After the establishment of the Chinese Empire, it took over all the remaining warships of the Qing Dynasty Navy, except for some old warships left over after the First Sino-Japanese War, and the Qing court purchased a total of five new warships in recent years. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

They are Haiqi battleship, Hairong battleship, Haitian battleship, Haiqiao battleship, and Haichen battleship.

Among them, the Haiqi battleship and the Haitian battleship were purchased from the United Kingdom, with a displacement of 4,300 tons, a length of 129 meters, a width of 14.2 meters, a draft of 6.1 meters, a horsepower of 17,000 horsepower, and a speed of 24 knots.

The ship was equipped with 2 Armstrong 200mm guns, 10 143mm rapid-fire guns, 12 47mm guns, 4 37mm guns, 6 7mm Maxim machine guns, 5 torpedo tubes, 445 officers and men, and a cost of 328,000 pounds per ship.

Hairong, Haichou and Haichen are all Hairong-class warships, with a full load displacement of 2,950 tons, a length of 100 meters, a width of 12.5 meters, a draft of 4.877 meters, 7,500 horsepower, a speed of 19.5 knots, 25 officers, 295 non-commissioned officers and men, and a cost of 163,000 pounds per ship.

The Haiqi warship is equivalent to about 2.18 million taels of silver, and the Hairong-class is equivalent to 1.08 million taels of silver.

Such a warship still has a certain strength in the Far East, of course, and this is on the premise that it does not meet the main fleet of the Japanese Navy.

In 1899, Italy sent six warships to China to intimidate, but the naval officers and sailors forcefully pushed them back.

At present, this fleet is under the control of Ye Zuqi and Sa Zhenbing, and after the establishment of the Chinese Empire, the two made a request to Yang Shixiang, the governor of Zhili, to surrender.

In fact, it is not possible to surrender, they have no ability to continue to support, Wang Sirui's soldiers are everywhere, the navy does not even have a stable port, and they are unwilling to surrender to the foreigners, and finally, after the last day of the Qing court, they chose to surrender with difficulty.

After the surrender, Wang Sirui asked Yang Shixiang to arrange it in Tianjin, and the two of them came to Beijing to meet after settling the fleet.

Although the navy still has some family background, but it has long been thrown away by the enemy, Wang Sirui has never been a person who sticks to the old rules, and he also wants to have a strong naval fleet.

Therefore, it is still necessary to meet these two admirals.

…………

"Hi, my friend, Your Majesty the Emperor." Rou Keyi walked in with a smile on his face, Wang Sirui, who became the emperor, except that the security around him was tighter than before, and other aspects did not seem to have changed much.

And Wang Sirui's ascension to the throne as emperor also made Rou Keyi faintly excited, no matter what, the two are still good friends in private.

"My friend, it's a pleasure to meet you." Wang Sirui responded with a smile, although he has become the emperor, he still has not been able to change it, of course, this time he is asking for Rou Keyi to do things, Wang Sirui naturally will not put his posture too high.

"Okay, I think you better get down to business, I don't think you're just calling me over to improve friendship, of course, if I can help, I'll definitely help." Rou Keyi immediately put on a serious face.

Wang Sirui's attitude is not the first time he has encountered it, on the contrary, when he saw Wang Sirui's performance for the first time, it was because of carelessness that Rou Keyi was ruthlessly cheated by Wang Sirui, so whenever he saw Wang Sirui's attitude in the future, he put on a businesslike expression.

Seeing Rou Keyi's actions, Wang Sirui could only shake his head helplessly, and sighed secretly, what else could he do?

Out of the desk drawer was a piece of paper with a drawing of a warship, but only a rough appearance, and as for the specific data, it was only a few lines.

Rou Keyi took the drawing with a puzzled face, looked at the numbers marked on the drawing, and couldn't help but be surprised.

"Oh buy karma! It's crazy, it's really hard to imagine, my friend, are you preparing to build such a battleship? Rou Keyi asked in disbelief.

With a displacement of 20,000 tons, the ship is between 150 and 160 meters long and 25 to 27 meters wide, 5 305 mm 45 times caliber twin guns, two in the front and three in the rear, 16 127 mm 50 times caliber single guns, and 2 533 mm underwater torpedo tubes.

Armor 252 mm on the side of the gunwale, 52 mm on the deck, 200 mm on the gun mount, 305 mm in the front of the turret, 300 mm in the conning tower.

Once such a battleship is available, it will definitely be able to crush all opponents with powerful firepower, and anyone in front of such a battleship will become a thin piece of paper, guaranteed to be vulnerable.

