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The next day, April 26 of the thirteenth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty.

More than 200 Japanese soldiers entered from Shimen, and more than 80 people entered from Fenggang, and began to vigorously use troops against the Peony Society. At the same time, the Qin-Chu combined fleet in Penghu set sail again, the flagship Yangwu raised the triangular inlaid blue flag on the backmast, and then raised the triangular yellow dragon flag, and the remaining dead ships raised the triangular yellow dragon flag, fifteen warships of different sizes, lit fire and pulled anchors, and soon a stream of black smoke came out, and the steam engine pushed the ship to sail slowly, and accelerated, accelerated, and accelerated, and then accelerated, shooting towards the Japanese base camp for attacking Taiwan, and rushed straight away.

"Keep up, keep up—" Black smoke rose from John Bull's ironclad ship. The two British naval majors stood on the foredeck, looking at the Qin Chu fleet in the south, their eyes all flashing with dazzling light. This was the first modern fleet battle in the East, and if the combined navy of the Qing Kingdom really ate the ships of the Japanese, then a real war between the Qing and Japan was likely to break out.

Is China's old empire really revived? Is this sleeping lion really awake? The battle with the Japanese allowed Great Britain to see clearly what it wanted to see.

Liu Xian's victory in Vietnam was too clean. The British were taken aback! Their attitude toward China had to be tactful and gentle. The British were reluctant to 'take the same risk' as the French until they saw the true strength of China.

Besan Quan stood at the bow of the Fubo in the wind, and the sea breeze made his clothes scruple. He didn't care in the slightest, on the contrary, blowing the wind on the battleship like this was his favorite.

The full-powered galloping of the Fubo is not something that can be done casually. This is not a problem of more coal and less coal, but also a problem of the life performance of the steam engine wheel. Beshanquan has been the pipe belt of the Fubo gunboat for more than a year, but there are only a handful of blowers at full speed!

"If it's standing on an ironclad ship...... it feels better." Bei Shanquan couldn't help but think of the four ironclad gunboats of the Qin army.

I'm not afraid of not knowing the goods, I'm afraid of comparing goods. The two of the Fubo are tied together, and they are not as good as one of the two ships of the Qin army, Yangwei and Zhenwei. The huge gap between wooden-hulled gunboats and ironclad gunboats of the same level in actual combat cannot be bridged.

And what made Bei Shanquan even more envious was that the two iron-clad battleships were not inferior to the Fubo in terms of speed, and the Yangwei was even faster. And the Pinghai and Anhai, two ironclad gunboats with more than 600 tons, not to mention their actual combat capabilities, have a speed of 12 knots and a speed of 13 knots, which completely throws off the Fubo by a level. Being rich is not the same!

The shipmaster and sailor developed their own shipbuilding technology, and the funds were limited, and each time they added a warship, they didn't know how many times they had to go through arguments, but Qin Jun waved his hand and scattered hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to buy back four ironclad ships. The leap made it have a combat capability that was not inferior to that of the Guangdong Naval Division.

Qin Jun holding a golden doll! Seeing that people can't sit on the governors of a province and dominate the military and political affairs of a province, the Qin army, which has the Hongji Coal Mine, the Qinnan Iron and Steel Plant, and the Arsenal in hand, is already recognized as 'rich' in China's military circles.

The Qin army has money and guns, although it is small, it is very powerful!

Bei Shanquan had seen the Qin army team coming from the east, a water of breech guns, everyone was full of spirit and high morale. Although he didn't know how many of the three thousand people he saw in the Qin army, but in the Chu army, such an army was completely first-class elite.

When I was in a trance, the jingling bell suddenly rang.

"Enemy ships! The enemy ship was spotted, about 10 nautical miles to the west, flying the Japanese flag! Quantity, one! ”

The lookout rang the hand-knitted bell vigorously and shouted loudly.

"What !!" Bei Shanquan was startled, and then a smile appeared on his face. There is only one enemy ship! "Catch up—" There's no point in giving up. As for the report to the rear, it is enough to drop a communication boat from the side of the ship.

At the same time, the Japanese ship Meng Chun also sounded a clanging siren - their lookout also appeared on the Fubo sailing ten nautical miles away. The triangular yellow dragon flag fluttering on the hindmast is so dazzling in the eyes of the Japanese.

"Your Excellency, the Qing ships are adjusting their course...... They were close to us! ”

Navy Captain Nobuo Ishikawa held up the telescope with his left hand, and his right hand tightly grasped the armrest, and the green tendons on the back of his hand were all bulging, showing the tension in his heart.

It is obvious that the Qing warships are here to fight!

But......

"Could it be that Nissin has already declared war!?" Nobuo Ishikawa shuddered all over.

He knew that the day before Saigo's departure from the Provincial Army, Army Major Fukushima Kusei and 217 civilian and military officers and men set off from Nagasaki on the auxiliary ship Arikomaru and sailed to Xiamen. Fukushima Jiucheng was the new Japanese consul in Xiamen, and he carried with him a document to be submitted to Zuo Zongtang, the content of which had already spread among the Japanese army, and Ishikawa Nobuo himself could recite it. "Taiwan's local customs, since ancient times, love to kill and rob, do not follow the politics and religion of your country. Our people were swept away by the storm and many were mutilated, but those who escaped escaped came under the rule of your country, and they were blessed with the mercy of Renyu and survived. My country knows that your country is kind and sincere to our people, and my government is grateful to your country, but the other country has harmed our people, so how can the parents of the people bear to be silent? It is because our emperor wants Lieutenant General Xixiang to go deep into Fandi, recruit his chief, enlighten him in every way, and kill his murderer to show punishment, so that there will be no repeat of the past. Our army respectfully obeys the holy decree, and the impromptu troops will go directly to Fandi by water, and there is no other intention to cross your territory, and there should be no resistance......"

But no matter how you look at it now, I don't want Qingguo to accept the documents. "Retreat, retreat quickly!"

Nobuo Ishikawa ordered loudly, the displacement of the Meng Chun gunboat is less than 400 tons, compared to the Qing cruiser in front, it is completely a little brother. Didn't have to fight at all! Only by retreating and joining up with the main forces can we make plans again.

"Your Excellency, no follow-up fleet of the Qing Kingdom has been found!" The lookout on the mast shouted down again.

The Fubo was separated from the main fleet behind it by four or five nautical miles, which was even larger than yesterday, and the Japanese lookouts could not see that far at all.

And this report made Ishikawa Nobuo feel a little relieved, and at the same time, he was more determined to quickly move closer to the main force. The main ship of the Japanese attack fleet was the Nisshin, a third-class wooden ironclad cruiser with a displacement of nearly 1,500 tons. And this kind of 'bloodless soldiers' is exactly what the Japanese army needs at the moment.

Although the Meng Chun gunboat was less than 400 tons, it was an old ship completed in 1867. The inclined steam main engine has less than 200 horsepower, and the single-shaft propulsion is only 7 knots. Although he was running towards the lair at full speed, the figure of the Fubo chasing behind him was still getting clearer and clearer...... (The novel "Crossing 1862" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will be 100 lucky draw gifts for everyone!) Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign in the upper right corner to "add friends", search for the official account "qdread" and follow, hurry up! )R1152