The rainstormy weather that lasted for nearly half a month finally came to an end in the sky

The accumulated clouds gradually dissipated.

In the vast South Atlantic sea, two fleets with a huge disparity in size are quietly facing each other several nautical miles apart.

In the northern part of the sea, a row of thick black smoke is emitting a fleet of four large ironclad ships and more than a dozen auxiliary ships, which belongs to the home fleet of the Navy of the Republic of Brazil.

The Home Fleet of the Navy of the Republic of Brazil is a fleet formed on the basis of the Atlantic Fleet of the former Imperial Brazilian Navy.

In 1879, when Brazil was divided between the north and the south, the republican government of Brazil, aware of the maritime threat posed to it by the northern regime and the Han navy, began to purchase new warships to strengthen its maritime defenses.

In 1885, two new battleships, the Riachuelo and the achuelo armoured cruisers, ordered at the Samuda Brothers shipyard in England, returned to the port of Rio de Janeiro via London, England.

The armored cruisers Riachuelo and Achuelo were of the same class with a displacement of 5,000 tons and a length of 93 meters. It has a width of 17.16 meters, a draft of 5.60 meters, an installed power of 4,500 horsepower, an atmospheric speed of 16 knots, and a cruising range of 6,000 nautical miles.

Both ships are armed with four 234mm breech-loading guns; 5.6 140mm 30x caliber single-mount guns, 12 37mm rapid-fire machine guns and 5 356mm underwater torpedo tubes.

At the same time, because of the installation of composite armor protection on the deck, turret, conning tower and other parts, the armored cruisers Riachuelo and Achuelo have a greater advantage in gunfire and speed when fighting a decisive battle at sea with the old iron-hulled warships.

In the late 1880s, when many countries that relied on outsourcing channels for the construction of their naval fleets saw the two or three thousand ton ironclad ships lined up in the harbor complacent,

On the European continent, the standards of the major powers for naval capital warships have been raised from 3,500 tons to more than 8,000 tons.

The construction mode and main armament of battleships have also evolved from ironclad ironclads and breech-loading guns to the era of combining armored warships with main guns and rapid-fire guns.

In 1885, the government of the Republic of Brazil ordered another large cruiser, after acquiring two new armored cruisers.

The cruiser Aquitaban entered service with the Navy of the Brazilian Republic in 1887 and became the flagship of the Brazilian Continental Fleet in 1888. Built by Samuda Brothers, UK,

The cost is 345,000 pounds, about 1.24 million taels of silver in Kuping,

The standard displacement is 5020 tons, the full load displacement is 5540, the length of the ship is 85 meters), the width is 15.8 meters, the atmospheric speed is 15.8 knots, the long-range cruise is carried out at a speed of 10 knots, the cruising range is 7200 kilometers, and the establishment is 297 people.

The cruiser Aquitaban was armed with two twin 234mm battery guns, four 40mm 30x caliber single guns, 13 Hatch Chase 37mm rapid-fire guns, and five 356mm underwater torpedo tubes.

Three new armored cruisers with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons and a self-built ironclad ship with a standard displacement of 4,000 tons form the backbone of the maritime defense of the Brazilian Republican Navy.

Raising the monoculars, he looked at several majestic armored warships, and then looked back at the three warships on his side, one large and two small.

Xu Zhixuan, who served as the captain of the 3,500-ton Pioneer armored cruiser, couldn't help but feel envious of his naval counterparts in the Republic of Brazil for a moment.

During the Paraguayan War in 1868, the Brazilian Navy had four ironclad ships, and its comprehensive naval strength ranked 16th in the world.

In 1879, on the eve of the division of the north and south of Brazil, the total tonnage of the Brazilian Empire and Navy increased to 39,000 tons.

The navy's overall strength ranking has been raised to 13th in the world.

And during the decade after the division of the North and South regimes in Brazil,

By selling minerals, railways, and other interests to raise funds to order warships, the total tonnage of warships owned by the Republic of Brazil and the Brazilian Empire has increased to 50,000 tons.

