Since ancient times, fighting a war has never been a simple matter, especially a war of more than 100,000 people is a very troublesome thing, whether it is weapons, ammunition, food, people, baggage, and troop transfers, even those officers with slower brains will be forced to almost collapse.

"10,000 stone of flour, 10,000 stone of corn, 30,000 stone of horse feed, 5,000 boxes of canned food, 2,000 boxes of compressed biscuits, 200,000 pounds of gunpowder, and 5,000,000 rounds of buckshot...... Oh, my God...... If all these supplies need to pass out by land, it will take at least four months to half a year, and how long will it take to prepare? ”

Yue Yang looked at the materials and baggage that Shunbao and they sent to him, his brows furrowed, the Xuan army, which had not fought for more than a year, was not ready for a big battle, and most of these things had to be transported from Shanxi, how long would it take to prepare, and what was even worse was that it would take longer if it was prepared by land.

"No...... It's been a long time by road, so it would be nice to be able to take the sea route instead. Yue Yang muttered slowly, but the most important thing about going by sea and land is that you need a sea ship, but now I don't know how the construction of the battleship is going, thinking of this, Yue Yang called the guards and gave a few words, and soon the sailor guerrilla Guo Jingxian, who was training the sailor, went to pick it up.

After Guo Jingxian came in, he arched his hand at Yue Yang and said, "Master Hou, I heard that you are looking for a humble position!" ”

Yue Yang looked at Guo Jingxian carefully, this former sea thief was much darker than the last time they met, Yue Yang said lightly: "General Guo, the Weihai Wei Naval Division has been rebuilt for more than half a year, I don't know how the Naval Division is trained?" ”

Guo Jingxian hurriedly replied: "Hou Qi, I was ordered to rebuild the naval division in the past year, and the five thousand newly recruited naval divisions in the past half a year have completed their recruit training to become officers and soldiers of the naval division, but now our warships have just been delivered, and the training time is still too short, so they have not yet formed combat effectiveness." ”

Yue Yang asked, "How many warships have we built now?" ”

"Your Excellency. Today, our army has built two third-class warships, four fourth-class warships, eight fifth-class warships and twelve sixth-class warships, and nine Yan-type ships! ”

"That's it!"

Yue Yang touched his chin and muttered for a while, Yue Yang is a taker, since people have already defined the sail battleship in another time and space, then he naturally copied it unceremoniously. Strictly speaking, the third-class battleship does not belong to the battleship, it can only be regarded as a heavy cruiser, its displacement is about 1,500 tons, the number of people is 600, there are 74 guns, and the cost is also very expensive.

Suddenly. Yue Yang suddenly remembered something and asked, "If we continue to train at this rate, we won't have enough sailors next year, right?" ”

Guo Jingxian nodded and said: "Yes, at this time, I want to report to the Hou Ye, now that the five thousand sailors we have trained have basically all been on the ship, if there is another warship next year, this person will not be enough." ”

"Five thousand sailors are so insufficient?" Yue Yang couldn't help but smile bitterly, originally thought that five thousand sailors were enough to equip a fleet, but now it still seems that it is far from enough. In those days, a ship needed far more sailors than in later generations, and a thousand-ton sailing ship needed hundreds of people, as in later generations, with the aid of computers. A few dozen people can drive a giant ship of 10,000 tons.

"Let's continue to recruit sailors." Yue Yang smiled bitterly, it seems that there is still a long way to go if you want to quickly storm a large fleet.

"Do you have anything else to order?"

