Jochen's telegram finally put an end to the war of words. After receiving the telegram, Li Hongzhang, who had received the treasure, said: "Qingliu does not understand military affairs, listens to the words of the British, argues in vain, and is not angry, and disputes with the British." When the emperor's grandson heard this, he sent a phone call, accusing our country of ruining the reputation of the German factory and damaging the diplomatic relations between the two countries. Germany was a great power in Thailand, with the largest army in Europe, and once broke the capital of France and captured its monarch Napoleon III. It has only been a few months since I had a war with France, and how unwise would it be to make enemies with Germany? And Jiyuan's return to the country is imminent, which is true and which is false, you will know it at a check. ”

After seeing Li Hongzhang's recital, the Lafayette in the Forbidden City was also panicked when he heard that the German emperor's grandson personally inquired about the matter, and immediately replied: "From today onwards, the ministers of the court and the central government shall not discuss in vain, and they will know which is right and which is wrong. ”

With this order, the impeachment against Li Fengbao came to an abrupt end, and Li Hongzhang was able to breathe a sigh of relief, but whether he can pass the test smoothly depends on Jiyuan's performance after all.

In October 1885, the Jiyuan arrived at Dagukou. On November 17, Li Hongzhang personally went to Dagukou for acceptance, and on the 18th, he took a ship for sea trials and went to Lushunkou to inspect the east and west coast forts. The sea was turbulent, the north wind was howling, and the Jiyuan was like walking on the ground, and then Jiyuan sailed at full speed, chopping the waves. Then there was a firing drill, and the five Krupp 150-mm breech guns looked very fierce when firing from the side side. Li Hongzhang finally let go of the big stone in his heart at this time. After returning from the sea, he wrote a report on the situation of the Jiyuan, saying that the Jiyuan ship was strong and powerful, and the disadvantages pointed out by the people in the DPRK and China were not accurate. It is even more important to bring up the old thing, and take out the old saying that he mentioned to Prince Gong Yixun when he ordered Jiyuan: "The British know that I buy a ship in Dechang, and they are jealous." Hurd also hated Li Fengbao for his insight into the drawbacks. It is also said: "Foreign engineering and technical personnel strive to win each other, just like the ancient literati are light, although there is good writing, if you want to point out its flaws, you will not suffer from it." (Note 1)

At this time, the dispute over Jiyuan finally came to an end. Those Qingliu who indiscriminately accused Jiyuan of his shortcomings were all reprimanded by Cixi. And Li Fengbao was wronged because she had been blamed before, and as compensation, she was rewarded with a single eye, and she was given an edict to commend her. After that, Li Hongzhang relied on him a lot, and continued to serve as the general office of the Beiyang Camp Office and the Sailor School. Li Fengbao, who was wronged, did not end up depressed as in history. Li Fengbao eventually became ill due to overwork, and the Beiyang Naval Division he had devoted his efforts to was wiped out during the First Sino-Japanese War, making him unable to afford to fall ill. He died in 1896 at the age of 62 (Note 2). During his lifetime, he wrote and translated books such as "New Righteousness of Land Warfare", "New Righteousness of Naval Warfare", "Drill of Soldiers and Ships of the Cloth Country", "Ironclad Ship Program", "Diary of the Envoy", "Compilation of Wen Zheng", "Chronology of the Four Descendants", "Compilation of Political News of the Western Kingdom", "Collection of Poems and Essays of Wenzaozhai", etc. This is a later story, so I won't mention it for the time being.

And Hurd's side is even more aggrieved, the German imperial grandson came to reprimand himself for Hurd, who is an Englishman, and it is not at all painful for Hurd, who is British, to say that Johen is nosy, and it is against the basic etiquette of international diplomacy to reprimand foreign officials. However, Jochen's last sentence seemed to be a child's temper, and the attitude of looking for parents made Hurd dumb and couldn't say it. The sentence "things can be eaten indiscriminately, but words can't be said indiscriminately" choked him even more. Of course, he couldn't do such a stupid thing as running back to ask the British government to administer justice for himself, he was originally slandering and slandering himself, and at this time Britain and Germany had good relations, and Queen Victoria was very fond of her little German grandson. If you really stab the matter to the queen, will you still be mixed up by then? So I had to knock out my teeth and swallow it in my stomach.

William Henry White was also furious when he learned the contents of the message from Hurd. At this time, White's reputation as an excellent designer at the Armstrong shipyard was already above that of Rendaul, who designed the Mosquito Boat and the Esmeralda. How can this be endured by being reprimanded by Jochen for not having a work ethic. However, like Hurd, White, who had nowhere to seek revenge, could only drink the bitter wine himself.

