Although Lao Li decided to organize this cruise, but the decision does not mean that it will be easy to do, considering that the voyage is too long, and to bring nearly 1,000 troops in case of contingency, and in order to minimize incidents, Lao Li decided to leave in Guangzhou, directly to the Dutch colony, this voyage in the sea is a very severe test for both the warship and the personnel, after all, this time it is necessary to make hands-on preparations. As for the Army? It's even more of a headache for Lao Li, you let a Huai army, who has never been on a boat, sit on a boat for more than half a month, and how much combat power can you exert when you get to Batavia? Lao Li was not sure. Not to mention the transport ships that carried these Huai military personnel and equipment. Lao Li and a vote of Beiyang officers calculated, and always felt that it was indeed difficult for Kangji and Weiyuan to rely on only 2 training ships, and then 500 Huai troops and equipment, (300 Beiyang Marines are usually scattered on various ships)

At this time, Liu Buchan's professional essence was still reflected in a certain way. In his opinion, the army's weapons are nothing more than guns and cannons, this gun does not take up much space, and the real nerve-wracking thing is the cannon and ammunition, so, after solving the problem of artillery, there is nothing difficult to do about the rest, as for the artillery used by the army, the most used is naturally the 75MM Krupp artillery, and this thing is the same as the 75MM sampan gun (4 per battleship) equipped in Dingzhen, as long as the gun carriage is replaced, it is a land artillery, so that the army does not need to bring artillery. When entering the port, arrange some army gunners to Dingzhen, once they really start, this sampan gun is used up on the ship and directly replaced with a gun carriage for land artillery, and in addition to these sampan guns, there are also 10 Green guns on the Zhiyuan ship, which weighs 371KG and the gun carriage weighs 181KG. And Beiyang also ordered a gun mount when ordering Zhiyuan, which made it more convenient, once the naval battle was over, it could be landed directly with a gun mount, with these sampan guns and Green guns, the Huai army did not need to bring another artillery and shells. And taking into account the space of Dingzhen, it is completely possible to bring more artillery parts, which can be assembled and used when necessary, and at the same time, each transport ship can also install some Green guns and good sampan guns on the ship, and once the naval battle is over, the army gun mount can be directly installed.

Although the Beiyang officers have made various plans and arrangements for how to support this unit in long-distance voyages, once they are started, the problem of logistics and supply is still very strict, after all, cruising and fighting are two different concepts. For example, when it comes to artillery shells, the 210 main guns of the Zhiyuan only have 50 rounds of ammunition each, and according to the rate of fire of one round every 2.5 minutes, they can't even support 2 battles. Even if you count the compartments under the Zhiyuan gun carriage where the shells are placed, each gun only has an additional 21 compartments, and for safety, these compartments can only put shells and not propellants, Ding Ruchang, Lang Weili, Liu Buyun and others racked their brains and couldn't make these battleships in Beiyang be loaded with shells that could fight enough for 2 battles!!

"In fact, we can entrust Lord Li Hanzhang of Liangguang to mobilize some civilian ships to transport subsequent ammunition, fuel and other materials for Beiyang. The transport forces under the Beiyang Fleet were too weak to support such a long-distance campaign. Luang Weili couldn't help but shake his head after carefully comparing the supplies needed and the capacity that could be deployed.

"Isn't that right?" Ding Ruchang frowned and said.

"What's so bad about that? In the British Empire, merchant ships could be requisitioned in times of war for transport and even to carry out artillery for combat missions. Even if it's not at war now, we can still pay to requisition ships. Luang Weili insisted.

"But this is in the Qing Dynasty, if you let those imperial historians know about the random requisition of civilian ships, it is not a joke to participate in a book." Liu Buyun said dissatisfiedly. …,

"I am a soldier, my task is how to help the commander make a battle plan, politics and public opinion are not my concern, if there are not enough transport ships to provide logistics for the fleet and marines, I am not optimistic about this operation." Luang Weili said.

"Let's report this matter to Lord Zhongtang." Looking at Lang Weili, Liu Buyun and others who still wanted to argue, Ding Ruchang decisively decided to hand over the difficulties, not that he was not responsible, but whether it was to requisition merchant ships from the Beiyang or use ships from the South Seas, it was not something that he, the admiral, could decide. This thing has to be made by Lao Li.

And Lao Li, I don't know much about maritime affairs, and I don't know anything about ocean-going supplies, and Liu Zixiang didn't have much research on things back then, and the selection of global naval ports and the setting of military station supply warfare are not the content of a coastal defense fleet to study, in the face of this kind of problem that has never been encountered, Lao Li can't help it, now I feel that I can't think it through, it's too late!! The note was sent, the fleet was ready, and more importantly, the second money of the Nanyang Chinese had arrived. In desperation, Lao Li had to send a telegram to Xu Jie to ask this protégé to think of a way.

It is impossible to say that Xu Jie did not consider the supply problem. After all, Xu Jie is also a new-age navy with orthodox naval education. And I've read a lot of books about supplies, but knowing theoretically and actually operating are two different things. And the Qing Dynasty is not to mention finding a special transport and supply ship, and it is not even easy to make up a ship. But fortunately, the enemy facing Beiyang this time is really softer, once the war starts, as long as the port can be suppressed along the way, the supply behind is not a big problem. Considering that the Dutch colonial army generally fought the natives and bullied the unarmed Chinese, it was certainly incomparable with the Beiyang Marine Corps (even the Japanese were sure of the combat effectiveness of this army.) It is estimated that I will not be able to fight with the veterans of the Huai Army.

Although things were difficult to do, with the help of Li Hanzhang, Xu Jie finally found enough ships and sailors from Guangzhou to transport supplies for the Beiyang Second Marine Division. At the same time, in order to thank Li Hanzhang for his help, Li Hongzhang agreed that Nanyang would also send warships to participate in the cruise. However, because Nanyang really couldn't get any decent ships this time, in desperation, Governor Li Hanzhang had to let Cheng Biguang lead the Guangjia cruiser and supply ships to accompany the Beiyang Fleet on sail. Although only one warship was involved in the Cantonese side, its historical significance should not be underestimated. Later scholars even said that this trip to the south of the South China Sea was not only the first step for the Chinese navy to go out of the coastal waters and into the open sea, but also promoted the idea of sea power to take root in Chinese society. More importantly, from now on, the Huaxia navy has formed a whole with each other, and there will not be a certain navy fighting to the death while other fleets have nothing to do on the sidelines. And this directly led to the emergence of the Qing Combined Fleet led by the Beiyang Naval Division during the First Sino-Japanese Period. This move played a crucial role in the victory of the naval battle and the blockade of Japan during the First Sino-Japanese period.

Just after Li Hanzhang and Xu Jie solved the supply problem of the Beiyang Fleet, Xu Jie thought that he could relax and wait for the arrival of the Beiyang Fleet before preparing to set off. But it was only after the arrival of the Beiyang Fleet that something appeared that was supposed to happen next year.