Although Zhang Wei did not want to participate in these red tape activities, he also knew that people in the rivers and lakes could not help themselves, and the navy is different from other branches of the military, itself has a certain diplomatic mission, so diplomatic ability is also one of the necessary abilities of every naval captain, Zhang Wei has taken warships to participate in foreign visits many times before crossing, so he has enough experience to deal with these activities.

It didn't take long for the carriage procession to reach the front of the naval barracks in Hamburg. Hamburg is Germany's largest port city and home port for the German Home Fleet, making it the home base of the German Navy.

The carriage stopped in front of the barracks, and the members of the ship-receiving team got out of the car and quickly lined up, while the German soldiers who led them to the barracks went in to report the news. After a short time, I saw a group of soldiers come out of the barracks, led by an officer about 40 years old, who came to Zhang Wei, saluted, and said, "I am a German naval lieutenant, Reinhardt Schell." ”

Zhang Wei was stunned for a moment, returned a salute, and said, "I am Rear Admiral Zhang Wei of the Chinese Navy." I'm sorry I didn't hear your name just now, is it Scheer?"

The major immediately repeated again: "Reinhardt Karl Friedrich von Scher, sir, I am responsible for the life of you and your army during your stay in Hamburg, so if you need anything, you can ask me." ”

Zhang Wei also nodded, he could finally determine the identity of this person, in the old time and space, Schell was also a famous admiral, the heir of Tirpitz, and the head of the future German Navy, during the First World War, he successively served as the commander of the battleship detachment, the commander of the high seas fleet, and the British main fleet in Jutland, which was the largest battleship naval battle in history. By the time of the Third Reich, Germany also built a heavy cruiser (also called a pocket battleship) named after him.

Of course, now Scheer is only a promising naval lieutenant, and Zhang Wei is now carrying the rank of rear admiral, and the gap between the two sides is quite large, so Scheer is also respectful in front of Zhang Wei. This also made Zhang Wei's heart feel uneasy. So he said, "Major Scheer, then this time will trouble you." ”

"There, it's my duty, now I'll take you to the dormitory to settle down, and then I'll give you a pass for the barracks." ”

Zhang Wei nodded and said, "Okay." ”

So Scheer led the people into the barracks, passed through several training grounds, and in a complex of red brick houses, in the middle of two three-story buildings, he said: "These two dormitories are for you to live in, there are a total of 136 rooms, and it is guaranteed that four people can live in one room, and it is better to have an administrator in each room, so that I can register." ”

Zhang Wei immediately ordered the allocation of personnel and appointed the administrator of the dormitory, and then registered with Sher, received the key, and was led by other officers to rest in the room.

Zhao Ping and He Xin were assigned to a room again, and the other two people who lived with them were named Yang Shicheng and Guo Qing, both of whom were shorter than their qualifications. And although He Xin and Zhao Ping have the same military rank, He Xin was promoted to second lieutenant earlier than Zhao Ping, so He Xin served as the dormitory administrator.

After the German officer who led them into the house left, He Xin immediately threw away the suitcase, collapsed on the bed, and said: "Great, I can finally sleep soundly, I shake the boat every day, and when I just got off the boat, I still feel that the earth is shaking!"

Guo Qing also sat on the bed and said, "But no, now I still feel my legs shaking?"

Yang Shicheng said: "He Xin, aren't you from a fisherman's background? Why can't you stand life at sea?"

He Xindao: "Although my family used to be fishing, each time I went to sea, it was at most 3 or 5 days, and this time I was floating at sea for almost two months, and to be honest, I can't get any better now." But you need to rest for a few days to recover. ”

This time, they sailed at sea for nearly two months, during which they could only get a very short time to go ashore when the port was replenished with water, coal and food, and the passenger ship basically left after refueling, unless it encountered bad weather or complicated waterways, it would anchor overnight, and during the whole voyage, it only berthed for four nights, and even if it was anchored overnight, the ship also rose and fell with the waves, so it still slept in shaking. Most of the soldiers who came to Germany to receive the warships this time had only about a year of military experience, and although they had also gone to sea with the warships before, they only had five or seven days, and the nearly two-month voyage like this was indeed quite a hard thing.

During the whole voyage, there were more than 60 sick people, but fortunately, before departure, the medical preparations were quite sufficient, and the whole voyage was in winter, although half of the time was in the tropical and subtropical seas, but there was no hot weather, so in the end all the people arrived in Germany safely.

Now only Zhao Ping can support himself, he is putting things from the suitcase to the cabinet, after listening to their words, Zhao Ping said: "Don't think too well, we can't live here for a few days, and after accepting the warship, we will move to the warship immediately, if you want to fully recover, you can only wait until you go back from Germany." ”

As he was talking, he heard a bell ringing downstairs, which was the signal for the assembly. He Xin and the others immediately jumped up from the bed, hurriedly tidied up their clothes, put on their military hats, hurriedly left the room, and hurried downstairs to gather. It turned out that the room had been allocated, and Scheer led everyone to the cafeteria for dinner, and the pass for everyone could be processed tomorrow.

