Chapter 26: The Vanguard

  Throughout 1893, Taiwan was in a state of tumultuous construction and military reorganization. The original Huai Army underwent screening and supplementation, transforming into the new Taiwanese Army, totaling over 30,000 men. Those veteran soldiers from the Huai Army who were discharged received generous severance pay to settle down or return to their hometowns in Anhui Province. However, some local officers and Fujian-born soldiers who were dissatisfied with being discharged were secretly executed by Liu Yongfu's "Storming Troops". Even the Circuit Intendant who had come to Taiwan for a routine inspection tour was murdered at sea that year.

  When it comes to "stormtroopers", they are actually the brainwashed children bought by Liu Mou. After 7 years of study, training and brainwashing, these children have grown up to be 16 or 17 years old, with the youngest being 13 or 14 years old. Out of the original over 90 people, only over 60 people are left, while more than 20 people died or became disabled during the training. Liu Mou watched a movie about an assassin organization that raised many children from a young age and trained them to become ruthless killers through cruel methods. Although Liu Mou didn't use such brutal methods to torture the children, he roughly followed this approach, ultimately harvesting a group of extremely loyal followers who mastered various survival and killing skills.

  Liu Ye is now extremely short-handed, especially trustworthy people. These children are all proficient in English, mathematics, Western history, chemistry, and physics, and have been brainwashed by Liu Dagui for so many years. The mothers at home are all working in Liu Fu's factory, so they think that the third master saved us, gave us food, gave us clothes, and we must spend our lives repaying the third master. Only then can our mother live a good life, and we can follow the third master to live a good life forever. Those lazy companions have already died, and if we don't work hard, it will be the same consequence.

  These children, who have been bullied since childhood and abandoned by society, are accustomed to the warmth and coldness of human relationships. They all suffer from mild mental illness and have a strong attachment to those who help them in their most difficult times without abandoning them. Liu Yue took advantage of this immoral tactic to gain their loyalty.

  Liu Wei organized these children into an independent team, named "Vanguard Team", and then dispersed them to various important departments in small groups, claiming to be responsible for safety, but actually reporting minor offenses. Although these children were young, they were very enthusiastic about their work, and ordinary temptations could not move them, let alone a group of people. Any behavior that violated discipline would be reported to Liu Wei and receive corresponding punishment, which was usually one kind: disappearance.

  These "stormtroopers" were full of energy and devoid of human feelings, causing a commotion in the base that was like a chicken flying and dog jumping. The American management personnel had threatened to resign if Liu's "stormtroopers" entered each company in Keelung, but Liu refused, citing that this was an abnormal time and everything was under military control, and the stormtroopers were part of that. Due to the huge fines for violating contracts and the huge bonuses for completing them, the management team and some foreign engineers also tolerated it.

  This collective massacre was caused by the fact that the imperial officials who came to Taiwan for their annual routine inspection before leaving Taiwan received letters of accusation from these officials and met with representatives of those officials at their residence.

  Every year, an official from the imperial court comes to Taiwan for a routine inspection, representing the imperial court to inspect the work. In previous years, after the inspector arrived in Taiwan, he was given a full load of gold, silver and jewels, and then accompanied by the governor to several demonstration points to make a show, and then left with joy. However, this year's inspector, surnamed Zhu, seemed to be unhappy with Liu Mingchuan's grand management of foreign affairs. Although he also accepted the silver, both sides were still a bit displeased.

  Just before his departure, the discontented military officers who had been dismissed came to see him and were received. As a result, when he was about to leave, this Zhu surname touring inspector actually wanted to secretly take these officials back to the mainland together, but was discovered and reported by the "stormtroopers" who were secretly monitoring Liu Pi.

  Liu Yi heard this and thought it was a disaster. If they went back and caused trouble, Father would definitely be removed from office. In the Qing dynasty, arbitrarily changing military systems and replacing high-ranking military officers were serious crimes, almost as bad as rebellion. Liu Yi felt that something was wrong, so he immediately led his fully armed "stormtroopers" to chase after the inspection commissioner's boat in several fast patrol boats. They boarded the ship by force, killing everyone on board, including innocent sailors and many family members, before setting fire to the ships. After returning, he issued a gag order to all naval officers and soldiers who participated in the action, and dispatched "stormtroopers" to strictly monitor them.

