Chapter 119: The rise and fall of the empire, in one fell swoop! (It will be available on the shelves early Friday morning, please be the first to order!)

In the early morning of February 9th, the Seto Inland Sea and the waters east of Awaji Island.

The stars in the sky reflected into the sea, and the moonlight was smashed into pieces by the V-shaped bow of the cruiser Lushun in the undulating waves. The more than 5,000-ton hull rose and fell, and the lights on the ship also flickered.

Inside the bridge, Zhuge Weidao stood at the captain's command position with his hands on the railing, looking out the window at the dark sea, still full of energy.

Although Zhuge Weidao still has not thought about how to be a captain, his work attitude is still very good. When it is his turn to be on duty, he will arrive at the bridge in advance and wait patiently for his deputy commander Chen Jian to arrive.

After getting off work, he took over the command. Then he stood in the command position with the most upright posture, as if he was about to enter the battle at the next moment. Seeing his attitude, the navigator, signal officer, and flag officer on the bridge

The officers, helmsmen, correspondents, heralds, heralds, bridge observers, and combat staff officers, etc., did not dare to show any signs of neglect. They all worked hard and prepared to deal with the Minister of the Navy.

My attitude during the inspection, I worked hard and handled it carefully.

However, although Zhuge Weidao showed "the appearance of a famous general", he never took the initiative to issue any military orders. All his military orders were proposed by Captain Wang Wen, the chief staff officer, and he was only responsible for nodding and saying, "

very good".

Well, Zhuge Weidao's captain is really easy to be a captain.

With his "self-taught" naval expertise, if he were to be a chief staff officer instead of Wang Wen, he would definitely be a joke. But as a captain, he can handle it pretty well!

Of course, Zhuge Weidao also knew what he was worth. So he did not intend to keep messing with the surface fleet, but had already made an agreement with the Admiralty Minister Zhuge Weiyi, the Naval Chief of Staff Zhuge Weiyong and the HNA Commander Guan Tianpei.

When he has enough maritime qualifications, he will go to the HNA Command to be the chief of staff. No one else knows about HNA, so of course he is an expert. So he arranged for most of the subordinates he brought out from Peshawar early in the morning.

HNA, HNA will be his territory in the future.

Just when Zhuge Weidao was wondering whether he should "invent" an airplane as soon as possible after arriving at the Hainan Aviation Headquarters, a flash of light suddenly appeared in front of him. He looked up and saw that it turned out to be the Japanese shogunate navy sent to Zhuge Weidao.

The "Yamato" led by the 10th Task Group of the Beiyang Fleet of the Ming Dynasty, where Dao is located, is flashing lights - Oh, this "Yamato" is not the "Yamato Hotel" in another timeline, but a ship with a displacement of more than 600 meters.

tons of wooden-hulled gunboats.

Four fast boats with speeds of up to 24-28 knots, sailing slowly behind a small wooden boat with a speed of only 10 knots, and the small wooden boat is actually called "Yamato". This scene is a bit absurd no matter how you look at it. But no matter how absurd it is, Zhuge

Weidao could only endure it. Because the "mission" of the 10th Mission Group this time was actually to send him to Japan to marry the Tokugawa Shogunate. This was a diplomatic mission, so the navigation route had to be arranged by Japan.

"What did that Yamato say?"

Zhuge Weidao read the lantern language for a while, but still didn't understand it, so he asked directly.

"Sir," the signal officer on the bridge immediately replied, "Yamato said that there have been frequent pirate activities in the waters near Shikoku Island and Awaji Island recently. Let us be more careful."

Zhuge Weidao was stunned for a moment, "Pirate?"

Wang Wen, the chief staff officer at the side, immediately took over the topic and said: "Sir, after the founding of Japan during the Restoration, the pirates and Japanese pirates that had disappeared due to the isolation of the country have made a comeback. They are not only active in Japan's inland seas, offshore waters, but even deep into the Pacific Ocean.

There are Japanese pirates even in the Luzon Islands. The most famous ones are the Murakami Navy, Goto Navy, Kumano Navy, Ito Navy, etc. In recent years, there have been pirates such as the Satsuma feudal lord who broke away from the feudal clan.

The Lord's sea fleet.

