Rebirth of the Northern Giants

Another morning, Ye Zhikui stepped out of the cabin, walked to the deck of the 'Dingyuan', stretched his waist, smelled the fishy smell of the sea breeze, and watched the fleet slowly move forward, bringing waves rolling, group after group Seagulls passed by above the fleet from time to time. At this moment, Ye Zhikui felt so peaceful in his heart, thinking, it would be great if there were no wars in this world.

"Congyun, why do you wake up so early, don't take a rest." Deng Shichang walked over neatly dressed and in good spirits.

Ye Zhikui turned his head and smiled wryly, "I'm no better than Brother Deng. I can't sleep well on this warship."

Deng Shichang laughed at himself: "That is, Dingyuan is my second home."

Ye Zhikui rolled his eyes, changed the subject intentionally or unintentionally, and asked Deng Shichang: "Now the capital is making a fuss about the political reform. Lafayette and the emperor are using their own methods. I heard that Kang Youwei wrote a note asking for the system to be opened." The emperor is very happy, and has been urging the ministers to agree, the emperor wants to take the bottom line and make Lafayette empty, brother Deng, who do you prefer?"

Deng Shichang was stunned for a moment, apparently he didn't expect Ye Zhikui to ask such a serious question suddenly, he paused for a moment, and then replied with a smile: "We Beiyang Navy doesn't care, we will support whoever can support us!"

When Ye Zhikui heard this, he also joked, "If this is the case, the money my brother sells opium is enough to support the Beiyang navy. If this is the case, wouldn't Brother Deng want to support the younger brother instead?"

Deng Shichang said meaningfully: "No one can say what will happen in the future. If you really have the heart from Congyun, so what if I, Deng Shichang, support you."

Then Deng Shichang looked around, and said in a low voice: "The current imperial court has long been chilling. Since Zhongtang stepped down from the position of Beiyang minister, the silver court of our navy has been delayed as long as it can. Beloved, if you don't do some smuggling work from time to time, I really don't know how to maintain it. Congyun, you are another great talent in Beiyang after Zhongtang. From now on, Brother Beiyang is still optimistic about you. I hope you can go further."

Ye Zhikui didn't expect the Beiyang Navy to have such a difficult time.Unable to understand, he asked: "Our Beiyang navy is also the strongest naval fleet of the Qing Dynasty. The imperial court will not treat each other like this, will it destroy the Great Wall?"

The corner of Deng Shichang's mouth twitched, and he said: "That's Congyun, you never knew the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty. Although the imperial court pulls out silver taels every year, after the hands of the princes and ministers in the capital, it is only enough for the brother to pay the military salary. Well, the situation was fine before, anyway, Li Zhongtang valued our Beiyang, and asked the court for money and food from time to time. Now that Rong Lu has come to power, he doesn't know anything about the Navy. He would rather spend ten taels of silver on the army than spend one tael more on the navy."

Ye Zhikui was a little embarrassed, this may be because he cried to Rong Lu every day for money, which made Rong Lu neglect the navy.

Deng Shichang went on to say: "The last time I asked the imperial court to buy new warships for my brother, Lord Rong actually said that the Beiyang Navy is not enough compared to the top, but more than the bottom. It is enough to dominate in East Asia, but it is impossible to buy more warships than the Western countries. country, so it’s better not to buy it, but to spend the money on the army. My brother was so angry at that time, he almost quarreled with him, Mr. Rong.”

Ye Zhikui rolled his eyes again, and sighed: "Nowadays, the imperial court is troubled by internal and external troubles, and the people are struggling to survive. I am losing the hearts of the people. As the admiral of Zhili, I am very worried. Tell me, brother, if there are Han people who propose to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty, Brother Deng, do you think that the younger brother's status is too high?" Is it better for the Han people to be a butcher's knife in the hands of the court, or to watch from the sidelines?"

Deng Shichang smiled cunningly after hearing this, and said, "You have to ask Congyun about your own heart. I believe that Congyun will not choose these two paths, but has another path."

Ye Zhikui laughed loudly and said: "Brother, you really know how to joke, but I heard that many soldiers in the navy were dissatisfied with the court, and some even said such words as overthrowing the court. It seems that you should be the one who has a headache, not the younger brother. This country's blessed general who has always been loyal to the imperial court."

Deng Shichang smiled inwardly and said: Congyun, you have tested me time and time again. If you are loyal from Congyun, then the Qing Dynasty will not find another person who is not loyal. However, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has been in the customs for many years. It's all over, I, Deng Shichang, only want to keep the navy fleet in troubled times, I hope you can take care of yourself from Congyun.

