In the huge Cam Ranh Bay Naval Base, the mournful sirens suddenly sounded from every warship in the harbor, like the rallying cry of the army, and countless sailors immediately stopped everything they were doing and rushed to their combat posts like a tide. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The sound of the alarm made Zhu Guohui, a naval lieutenant who had just graduated from the military academy, feel frightened, and at the same time jumped up, grabbed his military cap and put it on his head and rushed out of his narrow cabin.

For the princes of the Ming Dynasty, who are not qualified to inherit the king of a country, they must work hard so as not to become ordinary beings. Colonel Zhu Guoguang resigned from the icy King of Alaska and chose the path of the Navy. And Lieutenant Zhu Guohui has no chance of inheriting the throne of the king at all, his mother is just an ordinary and not favored servant of Zhu Jishi, and it is impossible for him to find any brilliant future. If you don't want to eat and wait for death for the rest of your life, you have to work hard!

Fortunately, this Zhu Guohui's brain is with his father, who is quite good, and after graduating from Huangcheng Public School, he was admitted to the most difficult school in the Ming Empire - the Ming Royal Navy Officer School. The hammock number in the naval academy is No. 15, which is higher than his brother Zhu Guoguang's No. 18 - the hammock number system was "conceived" by Zhu Jishi, and the purpose is naturally to avoid cronyism in the army. Whether it is the Army or the Navy, the promotion of officers is linked to their examination results at the Military Academy and the Army and Navy University! It was called "\ 1 \ book \ read \ novel four tests for life", although it is a bit rigid, but it is a relatively fair method in peacetime, otherwise what else? Compete with dad or pat the back?

Zhu Guohui's score in the graduation examination of the Royal Navy Military Academy was 9th, and two of the four examinations have given quite good results. If it weren't for the war. In two years, he will go to the Naval University. If only there was a result that came out on top. Coupled with his status as a prince, he is naturally not afraid of fighting for his father (there is always a little bit of it), and there is always a future of a naval admiral in the future......

However, a "passed" general is not what Zhu Guohui really wants, and like his unlucky brother Zhu Guowei, the 22-year-old naval lieutenant is also full of illusions about making achievements. The vast ocean is the battlefield where the seven-foot man shows his true colors as a hero!

Today, he will be the first time he will be the communications officer of the Saxony-class ironclad ship Eiri (Tokugawa Akiko came from New Japan, and Zhu Jishi named them with the very inauspicious chronology of the four small imperial courts of the Southern Ming Dynasty).

Running fast, excited and the scorching sun here in Cam Ranh Bay. made Zhu Guohui sweat profusely, and his whole body was trembling slightly.

If we look at it from the perspective of later generations, the appearance of the four Saxony-class ships that were abducted from New Japan - the Yongli, Longwu, Hongguang and Shaowu - can only be described as strange. This is an obese ironclad ship, without the slender hull and flying scissors bow of the "Tianjin" class. The four chimneys are arranged in two columns, forming a square, just in front of the bridge.

Moreover, this ironclad ship does not have a rotating turret or turret, there is a pear-shaped open turret in the bow, according to two 260mm/22 times the diameter of the rack back guns, in the amidship is an open central gun bay, almost square, originally equipped with four 260mm/22 times the diameter of the frame back guns. However, after driving to China, it was ordered to be dismantled by Rear Admiral Feng Cheng, the Ordnance Director of the Admiralty - two of the four cannons were facing forward. Both doors face rear, and neither can be rotated at a large angle. Once the enemy ship goes around to the flank, there is only the hard life of being beaten! After dismantling the four 260mm/22 times diameter rack guns, which were neither desirable nor useful, the Ming Navy Factory installed six 155mm/40 times diameter rapid-fire guns on this central gun compartment, all facing the side side. In addition, the six 87mm secondary guns were also removed and replaced with 155mm/40x radial rapid-fire guns. Although it is known as an "ironclad ship", this firepower is on the level of an armored cruiser or a fast cruiser.