When the dust settled, negotiations continued for the Beiyang Naval Division to order a new warship from the Volkeng shipyard. Originally, Li Hongzhang planned to order 4 new cruisers according to the design of the Jiyuan. However, the Frank shipyard began to struggling to sell its latest masterpiece to the Qing Kingdom, the new heavy cruiser Irene class (Note 2), which was under construction. After learning about the design of the Erin class and visiting the lead ship Irene, which is under construction on the slipway of the Volkeng shipyard, the performance and firepower of the new ship deeply attracted Xu Jingcheng, who came to investigate. However, due to the shortage of funds, the purchase of a warship of the same size as the Erin will cut the cost by half at once. In desperation, he asked Li Hongzhang for instructions, and after learning that the Erin had 4 210 mm 35 times the diameter main guns and 6 150 mm 35 times the diameter secondary guns, Li Hongzhang was also itching. Finally, Xu Jingcheng was instructed to ask the Frank Shipyard whether it could build a ship with a slightly smaller tonnage while retaining the original firepower. In the end, Volkeng Shipyard came up with a scheme with a standard displacement of 3260 tons. In order to save tonnage and install a large number of guns, the new ship, like the historical Zhiyuan, has a very low freeboard on the middle deck, and although it is covered by bulwarks, the middle deck will inevitably be flooded in case of wind and waves (Note 3). However, considering the scope of activities of the Beiyang Naval Division, this flaw is so-so. Moreover, due to the lack of freeboard, the original trial of the side rotating torpedo tube on Jiyuan can only be changed back to the bow underwater torpedo tube, and the dome armor on the engine room in the middle of the hull has been strengthened, but the dome armor covering the bow and stern and the turret wall are not as good as Jiyuan. The new cruiser based on the Jiyuan also appropriately strengthened its firepower and speed, while reducing its protection.

The final two models of cruisers determined the design criteria:

The slightly larger model, 91 meters long, 13 meters wide, 6.1 meters draft, standard displacement of 3,258 tons, full load displacement of 3,839 tons, equipped with 4 210 mm 35 times diameter Krupp steel hoop breech guns, one twin equipped with covered batteries in the bow and stern, 6 150 mm 35 times diameter secondary guns were installed on the protruding ear stands on both sides of the hull, and 10 47 mm Hatch Chase rapid-fire guns, which were scattered on both sides. The bow is equipped with one 380 mm rotating torpedo tube, with a fully covered curved dome armor, 100 mm in the central key area, 50 mm in the bow and stern, composite steel surface armor, 100 mm armor on the turret wall, 8 round boilers, 2 vertical three-cylinder three-expansion reciprocating steam engines, a speed of 17.5 knots, and a cruising range of 3,000 nautical miles / 10 knots.

The Jiyuan improved version, the specifications are the same as the Jiyuan, but the standard displacement has risen to 2800 tons, the full load displacement is 3300 tons, the bow and stern main gun, Hatch Kaith rapid-fire gun and torpedo tube arrangement remain unchanged, but the side side has increased 2 150 mm 35 times diameter guns, which are also installed on the ear platform, and the thickness of the middle of the dome armor remains the same, the bow and stern have been reduced to 50 mm, the armor of the turret wall has been reduced to 100 mm, the speed has been increased to 17.5 knots, and the endurance has been reduced to 3000 nautical miles / 10 knots.

The two designs were quoted at 7 million marks and 5.6 million marks, respectively, equivalent to 350,000 pounds and 280,000 pounds, equivalent to 1.33 million taels and 1.06 million taels.

Li Hongzhang was very satisfied with this, but due to the shyness of the cyst, he finally ordered only 1 new cruiser and 2 improved Jiyuan cruisers. But at this time, joy fell from the sky. Due to the great victory in the two naval battles of Keelung and Dachen, and the Beiyang Naval Division shocked Japan in the Korean Incident. The naval craze within the imperial court had not yet faded, and after Li Hongzhang's maneuvering in the court, the Qing government finally agreed to order an additional large ship.

The German government was overjoyed by such a huge order, and after negotiations, it was finally decided that although the order could not be discounted, it could give away two torpedo boats under construction (Note 5). In order to complete the project as much as possible, and in order to balance the other shipyards in China, the two Jiyuan Improvements were finally handed over to the Danzig Shuoxiao shipyard for construction.

At the end of November 1885, Minister Xu Jingcheng signed a contract with Volkeng Shipyard and Shuoxiao Shipyard respectively. The total cost of the four ships was 25.2 million marks, equivalent to 1.26 million pounds, equivalent to 4.79 million taels of silver (Note 6).

