In March 1880, the Han shipbuilding consultant, the French ship expert Falman, refused to be retained by the mainland, together with more than 20 ship experts whose contracts expired to return to China, and then within half a year, Li Mingyuan ordered the Han Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find suitable ship experts in Europe to replace the vacancy left by Darman's resignation, and in mid-September 1880, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs successively selected more than ten experts from Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, and submitted them to Li Mingyuan for decision.

The main combat area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy is in the Mediterranean Sea, and the warships built by the two countries also have the shortcomings of short range and slow speed in order to meet the needs of warfare, while Britain and France like to keep their hands on things because of the military conflict that broke out with Han and the reason that Han naval strength is not controlled.

Britain, France, Austria, and Italy were excluded from the alternatives, and in October 1880, Li Mingyuan finalized the appointment of foreign naval experts and appointed Claugern, a naval engineer at the German Volkeng shipyard, as an adviser to the Han navy.

Born in East Prussia in 1840, Claugern has nearly 30 years of experience in ship construction, has led the construction of Ariadne-class ironclad ships and Leipzig-class ironclad ships, and is a ship expert with rich construction experience, in order to express the importance of the Han side and invite him to serve in the Han mainland, the government has offered a high salary of 24,000 Han yuan per year, which is more than ten times higher than the salary standard of ordinary ship experts.

Thanks to the ample preparation made by the Han side in advance and the communication with the German government, Claugern accepted the invitation of the Han side and immediately led a technical team of about 100 people to set off for South America.

In November 1880, Claugern concurrently served as the chief superintendent of the Royal Dockyards, and in February 1881, he put forward four improvement suggestions for the 1,350-ton light cruiser built in the country, and after implementing them one by one, the construction period of the 1,350-ton light cruiser was shortened by 20 days, and after the construction process and process were slightly improved, the service life of the 1,350-ton light cruiser was also increased by about half a year.

Cloughgen showed his professional and technical ability, and did not get ten times higher salary than ordinary experts in vain, and later, seeing the achievements of the Claugern team hired with a high salary, Li Mingyuan continued to appoint him as the director of naval ships, conferring the rank of honorary naval colonel, specializing in the construction of warships, warship technical evaluation, etc.

While the construction of ships on the Han mainland was progressing steadily, changes in external circumstances interrupted Li Mingyuan's initial plan for naval development.

After the end of the Argentine War in 1879, the Brazilian Empire was divided into two, and although the Chilean republican government gained four or five new territories from Peru and Bolivia, it also lost the western Andean region of Patagonia, and its homeland security was threatened by both land and sea from the Han state.

In order to defend the security of the homeland, in addition to continuing to build permanent fortifications in the first-line area of Temuco near the Han occupation area, and deploying about 7,000 army soldiers to guard the local area, the Chilean government continued to use the abundant funds obtained from the sale of saltpeter, copper, iron and other mineral resources to order ironclad ships from the United Kingdom in large quantities, and in November 1879, the Chilean government ordered two cruisers with a displacement of 2,400 tons from the British Portsmouth shipyard, and in April 1881, at the request of the navy, The Chilean government ordered two more battleships with a displacement of 6700 tons and an armored cruiser with a displacement of 3000 tons from the British side.

According to the construction schedule given by the British, at the beginning of 1884, all three ironclad ships were completed, and after being handed over to the Chilean government, Chile would become the largest naval power in South America, and at the same time, the Brazilian Republic, which occupied about three-quarters of the original Brazil and owned core cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, received the support of the British government and invested a lot of borrowed funds to develop the army and navy armaments after inheriting most of the debts left by Brazil. Wage war against the Brazilian Empire and complete the reunification of Brazil.

If the Chilean government's action to expand its navy will have an impact that will take time to verify, the Republic of Brazil's efforts to reunify Brazil by strengthening its army and navy are intolerable to the Han side.

The Han State is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the direction of the country's development and expansion is only on the northern side, so if a unified Brazil appears in the northern part of the Han State, it will undoubtedly seal the expansion channel of the Han State.

The South American market was too small to allow only one large country to exist, and the actions of the Republic of Brazil and Chile clearly hindered Li Mingyuan's development plan for the Han state.

For this reason, when the German side, through Claugern, expressed its willingness to build a battleship of the same class as the Qing Dingyuan ship for the Han State at a suitable price, Li Mingyuan resolutely expressed his intention to purchase the ship, and linked the incident of sufficient ships with the reorganization of the naval organization, and sent it to the navy for internal discussion.

"Your Majesty, before 1878, the Imperial Navy had a total of six capital warships, three of which were captured from the warships of the Imperial Brazilian Navy, one was badly damaged in battle and was dismantled and dismantled in November 1879, and the other two were damaged in naval battles many times because of their age, and according to the opinions of the ship experts, it was expected to be retired from active service in January 1883, and if the three ironclads were removed, only two of the main ironclad ships of the Native Navy would be left, and the cruisers with a displacement of 3,200 tons, purchased from the French Mediterranean shipyards, would remain. Even if the four 1,350-ton light cruisers built and produced locally are counted, the strength of the navy is less than half that of 1878.

