When he built a fortress at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, Li Zhaoji considered leaving a small number of troops behind to keep a door to the mainland battlefield, so that he could project his strength at any time and influence the situation on the mainland.

Therefore, there is the Lushun Fortress, but with the Shun army deciding to enter southern Liaoning, there is no need to consume too much strength here, after all, no side will be more active than Dashun in dealing with the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

After visiting the Golden State Fortress, Lee Siu Ki rode south to Lushun, where he not only visited the Lushun Fortress, but also held a flag-raising and induction ceremony for the Jeju, the flagship of the North Sea Fleet of the Navy Fleet.

And when he arrived at Lushun, Li Zhaoji stood on the shore and was completely attracted by the extremely beautiful battleship, and despite the fatigue of the journey, he immediately boarded the battleship.

According to the classification standard formulated by Li Zhaoji, this battleship can be regarded as a fifth-class cruiser, with a keel more than 33 meters long, an artillery deck length of 40 meters, a width of 11 meters, a draft of nearly 5 meters, and a displacement of about 800 tons.

The Jeju's main armament was 20 18-pounder guns on the gun deck, eight 9-pounder guns on the open deck, and six 6-pounder guns in the stern building, for a total of 34 cannons.

The battleship was not built by the trading company itself, but was purchased from the British East India Company.

In the last year, Aaron and Chen Si'an took the Rose to India, and immediately raised a new oriental trade, unlike Aaron in India, Du went around to raise goods needed by the trading company, Chen Si'an did not have these mundane things involved, he inspected the business of India and Du, and thought that the trade between the two oceans was very promising, that is, in Surat, Chen Si'an saw the Jeju which was still named the Triumph at that time.

Chen Si'an knew Li Zhaoji's ambitions on the warship, so he immediately returned to Tamsui with the Rose and told Li Zhaoji about it, which was then planning to go north.

Once part of the British Royal Navy, the Triumph was a second-class battleship built six years earlier, a double-deck battleship.

Because of the British Civil War, the British Navy lost its capital investment, and was forced to sell or mothballed many warships, and the Triumph was bought by a British company because of its good condition, and carried out the Levantine trade, that is, to the Ottoman Empire, but soon the company went bankrupt because of the war, and then it was bought at a low price by the East India and Du Company, and came to the East.

The Triumph was considered by the East Indian and Degree officials in London to be used as a force in the East, but upon arrival, it was discovered that one or two battleships could not confront the Dutch at all, and as a merchant ship, the Triumph was too large and had too little cargo.

As a result, the Triumph will return as a returning sailing ship on its next return to the mainland.

Upon learning of the existence of the Triumph, Lee Siu Kee immediately dispatched an Ahat ship with sufficient manpower to carry out the first ocean-going trade, and the Portuguese merchants of Macao provided a great deal of support for this two-ocean trade, and they were also anxious to cut off the Goa-Macao trade route by the Dutch, so they loaded the ships with a large number of goods.

It's just that at that time, Li Zhaoji invested almost all of the trading company's funds in the establishment of the Eastern Brigade and material reserves, and could not come up with enough funds to purchase the Triumph.

And this battleship is worth at least sixty thousand taels of silver.

Chen Si'an's plan was to trade first after arriving in Surat, and use the profits from the trade to lease the Triumph to arrive in Tamsui, and then talk about the purchase after arriving.

However, this was not the case, and Chen Si'an led a large Yahat merchant ship to Surat and Goa, and carried out a very smooth trade between the two oceans, and the Portuguese provided the necessary financing for the trading company to purchase the Triumph, so that Chen Si'an was able to bring the warship back to Tamsui directly.

However, because of the treaty signed between the trading company and the Dutch East India and Du Company, the trading company was not allowed to have battleships with two or more decks, and the Triumph, which could be equipped with fifty guns, was obviously a violation of the treaty.

Therefore, upon its arrival, the Triumph immediately entered the Tamsui shipyard for reconstruction, removing the upper gun deck and simplifying the originally complex and tall stern, and finally obtained a cruiser that met all the restrictions of the Hong Kong Treaty.

Although Tamsui Shipyard was keen to rebuild the ship and find out its internal structure and various parameters to lay the foundation for the Navy to build capital ships in the future, the Triumph did not have the time because it had to go to the North Sea Fleet to participate in the defense of Sado Island.

In July of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the Dutch East India, Du Company's trading fleet to Japan arrived, different from the scale of two or three ships in the past, this time the size of the fleet reached as many as six, plus the armed merchant ships of the trading company seized by Japan, the Lingding Island, the Japanese shogunate had a fleet of seven armed warships.

The fleet then set out from Nagasaki and headed for Sado, where the Tokugawa shogunate's plan was to send troops from the main island to land in Sado after the fleet had defeated the fleet of the Toban Shogunate, and then to destroy all the islands and restore order there.

However, this plan did not go well from the beginning, because when the Dutch East India Company signed the "Hong Kong Treaty" with the trading company, the script of this battle was written, and everything went according to the script.

The combined fleet of Japan and the Netherlands set out from Nagasaki and crossed the Tsushima Strait into the North Sea, where they were immediately confronted by a sloop of the Merchant Navy.

Even the Japanese generals, who did not understand naval operations, understood that there was no need to fight this battle, the opponent's strength was twice as strong as their own, and the number of artillery was far superior to their own, so they immediately retreated back to Nagasaki, so there was no need to consider the follow-up landing.

