"It's so dangerous," Zheng Chenggong looked behind him with palpitations when the ship sailed out of the battlefield filled with gunsmoke, he didn't know how the damage was, but it was estimated that there were many ships that needed to be overhauled in Jiangxi for several months: "I hope there are good enough shipwrights in Jiangxi." ”

"The intelligence said that there is no such fortress in front, and there is no heavy river defense artillery in Anqing," the staff officers around him also grew up: "We can go to Huguang, but if there is something downstream, they will have to rely on themselves." ”

"We need new weapons and ships," Zheng Chenggong nodded, "I don't want to go through the ghost gate again." ”

Thanks to the carpenters' unremitting efforts, most of the damaged ships were finally saved from the danger of sinking, but the two most damaged ships had to be abandoned due to the lack of a nearby Ming army base, one was a 26-gun ship, and the other was a 38-gun ship. After Zheng Chenggong ordered the ships and artillery to be destroyed as much as possible, he transferred the sailors and personnel to other ships and ran the scrap ship aground outside the channel.

As for the damaged masts, the Ming army sailors carried out simple battlefield treatment, some ships regained most of their navigation ability, and those that really could not be towed by other ships. On the way upstream, the Ming army did not come under particularly heavy attack, and when passing through Anqing, the Shun army did not fire at these passing ships in order to save ammunition.

The first ship arrived in Jiangxi with Zheng Chenggong's report, which Zheng Chenggong wrote to the newly established Admiralty, and the Qi State Mansion had recently carried out another government adjustment, dividing the original military department into two and re-establishing it as the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Navy. The officers and men of the naval division, including Zheng Chenggong, felt that the navy sounded much more breezy than the naval division, and this new division also greatly boosted the morale of the officers and men of the naval division, and they all realized that the naval division, that is, the navy in the future, would no longer be an appendage of a military town as before, but would be established by the central army directly under the imperial court.

After the report was sent to Fujian, the Provisional Admiralty, which had already begun preparations and had partial rights, immediately began to complain: "This Admiralty was really set up in a timely manner when a group of Marine War Staff officers should not have commanded our naval divisions." ”

Although Huang Naiming was very hesitant to forcibly break through with the sailors, he still couldn't withstand the repeated requests of the army officers, and the current officers of the Admiralty were all members of the former Nanyang Reclamation Regiment, which could basically be regarded as mercenaries of the Council, and had nothing to do with the Funing Army. When the members of the Constituent Assembly ran to the Admiralty with the opinion of the Army, the officers did not hesitate to veto their opinion: "What do they say? Say that if you destroy the battery first and then advance, you will lose little? It's ridiculous, that is, to destroy the enemy's warships, our warships must also anchor at a distance of several tens of meters from the enemy, and then bombard the enemy ships for the next hour. And the fort is not a guy made of wood, and you can't get close enough to go within a few tens of meters to find death. ”

"Only a completely defenseless and weak battery, with a few hundred naval guns, and luck can win," the Admiralty official asserted to the members of the Constituent Assembly, "or in the face of a completely demoralized enemy, it is still possible to scare them away with artillery bombardment." However, with the elite fighting spirit of Li Shun, it will not be possible with our existing ships, unless the Constituent Assembly approves the construction of the new warship we propose as soon as possible. ”

"We'll get you back to you as soon as possible." The councillor assured the Provisional Admiralty.

Sooner than the Provisional Admiralty had imagined, the Constituent Assembly sent a delegation of doctors the next day, and the Admiralty was surprised to see that Chen Zizhuang was actually the head of the delegation, and it seemed that the Constituent Assembly had interrupted the constitutional discussion on this matter.

"Ladies and gentlemen," after years of election campaign, the leader of the Donglin Party (Qian Qianyi and other Donglin people have been regarded as non-party figures by the Donglin Party under the Nan Ming rule) has completely abandoned the previous court and established a think tank including experts in various industries, and today he is joined by advisers from the shipbuilding and arms industries: "The Constituent Assembly attaches great importance to the new warships you have requested, and if you can convince us today, then tomorrow we will approve the appropriation for your ship purchases before we begin to discuss the constitution." ”

Previously, some people proposed to send naval divisions to Shandong and the Bohai coast to harass and even carry out landing operations, but the difficulty was also how to deal with the Shun army's port batteries, there were only a few valuable coastal cities, and there were only a few good ports that could supply a large number of landing troops, and these few attack points were the focus of the Shun army. Compared with the corrupt and incompetent Chongzhen Dynasty, Li Shun has greatly increased the output of munitions, especially in Shandong, in the past three years, Zhong Guinian has established many factories with a variety of fees, and has carried out a greater campaign of casting artillery in the province, and there are more than a dozen coastal defense guns defending important ports.

