Just when Shi Dakai was muttering, Li Hongzhang smiled slightly, and immediately hugged his fists: "I have heard the prestige of the Wing King for a long time, and when I see it today, it is indeed worthy of its reputation, and it is indeed heroic and extraordinary." ”

"Laughing." Shi Dakai also clasped his fists and saluted, and then he was no longer polite, and asked directly, "I don't know if Commissioner Li is here, what advice do you have?" If I'm not mistaken, we're no longer in the ranks of the military, and we can't even be called adults. ”

"What did Lord Shi say?" Li Hongzhang continued to smile, "What is the situation of the expeditionary force, you and I know it well, you just don't have the identity of an official army on the surface, but in fact, you are still a pro-army of His Majesty. And Lord Shi, as far as I know, is also a figure that His Majesty values very much, it can be said that Jane is in the emperor's heart, and in time, it will only be a matter of time before he soars again, so why should you be so arrogant. ”

Although Li Hongzhang said these words are very good, and Shi Dakai is quite comfortable to listen to, but in fact, he is still beating around the bush and does not get to the point.

If you change a person, you may be fooled by Li Hongzhang, but after all, Shi Dakai used to be in a high position, and he hadn't heard anything of sycophancy, so he directly filtered the praise behind him, and simply said directly: "I don't know what the purpose of Master Li's trip is?" You know, we are not going to Japan for an outing, and we are losing the war, this soldier is in danger, in case you have any mistakes, we can never afford to explain. ”

"Lord Shi doesn't have to worry." Li Hongzhang said, "I have also led soldiers and fought in battles before, although I can't compare with Lord Shi, but I am not a person who is afraid of things." ”

After a pause, Li Hongzhang continued: "Actually, I know Lord Shi's concerns, but you don't have to worry, the purpose of my trip is not mainly aimed at you, but against Japan. ”

"Against Japan?" Shi Dakai was stunned, "You are a Qincha, what does Japan's affairs have to do with you?" ”

"Looks like you've misunderstood." Li Hongzhang said. "Although outsiders say that our commissioner is a chaplain and is responsible for fighting corrupt officials, this is actually a misunderstanding. Our main function is to patrol on behalf of the heavens. To put it simply, it is to inspect the place, investigate the situation, and then report to His Majesty, so that His Majesty can have a more detailed reference. Therefore, we only have the right to investigate, not the right to manage. The orders of a qiē are all from 陛xià. ”

"However, as far as I know, you can mobilize the police and troops, detain local officials, including provincial governors, and exercise arbitrary power."

"It's a misunderstanding, a rumor." Li Hongzhang shook his head, "We don't have the right of seizure, only the right of self-preservation." Other words. We do have the right to transfer troops at the right of opportunity, but that is for self-preservation.

For example, we found out that there was a problem with a local magistrate and found evidence. In order to protect the evidence from being destroyed, we can send troops over to protect the opponent from jumping over the wall.

However, we do not have the power to seize the other party. If there is, it is also after receiving instructions from superiors, and we convey the will of superiors. To put it bluntly, we're just the microphone above.

Of course, it is more accurate to say that this right of self-protection is mainly aimed at the governor of the autonomous province, and then he can mobilize the garrison of the local defense force, which is generally not used in the direct province. ”

"Oh, that's right." Shi Dakai nodded.

"Having said that, the main reason why the above sent me this time is to let me observe the local situation in Japan and collect information, including the army, politics, folk customs, etc., so as to facilitate the above inquiries." Li Hongzhang said.

"Oh, it's just a matter of detail." Shi Da said, "But since it's a matter of meticulous work, why don't you just let someone from the CIA come, but send you over?" ”

"Because there are some things that cannot be done in detail." Li Hongzhang smiled, "And how can I say that he is also a commissioner of the central government, as the lord said, he is the minister of the Qincha." Therefore, after you have fought the war, how to communicate with the Japanese elites and how to negotiate is my business. ”

"Oh, I see." Shi Dakai nodded, "That is to say, you are actually going to Japan to exercise the position of special envoy plenipotentiary?" ”

"Pretty much."

