Seeing Guan Xuqing's actions, the surrounding students were all stunned, and then, the students of the entire dock were boiling, no matter how young Guan Xuqing was, but his identity was still the real emperor of the Qing Empire, the true dragon Tianzi and the Ninth Five-Year Zun in the hearts of all Chinese, even these students who had received a type of education, could not completely get rid of China's thousands of years of monarchical supremacy thinking, at this time they only felt full of excitement, all the suffering they had suffered before was worth it

All the students spontaneously knelt down in front of Guan Xuqing, and in their opinion, they couldn't stand the emperor's bow at all

At this time, Guan Xu straightened his waist, his tone was deep, and he was also agitated: "In the blink of an eye, this century has entered the last ten years, in this hundred years, we have fallen too far behind, and have been bullied by foreign powers countless times...... You have dreams, you have crossed the ocean to study in Europa, in order to let the country catch up, you have suffered a lot, some of you can't wait for the day when you return to China, you fell on a foreign land, not even many people remember their names, here I want to bow to them, although they are dead, but their heroic souls will not be dispersed, future generations will always remember that there is such a group of people as them in history" said and bowed deeply

Suddenly, the eyes of the surrounding students were all moist, and the tearful faces flashed in front of Guan Xuqing's eyes, and the students no longer knew what to say, but they were just there to applaud warmly, for the suffering of the fate of their classmates, for the expectation of the motherland's strength, and for the difficult process of the rise of the nation, all of which were condensed in Guan Xuqing's words

Many students get the opportunity to study abroad at the imperial court's expense, and the local government is responsible for taking care of their families, which has already moved the students, and in this foreign land, the emperor bows to himself one after another, as if he has become the savior of the country, how can they not let them serve the court and the country to the death

After Guan Xuqing straightened his waist for the second time, he bent down deeply again: "This last bow is still for you...... At this moment, I am not an emperor, but like you, I am an ordinary Qing people, and now the country has reformed the imperial examination and the official system, established a type of army, and the local universal education is also expanding year by year, and the country is still encouraging the development of industry and commerce, and there is a place for use everywhere, I hope that after you complete your studies, you can come back to serve the country, so that our country can catch up with Britain, France, and Germany, and stand tall again among the nations of the world."

The ancient words of "Long live my emperor, long live, long live" shouted from the mouths of these students in their prime, making people feel a little more sincere and passionate

Some have already cried into tears, and they are used to being ignored in a foreign land, when have they ever received such treatment, not to mention the most honorable emperor in their own country, all of them have made up their minds to return to China to serve after completing their studies, and assist the emperor to rebuild the Qing Dynasty into the most powerful empire in the world, and will not let the blood of their predecessors be shed in vain

In this way, the red-eyed students have always surrounded Guan Xuqing and are reluctant to disperse, they talk cordially, from Guan Xuqing's mouth, they continue to get the news of the motherland, get the hope of the country's future, many people are so excited that they can't wait to put their wings in their ribs, fly back to the motherland, and join the wave of the motherland's development and construction

After Guan Xuqing was greeted away by the German envoys, the students were still reluctant to disperse for a long time, and their conversation lasted from early morning to afternoon, and then until dark, until the early lights were on, and the students dispersed one after another

One of the stops of Guan Xuqing's trip was to lead the delegation to visit the Royal William Navy Shipyard, and the four former dreadnoughts ordered by Japan from France brought great pressure to Guan Xuqing, although these four first-class battleships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons were not considered very mature dreadnoughts because they were built early and lacked armor technology, but because the French ship designers have always had a sense of foresight, these four battleships already have the characteristics of the high freeboard of the dreadnoughts and the outward bulge of the amidships. Moreover, the Japanese Admiralty has been committed to improving these four large battleships over the years, just as in later history, their strategy towards the United States in World War II, they believe that with Japan's national strength, it is difficult to surpass China in the tonnage of ships, so the Japanese Navy wants to offset the opponent's numerical superiority through quality superiority, so they have been committed to the application of technology and weapons on the four battleships, which is why the "Kyushu", which began construction in 1883, was not completed until this year, The construction of the other three ships will be carried out one after another until next year, and it can be said that these four Japanese warships with the longest construction period in the history of shipbuilding in the world are the former Dreadnought Horn

