On June 13, Wang Chenhao and his entourage arrived in London.

While staying at the London Legation in Britain, Wang Chenhao received an urgent telegram from Xu Jingcheng, saying that the Russian Admiralty planned to send an ocean-going fleet to fight in the Far East against Wang Chenhao's private fleet. This fleet will be drawn from the Russian Baltic Fleet, but the details of the Russian Admiralty are strictly secret and unknown to the outside world.

This news made Wang Chenhao extremely nervous, and hurriedly called Xu Jingcheng back, asking Xu Jingcheng to further understand the situation. At the same time, Wang Chenhao and Li Jingfang made an appointment to meet with British Foreign Secretary Kimberley.

Wang Chenhao's meeting with Kimberly was mainly to put some eye drops on the issue of Anglo-Russian confrontation. Sadaoyi's assassination in St. Petersburg poured cold water on the already tenacious Anglo-Russian relationship, and British protesters can be seen every day in Downing Street. Now Russia is preparing to send an additional fleet to the Far East, which will have a major impact on the confrontation of Qing and Russian naval forces.

"Lord Wang don't have to worry, there are not many warships in the Russian Baltic Fleet that can be used for ocean-going operations. If this happens, I think the British Empire has enough decommissioned warships to deal with them. ”

Kimberly's attitude towards Russia's sending warships to the Far East was unclear, and the promise to Wang Chenhao also had another purpose, that is, to let Wang Chenhao spend money on the decommissioned warships that Britain had mothballed. Kimberley never forgot to do business and was a model for the British Empire. It's just that although Wang Chenhao has a lot of money, he is not interested in spending a lot of money to buy some outdated warships.

"Of course, I'll consider it if necessary." Wang Chenhao continued: "However, I hope that Your Excellency can promise me one thing. ”

Seeing that Wang Chenhao was interested in buying retired warships from Britain, Kimberly said happily: "Lord Wang, please speak, if I can help, I will do my best." ”

Wang Chenhao smiled and said: "I hope that once the Russian Admiralty sends warships from the Baltic Sea to the Far East, your country will be able to block the Suez Canal and prohibit Russian ships from passing!" ”

Kimberly laughed: "What's so hard about that? At present, the Empire and Russia are at loggerheads, and if the Russians do not give us a satisfactory account of the assassination of Minister Sadaoyi, the Empire will take the necessary retaliatory measures. The Suez Canal is only one of them, and the ban on Russian ships is just one of them. It's just that this does not prevent Russian ships from going to the Far East, they can make a detour to Africa. ”

Wang Chenhao smiled and said, "I know this very well. I'm just going to let them take a detour to Africa so I can have an extra three months to prepare. For example, it takes time to buy a warship and hire a crew from your country. ”

Kimberly was very happy to see Wang Chenhao's explanation, and he seemed to think that Wang Chenhao would definitely buy a battleship in Britain. He even wished that the Russians would send more warships to the Far East, so that he could help the British political axe sell all the old and obsolete warships at a high price.

It's just that he couldn't have imagined that Wang Chenhao's purpose in saying this was just to get the British side to strictly block the Suez Canal. Wang Chenhao didn't plan to buy the retired warships of the British at all, he just wanted to delay the Russian fleet to the Far East.

On 20 June, in accordance with the contract reached with Wang Chenhao, the Chilean Navy sailed two warships, the Bulad and the Blancoup, to the British military port of Portsmouth. Wang Chenhao sent Gao Erqian, You Xuekai, Chen Changling, and Lin Fan to inspect and inspect the second ship, and after inspection, the second ship Brad and Bai Langgu basically met the standard of condition promised by the Chilean side when the contract was signed. As a result, Wang Chenhao and the Chilean minister to Britain completed the final transaction procedures for the final payment, and so far Wang Chenhao and the seven warships negotiated with Chile and Argentina have all completed the transaction.

On June 22, the Blad and Blancou entered the Thamesironworks factory in London for a complete overhaul. In addition to the hull overhaul, like the other five warships, the second ship will be modernized by the Marconi Radio Company, a subsidiary of Beiyang Ordnance, and they will be equipped with a telephone system and a radio system.

On June 23, Wang Chenhao convened the first plenary meeting of the fleet. At the meeting, Wang Chenhao promulgated a series of appointment orders and fleet regulations.

The first is the establishment of the fleet headquarters, Wang Chenhao himself as the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Lin Jianzhang as the deputy commander of the fleet, Gao Erqian, You Xuekai, and Zhao Sheng as the fleet staff officers, and the British Admiral Sir Lyons as the chief of the fleet staff, and he brought 103 British Navy senior officers and sergeant majors to form an advisory group, leaving 12 people as the staff officers of the fleet headquarters, and the others were delegated to each ship to serve as advisers to each ship, bridge staff officers, ship attendants, navigators, and so on. The fleet headquarters was set up on the battleship Weiyuan, and in Wang Chenhao's absence, the fleet was commanded by Lin Jianzhang as the acting commander, assisted by Sir Lyons, chief of the general staff.

Next, Wang Chenhao renamed the ships of his private fleet. The battleship Blad was renamed Weiyuan, with the board number CN-BB-3 (the third battleship of the Chinese Navy), and the eight long-range battleships of the Beiyang Naval Division formed the Nine Great Battleships. Captain Lin Fan, Chief of Staff Wang Shouchang. The BB-1 and BB-2 ships were retained by the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships, and the two sister ships of the Dengyun-class battleships, Dengyun and Tayun, were numbered BB-4 and BB-5 respectively.

