Volume 1: The Battleship Yitian Changes into the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 Chapter 55: The Stupid Shandong Captain
The news was that the Japanese fleet and the Russian Pacific Fleet almost came to blows.
Sun Gang quickly asked them to explain in detail. It turned out that Li He and Wen Junfeng had encountered a Korean fishing boat during the salvage operation. Because the Beiyang Fleet defeated the Japanese army and saved Korea, the Qing Dynasty also helped Korea to get a large amount of compensation from the Japanese. The whole country of Korea regarded the Beiyang Fleet as a savior (when the Qing army first entered Korea, it had a neat military appearance and strict discipline. It comforted the Korean people and provided relief to the poor along the way, which was very popular. The Donghak Party rebels, out of awe of their suzerain country, dispersed upon hearing the news and did not engage in any battle with the Qing army.), all Qing ships were very popular in Korea. Of course, they informed the Qing Dynasty of the news about the Japanese as soon as possible. According to Korean fishermen, a Russian ship was hit by a torpedo and sank in Busan. Japanese warships and troop transports happened to be there. The Russians believed that it was a surprise attack launched by the Japanese on the Russians and immediately prepared to retaliate. The Japanese were not to be outdone and immediately made preparations to fight with the Russians. Fortunately, the British Far East Fleet arrived in time to prevent the conflict. The nearby Korean fishermen applauded and told Li and them the news when they saw the warships of the Beiyang Fleet.
It is understandable that the Russians wanted to find fault and take advantage of the Japanese weakness, but what does it mean that the Japanese troop transport ships are there? Are they withdrawing their troops or sending more troops to North Korea?
Thinking of this, Sun Gang became a little restless. Although the treaty had been signed, there were many cases in the history of world wars where swords were drawn before the ink had even dried. How binding force a treaty had to have been backed up by military force. Li Hongzhang had already sent Yuan Shikai to Korea with Nie Shicheng and others to control the situation , but the telegram was not working over there, so it was hard to say what the situation was at the moment. Once the situation changed, it would be troublesome if Korea split into North and South.
The Beiyang Military Intelligence Office was established but it was just an empty office. He was the only commander without any troops. He had not had time to recruit staff in recent days. Under the current situation, he might have to go there in person. He immediately went to consult Lin Taizeng. Lin Taizeng was also surprised when he heard the news. On the one hand, he urgently telegraphed Li Hongzhang and Ding Ruchang to inform them of the situation. On the other hand, he ordered Wang Dejun to lead the Ningyuan ship to carry Sun Gang and 100 Beiyang guards to Seoul in the name of escorting Sun Gang to Korea for investigation. The cruiser squadron followed up after getting approval.
Sun Gang told Ma Yue and deposited 180,000 taels of silver in her banknote bank (the remaining 20,000 taels were directly distributed to Lin Taizeng and the officers and soldiers who participated in the salvage operation.) He prepared to use it to order submarines from the Fujian Shipyard. When they were free, they had analyzed the things that might be "treasure maps". Ma Yue asked him to pay attention to some of them that seemed to be related to the I Ching and Feng Shui. "It might be related to some code." She said: "These places may be near Seoul. I don't know if there are any traps. Let Lao Ma go with you. He is an expert in unlocking things."
"You mean he used to be a thief?" Sun Gang was stunned as he remembered the kind old coachman when he first met him.
"I told you to stop scolding me." She rolled her eyes at him and pretended to think, "I guess I was a bandit in my early years."
Her conclusion still scared Sun Gang, "No better than a thief." He rolled his eyes and said.
"I don't know how he came to our house, but he never complained about it and served two generations of our family. My father wanted him to enjoy his retirement and not work, but he said he couldn't sit still." Ma Yue said, "I've seen him stab dragonflies with flying knives, and he never missed. He's also very good with a horse whip, and he can even hit a dragonfly's wings."
"Let me learn from him." Sun Gang became excited when he heard it.
"Just do your job first!" His beloved wife glared at him gently and said, "If you see anyone suspicious, just shoot them. If that doesn't work, let the warships fire. It's better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one go. As long as you come back to me in one piece."
"Okay, okay." Sun Gang was so upset that he nodded quickly.
"Let me help you with the Military Intelligence Department's recruitment." Ma Yue suddenly gave him a sly smile, "I've long wanted to get a few special agents and detectives for fun, haha." Another addict of Japanese comics and "Hollywood blockbusters."
"If you really come up with a Beiyang version of 007, I'll have less worries." Sun Gang didn't take her words seriously, but after he came back from Korea, he realized how "serious" the consequences of ignoring the "activities" of the beautiful women around him were.
He prepared his things and selected a few capable men from the submarine soldiers. Together with Su Xin and his wife and concubine who were both excellent swimmers (this guy had no awareness of modern monogamy at all. He took in both Ling'er and Xiao Yu'er, and even called it "adapting to local customs"), they came to the new armored cruiser "Ningyuan".
