Chapter XVII Navy

Huo Feng held the 'Zhonghua' brand cigarettes that had just been produced from the Huo family's factory in his mouth, and stood on the deck looking at the soldiers with new rifles on their backs and ammunition stuffed with ammunition in their belts, with a deep envy in his eyes.

"How about it, Lao Tzu's soldiers are okay!" Huo Hu's tone was proud, and a person could hear it.

"What are you proud of, if you don't have a young master, you can have such a good soldier to bring you!" Huo Feng pursed his lips and said disdainfully.

Listening to the sour tone in his mouth, Huo Hu couldn't help but smile proudly, "Hehe, at least now it's Lao Tzu who commands them to fight!" Alas, the Type 80 rifle invented by the young master is good, it is both light and far, it is much stronger than the rags like Type 71!"

"Huzi, are you kid angry with me?" Saying this, Huo Feng sighed dejectedly. "Why doesn't the young master equip our brothers from the sea escort with new rifles?"

"Crazy, you kid is stupid, give you new equipment, that's not for the foreign devils to look at! Moreover, you haven't trained according to the young master's new army training regulations, in our eyes, it's a group of rabble, how could the young master give you such a good gun!"

After Huo Hu finished speaking this time, Huo Feng didn't refute it, after seeing the new army exercise organized by the young master a few days ago, he had already realized that the sea guard that he used to look like was still a jīng rui was actually outdated.

"Hey, Tiger, you have been by the young master's side for a long time, you said that after the young master completes the army, will he form a navy again!" According to the young master's usual words, the navy will definitely be formed, but the navy is even more expensive, a warship of thousands of tons costs hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and our army division of 20,000 people will only pay 50,000 taels of silver per month, and the cost of equipment is only 100,000 taels, which is far worse than the cost of forming a navy!"

"It's okay, as long as the young master builds a navy, it will be fine for a few years that night!" Huo Feng said with a smile.

"Hehe, it's not a year late!" With the voice, Huo Long strode over.

"Brother Long!" As the boss of the Eighteen Iron Guards, Huo Long, who is very bold and bold, is very respected among the brothers.

"Well, tiger, madman, are you ready?" Huo Long asked solemnly, looking at the troops lining up to board the ship.

"Don't worry, Brother Long, it's night, and the Qing Dynasty's sailor fleet won't find us!" Huo Feng said with a smile.

"Brother Long, what you just said ......!"

Looking at Huo Feng's hesitant appearance, Huo Long did not hide it, and said with a smile at the moment: "When I came, the young master had already agreed to the request to form a navy with our maritime guard force as the grassroots level!"

"Really, that's great!" Huo Feng said happily.

"Yes, five million taels of silver have already been allocated to us, let's build a naval base and train naval personnel first! The warship may have to wait!" Thinking of the navy blueprint that the young master had drawn to him, Huo Long, who was born and steady, couldn't help but be happy.

"Hehehe, Brother Long, congratulations!" Huo Hu said with a smile.

"Well, tell the brothers to be careful, let's hurry up and complete the mission, the navy is more majestic than the army when you hear the name!"

――――――

"Young Master, wouldn't it be too early to go to those places to build a base now?" Huo Shi asked with some hesitation.

"It's not early, the navy is not like the army, which issues a rifle, gives a few hundred rounds of ammunition, and can fight a war after three months of training. The navy is a very technical branch of the army, and it needs a long period of uninterrupted training and perfection before it can be combined into a fleet capable of fighting!" Huo Shan said, looking at the large-scale map hanging on the wall.

"But those places are not in our hands, but there are Spaniard soldiers stationed on them!"

"Hehe, don't worry, Huo Shi, the Spaniards care about Luzon that can provide them with wealth! And these small islands, which seem to have nothing but timber and natives, even if there are a few soldiers, are just to swear sovereignty. The Northern Mariana Islands, the Caroline Islands, and the Marshall Islands are the natural bases for our navy's development into the Pacific Ocean, and we can't give it up no matter what, and we won't let the Spaniards know that we control these islands!" After a pause, Huo Shan touched his chin, and after thinking for a while, he continued: "Time waits for no one, just let Huo Feng, Huo Yu and Huo Dian, who are responsible for transporting troops, let Huo Long hurry up and select people, occupy these islands, and make a name for himself in Nauru, Truk, Guam and Saipan to build our naval bases! Tell him to pay attention to secrecy!"

