Chapter 114: Invasion from the Sea

In January of the sixth year of Chongzhen, on the East China Sea, a large fleet was chopping the waves, spitting out billowing black smoke and heading north. The blue and white five-star flag representing the Chinese American Republic and the red star ring flag representing the Chinese Union are hunting and displaying on the masts of these warships.

They are the "American" fleet from the other side of the world, and every board is made from the most authentic North American oak.

- five 1,500-ton "cruisers", five 900-ton "frigates", 12 3,000-ton steam-sail hybrid armed transport ships...... By the standards of the East Asian seas of this era, any of these ships is a staggering supership.

In addition, there were a number of three-masted, two-masted ships, and dhow boats that were not equipped with steam engines, and because of the unfavorable wind direction, they were temporarily stranded in the rear of the Kasumigaura Military Port, preparing to rush up with supplies and baggage after the main fleet captured the forward port base.

However, despite such a large combat force, Rear Admiral Sun Yang, commander of the expeditionary fleet of the Chinese American Republic, was still in a bad mood.

I saw him wearing a military coat, staring at the military map on the table, his brows furrowed. On the map, three eye-catching red arrows indicate the three key objectives of the "Global Chinese Traveler Alliance" in 1633 A.D. - Jiangnan, Liaodong and Lingnan.

Among them, whether it was the Liaodong Raid launched from Vladivostok or the Lingnan Raid launched from Hainan Island, tens of thousands of army units were mobilized to destroy the army and sweep through several provinces. Only he, Sun Yang, was responsible for the Jiangnan raider, but it was only equipped with a mere 5,000 land troops, and it was mainly a Japanese "security army", Li mountain infantry, black mercenaries, etc., and the "miscellaneous army" in the eyes of Major General Sun Yang...... Such a scarce force is naturally not enough to capture any big city - although with the tactics and equipment that are ahead of the times, Major General Sun Yang can easily defeat any Ming Dynasty official army in a field battle, but to ensure the occupation, it is necessary to station armed forces everywhere, so the number of troops is not enough.

Therefore, the task assigned by General Huangshi to Rear Admiral Sun Yang was relatively "easy," that is, to imitate the tactics of the British fleet during the First Opium War, first seize Zhoushan Island as an advance base, and then wait for an opportunity to harass various places along the southeast coast, not seeking to occupy one city or one place, but only to brush up on the sense of existence, so as to intimidate the landlords and gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so as to retaliate against the "stupid and reckless behavior" of the Donglin Party last year for taking the initiative to force the Funing Army against the Funing Army and provoke war in the southeast.

Moreover, the British fleet during the Opium War also needed to go deep into the Yangtze River, shell Zhenjiang and Nanjing, and cut off the Cao Movement, so as to intimidate the Qing court. Today's General Sun Yang can even save this task, just learn from the Japanese to repeatedly toss on the coastline - now that Beijing of the Ming Empire has long fallen, Caoyun naturally no longer exists, and Sun Yang's troops are not enough to occupy Nanjing City, so it's better to save it!

In addition, Premier Qi of the Huamei Republic also gave Sun Yang a side task, that is, to take the opportunity to find a way to collect more people from the densely populated southeastern provinces, so as to enrich the country - the Great Plains of North America are so vast and empty that millions of people can be stuffed in one go.

In this regard, Major General Sun Yang, who was bent on making a name for himself in his homeland in the East, suddenly felt that his sadness instantly turned into a river.

- Such an overkill...... This is clearly being excluded!

actually threw the powerful Huamei Expeditionary Fleet to Jiangnan, a secondary battlefield that only played a diversion role, isn't this squeezing out?

But after the initial depression and sadness, Major General Sun Yang still cheered up and thought about how to delicately arrange the troops, so that he could more efficiently use such a little fragmented miscellaneous troops at hand to play the most dazzling results on the battlefield in the south of the Yangtze River......

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At the same time, in front of the expeditionary fleet of the Chinese and American Republics, on the "Hangzhou", which served as the pilot ship, the heroic female captain Li Huamei was in a very happy mood, so much so that while holding the steering wheel, she hummed the "new song" "Penghu Bay" learned from the "Australians......

At this time, the "Hangzhou" under Li Huamei's feet was no longer the original dhow of only more than 150 tons, but was replaced by a 1,100-ton steel-boned wood-hulled steam-sail hybrid fast ship, which was much more powerful than the old "Hangzhou" in terms of speed, firepower, and seaworthiness...... Just as a true knight loves a good horse and spends a lot of money on it, there is really nothing more exciting in this world than getting a good ship.

