In this way, under Li Xian's deliberate suppression, the navy was miserable, and at least two-thirds of the fleet were Chinese-style hard sailing ships, which were destined to be impossible to fight hard with the British navy from the beginning.

However, Xuan Zheng and other high-level officials will not pay attention to this point, anyway, the gap between China and Britain in maritime power is so obvious, and now the gap in the total tonnage and number of warships is not so big, and there is no way to fight hard This kind of small problem, just use the effective application of tactics to supplement.

The above is the basic situation of the main battleships of the Huaxia Army, and I also want to explain the situation of the two propeller-propelled steam ships.

The tonnage of these two ships was one hundred and one hundred and twenty tons, respectively, and they were pitifully small, and they were not even equipped with artillery, but only three rocket launchers.

In this era, steam ships have not completely replaced sailboats, but efforts to replace traditional paddle steamers with propeller-propelled steamboats, have emerged.

According to Li Xian's understanding, France is already developing a 4,000-ton propeller-type steam engine warship, and it is even possible to put it into use within a year or two; in civilian use, many multi-thousand-ton propeller steamships are already in use.

It was only two or three years ago that it had the ability to imitate a 1,000-ton warship and a 600-ton paddle steamer, but on this basis, it designed a propeller steam ship of more than 600 tons, and the technical difficulties involved were innumerable, and it was almost impossible to cross it in a short time.

In the end, the shipbuilding department adopted a step-by-step accumulation approach, that is, it did not rush to build large propeller ships, but started with small ships of 100 tons, and then gradually increased their size, just like shipbuilding models, first built very small ones, then built larger ones, and finally built life-size ships.

These two ships are the latest achievements of the shipbuilding department, and although they are only 100 tons, they use state-of-the-art power technology, and many of the technologies are being used for the first time with high-power steam engine motors and propeller thrusters.

This class of boats is called the "Hummingbird class", because of its abundant power and advanced propulsion methods, so it is extremely fast, and can easily reach more than 20 knots.

However, the weapons that this kind of ship can be equipped with are extremely limited, and the carrying capacity is also extremely weak, and it may run out of fuel if it sails at sea for seven or eight hours at most, and it needs to be towed by other ships or with the help of sails on board, so it can be said that it basically does not have actual combat capabilities.

Li Xian brought these two newly developed steam ships this time, not expecting these two ships to fight, but to let these two ships go on sea trials, and by the way, collect some operating parameters, etc.

All in all, that's the basic picture of the twelve ships.

In such a fleet, if it encounters only one or two British warships, it is better to say something, but it will be difficult to encounter a sub-fleet composed of more than three warships, and if it encounters six warships, it is not necessary to think about fighting, but how to escape.

However, such a configuration, in Chinese waters, is almost an invincible combination, that is, a flat-bottomed ship of about 800 tons, which can be regarded as the highest level of warship.

The Chinese ships near the mouth of the Minjiang River are basically Fu ships, basically 100 to 200 tons, and the wooden ships of more than 300 tons are already considered large ships, and such 800-ton Fu ships are already considered rare giants.

Seeing more than a dozen ships of unknown origin approaching maliciously on the sea, those lucky ships couldn't help but be surprised, and thought that they had encountered pirates (in fact, it was about the same) desperately escaped, and then found that these big ships were not big ships, they were very fast, very flexible, and the guns installed on them were fast, far and accurate, which was simply a typical example of wanting to fight but not being able to run.

In a short time, several lucky ships were stopped, and according to the shouts of the warships, they obediently lowered their sails, and the soldiers of the navy boarded the ships for inspection.

"I said that our navy should still develop more light warships of this kind, which is much more useful against this kind of small ship than a battleship with a huge body. Li Xian said happily when he saw this, ignoring the faint eyes cast by the naval officers around him.

Those captured lucky ships thought that this was a big trouble, the previous things on the ship would be searched, the ships would be towed away, and they might be thrown into the sea to feed the fish, and in the best case, they would be pulled into the gang by pirates.

Just when some of the crew members were wondering whether they would agree or refuse if the pirates forcibly pulled people in, the pirates made a surprising move.

Among these ships that lowered their sails, several ships carrying wood and ordinary merchant ships were actually released and let go, and none of the goods on board were touched, except for three ships, because they were hiding opium, all of which were confiscated, and an additional fine of about 100 taels was imposed.

However, these pirates did their best to pay a fine and did not continue to embarrass the ships.

"Our navy will start to carry out anti-smoking activities in the waters of Fujian today, and all ships that illegally sell opium will be punished.

Today is the first day, and those who do not know are not guilty, so the opium will be confiscated and the fine will be fined; if you are caught again the next time, the fine will be doubled; if you are caught the third time, the boat will be confiscated and towed.

As for ordinary merchant ships, we in the Huaxia Army will not harass you, and at the same time, you are welcome to do business in the areas controlled by the Huaxia Army and sell timber, grain, cloth, etc. The naval officers who boarded the ship carefully briefed the crew on the policies of the Huaxia Army.

The crew members of the Fu ship inquired carefully according to their fear, and only then did they understand that the naval fleet of the Huaxia Army encountered today would prohibit the trafficking of opium in this area from today, and that any merchant ship loaded with opium would be punished, but ordinary ships would not be attacked.

Li Xian and the Huaxia army are also famous in Fujian, and they used to rebel in Guangdong, just fell Putian City a few months ago, and then occupied Fuzhou City, and then they did not fall behind under the attack of hundreds of thousands of Qing troops, and finally only because they didn't want to fight anymore, they withdrew from Fujian with soldiers and horses, and went straight to Dayuan Island.

I thought that I would not come back in a few years, but I didn't expect that after only a few months, people would call again, and bring so many warships, it seems that Fujian will have a lot of trouble in the future, the crew can't help but sigh, but they don't dare to stay longer, and hurriedly leave the ship, for fear of making this big thief unhappy, and unwilling to let go.

Li Xian stayed in this sea area for half a day, seized dozens of boxes of opium, and also received a fine of hundreds of taels of silver.

In the afternoon, however, something a little challenging happened.

There were two Western merchant ships heading north from the south, and when they saw more than a dozen warships coming around, they wanted to turn around and bypass, relying on the advantage of the performance of Western sailing ships to make a detour, and after being besieged by the fleet, they also wanted to resist stubbornly and use the ship's guns to fight their way out.