――――――

"Whoa......

The waves gently lapped against the rocks, and there was not the slightest light to be seen on the sea covered by darkness. Zhang Long paced irritably, looking up at the sea in the distance from time to time, he was also the first batch of soldiers in the military base, but when Huo Wolf formed the Military Intelligence Bureau, he was selected and sent to Fujian after a month of intense training to explore the information of the Qing Dynasty's garrison in Fujian, and was responsible for receiving the landing of Huo Hu's regiment.

"Boss, here!" said the three tigers, who had been paying attention to the sea, suddenly jumped up and said.

Hearing his words, Zhang Long didn't care about reprimanding this newcomer of the intelligence bureau, and hurriedly looked at the undulating sea in the distance, and with the only starlight, six huge sea ships appeared at the place where the water and the sky met in the black hole.

"Quick, Three Tigers, bring us the kerosene lamps we have prepared!" Zhang Long said with a happy face.

"Commander, find the signal coming from the shore!"

Looking at the flickering firelight not far away, Huo Hu's heart also became excited, he took a deep breath, turned to the herald next to him and said, "Let the soldiers get ready, we are going to land!"

"Yes!"

There is no good port near Sansha, so the big sea ships loaded with more than 6,000 tons cannot reach the sea, so they can only use small boats to send the landlubbers who are on the boat for the first time and vomit to the shore!

"Report! Military Intelligence Bureau! Zhang Long has seen the colonel!"

Looking at the standard Huo Jiajun military salute, Huo Hu, who had been adrift at sea for several hours, felt very kind!

"Have you figured out the situation of the nearby garrison?" After returning the salute, Huo Hu immediately asked.

"We have found out, Colonel! The target of our current operation, 'Sansha Town,' was subordinate to Xiapu County, Ningde Prefecture, Fujian Province in the Qing Dynasty! There were nine villages, and the whole town had a population of more than 13,000 people! There was no army, and only about 20 officials were responsible for public order in the town. ”

Before the army set off, he had also read the intelligence information about Xiapu County, but due to the urgency of time, he didn't know too deeply!

"How many green battalions are there in Xiapu County?"

"Originally, there were 500 people, but the local county magistrate ate empty salaries, and now there are only 314 people, excluding the old and weak, there are less than 200 soldiers who can fight!" Zhang Long then said.

"Damn, such an army can also fight, no wonder the Qing Dynasty has always been beaten by Westerners to pay reparations all over the country!

"Tiger, before I came, the young master repeatedly explained, now we can't fight the county seat, you can't violate discipline!" Zhao Guang, a political commissar of the regiment standing behind him, hurriedly said. For his partner, he is very clear, his spleen is hot, his military talent is outstanding, of course, the ability to cause trouble is not far behind, it is good to have the young master to press it, but now that the troops are divided, no one can control him, and his political commissar usually has to remind him more.

"Don't worry, Lao Zhao! Young Master's words, I don't dare to disobey!"

"It's strange to believe you!" Zhao Guang said secretly in his heart.

"Jǐng Guard?"

"What's the matter, Commander?" asked Lin Bing, the guard of the Jǐng, as he hurriedly ran over and saluted.

"Order all battalions, companies and platoons, hurry up and recuperate the troops, and rest in place for half an hour, and after half an hour, the whole regiment will launch an attack on Sansha Town on time!

"It's the regimental leader!"

"Tiger, will it be too hasty, many of our soldiers are seasick and dizzy, and the half-hour rest time will be shorter!" said Qian Gang, who was the chief of staff of the first regiment.

"Hehe, Lao Qian, do you think that with those private soldiers of the government servants and landlords, you can stop our more than 4,000 troops? And it is about three o'clock in the morning, and now is the time when people are sleeping soundly, with our current equipment and training, how much can it cost to fight these rabble?" Huo Hu said with a confident face.