Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 109 The First Encounter of the Feud

"An unknown fleet is found ahead of the port side", "The distance is about 45 nautical miles!"

Guan Xuqing was thinking silently.A loud report suddenly came from the foremast of Zhenyuan.

At this time, the fleet was sailing in the East China Sea.According to reports, there are still more than 100 nautical miles in the strait.Since warships are much better with less coal than merchant ships, the smoke is naturally much lighter, so you can judge whether it is a merchant ship or a warship based on the thickness of the smoke, and merchant ships generally operate alone, and only fleets will travel together.However, there is still a considerable distance from the place where the Nanyang navy came to meet. Obviously, the fleet opposite is unlikely to be a fleet of the Qing Dynasty.

Because the emperor was on his own ship, Deng Shichang's nerves suddenly tensed up.He sounded the buzzer alarm for all crew members to be on alert, and immediately, the Dingyuan ship was full of people, and the sailors rushed out of the cabin to their posts.The footsteps made the steel deck make a "dong dong" sound.

From the first few wisps of light smoke to the billowing thick smoke later, it showed that the opponent had at least five to six warships.An hour later, the mast of the incoming ship could already be seen from the Zhenyuan ship, with a red sun shining on the mast above it, it turned out to be a fleet.

Today's weather is very clear with good visibility on the sea.After a while, the outline of the fleet appeared in the southeast direction.There are a total of one large, four small and five warships, and the five warships form a column.The first ship was painted with a very conspicuous white paint, and its size was even bigger than the Zhenyuan, which is known as "the largest ship in Asia".It abandoned the straight sides of the previous warships, and the left and right sides of the ship bulged to both sides. This design greatly increased the buoyancy of the ship and provided conditions for it to have intricate superstructures.

To be honest, in Guan Xuqing's view, this ship is more like a luxury cruise ship than a warship. Two thick cylindrical armored mast towers stand high above the messy superstructure, with a closed mast on top. Disk, the inside of the mast tower is hollow.There are cranes and spiral stairs for people to go up and down, which are matched with the cabin, which is very similar to the Baroque hotel-style building.No wonder the ship has the nickname "Sea Hotel" in history.

This is the "Osh" that was originally abandoned on the berth by France. After being bought, it has now been renamed the "Kyushu".Although this warship has a unique shape in history.Nothing special about it.Too low freeboard and too high superstructure have affected its combat effectiveness.But such a large battleship of 10820 tons is really in front of us.The impact and deterrence produced cannot be ignored by oneself.

Several commanders of the provisional fleet on the "Kyushu" couldn't help becoming nervous when they saw the Qing fleet that seemed to be heading straight towards them.Four large battleships built in France have already built the first "Kyushu", and this time the Navy is taking it back to China.After publicity, the country has regarded the four giant ships as baby bumps. For this reason, four cruisers, Naniwa, Takachiho, Chikushi, and Kaohsiung trained at the Kagoshima base, were sent to the South China Sea to meet the escort.Before this, the domestic intelligence network that had been monitoring the Qing Navy had reported that the Beiyang Navy would hold an annual ocean-going training in the near future, but it happened to me by such a coincidence.

"Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Jiyuan, Weiyuan, Rise, the Beiyang navy has come out in full force, it seems that they can't win." Ito Youheng read silently, and for more than ten years studying the Chinese navy He can say a lot about every Chinese warship.

Although judging from the ship data, it is equipped with two 275mm and two 340mm 28-fold main guns, and its speed reaches 16.5 knots. The Dingyuan-class ironclad ship with a maximum speed of only 4 knots, and the four 305mm Krupp breech-loading guns of the Dingyuan-class may not be able to penetrate the 25mm thick armor of the "Kyushu", but the Navy accepted it from the Lorient shipyard in France. The "Kyushu" is less than three months old, and the integration training of ships and personnel has not been completed at all. The performance of many ships still needs time to be familiarized with, and after long-distance voyages, some parts of the ship have experienced inevitable wear and tear. and malfunctions, urgently waiting to enter the port for maintenance, this time is not the best state for a naval battle at all.On the other hand, the Qing fleet, although one-on-one, the Zhenyuan-class ironclad ship known as "Asia's largest ship" is far from the opponent of the "Kyushu".Now the real number one giant ship in Asia is the "Kyushu".However, the Qing fleet on the opposite side has four subway first-class ships of the Dingyuan class, and the training between personnel and ships has been going on for four or five years.Almost proficient, with a pair of four. "Kyushu" has no chance of winning.Moreover, it is close to the Zhenhai Naval Base, where the Qing Dynasty spent a lot of money to build. Qing warships can flee there for repairs at any time, and it is more than 15.4 nautical miles away from the nearest military port, Baxia. It is difficult to escape the pursuit of the Qing warships and recover the military port.

