Chapter 447 Commissioner Aspen, your fleet has escaped! (Please order, please vote)
In a newly built British-style mansion in Xujiahui, Shanghai, Captain Aspen, the commander of the Nanyang Fleet, yawned lazily, squinted one eye and looked at the sunlight coming through the gap in the curtains, and then
A wave of sleepiness came to him. He looked next to him again, and saw a sixteen or seventeen-year-old Japanese girl wrapped in a quilt, her hair messy and curled up on one side. There were some tears on her face, maybe because she didn't miss the cherry blossoms in her hometown.
What does it look like?
This girl was given to him by his good friend Wu Chaoyue. He said that she had just come from Osaka and it was the first time she was sold. She was fresh and delicious. The most important thing was that she looked very small. She came from the island.
Lolita! It suits Commissioner Aspen’s taste the best!
To say that Aspen has been living like a god for more than a year, he has been so smooth and smooth! As the commander of the Nanyang Fleet, he is an "outsourced commander". The personnel, training, and fuel of the Nanyang Fleet
, food, ammunition, etc., all paid to him for 120,000 silver dollars a month. As long as he performs enough training and tasks according to regulations, the extra money can be put into his pocket.
The expense of 120,000 silver dollars a month sounds like a lot, but if Mr. Aspen only uses foreigners, it will barely be enough. Because the Nanyang Fleet now has a gunboat "Dingyuan" with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons.
", and nine small ships of several hundred tons
The ship employs hundreds of sailors. If they were all foreigners, the headcount would cost tens of thousands a month. With the little money left, how much money would be left after taking care of other miscellaneous expenses?
If you can make a few thousand silver dollars a month, then laugh at it!
However, Mr. Wu Chaoyue, a good friend he met after arriving in Shanghai, gave him a great idea - to use Chinese navy interns to replace Western sailors! These interns are not only cheap, they are also completely useless.
Don't let him spend money! The interns at the Shanghai Naval Academy are all supported by the Shanghai Governor's Yamen. Before A Siben, they followed
Western teachers have learned how to work on ships. The Nanyang Navy previously bought several armed merchant ships of several hundred tons, so students from the Shanghai Naval Academy had a place to practice. Moreover, these people from Guangdong, Guangdong, Hunan, and Hubei
The young naval interns are more diligent than the other, and they work like a fool. They are much better than the British sailors brought by Aspen!
So Aspen quickly laid off most of the British sailors, leaving some technical backbones to take these naval interns. This way, he can save at least 30,000 yuan in capitation fees every month, which is all
It’s Bai Huahua’s profit!
Of course, the foreign sailors who followed A Siben in China did not ask him to pay much severance pay. Because Wu Chaoyue's two friends, Ma Hui, the boss of Shanghai Ma Hui Foreign Company, and "Sister Yue Gui", the female boss of Shanghai Sanxin Company,
Offer high salaries and poach most of them away...
After enjoying the benefits of cooperating with Wu Chaoyue, Aspen continued his efforts and outsourced the logistics, repairs, and maintenance of the fleet to Wu Chaoyue. It originally cost more than 30,000 yuan a month, but Wu Chaoyue gave him 25,000 yuan.
Sure. By the way, Aspen's chief engineer, who was the most skilled and had the highest salary, was poached to work as an engineer at Shanghai Jiangnan Shipbuilding Bureau.
However, Ma Hui of Ma Hui Yang Company later introduced Aspen to an American who believed in the "True Testament", named Thomas Henry. He was in his thirties and a typical "red neck" to serve as Dingyuan's boss.
The chief engineer of the ship. Although this guy's skills are not that good,
But at least he can make do with it. Moreover, he married a Chinese wife and can speak very fluent Chinese. When he communicates with the Chinese sailors below, it is smooth and there is no obstacle at all. Aspen sometimes thinks of him as a
The acting captain is here!
In short, in the past few months, Colonel Aspen's life has been a nourishing one, everything went smoothly, money flowed into his pocket like running water, and last night he got a fresh and tender "love", which made him happy.
I’m so happy that I don’t think of myself anymore...
"Sir! Mr. Li Taitai is here to see you for something urgent!"
Aspen was so beautiful that suddenly a burst of curry-smelling English came from outside his bedroom. When he heard it, he knew it was the voice of his Indian servant Shinnak.
"What's the matter? What happened?" Aspen still wanted to stay in bed for a while, so he asked.
"Something happened to the fleet!" Sinak replied in curry English. "All the ships of the Nanyang Fleet are lighting fires and boiling water. They seem to be leaving Yangshupu Military Port! Mr. Li Taitai wants to know, have you received an emergency mission to go to sea?"
