At the time when the army was being reorganized, representatives of manufacturers and technicians from various countries participating in the East China Government's shipbuilding bidding also arrived in Qingdao one after another, including many of the world's leading shipyards in this era.

Britain sent the most luxurious lineup, is the famous arms manufacturers Armstrong and Vickers shipyard, Armstrong has a total of two shipyards, namely Elswick Shipyard and Walker Shipyard, famous for building cruisers, Japan's meritorious battleship in the Sino-Japanese War Yoshino came from Armstrong Company, the national hero Deng Shichang commanded the Zhiyuan ship was also built by Armstrong Company, and now Armstrong Company also built the Asama, Tokiwa, Izumo and Iwate four large armored cruisers. The Wix Shipyard is another well-known shipyard in Britain, and its current proud work is the battleships Hatsuse and Mikasa in the "66th Fleet" built by Japan.

The German shipyard was Kiel Shipyard and the Blom-Foss shipyard in the port of Hamburg, although they were not the Volkeng shipyards that built Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, but these two shipyards were also well-known in Europe, since the Volkeng shipyard was now mainly building battleships, while these two shipyards were mainly engaged in cruisers, so they were more on the right path.

The French shipyards were the Loire shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, where the former was building the armored cruiser Azuma in the "66th Fleet" for Japan, and the Mediterranean Iron Works in the Sino-Japanese War.

Italy came to participate in the bidding for the Ansaldo shipyard in Genoa and the Otto shipyard, the former is the famous Garibaldi-class armored cruisers, a total of 10 ships were built, but 6 were sold to other countries, in the old time and space, Japan before the Russo-Japanese War, snapped up two warships of this type, named Kasuga and Nisshin. Otto Shipyard is a shipyard under the famous Italian arms manufacturer Otto Melera Company, the model is somewhat like the British Armstrong Company, although the reputation is not as good as the Ansaldo Shipyard, but there is Otto Melera Company as a basis, there is a great advantage in the supporting shipboard weapons, in the era of the traverser, Otto Melera 76mm naval gun is known as the "AK47" in the naval gun, even the American Perry-class frigate, Hamilton-class patrol ships are used this type of naval gun.

There are also two shipyards in the United States, namely the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, the predecessor of which was the Royal Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, England, in the North American colonies, which was owned by the federal government after the independence of the United States, and the sail cruiser Constitution, which was built in the 1812 American-British War (known as the Second Revolutionary War in the United States), and the other is the Cramp Shipyard in Philadelphia, which has just built a large protective cruiser for Russia.

To be able to attract so many well-known shipyards to bid, on the one hand, because the amount of construction this time is indeed a lot, there are a total of 4 large protective cruisers, although two are required to be built in Qingdao, but the equipment and materials are still purchased from the winning bidder, so the profit is still considerable, and there are two armored cruisers in the follow-up, no matter how you look at it, it is a big order. On the other hand, the East China government is also engaged in public bidding, which is also one of the reasons.

Arms procurement is different from other commercial transactions, involving many aspects, military, political, economic, geopolitical relations, and so on, and the countries that purchase warships are not enough in their own technological manufacturing capabilities, such as Japan and Latin America's Brazil, Argentina, Chile and other countries, these countries buy warships, of course, including the Qing court, mainly based on fame, so Britain, which dominates the world, often becomes the first choice, covering more than 60% of the foreign trade warships of this era; second, the production capacity is limited, such as Russia, because of its bad relations with Britain, can only buy warships from its own ally France, and the United States, which is bent on only trading. But no matter which one, it is basically a separate negotiation between the buyer and the seller, when the Beiyang Naval Division was formed, it only planned to buy ships from the British, but it was only because the British offer was too high that it turned to Germany to buy, but it was all the Qing court and the British and German negotiations alone, and the representatives of Britain and Germany were not pulled together to PK.

Moreover, in general, when purchasing warships, the design and construction are packaged and handed over to the contractor, and they only put forward some ideas or modifications at most. And this kind of public bidding, and it is also designed by itself, and the contractor only uses the construction according to the drawings, which is unique in this era. However, the situation of the traversers is rather special, on the one hand, they have a clear mind, they know what kind of warship they want, they are fully capable of designing their own, and how to achieve it with the technical conditions of this era, but on the other hand, the manufacturing capacity is extremely poor, so they can carry out such a public bidding mode.

