Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 429 Joint Exercise
Yangzhou Xinjing Port, with a total length of 450 kilometers, originates from the Lianshan River (Yakui River) in the mountains east of Xing'an Prefecture (Passo Fundo), turns from south to east, forms the Guazhou River (Guaiba River) at Xinjing Port, flows into Pengze Lake (Patus Lagoon), then passes through the northern end of Hetao County (Pelotas), and finally flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Lianshan River is one of the water systems with the largest cargo volume and the most important strategic significance in the territory of South American Han.

Relying on the Lianshan River system, the large coalfield minerals (San Jerónimo Coal Mine) in Hexi County (Santa Maria) and mineral resources in other areas of Yangzhou can be transported to Xing'an Prefecture quickly and conveniently by water. At the same time, with the help of the Lianshan River system, Xing'an Prefecture and the heavy industrial zones around the basin can also sell various industrial products produced to local and overseas regions by water and sea transportation.

The Lianshan River system has a large flow and the surrounding area has fertile land. It has the largest heavy industrial base in the Han Dynasty and also has excellent climatic conditions for developing agriculture. Therefore, during the renovation of the Xing'an River (Primero River) Hydropower Station, local water conservancy engineering experts also began to evaluate the possibility of building a hydroelectric power station in the Lianshan River system. If the evaluation results meet the requirements, then within the next five years, the Lianshan River Hydropower Station is likely to become the second large-scale hydroelectric power station in the country to be put into formal operation.

The breeze ripples on the lake and the fragrance of rice wafts in the air. Twenty years ago, it was here that groups of landless immigrants boarded ocean-going transport ships and followed the broad waterways of Pengze Lake, embarking on the road to rebirth in a foreign land.

On the west bank of Pengze Lake, a lowland area about 290 kilometers long has been carefully reclaimed into neat rows of paddy fields by the lower-class people who generally come from southern Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Porto Alegre, a small port town named by Portuguese colonists, has become a dual-use military and civilian port capable of accommodating a maximum displacement of 9000 tons under the construction of Chinese immigrants and the Han army.

Time has witnessed the earth-shaking changes in the Xinjing area, and also witnessed the arduous journey of the South American Han Kingdom's step-by-step rise.
Xinjing Port and Pengze Lake, this waterway that was once unknown under the rule of the Brazilian Empire, has now become a vital strategic transportation line for the Han Kingdom in South America.

Atlantic coast, from Dongsheng County (Joinvia) in the north

, Xinghe County (Floria) to Songjiang Port in the south,
A coastal defense line thousands of kilometers long surrounds Xinjing and Songjiang.

In this coastal defense line, Xinjing Port became the support point of the Han Navy's Atlantic maritime defense line because of its advantages such as being located in the inland waters of Pengze Lake, with a closed water environment and not easily attacked by the enemy from outside the port. Except for a battleship and an armored cruiser, the other main combat warships of the Han Navy's First Fleet are docked in Xinjing Port all year round.

Warships stood in rows and whistles sounded constantly. Taking Xinjing Port as the starting point, one ironclad warship after another set out from the port and sailed from south to north along a fixed route, forming a huge water formation on the surface of Pengze Lake.

In 1889, the joint military exercises between the army and navy officially began.
On the naval side, more than 8500 warships of various types, including two Chaoyang-class battleships with a displacement of 3500 tons, two Pioneer-class armored cruisers with a displacement of 3200 tons, one Victory-class cruiser with a displacement of 2400 tons, and two Yangwu-class dome-shaped armored cruisers with a displacement of 40 tons, were all assembled in Xinjing Port to participate in the exercise.

On the army side, representative troops sent by more than ten units, including the 2.4st, nd, rd, ... and th, totaling about people, were deployed along the coastal areas of Pengze Lake, preparing for landing and anti-landing tactical exercises.

The fleet sailed along the waterway of Pengze Lake. Half an hour later, the vanguard formation with Chaoyang as the flagship arrived at Huichang County (Rio Grande) near the mouth of Pengze Lake.

The waters near the Huichang Line are the narrowest part of Pengze Lake, where Pengze Lake is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by a waterway with a width of 1.6 kilometers.

