It can be said that the Beiyang Navy is currently the largest asset in Zhejiang Province. Although the five sea-headed warships of the Beiyang Navy have basically lost their combat effectiveness due to lack of maintenance, the age of these warships is not long, all of which are about 10 years. If an overall large-scale maintenance is carried out, it can still be restored to at least 80% of the combat effectiveness.

Moreover, although these warships are not considered main ships, their performance is not bad among the warships of the second-class. The performance of the Haitian and Haiqi is roughly the same as that of the Chitose and Kasai in the Japanese fleet, and are weaker than the Qingzhou-class of the People's Army Navy, but stronger than the Dongchang-class, Hairong, Haichou-class, and Haichen are weaker than the Dongchang-class, but they are also protective cruisers after all, and are not inferior to some captive protective cruisers of the same level. Therefore, these five warships can still add icing on the cake to join the People's Army Navy.

More importantly, the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Navy are all naval with considerable quality and experience. This is the greatest wealth of the Beiyang Navy now. Because it is not easy to train a qualified naval soldier, it takes at least 5 years. As for the captain, the time for the squadron captain is longer. The soldiers of the People's Army Navy have always been in a situation of inexperience. They can only be trained and put on the warships and trained slowly. Even so, there is still insufficient manpower. After all, the expansion speed of the People's Army Navy is too fast, so the thousands of officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Navy are what the People's Army Navy needs most now.

The distance from Shanghai to Hangzhou is about 160 kilometers, which is about the same distance from Beijing to Tianjin. One day later, the troops on the land march arrived in Hangzhou. When the People's Army entered Hangzhou City, it was warmly welcomed by the people of Hangzhou. Although the local forces in Zhejiang Province did not want the East China Government to enter Zhejiang, most people have a good impression of the East China Government. Among young people, they have a good impression of the East China Government. On the one hand, the East China Government has strongly promoted it; on the other hand, the brilliant achievements made by the East China Government in foreign wars over the past few years are indeed the ambition of the Great Chang'an people.

In addition, Japan's forced leasing of Wenzhou Prefecture and Taizhou Prefecture has also had a huge impact on Zhejiang society. The People's Army entered Zhejiang Province with the famous proposal of attacking Japan and protecting Zhejiang, and naturally it would also receive support from Zhejiang people.

Although the local powerful forces in Zhejiang Province do not want the East China government to rule Zhejiang, they dare not show it on the surface. After all, the People's Army has entered Hangzhou City, and the overall situation has basically been decided. Naturally, no one wants to cause trouble for themselves at this time.

In fact, the local powerful forces in Zhejiang Province were disgusted with the rule of the East China Government, not because they were very loyal to the Qing court, but mainly because they were dissatisfied with the land system of the East China Government. After all, in China in this era, the number of national bourgeoisie was still very small, and personal assets were still mainly land and land. Even if Zhejiang Province has a developed commodity economy and relatively large ethnic bourgeoisie, land is still the most important indicator for measuring property. Even many big businessmen and big industrial owners would accumulate a large amount of land.

The land policy of the East China Government is undoubtedly a major damage to their interests, and this is also a red line that the East China Government cannot compromise at all. Therefore, it is reasonable for these local powerful forces to oppose the rule of the East China Government.

However, the current situation is stronger than that of people. These powerful local forces have no ability to resist the East China government at all. Therefore, they can only accept this fact now, and they also welcome the East China government and strive for more compensation for themselves as much as possible.

Zhou Fu and Li Jingfang also welcomed Li Songchen and Luo Yue to the gate of Hangzhou City to show their respect for the two. When Zhou Fu followed Li Hongzhang, he had a lot of contact with the East China Government and had several encounters with Li Songchen. He knew that Li Songchen's current identity was different and was equivalent to a rank of the East China Government. Although he had never met Luo Yue, he also knew who Luo Yue was, so he did not dare to neglect these two people.

After meeting, they introduced each other. Zhou Fu and Li Jingfang welcomed the two into the Governor's Office and took a seat in the lobby. The Governor's Office lobby was specially changed to the East China Government-style reception room style.

Li Songchen also highly evaluated Zhou Fu's act of voluntarily surrendering to the East China Government, believing that this is an act of adapting to the general trend and benefiting the country and the people. Because it is a move that is conducive to safeguarding national territorial sovereignty under the current situation of Japan's attempt to forcibly rent Taizhou Prefecture and Wenzhou Prefecture, it is conducive to safeguarding national territorial sovereignty. History will remember Zhou Fu's contributions.

After hearing this, Zhou Fu was very happy and said a few words of humility, saying that he had long admired the East China Government, but he had not surrendered as soon as possible.

Li Songchen then asked Zhou Fu whether he had notified the local officials in Zhejiang Province. Zhou Fu replied that he had been notified, but due to the tight time, most places had not responded. However, Zhou Fu estimated that local officials in Zhejiang Province should not oppose joining the East China Government.