According to the investigation of the Naval Intelligence Bureau, these Japanese pirates are actually behind the shogunate and some powerful names. Among them, the Murakami Navy is behind the Choshu Domain Mori clan, the Goto Navy is supported by some powerful vassals in Kitakyushu, and Kumano

The navy was supported by the shogunate and the Kishu Tokugawa family, while the Ito navy was a member of the Satsuma Shimazu family."

"The Tokugawa shogunate and powerful feudal lords support pirates." Zhuge Weidao nodded lightly. He "forgot" about this matter. Because it was not an important matter, he never "remembered" it, but he could understand Japan.

Why do people do what they do?

This is following the old wisdom of Elizabeth I of England. When overseas trade and industrialization were stymied by Ming Dynasty, they engaged in such crooked ways. It was indeed a robber country!

Thinking of this, Zhuge Weidao just smiled coldly: "Tell Yamato that if we encounter pirates, my formation will eradicate them for Japan!"

"Yes, sir!"

Just when Zhuge Weidao asked his men to signal the Yamato wooden-hulled gunboat with a displacement of up to 600 tons, four boats with a displacement ranging from 5,000 to 1,000 tons were parked on the sea south of the Naruto Strait.

A pirate ship, no, more precisely a camouflaged raider ship!

In fact, the main force of Japan's maritime armed forces today is not the Japanese shogunate navy on the surface at all, such as the Shitenno ships, the Yamato ships, the Musashi ships (all wooden-hulled gunboats of several hundred tons), and the Kongo ships.

-class (wooden-hulled iron cruiser built by Japan), what about the Akagi ship, and the Kaga ship (two protected cruisers that have been passed through countless hands), the names sound like they are very powerful, and the total number is thirty or forty. But

The actual combat effectiveness is not worth mentioning compared to the Ming Dynasty Navy, and there is no need for the Beiyang Fleet to take action. Zhuge Weidao's small 10th mission formation can take part in a naval battle with them, and he can be sure of victory!

But the Japanese devils are not the Qing Dynasty that engaged in the Westernization Movement in history. They are not so rule-abiding. The serious navy cannot defeat the Ming Dynasty. They can also use piracy tactics, pirate ships, and disguised attack ships.

The former is a bit casual, just get any ship, load it with a few small cannons and a group of rogues who are so poor that they only have "a knife and a life" to go.

The latter is amazing. They are all camouflaged warships specially built with the black money earned from pirates. The outer shell is made just like a civilian ship, but an armored gun cabin is installed below the deck. As long as the blocking wooden boards are folded,

You can push out the 6-inch rapid-fire cannon hidden in the gun bay and fire!

There are also elevating turrets hidden under the decks at the bow and stern. As long as the covering deck is opened, the turrets can be raised. In this way, there will be one or two rapid-fire cannons at the bow and stern.

In addition, the boilers and steam engines used by this kind of camouflaged assault ship are also very powerful. When turned on at full speed, the speed of the camouflaged assault ship can reach more than twenty knots!

Not to mention merchant ships, even inferior warships would be able to encounter them.

This time, in order to ignite the war between Ming Dynasty and Great Britain, Shimazu Qi Liang spent all his money. Not only did he send out his most elite Haitao team, but he also took out four secretly built camouflage attack ships, and also used

For the size of Lushun class and Xinchang class, we found two large ships of four to five thousand tons and two small ships of less than one thousand tons.

Even in order to make it look more real, Qi Liang also had people modify the camouflaged assault ship and install fake ship masts. If you look at it when the visibility is not high, it will look like the real thing!

"Sir Saigo, five unknown ships are coming from north to south at a speed of ten knots. They will pass through the Naruto Strait in about half an hour!"

On the dark bridge of the "Kirigakure Maru", the flagship of four Japanese camouflaged attack ships, a staff officer of the sea wave team dressed just like an ordinary merchant ship crew shouted loudly and seemed very excited.

The one-eyed dragon Xixiang nodded heavily: "Yaoxi! Finally here, light up the lantern! The rise and fall of the empire can be achieved in one fell swoop! Xixiang Jihei Wei is prosperous and I am willing to work with you all to serve the country for seven lifetimes!"

"Hai!"
Chapter completed!