PS: ps: Yesterday there was a power outage, and it hasn't come until now.

What Li Hongzhang didn't expect was that Yang Hao would make such a big move about his visit.

Originally, he thought that since the old man had stepped down, he designated that he could not do anything for the new dynasty for the sake of his reputation. However, being a minister in his life is already the peak of his career, and the official that the new dynasty can give him is at best a prime minister or something, but the power is much smaller than that of the Qing Dynasty, and there are a lot of things to do, and more people are staring at it. If you criticize the juniors with some faults, you will lose more points.

Moreover, the eldest son Li Jingfang is already the head of state, and the Li family can be said to have a successor, so there is no need to worry about being found behind. He is an old man in his seventies, what is there not to be satisfied with? It's just a matter of caring for the elderly at home and enjoying it.

The Americans would actually send out an invitation, which he did not expect, and he was very happy to go. As China's leading world-class figure, the glorious existence of being called the "Oriental Bismarck" is enough to represent China to go to any country to promote it and leave a good name for everything to be propagated.

As for what the Americans have in mind and what goals they want to achieve, Li Hongzhang is not worried. Now that he is not an official, he cannot sign any agreements on behalf of anyone, and he will not even decide on any business, so what is there to gain? If the Americans figure out how to ease relations with the junta and re-engage with Yang Hao, then it can be considered. The great cause of diplomatic relations is not determined by whether the government is in the opposition or in the opposition. If you can contribute to the peace between the two countries, this can be regarded as a residual heat, right?

With a plan in his heart, Li Hongzhang generously waited for the person sent by Yang Hao to greet him.

Yang Hao also takes great care of the elderly in his seventies. The most comfortable yacht was specially sent to pick up the old man. Along the Yangtze River to Shanghai. Then a grand meeting was held.

The preparations were sufficient in advance, and the sages, celebrities, and government dignitaries from all over the country gathered, and a large group of leaders and faces, numbering thousands of people, gave a warm welcome to the old man, giving the old man enough face. Subsequently, a group of mountaineering luxury cruise ships sailed out of the Huangpu River, surrounded by the naval fleet, and sailed into the East China Sea.

Li Hongzhang loves the navy. The huge Beiyang Naval Division. It is his hard work for decades, although it has long been outdated, but after all, it has been brilliant, and it has also supported the strength of his huge Huai team.

It's a pity that the exhausted fleet did not play its due role in his hands, and was used as a thug to guard the home and was laughed at by the nations. In this regard, Li Hongzhang was very helpless. He is well aware of the outdated state of the fleet, and it is not surprising that it is not diverted by his will and lose to the enemy with new ships.

In Yang Hao's hands. Unexpectedly, it was reborn, not only did it easily kill the Japanese Combined Fleet. It also twice annihilated the combined navies of the invading powers, including more than a dozen advanced battleships and armored cruisers.

How the hell is this done?!

He couldn't figure it out when he knew the strength of Dingyuan and other ships, and the information he collected was also vague, which made the old man anxious.

Today, he was finally able to see the true face of his former command at close range, so Li Hongzhang did not stay on the cruise ship with the people who visited the wèn group, but couldn't wait to get on the "Dingyuan" accompanied by his second son Li Jingshu.

What he didn't expect was that when he finished touring the deck with great interest, he followed the captain Liu Buyun to the command room of the command tower, and unexpectedly found that Yang Hao was actually there!

Li Hongzhang has been up and down all his life, and his experience is not ordinary, so he immediately thought that there must be something wrong with it!

Although his visit should have a high standard, dozens of attachés are actually enough, but Yang Hao sent him hundreds of people, which is a bit wrong. But thinking about what kind of agreement might be reached with foreigners, Li Hongzhang didn't ask much. The battleship saw him off, and it also gave him a long face, which is also a proper righteousness, and he deserves it.

But the entire navy came, and Yang Hao kept going south, this thing is obviously wrong!

