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In September 1901, Port Arthur, a breeze mixed with the salty smell of the sea came to my face. The sun poured down from the golden mountain to the east of the port, and the heavy fort fortress on the shore quietly guarded the blue sea and blue sky. Since Song Xiaofei was appointed as the admiral of the navy 20 years ago, it has existed as an important military port in China, and no foreigner is allowed to enter here without a pass of the Beiyang Fleet. At this time, the chief of the navy, Liu Buyun, was dressed in a dark blue admiral uniform, and accompanied the captain of the presidential palace guard, Dadao Wang Wu, to carefully check the security situation here. Song Xiaofei is about to inspect here, where China's advanced modern submarine formation will be launched, and China's first submarine force will be unveiled at the 1901 National Day parade.

The reason why Song Xiaofei chose Port Arthur is because it is surrounded by mountains, the east of the port is the Golden Mountain, the west has the Tiger Tail Peninsula, and there is a long and narrow waterway to communicate with the open sea, there is no severe cold in winter, no scorching heat in summer, it is a natural natural northern ice-free port, the concealment and wind resistance in the port are good, and the water depth in the port is suitable for the development of submarine forces.

After Song Xiao flew to Lushunkou, he boarded the "Beijing" moored here, and met with the chief designer of Chinese submarines and the "father of modern submarines" John Murphy in the VIP room. Huo Lan, who is also a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of China. At that time, the international mobility of scientists and other talents was very large, and it was very free to serve any government, and the most important thing for these people was to serve their employers, who funded them, and who worked for them to turn their ideas into reality. So both the late Qing government and Song Xiaofei's government hired a lot of foreign employees. Song Xiaofei's principle of employing people is even more bold, it is the concept of employing people in "troubled times", and he does not stick to one pattern to reduce talents, no matter what skin color or nationality, as long as he has real ability, he is hired with a lot of money, and enjoys all kinds of preferential treatment, which is also the reason why he boldly used Hurd, the chief of customs, Lang Weili, deputy commander of the Beiyang Fleet, and others, and there are more than 200 foreign academicians of the Chinese National Academy of Sciences. This Academician Holland. Originally an Irishman, he eventually became an American submarine designer, but in the end he was dug into China by Xi Muyan's international investment company to design submarines for the Chinese Navy.

John. Holland was born in 1841 in the town of Liscana, Ireland. His father was an employee of the British Coast Guard, so Holland was curious about the sea and warships from an early age. But before graduating from high school, his father died of illness, and the young Holland was forced to end his studies and work as a science teacher at a school, where he worked and designed submarines. In 1873, at the age of thirty-two, Holland quit his job as an instructor and went to the United States with his submarine design drawings to look for opportunities. In 1875, Holland sent a plan to build a new submarine to the US Department of the Navy. But the U.S. Navy still has lingering concerns about the sinking of a $50,000 small, hands-on submarine called the Wisdom Whale. Hence the categorical rejection of Holland's plan.

Rejected Holland was financed by the "Fenian Society", a group of Irish revolutionaries living in exile in the United States. With the support of the "Fenian Society", after three years of hard work, Holland launched the first submarine he designed in 1878, which was named "Holland-1" and was a single-man submarine. The boat is 5 meters long, equipped with a gasoline internal combustion engine, and can sail at a speed of 3.5 knots, but tragically, as soon as the submarine dives underwater, the internal combustion engine runs out of air and the engine stops working.

Burned a lot of money. However, without success, the "Fenian Society" began to be dissatisfied with Holland, and put forward specific requirements for his submarine development: the submarine should be built large enough to be used effectively in combat, and small enough to fit into the cabin of a specially designed merchant ship. This kind of merchant ship was required to be able to cross the Atlantic in the form of civilian ships. When encountering an enemy ship, a special merchant ship releases the submarine to attack the enemy. In accordance with this special requirement. In 1881, Holland successfully built his second submarine, named "Holland-2". The boat is about 10 meters long, has a displacement of 19 tons, and is equipped with an 11 kW internal combustion engine. The submarine was equipped with elevators. Resolved longitudinal stability issues. At the same time, he also installed a cannon on the boat, which allowed the submarine to fire torpedoes both under water and conduct artillery battles on the surface.

However, the submarine had too little displacement and no firepower, and some members of the "Fenian Society" lost confidence in Holland's endless experiments and secretly transported the "Holland-2" and the third submarine under construction away one night. Heartbroken, Holland parted ways with the "Fenian Society" and temporarily stopped studying submarines to work as a cartographer for an airgun company.

However, Horan did not give up his dream of designing submarines, and soon, with the strong support of his friends, he founded the "Anal Fish Submarine Company", and in cooperation with Captain Zalinsky, an artillery officer, he built his fourth submarine, the "Zalinsky". But unfortunately, the bad luck of failure has not spared the hard-working Horan. In 1886, the "Zalinsky" was completed and launched, the slipway collapsed, the whole boat was destroyed, and it sank into the vast sea. Holland wept bitterly, his company went bankrupt, and his friends left him.

However, fate favors those who are indomitable for their dreams. In 1893, the U.S. Department of the Navy held a submarine design competition. Holland topped the rankings in this competition. Holland's victory led to an order to build a submarine in 1895 and $150,000 from the U.S. Department of the Navy. So Holland began the design of his fifth submarine again.

