Dragon Sea Empire

On the banks of the Songhua River in early June, the breeze is gentle, the flowers are in full bloom, the trees are dense, and it is emerald green.

Pieces of taupe and earthy gray are mixed on the banks of the Songhua River dotted with flowers, which is very discordant. It is more than ten thousand Jurchen Eight Banners, Mongolian Horqin, and Chahar cavalry who are crossing the river.

Suddenly, a series of explosions resounded in the jungle, and the artillery brigade task force of the Chinese Army, which had been ambushing here for a long time, fired a rapid fire. Among the Mongolian cavalry and Eight Banners soldiers gathered by the river, fireballs and fireballs were continuously thrown up. Gunpowder smoke and flowering grenades blow up piles of cavalrymen.

In the dense meadow jungle, groups of cavalry of the Chinese Army suddenly appeared. With ten people as a team, they opened up and rushed towards the Mongolian and Manchurian Eight Banners Allied Forces who were crossing the Songhua River. This is the main force of the Chinese Army Cavalry Brigade. , 6000 cavalry rushed to the Songhua River in groups.

A battalion of the Second Division and the Second Regiment of the Chinese Army, which had been ambushing in the pit on the opposite bank day and night, also suddenly appeared on the river bank bush line, setting up a manual rapid-fire machine gun "Lightning Beehive Gun" to shoot at the enemy troops who were crossing the river.

This was a textbook typical half-cross attack. Zheng Zhihu, the deputy commander of the Second Regiment of the Chinese Army who commanded the battle, was personally operating the rapid-fire gun.

The Mongolian offensive on the Liaodong Marching Road has been temporarily suspended. On the northwest front of Liaodong, the Chinese army has turned to a defensive posture. However, the success of the ambush along the Songhua River is the result of Zhao Tie's plan and Zheng Zhihu's bold interspersed assault. Unprepared, the Jurchen Eight Banners and Eastern Mongolian tribal allied forces were defeated. They were defeated by Zheng Zhihu for the second time on the banks of the Songhua River. More than [-] horses and camels were captured by Zheng Zhihu. In a short period of time, it is impossible for the Jurchen and Mongol Tartars to make a comeback.

On the same day, Yan Siqi finally assembled the main force of the Fifth Division in Andong and Lian Castles, and began to cross the Yalu River and enter the Kingdom of Korea.

In the first two days, under the escort of two battleships and more than ten cruisers of the Beiyang Fleet, more than ten Fuzhou ships carried the foreign mercenary regiment, the Ryukyu Independent Battalion, and the fifth infantry battalion. About 2500 people set off from Lushunkou Crossing the sea to the mouth of the Datong River to rescue the besieged Chinese troops stationed in North Korea. Three days after Yan Siqi led his troops across the south of the Yangtze River, the forward had already reached the four provinces of Ping'an, Huanghai, Jiangyuan, and Gyeonggi in North Korea. It was controlled by the North Korean coup army a few months ago. At this time, there are already many so-called "loyalty army" volunteers operating in this area, attacking the Han immigrant villages and the properties owned by the Chinese company everywhere. On the seventh day after crossing the Yalu River, the forwards of the Fifth Division had arrived in the north of Pyongyang. Behind them and on both sides of the road, there were hundreds of miles of ruins with flames flying and thick smoke, a no-man's land stretching for hundreds of miles.

At about the same time, the Ming army in western Liao went northward to the Liaohe River. At the beginning of the third year of the Apocalypse, Wang Huazhen was the governor of Liaodong. He had a big difference of opinion with Xiong Tingbi, who advocated a defensive strategy. From February, Wang Huazhen set up six battalions along the Liaohe River, each with a general One person, two guards, planning the territory, and setting up troops to guard the castles of Xiping, Zhenwu, Liuhe, and Panshan.

In May, Wang Huazhen mobilized the guards from Guangning and Luyang to gather at Xipingbao. Led by Zu Dashou, he joined forces with General Qi Bingzhong and General Liu Qu of Xiong Tingbi. There were a total of about 2200 Ming troops, preparing to attack China from the west. Standing in front of them are more than 36 defenders of the Chinese Army in the Xiningbao fortress area on the west bank of the Liaohe River, including two battalions directly under Zhao Tie's First Division, a battalion of the Artillery Brigade, and the Liaodong militia formed by locals. The battalion has five 35-pound bronze cannons, 200 other cannons of various types, and fifteen lightning-strike honeycomb guns. , About [-] Mongolian cavalrymen went out every day to inquire about the military situation, and the furthest one reached the Xiping Fort where the Ming army was stationed.

At this time, the troops belonging to the Liaodong Road Marching Chief of the Chinese Army had to deal with the third-line battle at once, and the troops were really empty. Zhao Tie, the Liaodong Marching Road Chief, had to order the main force of Lu Xiaotian's cavalry brigade to give up chasing and wiping out the rest of the Eight Banners, and go south to support Liaohe The troops along the line fought. At the same time, Zhao Tie, who lacked mobile forces, asked for support from the Jiangnan Theater.

When Xu Guangqi and more than 200 imperial envoys from the Ming Dynasty boarded a ship at Jinshanwei, they happened to encounter troops from the Fourth Division boarding a ship there to support Liaodong. Even Luo Quanxiu also left Jiangnan. At Lushunkou, a truce has been declared along the Yangtze River, and the Chinese Army has withdrawn from Wuchang and other places. The Yangtze River above Zhenjiang and the Chinese Army must withdraw. Of course, there are also many people who evacuated with the Chinese Army. A large number of craftsmen and technicians were recruited on a large scale, and a large number of landless refugees also followed the Chinese army and planned to emigrate overseas: the Chinese company advertised that as long as they are willing to go overseas to farm, each person can be allocated 10,000 acres of land, and each household A maximum of [-] mu of land can be allocated, which immediately attracted [-]+ people to follow the Chinese army.

