After hearing this, Liu Hai looked at Zhang Tao in front of him. Did this person have some secret agreement with Luocha country and use himself as the top of the tank?
But for now, I really need these battleships, so I can only endure it for the time being.
"That's it. Let's go to the war preparation warehouse later. I've already parked the oil and iron ore there."
So the two sides then handed over iron ore and oil in the war preparation warehouse, and Liu Hai received a large sum of money, which finally relieved some of the financial pressure.
After handling these important matters, Liu Hai entrusted Zhang Tao to order 200,000 pieces of cloth from the state-owned textile factory.
Zhang Tao was very happy that Liu Hai ordered cloth again. With these, he could once again support several textile factories that were on the verge of bankruptcy.
While Liu Hai was collecting supplies, Liu Hai took Wang Fang back to his hometown and held a grand wedding in his spare time.
This wedding was a sensation in villages and towns all over the country. It turned out that the boy from the old Liu family was delivering food in the city, but he didn't make much money. People originally despised him, but they didn't expect that he would become rich after not seeing each other for several years.
Judging from the preparations for this wedding, the guests were greeted with luxury and luxury.
Liu Hai's parents were also extremely satisfied with the grand occasion of their son's wedding, and he finally made a splash in front of his fellow villagers.
After getting married, Liu Hai hurriedly took Wang Fang back to City T because he was too pressed for time.
Fortunately, Zhang Tao was still capable of doing things, and he collected 200,000 pieces of cloth in a short time.
Liu Hai took the cloth and hurriedly returned to the Qing Dynasty. He did not care about rest. He immediately summoned all the military commanders and announced to the generals that he was going to lead the Nanyang Navy to Nanyang to appease the Chinese.
At this time, Liu Hai was going to Nanyang, preparing to take all the Nanyang Navy's battleships with him, so he had to be on guard at the Nanyang Navy's Wusongkou garrison.
Fortunately, the Nanyang Navy has marines. Their combat effectiveness is quite strong and their equipment is very well-equipped.
After the generals gathered together, Liu Hai announced at that time that the entire Nanyang Navy would go south and that Wusongkou, where the Nanyang Navy was stationed, would be put in charge of Army Staff General Liu Zhi.
At the same time, the entire Hunan Army is on alert. If something happens, Liu Zhi will replace Liu Hai and control the military and political power of the entire Liangjiang River.
In the next few days, the Nanyang Navy naturally prepared quickly. All warships, including the Jiangsu and Jiangxi ships, began to reorganize their armaments and load coal.
After the Nanyang Navy was reorganized, Liu Hai boarded the ironclad Jiangxi, using Jiangxi as the flagship, and raised the flag.
After that, the entire Nanyang Navy slowly left Wusongkou Pier and came to the sea outside Shanghai.
As a result, before they could go south, they spotted a fleet approaching slowly in the distance.
Liu Hai was taken aback. He took a telescope and looked at dozens of long lines of smoke in the distance. There was no foreign army with such power near the Qing Dynasty.
Just in case, Liu Hai had no choice but to order the Nanyang Navy to prepare for battle.
As a result, as the two fleets slowly approached, Liu Hai discovered that the leading flagship was flying the flag of the Beiyang Navy.
It turned out to be a false alarm, but thinking about it, only the Beiyang Navy had such a large scale near the Qing Dynasty.
At this time, Admiral Ding Ruchang of the Beiyang Navy, who was on the Dingyuan ship, also held a telescope and watched the Nanyang Fleet coming slowly from a distance.
I saw that this Nanyang Fleet was no longer what it used to be. There were two huge ships at the head. Looking at the tonnage and body, they were much larger than the Dingyuan ship I was sitting on.
In particular, the leading ironclad ship is not only well-equipped, but also has a huge tonnage and thick armor. To be honest, it should be stronger than the Dingyuan ship.
While Ding Richang was watching the Nanyang Fleet, the chief mate of the Dingyuan ship came over and reported: "The Nanyang Fleet sent a flag to say hello to the Beiyang Fleet."
Ding Richang nodded, and then said: "Send the flag, and the Beiyang Fleet also sends its regards to the Nanyang Navy."
Immediately afterwards, the other party sent another semaphore, asking about the purpose of the Beiyang Fleet.
Ding Richang smiled and said to Liu Buchan on the side: "This bangs is really cautious."
However, Liu Buchan was born in a major and was an arrogant leader of the Dingyuan ship. He simply looked down on people like Liu Hai who relied on connections to reach high positions.
"He's just a dandy. I don't know whether it's a blessing or a curse to entrust such a large-scale Nanyang Navy to him."
Ding Richang shook his head and said directly to the first officer next to him: "Inform the Nanyang Navy that our Beiyang Navy is going south to spend the winter in Hong Kong."
After a while, Liu Hai's Nanyang Navy came with a flag message, "The entire main force of the Nanyang Navy is preparing to go south to Nanyang to comfort the Chinese. For the time being, it is necessary to meet up with the Beiyang Navy and go south to Hong Kong together."
After Ding Richang heard this, he immediately issued a semaphore and agreed to the gathering of the Nanyang Navy and the Beiyang Navy.
Liu Hai received news on the ironclad Jiangxi that the Beiyang Navy had agreed to join the two navies.
