Chapter 39: The Rise of the Second-Hand Book Sellers Tianxia Bookstore

  It was Guangdong's naval forces, Guangyi and Guangzong. It seems that the two British warships that had been watching Yang Feng's performance had already made many people on the other side nervous. Although Taiwan belonged to the Fujian Governor-General, after the Battle of Mawei, the Fujian Navy was all but extinct, and these two warships were about the only things in the entire Nanyang Fleet that could be shown off with pride.

  However, the two Guang ships were called cruisers, which is to say they were just two large torpedo boats. At that time, with the level of torpedoes, making torpedo boats so big was very suspicious, iron ribs and wooden shells, it is said that there was a conning tower, but the thickness seemed to be at the same level as the armored cruisers ordered by Yang Feng from Armstrong Shipbuilding Company, which shows that what he did was not an exaggeration.

  In the Battle of Ganghwa Island, the performance of Guangyi was still quite good. Although it's hard to say whether it sank the Akitsushima, it continuously attacked the Yoshino, Naniwa and Akitsushima, which is undisputed. Even the Japanese themselves admitted that this ship, which was considered a mere "fifth-rate" vessel, made them anxious. A torpedo boat can be said to have fully fulfilled its combat responsibilities at sea. As for its eventual sinking, it was purely normal. What other outcome could you expect when a 1,000-ton wooden-hulled ship faces three ships with a total tonnage of over 10,000 tons, including two of the world's most advanced cruisers?

  No matter what, it's still better than being splattered with brain juice by the second-in-command and scaring Lord Fang into running away.

  This time, the team was led by Lin Guoxiang and Guang Bingguan, who brought Lin Chengmu. There was also a civil official with the title of "Daotai". After their arrival, they first went to negotiate with the British Consul, asking him why British warships had come to Dagou Harbor. The British Consul haughtily told them that it was to provide protection for Mr. Yang's respected investment.

  This name confused them. After Yang Feng walked out with his cane, the three guys' eyeballs almost fell to the ground.

  "I'm Yang Feng, I've made some small fortune doing business in the UK over the years. This time I'm back to invest in my hometown, which is also a way of giving back to my community. My British friends were worried about my safety, so they sent two warships to protect me, but it seems that's what startled the three of you instead."

  Lin Guoxiang and the other two finally breathed a sigh of relief, as long as they weren't looking for trouble. These days, British warships could dock at any port, no need to make a fuss over such trivial matters.

  "Yang Gongzi, is this your ship?" Lin Guoxiang looked at the Parrot Shell beside him with a hint of surprise. This strange black ship was too visually shocking, and all the ships that came to Dagou Port couldn't help but be shocked.

  Yang Feng hadn't even had time to respond when O'Connor, the comprador of the Shanghai Vohringer Company, came walking over from a distance, enthusiastically shouting towards Lin Guoxiang: "Captain Lin, I didn't expect to run into you here."

  "Mr. O'Connor, what brings you here?" Lin Guoxiang said with a smile in English, and the two seemed to be on good terms.

  "Captain Lin, this is my boss," O'Connor said with a wave of his hand towards Yang Feng.

  Since there were people who knew each other, the atmosphere between them immediately became different. Under Fengshan County Magistrate's careful service, a group of people went directly to the county government office and sat down at the wine table, soon calling each other brothers.

  Yang Feng's Bofors company was purely selling arms in China, and during this period, relying on automatic pistols and rapid-firing rifles, it gained a great reputation in Shanghai. After the first batch of c96 gifts were welcomed by the Northern Warlords' officers, Li ordered 5,000 Lee-Enfield rifles, most of which were given to the Waterborne Land Camp, also known as the Marine Corps, and a small portion was given to Nie Shichen's Third Battalion of the Wuwei Army.

  Apart from him, his brother also purchased 2,000 rifles and 100 handguns, most of which were given to the Navy. Lin Guoxiang was in charge of receiving these firearms, so he got to know O'Connor through this matter. This point made Yang Feng very puzzled, as it seemed that at that time everyone liked to equip warships with sufficient infantry weapons.

  "Captain Lin, Bohr is currently developing a new type of torpedo that surpasses current torpedoes in terms of speed, range and power. It can be manufactured within half a year at most. I wonder if the Nanyang Fleet is interested? Of course, it's slightly more expensive, roughly twice as much as the Whitehead torpedo, but it's absolutely worth it." Yang Feng suddenly said during the banquet.

  He suddenly thought that if Lin Guoxiang were to be equipped with steam-powered torpedoes, would he really be able to sink the Akitsushima? It's worth noting that the current whitehead torpedo has a range of only a few hundred meters. If you want to attack the enemy, you have to get close to a terrifying distance. But if you switch to a steam-powered torpedo with a range of over 5 kilometers, there is no need to get close at all, and you can even launch an attack outside the combat distance.

