French forces do not have high-power searchlights at this time, and they are kerosene lamps at night, and the vision at night is too poor.

Anyway, after the British and French forces occupy Zhoushan, there will be a month of adaptation, and you can take the opportunity to train well and then launch an attack. It is best to put explosive* bombs when the opponent is about to set off for the north, so that the opponent's infantry can be sent into the sea to feed the sharks. ”

"This method is ruthless, I like it, but the difficulty is a bit high." Li Yongji smiled, "But I'll try my best to see if there is a chance, I can do it if I have the opportunity, it's really not good, it's enough to blow up the opponent's warships and supply ships, without logistics supplies, that group of soldiers is just a group of fish on the board, I can cut it." ”