After today's morning meeting, after the signing of the "Sino-French New Covenant", it was natural that it was time to reward meritorious deeds. After all, this time dealing with the French. The Yamen, who is in charge of national affairs, is the first to bear the brunt.

Shi Feng held a thick pile of concerts, all of which were on the list of rewards for the performance. The Yehenala clan behind the curtain is obviously in a good mood, the matter of Yuebei is finally over, and now the rivers and mountains of the Qing Dynasty are peaceful again, and when she hears Shifeng reporting this reward one by one, she is obviously not interested.

"Prince Li, I see that you and Prince Alcohol have a good discussion on this matter, those are allowed, those are not, and when it is time to discuss in the morning, you two will leave after watching these things!" A faint voice floated out from behind the curtain, interrupting Prince Li's high-spirited voice.

"Wow!" Prince Li put away the fold, and ran into another fold, "Queen Mother, Qin Kai, the governor of Liangguang, has a book to play, and proposed the "Ten Policies of Pingyue", I and the Seventh Prince have read it, this Qin Kai is a general, this time the matter of Yuebei, the first merit can only be between Li Zhongtang and Qin Kai, the old minister thinks that this Qin Fierce Wind is better!" ”

The middle-aged woman behind the curtain heard the mention of Qin Kai, and she was a little more interested, during this time, Qin Kai was the focus of the court, even in the palace, there were constant rumors, especially after being impeached by Yushi Wang Shuang, his news was more gossip value, but this Governor of Qin had just made his ass hot in his position, so he dared to make a big fuss, "It is indeed an alternative!"

"Prince Li, have you ever seen the excerpt of this Yushitai impeachment of Qin Kai?"

As soon as Shi Xiao heard this, his heart moved, and he probably guessed what the Queen Mother meant, what did the excerpt on the Governor of Qin work, but now that I think about it carefully, this is very suspicious of Wang Shuang's horns, this guy is also close to Li Zhongtang, and it seems that he is also close to Qingliu on weekdays, who asked him to come out and fire the cannon, it is difficult to say......

However, the things that Wang Shuang participated in the impeachment were not a fart at all for the unspoken rules of the Qing Dynasty officialdom, saying that he swallowed 500 taels of gold seized...... What kind of thing is this, this Governor of Qin entered Beijing once, as far as he knows, "It is estimated that this Jingyi will give away not less than 100,000 taels, and this mere 500 taels of gold can still be swallowed!"

As for those nonsense such as those who are not from the right background, it is even more" pondered the meaning of the Queen Mother, Shi Feng also said very slippery: "Queen Mother, this Qin armor is based on military merits, it is inevitable that there are some small bad habits, the so-called flaws do not hide Yu, and the content of Wang Shuang's impeachment is also difficult to prove, it is better to warn a few words to set an example!" ”

"These things are trivial things, but Qin Kai started from military exploits, but he didn't know how much this war consumed, blindly seeking victory in the war, wasting the treasury, and now he has proposed this "Pingyue Ten Strategies", it's really hard to not know how to operate!" The middle-aged woman said casually with understatement.

But when these few words "reach Shi Feng's ears, they are undoubtedly more holy...... The Queen Mother must still be annoyed by the big mouth of the Governor of Qin, and immediately understood, and immediately said: "Queen Mother, this Qin Kai has been busy dealing with the French in the north of Vietnam, and all the grain and straw are all supported by the Queen Mother."

"That's not necessary, this time he will preside over the military affairs of North Vietnam" is also to see that he is a capable person, but it did not disappoint me, this reward and punishment are clear, there is responsibility, that is also wanted, he Qin Kai is a third-class baron, then reward a first-class baron, let him look at the situation over there in Yuexian, and be sure to ensure that the border is unhindered! ”

Shi Feng also secretly felt sorry for Qin Kai when he heard it, and he received a lot of silver, this great merit was given to a first-class viscount, and even the earl's was not hit, it seems that the queen mother intended to whip this governor of Qin, in the end, he did not stop in the mouth of the young lord, and shouted, "The queen mother is wise, then this time the first merit of Yuebei, I think it belongs to Lord Li Zhongtang......"

