Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang just looked at the telegram sent by Yuan Shikai and threw it aside.

Reinforcements? It's indeed a good thing, but if this reinforcement is still in the Northeast...

Including the time of assembly and delivery, it would be great that these two divisions could arrive in Shanghai within a week. By the time they arrived in Wuhan, perhaps Feng Guozhang and the others had already fought with the Guoshe Army in Yichang for several rounds.

After throwing the telegram aside, Duan Qirui faced Li Yuanhong Road beside him.

"Song Qing, how is the situation with Deputy Chief Tang?"

"It's quite smooth. Although the Kuomintang army has many artillery artillery in the port, Deputy Chief Tang leaves every time after shooting, so the effect is pretty good. Now Deputy Chief Tang is carrying out the third mission."

After hearing what Li Yuanhong said, Duan Qirui nodded.

"That's good…"

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Just as Duan Qirui and Li Yuanhong were talking in the Governor's Office, Tang Xingming was lying on a recliner, enjoying the gentle sunshine and the deck wind of the Flying Eagle.

Just when Tang Xingming was still enjoying it, Lin Haicang, the captain of the Flying Eagle, suddenly came over. "Captain Tang, it's almost noon. Should I go to the restaurant to have a meal first?"

Tang Xingming shook his head and opened his eyes and looked up at Lin Haicang.

"Captain Lin, how much time is left to Badong?"

After hearing Tang Xingming's question, Lin Haicang looked at the watch on his wrist.

“It will be around an hour later.”

"That's how..." Tang Xingming nodded and lay back on the recliner. "You eat first, I'll stay for a while."

"yes."

After Lin Haicang left the deck, Tang Xingming continued to enjoy the sunshine and deck wind while recalling the cause of this mission.

Five days ago, Li Yuanhong's spy in Badong suddenly reported that the Kuomintang army was expanding the original wharf in Badong.

After learning the news, Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui and others quickly determined that the National Social Army wanted to build Badong County into a bridgehead and transit station to Hubei. As long as Badong can be built into a bridgehead and transit station with sufficient throughput, then relying on the help of the Yangtze River channel, the National Social Army will not need to worry about logistics issues when entering Hubei. If the National Social Army wants to provide reinforcements to Badong, it only needs to transport the troops to Badong through ships.

And these are things that Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui and others cannot tolerate.

Nowadays, reinforcements from Beiyang only have two ways to arrive in Wuhan. One is to transport troops from Beijing to Wuhan by train through Beijing. The other is to transport troops by sea, that is, ports such as Andong (Dandong), Lushun, and Tianjin, to transport troops from the above ports to Shanghai by sea, and then transport them to Wuhan.

Compared with the Guoshe Army, which is basically at the doorstep of home, it takes a long time for the reinforcements from Beiyang to arrive in Hubei.

If the Guoshe Army really gained a foothold in Badong and came out at a port with a huge throughput, Yuan Shikai would probably have to think about whether to change the place to fight.

So in order to stop...at least to delay the expansion of the Badong port, Duan Qirui asked Tang Xiangming to take his fleet out of the port to perform a harassment mission. That is, to fire two guns and destroy the port that the workers finally built.

At the beginning, this task was still very easy, after all, it was unaware of Tang Xingming's arrival in Badong's National Society Army.

However, after the expansion port was first harassed, Zhu Qinglan deployed all the 105 and 120 caliber cannons in the army near the port.

In Zhu Qinglan's opinion, after deploying so many 120-caliber cannons, if Tang Xiangming dares to come, these cannons will definitely give him a profound lesson. However, Zhu Qinglan obviously forgot one thing, that is, when the distance reaches seven or eight kilometers, it is not easy for the shore defense naval gun to hit the warship floating on the water. Of course, it is more difficult for the naval guns on the warship to hit the target, but... Compared with the small warships on the river, the ports on the shore are obviously much larger. The gunners on the warship can easily hit the docks in the port without even deliberately aiming...

Moreover, the wooden docks in the port are simply fragile in front of the shells. Warships such as Feiying, Jiang Li and Jiang Yuan only need to come and go to a few shots to make the dock mess. At this time, the artillery group responsible for defense will only hit one or two shots even if they are lucky...

Every time Tang Xingming's fleet rages and leaves at the Badong port, Zhu Qinglan, who heard the news, rushed to the chaotic port and Tang Xingming who was leaving, had the urge to jump into the river and fight with him.

But there is no way. Even if he really jumped into the river, he would not be Tang Xingming's opponent.

You should know that even the slowest Jiangli and Jiangyuan Yangtze River gunboats, which are among the five warships, have a maximum speed of 13 knots, and the speed of the three ships, Feiying, Huxiao and Huxiao, has reached 23 knots. Although Zhu Qinglan is also good at swimming, he cannot catch up with them even if the speed is ten times faster...

