In Kaohsiung in September, the heat of midsummer has gone away, and the sea breeze has also brought a bit of coolness. 【Full text reading】Visit and download txt novel* library xguan.*
The Beginning of Spring was quietly moored in Kaohsiung Port. This sail-steam hybrid cruiser, "the pride of the Senate Navy", had just undocking from Bopu and returned to its home port of Kaohsiung. The entire battleship took on a new look, and even the sailors looked particularly energetic.
After almost a year of cruising, throughout the summer, Beginning of Spring underwent comprehensive maintenance and overhaul at the Bobu Shipyard, and some parts that exposed problems were replaced - the products of the machinery factory have improved with the skills of naturalized migrant workers. Each batch got better than the last, and now they could replace the shoddy products of the early days with good parts.
The Lichun's firepower has not been significantly adjusted, but a fully designed 5-barreled Hotchkiss-style manual rotating cannon has been installed experimentally. It is called "testing Type 3 and Type 4 naval automatic cannon".
The purpose of the weapons design team was to use it to replace typewriters on some naval ships: after all, 30mm grenade is much more efficient at destroying small ships than 13mm lead. The larger body can also hold a variety of different potions - it is planned to come with three potions: pomegranate, armor-piercing and incendiary. However, it is only equipped with armor piercing for the time being.
The 5-barreled Hotchkiss manual rotating gun is an automatic artillery similar to the Gatling, but its structure is much simpler than the Gatling multi-barreled gun, so it was selected as the Navy's rapid-fire artillery.
The original Hotchkiss manual rotating gun used the 37x94r, which was a deformed product of the "St. Petersburg Declaration" stipulation that the weight of the explosive head should not be less than 400 grams. Since the head can only be loaded with 15-20 grams of black powder, it will explode like a large firecracker. With a head weighing more than half a kilogram, the muzzle velocity is only a pitiful 367ms, and the track performance is a mess.
Considering that the targets of the navy's small rapid-fire guns are enemy boats and sailors on the decks of enemy ships, the caliber does not require too much blasting power. Reducing the caliber can reduce the weight of the gun. Not only can the number of installations on large ships be increased, but it can also be adapted to various needs such as sampan guns and naval support artillery. To improve track performance. The diameter of the gun was changed to 25 times, and the length of the gun was also lengthened. After such improvements, the muzzle velocity and track performance of the Lingao version of the 5-barreled Hotchkiss manual rotating gun have been upgraded to a higher level than the original version. The theoretical rate of fire can reach one hundred rounds per minute.
However, to use this kind of artillery, a fixed charge must be used. Since the drawing of brass shells has not yet been put on the development agenda of the Planning Institute, a rolled shell with a simpler process is used. Although it is not very reliable, it is easy to use. And difficult. In order to recycle the shells, a shell recycler is specially equipped.
It was not the first time that the Beginning of Spring came to Kaohsiung, but its reappearance made people from all walks of life who were closely watching the movements of the Australians in Kaohsiung suddenly become nervous.
This one was spewing black smoke. The "giant ship" with sails hanging is not the "holy ship" in Lingao that never moves - many people think that the holy ship will not move at all - the beginning of spring often patrols the sea, and the black smoke emitted, It can be seen clearly from more than ten miles away.
The most terrifying thing is that even if you see its black smoke from more than ten miles away, it won't take long to catch up with it. Watching its dark and huge hull pass proudly with white waves rolling by, and the black and thick cannons standing on the deck - this is enough to make people who are dissatisfied with the Australians despair.
It suddenly reappeared in the Taiwan Strait, causing the undercurrent in the strait to surge again.
Li Siya received a letter from Zheng Zhifeng again. This time, Zheng Zhifeng made a request.
Ever since Lin Shimao disappeared mysteriously, Zheng Zhifeng already knew that Li Siya's seemingly foolproof plan had been exposed - except, of course, that the Australians kidnapped him. Li Siya may also make him "disappear" for the purpose of silencing him, but the lack of response from the Dutch in Da Yuan and other places shows that their alienation plan has not been successful. Through Guo Huaiyi's activities, Zheng Zhifeng had a general understanding of what happened in Kaohsiung, including the entire action process and the Australians' response.
How strange. Zheng Zhifeng thought to himself that no matter from which point of view, Li Siya's plan was executed perfectly: according to his opinion, Li Siya's arrangement was perfect. Every link can easily cut off the clues. In particular, the woman she sent decisively committed suicide when she was arrested, which can be said to have cut off the last clue. It can be called the most brilliant case - why can the Australians catch Lin Shimao with such predictability?