"What?" As soon as Aspen heard this, he jumped up from the bed as if his butt was on fire, scaring the little Japanese lolita beside him so much that he screamed "Ah". But he couldn't care less at this moment.
No longer caring about the beauty, he grabbed a piece of clothing and put it on, opened the door and rushed out.
His fleet is on vacation during this period. As the main force of the fleet, the Dingyuan will enter the No. 1 dock of Jiangnan Shipyard to remove barnacles for maintenance in two days... In addition, he just received a new assignment a week ago.
The latest instructions from Mr. Bowring, the British Minister to China and Governor of Hong Kong, have made him tens of millions
Don't bring the Nanyang Fleet to join the Taiping Army's military operations against the Qing Dynasty. Because the battleship Dingyuan of the Nanyang Fleet was leased to the Qing Dynasty by the British Royal Navy and does not belong to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom! Bao Ling's instructions were also given by Aspen.
The reason why the fleet was ordered to rest in advance and the Dingyuan was docked.
But now, as luck would have it, all the ships in the Nanyang Fleet actually turned on their main engines without authorization... What did they want to do? Could it be that they wanted to run away?
Aspen quickly picked up his military uniform and trousers, put them on in a hurry, and then rushed all the way to the living room. Li Taitai, the secretary of the British Consulate, was already waiting there. When he saw Aspen rushing down in a hurry,
With such a posture, you knew something was wrong. Aspen had obviously just climbed out of some woman's bed!
"Colonel, your fleet?" Li Taitai asked quickly.
"I didn't give the order!" Aspen stamped his feet angrily, "They want to run away!"
Li Taitai's face suddenly turned livid: "We must stop their colonel. Mr. Bao Ling strictly prohibited the Nanyang Fleet from participating in the war against the Qing Dynasty! At least the Dingyuan ship cannot participate in the war!"
"I know! I know. Sinak, quickly prepare the carriage and go to Yangshupu Pier!"
Yangshupu Military Port was as heavily guarded as an iron barrel. Taiping Army officers and soldiers with loaded guns and ammunition were everywhere. The flag of "The Great Wall Will Never Fall Down" was flying high there. Teams were wearing red robes and round hoods.
, soldiers carrying flintlocks, under the command of officers, were boarding the ship in an orderly manner.
On the pier, twelve steamships of different sizes were all emitting gray smoke "bursting" into the sky. Leading among them was the steam paddlewheel cruiser Dingyuan. If this battleship were docked in England,
In the Royal Navy, it is indeed not very eye-catching, but here in East Asia, it is definitely a first-class ship. It has a displacement of more than 2,400 tons and is equipped with two 150-pound rifled guns.
Door
A 9-inch smoothbore cannon and a twelve-pounder cannon! This firepower was so fierce that it was enough to blast those old forts along the coast of the Qing Dynasty into rubbish.
Therefore, the newly appointed Governor of Hong Kong and the British Minister to China, Bao Ling, was very worried that this warship would be dragged to attack the northern ports of the Qing Dynasty! It was in the best interests of the UK to allow the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Rebellion to maintain a confrontation between the north and the south!
But now, this "giant ship" leased by the British Royal Navy to the Nanyang Navy of the Qing Dynasty is preparing to go to sea to fight for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which is strictly forbidden by Minister Bao.
"What's going on? Who gave the order to start the host?"
The furious Colonel Aspen didn't have time to think so much. After getting off the carriage, he ran up the ramp of the Dingyuan like a monkey and rushed to the bridge.
Several white and Chinese officers started shouting.
Li Taitai also quickly followed up and shouted in Chinese to a young Chinese officer on the bridge with a mole under each eye: "Admiral Aspen orders you to extinguish the main engine immediately. This is an order!"
"Sorry, Colonel, you have been temporarily relieved of command of the fleet!"
There is no mistake, every song is published and every content is read one by one!
A red-necked foreigner wearing a blue woolen navy uniform, speaking in "local English" with an American accent, smiled and said to the furious Aspen: "Now, I am the acting commander of this fleet!"
Aspen turned his head and looked, suddenly furious, and roared: "Thomas Henry! Who gave you this power? You are rebelling."
Li Taitai already knew that something was wrong, no, something was very wrong. He turned around and wanted to leave, but he was grabbed by someone.
"It's the Prime Minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!" Thomas Henry said to the Chinese officer with the mole under his eye: "Brigade Commander Chen, please escort Mr. Aspen and Mr. Li Taitai to meet the Prime Minister on the Geely!"
"Yes, Lord Admiral!" Chen Picheng waved to the two Chinese officers on the bridge, and then two pistols were pressed against the waists of Aspen and Li Taitai.
Chapter completed!