"But isn't this an errand for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?"

"The problem is that the empire has not yet established diplomatic relations with Japan." Li Hongzhang said, "Moreover, our situation is somewhat different, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs represents the country, and in this situation of not declaring war, the people who go out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are a little troublesome.

On the contrary, I am different, although I am a commissioner of the central government, theoretically I am not under the control of the state, but under the control of the royal family. In other words, I can only represent the royal family, not the country, or both, which is relatively much more flexible than someone from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So, now you understand why you sent me, right? ”

"Understood." Shi Dakai nodded, "Anyway, you are the envoy now, right?" ”

"Yes." Li Hongzhang nodded.

"So, you're the envoy plenipotentiary, and I'm going to listen to your orders?"

"I can't say that." Li Hongzhang said, "When and how to fight, that is actually your business, general, as for how to talk to the Japanese and ask for relevant interests after you finish fighting, that is my business." ”

"So who's going to have the final say?" Shi Dakai asked, "For example, when will the war against Japan end, will you or I have the final say?" ”

"It doesn't matter if you say it." Li Hongzhang smiled and pointed to the sky, "The above has the final say." ”

"Now I understand everything." Shi Dakai smiled slightly, and then took the initiative to stretch out his hand, "It seems that we will often cooperate together in the future, what do you say about the recent fashionable words, I hope we can cooperate happily in the future." ”

"That's what I was hoping for." Li Hongzhang stretched out his hand and shook his hand, "Happy cooperation." ”

In fact, the expeditionary force's battle against Satsuma was not entirely completed by the expeditionary force itself, but was escorted by a task force and provided fire support.

In the plan, the first battle of the Satsuma Domain was not a matter for the expeditionary force, but for the task force.

The so-called task force is actually an armed fleet subordinate to the Eastern Bloc.

In the past, this fleet was mainly armed merchant ships with a displacement of about 1,000 tons, mainly sail warships, but also a small number of steam warships, and most of them were used by the White Dawn International Column, after all, they also had to make cameo appearances as pirates.

Now, in order to attack Japan, the First Fleet cannot be used, since China has not officially declared war and cannot use a regular navy. It is possible to use only the warships of the Eastern Bloc.

However, in the past, the warships of the Eastern Bloc did not have a system, and most of them fought independently, for example, the White Dawn International Column had its own ships, and the Jingwu Dart Bureau also had its own warships, but the expeditionary force did not have its own ships.

The Japanese Satsuma Domain was not a soft persimmon, and if you wanted to defeat him, you had to defeat the fleet of the Satsuma Domain first, so the Eastern Bloc deliberately drew elite warships from all over the country to form a task force.

In this task force. The principle of more expensive is not more expensive, so there are only 5 ships in total, but all of them are large ships with a displacement of 2,000 tons.

These five ships were all large steam merchant ships purchased from Britain, France, and the United States, and then underwent simple modifications in Ma'anshan Port, mainly with new steam engines, the hull covered with steel plates, and equipped with new naval guns produced by themselves.

After the refit, all five boats can reach speeds of up to 12 knots without sails. With sails, it can reach up to 24 knots, which is fast by the standards of a general warship of this era.

Steel plates covered on the outside of the hull. All of them are self-produced steel plates, which are more protective, lighter in weight, and modular. It can be disassembled and replenished at any time. Relatively speaking, at this time, the world's mainstream ironclad ships were covered with cast iron plates. It's not steel, because steel is expensive. Therefore, the use of steel plates alone is stronger than the protection of other ironclad ships.

Finally, there's firepower.

The five ships are equipped with the latest Hua 3 naval guns, and the biggest difference between this kind of gun and the Hua 2 naval gun is that it is changed to rear-loaded, which means that this is a thorough rear-loading rifled gun.