"That's great!"

Seeing that everything had been negotiated, Shi Feng took out a book of excerpts this time, "Queen Mother, Lord Li Zhongtang, Minister of Beiyang, is in slightly ill health, let me present a concerto, please build a general manager of naval affairs, and only by saying that the ship is strong and the artillery can ensure the peace of the four realms of the Qing Dynasty!" ”

Cixi, who was behind the curtain, heard about such a military event, and was tired of it for a long time, so she immediately sent a message, and the prince of the mash moved to the navy yamen, and Li Zhongtang would handle naval affairs at the end, Cixi suddenly remembered something, and added the name of Qin Kai, the governor of Liangguang, to the list of the council! After all, the ability of this new talent is still satisfactory, not to mention, the power of Lord Zhongtang is inevitably too great, .......

In Germany, the city of Szczeqing on the banks of the Oder River has reached the time of the warm spring, Wang Ruijie took the first batch to the German Volkeng shipyard to learn the craft has been a whole year, this year, although they only participated in the construction of two warships, and in the initial stage, they also did hands-on work, but he felt extremely happy.

Some of the ideas here have completely subverted his previous views and ideas, and when he arrived here, he deeply felt that he was truly integrated into this era of large industry.

And this field participation in the design, watching each keel, each piece of steel plate slowly combined into the front of the nearly 8,000 stewed giant ship, accompanied by nearly 100 people of the technician team, in this long and short year, gained a precious experience, he really felt that the experience passed on by word of mouth is the magic weapon of the perfect process of casting.

Today is a very important day, after the engineering quality inspection that begins now, soon, this second ironclad battleship will be launched and outfitted.

In fact, Wang Ruijie was also waiting for another news, but at this time, he followed the old German man with a hairless head and a big nose in front of him to board the hull and start a daily routine progress check: "This is a very critical part of the battleship construction, and each part of the battleship needs to be jointly surveyed by several of the best skilled workers and designers."

If there is a possibility of hidden dangers, it is undoubtedly a big trouble for the manufacture of a warship, the assembly of the nails in this era is operated at high temperatures, and after a burnt red rivet is installed, if there is a quality problem, it is not easy to remove it1

Therefore, "the installation of the entire ironclad ship must be meticulously inspected, and it is from this practice that Wang Ruijie collected all kinds of experience bit by bit in the exchanges and discussions with various skilled workers, and what made him learn the most was the one named Rudolph in front of him.

Huck is a middle-aged man.

When Wang Ruijie first entered the Volkeng shipyard, he met the Rudolph engineer for the first time, who was in charge of the repair of a German ironclad ship in the shipyard's workshop, and the underwater part in front of the entire battleship had been shattered, but the battleship relied on an emergency screen door designed by this Rudolph "and finally avoided the capsized cup."

He is also the designer of the imitation of the 501 ship, this idea, Qin Daren also mentioned at the beginning, that is, to divide the cabin into an area of appropriate size, which can protect the battleship to the greatest extent, but Mawei has made great achievements in the overall design of the battleship, but the experience of ship construction is not satisfactory.

The proud 701 ship, if viewed from the point of view of the designers, is undoubtedly more like a semi-finished product, while the 601 ship is more of an experimental product, and the 601 ship actually has a big hidden danger, but it was in a hurry to enter the battle at that time, and after weighing the pros and cons, it still gave priority to the needs of the battle.

The inner layer and iron shell layer of the first generation armored cruiser in Mawei actually have a big problem, once the high-speed propelled shell penetrates the thin 2-inch armor of the 601 ship, the high temperature generated by the shell rubbing the steel plate alone is enough to ignite the internal hull, so, in response to this, Lu Zhiyuan, the pipe belt, will let the soldiers press bags of coal against the important parts of the ship's board before the battle to alleviate the accident, but it is unknown how effective this can be.