Li Songchen said that because the current top priority is to prevent the invasion of the Japanese army, the administrative system and management organization of Zhejiang Province remain unchanged for the time being. Zhou Fu is still fully responsible for the administrative management of Zhejiang Province. He also asked Li Jingfang to assist. Qingdao is organizing personnel to go to Hangzhou to join Zhou Fu and Li Jingfang to establish the Zhejiang Transitional Government to maintain the stability of Zhejiang Province, and to cooperate with the army to stop Japan's ambitions.

At the same time, Li Songchen asked Zhou Fu to issue an announcement to local officials in various parts of Zhejiang Province in the name of the East China Government, announcing to them that Zhejiang Province has been incorporated into the East China Government, and local officials in various places still remain in office and maintain their power, and require them to perform their duties and maintain social stability, waiting for the government to send people to take over local military and political affairs. If they do well, the East China Government will consider them to continue to serve in government agencies as appropriate, and prohibit the occurrence of taking the opportunity to cause trouble, robbery, embezzle the treasury, endanger the local government, otherwise they will never be forgiven and punished according to law. At the same time, local officials and troops in various places will fully cooperate with the actions of the People's Army in marching, camping and other aspects.

Luo Yue also said that this time the People's Army dispatched to prevent all the expenses and materials from Japan were arranged separately. In principle, Zhejiang's funds and materials would not be used. However, in special circumstances, some materials may be requisitioned from the local area, or purchased directly from the local market. However, the recruitment will be recorded, and the certificate will be left to repay in the future. If you purchase from the local area, you will definitely clear the money and goods. In short, the People's Army will never do anything wrong and disrupt the local area, but will require local governments to provide necessary help.

After hearing this, Zhou Fu agreed and was very happy because he still stayed in Zhejiang. Even if the East China Government sent someone to take over Zhejiang in the future, he would make other arrangements. Li Jingfang was also very satisfied with this arrangement and he was finally able to participate in political affairs again. Although this was just a temporary mission, Li Jingfang had full confidence that after the end of this mission, he would seek a formal position in the East China Government.

Then Luo Yue set up a command center in Hangzhou and dispatched troops to take over the local defense work in Hangzhou. He also sent a report to Qingdao, urging the army to arrive in Hangzhou as soon as possible.

In the afternoon, Chen Xiaojiang arrived in Hangzhou, accompanied by the Dengzhou and Laizhou, while other fleets continued to move south and sailed along the coast of Wenzhou.

On the next day, the two main generals of the Beiyang Navy, Sa Zhenbing and Cheng Biguang rushed to Hangzhou, and Luo Yue and Chen Xiaojiang met with them together.

In fact, the veterans have a good impression of the Beiyang Navy. After all, the Beiyang Navy is the most modern army in China in this era. Although the Beiyang New Army trained by Yuan Shikai is also organized according to the modern army model, the core of the army is still the old style of private soldiers who are loyal to individuals, and in fact it is just a layer of modern skin.

Although the Beiyang Navy was once defeated in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, by heart, the Beiyang Navy was the best-performing Qing army in the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. Although the Dadonggou Naval Battle was defeated, it at least showed a certain bloodiness and also gave a certain blow to the Japanese fleet. In fact, it was not useless. It was indeed much better than the Qing army at that time, and the collapse of a thousand miles.

In the late period of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, although the Beiyang Navy adopted the strategy of protecting ships and avoiding war, it was somewhat forced. On the one hand, five warships were sunk by the Dadonggou Naval Battle, which greatly damaged their strength. On the other hand, due to the insufficient maintenance capabilities of the Qing court at that time, the injured warships were not fully repaired. Until the Battle of Weihai Guard, the Beiyang Navy was wiped out, and all warships were basically fighting with injuries.

In contrast, five warships were severely damaged in the Dadonggou naval battle, but they were injured but not sunk. Moreover, Japan's ship maintenance capabilities were far stronger than those of the Qing court. Therefore, after 2 or 3 months, the injured Japanese ships were repaired one after another and could be reopened to combat.

That's it. During the Battle of Weihai Guard, although the Beiyang Navy was blocked in the port, it still relied on the fort and fought hard. In the end, it was because the Japanese army broke through the land-based fort, which completely wiped out the Beiyang Navy in the port. Most of the captains either sacrificed their lives or committed suicide, which was considered to have fulfilled their responsibilities as soldiers. Frankly speaking, if the Qing army could have performed such a thing at that time, even if the Qing court could not defeat Japan, they would not have lost too badly.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, the Beiyang Navy was rebuilt. Although it was no longer as prosperous as it was, it also tried its best to safeguard national interests within the scope of its strength. In 1899, Italy attempted to occupy Sanmen Bay, Zhejiang. Ye Zumai brought five sea-type warships to the sea and finally forced the invaders to retreat.
Chapter completed!