Juan Williams and his Chilean fleet have been cowering in Chile's coastal ports, but the Chilean coastline is so long that Peruvians feel like they are catching loaches, and there is no trace of them.

With the small naval victory, the Peruvian army in Iquique also began to move south to "regain the territory". Compared with the Chilean Army, the Peruvian Army is actually not much better, the Peruvian Army is equipped with a standard rifle that has been retired from active service in the Empire Type 55 rifle, this rifle is the world's first magazine type rifle, there is no need to shoot a bullet into the magazine like Type 40, Type 44, Type 47, and it is not like Type 52 to put three and then shoot and pull the bolt. The Type 55 has a magazine, although it can still only hold five bullets, and it cannot be fired in bursts, but it is not only more powerful than the British Sheffield rifle in Chile, but also has a faster rate of fire. In addition to the advantages in equipment, Peru has always had a tradition of hiring Chinese instructors since the Peruvian dictator Thomas Gutierrez, and even the current Peruvian Army Chief of Staff is held by the Chinese Ding Ruchang.

But the Chilean Army was not at the level of Bolivia after all, and with naval guns and artillery far outnumbered by the Chilean Army, it took the Peruvian army more than two months and 3,000 casualties to retake Calama.

In October 1874, when the war in South America was in full swing, in October 1874, Shen Baozhen, Minister of Defense and Navy (the War Department and the Navy Department under the Ministry of Defense are the two ministries, respectively called the Minister of War and the Minister of the Navy but not the Minister of Defense) submitted to the Cabinet and the National Assembly the latest issue of the "Navy Armaments Budget Act of 1874-1879," which completely blew up the cabinet and the General Staff.

In the budget bill, a huge plan for the renewal of the fleet was proposed. This huge warship renewal plan involved the six fleets of the empire, the first of which frightened Zeng Guofan, and within five years all ironclad ships were transferred to the garrison fleet or used as training ships, and the vacant capital ships were mainly newly launched Qin-class battleships. The naval strength of the Chinese Empire is now the third largest in the world, with a total displacement of about 670,000 tons. Among them, there are a total of 45 ironclad ships, and in order to replace these ironclad ships, no less than 30 new battleships will be built. Let's talk about the previous empire's Shang-class and Zhouzhou-class are not real battleships, ironclad ships are low-board battleships, in Lin Hong's eyes, ironclad ships are not battleships at all, battleships should be high-spindle flying scissor fast battleships, and the latest level of "Qin-class" is Lin Hong's ideal battleship.

The "Qin-class" battleship has a total length of 127.6 meters, a width of 21.3 meters, and a draft of 8.4 meters. The standard displacement is 10540 tons, and the full load displacement is 11270 tons. It is powered by 16 round boilers, two three-expansion reciprocating steam engines, the main engine power is 15,000 horsepower, two-shaft propulsion, the maximum speed is 16 knots, and the endurance is 6,000 nautical miles / 10 knots. The main gun is a three-seat twin 280 mm main gun, with a layout of two in the front and one in the back (the two batteries use knapsack technology, although it is not very mature, but this is an attempt, and the technology of twin installation is not a problem at all). In addition, there were 6 155-mm secondary guns and 4 105-mm secondary guns on each side with 300 mm armor near the waterline, 60 mm armor on the deck, and 300 mm armor on the main gun turret and bridge. (In the third phase of the shipbuilding plan in 1878, the Qin-class was optimized and improved, and the caliber of the main gun was expanded from 280 mm to 300 mm, and the displacement was also increased by more than 270 tons)

For these performances of the Qin-class battleships, Lin Hong and the people of the Admiralty were quite satisfied. Compared with the 'Eastern Zhou-class' battleships, there has been a breakthrough improvement. The 280 mm 45 times caliber main gun is not a little more powerful than the 250 mm 45 times caliber main gun of the Eastern Zhou class. If it hits an important part of the enemy's capital ship, it is estimated that it can scrap the enemy ship with a single shot. In fact, the large-caliber main guns were also a major factor limiting the development of the Imperial Navy. To make large-caliber naval guns, there are extremely high requirements for the steel used to make the guns, and before, the steel produced by the empire has not been up to the requirements. It was not until the recent completion of nickel alloy technology that there was a breakthrough. In addition to the 280 mm guns, the Imperial Arsenal was also actively developing larger caliber 300 mm and 320 mm guns. It is estimated that it can be used in the next class of battleships of the Qin-class battleships.

