From the Huangpu River to the flow, you will enter Taihu Lake.n∈n∈,

After five years of excavation and construction, the river channel has become very wide, with an average water depth of 20 meters, and four 10,000-ton warships can be used simultaneously.

This river was personally ordered to be expanded by Li Weiguo. It has two purposes: one is to completely open up the waterway transportation between Taihu Lake, Hangzhou Bay and the Yangtze River, and promote the economic development of the Sanwu area. The other is to use military purposes so that the large main warships of the East China Sea Fleet can sail into Taihu Lake and conduct high-intensity military training.

As for why the East China Sea Fleet did not conduct military training at sea, but instead ran into the Neihu Lake, it seemed a bit incredible, but if you think of the current international situation, it is not difficult to find the mystery.

Since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Navy and the Hunan Army Navy were destroyed, the combat objectives of the East China Sea Fleet have shifted from civil war to foreign war level. As for the Qing Navy and Li Hongzhang's Huai Army Navy, this can be completely ignored and vulnerable.

Whether it is the large shallow-water turret ironclad ship built by the Jiangnan Shipyard or the similar ironclad ship built by other shipyards, they are in a strict confidential stage. The outside world only knows that large warships are built in the dock. Even the British and French militaries never expected that Li Weiguo's shipyard could already build a large ironclad ship of 7,000-ton. This shipbuilding ability has exceeded France and is very close to the 9,000-ton Warrior ironclad ship of the UK's highest shipbuilding level.

You should know that although Britain and France are allied, whenever France leads one step ahead in naval warships, the British navy always takes great steps. For example, France was the first to build the iron-shelled wooden steam battleship, and Britain then built stronger and more iron-shelled wooden battleships, completely suppressing the French navy. When France tried to be the first to build the iron-shelled ship, the Glory of the Iron Craft, Britain immediately started construction of the Warrior iron-shelled ship with a larger tonnage and stronger firepower. Then a large number of 7,000 ton class iron-shelled ships were launched, always suppressing the French Navy.

On the contrary, when the French Army expanded its troops greatly, the British Army did not expand in a targeted manner.

This means that Britain's demand for naval power is absolutely true, that is, it does not allow any country in the world to threaten or surpass Britain's naval power. The British navy, even its allies, the French navy, are always on guard. Not to mention watching Li Weiguo's East China Sea Fleet day and night, trying to find an opportunity to fight with the East China Sea Fleet one day and one day to wash away the shame of the naval battle.

It is precisely because of this delicate and tense international naval relationship that since Li Weiguo knew that he would have a battle with the British Navy, he would definitely come up with various countermeasures, and first of all, to hide his strength. Therefore, the ironclad ships in the shipyard were secretly launched, secretly tested, and secretly delivered to the East China Sea Fleet for training.

The offshore is obviously easy to be exposed because the British Navy's warships are cruising around and occupying the offshore sea control power. Therefore, the new ironclad ships of the East China Sea Fleet can only be trained in the inland to expect unexpected results.

Taihu Lake connects the Huangpu River and Hangzhou Bay, as well as the Devil Island military base, which has become the best training place for the East China Sea Fleet.

After Li Weiguo left the Jiangnan Shipyard, he took a boat to the base of Demon Island. Accompanied by Navy Commander Lin Jiyun and Chief of Staff Li Weijun, he inspected the entire East China Sea Fleet and personally observed the naval test single shooting training.

The waters south of Alcatraz Island have been a prohibited navigation area in recent years, and are specially designed as a naval live-fire training ground.

On the lake, four ironclad ships were first delivered to use shallow water heavy turrets and are conducting live ammunition firing.

Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!

I saw a series of double-equipped 305mm main guns fired terrified, and a group of eighty or ninety kilograms roaring at a target ship several nautical miles away on the lake.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The shells exploded, and huge water columns dozens of meters high instantly aroused on the water surface, blooming in all directions like fireworks.

"Why does that target ship look familiar?"

Li Weiguo saw it in the telescope and asked casually.

Lin Jiyun replied: "That was the former Dingyuan battleship. It was a fierce battleship with the Taiping Navy in Yanziji. It was a second-hand old ship bought from Britain and has lost its value of continuing service. It was originally planned to be sold to the shipyard to dismantle, but later the prince ordered the navy to conduct live ammunition training and use real warships as target ships. So the ship stayed."

Li Weijun, on the side, added: "Today is actually the day when the new Dingyuan ironclad ship is named, so we have a live-fire target shooting. The four ironclad ships achieved the best results and were named by Dingyuan."

Li Weiguo nodded. He knew this. He personally decided the naming rules of warships. In the future, the main ships of the East China Sea Fleet and even the Chinese fleet will be named after the Yuan and Hai fonts.