On the other hand, although the total tonnage of the navy reached 52,000 tons, and the tonnage of ships over 2,000 tons was close to 35,000 tons, there were only two core warships with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons, while the Yongxing-class light cruisers with a displacement tonnage of less than 2,000 tons and a total of 12 ships were difficult to exert the expected combat level in the process of ocean-going operations of the main fleet because of poor ocean-going shipping performance and insufficient firepower output.

Because of the national defense strategy of the land and the sea in the early stage, although the Han Navy started earlier, it has not enjoyed the dividends of the leapfrog development of the national economy.

The Han state occupied about 80 percent of the plains and woodlands of La Plata, and the two southern states that originally belonged to the Brazilian Empire, all of Uruguay and Argentina, and the southern region of Chile were unified under one regime.

Going back 20 years, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, which are known as the three great powers in South America, have the ability to purchase ships on a large scale and carry out an arms race in the South American Navy just by virtue of the land of one country, and the land area spans the three countries and controls more resources, manpower, and technology than the three countries.

understands the necessity of the country's current stage of implementing land and sea subordination, but as a naval officer, Xu Zhixuan still hopes that during his service, he can see the Han Navy as the water hegemon in South America, cruising the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The whistle sounded, and several warships flying the Red Dragon flag lined up in battle queues and galloped from the southern seas.

Chimneys and cannons! Seeing the arrival of the main warships of the Han Kingdom, the Navy of the Republic of Brazil was the first to surrender and admit defeat.

The flagship armored cruiser Arquidaban, which was lined up in the middle of the queue, raised the signal flag, slowly turned around and sailed north, and received the evacuation signal.

"Cousin Shu, do you want to hang behind them and continue to follow?"

Seeing that the warships on the opposite side were turning around, Shen Shouchang, deputy captain and chief navigator of the Pioneer, suggested.

"Forget it, further north is the sea area controlled by the Republic of Brazil, and it is too provocative to approach directly to the door of people's homes and spy on the intelligence of the other party's ships."

Xu Zhixuan paused for a moment and decided: "The purpose of our trip to sea this time is to collect the hydrological situation in the coastal waters of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

At the risk of angering the Navy of the Republic of Brazil, it would be a bit more than worth the loss to continue to track the advance.

Brother Shouchang, there are still many opportunities to understand the performance of the opponent's warships in the future, so there is no need to dwell on this time. ”

"There are few opportunities for the main forces of the Navy of the Republic of Brazil to come out of the fleet, and it is a pity that we failed to seize the opportunity today, and then carefully explore and speculate on the water performance of the armored cruisers of the Navy of the Republic of Brazil."

Shen Shouchang showed regret on his face and said: "However, today, I have spied on the reality of the home fleet of the Republic of Brazil Navy, especially the rough speculation that the speed performance of the second-class cruiser built by the Republic of Brazil itself is also very rewarding. ”

"The emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, and the Brazilian Republic, which inherited the main territory and industrial base of the Brazilian Empire, is not surprising that they were able to build ironclad ships with a standard displacement of 4,000 tons on their own."

"Yes, the Brazilian Empire was the first independent country in South America, and they industrialized earlier than other countries, and if it weren't for the split between the North and the South, maybe they would have been given a few more years to complete the initial industrial construction."

"The better the development situation of the Brazilian Republic and the Brazilian Empire, the more unfavorable it will be for the future national strategy of the Empire."

Thinking of the threat behind the self-built ironclad ship of the Republic of Brazil, Xu Zhixuan put down the monocular in his hand, turned to Shen Shouchang and instructed: "Brother Shouchang, after returning to the port today, the management affairs on the warship will be temporarily handed over to you to be in charge, I am going to use the evening time to sort out and summarize the information I have discovered today, and then submit it to the Admiralty and the Navy General Staff Headquarters tomorrow morning, hoping that General Chen and General Li of the two headquarters will see the reported information. It can arouse their attention and vigilance in the Navy of the Brazilian Republic. ”

"Cousin Shu, don't worry, with me on the ship, there will be no problem at night." …………

In the evening of the next day, Chen Sen, the chief of the navy, and Li Han, the chief of staff of the navy, took the envelope presented by Xu Zhixuan and collected information about the navy of the Republic of Brazil, and came to the palace together.