"Naturally, there is." After hearing Guo Jingxian's words, Yue Yang remembered that today's topic had not yet been said, and he continued: "In a few days, Ben Hou plans to make a move on the Tartars, because Ben Hou intends to mobilize most of our forces to complete the battle. In this battle, the Manchu threat was solved in one fell swoop, and the food and equipment required were very large, and it was too cumbersome and slow to transport them to Liaodong by land alone, so Ben Hou planned to recruit all the ships of the navy to join the battle. And conscripted all the ships of Weihaiwei to transport supplies for the army, and you, as the guerrilla general of the Weihaiwei Naval Division, this burden will naturally fall on your shoulders. Are you confident that you can complete the task? ”

Guo Jingxian knows that the main force of this war is the army, and their sailors are only playing soy sauce, but this does not mean that their sailors are not important, after all, the grain and grass of the hundreds of thousands of troops must all be borne by their sailors, and this burden is by no means lighter than the army brothers who are fighting on the front line, and this is also the first task given to him by the Hou Ye after the sailor becomes an army, and he must not mess up, he held his head high and said loudly: "Please rest assured, the humble post will definitely do his best to complete the mission handed over by the Hou Ye!" ”

"Okay, I'm relieved to have your words!" Yue Yang nodded with satisfaction......

As the saying goes, before the army moves the grain and grass, the preparation required for a decisive battle with more than 100,000 people is amazing, especially for an army like Yueyang, which has escaped the era of cold weapons. After all, his army has moved away from the period when one person, one weapon, and one bag of dry food can set off, and as the weapons in the hands of the soldiers become more and more advanced, the logistics of the troops are becoming more and more cumbersome.

With Yue Yang's order, Shanxi and Shandong under Yue Yang's rule quickly began to act. The mobilization of troops, the mobilization of materials, and the countless cavalry that conveyed orders continued to go back and forth between Shanxi and Shandong, and such a large battle naturally could not be concealed from those who were interested, and soon the government and the opposition began to talk about it.

Such a big thing naturally can't be hidden from Chongzhen, but before that, Yue Yang has already reported to Chongzhen, Chongzhen is happy to see this matter, the Manchu Qing has caused too much suffering to the Ming Dynasty since its rise, and the Ming soldiers and civilians who died under their hands can no longer be counted, and it is not an exaggeration to describe the hatred that the Ming and the Manchu Qing only see in the same day, for Chongzhen, the Manchu Qing brought him only pain, if there is no Manchu Qing, why should the Ming Dynasty devote the power of the country to support an army in Liaodong every year? It can be said that in another time and space, the fragile finances of the Ming Dynasty were dragged down by Liaoyu.

It was late at night, and the Sailor Academy on Liugong Island, which was located a few miles southeast of Weihaiwei, was immersed in silence, and only dozens of lanterns outside the entire school were emitting dim lights.

"Beep beep beep ......" A sharp whistle sounded over the Sailor Academy.

As the whistle sounded, the originally calm Sailor School boiled like a suddenly boiling pot, and after a few minutes passed, countless students wearing blue and white striped costumes began to pour out from all over the place and gather towards the large school field in the school. Guo Jingxian, a guerrilla general of the naval division, was standing in the center of the school field surrounded by several military managers, quietly watching the students rushing towards them.

"Look to the right!"

"Look to the left!"

"Stand upright...... Reported ......"

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven......"

A few minutes later, a military manager in charge of duty strode up to Guo Jingxian and reported loudly: "Lord Qiqi, all the students of the Weihai Weishui Master Academy have been assembled. There should be 500 people, but 498 people could not gather two due to injuries and illnesses, and the report was completed...... Please advise! ”

Guo Jingxian nodded and said in a deep voice: "Take a break!" ”

"Boom ......" The sound of neat footsteps was immediately heard among the students.

Looking at the nearly five hundred students of the Sailor Academy who were standing neatly in front of him, Guo Jingxian said loudly: "Brothers...... I'm sorry to wake you up from the middle of the night, because today this official wants to tell you one thing, that is, on the orders of the Marquis of Yue, we are going to launch a general attack on the Tartars entrenched outside the pass! ”

Hearing this, the eyes of all the students showed a look of excitement, most of the students of the Sailor Academy were from Shandong, as a place that had been violated by the Manchu Qing several times. The atrocities of the Tartars were also widely spread in Shandong, and everyone here was full of hatred for the Tartars, and now when they heard that they were going to launch a general attack on the Manchus, everyone's eyes showed excitement, if it weren't for the strict discipline that restrained them, I am afraid that many people would have cheered loudly.

