The cruise performance of the Zhiyuan was held as scheduled on the seventh day of the first lunar month. On that day, the weather in Ryukyu was surprisingly good. The sky was blue, the waves in the sea were thin and steady, and the warm Pacific sea breeze blowing from the southeast was so clean that it made people want to sing.
Notices from the Prime Minister's Mansion have long been plastered all over the streets. Everyone knows that the protagonist of the Atlantic Ghost Battleship story that was circulated on the market years ago is this magical armored battleship, the Zhiyuan.
No matter how many surprises Xiao Letian brings to millions of Chinese people, nothing will be as violent as this one. A lonely steel behemoth is rampaging across the distant ocean, like a ghost wolf hiding in the night, or even like a lonely tiger walking in the mountain forest, crushing all enemies in front of it with its unstoppable violent combat power.
Just one giant ship caused chaos in the entire Atlantic waterway. France later calculated that the tonnage lost by merchant ships alone had exceeded 4,500 tons. All of this was the result of the Zhiyuan's single effort.
The Battle of Dakar created a miracle that the whole of Europe could not believe. A warship bombed the entire port. In the end, flames burned two-thirds of the city. The French had been hoarding in the Dakar area for more than half a year. Tax dollars were looted.
To be honest, when the unbelievable news reached Europe, all intelligence agencies and politicians did not believe this bizarre intelligence. Everyone suspected that this was a French conspiracy.
Maybe it was an excuse for France to start a war, maybe it was just a pirate attack, and most of the city was burned down because of the incompetence of the French troops stationed there.
Some people even maliciously advertised in newspapers that the so-called bloody battle in Dakar was actually just a conspiracy written and directed by the governor in order to cover up his crime of embezzling taxes. The so-called mysterious battleship may have been decorated by the French navy itself. .
All kinds of rumors are spreading crazily on the European continent. Of course, there are contributions from Wing King Shi Dakai and Fangguan and others, but in any case, the proud Europeans do not believe that the Chinese can be so powerful. Of a battleship.
It was this arrogance that gave the Zhiyuan the best chance to break through. Until the Zhiyuan appeared in the battle of Iquique on the east coast of the Pacific in daylight, that glorious victory was like a loud slap on the face of a European gentleman. On the body, spicy redness, swelling and stinging pain.
It turns out that all of that is true. It turns out that the information Molière brought was not just a lie. There really is such a magical battleship in this world.
But after the Battle of Iquique, it was no longer possible to contain the Zhiyuan. Compared with the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific in the 19th century was a completely barren land.
There are very few golden waterways, and the number of islands on the high seas has not been determined. Trying to block a small warship in the huge sea area is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
After the Zhiyuan left Tahiti, it swaggered all the way north, passing through Hawaii, Honolulu, Midway Island, and the Ogasawara Islands... After carefully investigating the conditions of the North Pacific, it drew a beautiful arc on the map and returned directly to the main island of Ryukyu. .
This is why he appeared from the east coast of Ryukyu Island, because he had just re-measured the nautical chart of the Ogasawara Islands and even buried more than ten boundary monuments.
The Zhiyuan underwent seven consecutive days of emergency paint maintenance in the dry dock of the naval port. The quality of the paint in that era was far inferior to that of later generations. During this long journey back to the country, the Zhiyuan was covered with mottled rust, making it a freshly baked one. The little meat battleship was disguised as a wretched uncle-level killer battleship.
In fact, seven days was not enough at all. The engineers and sailors at the military port only repainted the outer hull of the ship, and the shellfish and oysters under the ship were simply scraped. Then the time for the cruise performance arrived.
All sailors were wearing brand-new navy uniforms. The blue and white uniforms were shaking in the warm sea breeze. Their feet were slightly apart and their hands were behind their backs, proudly accepting the cheers of the Ryukyu people.
When the Zhiyuan had just sailed out of the military port and bypassed Nanshan Beach and entered the prosperous western sea, a roar like a mountain roaring and a tsunami suddenly erupted from the beach and mountains. "The ironclad ship... is the Prime Minister's Zhiyuan... Long live!"
"Set off the firecrackers, set off the firecrackers..." Nanshan was full of people from top to bottom. The moment the sound of firecrackers filled the sky, it was impossible to distinguish the individual explosions. The sound of all the firecrackers joined together was like the sound of the tide when a storm approaches.
"Stand at attention! Salute..." the deck mate gave the order, and the javelin-like soldiers saluted the people on the shore, which was replaced by cheers from the crowd.
"Did you see it? That is a pure iron-clad battleship, the first in the world! We, the Prime Minister, built it..."
"This is not the kind of warship with a wooden hull covered with iron armor. This warship is made of steel from the inside to the outside. There is no use of any wood..."
"Oh my God, it's made of pure iron? Then we can float on the water? How come it doesn't sink..."
"Your grandma is so stupid! When a boat sails on the sea, its buoyancy mainly depends on the structure and style of the hull... Even if you tell me, you don't understand. Let alone iron, you are just building a boat with lead blocks. As long as the shape is reasonable, Can float..."
Everyone in the crowd was shouting at their necks, and those who were scolded and those who were scolded were not angry. The joy diluted all the unhappiness in people's hearts. At this moment, everyone was as intoxicated as if they had drunk fine wine.
A layman can watch the excitement and an expert can watch the door. At some of the best viewing locations in Nanshan, distinguished guests from all over the world took out their binoculars to carefully observe this mysterious giant ship, especially the military attaches stationed in Asia from Western countries. Extremely nervous.
Behind them, someone operated a camera to record the appearance of the Zhiyuan, and someone used a sketch pad to describe the details of the battleship's key parts. Everyone was serious and frowned. They were all experts and it didn't take them long to realize the strangeness of this battleship.
"The main guns are arranged on the central axis, and the canvas on the lower gun base is not tightly covered... It is definitely a rotating turret. The previous rumors are correct. This is really a unique warship. The designer's ideas are too bold..."
"Awesome! He actually created a style that we didn't dare to try and actually put it into practice? This kind of person is either a genius or a madman..."
"In the front and rear divisions of the central axis, in order to make up for the shortcomings in the number of artillery, he actually built a double gun turret? My God, how strong is the keel of this battleship? Once the double gun salvo fires, the recoil will not destroy this A battleship was shattered?"
Experts are experts, and artillery covered with canvas can allow them to analyze where the weak points are.
"The caliber of the artillery must be at least 180 mm... No, no, no, look at the raised shape of the canvas, it must be at least 200 mm or more... And why is the caliber so large? It would be impossible to build such a gun barrel without 100,000 pounds. !”
"It's too luxurious. This battleship is too expensive! No wonder the French suffered a loss. No wonder the Iquique naval battle turned into a massacre. This kind of battleship design concept is different from ours!"
