Ben An, commander of the Far East Fleet, led more than 60 warships through the Taiwan Strait and headed straight for the British and French concessions in Shanghai. According to the commander-in-chief's strategy of solitary pulling, the Far East Fleet was pulled to Shanghai to exert tremendous pressure on the Qing court and cooperate with the operation of Annam. As soon as the fleet passed through Fuzhou, the clippers arriving from Saigon caught up with the Far Eastern Fleet. The commander of the fleet, Ben An, was a little stunned when he received the order from the commander-in-chief.

When he left Saigon with his fleet, the situation was very good. It's only been more than 20 days, how can such a change occur. Ordered the fleet to withdraw to Annam, hesitating. At this time, a subordinate said: "Your Excellency, General, we have not encountered a large number of Qing warships along the way, and only when we entered the Taiwan Strait did we see a few Qing warships, I think the situation in Annan will not be so bad that it is out of control." Since the Qing army has not declared war on us, why don't we take the opportunity to annihilate the Nanyang Fleet of the Great Qing State. ”

"Your Excellency General, it is useless for us to withdraw to Annam, and we should deal a fatal blow to the Great Qing Navy and completely eliminate the other side's maritime threat!" Another subordinate chimed in. "Your Excellency General, you should make a decision outside, don't be indecisive!" "My lord! The opportunity is rare, the other side has no guard, and in one fell swoop to destroy the Nanyang Fleet of the Great Qing Kingdom, in order to effectively support the operation of Annam! "The generals are gossiping.

"Order the fleet to stop advancing and immediately convene an operational meeting." Commander Ben An said decisively. The military council drew up an operation to annihilate the Qing Nanyang Fleet, and at the same time smashed the Mawei shipyard of the Qing Dynasty. Soon, the French Far East Fleet quickly turned south and headed straight for Fuzhou. When night came, on the high seas at the mouth of the Majiang River, six warships including Yang Wei, the flagship of the Nanyang Fleet, anchored in shallow waters. In the morning, they watched the French warships as they passed through the nearby seas and followed them for some distance.

There was no danger, the French fleet seemed to just pass by, and the battleship Yang Wei and others returned to Majiangkou to continue to be on guard. At present, the Nanyang Fleet has 20 main warships, not including other warships of transport ships. Two of them were patrolling Lingdingyang in Guangzhou, six warships were operating along the coasts of Xiamen and Quanzhou, and three were operating in Taiwan. There are nine warships in Mawei Military Port, where the headquarters of the Nanyang Fleet is located, and at present, six warships are patrolling the sea, and three warships are repairing at the dock. Now that the battleship has entered the age of all-steel, the construction of the steel-wood hybrid warship at the Mawei shipyard has been temporarily suspended. The transformation will take time, and the steel produced in Wuhan temporarily meets the needs of the construction of Beiyang warships and railways.

Since the opening of the railway from Fuzhou to Shanghai, the steel produced in Guangzhou has not been supplied to the Mawei Shipyard, and the steel imported by the Mawei Shipyard from Western countries is mainly to meet the production of steam locomotives and rolling stock. However, putting aside other factors, the economy of the Qing Dynasty has now entered a period of transition, but a stormy social change has also come, which people did not expect.

The flagship pipe band of Yangwei is called Liu Buzhan, this gentleman is in his early thirties, and he is a student of the first phase of Mawei Haizheng School. Due to his outstanding performance, after the Nanyang Naval Division became an army, he served as the captain of the Yang Wei. As the flagship, Yang Wei is temporarily responsible for the command of all warships at the base. The sea was pitch black, and the first mate Fan Tao walked into the command cabin and said, "My lord, the French fleet is menacing, and I am always worried that they have some intentions!" Regarding the sudden arrival of the French fleet, Fan Tao knew in his heart that he was naturally worried.

"Brother He, you are a little unfounded, foreign warships are in my Great Qing Maritime Frontier, and it is commonplace to show off your might, to put it bluntly, it is still my cowardice in the Qing Dynasty, we must lie down and taste courage." Liu Buzhan appreciated Fan Tao very much, and it was he who suggested that Fan Tao be promoted to the first mate of the flagship. Thinking of Deng Zixuan's words, Fan Tao said: "If the French plot against me, we have no chance of winning, so we must be vigilant." "I know, there are some things that you and I can't control, do your own things and don't think about it too much!" Seeing this, Fan Tao had no choice but to turn around and leave.