"call…"

After lying on the recliner for more than ten minutes and feeling that he had blown enough, Tang Xingming stretched his waist first, got up and walked towards the restaurant.

He was about to arrive in the waters near Badong in less than an hour, so he didn't want to have a meal while fighting.

As for the danger of this mission? When he heard that the Guoshe Army had a Sichuan naval army stationed in Chongqing, Tang Xingming was also alert. After all, he himself knew how weak his fleet was. However, after he led the fleet to harass the Badong defenders many times, the Sichuan naval army still did not appear, Tang Xingming's vigilance faded.

"That's right, the navy does not just buy a few warships after all. It also needs to train naval soldiers, officers and other technical troops, and also needs to have a certain foundation in logistics and maintenance. Although the nouveau riche named Yan bought a lot of gunboats from Germany, he may not even have all the sailors who drove the warships..."

Thinking of this, Tang Xingming walked into the restaurant inside the Flying Eagle ship.

As for common sense, Tang Xiangming was right in his mind. A century-old navy, a good navy requires years of accumulation. This kind of accumulation is not something that can be done by simply buying some equipment-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

However... it is precisely because of this that when choosing German gunboats, Yan Guang also "buyed" a large number of "German" technicians. These technicians are not only responsible for providing support for Yan Guang's water army equipment, but also responsible for training Chinese students.

With the help of these technicians, the Sichuan Navy's proper rate can be said to be quite high...

Of course, Tang Xingming, who is still on the ship, will not understand this.

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After having a meal with Lin Haicang and other officers in the restaurant, Tang Xingming quietly tasted the Tieguanyin that he had just brewed... This is Tang Xingming's favorite tea.

While Tang Xingming was tasting tea, other people, such as Lin Haicang, were also silently doing their own things.

As for wartime plans or something? No, in Tang Xingming and others' opinion, this mission is the same as in the previous few times. Just use naval guns to destroy the dock that the workers have worked hard to repair again.

However, just when Tang Xingming and the others were still leisurely in the restaurant, a sudden burst of alarm sounded from the Flying Eagle, and a naval officer suddenly ran in from outside.

"What's wrong?"

Seeing his subordinates panicked, Lin Haicang frowned and asked.

In the past, Lin Hai has always taught his subordinates to remain calm no matter what happens, and to keep his face unchanged. Now that his subordinates are like this, Lin Haicang naturally feels a little unhappy.

However, at this time the officer could not care about Lin Haicang's thoughts at all. He just pointed outside and said loudly.

"Outside...a fleet appeared outside"

"What?"

Hearing the officers say this, Tang Xingming and Lin Haicang both stood up and walked out quickly.

Behind Tang Xingming and Lin Haicang, a group of officers from the Flying Eagle also walked out.

After Tang Xiangming and Lin Haicang and others walked into the bridge, they found 15 warships coming towards them right in front of them.

Then, looking at these 15 ships, almost each of which was the same as the Flying Eagle under his feet. No, it should be said that it was a warship that was a little larger than the Flying Eagle, Tang Xingming felt that his eyelids had blew several times.

"Sichuan Navy?"

Looking at the water fleet in front of him, which was a huge figure compared to his own side, these four words popped up from Tang Xingming's mouth.

At this time, Lin Haicang, who had put down his telescope, also looked at Tang Xingming.

"Second Chief Tang, what should we do now?"

"What should I do..." Tang Xingming smiled bitterly. "Let the two ships of Hu Falcon and Hu Eagle launch torpedoes to disrupt the formation of the Sichuan naval army, and then we turn to... and escape back to Wuhan..." Just now, Tang Xingming took a look with a telescope. There were 4 120-caliber naval guns on the front deck alone. If they really fought, they would probably have all given the more than 100 kilograms of meat to the Yangtze River Dragon King today.

However, when he heard Tang Xingming say this, Lin Haicang frowned and said to Tang Xingming while signaling the messenger to ask the other four ships to order.

"But Chief Tang, if he did this, I'm afraid the two ships Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li would not be able to escape..."

The speed of the two gunboats of Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li is 13 knots, while the speed of the Sichuan Navy in front of him is at least 20 knots. If you really choose to escape without fighting, it is not certain whether your party can escape, but Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li are dead.

"Now, if you can run away, you will run away. It is much better to die two than to die all..."

While speaking, Lake Falcon, Lake Eagle and Flying Eagle had fired nine torpedoes at the 15 German gunboats that were coming.

The 15 German gunboats were also like Tang Xingming thought. After seeing the nine white strips, they maneuvered to avoid torpedoes.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Feiying and other ships turned their direction and returned to the direction.

At this time, after avoiding 9 torpedoes, 60 120 caliber guns on the front deck of 15 gunboats had already launched the first round of artillery bombardment towards Tang Xiangming's fleet...

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Finally caught up, I seem to have used this title?
Chapter completed!