If you can't figure it out, you ask, the old man didn't shy away from it, stared at Yang Hao with his eyes wide open, and said, "What are you planning again?" Can you tell my old man about it? ”

Yang Hao smiled: "I know that I can't hide it from your old man." It's nothing, we just want to come to a fake road, take the opportunity to send you on a trip, and pack a few goals by the way. ”

Li Hongzhang understood, raised his hand and pointed to the east: "Japan? ”

Yang Hao nodded: "Let's take back the Ryukyus by the way first." It is really hateful that little Japan seized this place as a springboard for invading China. We must take this place into our hands, serve as an external domain of the continent, and build a permanent port for the navy to stop halfway. ”

Li Hongzhang stroked his palms and praised: "Very good." If you take it by surprise and attack it unprepared, you can hold the key point in the southeast by taking this place, and from then on the north will not be invaded by foreign powers. It's just that you just rushed straight forward, aren't you afraid that the Japanese will resist to the death? I don't see many centaurs! ”

Yang Hao pointed to a few people on the side: "We have already made arrangements. In the past five months, the entire Ryukyu Islands have been cut off from sea communication and communications, and the Japanese on the islands have been exhausted without domestic support. In addition, we have more helpers. ”

Several strangely dressed men were full of excitement, as if they had seen a lifelong idol, and they came to Li Hongzhang tremblingly and bowed to the end, bowed to the end, and shouted in a trembling voice: "The villain salutes Longguang, Mao Youqing, and Xiang Zhi to meet the boss of the middle hall!" Adults are blessed with longevity and good health! ”

Li Hongzhang looked at them with some confusion and was stunned for a while, and suddenly remembered something, and pointed to the three of them: "Well, the old man seems to remember that you are waiting, isn't it that Guangxu went to the capital to study in the eighteenth year?" It seems that he also posted to the old man, right? ”

Xiang Longguang almost cried out in surprise, and nodded again and again: "Exactly!" Unexpectedly, the boss also remembered the villain, which was really ...... Really. He was so excited that he didn't know what words to say.

Li Hongzhang understood that these people were the so-called "Qing people" who were dissatisfied with the Japanese rule and went into exile in the Qing Dynasty after the Ryukyus were occupied by Japan.

In 1872, Japan announced the abolition of the Ryukyu Kingdom and the transformation of the Ryukyu Domain into the Ryukyu Domain. Later, he was forced to stop paying tribute to the Qing Dynasty. Later, it was simply renamed Okinawa. Blatantly outright occupation.

The king of the Ryukyus was captured and imprisoned by Japan, and some of the people who were not convinced fled to the Qing Dynasty and wrote to ask the Qing Dynasty to send troops to help them restore the country. However, the old ladies of Cixi patronized the garden to live, and few people in the court really understood the importance of Ryukyu, completely ignoring Japan's pressing step by step, and succeeded again and again.

Li Hongzhang was the prime minister at the time, and it stands to reason that this matter should be handled properly. However, he can't cover the sky with one hand, and he doesn't have the right to go to war. can't resist the unreasonable attacks of Weng Tongyi's group of clear streams, and besides, they feel that the external small states are insignificant, so that they have dragged on to this day.

After Yang Hao came to power, he immediately contacted Xiang Longguang and others, and secretly deployed an operation to recover the Ryukyus. However, he didn't want to raise a group of white-eyed wolves, and since he wanted to make a move, he must completely control this place. We can't take care of it in the early stage, and let it get out of Japan's control for the time being, but we must open military bases and military ports into it, and control it in all aspects of culture, education, industry, and commerce. until they integrate into the Chinese family peacefully and smoothly.

So it was deployed two years ago, and it has not been launched until today. All ready.

Yang Hao didn't want these people to talk nonsense, and interjected: "We have arranged enough manpower to secretly carry out activities before, and in the past few months, the Ryukyu people's protest actions have been rising wave after wave, and we, China, as the suzerain, cannot sit idly by and watch the people of the friends of the vassal country suffer, so today we will raise volunteers to drive out the Japanese invaders and return the Ryukyu people to freedom and peace." ”

Li Hongzhang nodded approvingly, very good, very good, occupies a righteous position, and is famous. Yang Hao really doesn't lose his young heroes, and he is experienced enough to do things. Since the calculation has taken so long, it is all under control.

Putting down these words, the old man visited the command room with great interest, and looked at the rare thing like the radar screen for a long time, but he still couldn't figure it out. Yang Hao gave him a slight explanation, only saying that according to the principle of ultrasonic echolocation emitted by bats, electronic equipment was used to scan specific targets in the distance, ships were found at a distance to measure the distance, and attacks were deployed in advance.

