A train panted and slowly entered Mawei Station to stop, and the few passengers began to get off. Since this is a military port and an important industrial area, the passengers who get off the bus are not only military personnel, but also workers working in the industrial area. At this time, the commander of the naval fleet, Fan Tao, and his entourage walked down from the car. After a few years of training, Fan Tao's bronzed cheeks seemed to be more mature, and his eyes had a hint of majesty.

According to the operational jihua of the headquarters, the third stage of the offshore raiders began. According to the order of the headquarters, Fan Tao reorganized the Yangtze River Fleet and named it the East China Sea Fleet. At present, the East China Sea Fleet has added four more all-steel gunboats, bringing the number of steel warships produced by the Shanghai Machinery Factory to six. At present, the East China Sea Fleet has 22 ships, and its purpose is to cooperate with torpedo boats to carry out maritime sabotage warfare and seize control of coastal waters. When Fan Tao arrived at Mawei Military Port, he reorganized the original Nanyang Fleet and renamed it the South China Sea Fleet, and also fully cooperated with the torpedo boats.

"It's been 4 years, and I didn't expect the Mawei Industrial Zone to change amazingly, and I almost didn't dare to recognize each other!" Fan Tao stood on the platform and couldn't help sighing. "Commander, when you left Mawei Military Port, you didn't expect to come back!" A staff officer who followed accosted him. Fan Tao said with a smile: "I really didn't expect that the past is unbearable, but now we have the strength to fight face-to-face with foreign warships, which is heartbreaking." As he spoke, Fan Tao and the officers who greeted him came to the fleet headquarters.

The signboard of the fleet command has been replaced, and the newly appointed commander of the South China Sea Fleet is an old navy of the former Nanyang Naval Division, who is about 40 years old and has 20 years of experience in sea navigation. The newly appointed commander of the South China Sea Fleet reported: "Commander Fan, at present, the South China Sea Fleet has 12 wooden sail cruisers, 4 minesweepers, and 2 supply ships. 8 wooden gunboats, a total of 26 battleships. ”

The commander of the South China Sea Fleet then reported: "According to the plan of the headquarters, there will be no production of wooden warships in the future, so the Mawei shipyard has not produced a single warship in the past few years. Due to the extreme shortage of steel and the need to satisfy the armament industry, the Mawei shipyard did not produce any more warships. In recent years, the shipyard has successively renovated the old warships, most of which have replaced the boilers and upgraded the main guns of the battleships. At the moment the main guns of the cruisers reached 130 mm, and the main guns of the gunboats also reached 76 mm. ”

After listening to the report, Fan Tao stood up and said, "Now I officially name Yang Wei as the flagship of the fleet. According to the operational jihua of the headquarters, the fleet was to assist the torpedo boat units in carrying out sabotage warfare at sea. At present, I have learned that the 2nd Torpedo Boat Group has entered the Taiwan Strait, and their destination is the Mawei Military Port. The torpedo boats were to join up with the fleet and then hunt the allied warships. The third stage of the offshore strategy is still to seize control of the offshore waters. ”

The sea was pitch black, with waves surging and motors roaring. The 40 torpedo boats entered the Taiwan Strait along the coastline and headed north, and at this time, Dai Hui stood on the command platform of the torpedo boats, vigilantly looking at the sea area ahead. At present, Dai Hui has taken up the post of captain of the 2nd Torpedo Boat Brigade, and the General Headquarters ordered him to lead the 2nd Group of torpedo boats to enter the Taiwan Strait first and go to Mawei Military Port to join the South China Sea Fleet. Wen Biao and Zheng Haitao served as the leaders of the newly formed 3rd and 4th Torpedo Boat Brigades respectively because of their outstanding performance.

