Heaven's Change of Fate

Chapter 63
Yang Xin took Liu Buchan and the others to visit Ding Ruchang first.

Ding Ruchang insisted on writing the letter, handed it to his own soldiers, and watched the soldiers leave in a boat before he went to see a doctor. At this time, Ding Ruchang, who was receiving treatment, had already fallen asleep.

Yang Xin saw that Ding Ruchang was fine, so he left, leaving Liu Buchan and others to watch over him. Except for Fang Boqian and Wu Jingrong, the generals of the Beiyang Navy are all talents, and they are all worthy of respect in terms of combat quality and personal quality. .

Yang Xin did not press them hard, but adopted the method of assimilation to conquer them, just like Nalan Yuanshu, first brought them into his own system, used the environment and collective power to influence and guide them, and finally made them They become their own people.

The fleet headed south all the way and slowly sailed into the Yulin Military Port in Qiongzhou Prefecture.Liu Buchan and others were stunned by the huge military port and the countless staff, which was even bigger and more spectacular than the Beiyang Navy's Liugong Island military port.

Yang Xin brought Ding Ruchang and others into the barracks, and did not restrict their actions too much. Except for some military secret places and those who cannot leave the barracks, other places can be visited at will.

Ding Ruchang and others also wanted to inquire about Yang Xin's military strength, so they wandered around in the barracks. However, the idle Ding Ruchang and others were obviously out of tune with the lively atmosphere of the barracks. Therefore, under Yang Xin's suggestion, Ding Ruchang and others People then entered the Martial Arts Hall, where they could not only understand the tactical system of Yang Xin's army, but also keep up with the rhythm of the barracks.

In this way, Ding Ruchang and others settled down in the barracks.

On the other side, both the Qing Dynasty and the Wa Kingdom were extremely nervously watching the situation of the Qing-Women naval battle. As a result, at night, there was no news at all.

Neither Li Hongzhang, the head of the Beiyang system, nor Ito Hirobumi of Japan could sit still. After staying all night, there was still no news, so they all used their own methods to find out the situation. Li Hongzhang directly sent fishing boats to Dadonggou. After inquiring around, Li Hongzhang no longer dared to send any more warships at this time.

Ito Hirobumi sent people straight to the British Governor's Mansion in Xiangdao, but did not find any news.

There was a very strange phenomenon in this Qing war. The two sides at war were the Qing Dynasty and Japan, but Britain actually watched the battle in the form of a third neutral party. However, neither Yang Xin nor Prince Heinrich was accustomed to Britain. In order to protect the secret of the Dreadnought-class battleship, Prince Heinrich directly sank the British warship to the bottom of the sea.

Just when Li Hongzhang was overwhelmed with anxiety, Ding Ruchang's cronies came to Li Hongzhang's mansion with Ding Ruchang's personal letter.

When Li Hongzhang heard that it was Ding Ruchang's autographed letter, he immediately snatched it and read it at a glance. As he looked, Li Hongzhang's eyes widened. With a strong force of his hands, he grabbed Ding Ruchang's autographed letter into a mess, and then his eyes tightened tightly. He looked at Ding Ruchang's soldiers and said, "Are you sure this was written by Yu Ting himself?"

"Reporting Zhongtang, yes, it was written by Ding Junmen himself, and he wrote it with the strength of his injuries." Ding Ruchang's soldiers immediately replied.

Li Hongzhang glanced closely at Ding Ruchang's personal soldiers, then took a long breath, carefully smoothed Ding Ruchang's personal letter, and then carefully read it word by word.

After reading the letter, Li Hongzhang's body was like a statue, standing there quietly for half an hour.

"Tell me the story of the naval battle verbatim." Li Hong said slowly.

"Yes, Master Zhongtang." Ding Ruchang's personal soldiers immediately told Li Hongzhang what happened in the naval battle verbatim.

