Climb aboard the King Wilhelm, enter the column gun deck, and see the neatly arranged 240mm breech guns, once upon a time this huge ship must have been infinitely beautiful, huge tonnage and powerful firepower, is the pride of the German Navy. But now although the caliber of this giant ship's guns is huge, the power and rate of fire cannot be compared with the breech guns, not to mention the new tube guns that Krupp is researching using smokeless gunpowder, and the boiler is old, and it can no longer run out of the high speed of 14.7 knots of the year, Captain Gu introduced that the speed of the King Wilhelm will not exceed 10 knots now.

Although the ship has not been neglected to maintain, the old state of the battleship can still be seen from the dilapidated boilers and the slightly rusty guns. From this point of view, the situation of several other old ships is not much better. Seeing that the attendance rate of these old ships was getting lower and lower, this strengthened Jochen's determination to sell these old ships: "These warships are all large ships of more than 5,000 tons, and each one is expensive, and the maintenance and cost are high, rather than slowly rusting in the harbor, it is better to dump them at a low price, even if it is a big sale by jumping off a building, it is better than watching them become scrap metal." And the ready-made example is not far from here, and the 3,900-ton central gun house ironclad Hanseatic with eight 210 mm 19 times diameter naval guns, which was delisted in 1884 because of the rusty hull of the ship, is also parked in the harbor, and is now used as a floating barracks in the port of Kiel.

After getting off the King William, Muntz, who had been accompanying Jochen, saw that the imperial grandson had been visiting all the way with a thoughtful look, so he asked cautiously: "Is Your Highness any dissatisfaction?" ”

"Oh, no, Your Excellency is too careful." Jochen, who came to his senses, explained with a smile: "I just think that King William's ships are not in very good condition, and I think the situation of ships such as the Emperor and the Crown Prince is similar. ”

"That's true, after all, it's nearly 20 years old, and the condition and performance are not as good as before." Muntz also sighed.

"And these ships are the main ships of the Imperial Navy, and it would be difficult to replace them in terms of funding." Jochen sighed.

"Yes, and even if we get the funds, we will definitely prioritize expanding the size of the fleet, and if these old ships are still usable, we will not be in a hurry to replace them." This is the current situation of the German Navy, in order to maintain the size of the Navy, these old ships have become chicken ribs, tasteless, and it is a pity to abandon them.

"So I'm thinking about how I can make these old ships a little bit hot. Like the King Wilhelm and the Crown Prince, replace the breech guns on the ship with breech guns, oh, by the way, if the rapid fire guns of the Krupp company are successfully developed, all of them will be replaced with rapid-fire guns, I think it should still be considerable in a few years. ”

"But Your Highness, it is still not a small cost to completely replace these old ships with new guns, even if the combat power is increased in a short period of time, but the hull is old, and it won't take a few years, so it's not cost-effective to refit like this." Muntz's 1888 naval plan was intended for the mass construction of new ships, so he did not want to spend an extra mark on these old ships.

"So after the modification was done, we sold them."

"It's not cost-effective to sell...... Well? Sell? Muntz didn't react for a moment, and was stunned.

"Yes, sell it, after refitting, these old ships are still worthy of a war, and the tonnage of these ships is not small, if the price is cheap, it is still very attractive to some countries. Moreover, the money from the sale will be used to build new ships, although the total tonnage will be lost, but what we have will be the most cutting-edge warships, and the combat effectiveness will be higher than these old ships. It's better than watching these ships become Hanseatics. ”

Jochen's last words moved Muntz, and His Excellency the Admiralty involuntarily looked at the floating barracks of the Hanseatic parked not far away, and then turned back and asked: "Your Highness has a point, it is better to sell them and buy us a new ship than to see them rust in the harbor." So who do we sell to? ”

Selling to, that's really a question. European countries certainly don't have to think about it, even Spain and the Netherlands, which have degenerated into third-rate navies, don't look down on these. Ottoman Turkey, this is a good sales object, but during this time the Ottomans were short of money, and the 6,000-ton ships could not afford to give them cheaper.

The United States is naturally not short of money, but because the Westward Expansion Movement has shifted the strategic center to the interior for a long time, Congress has not allocated funds to the Navy, and the United States Navy is now starving to death, and finally Congress began to resume investment in the Navy in 1883, and it is rare to allocate some money, which is also used to build its own ABCD ships (Note 1), so even if you have a little money on hand, you will not come to buy these old things.

The ABC of South America, Chile has always only bought ships from the British, and these rags are also unattractive to them; Brazil, if nothing else, will have a coup next year, so they certainly don't have time to buy warships. Argentina, too, is a good sales target, but soon Argentina will face a huge economic crisis because of the railway debt, so they don't have money.

