The second group of transports carrying 20,000 Baibailin women and gold sailed out of the port of Singapore on August 5, aiming for Nanjing, and after unloading the gold, the fleet was to continue tracing the Yangtze River into Sichuan, and reward the Baibailin women to the meritorious soldiers as a reward for fighting against Hu Yihuang and Li Xiucheng, of course, for these women, everything must be done according to the rules of the Han family.

The remaining women remained in Singapore and were given rations to the garrison officers and immigrants.

Two days later, the first batch of supplies and ammunition arrived, accompanied by 10 repaired Western warships, three 4,200-ton destroyers, and six gunboats, in addition to the five battleships escorting the escort.

The gunboats have all been handed over to the North Sea Fleet for construction, and four can be built at a time, not to mention its weak firepower, small bomb load, poor slowing ability, but cheap construction cost, short construction period, is the patrol ship, patrol the Strait of Malacca, for coastal defense of the best choice.

At first glance, in addition to a wider space, carrying more ammunition, and a corresponding increase in the caliber of artillery, there is no difference from the first frigate of more than 2,000 tons built by the Navy, but below deck, torpedo launch tubes are creatively installed, and three launch tubes are installed on the left and right side decks.

This is equivalent to six torpedoes, and the whole ship carries twelve spare torpedoes.

In the general understanding, torpedo tubes are most suitable to be installed below the waterline of the bow, but this position affects the shape of the ship in the first place. Secondly, it will affect the armor protection, so it was vetoed by Wang Feng. The torpedo tubes were all mounted on the side side.

Moreover, according to Wang Feng's requirements, torpedoes can only be installed on destroyers and frigates. In the future, self-built cruisers and battleships will not be equipped with torpedoes, on the one hand, because the firepower output of battleships and cruisers mainly relies on heavy artillery.

And no matter how far the torpedo is, in the era of lack of guidance, it is basically impossible to hit more than 30 kilometers, and if you get too close, the opponent's naval guns will tell you the truth of being a ship.

On the other hand. Battleships and cruisers, which are the main forces of future naval warfare, are obviously tasked with attacking fortified positions, but with torpedo battles, it is easy to have the problem of martyrdom, and if it is not done well, it will be a lose-lose result.

After all, as far as the current navy is concerned, destroyers are also the main force of operations, and it is also possible that the enemy will hit the side deck and detonate the torpedoes, but the survivability of the torpedo boats is too weak. It is impossible to go out into the ocean, and there has been some progress in torpedo loading technology, and it is possible to preload torpedoes half an hour before the war, although it takes half an hour to load a torpedo is still a bit long. But at least you don't need to put torpedoes on the deck in normal times, so let's put them on and try it first.

The three destroyers were numbered 401, 402 and 403 respectively, according to the naming rules set by Wang Feng. They were named General Ma Yuan, General Chen Qingzhi and General Yu Dayou.

Today, there are 39 warships of all sizes gathered in Singapore. Wang Feng left all six gunboats to Peng Yulin, as well as three self-built frigates. Five Western warships, including three with a displacement of more than 4,000 tons, a total of 14 warships and 5,000 marines, this is already a fairly powerful military presence in Southeast Asia, and the task of cooperating with the East Vietnamese and Jinzhou countries is naturally in charge of Peng Yulin.

On 10 August, Wang Feng led 25 warships, the remaining officers and men of the Marine Corps, and 100 transport ships to leave the port of Singapore and set sail for Burma.

At that time, the ruler of Burma was the Gongbang Dynasty, and it was also the last feudal dynasty of Burma, this dynasty was remarkable, once dominated the Indochina Peninsula, invaded the capital of Siam, and created a miracle of repelling the Qing army four times in a row, but it was also greatly damaged because of this, and then lost in the two wars against Britain in 1824 and 1852, and since then it has been in a slump, and Burma has also been divided into two parts: Upper Burma and Lower Burma.

Lower Burma was the territory of Burma annexed by the British after the Second Anglo-Burmese War, and the Arakan and Tanah sarin controlled by the British during the First Anglo-Burmese War.

Upper Burma is the north-central part of Burma, which can be extended to the mountainous areas of the Sino-Burmese border in a broad sense, and is the ruling area of the Gongbang Dynasty and the main direction of attack of the Shida Kaibu, while the navy led by Wang Feng personally actually aimed at the Lower Burma, which belonged to the British, which violated British sovereignty.

The fleet traveled north along the Strait of Malacca, entered Madaban Bay a month later, and two days later, appeared near Yangon!

At that time, Yangon was the center of British colonial rule in Burma, and during the decade of occupation, Yangon was developed into a bustling seaport city.

Although Singapore's strategic position is important, but the resources are poor, decades of development, the cityscape is still in tatters, and Yangon before the British occupation, was already the center of Myanmar's Buddhist culture and the country's largest seaport, and has rice, teak, cotton, rich metal deposits and other strategic resources, in ten years, the population has swelled from a few thousand to nearly 70,000, which is a rich place in itself.

From the southern part of the Yangon River to the north, along the east and west rivers, a series of straight and spacious avenues have been built, with houses in the traditional Burmese style and many new Western-style buildings, and even along the Bago and Irrawaddy rivers, large-scale residential and commercial areas have developed.

"Okay, good place!" Standing on the magnificent bridge of the General Ma Yuan, Li Hongzhang couldn't help but praise.

"Hmm!" Yang Shuijiao also nodded: "Although the temperature in Yangon is relatively high, but the sea breeze is blowing, there is no feeling of stuffiness, I heard that the average temperature difference in Yangon is less than eight degrees, half a year is sunny, half a year is rainy, the climate is pleasant, there are only three seasons a year, that is, the summer season, the rainy season, the cool season and after half a month, it will enter the cool season in Yangon, which lasts until February of the following year, which is the most comfortable time of the year." ”

Wang Feng looked at Yang Shuijiao in surprise, and Yang Shuijiao immediately pursed her lips proudly.

Zhou Xiuying frowned: "Yangon is covered with a dense water network, the population is not small, and the British also stationed two or three thousand soldiers in Yangon, I'm afraid it is not so easy to capture." ”

Wang Feng said indifferently: "It's nothing if we can't occupy it, after all, we are not the main force, our goal is only to establish a foothold in Yangon, and cooperate with the main force to eliminate the Burmese, the main force is still Shi Dakai's way, from now to June, it is three months later, there should be news." ”

"Look, what's that? It's so beautiful! Yang Shuijiao was suddenly stunned and pointed in a direction.

At the highest point of the entire city, there is a huge tower that rises to a height of more than 100 meters, and under the sunlight, it emits a dazzling golden light, and it is difficult not to attract attention! (To be continued.) )