So the Nanyang Navy was ordered to slowly approach the Beiyang Navy, and then the two naval divisions merged into one.
This time, the size of the combined fleet has doubled. They now have 4 battleships, 12 cruisers, plus other gunboats and torpedo boats. Their scale is unrivaled in Asia.
After the two fleets merged, Liu Hai thought for a while. Although he said that his official position was the same as that of Ding Richang, after all, his qualifications were much lower than his, and he could be considered a junior.
So he took a transport boat and left the ironclad Jiangxi and went to the Dingyuan to meet with Ding Richang, the admiral of the Beiyang Navy.
After receiving the signal and knowing that Liu Hai was coming to pay his respects, Ding Richang was quite satisfied. Although this junior did not know how to command operations, at least he knew how to respect his seniors.
Liu Hai boarded the Dingyuan ship and watched from a distance as Ding Richang, the Dingyuan ship's commander, Liu Buchan, and other officials were waiting there.
Liu Hai hurriedly stepped forward and saluted Ding Richang, "Old seniors, younger generations have bangs later, it's polite here."
Although Ding Richang said that he was older and could be considered Liu Hai's predecessor, their official positions were the same after all, so he couldn't really let Liu Hai salute him.
So Ding Richang took a few steps forward to hold his bangs, and said with a smile: "Mr. Liu, there is no need to be polite. Let's continue in the conference room."
So Liu Hai followed Ding Richang and many generals of the Nanyang Navy to the conference room of the Dingyuan ship.
After the two parties exchanged polite greetings, each explained its purpose to the other party in detail.
Then Ding Richang invited Liu Hai to have a casual meal on the Dingyuan ship. Liu Hai fully agreed to Ding Richang's invitation.
When the food came, Liu Hai felt a little embarrassed because there were several plates of Western food in front of him.
Liu Hai was a loser in modern times. He had never eaten Western food at all and did not understand the etiquette of Western food. Back to this level, although the Qing Dynasty Navy was biased towards Westernization, most of the Nanyang Navy had never been abroad.
I am still studying, so in terms of diet, I still mainly eat Chinese food.
But the Beiyang Navy is different. Most of their officers studied abroad in England or were trained by English instructors. I don’t know if they have learned anything else. What they learned in England is not bad at all, so in warships
Almost everyone here eats Western food.
Liu Hai looked at the plate in front of him and gestured with the knife and fork for a long time. Finally, he threw the knife and fork aside helplessly and asked the chef standing aside: "Do you have chopsticks here? Bring me a pair.
, I really can’t get used to using this knife and fork.”
The chef was stunned for a moment, then hurried out to prepare a new pair of bowls and chopsticks for Liu Hai and brought them to him.
Liu Buchan, who was not far away, felt funny in his heart when he saw Liu Hai making a fool of himself, and a smile appeared on his face.
Liu Hai picked up the steak in front of him with chopsticks, put it in a bowl and chewed it.
The sight of a cow chewing peonies made Liu Buchan next to him unable to hold back any longer and burst out laughing.
Liu Hai didn't pay much attention to it at first, but when he heard someone laughing, he raised his head and saw that it was Liu Buchan.
Liu Hai was a little unhappy at that time, "What are you doing?" He looked at me and laughed at me because I didn't know how to eat Western food. Didn't I have any respect for the superior?
So Liu Hai threw the chopsticks on the table, stood up, turned around and left.
When Ding Richang saw this scene, he immediately knew that Liu Buchan had made his bangs angry, so he hurried forward and grabbed his bangs.
"Master Liu, it's just a small matter, why should you be angry."
After Ding Richang finished speaking, he turned around, glared at Liu Buchan, and then said to her: "Why don't you come over quickly and apologize to Mr. Liu?"
Although Liu Buchan was arrogant and arrogant, he still knew some things about officialdom. When he saw that Liu Hai was about to leave in anger, he thought that if Liu Hai was allowed to leave, the Nanyang Navy and the Beiyang Navy would become like fire and water.
So he hurried over, pretended to salute Liu Hai, and then said with a smile: "Admiral Liu Haihan, I just thought of a joke and couldn't hold it back. Admiral Liu, don't take it seriously."
Although it was said that Liu Buchan apologized to Liu Hai, Liu Hai looked at him with a playful smile, and there was no way he was sincere.
Liu Hai was not happy now. He was thinking that I won't eat or drink from you. You are unhappy with me and I can't let you go easily. So he stared at Liu Buchan and asked: "This general
Who is he? Why does he look familiar to me?"
At this time, not only Liu Buchan was stunned, but Ding Richang and other officers on the side were also stunned.
When Liu Hai first arrived on the Dingyuan ship, didn't the two sides introduce each other? Why did Liu Hai ask Liu Buchan's name now?
Liu Buchan seemed to have felt something. He now cupped his hands in Yingcheng and said to Liu Hai: "In the Beiyang Navy, the commander of the left wing Dingyuan Ship Command, Liu Buchan."
Liu Hai heard the faint smile and looked at him, and then said proudly: "Since you are the commander-in-chief, why don't you give a military salute when you see this admiral?"
After Liu Hai said this, the other members of the Beiyang Navy also became gloomy. Even Ding Richang was a little unhappy. Seeing that Liu Hai wanted Liu Buchan to kowtow to him.