The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 875: Great Britain, let’s have a proxy war!
In May of the 25th year of the Tianli calendar, the Yangtze River was shrouded in drizzle. Nanmu Gaozi stood on the deck of the "Flying Fish" class cruiser, looking at the gradually clear city of Tianjing. The capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was like a huge mourning hall at this moment - the white flags hanging on the city wall fluttered in the river breeze, a three-meter-high plain archway was built in front of the city wall of Yifeng Gate, and even the patrolling soldiers had black gauze wrapped around their arms.

"Are you from Japan?" An old farmer carrying a basket of vegetables stopped Gao Zi's maid at the dock. "Don't go to Gulou Street these days. The funeral procession from Korea has occupied most of the street. They say they are welcoming the coffin of the King of the East back to Seoul. It is said that His Highness the King of the East was assassinated by the Japanese."

Gao Zi tightly grasped the secret letter in her sleeve. She certainly knew the purpose of Yang Fuqing bringing 3,000 new Korean troops to Tianjing - nominally to welcome the funeral, but in fact to ask for guns and artillery to prepare for a counterattack against Japan.

But this is a good thing for the Shinyo Shinto Temple.

Now the rule of the Shinjo Shrine in Kinai is already in jeopardy, and it is almost collapsing in other parts of Japan. The alliance headed by the four feudal clans of Satsuma, Choshu, and Aitsuchi in the west has recently raised the banner of the "Provisional Government of the Japanese Empire"! And the Tokugawa Kubo Kamenosuke of Edo, with the assistance of the big boss Sakuma Shozan, has raised the banner of "equality of the four classes, rebuilding the shogunate", which is said to be to establish a new Japan where everyone is equal and "samurai are more equal".

However, the Shinyo Shinto Shrine cannot just wait for the Korean soldiers to rescue it, otherwise it would seem that the warriors under the shrine are too incompetent!

In fact, there were tens of thousands of samurai under the command of the Shinyo Shrine! There were more than 10,000 retainers of Inako alone, but there were too many people in Japan who were samurai or thought they were samurai - a whole powder keg! In the early years, there were many foreign countries that needed mercenaries, and Japan's surplus samurai had a place to go. With the end of the American Civil War and the "freeze" of the French Civil War, some samurai who had been wandering outside for a few years and did not make enough money returned to Japan and became an unstable factor. Coupled with Yang Xiuqing's ascension to heaven, the sparks spread all of a sudden. Fortunately, the basic base of the Shinyo Shrine is still there, as long as it can get the support of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it can persist.

Thinking of this, Gao Zi ordered his followers to call a rented carriage and go to Luo Yaoguo's Purple Mountain Palace.

As the carriage passed Hongwu Street, Gao Zi saw a group of Korean soldiers carrying wooden boxes. The wax seal on the box, which read "Jinling Manufacturing Bureau Pukou Arsenal", glowed dark red in the rain, and the words "breech-loading rifle" and "10,000 rounds" could be vaguely seen.
The lights in the Wuwang Mansion at the foot of Zijin Mountain were on. When Gao Zi knelt on the Persian carpet in the reception room, the curfew bell rang in Tianjing City outside the window. In the past few days, the whole Tianjing City was mourning for Yang Xiuqing, all entertainment activities were banned, and there was a curfew every night.

"The ironclad ships that the British sold to us," Takako said in a trembling voice, "have now been seized by the rebels of Satsuma. Their cannons are enough to destroy Osaka Castle."

Luo Yaoguo suddenly knocked the coffee cup with a silver spoon. The attendant immediately brought a sandalwood box with a brass bullet inside. "This is a 7.8mm bullet that was just mass-produced this year. It uses a copper-nickel alloy jacket, a lead-antimony alloy core, a composite copper-zinc primer, and a double-base agent of fulminate of mercury + nitrocellulose. A small bullet requires a lot of technology and resources! It involves chemical industry, electricity, electrolysis, etc., and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can currently produce such bullets a day, giving each Japanese samurai one bullet and more!"

Gao Zi took a deep breath. Five hundred thousand a day, what a terrible industrial strength! All the samurai in Japan, including her, could be shot once a day.
Just as she was about to ask for help, she heard footsteps outside the window. Through the French window, she could see a long line of torches along the shore of Xuanwu Lake. It was the Korean New Army escorting Yang Xiuqing's brother Yang Fuqing back to the nearby East Palace.

"Write to tell your mother," Luo Yaoguo suddenly pinched Gao Zi's chin, "next year when the cherry blossoms bloom, there will be a good show in the Tsushima Strait. Tell her to hold on. As for guns and ammunition, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will give her enough! And there is no need to worry about those ironclad ships. There will be a Zhenyuan-class ship flying the Korean flag anchored in Osaka Bay."

"Write a letter?" Gao Zi was stunned.

Luo Yaoguo nodded gently and said with a smile: "Yes, you stay and just write a letter back!"

In the cold morning fog of June in London, Okubo Toshimichi knocked on the brass door knocker of 18 Whitehall Street. When the waiter led him through the corridor full of Indian oil paintings, Earl Derby was playing with an enamel pocket watch produced by the Shanghai Watch Company - the hands of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom craftsmen seemed to be getting more and more skillful!

"Do you know how much coal an ironclad ship consumes every day?" The count suddenly pointed to the world map on the wall with his pocket watch. Okubo saw that the Indian Ocean was covered with Union Jacks, and there was a striking red pin at the location of Sasebo Castle.

