Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1224 Information
In Kaohsiung in September, the heat of midsummer has faded away, and the sea breeze has also brought a little bit of coolness.

The Beginning of Spring is moored quietly in Kaohsiung Harbor. This sail-steam hybrid cruiser "the pride of the Senate Navy" has just undocked from Bopu and returned to its home port - Kaohsiung.The entire battleship has a new look, and even the sailors look particularly energetic.

After almost a year of cruising, Lichun received a comprehensive maintenance and overhaul at Bopu Shipyard throughout the summer, and replaced some parts that exposed problems——the products of the machinery factory followed the progress of naturalized migrant workers. Batch is better than batch, and now they can replace the earlier crappy ones with better parts.

The firepower of the Beginning of Spring has not been greatly adjusted, but a newly designed 5-barrel Hatchkiss manual rotary cannon was installed experimentally.Known as the "Test Type [-] Navy Automatic Cannon".

The purpose of the weapon design team is to use it to replace typewriters on some naval ships: after all, 30mm grenades are much more efficient at destroying small ships than 13mm lead bullets.The larger body can also accommodate a variety of ammunition - three are planned: grenade, armor-piercing and incendiary.However, it is only equipped with armor-piercing rounds for the time being.

The 5-barreled Hotkiss manual rotary cannon is an automatic artillery, similar to Gatling, but its structure is much simpler than Gatling's multi-barrel cannon, so it was selected as a naval rapid-fire artillery.

原版的哈乞开斯式手动转管炮使用的是37X94R弹，这种弹是“圣彼得堡宣言”中关于爆炸性弹头重量不得低于400克的规定所弄出来的一畸形产物的产物。由于弹头只能装填了15-20克黑火药，爆炸起来也就是个大号炮仗。超过半公斤的弹头使得初速只有可怜的367m/s，弹道性能一塌糊涂。

Considering that the target of the navy's small rapid-fire gun is the enemy's boat and the sailors on the deck of the enemy's ship, it does not need too much blasting power. 30mm caliber is enough.Reducing the caliber can reduce the weight of the gun. Not only can the number of installations be increased on large ships, but it can also adapt to various needs such as sampan guns and naval support artillery.In order to improve the ballistic performance, the multiple diameter of the gun was changed to 25 times, and the length of the shell was also elongated.After such improvements, the muzzle velocity and ballistic performance of the Lingao version of the 5-barreled Hatchikiss manual rotary gun are higher than the original version.The theoretical rate of fire can reach one hundred rounds per minute.

However, if you want to use this kind of artillery, you must use fixed ammunition. Since the drawing of brass shells has not yet been put on the development agenda of the Planning Institute, the rolled shells with a relatively simple process are used-although it is not very reliable, it is easy to use. No difficulty.In order to recover the shell casings, it is also specially equipped with a shell recovery device.

It is not the first time that the Lichun ship has come to Kaohsiung, but its reappearance has made all walks of life who are closely watching the movements of the Australians in Kaohsiung suddenly tense.

This "giant ship" with black smoke and sails is not Lingao's "sacred ship" that never moves - many people think that the holy ship does not move at all - Lichun often patrols the sea , The black smoke that comes out can be seen clearly from a dozen miles away.

The most frightening thing is that even if you see its black smoke from more than a dozen miles away, you will be overtaken by it in a short time. Watching its huge black hull roll past with white waves proudly, the tall and black tower stands on the deck. Crude cannon - that's enough to drive down any disaffected Australians.

It suddenly reappeared in the Taiwan Strait, causing the dark tide in the strait to surge once again.

Li Siya received another letter from Zheng Zhifeng. This time, Zheng Zhifeng made a new request.

Ever since Lin Shimao disappeared mysteriously, Zheng Zhifeng already knew that Li Siya's seemingly foolproof plan had been exposed—of course, apart from the Australian kidnapping him, Li Siya might also make him "disappear" for the purpose of silence. However, the fact that the Dutch did not respond in Dayuan and other places shows that their alienation plan was not successful.Through Guo Huaiyi's activities, Zheng Zhifeng has a general understanding of what happened in Kaohsiung, including the entire operation process and the Australians' response.

It's really strange, Zheng Zhifeng thought, no matter from which point of view, Li Siya's plan was executed seamlessly: according to his opinion, every link of Li Siya's arrangement can easily cut off the clues.In particular, the decisive suicide of the woman she sent when she was arrested can be said to have cut off the last clue.It can be called the most brilliant case without a leader—why did the Australians manage to catch Lin Shimao so well?

Could it be that Australians have undercover spies by Li Siya's side or in the Zheng family?Or do they really have some sorcery?Zheng Zhifeng thought of the many shocking rumors about Lingao brought back by Lin Yishao recently.In his last letter, he said that he was going to sneak into Lingao to collect more information about Australians.

