"Toot!"

The low whistle sounded at the iron wharf of Liugong Island, and with this whistle, the warships of the Beiyang Fleet moored at the berth made final preparations for the upcoming voyage. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 According to the regulations of the Beiyang Navy, strict patrol activities are carried out every year. The normal situation is to leave the Beiyang region from autumn and winter, go to the south to avoid the winter, return from the south in the spring of the following year, and go out to North Korea, Russia and other Beiyang ports in the summer. Coupled with irregular trips to Yantai, Tianjin, and Lushun for patrol, supply, and maintenance, in fact, only one-third of the time in a year is on Liugong Island.

However, this year, due to the Russo-Japanese War, the Beiyang Navy's routine southern winter cruise was delayed again and again, until the second snow fell in winter, and with the British, French and Russian ministers as a guarantee, the imperial court approved the Beiyang Navy to carry out a routine southern cruise to "defend Gyeonggi".

On the iron dock, sailors carrying coal bags carried square coal bags onto the warship. The coal bag is filled with anthracite produced by the Pyongyang Navy Fuel Plant, compared with the bituminous coal produced by the old Kailuan Coal Mine, the briquette produced by the Pyongyang Navy Fuel Plant not only has the advantage of strong firepower, but also has the advantage of low smoke because of the anthracite coal used, although its price is slightly more expensive than that of Kailuan coal, but compared with the Kailuan coal with uneven quality and weak firepower and damage to the machine, the Beiyang Navy, which is now well-funded, is more willing to use naval briquette.

On the bridge of the cruiser "Zhiyuan" on the side of the iron dock, the pipe belt Deng Shichang would sometimes turn his attention to the sailors who were carrying coal, and the white uniforms of the sailors had completely changed color - black and full of soot, but compared with the crushed coal used in the past. At least the deck is clean.

"Deputy Chen. Now it's up to you to command the loading of coal. At 3:15, the coal loading must be completed! ”

"Wow!"

Chen Jinhua, the deputy driver on the side, heard the order and hurriedly obeyed. Although the Beiyang Navy received Western-style training and changed into Western-style military uniforms this year, there are still traces of the old army.

After leaving the bridge and entering the cabin, the electric light on the roof of the cabin reflects the aisle, in the aisle. There are three or two sailors who are tidying up the cabin, and the Beiyang Navy regulations are completely based on the British Royal Navy, and the cabin must be cleaned spotlessly before each voyage. As the manager of the "Zhiyuan", Deng Shichang entered the cabin to check the cleaning of each cabin.

The passage in the ship is not spacious, because most of the sailors are moving coal, and only a few sailors are left in the cabin to tidy up the cabin, and when inspecting the cabin, Deng Shichang will deliberately use his fingers wearing white gloves to wipe some dead corners that are not easy to wipe, if there is ash on the gloves. The sailors will be ordered to clean up again.

Although this cleanliness does not last long when sailing at sea because of the soot, it is extremely necessary. Just like bathing and changing clothes on the ship are necessary to maintain combat effectiveness, although the resignation of Lang Weili has a certain impact on the training of the Beiyang Navy, the strict training in the past few years has made many things a habit.

When Deng Shichang inspected the cabin on the first floor, in the boiler room on the lower floor, there would only be a few soldiers shoveling coal there to pressurize the boiler, and when the sailors shoveled the coal, Shao Hongqing was on fire with a little dim light, and he was reading a book there.

Only today he seemed to be a little different from usual, his lips were clenched as he looked at the small book in his hand, his fists were clenched, his eyes flashed with tears, and a nameless pain permeated his chest. His breathing seemed to be a little rapid, and he was completely immersed in the scream, and he didn't even hear the stomping of the escalator, let alone notice that the pipe belt had entered the boiler room.

"Adult ......"

Several firefighters saw the pipe belt that entered the boiler room, and when they were about to call Shao Hongqing, they were stopped by Deng Shichang, who looked at Shao Hongqing who was reading a book, and his brows were still slightly frowned.

On Liugong Island, where there were only the yamen and barracks of the sailors, the officers and men had no other activities except reading books outside of training, and in the past, the big guys did not have the habit of reading books, until a month ago, a fellow of the Zhongtang Lord, under the sponsorship of others, set up a library in a narrow idle house on the island, and specially borrowed books, and the navy soldiers could borrow books with their waist cards, and the price was extremely cheap, if they had a library card, it would only cost 20 yuan a month.

Even if the Admiral also deeply agrees with this, and even specially issued a library card to show his support, Xu is idle and bored, now in the navy can often see sailors reading, Deng Shichang naturally does not object to sailors reading books, and also agrees with them to read more, but Shao Hongqing is now on the post, how can he concentrate on reading books and ignore his business!

"Shao Shenghuo!"

The sudden heavy drink made Shao Hongqing, who was reading a book, suddenly come back, and when he saw that it was the master of the pipe, he hurriedly threw the book between the coals.

