In fact, after Prince Heinrich's telegram was sent to Germany, it aroused great repercussions in Germany, first of all, several German shipyards such as Volken, Kiel Naval Shipyard, and Blom-Foss Shipyard showed great interest in this order. After all, Germany has not undertaken many shipbuilding contracts with foreign countries, and the most recent big order is the Yakumo armored cruiser built by Volkeng Shipyard for Japan in 1898, and the main gun was purchased from the British Amstrand Company, which made the Germans a little embarrassed, because the world recognized that the best cannon manufacturer was the German Knoob Company.

In fact, in this era, Japan's warships were basically purchased from Britain, and in the 66 fleet, only two armored cruisers were purchased from countries other than Britain, one was the Yakumo armored cruiser ordered from Germany, and the other was the Azuma armored cruiser purchased from France. And the contract for the purchase of these two warships has more political significance than practical significance. It turned out that after the First Sino-Japanese War, the contradictions between Japan and Russia intensified day by day, and the intervention of Russia, Germany and France in the Liao Restoration Incident was led by Russia, and Japan also knew that it was impossible for it to confront Russia, Germany and France at the same time, so when forming the 66th Fleet, it ordered an armored cruiser from Germany and France respectively, indicating that Japan was only targeting Russia and still hoped to make friends with Germany and France.

And this time the traverser wants to build 2 protective cruisers, an armored cruiser, even if it is three warships built in Qingdao, it is a large contract, so the various shipyards in Germany will naturally not let go of this business opportunity. What's more, after this cooperation, there is a great possibility that there will be follow-up shipbuilding contracts, after all, the overseas Chinese are only building protective cruisers and medium-sized armored cruisers, and they will definitely build large armored cruisers or battleships in the future.

The German Admiralty was also full of interest in the shipbuilding plan of the Traverser, and when the Admiral Tirpitz learned of this news, he immediately went to the palace to meet Wilhelm II and asked the government to do its best to help the German shipyard and win the shipbuilding contract for overseas Chinese.

In the early stage of cooperation with overseas Chinese, Germany obtained a full set of drawings of British Majesty-class battleships, old man star battleships, and Crecy-class armored cruisers, and learned the concept of the second class main gun from the overseas Chinese. The navy also unanimously agreed that after the completion of a total of 10 battleships of these two types, Germany would be able to greatly shorten the gap with the British navy and catch up with the British main battleships in terms of single-ship combat effectiveness.

However, this time it was the overseas Chinese who built the ship themselves, and Tirpitz had also seen the excellent performance of the overseas Chinese warships in Qingdao, and now he has the opportunity to get close to the warships designed by the overseas Chinese, although it is only a large protective cruiser, but it is also a great opportunity. Because the size of a 6,000-ton protective cruiser is similar to that of a 10,000-ton armored cruiser and a 12,000-ton battleship.

Tirpitz even thought that if the two protective cruisers really showed excellent performance after they were built, they should immediately copy or buy their designs, after all, Germany had a lot of shortcomings in large protective cruisers. And these designs can also be applied to large armored cruisers, battleships, and even ask overseas Chinese to design warships for Germany.

So Wilhelm II called back to Prince Heinrich, asking him to stay in Qingdao temporarily, maintain communication with overseas Chinese, and fully assist German shipyards to win orders.

Three days later, the German consul in Qingdao officially received a tender notice from the naval headquarters of the East China government, and at the same time, the traverser also sent the tender notice to the British, French, and American consulates in Tianjin, officially starting the bidding process for building ships.

According to the provisions of the bidding documents, the deadline for bidding is before 5 p.m. on April 30, 1902, Qingdao time, before that, shipyards interested in participating in the bidding can go to Qingdao to receive the bidding documents and drawings, bidding quotations, and the bid will be officially opened on May 1 to determine the shipyard that wins the bid. The determination of the winning bid is divided into price, construction period, quality, and other four factors, accounting for 5:2:2:1, using the comprehensive bid evaluation method, not the lowest bidder wins the bid, but also allows shipyards in the same country to form a consortium to bid.

It is only the end of January, and there are still more than three months to go until April 30, and it will take about two months to get to Qingdao from Europe, so the bidders still have enough time to formulate bid prices and bids. Consortium bidding is a very common phenomenon in the old time and space, which is conducive to the manufacturers to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses, reduce risks and save costs.

Now only Germany has abolished the consulate in Tianjin and set up a new consulate in Qingdao, while other countries still rely on the consulate in Tianjin to maintain communication with the travelers. Of course, this is not because the countries are deliberately neglecting, but because the East China government has not been moving to Qingdao for a long time, and has not yet demarcated the location of the consulate area for each country. Germany is just a special case, after all, Germany has ruled in Qingdao for nearly two years, and there are still some industries in Qingdao, Qin Moman temporarily rented a room in the Prince Heinrich Hotel in Qingdao as a temporary office location for the consulate, and other countries obviously do not have this condition.

After the consuls of Britain, France, and the United States received the tender notice issued by the East China Government, they did not dare to hesitate, and immediately sent a telegram to the country to report that this was a huge amount of shipbuilding contracts, and this was one of the responsibilities of the consuls of various countries.

