The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 897 Luo Xinhua's High-Speed ​​Heavy Armor Assassin and Luo Xinzhong's Anti-American (Eastern) Aid-to-American (Western) Support Army

Echigo, Matsuzaki.

The horses' hooves clattered rhythmically on the cobblestone path leading to the coast. Daidouji Yumi, still glaring angrily at the heavily guarded Matsuzaki train station in the distance, lifted the curtain of the carriage window: "What are those marines so arrogant about! They're just relying on guarding oil fields and gold mines, aren't they? They won't even recognize army passes, they're incredibly arrogant..."

Luo Xinzhong, who was resting with his eyes closed, chuckled and said, "Isn't this my dad soaking in the hot springs here?" He paused, "He gets more and more afraid of death as he gets older. Tsar Alexander of Russia was bombed to death last year. He has to be careful."

Luo Xinhua remained silent, watching the scenery outside the window shift. From the heavily guarded edge of town, the landscape gradually transitioned to sparse farmland and windbreaks. The sea smell in the air grew stronger, carrying a damp chill. Onodera Tsubaki sat quietly opposite him, her ebony box and satchel resting on her lap. Suddenly, she spoke again, her voice low but clear:

"Colonel, Niigata Port near Matsuzaki is one of the most important naval ports in the Sea of ​​Japan. It is close to Vladivostok Port to the north... so the martial law level has always been at its highest."

Luo Xinhua's gaze unconsciously drifted towards the coastline not far out the car window. Daidouji Yumi also looked over curiously: "Is it under martial law year-round? Even stricter than Kyoto and Osaka? Why? I've never heard of any large fleet in Niigata Port?"

“It’s not a fleet,” Tsubaki Onodera’s gaze seemed to pierce through the carriage floor and sparse woods, seeing something unseen, “it’s many large warships that need to be hidden that are anchored there.”

"Hidden?" Luo Xinzhong also opened his eyes.

“Vladivostok Port freezes over in winter,” Tsubaki Onodera explained casually, stating a fact. “Those ships stationed in Vladivostok that cannot be easily seen or need to be kept in the dark will, like migratory birds, travel south along a concealed route in the Sea of ​​Japan to anchor in the deep-water anchorage of Niigata Port before the depths of winter each year, to undergo maintenance and overwinter until the sea ice melts the following spring… then they will quietly return. Therefore, Niigata Port and the Matsuzaki line have always been… heavily fortified areas, places with the most eyes watching.” Her last sentence was pointed, her gaze seemingly casually sweeping over several seemingly ordinary guard towers and fields outside the car window.

As the group was talking, the coastal road suddenly became straight and wide, and the naval coachman let out a "whoosh" and the carriage slowed down.

Luo Xinhua looked out the car window and saw a checkpoint appear a few hundred meters ahead by the roadside. The guards were no longer the Japanese marines, but Taiping Heavenly Kingdom marines in dark indigo uniforms, wearing stiff-topped short-brimmed caps and belts adorned with dragon insignia! A barricade stood in front of the checkpoint's crossbar, and the soldiers stood at attention, rifles at the ready, watching the approaching carriage with wary expressions.

Onodera Tsubaki and Daidouji Yumi immediately took out their blue and tan passes from their bags. The carriage stopped, and a young Taiping Army Marine Corps lieutenant walked to the door, stood at attention, and gave a meticulous salute:
"Please show your special travel permit!"

Special passes were definitely not available for Daidoji and Onodera, while Luo Xinzhong said to Luo Xinhua with a grin, "Boss, Dad wants to see you."

"What a nuisance!" Luo Xinhua muttered, pulling out a dark red hardcover badge with a relief of a dragon coiled around a sea reef from his casual clothes pocket! The badge was extremely exquisite, with every line of the dragon scales clearly visible, exuding a heavy sense of authority.

He silently handed over the dark red identification document. The Marine Corps lieutenant's pupils constricted sharply the moment he saw the document! Almost instinctively, he stood up straight again, solemnly accepting it with both hands, and carefully examined it. When he saw the distinctive seals and the full name of the signature inside, his young face instantly filled with shock and disbelief! He abruptly looked up, first staring intently at Luo Xinhua's pale and tired face, then his gaze abruptly turned to the view out the car window—in the direction of the coast!

He snapped to attention with a sharp "snap," his heels hitting the ground with a crisp, powerful sound, and raised his right hand to his temple in a textbook-perfect military salute!

"Colonel!" His voice trembled slightly with excitement, but he tried his best to maintain the highest volume, pointing to the distant coastline—there, through the thin mist of a spring afternoon, in the depths of the calm bay, a huge, sharp silhouette full of industrial power was quietly floating on the azure sea!

