"Gentlemen, welcome to the 'Xuanyuan' ship, this warship with a novel shape, linear and smooth, elegant and charming appearance is not the ironclad ship you think, here it must be corrected, this is not an ironclad ship, but a steel warship, an all-steel structure warship."

The communications officer held a small electric horn and introduced the situation of the 'Xuanyuan' to a group of Peruvian military and political dignitaries like a tour guide.

At this opening, the eyes of many Peruvian parliamentarians immediately shifted from the warship to the electric horn in the hands of the communications officer, this small thing can actually amplify the sound several times, it is simply amazing, and it is not much easier to speak with this thing in a large meeting.

The eyes of the officers were also bright, and Sun Yisheng, who was in charge of introducing the commentary, couldn't help but secretly despise it, so advanced warships didn't look at it, they were so interested in a small speaker, and they were disdainful in their hearts, but they said unhurriedly: "The battleship is 125 meters long, 22 meters wide, with a standard displacement of 12,000 tons, equipped with two vertical three-expansion steam engines, eight single-head cylinder boilers, and a speed of up to 18 knots.

The battleship was equipped with two twin 305 caliber main guns, six twin 254 caliber secondary guns, 12 single 152 rapid-fire guns, 12 57 and 47 rapid-fire guns, and seven torpedo tubes. ”

After the communication officer translated, he continued: "In terms of armor protection, the 'Xuanyuan' ship has also achieved the extreme, the main armor belt on the side is about 77 meters long and 2.64 meters high, of which it extends 1.52 meters below the waterline, and the main armor belt in the middle of the side is 457 mm at its thickest point, and then decreases forward and backward at 406 mm and 356 mm respectively.

The upper part of the broadside armor is 102 mm thick, and the total height of the broadside armor is about 4.5 meters (1.6 meters below the waterline and 2.9 meters above the waterline).

The waterproof bulkheads at the nose and tail ends are 406 mm and 356 mm thick respectively, and the upper part of the side between the main and middle decks is 102 mm thick nickel steel armor and the two ends are 76 mm thick waterproof bulkheads.

For the time being, in terms of power, firepower, protection, etc., the 'Xuanyuan' ship is the most advanced, powerful, and perfect battleship that deserves to be called. ”

As the saying goes, the layman looks at the excitement, and the insider looks at the doorway, although the Peruvian Navy has also purchased several ironclad ships in the past two years, but they are basically the old ironclad ships that have been eliminated, and they are all small warships, the largest is only 4,000 tons of displacement, such a huge and advanced warship, most people have seen it for the first time.

For Sun Yisheng's general profile and related data, most of them are confused, but they are very powerful and advanced anyway. And a group of naval officers were secretly speechless, such a powerful firepower configuration and armor protection are absolutely unique among the battleships of known countries,

Most of the people I saw were laymen, Sun Yisheng was also lazy, and he was lazy to introduce more details about the battleship, and took everyone to watch the flowers and deal with things hastily.

In the official cabin, Peruvian President Prado, Admiral Grau, Zai Zhao, and Guo Zhongmu were negotiating.

"Chile has a total population of 3 million, an army strength of about 70,000, including 10 infantry regiments, 8 cavalry regiments, and 5 artillery regiments, which are very well-equipped and the weapons are imported from Germany."

Prado glanced at Zaizhao and the two of them as he spoke, and paused deliberately before continuing: "With all due respect, even if your army can absolutely control the sea surface, with our country and Bolívar's army, it will be difficult to capture Santiago, the capital of Chile, in a short period of time. ”

Admiral Grau added: "Your navy is so powerful that even if Santiago is besieged, the Chilean navy may not dare to come to the rescue. ”

Listening to the translator, Guo Zhongmu said straightforwardly: "What do you mean by asking us to prepare for a long-term war?" ”

"On the contrary, we hope to be able to end this war as soon as possible." "In fact, our country and the Bolivarian coalition are inferior to Chile in terms of strength and combat strength, and if we want to end this war as soon as possible, we need greater assistance from your country," Prado said. ”

Is this to want the Qing Dynasty to continue to send reinforcements, and it is the army? Zai Zhao said very simply: "There has been a civil strife in the northwest of our country recently, and there is almost no possibility of continuing to send additional reinforcements.

General Grau also said that the Chilean Navy is very likely to avoid war, so how much success this war can achieve in the end depends mainly on the land war, and it depends on you.

Of course, in terms of weapons, such as rifles, machine guns, artillery, etc., our country will actively provide. ”

Prado knew very well that it was unlikely that the Qing State would continue to send additional reinforcements, and what he needed was the Qing State's arms aid, and when he heard this, he was overjoyed, and hurriedly asked: "I don't know when your country's arms aid will arrive?" ”

Yi Zhixiang made it very clear in the telegram that a large number of arms would be shipped soon, but they were told to declare war as soon as possible, and Zaizhao was worried that the other side would delay until the arms aid arrived before sending troops, so he naturally did not dare to tell the truth, and even said: "When will the war start, when will the arms be shipped." ”

Listening to the translator, Grau frowned, "Why can't we wait until the arms arrive before starting the war, so that we can reduce some casualties." ”

"My Government has always opposed the arms trade." Guo Zhongmou explained: "During the American Civil War, China's large arms trade with the federal government of the United States was fiercely criticized by peace-loving people in China. ”

Zaizhao was secretly amused when he heard it, but he had a straight face, believe it or not, anyway, that's what it means, if there is no war, there will be no arms aid.

Prado is indeed a little depressed, Yuan Qi has not sold arms to the outside world, only Peru and Bolívar have bought a large amount of arms from Yuan Qi, and now they are against the arms trade, this is completely a pretext, but why can't the Qing State wait to go to war?

He didn't think much about it, for Peru, there is no choice at all, behind Chile is the United Kingdom, except for the Qing country, no country will help them with such a clear attitude, no matter what the purpose of the Qing country, they can only obey, otherwise there is only one result, to pay compensation to Chile.

Although he vaguely realized in his heart that the Qing Kingdom was in a hurry to start a war with Chile, not purely for this war, but there was no room for bargaining, he didn't even dare to bargain.

He only groaned slightly, and then said simply: "Our country and Bolívar can send troops at any time, and everything is up to your army's arrangement." ”