However, with the exception of the United Kingdom, the rest of the shipyards have formed a consortium on a national basis in accordance with the proposal of the East China government's tender document. Only the two British bidders were bidding alone, and the British Empire was confident in this respect, and did not bother to form any consortium, so there were six bidders in total, and the Admiralty of the East China government also set up a special bidding committee to be fully responsible for the affairs of this tender.

The British were full of confidence in this bidding, and each brought a set of warship drawings designed in accordance with the technical parameters proposed by the East China government, the Armstrong Company was based on the Armstrong-type cruiser designed by the company, that is, the Yoshino and the current Beiyang Naval Division's Haitian and Hairong, and the Vickes shipyard was modified on the basis of the British Edgar-class protective cruiser.

I have to say that Britain does have a very deep foundation in the construction of warships, and various types of warships can find similar types of ships in the UK, so Britain can come up with a set of drawings that meet the standards in a very short time, and other countries obviously cannot reach this point.

The shipyards of various countries arrived in Qingdao, after the formal registration of the bidding committee, they all obtained a complete set of ship type drawings and technical specifications, as many as 500 drawings, every detail of the entire warship is depicted in great detail, in addition to the external dimensions, the detailed structural dimensions of the internal compartments, the installation size, location, thickness of the armor, etc., are also indicated, so it makes people look at a glance, of course, like shipborne artillery, boilers, Steam engines and other equipment are purchased equipment, so they are not included in the list, which also requires the shipyard that won the bid to supplement the corresponding drawings. The technical specification also has more than 300 pages, detailing the technical requirements and standards of the East China government, and there are clear inspection standards.

Of course, at the end of the technical specification, it is also stated that the bidders can put forward their own modifications to the original design scheme under the technical conditions that do not affect the requirements of the East China government, which can be attached to the bidding documents, and also add an additional clause for the bidding, that is, the parties are allowed to make a second plan quotation in addition to the drawings provided by the East China government. This is mainly for the two bidders in the UK, because it is impossible for the other bidders to come up with a second design.

Of course, the traverser will not choose other options, such an arrangement is just to take care of the face of the British. However, the British were also very happy after receiving the additional terms, because the British firmly believed that the warships they designed were the best, and the warships designed by overseas Chinese were certainly not comparable to their own.

After getting the drawings and technical specifications of the warship, the bidders and the consortium immediately began to review the drawings, calculate the cost, determine the profit and the bidding strategy, and the official bid opening time from May 1 to May 1 was only about a month, so it was necessary to hurry up.

The bidding committee took turns to meet with the bidders and consortiums, on the one hand, to understand the progress of all parties, on the other hand, to answer the questions of all parties, and also to talk about some contract implementation matters after winning the bid, as well as the conditions of all parties. Although the East China government is basically inclined to build in Germany, it does not mean that this tender is just a formality, and if there are bidders who propose more favorable terms than Germany, of course, it will be better.

Time passed quickly, and at 9 a.m. on May 1, all bidders and consortia sent their bids to the bidding committee and carried out public bid opening.

The bids offered by the parties are:

The first plan of Armstrong of the United Kingdom quoted 2.85 million silver for 1 ship, and the second plan quoted 2.55 million silver for 1 ship;

The first plan of the British Vickers shipyard quoted 2.78 million silver for 1 ship, and the second plan quoted 2.6 million silver for 1 ship;

Germany offered 2,360,001 ships, but put forward two additional conditions: (1) it had to have the full right to use this set of drawings; (2) the East China government had to help Germany design two types of battleships;

France's offer of 2.72 million 1 ships;

The U.S. offered 2.56 million 1 ships, and also promised to provide corresponding shipbuilding technology and personnel training for the East China government;

Italy's offer is 2.6 million 1 ships;

Overall, only two companies in the UK quoted two prices, and according to the drawings provided by the East China government, the quotation was also the highest, but both companies actually focused on the second option, which is their own design.

And both companies pointed out in the bidding that the design of the first scheme is insufficient, and there are three main points: first, there is a contradiction between the speed and the power, because the speed of the first scheme is required to reach 24-25 knots, but the power is only required to be 18,000 horsepower, and according to their calculations, to achieve such a speed, the power power needs at least 22,000 horsepower, but this not only increases the cost, but also greatly modifies the original design; Third, the firepower is insufficient, the main firepower of the whole ship is 12 155 mm guns, and the general warships of more than 6,000 tons must be installed with at least two guns of more than 200 mm, so as to ensure that they can fight against warships of the same level.