"Sir! That magnificent warship!" The lieutenant's voice cracked with excitement. "It's your flagship, isn't it?!"

The eyes of everyone in the carriage were instantly drawn to the direction the lieutenant was pointing!
It was a brand-new armored cruiser with a displacement of at least 10000 tons. Its turrets, bridge, masts, heavy funnels, and elegant yet dynamic hull silhouette reflected the cold gleam of steel in the afternoon spring sunlight.

Luo Xinhua could even see the black, red, and yellow tricolor flag flying at the bow of the ship! That was the flag of the US West Coast Militia Navy!
Without a doubt, that was a new weapon that Luo Yaoguo had prepared for the US-West Alliance, the proxy of the war!
And Luo Xinhua, who held the title of US West Coast Navy Captain, was of course the most suitable captain for it!
“Ahua,” Luo Xinzhong had somehow gotten close to his brother, his voice low and tinged with amusement, “Still staring blankly? It won’t fly over to you no matter how long you look.” He gently nudged Luo Xinhua’s shoulder. “That lieutenant wasn’t wrong, it’s yours!” Then he glanced at Onodera Tsubaki, who was staring intently at the giant ship beside Luo Xinhua, her expression blank. Her smile became slightly mischievous. “The old man is really… thoughtful! He even prepared the best ‘naval shrine maiden’ for you! And…” He drawled, his eyes full of meaning.

"Hmm?" Luo Xinhua subconsciously pulled himself out of the shock of the steel behemoth.

Luo Xinzhong chuckled, "There's more than one! Count them..." He counted on his fingers, "We've got the artillery priestess," his eyes swept over Onodera, "What about the navigation priestess? The engine priestess? The medical priestess? Hehe, the old man is always so generous! It's making everyone envious!"

"What?" Luo Xinhua's mind was buzzing, and he hadn't fully processed what this meant. He turned his head to ask for clarification, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a figure riding a bicycle, rushing towards him like the wind on the gravel road leading into the depths of the pine forest.

It was a female officer, also dressed in a well-fitting navy navy uniform, with her hair tied in a ponytail. She rode her bicycle with a light and agile gait, her face unusually young, a baby face with a touch of chubby cheeks, her skin as white as fine porcelain, but her eyes were surprisingly large, dark and bright, radiating a liveliness and intelligence that seemed incongruous with her age. The bicycle stopped five or six meters from the checkpoint, and the young officer nimbly jumped off, pushing the bicycle and jogging to the carriage. Ignoring the standing lieutenant and the curious Daidoji, her gaze quickly locked onto Luo Xinhua, who was dressed in a navy captain's uniform.

She stood at attention and bowed deeply to Luo Xinhua at a ninety-degree angle, her ponytail swaying with the movement, her voice clear and melodious.
“Good afternoon, Captain! I am Kaoru Jinguji, the Naval Navigation Headquarters's personal shrine maiden! You must be Captain Luo Xinhua, right?” She looked up, her baby face beaming with a bright smile, her little tiger teeth peeking out. She quickly glanced at Tsubaki Onodera standing behind and to the side of Luo Xinhua, her smile widening, and waved her canvas satchel at her in a respectful yet familiar tone: “Onodera-neechan! It’s so nice to meet you! From now on, we’re ‘sisters on the same ship’! Please take care of me!”

Onodera Tsubaki's brows furrowed instantly, her expression as if she had swallowed a fly, and she uttered three kanji characters stiffly: "Jinguji..."

It seems they really are "best friends"!

Kaoru Jinguji seemed oblivious to Onodera's dark expression, turning instead to Luo Xinhua with pure admiration and elation in her large eyes. Her voice was crisp and clear: "The Prime Minister is inside Jinguji Onsen! Colonel, please get out of the car and follow me! No carriages from outside are allowed to enter."

Jinguji Onsen is not an independent hot spring inn, but a seaside hot spring complex built on the site of an ancient temple. Black reefs and white waves collide incessantly on the beach just a few dozen meters away. A verdant pine forest surrounds a group of elegant wooden buildings with upturned eaves. Passing through the wooden archway hidden among the pine branches (on either side stood more elite Marines), the Luo brothers, Onodera, and Daidoji followed the experienced Jinguji Kaoru along the pebbly path covered with pine needles towards the tallest two-story wooden building on the shore. The air was filled with the smell of sulfur and the salty sea breeze, and the sound of the waves seemed to echo in their ears.

Ascending to the second floor and pushing open a wide shoji door, one finds an unobstructed terrace facing the sea. On the terrace sits only a futon, upon which sits a lean, wiry figure, his back to the doorway, facing the vast ocean, seemingly lost in thought. In the distance, on the sea, the brand-new steel behemoth floats silently, seemingly awaiting its master.

“Father.” Luo Xinhua stood at the door, his voice a little strained.