But at this time he smiled slightly. The above inferences are completely possible under normal circumstances, but when things in the Qing Dynasty can be considered normal, he does not believe that the people who have always claimed to be "the kingdom of brilliance, the king of etiquette" The Qing Congress of the State of the People's Republic of China took the initiative to declare war on the fleet: "All the main artillery warheads immediately stop training. Cover the guns, and the soldiers can move around at will. They rest for an hour to send greetings to the Qing fleet." The soldiers on the Kyushu suddenly panicked. The two 275mm M1884QFC breech-loading guns at the stern of the class ship and one 340mm M1884QFC breech-loading gun on each side are covered, and as many as 18 140mm secondary guns equipped on the ship are also included in the gun profile, and the gun doors are closed. A defenseless state.

"Your Excellency, Commander, are you being too cowardly? This is completely contrary to the warrior spirit of our great empire. The people in the country bought such a huge ship as the Kyushu with frugality. It is to sink Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, and Don't tuck your tail in front of them." Admiral of the Navy, the captain of the provisional fleet cruiser unit Kaohsiung unprotected cruiser Oguri Motohachiro blushed authentically, he was promoted step by step by virtue of his military exploits, for Ito Youheng, Tsuboi Kozo, etc. The naval officers who have returned from overseas have long been dissatisfied with pushing them everywhere, and they can't understand their actions at this time.

Ito Yutou glanced sideways at Oguri Motohachiro, who was standing straight in front of him: "You idiot, what the people need is a big victory, a big victory that can win the empire living space and a lot of compensation. Not These false faces. The Qing Dynasty on the opposite side is immersed in the lies they have made up, thinking that they are still invincible, and that they will be left far behind by the Western countries and give the big one to rise up. For the Qing Dynasty, it is too small. Our only advantage is to wake up before them. The people of the whole country are united, and in the past few years. They bought giant ships again, and the Great Empire will fall into an endless arms race. At that time, our fragile economy will be dragged down, and all the people will face bankruptcy, and the Great Empire will suffer for decades. Our efforts will be in vain and we will forever be reduced to a second-rate country, which I will never allow."

"Hay" Ito Yuheng, who has always been known for his elegant demeanor in the navy, turned out to be stern at this time, shocking the surrounding generals to bow their heads and bow their heads.

Seeing the opposite fleet playing the friendly banner of "the road ahead is calm and the sea is smooth", Guan Xuqing also asked Deng Shichang to return the banner of wishing good luck.

Regarding the "Operation Jingke" that I personally presided over, because it cannot be announced to the public, only a few people in charge of intelligence forces know, even Kang Youwei, Deng Shichang, and Yan Fu, who are completely regarded as confidantes of the imperial party, are also ignorant.Guan Xuqing didn't know if he had done something wrong. The French navy was once one of the best in the world. Even after experiencing such a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar, it did not bring them down. The world's first ironclad ship came from France human handwriting.But from the late nineteenth century until the end of World War II, the French navy was largely forgotten.Due to the huge pressure on Germany on land, after the Franco-Prussian War, they devoted their main energy to the army. Because the navy was neglected, the shipbuilding technology was gradually left behind by the United Kingdom, and later it fell behind the emerging Germany and Germany. U.S.

The poor realization of French warships in several wars, and the Russian fleet established under the guidance of French engineers were almost completely wiped out in the Battle of Tsushima, which made Fang Huai habitually despise those ships like many ship enthusiasts in later generations. Known as the "sea coffin" French warship.That's why he decided to use the four coveted large battleships to drag down the economy.Because Dingyuan and Zhenyuan were hit by hundreds of bullets in the battle of the Yellow Sea, the impression of standing still was too deep in his mind. In history, if the Qing Dynasty was not too stupid, it would not build a new ship for the Beiyang Navy.With rapid-fire guns, the Beiyang Navy did not change equipment, and even the shells were not replenished.It is impossible for the battle in the Yellow Sea to end like that. After all, no warship can stop and suppress the second ship.Now the Beiyang Navy is several times stronger than in history. Even if it has four giant ships, it must not be able to win the Beiyang Navy that has undergone earth-shaking changes in strength.

