Li Zhaoji nodded heavily, if his satisfaction with Chen Liuzi stemmed from his loyalty to him at the beginning, then now it is not so simple.

After the end of the Northern Expedition, Chen Liuzi transferred most of his energy to the Naval Academy, and he used various means to get navigation talents and naval officers from various countries, and constantly obtained various European works on the navy, navigation, and shipbuilding, and asked people to translate them, and forcibly ordered the naval officers to enter the school for further study.

Although these efforts will not produce immediate results, they will continue to strengthen the foundation of the trading company's navy.

"Let's take a look at the Taiwan Island and see if you can accept her as the flagship of your naval commander." Li Zhaoji smiled at Chen Liuzi.

The Taiwan Island is a ship that Tamsui Shipyard tried to build after undergoing the renovation and reconstruction of the Jeju Island. After the formalization of the trading company's navy, Lee chose to classify the warships.

According to Li Zhaoji's arrangement, the trading company warships consisted of cruisers with a one-layer gun deck, frigates dominated by brigs, and briefing ships composed of sloops. The galleys of the galels and the galais also existed in the navy.

With a displacement of about 800 tons, a one-story gun deck, and more than 30 guns, the Jeju Island is called an island-class cruiser.

There are now five of its members, namely the Jeju Island, which was converted from the Triumph, the three cruisers Ryukyu Island, Sado Island, and Ocean Island, which were converted from three new British battleships, and the Taiwan Island cruiser, which was built by the Shosha Shipyard itself and has the largest displacement.

All five battleships, all of which had a displacement of more than eight hundred tons and less than a thousand tons, were rebuilt and converted into single-deck cruisers. Lee did not accept the cruiser concept of the European Navy, because it was not the capital battleship, and the cruiser of the trading company was the main battleship.

Both the newly-built Taiwan Island and the rebuilt and converted British ships required the use of Hongguang 2-year-old 90-pounder naval guns, while on the upper open deck, 32-pounder Caron guns were the main firepower.

There is no doubt that the Taiwan Island is the most beautiful and powerful of the island-class cruisers.

Her keel was made of a 38-meter-long teak, which directly allowed her artillery deck to break through 48 meters, and also made her tonnage reach the scale of 1,000 tons, so although she also belonged to the island class, she adopted the name Taiwan Island.

Later, several similar warships were built, so the island class can be divided into the large island class and the small island class.

The Taiwan Island and its successor ships were all built by trading companies, and they were also named after large islands with an area of more than 10,000 square kilometers.

Because the length and width of the artillery deck have increased, the Taiwan Island is also the most armed, and the gun deck is equipped with 22 90-pounder guns, compared to several warships such as Jeju Island can only be equipped with 18 guns after modification.

On the open deck and aft deck, twelve thirty-two-pounder Caron guns were arranged, as was the case with the Island-class cruisers, and all Island-class cruisers had two sixty-eight-pounder Caron guns in the bow.

The Caron cannon is actually a short heavy gun, and compared to ordinary naval guns, this kind of gun has a relatively short barrel, so the weight of the gun is also small. The Shosha Navy's standard 32-pounder Caron gun weighed less than 800 kilograms, and its effect was no different from that of a 32-pounder long-barreled cannon, which weighed more than three tons, at the effective distance of the battle line.

This means that it can be mounted on the upper deck or even on the open deck, replacing the nine-pounder or even six-pounder guns that were originally installed there.

In addition to its light weight, another advantage of the Caron cannon is the same as that of the bottle cannon, that is, it can shoot grenades.

Of course, because of the short barrel, the Caron gun has a relatively short range, which is about six hundred meters, but this is enough, and on an unstable ship, it is not very meaningful to shoot at a target at a distance of three hundred meters.

The Taiwan Island was launched at the beginning of this year for sea trials, fully armed assembly and artillery test firing, and everything went well, this time it was back from a sea trial, and the shipyard people were overhauling it at the dock.

Chen Liuzi and the officers visited the ship to feel the impact of the heavy artillery, while Li Zhaoji met with the director of the Tamsui Shipyard.

"Can the three ships of the Sado Island be renovated by the end of this month?" Lee asked.

"The Sado Island and the Ryukyu Island should be fine, but the Ocean Island is not, when we disassembled and assembled, we found that this ship was not built with qualified ship materials, if it is refitted, it will take another month, if it can, I recommend that it be rebuilt directly." The director said.

Li Zhaoji waved his hand: "No, our slipway resources are limited." To rebuild a ship, you have to build one less ship, I ask you, would you rather rebuild the Ocean Island, or build another Taiwan Island? ”

"Of course it's the latter, the big treasurer." The director said with a smile.

