Li Hongzhang laughed softly: "Please recall the Russian Consul General and the Japanese Consul General, before the war between your two countries, who sowed discord between you, isn't it Lin Fei, what Lin Fei did in the five-party talks at that time, I think you know better than me." ”

Li Hongzhang turned his head to look at the German Consul General and the British Consul General, and said with a smile: "Please recall the two gentlemen of the German Consul General and the British Consul General, what did Lin Fei do before the war broke out between the two countries, Lin Fei provided weapons to the German-backed Boers, and sent troops to the Middle East, who dares to guarantee that the Baghdad railway bombing was not Lin Fei's doing?" ”

Li Hongzhang's words made the consuls general of Britain, Germany, Russia, and Japan full of suspicion, and Li Hongzhang's words were also reasonable, but they would not easily believe Li Hongzhang.

The German Consul General said in a deep voice: "Mr. Li Hongzhang, is there any evidence for these things you said?" ”

"Well, I don't have the evidence yet, but please rest assured, we will find evidence soon, and this matter is related to the interests of all countries, you can also start investigating."

The consul generals of various countries were silent again, if what Li Hongzhang said was true, then Lin Fei would be too hateful, and he actually pushed the four countries into the war, if this is the case, it is inevitable that the world's powers will join forces to clean up Lin Fei.

The German consul general stood up and said in a cold voice: "Mr. Li Hongzhang, we need to investigate this matter immediately, so I will not attend this banquet and say goodbye." ”

Li Hongzhang saw that the goal had been achieved, and did not retain the German consul general, so he said two kind words and asked the German consul general to be sent out, and the German consul general left, and the Russian consul general and the British consul general stood up one after another to say goodbye, and then the Japanese consul general and others also said goodbye one after another, and this banquet was broken up unhappily.

Li Hongzhang looked at the departing consul generals and smiled proudly, when a subordinate came over and asked, "Lord Zhongtang, do you say that these foreign devils will believe your words?" ”

"Whether they believe it or not, as long as they have this thought in their hearts, Lin Fei will not be smooth in our Daqing Dynasty, go, go to the barracks, Yuan Shikai lost the battle, I can't lose anymore."

Li Hongzhang's order went down, and someone prepared a sedan chair and sent Li Hongzhang to the barracks overnight, and at this time the headquarters of the Central Theater was set up in Shanghai, commanding the Qing troops in Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang.

When Li Hongzhang came to the barracks, he held an emergency meeting, at which Li Hongzhang asked: "Where are the Snitch's troops now?" ”

When the staff heard Li Hongzhang's question, they hurriedly stood up, bowed down, and said: "Lord Qiqi Zhongtang, at this time, the Huaxia Army is attacking us from the north and south, and in the north, the Huaxia Army has occupied a large area south of the Yellow River, and our army is now stationed on the front line of the Yellow River. ”

"In the south, the Huaxia Army has conquered most of Fujian, and our army is now stationed on the front line of Xianxialing and Yandang Mountain, and the current Huaxia Army is busy distributing land to the poor people, and has no intention of continuing the offensive for a while."

Li Hongzhang nodded slightly, and asked in a deep voice: "Where is the closest unit to us in the Huaxia Army in Shandong?" ”

"Lord Qiyu Zhongtang, in Xuzhou Mansion, they seem to be preparing to cross the Yellow River from Xuzhou Mansion."

Li Hongzhang squinted his eyes, listened to the report of his subordinates, thought for a while, and then said: "If the Huaxia army wants to cross the Yellow River, it must not let them succeed, and ordered Qi Wei, the chief soldier of Xuzhou Prefecture, to defend the Yellow River to the death, and not to let the thieves cross the river one by one." ”

"Order the Fujian and Zhejiang General Army Du De Mountain, hold Xianxia Mountain and Yandang Mountain, and do not allow the Huaxia Army to go north further, okay, go and convey the order."

When the staff saw that the battle order issued by Li Hongzhang was completely defensive and did not attack at all, they couldn't help but ask: "My lord, Lord Yuan sent troops to attack the snitch before, which greatly boosted the morale of my Qing Dynasty, but we stuck in the same place, this is not appropriate." ”

Li Hongzhang laughed and said: "We take the initiative to attack the snitch, the chance of victory is not great, but it is just to increase the casualties, it is better to stabilize the defense, and when the Taixi Zhuqiang falls out, it will inevitably attack the snitch, and then we will not only be able to keep the Qing Dynasty, but also capture Lin Fei alive and live in the capital." ”

All the staff members gave a thumbs up and praised the "clever plan" one after another, Li Hongzhang waved his hand lightly and said with a smile: "I'm tired in the middle of the night, everyone is tired, okay, let's go and rest." ”

At this moment, there was a sudden sound of hurried footsteps outside the door, and without waiting for the subordinates to report, only a thick male voice sounded: "Lord Zhongtang, please listen to me." ”

With the voice, a sturdy middle-aged man walked in, Li Hongzhang fixed his eyes, this person was not a bystander, it was the Zhiyuan ship pipe band, Deng Shichang.

At the time of the naval battle of Liugong Island, Deng Shichang's Zhiyuan ship escorted Emperor Guangxu back to Tianjin, and after arriving in Tianjin, the Qing court was worried that Lin Fei would send a frogman commando to forcibly seize the Zhiyuan ship, so the Zhiyuan ship was transferred to Shanghai, and in the subsequent battle, the Zhiyuan ship has been watching from the wall in Shanghai.

