Harbour Master's School? Feng Yunshan remembered that during the reform of the education system in the empire, many colleges and universities were established, among which the Chinese Imperial Naval Officer School was established in Fuzhou. Now that there is another shipbuilding school under the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, isn't it overlapping?

Feng Yunshan couldn't help but look at Shen Guifen who was following behind him, and asked, "Shen Aiqing, don't I remember that the empire didn't set up a naval academy of the Chinese Empire in Fuzhou?" How's the school going? Isn't there a bit of overlap with this Harbour Master's School? ”

Shen Guifen replied: "Your Majesty, the Naval Academy of the Chinese Empire has been relocated to Xiamen. In addition, due to the shortage of teachers, more than 1,200 students have been sent from the school to Boston, Philadelphia and Norfolk in the United States, especially the Norfolk Navy Yard for on-the-spot study. When you return from school, you will be able to select the outstanding ones as school teachers, and you will have the strength of teachers to run a good school in your hometown. ”

Feng Yunshan then remembered that there were really few theoretical talents in the Chinese Empire who knew how to navigate. Originally, the only Whampoa Military Academy was opened, and there was only one artillery department in naval warfare, and this was forced to teach the cadets from a few captured British naval officers, let alone build ships. Being able to send them to the United States to study there directly is indeed much better than working behind closed doors in school, and it can also allow these students to broaden their horizons.

"Shen Aiqing, it seems that your ship master school is doing well." Feng Yunshan laughed knowingly, turned his head and praised Shen Baozhen vigorously, not only did the construction of warships exceed his expectations, but the establishment of this shipbuilding school greatly exceeded his expectations, very good, it is necessary to have this kind of vision. It is no wonder that in history, this Shen Baozhen was able to occupy a high position, and finally became an important minister of the Manchu Qing Dynasty who presided over the southeast of Liangjiang, and he deserved to be the person who founded China's first modern naval fleet.

Shen Baozhen hurriedly bowed to the ground to thank him, and even said that it was Feng Yunshan Shengming who had the prosperity of the Shipmaster School today, and it was not his work.

For a while, while moving forward, the monarchs and ministers were suitable, and they praised each other, and they were very happy.

Entering the Ship Master School, the front row of houses is the "former school", and several foreigners, under the leadership of two school deacons, greeted Feng Yunshan and his party in the courtyard of the front school.

"Your Majesty, here are five foreign teachers, two French, two American, and one Prussian teacher from the former school, and the subjects taught are French, Prussian, geometry, mathematics, calculus, physics, mechanics, etc. In addition, shooting, military drills, and Chinese scripture and history are compulsory, and are taught by two cadets who graduated from the second phase of the Whampoa Military Academy and two local masters in Fuzhou. Shen Baozhen introduced on the side: "In the future, it will be the Hou School, and there will also be five foreign teachers, three Americans, one French, and one British. The subjects taught are English, French, Mathematics, Geometry, Astronomy, Geography, Navigation Theory, etc. Shooting, military drills, and Chinese scripture history are still compulsory. Regardless of the students in the school, they will be sent to the shipyard to practice supervision or to practice driving on real warships. Today, more than 40 cadets have studied and trained in the Oriental Fleet. ”

Feng Yunshan is very pleased, it seems that the set of subjects he instilled in the Whampoa Military Academy has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has become the standard of schools in various parts of the Chinese Empire.

"Your Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau has a shipbuilding school under its jurisdiction, which is decently run and deserves to be vigorously promoted. In addition to the Guangzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, which has the Whampoa Military Academy, the rest of the Tokyo (Shanghai) Shipbuilding Bureau and Dengzhou Shipbuilding Bureau should set up their own shipbuilding schools, vigorously develop naval officers and shipbuilding engineers, and accelerate the development of the Imperial Navy! ”

"Wechen and others obey the order!"

After visiting the Harbour Master School, Feng Yunshan followed the crowd for a distance and came to the iron factory three miles away, where he happened to meet another trench dock built by the wharf of the iron factory.

Seeing Feng Yunshan looking at this newly built dock with some puzzlement, Shen Baozhen introduced it with some eyebrows: "Your Majesty, this dock was only excavated and built a month ago, but it was a French engineer's suggestion and brought an important news, Weichen thought it was very important, so he started to build it first, and then reported this important information to the imperial court after it was completed." ”

"Oh, what's the important information?" Feng Yunshan felt a little strange, why did he build a new dock here, instead of the four docks four miles away?

