In Kaohsiung in September, the heat of midsummer has gone away, and the sea breeze has also brought a bit of coolness.//Visit and download txt novels //*Literature Museum xguan.*
The Beginning of Spring was quietly moored in Kaohsiung Port. This sail-steam hybrid cruiser, "the pride of the Senate Navy", had just undocking from Bopu and returned to its home port of Kaohsiung. The entire warship had a completely new look, even the sailors' They all looked particularly energetic.
After almost a year of cruising, throughout the summer, Beginning of Spring underwent comprehensive maintenance and overhaul at the Bobu Shipyard, and some parts that had exposed problems were replaced. The products of the machinery factory have improved with the skills of naturalized migrant workers. Each batch got better than the last, and now they could replace those earlier shoddy products with better parts.
The Lichun's firepower has not been significantly adjusted, but a newly designed 5-barrel Hotchkiss-style manual rotating cannon has been installed experimentally. It is called the "Trial Type 34 Naval Automatic Cannon."
The purpose of the weapons design team is to use it to replace typewriters on some naval ships: after all, 30mm grenades are much more effective at destroying small ships than 13mm lead bullets. The larger projectile can also accommodate a variety of different ammunition- It is planned to be equipped with three types of ammunition: grenades, armor-piercing bombs and incendiary bombs. However, only armor-piercing bombs are currently equipped.
The 5-barreled Hotchkiss manual rotating cannon is an automatic cannon, similar to the Gatling, but its structure is much simpler than the Gatling multi-barreled cannon, so it was selected as the Navy's rapid-fire artillery.
The original Hotchkiss manual rotating gun used 37x94r ammunition, which was a deformed product of the "St. Petersburg Declaration" stipulation that the weight of explosive warheads should not be less than 400 grams. Since the warhead only It can be loaded with 15-20 grams of black powder, and it explodes like a large firecracker. The warhead of more than half a kilogram makes the muzzle velocity only a pitiful 367m/s, and the ballistic performance is a mess.
Considering that the targets of the navy's small rapid-fire guns are enemy boats and sailors on the decks of enemy ships, the caliber is enough without requiring too much blasting power. Reducing the caliber can reduce the weight of the gun, not only can the number of installations be increased on large ships, It can also meet the needs of sampan guns, naval support artillery and other aspects. In order to improve the ballistic performance, the diameter of the artillery was changed to 25 times, and the length of the shell was also lengthened. After such improvements, the Lingao version of 5 The muzzle velocity and ballistic performance of the Hotchkiss-type manual rotating barrel gun are one step higher than the original version. The theoretical rate of fire can reach one hundred rounds per minute.
However, to use this kind of artillery, fixed ammunition must be used. Since the drawing of brass cartridge cases has not yet been put on the development agenda of the Planning Institute, rolled cartridge cases with a relatively simple process are used. Although it is not very reliable, it is easy to use. There is no difficulty. In order to recover the bullet casings, a bullet casing recovery device is specially equipped.
It was not the first time that the Beginning of Spring came to Kaohsiung, but its reappearance made people from all walks of life who were closely watching the movements of the Australians in Kaohsiung suddenly become nervous.
This "giant ship" with black smoke and sails hung is not the "holy ship" in Lingao that never moves - many people think that the holy ship will not move at all - it often patrols the sea in Beginning of Spring. , the black smoke coming out can be seen clearly from more than ten miles away.
The most frightening thing is that even if you see its black smoke more than ten miles away, it won't take long to catch up with it. Watch its dark and huge hull rolling with white waves as it passes by proudly, and the dark and dark ship stands on the deck.
Thick cannons - this is enough to make people who are dissatisfied with Australians despair.
It suddenly reappeared in the Taiwan Strait, causing the undercurrent in the strait to surge again.
Li Siya once again received a letter from Zheng Zhifeng. This time, Zheng Zhifeng made a new request.
Since Lin Shimao disappeared mysteriously, Zheng Zhifeng has known that Li Siya's seemingly foolproof plan has been exposed - of course, except for the Australians who kidnapped him. Li Siya may also make him "disappear" for the purpose of silencing him.
However, the lack of response from the Dutch in Da Yuan and other places showed that their alienation plan was not successful. Through Guo Huaiyi's activities, Zheng Zhifeng gained a general understanding of what happened in Kaohsiung, including the entire action process and the Australians' response.
.
It's really strange. Zheng Zhifeng thought, no matter from which angle, Li Siya's plan was executed perfectly: according to his opinion, every link of Li Siya's arrangement could easily cut off the clues. Especially the one she sent.
The woman's decisive suicide when she was arrested can be said to have cut off the last clue. It can be called the most brilliant unsolved case - why was the Australian able to catch Lin Shimao so predictably?
Could it be that the Australians have spies around Li Siya or in the Zheng family? Or do they really have some sorcery? Zheng Zhifeng thought of the many shocking rumors about Lingao that Lin Yishao recently brought back. He wrote in the last letter
The letter stated that he was preparing to sneak into Lingao to collect more information about Australians.
