Britain can now become the world leader, not because of the world's most powerful navy, and the navies of the rest of the countries together are not comparable to the British Royal Navy. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In this case, even if the Manchu army is strong, the British will not care, if they dare to resist the British, the navy will be destroyed directly, but it is best not to fight, after all, it costs money to start a war, and the British want to make money, not to spend money.

Li Hongzhang saw that the British "sincerely" helped him train the New Army, and he happily paid a lot of money, but while the British helped train the Beiyang New Army, Li Hongzhang did not forget the Beiyang Naval Division.

In 1874, the Qing army sent troops to land in Taiwan in an attempt to occupy it, and the Qing soldiers went to Taiwan with their only warships to expel it. The incident aroused the vigilance of the government and the public, and Prince Gong put forward six urgent opportunities, including "military training, simplified weapons, shipbuilding, raising salaries, employing personnel, and lasting oneself"; Ding Richang, the former governor of Zhejiang, proposed the establishment of a Sanyang Navy by incorporating the charter of the "Proposed Marine Naval Division"; and Li Hongzhang proposed to temporarily abandon the customs and focus on coastal defense. With the concerted efforts of the Westernists, the theory of "coastal defense" prevailed over the "fortress defense", and the Manchu court was determined to speed up the construction of the navy.

In 1875, Li Hongzhang founded the Beiyang Naval Division, began to purchase warships from abroad, ordered 4 gunboats from Britain in 1875, and ordered two ramming cruisers Yangwei and Chaoyong from Britain in 1879.

In 1880, the ironclad ships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan were ordered from German shipyards, and the Naval Battalion Office, an organization responsible for naval affairs was set up in Tianjin.

In 1881, he successively selected to build naval bases in Lushun and Weihai, and sent Ding Ruchang to lead the Beiyang Navy.

Until the Yan rebellion in June 1883, Li Hongzhang did not stop the construction of the Beiyang Naval Division, because Li Hongzhang knew that if the Manchus did not have a strong fleet to protect the coastal defense, they would only be beaten passively and could not fight back.

I didn't see that all the small island countries dared to invade the Ryukyus, but the Manchus were powerless, all because the Manchus did not have a fleet that could defend against the enemy.

Therefore, Li Hongzhang attaches great importance to the construction of the Beiyang Naval Division, hoping to build a powerful fleet, although it is not as good as the Western powers, but it cannot be bullied by that small island country.

In recent months, Li Hongzhang has discovered that the next door to the Qing Dynasty wants to be restless again, because the army of the Qing Dynasty is expanding on a large scale, and all countries know about it.

Of course, it was impossible for him to expand his army for no reason, and he must have wanted to start a war, but the only suitable targets for his attack were the Manchus and the Manchu vassal Korea.

In the face of various circumstances, what Li Hongzhang wants most is to have a strong fleet to protect the country.

In addition, the capital is too close to the sea, once the enemy attacks Tianjin from the sea, it will not take long to hit the capital, this kind of thing has already happened once, Li Hongzhang does not want to happen a second time, if there is a fleet guarding Tianjin, although the probability of defeating the enemy is not large, but it also gives the Manchu Qing a little more maneuver time.

As a result, Li Hongzhang, who still had a lot of silver in his hand, was ready to order large-scale warships from the British, so that the Beiyang Naval Division could grow rapidly.

Li Hongzhang also knows that the most powerful navy in the world is the British Royal Navy, and the navies of other countries in the world together cannot catch up with Britain, and Britain's shipbuilding technology is naturally the strongest, so Li Hongzhang wants to order warships from Britain, not other countries.

At present, the British are helping him to train a new army, and Li Hongzhang asked Pashali with the idea of trying it out: "Your Excellency, my country wants to order a few warships from your shipyard. ”

Pa Xia Li did not immediately agree, although it was possible to make money by selling warships to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but this matter was not something that he could decide, so Pa Xia Li replied: "Lord Li, this matter is not something that I can decide as a small minister, but I can convey your country's thoughts to the above." ”

"Then thank you, Your Excellency." Li Hongzhang didn't get the result he wanted, but it was already good to have such a result, if he hadn't even passed the level of Pashali, then the idea of buying a warship would not have been.

Soon Pashali conveyed Li Hongzhang's request to the above, and the British mainland held a meeting on whether to agree to the Manchu Qing to buy warships, and the result of the meeting was: sell, the Manchu Qing Dynasty will sell him if he wants to buy warships, even if it is the most advanced warship, but the price will be very high, and the Manchu Qing will not buy warships from Britain, but can also buy warships from other countries, then it is better for us to sell warships to the Manchus, and we can also make a lot of money from the Manchus.

After Li Hongzhang received a positive reply from Pashali, he smiled happily, and if he could buy the British warships, I would definitely be able to build a strong navy in the Qing Dynasty, and there was no need to defeat the enemy, as long as he could protect the national territory.

However, there is another problem in front of Li Hongzhang, if you want to order warships from the British, you must go to Britain yourself, and it is difficult to say what results others will get if they go.

What Li Hongzhang is most afraid of is that others will go to Britain for him, and he will be fooled by the British and spend a lot of money to buy outdated warships, so what is the point, so Li Hongzhang has to go in person.

Fortunately, the "short-haired thief" has been cowering in Siqi Province, Li Hongzhang did not need to worry too much about this matter, and then arranged the affairs of the Beiyang New Army, in late March 1884, Li Hongzhang took a few henchmen and several colleagues to visit European countries on a steamer.

Yes, Li Hongzhang did not plan to go only to Britain, although the initial decision was to order warships from Britain, but also had to shop around, British warships are advanced, if the price is very expensive, it is better to choose a second-class cheaper warship, sometimes the number is also the key factor in the victory of the war.

In addition to the issue of purchasing warships, Li Hongzhang also wanted to see in the West what advanced army equipment could be purchased to equip the Beiyang New Army, but he did not expect to finally find a powerful weapon, that is, the (water-cooled) Makqin heavy machine gun, Li Hongzhang decided to purchase the Makqin heavy machine gun on a large scale to equip the Beiyang New Army, which is a later story.

In addition, Li Hongzhang also wants to buy a large number of machinery and equipment from the West to expand the military industry, and Li Hongzhang also knows that it is a big trouble for his side to be unable to produce weapons and ammunition, and relying entirely on imports is like being pinched by outsiders.

Even he said that Li Hongzhang "knew the general trend of the West, knew foreign civilizations, wanted to emulate self-improvement, and had excellent vision and quick skills." It can be seen that Li Hongzhang was a rare "smart man" in the Manchu Qing Dynasty.