"The first composite armored cruiser of the Brazilian Republic, the Admiral Mandel, began construction at the shipyard in Rio de Janeiro in April 1884 and was completed on January 10, 1889, with a normal displacement of 4,000 tons and a full load displacement of 4,500 tons. It is 95 meters long, 14 meters wide, with a maximum draft of 7.06 meters and a minimum draft of 6.20 meters. It is equipped with two steam engines, with a power of 7,000 horsepower and an atmospheric speed of 17 knots.

Armed with 4 152 mm breech guns, 2 120 mm 30 x caliber single guns, 8 47mm rapid-fire machine guns. 5 underwater torpedo tubes......

The thickness of the deck armor was 41 mm, and the thickness of the gun shield armor was 51 mm.

It took nearly five years to complete the construction at a cost of 740,000 pounds, equivalent to 3 million taels of silver. ”

After reading the overall performance information of the self-built armored cruiser of the Republic of Brazil word by word, Li Mingyuan said with a smile: "The technical reserves of the Rio de Janeiro shipyard are good, although it cost 740,000 pounds, but it is also a great thing to be able to build a 4,000-ton armored cruiser by itself." ”

"Your Majesty, after absorbing the experience of the construction of the Pioneer-class armored cruiser and the Dingyuan-class battleship, the three major local shipyards already have the ability to build 5,000-ton armored cruisers on their own, and the Admiralty and the Naval Staff hope to obtain His Majesty's approval to add two 5,000-ton armored cruisers to the Imperial Navy to maintain an absolutely dominant position over the Navy of the Republic of Brazil."

Chen Sen and Li Han asked together as if they had discussed it in advance.

"The development and change of naval technology is too fast, 6 years ago, the 3500-ton ironclad ship can be used as the main warship, and now according to the national standards of the Western powers, the 5000 to 6000-ton ironclad ship can only belong to the ranks of the second-class cruisers, and the two Dingyuan-class ironclad ships on the mainland, although they were called battleships at the beginning of construction, but in the next few years, I am afraid they will not have the qualifications to be called battleships."

In the nineties of the nineteenth century, naval warships developed in the direction of armor and large-scale, especially in the period between 1890 and 1900, warships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons had to be launched one after another, not only the navies of Britain, France, Russia, Germany and other European powers were in service with 10,000-ton armored warships, and even the Japanese Navy, which came later, also ordered several 10,000-ton armored warships.

Four or five years later, when the naval battle that decided the fate of the hegemony in the Far East broke out, the Zhenyuan-class ironclad ships of the same class as the Chaoyang and Liming of the Han Navy had only been built for ten years, but they had begun to lag behind the times.

In order to lay the foundation of local shipbuilding, the Han side spent a lot of money and mobilized scarce technical talents to learn ship design and construction technology.

Ten years of introduction, ten years of learning, more than 20 years later, on the basis of German technology, the three major shipyards in Han have initially established a set of overall ship construction system, and trained a group of ship design and construction talents.

However, the Germans originally had deficiencies and defects in the construction of warships, and based on the technology of the Germans, the ship technology mastered by the Han country also had some deficiencies, and the slow speed and poor ocean-going performance of the Yongxing-class light cruisers were typical manifestations of this shortcoming.

Therefore, after recognizing the technical shortcomings and deficiencies of the native ships, Li Mingyuan did not agree with continuing the technical line of the German side to carry out a radical program of building autonomous armored cruisers.

After the construction of the 3,500-ton Pioneer armored cruiser was completed, Li Mingyuan was only allowed to carry out the construction plan of a 2,400-ton shrunken warship with a displacement based on the design drawings and technical annotations of the Pioneer-class armored cruiser.