Specifically, the characters in Yuan are Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Jiyuan, Jingyuan, Laiyuan, Pingyuan, Weiyuan, total nine. The characters in Haiqi, Haitian, Hairong, Haichen, Haiyue, Haidai, Haihuan, Haiyang, and Haibin.

Nine Great Far and Nine Great Seas will form the main fleet of the Chinese fleet, and Nine is the ultimate number. The meaning of ninety-nine to unite, the world is unified, and the word "far sea" further indicates the navy's ambition to dominate the world.

Once these eighteen names are named after the service, whether they are war-shen or retired for the time being, their names will continue to be used and cannot be replaced.

As for the naming of other warships, there are no rigid regulations. They can be retained or removed from the household registration.

"Is the power of a 305mm shell so powerful?"

Li Weiguo suddenly discovered a problem. The explosion power of the shell seemed to be weaker. According to his experience, the explosion power of the Navy's 305mm shell was enough to stir up huge waves more than 100 meters high.

Lin Jiyun did not react, but Li Weijun immediately understood and immediately explained.

"Your Majesty, our 305mm shell loading is only 45 kilograms, and the weight of the warhead steel has reached more than 90 kilograms, which is already the limit of artillery. Although the warhead loading and weight can be increased, it will seriously affect the gunner's firing speed and may even cause danger."

Lin Jiyun immediately understood and hurriedly added: "The previous test ship No. 4 fell several times during transportation and loading because the shells were too heavy. One of them exploded unexpectedly, and more than a dozen excellent gunners were sacrificed."

Li Weiguo nodded. He could understand this. After all, the larger the caliber artillery, the heavier the shells used, which is a huge problem for transportation and loading. It cannot be completed by a strong gunner.

“It would be great if there was an automatic loader!”

Automatic loading machine?

Lin Jiyun and Li Weijun were both stunned. They immediately showed joy and asked, "Prince, is it a machine that can automatically load the bullet? If there is really that machine, it will definitely greatly increase our artillery fire shooting speed."

Li Weiguo smiled slightly, nodded, and said, "This is natural. I will say hello to the Machinery Bureau and strive to develop it as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Prince!" Lin Jiyun, Li Weijun and others hurriedly thanked him, with an excited expression. They knew that the prince in front of them was powerful, and there seemed to be no machine that he could not invent.

The automatic loading machine is not difficult to solve. The key to the problem is that the steam engine is needed to provide power. This requires the redesign of the steam conveying pipeline and extending it to the ammunition depot under the turret. Now the No. 5 and No. 6 have been designed and finalized, and most of the eight warships have been or are close to being completed, so they naturally cannot be changed. As for the No. 7 on the ship platform, No. 8 has also been finalized and started construction. It is not cost-effective to change the pipeline. Only when a new warship is launched in the future can you consider re-modifying the pipeline and installing the automatic loading machine.

However, Li Weiguo did not want to undermine the enthusiasm of Lin Jiyun and Li Weijun. Seeing that they were so happy, he had to agree first. As for the future, let's talk about it later.

Continue to watch live ammunition shooting, four 7,000-ton iron armored ships fired violently, and their hit rate continued to increase. The entire target ship was already in a sea of ​​fire and completely sank in less than twenty minutes.

According to the rules, Li Weiguo named the ironclad ship with the highest hit rate Dingyuan. As for the other three ironclad ships, they were also named Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan, Weiyuan and others, becoming the main battleships of the East China Sea Fleet.

Li Weiguo summoned all the officers and soldiers of the fleet and gave an intense speech. The soldiers screamed one by one, and were confidently prepared to fight the British navy.

"What you may face is the most powerful and advanced 9,000-ton ironclad ship of the Royal Navy. Are you confident?"

Lin Jiyun and Li Weijun looked at each other and said proudly: "Don't worry, prince, we are full of confidence and will never embarrass the prince."

Li Weiguo nodded and said, "That's good. The battle is not far away, it's just a matter of months. You should hurry up and train troops. If you have any requirements, as long as it is within a reasonable range, I will try my best to satisfy you."

Lin Jiyun and Li Weijun were immediately overjoyed when they heard this and bowed quickly, saying, "Thank you for your kindness! We should serve the prince to die!"

Li Weiguo then inspected the Demon Island and focused on the large nitrogen production factory, because this factory played an immeasurable and huge role in the booming development of the fertilizer industry and the people's livelihood economy. It is also important to Li Weiguo's military industry and regarded it as the core.

Therefore, at this time, Nobel had already completed various industrial production plans for nitrifying slag drugs under the suggestion of Li Weiguo. Large-scale nitrifying slag drug production equipment has begun to be secretly installed, which is about to detonate the world's action drug revolution.

The biggest contributor to all this is large-scale nitrogen production factories. Because it is possible to produce nitrate and ammonium products on a large scale, it enables the industrial production of nitrified slag drugs and reduces costs on a large scale.