After dinner, everyone gathered again in front of the dormitory building, and Zhang Wei instructed everyone to have a good rest tonight and wait for the arrangement tomorrow. After everyone went back to the dormitory to rest, Zhang Wei negotiated with the representatives of the two shipyards, the Blom-Foss shipyard is in Hamburg, and the Kiel shipyard is not far from Hamburg, only about 80 kilometers away, and there are 5 or 6 trains a day between the two places, which only takes more than two hours to arrive. Therefore, the transportation is very convenient.

Now the two warships are in the shipyard for the final commissioning and maintenance, it is expected that it will take about 7-10 days to conduct trial voyages again, of course, when the warship is berthed for maintenance, you can also go on the ship to familiarize yourself with the environment of the warship, and have a preliminary understanding of the operation of the warship, but there is no need to rush for a while, and now there are more than 30 soldiers in physical condition is not ideal, need to recuperate for a few days. Therefore, Zhang Wei decided to let all the personnel rest for 3 days first, adjust their physical condition, and then go to the shipyard to familiarize themselves with the warship, and they can also solve all the things that come and go.

Tirpitz was very satisfied with the cooperation between the two sides in the navy some time ago, and hoped to continue to strengthen cooperation and exchanges, and Zhang Wei also expressed his gratitude to the German shipbuilding personnel for their work, and also said that the East China government also hoped to further strengthen and deepen exchanges and cooperation with Germany.

At the same time, what Germany was most concerned about was the modification plan of the Qingdao-type cruiser, and the two sides also communicated in detail. In response to the requirements put forward by Germany, the traverser made two plans, the first original design of the ship type, structure, power, and protection remained unchanged, but the shipboard weapons were adjusted, and two twin 203 mm caliber naval guns were added according to the requirements of the German Navy.

The adjustment scheme of the club is that the three twin 155 mm caliber naval guns in the bow and stern of the original design are arranged on the deck in the shape of the positive "pin", and in the middle of the "pin" character, a twin 155 mm caliber naval gun in the raised position in the original design of the backpack structure arrangement is changed to a twin 203 mm caliber naval gun. In this way, there will be two 203 mm guns in the bow and stern, and six 155 mm guns can fire at the same time, while on the side four 203 mm guns and eight 155 mm guns can be concentrated, which not only has strong firepower, but also can ensure the intensity of firepower. This is the experience that the First Sino-Japanese Naval War brought to various countries, and the firepower of a warship should not only be judged by the caliber of the artillery, but also by the intensity of the firepower, and the intensity of the firepower projected by a warship with a relatively close combat distance such as a cruiser is more important than the power of a single gun in a unit of time.

Since the original design of the Qingdao cruiser already paid more attention to defense and power, it basically did not change in both aspects. After this change, the displacement of the whole ship is expected to increase by about 500 tons, and finally between 6800-7000 tons, and the speed will be between 24-25 knots, which is still considerable, and the combat effectiveness is also more powerful, even with medium-sized armored cruisers, such as the Italian Garibaldi class, and among the protective cruisers of the same type of era, such as the Russian Varyag, The Aurora, the British Edgar-class protective cruiser, and even the 9,000-ton Blake-class protective cruiser, can basically be easily defeated.

The main guns of the Varyag and Aurora are 10 single-mounted 152 mm calibers, which are much worse than the Qingdao cruisers in terms of firepower. The weapons of the Edgar class and the Blake class are the same, the main gun caliber is 234 mm, but only 2 are equipped, and the secondary gun is 10 single-mounted 152 mm caliber guns, which is 2 less, and the level of German artillery is higher than that of the British, so it is still better than the British two types of protective cruisers in terms of firepower, although the Blake class is stronger in the dome armor, the top is 76.2mm thick, and the bevel is 152mm thick, but there is no side chord armor, and it is slightly worse in defense. In terms of speed, the Edgar class and the Blake class are only 20 knots, which cannot be compared.

Because Britain has a large number of overseas colonies, the protective cruisers are mainly used to maintain the security of the colonies and maintain deterrence, so Britain's requirements for protective cruisers are mainly large-scale and self-sustaining; and the firepower and speed are relatively low, after all, there is no need for strong firepower to deal with the natives of the colonies, and Britain has its own ports in all countries in the world, and warships can be stationed there, so there is no need for high speed.

However, Germany has few overseas interests, and the role of protective cruisers is mainly to break diplomatic relations, requiring fast sailing speed and strong combat effectiveness of a single ship, but there is no need to pursue tall and complete and build large-scale protective cruisers of more than 7,000 tons.