The implementation of the program of autonomous construction of 5000-ton armored cruisers is not mature, and judging by the development of the situation in the coming years in neighboring countries such as Paraguay, the Republic of Brazil, Chile, etc.,

The construction of 5,000-ton ironclad ships on their own is a large amount of capital investment, time-consuming, and slow to produce results, which is far less advantageous than ordering more mature warships from other countries.

In the next five to 10 years, Li Mingyuan will continue to implement the naval development policy of ordering and importing foreign ships and digesting ship construction technology, supplemented by local self-construction.

As for the problems reflected by Chen Sen and Li Han,

Instead, it will increase the number of warship order channels to improve and enhance the technical level of local ship construction.

"The difficulty of building an armored warship is not the same as the difficulty of building an ironclad ship, and the Brazilian Republic spent almost five years and three times as much money as an armored cruiser of the same type in order to complete the construction of the Admiral Mandel.

The three major local shipyards have experience in building 2,400-ton armored cruisers, and the construction of armored cruisers of the same standard should have a shorter shipbuilding time and cost than that of the Republic of Brazil, but the technology used in the three major local shipbuilding comes from Germany, and the shortcomings and deficiencies of German armored cruisers are also present in the warships built by local shipyards.

Therefore, in addition to absorbing and digesting the shipbuilding technology of the German side, the navy should also try to increase and expand the channels for purchasing ships from foreign countries, and make more contacts with the shipyards of Britain, France, Austria-Hungary and other countries.

For example, Britain, Britain's dominance in South America has been provoked by the United States, and the relationship between the Imperial Government and Britain is currently in a relatively close stage, then, taking advantage of this stage, the rare period of peace between the two governments, send more people to move around to see if they can come up with a way to order one or two technically mature armored cruisers from the British side. ”

Li Mingyuan sat at the top of the seat, and gave suggestions to the two of them with a smile: "You don't have to worry about the cost of purchasing ships for now, and when you come up with a suitable plan for purchasing ships, you can put it forward again and hand it over to the Admiralty, the Navy Staff, and the Ministry of Finance to coordinate and solve it." ”

"Your Majesty is still thoughtful, and after Your Majesty said this, Chief Li and I straightened out our thinking. When they return, the Admiralty and the Naval Staff will come up with a plan for the purchase of ships as soon as possible that satisfies His Majesty. ”

"It doesn't matter if the order price of the warship is higher, but there is no room for sloppiness with the design drawings and technical patents of the warship construction, and after determining the plan for ordering the warship, it is best to buy it together with the design drawings of the warship and the relevant technical patents, and try to obtain the consent of the shipyard of the other party, so that they can agree to start the construction of an armored cruiser on the mainland, even if the construction cost is twice as high as that of the same warship, I can also support you to agree."

"With Your Majesty's support, Chief Li and I have a bottom in our hearts, and Your Majesty can rest assured that the Admiralty and the Chief of Staff will conscientiously complete the tasks assigned by Your Majesty and will not disappoint Your Majesty and the people."

Chen Sen didn't expect that Li Mingyuan was more thoughtful than the two of them, and the problems that the two of them hadn't noticed in advance were all raised by Li Mingyuan, so after hearing Li Mingyuan's suggestion, he nodded again and again.

"The matter of ordering warships should be prepared as soon as possible, the domestic situation in Paraguay is grim, and I am not fully sure that the recent trend of Paraguay will not affect the relationship between the mainland and the United Kingdom, so before the matter is still under control, make a plan to purchase ships as soon as possible, so as not to have too many dreams at night."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"In the Imperial Navy, the number of large warships with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons is insufficient, and the number of warships with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons can temporarily meet the defense requirements of the coastal waters and inland waters of the homeland.

Therefore, the construction of the Yongxing-class light cruisers with a displacement of 1,350 tons can be temporarily suspended, and the 12 Yongxing-class light cruisers currently under the name of the Navy, except for those stationed overseas to carry out vigilance and defense tasks, the other warships will be assigned to the coastal vigilance fleet, and they will no longer be given the responsibility of ocean-going combat missions. ”…………