In the late Qing Dynasty, the court had a headache when hearing the word "diplomacy". On the one hand, foreigners were too arrogant, and on the other hand, the court lacked such talents. They were basically illiterate in various Western laws and regulations.
What's even more terrible is that until the Qing Dynasty finally fell, it actually never let go of the false pretense of being a great country. Many diplomatic officials negotiated with European powers not in accordance with the public laws of all countries, but in the Forbidden City.
When Empress Dowager Cixi was in power, diplomats had to listen to the Empress Dowager in everything they wanted to do. Sometimes they knew clearly that what the Empress Dowager said was unreasonable and would make Westerners laugh or misunderstand it, but who dared to disobey her? Do you still want your head or your official position?
Therefore, in the decades of the late Qing Dynasty, whoever engaged in diplomacy was unlucky. He was criticized every day, and the foreign queen mother did not look good on both sides.
Even though Shen Baozhen worked very hard in running shipyards and schools, once he encountered this kind of negotiation work, his first thought was to go to Beijing to escape.
"Send the report, send the report quickly! Remember, you must write down the fact that I was knocked unconscious. Someone come here! The training ship docked and took me off the ship."
The training ship sailed upstream along the Min River and soon docked at a cargo terminal along the river. When Shen Baozhen was lifted off the ship by a bamboo chair, he grabbed Ri Yige with one hand and Yan Fu with the other and whispered, "This paragraph Time has stopped all other classes. All the sailboats in the shipyard and school are available for you to use all the students to go to the sea to train and inquire about the situation! I can't worry about the emperor."
Master Shen was worried about the emperor, but the little emperor Zai Chun may not know his filial piety from Shen Baozhen. At this moment, Zai Chun was completely crazy.
The current Zhiyuan cannot be said to be in combat with those entangled enemy ships. The two sides are as scared as fighting a wolf. Wennia ordered the fleet to keep a distance, and the Zhiyuan was unwilling to waste precious shells. The two sides just dragged on, Spending time, as if waiting for something.
What are you waiting for? Xiang Ying knew very well that everyone was waiting for the night to come. Only when night comes will both sides have an excuse to withdraw their troops, otherwise the stalemate will continue like this.
It was much safer during the war. Zai Chun's ban came into contact. Under the protection of several sailors, the little emperor began to visit this magical warship in detail.
Xiao Letian and Xiang Ying were analyzing the charts in the command cabin and rehearsing the next battle plan until four o'clock in the afternoon when Xiang Ying issued a new order.
"Send an order to the boiler room to stop burning white coal and take out the coal we specially prepared and burn it!"
"What? What did you prepare specially?" Xiao Letian asked in confusion.
Xiang Ying poured a cup of coffee for the Prime Minister, "Prime Minister, just watch and you will understand in a moment."
The boiler room received the order and immediately began to replace the coal. In just over twenty minutes, Xiao Letian watched as the Zhiyuan's chimney began to spit out black smoke. The thick smoke billowed out and drew a dark line of smoke in the sky. Belt, the sailors on the deck shook their heads, and ashes were flying everywhere in the air.
"Haha, I asked Kailuan to specially prepare some high-sulfur miscellaneous coal, just to use it to paralyze the enemy's command, depressurize the boiler, and reduce the ship's speed."
"Prime Minister! Since we want the enemy to be fooled, we must take the initiative to show weakness. What better way to deceive the enemy than a boiler failure on the Zhiyuan?"
At 4:30 that afternoon, General Vinya on the Diamond discovered something unusual about the Zhiyuan. The apparently light smoke belt suddenly billowed with thick smoke, and the speed of the Zhiyuan also slowed down a lot, which made him extremely excited.
"Hahaha! God bless the Tsar, God bless Russia! If that damn battleship breaks down, it must be a boiler failure. Let me just say, there is no perfect technology in this world, and anything that is too advanced cannot be tested."
"Prussia is not Britain and France, and their industrial strength is only comparable to that of Tsarist Russia. We can't build such a warship, so how can they? Even if they can build it, there are many hidden dangers! Sure enough, God bless us, Ula !”
The soldiers on the Diamond were morale-boosted by the captain, and there were excited roars and shouts of "Long Live Ula" everywhere.
"Captain, while the enemy warship is malfunctioning, let's rush up and kill them! What a great opportunity this is," an adjutant suggested stupidly.
"Fart! The enemy has a boiler malfunction, not a main gun malfunction. What are we going to do if we rush up to it? Are we going to get bombed? I didn't realize that the battleship is just slowing down, not losing power. Are we asking for trouble if we go up to it?"
"You remember, this naval battle is a big warning to us. Our first task in Asia is to save the Far East, not to be brave and aggressive! Don't underestimate these Easterners, you should still be careful."
"I have remembered it all. From now on, try not to attack Ryukyu ships on the sea. In addition, we should modify the waterway so that we don't get too close to Ryukyu Island. I heard that the forts there are very powerful. Let's not touch that nail!"
"Keep your distance and wait until it gets completely dark. Then we will go north to join the main force. I never want to see this battleship again in my life."
Xiao Letian looked at the Russian fleet that was getting further away. He and Xiang Ying looked at each other and smiled, knowing that these ferocious polar bears were finally scared and everything was going according to plan.
At this moment, Zai Chun suddenly shouted from outside the command cabin, "Master! Look to the east! There is a big island!"
Everyone looked in the direction of Zai Chun's finger, and sure enough there was traces of land at the end of the southeast direction. Looking back at the chart and the position of the Zhiyuan, people could be sure that it was Taiwan.
"That's Taiwan Island! This is an island that has not been developed by the Qing Dynasty until now. It's a pity that we don't have time this time. If you have a chance next time, I will definitely take you to the island to have a look."
Zai Chun ran back to the command room and lay down on the chart to carefully study the topographic map of Taiwan Island. "Islands that were not developed by the Qing Dynasty? Why? Why were they not developed?"
Xiao Letian shrugged, "God knows what the people in Beijing think. Since the Qianlong period, Fu Kang'an was the famous Fu Cha family of Fu Hui's family. After he put down the rebellion of Lin Shuangwen in Taiwan, he should have been We took advantage of the opportunity to develop this treasure island, but I don’t know what you were thinking, and then you actually closed the island again.”
"Until now, the imperial court still has three major prohibitions that have not been lifted. The first is to prohibit people from the mainland from crossing the sea to Taiwan, the second is to prohibit Taiwanese and Han people from entering the Fanjie and contact with ethnic groups such as the Gaoshan people, and the third is to prohibit private forging of iron tools."
"Think about it for yourself, with these three prohibitions, do you still expect this island to be developed?"