Li Zhaoji nodded: "Well, that's right." Within this month, the modification of the Sado Island and the Ryukyu Island was completed, and the artillery fire test fire was carried out, first loading the 90-pound gun to try, if not, the 32-pound Karon gun was installed first.

There's a battle to be fought next month, it's a secret, and I'm telling you that you need to understand that it's a military order, but you have to keep it secret. ”

The captain immediately said, "Yes, the big treasurer." ”

After the inspection was completed, everything was as usual on the Taiwan Island, Li Zhaoji entered the command room surrounded by officers, everything was available here, and Li Zhaoji sat on his chair and looked at Guo Xu with a smile: "How about it, Guo Xu, it is better to be a commander on the ship, or a pioneer captain on land." ”

"To each his own good, big treasurer. We established a trading base in Pulu Township, which can be described as a grand occasion. In the first battle of Mokuowei, the Qing army retreated to Ningguta, and the entire middle and lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River were ours. Last year's fur trade alone recouped all the costs for us.

Had it not been for your urgent summoning me back, I would have been ready to lead an expedition upstream, I would have gone to meet the Cossacks, and I had learned from the natives that there was a gold mine upstream for gold. Guo Xu said, there seemed to be helplessness in his words.

Li Zhaoji nodded: "Then you can only choose one of the two, Guo Xu."

There will be a naval battle to be fought in the near future, and I can't let the commander of the Navy charge as soon as there is a fight, I think of you. You can continue to explore the Outer Northeast, or you can stay and be the commander of the fleet, you have to choose one. ”

"I choose to be the commander of the fleet, the big treasurer." Guo Xu did not hesitate, he was originally the commander of the Beihai Detachment, but it was only because there was no war in the Beihai that he found trouble by himself and opened up the development of the Northeast to the outside world.

Li Zhaoji said: "Okay, then I will hand over the affairs of the Outer Northeast to your younger brother Guo Hu, and let An Mingge be his deputy, and you can stay and fight well." ”

Guo Xu immediately became interested: "Who are we going to fight?" ”

"Spaniards." Li Zhaoji said, he pointed around: "See, this is the Taiwan Island, there are still three ships in the shipyard being renovated, and two can also participate in this battle." You will be in command of the Navy's First Fleet, consisting of four cruisers. ”

Guo Xu immediately said: "With such a strong combat power, I will beat the of the Spaniards." I am fearless of all the Spanish fleets in the Metropolitan Governor's Territory, the Grand Master. ”

"Although you aspire to be a soldier, you still need to know why you fight. Tang Mu, let me introduce the situation. Li Zhaoji said.

After Tang Mu returned from the north, he continued to serve as Li Zhaoji's assistant, and he was also comprehensive enough.

"Seven days ago, a Spanish fleet docked at Joncoop Harbor with two cruisers and two Manila galleons, and because of the storm, one of the galleons needed to be repaired, and a shipment of supplies was procured from us, from which we learned of the fleet's existence.

My men bought a Spanish priest for a chicken coop, and got conclusive news that there were some shipbuilders and gunsmiths from Manila, a total of 172 people, including Spaniards, Filipino natives, and even about 20 Chinese.

And this was part of the cooperation between the Spaniards and the Japanese shogunate. The big boss made up his mind to stop this cooperation.

The other thing was that when the Dutch found out about the Borneo company, Matsolko was upset and threatened us. Lord Ho Bin communicated with him on behalf of the trading company, declaring war on Spain in exchange for the Dutch's tacit presence in the Borneo company.

This is the reason why we declared war on the Spaniards. Tang Mu explained.

Guo Xu nodded: "What about the information about this fleet, I remember that the Manila galleon did not have escort warships before." ”

Tang Mu said: "The Dutch will declare war on the Spaniards this year, and these two galleons were intercepted by Dutch ships when they left the port, so for safety, they arranged for cruisers to escort them."

According to intelligence, after the fleet arrives in Edo, the cruiser will turn back to the Philippines, and the galleon will go to Acapulco in the Americas. ”

"The Spaniards sensed the danger, shouldn't the two galleons remain in the Philippines to provide combat effectiveness?" Some people are puzzled.

Chen Liuzi coughed lightly and explained: "This has something to do with the tactics of the Spaniards. The Philippine Governorate had fought the Dutch several times and was already very experienced, and they would shrink their fleet into Manila Bay, then enter a blockade in the face of a Dutch attack, and then attack and win when the Dutch were too weak to cope.

Therefore, it would be more advantageous for the Spaniards to send this fleet to the Americas, and to come back next year, or even to bring back reinforcements. ”

Then he said: "Unfortunately, we now have only two capital ships at our disposal, and our enemy has four, and by the end of the month when we have four, the enemy has only two, and has sent all the people and goods that he wants to send to Japan. ”

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