Chinese martial arts! Grandmaster

Chapter 204: Grab a wave, you will definitely get a big reward

Xu Shichang pointed at the middle-aged man wearing a straw hat on the deck and said:
"He is Deng Yonghe, the former captain of the Dingyuan!"

Because Chen Jie was followed by the guards.

Tang Feng's personal guards were all wearing bulletproof vests and helmets, and holding imitation AK47 assault rifles in their hands.

Simultaneously,

Grenades were hung on their waists.

The fifty-man guards, fully armed, are particularly eye-catching wherever they go.

Never underestimate the personal guards around Chen Jie.

They are all carefully selected masters equipped with super firepower.

Even if there were a thousand men besieging them, they would be able to fight their way out with these fifty-man guards.

and,

Even if a strong man with Yi Sui Hua Jin faced Tang Feng's personal guards, he would be shot into a sieve by the assault rifles.

Deng Yonghe, who was wearing a straw hat on the deck, was stunned when he saw Chen Jie and his group.

Then,

When he saw Xu Shichang, a trace of joy appeared on his face and he shouted:

"Master Xu, you are finally here. Is the Military Affairs Office going to issue military salaries?"

"Hahaha - I knew you wouldn't forget the Beiyang Fleet."

finished,

He climbed down the ladder from the deck of the ironclad ship.

Xu Shichang turned his head and looked at Chen Jie, with a trace of helplessness on his face.

"Old Deng is always crying poor and asking for money!"

"All officials in the Grand Council have had their salaries cut in half. Where does the money come from?"

Chen Jie smiled, said nothing, and observed his surroundings.

The entire Beiyang Fleet's shipyard was in a state of suspension.

The shipbuilding level of Daqian is quite far behind that of the West.

This is also why Daqian spent so much silver to purchase armored cruisers from the West.

At this time,

Deng Yonghe came down from the deck of the ironclad ship and walked towards this side.

Xu Shichang spread his hands and said helplessly: "Sir Deng, where is the money in the Grand Council now? You come to me to cry poor and ask for money, but you are crying to the wrong person!"

"But today there is a noble man who wants to meet you!"

Deng Yonghe heard Xu Shichang say that he had no money and no military pay.

All of a sudden, the smile on his face stopped.

Noble man!

Expensive yarn.

The Ministry of War has owed military salaries for such a long time and has not yet paid them. The brothers below are having trouble making ends meet.

In order to feed their brothers, they were forced to drive their ironclad warships to the sea to fish.

Fortunately, we were lucky and did not encounter any Japanese warships.

otherwise,
Whether everyone can come back alive is a question.

Due to lack of funds, there was no money to maintain the ironclad warships.

If this continues, the Beiyang Fleet will be completely destroyed.

Deng Yonghe took off his straw hat, and his originally enthusiastic expression turned cold at this moment.

You people from the Grand Council, why are you coming here without any money?

He muttered to himself, turned around and wanted to leave, not bothering to pay attention to Xu Shichang.

"Master Deng, please don't leave! I told you that a distinguished guest is coming today, don't you want the money?"

When Xu Shichang saw that the other party was about to leave, he quickly called out to him to stop.

When Deng Yonghe heard that there was money, his eyes widened and he quickly stopped and left.

At this time.

Chen Jie looked at Mr. Deng from a close distance.

Unexpectedly, the former captain of the Dingyuan of the Beiyang Fleet was wearing coarse linen clothes, had a dark complexion, and looked like a fisherman.

He was an official of the seventh rank and held a military position.

If Chen Jie had not specifically learned about the captain of the remnant of the Beiyang Fleet before coming here.

I'm afraid that even if we meet, we may not recognize each other.

Deng Yonghe took two steps forward, then looked Chen Jie up and down for a moment, and said slowly:

"Master Xu, is this young man the noble you mentioned?"

"Tsk tsk tsk - who is this young prince with so many guards around him?"

Although he looked nonchalant.

But when he saw so many guards around Chen Jie, he became obviously much more cautious, with a hint of vigilance in his eyes.