This time, the 54-year-old Holland knew that he could no longer fail, and from the very beginning, he paid attention to solving the problems that hindered the development of submarines in the history of submarines, repeatedly studied and changed plans, and finally built his fifth submarine, the "Diver". The submarine is 26 meters long and has a steam engine power plant, the propulsion unit for surface navigation, and an electric motor, the propulsion unit for underwater navigation, making the "diver" the originator of the submarine's dual propulsion system. However, out of the needs of the war, the US Navy Department asked Holland to enable the "Diver" to be used for surface warfare during the construction of the "Diver", but Holland believed that it would not be possible to build a satisfactory submarine according to such requirements. So, Holland abandoned the construction of the "Diver", returned the funds of the Admiralty, and began to use the money he raised to design and build a new submarine.

On May 17, 1897, at the age of 56, Holland finally succeeded in building the submarine "Holland VI". With a 15-meter long petrol engine and a battery-powered electric motor, the 15-metre-long submarine is the latest to feature twin propulsion. When sailing on the water, it is powered by a gasoline engine and can reach speeds of up to 7 knots per hour. The range is 1000 nautical miles. When diving underwater, it is powered by an electric motor, with a speed of up to 5 knots per hour and a cruising range of 50 knots. The boat can accommodate a total of 5 crew members. The armament is a bow torpedo tube, which can fire 3 torpedoes, 2 guns in the front and rear, and the guns are aimed at the target by manipulating the submarine hull. The submarine can launch torpedoes underwater, and the water navigation is balanced, the dive is fast, and the maneuverability is flexible. It was the best submarine designed and built in Horan's lifetime.

But unfortunately, before Holland returned the US Navy funds, he formed a bond with some bureaucrats of the US Navy Department, who were biased and picky. Not only was the submarine not adopted by the US Department of the Navy, but Holland, the great inventor, was subjected to vicious ridicule (from which it can be seen that bureaucrats everywhere in the world) mercilessly attacked, causing Holland to resign in anger. At this time, Xi Muyan, who recruited global talents for Song Xiaofei, floated in. In the snow, her outstanding appearance, sincere attitude, and generous conditions for dismissal all made Holland tempted. Holland accepted a blank check from Xi Muyan and came to China with his wife and daughter in 1898.

Song Xiaofei was well aware of the role of submarines in modern naval warfare, and immediately met with Holan. He also arranged for him to go to Lushun Port to develop new submarines, ask for money for money, ask for people to give people, and established China's first submarine academy in Lushun, with Huo Lan as the dean, to train China's submarine talents. In fact. As early as 1880, China's Qing government built China's first submarine in modern history and successfully tested it on its own. It created a precedent for Chinese to manufacture submarines. This submarine made by the Tianjin Machinery Bureau is "like an olive," "sails underwater," "has a water mark and an aspirator," and "can secretly send mines underwater." From its appearance, structure, capabilities, and functions, it all reflects the characteristics and nature of modern submarines.

What moved Huo Lan even more was that Song Xiaofei was very considerate of Huo Lan's failure, and personally said to Huo Lan: "We want a world-class submarine in China." Despite your experiments, I am responsible for all failures. ”

Before Song Xiaofei met Huo Lan, he celebrated his 60th birthday according to Chinese etiquette, and Huo Lan was very moved. During the meeting, Holland expressed his gratitude to the Chinese government for its reuse, and he introduced to Song Xiaofei the situation of the newly designed "Qianlong submarine", "Dear Mr. President, our 'Qianlong submarine' is equipped with a 60-horsepower gasoline engine and an electric motor powered by batteries, using dual propulsion, and can reach a short-range underwater speed of up to 12 nautical miles per hour, even if it is underwater for several hours, its underwater speed can reach 8 knots per hour, and the endurance is 1,000 nautical miles. In contrast to the 'Holland VI', the yacht has an additional hull in addition to its inner hull. As a result, the Neville had both a torpedo boat-like hull and an inner hull designed to meet the requirements of the submarine, in which the crew and all equipment were encased. The space between the inner shells is used as a ballast tank, which controls the submarine to dive and afloat, making it safer. The armament is a bow torpedo tube, which can fire 5 torpedoes, 2 guns in the front and rear. ”

Song Xiaofei nodded and asked, "How does this compare with the most advanced submarine in the world?" ”

Holland proudly said, "As far as I know, this is already the most advanced submarine in the world." The only thing that can be compared to the 'Qianlong' is the French submarine 'Neville', which also has a double-hull design, and can sail at a speed of 11 knots per hour on the surface, 8 knots per hour for short underwater distances, and 5 knots per hour even after hours underwater. ”

At the end of the talks, Song Xiaofei, accompanied by Liu Buyun and Huo Lan, watched the exercises of the four submarines of the "Qianlong Dragon" series, and the results were very good. Song Xiaofei asked Liu Buyun to select 500 officers and men from the Navy and the Lushun Submarine Academy to form a new submarine force, and asked Xi Muyan's international trading company to buy gasoline engines and electric motors powered by batteries, and the first batch of 40 submarines of the "Qianlong series" was produced, and China's first submarine force was established in Lushun.

With the submarine force, Song Xiaofei made Liu Buyun prepare for war, preparing to start recovering Macao and seizing the colonies in Nanyang from the Dutch after the six 15,000-ton battleships and cruisers ordered by Britain in 1902 were in place, after all, there were 30 million overseas Chinese in Nanyang and many resources to meet China's growing population needs. After Song Xiaofei became president, he vigorously invested in the construction of health services, the mortality rate of Chinese was greatly reduced, and the government strictly banned the bad practice of "drowning female infants", and for every girl born, the government provided ten years of food rations, which made China's population swell sharply, from 1895 to 1901, China's total population reached 500 million.