On the sea outside Jinshanwei, the main force of the Fourth Division with more than [-] people is being sent to hundreds of large sailing ships. Most of these ships are ordinary blessing ships and sand ships, which are large civilian sailing ships collected temporarily. Among them, there are also several large Portuguese Galen ships. These ships were immediately requisitioned by the Chinese army just after they sent a batch of Western goods to the south of the Yangtze River.

Numerous manpower winch cranes have been erected on Jinshanwei Beach, as well as several conveyor belts made of cowhide, which are efficiently transporting piles of munitions onto the ship.

Many of the large merchant ships belonging to the rich merchants in the south of the Yangtze River came from the shipyard of the Zhonghua Company. Let it go, I managed to gather enough ships, and I plan to transport all the main force of the Fourth Division to North Korea at one time.

The largest battleship of the Taiwan Fleet, the "Longxiang", will transport the imperial envoys of the Ming Dynasty to Taiwan. Accompanying them is the escort task force composed of the Tenth and Fifth Squadrons. The admiral of the fleet is Lieutenant Colonel Liu Xiang.

The keel of "Longxiang" is made of very rare Guangdong iron wood, with cast iron fasteners added. The length, width, height and displacement of the hull rank first in the Chinese Navy fleet.

Xu Guangqi and the others didn't feel anything at the Jinshanwei Wharf. When they came to the side of the "Longxiang" in a rowboat, they couldn't help being extremely surprised. Seeing this giant ship the size of a floating city, they couldn't believe it. s eyes.

Accompanying Zeng Yue said with a smile: "I'm very surprised, let alone you, I was also surprised when I saw this giant ship for the first time."

Chen Zhongji had to deal with the complicated situation after the armistice in the south of the Yangtze River, and only Zeng Yue and Mai Dahai were left to accompany the imperial envoy of Ming Dynasty. Of course, the number of military intelligence personnel who had been secretly observing and monitoring the imperial envoy of Ming Dynasty did not decrease.

The imperial envoys of the Ming Dynasty had been shocked to the point of numbness by countless anecdotes these days, so when they were brought aboard the "Longxiang", they all consciously followed the Chinese army leaders to the rear deck, and did not look around like curious babies.

The only exception is Yuan Chonghuan, the head of the Ministry of War, who is the most restless of all the imperial envoys of the Ming Dynasty. The "Longxiang" has not yet hoisted its sails. The imperial envoy's sailors on the warship discovered that the principal Yuan Chonghuan had disappeared.

The staff of the Military Intelligence Department immediately became tense, and quickly dispatched people to search around. Finally, when the anchor was hoisting, they found Mr. Yuan, the chief of the Ministry of War, on the front deck.

Yuan Chonghuan was watching the crew lifting anchor at the bow of the ship, and even joined in the fun to help out. Zeng Rui, who was dressed as a sailor, had a headache: "What a headache, I really don't know what this guy is thinking,"

He said to several of his subordinates: "Grow your eyes wide open, keep a close eye on this guy, don't let him cause trouble again,"

……

Although the Longxiang is almost half the size of the Flying Dragon, due to the rated staff of 430 on board, and the return to Taiwan this time, the crew and sailors all brought a lot of spoils. More than 80 trainee sailors in the branch school, and nearly No. 40 members of the imperial court recruiting imperial missions, caused the space for personnel activities on the Longxiang to be extremely crowded.

When the ship arrived in the East China Sea, there were strong winds and waves for several days, and it was dark everywhere. Yuan Chonghuan and others also lost their mobility and kept vomiting in their cabins. Except for Xu Guangqi and others, almost none of the imperial envoys had the experience of traveling at sea. Everyone suffered from collective seasickness, especially Sheng Yihong, who was on a sea boat for the first time in his life. After a while, Sheng Yihong lay on the bed and refused to get up, vowing that he would never go to sea by boat again. Jin Yiwei Qianhu Zhang Ye kindly reminded him: After the negotiation, he still has to take a sea boat to return to the capital from Taiwan Island. Yes, Sheng Yihong regretted it unceasingly, and was very dissatisfied with Xu Guangqi in his heart.

Yuan Chonghuan recovered quickly and quickly adapted to sailing at sea. The crew of the Longxiang ship came from various coastal provinces, many of whom were from Guangdong, and they were fellow villagers with Yuan Chonghuan. The sailors could still talk about going together, and soon he was wandering about energetically again, making friends with the crew, asking questions, and finding out everything that interested him.

Zeng Rui has been spying on him all the time. At first he thought he was just aimlessly out of curiosity. Later, he gradually discovered that Mr. Yuan was very interested in the cannons on the ship. Yuan Chonghuan also tried twice to sneak into the gun compartment below the deck, but was stopped by sentry sailors.

Xu Guangqi has long been experienced in sea travel and life, so he quickly adapted to it. During this time, he has been asking the captain of the Longxiang, Shi Daxuan, for some guidance on navigation.

Colonel Shi Daxuan was promoted due to his meritorious service in the Jiangnan Campaign, and has just been transferred from the "Feilong" to the "Longxiang" as the captain.