The improved biplane could carry a load of 500 kilograms, and the internal cargo compartment was much larger. I can barely use it as a bomber to play 'Heavenly Maiden Scattered Flowers' - a flat-haired plane, with a soldier in charge of throwing, and can throw dozens of five-kilogram explosives in one go.

Before these explosives bags landed, the Jiannu on the ground began to mess up. A lot of people are thinking - hey, this Han man is really powerful, this must be here to throw stones. But it doesn't matter, just look at the dodge point.

When these 'stones' continue to land, each of them will blow up a big crater on the ground, and by the way, all the people and things around the pit will be thrown away and blown up. Many Jiannu soldiers scolded in their hearts while being blown up, knowing that what the Han people lost was definitely not a good thing. Sure enough, if you drop it, it will explode!

Mang Gurtai flew out a hundred meters away in a few seconds, and when he turned around, he saw that the front line he had set up had been bombarded by this air strike. Smoke from the explosives pack rose into the sky, obscuring the vision of many people and causing chaos. When he saw this, he only felt that his heart was crying blood, and he thought that his thousands of elite soldiers were about to be finished.

The biplane crossed an arc in the air and flew away.

When the distraught Manggultai returned to the front line, he found that not many people had been killed. These hundreds of kilograms of explosives killed more than 100 people, plus one gun emplacement. The guns in the gun emplacements were blown up crookedly, but it was no problem to straighten them. This damage can be tolerated.

A closer look shows that the fortifications built by the frozen soil chest wall play a good protective role, coupled with the fact that the ground is hard and has not been able to blast up many floating soil and fragments, the power of the explosives is rushing into the sky, and the secondary damage is very low. Except for the unfortunate personnel who happened to be within the landing point of the explosives bag, the others just felt a strong wave of air blowing overhead, and they were scared enough.

"Breastwork, breastwork, it's good to have a breastwork." Mang Gurtai, who felt deeply lucky, breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately had a deep understanding of the role of the fortifications, and immediately ordered: "Let the minions build more frozen earth walls, and by the way, add cannon emplacements to cover, lay them with wood, and spread soil and water them." ”

The war is the most inspiring progress, and after Zhou Qingfeng sent Flat Hair, he soon found that the hit rate of such horizontal bombing of indiscriminate throwing explosive packs was extremely low. Explosive packs are also very ineffective in destroying fortifications made of frozen soil. As long as Jiannu dodges behind the breastwork, only a few will be killed.

Zhou Qingfeng observed the gun emplacement in Shanhaiguan for a long time, and found that his bombing behavior actually forced Jiannu to put a lid on his gun emplacement. He couldn't help but scratch his head - the explosive pack was good for destroying unprotected targets, but it was not good for this kind of protection.

"Keep fighting, aiming at the destruction of the enemy's gun emplacements." Zhou Qingfeng ordered the fortress artillery on the wall.

The fortress cannon on the wall was not inaccurate, but it was not accurate to hit the only firing hole on the enemy's gun emplacement 1,500 meters away. The hole was only about a meter wide, and the slightest deviation could only hit the chest wall of the gun emplacement made of frozen earth. Although the accuracy of Jiannu's artillery is even worse, the target of Shanhaiguan is too big. When the shot is down, it is the 'revolutionary army' that suffers more.

"I'll have to find something else." When Zhou Qingfeng left the wall, he saw Xu Bing walking towards him with a solemn face, "What's going on on your side again?" ”

"Two messages." Xu Bing has always been concise and to the point when he was serious, "One is the 12th Infantry Brigade and two militia brigades in the direction of Tianjin, and arrived at Shanhaiguan by sea yesterday. As you would like, they arrived in the morning, and after completing their supplies in the afternoon, they set off again for Suizhong County in the Western Liaoning Corridor, preparing to intercept Mang Gurtai's rear route. This will take about two days. Another message......"

Xu Bing handed Zhou Qingfeng a copy of the manuscript. Judging from the paper and header used in the manuscript, it is the highest-level divine thought communication, which came from Shandong. Zhou Qingfeng thought that it was the puppet Ming court in the south that wanted to make trouble, but on closer inspection, it turned out to be an ultimatum document, and the sender was 'Consul General of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia, Thomas. Sir Roy'.