Luo Yaoguo didn't turn around: "You're here?"

"Mm," Luo Xinhua replied. Luo Xinzhong stood behind his brother, his hands in his pockets, watching his father's back with a grin.

Luo Yaoguo slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping over his two sons by the door, finally settling on Luo Xinhua's war-torn face.

"Come here, stand here." Luo Yaoguo patted the spot next to him, gesturing to the edge of the terrace.

Luo Xinhua limped over and stood beside his father, Luo Xinzhong, facing the sea. Onodera Tsubaki and Daidouji Yumi remained inside the door, kneeling respectfully in the shadows. Jinguji Kaoru stood gracefully at the doorway.

"Jinghai, standard displacement 12,000 tons." Luo Yaoguo's voice was not loud, but it clearly drowned out the sound of the sea breeze. "It is equipped with the latest vertical triple-expansion steam engine, 26,000 horsepower. The maximum speed can reach 23 knots."

He pointed to the silhouette of the long, elegant forecastle of the giant steel ship on the distant sea, "Look at her bow and freeboard... a deep V, a bulbous bow. It's fast enough to cleave the waves, and steady enough for your gunnery officer to calculate the exact landing point of every shell."

His finger moved to the high, angular turrets on the ship's hull. "Four twin-mounted, eight 210mm (50-caliber) recoil-propelled rapid-fire guns. New products that the Jiangnan Shipyard only finalized and began mass production this year. Rate of fire: three and a half rounds per minute, penetration... enough to tear apart those shoddy cruisers from the Eastern American Federation." A sneer curled at the corner of Luo Yaoguo's mouth.

“Armor…” His gaze turned serious. “The entire core area is a 102-meter-long armored box. It uses the latest hardened and carburized steel plates from the Krupp line, with the main armor belt 200 mm thick and angled outwards at 15 degrees. Let alone the 203mm and 210mm rounds, even those armor-piercing rounds fired from those nearly scrapped 305mm rounds from eight or nine thousand yards away by the East Americans wouldn't be able to easily tear it apart!” He paused, seemingly savoring how much security steel could provide for his eldest son. “Horizontal protection… 90 mm in total from two layers, that's enough.”

Luo Yaoguo looked at his eldest son, his gaze intense: "The ship is strong and the cannons are powerful! Moreover, it has excellent hearing and eyesight. I equipped it with the latest Jiangnan Type 1 radio, which was developed based on the Tesla Model III. Ahua, take it..." His voice suddenly rose, carrying an unquestionable command, "to the Pacific Ocean to make a name for yourself!"

Looking at the silent, steel fortress at sea that his father had pointed to, Luo Xinhua felt an immense sense of power and potential from the perfect combination of parameters (speed, armor, firepower, communications), which instantly relieved him of the fatigue from the journey and the pain in his feet!
That's a force powerful enough to overturn the ocean in the Pacific!

Luo Yaoguo withdrew his gaze from the giant ship and turned it to Luo Xinzhong, who had been listening with a smile, seemingly unconcerned.

“Ah Zhong, you…” Luo Yaoguo’s voice suddenly turned cold, with the resolute determination of a chess player making a crucial move, “Your Fourth Brigade is the first target that the ‘Jinghai’ needs to escort!”

Luo Xinzhong's smile froze instantly! His eyes, as deep as his father's, widened abruptly, his pupils flashing with disbelief: "What?! The Fourth Brigade? The first batch? Escorting...where to?!" He instinctively took a step forward, closer to his father, completely unable to comprehend this bolt from the blue order!
Luo Yaoguo stared back at his second son's instantly flustered face, his expression unchanged, a hint of displeasure on his face: "Send him to war! North America, China! America!"

He stood up, reached out, and patted Luo Xinzhong heavily on the shoulder: "The second civil war between the United States of America (Eastern Commonwealth) and the Confederate States of America (Western United States)... is about to tear off that fig leaf!" A cold smile spread across his face. "But our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom... is the leader of the Warsaw Pact. The leader can't easily get involved; he has to be absolutely certain before starting a war. And that absolute certainty has to be earned by our underlings, one sword at a time."

"So... let the Western American Alliance go first and fight against Great Britain's little brother, the Eastern American Federation!" Luo Yaoguo paused, then said calmly, "and then the Japanese Divine Kingdom will send troops to support the Western American Alliance! And you," he looked intently at his son, "your Fourth Osaka Brigade! Will be the first... support army sent by the Japanese Divine Kingdom! Go to fight the Eastern American Alliance and aid the Western American Alliance! Remember, the better you fight, the more bargaining chips the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will have, and the more bargaining chips the Heavenly Kingdom has, the fewer bargaining chips Britain will have!"

(End of this chapter)