Although Liu Shang doesn't know much about military affairs, he can still understand whether the ship's guns hit targets quickly and accurately. In addition, he has a good memory, and he has memorized all the target shooting results of the warship in his heart, and he is silently comparing and analyzing while watching.

The Haihan Navy is undoubtedly the first team, except for one ship that hit seven targets and five hits, the other ships are almost all six or even all hits, and the time is obviously better than that of other countries' warships. It was followed by Portugal and the Netherlands, although each of these two countries had only one ship to participate in the exercise, but from this target project, it can be seen that its strength is indeed extraordinary, and it is no wonder that in the early years, only a small number of warships were able to open up the situation on the southeast coast of Daming.

The naval divisions of the Ming Dynasty, Annam, and Zhancheng are obviously slightly inferior, but to be serious, these participating troops, including the so-called Guangxi Naval Division, can actually be said to be trained by the Haihan people, and if there is a large-scale war in the South China Sea, then these naval divisions are likely to fight together as allies of the Haihan. Even if the strength is slightly inferior, but the victory is more ships and more guns, even if Portugal and the Netherlands, which are a level stronger, it is difficult to compete with them.

Liu Shang thought about the Da Ming Shui Master in his cognition again, and silently put it in a lower gear. At present, the naval divisions that can still obey the command of the imperial court and the military department are probably mainly deployed in the area north of the Fujian Strait. After Haihan occupied Zhoushan Island in Zhejiang, the sailors in the Qiantang River and the Yangtze River were silently limited by their range of activities.

Haihan had already shown his strength in the process of attacking the Zhoushan Islands in the north, and the local sailors in Zhejiang also understood that their equipment level and combat capability were not at the same level as the Haihan Navy, so they did not dare to take the initiative to provoke Haihan. After the fire at Tongsheng Wharf in Hangzhou at the beginning of this year, Haihan sent troops to Hangzhou Bay to blockade the Qiantang River, and a series of actions to show force completely dispelled the idea of the local garrison using force against Haihan.

As for the sailors north of the Yangtze River, to put it mildly, they can only manage the fishermen, and there is no good way to deal with the Haihan Navy, which is strong in ships and artillery. Last year, the Haihan army went north to establish a stronghold in Dengzhou, Shandong, and the local government could only watch as the Haihan army easily took Zhifu Island. It seems that it is also an unrealistic wish to expect the Beidi Sailor to restore the dignity of the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Shang did not understand why the sailors in the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty could do nothing to deal with the Han Chinese, and the Dutch, who had made trouble in the Fujian Strait in the early years, were not also sent back to Taiwan by the Fujian sailors? The Portuguese, who also had maritime armaments, also obediently shrank in Macao to do business, and in recent years they have been relatively quiet. How could the Haihan people jump up and down on the coast of Daming, but the officials at all levels pretended to be deaf and dumb, watching from the wall, and did not come up with any harsh means to suppress them.

Now that he has come to Hainan Island to see all kinds of scenes, Liu Shangcai gradually understands the hardships of these local officials, and wants to use force to deal with the Haihan people, but he is not willing to do it, but he can't. With the equipment of Haihan and Haihan, the Daming Naval Division can't fight, can't catch up, can't escape, and can't fight this battle at all. Rather than losing the battle and being condemned by the imperial court, it is better to maintain the apparent peace. Anyway, the one in the Forbidden City doesn't know the real situation in the south at all, as long as he reports good news and not bad news, he can firmly keep his official position under his buttocks.

How to defeat such a powerful army, Liu Shang watched the exercise while silently calculating various possibilities in his heart. But unfortunately, he couldn't think of any effective way to curb Haihan's military expansion. Is it really to watch Haihan develop so unhindered, and wait until twenty or thirty years later, and turn the Ming Dynasty into a vassal state like Annam?

Liu Shang was naturally unwilling, and he believed that he was not the only one who was unwilling among the onlookers present. But unfortunately, Liu Shang did not understand Western at all, and even if he had the opportunity to contact those foreigners, there seemed to be no way to communicate at a deeper level.