Deng Shichang and Ye Zhikui had their own thoughts, and they were silent for a moment, having nothing to say.

When Deng Shichang and Ye Zhikui were relatively speechless, on the observation deck of the 'Dingyuan', a navy officer and soldier was looking around boredly through the binoculars, when three black smoke suddenly appeared in the distance. In the middle, the watchman took a closer look and found that there were three warships, all of which were flying the German flag. Regardless of his thinking, the watchman immediately sounded the alarm.

After the alarm sounded, the officers and soldiers on the 'Dingyuan' ship immediately got busy, and the first officer of the tube came to report to Deng Shichang not long after. .”

Ye Zhikui followed Deng Shichang into the captain's room step by step, and saw that it was already busy inside, with heralds running around. After Deng Shichang entered the door, he first ordered the Beiyang Fleet to enter a state of emergency combat readiness.

Then the first officer reported the situation to him carefully, and said: "Admiral, these are three warships of the German Far East Fleet, and they are now approaching our Beiyang Navy without any haste. It seems that they have also seen us."

Deng Shichang originally closed his eyes to listen to the report, but suddenly opened them and said, "Send my order to all ships to prepare for battle, and send a signal to the German fleet to stop advancing."

The first officer hurriedly led away, and after a while, the entire fleet formed a V-shaped battle echelon and sailed forward.

On the German Far East Fleet's flagship "Mustache", Captain Altman was standing on the bridge, holding up binoculars and looking at more than a dozen warships of the Beiyang Navy. Worried, he said: "General, the Beiyang Fleet of the Qing Dynasty is too powerful. The other party has sent a signal asking us to stop advancing. Should we stop advancing first?"

Altman stroked his beard, shook his head and said: "There is no declaration of war between China and Germany. Now this place, the imperial fleet can also sail, as long as we don't fire first. I believe that the Qing fleet will not dare to fire. Pass my order to All ships, ignore the signals from the Qing people, let's continue to rush over and show those yellow-skinned monkeys the technology of the Imperial Navy."

"Yes, General." The chief mate quickly saluted and responded. Not only did the three German ships not slow down, but they even sped up and rushed forward.

In the captain's room of the 'Dingyuan', Deng Shichang and Ye Zhikui watched the three German fleets approaching with serious faces, neither firing nor stopping.Even Ye Zhikui, an idiot in water warfare, can see that if the normal speed is followed, the two sides will collide within ten minutes.

To let or not to let, this is a question, if not let, who will be responsible for the collision in the end; if let, three German warships actually let more than a dozen Chinese warships make way for him, if it spreads, the Beiyang Navy will definitely Become a joke among the Navy.

The herald was waiting for his order. Deng Shichang gritted his teeth, raised his hand, let out a sigh of relief, and said, "The flagship fired a warning!"

Ye Zhikui's heart tightened, he couldn't just fight like this.

With a sound of 'boom', the main gun of Dingyuan's bow sprayed out a long flame, and the shell landed not far from the 'Mustache', causing a long spray of water.

"General, the Qing Dingyuan has fired, what should we do? Shall we fight back?" The first officer hurried over to ask Altman.

Altman took off his glasses, wiped them lightly, and said, "Don't be nervous, my boy, this is just a warning from the enemy. We don't pay attention to it, and don't fire back, but move on."

"Yes!" The first officer admired the old general very much, but he didn't feel worried at all until now.

On the 'Dingyuan', the herald looked at Deng Shichang again. The German warship was already very close. Ship, get out of the way!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Deng Shichang fell down as if he had exhausted all his strength, looked at Ye Zhikui and said, "Congyun, am I bearing the burden of humiliation or am I too timid to fight?"

Ye Zhikui quickly stepped forward to help him up, and comforted him: "Brother Deng, your choice is right. The country is strong and weak, so we can only let foreign fleets rampage in our waters. Believe me, one day we will kill these bandits. drive away."

Deng Shichang looked at Ye Zhikui's firm eyes, held his hand tightly and said, "I believe in you, Cong Yun."

The 'Mustache', 'Antelope', and 'William' swaggered past the entire fleet under the avoidance of more than a dozen Qing warships. If you stood on the deck, you could even see the German sailors' arrogance. Hearing the arrogant laughter of the German sailors, the eyes of the navy officers and soldiers on the Beiyang warships were about to burst into flames, and everyone clenched their fists.

