Although it is already March, the spring cold is still there, and the sea breeze is blowing on his face, which is still very cold, but Yang Yuxin is still standing on the bow of the ship in the wind, looking at the masts on the distant coast, and he is full of spirit. It has only been more than two months since I last returned to Qingdao to attend the annual meeting, and I have returned to Qingdao again. Moreover, in the annual meeting, he not only received special praise from the Executive Yuan, but also the suggestions put forward by the Ministry of Finance were approved by the Executive Yuan, and began to be implemented step by step. At the same time, Yang Yuxin also reached an agreement with the Postal Committee and the Commercial Committee to propose an alliance.

After returning to Shanghai, Yang Yuxin immediately began to organize a Shanghai business delegation to Qingdao to inspect the investment environment, after the New Year, the delegation was finally established, a total of 41 Shanghai businessmen, basically some famous businessmen in Shanghai, such as Sheng Xuanhuai, Zhang Jian, Ye Yiquan, Zhang Shuhe, Zheng Guanying, Shen Manyun, Shen Yunpei, Yan Xinhou, Xu Dinglin and others, among them, there are red-top businessmen like Sheng Xuanhuai, who relied on the government to start their careers; there are also industrialists like Zhang Jian, who were born as traditional scholars but devoted themselves to industry; and businessmen who were originally born as compradors, but also devoted themselves to industry, such as Zheng Guanying, and almost all of them have official positions; of course, this is also a major feature of Chinese businessmen in this era.

Of course, these people are all extremely wealthy, not to mention hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, they will naturally not be single when they travel, and they must bring at least a dozen entourages with them, some serve daily life, some run errands before and after the saddle, some keep the property they carry, and some have to negotiate some things at any time, and of course there are bodyguards. However, this time it is a group trip, naturally can not bring so many people, and Yang Yuxin also in the name of the East China government to ensure the safety of the industrial and commercial group, so the final negotiation decided that each person's entourage is limited to 8 people, but the candidate can be decided by himself, in addition to the industrial and commercial group in Qingdao accommodation, three meals, visit fees are paid by the East China government, but if you want to shop or other purposes, you need to pay for yourself.

However, among all 41 businessmen, Sheng Xuanhuai and Zhang Jian were appointed as the head and deputy head of the group, and they were responsible for organizing the itinerary of the whole group, as well as coordinating and communicating with the East China government, so the two of them could bring 10 entourage, but that's it, they also formed a huge group of nearly 400 people.

The Shanghai industrial and commercial delegation set off from Shanghai on March 2 and chartered two passenger ships at the China Merchants Steamship Bureau, and the East China Government also sent two warships to escort the passenger ships, and Yang Yuxin, as the initiator and organizer of the industrial and commercial delegation, is also the main person in charge of the Shanghai New Area, and of course he must accompany him throughout the journey, so in less than three months, Yang Yuxin returned to Qingdao again.

In addition, the last time I went back to Qingdao to attend the annual meeting, Yang Yuxin took the white tassel and enrolled her in a training class in Qingdao, with a semester of 16 weeks. Of course, if we meet again this time, we can naturally meet again

The two passenger ships sailed into the port one after another, and under the guidance of the guide ship, docked at the wharf, and the East China government was responsible for receiving them by Ye Yanfu, the commercial commissioner, and of course Yuan Shikai and Li Jingfang also came with them.

Everyone was first introduced by Yang Yuxin, and Ye Yanfu met, only then did they know that this was an overseas Chinese official in charge of industry and commerce, naturally had to say a few words, and then Li Jingfang and Yuan Shikai also came to meet everyone, in fact, Li Jingfang and most people know, to Yuan Shikai can not know a few, Li Jingfang introduced him for him, but now Yuan Shikai is also a new upstart in the Qing court, and he is in the prime of life, and the future is unlimited, so businessmen are naturally willing to meet him, after all, many friends and many roads. And Yuan Shikai also took this opportunity to get acquainted with everyone first.

At this time, there were more than 40 businessmen, and each of them brought a lot of entourage, so arranging their accommodation is also a big problem, to not that there are no rooms, but these people are usually dressed and fed, and the high-end housing of any hotel is limited, and it is not so easy to arrange high-end rooms of the same level for each person.

In the end, the Shanghai industrial and commercial delegation was divided into two parts, led by Sheng Xuanhuai and Zhang Jian, respectively, and entered the two wine houses. In this way, it can be regarded as a free arrangement. In the evening of the same day, the East China government held a grand banquet to recruit industrial and commercial groups, and also invited Li Jingfang and Yuan Shikai to participate, as well as several businessmen from Qingdao and Tianjin.

Before the banquet, Ye Yanfu, Yang Yuxin, Sheng Xuanhuai, and Zhang Jian had a brief conversation, and decided that tomorrow's event would be to participate in the launching ceremony of the warship and visit the Qingdao shipyard.