Finally, the last Haihan warship to appear ended this sea target competition with a score of seven targets and six hits. There is no doubt that the results of the Haihan fleet have occupied the top ten, and it is definitely the big winner in this sea competition. However, for other countries, there is nothing to regret about losing to Haihan in such a competition, after all, the gap in strength between the two sides objectively exists. Being able to find out the gap between our own country and the Haihan Navy during the competition is the practical significance of completing this military exercise.

Of course, Liu Shang's unwillingness is also objective, but for countries outside the region such as Portugal and the Netherlands, the strength of Haihan will not directly affect the security of their motherland, which is completely different from the situation of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the Western colonial powers have a much more comprehensive understanding of the world than the Ming people, and it is clear that the current influence of the Haihan is actually mainly concentrated in the corner of the South China Sea. Outside of this region, Haihan's presence is far less than that of other countries that have colonized the globe.

The conflict between these countries and the Haihan is mainly in terms of commercial interests, but the use of force has proven not to be the best way to resolve the conflict, and in the face of the great power of the Haihan, they can only choose cooperation rather than confrontation, so as to ensure that their commercial share in the Far East will not be completely lost, at least not to their rivals from Europe. As for continuing to engage in armed confrontation with Haihan, this is neither rational nor in line with their respective commercial interests. Probably only new players like the British, who have never dealt with the Haihan people, will lose their will to challenge this big devil, and the results are naturally self-evident.

Haihan has been hyping up the results of the Battle of Xingdao for nearly a month, and in recent days, some British ** officials have begun to be escorted back to Sanya for trial, all of which are warning Portugal and the Netherlands, which are also from Europe, that some crooked brains cannot be moved casually. Liu Shang wanted to instigate these two countries to confront Haihan, and he was indeed thinking a little too much.

However, seeing that the shooting of the last ship has ended, but no one has announced the end of today's military exercise, Liu Shang can't help but be a little puzzled, could it be that there are other arrangements for the exercise?

He was not the only one who had the same doubts, and someone took the initiative to ask the accompanying officer who was in charge of explaining the military exercise about the next arrangements. The officer replied: "The military exercise is not over yet, please be calm." But what was next, he didn't say a word, and it was obvious that it was "restricted by secrecy" or something like that.

Liu Shang has been following the inspection team for so many days, and he has somewhat understood some of the rules in the Haihan officialdom, especially the content involving military secrets. What's more, Yu Xiaobao was also present, if it was really confidential information, then it should be up to him to inquire, and it was not the turn of a little person like himself to speak.

However, looking at Yu Xiaobao's appearance of an old god, he must have gotten some inside information before this. Liu Shangxin said in his heart Anyway, it is impossible to drive himself away at this time, so he will settle down and wait to see what other tricks Haihan can have.

After a while, he heard a commotion from the boat next to him, Liu Shang stood up and followed the sound, but saw a ship on the sea to the south heading towards Xieyang Island quickly. Judging by the smoke coming out of its hull, it was also a battleship that used a steam propulsion system as auxiliary power.

The reason why Liu Shang affirmed that this was a warship was because Haihan had only installed steam engines on warships and a small number of inland river transport vessels. Towards the end of the exercise, arranging for this ship to be unveiled alone, it is clear that it will not be an ordinary sailing ship.

When the ship got closer, Liu Shang noticed that the size of the ship should be between the majestic class and the expedition class, the steam engine was located in the middle of the hull, and there was a mast in the front and rear of the chimney, which supported the front and rear mainsails of the ship. And the side of the ship did not see the deck gun emplacements and the lower gun windows that the Haihan battleship should have, Liu Shang couldn't help but be a little puzzled, is this really not a ship used for combat?

Liu Shang slowly moved the telescope in his hand and aimed it at the hull of the ship, and he was surprised to find that the hull of the ship did not seem to be the usual wooden hull, but a piece of iron hull spliced together by rivets.

Ironclad ships? Liu Shang has the impression that this kind of thing seems to have only been heard of in rumors, and both Dongying and North Korea built ironclad ships decades ago, but their combat effectiveness is relatively limited, and they can only operate in coastal waters. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent troops to Korea, he failed to bring an ironclad ship for this reason, and was defeated locally by a turtle ship commanded by the Korean general Yi Sunsin.