The sea breeze blew gently, which was somewhat pleasant, and the torpedo boats formed a battle formation and broke the waves. In the middle of the night, a hint of sleepiness hit, Dai Hui took off his hat and let the sea breeze blow on his forehead to drive away sleepiness. "Captain, go down and rest, it is estimated that you will not encounter coalition warships at night!" The captain was concerned. Dai Hui couldn't hold on and said, "Okay! I went down to rest for a while, and if there was a situation, I was called immediately. "At present, in order to prevent the torpedo boats of the Northern Expeditionary Army from entering the Taiwan Strait, the coalition forces have requisitioned a large number of gunboats.

These gunboats were successively transferred from the South Seas, South America, the United States, and the British mainland, and this kind of small steel gunboats had a displacement of about 300 tons, and their mobility and flexibility were remarkable, and they were specially designed to deal with torpedo boats. At present, the coalition forces have deployed 55 small gunboats in the southern part of the Taiwan Strait, and have set up blockade bases in the Penghu Islands and Kinmen Island, which is close to the mainland. There are 25 gunboats on Kinmen Island and 30 gunboats on Penghu Islands, which are like two pincers choking the northward passage of the Taiwan Strait.

We do not know about the requisition of a large number of gunboats by the coalition forces. In addition, the coalition forces deployed a patrol detachment on the Zhoushan Islands, and the main task of this detachment was to blockade the Mawei military port and the mouth of the Yangtze River. The detachment had 12 large warships and 20 small gunboats. Intelligence on land is easy to obtain, but intelligence at sea is very difficult for the junta to obtain information on coalition warships, and danger ensues.

I don't know how long I slept, Dai Hui woke up suddenly, took out his pocket watch and saw that it was 3 o'clock in the morning. He climbed out of the cabin and saw that the captain was still vigilant and looked ahead, "Go down and sleep for a while!" "Captain, I'm not sleepy!" "It's an order!" Dai Hui had no doubt, and the captain went down helplessly. Dongfang showed the white of the fish's belly, and Dai Hui was busy on the chart for a while, knowing his location.

"Raise the flag, inform all boats, enter the waters of Kinmen ahead, and pay attention to vigilance." After speaking, Dai Hui raised the telescope to observe, and the blurred shadow of Kinmen Island could already be seen in front of him. As the sky gradually brightened, a large number of dark shadows suddenly appeared in the direction of Kinmen Island, and they were driving at high speed. The forward torpedo boat quickly sounded the combat alarm. "It's the coalition gunboats, all ready to fight!" Sure enough, it was a coalition gunboat, and Dai Hui was the first time he had seen such a small gunboat, so he didn't care about it at all.

He looked closely and found that 10 gunboats were coming at high speed, as if they were deliberately attacking, and had no intention of fleeing at all. Dai Hui put down his binoculars and calmly ordered the first detachment to meet the enemy head-on from the right, the second detachment from the left, and the third and fourth detachments. The coalition gunboats also changed formation and rushed towards them. As the two sides approached, a torpedo boat in front of them fired a torpedo, and the torpedo moved at high speed and roared away at the gunboat in front. Seeing the hit, the enemy gunboat did not panic and avoided the torpedo with nimble evasive maneuvers.

Dai Hui was taken aback when he saw this, and the enemy gunboat opened fire, and the torpedo boat in front of him was hit by a shell. A large number of gunboats came up from the eastern seas. Dai Hui was in a hurry and ordered a detachment to cover, and the other detachments immediately took refuge in Guotou Bay. There are fortress cannons in the salient of Guotou Bay, which can cover torpedo boats. After an hour, enter the safe sea. The detachment that served as cover was almost powerless and was beaten in disarray. Two torpedo boats were sunk, four were traumatized to varying degrees, and one detachment was half reimbursed.

When the enemy guns saw that the torpedo boats were within range of the fortress cannons, they no longer pursued, but cruised around the perimeter. The point was a brief exchange in which none of the coalition gunboats were damaged. Dai Huiqi's face was pale, and he carefully observed the enemy's small gunboats, and found that the front of the gunboat was actually equipped with two guns on both sides of the main gun. The caliber of the gun is 50 mm. Guns of this caliber pose little threat to large battleships, but they are more than enough to deal with torpedo boats. It seems that the coalition forces did it on purpose, and the small gunboats were designed to deal with torpedo boats.