  This matter was not reported to Liu Mingchuan, and it wasn't until the end of May that the imperial court discovered that the inspection team had not returned. They then sent a telegram to inquire about the situation. Liu Mingchuan hastily organized boats to search in all directions, but to no avail. He could only reply truthfully. The imperial court is still investigating this matter now. Liu's elder brother in Beijing also sent a telegram to inform his father that someone in the imperial court wants to impeach him.

  In May 1893, David sent a telegram from the United States, and the "Snowflake" refrigerator was officially put into production. It came in two models: gas-powered and electric-powered, with four production lines in two factories. Following Liu's suggestion, they also experimented with and perfected the assembly line process, with an average of one refrigerator coming off the line every 60 minutes, producing 1.5 million units per year.

  The refrigerator was priced at $500 in the United States and ￡200 in Britain, while costing less than $100; due to seasonal reasons, refrigerators sold quickly, and American middle-class people were very fond of this small box that could bring coolness on hot summer days. At the sales point of "Sundaru" Electric Company transformed from "Sundaru" Pharmaceutical Company, "Snowflake" refrigerator was basically sold as soon as it arrived, and those restaurant owners and high-end restaurant employees lined up all night to buy refrigerators back to attract more customers.

  The various patents for the refrigerator have already been registered in the United States and Europe under the name of "Sundru" Electric Company. Liu Yu planned to wait until the refrigerators were selling well, then gradually sell out the patents or authorize production. This time, Liu Yu estimated would not be too long, as soon as the war started, Liu Yu would need a large amount of resources, some things Taiwan did not have, and could only be purchased from the United States.

  In October 1893, the Taiwan Naval Submarine Division was formally established and divided into two fleets: the First Submarine Squadron and the Second Submarine Squadron. The commander of the first squadron was Wu Mingxue, a Fujian native who was one of the first members of the naval patrol team. Its headquarters were located in Keelung, with detachments stationed at Xiangshan and Keelung ports, primarily defending Taiwan's northern and eastern coasts. The commander of the second squadron was Shi Renjie, a Taiwanese immigrant from Zhejiang Province who was one of the second batch of students in the naval patrol team. Its headquarters were located in Citong, with detachments stationed at Citong and Hualien ports, primarily defending Taiwan's western and southern coasts.

  The first fleet has 12 "Big Yellow Fish"-class submarines and 20 "Seagull"-class torpedo boats. Since the main combat target at this stage is the Japanese, the second fleet only has a small number of submarines and torpedo boats for daily training, and defensive weapons mainly rely on laying mines outside the port.

  Although this new weapon, the submarine, was also equipped in small quantities in Europe, it had always been underestimated because of its poor self-defense capabilities and many conditional restrictions. As a result, there were very few experiences to draw upon, and these submariners had to slowly explore on their own, mostly through combat summaries.

  As 1895 approached, the training volume of the submarine fleet was very large, often with several or dozens of ships going out to sea together, followed by large cargo ships, conducting long-distance exercises and practicing tactics such as ambushes, pursuits, interceptions, and sneak attacks along the way. The targets were the ships of various countries on the navigation route, of course, without launching torpedoes, just a rehearsal.

  Torpedo boats, a type of small warship, were equipped in the navies of various countries and were called torpedo ships at that time. The main purpose was to take advantage of the chaos to approach and launch torpedoes, disrupt the enemy's formation, and cover the retreat of the main force. Moreover, the speed of the ship was not fast, and the range of the torpedo was very short, only a few hundred meters.

  "The Seagull" class torpedo boats increased the speed of the ship, and the range and explosive power of the torpedoes also improved a lot. For the tactics of collective ambush by large fleets, it was also a new subject, and those retired German naval officers were also beginners, and could only explore together.