The excited eyes in the eyes of the students naturally couldn't hide Guo Jingxian, who was carefully observing them.

"The military heart is available!" That's what Guo Jingxian came to to conclusion.

After a slight pause, Guo Jingxian said again: "Don't be too happy, the main force of this expedition to Liaodong is the brother of the army, and our naval division is only responsible for transporting soldiers, material supplies and baggage. But even so, our task is very heavy, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is related to the success or failure of this battle, due to the shortage of manpower in the naval division, so they were temporarily transferred to the naval division on the order of the Marquis Yue to assist the captains in their work. It is a logistical burden related to the tens of thousands of troops, and we must not take it lightly. You are all entering the Sailor Academy after many checkpoints, and you are also the elite of our Weihaiwei Sailor Master, and now all the brothers of the Sailor are watching you, and Marquis Yue is also watching you. If anyone pulls off the chain for the official, the official will not be able to spare him, do you understand? ”

As Guo Jingxian's voice fell, a neat roar immediately erupted in the student ranks: "Understood! ”

"Okay, I'll give you two quarters of an hour to prepare. After two quarters of an hour everyone boarded the boat at the pier! ”

"Yes!"

Half a month later, on the sea, a mighty and majestic fleet of sailors was sailing on the endless sea.

Wearing a blue and white sailor suit, the sea boss and the six lepers were wiping the artillery in the gun compartment, and the huge twenty-four-pound cannon weighed more than 800 pounds. These guns had to be wiped down repeatedly every day to prevent them from rusting.

Boss Hai was lucky, he was transferred to a third-class battleship called "Qingzhou" for internship and served as a gunner to help, which is commonly known as the second artillery, that is, at this time he actually met the six lepers who served as loaders here, and the two partners in the same village were very surprised when they met.

But after the surprise, the sea boss was taken aback by the boring and difficult life on the ship, the Qingzhou battleship looked like a wooden building towering out of the water from a distance, and the richly decorated stern of the ship was lined with two layers of gold-rimmed portholes, which looked like a large house floating on the sea.

The aft mast of the Qingzhou took up almost half of the entire upper deck with its rear mast facing backwards. The aft deck is the activity place of the thirty-six officers on the ship, and it is also the stern of the entire Qingzhou, and it is also the best place for the air of the entire battleship.

No ordinary sailor shall be allowed to enter the aft deck or any part of the stern unless summoned by his superiors or required to perform some special duty. The areas of activity of ordinary sailors are the upper gun deck, the bow tower (foredeck) and the lower gun deck. The hierarchy on the ships was so strict that any sailor who tried to challenge it was punished with canging, expelled from the sailors, and even put to death.

On the two gun decks below the warship, the gunners ate, slept, and worked, all beside the huge twenty-four- and thirty-two-pounder guns. At night, the unworthy sailors opened the bunks, hung on the hooks of the beams, and slept on the cannons. Daytime. Put down the planks on the top beam and eat with your back to the cannon. The gun deck is spaced at a narrow distance, less than two meters high above and below, and the only window that lets in sunlight and fresh air is the gun door.

The air in the gun compartment was muddy and smelly, because the gun compartment where the sea boss was located was the second gun compartment and belonged to the lower deck, the lower gun deck was only about one meter above the waterline, and in the event of a heavy rain at sea, countless seawater would pour in from outside the hatch. On the lower deck, there were not only gun compartments, but also livestock pens, which housed livestock for the captains and officers. For example, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and other livestock, once the lower deck is flooded by the sea, the manure of those animals will drift around with the sea like a mountain of water, hundreds of sailors huddle together in the dirty, damp and dark lower deck, and the whole deck becomes a noisy, smelly and dark place.