On the same day, Fan Tao received a heavy loss from the Torpedo Boat Brigade at the Mawei Military Port and was intercepted by the allied gunboats. Fan Tao thought twice and decided that Dai Hui would use the night to break through the naval blockade of the allied gunboats and try his best to reach Mawei Military Port. Since the speed of the torpedo boats reached 25 knots and the speed of the gunboats was 22 knots, and at night, Dai Hui led the torpedo boat brigade and it took four days to reach the Mawei military port with great difficulty.

The convergence of the torpedo boats and the fleet was supposed to be celebrated, but the scene was very depressing. Fan Tao raised his wine glass and shouted: "You have terrified the coalition warships, you are light cavalry at sea, this setback is angry." Where is your courage to fight in the bloody battle of Lingdingyang? I know that everyone is aggrieved and feels that they can't do it. Rest assured, we will have a way to deal with the allied gunboats. Brothers, please raise your glasses and cheers! ”

A few days later, in the naval headquarters, Dai Hui said: "Commander, the small gunboats of the coalition forces have three guns in the front, which are tailor-made to deal with torpedo boats. If the enemy fleet is protected by small gunboats, torpedo boats are difficult to do. Fan Tao looked at the model of the coalition gunboat and pondered for a long time and said: "The headquarters requires us to break the coastal blockade of the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea before the typhoon arrives, which is a hard task that must be completed." ”

Fan Tao continued: "According to reconnaissance, the current blockade of the Mawei Sea is a detachment fleet with 12 large warships, of which the flagship is an American-made steel warship. 4 medium gunboats. 20 small gunboats. With torpedo boats joining, I decided to fight a regular naval battle, after all, the coalition forces did not know the situation of the warships in our Mawei military port, and in their eyes our battleships were not worth mentioning, and they just took advantage of their paralyzing thoughts to take him by surprise. ”

Soon the operation was planned, and the torpedo boat group, including all 22 warships of the South China Sea Fleet, set sail. The torpedo boats took the lead, the sail battleships were in the middle, and the gunboats were lined up on either side, heading towards the mouth of the sea. On the flagship Yang Wei battleship, Fan Tao walked down the command cabin and came to the front main gun.

Fan Tao nodded and said, "You have been training for several years, are you sure to hit the enemy ship?" "Report to the commander-in-chief, the accuracy of the new artillery is very high, and we are confident in destroying enemy ships." The gunner replied confidently and loudly. "Good! It's up to you today, and remember, your target is the small gunboats of the coalition forces. How well you fight will determine the victory or defeat of the entire sea. "We will never fail to live up to the high expectations of the commander, please rest assured."

The Zhoushan Islands blockade detachment normally cruises off Mawei for half a month. A report was received from the Kaohsiung Command that a torpedo boat group of the Northern Expeditionary Army had entered the Taiwan Strait and had encountered gunboats on Kinmen Island. The torpedo boats of the Northern Expeditionary Army suffered heavy damage and are now fleeing into the Mawei Military Port. The Kaohsiung Command ordered the detachment to completely block the Mawei Sea area to prevent the torpedo boats of the Northern Expeditionary Army from attacking.

The flagship of the blockade squadron is called the USS Lincoln, an American ironclad warship that came to China to join the coalition fleet at the beginning of the year when it was launched in the middle of last year. The captain of the Lincoln is named Bobby and is about 50 years old. This guy is a brigadier general, and despite his experience in sea navigation, he has never participated in a brutal naval battle. His blockade fleet is also a hodgepodge. Bobby's flagship was American-built, and two of his sail cruisers were Dutch.

4 sail cruisers are Portuguese and one sail cruiser is Italian. The other 4 gunboats were Spanish, and as for the 20 small gunboats, more than half were British, and a few were American. As an emerging power, the United States has an economy that is growing in the middle of the day, and as a member of the coalition forces with deep pockets, it naturally attracts attention. So the nameless Bobby was appointed commander of the blockade fleet.