Wang Hailong said with a smile: "What you said is not wrong, but your fleet is still my fleet, and it is not yet possible to fight a naval battle independently, this is not to degrade our navy, if we are fighting a naval war with other countries now, the main force is still the warship that crosses, and the fleets of both of us can only fight, you don't deny this." ”

Zhang Wei also nodded, Wang Hailong was indeed not wrong about this. Although the scale of the People's Army Navy is not bad, the navy around the East China Government is the Japanese Combined Fleet, the Russian Pacific Fleet, the British Far East Fleet, and the Qing Dynasty's Beiyang Fleet, and except for the Beiyang Fleet, the strength of the other three fleets is above the People's Army Navy, unless the five warships that have crossed are counted.

Wang Hailong said: "So although the current size of our fleet is not small, it is actually a transition, and the main role is to train the navy, and wait for the new ships we build ourselves to replace our existing warships, and in this case, the first to be eliminated, of course, is the old ship, your fleet is the oldest, of course, it is the first to be eliminated." And your fleet is 4 ships, and we are building 4 ships, just doing a one-to-one replacement, you are still the commander of the detachment fleet, and you are also the first commander to equip a new ship, in addition, the firepower and armor of your 4 warships are not weak, so before a similar new ship is put into service, there is indeed merit, but whether it is changed to a training ship or a reserve, it is not officially decommissioned, once a war occurs, you can resume service immediately. ”

Zhang Wei thought about it again, and felt that it was not bad, although the 4 warships under his command were also considered capital ships, but they were indeed too old, the Zhenyuan ship had 15 years of age, and the other three ships were 20 years old, the original maximum speed of these warships was 14 knots, and now they can only run to 12 knots at most, and the ship type, layout, Weapons are also several generations behind, although the firepower and defense are quite passable, but it is really difficult to play any role in the current war, although just now I said that in the case of line operations, my fleet is no worse than the battleship detachment, but this is only a kind of our own ideal combat state, if you are the commander of the battleship detachment, in the battle is never to use the tactics of line combat, but to use the advantage of speed to fight attack battles, so now the real role of your fleet is to be a mobile battery in the coastal waters near the port.

And although the 4 newly built warships are only protective cruisers, which are a grade lower than the capital ships, they are all cutting-edge warships, so such a replacement is of course cost-effective, so Zhang Wei said: "If the headquarters agrees with this proposal, then I have no opinion." ”

Shang Jinfeng nodded and said, "Okay, then it's decided, I will write a report to the Military Commission." What do you think of the naming of warships? ”

Wang Hailong immediately said: "If you want to say naming, I have already had an opinion, I don't think you can use the name of any city to name the warship, it's too inferior, you always have to take some lofty names, to what mythical figures, mythical beasts, and the names of ancient famous generals, and even to use some nice words, in good conscience, the Beiyang Naval Division's record is not very good, but the level of naming is really good, to what 'Dingyuan', 'Zhenyuan', 'Haitian', 'Hairong', is much better than the name of the city. ”

Zhang Wei said: "It is an international habit to name warships with cities, I don't think there is anything bad, the most important combat effectiveness of warships, otherwise even if it is called a star destroyer, it is useless." This not only gives the soldiers a sense of belonging, but also allows them to do a good job of double support. ”

* Dao: "But we don't have many cities now, there are only three big cities in Tianjin, Jinan, and Qingdao, and the few warships built now are okay, if the battleships are built in the future, but what Gaomi and Jimo are used to name them, it is really not appropriate." You can't use anything other than Shandong. ”

Lu Kaidao, commander of the cruiser squadron, said: "It is completely feasible to name warships with their actual place names, but it is not possible to use all the names of all warships. ”

The commander of the 1st Destroyer Detachment* said: "In my opinion, the warships of the second class, that is, the 4 protective cruisers built now, can be named after the city, and any light cruisers, fast cruisers, destroyers, and shallow gunboats can be named after the city, and the capital ships, like battleships, armored cruisers, and we will definitely build aircraft carriers in the future, can be named separately." ”

Wang Hailong nodded again and again, and said, "Yes, yes, of course, only capital ships are worthy of tall names." ”

Zhang Wei said: "But the capital ship, The difference between the secondary ships is there, the battleship can of course be regarded as the capital ship, but the difference between the armored cruiser is very big, like the 4 warships we are building now we define as protective cruisers, but in other countries it may be counted as armored cruisers, because there are side armor, and like our fleet's current Kaihai (Russian), Tuohai (Count Bismarck), although it is an armored cruiser, but in fact, it can also be regarded as a battleship, and we are actually using these two warships as battleships now, so before determining the name, we must first determine the classification of the warship。 For example, Britain divides battleships and cruisers into first and second classes, while armored cruisers, protective cruisers, and light cruisers are only ship names, but they are not the standard for classifying warships. ”

Shang Jinfeng nodded and said, "Okay, this time we will work out all these standards." ”

After a few more days of discussion, they finally worked out a set of [Regulations on the Classification and Naming of Warships of the People's Army Navy of the East China Government].

