Three, four, two lack the power to make a final decision!

The walls of the spacious conference room are decorated with a variety of gold and silver decorations, showing the luxury of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, as well as the concept of pursuing comfort, spaciousness, and suitable for long-term deployment in the ocean. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

It's a detail, but it's a big difference between a global navy and a regional navy.

Today, however, this comfort and eye-catching could not give any pride to the British officers in the conference room, because the opposite side was confronting them, and in the fleet, which had been positioned as a regional navy, there was a warship that no one expected

"You can be sure"

Philitman's eyes were solemn, looking at the officers standing in front of him, his face was so gloomy that he could even drip water

One Dutch cruiser was sunk and the remaining four were withdrawn wounded, which was not too unexpected for him, and even better than expected.

After the arrival of the four torpedo ships of the Far Eastern Fleet, yes, but allowed the retreat, showing that they also did not want to rush too much, and began a sea battle whose outcome could not be predicted.

Tactically, the Anglo-Dutch fleet lost one cruiser, and the Battle of Natuna was the losing side, but strategically the two sides were still on the same starting line, and the victory was far from clear.

So after receiving the four cruisers that escaped back, Philitman thought about launching an attack immediately, using the numerical advantage to fight for losses and damage to the increasingly arrogant Royal Fleet of the Chinese Empire, but the news that the captains brought back suddenly poured cold water on him.

A never-before-seen battleship, with five twin L45/305 mm heavy guns, has a displacement larger than their large Duke class, not to mention the old man star in the Far Eastern Fleet, which is the main force at the moment, with a displacement of about 14,000 tons.

What kind of battleship is this? It can actually carry ten heavy guns in linear tactics, and it can actually provide eight guns with a range of at least 15,000 meters to one side at the same time

When the news was confirmed by the captains and sailors who came back, almost all the officers did not believe their ears, how could this be?

The 20,000-ton hull can't hold ten heavy guns, because the hull structure simply can't withstand the five huge gun mounts retractor, and the terrible recoil will directly shatter the deck when fired in a salvo

Compared with the officers, Philettman is aware of the difficulty of this, and Sir Fisher, the former third minister of the navy, who came to the Far East to watch the war, also put forward this idea, but he had to give up because he could not reduce the recoil of the artillery.

If this were the case, it would be a complete disaster for the British Navy, because you will find that when you are happily on a mission with a battleship that cannot fire a salvo and is equipped with a primary and secondary guns, the opponent is blocking the doorway with a large man loaded with ten heavy guns and capable of firing a salvo

There is no need to fight at all, and it is known who will be the winner of this duel

Because the utility of one such battleship in actual combat is more than that of two old man stars, not to mention that because the main guns are on the same hull, its firepower output is concentrated, and the hit rate will be high, if you are lucky, you can destroy an old man star almost instantly

Damn, that Li Mo has been very lucky

Shamefully, the other side did not have the idea of using this mysterious battleship as the main force of the confrontation, and after the torpedo ship arrived and quickly destroyed the Dutch cruiser Camacho, the battleship and the accompanying two Jinghai-class cruisers, as well as four large torpedo ships, immediately withdrew from the battlefield. (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)

In order to cover it, the opponent even did not hesitate to block the route of Captain George and others with four cruisers, and fired warning shots

Philitman believed that the mysterious battleship was nearby with two cruisers and four torpedo ships, but the sea was so broken that it was full of reefs and islands, and he sent almost all the cruisers and torpedo ships to expand the search these days, but they couldn't find it

Dangerous enemies are never the ones who stand in front of you yelling, spitting, and wielding knives, but the bastards who hide in the corners with a glittering blade hidden in their cuffs

At this moment, on the opposite side there is a group of bastards who are extremely lacking in European chivalry, even disdainful, but take sneak attacks as the supreme idea

You can't imagine how shameless it would be to own a sleek, mysterious, powerful battleship and use it not in the open, but as an assassin

As soon as he thought of attacking, the other party would use a mysterious summoning technique to call the battleship over, and then attack one of his weak links, Philitman involuntarily came up with the scene of the wasteland hungry wolves, expelling the prey in droves to one or several partners with blood-red eyes lurking in the grass, biting the throat and launching a fatal blow

"Shit"

Thinking of this, Philitman, who was born in an aristocratic family and has a polite manner, couldn't help but burst into foul language, and he even had an impulse to force out the mysterious big guy with all his might, but he couldn't help it after thinking about it.

"Expand the search, send out all the cruisers and torpedo ships, and be sure to find it," Philettman roared, but the door to the conference room was suddenly pushed open.