There are two large artillery batteries on the land on both sides of the waterway. The Huichang Fortress defense system, with four artillery batteries equipped with heavy artillery as the core, firmly guards the safety of the waterway at the mouth of Pengze Lake.

In the coastal area far away from the fortress, dozens of ocean-going transport ships that had moved their berths from Xinjing Port to Huichang Port due to military exercises and more than 20,000 immigrants who had disembarked from the ships, carefully carried the only rags on their bodies and, like the local people who had been waiting early, stretched their necks, eagerly awaiting the appearance of the Han naval fleet.

"I'm coming!"

As the warships, led by the Chaoyang, came into sight, hundreds of local civilians standing in the front rows shouted excitedly.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

The Chaoyang battleship, with a displacement of 8500 tons and a stronger power system and artillery system than the Dingyuan, was at the exit of the waterway.
The engine horsepower increased and a dull whistle sounded.

The Chaoyang began to turn and head out to sea, and the huge side of the ship was revealed to the people on the shore, causing waves of sensation!

"Long live His Majesty! Long live the Han Dynasty!..."

The local people and the newly arrived immigrants expressed their excitement and shock in different ways. Although some new immigrants had not yet assumed the identity of local citizens, when they saw the Chinese soldiers standing on the huge warships, they couldn't help but feel an inexplicable sense of intimacy and pride in their hearts.

Every Chinese citizen who immigrated to the Han country in South America has an unknown and difficult past. People are despised when they leave their hometown and have no relatives. If they cannot survive on the mainland, how many people are willing to risk the bumpy sea and migrate to a distant overseas country thousands of miles away?

Once you step on an ocean-going ship to migrate overseas, you may never be able to return to your hometown or see any of the plants and trees there. Even an adult man, when he makes the decision to move overseas, can't help but cry out of worry for his parents, wife, and children who are left alone in his hometown.

However, as a lower-class citizen, if you don't go out to sea to make a living, you will die. If you go out to sea, as long as your luck is not too bad, you can live a life of food and clothing in South America.

In contrast to the two choices, in order to survive, even if they are reluctant, one after another, the lower-class people are wiping away their tears, grabbing a handful of soil from their hometown, and embarking on the road to survival overseas.

In the worn-out packages, a few thin clothes and a handful of soil from their hometowns carried all the memories of the past for the new immigrants. Hundreds of new immigrants, carrying packages on their backs, were persuaded by the local people around them to stand up. Looking at the huge and ferocious war beast on the surface of Pengze Lake, they showed relaxed smiles for the first time.

Only with powerful weapons can their lives be guaranteed and they won’t have to worry about their hard-earned new lives being destroyed by the big ships and cannons of the Western powers.

One ironclad ship after another sailed through the Huichang section of the waterway, and the cheers of the people on both sides of the coast grew louder and louder. When all the warships left Pengze Lake and entered the Atlantic coastal waters, Li Mingyuan turned his gaze from the increasingly distant shore to the center of the fleet.

"Your Majesty, the cadets of the fourteenth class of the Naval Academy request to join the ship for internship."

Facing Li Mingyuan's gaze, Navy Chief Chen Sen asked for instructions.

"allow."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After getting Li Mingyuan's permission, Chen Sen turned around and gave a few instructions to the staff officer beside him. Then, a row of nearly 80 military academy graduates, led by two naval officers, quickly lined up in five rows and stood facing Li Mingyuan and others. "The 9th batch of graduates from the Naval Academy and the volunteer sailors, a total of 4 people, were assigned to the Chaoyang battleship on April 7, the th year of Jianye, and are now reporting!"

A staff officer in a white dress uniform took two steps forward and spoke loudly.

"salute!"

"The ceremony is over!"

As the highest leader of the army and navy, Li Mingyuan returned the power to assign graduating students to the navy after temporarily accepting the shipboard report of the 14th naval graduates.

"Peng Wanli, Gao Dashan, Xie Dahai, Ma Hongyu, ... Huang Qianghui!"

"To!"

"Group the 305mm main guns!"

"Yes!"

"Zhang Hanfu, Fan Changjiang, Lin Junxiong, Tan Pingshan, ... Gan Tiesheng!"

"To!"

"150mm secondary battery!"

"Zhang Wuzu, Ma Jizu, Cheng Xiaoxian, Zong Jingxian, Nian Guangsi, Tang Shaoji..., Sun Nianzu!" "Divide into torpedo groups!"