Could it be that the Australians have spies working undercover with Li Siya or in the Zheng family? Or do they really have some sorcery? Zheng Zhifeng thought of the many shocking rumors about Lingao that Lin Yishao had recently brought back. In his last letter, he said that he was going to sneak into Lingao and collect information about many Australians.
But all this is important to Zheng Zhifeng. Now that the Australians have caught Lin Shi's hat. Naturally, it is understood 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 families does not stop even in the summer - large waves of shipping ships flying the Morning Star flag continue to bring Fujian's most urgently needed and profitable goods: salt. The various goods transported at the same time made the Zheng family very rich. But the Zheng brothers all know that this is just superficial harmony - the Australians have important things to do at the moment and are not willing to go to war with them for the time being.
Once their work is done, the Australians will show their claws unceremoniously - is there any benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom and trust in this East Asian sea? Don't say that the Australians only have a business relationship with them. Looking back not many years ago, Li Kuiqi and Zheng Zhilong were still "brothers".
The five years of Chongzhen have so far been a year of great development and smooth sailing for the Zheng family. In March, Xiong Wencan, who was originally in charge of recruitment matters, was promoted to governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. This is a pity for the Zheng family: Xiong Wencan is Zheng Zhilong. Take money to stuff people who are full. However, Zou Weilian is not a difficult person to deal with. Zou Weilian served as the official of Yanping during the Wanli period, so he knew the local folk customs, barbarian sentiments and coastal defense.
When Zou Weilian arrived in Fujian, Zheng Zhilong happened to wipe out the remnants of Chen Wan and Zhong Lingxiu who were roaming the land and sea in Fujian area, so he was promoted to guerrilla general. In May, Zhong Ling's Xiu Yu party again caused chaos with 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 prepared to transfer 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, and he had the intention of directly invading the provincial capital. Zou Weilian did not dare to hesitate and immediately left Zheng Zhilong behind to deal with Liu Xiang. At this moment, he was mobilizing troops and generals, preparing to defeat Liu Xiang's troops who invaded Fujian in one fell swoop.
Although Liu Xiang directly invaded Min'an and had the intention of 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 larger group among the "bandits" on the Guangdong sea. However, they suddenly became prosperous by relying on ingenious things such as large iron ships, and they did not interfere with overseas trade at all. But since their ships invaded Guangzhou and burned Wuyang Station, the Zheng family's view of them has changed greatly.
Now, although Liu Laoxiang is still patrolling the Shantou and Shanwei areas, harassing the coast of Fujian, and constantly sending ships to Batavia and Manila, apparently to compete with the Zheng family for Western trade, a very serious threat has been reported from Japan. News: The Australian envoy was operating in the Five Islands area and hooked up with the Zhou family who had received the shogunate's seal! Not only that, they even went deep into Hirado.
Hirado is like a second hometown to Zheng Zhilong, and it is also where he started.
When Australians go to Japan, they know what they want to do without asking.
It's simply too much trouble!
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 up.
For this reason, Zheng Zhilong has changed his primary enemy to the Australians.
Although Li Siya is no longer trusted, she is the one who knows the most about the Australians and has dealt with them directly, so the crucial intelligence collection work still falls on her head: the first thing to bear the brunt of is whether the Australians have any How many people and ships are there?
The first item in the letter was to ask her to provide detailed information about the Australian's largest warship, the Beginning of Spring.
It was no surprise to Li Siya that Zheng Zhilong wanted to open fire with the Australians: it was a matter of time. But it is a bit difficult for her to obtain the naval strength of the Lichun and the Australians.
Yes, she did roughly piece together the Australian naval strength based on a lot of scattered information, and was able to describe the appearance and some performance of the iron ship, but it was only second-hand information after all - even Li Huamei had not been on any of them." Australian ship "belching black smoke".
However, she is very sure that Zheng Zhilong is no match for the Australians. From this point of view, she also had to do her best to help Zheng Zhilong recover from some decline, so as to prevent the sea from becoming a world dominated by Australians - then she would have nothing to do.
This matter can only be entrusted to one's own nurse - and only Li Huamei, who is about to join the Australian group, can know the real secrets of these ships.
It's early September now. Under normal circumstances, Nanny's Hangzhou cruise ship should return to Macau at the end of August - now is the right time.
She sat down and began to write a secret letter using the potion.
