Hidden Dragon in Qing Dynasty

would definitely not be able to hear the marshal's curses anymore. As early as half a month before Ceng Guofan left for the capital, the Zhiyuan Warship and the other seven Sail battleship had already started sailing south from the head of the Overlord military port, Yang Fan, straight towards the Malacca.

The Zhiyuan Warship had gone through a big clean-up, with all of the paint fresh and the ammunition depot refilling.

There were not many countries in the world that could use battleships as hard as Xiao Letian to squeeze people like this. Back then, the Prussian engineers had said when they were completing the dream of Xiao Letian's big toy, "With weapons like the Zhiyuan Warship, we need to try our best to avoid forming a battle force on our own. Only by forming a ladder formation can we enter battle …"

The engineer was right, Steel battleship was different from Sail battleship, they were more precise, cost more maintenance and required more technical types of work.

If it wasn't for the fact that every year during wartime, every battleship would be heavily repaired, and if there was a war, then there would have to be a maintenance operation after every naval battle.

This was not something that could be repaired by the Sail battleship just by finding a few carpenters. The Steel battleship's maintenance was a very, very specialized subject, and sometimes, overhauling it for more than half a year was very normal.

In the strict Prussian's mind, if this type of battleship wanted to provide military protection to a country, then they had to prepare 3rd Fleet.

One third of the battleships were in the dry dock for maintenance, one third were in the best condition for battle preparation and cruising, and the other three were in standby maneuvering mode.

Three batches of battleships were to be refurbished and refurbished in turn. Only by doing so could a complete war preparation system be formed. Once a war broke out, there would be no faults.

Xiao Letian also approved of this theory, but he couldn't do it! After all, the Chinese were not English and French. With hundreds of years of accumulation, there were many different types of battleships that could supplement each other, and they could be upgraded step by step.

All the warships owned by the Chinese were seized, and there were even older models that were bought from the United States. Although they could still be considered training ship, they were still quite useless as warships.

Zhiyuan Warship was the only weapon the Chinese Navy had, and also the only trump card that the Europeans had. On this trip to Europe, no matter how tired the Zhiyuan Warship was, they had to bite the bullet and charge forward.

Xiang Ying, Cai Bixia, Jin Sanshun, Lin Zhen … The first group of Iron-armored Ship commanders to arrive in Chinese Navy suffered greatly. Starting from the great return of Europe last year, they fought a bloody battle to the death with the French in the Atlantic Ocean.

All along the way, they had fought their way back to the Ryukyu and immediately participated in the battle against Sha Russia. After that, the situation in the Minjiang Estuary turned into a major ambush and all the way to the far east, the Zhiyuan Warship s were completely overloaded from battle. There were even several times where the Prussian engineer Kevin was furious.

Until after the war was over, the Zhiyuan Warship would have a month and a half of time to carry out major maintenance!

Overloaded combat was a form of damage to warships, but from a different perspective it was an excellent opportunity for the Navy to exercise.

It was because of the overloading of the battleship that countless hidden troubles were exposed. In order to eliminate these hidden troubles, all of the Zhiyuan Warship soldiers put in all their effort to work, familiarizing themselves with the maintenance and operation of the Iron-armored Ship the fastest time possible.

Geniuses were too rare, and the reason for equipment to become effective was because the Chinese people were the first countries to completely rely on the Iron-armored Ship s and sea battles. In that case, Xiang Ying and his team's experience would be the top in the world.

Many of the little tricks they found in their work were valuable knowledge for those who came later.

With this group of elite students as the base, in the future, they would be able to train more elite students. Only with a sufficient reserve of talents from the Navy, more battleships would be able to form a combat force.

Standing on the deck of the Zhiyuan Warship, Xiao Letian could feel the changes in the temperament of this batch of Navy officers. In the beginning, he could still see a hint of panic and anxiety, but now that he saw these young men controlling the Zhiyuan Warship, what he felt most was a relaxed smile and a strong sense of confidence.

Perhaps this was how the realm of 'one with the ship' was developed!

Zhiyuan Warship was not the only warship on this trip to Europe. Xiao Letian's goal this time was very clear, other than diplomacy, his most important mission was to get involved in the Franco-Prussian War.

The Zhiyuan Warship was the flagship, the remaining seven Sail battleship were used as supply ships and attendants, Xiao Letian transferred a total of two thousand of his best veterans to form a special mixed unit.

Of the four enhanced battalions, five hundred units shall be under the command of the senior generals.

Xiao Hexin did not go with them but stayed behind to look after the house in East Asia. The mission of negotiating with Sha Russia and the Minister of France was also given to him.

Sima Yun had already reached the rank of general, but he could only be the First Battalion Commander and Chu Zhao was their deputy.

The Second Battalion Commander, Luo Huo, and Vice Battalion Commander, Lu Ying, were all old generals who had followed Xiao Letian from the very beginning.

Third Battalion, Battalion Commander Liang Kun, Vice Battalion Commander Jiang Lie, and Fourth Battalion are all formed by Foreign Legion, Battalion Commander Yepingtai and Vice Battalion Commander Bing Tai Lang.

This was already considered a very luxurious team. Luo Huo and Sima Yun were both generals of the same class, but they had also become first-string commanders in the special army. From this, one could tell the quality of this army.

It could be said to be one of the most highly qualified soldiers in the world at the time. Basically, each company had a 20% share of university students, and each platoon received an English translator, a French translator, and a German translator.

The literacy rate was 100%, the mathematical coverage rate was 70%. Every squad leader was able to perform complex operations on the map, and even if the real troops were dispersed into units and spread across the European continent, they would still be able to find their own direction of battle and survive.

Perhaps the military observers in Europe thought that the formation of 2,000 people was pitifully small. The Franco-Prussian War was destined to be a super great battle with more than a million people. Just what could they do with 2,000 people?

However, if their intelligence personnel could understand what kind of supplies their random battleship brought, they probably wouldn't have to ridicule it like this.

"War... Never do what you think is right... The soldiers that I, Xiao Letian, am leading, will always be victorious by breaking the old rules. This is also the only way for the later generations to challenge the pioneers! "

"For this battle, I have waited far too long …"