"yes!"…………

Newly commissioned naval cadets are assigned to different positions for internship, such as the main gun group, lookout group, damage control group, communications group, guard group, machine gun group, rapid-fire gun group, and engine group, according to their majors. After a year of internship and passing the fleet internship assessment, they will bid farewell to their student status and begin to devote themselves to this turbulent era as official naval officers. …………

On May 1889, 5, the joint military exercise between the Army and the Navy came to an end. Two days later, the Navy Department made some adjustments to the positions of the officers in the current fleet.
Lieutenant Commanders Xu Zhixuan and Chen Binshi were promoted to captains of the 3500-ton Pioneer-class armored cruiser, and their ranks were raised to lieutenant colonels. Lieutenant Commanders Yang Guangzong and He Linshu were promoted to captains of the 2500-ton Yangwu-class cruiser, and their ranks were raised to lieutenant colonels.

In addition to the four young officers who were promoted, two other young officers, Lu Wenhui and Chen Jurong, who performed well in the exercise, not only did not get promotion opportunities, but were transferred out of the surface fleet.

"Major Lu, Major Chen, I have good news for you. You have been selected to serve as the commanders of the Navy Submarine Brigade. This is the new uniform of the submarine force. Take a look and see if you are satisfied."

Navy Chief of Staff Li Han called the two into his office and said with a smile.

"General, I don't understand why the General Staff transferred the two of us away from the main fleet?"

The Han Navy was established nearly twenty years ago. During these twenty years, the status of surface ironclad ships as the main force of the fleet has never been shaken. Therefore, after learning that he was transferred from the Navy's First Fleet, Lu Wenhui was both puzzled and angry.

"We transferred you away from the First Fleet not because the General Staff had doubts about your combat capability. On the contrary, the General Staff transferred you here specifically because they value your capabilities."

Li Han still had a smile on his face as he explained, "The Navy Department and His Majesty both agreed to transfer you two to the submarine force this time. Think about it carefully. If we just transfer you two to an insignificant government department, would it be necessary to alert the Navy Department and His Majesty?"

"Submarine forces? Are they submarines that can fight underwater and attack enemy warships with underwater torpedoes?"

Submarine development was a secret in the Han Dynasty, but as a young naval officer, it was necessary to understand the latest naval military weapons and tactics of Western powers. Therefore, when Chen Jurong learned that his new position was the commander of the submarine force, he asked this question.

"Yes, it is the kind of submarine that can be used for underwater combat. At the end of last year, the navy successfully developed a new type of submarine. Its combat performance is better than that of the United Kingdom, France and the United States. So your majesty decided to establish an experimental submarine force, temporarily composed of six Jiaolong first-generation submarines. In the early stage, they will be responsible for exploring underwater combat tactics. In the later stage, when the submarine construction technology matures, they will be organized into a regular fleet for underwater actual combat."

Li Han roughly stated the combat objectives of the submarine, and then placed two professional books on submarine performance and maintenance on the table, and instructed: "Your Majesty is very optimistic about the future development of submarines. You two should work hard, and there will be plenty of opportunities for you to show your talents in the future.

Okay, this is your new uniform. Your rank is Lieutenant Colonel. Take it back and change into your new uniform. Then think carefully about how to select submarine soldiers. I don't care about the specifics. As long as you have selected the soldiers and submit a list to the General Staff Headquarters, the Navy General Staff Headquarters will help you solve the problem of personnel transfer. "

"General, can you give us a little more time to think about this?"

"There is no time for you to consider. The appointment letter has been issued. You only have two choices, either accept or reject."

"Obeying orders is a soldier's duty! We accept the arrangements of the General Staff Headquarters!"

After failing to bargain, the two men accepted the appointment reluctantly.

"Haha, this is what a soldier should be like. Don't worry, your majesty has always had a good eye. Since your majesty attaches great importance to the development of the submarine force, it means that submarines will definitely have great prospects in future underwater combat. The future development of the two of you in the navy may be smoother because of this."…………

Yesterday was Yuan Wei’s birthday. I wish Yuan Wei a happy birthday! (Ahem, belated birthday wishes, please understand)

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(End of this chapter)