"The British Empire Naval Regulations stipulate that," Okubo thought for a while, "battleships need to consume 1.8 pounds of coal per horsepower per hour. Based on the 8000 horsepower of the Devastating class."

"Outdated data!" Earl Derby suddenly opened the drawer. Okubo's pupils shrank suddenly - in the drawer was a document boasting about the "Rafale" class fast armored ship, which clearly recorded the fuel efficiency parameters of the "Rafale" class fast armored ship.

A long whistle blew outside the window. Through the Victorian-style stained glass window, a brand new Rafale class ship was on trial on the Thames. Its four twin-mounted 6-inch main turrets slowly turned. Although the caliber was not large, the rain of bullets pouring out was not easy to withstand.

"Six of these steel monsters," the count stood up and drew a red line on the world map with a red pencil, "enough to completely block the mouth of the Yangtze River." He suddenly turned to look at Okubo, "but we need ports that can accommodate them!"

"The port of Sasebo has been completed!" Okubo quickly unfolded a hand-drawn map. The locations of coal storage bunkers, fresh water towers and hospitals were densely marked on the Kyushu coastline, and the deep water area for ironclad ships to berth was circled in double red with cinnabar.

"But we are not sure how powerful the Flying Eagle and Flying Fish of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are." Earl Derby looked at Okubo and said, "Mr. Okubo, do you understand what I mean? The Empire cannot afford a disastrous defeat in the Western Pacific! Someone needs to test the strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for the Empire!"

Okubo Toshimichi immediately understood what Earl Derby meant. In fact, that was exactly why he came here - New Japan needed a chance to prove itself!

"Count," Okubo asked, "I wonder how our Empire of Japan can help you test the strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is very powerful."

Earl Derby said: "The people in the Admiralty need a contest between a slow ironclad ship and a fast cruiser!"

In July, Yaolu Villa in Lushan was shrouded in a thunderstorm. When Navy Minister Wang Yan rushed into the war room, Zhang Bao was measuring the warship model on the sand table with a ruler. "Latest intelligence!" Wang Yan threw down the telegram he had just translated.

Ding Ruchang took the telegram and saw the somewhat scary news on it: "Vice Admiral Cooper will lead a large fleet consisting of 6 Rafale-class ships and 12 light ships escorting them, plus some supply ships, to sail around the world and visit Japan early next year!"

"What?" Zhang Bao jumped up immediately. "What do the British want to do?"

"Vice Admiral Cooper brought his fleet to East Asia, of course, to support the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance." Luo Yaoguo sneered, "With their support, the Japanese dare to act as the British's vanguard to test our strength!" He paused, "Now it's time to test each other."

Wang Yan frowned and said, "There is intelligence that the British Admiralty is arguing about what kind of battleship to build. The armored faction wants to build the next generation of the Destroyer-class ironclad ship, with a displacement of 1.5 tons, stronger armor, and larger caliber artillery, while the rapid-fire faction wants to develop a 1.5-ton armored cruiser."

"So they deliberately gave the Japanese two Devastation-class tanks!" Zhang Bao slammed the table, "Just to see how this slow-moving iron turtle performs in actual combat?"

Ding Ruchang blew out a puff of smoke: "If they are sunk by our cruisers, the parliament will immediately cut the budget for all thick-armored ships."

"But what if the devastating team wins?" Wang Yan was worried.

"That wouldn't be a good thing!" Luo Yaoguo said coldly, "So we can't let them win!"

"Teacher, what kind of ship do you plan to send with the flag of the Korean Heavenly Kingdom to deal with the two Japanese destroyer-class ships?" Ding Ruchang asked.

"Two Zhending ships plus four Exofish-class ships." Luo Yaoguo thought for a moment, "and at most a few Wuxian-class ships."

"That's all?" Zhang Bao frowned. "Should we use the 'Sea Eagle Class' and the 'Sea Dragon Class'?"

"Sea Eagle and Sea Dragon don't move!" Luo Yaoguo immediately rejected Zhang Bao's proposal.

"Then how do we fight?"

"Wash the deck!"

"Teacher, what is deck washing?" Zhang Bao, the naval chief of staff, didn't quite understand what Luo Yaoguo was talking about?
Luo Yaoguo tapped the edge of the sand table with his fingers: "We don't aim to sink the ship, we only aim to inflict heavy damage. We want to let the British see how useless their iron turtles are!"

Wang Yan immediately understood: "You mean to use rapid-fire cannons to bombard the buildings on the deck?"

"Exactly!" Luo Yaoguo grabbed a few red markers and nailed them on the sand table. "Six Exocet-class ships took up the T-shaped position, and the 150mm rapid-fire guns were used to target the bridge, rangefinder, and naval guns. No matter how thick the armor of the Japanese Ravage-class ships is, the people on the deck are all sitting ducks!"

Ding Ruchang's eyes lit up: "We can also use picric acid incendiary bombs!"

"Yes, we must kill a large number of the enemy's crew members." Luo Yaoguo sneered, "Let the Japanese deck become a sea of ​​fire, and see how their British instructors command!"

Zhang Bao suddenly thought of something: "Why not let the Koreans capture Tsushima Island, and then use Tsushima as bait to lure out the fleet of the Satsuma and Choshu rebels?"

"Tsushima?" Luo Yaoguo's eyes flashed coldly, "Well, since ancient times, it has been a battleground on the sea!"

Outside the window, thunder suddenly roared, as if beating the drums for the upcoming naval battle.

(End of this chapter)