Qing Guo, the Beiyang Naval Division with 7 Great Yuan on hand (Pingyuan was just launched in 1888) looked down on these old ships, and although the two naval divisions of Nanyang and Fujian had the heart to buy a ship, they did not have the money to buy a ship.

Therefore, the only people who have money in their hands and do not dislike the broken ship are the Japanese who were frightened by the Beiyang Naval Division. At this time, the Japanese Navy was still very weak compared to the Beiyang Naval Division, and it had a large number of old ships, such as the 2,000-ton Kongo-class cruiser ordered in Britain in 1875, which was a first-class sail-steam hybrid iron-ribbed wood-hulled cruiser, while the Fuso-class ironclad ship built in the same year was a backward central artillery ship. Except for the two Naniwa-class protective cruisers, which can be regarded as cutting-edge, most of the other ships are overwhelmed. On the other hand, the new cruiser Mu Pong, which had just been completed on 18 October 1887, sailed out of Singapore on 3 December and disappeared at sea on its way home. Therefore, the current Japanese Navy is definitely "thirsty for ships". And because the Japanese Navy has always been in a weak position, and every warship is hard-won, the Japanese have used all warships to the extreme, all warships have been in service for a long time, and the last bit of use has been squeezed out as much as possible, and the warships captured in the war have all been incorporated into the navy, regardless of whether it is easy to use or not, anyway, use it first, the tonnage is real, even if it is used to increase the total tonnage of the navy and improve the ranking of the navy. It is precisely this mentality that after the First Sino-Japanese War, the Zhenyuan and Jiyuan, which had been strictly not in line with the needs of the war, joined the Japanese Navy, and after the Russo-Japanese War, the Russians' old ships also received the same treatment. What's more, although these ships of the German Navy are older, the tonnage firepower is placed here, which one is not better than the current iron-ribbed wood-hulled cruisers of the Japanese Navy.

As for whether the Japanese have money in their hands, this is not a question at all, and in the face of several large ships with low prices, and they are still in stock, the Japanese militarists have absolutely no reason to let go. At that time, even if you smash the pot and sell iron, you can make up the money by squeezing the people. You don't see how Japan endured hunger in order to build a large navy in history, and even established a women's standing team (good boys don't check) to go to Nanyang to donate funds to the Japanese Empire, and it was later rumored that these women standing up team members not only willingly donated all their proceeds to the Great Japanese Empire to implement the policy of reckless military force, but also had to face their hometown after death.

It really doesn't work, Germany can even lend money to Japan to buy these old ships, which is equivalent to the Japanese getting a few warships without paying a penny, and then slowly repay the loan, and also don't have to worry about the ability of the Japanese to repay the loan, the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty government's indemnity can let the Japanese pay off all their foreign debts. So Japan is definitely the best buyer.

So Yoheng Jian said: "Japan is the best choice, their navy is now facing the Qing Navy is absolutely inferior, so there must be a great need for warships, and most of its naval ships are backward, although these warships in our country are older, but the tonnage and firepower are far more than most of the ships of the Japanese Navy, plus it is in stock, the Japanese side does not have to wait too long, and we can also be as cheap as possible in terms of price, after all, our main purpose is to achieve the replacement of the old and the new." So I believe it is definitely very attractive to Japan. ”

"Then I'll put these warships up for sale as soon as I get back." Seeing that these old ships could become new ships, Muntz was eager to complete the deal right away.

"No, don't make such a big deal and let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs come forward to negotiate secretly with the Japanese minister, after all, the Japanese have limited funds for purchasing ships, and the British must not want to see Japan's funds fall into our hands again after losing the order of the Qing Dynasty. And it's not just about selling a few boats, it's a good idea to make some money in Japan. For example, if the Japanese don't have the money to buy these warships, we can lend them money to them, and then let them give the empire enough benefits. This means more to the empire. ”

"Yes, Your Highness, I will communicate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as soon as I go back."

"By the way, go back and urge Krupp, if the progress of the rapid-fire gun really can't catch up, we can only replace it with a general breech gun, after all, it can't be sold with a breech gun." Jochen said.

"If we have replaced it with rapid-fire guns, we can sell these ships more expensive." Muntz understood and responded with a smile.

Note 1: In 1883, the first all-steel warships approved by the U.S. Congress were the cruisers Atlanta, the USS Baltimore, the USS Chicago and the communications ship USS Dolphin. The initials of the four ships are ABCD, so they are collectively referred to as ABCD ships.