"Your Majesty, the commander of the Royal Chinese Navy is outside, and he hopes to see you immediately to resolve the misunderstanding between the two sides."

"Misunderstanding"

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In the corridor in front of Hanyuan Palace, Li Enfu carefully patted the snow on his coat, and then carefully folded it and handed it to the maid waiting to put it away.

Looking at this action, Chen Ping smiled slightly, and said while walking along the corridor of the hall: "Mr. Li, you are also a big family now, and you are rich, and a coat is worth being so careful?" ”

"Rich fart" Li Enfu rolled his eyes at Senior Staff Officer Chen, and said back: "After the construction of the four divisions, I will have to hire two volunteer divisions to let me go there to raise money?" I can see it, you, Yan Fu and the emperor, they are all masters who wear a pair of pants."

"Haha......." Chen Ping's face was full of red light. In the past year, six infantry divisions have been formed in a row, and 30,000 Mongolian cavalry have been recruited, and finally the army has passed the stage of being overstretched.

Seeing his appearance, Li Enfu is black line on his forehead scurried, and said: "Don't be complacent, you said that Borneo and the northwest were completely pacified within a year, and now it seems that half a year has passed."

"Prime Minister, don't worry." Chen Ping was triumphant and said with a smile: "Long Guozhang has blocked the Anglo-Dutch fleet, and Borneo has also made significant progress there. ”

"Really?" Li Enfu, who still didn't believe it, just stepped into the Hanyuan Hall with one foot, and Li Mo's laughter came from inside: "Mr. Li, don't worry, this time Yuanshou didn't tell a lie, and there is good news in the northwest." ”

After more than half a year of heavy decoration, the layout of the Hanyuan Hall has been completely changed, in fact, the entire Yingtai has also quietly changed, in addition to some decorations that must be preserved, the Western-style simple home style has been introduced here, the wide sofa has replaced the wooden seats, and there are many more celebrity calligraphy and paintings on the wall.

Yingtai and the Summer Palace have now become the private property of Master Li, so Li Enfu didn't care at all about how he wanted to change it, and asked: "Your Majesty, what good news is coming from the northwest?" ”

After beckoning the two of them to sit down, and asking the maid to bring the stomach-warming milk tea, Li Mo took out a document from the table and handed it to the two: "I just received it, in duplicate, your copy has probably been sent to the Prime Minister's Office." ”

One Borneo and one northwest have now become a big pimple in everyone's hearts, so after seeing the document, Li Enfu didn't care about being polite, and hurriedly opened it to take a look, and his face was immediately folded.

"Oil field discovered"

The eldest young master nodded, he was also very happy to find the oil field, but the little depression was not in the jade gate that he circled, but in prolongation.

Later generations said that the Qing Dynasty did not have an oil industry, and the second oil well was only two years later than the United States, and in 1905, the Qing government allocated 80,000 taels of silver to build the Yanchang Petroleum Museum, and more than a year later, the first industrial oil well in Chinese mainland was drilled.

Moreover, the extension of the oil field in history is a powerful guarantee for the strategy of advancing into the great northwest in later generations

However, this discovery was purely accidental, after the geological team sent to Yumen Pass to explore oil drilled several abandoned wells in a row, they had to find another way to find the local county chronicles, visit the people, and ask if there was a record of discovery, but did not find it in Yumen, but found clues in the county chronicles of the extension area, and later learned that the local people in Yanchang discovered oil very early, and used it to burn lamps to make ink, but it is located in a remote area and few people know.

What they didn't expect was that the Yanchang oil field was close to the surface and only drilled less than 100 meters before the oil was produced, so a telegram was immediately sent, hoping that the Equipment and Support Department would be able to speed up the transportation of a few more sets of oil well equipment, and at the same time, it was also hoped that the oil refining equipment would be sent in immediately to produce gasoline as soon as possible.

This news made Li Enfu and Chen Ping very happy, judging from the performance of the truck into Mongolia last time, although the failure rate is still a little high, but the requirements for the road are not very high, as long as the dirt road is slightly smoother, so the staff has already made a decision to use the truck in the northwest war, but it has been limited by gasoline transportation, and now after the extension of oil extraction, there is another weight in the northwest to pacify the northwest.

In this matter, Li Enfu was more anxious than Li Mo, and ending the Northwest War early would mean less sales, so after saying hello, he immediately took the documents and went to the equipment department to find Tang Xiao in person, preparing to take advantage of the winter break to immediately send the needed equipment into it and build a small refinery to solve the gasoline problem.