  At this time, the combat distance of warships was at most 4-5 kilometers. The Battle of the Yellow Sea seemed to have taken place mainly within a range of three kilometers.

  "Mr. Yang, how far can this torpedo reach?" Lin Guoxiang asked.

  "About four or five kilometers?" Yang Feng said casually.

  Not to mention the two Lin, even the two British captains who drank together were stunned. A torpedo with a range of 4-5 kilometers, would Whitehead still be alive?

  "The speed should be between thirty to forty knots, and it's also equipped with special instruments, so the impact of water flow can basically be ignored. The caliber is 533mm, and the warhead is loaded with 150 kilograms of explosives. Not to mention a cruiser, even a first-class ironclad battleship would be killed in one shot." Yang Feng said with some pride.

  The Jia Wu is undoubtedly the best military hardware exhibition, steam-powered torpedoes, high-speed destroyers, rapid-fire artillery... Let those devils be shocked one by one! Only poor His Majesty the Emperor can only serve as an unfortunate test subject.

  "Mr. Yang, if the torpedo of Bofors has such performance, I will definitely recommend it to Governor Tsai with all my might." Lin Guoxiang said, and the two British captains also looked at each other, apparently they had the same idea.

  Yang Feng smiled casually, that's all, anyway it was too early for them, and it wasn't good to arouse the Japanese people's vigilance. However, he thought of something and asked in a hurry: "Captain Lin, I actually have one thing to ask for your help."

  "Yang Gongzi, please go ahead and speak," said Lin Guoxiang.

  "I need crew members, a large number of them, preferably those with experience serving on warships, and if they've been through naval battles that's even better. The more the merrier, I'd say. Even you two, Captain Lin, if you're interested, I'd be delighted to have you on board, and I'll offer you all a handsome salary."

  He is indeed short of sailors now, and his cruiser under construction has not a single sailor on board yet. Although it's possible to recruit some from Sweden, it would be best if he could get a batch of Chinese sailors. And then there are the two high-speed destroyers - this kind of small ship can be built by Armstrong in just a few months. According to plan, at least two more such destroyers will be needed, plus landing ships that also require personnel. That means over the next two years, he'll need over 1,000 sailors.

  Apart from the sailors, there is also a captain, and even he lacks a fleet commander. This fleet commander must be someone reliable, and his plan is to have the current captain of the USS Parrot, American Paulding, serve as this fleet commander. This guy was previously the captain of a Southern privateer ship during the Civil War and was particularly good at burning, killing, and looting.

  But this way, he didn't even have a captain for the Parrot's Beak ship.

  Moreover, this old turtle has not fought a naval battle in many years. Even if he had experience before, it was mainly sneaky and lacking in large-scale modern naval warfare experience. Of course, such people are hard to find now. The Sino-Japanese War was the first large-scale naval battle of the ironclad era, and even the British did not have real ironclad warship combat experience at that time.

  So Yang Fengcai wanted to go all out to dig up people, this guy's goal was the survivors of the Battle of the Yellow Sea, these people must still have idle ones, after all they were also experienced in a sea battle, the defeat of the Battle of the Yellow Sea was simply because the officials were too stupid, stupid to be somewhat depraved, if it can be said that letting the French fleet enter the Yellow Sea still has a thread of explanation, then receiving the other party's final ultimatum and not notifying them to prepare for battle is completely unreasonable.

  As a survivor of this naval battle and having also carried out a desperate counterattack, Lin Guoxiang would definitely be able to find quite a few surviving crew members.

  "Master Yang, please rest assured, this is a small matter, it's all on us two." Lin Guoxiang patted his chest and said, as for letting them go to work for Yang Feng, that was just a joke, after all, he was also an official.

  It's natural to give some labor costs when asking for help, so each person was given 1,000 silver dollars first, and then Philip, the head of the Hong Kong branch of Jin Yuan Company, was introduced to them. Later, Philip was responsible for contacting them, and the recruited sailors were sent directly to Europe.

  Of course, Yang Feng is not someone who will accept just anyone, even if they were found by them, they must still go through an assessment. This is something that they also understand.

  After sending off the two Guangs, Yang Feng handed over the affairs here to O'Connor and left Dog Island for Shanghai. This trip was mainly to recruit Chinese mercenaries, and after finishing the task, he had to hurry back to plan the capture of Kuwait, where did he have the energy to stay in this small broken port?

  As they were about to leave, under the enthusiastic invitation of Caiyi and her longing for Shanghai, Yezi finally couldn't resist the temptation and boarded the departing Parrot's Voyage.

  No dragging three-body boat sailed on the sea, riding the wind and waves, and entered the Yangtze River mouth the next day. It was followed by four British warships welcoming it into Wusongkou. At that time, Shanghai had become the largest port in the Far East, with merchant ships and warships from various countries gathering on the Huangpu River. Ye Zi was excited like a kindergarten child watching fireworks, completely ignoring the strange eyes of the passing boats.