Rudolph and Haque obviously have the straightforwardness of the Germans, and he only sees helping Wang Ruijie as an extra job, so after briefly introducing himself, "he did not arrange any additional technical learning tasks for Wang Ruijie, and the experience and skills of Qiē" are all played with Xìng in the whole day.

Wang Ruijie's introduction to the old German man, his lame hearing could still hear that the two warships that were about to be sold to the Qing Kingdom were actually out of the hands of this old man, and he had designed many ships before, but only two were warships belonging to the German cruiser category.

However, the slightest suspicion about Engineer Rudolph was immediately dispelled in the next day's accompanying study, and this slightly fat, ordinary-looking old man actually asked a series of questions about every detail of the battleship, and Wang Ruijie's German was competent for simple conversations, but his lame hearing made him almost go wild.

Fortunately, Xu Jianyin, who was in charge of this affairs, immediately found an interpreter for him, which temporarily solved the problem, and he was very shocked and delighted by the large amount of knowledge and experience about the hull structure that he came into contact with on the first day. ,

After the first week, Rudolph was also a little surprised by Wang Ruijie's enthusiasm for work, according to the contract for the manufacture of the battleship, all the information of the ironclad ship named "Dingyuan" in the future would not be handed over to the Qing State, but this did not affect Wang Ruijie's crazy devotion to the study of the drawings.

Fortunately, there is Rudolf Haac, the designer of the battleship, this is definitely a golden opportunity, he asked a lot of questions about the design of the hull, some of these things, Wang Ruijie has studied before, but found problems in practice, but did not find the best solution, and others, in his opinion, are difficult to grasp, but in this old German man lightly got the "answer".

To describe the results of Wang Ruijie's first month in the old Chinese saying, that is, the words that were stored in books in the past of "Ninghu Empowerment", after Rudolph's simple explanation and the actual combination of the scene, he found that he finally began to have the feeling of getting started. It's just that this introduction feels like there are more and more problems, and the problems are getting more and more complicated!

Until one day, Rudolph was asked by Wang Ruijie, he was really angry with this man from the East, he really didn't understand how to design and build warships in that country, was it to find a warship, and then imitate the drawing? He took Wang Ruijie to the technical department of the factory, pointed to a large number of shipyard historical books on the shelf, and asked him to find the answer by himself.

Of course, technically speaking, "these things are very outdated, and there are even many multi-story battleships in the sail era, but a large number of engineering records and drawings record various plans and design records, but Wang Ruijie is like a treasure."

Then, Wang Ruijie very wisely invited several engineers to enjoy a delicious Chinese meal on a rest day, and after sending a set of exquisite ponytail stamping tableware, he immediately won the overall favor of the engineers, and then the German side quickly relaxed their reading privileges for those stingy materials.

After returning to the dormitory, these materials will be reorganized for exchange and learning, and from these basic materials, from the dock of the battleship, "a group of technicians have started in ship construction...... Grown...... But I felt more and more lacking in knowledge, and I became more and more crazy about learning.

And it is after such a crazy year, Wang Ruijie has long been able to communicate proficiently in German, and Rudolph is also quite different about the technical achievements of this "Chinese" assistant, and now in the inspection of this second ironclad ship, many important tasks can be handed over to this "Chinese" young man to deal with, his meticulous and high requirements, even more demanding than himself.

Sure enough, when inspecting a hull at the front of the bilge, Wang Ruijie took a wooden hammer and carefully tapped "When checking the sealing and throwing joint, I found some problems, this steel plate should have some quality problems when cutting and processing, it may be that the curvature has a deviation of about 0.2 degrees, so when the throwing is carried out, the flatness is slightly different."

Under normal circumstances, this difference would not affect the voyage of the battleship at all, but Wang Ruijie insisted that the steel plate be reworked and thrown, and the other engineer in charge of the hull processing was obviously unwilling to rebuild it for such a small flaw, after all, it would waste a day's time, "and even delay the day of the hull being launched and outfitted."