The caliber of the Hua 3 gun is still 120 mm, with six spiral rifling, 16 times the caliber, the use of elastic brakes, rear loading, and the bolt closure method adopts a vertical wedge bolt.

In terms of artillery shells, the split loading type is used, that is, the propellant is separated from the warhead. Among them, the single-base smokeless * gun* powder for the discharge of medicine, and the warhead is filled with T*N*T explosives plus a trigger fuse.

After using a series of new technologies, the firing range of the Hua 3 artillery reached 6,600 meters, which basically reached the level of land artillery of the same caliber in another time and space, but it was a little bulky and too heavy, so it could only be used as a naval gun.

However, it is this range and power that can completely blow up the naval guns of the great powers in this era, and the old front-loading guns of Japan are not enough to see.

In addition, in terms of aiming, in addition to the traditional telescopic gun sighting system, it is also equipped with laser rangefinder and computer modern gun sighting equipment, but the modern gun sighting equipment can only be approved by the captain of the ship, and there are special people to supervise and use it, and ordinary people can't even touch it.

On average, each of these five warships was equipped with 30 of these Hua 3 guns, and there were two shelling decks.

Although due to the problem of ship type, it was not possible to use a closed rotating turret, and the sideboard firing method was still used, but the gun turret could make a fuss, and all of them used a slide-rail semi-rotating turret.

The so-called slide-rail semi-rotating turret refers to the setting of a steel rail between the two firing ports on the left and right sides of the hull, on which a turret that can be rotated, and the gun is fixed on the turret.

In this way, if you use side guns, you can push all the guns to one side using the tracks, and you can shoot all 20 guns at a time at a target point, instead of using only half of the guns at a time, so that you can use all your firepower.

As for the rotating turret, it is convenient to adjust the direction, once the direction is adjusted, it will be fixed, that is to say, the turret cannot be rotated when shooting.

The rotating turret combined with the artillery's own high and low machine increases the firing angle of the artillery, and the slide increases the utilization rate of the artillery, which can be similar to a salvo shelling, so although the five battleships do not have many guns, their firepower is quite powerful.

In short, although the five battleships of the task force could not be compared with the regular navy of the Chinese Empire, it was completely fine to bully Japan.

Therefore, at the beginning of the battle, these warships were the first to strike, and these warships first used the method of surprise attack and sneak attack to preemptively break into Kagoshima Bay, kill the warships of the Satsuma Domain, and then began to shell the coastal batteries to clear the way for the landing force.

In order to ensure the success of this campaign, and especially to ensure the safety of the artillery sighting equipment imported from modern times, the captains of the five warships of the task force were all regular officers specially drawn from the First Fleet of the Navy.

Not only the captain of the ship, but even the commander of the fleet, that is, the admiral of the task force, and the first lieutenant of Mo Haihu, the commander of the First Fleet of the Navy, Tang Hailong!

This matter was also known to Shi Dakai later, but it also made him understand one thing, that is, this campaign against the Satsuma Domain. It is fully prepared, and it is definitely not child's play.

Although Tang Hailong was only Mo Haihu's adjutant before, his own ability was still quite good, otherwise he would not have been made the adjutant of the fleet commander in the first place.

Moreover, Cheng said that the adjutant of the commander of the fleet was responsible for handling all things, and it was also one of the most tempering positions, similar to a secretary.

Therefore, now let Tang Hailong take charge alone, although it is also the first time. But Tang Hailong still handled things in an orderly manner, or in a decent manner, at least there was nothing wrong with it.

After all the expeditionary forces boarded the ship, the task force sailed to Kaohsiung as usual, and arrived in Kaohsiung in less than a day.

The group of people in the expeditionary force were all specially selected at the beginning, and they were all masters who did not get seasick, and there were no strong winds and waves, so there was no discomfort.

Upon arrival in Kaohsiung. Shi Dakai nervously let his subordinates conduct a joint drill, specifically, to redivide the arrangement.