Therefore, the minister asked His Majesty's approval to restart the ship purchase plan again and add new combat warships to the navy to deal with the maritime threats of Chile and Brazil. ”

At the end of the annual development report, more than 20 major naval officers gathered in the Zhongji Hall, and Chen Sen, commander of the First Fleet, represented everyone, and was the first to suggest.

"If the Navy has any suggestions for the ship purchase plan, we will put it forward first, and everyone will discuss it."

"The minister heard that the puppet Qing minister Li Hongzhang ordered two large battleships from Germany, so the minister thought that although our Han and the Manchu Qing were incompatible, since the Manchus were determined to buy ironclad giant ships, our Han country could not be left behind.

The minister believed that the imperial court should order one or two battleships and two or three coastal defense ships of more than 4,000 tons from Germany, so that the maritime security side of the country would not be threatened by Chile and Brazil. ”

"What do you think?"

"The ironclad ship is the most important weapon of the country and is indispensable, and the ministers agree with General Chen's opinion."

"The country is full of places where money is used, and every penny has to be spent."

Li Mingyuan explained noncommittally, and continued: "The other two railway ships in service, one with a displacement of 6,500 tons and the other with a volleyball capacity of 3,500 tons, although they are more than 20 years old, they were cheated by the British when the Brazilians bought them, and there are many unreasonable designs on the ship, but it is too wasteful to retire from active service after one or two years. What do you think about at least until 1886 before being retired from active duty and then serving as a training ship for the Naval Academy, to train new officers and sailors? ”

"Your Majesty is wise."

After more than 20 officers and generals complimented him, Chen Sen respectfully and tentatively asked, "Does Your Majesty approve the purchase of new ships?" ”

"It is imperative to add new warships to the Navy, but the plan you submitted for the purchase of ships needs to be changed."

Li Mingyuan nodded in agreement and gave everyone an affirmative answer.

"Since we want to vigorously develop the navy, we must not only add large warships, but also communication ships, frigates, supply ships, and transport ships, all of which need to be equipped with auxiliary ships.

A month ago, the Germans took the initiative to come to the door and wanted to build two more warships of the same class and sell them to us, one is to use the same construction drawings and docks to reduce construction costs, and the other is to use the warships sold to us to make the reputation of the German shipbuilding industry and expand the market share of the German shipbuilding industry in the world.

It just so happens that the mainland also has a need to buy warships at this time, so since the Germans have offered affordable conditions, we can't waste this opportunity.

Buying one battleship is buying, buying two battleships is also buying, and the territorial sea area is vast. A single capital battleship was a bit monotonous, so it was better to order two large ironclads at a time, and then negotiate with the Germans in advance, and the Germans sent ship experts to start construction of two armored cruisers with a displacement of about 3,500 tons on the mainland in 1884. ”

"Whether the construction plan for the two battleships should be slightly changed, Colonel Kraugern proposed a week ago, and he thought that it might be better to install a twin 305mm gun at the front and rear ends of the Saxony-class battleship."

The performance indicators designed by the German Volken shipyard for the Dingyuan-class battleships are:

The ship is 94.5 meters long, 18 meters wide, 6 meters draft, normal displacement of 7,335 tons or 7,430 tons, full load displacement of 7,670 tons, powered by two horizontal three-cylinder reciprocating steam engines, 8 round coal-fired boilers, power 6,200, speed of 14.5 knots ("Zhenyuan" is 7,200 horsepower, speed: 15.4 knots), endurance of 4,500 nautical miles / 10 knots, equipped with a searchlight with an illumination of 8,000 candles and 20,000 candles, and three generators ("Zhenyuan" 70 kW of electricity for 2 generators. The total weight of the armor is 1461 tons, the armor on the waterline of the ironclad fort is 14 inches (365mm) thick, the armor under the waterline is 12 inches (305mm), the armor of the 305 gun mount is 304mm thick, the gun shield is 15mm thick, the armor of the conning tower is 203mm thick, the coal container carries 700 tons, the maximum coal load is 1000 tons, and the number of people is 329-363.

The port and starboard sides are each equipped with a twin turret, hydro-powered, each weighing 31.5 tons and caliber 305 mm.

2 Krupp 150mm breech secondary guns (one bow and one stern, each weighing 4.75 tons, 35 times the caliber), 4 75mm Krupp guns, 8 37mm five-barreled Haggaes machine guns, 2 57mm and 47mm Haggaes rapid-fire guns, 3 14-inch torpedo tubes (one on each side and one at the stern, equipped with 21 torpedoes), plus a total of 22 main guns.

In the First Sino-Japanese War, the performance of Dingyuan and Zhenyuan exposed the flaws in the design, so Li Mingyuan asked the opinions of Claugern and other ship experts and combined with some opinions of later generations, and decided to strengthen the number of guns on the Dingyuan ship and enhance the attack performance of the warship.

"The warships designed by the Germans for the Manchu government were not suitable for the native navy and needed to be partially changed."