Putting down the cloth in his hand, Boss Hai wiped the sweat on his forehead and said in an appreciative tone to the six lepers next to him: "It's really hard for you to stay here for so long." ”

The six lepers smiled bitterly and said: "What else can I do, who let us finish eating this meal, we have to work for others after we take other people's salaries." Two silver dollars and three buckets of rice a month are not so easy to earn. Speaking of this, the six lepers changed their tone and said: "But fortunately, we are not always in the bottom gun compartment, the ship stipulates that it will be rotated every other month, and we can also enjoy the happiness on the top deck at that time." "Speaking of which. The faces of the six lepers were full of longing.

As they spoke, the two men had already cleared the twenty-four-pounder gun, and they opened the baffle and splashed the sewage out of the baffle, and the six lepers were about to put down the baffle. But he heard a sharp whistle all around, three long and two short, which was a signal to discover the enemy's situation. Many sailors who were still busy on the deck immediately put down their work, and the loud voices of the gunners sounded around them.

"Everyone is on alert, raise the baffles...... All personnel are in place! ”

"What are you fools doing...... Get ready to reload! ”

A rude shout and curse resounded in the gun compartment, and on the battleship there were hundreds of sailors crammed into their own small spaces, facing a group of stinking sailors and working day after day, year after year, and even the best of tempers would become irritable, and it would be impossible to expect the officers to speak softly.

Boss Hai stuffed a medicine bag into the barrel of the cannon, then vigorously stuffed a twenty-four-pound cannonball into the barrel, and finally stabbed it in the barrel with a thick strip a few times, and then shouted loudly: "Lord Qiyu, five cannons are good!" ”

"Three guns are good!"

"The second cannon is good!"

"One shot!"

With the sound of ready, the battleship was ready to fire at any time.

At this time, on the top deck of this battleship, Guo Jingxian, as the supreme commander of the fleet, and a group of officers around him were holding a telescope and carefully looking at the fleet in front of them.

"Lord Guo, this is the Zheng family's fleet!"

A Qian general manager suddenly screamed, and when he looked at Guo Jingxian on the side, he found that Guo Jingxian's eyes at this time had a trace of anger that could not be concealed. Only then did he remember that this top boss had followed the Zheng family's nemesis Liu Xiang before he defected to the imperial court, and only after Liu Xiang's death did he take refuge in the imperial court, so such a person naturally hated the Zheng family to the core.

Originally, he thought that Guo Jingxian would immediately order the Zheng family's fleet to be fired, but Guo Jingxian did not do this, but said to the herald next to him: "Order the fleet to come up, signal the fleet in front to stop, and ask them about their identity, purpose, and the goods on board!" ”

"Yes!"

Soon Guo Jingxian's flagship hung up the battle flag, and the flag bearer began to wave the small flag in his hand and play the flag, under the command of the flagship, the fleet turned around and forced the Zheng family fleet on the right, but due to the suddenness of the incident, the level of the fleet sailors was a little tidal, so the formation of the fleet became a little messy, and Guo Jingxian scolded a few words in a low voice.

On the sea a few nautical miles away from the Weihai fleet, the fleet flying the Zheng family's flag soon spotted the oncoming fleet as well.

"The second master, this is the sailor of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Da Ming Water Master?"

A middle-aged man standing at the bow of the ship, wearing a black shirt and a blue turban, muttered suspiciously, and then took out a clairvoyant mirror from his arms to look at it, and his face became a little difficult to look at when he saw the oncoming fleet and the red sun and moon flag flying high.

"Bastard, how can there be a Great Ming Water Master here." This middle-aged man is Zheng Zhilong's brother Zheng Zhibao, looking at the opposite fleet Zheng Zhibao is really startled, because the opposite fleet does not look like a unique ship of the Ming Navy, but like those ships of the Yi people, which Zheng Zhi Leopard, who has dealt with the Yi people for so many years, is still sure.

"The second master, the Ming army on the opposite side called a flag, asking us to stop the boat on the spot, they want to get on the boat to check!"

"What? How bold are these dog thieves? Hearing this, Zheng Zhibao couldn't help but be furious...... (To be continued......)