The warship is good, but the price is not cheap! Zeng Guofan clearly knew that the Dagu Shipyard and Mawei Shipyard, which are the most productive in China, quoted 6.23 million yuan for the construction of warships of this class, and how much it would cost to build 30 ships to replace all the capital ships within five years, more than 186 million Chinese dollars and more than 60 million pounds, this money is no problem, but this money does not include cruisers and other gunboats and auxiliary warships that are replaced with capital ships! The rest of the money will have to be counted separately. In addition to the Egyptian Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet, the number of cruisers that the Imperial Navy plans to replace in the budget bill will reach more than 100, and all unprotected cruisers with iron and wooden hulls will be retired or transferred to the garrison fleet coastal defense system.

In terms of cruisers, the plans given by the Naval Design Institute include the large cruiser "Hangzhou" class, the medium cruiser "Shaoxing" class and the small cruiser "Shangyu" class. The classification of large, medium and small cruisers here is based on the protection of cruisers, that is to say, the third class cruisers are all cruisers with waterline armor and protection, but they are divided into three classes according to the size of the displacement. Unprotected cruisers were to be completely withdrawn from active service in the Imperial Navy. The offers for these three types of warships are 1.85 million, 1.52 million and 1.09 million Chinese dollars, respectively. The price of a single ship is still reasonable, but it can't stand a large amount, in addition, there are torpedo ships, minelaying ships, and even notification ships and transport ships have to be replaced.

First of all, money is a problem, whether the parliament will approve it is not yet known, of course, if the emperor agrees, the parliament will pass, anyway, the empire is not short of money. Second, even if Congress allocates funds for shipyards across the country to have the capacity to produce such 10,000-ton warships, it will be counted by ten lots. There may not be a slipway that is available for you to build. Five years is not enough to build in Zeng Guofan's opinion. Finally, it should be noted that the navy budget plan must be submitted every year, and Zeng Guofan is now afraid that he will have to add it when he plans for next year's navy budget. Look at how honest the Navy was in the last cabinet, why is it like being addicted now, and he can't stop at all, is it that the Navy people see him as a bully.

Zeng Guofan felt that it was better to leave it to his great emperor to decide! He can't be the master of this matter, and he doesn't dare to make the decision.

"This is the Navy's new five-year plan?" Lin Hong looked at the budget bill and asked Zeng Guofan, who was sitting not far away, without raising his head.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"You should give it to Congress! What do you do with me! Lin Hong smiled and looked at Zeng Guofan, who was a little hardworking, and said.

"Your Majesty, the plan involves too much money, and I am not very optimistic about this plan, it is too unrealistic to build more than 30 battleships and hundreds of warships in five years!"

"It's good to have this idea! With the current shipbuilding industry of the empire, it should not be a problem! But this kind of thing is ultimately decided by the Parliament, what is your opinion? ”

"My opinion is that the plan is very good, but the plan span is too large, I suggest that after the first batch of ten Qin-class ships are put into service, they can be decommissioned or transferred to the Shang class and a part of the West Zhou-class ironclad ships to temporarily retain the East Zhou-class ironclad ships as second-class battleships to serve in the navy, after all, there are a batch of Dongzhou-class ships that have not yet reached the retirement age, which is too wasteful. It's the same with cruiser renewal, temporarily retaining the two stages of Wind Ride and Wave Breaking for retirement or reselling the rest of the unprotected cruisers, which I have also communicated with the people of the General Staff and the Admiralty, and they also agree. ”

"Very well, then report it to Congress as soon as possible!"

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid that the Congress will not pass!"

"How do you know if you don't try?! Go ahead! If not, I'll come forward. Lin Hong patted Zeng Guofan's shoulder and said.

"Your Majesty, I'll do my best!" ――

The revised budget for the renewal of the Navy was passed by a high vote in the Congress, which Zeng Guofan did not understand, or wondered, he was born in Confucianism, in fact, he always felt in his heart that the passage of such a bill by the parliament was completely reckless, and the prosperous era should put Nanshan swords and guns into the warehouse. In the end, Chen Kejie, as the speaker of the parliament, relied on him to sue that the budget of this naval renewal plan is paid over five years, in fact, it is about 5.8% of the annual finance, which is not a problem at all, and the large-scale construction of ships not only benefits the navy and the imperial national defense cause, but also those shipyards and shipyard workers, who have money to earn and work to do the stable development of the country, and the most important thing is what the navy does to maintain the empire's maritime trade. As for the question about Shengshi, Chen Kejie's answer was that it had before, but now it is impossible. The exchange of opposites between the East and the West, unless one conquers the other, the prosperous era is just an empty word