Standing on the pier of Dagu Port in Tianjin, Li Zhi frowned as he looked at the large number of people watching the excitement near the pier.
There is only a hundred meters between the military port and the civilian port. Many people stood on the berths of the civilian port and looked hard at the warships here. The tall iron-armored warships obviously made the people very curious.
Li Zhi said unhappily: "In the future, the distance between warships and civilian berths must be at least three hundred meters."
The port governor in charge of the dock management turned pale and quickly replied: "Yes...yes, Your Majesty, I will do it right away."
He no longer accompanied Li Zhi, but went to re-plan the berth.
Li Zhi took a closer look at the ironclad ships lining up at the berth.
"How many ironclads can we dispatch this time?"
Navy Commander Lu Hu cupped his hands and replied: "Your Majesty, in addition to leaving fifteen armored ships to patrol various places and maintain basic sea control, we can also dispatch forty armored ships to attack Batavia."
"Today's ironclad ships have been upgraded. According to the prince's words, they have been replaced with cannons. They are all new ships with a displacement of 700 tons."
Li Zhi nodded and walked forward for a short distance on the pier. Seeing the gangway of an ironclad ship on the pier, Li Zhi strolled onto an ironclad ship.
As soon as we got on the ship, we saw many navy soldiers in white uniforms chatting on the ship. We were not in a state of combat readiness at this time, and the soldiers looked very relaxed.
However, when they saw Commander Lu Hu and Fleet Captain Shi Dingping escorting a man wearing a four-clawed golden dragon robe onto the ship, the soldiers immediately realized that this must be the prince. Unexpectedly, they actually saw the legendary prince with their own eyes. The Navy
The soldiers were so excited that they immediately raised their hands and saluted.
Li Zhi saluted the soldiers and walked directly to the lower artillery deck.
Iron-core, copper-bodied cannons were placed on the gun carriages, covering the second and third decks.
Li Zhi asked: "How many gun positions does this ship have?"
Lu Hu smiled and replied proudly: "Your Majesty, each of our new ironclad ships now has forty-two gun positions. There is one gun position at the bow and stern. There are eighteen gun positions on the second deck, and there are eighteen gun positions on the third deck.
There are twenty-two gun emplacements on the first deck.”
"These artillery pieces are all twenty-four pounder front-loading rifled guns, using cone-shaped explosive shells. If the entire fleet of forty ironclads fired a salvo, one broadside shot would be a salvo of eight hundred artillery pieces."
"Your Majesty, there are eight hundred gates!"
A salvo of eight hundred artillery pieces was indeed terrifying to say the least.
Li Zhi nodded and continued walking to the lower deck.
Lu Hu quickly said: "Your Majesty, the boiler deck below is dirty."
Li Zhi shook his head and said, "Go down and have a look!"
The boiler deck on the bottom was indeed oilier than the place above, and the space was more crowded and narrow. However, the steam engine boiler was not running at this time, and there were only a few maintenance personnel slowly maintaining the machine, and the temperature was not very high.
Li Zhi looked at the pile of coal on one side of the boiler and asked, "Where does the coal come from?"
Lu Hu replied: "Back to my lord, what is being burned is clean coal shipped from Shanxi. Now that the pressure of the steam engine has increased, the firepower for burning ordinary coal is not enough, and the pressure of the boiler is not enough."
Li Zhi asked again: "Has the steam engine been replaced?"
Lu Hu replied: "Yes, Your Majesty. After the steam engine factory advanced in technology, it gave us priority to replace the machine. The steam engine was replaced three years ago. Although the ironclad ship has become a large ship of 700 tons, the steam engine has greater horsepower and the speed is actually the same."
Up. Now our ship can make eleven knots at full speed."
Li Zhi looked around and said: "The sanitation of the boiler deck needs to be improved. The navy uses the most advanced weapons, but we must make good use of them."
Lu Hu's face sank, and he quickly stood upright, saluted, and said: "What the prince taught us is that we must correct it!"
Li Zhi walked to the boiler, opened the combustion chamber, looked at it, and said, "Has the battle plan for the attack on Batavia been finalized?"
Lu Hu saluted again and said: "Back to your lord, we have already made a battle plan. If the Dutch's six battleships attack, we will sink them in the open sea. If the enemy does not attack, we will control the sea power."
, covering the landing of the army on Java Island and attacking the Batavia fortress."
Li Zhi heard the plan and nodded.
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Kuhn looked at Wu Yingxiong, who was kneeling respectfully, with a very gloomy expression.
"Li Zhi wants to attack Batavia?"
The translator translated the governor's words to Wu Yingxiong. Wu Yingxiong nodded, raised his head and said, "Mr. Governor, it's like this. I'm afraid that in two months, after the Chinese New Year, Li Zhi's fleet will go south."
Wu Yingxiong is now serving as the Dutch intelligence chief for the Ming Dynasty in Batavia.
Because Wu Sangui's old subordinates fled throughout the Ming Dynasty, these people became Wu Yingxiong's natural informants, so Wu Yingxiong could know the intelligence of various places in the Ming Dynasty through letters. For the Dutch who could not penetrate into the Ming Dynasty because of their skin color, although the information provided by Wu Yingxiong was delayed,
But it is a rare source of consultation for them.
You must know that the Jiangbei Army that originally provided intelligence to the Dutch has been destroyed, and the Dutch have fewer and fewer intelligence sources. But Li Zhi of the Ming Dynasty is the number one enemy of the Netherlands. After war after war over the years, Li Zhi and
The Dutch had become mortal enemies.
Kuhn's adjutant had a look on his face and said: "Governor, we have three thousand soldiers in Batavia, two hundred and seventy-four coastal defense heavy artillery, and we also have thirty thousand Malay soldiers. We can meet Li Zhi."
The challenge!"
The Dutch translator looked at the adjutant, but did not translate his words to Wu Yingxiong.
Kuhn looked at the adjutant and sneered.
He looked at the translator and said: "How can three thousand soldiers fight Li Zhi? Those Malay soldiers are vulnerable, let alone the opponent of the Tiger Army."
The adjutant's face turned pale and he said: "What should we do? Governor, we have ruled in Batavia for thirty-three years. We have built a strong bastion, a tall military camp, and a spacious dock here. How many people do we have here?
Thousands of Han slaves, and more than 70 Malay chiefs on nearby islands have surrendered to us."
Kuhn sighed and said: "Sean Kang, it's time to go. It's time for us to leave the Far East."
The adjutant said in a panic: "Governor, do we not want the Far East?"
Kuhn shook his head and said: "We only have three thousand people in the Far East. With six battleships, how can we be Li Zhi's opponent? Let's go back to Europe and re-formulate the plan to suppress Li Zhi."
The adjutant turned paler and looked at the city of Batavia outside the window, speechless.
Kuhn looked at Wu Yingxiong who was kneeling on the ground and said: "Wu Yingxiong, three thousand of us are going to India to perform a mission. In four months, a large force from Europe will return to Batavia. I will give you a mission."
You lead 30,000 Malay soldiers and stand firm in Batavia, waiting for our support from Europe!"
The Dutch translator promptly restarted the translation and relayed Kuhn's words to Wu Yingxiong.