Just as he originally thought, Shi Dakai counted the first regiment of the Qingpu Military Academy Student Army as the final reserve regiment. It is mainly responsible for fire support and engineer operations, while the second and third regiments are the main force of the attack, of which the second regiment is dominated by the Taiping Army.

In three days, there is no more complicated drill. It was only possible to conduct some offensive exercises, and according to intelligence, Kagoshima Castle was mountainous. The terrain is narrow, which is not conducive to the deployment of large troops, so Shi Dakai's method is to attack in waves.

That is to say, the specific offensive units are mainly battalions, and they will put into a battalion at a time, and if they attack smoothly, they will attack directly, and when they are tired, they will stabilize their positions and defend with all their might, becoming a battalion-level support point, and the battalions behind will follow up, and then keep rolling forward.

If the attack does not go well, directly throw in two battalions, attack with the strength of one regiment, attack in, continue to stabilize the position and defend, let the second energetic regiment attack again, and still resume the first method, that is, to attack with one battalion first.

In this kind of battalion-level attack, the artillery battalion that has been specially formed by itself can also provide artillery support, which is actually equivalent to one battalion attacking, one battalion providing artillery support, and most of the other people resting and waiting for the first wave of attack to be replaced.

The advantage of this is that they can give full play to their firepower advantage, and at the same time not waste their firepower, they can greatly reduce the burden of their own soldiers, so that their troops can take turns to rest, not only can they have a lot of backhand and spare strength to deal with unexpected things, but also can make the attack never stop and exhaust the enemy on the opposite side.

This idea was already in Shi Dakai's early days, and its roots were the attack on the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the conquest of Korea.

At that time, he realized that the firepower of the Praetorian Guards was quite sharp, especially the kind of thing called machine guns or assault rifles, and the fire density was a bit excessive.

With such a strong density of firepower, a small army can act as the attacking force of the original large army, and if the original large army attack is carried out, it is not necessary at all, or it is too wasteful.

Therefore, in Shi Dakai's view, under the condition that his own firepower is fully superior, there is no need to push the whole line flat as before, but should implement the tactics of rolling forward with multiple small troops, breaking the surface from the point, and then the large army to follow up and expand the results.

It's like two people fighting, you are a strong man and the other person is a child. When dealing with children, if you still try your best, because the action is too big and the reaction is not timely, you may give the child a chance to turn defeat into victory.

On the other hand, if you don't use all your strength, but half of your strength, it will still pose a great threat to the child, and at the same time, you will have a considerable amount of spare energy to deal with all kinds of unexpected things, and in the end, it will be an easy victory.

This is actually born out of martial arts, after all, Shi Dakai himself is a martial arts master, and he often applies martial arts routines to the art of war, so he has the idea of attacking in waves with small troops.

However, in order to achieve a wave of offensives, it was necessary to have the corresponding rapid-fire weapons, and the previous expeditionary forces did not have rapid-fire weapons, so they were never given the opportunity to use them.

Now it's different, the expeditionary force has an average of two machine guns per company, and although the firepower density is not as good as the Praetorian Guard, it is not much worse, at least slightly stronger than the Wehrmacht, so after arriving in Kaohsiung, Shi Dakai immediately began to let the troops practice according to his ideas to achieve this battalion-level wave attack tactic.

This tactic is actually not difficult. It is nothing more than dividing into attack battalions one by one, and then the battalion is attacking as a unit, and when the forward battalion hits a certain distance and is slightly tired, the reserve battalion behind will immediately set off to replace the forward battalion and continue to attack.

The difficulty of this tactic is mainly a problem of communication, and after the introduction of radio, the problem of communication is no longer a problem, so it can make the battalion-level attack uninterrupted and maintain a high-intensity battalion-level attack forward posture.

Infantry and artillery coordination. Battalion attack, skirmisher assault...... In the past three days, Shi Dakai has rehearsed everything he has learned and thought, and although the effect is not perfect, it has basically met Shi Dakai's expectations.

After Shi Dakai's regrouping exercise, the entire expeditionary force of 6,000 people became a situation of attacking like a tide, that is, the attack was like a tide, wave after wave, which made people overwhelmed.