At this time, the explosion power of a kilogram of nitrifying slag medicine was far greater than that of the Heiko medicine used by the European powers, which was almost dozens of times. However, the production costs of the two were almost the same. When Li Weiguo's army changed all the clothes and used the Nitrogenic slag medicine, if the European and American powers still used Heiko medicine, then they would have to be abused.

Everything was in Li Weiguo's plan, which made him very happy and felt a sense of control.

Maybe this is the fun for the superiors!

After finishing his inspection of Demon Island, Li Weiguo returned to Shanghai the next day.

At this time, the whole of Shanghai was already martial law, and a team of soldiers took to the streets to investigate, as if they were searching for someone.

Li Weiguo smiled slightly and guessed that his plan had begun to be implemented.

"The criminal Wu Yong will meet my king!"

Wu Yong immediately fell to the ground and apologized to Li Weiguo in front of everyone.

Li Weiguo pretended to be surprised and said, "What's wrong with you? Get up quickly!"

Wu Yong couldn't afford it and explained: "Prince, I'm sorry to the prince. The top secret documents sent by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau were stolen by his subordinates. I'm guilty of death!"

After Wu Yong's explanation, Li Weiguo and others immediately understood that a top-secret document sent to the General Staff Department just now from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. Just as it was time to get off work, Wu Yong took it back home after reading it, but unexpectedly, a servant from Wu Yong's mansion took the opportunity to stolen it.

"What?" Li Weiguo jumped up in anger and said angrily: "Bastard, you, Wu Yong, have been with me for many years. Why are you so careless? You don't know the importance of it? Can you bring home the top secret documents? If this document falls into the hands of the enemy, will the king's family be known? You are putting me in a dangerous situation!"

Wu Yong kowtowed and said, "I am guilty of death!"

Li Weiguo was furious and said, "Since you said it was a death sentence, then I will help you, come and take Wu Yong out and shoot him!"

Shoot Wu Yong?

Just kidding!

Wu Yong has followed Li Weiguo for many years. He has been with him since Li Weiguo was the magistrate of Chongming County since he was the magistrate of Chongming. He has worked hard without any contribution. How can he die if he dies?

Chen Jingnan, Fu Xuexian, Yung Wing and others rushed to persuade him, but Li Weiguo refused to give in and ordered the guards to drag Wu Yong out without mercy and prepared to carry out on-site shooting.

"Please calm down!"

"Please Kane, please!"

"Please spare him this time because Lord Wu has made great contributions to his many years of follow-up to the prince!"

The civil and military officials knelt down and begged for mercy. When the people outside the palace learned that Li Weiguo was going to kill Wu Yong, they quickly gathered over.

"The family has family laws, and the state has national laws. Wu Yong leaked the highest secret of our army. He deserves to be punished. Whoever dares to plead for Wu Yong again, I will kill him first!"

Li Weiguo was furious and took out his Golden Desert Eagle, with a determined attitude of killing gods and Buddhas.

At this time, Chen Jingnan suddenly said, "Your Majesty, even if I risk my life, I will say a fair word for Wu Yong!"

"You need to say nothing!" Li Weiguo snorted coldly, raised his hand and shot him.

Bang!

Chen Jingnan was shot in the chest, blood splattered, and died on the spot.

"Whoever dares to plead with mercy is like Chen Jingnan's fate!"

The civil and military officials were immediately scared and pale. What's the matter? His Highness of the King of Wu took guns and medicine today. Why is it so cruel? It's okay to kill Wu Yong. After all, Wu Yong did leak the highest secret and die. But Chen Jingnan just pleaded for mercy and was killed before he finished speaking.

Bang!

Gunshots came from outside, and soon the guards came in to report that Wu Yong had been executed on the spot.

This made all the civil and military officials suddenly become messy, and no matter how powerful the brains are, they are not enough.

Wu Yong died and Chen Jingnanbai died. Even if he pleaded, he would not come back. So the civil and military officials kowtowed to the ground and did not dare to plead again. They all knew Li Weiguo's temper. Since even Wu Yong and Chen Jingnan were killed without mercy, let alone them.

"I am in a bad mood. Don't bother me these days."

After saying that, Li Weiguo made great strides away, leaving behind the civil and military officials who were kneeling all over the ground.

"The prince has changed, how can he be so cruel and ruthless!"

"Yes, I didn't expect it!"

"Is this a broken arm! Is the prince crazy?"

"I hope the prince just killed Chen Jingnan and Wu Yong when he was in a bad mood, otherwise it would be really disappointing!"

"Hmph, the boy is successful and he will inevitably be arrogant!"

Everyone muttered and shook their heads and sighed. Some felt incredible, some felt that they would finally be able to make a name for themselves without being suppressed by Wu Yong and Chen Jingnan in the future, while others were disappointed and dissatisfied with Li Weiguo. Of course, there were also people who were not moved and sneered at the fun.
Chapter completed!