Therefore, the Ming naval division proposed that it was necessary to obtain weapons that could suppress the heavy artillery of the Shun army, and then let the fleet approach safely and assist the marines in seizing the port with strong firepower - once a councillor suggested landing from an unguarded remote place, which was refuted by the Admiralty: Did you go to a fishing village to grab fish? Then the sailor will go out to sea to fish more and faster.

"In order to ensure accuracy, we need to get our ship close to bombard Li Shun's battery within 100 meters, of course it will be better within 50 meters, in order to destroy the artillery fort of the civil structure, we need at least a hundred pound guns, and the barrel must be greatly lengthened, and it is best to place siege mortars on the ship, and it also needs to be large - of course, this also needs to be as close as possible, otherwise it will be a fireworks display for Li Shun." The officer in charge of the Admiralty reported to Chen Zizhuang and the other councillors: "It is impossible for any of the existing ships to carry such heavy guns. ”

"Maybe bigger ships can be built." One councillor suggested.

"No, it can't be," the Admiralty officer immediately rejected the proposal: "No wooden ship can withstand such a cannon, and even if the ship is big enough not to overturn itself when the cannon is fired, then the walls of the ship will be damaged by its own cannons, not to mention that it is impossible for any wooden ship to get close to fifty meters to bombard the battery, that is suicide!" ”

"You said enough just now, if the enemy's morale is low, it's fine." A congressman questioned: "Could it be that Li Shun's coastal defense troops in Shandong have high morale?" You haven't tried it. ”

"Yes, doctor, it is true that their morale may not be high, if it is an elite, they will be transferred to Nanjing, but we did not know before we started the shelling, if it happens that their morale is okay, we will lose the ships in vain." The Admiralty officer pointed out that this was a gamble, and the gambling cost was unbalanced, the Marine Corps was to harass, the gamble was to destroy a batch of shoddy cannons made by Zhong Guinian, and the loss of the gamble was the destruction of expensive warships.

"There's no need to discuss this, the Provisional Admiralty know how to use the battleship." Chen Zizhuang turned the topic back to the direction just now: "You want to build an iron ship, right?" ”

"Yes, we plan to nail iron plates to the outer walls of the ship, about fifty centimeters thick." The Admiralty has already carried out a series of tests, among which there are also visits by doctors from the Fujian and Guangdong Provincial Courts: "After wrapping our battleship with iron, the battleship will be able to resist shells of any caliber." ”

The Admiralty had pre-named the Ironclad Ships, which were strong enough to accommodate the kind of fortress-destroying guns they had just mentioned, and their impressive weight and lower center of gravity could also be used to resist the recoil of the guns.

"The ironclad will be an unsinkable sea fortress!" The officer asserted.

"As long as it's a ship, it sinks." A lawmaker reminded.

The officer of the "Honorable Doctor...... said that he did not understand the philosophical issues of white horses and non-horses, and he only said from a technical point of view that such a battleship with iron sheets would not be destroyed by solid shells or mortars, so it would not sink.

"But how does such a ship go?"

"If there wasn't a steam engine, this kind of ship wouldn't be able to move, but now that we have a steam engine, it won't be a problem." The officer had a detailed report on this, and the Admiralty researchers thought it was entirely possible to get the iron turtle moving.

The think tanks around Chen Zizhuang did not object to this, and after reading the report and calculating it, they also believed that as long as the steam engine was large enough, this iron guy might indeed have the power to act. However, what they wondered was how to travel this kind of thing to Shandong.

"It's impossible to install sails, the ship is already too heavy, and you say you want to save the weight of the mast and put it on iron armor." The experts of the parliamentary side pointed out this point, and the performance of this ship does not look like it can be sailed to the sea, let alone can be transported by land to Shandong to be reorganized, if there are such conditions, there is no need to harass.

"And coal, such a big guy, how much coal will you have to use to burn coal all the way to Shandong?" The volume of the steam engine proposed by the Admiralty was staggering, and someone in the Parliament's think tank was familiar with the performance of the power engine that had just been invented, and after a simple calculation, he decided that if the ship drove to Shandong by itself, the coal consumed was estimated to be several times larger than its own volume - there were not so many bases for coaling along the way, and it was a warehouse (the ironclad ship designed by the Admiralty had only a pitifully small coal bunker because of its weight and size) could not be driven for more than a day with full coal, and it would definitely not be able to go from Zhejiang to Shandong at its speed. Not to mention the Bohai Sea.