This thing turned out to be Chinese-Dutch, and it looked very formal. Xu Bing said coldly: "Your previous worries and speculations were right. ”

Zhou Qingfeng's brows furrowed. The letter was addressed to 'General Zhou, the leader of the Revolutionary Army of the Eastern Country', with a bunch of nonsense at the beginning and the truth at the end.

Presumably, Sir Roy led a large fleet from the south, and was entrusted by Nurhachi, the lord of Dajin, to mediate the war between the 'revolutionary army' and Dajin, and hoped that the 'revolutionary army' would open Tianjin and other ports to foreign trade.

"To follow the precedent of the Cantonese Trench Mirror, to open up a prosperous commercial area in the north for Dutch merchant ships to dock and repair, and to allow Dutch missionaries to preach freely?" When Zhou Qingfeng saw this, he directly lost the letter. He asked Xu Bing with an angry face, "Where did the letter come from?" ”

Xu Bing picked up the letter and put it away properly.

"This is sent by Li Shuwei from Shandong. An armed Dutch merchant ship suddenly appeared in Weihai, Shandong, and handed over the letter to our local officials. The officer who received the letter was an idiot, and he didn't pay any attention to it at first and didn't report it to us. It wasn't until a huge fleet appeared at the junction of the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea that the official realized the seriousness of the problem.

It is not clear what the situation is on the sea, and it is not known how many enemies there are, so it is necessary to send biplanes out to reconnoitre. In addition, I have already informed Zhao Ze in Golden State, who is rushing to the Golden State Shipyard to organize the navy to search for this group of uninvited Dutchmen.

I am afraid that this Western fleet will be inserted directly into the Bohai Bay, and they may attack Tianjin, or they may attack our troop carriers at sea, and more likely, intercept our sea lines of communication. Our sea power is still too weak. ”

As the saying goes, '10 years of army, 100 years of navy', the navy has too high requirements for the quality of personnel. Now that the maritime power of the 'revolutionary army' has only been established for a short time, Zhou Qingfeng has a blessed land, and he cannot train many sailors and officers for a while. There are also few warships.

The worst-case scenario that can be expected will not happen when the 'revolutionary army' is ready.

Zhou Qingfeng grimaced and took a deep breath. But without waiting for him to speak, Xu Bing hurriedly said: "You are the commander, don't think about solving everything by yourself, just sit in Shanhaiguan." Let Zhao Ze deal with this matter, and let the navy deal with it. ”

At present, Huofeng and the Ice Emperor are in charge of defense on the front line of the sea cover, and Zhuo is in the grassland. In addition to being in charge of the machinery factory, Zhao Ze also takes care of the front line in Dandong. The people who crossed the team also performed their own duties, and no one could leave. At present, the only one who can be sent to the field is Zhu Chengxiu of the Navy. This naval commander has always belonged to the posture of 'no general in Shu, Liao Hua is a pioneer', and he rarely has the opportunity to show his face.

Zhou Qingfeng also knew that he couldn't dominate the world, and he still had to let go of many things and let the people under him do it. He listened to Xu Bing's persuasion, sighed and said, "Then I don't care about anything?" ”

"With the strength we have now, going through some setbacks will only make us grow better. You should stay in the capital to prepare for the founding ceremony. Xu Bing said.

Zhou Qingfeng smiled bitterly, "Okay, I'll let go, I'll let go, and give my subordinates room to grow." Even the Mang Gurtai outside the Shanhai Pass, I don't have to bother with it, let's see how the tall bull responds. As for that Sir Roy......"

"Where the hell knows where the jumping clown came from?" Zhou Qingfeng's eyes were cold, others could bear it, but the fleet from the west couldn't bear it, "Tell Zhu Chengxiu that I want to annihilate this Roy's fleet." If he can't complete the task, he will stop doing it. After speaking, Uncle Zhou shook his hand and went back to his office angrily.

