New Ming Empire mixed in America

The day of the exercise was sunny and windy, and Song He's fleet was ready.

They will first be reviewed by Li Mingqi near the Golden Gate Strait in the San Francisco port area, and then head to the scheduled exercise location.

When the four polished and brand-new ironclad ships parked on the sea, the people of the Xinming Empire who came to watch all cheered.

Behind the ironclad ship are four ironclad warships converted from sailing battleships lined up in a straight line with the ironclad ship in front.

Standing in the port area, you can see these warships facing the port.

Next to these eight main battleships of the Xinming Empire are more than a hundred armored gunboats. Their figures are obscured by the main battleships. In the port area, they can only be seen through the gaps between the battleships.

There are two ironclad ships that did not participate in this exercise. They will patrol the surrounding waters near the military port on the Baja California Peninsula.

Listening to the cheers in his ears, Li Mingqi, who was standing on the viewing platform, smiled unconsciously.

He knew what these people were cheering for. It was that these warships belonging to the New Ming Empire had first wiped out the incoming navies of Peru and the Northern Federation.

Not long ago, they defeated Dai Ying's expeditionary fleet, successfully annihilated the Argentine navy, and captured Dai Ying's flagship and many battleships.

Now the captured warships are parked a little further out on the sea.

Except for the original national flag hung in the middle of the mast, the rest of the battleships were hung with the Sanchen flag of the Xinming Empire.

The most conspicuous among them is the towed Black Prince, which temporarily lost power because engineers from the design bureau had removed the steam engine and started refitting it.

After Li Mingqi finished speaking, all the warships sounded their horns in unison.

Then, as is customary for every event in the port area, more than ninety Napoleon cannons began to roar as a salute.

The salutes on the battleship deck also began to respond. Of course, if anyone dared to use the main gun as a salute, he might be killed by the Jinyi Guards at that time.

This distance was carefully calculated. Even if the salute guns on the deck fired real shells, they would not be able to reach the port area.

And all the gunners left their posts to gather on the deck, and the gun windows of the ironclad battleship were all closed.

The main guns on the ironclad ship are all facing the bow. If the main guns move towards the port area during the review, the gun crew will probably lose their heads.

It's not that Li Mingqi is too cautious, but without these measures, some dangerous elements will be able to take advantage of it.

If security measures are in place but are not used, it cannot be said to be arrogant. It is sending a signal to all those who have ulterior motives, urging them to take action quickly.

And the port area is not without defenses. The forts blocking the Kinmen Strait, all coastal defense guns are live ammunition, and have been taken over by the Imperial Guard.

Once any abnormal movement is discovered, it will be treated with cannonballs without mercy.

After all the procedures were completed, the fleet sailed towards the scheduled exercise location.

And those captured warships will also join in the fun, of course they are displayed as trophies.

The target ship has already set off first, and when the fleet arrives, the transport ship towing the target ship will leave the predetermined area.

But if you want to reach the predetermined area, you still need to pass through a relatively sensitive ground crack, which is the Tsarist Russian fleet that has been hovering on the sea.

Except for sending supply ships into the harbor for supplies, they spent the rest of the time off the coast of San Francisco.

The area for this exercise was set according to their positions. If the Russian fleet temporarily changed its position, Song He's fleet would also follow.

Anyway, it must pass in front of the opponent's fleet.

Therefore, when the Tsarist Russian fleet learned that the Xinming Empire was about to launch maritime exercises, it changed its stopping position and moved away from the range of the target ship.

"Commander, are these Easterners doing this on purpose?"

The first mate patted the rudder dejectedly, and complained somewhat depressingly to the captain who was controlling the rudder with him about the transport ship that had been following closely behind him and towing the target ship.

"They did it on purpose. This exercise should be for us to see, otherwise they wouldn't have held the exercise just after defeating the British expeditionary fleet..."

When the captain said this, he glanced at the two transport ships behind him, and the muscles on his face couldn't help but tremble.

"Should we give them some color?"

As the first mate spoke, his hand turning the rudder slowed down.

At this distance, all they had to do was slow down and turn around to stop the Oriental transport ship, and then use their naval guns to fire a few random shots to scare the opponent away from the bad mood in their hearts.

"I haven't received an order, so I'll wait and see. I believe the commander must have his own plan."

The captain sighed helplessly. Why didn't he want to stop the ship and give the Orientals some color?

When were they being chased by two transport ships?

Leonid, the commander of the Russian fleet, had no other solution. At this time, he was on the deck of the flagship looking gloomily at the sea in the distance.

"Let the fleet stop, it seems that the Easterners are determined to demonstrate against us..."

After hearing the order, the messenger immediately notified the flag bearer on the observation tower to send a signal to the fleet.

After another ten minutes, the Tsarist Russian fleet lined up and stopped on the sea.

Although the naval guns have been loaded, their gun windows have not been opened. All naval soldiers are on standby at their respective posts.

It can be said that except for the gun windows, the rest of the Tsarist Russian fleet is in a wartime state.

"Tell all ships to exercise restraint. No matter what the Easterners do, they will not be allowed to fire first!"

After the captain finished speaking, he raised his head and looked at the huge creature slowly descending in mid-air in front of him.

That's right, it was the airship in mid-air that forced Leonid to stop the ship.

Li Mingqi had long guessed that the Tsarist Russian fleet would not stay in place and wait for the New Ming Empire's fleet to provoke, so he had already sent an airship to block the opponent's retreat.

At this time, the airship was hung with adjusted incendiary bombs. Petroleum was added to the adjusted incendiary bombs, which would still burn even if they touched sea water.

In front of the Tsarist Russian fleet, two flames have appeared.

Looking at the flames that blocked a large area of ​​the sea in front of him, Leonid's expression was gloomy and terrifying.

His fleet had no weapons that could hit an airship in mid-air, except by having soldiers on the deck firing rifles.

But looking at the flames on the sea in front of him, he clenched his fists and never gave that order.

If they didn't succeed in shooting down the warship flying in mid-air, they would definitely be the unlucky ones.

If the battleship is hit by that kind of incendiary bomb, then his flagship can be declared delisted.

"After I go back, I must apply to install some weapons on the ship to deal with air targets..."

Leonid gritted his teeth and squeezed out this sentence, but he had no confidence in what he said. Without a speech from the Ministry of War, anti-aircraft weapons could not be designed at all, let alone produced.

Not to mention how long it would take to develop such a weapon, it would be very difficult just to convince the men at the War Department that the Orientals had a behemoth that could fly.

Unless the Easterners have a flying warship that can fly to Tsarist Russia and drop a few incendiary bombs on the heads of the heads of the Ministry of War, it will be difficult to promote new weapons and equipment.

extremely difficult.

It's not that there is no other way, that is to wait for Dai Ying to invent an anti-air weapon, and then they go to Dai Ying to buy it.

Thinking of this, Leonid sighed, hoping that the battleships led by Ying would be equipped with anti-air weapons as soon as possible...