"Our idea is to ......," the officer confidently explained: they planned to use a galleon to tow the ironclad ship, and rely on the sail power to tow the iron-hulled turtle to the coastal waters of Shandong or the port of Tianjin in the Bohai Sea, and release it near the target area, for example, to let the sailboat break away from the range of the battery, and the ironclad ship only needs to drive near the battery with its own power and drive back.

"It's very feasible!" That was the final conclusion of the parliamentary delegation.

The Duke of Qi had no comment on the Admiralty's proposal, and Huangshi left it to the Constituent Assembly's discretion, and when he first saw the Admiralty's idea, he said to himself, "Steamwood core ironclads? This would be a nightmare for all naval and coastal defense batteries in the Black Powder Age. ”

……

While the Constituent Assembly was considering funding for the secret weapons of the Provisional Admiralty, a quarrel broke out at the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

"General He, you actually want to establish a temporary secretary in the war zone?" Huang Naiming asked with some surprise, and the Sixth Army took advantage of the retreat of the Shun army to enter the territory of Changzhou Mansion first: "The enemy army in Changzhou Mansion has not been cleared yet. ”

"Young marshal, the last general has made a public announcement, announcing that the provisional secretary will be established, and the last general has also announced the specific time and rules." Ignoring the gazes of the other generals next to him, He Feihu reported solemnly: "The last general thinks that the Shun army will continue to shrink towards Yingtianfu, and Xu Ping has already led his troops south, it must be that he wants to concentrate the forces of Jiangnan to fight with us." ”

"But that's your guess, right?"

"Even if the Shun army of Tianfu launches a counterattack, the last general will fight back to defend the Changzhou Mansion Qingyuan."

"Defend the Changzhou Mansion?" Jin Qiude sneered: "What if the military situation is urgent and your Sixth Army can't stay here?" ”

"Even if Changzhou will be gained and lost, we must establish a court when we occupy this place," He Feihu said loudly: "Many people in Nanjing and Zhejiang are not dependent on our army, they still regard us as the Ming army of the first emperor, and the last general thinks that we should show the people that we and the first emperor ......."

"What do you think?" Kim asked.

"Alright." Huang Naiming began to play round.

"This is the battlefield, young marshal!" Jin Qiude shouted.

"The last general knows that this is a battlefield," He Feihu also did not sell Huang Naiming's face, and still insisted on his opinion: "This is not only the last general's opinion, but also a joint order from the Constituent Assembly and the Six Provincial Secretaries of Courts (including the Zhejiang Provisional Secretaries of Justice). ”

He Feihu's words made many generals frown, while the two division commanders of the Sixth Army standing beside him held their heads high and had no shame on their faces.

"I have the responsibility of commanding the Northern Expedition," Huang Naiming, trying to ease the tension, said in a friendly tone, "and the Constituent Assembly is far away in Fujian, and I am standing here, and I think I should know the situation here better than the Constituent Assembly." ”

"What is the young marshal's order?" He Feihu asked loudly.

"Suspend the preparatory work of the Changzhou Mansion and the Qing Yuan, and in the future, General He will not take similar actions on his own in your jurisdiction, now the military is given priority, and the most beneficial way for our army is to implement military management, so that every force can be used by our army."

"Orders cannot be obeyed." He Feihu replied loudly: "The last general thinks that our army's Northern Expedition is to serve the people, not the other way around. ”

"Service?" In the past, Kim only smiled disdainfully when he heard this kind of parliamentary slogan, but when he heard it from a senior general, it was completely different: "What do you think again?" ”

"It's not just the last general who thinks that this is a joint order of the Constituent Assembly and the six provincial courts."

Huang Naiming continued to play a round game: "But I am now the commander of the Northern Expeditionary Army, General He, you need to obey military orders." ”

"Military - order!" He Feihu pointed out this point in an accentuated tone: "Before leaving, the last general of the Qi State Bus Generation: obey the moderation of the young marshal and-" He Feihu accentuated his tone again: "The order of the Qing Yuan." ”

Seeing that Huang Naiming had nothing to say, He Feihu saluted with the two division commanders under him: "If the young marshal has nothing else to do, the last general will retire." ”

[Remember the URL . 三五Chinese网]