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Yuan Keding and Yuan Kewen returned to Tianjin with two destroyers, originally the two destroyers wanted to be stationed in Port Arthur and spend the Spring Festival in Arthur, but they were rejected by the Minister of the Navy of the Chinese Empire, Sa Zhenbing, and asked them to be stationed in Dagu Port, and then return to Beijing with the two Yuan brothers after the New Year.

Yuan Keding understood Sa Zhenbing's thoughts, so he agreed with the navy's opinion, and asked Sa Zhenbing to take good care of all the officers and men of the Xia Empire's navy.

For this reason, the Admiralty has announced that there will be no Spring Festival holiday this year, and all of them will be trained and studied on the two destroyers, and will participate in relevant naval exercises, which is a rare and good opportunity.

At this time, the fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy had cruisers "Hairong", "Haichen", "Haichou" and "Haiqi", destroyer "Feiying", troop carrier "Lianjing", transport ship "Baomin", torpedo boats "Huying", "Hufalcon", "Hulu", "Hupeng", "Zhangzi", "Liezi", "Suzi", "Chenzi", etc.

The Hairong-class cruiser is a protective cruiser purchased from Germany by the Qing Dynasty Navy after the First Sino-Japanese War, with a total of three ships of the same class: Hairong, Haichou and Haichen.

The three ships were built by the German Volkeng shipyard at a cost of £163,000 each, and each arrived in Dagu in 1898.

Information on the three ships:

Dimensions: Length: 100 m, Width: 12.5 m, Cabin Depth: 7.5 m

Draft: 4.877 m

Normal displacement: 2680 tons

Full load displacement: 2950 tons

Normal capacity of coal tank: 200 tons

Maximum coal load: 580 tons

Fresh water load: 270 tons

Power plant: 4 coal-fired boilers, 2 four-cylinder three-expansion reciprocating steam engines

Maximum speed: 19.5 knots

Ship establishment: 29 officers, 295 non-commissioned officers and men

Power: 7500 hp

Armament:

3 150mm 40x diameter Krupp rapid-fire guns (2 left and right in the bow and 1 in the stern)

8 105mm 40x diameter Krupp rapid-fire guns (distributed on both sides)

6 37mm Habekis machine guns

6 8mm Maxim machine guns

1 60mm Krupp cannon

3 torpedo tubes (one under the bow waterline and one on the port deck)

The Hairong-class cruisers and the Lanfang-class destroyers conducted many military exercises, and compared the range, rate of fire, and hit rate of the main guns, the rate of fire, the rate of fire, the hit rate, the range, the speed, and the speed of the warship, and other parameters, and found that the cruisers were far behind the Lanfang-class destroyers in all indicators.

The maximum range of the destroyer's main gun is 9.2km, and the cruiser's main gun has a maximum range of 11.3km, but at a distance of 5km, the cruiser does not even have a fifth of the destroyer's hit, and at a distance of 3km, the cruiser's hit rate is only one-third of that of a destroyer.

Comprehensive performance, in real combat, destroyers can complete the cruiser.

Sa Zhenbing and many members of the navy sighed, this is why the Xia Empire has not been equipped with cruisers, their destroyers can run at a speed of more than 35 knots, which is so much faster than cruisers, and there is no room for equipping cruisers.

The Lanfang-class destroyers were the envy of the officers and men of the destroyers and cruisers of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

Li Dingxin and others accompanied the officers and men of the Xia Imperial Navy on the two destroyers to eat, drink, and conduct exercises every day, and by the way, they obtained relevant information.

"Captain Li, how many of these Lanfang-class destroyers do you have in the Xia Empire?"

"I don't know the exact number, but it won't be less than 150."

Li Dingxin, Liu Guanxiong and others continued to ask: "There are so many, how many capital ships do you have?" “

"I don't know much about the capital ships, the stations of several major fleets are too scattered, such as the Central Fleet, the Pacific Fleet, the South Ocean Fleet, the Indian Ocean Fleet, the Northern Theater Fleet, the Australian Fleet, etc., but once when I was having dinner in the Navy Cafeteria, I heard the officers on the battleships introduce that the Xia Empire has at least 7 Lanfang-class battleships, 9 Lanfang-class battleships, and 6 Xia-class battleships and Baiqi-class battlecruisers; Recently I heard that the Empire has formed the Atlantic Fleet again, and there should be more capital ships. “

The naval officers of the Chinese Empire asked again: "Captain Li, are the Xia-class battleships and Baiqi-class battlecruisers more powerful?" ”

"Of course, the combat effectiveness will certainly be even more terrifying, and all sorts of battleships and battle cruisers are moored in the military port of the Central Fleet. The most powerful is the Xia-class battleship, with a displacement of more than 2 tons, looking at the size of the mountain, 10 twin 343mm main guns, looking majestic; The Lanfang-class battleships and Baiqi-class battlecruisers are equipped with 305mm main guns, and the Lanfang-class battlecruisers are equipped with 283mm main guns, which are very majestic, and they are not comparable to destroyers, whether it is the main gun of M, as long as it hits 1 gun, the destroyer will definitely be lost. “

"Captain Li, then their price must be very expensive!"