The "Ningyuan" ship from Chile is a new type of French-made armored cruiser with a displacement of 2,047 tons, a length of 81.79 meters, a draft of 4.39 meters, and two composite steam engines and four coal-fired boilers with a power of 5,400 horsepower, dual-axis propulsion, and a speed of 18 knots. Its shape and armament are very special. The main guns are four 150mm 36-caliber Ghana rapid-fire guns, which are placed in four ear platforms on both sides of the warship, which can ensure that the firepower of the two main guns can be obtained no matter which direction is forward, backward, left or right. In addition to the main guns, the bow and the stern are each equipped with a 120mm rapid-fire gun, which makes Sun Gang feel as if the positions of the main guns and secondary guns are reversed, which is very strange. In addition, this strange ship is also equipped with three torpedo tubes (one at the bow and one on each side of the left and right sides). The thickest part of her dome deck is nearly 2.5 inches thick, and the armored conning tower is also 2 inches thick. In general, the performance of each ship is quite good, but what Sun Gang did not expect is that the captain of this strange ship is also a weirdo, just like the ship he commanded.
After getting on the ship, the lieutenant general captain named Wang Dejun came over to greet him. What caught Sun Gang's eyes was a dark and thin man who could be described as wretched. At first glance, he gave people a feeling of deep hatred and resentment, but from his hearty smile, he should not have suffered any abuse. Sun Gang learned from the side that this guy was actually a graduate of Tianjin Naval Academy, and was from Shandong, not from Fuzhou Naval Academy. He was an outlier . Perhaps Li Hongzhang did not want his fleet to be full of Fujianese talents and brought him here. No one knew what his specific level was. The first impression this man gave Sun Gang was that he was too talkative. Once he started talking, he talked about everything under the sun. Sun Gang talked to him for a while. At first, he tried to control himself in front of his superiors, but when he found that the Minister of Shipbuilding was very easy-going, he couldn't stop talking. If Sun Gang hadn't tried to stop him from talking, who knows where he could have taken the topic.
But Sun Gang found that this was also a benefit in some cases. After the Chilean sailors returned home, most of the sailors who replenished these new warships were transferred from other ships and were not very familiar with each other. But this guy managed to make them get along well with each other with his sharp tongue, which made Sun Gang admire him very much.
I wonder how his business in war is going? Sun Gang thought secretly.
But soon after going out to sea, this guy opened his eyes.
Su Xin once asked him how his artillery fire was, and he said that every bullet hit its target within 300 yards.
Sun Gang quickly understood what he meant by "every bullet hits its target".
When approaching the North Korean waters, a large Russian armored cruiser of about 4,000 tons came towards them.
At this time, the "Ningyuan" ship was in a position to cross the opponent's route in front. Generally speaking, the opponent would slow down and give way in this situation, because a warship is not something else after all. A collision is not as simple as a few curses and a ticket, nor is it as easy to deal with as a rear-end collision on the road. This is a basic courtesy when sailing on the sea. Unfortunately, the captain of this Russian warship was obviously used to being arrogant. He showed no signs of slowing down and rushed straight up, completely ignoring the "Ningyuan" ship's flag-raising and saluting action.
Fortunately, the Shandong captain had excellent steering skills and managed to dodge the attack. Faced with such a stubborn person who did not know the rules, Wang Dejun angrily rushed to the rear turret of the ship like lightning, which scared Sun Gang. He hurriedly chased after him, fearing that this weird captain would do something extreme. If a fight really broke out, it would be no joke.
When he arrived at the rear battery, he was disappointed to find that what he had worried about was about to happen.
The 120mm rapid-fire gun has been loaded with shells. Captain Erlangzi is personally operating the gun and aiming it. Su Xin and Wen Junfeng are standing by with an appearance of enjoying the show.
Just as Sun Gang was about to speak out to stop him, a cannon blast deafened him from his words.
I saw a puff of white smoke coming out of the mast of the Russian warship in the distance, and all the signal flags hanging on it fell down at once!
Sun Gang looked at the Russian warships in the distance and was so shocked that he was speechless.
"Send a signal and tell them we are saluting them! Get ready on the starboard side! Get ready to launch torpedoes!" Wang Dejun looked at the Russian sailors screaming on the opposite side and gave the order unhappily. He turned around and looked at Sun Gang who was standing there, and said, "I am reckless. Please punish me, sir." He should have fired a training shell just now.
"No, no, the Russians are arrogant and unreasonable. We should show them some power." A trace of admiration appeared on Sun Gang's face. This guy is too strong to be able to use a cannon to shoot with the accuracy of a sniper rifle, right?
Who said that the Chinese Navy has no capable fighters! It's just that the imperial court can't use them!
"Too accurate." Su Xin said with admiration. He looked at the Russian warships that were in chaos. "They won't fight us because of this, right?" Su Xin asked again. Although he was venting his anger, he was still worried if a fight really broke out.
"They don't dare." Wang Dejun stared at the Russian warships' every move and said confidently, "We are not afraid of fighting. If they are willing to die, I am willing to bury them. I will make sure they die more miserably than anyone else."
If it weren't for the fact that his previous shot was incredibly accurate, Sun Gang would really have thought that he had taken the wrong medicine.
Brother, you are not a tyrant, are you? The enemy's tonnage is at least twice as large as ours, and their firepower is much stronger. How can you kill them immediately? Sun Gang looked at him in surprise, and watched the actions of the Russian warship in the sea nervously.
The Russian captain who had been so arrogant just now was obviously not as brave as the Shandong guy in front of him. When Sun Gang saw the Russian, he quickly increased the speed and drove away without saying a word!
"My name is Dejun, so I have to keep going!" Sun Gang heard him muttering in a low voice, but he didn't understand what the word "get" meant, and he looked at Su Xin suspiciously.