As soon as it was dawn the next day, suddenly the whistle sounded, and the battleship Hui'an, which had anchored in the south, was the first to raise the alarm. Sirens sounded like battle horns, the sailors quickly entered battle preparations, the ship's anchor-raising steam engine began to roar, and a large cloud of smoke began to fill. At this time, Liu Buzhan boarded the command platform and saw that Fan Tao was already in place, and was holding a telescope to observe. "What's going on!" Liu Buzhan picked up the binoculars and asked while looking at it.

"My lord, there are about 20 French warships. Among them, there were 4 main battleships and 16 fast battleships, which formed a battle formation and outflanked us. Fan Tao said hurriedly. At this time, the French battleships came in a horizontal battle formation, and large clouds of smoke formed on the sea. "The French simply deceived people too much, ordered the fleet to go into combat readiness!" As the Bannerman gave the order, the warships began to move.

"My lord, the situation is critical, you should retreat immediately." Fan Tao was in a hurry. "Hugh's clamour, there is no word retreat in my Liu someone's dictionary, and the gunners are ordered to enter combat readiness." As soon as the words fell, the French battleship took the lead in firing its cannons, and the shells exploded near the battleships Hui'an and Wuwei in front, and set off huge waves. The two ships then returned fire. There was no way, Fan Tao ordered the ships to open fire, and suddenly a disparity in naval battles began to break out.

Suddenly, a shell exploded on the deck of the Hui'an, and a puff of smoke rose. Then another shell exploded in the middle of the Hui'an. The Hui'an stopped swimming, and suddenly more shells fell on the Hui'an battleship, Fan Tao closed his eyes in pain, and at this moment a bigger explosion was deafening, only to see the Hui'an battleship was broken into two sections in the violent explosion, and the sailors jumped into the sea one after another. Liu Buzhan stood with his chest upright and a serious expression, as if he had the momentum of seeing death as home.

"My lord! The French warships are coming prepared, we are in danger of total annihilation, and we cannot act rashly! Fan Tao said urgently. I repeat, don't interfere with my command, or I will be unforgiving, and I will meet it with full rudder. "This Kung Fu French battleship seems to be getting braver and braver the more it fights, and the Wuwei battleship on the right is suddenly in danger. At this moment, the battleship Dinghai rushed forward, temporarily alleviating the predicament of the battleship Wuwei. A huge ironclad ship appeared in the French array, and its heavy artillery began to bombard.

All 5 ships joined the group, and two French ships were also hit, and smoke was raised. A shell concentrated on the front of the Yang Wei, and the bow part of the ship was blown up. At this moment, a shell landed on the left deck of the front, a naval gun was blown away, and several gunners were killed. Fan Tao boarded the command platform on the second occasion and saw at least six warships surrounding the Wuwei and Dinghai respectively to bombard, and the scene was almost miserable. In particular, the ironclad giant ships of the French army are like a monster and extremely fierce. An even more dangerous situation appeared, and three French warships began to outflank from the right side, with a very obvious intention, that is, to block the retreat of their own warships.

The situation is critical. "Someone!" Lu Tao shouted, and two sailors suddenly came up. "Lord Liu, I'm sorry, now I'll command the battleship!" Two sailors came up to frame Liu Buzhan. "Bastard! You are going to rebel! Come on! "No one responded. Fan Tao waved his hand, and two sailors forcibly took Liu Buzhan down and detained him. "Now obey my command and immediately order all the battleships to retreat in the direction of Mawei." The flag-whisperers quickly gave the order to retreat.

Yang Wei's left full rudder began to retreat, but Wuwei and Dinghai could no longer withdraw. The rescue was undoubtedly to death, Fan Tao saw the Jinghai battleship, the Feiyun battleship got rid of the entanglement, quickly sailed to the depth of the Majiang River, and followed up. At this time, the French warships surrounded the Wuwei and Dinghai in the middle, completely blocking the escape route. Fan Tao didn't dare to look any further, and could only pray for the brothers in his heart. Now he really understands Deng Zixuan's words, fighting against the foreigner navy in the Qing Navy at sea, relying on courage alone is pure nonsense, and it is not at the same level at all.