With the current strength of the United States, it is possible to build such a battleship, but because of design problems and demonstration problems, the construction has not really started at present.

However, Rou Keyi also listened to his friends in the navy, which is seeking a new kind of battleship, and this kind of battleship is currently being designed, but there are big problems in the demonstration.

But what Rou Keyi didn't expect was that Wang Sirui was also seeking this kind of battleship.

"Yes, it's just an idea of mine, but it didn't come to pass because the empire lacked talent for it. So, I would like to ask my American friends to help me build one such battleship, and of course, I will pay five million dollars for the construction of this battleship. At the same time, I only have two requirements, which will be delivered within two years, and I will be allowed to send some people into the shipyard to build together. Wang Sirui said.

$5 million, what is this concept? Converted, it is about 800,000 pounds, and the average cost of a capital battleship is about 600,000 pounds.

However, the cost of building warships in the United States has not been very high, for the simple reason that the United States has enough steel and enough talent.

With five million dollars, maybe they could actually build this massive battleship.

But Rou Keyi instantly thought of a question, "I'm sorry, I can't give you an accurate reply, I need to report this matter to China, and then wait for their reply." However, I think this matter should be difficult, and they may not necessarily agree to this order. ”

"Of course, I also know that the United States may not agree, which is why I found you, my friend. I'm sure if you tell them about the benefits of this event, they'll take the order seriously, and I'll give you $100,000 in return for it. Wang Sirui said with a smile.

It's true that Americans can't agree, but there are always exceptions.

At present, the Americans have not officially approved the construction of Dreadnought-class battleships, and even the drawings are still being demonstrated.

Under such circumstances, it is absolutely impossible for the United States to start building a dreadnought-class battleship, because even the huge United States cannot have such a large financial resources to let those people build a dreadnought for experiments.

And why did the Americans build dreadnoughts? The answer is simple, their intelligence officers on the British side stole information that Britain was planning to build dreadnoughts, so the United States also started related programs.

If Wang Sirui had paid for the Americans to build a dreadnought to test some of their theories and assumptions, then there would undoubtedly be more experience in the Dreadnought class battleships in the United States than the British, which would be crucial in the later stages.

Therefore, as long as someone lobbied for the benefits of accepting this order, I believe that the Americans will look at this matter rationally.

In one, the United States has a lot of interests in the Chinese Empire, and they obviously do not dare to easily refuse Wang Sirui's order, although there is an unwritten rule between the European and American powers that they will not sell battleships to the Chinese Empire (Qing Dynasty), but in the eyes of the Americans, this is not a problem.

"It's crazy, isn't it good to use this money to buy twenty, or even twenty-five advanced cruisers? Those ships will be enough for you. Rou Keyi is still struggling to recover from the shock, and the news is so shocking.

"No, the Americans will never understand our minds, the defeat of the Beiyang Fleet to the Japanese Navy, for our Chinese nation, this is an eternal pain, but the Japanese have a large number of battleships, what about us? There are only a few small ships of the thousand-ton class, and what will we do if the Japanese start another naval battle? Therefore, in order to resist the Japanese threat to us, the Empire must build more powerful battleships. Wang Sirui silently put the reason for buying the warship on the heads of the Japanese.

"I'm sorry, but this reminds you of those bad old days. Rest assured, I will do my best to persuade the country, and if possible, I will return to the country myself to explain the matter, and of course it would be great if you could send a minister back with me. Rou Keyi said.

"It is currently the time to hire people in China, and it is impossible to send people to the United States in a short period of time, but I can ask Liang Cheng, the ambassador to the United States, to meet with you and meet those officials and work together for this order." Wang Sirui shook his head gently.

The Chinese Empire received a number of former Qing ministers, some of whom were ambassadors abroad, almost entirely.

On the American side, because Liang Cheng is indeed a patriot, and Liang Cheng did his best to lobby members of parliament in terms of Gengzi reparations, although in the end, because of Wang Sirui's actions, Liang Cheng's lobbying was ineffective.

But for Liang Cheng, Wang Sirui is still very optimistic, so after ascending the throne, Wang Sirui sent Liang Cheng a telegram of appointment, and continued to appoint him as the ambassador of the Chinese Empire to the United States.

Wang Sirui did not tell him about the warship in the telegram, but asked a Ford engineer who returned to the United States a month ago to help carry it back.

"That's fine, Mr. Liang has a lot of fame in the United States, and those old men have a headache for him, so I'll ask about the situation in China first, and if there is a possibility of consent, then I will apply to return to China."

ps: Three more arrived, thank you again for the support of the army 2016! By the way, ask for a recommendation ticket! (To be continued.) )