In addition to the new "Hangzhou" with a maximum speed of 20 knots under her feet, Li Huamei also obtained a set of quite magnificent captain's head. Although it is strange why those "Australians" want to stuff a black blindfold into a person with intact eyes, Li Huamei is still very satisfied with the other components of this set of captain's outfit - a European-style three-cornered hat decorated with a silver skull cockade, a red and black coat inlaid with gold lace, an open-chested fuchsia tight-fitting leather armor with a short skirt, a Western stabbing sword with honeysuckle leaves wrapped around the handle, a high-powered antique monocular with night vision effect, and a steel-clad steel sturdy boot that can kick off a wooden plank. There is also a nine-tailed long whip that makes a crisp sound when wield......

Now, Captain Li Huamei has long since lost the straw hat and sunglasses given to her by an unknown traveler before, and dresses up every day to look like those sexy female pirates in Hollywood movies, swinging her long whip and dangling on the deck, making the sailors salivate and admire.

What makes Li Huamei even happier is that in the past year, she has not only "had a successful career", but also gained quite a lot emotionally, and fell in love with Qi Feng, an engineer of Lingao Construction Corporation, at first sight, and then the two sides soon had a hot fight...... It's a pity that with the launch and service of the new "Hangzhou", the short leisure time is gone, and the shipping tasks assigned to Li Huamei by the superiors have become increasingly onerous, making the opportunity for her and Qi Feng to meet has become very rare, and she can only rely on a letter full of sea breeze to complain to each other from a long distance.

A few days ago, the Hangzhou was ordered to go to Kaohsiung Port to standby, and it happened that Qi Feng was also doing an architectural plan in Kaohsiung Port, so he and Li Huamei had another sweet date that had not been seen for a long time. Who knew that the two had just been together for a day, and Li Huamei suddenly received an emergency order to anchor and go out - although after such a long time of exercise, Li Huamei has adapted to such a sudden change, but every time she separates from Qifeng, she still feels very uncomfortable at the beginning of her love...... However, her duties as a captain prevented her from showing her weakness in front of the sailors. Therefore, Li Huamei had to open the photo box hanging on the necklace from time to time, and then stared blankly at the honest smile of Engineer Qi Feng on the small photo......

A few years ago, when she was just in all directions on the sea and was full of spirit, Li Huamei used to think that men were just boring animals, but now she is about to be twenty-seven years old in the blink of an eye, and she is already an out-and-out leftover woman in this time and space. Every time she saw that those little girls who were more than ten years younger than herself had actually married women, and even had children one by one, Li Huamei's heart was full of unspeakable sourness.

“…… I really want to have a baby...... When a woman reaches this age, it is indeed time to have a home! Li Huamei turned the steering wheel slightly, but at the same time, she was thinking nonsense in the world, "...... Otherwise, when I go back after this battle, I will marry Brother Feng."

Li Huamei muttered to herself, and at the same time, relying on the "customs of the people" she heard when chatting with a few "female cadres", she revered the romantic scene of Qi Feng holding flowers and rings and kneeling on one knee in front of her to propose...... There was a shy crimson on her weather-beaten cheeks......

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When Captain Li Huamei, who was proud of her love and workplace, unknowingly erected the legendary "Flag of Death" in later generations. In a cabin below the deck of the Hangzhou, Captain Jinhuan, who is now proud of his career but frustrated in love, is silently sharpening his sword.

In the past year or so, this former young master of Li Zhai has made great achievements in Taiwan and has been trained to become an excellent officer.

——With the entry of the Lingao Senate into Taiwan, the agricultural development of the Tainan Plain entered a new stage, and large areas of fertile land sleeping in the wilderness were developed as migrant farms. More foreign slaves were organized to go deeper into the interior to clear the land. But this also provoked more violent anger and resistance from Taiwan's aborigines...... In response to the increasing number of slave escapes and indigenous raids, the Limiao Mountain Infantry Battalion, where Jinhuan was located, was transferred to Kaohsiung, and showed amazing combat effectiveness in tropical jungles and mountain operations.

