In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan, first attacking Penghu and then attacking Tainan; In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, Shi Lang attacked Taiwan and chose the same offensive line; In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the French invaded Taiwan and also occupied Penghu.

Now that Lin Fei has defeated the Japanese fleet, he must take Penghu, because in the future development of the Chinese Empire, Penghu plays a life-and-death role.

In order for the Chinese Empire to become a regional hegemon and a world hegemon, a strong industry is indispensable, and industry needs a lot of resources, including both material resources, such as various ores and fuels, as well as population resources, industrial production not only needs a large number of workers, but also needs a large number of peasants, workers are not engaged in agricultural production, and without a large agricultural population, workers will be starved to death.

Throughout the South Seas, although rich in resources, they were all occupied by the Western powers at this time, not only the South Seas, but also the world had been carved up by the old capitalist powers, otherwise the First World War would not have broken out twenty years later.

When Lin Fei thought of this, he often thought that if he had returned to the earlier seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, then there would be countless wild lands in the world that could be conquered by himself.

In the process of resource transportation, Taiwan is the most important transit station, Penghu is an important node on the transfer station, and the storage of Penghu greatly reduces the difficulty of resource transportation, because the ship with a short voyage can do a transit in Penghu, so that more ships can participate in the transportation of resources.

Lin Fei has been preparing to attack Penghu these days, and the most important preparation is to recruit crews who are familiar with the waterways of Penghu Island.

The recruitment process went very smoothly, because by this time the exploits of the Chinese Empire had become widely known, and the Battle of Dragon and Snake Valley annihilated the 16th Wing of the Japanese Army; The Battle of Bagua Mountain completely annihilated the Guards Division, killing the commander of the division, Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Palace; The Battle of Penghu annihilated the Japanese fleet sent by the south and captured the flagship Matsushima ship, these things made Lin Fei a god-like existence in the hearts of the Taiwanese people.

Since Lin Fei had such a high prestige in the eyes of the people, the recruitment work was naturally very smooth, and soon recruited all the sailors, who all had long braids on their heads, so Lin Fei asked them to cut off the long braids, and the sailors were quite disappointed in the Qing Kingdom and happily cut off the long braids.

While Lin Fei was preparing to attack Penghu, Nogi Noshinori led the remnants of the Japanese Second Division to withdraw to the island of Taiwan and fortify Taipei and Keelung.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of October 8, Lin Fei led the Tianlong, Yunlong, Tenglong and Qianlong ships as escort fleets to escort ten troop carriers to Penghu Island, and the ten transport ships were loaded with the third and fourth brigades, with a total of more than 6,000 troops, while the Japanese troops on Penghu Island were only more than 3,000 people.

In order to facilitate his command, Lin Fei organized these two brigades into the "Penghu Front Army" and personally served as the commander.

At 6 o'clock in the afternoon, Penghu Island appeared in Lin Fei's field of vision, although Penghu Island and Taiwan Island are separated by water, the difference in climate and vegetation is not small, Taiwan Island is lush with trees, while Penghu Island is full of low shrubs.

Lin Fei stood next to a man in his thirties, with a yellow face and thin muscles, but his eyes were quite bright, his name was Meng Huikai, he was once a member of the Penghu defenders, and fled to Taiwan after the Japanese captured Penghu.

Meng Huikai pointed to the high place of Penghu Island and said, "Your Majesty, there is the Golden Turtle Head Fort." ”

"Golden Turtle Head Fort" is quite famous in history, the mountain terrain where it is located is like the head of a turtle, and there is a legend that the Golden Turtle enters the sea here, so it is called "Golden Turtle Head Fort", Lin Fei has heard of this fort, but he doesn't know much about it, so he asked: "How many cannons does that fort have?" ”

Meng Huikai replied: "Report to Your Majesty, there are three heavy guns on that battery, all of which are breech-loading steel cannons purchased from the British Armstrong Company, with a caliber of 12 inches, which can fire flowering shells and solid shells, and their power should not be underestimated. ”

Meng Huikai sighed when he said this, and said angrily: "It's all to blame on the damned Zhou Zhenbang, when the Japanese invaded Penghu, he didn't fire a shot, he didn't fire a single shot, he fled back to Xiamen with the gold and silver concubines, and gave up this Golden Turtle Head Fort and the three heavy cannons on it to the Japanese Kou..."

Meng Huikai stomped his foot fiercely when he said this, and said "damn" a few times, Lin Fei smiled on the side: "Don't be angry, hasn't that Zhou Zhenbang already been sentenced to beheading by the Qing court?" ”

Meng Huikai sighed and said: "Your Majesty, you don't know, that Zhou Zhenbang was sentenced to be beheaded in prison, that is, if he doesn't open the knife immediately, he will wait for a long time before killing, this time is nominally to investigate the case in detail and avoid wrongful killing, but in fact, it is the opportunity to give Zhou Zhenbang a little bit of time, the officials of the Qing court are not as honest as the officials under His Majesty, Zhou Zhenbang will definitely be able to escape the scourge of killing." ”

Lin Fei nodded lightly, and didn't think much about this matter anymore, because there were too many people like Zhou Zhenbang in the Qing Kingdom, and he began to think about how to fight this fort.