However, Daming was not interested in this kind of ship, believing that it was cumbersome and should not go too far to sea, and was subject to too many objective conditions. Before Liu Shang came to Hainan Island, he had also heard that the Haihan people had built ironclad ships as large as small mountains, but after seeing them from a distance in Sanya, he thought that the kind of ship might just be an empty shell made by the Haihan people, parked in the harbor to scare the people.

Liu Shang believes that if this kind of iron ship can really drift across the ocean as the Haihan people say, then they have been on Hainan Island for eight years, why have these ships been docked in the harbor and never left? Why did the Haihan people never build iron boats later, but turned to the production of wooden sailing boats? This may show that all kinds of rumors about iron boats are just stories made up by the Haihan people. Like the other stories they concocted, they were all about intimidating the foolish people and consolidating their rule.

But the ship that appeared in front of them at this time was obviously an ironclad ship, although it may be an ordinary wooden sailing ship under its ironclad, but the purpose of the Haihan people to build this ship was probably not just to wrap its hull with a layer of cool-looking ironclad, right?

Liu Shang knew in his heart that the Haihan people would never do some useless work, and it was impossible for such a warship equipped with a steam engine and iron armor to be unarmed, and there would definitely be powerful naval guns on board. But where can the guns be placed if they are not deployed on the side where it is most convenient for shooting?

Liu Shang looked back and forth from the bow to the stern twice, and finally confirmed that the ship's artillery settings were very different from his previous understanding. There were two flat bulges on the deck, one in front and one behind, which could be rotated slowly, and when they turned to a certain angle, Liu Shang finally saw the barrels sticking out of them, two in front and two in the front, although they were not eye-catching, but they could be determined from their appearance to be correct.

Judging from the trajectory of its rotation, the previous and subsequent active batteries should be able to cover the perimeter of the hull in the artillery firing range, and there should be a large overlapping area. The protruding bridge, mast and chimney on the deck are located between the two turrets, and do not obstruct the view from their firing range at all. Although the ship appeared to have only four guns, its range was no smaller than that of a Majestic-class battleship armed with more than fifty guns. Of course, due to the large difference in the number of naval guns between the two, the frequency and intensity of fire output are probably not comparable.

Although Liu Shang understood the general structure of this ironclad monster ship, he still didn't understand Haihan's intention in building such a ship. If the dense deployment of artillery was adopted on this ship, wouldn't it be much stronger than pulling four gun barrels like this? Even if the fort was cleverly conceived and could rotate together with two naval guns with gun emplacements, the number of guns was too small after all, and how could it be compared with other warships with dozens of guns at every turn? Could it be that the Haihan people planned to rely on the iron armor on the outside of the hull to resist the enemy's artillery bombardment in battle?

Liu Shang thought about it, this inference does not seem to be reasonable, even if he can withstand the shelling of the enemy ship, but to inflict heavy damage on the enemy, he still has to rely on the firepower output of his own ship, thinking about it, the only four guns are an obvious shortcoming.

Unless...... These four guns are different from the guns on these Haihan warships that he had seen before? Liu Shang flashed this thought in his heart, but immediately shook his head, wanting to expel this idea from his mind The warships of the Haihan people are already so powerful, how can there be any need to continue to upgrade the naval guns.

Rao is like this, but Liu Shang has a strong premonition in his heart that the Haihan military specially arranged for this ship to appear here and now, but I am afraid that it just wants it to rely on its strange appearance to attract attention. Watching the ship sail all the way towards the target area on the west coast of Xieyang Island, Liu Shangxin said that this boat dared to come here to shoot the target?

Sure enough, at this time, the accompanying officers explained to them the last content of the exercise, that is, the ironclad battleship named "Warrior" would carry out the task of shelling targets on the opposite shore. The ship does not belong to the Navy, but is an experimental warship jointly built by Haihan Ordnance Industry and Shengli Port Shipyard.