Germany's shipbuilding technology has always adopted a thick style, which is somewhat similar to the German car industry in later generations, but obviously this style is not suitable for naval warfare in this era, and no matter how thick the escort steel plate is, it will be pierced by shells, but the disadvantage in navigation is irreparable, so Guan Xuqing did not visit seriously at all, but just looked at it symbolically

By accident, Guan Xuqing discovered a battleship named Brandenburg, which was designed and already being built by Germany

His main armor belt is 400 mm thick, but it only covers a narrow area near the broadside waterline, a large area of the ship's side and superstructure actually do not have enough armor protection, and because the ship is modeled after the French battleship, the "Brandenburg" class superstructure is high, and the bridge is very wide, which makes it vulnerable to enemy artillery fire. It is equipped with a "gun cover", this "gun cover" thickness is only 50 mm, and the frontal shield is only 120 mm, so the design later proved to have a terrible result - after the large-caliber shell penetrates the armor, the fragments will fly around in the turret and bounce and instantly kill and injure a large number of shippers, resulting in the loss of combat effectiveness The reason for this design is due to the consideration of the combat environment of the German Navy, the North Sea has long been windy and rough and the sea conditions are harsh, and the Baltic Sea is narrow. There is not much room for maneuver, which makes the two fleets tend to be at a relatively close distance when engaged, at this time, the arc of the shells in the air will be relatively flat, the chance of falling on the superstructure and deck at a large angle is relatively low, and the shells will generally hit the ship's side and gun encirclement, which are the places where the armor defense of the "Brandenburg" class is the thickest

It abandons the low freeboard of the "Saxony" class ironclad ships, and adopts a long bow structure, with a very high freeboard, and the phenomenon of high sailing steps and waves has been well improved, which can provide a stable firing platform for artillery under relatively harsh sea conditions

In addition, the Jiao used 88 mm guns as anti-torpedo boat weapons, which was more than 3 pounder guns of 47 mm caliber and 6-pounder guns of 57 mm caliber commonly used by British battleships, and the 15 rounds per minute were more than enough to deal with targets such as torpedo boats

In terms of power system, the "Brandenburg" class uses 2 piston steam engines, which are provided by 12 old-fashioned round boilers with a maximum power of 10,369 horsepower, driving two propulsion shafts and two propellers, with a maximum rotation of 100 revolutions per minute, which makes the maximum voyage of this class of battleships reach 18.2 knots, you must know that the British battleships and American battleships of his contemporaries generally have only a maximum voyage of only knots, and the fuel tanks of the "Brandenburg" class battleships have also expanded a lot, which can carry 1050 tons of coal. It can sail 4,500 nautical miles at 1 knot

After three days of inspection, and after repeated discussions with Yan Fu and Deng Shichang, Guan Xuqing formally sent a note to the German Government and the Royal Wilhelm Naval Shipyard through Li Fengbao, Chinese ambassador to Germany, hoping to order two improved battleships on the basis of the "Brandenburg" class battleships, requiring a tonnage of more than 10,000

The improved battleship still retains the design of the distribution of the six main guns of the "Brandenburg" class along the central axis, but by increasing the length of the ship, the twin main guns with 35 times the diameter of the amidships are replaced with the same 40 times the caliber as the bow and stern main guns, so that the six main guns can obtain the same firing range, so that they can produce salvos in combat

In addition, the original turret design of the six main guns will be changed to a closed turret design, although the original 400 mm thick waterline armor is still retained, but all changed to the most Krupp carburized armor, greatly strengthening its protective ability

The Germans readily agreed to Guan Xuqing's request, and promised to hand over the ship in a year, and Guan Xuqing named the two battleships "Breaking the Sun" and "Destroying the Sun" on the spot

Obviously, these two battleships were purchased to deal with the Japanese, and it was indeed difficult for them to ask Germany to hand over two such huge warships within a year, but there was not much time left for Guan Xuqing, and in the face of Japan's development and the imminent conflict with Japan in Korea, Xian, and the Yellow Sea, only by purchasing more warships in great strides could Japan be completely defeated

On the fifth day after arriving in Germany, Guan Xuqing really took time to meet with the army officers studying in Germany, these people are the pillars of the future army of the Qing Dynasty, and for a long time in the future, the Qing Dynasty will rely on them to command millions of troops to fight in the east and west, annex Asia, and conquer the world......