Although the launching of warships is a matter within the military scope, it also belongs to industrial manufacturing, and Qingdao Shipyard is a key enterprise project supported by the East China Government, so arranging for industrial and commercial delegations to visit the shipyard is also to show them the industrial manufacturing achievements of the East China Government. Of course, Sheng Xuanhuai and Zhang Jian have no objection to this, although they are not soldiers, they have both seen reports in the [New China Daily] that overseas Chinese are building warships, and they are also quite interested in the warships built by overseas Chinese.

The atmosphere of the dinner was also very warm, everyone staggered and drank happily, many people also took the opportunity to pull relationships, set friendships, looking for business opportunities, Yuan Shikai also took the opportunity to make some businessmen, although there was no deep talk, but on the surface it was called brothers, very intimate.

Early the next morning, Yuan Shikai and Li Jingfang got up early, washed up, ate early, and left the hotel and came to Qingdao Shipyard, because the two of them were more familiar with the traverser, so they politely refused to arrange a vehicle to meet them by the East China government, and only said that it was enough for the traverser to concentrate on receiving the industrial and commercial group, and it was enough to walk to the shipyard by himself. The traverser did not force this, but still arranged for 4 plainclothes to protect the two in secret.

When Yuan Shikai and Li Jingfang arrived at the gate of the shipyard, the shipyard was already ready to greet them, and someone immediately led the two into the factory and sent them all the way to the slipway.

Qingdao shipyard built two warships one is a slipway construction, the other is a dock construction, and the launching ceremony is carried out at the dock, this is because the dock launching is relatively safe and simple, only need to fill the dock with water, and wait for the warship to float up automatically, and then use the tug to drag out of the dock to enter; and the slipway launching is much more troublesome, to use a machine, the tug to drag the warship from the slipway to the slope, the slope slides into the seawater, and when the warship is on the slope, it must be pulled by a steel cable and put into the water little by little, this is the area where accidents are more likely to occur, so for the sake of safety, the ceremony is better to be held by the slipway。

Due to the early arrival of Yuan Shikai and Li Jingfang, the industrial and commercial group has not yet come, but the scene of the launching ceremony has been prepared, on the side of the dock, there is a red carpet, a carpet, neatly placed several rows of chairs, and a small square platform in front. The railings at the dock were covered with colorful flags of various colors, and a small number of soldiers patrolled the dockyard.

From the position of the seats, the deck of the warship is below ground level, and you can't see the ship, only the superstructure, such as the command room, the mast, the chimney, etc., but there are dozens of colorful flag lines connected to the mast, which are colorful and dazzling. Before the ceremony began, the two went to the railing of the dock and looked inward.

The upper deck of this warship is about 2 meters lower than the ground, but the light brown planks have been laid, and the entire hull is almost complete, but there are no shipboard weapons installed, but there are holes in the upper deck for the installation of naval guns. It is clear that the main guns are arranged in an inverted triangle in front and rear, while the secondary guns are arranged on both sides of the ship's side. At this time, more than a dozen workers were on deck doing the final inspection work. The hull painted in silver and white, which is completely different from the common Victorian paint of this era, and the bow of the ship is obviously in the shape of flying shear, which is the same as those warships of overseas Chinese, but the huge chimney and towering mast are the same as the usual warships, and it seems that the hull of the two styles has been comprehensively designed.

Yuan Shikai didn't know anything about the navy, so he was very humble like Li Jingfang to ask for advice, but Li Jingfang had experienced the development of the Beiyang Naval Division, so he compared this warship with the "Eight Great Distances" of the Beiyang Naval Division, and said some of his own views to Yuan Shikai, from the perspective of length and width, this warship is obviously larger than the "Eight Great Distances", that is, compared with the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships, although the width is narrower, but it is obviously a big length, and the whole warship looks very slender, and the chubby shape of Dingyuan and Zhenyuan is very different. From this point of view, this warship is unlikely to be a heavy armored ship like Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, but a dome-armored cruiser like the Zhiyuan ship.

However, after all, Li Jingfang knew some about the navy, and knew that the dome cruiser only had horizontal deck armor and no side armor, so although the size of this warship was large, its displacement was not necessarily larger than that of the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships, but it was certainly much larger than the other "six yuans", and it was estimated that it should be about 5-6,000 tons.

Although the warship has not yet been equipped with weapons, it is impossible to measure its combat effectiveness. But it is unlikely that the dome cruiser will be equipped with a 12-foot (305 mm) diameter main gun like the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships, but with such a huge hull, it is impossible to install a main gun with a caliber that is too small, Li Jingfang estimated that the caliber of the main gun should be between 8 inches (203 mm) and 10 inches (254 mm), but there are three front and rear, even if it is only a single installation, 6 main guns are also considerable, if the six main guns are double, then there are a total of 12 main guns, which is also very powerful.

And listening to Li Jingfang's judgment, Yuan Shikai has also gained a lot of knowledge.