Li Hongzhang didn't understand it at all, but he felt that this thing must be very powerful. No wonder foreign devils can't beat him, it turns out that he has mastered the big killing weapon of "clairvoyance", it's amazing!

Wandering outside, looking around at the vast fleet of ships from the watchtower, Li Hongzhang asked intentionally or unintentionally: "You are so excited, it won't be just to receive the Ryukyus, right?" What's the other plan? Say it and let the old man be a little mentally prepared. ”

Yang Hao did not hide it, and said with a smile: "Ryukyu is just one of them, and the second target is the Spaniards in Luzon." The approach was more or less the same: we went to war in the name of protecting overseas Chinese, cleared their navy, returned the government to the locals, and then opened up overseas bases to form a defense line to defend the country. ”

Li Hongzhang raised his eyebrows: "Are you sure?" ”

Yang Hao was full of confidence: "Spain is declining, and it is already just a dry bone in the grave, and it will be destroyed easily, and they are helpless." In addition, we are not the only ones who have the idea to attack him, the Americans are already in action, and we have to take the lead, otherwise it will be difficult for them to gain a foothold and then try to drive them out. ”

Li Hongzhang felt more and more that he was obviously inadequate in strategy, and he could only say a word about Yang Hao's global vision.

The two men casually talked about the various improvements of the battleship, and after a few hours, the fleet sailed to the water, which was completely invisible to the shore, and in the distance, another huge group of ships was seen speeding up. The first one, the appearance is very similar to Dingyuan Zhenyuan. Li Hongzhang grabbed the binoculars and looked at it for a while, and asked, "That battleship, isn't it a captured Japanese ship?" ”

Liu Buyun, who was following on the side, replied: "It is the Japanese ship 'Fuji', which has now been repaired and transformed by us, renamed 'Ningyuan', and joined the Beiyang Fleet. ”

The Fuji was swept away in the last naval battle, and the hull was damaged, but the thick armor that the British pasted still played a role in saving lives. Until the end of the battle, the battleship miraculously survived and was towed back to the Rizhao shipyard for repair.

The so-called blank piece of paper is easy to paint, and the half-crippled battleship was dismantled by skilled workers to only a shell, and then even the power system inside was replaced with a more powerful steam engine. The two main turrets were replaced with domestically produced 45 times the diameter 305mm guns, which were more than a step stronger than the British. The secondary guns were replaced with six domestically produced 152mm turrets, the bow bridge, etc., and the appearance was similar to that of the two ships in Dingzhen. But it's completely gone.

The battleship was incorporated into the North Sea Fleet. Together with several other captive armored cruisers that were repaired one after another. Become a new living force of the Chinese Navy.

At the end of this naval battle, Yang Hao was not ready to give the powers another chance to redeem it, the captured battleships were his own, and he could play as he wanted, leaving just the time to build his own fleet and supplement the lack of the fleet.

If it weren't for the addition of these new forces, how could Yang Hao decide to attack so quickly? Again, if it weren't for the fact that these ships were repaired and refitted. He wouldn't be so patient to wait from May until October. Of course, among them, there is no shortage of the influence of taking the opportunity to instigate the great powers to set off competition and take the opportunity to make money.

Li Hongzhang had read the war report, and at that time he still felt a heartfelt sigh at the armored cruisers of the great powers, and it was only a dozen years ago, and it was inconceivable that the Westerners had actually made the cruisers have a displacement of 10,000 tons.

Now that I think about it, what kind of changes will those warships have in the hands of Yang Hao? It's really exciting!

Sure enough, behind the "Ningyuan". Four armored cruisers with peculiar shapes were formed one after another and merged into the formation. Li Hongzhang took a closer look. found that the shape of these four ships had not changed much, more like the old warships in his impression.

Liu Buyun explained: "The number of our workers is too small to ensure that all ship repair work is carried out in an all-round way, so we only do simple repairs to the four warships to restore their original combat effectiveness." It will be completely renovated, but it will only have to wait for the slipway and workers to be vacated, or for the new workers to be trained. ”

Li Hongzhang was surprised: "I heard that you have opened more than a dozen schools to cultivate the navy, and there are countless technical schools all over Jiangning, so how is it not enough?" ”

An irrepressible flush of excitement appeared on Liu Buyun's face, and he raised his voice and said: "That's because there are too many new warships that we started working at the same time, and there are not enough personnel!" ”

Too many new ships to start? Li Hongzhang suddenly thought about it, he got a lot of various gossip, but after all, some military secrets will not be leaked lightly, only know that Jiangbei is now full of shipyards and steel plants, and it seems that there is no end to recruiting workers. In this case, wouldn't the navy have to make a big move?