This battery faces the spacious sea, any ship that wants to land can not escape its blow, their own troops want to land, must first knock out this battery, but it is not easy to take down this battery, the caliber of the three heavy guns in the battery is twelve inches, that is, 300 mm, such heavy guns, and equipped on a cliff several hundred meters high, the range must be far more than their own battleship, if you want to let the battleship hit the battery, before the ship guns hit it, they will be beaten into a sieve first.

Lin Fei picked up the microphone while thinking and asked Ma Chengfeng on the mast, "How far are we from the Golden Turtle Head Fort now?" ”

Ma Chengfeng replied: "It's about fifteen kilometers. ”

The firing range of the 300 mm caliber heavy gun can reach ten kilometers, plus it is fired on a cliff several hundred meters high, and the shells are very likely to fly over a distance of fifteen kilometers and fall on their own warships. ”

Ma Chengfeng immediately hung out the signal flag, the fleet then anchored to rest, the commander of the fifth brigade is named Zhu Minxiang, is Lin Fei after the previous battles to promote an excellent officer, at this time he was on the Tianlong ship, he saw Lin Fei ordered the fleet to stop and rest, hurriedly came to find Lin Fei.

Zhu Minxiang is tepid on weekdays, but at this time he was in a hurry, and he hurriedly said to Lin Fei: "Your Majesty, why did you order it to stop?" Now that Penghu Island is in front of you, if you don't go to the island in one go, when will you stay? ”

Lin Fei sighed lightly and said, "Don't you see the fort on the island?" If you attack the island, you will inevitably suffer heavy casualties, and if you want to attack the island, you must first knock out the forts on the island. ”

Zhu Minxiang said: "Your Majesty, the enemy's heavy artillery only has three, and it can't kill many of us, if we take the risk of attacking the island, although there will be certain losses, we will definitely be able to defeat Penghu Island, let our fifth brigade fight..."

Lin Fei frowned, and said angrily: "Have you counted how many people you will lose by risking to attack the island?" The enemy's heavy artillery can hit at least ten kilometers, and the ten kilometers of water on the shore are shallow, and they can only be rowed through with our landing boats, how much time will it take? At least forty minutes, these forty minutes, enough for the enemy to fire three hundred shells ... How many people will you lose? ”

Only then did Zhu Minxiang realize the seriousness of the matter, he nodded lightly and stopped talking, and then Tang Yinchun spoke on the side: "Your Majesty, have you forgotten the Battle of Korejido Island?" Our frogman commandos sneaked into the island and attacked the Spaniards' batteries, so why don't we do it again? ”

Lin Fei shook his head heavily and said, "Don't... The defenders on Corregido Island are Spanish and have low combat effectiveness, while the defenders on Penghu Island are Japanese and far exceed the Spaniards in combat effectiveness. ”

Tang Yinchun's face was unconvinced, and he was about to speak again, Lin Fei waved his hand lightly and said, "Okay, no need to say any more, you go back first, and the method of defeating the fort on the island is up to me." ”

Zhu Minxiang and Tang Yinchun walked out gloomily, Lin Fei looked at the backs of the two leaving, and thought in his heart, how should this battle be fought? The power in my hands has the army, the frogman commando and the dragon-class cruiser, and the army and the frogman commando cannot be used, so the dragon-class cruiser can only be used, but unfortunately the dragon class cruiser has a gun caliber of only 120 mm, and the range and power are insufficient in the face of shore defense heavy artillery.

It would be nice if I had large-caliber artillery, Lin Fei thought secretly, but large-caliber artillery was not thought of, it had to be manufactured by constantly improving industrial capacity.

Lin Fei pondered for several hours, but there was no good solution, he sighed, and said to himself helplessly: "It seems that the army and the frogman commandos can only go on an adventure." ”

The sky gradually darkened, and there was a sudden fog on the sea, Lin Fei looked at the fog in the sky and his heart moved, called Meng Huikai and asked, "Is there often fog on the sea in the Penghu area?"

Meng Huikai nodded and said, "That's right, there is often fog. ”

Lin Fei nodded thoughtfully, then pointed to the distance with his hand, where a huge reef was exposed, Lin Fei asked, "What is the name of that reef?" ”

Meng Huikai looked at it carefully and replied, "The name of that reef is 'Gumi Reef', which is named because it resembles a Gumi. ”

This book was first published from 17K Novel Network, the first time to see the genuine content! R405