Ye Zhikui patted Deng Shichang on the shoulder, said with a sullen face, "Don't worry! Brother Deng, just watch how my little brother avenges you."

.......................................

Brothers, help to go to Sanjiang Pavilion to cast a ticket, as long as it takes 1 minute of your time, Xiao Chong will be very grateful.Thanks to the classmate "Mango is very sour" for the reward, I am very grateful.

Chapter 70 This is just a threat

On the 'Mustache', the first officer looked at his captain Altman with admiring eyes, and even boasted in his mouth: "General, you are really good at predicting things, and more than a dozen ships of the Beiyang Fleet were unexpectedly lost by three of us. The warship dodged aside in fright, the Qing people are really cowardly, but general, I have a question, if they don't get out of the way, are we really going to collide with them?"

Altman touched his mustache proudly, and said indifferently: "How can I let the imperial warriors sacrifice in vain? In fact, I have calculated the distance and will not run into them. It's a pity that the Qing people did not The guts to see our technology."

The first officer suddenly realized, praised repeatedly, and then asked: "General, shall we set sail and go back?"

Altman shook his head again and again, and replied with a smile: "Child, it's still early, how can we go back so quickly, pass my order, the whole ship turns around, and continues to follow the Beiyang Navy, this time we will severely humiliate them some."

On the 'Dingyuan', Ye Zhikui and Deng Shichang boarded the bridge, watching the German Far East Fleet follow closely. The situation looked like more than a dozen warships in Beiyang were being driven away by three warships of the German Navy.

Deng Shichang couldn't help gritting his teeth secretly, Ye Zhikui frowned and said: "Brother Deng, out of sight, out of mind, I haven't seen the firepower of our ship, why don't you explain it to me."

Knowing that Ye Zhikui intended to divert his attention, Deng Shichang was grateful, and said as he walked, "In that case, let me explain to Congyun that Dingyuan has four Krupp breech-loading guns,..."

Along the way, Deng Shichang gave Ye Zhikui a detailed introduction to the weaponry on the Dingyuan. Ye Zhikui listened to too many technical terms, his head swelled, and he felt that his head was much bigger.

Unknowingly, the two walked to the stern torpedo tube. At this time, Xu Zhenpeng, the first torpedo officer of the 'Dingyuan' ship, was looking angrily at the following 'Mustache', and saw Ye Zhikui and Deng Shichang walking in. Hastily stepped forward to salute.

Ye Zhikui returned the salute, and then asked Deng Shichang curiously: "Brother Deng, our Dingyuan only has three torpedo tubes in total. Isn't that too small?"

Deng Shichang rested his forehead with his hands. Along the way, Ye Zhikui often asked some weird questions, but he was too embarrassed not to answer them. I don't know how many brain cells he wasted trying to answer.Fortunately, I finally saw my first torpedo mate here, so he pointed at Xu Zhenpeng and said, "Ji Cheng, take Mr. Ye to look around. I'm a little dizzy, so I'm going to blow some air outside."

Xu Zhenpeng's eyes lit up when he heard Deng Shichang's order, and he clasped his fists and said to Ye Zhikui, "Master Ye, this way please. As for why there are only three torpedo tubes, we won't talk about this for now. Come on, my officer will let you take a closer look at the torpedo launchers." No matter what it looks like!"

Following Xu Zhenpeng's guidance, Ye Zhikui leaned his eyes to observe carefully. Taking advantage of him not paying attention, Xu Zhenpeng gave a slight signal to a torpedo bomber next to him, and the bomber quickly installed it while Ye Zhikui was paying attention to other places. A torpedo, and then secretly adjusted its direction towards the German ship behind.

Seeing this, Xu Zhenpeng was secretly happy and a little excited. He smiled slightly at the bomber, nodded his approval, and then pulled Ye Zhikui to the side of the control buttons, patiently explaining the function of each button to him.

Inadvertently, Xu Zhenpeng pointed to a red button and said: "Master Ye, this is our torpedo launch button, once you press it, the torpedo will be launched, but the torpedo is not installed yet, sir, you can try it." click it once."

"Really? Can I press it? Then I'll be blunt and see how it feels." Ye Zhikui is like Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden. He is very curious about the things on the warship. If he didn't dare to touch it casually, He wanted to touch it all over again, but now when Xu Zhenpeng said it was okay, he immediately happily put his hand on the red button, and then pressed down hard.