After hesitating for a moment, he still couldn't suppress the curiosity in his heart and asked, "What will be the scale and dynamics of your future navy?" ”

Liu Buyun turned his head to look at Yang Hao, saw that he nodded in agreement, thought for a while and said: "We will build the three major naval forces in the north and southeast, all of which have the ability to fight in the ocean. In each navy, four new battleships and three cruisers were indispensable, and more than six destroyers and supply ships were indispensable. In addition, there is a need for reserve warships and training ships. The total number of naval personnel must be at least 200,000 square meters. ”

A dozen battleships, two hundred thousand navy!

No matter how big-minded Li Hongzhang was, he couldn't help but be shocked by such an arrogant number, Huo Ran turned his head to look at Yang Hao, but saw that the kid was light and light, as if this was all floating clouds, and he didn't need to worry about it. He sank for a long time, and sighed faintly: "Sure enough, there are talented people from generation to generation, and a generation of new people is better than the old people." It's just that this courage is not comparable to the old man's crippled defense! ”

The Beiyang Naval Division, which he has worked hard for 20 years, is afraid that it will not have a fraction of Yang Hao's huge plan. That's all the best of his ability, where is Yang Boy so easy to understate? He wanted to instigate some money from the imperial court treasury to buy a battleship, and he didn't know how many lawsuits he had to fight, so in order to gain the support of the Empress Dowager of the West, he had to let him take money from the navy account to repair the garden, and by the way, he carried the black pot. Yang Hao can blackmail foreign devils to pay for himself, and the gap between these means is also a little bigger!

Calculating the number of warships in his heart, Li Hongzhang nodded: "If it is really such an organization, it will indeed require a large increase in personnel." In a hurry, there really can't be a hub, according to what you say, I'm afraid that even if you build a battleship, there will be no one to use, right? ”

Liu Buyun sighed: "Yes, there are more and more people employed in new warships, and in the future, one or two thousand people will be needed on a battleship, and tens of thousands of people will be mobilized for any action." The navy is the culmination of the strength of the country, and it is not a lie. ”

One or two thousand people in a boat...... Li Hongzhang felt powerless when he thought about it. Dingyuan Zhenyuan was originally a first-class ship in the world, but there were only more than 300 people. A boat with one or two thousand people to drive, how big is that!

The next moment, Li Hongzhang was attracted by the huge figure that appeared in the distance!

Above the blue waves, three majestic silhouettes like mountains cleaved the waves. Two of them, broad, strong, huge, and majestic, like a small city floating on the sea, looked from afar, as if a dark cloud was coming rushing in, unstoppable!

Li Hongzhang snatched Liu Buyun's telescope and looked at it with wide eyes, but saw that there were two identical ships in front of and behind, the beautiful and sharp flying clipper bow stirred up layers of waves, and on the flat deck stood two turrets, high and low, each with three thick and slender body tubes pointing flat to the vast sea, and the towering bow and main mast in the middle were like skyscrapers!

"This ...... What kind of ship is this?! ”

The old man was trembling all over, and he looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

Liu Buyun hurriedly stepped forward to support him, and said with mixed feelings in his heart: "Those are our two newly launched battleships, 'Hebei' and 'Hunan', which are sea giants with a full load displacement of 30,000 tons, regardless of tonnage speed or firepower range, they are unique and powerful warships in the world today!" It's a pity that we don't have enough naval personnel to play its role for the time being. ”

Li Hongzhang broke free of his hand, held the binoculars high with both hands and stared fiercely, feeling that the multiples were too small to be enjoyable, so he hurriedly turned around and climbed onto the watchtower of the bridge, and looked at it with a large magnification telescope, and now he had an unobstructed view of the battleship in the distance. The momentum of that majestic figure across the ocean made him feel a stream of heat that penetrated the 108,000 pores, and he didn't know how comfortable it was. (To be continued......)