Kai Fu Han

Chapter 602 Westward Advance Complete
On leap April [-], the first and third fleets of the Xinghan Alliance were assembled in Jiaozhou Bay.

The newly built Jiaozhou Port has very good supporting facilities, and the soldiers enjoyed rare comfort before the war.

The Fourth Fleet received the Bohai in Baishi Bay. The new warship makes people look envious, but the new control mode also makes Ruan Xiaoqi find it very challenging.

The Bohai does not have a sailor, so the structure of the sailor has changed a lot.

The reduced rigger positions were filled by boiler workers. The boiler must be operated for twelve hours without interruption. At least four shifts of personnel were required to ensure the rest of the personnel.

In addition to the significant increase in boiler workers, there has also been a significant increase in the number of weapons operators on the ship.

In terms of firepower, one Bohai can defeat four Shanyue-class battleships.If mobility and protective performance are taken into consideration, the Bohai can easily defeat six Mountain-class battleships.

Zhao Liang is very coveted for the Bohai, and he also knows that the next Bohai-class warship will take a year to be built, so Zhao Liang seems very impatient.

Since knowing that the Bohai was given to Ruan Xiaoqi, he has written to Liu Xinqi many times, hoping to get Liu Xinqi to change his decision. In order to achieve the purpose of owning the Bohai, he would rather trade it with two Mountain-class battleships and the Fourth Fleet.

Not to mention the results, Zhao Liang is currently resting with the First Fleet in Jiaozhou Bay, and Ruan Xiaoqi is familiar with the Bohai in Baishi Bay.

...

"This battleship is so beautiful. I want to live on it for the rest of my life." Ruan Xiaoqi's old subordinate muttered, which was overheard by Ruan Xiaoqi who was writing and drawing on the side.

These old subordinates are all officers of the Xingren Army who passed the training and assessment at the Jiangwu Hall on March 25. Some officers who originally belonged to the Navy of the Xingren Army were directly assigned to the Fourth Fleet.

"Don't say such nonsense, it will make you want to vomit from now on. Hurry up and train, we are very pressed for time." Ruan Xiaoqi slapped his subordinate on the back of the head, slapping him away from his "hysteria".

Ruan Xiaoqi was very shocked that the alliance leader handed over this Xinghan Alliance's most advanced warship to him.

After deciding to go north, Ruan Xiaoqi led the fourth fleet to go north while training, bypassing the Korean Peninsula, familiarizing himself with the coastline of Haozan Road, and then entering the sea area of ​​​​Subin Road, and then cleaning up the Jinguo villages adjacent to the coastline all the way to Tatar Strait.

Although it traveled a long distance and broke the record of Han ships going north, in terms of achievements, it was completely incomparable with the other three fleets.

Ruan Xiaoqi knew clearly that if the war was not an emergency this time and his own fleet happened to have idle personnel (after the officers of the Xingren Army joined the army), in order to be able to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible without affecting the existing organization of other fleets, the Bohai would not be able to turn at all. Own.

"Shiye! Fate!" These words were said somewhat leisurely.

Now the alliance is putting him, Ruan Xiaoqi, on the fire. If he cannot achieve outstanding military exploits as soon as possible, he will be drowned by the gossip below.

"Brothers, we have to step up our training. We have been favored by the alliance leader many times, and now is the time for us to repay the favor. There are two thousand sampans in the south controlled by native chickens and dogs. As long as we master this ironclad ship, we will definitely sweep them away. , then military exploits, honors, and money will all be at your fingertips." Ruan Xiaoqi began to carry out daily morale boosting.

In the past few days, the soldiers who boarded the Bohai only had three hours of rest every day. The three steam turbines of the Bohai took turns to work, and one set of propellers was damaged, which shows the intensity of training.

The super intensity of training also allows these novices to adapt to new warships and new combat methods as quickly as possible.