Li Hongzhang said with a smile: "It turned out to be Lord Deng, why did you break into my handsome account?" ”

Deng Shichang knelt on the ground, kowtowed and said: "Lord Zhongtang, your subordinates are not talented, and they have a clever plan to break the snitch." ”

Li Hongzhang smiled and asked, "Oh, what is Master Deng's plan, let's hear it." ”

Deng Shichang looked left and right, his face full of embarrassment, "Please retreat from the left and right of Lord Zhongtang, and let me talk carefully." ”

Li Hongzhang waved his hand and asked the staff to go out, and the staff walked out one after another, leaving only Deng Shichang and Li Hongzhang in the room, Li Hongzhang smiled and said, "Lord Deng can say it now, right?" ”

"Lord Qiyu Zhongtang, my subordinates want to lead the Zhiyuan ship to battle!"

Li Hongzhang laughed out loud and shook his head disdainfully, "Shichang, your Zhiyuan ship is definitely not the opponent of the Huaxia battleship, you still don't want to send it to death." ”

Deng Shichang frowned, and said with a straight face: "Lord Zhongtang, Shichang doesn't dare to talk nonsense, what I said about going to war is not to fight hard with the Huaxia warship, but to launch a surprise attack, the snitch is like a bamboo in my Qing Dynasty at this time, and I would never have thought that we would dare to send the Zhiyuan ship to launch a surprise attack." ”

"Surprise attack?" Li Hongzhang muttered this word, stood up, paced two steps in the room, and asked, "Where are you going to make a surprise attack?" ”

"Lin Fei's lair, Dayu City!"

"What did you say?" Li Hongzhang was taken aback, Deng Shichang actually wanted to lead a Zhiyuan ship to attack Lin Fei's Dayu City, this is simply crazy!

Deng Shichang bowed his head and bowed again, and said in a deep voice: "Lord Zhongtang, the snitch will definitely not think that we dare to sneak attack Dayu City, and we must be negligent in our defense. ”

Li Hongzhang's mind is turning, a Zhiyuan ship will attack Dayu City, this matter may be difficult to succeed, but let Deng Shichang give it a try, if it succeeds, it will be my credit, if it fails, it will not be my fault.

So Li Hongzhang readily agreed, and Deng Shichang immediately led the Zhiyuan ship to set sail to Dayu City.

At this time, the endurance of the Zhiyuan ship, if it is ten knots, can reach 6,000 nautical miles, from Shanghai to Dayu City, only more than 1,000 nautical miles, if you use ten knots of speed, it will take almost four days.

Deng Shichang felt that four days was too long, so he decided to increase the speed to 20 knots, so that the distance of more than 1,000 nautical miles would only take a little more than two days.

However, if the speed is increased to 20 knots, the endurance will drop to 1,800 nautical miles, which means that the Zhiyuan ship will not be able to go back when it reaches Dayu City, which is only the most ideal theoretical calculation, if you count the sea breeze, ocean currents and other factors, the situation will be even worse.

So Deng Shichang decided that the Zhiyuan ship docked in the British colony of Hong Kong, at this time, Hong Kong was completely a British military port, although there were not many warships in it, but coal reserves, ship repair yards were readily available, and there was no problem in filling the Zhiyuan ship with coal, and then carrying out simple maintenance.

The next day, March 21, Deng Shichang led the Zhiyuan ship to set off from Shanghai Port, attacked Dayu City, and on March 23, entered Hong Kong to replenish coal.

At this time, Hong Kong was full of the eyes and ears of the Chinese Empire, both agents of the Chinese Empire, and informants bribed by the agents, who soon discovered the Zhiyuan ship, and the news was immediately sent to Lin Fei's desk.

When Lin Fei saw Deng Shichang personally leading the Zhiyuan ship to Hong Kong, he couldn't help but feel moved, what is the Zhiyuan ship going to Hong Kong for, a military visit, and a demonstration to our China?

No, no, if this is the case, the Qing court will definitely publicize this matter with great fanfare, but now the Qing court is keeping this matter secret, and the Zhiyuan ship must have other purposes.

A single Zhiyuan ship will not pose any threat to the Huaxia Fleet at all, so this Zhiyuan ship must be going to surprise attack a certain port, and what will it do to surprise attack that port? There are too many possibilities to know.

Lin Fei thought for a while, reached out and picked up the phone on the table, and ordered, "Go and call me Qin Hui, the captain of the Demon Beast-class submarine formation." ”

Qin Hui walked in after a short time, because the Qing navy was so weak that it was negligible, so Lin Fei didn't plan to use submarines at all in the Huaqing War, and Qin Hui and everyone had been idle.

Lin Fei glanced up at Qin Hui and found that he didn't have the "King of Demon Beasts" sign on his chest, and couldn't help but laugh and said, "What about your brand of the King of Demon Beasts?" ”

Qin Hui smiled bitterly, "Your Majesty, the shame of the sinking of the ghost shark boat has not been washed away, and I don't have the face to hang that sign." ”

"Didn't I equip you with a brand new submarine, why can't you forget the sunken ghost shark boat?"

"Report to Your Majesty, although we are equipped with a brand-new submarine, the brand-new submarine has not participated in actual combat, and our shame has still not been washed away."