But all this is of no importance to Zheng Zhifeng. Now that the Australians have caught Lin Shi's hat, they naturally understand that the mastermind behind the scenes is the Zheng family - the day when the two families meet each other is just around the corner.
The trade between the two families did not stop even in the summer - large waves of shipping ships flying the Morning Star flag continued to transport Fujian's most urgently needed and profitable goods: salt. The various goods transported at the same time made the Zheng family happy.
But the Zheng brothers knew very well that this was just superficial harmony - the Australians had important things to do at the moment and were not willing to go to war with them for the time being.
Once their work is done, the Australians will show their claws unceremoniously - is there any benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom and trust in this East Asian sea? Not to mention that the Australians only have a business relationship with them. Looking back on just a few years
Before, Li Kuiqi and Zheng Zhilong were still "brothers".
The five years of Chongzhen have so far been a year of great development and smooth sailing for the Zheng family. In March, Xiong Wencan, who was originally in charge of recruitment matters, was promoted to governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. This is a pity for the Zheng family: Xiong Wencan is Zheng Zhilong.
People who are stuffed with money. However, Zou Weilian is not an easy person to deal with. Zou Weilian served as Yanping official during the Wanli period, so he has an understanding of local folk customs, barbarian sentiments and coastal defense.
When Zou Weilian arrived in Fujian, Zheng Zhilong happened to wipe out Chen Wan and Zhong Lingxiu's remnants on land who had been roaming the Fujian area on land and sea. As a result, Zhong Lingxiu's remaining party was promoted to guerrilla general. In May, Zhong Lingxiu's remaining party used battleships in Haicheng, Taihe and other places.
Zheng Zhilong defeated them again. This made Zou Weilian rely heavily on Zheng Zhilong.
Originally, Zou Weilian had planned to transfer Zheng Zhilong's troops to Jiangxi to exterminate the bandits, but not long ago Liu Xianglao attacked Min'an Town with a fleet of 170 ships, burning, looting, and killing, which seemed to have the intention of directly invading the provincial capital. Zou Weilian did not dare to
He hesitated and immediately left Zheng Zhilong, who had not yet set off, to deal with Liu Xiang. At this moment, he was mobilizing troops and generals, preparing to defeat Liu Xiang's troops who invaded Fujian in one fell swoop.
Although Liu Xiang directly invaded Min'an and had the intention of directly challenging Zheng Zhilong's coastal hegemony, in Zheng Zhilong's eyes, Liu Xiang was no longer his primary opponent.
Originally, the Zheng family only regarded the Australians as a larger group of "bandits" on the sea of Guangdong. However, they suddenly became prosperous by relying on ingenious things such as large iron ships, and they did not interfere with overseas trade at all. But since
After their ships invaded Guangzhou and burned Wuyang Station, the Zheng family's view of them changed greatly.
Now, although Liu Laoxiang is still patrolling the Shantou and Shanwei areas, harassing the coast of Fujian, and constantly sending ships to Batavia and Manila, apparently to compete with the Zheng family for Western trade, there is a very serious news from Japan.
News: The Australian envoys were operating in the Goto area and hooked up with the Zhou family who had received the shogunate's seal! Not only that, they even went deep into Hirado.
Hirado is like a second hometown to Zheng Zhilong, and it is also where he started his career.
When Australians go to Japan, they know what they want to do without asking.
It’s simply too much trouble!
This matter is not just a matter of face, but a matter of life and death. In contrast, although Liu Laoxiang's various actions will affect the Zheng family's income, they are not fatal. If the Japanese trade is taken away from the Australians,
With just one route, the roots of the Zheng family were completely dug up.
For this reason, Zheng Zhilong has changed his primary enemy to the Australians.
Although Li Siya is no longer trusted, she is the one who knows the most about the Australians and has directly dealt with them, so the crucial intelligence collection work still falls on her: the first thing to bear the brunt of is whether the Australians have any
How many people and ships are there?
The first item in the letter was to ask her to provide detailed information about the Australian's largest warship, the Beginning of Spring.
It is not surprising to Li Siya that Zheng Zhilong wants to open fire with the Australians: it will happen sooner or later. But it is a bit difficult for her to obtain the Lichun and the naval strength of the Australians.
Yes, she did roughly piece together the Australian naval strength based on a lot of scattered information, and was able to describe the appearance and some performance of the iron clipper, but after all, it was second-hand information - even Li Huamei had not been on any of them.
Australian ship "belching black smoke".
However, she was very sure that Zheng Zhilong was no match for the Australians. From this point of view, she had to do her best to help Zheng Zhilong recover from some decline, lest the sea become dominated by the Australians - at that time
There's nothing wrong with her.
This matter can only be entrusted to my breast sister - and only Li Huamei, who is about to join the Australian group, can know the real secrets of these ships.
It's early September now. Under normal circumstances, Nanny's Hangzhou cruise should return to Macau at the end of August - now is the right time.
She sat down and began to write a secret letter using the potion.