Generally speaking,
The only person who could go out with so many guards around him, someone as young as Chen Jie, could be a scion of a wealthy family in Beijing, or a young prince.

"Ximentang Righteous Group, Chen Jie!"

Chen Jie smiled calmly and introduced himself.

Deng Yonghe was stunned when he heard this, then his eyes widened and he said in shock:

“What? You are—!?”

Xu Shichang introduced with a smile: "Okay, Lord Deng, you are so surprised. This is the commander-in-chief of Dagukou Fortress and also the leader of the Yituan, Chen Jie - Master Chen!"

Deng Yonghe took a deep breath and muttered to himself: "The commander-in-chief of Dagukou Fortress!?"

finished,

He stood at attention, saluted Chen Jie, and said, "I greet General Chen!"

This is the highest courtesy salute of the Beiyang Fleet.

Chen Jie smiled calmly and waved his hand:
"Master Deng, I am not General Chen, and our Ximen Hall is not affiliated with the Ministry of War!"

"There is no need for all the red tape and politeness."

Upon hearing this, Deng Yonghe immediately returned to his nonchalant attitude with a smile on his face.

He looked Chen Jie up and down, and then looked at Tang Feng and others for a long time.

Especially when he saw the assault rifle in Tang Feng's hand, his eyes lit up.

"Tsk, tsk, what kind of musket is this? How come I've never seen it before? Could it be the musket that the British Empire has just installed?"

"The Ximentang Righteous Group has become very famous in Daqian recently!"

"The bloody battles at Dagukou Fortress completely defeated the Hunter coalition forces, and we soldiers were so excited that we couldn't sleep all night."

"Now, when those foreign devils hear the name of Ximen Tang, they are so scared that they run away!"

"It's a pity that Deng just came back from sea two days ago and missed the exciting moment."

Deng Yonghe muttered to himself and wanted to touch the automatic rifle in the hands of the guards.

However, after being glared at by Tang Feng, he took two steps back awkwardly, smiled, and said nothing.

Xu Shichang smiled and said:

"Master Deng! Young Master Chen came here specifically to see the former members of the Beiyang Navy. Why are you still standing there? Take him around to have a look."

Deng Yonghe reacted and quickly invited Chen Jie:

"Mr. Chen, please, I will show you the most advanced warships of our Beiyang Fleet!"

When Chen Jie heard this, he was immediately speechless.

These few broken ships can be called the most advanced warships.

The Beiyang Fleet's advanced warships were main armored cruisers purchased from the West.

Unfortunately, they were all sunk by the Japanese warships.

The ironclad ship in front of us can be considered a gunboat that escaped the disaster.

Captain Deng Yonghe doesn't seem to be very arrogant.

Chen Jie nodded, gestured to Tang Feng, and walked towards the ironclad ship.

As Chen Jie and his guards walked forward, Xu Shichang pulled Deng Yonghe from behind and whispered:

"Old Deng, don't you cry poor and ask for money all day long?"

"Mr. Chen is the head of Ximen Hall and the commander-in-chief of Dagukou Fortress."

"Even if he plucks a hair, he can make your life better. So you better be careful when you speak later."

"Remember to show the best side of your navy to Master Chen, understand?"

"To be honest, the higher-ups are planning to sell the Beiyang Navy's shipyard to Ximen Tang. If things go wrong, all of you will have to follow him in the future!"

Deng Yonghe was surprised when he heard this:

"No way? The Ministry of War really wants to sell the shipyard?"

Xu Shichang sighed deeply and shook his head, saying, "The warships we bought from the West last time were all bought on credit!"

"Now it's due. If I don't sell it, how can I pay it back?"

When they reached this point, both of them fell silent.

Deng Yonghe's gunboat was an ironclad ship purchased from the British Empire, commonly known as the "mosquito boat"!
The entire hull is made of wood, with a layer of steel plate wrapped around the outside, and no armor.