"Lord Shi is indeed worthy of the title of a famous general." Also after watching the exercises. Li Hongzhang praised and sighed, "Attack is like a sea tide, urgent but not chaotic, and there is a basis for advance and retreat." The order is forbidden, and this tactic of the adults is simply the training of the troops. I believe that under this kind of attack, I am afraid that in addition to His Majesty's Praetorian Guard. There is no single unit that can hold you off with the same number of men. ”

"Master Li is overrated." Shi Dakai, who put down the telescope, shook his head, "I'll do this way." It's just a trick, relying on the sharpness of the machine gun, if the opponent also has a machine gun and has the same high density of firepower, then my method is categorically undesirable.

You know, after all, the number of battalion-level attacks is too small, if the opponent's firepower density is stronger than mine or even on par with me, or can block my forward, then my attack will only increase casualties, and the subsequent waves of attacks will become a refueling tactic, which will be broken by the opponent individually.

I won't mention the Praetorian Guard, even if I fight the Wehrmacht, it's useless to use my method. To put it simply, with this style of play, I can only bully and bully a Japanese unit that does not have too much firepower, and if the other party's level is the same as that of the Wehrmacht, I will definitely not use it in this way. ”

"In other words, this is a bully style of play?" Li Hongzhang asked.

"Yes, it's a bully." Shi Dakai nodded, "This tactic can only be used if our firepower, especially if the grassroots firepower is completely stronger than the other party, otherwise, it will be the fate of breaking others one by one, and it may even cause chaos for yourself." ”

"If that's the case, why do you want to use this method instead of the traditional way of playing?"

"Because the traditional style of play is too wasteful, and it can't give full play to the effectiveness of the new weapon." Shi Dakai said, "As a rapid-fire weapon, the firepower of a 56 machine gun is better than that of an ordinary infantry company. (The Type 56-1 machine gun had a maximum rate of fire of 650 rounds per minute, and the combat accuracy rate of fire was 150 rounds per minute.) ）

What's even more terrifying is that this kind of machine has a long range and great power, which can effectively suppress the opponent and make it impossible for the opponent to interfere with our attack.

In this case, it is more than enough to put into the attack of the battalion-sized troops, and if you continue to press on the large troops, it will be too wasteful, and your spirit and strength will be consumed.

If it is a normal situation, it is just that, the pressure of a large army can quickly end the battle and put more pressure on the other side, but this time we are going abroad to fight, we are going to fight independently abroad, and there may be enemies all around us at that time, so we must be cautious step by step, so we must spare strength and be fully prepared. ”

"That's right." Li Hongzhang thought for a while, "Are you worried about the Japanese...... Vigilantes? ”

"Pretty much." Shi Dakai nodded and said, "Although I haven't been to Japan or dealt with Japanese people, I've read a lot of related books and introductions. It is said in the book that Japanese people are cruel and fierce, and they are not afraid of death, which is completely different from us Chinese and Koreans.

I'm not afraid of a frontal battle, but I'm afraid that when we fight head-on, their common people will organize to harass us, especially our logistics.

Therefore, I had to keep one hand for everything, but it was not good for the battle, so I came up with this method of attacking in waves.

In this way, not only can I continue to put pressure on the other party, but I can also have enough spare strength to deal with unexpected situations and make myself invincible first. ”

"Don't seek a complete victory, first seek undefeated, I didn't expect Lord Shi to be so cautious, this is slightly inconsistent with the rumors." Li Hongzhang smiled, "I think that back then, you advanced 1,800 miles in 28 days, invincible, invincible, and invincible, which made the Qing army frightened. I thought you were going to continue the style of quick attack, but I didn't expect it to be such a steady person. ”

"Soldiers are like water, and they are impermanent." Shi Dakai said lightly, "You don't have to have any style to fight, as long as you can win."

As for whether I will fight like this after arriving in Japan, it is not certain, it depends on the actual situation. (To be continued......)