Uncle Zhou shook his hand, but the clown who jumped off the beam in his mouth was directing the fleet to move forward in a zigzag shape on the sea. There are occasional southerly winds these days, and northerly winds most of the time. After departing from Songjiang Mansion, Sir Roy ran for five days before reaching the sea of Shandong. He soon saw a steamship sailing on the sea.

A standard transport ship running the Lushun-Pyongyang route is sailing at a speed of eight knots. When the lookout reported the situation, Sir Roy was shocked. This shows that the offshore transport ship seen before is not the highest level of the shipbuilding industry of the 'revolutionary army'.

The wreckage of the blown up steam engine was on the Amsterdam. Several carpenters on board were completely incomprehensible after researching, and at most said that the steel used to make this machine was of very high quality, far exceeding the current level of smelting in Europe. There are also some parts that are machined with extremely high precision, especially the perfect fit of several parts of the crankshaft, I can't imagine how this is made?

Sir Roy was silent about the carpenter's words. Alerted by the lookout, he climbed up to the mast himself and looked at the steamship about two or three nautical miles away. The ship had no sails, not even a low mast, but it ran fast with black smoke.

"At a speed of about eight knots, the key is that it is not downwind at all." Sir Roy estimated the ship's speed and lowered his binoculars. He sighed a few times, but his conviction was strengthened that we Dutch deserve this amazing machine. It must be obtained, no matter what the cost.

After reassessing the strength of his opponents, Sir Roy wrote a letter to the leader of the 'Revolutionary Army' in what he considered to be very 'kind'. After praising the general who dominated the East, he 'tactfully' put forward his own proposal. He felt that his request for a piece of land for business, repair, and mission was very appropriate, and not excessive. The Zhou of the East should generously agree.

Fan Wencheng, who accompanied the ship, expressed strong opposition, but unfortunately the opposition was invalid.

The letter was sent to Weihai by an armed merchant ship and asked to be handed over to the commander of the 'revolutionary army'. Sir Roy said he hoped to dock at Weihai to get supplies and wait for a reply from General Zhou.

But the officials of the 'revolutionary army' in Weihai did not hesitate to refuse the request. But when Sir Roy's seven large ships and dozens of 'small boats' appeared, the officials panicked again. As a result, Sir Roy felt that he could not communicate with these stupid natives, so he decided to go directly to Tianjin, hoping to open a direct route to the north of the great country.

Throughout Sir Roy's decision-making, neither he nor the other captains in his group thought about the possibility of rejection or even disgust. The Western colonizers had been in the Far East for so long that they didn't realize they were going to fail.

The sail fleet sailed slowly on the sea, and they were about to enter the Bohai Sea through the Lao Tieshan Waterway south of Lushun. Fan Wencheng on the boat breathed a sigh of relief after understanding Sir Roy's decision, "These guys from Taixi don't understand at all, they will definitely anger the 'revolutionary army' when they break in like this, and when the time comes, the two sides will inevitably fight." ”

Looking at the huge fleet sailing on the sea, Fan Wencheng had strong confidence in what might happen next, "Such a big ship of the Taixi people has never been seen in the Ming Maritime Frontier, plus the ships raised by the Jiangnan Imperial Court and maritime merchants behind it, as long as they arrive in Tianjin, they will inevitably hit the 'revolutionary army' hard." Fan lived up to the Khan's trust. ”

Fan Wencheng is full of emotion, and Sir Roy is also full of hope. The morale of the entire fleet was high, and they hoped to arrive in Marco. The country paved with gold in Polo's Travels recreates the glory of the Spanish occupation of the Inca Empire.

And at this moment, the lookout of the fleet suddenly shouted loudly from the mast: "Sir Roy, there is a big ship coming from the north, the speed is very fast, it looks like a warship!" ”

A large warship with a very fast speed?

Sir Roy was stunned for a few seconds before he heard an extremely strong whistle coming from the sea in the distance. A beautiful warship with a sleek exterior and white paint burst out of the fog at sea level and swooped down viciously on the 'Amsterdam'.

That's right, there's only one of them!