After climbing up the ladder on the hull and standing on the deck, you can see a lot of garbage left over from fishing. The deck looks a bit shabby, and even has been repaired in many places.

The ship is equipped with a main gun and two secondary guns on both sides.

Unfortunately, both the main gun and the secondary gun have been dismantled.

If it is not dismantled, the ironclad ship will be too heavy to sail long distances.

Moreover, the caliber of the ship's guns is too large, and the guns cannot be rotated by design, otherwise the recoil from firing would easily capsize the ship.

The maneuverability is very poor, and the only way to aim at the enemy warship is by adjusting the bow.

Although the gunboat's main and secondary guns were removed and used for fishing, its surface maintenance was still good.

In terms of maritime combat capability, a complete gunboat is quite powerful.

The gunboat has a full complement of 55 people and a slightly slower speed of only 8 knots, which is more than twice that of the most advanced warships in the West.

In terms of the power of naval guns, they are much stronger than the Weiyuan cannons on land, and the speed of loading shells is also much more efficient.

In general,

The Weiyuan cannon on land can reload one shell every two minutes, while the naval gun can fire three shells in one minute.

Seeing Chen Jie staring at the position of the dismantled main gun, Deng Yonghe said with embarrassment:

"Mr. Chen, the main gun and the secondary gun are gone. They have been dismantled!"

"There's no other way. The gun is too heavy. If we drag the gun platform, we won't be able to run."

"The power of these artillery pieces is quite good. From a distance of one kilometer, they can penetrate 30-centimeter thick armored steel plates."

"—"

When talking about ships, Deng Yonghe knows them all like the back of his hand.

Although he looks like a fisherman, he is actually a military commander who studied abroad and returned to China.

He was a general who was sent overseas for training during the "Westernization Movement" of the Daqian Dynasty.

Therefore,
He is familiar with armored cruisers, gunboats, transport ships, training ships, etc.

When talking about ships with Chen Jie, he looked excited and spoke eloquently.

Xu Shichang, who was standing next to him, was really impatient.

We were already speaking in the cold wind for nearly half an hour.

Is it over?

but,

Seeing Chen Jie nodding continuously and listening with fascination, Xu Shichang could only stand by and accompany him.

at last,

After hearing Deng Yonghe's introduction of various gunboats and cruisers, he quickly interrupted and said:

"Okay, Master Deng, let's talk about ships later when we have time."

"Mr. Chen came here today because he wanted to see the elite of your navy."

Deng Yonghe reacted immediately after hearing this.

Only then did he remember that today, Xu Shichang had just asked him to demonstrate the sailors' discipline and training.

Let the head of Ximen Hall have a good impression of the entire Beiyang Fleet.

Then,

He nodded to Chen Jie and said with a smile:
"Mr. Chen, let's talk about ships later. Let's take a look at our sailors first."

He took out a whistle from his body and blew it around.

Toot—toot—!
As the whistle spread around, the entire ironclad ship began to shake.

next moment,
A group of people gathered from the nearby barracks and armored warships.

In less than five minutes,
Under the ironclad ship stood a neatly arranged column.

There are three hundred and eight people!
All the sailors who had just been cleaning barnacles and cleaning the ironclad ship lined up in the shortest possible time.

Their discipline and the coordination and unity of their actions can be seen from the sound of the whistle.

Even compared to Yan Kuangtu's "War Department", this kind of coordination is not inferior.

After seeing this scene, Chen Jie's eyes lit up.

sure--!
It has to be said that Deng Yonghe's move made Chen Jie look at him with new eyes.

Let’s not talk about the combat effectiveness of these 300 people, just look at the unified actions they took after hearing the whistle just now.

It can be seen that these are the elite of the Beiyang Fleet.

As for those people I met before, I don’t know what kind of ruffians they were.

Although Deng Yonghe looks like a fisherman, his ability to lead troops is beyond doubt.

That’s right, he is a serious captain.

If he had not offended his superiors and been demoted, he might have died when the Dingyuan was sunk.