"Your Majesty, that's right. Originally, our Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau had some problems with the shortage of wood for ships, and there was no plan to build another dock. However, a while ago, Nanyang Company shipped some teak and ironwood from Taiwan, North Korea and Japan, as well as huge cedar and pine wood, so that our Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau did not have to worry about the wood problem, so Weichen had a plan to expand the dock. It just so happened that two months ago, the special envoy to Europe, Guo Songtao, sent Wu Jianzhang and Lord Wu to return to China first, saying that Lord Guo had purchased a lot of warships and merchant ships from the West and came back, so Lord Wu had an old relationship with Weichen, so he rested here for two days. He brought with him a French ship expert named Dashbo, who was originally an engineer at the Rochefort shipyard in France, and was very self-conscious. Weichen stubbornly left it behind. According to Dusbo, on the basis of summing up the lessons of the Crimean War, the French Navy has designed an ironclad ship with a wooden battleship as the mother type, according to the idea of a general named Bessan, and it is said that by next year, this impregnable ironclad ship will be successfully transformed and put into service in the navy. ”

"This is big news! Your Majesty, I have asked Mr. Dash Borough carefully, and he is not lying. Their Rochefort shipyard had also participated in the design of the transformation of this ironclad ship, and he had some understanding of the renovation plan, saying that the hull of the wooden battleship was covered with a thick ironclad shell, which could fully withstand the attack of all kinds of shells at present. Your Majesty, once this kind of ironclad ship is built, it must be an invincible warship, and when the time comes, this kind of wooden warship will be greatly backward, and Wechen has ordered a new dock to be built next to this ironworks a month ago, specializing in the development and manufacture of this ironclad ship. Therefore, Weichen had the courage to implore His Majesty and the imperial court to consider it as soon as possible, and also find a way to build this kind of ironclad ship, so he took the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau as a pilot. After Shen Baozhen finished speaking, he knelt on the ground and looked at Feng Yunshan with an expectant face.

Many officials of the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau behind him also knelt on the ground and followed the request.

Seeing this, Feng Yunshan secretly said that he had such a courtier, why was he worried that Huaxia's navy was not prosperous? He hurriedly helped Shen Baozhen up and said to the minister of the humerus: "Shen Aiqing is loyal to the country and loyal, which is really the blessing of the country and my blessing!" In the matter of the ironclad ship, I not only agreed, but also vigorously supported Aiqing! Let's talk about the difficulties of your Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau in developing ironclad ships, it seems that the previous five million Saint Dollars are still less, if you want to build an ironclad ship, I will give you another five million Saint Dollars, and a total of 10 million Saint Dollars will be allocated to you! But Aiqing, this money is not spent for you in vain, I want the Ministry of Finance and Taxation to send a financial supervisor to supervise, and Aiqing also wants me to see the real new ironclad ship within two years. ”

Shen Baozhen was overjoyed and said in surprise: "More than 2,000 people from the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau on behalf of Weichen thank Your Majesty for your kindness!" Your Majesty can rest assured that there is no need for 10 million holy yuan, as long as 7 million holy yuan and 1,000 tons of pig iron, Weichen is very confident that he will build an ironclad ship of more than 4,000 tons in two years with a cruiser of 3,500 tons as the mothership! ”

When Feng Yunshan heard this, he waved his hand and said, "Just 10 million Saint Yuan, plus 1,000 tons of pig iron!" I'll give it all to you! As long as I build my ironclad ship in two years! When the time comes, I will personally come to celebrate your achievement! The words made Shen Baozhen's blood boil.

Thinking of the matter of the ironclad ship, Feng Yunshan asked Shen Baozhen to summon the Dashibo he said to meet him in person. He also whispered orders to Shen Guifen, the governor of Fujian, and Xu Daguang, the commander of the 27th Infantry Division, who were following them, to keep an eye on the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, especially not to allow spies to sneak into it and sabotage the empire's warship manufacturing.

Soon, the ship engineer Dashberg, who revealed that France had begun to build ironclad ships, arrived, Feng Yunshan encouraged him, and then asked: "Mr. Dashbo, you said that the French Navy has begun to build ironclad ships, how exactly is it built?" It seems to be talking about the retrofit of existing warships, right? ”

Da Shibo was very excited, facing the master of this great country, hearing that he had changed from an ordinary civilian to an emperor of hundreds of millions of people in a few years, he admired it incomparably, and he couldn't wait to take out his heart: "Back to Your Majesty, it is true." They were based on the Napoleon-class wooden 90-gun battleship and transformed into ironclad ships. However, I don't think it's actually a complete ironclad ship, but just a layer of ironclad shell wrapped on the original wooden hull, and this ironclad shell is just a simple nail of ironclad to the wooden ship's plank, which can resist conventional shells, but if it encounters super-large caliber shells, the power is too great, and these ironclad armor that is not strong enough will fall apart. ”

When Feng Yunshan heard this, he immediately realized that he was impressed by this foreigner named Dashibo, and it seemed that he was really capable. According to Feng Yunshan's superficial understanding of the ironclad ships of later generations, he also knows that the ironclad ships originally built by France can only be regarded as barely a few ironclad ships, and the real ironclad ships are ironclad ships built by the British in the early sixties of the 19th century with steel plates on the outside of the entire hull, and they have truly entered the era of ironclad ships. In the American Civil War, the ironclad ship with a closed swing turret was used for the first time, which really opened the actual combat stage of the ironclad ship and verified its excellent performance in ravaging wooden warships.

He was looking forward to the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau to create the era of ironclad ships in the Chinese Empire.