In the small fishing village on the north bank of the Majiang River, the detachment leader Shang Hu was having breakfast, when suddenly there was a rush of horses' hooves outside. Shang Hu was stunned when he heard this, and judged that the sound of horses' hooves was coming from the direction of the sea, the sound of horses' hooves stopped, and a big man hurriedly came in: "Captain, the coastal lookout post reported that a large number of French warships were besieging 6 warships of our Nanyang Fleet in the early morning, and the naval battle was breaking out when I came, and the situation is unknown now." ”

Shang Hu didn't dare to slack off and said: "Come on,!" "A subordinate comes in." Inform the brothers in the city to prepare for battle, and if they find something wrong, they will immediately take control of Fuzhou City. In addition, the brothers in the military port were also notified to enter combat preparations. "Yes!" The subordinate turned and left. "Immediately order the artillery team to run forward and quickly enter the secret artillery positions." The team members acted urgently and ran towards the artillery positions that had been secretly arranged. The secret artillery position is located 2 kilometers in front of the small fishing village, this section is the narrowest part of the Ma River, and it is also the junction of the Ma River and the Min River, and the artillery is arranged in the underground fortifications on the north bank.

After Deng Zixuan left the small fishing village, Shang Hu immediately began to secretly build an artillery position by the river as instructed. After half a year of construction, a secret underground artillery position appeared on the riverside. This secret underground artillery position deployed 50 60-mm infantry guns and blocked the entire river without any problems. In addition, the dense underground artillery positions were made of granite masonry, which was very strong. Artillery positions are well camouflaged in peacetime, and it is difficult to find flaws outside.

Shang Hu commanded the team members to enter the underground position one after another, and about an hour later, the artillery position was camouflaged and cleared, revealing the firing port of the underground fortifications, and the soldiers skillfully pushed the artillery to the firing port, nervously making preparations. "Report to the captain, all 50 guns are in position, please check the captain!" A subordinate ran to Shang Hu to report. Shang Hu then began to inspect the artillery and asked the team to continue their preparations.

The sun rose a pole high, and a shout came from above the fortifications: "Report to the captain, there is a situation!" "Observe the whistle. Shang Hu drilled out of the underground fortifications and came to the surface, and sure enough, he found that three warships appeared on the river in the direction of the sea. The battleship was getting closer and closer, and Shang Hu's mood was getting heavier and heavier. I saw that the masts of the three battleships had been blown up, and the sails were still emitting black smoke. These three battleships are so embarrassed, then the other three battleships are probably more than lucky.

Shang Hu looked carefully through the binoculars and did not see the French warship following behind. Suddenly, he saw clearly the figure of Fan Tao on the command tower of the Yang Wei battleship. He immediately ordered his subordinates to start a flag contact with Fan Tao. After a simple flag contact, Shang Hu had a general understanding of the naval battle situation. Fan Tao also understood that Shang Hu was already waiting for him. Zuihou Shanghu informed Fan Tao in the flag language that after entering the military port, there were brothers who responded and immediately controlled all the warships, the military port, and the battery.

Yang Wei and three other warships sailed through the waters of the secret artillery position, and Fan Tao stopped the flag. Liu Buzhan, who was sitting next to him, put down the binoculars and asked, "Who are you contacting!" "It's not a secret, it's our people, there is a secret underground artillery position on the riverbank!" "Your people, secret artillery positions? Is it difficult that you have been planning a rebellion for a long time? Liu Bujan's eyes widened in surprise.

"A storm is coming, so to speak. It's time for the rule of the Manchu Dynasty to end, Liu Buzhan, I respect you and hope that you will understand the current affairs and join the camp of overthrowing the Manchu Dynasty. "Just a few of you, it's a fool's dream." Liu Buzhan was dismissive. "You'll soon find out how big our liliang is." Fan Tao said firmly.