"So, both the Japanese joint fleet and our Beiyang Navy were captured by a Qiongzhou general?" Li Hongzhang said, and then without waiting for Ding Ruchang's soldiers to answer, he waved his hand to signal the soldiers to go down, and then sat quietly alone. After coming down, he once again read Ding Ruchang's handwritten letter word by word. After reading it, he directly burned Ding Ruchang's handwritten letter to ashes.

In Ding Ruchang's personal letter, the description of the naval battle was only briefly mentioned, because Ding Ruchang knew that his own soldiers would inform Li Hongzhang of the details of the naval battle. Ding Ruchang emphasized in the letter that the strength of Yang Xin's fleet was strong, and Among them, the Germans intervened, and wrote that Prince Heinrich, the younger brother of the German Emperor William II, obeyed Yang Xin's orders. Although it is incredible, it is a fact.

Yang Xin's strength is already strong, and with the capture of the battleships of the Beiyang Navy and the United Fleet of the Japanese Kingdom, his strength is bound to be even greater, but before this naval battle, no one has any information about Yang Xin, which shows that this person is forbearing. The kung fu is very strong and the scheme is great. In the letter, Ding Ruchang seriously suggested that Li Hongzhang make plans early.

The key point of Ding Ruchang's autograph letter is the last sentence, let Li Hongzhang make early plans. After all, Ding Ruchang joined the Taiping Army in the early days, then joined the Hunan Army, and finally belonged to the Huai Army. Officials of the Qing court were not too loyal to the Qing court.

How loyal do you expect a general to be to the Manchus?
Rather than saying that Ding Ruchang was loyal to the Qing court, it is better to say that Ding Ruchang was loyal to Li Hongzhang. This is one of the reasons why Li Hongzhang appointed Ding Ruchang as the admiral of the navy.

At this time, Li Hongzhang was very anxious and could not help walking back and forth in the house, but his heart could not calm down. Suddenly, Li Hongzhang suddenly remembered that his elder brother Li Hanzhang was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Li Hongzhang wanted to write a letter to his elder brother immediately. However, as soon as the pen in his hand was raised, Li Hongzhang gave a wry smile and threw the pen on the paper.

"Yang Xin is so tolerant, and he has big plans. I'm afraid that brother is also kept in the dark. Is this going to change?" Li Hongzhang looked up at the sky and muttered to himself.

Li Hongzhang knew in his heart that if the Beiyang system he founded was facing rebellion of the White Lotus Sect, it would be easy to suppress them, but facing Yang Xin, he would not be able to fight at all. There is no power to fight back in front of other people's fleets. Yang Xin's navy is already so strong, and the army must not be far behind.

Most importantly, what should I do?

Li Hongzhang is very worried here. People from the Japanese kingdom, such as Meiji, Ito Hirobumi, and Yamagata Youtomo, down to ordinary people, are confused. How can such a large fleet fail to find a trace of information? It is impossible for all the divisions to be wiped out at the same time. How many ships can be released? It is even more impossible to say that the entire army is destroyed. The Beiyang Navy does not have that strength at all. In the entire East Asia, even the British Far East Fleet cannot wipe out its own fleet. With the joint fleet, Ito Hirobumi had no choice but to send a special agent to inquire about the situation of the Beiyang Navy. It turned out that the Beiyang Navy did not return and disappeared mysteriously.

Before finding out the information of the joint fleet, Wa country hastily stopped all the army's actions in Koryo.

The subtle thing is that Li Hongzhang also ordered Ye Zhichao and Nie Shicheng's troops far away in Korea to stop all military operations and start defense on the spot.

As for the Qing Dynasty, they didn't care about the situation of the Beiyang Navy at all. When they learned that the Beiyang Navy and the Japanese United Fleet disappeared mysteriously at the same time, they were very excited. This is simply the most perfect result. It not only weakened Li Hongzhang's strength, but also After the foreign enemies were eliminated, the entire Qing court was immersed in strange excitement.

In this weird situation, Yang Xin who was far away in Qiongzhou Mansion made a big move.

Swear to the Northern Expedition!

(End of this chapter)