"King! The installation of this fast armor will not cause any problems at all, you are too worried, I think that as the armor plate of the bottom bilge, it was originally to ensure the normal navigation of the ship, which is absolutely guaranteed by the technology of our Volkeng shipyard! ”

"Monsieur Le Mégette, this is a battleship, and even now, there is still a threat of mines from under the water, and the chances of accidental collisions with warships are far greater than ordinary ships, and this battleship must be handled strictly by the highest industrial standards, not by the standard of "being able to sail"! Wang Ruijie did not hesitate to veto the other party's opinion.

The two of them are still arguing about the disposal of this quality problem, and the other German technicians around them also have different opinions, but the final decision lies with the chief designer Rudolf Haacke, and after personally inspecting the craftsmanship of the bottom hull, he finally agreed with Wang Ruijie's opinion, a perfect battleship is undoubtedly the dream of every designer. ,

At this moment, on the third pier, two men dressed in the Qing official palace are climbing high and looking into the distance, one of them is Xu Jianyin, who is responsible for supervising the construction of warships at the Volkeng Shipyard, since he broke up with Qin Kai in Mawei and went his own way, it has been more than two years, he has traveled to important warship factories in Britain, France, and Germany, and placed orders at the Volkeng Shipyard.

Since then, it has become his daily routine to check the progress of the battleship every day, and at the same time collect all kinds of information, and this morning, he and Li Fengbao, the minister to Germany, have witnessed the arrival of a new era in history, the first ironclad battleship exported to the German Volkeng shipyard, the "Dingyuan" outfitting and refurbishment, began the first maiden sea trial.

The two of them have been waiting on the dock for a whole day, but they don't have any tiredness, but they are full of interest, pointing to the boats coming and going in the direction of the Oder River, Li Fengbao said with a smile: "Zhonghu, if it is" Dingyuan, I can return to China sooner, I can't say that there is still a chance to fight with the French, in fact, I am looking forward to it, what kind of power can the battleship I have purchased with great painstaking efforts can play! ”

Xu Jianyin looked at Li Fengbao, who is also a rare diplomatic talent in the Qing Dynasty, and now serves as a capable minister of France, Germany, Austria, and Italy, like his brother who is far away in Mawei, he was also a celebrity under Ding Richang back then, and was later favored by Lord Li Zhongtang and served as an overseas minister, and the two formed a deep friendship in the order of Dingyuan and Zhenyuan.

"Master Li, Dingyuan has been outfitted as a whole, and the Zhenyuan hull is about to be launched, in fact, what makes me happiest is not the launch of these two battleships that can be called the first in Asia, but the large number of workers who participated in the construction of ships in the Volkeng shipyard, I think that this is the hope of my Qing Dynasty!"

Li Fengbao also nodded slightly when she heard this, and said a little depressedly: "It's a pity that Jiangnan Shipyard, Lord Zhongtang also gave up because the shipbuilding cost was too expensive, if you can persist all these years, you can't say that you can achieve something!" Fortunately, Lord Shen Baozhen has a successor, which of your friends Governor Qin is really a capable person, to be honest, this battle of North Vietnam, I have carefully considered, Lord Qin has made great contributions! ”

Hearing Li Fengbao mention his friend, a smile appeared on Xu Jianyin's face, this young superintendent who couldn't figure it out, in just two years, he had already become an important minister of the court on the side of the superintendent, and what surprised him even more was that Qin Kai had achieved a series of military exploits, how could this man who was busy with factories all day long and open his mouth and shut up industry have such means?

He also shook his head and said with a smile: "Lord Xu, my friend is really not good to evaluate, to be honest, in my opinion, he is also a wizard who is proficient in Western learning, I didn't expect that he is still a general who is proficient in military science, it is really ......unexpected.

……”

While the two were discussing, the embassy assistant on the side pointed to the distance and shouted in surprise: "Lord Li, Lord Xu, isn't that the Dingyuan ironclad ship, it seems that something has happened!" ”@。