In December 1885, the keels of the four new ships were laid one after another, and subsequently, the new cruiser equipped with 210 mm naval guns was named the Zhiyuan class (Note 7), the first ship Zhiyuan, and the same type ship Jingyuan. The improved version of the Jiyuan class was named the Jingyuan class, the first ship was the Jingyuan, and the ship of the same type was Laiyuan.

The start of construction of the Zhiyuan-class also gave the Beiyang Naval Division a new type of cruiser that could surpass the Japanese Navy's Naniwa-class cruiser that had just been launched at the Armstrong shipyard in the United Kingdom a few months ago. At this point, 7 of the main forces of the Beiyang Naval Division in the future, "Eight Great Yuan", are different from the image in history, and the performance has been improved, and they are all from German shipyards, and the first-class protection is naturally needless to say. These warships with the same division will fight blood and fire in the distant eastern ocean in the future.

The Qing State ordered cutting-edge warships, and the court was full of expectations, hoping that the Beiyang Navy would be like a tiger with wings and a shock to the small. Germany received huge orders, and defeated Britain to monopolize the Qing Dynasty's 4 cruiser orders, which greatly improved the reputation of German shipyards, which can be described as fame and fortune. The British have exhausted all the organs and means, and in the end, they will not end up adding a wedding dress to others. It can really be regarded as "heaven can still do evil, but self-made evil cannot live". On the Japanese side, when they heard that the Beiyang Naval Division had ordered four new ships from Germany, everyone was in danger. The second ship of the Sino-French naval battle Dingzhen is unstoppable, and this is the first giant ship in the Far East deserves its name. He also rushed to Korea twice to intimidate the Japanese Navy. The launch of two new 3,700-ton cruisers of Naniwa and Takachiho allowed the Japanese Navy to finally raise its eyebrows and no longer have to worry about being super brave and proud, but at this time, the Beiyang Naval Division purchased four new ships, although I don't know how the performance of the new ships is, but look at the Dingzhen No. 2 ship, and then look at Jiyuan, which has returned to China, the ability to build ships by one person (Note 8) can be seen, which makes the Japanese Navy panic for a while. It can really be described as a few happy and a few sad.

But Jochen's attention wasn't on that at this point. He had more important things to do at this point. And the cause of the incident is very simple - type B gunpowder, the Germans got their hands on it.

Note 1: This sentence was actually written in his diary by Xue Fucheng, the minister to Britain in 1889, after studying the archives of the purchase of ships. Let Li Hongzhang say it here. By the way, Xue Fucheng was also one of the people who strongly criticized Li Fengbao back then. I don't know if he felt guilty about the dead Li Fengbao when he wrote such words in his diary.

Note 2: Historically, Li Fengbao died of depression after being dismissed and returned home, and died in 1887 at the age of 53.

Note 3: The Irene Class, also translated as the Ilena class, was historically built as a second-class protected cruiser

Note 4: For the picture, please refer to the technical related: Freeboard height of the Zhiyuan class

Note 5: Historically, the cost of ordering Zhiyuan and Jingyuan was 1.7 million taels, and the cost of ordering Jingyuan and Laiyuan was 1.704 million taels, which was about 895,000 pounds, equivalent to 3.404 million taels, according to the exchange rate of 3.8. But then again, the cost of warships during this period of time is really skyrocketing, the price of the 2,900-ton Esmeralda is only 175,000 pounds, equivalent to 665,000 taels, and the asking price of the 2,300-ton Zhiyuan 2,300 tons two years later, is 223,000 pounds, equivalent to 850,000 taels.

Note 6: Historically, when purchasing the four ships of Zhi, Jing, Jing and Lai, Li Hongzhang also ordered six torpedo boats, of which the No. 1 on the left was built by the British, and the No. 2 and No. 3 on the left and the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 on the right were assembled in China with parts and components provided by Germany. The cost of the left team No. 1 is 86,000 taels, about 23,000 pounds, 460,000 marks, so the gift of two torpedo boats is actually equivalent to a discount of nearly one million marks

Note 7: When browsing the web, I accidentally saw a picture of the overhead Zhiyuan level made by others, and I felt that it was very appropriate to the Zhiyuan in the article, so I posted this picture, although I don't know who the author of the picture is, so I didn't agree to reprint it, if the author saw it, I hope you can understand. See the technical related: New Zhiyuan-class cruisers

Note 8: The Japanese call Germany an independent country, the United States a rice country, and so on. In the future, when Japanese people refer to other countries, they will use this unique name