Although the North Sea Fleet has always been supported by Tamsui, where are there so many warships, most of the fifteen warships do not belong to the North Sea Fleet.

When the North Sea Fleet was established, Commander Guo Xu had only two small Yahat armed merchant ships, which were also responsible for liaison and transportation with Ezo, and Guo Xu himself led a ship and some personnel this year, disguised as a dynasty, and few people established a trading base south of Vladivostok, near the mouth of the Tumen River.

Because Guo Xu set off in winter, he found an ice-free port, which was the Zarubino port in later generations. Because the locals call it Mokowei, Guo Xu named it after it.

After the trading company exterminated the pirates at the mouth of the Pearl River, he sent four galleys and a brig purchased from the Dutch East India Company to Sado Island. From this, the North Sea Fleet had seven three-masted gunboats.

Although the script for dealing with Japan's counteroffensive this year has long been written, Li Zhaoji is a clever woman who has no rice to cook, after all, the naval fleet and the ocean-going transportation forces of the trading company have to serve the war in Liaodong, so it is impossible to send more ships to participate in the defense of Sado.

Lee Siu-ki then hit the idea on the Dutch, since the script was written by everyone and the stage was chosen by everyone together, then you Dutch will play a supporting role in this drama, it's no problem.

Therefore, when Li Zhaoji sent two Yahat ships to the north, he borrowed two more ships from the Dutch in Dayuan Port, and these two ships were idle anyway, so it was better to go north for a stroll, and by the way, go to Treasure Island that they had been thinking about for countless years.

Coupled with the renovated Triumph, the North Sea Fleet added five more warships, and later Aaron brought three armed merchant ships, this guy was short of trade capital, interested in any profitable business, so he simply joined the North Sea Fleet and became one of the fifteen three-masted gunboats.

This fleet, which combined the navy of the trading company and the Dutch and British companies of the East India and Du Company, set up a long snake formation off the coast of Sado, which directly scared off the Japanese.

After the fleet was disbanded, the Dutch left behind to trade and investigate, and found that the trading company had established rule on Sado Island, and the Japanese on the island welcomed the trading company that had divided the land equally, and even the forts and forts were built, so the Dutch had to give up the competition for the time being.

The British were at odds with the Dutch, so they went to Mokowai to trade with Ezo, and by the way, they took on the task of transporting supplies and personnel.

Guo Xu led the fleet to patrol Sado for a while, and after sending the two Dutch ships away, he took the Triumph to Lushun.

The flagship, which had already made de facto contributions to the trading company, had to be held at this time in the presence of Lee Siu-gi and Navy Commander Chen Liuzi.

The ceremony went very smoothly, Li Zhaoji gave most of the glory to his brother-in-law, let Chen Liuzi preside over all the ceremonies, and he visited the battleship accompanied by Guo Xu.

"Aaron, that guy loves to join in the fun, why didn't he come to the ceremony?" Li Zhaoji slapped the eighteen-pounder gun on the artillery deck, feeling its cold and powerful temperature, and asked with a smile.

"Aaron, that guy is in the eye of money, he temporarily stayed in Ezo and became a mercenary for Matsushita Tomiaki, and these two people organized an army to go deep into Ezo and open up more territory. You know, Matsushita Tomaki lacks firearms, and even more so people who are good at using firearms, and Aaron's arrival gives him a chance.

The high-quality fur produced in Ezo is used by Matsushita Fuming to pay commissions. Guo Xu said with a smile.

Li Zhaoji nodded: "It's okay, these are reasonable practices." ”

Guo Xu continued: "I just saw that Chief Chen likes this battleship very much, and this is also the largest and best battleship in the Merchant Navy, should it stay in Tamsui as the flagship of the whole army, instead of going to the North Sea." ”

Li Zhaoji looked at Guo Xu and asked, "Don't you like her?" ”

Guo Xu said: "Who doesn't like the cannon of the giant ship? ”

Li Zhaoji nodded: "Yes, everyone likes it." But this battleship is not suitable for the six sons, he deserves better. I'm going to ask Tamsui Shipyard to build a bigger, stronger, and more beautiful ship for him to sit on. ”

"Yes, that's as it should be." Guo Xu said.

Lee said, "Trading companies are very rich now, richer than you think. In October last year, because of the preparation for the establishment of the Eastern Brigade and the preparation for operations in the north, I stopped many projects and plans of the Navy, and now I can start all again.

You won't have to have this real battleship, but you also know that the trading company lacks experience in building real warships, and the Tamsui shipyard is familiar with the Yahat ship type, and now it is producing schooners, but this is a battleship and a capital ship, so this battleship will return to the shipyard for reconstruction after completing the mission this summer and autumn.

You'll lose her for a while, but only for half a year, and after half a year, you'll have a more beautiful Jeju. ”

Guo Xu nodded: "Of course, the North Sea Fleet is completely subject to your arrangement." ”

"I still have some work that I would like to formally report to you." Looking at the people around him, Guo Xu said.

Li Zhaoji said: "Is it about Mo Kowei?" ”

Guo Xu is a young man, very enterprising, the main task of his fleet is to protect Sado, but after the naval battle that did not start in Sado, the North Sea Fleet once again lost its main goal, and this young man has been committed to the development of trade in the Outer Northeast, but the resource support is really limited.

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