... Until April [-]th, all four fleets were assembled, and the second fleet still stayed in Liuqiu to cooperate with the fourth field brigade.The First, Third, and Fourth Fleets have all assembled in Jiaozhou Bay.

On that day, due to the full organization of Li Gang and others, and the desperate execution of the gentry and landlords, all the warships were replenished outside Yangzhou Bay, and the army was also replenished in Yangzhou.Zhao Nan sent people to assassinate some of them, but after finding that it was useless, he stopped the assassination, because Nan Zhao's spies, assassins, and hired killers had begun to cause trouble in the Xinghan League, and Di Ting's manpower immediately became very scarce.

The Nanzhao navy and land forces continued to move north.

As the news reached Jiaozhou Bay, three fleets commanded by Commander Gao Yuan set sail from Jiaozhou Bay, sailed south along the coastline, and landed on Yuzhou Island.

Preemptive strikes, and late strikes against others.

Liu Xinjun's Second Brigade and Sun Li's Third Brigade went south from Shimen Town in Linyi County and directly entered Haizhou on Huainan East Road, targeting Qushan in Guofu County, Haizhou.

The general who defended Qushan was the famous Southern Zhao general Han Zhong.

In his letters to the two brigade commanders, Liu Xinqi repeatedly emphasized how powerful Han Zhong was, and both Liu Xinjun and Sun Li were cautious.

What the two did not expect was that Han Zhong was more cautious than the two of them. After learning that the Xinghan Allied Forces were heading south, he directly led the Qushan garrison to retreat south.

Standing at the foot of Qushan City, looking at the spectacular sight of the forest of masts on the sea to the east, the two of them couldn't help but feel a little excited.

"A famous general is nothing more than this. He doesn't even dare to try to defend." Sun Li's evaluation of Han Zhong dropped a lot.

"I don't think so. Han Zhong was able to clearly realize the huge disparity between the enemy and ourselves, and retreat decisively to preserve his strength. On the contrary, it shows that he is very courageous." Liu Xinjun retorted.

"Yes, the alliance leader has always emphasized: if you save land and lose people, you will lose both people and land; if you save people and lose land, you will gain both people and land. If I were in Han Zhong's position, I would have made the same choice." Sun Li thought about it from his perspective. , immediately understood Han Zhong’s choice.

"How should we two go now?" Liu Xinjun asked.

The two brigades took the first step to capture Qushan in Haizhou, which could be regarded as placing the battlefield outside the alliance's territory and guarding the bottom line of the Xinghan Alliance's operations.

"The staff department has various rehearsals and has made corresponding plans for the current situation. I have seen them all. For now, we basically have two directions to choose from." Sun Li replied: "The first is to follow the coastline. Going south, with the support of sea supplies, we can fight all the way to Hangzhou and capture the capital of Southern Zhao. The second is to attack steadily and divide our troops into two groups to first occupy all Southern Zhaozhou counties south of the Huai River, and then rely on the Huai River to eliminate Southern Zhao and move north of the Army.”

"How to choose?" Of course Liu Xinjun had also seen the preview plans of these staff departments. What he asked was to choose one of the two, which one to choose?
"I am more inclined to choose the first option and go directly south to Hangzhou." Sun Li replied.

"Hehe." Liu Xinjun chuckled. It goes without saying that he must be more inclined to this one: "But the border line must be guarded. If the Southern Zhao Army heading north ignores it and directly rushes into the territory of the Xinghan Alliance, we will The sin is huge."

This is Liu Xinjun's original intention. Someone must stay and guard the two of them.

"I think it's safer for you to defend, so let me go ahead and fight." Obviously, going south to attack Hangzhou has a greater merit, and Sun Li also wants it.

Just as the two were arguing, a subordinate came up to report:
"Report! The alliance leader has ordered that the westward offensive strategy has been completed. The [-]th and [-]th brigades will come to Yizhou as quickly as possible and ask Liu Xinjun and Sun Li to fight boldly without worrying about the retreat."

(End of this chapter)