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After Ning Wu and Yan Qi led the occupation of Jinmu Bay and Jinwu Town, they led the First Fleet to blockade the sea area to the east. This is a necessary measure after taking a share of the enemy in order to prevent it from escaping. From the beginning of last year to the middle of last year, the pirates who cleared the islands for more than half a year did this. To the east of the main island of the Ryukyus, when the First Fleet departed, the Second Fleet was already in action. Two Japanese who were sent by Kawakami to report back to Kagoshima had just found a boat and were stuck in a small bay before they could leave.

There are not too many Wakoku people on the entire main island of the Ryukyus, except for the 600 sailors of the Shimazu family who were wiped out just now, the total number of others is just over a thousand, including half of the merchants and their associates, and the rest are basically ronin. There are very few Japanese ladies here. King Shang Zhen and others were also ruthless, except for the thousand-person palace guards who stayed in the palace, the other 4,000 soldiers all took the initiative to attack, searching for the Wa Ronin and so on, and when they saw it, they immediately rushed up and killed them. It seems that these soldiers of the Ryukyu Kingdom have also been holding back their anger for a long time.

It was also a pity that the vast majority of the Japanese were concentrated in the southern part of the main island of the Ryukyus, and from Jinmu Bay, where the First Fleet was located, to the north were a large area of mountains and forests, and only a few places where ordinary Ryukyu people lived, and the conditions were relatively poor, so there were no Japanese people to the north. The southern half of the island is relatively flat, suitable for farming and habitation, so 80% of the population of the Ryukyu Kingdom is concentrated in the southern half, although the total population of the Ryukyu Kingdom at this time is less than 100,000.

The number of ronins and merchants in the Wa Kingdom was originally small. Most of them gather in Naha Port, and they are all powerful and lucky in the Ryukyus on weekdays. did their best to exploit and extort local military and civilian businessmen, and the Ryukyu government dared to be angry but did not dare to speak. What's more, it is a small people, who can only swallow their anger and accept it. It was certainly not necessary for these Japanese to go to the northern mountains and forests to suffer, but in this way, it greatly facilitated the movement of the Ryukyu soldiers. In just half a day, the Japanese people in the Ryukyus were almost killed, and when these people died, not only the Ryukyu soldiers were happy. The local people of Ryukyu also applauded.

As soon as the operation to eliminate the Japanese people on the island began, it immediately caused a huge repercussion, and after hearing the news, many of them took up arms to assist the officers and soldiers, leading the way, identifying them, and taking the opportunity to take revenge, and for a time the entire port of Naha was boiling. These Wa people, especially the Wa Ronin, will not do anything else. It's just that it's all about causing trouble all day long, and bullying men and women is a common thing, but because of the obscenity of the Shimazu family, the Ryukyu country dares to be angry and dare not speak. Now there is the support of the government. If you don't take the initiative to take revenge, you won't be able to pass that level!

In this half a day, the people of the southern half of the Ryukyus have spread the word. The suzerainty in the west sent a large fleet of powerful sailors to destroy the Satsuma Domain, and will continue to support the Ryukyus in the future. They don't have to worry about being bullied by the Japanese anymore. As soon as the news came out, the people of the island gathered to the sea. Come and see what the overlord's fleet of sailors is really like! Although the Mawei Navy had no connection with the Qing court, the people of Ryukyu didn't think so, and they all thought that the real suzerainty had sent a navy army to rescue them!

Geng Jingzhong didn't know about these situations, and he was still enjoying the scenery in Shuri Castle. However, even if he knew, he would not correct it. Ryukyu hangs alone overseas, just like Taiwan, but Ryukyu goes to the capital every year to make a pilgrimage, which means that in the name of Hajj, he goes to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Tianjin to do business. Their connection with the Qing court is no less than that of the Jingnan Palace in Fujian, and his Jingnan Palace is also assigned to enter the palace once a year! When Geng Jingzhong achieved the purpose of this expedition, even if the Qing court knew that he was stationing troops in the Ryukyus or attacking the Japanese state, it would not matter, at that time, Geng Jingzhong's naval strength increased again, and the Qing court was beyond the reach of the whip!

For such a decision made by King Shangzhi, Tang Zhi and other ministers also agreed. Take 10,000 steps back, in case the Mawei Navy fails to conquer the Japanese country, just like the Yuanmeng did back then, as long as they clean up the Japanese people on the island, they can push this matter on Geng Jingzhong's head at that time, in short, he Ryukyu will not suffer a loss. As Shang Zhiwang and Tang Zhi generally considered seeing Shang Jing so impulsive, Cheng Kezheng couldn't help but secretly complain, the navy of the Qing State was strong, but Japan was not so easy to recruit, Yuan and Mongolia were not equally powerful back then, but in the end they also returned in a fiasco, and there were too many unpredictable factors to fight across the sea, so they had to leave a way out for the Ryukyus.

Geng Jingzhong, Wang Zhenbang and others played in and around Shuri Castle, and finally returned to the palace hall satisfied.

"His Royal Highness is back! Can the scenery of the Ryukyus still be in your eyes? "King Shang Zhen did not accompany Geng Jingzhong to wander around in the afternoon, but asked Dr. Ronglu Che Wanzhi to accompany him. Then again, Geng Jingzhong doesn't need an old man to be by his side all the time, not to mention whether King Shangzhi's body can be eaten or not, even when he looks at the beautiful scenery, there is an old man next to him, which is also quite stunning!