"Adult, small violation of the constitution, please punish the adult!"

If it were put aside, Shao Hongqing might not have recognized it so quickly, but today is different, that book must not be ......

"Why did you lose the book and read it again!"

Frowning, Deng Shichang realized some problems from Shao Hongqing's attitude of taking the initiative to admit punishment, and glanced at the book thrown on the coal pile, and sure enough, Shao Hongqing's face changed.

"What kind of book are you reading?"

Deng Shichang drank in a deep voice, and then ordered someone to pick up the book, and when he saw the book fall into the hands of adults, Shao Hongqing trembled all over, and his legs were weak, and the whole person immediately knelt down.

"Adult ......"

Shao Hongqing, who knelt down, hurriedly kowtowed.

"Spare your life! Spare your life! ”

The cover of the book was deliberately covered with a layer of paper, so that the title of the book could not be seen, but after opening it, he saw that the title page read "Yangzhou Ten Diaries", looking at the title, Deng Shichang's brows suddenly wrinkled, maybe he had not read this book, but he had heard of "Yangzhou Ten Days".

"Or lining the horse's hooves, or the feet of people, the liver and brain are smeared on the ground, and the crying is full of wild ......"

Turning one of the pages, when he saw the content clearly, Deng Shichang clenched his hand violently and stared at Shao Hongqing who was kneeling on the ground,

"Where did this book come from!"

"Return, back to adults, yes, it was the last time I went to Shanghai, Yu, I bought ...... in the bookstore."

When he said this, Shao Hongqing didn't know why he wanted to cover for the library, which was obviously borrowed. But he didn't want to involve the library on the shore.

"Small, the villain has never read a book, I don't know what books are good, so, so ...... Please spare your life, please spare your life! ”

Deng Shichang pondered for a moment, and then raised his leg to kick it.

"What a book you're reading! Don't go to work yet! If you don't fulfill your responsibilities, this pipe belt will be subject to military law! ”

Shao Hongqing, who was kicked, hurriedly got up and beckoned to get busy, but at the same time, Deng Shichang walked towards the upper cabin with a blue face, and he was still holding the book tightly in his hand. After he returned to the tube tape cabin, he stared at the book in his hand, and until now, he couldn't even figure out why he had to cover up for Shao Hongqing.

"The blue ochre turns into five colors, and the pond is flat......"

Just a glance, Deng Shichang hurriedly closed the book, did not dare to look at it again, and was about to tear the book apart, but the hand was trembling slightly, and Deng Shichang, whose face became extremely ugly, just held him tightly, and his expression was full of struggle, and he shouted hatefully after a while.

"Banning books to disturb the hearts of our army is really hateful!"

But the words did not have much confidence, again, the book that he originally wanted to tear was still opened by him, and when he was flipping through it, Deng Shichang noticed that the pages of the book were full of small pencil characters, and the small words were full of resentment towards the imperial court.

"If the blood of such ancestors is not avenged, how can they be human!"

"To this day, I am really ashamed to be Chinese!"

There is more than one person who has left such a message, there are no less than dozens of people in that handwriting alone, look at the shocking words, Deng Shichang's expression has become more and more solemn, he can imagine what kind of attitude the sailors who have read this book will have towards the imperial court, this, how long has this book been spread in the navy?

Do you want to tell an adult?

Deng Shichang, who struggled and hesitated in his heart, did not make a decision until the end, the book was not shredded after all, but was carefully hidden in the corner of the small bookcase on the side, as if he was afraid of being discovered, and after repeatedly making sure that no one would notice, he left the cabin again, when he returned to the bridge, at this time the coal loading was almost over, and the deck soldiers were washing some floating ash on the deck, Deng Shichang, who was standing on the bridge, couldn't help but glance at the shore, although he couldn't see the library, But in his heart, he couldn't help but think, could it be that the book came from the library?

The young man standing by the door of the library just smiled and stared in the direction of the iron pier, although there was no iron pier visible from here, but he put his hands in his sleeves, but he just smiled and watched, as if nothing was more important than this, even the guests in the library did not even look at it.

When he looked at the iron dock, several navy shore soldiers in military uniforms in the library kept flipping through the books, and occasionally they would chat a few words, talk about the books they had read before, and there would always be some great disrespect in their words.

At this time, the young boss of the library came over with a smile and chatted with a few shore soldiers, a few people seemed to be talking about books there, but chatting and chatting, at the invitation of the boss, these shore soldiers went to the back of the house with the boss to Lu Cha to study, which was an inconspicuous academy on the island, at this time it not only became a place of study for naval sailors, but also a place for land sailors to make friends.

"Toot!"

There was another long whistle, and the main forces of the Beiyang Navy on both sides of the iron pier slowly left the dock with the order, and sailed towards the sea in the setting sun...... (To be continued.) )