However, military science is a rigorous science. If the army is still a competition of spiritual will in many aspects, and the air force can also rely on blood and bravery to die with the enemy like the kamikaze, then the battle between the navy and the ship is the battle of the army. It is the one that requires the most technical equipment in learning, and it is also the one that is least dependent on human will.

After the Navy owned the "Kyushu", it was fully equipped to sink Zhenyuan. The Zhenyuan-class ironclad warship that Fang Huai relied on before as the Great Wall of the Sea was no longer so unbreakable.Although even with the four giant ships of Kyushu, Yamato, Musashi, and Katsuragi, the tonnage of the ships is less than 10 tons.Through the development of the Qing Dynasty in the past few years, the total tonnage of the navy has exceeded 20 tons.However, the shadow and deterrence caused by the four giant ships will not dissipate if China does not have battleships of the same level.

For a navy surrounded by seas, it is impossible to talk about defeating him without defeating his navy.With a small but stoic personality, with Yingfa paying for him, sooner or later he will make a comeback.

In recent years, because China has changed the balance of power in East Asia, under the influence of the Sino-French Vietnam War and the Sino-British Burma War.In history, it was not until the Sino-Japanese War of [-]-[-] that Britain and France turned to each other directly earlier.A part of the excess capital in Britain and France flowed to Beijing under the instigation of the government, coupled with the stimulation of domestic military preparations, the country's economy has grown rapidly, which is much better than the struggle in history, even if it swallows the four giant ships No indigestion either.And Britain and France support in some key technologies.It also makes it stronger in a real sense.can imagine.In the future Sino-Japanese War, Britain and France, which have already regarded China as a thorn in their side and a thorn in their flesh, will spare no effort to support them.And with Britain and France paying for the military expenses, once their wolf nature is fully displayed, the Chinese nation will surely face a severe challenge.

When returning to this era, Guan Xuqing never thought of standing with the British who still maintained their status as the boss at this time, but between Russia and the United Kingdom, he chose the former, and then the foreign policies of Germany and the United States , are all derivatives of this choice.The reason is simple, maybe Russia really hates China, but Russia will never help.From the perspective of geopolitics, there is a natural conflict between the two. Russia's ports on the Pacific coast are all shrouded in the shadow of the archipelago, and the Russian Pacific Fleet stationed in Jeju Island and Vladivostok is also threatening the elite coastal areas at any time. Can't trust each other either.As for China and Russia, Russia's economic center of gravity is in Europe, so it goes without saying what is happening in Central Asia and Siberia bordering China, while China's economically developed regions are all located south of the Great Wall, and the Chinese territory bordering Russia has never been It is not an elite area that cannot be discarded. It is sparsely populated and ruled weakly. Most of the time, it is a place where Chinese exiled prisoners and ethnic minorities live together. Russia ceded more than 150 million square kilometers from China before without firing a shot, and China can also Nearly 200 million square kilometers were cut from the hands of Alexander III, who regarded land as more important than life. The degree of insignificance of these cut-off lands can be seen in general.

But it is different for the UK. Those diplomatic gentlemen in the UK who wear stiff-collared dresses are biased from their natural inclinations.Between China and China, they will only choose.Because it is small enough, no matter how powerful it is, it can be controlled in their eyes. It is a good Doberman pinscher that can be held in the hand and bark at the polar bear in the Pacific Ocean.And China has a longer history than all the civilized countries combined!The population is the sum of the entire population of Europe, and it has a huge and vast land.Such a big guy, if it is supported, it will be a lot of effort to control it.And once it is out of control, the rule of the British colonial empire in India and Southeast Asia will be a disaster. Britain will never support China's rise. The rise of China will only break down that door.

The two fleets passed each other at a friendly distance of twenty nautical miles, each heading towards its destination.

Although they missed it, both sides are convinced that one day, these two most powerful fleets representing East Asia will collide, and the victory or defeat will directly determine the fate of the two nations.We lost in the past, but what about tomorrow?Guan Xuqing looked into the distance, and the sound of the sea was still there.

(End of this chapter)