Although these ethnic minority compatriots on Hainan Island are not qualified workers and farmers, they are excellent hunters and warriors, and they have been accustomed to walking through the mountains since childhood, tracking prey, and sleeping in the open all day without suffering, and are more adapted to the wild tropical jungle than the Han farmers. After joining the army, because of the nutritious diet, the doctors worked hard to cure malaria, and were also issued rifles, grenades, crossbow arrows, and the famous Gurkha dog-legged scimitar, the quality of these soldiers was further greatly improved, and their combat ability became stronger.

In Taiwan, in the first month of fighting alone, the number of natives killed and fugitive slaves captured by Li Miao soldiers exceeded that of the Japanese security forces combined in the past two months, while the non-combat attrition was far lower than that of other units. Second Lieutenant Jinhuan, who was still a company commander at the time, gave full play to his hunting talent in battle. He was not satisfied with passively repelling the attacks of the natives, but often took the initiative to ambush the local natives, and from the third month, no Taiwanese natives dared to operate near the reclamation team. After another period of time, almost all of the nearby Turen villages were also cleaned up by Jin Huan and his people.

In the last half year of his stay in Taiwan, although he was promoted to captain, it was a very boring time against Huanlai - because of his excessive efforts in the sweeping operations for a period of time, there was no longer any native village that dared to be hostile to the reclamation team in the vast land between Kaohsiung Port and Gelanza Castle, and the matter of capturing fugitive slaves was not challenging, let alone being led by him, a captain. Although the beloved girl was also transferred to the hospital in Kaohsiung, she has been avoiding him, and she can't leave the team at will. The only thing that lifted his spirits was a fight with a group of new Japanese security forces, and he was punished...... But anyway, we won.

He has had enough of the boring days, and is eagerly looking forward to the battle, looking forward to seeing the wider world outside, and seeing more wonderful scenery that is different from his hometown...... In these days in the army, he has greatly broadened his horizons. Now that I think about it, my family was bent on fighting for power and profit in that village of hundreds of people, which was a waste of life. But #In order to be able to rule such a small piece of territory, his family is so enthusiastic and complacent, which can only be described as a frog at the bottom of the well.

This time, he was about to go to the water town in the south of the Yangtze River, and he had heard about the merchants of the Han people for a long time, and it was said that it was the richest and most prosperous place in the whole world...... Maybe you can get some silk handkerchiefs embroidered with pretty flowers back and make his girl happy?

Jin Huan thought so, and at the same time shuddered because of the cold wind blowing in from the porthole—in the late Ming and Xiaoice periods, the East China Sea in winter was already very cold, which made him, a tropical mountain man, feel very uncomfortable. In addition, for these Li hunters, seasickness is inevitable.

Although the cotton coat on top is very warm, the weather is always too cold, and everyone is not used to it. So every morning and afternoon deck workout, everyone is lazy. And at the end of the exercise, everyone was forced to eat a raw carrot, and those Japanese gnawed it with relish, but the tattooed Li warriors of the Li nationality couldn't get used to it...... The female chief who gave everyone raw carrots to eat said that this was to prevent everyone from suffering from any "vitamin deficiency". But another male chief on the ship, who was also forced to nibble on raw carrots, often muttered that not to mention the fact that it was only a few days of sailing from Taiwan to Zhoushan, even if he had to take vitamins, the onions in the pot of soup for dinner alone would be enough.

When he thought of the thick soup for dinner, Jin Huan's face was even worse - I don't know if the chef on the "Hangzhou" was a miser, and the onion and potato soup in the pot every night tasted so bad that there was not even a bit of meat, let alone any spices...... This made Captain Jinhuan can't help but miss the wonderful enjoyment of drinking iced tea and rum every day in Kaohsiung Port, and eating spicy roast venison and seafood hot pot every other day.

I hope that after I go ashore, I can get some good things to improve my food...... Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard a loud brass horn sounded on the deck, and then a noisy shouting of various languages in the south and north sounded, as if something big had happened.

So, Jin Huan lowered his head and thought for a while, then put away the sharpened saber, wrapped the tweed military coat tightly, put on a cotton coat, and tied a scarf, before squeezing out of the hatch in a bloated body, and then groping his way through the narrow aisle, and during the process, he bumped into a person a few times, and then came to the deck slowly.

Then he saw the Fujian and Guangdong seamen, the Japanese short, and the dark-skinned ghosts from the mysterious distance, all crowded on the side of the ship, pointing at the distance—as the morning fog gradually dissipated, a few small black dots looming on the surface of the sea

The first target of the Jiangnan Raiders, the Zhoushan Islands, is finally in sight.