"Our emperor is really willing, one son is trapped in Bengal, and let another son go out on adventures with us." Just as Zhu Guohui was conducting the last routine inspection of the radio station on the Yongli before going to sea, Vice Admiral Yu Guibei, who served as the commander of the escort detachment, was standing with a cigar in his mouth and squinting his eyes on the low bridge of the Yongli (just above the central open-air gun bay, very low, with a very poor line of sight, and four chimneys in front of it, which was really a terrible design), while holding a cigar and squinting his eyes to talk to Takehiro Enomoto, the captain of the Yongli.

Most of the officers and men on board the Eiri were new Japanese, and the captain, Rear Admiral Takehiro Enomoto, was also the commander of the Pacific Fleet of the original new Japanese Navy. He bought the Saxony-class capital ship from Germany, which had a terrible design but was very cheap, but was splendidly ordered from the Ming Dynasty for four Emperor-class ships, but was disrupted by the joint efforts of Napoleon III and Mathilde I, so he had to buy the German Saxony-class instead.

"There won't be any problems." Enomoto Takeyang was full of confidence and said with a smile: "The Saxony-class is a fairly powerful capital ship, and the Tianjin-class is the best combination of speed and firepower. With four Saxony-class and 10 equally powerful armored cruisers, and another 10 protective cruisers, what else could go wrong with such a formidable force? ”

"Hehe, of course!" Yu Guibei snorted, looking at the huge fleet that was raising fire and anchoring in the port, and his heart settled down a little. The entire escort fleet, that is, the hull, is relatively large. As the main force, the Saxon class is really not very good. Ten armored cruisers are also commonplace, after modification, the firepower configuration is exactly the same as that of the Tianjin-class fast cruisers, and the armor is much thicker, but the Tianjin-class uses all-steel ironclad, and the eight so-called "armored cruisers" are old-fashioned sandwich armor, and the protection ability is not much stronger than that of the Tianjin-class, and the speed is a full 3 knots slower.

As for the other ten protective cruisers that are one level lower than the armored cruisers, they are all of the "Wuchang" class (named after the prefecture), with a displacement of 2,900 tons, two two-mounted 155mm/40 times radial rapid-fire guns, six 140mm rapid-fire guns, four 40mm machine guns, and four 360mm torpedo tubes. The armor deck is composed of 30mm steel armor and 60mm sandwich composite armor, the main gun is 260mm (composite armor) after the battery armor is exposed, and the gun cover and conning tower armor (steel iron armor) are 40mm thick. The power adopts 2 3-expansion reciprocating steam engines, 4 supporting round coal-fired boilers (each weighing 40 tons), two-shaft propulsion, 4800 horsepower, 16.5 knots, and 350-380 tons of coal.

There is no doubt that this escort fleet as a decoy is composed of slightly inferior warships in the Ming Royal Navy. Three "Emperor"-class ironclads, seven "Emperor"-class ironclads, and twelve newest fast cruisers are not among them. These are perhaps the world's first-class warships that will form the main fleet, ready to deliver a fatal blow to the British at the most critical moment!

Assuming these baits hold out until that moment, of course!

When a few hours later, 24 large steam ships loaded with full loads sailed into Cam Ranh Bay, the entire bay was almost overcrowded. On the docks, ground crews were frantically busy and began to fill every warship and transport ship with water and coal, and deliver ammunition, food and medicine. By the way, the 24 large steam sailing ships with an empty displacement of 5,000 tons to 10,000 tons are also armed, and they are all active soldiers of the Ming Royal Navy!

Once they encounter the British fleet, there will be no warship transports, and all the ships will have to fight bravely!

"Sir, the Yongli communication room has been inspected, and all the radio stations are well maintained!" At this time, Zhu Guohui strode onto the bridge and saluted Enomoto Takeyang, chief of staff of the detachment and commander of the Yongli, and reported loudly.

Enomoto Takeyang's eyes burned, he glanced at the young officer standing in front of him, and said lightly: "Okay, Zhu Jun, we are going to go, I wish you a long martial luck!" (To be continued......)