But all this is irrelevant to Zheng Zhifeng.Now that the Australians have captured Lin Shi's hat, they naturally understand that the mastermind behind the scenes is the Zheng family—the day when the two families will meet each other is just around the corner.

The trade between the two did not stop even in the summer—the ships of the Dabo Shipping under the flag of the Venus continued to bring in the most urgently needed and most profitable goods in Fujian: salt.All kinds of goods transported away at the same time made the Zheng family rich.But the brothers of the Zheng family knew very well that this was just a superficial harmony-the Australians had important things to do right now, and they were just unwilling to meet them for the time being.

Once their work is done, the Australians will unceremoniously show their minions-is there any benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom and trust in the East Asian sea?Not to mention that the Australians have only a business relationship with them.Looking back a few years ago, Li Kuiqi and Zheng Zhilong were still "brothers".

The five years of Chongzhen so far have been a year of great development and smooth sailing for the Zheng family. In March, Xiong Wencan, who was originally in charge of recruiting affairs, was promoted to governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. This is a pity for the Zheng family: Xiong Wencan is Zheng Zhilong. People who are stuffed with money.But Zou Weilian is not a difficult person to get along with.Zou Weilian served as an official in Yanping during the Wanli period, so he has a good understanding of the local folk customs, barbarian conditions and coastal defense.

When Zou Weilian arrived in Fujian, Zheng Zhilong happened to wipe out the rest of Chen Wan and Zhong Lingxiu who had been roaming the sea and land in Fujian, so he was promoted to guerrilla general.In May, Zhong Lingxiu's remaining party caused chaos by warships in Haicheng, Taihe and other places, and Zheng Zhilong defeated them again.This made Zou Weilian rely heavily on Zheng Zhilong.

Originally Zou Weilian had planned to dispatch Zheng Zhilong's troops to Jiangxi to exterminate the bandits, but not long ago Liu Xianglao attacked Min'an Town with a fleet of 170 ships, burning, looting and killing, which meant that he directly invaded the provincial capital.Zou Weilian didn't dare to hesitate, and immediately left Zheng Zhilong who hadn't set off to deal with Liu Xiang.At this moment, he is dispatching troops and generals, preparing to defeat Liu Xiang's troops who invaded Fujian in one fell swoop.

Although Liu Xiang directly violated Min'an, which meant directly challenging Zheng Zhilong's coastal hegemony, in Zheng Zhilong's eyes, Liu Xiang was no longer his primary opponent.

Originally, the Zheng family only regarded the Australians as a relatively large group of "thieves" on the sea in Guangdong, but they suddenly made a fortune by relying on strange and ingenious things such as large iron ships, and they did not interfere with overseas trade at all.But since their ships invaded Guangzhou and set fire to Wuyangyi, the Zheng family's views on them have changed greatly.

Now, although Liu Laoxiang is still patrolling around Shantou and Shanwei, harassing the coast of Fujian, and constantly sending ships to Batavia and Manila, it is obvious that he wants to compete with the Zheng family for Western trade, but there are very serious reports from Japan. News: The special envoy of the Australians is active in the Wudao area, and even hooked up with the Zhou family who got the shogunate seal!Not only that, they even went deep into Hirado.

Hirado is like a second hometown for Zheng Zhilong, and it is also the place where he started.

When Australians go to Japan, they can tell what they want to do.

It's like breaking ground on Tai Sui's head!

This matter is not just a matter of face, but a matter of life and death.In contrast, although Liu Laoxiang's various behaviors will affect the Zheng family's income, they are not fatal.If the Australians take away the Japanese trade route, the roots of the Zheng family will be completely dug out.

For this reason, Zheng Zhilong has changed the primary enemy to Australians.

Although Li Siya is no longer trusted, she is the person who has the most information about Australians and has dealt with them directly, so the crucial intelligence gathering work still falls on her head: the first thing to bear is whether the Australians have How many people and ship strength.

The first item of this letter is to ask her to provide detailed information on the Australians' largest warship, the Lichun.

It was no surprise to Li Siya that Zheng Zhilong wanted to open fire with the Australians: it would happen sooner or later.But it is a bit difficult for her to obtain the Lichun and the naval strength of the Australians.

Yes, she did piece together the naval strength of the Australians based on a lot of sporadic information, and she was able to describe the appearance and some performance of the Iron Clippers, but it was second-hand information after all—even Li Huamei had never been on any of them. The "black smoke" Australian ship.

But Zheng Zhilong is definitely not an opponent of the Australians, but she is very sure.From this point of view, she also has to do her best to help Zheng Zhilong restore some of the decline, lest the sea become the world of Australians-at that time, she will have nothing to do.

This matter can only be left to my own baby girl—and only Li Huamei, who is about to join the Australian group, can know the real secrets of these ships.

It is now the beginning of September, and the Hangzhou ship of the baby girl should normally return to Macau at the end of August-now is the right time.

She sat down and began to write a secret letter in potions.

(End of this chapter)