"Entered, exotic, quite rare! Hehe, blessed is the prince! Geng Jingzhong is also telling the truth, although Ryukyu is deeply influenced by Han culture, many places still have their own unique style, which is very satisfying for Geng Jingzhong and others.

"Hehe, the prince has won the award. That's right, just before you come back, the subordinates came to report that all the Japanese people on the island have been completely cleared, and the soldiers have also returned! Next, I have to ask the prince to show me! King Shang Zhi said very respectfully. At noon, the First Fleet had already sent people back to report that it had wiped out all the pirates in Jinwu Bay. Then, there are 5,000 soldiers in the Ryukyus, and there is no problem in clearing out thousands of Japanese ronin, etc., but this speed must continue to be accelerated, and Geng Jingzhong is looked down upon.

"Good! It seems that you have your heart! "Geng Jingzhong knows that although most of the Japanese people on this island are concentrated in the vicinity of Naha Port and Shuri Castle, there are also some scattered in other places, and it will take a lot of effort to find out all of them." In the afternoon, I received a report from my soldiers that the main island of Ryukyu and many nearby islands had been completely blocked, and that two ships that were trying to escape to the Japanese country had been sunk. Now, you can rest assured? Geng Jingzhong said with a smile.

Shang Zhiwang smiled awkwardly, his mind could be seen by anyone with a discerning eye. But this can't be helped, a small country has a way to survive a small country, and this can't blame him. "His Royal Highness, this king has a reluctant request, I hope the prince agrees!"

"Tell me about it!" Geng Jingzhong gestured.

"My Ryukyu is isolated overseas, the territory is small, it is difficult to build ships, and it is impossible to want a big ship, I wonder if His Royal Highness the Prince can sell a few sail warships in the Ryukyus?"

Geng Jingzhong had expected him to make this request, so he said with a smile: "Yes, but the largest warship in my fleet can't be sold to you, but the second-class warships and small warships can." By the standards of Westerners, the dozens of largest warships you see belong to the third class of battleships, so what can be sold to you are fourth-class battleships and a few! ”

"Ahh The biggest is a third-class battleship? And how big do Westerners have to be first-class and second-class sail battleships? "After all, King Shang has never traveled far away, and his knowledge is limited. Even those Ryukyu merchants had never seen a first-class or second-class warship in East Asia, because Britain and the Netherlands, a few countries with such warships, would not have sailed their main warships at all.

"My warships are all built in my own shipyard, and the third-class warships in the fleet are no worse than the second-class warships of the Western countries. But the third-level battleships are the main warships of our army, and they can't be given to you, but those fourth-level and fifth-level battleships can be sold to you. With ships and guns, there were 500,000 fourth-class warships and 300,000 fifth-class warships. I will sell you ten ships at most, and you will have no money! Geng Jingzhong is also ruthless enough, and the quotation is directly three or four times the cost.

The 4th and 5th class warships were all produced in the last year. After repeated expansions, the Mawei Shipyard now has 40 dockyards, which can build 40 warships at the same time. As long as the shipbuilding materials are sufficient, it now takes half a year to produce a third-class battleship, but it only takes four months for a fourth-class battleship of the lower level, and the construction rate of a fifth-class battleship is three months. Since the launch of the second batch of third-class warships, Geng Jingzhong ordered the production of third-class warships to be stopped. It's not that they don't want to, it's that there aren't enough naval soldiers and artillery to fill it. However, the Mawei Navy still lacked new frigates, and the partial fleet captured from the Zheng family was not matched with the sail warships after all, and the speed was also slow, so the Mawei Shipyard produced fourth- and fifth-class warships at full capacity under Geng Jingzhong's order.

Compared to the third-tier battleship, the fourth-tier battleship is much smaller in size, and the hull is ten meters shorter, but it also has two gun decks. The ship was equipped with 48 guns as standard, with a capacity of 300 people and a displacement of exactly 1,000 tons, which was nearly half of the 1,700 tons of the third-class battleships. However, the cost of these fourth-class warships was much cheaper, only 120,000 large silver dollars. Since a year ago, the squadron responsible for overseas cruises has been the flagship of these fourth-class warships.

As for the fifth-class battleship, it is a real cruiser in the West, which is smaller than the fourth-class battleship, and the cost is only 70,000 large silver dollars. The total length of the battleship was only forty meters, and the crew was 200 men, but the artillery was a pitiful twenty. Not only that, limited to the size of the Mawei Navy, all the battleships were almost not full, especially on the fourth- and fifth-class battleships, the guns did not meet the standard, and the crew was also three layers less. Of the 36,000 officers and men on this expedition, 6,000 were marines and only 30,000 were navy, and 30,000 were allocated to more than 100 warships. But it can't be helped, who made him not be able to recruit soldiers on a large scale!

Now there is also a benefit to talking about business with King Shang Zhi here. In the future, he wants to develop Ryukyu into his own territory, and in the future, Ryukyu will be another place for his soldiers. The people who live on the island, even if they can't be trained to be qualified naval soldiers, can all be good sailors. (To be continued......)