"It's not expensive, some time ago I delivered 4 Xia-class battleships to Britain, and then the empire announced the sale price, the Xia-class battleships are about 16 million taels of silver, and the Baiqi-class battlecruisers are about 18 million taels of silver; As for the Lanfang-class battleships and Lanfang-class battlecruisers, they announced a reduction in their sales prices at that time, and now they are less than 10 million taels of silver, but at the beginning, they were 14 million taels of silver, which is already much cheaper. “

After careful consideration, Sa Zhenbing decided to return to Beijing after the Spring Festival, and found Wang Shizhen, chief of the General Staff, and Yuan Shikai, the emperor respectively, hoping to buy several second-hand battleships and battlecruisers from the Xia Empire.

Wang Shizhen knew that now that he was in financial difficulties, and it was already difficult to even pay the salaries of officers and soldiers, how could he have the money to buy battleships? Moreover, even if the battleship was bought, it was necessary to continue to purchase relevant escort warships, expand the port wharf, purchase shells, recruit and train naval officers and soldiers, and other follow-up expenses were not small, which was not at all affordable by the current Chinese Empire, so it simply rejected Sa Zhenbing's request.

After Sa Zhenbing left, Wang Shizhen thought to himself that if the country had money, it would also form more army, and if tens of millions of taels of silver were invested in the navy, they would not even see a splash, even if they bought 2 battleships, they would not play much role in fighting, and it would not be as good as the army.

For Sa Zhenbing's request, Yuan Shikai couldn't refuse directly, but just said that now that the Xia Empire is helping to guard the frontier, the Chinese Empire should use this short period of peace to rapidly develop the economy, and when there is money, it is not a problem what kind of battleships to buy, and before the Xia Empire withdraws, the Chinese Empire will definitely expand the army and rebuild the navy in advance.

After listening to Yuan Shikai's nagging, Sa Zhenbing continued to plead: "Your Majesty, our empire is in financial difficulties, if we don't buy battleships and battlecruisers, let's buy a few Lanfang-class destroyers and fast torpedo boats, with the existing warships, even pirates can't catch up, let alone train and train naval officers and soldiers, otherwise, when we buy battleships and battlecruisers in the future, no one will be able to drive them; And we can buy a few more destroyers and fast torpedo boats, and the Xia Empire will give away design drawings and manufacturing drawings, and we can completely produce and manufacture them ourselves in Fujian, which will also improve the manufacturing capacity of our shipyards. “

Yuan Shikai couldn't bear Sa Zhenbing's repeated requests, so he had to prevaricate and say: "Now the empire is discussing with the Xia Empire about abolishing the treaty signed by the Great Qing State, and after reaching an agreement with the Xia Empire, it will definitely buy destroyers and fast torpedo boats for the navy." “

Sa Zhenbing took Yuan Shikai's words as kind words, left Beijing in disappointment, and returned to Tianjin, before the two destroyers left, he wanted to take a good look at the destroyers and feel the passion of the 35 knots speed.

Li Dingxin, Chen Guanxiong and others were all very disappointed when they learned what happened to Sa Zhenbing in Beijing, and they were very aggrieved in their hearts, it is also a Chinese empire, why is the gap so big? After learning about the situation, the naval students who studied in the Xia Empire made up their minds to study hard and strive to stay in the navy of the Xia Empire after graduation, without returning to the Chinese Imperial Navy, otherwise, they would not even have the opportunity to serve in torpedo boats, let alone battleships and battle cruisers.

Cheng Biguang suggested with a pipe belt: "Minister, everyone, relying on the state to buy battleships and battle cruisers is still too far away, and now we don't even buy destroyers, why don't we mobilize civilian forces, advocate everyone to donate, and then buy destroyers and fast torpedo boats?" ”

Sa Zhenbing felt that this method was feasible, and immediately asked Li Dingxin to inquire about the price of the destroyer, and discussed with everyone the ways and means of advocating donations.

He thought that if he donated money to buy destroyers, and if he donated less, he would buy torpedo boats, and he would not waste it anyway.

Captain Li told Li Dingxin that a long time ago, the sales price was 100,000 pounds for a destroyer, and now the price should be cheaper, and the specific price still needs to consult the Admiralty, as for the fast torpedo boat, I don't know.

Sa Zhenbing thought to himself, he used to raise more than 800,000 taels of silver, and it should be cheaper in his heart, and for the sake of the face of the same Chinese, the Xia Empire will definitely give a discount, and it will definitely not exceed this amount at that time.

Sa Zhenbing decided to divide the army into three routes, the first of which was to raise funds in Beijing, Tianjin and Shandong; The second route led a destroyer to Shanghai, Nanjing, Anqing, and Wuhan to raise donations; The third route followed the two destroyers to Xiamen and Guangzhou to raise donations.

And in any case, this time it is necessary to raise enough money for 1 destroyer.

After Sa Zhenbing's active preparations, and Li Dingxin, Liu Guanxiong, Cheng Biguang and other Beiyang old people were all sent out to raise donations, by the end of February 1909, a total of 3.1 million taels of silver had been raised.

After obtaining Zhang Wei's consent, Li Zhaoshui only accepted 3 million taels of silver from them, sold them four destroyers, and equipped them with 10 Sea Lion torpedo boats and 10 Dolphin 1 torpedo boats.

Yuan Shikai acquiesced to the actions of Sa Zhenbing and others, hey, he didn't have money to speak hard. (To be continued.) Mobile phone users, please browse and read, a better reading experience.