Next,
Chen Jie looked at the more than 300 sailors standing in line in front of him and couldn't help but frowning.

How come there isn't even a military uniform?

How to fight a war like this?

No wonder the Beiyang Fleet lost to the Japanese. In such a cold winter, many sailors were barefoot and shivering with cold.

Chen Jie looked up at Deng Yonghe and said in surprise:
"Master Deng, where are your military uniforms? It's so cold in winter, why don't you give them cotton clothes?"

Deng Yonghe shook his head helplessly and immediately started crying poor.

"Where can we get the money to buy cotton clothes? We can't even afford to eat, otherwise we wouldn't go out to sea to fish."

"Mr. Chen, you don't know that we haven't eaten for two months. We eat fish every day. Now I want to vomit when I see fish."

"It's not a big deal if it's cold. It will pass in May next year when the weather warms up and life will be better."

Chen Jie suddenly remembered something, squinted his eyes and said:

"You have dismantled the artillery, what if you encounter enemy ships at sea?"

Deng Yonghe said: "What can we do? We can run. If we can't run and get sunk, we can only say that we have bad luck. What else can we do?"

"Since the Beiyang Fleet was sunk by the Japanese, there is no point in keeping these gunboats. They will all be snatched away by the Japanese."

"Instead of doing this, it's better to dismantle the cannon so that we can run faster."

Chen Jie nodded after hearing this.

After the Japanese sank the Beiyang Fleet, they seized the remaining main battleships and took them for themselves.

No wonder there is not a single decent ship in Tianjin Port.

It turns out that the remaining junk are all ships that the Japanese despised and didn't want.

The Daqian Dynasty's Ministry of War had no choice but to abandon the Beiyang Fleet.

Building a strong navy is simply a bottomless pit and requires huge amounts of money.

Buying a gunboat would cost hundreds of thousands of silver dollars.

Purchasing a Western armored cruiser would cost as much as five million silver dollars.

Chen Jie couldn't help but take a deep breath, and then he understood why the Daqian Dynasty lost its entire fortune after the Beiyang Fleet was sunk by the Japanese.

at this time,

Chen Jie looked at the more than 300 elite soldiers of the Beiyang Fleet, who were queuing barefoot and shivering with cold.

He suddenly had the idea of recruiting this team.

You know, training a sailor is much more difficult than training an artilleryman in the army.

Not everyone can adapt to life at sea, and not everyone can become a qualified sailor.

No ships, buy them from the West!

But the sailors of the ship must be trained by themselves.

Chen Jie never thought of relying on Ximentang to produce ships.

This thing not only requires a lot of manpower and material resources, but also has a too long production cycle.

It takes several years for a ship to be launched after it is produced.

Moreover, shipbuilding is closely related to industrial base.

If you want to produce ships like in the "Urban World", it is simply unrealistic without decades of accumulation of industrial foundation.

If we rely solely on Ximen Tang to produce ships, it is hard to say when we can succeed.

Therefore,
In the early stages, buying ships and modifying them is the most efficient way.

The shipbuilding industry in the West is much stronger than that of the Daqian Dynasty.

The key point is that Chen Jie plans to purchase finished ships that are not equipped with artillery directly from the West.

As long as the ship's power train is changed, the gun configuration is changed, and the ship's speed and firepower are increased, an absolute advantage can be gained.

of course,

As for the silver for purchasing ships, Chen Jie had never thought of paying for it himself and directly robbed it from the Western Concessions.

Last time, Chen Jie made a huge profit in the Austro-Hungarian concession and tasted the sweetness.

He believed that a large amount of silver must be stored in the concessions of Western countries.

The robbers did not leave Daqian. They melted the looted silver coins into silver bricks, waiting to take them back home.

Therefore,
Go grab some and you will definitely get a big reward.

and,

In the following period of time, Simon Hall was destined to fight with Seymour's army.

Before defeating Seymour's army, it is necessary to clean up all the concessions to prevent these guys from transporting all the silver away in advance.

(End of this chapter)