After seeing Li Enfu leave, Li Mo finally turned the topic to the war and asked, "Have you read the report sent back by Long Guozhang?" ”

Chen Ping nodded, Long Guozhang, who has always liked simplicity, sent a telegram of more than a dozen pages this time, in addition to mentioning that the Anglo-Dutch fleet had been blocked in Borneo and began to negotiate these things, but also focused on describing the first use of "suffocation".

According to the description of the special anti-chemical warfare unit that entered Gaoping two days later, nearly half of the nearly 30,000 locals died directly under the diffuse poison gas, and most of the remaining people lost their mobility, and there were also mass deaths in the following week, and only less than 3,000 people survived, but these people also suffered serious physical damage, and there was only one ending waiting for them.

Li Mo also does not know whether Britain has used chlorine gas in Boole, and if not, then this should be the first chemical weapon in history to be put into actual combat. And "Suffocation," developed on the basis of fragmentary memories of sarin gas in his previous life. "Although it is not yet up to the terrible power of sarin, it is much stronger than chlorine and mustard

In order to prevent people from discovering this secret, Long Guozhang has ordered the elimination of all the villages and tribes around Gaoping, and also captured more than 1,000 natives to secretly bury Gaoping under the soil, and then executed these natives to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

After dealing with these, he also said for the first time that he should be equipped with this poison in large quantities and develop a matching navy-type chemical shell, but Li Mo refused.

It's not benevolence, it's not out of humane considerations, in fact, Young Master Li doesn't have the slightest affection for the natives in that land, even if you don't mention the later generations of the river crabs, there are still cruel anti-Chinese movements that many people in the country don't know, just one Lan Fang is enough for him to order the complete killing of all the natives

The reason for the refusal is because of the limitation of money and technical means, the production and storage of "suffocation" are very expensive, coupled with the high corrosiveness and shelf life problems of their own, before the lack of good means, a large amount of equipment is just to find trouble for themselves.

However, the first use of poison gas made Li Mo see the hope of solving the problem of Borneo eradication, so he ordered the introduction of cheap chlorine gas, because for those unarmed natives, chlorine gas is already a big killer.

Combined with the use of chlorine, the troops created a simple method of first dividing the Borneo rainforest into pieces according to their size, then surrounding them from all sides by means of expulsion and intimidation, compressing the natives to one point, and then dropping a large number of chlorine gas barrels to incapacitate the natives, and then arresting or ...... them.

Because chlorine is not very toxic and contaminating, it will not cause much harm to the rainforest and the land, and as long as it is well protected, it will not endanger itself.

Therefore, in Chen Ping's view, the ground war in Borneo continues to arrive with reinforcements, and it is better to use this opportunity to train soldiers than to fight.

The only doubt still comes from the sea, Philitman was obviously frightened by the Chinese ships that appeared in shock, otherwise with the British style, this time the Chinese army made such a big move in the South Seas, I am afraid he would have ordered an attack a long time ago, otherwise the two British cruisers would not have joined the Dutch fleet to attack together, don't think that Britain is afraid of war, the British ships and soldiers all over the world are good counter-evidence.

But fighting a war also depends on the timing, in the past, Britain had absolute maritime strength, but now Boer has contained too many British warships, in order to capture the arms ships going to South Africa all over the world, completely blockade the sea off South Africa, cut off the support from the sea, the British Empire sent more than half of the cruisers over, and even mobilized a full eight capital battleships to provide support, so once Philettman ventured into war, he may face the embarrassment of not being able to get domestic support.

There were ten battleships on his side, and Britain also had ten, although the cruiser Britain had an absolute advantage of twenty-five to fourteen, but now there was one more Chinese ship that could withstand two or three ships and was still lurking in the shadows, and the pressure on Philettman could be imagined.

What's more, in Chen Ping's view, as long as the agreement is signed, the initiative is to retreat, and the strategically important Java and Sumatra are not moved, Britain may not be desperate for the Netherlands.

Li Mo also agreed with Chen Ping's words, as long as they took the initiative to retreat, the British really had no reason to be desperate, so after explaining that Chen Ping sent the essentials of the negotiation to Long Guozhang and Tang Shaoyi, he took out the detailed battle report of the Battle of Natuna from the table, handed it to Chen Ping and asked, "Do you see anything?" ”

Chen Ping had actually read the battle report several times, and he and Yan Fu and others had repeatedly deduced it according to the battle report, so when he heard Li Mo ask, he immediately nodded.

"Lack of final word"

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