Soon after, Britain, France, and the United States replied to the East China government through their consuls, saying that they would send manufacturers to participate in the bidding. After all, such a large order for international warships is rare in this era, and a good thing like Japan's "66 Fleet" is even more unattainable, so the world's major shipbuilders are unwilling to give up this opportunity.

At this time, Tianjin sent a report to Qingdao, which turned out to be Yuan Shikai, the new governor of Zhili of the Qing court, who informed the Tianjin government that he hoped to negotiate with Tianjin on the delivery of the old city of Tianjin. At the same time, the traverser was also required to send someone to Shanghai to deliver the Shanghai New Area, and negotiate with the China Merchants Steamship Bureau, Swire and Jardine Matheson to operate shipping.

Before Qin Zheng went to Xi'an, he had negotiated a secret agreement with Li Hongzhang on the island, whereby the travelers exchanged the old city of Tianjin for a piece of land in Shanghai with the Qing court to establish the Shanghai New District, while the Qing court exchanged the right to operate shipping and exchanged the right to free passage through the port of Tianjin. and a series of rules for the two sides to get along with each other in Tianjin, including the demolition of the old city of Tianjin, the number of garrisons and police, weapons, and so on.

At this time, Cixi and Guangxu finally returned to Beijing, although the property in the palace, including the palace maids, was looted by the traversers, leaving only the Ruoda palace and a group of eunuchs, but finally returned to Beijing, and returned to the power center of the Chunting court, and Cixi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Prince Qing and Li Hongzhang, who stayed in Beijing, also prepared a grand welcome ceremony for Cixi, which finally made the old lady a little happier.

After three days of celebration, the Qing court officially announced the list of the new military aircraft ministers of the Qing court: Prince Qing Yixuan was appointed as the military aircraft foreman and concurrently served as the minister of Beiyang, and the rest of the personnel were Li Hongzhang, who also served as the head of the Yamen of the Prime Minister's Office; Rong Lu concurrently served as the secretary of the military department and the general commander of the Wuwei Fifth Army; Wang Wenshao, Zhang Zhidong, Zhao Shuqiao, Rong Qing, and Tie Liang, a total of eight people, and the Manchu and Han Dynasty each accounted for four.

Among them, except for Rong Lu, Wang Wenshao, and Zhao Shuqiao, the remaining five people are all entering the military aircraft for the first time, of course, Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong are all old ministers of the Qing court, whether it is ability or seniority, they are enough to enter the military aircraft. And the Qing court transferred the two to the military aircraft department at the same time, which was also well-intentioned, because the two have always been at odds with each other, so the two entered the military aircraft department at the same time, and they also let them restrain each other, so as not to make one side bigger.

In addition, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi, these three people are the main behind-the-scenes promoters of the southeast mutual insurance, the lack of one person, it is basically impossible to promote the southeast mutual insurance, although the Qing court has officially affirmed the correctness of the southeast mutual insurance, but in the heart of Cixi, it is impossible for these governors to have no mustard, so Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong was transferred to the capital, and it was also to let them leave their one-third of an acre of land, leaving only one Liu Kunyi, one was that there were not so many positions in the military aircraft department, and the other was to transfer all the three giants of the southeast mutual insurance out of the locality, which was too obvious.

The military aircraft department is headed by the prince, which has become a common practice since the Tongzhi period, and the original military aircraft foreman Prince Li Shiduo does not want to do it anymore, so it is logical for Prince Qing to serve as the military aircraft foreman.

Among the eight ministers of military aircraft, only Rong Qing and Tie Liang are newcomers in the true sense, and both of them were recommended by Rong Lu.

Rong Qing is a Mongolian Zhenghuang Banner, 43 years old this year, in 1899 as a scholar in Shandong met the then governor of Shandong Yuan Shikai, quite appreciated by Yuan Shikai, the relationship between the two became increasingly close, Rong Qing also met more dignitaries through Yuan. After the change of Gengzi country, Cixi and Guangxu fled to Xi'an, Rong Qing was entrusted with an important task to assist Prince Qing in handling the affairs of the Fu Bureau, and through Prince Qing got acquainted with Rong Lu, and finally became Rong Lu's secret party, this time it was recommended by Rong Lu to learn to walk in the Ministry of Shangshu and Military Aircraft, which is the official name of the Minister of Military Aircraft who is still young.

Tie Liang is younger, only 38 years old, Manchuria inlaid with white flags, originally a member of the Ronglu shogunate, assisting Ronglu in handling various military affairs, claiming to know the soldiers, and won the trust of Ronglu, Ronglu recommended him to the military department, as a soldier of the military department, and will run the Beijing flag training, and now he is also a military aircraft department to learn to walk.

Rong Lu is Cixi's most trusted minister, and even succeeded in enabling two newcomers recommended by Rong Lu to enter the military aircraft department, Cixi is also interested in supporting Rong Lu's power in the military aircraft department, and it is also a new person who cultivates the Manchu people, after all, there is a Yuan Shikai on the Han official's side, and someone must come up to the Manchu side. In fact, among the Manchurians, there are also several characters, in addition to these two people, there are Zai Ze, Duan Fang, Liangbi and others, but they all need time to experience.