Li Mingyuan replied, "After discussion between Colonel Claugern and the local ship experts, the improvement suggestion is to change the position of the main gun, and install two high-caliber 305 mm guns in the front and rear of the ship, so as to expand the angle of view of the warship's mobile attack.

The main mast is located in the middle of the ironclad ship, separating the two sets of twin main guns to avoid the mutual influence of the muzzle wind.

The number of bow and stern secondary guns was increased to 4, using 4 single-mounted 210-mm guns, 8 155-mm Krupp guns, 8 75-mm howitzer guns, and 8 37-mm rapid-fire guns. …………

The improved battleship has 32 guns of various types, and compared with the prototype ironclad ship, its weapon performance and quantity are more superior, and in actual battles, the attack power against enemy warships will also be a little stronger. ”

There was not much difference between the improvement plan proposed by Li Mingyuan and the situation that Claugern had revealed to the admirals, and after hearing this, Chen Sen, Li Han, and others all spoke out in response, and no one raised objections.

"The price offered by the Germans to Li Hongzhang is 1.42 million taels of silver per battleship, and the price for the local side is not much different from that of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which is 2.86 million Han Yuan per ironclad ship, but we are doing a package of business with the Germans, in addition to two battleships and two armored cruisers ready to start construction in 1884, we also need to buy a communications ship, an ocean-going supply ship, a shipyard with the production of medium-sized ocean-going transport ships, plus 700 naval officers and men, 300 shipbuilding experts, Training costs for mechanics,...... The total amount of various expenses should be about 8.6 million Han won, which is about 4.3 million taels when converted into silver. ”

Li Mingyuan reported the total budget funds for the ship purchase project, and Chen Sen, Li Han and others in the palace were greatly excited.

"Your Majesty, the Pacific migration transport route is a matter of national importance, and the minister requests that two battleships and two armored cruisers be ordered, and one each assigned to the Second Fleet to ensure the safety of the immigration route."

"The Atlantic coast is the strategic center of the country, and the two battleships gathered in the Atlantic Ocean are more deterrent, and the minister requested that the two battleships and two armored cruisers be all deployed on the Atlantic coast."

As soon as the matter of the warship was worked out, Li Han and Chen Sen fought over the allocation of the warship.

"Earthquakes occurred frequently along the Pacific coast, and the naval port infrastructure located in Yishui Port (Port Montt) and Baisha Island (Chiloe Island) was insufficient, and they did not have the maintenance and repair tasks of large battleships for the time being, so after the construction of warships, two battleships were allocated to serve in the First Fleet, and two armored cruisers, one was delivered to the First Fleet for receiving, and the other was delivered to the Second Fleet for use."

"However, the total tonnage of the Chilean Navy far exceeds that of the Second Fleet, and if the current fleet size breaks out, the Second Fleet will not be the opponent of the Chilean Navy at all."

Li Han explained.

"In the event of a war, the war in the Chilean direction will mainly be entrusted to the army, and the task of the navy is to attack the sea supply lines of the Chilean army on the premise of preserving its own strength, and contain a part of the Chilean navy's strength, and there is no need to undertake the task of confronting the Chilean navy head-on."

Li Mingyuan added that "the Pacific direction is also the focus of the country's future development, but it is limited to national strength, and can only tilt the naval power to the Atlantic direction, but the construction work in the Pacific direction will not stagnate, at the latest in 1885, after the ordered ironclad ships arrive on the mainland, the government will transfer the 3,200-ton displacement of the Victory (one of the two cruisers ordered from France) from the First Fleet and allocate it to the Second Fleet. The 1350-ton light cruisers, built by the three major shipyards of the Royal Shipyards, will be given priority for the supply of the Second Fleet.

Cadets who have graduated from warships and naval academies will be assigned to the Second Fleet, but the construction of ports and bases along the Pacific coast must also keep up with the progress, the construction of infrastructure at Yishui Port and Baisha Island must be accelerated, and the construction of naval bases in the Polynesian islands must also be carried out quickly. ”

"The minister intends to establish a warship maintenance shipyard on the island of Pahiti in the Polynesian Islands, which will be responsible for providing warship maintenance and maintenance tasks for the South Pacific fleet."

"Can it be approved, is there anything else?"

"When the minister landed on Easter Island, he heard that the island used to be densely wooded and rich in animal and plant resources, but later the local natives multiplied too much and cut down trees excessively, which led to soil erosion and soil degradation on the island, so the minister requested that palm trees, oaks and other plants of the same type as the island be collected on the island and transplanted to the island to improve the natural environment on the island, in the hope that the island could provide more food and materials for the island defense troops."

Marine Corps Commander Feng Guoan asked.

"There is abundant rainfall in the waters around Easter Island, and if the damaged vegetation can be restored, the supply pressure on the officers and soldiers stationed on the island will be much reduced."

Li Mingyuan agreed: "Remind the garrison and the people who moved to the island in advance to control the population and livestock on the island, and not to let cattle and sheep eat the vegetation on the island excessively." ”

"Yes, you understand."