The warships of the People's Army Navy are divided into five categories: capital ships, secondary ships, auxiliary ships, support ships, and logistics ships.

Capital ships: divided into first-class battleships and second-class battleships, their roles are to fight at sea in the far sea, compete for sea supremacy, and land fire support;

Secondary ships: Classified as first-class cruisers, the role of which is to assist capital ships in offshore operations and defend the safety of far-sea routes;

Auxiliary ships: Divided into second-class cruisers, third-class cruisers, and destroyers, their role is to protect the safety of the route, break diplomatic relations, escort, cruise, etc., and are named after large and medium-sized cities; among them, second-class cruisers are named after provincial capitals or large cities, third-class cruisers are named after medium-class cities, and destroyers and shallow water gunboats are named destroyers, and county-level cities are named;

Support ships: Minelayers, landing ships, minesweepers, shore defense ships, notification ships, etc., whose functions are to carry out maritime support, coastal cruises, fishing protection, etc., and are named after mountains, rivers, lakes, etc.;

Logistics ships: divided into transport ships, medical ships, surveying and mapping ships, scientific research ships, training ships, reserve ships and other naval ships performing non-combat missions, etc., the role is maritime transportation, medical support, personnel training, etc., named to reflect Chinese culture, meaning auspicious, festive words, from active warships to training ships or reserve ships, keep the original name unchanged.

At present, the warships of the People's Army Navy have also been reclassified in accordance with this regulation, and among the four warships of the battleship detachment, the Yuanyang and the Yueyang are designated as second-class battleships. The Takumi was designated as a first-class cruiser; the four warships of the ironclad squadron were designated as first-class cruisers, but all of them were converted into training ships; the six warships of the cruiser detachment were all designated as second-class cruisers; the Seastone in the first destroyer detachment was designated as a third-class cruiser, and the remaining five warships were designated as destroyers; all five warships of the second destroyer detachment were also designated as destroyers; and most of the various types of support ships and logistics ships were not available for the time being, and they will be renamed after they are built or renovated in the future.

The ranks of the corps are as follows: Colonel or Lieutenant Colonel for capital ships, Lieutenant Colonel or Major for secondary ships, Major to Lieutenant for auxiliary ships, support ships, and logistics ships, and Commander or Captain of Squadrons at all levels: Commander of battleship detachments and cruiser detachments of the first class with the rank of Rear Admiral; and other detachments with the rank of Captain. Of course, at present, the head of each warship or sub-fleet is a crossing soldier, so the rank can not be in accordance with the [rules and regulations] formulated, and the head of each sub-fleet is addressed by the commander to indicate that everyone is treated equally.

Don't underestimate the classification of warships, which not only clarifies the rank, responsibilities, and functions of warships, but also involves the level and promotion path of warships and sub-fleets at all levels, so it is also a very important link in naval construction.

The four warships built now are classified as second-class cruisers, so they should be named after provincial capitals or large cities, but at present the East China government has only three large cities, so it has to lower the standard, and the two warships built in Germany are named Qingzhou and Yizhou respectively, while the two warships built in Qingdao are named Dengzhou and Laizhou.

At this time, the Admiralty's report on the division of the ironclad fleet as reserve ships was also written, so Shang Jinfeng submitted the report to the Military Commission together with the [Warship Classification and Naming Regulations System].

After the discussion of the Military Commission, it is believed that the report submitted by the Admiralty is indeed feasible, after all, these four ironclad ships do not have much effect, and the original exchange of Japanese prisoners for the Zhenyuan ship is actually more symbolic than practical, so all these four ironclad ships will be converted into reserve ships, and the personnel will be freed up to take over the new ships, in the current situation of insufficient manpower in the navy, it is also a feasible strategy, as for the [warship classification and naming regulations system], there is not too much attention, as long as it is reasonable and practical.

The Military Commission quickly replied and approved the report and the [System of Regulations on the Classification and Naming of Warships], and asked the Admiralty to immediately begin preparations to receive warships in Germany.