The Bailanggu is a 4,600-ton warship, less than 5,000 tons, and is classified as a light warship by Wang Chenhao. Since the ship is a supplement to the five Haiqi-class warships in the 66th Fleet, in order to facilitate the division, Wang Chenhao also renamed the ship Hailan, forming six sea warships, with the port number CN-CLA-6 (the No. 6 light armored cruiser of the Chinese Navy), captain Chen Jiliang, and chief of staff Wu Daqing. The other five Haiqi-class light armored cruisers under construction are named Haiqi (CN-CLA-1), Hairong (CN-CLA-2), Haichou (CN-CLA-3), Haichen (CN-CLA-4), and Haixi (CN-CLA-5).

The Esmeralda was renamed the Yu Yong, and the tonnage of the ship reached 7,020 tons, exceeding the category of light warships, so it was classified as a heavy warship, with the board number CN-Cha-2 (the No. 2 heavy armored cruiser of the Chinese Navy), with the captain Du Xigui and the chief of staff Li Chengmou. Among them, the CN-Cha-1 is reserved for the Hunter under construction, which is the only warship with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons among the large armored cruisers of the 66th Fleet, so she is entitled to the treatment of the No. 1 ship.

The Rivadavia was renamed the Brave Brave, with the board number CN-Cha-3, the captain Chen Qingping, and the chief of staff Guo Baochang.

The Moreno was renamed the Dou Yong, with the board number CN-Cha-4, the captain Chen Shaokuan, and the chief of staff Xie Taiping.

The Takabku was renamed the Fenyong, with the board number CN-Cha-5, the captain Chen Changling, and the chief of staff Li Chaobin.

The Minister Centno was renamed the Gangyong, with the board number CN-Cha-6, the captain Wu Ankang, and the chief of staff Chen Xiang.

Five of the seven warships were now modernized on the slipways of the British shipyards, and the other two battleships, the Brave and the Douyong, of Italian origin, were directly retrofitted with telephone systems and radio systems at the Ansaldo shipyard, and after the installation was completed, they would assemble at the British military port of Portsmouth for adaptation training while waiting for the order to return home.

At present, the radio devices produced by the Marconi company have a communication distance of no more than 35 kilometers, and with the help of a main mast several tens of meters high, the communication distance is correspondingly increased by 40 kilometers. During this period, the distance of naval engagement was between 800 meters and 3,000 meters, and the battle formation spacing between the ships of Wang Chenhao's private fleet was about 500 meters to 2,000 meters.

However, a shipboard telephone system and radio system were quite expensive, costing up to £50,000 to produce alone. But Wang Chenhao still decided to install it, and the money was worth spending compared to the great efficiency and role of telephone communications and radio communications in naval warfare.

The affairs of the fleet were going well, and the mercenaries on each ship of the fleet numbered four thousand, but for the sake of insurance they were not allowed to carry guns and weapons on board. However, the 1,000 Chinese officers and men on board were all issued with weapons, armed with Belgian-made 9mm revolvers. They will shoulder the security of the fleet and prevent the mercenaries in the fleet from scratching or mutiniing. Of course, the possibility of mutiny is very low, after all, these mercenaries were brokered by the British Admiralty, and once the mutiny will seriously affect the political image of the British Navy, the British Admiralty will never allow such a thing to happen.

Li Guodong is already working on the establishment of an intelligence station, and Wang Chenhao has no more knowledge to teach him in this regard, so he can only rely on his own continuous exploration.

Wang Chenhao's original plan included sneaking close to the Spanish seas and bringing two huge underwater shipwrecks there, one of them was the Spanish gold fleet and the other was the British gold ship, both of which were full of gold jewelry. But he found that the location of the two treasures was within Spanish territorial waters, and that the Spanish navy was cruising there, so it was difficult to get his hands on them. As a last resort, Wang Chenhao had no choice but to give up these two treasures first, and wait for the opportunity to get them out later.

There were still two months left for the ships of the fleet to complete the upgrade, and Wang Chenhao ordered Lin Jianzhang to take charge of the fleet, and Li Jingfang assisted from the side. Wang Chenhao led his salvage team across the Atlantic to the United States, and he wanted to put some eye drops on Yueben in front of the Americans, so that the United States and Yueben could not cooperate too happily. At the same time, Wang Chenhao also plans to make some money in the United States and then return to China, after all, he is now raising a fleet alone, and the daily coal burning money is an astronomical amount, and it is really difficult to feed them without making more money. At the same time, there are also several shipwrecks near the coastline of the Americas, and they have all been salvaged along the way.

At the end of June, Wang Chenhao received a telegram from Xu Jingcheng before his departure, which said that the Russian Admiralty had sent several additional warships to the Far East, and that the Russian Admiralty had allegedly sent a secret telegram to allow the fleet to launch an attack on Wang Chenhao's private fleet, but this news was unconfirmed and was only speculation.

Due to the strict secrecy of the Russian Admiralty, the name and surname of the specific battleship are not clear. But the officers of the Russian Admiralty [***] were still pried open by some journalists, knowing that one battleship, a large armored cruiser and two protective cruisers were drawn from the Baltic Fleet to fight in the Far East.

The Russian Baltic Fleet has a large number of warships and strong firepower, but most of them are shallow sea warships with low freeboard, which are quite qualified for use in the Baltic Sea, but they are not suitable for ocean-going voyages, and their seaworthiness is extremely poor. Among the battleships of the Russian Navy, there were only a handful of battleships suitable for ocean-going voyages, and the first of the battleships that could sail to sea was the great battleship Sisoliki, which was built in 1891, completed in 1894, and commissioned with the Baltic Fleet in June 1895.

Starting with the "Great Sisoya" was a turning point for the Russian Navy to blue water. It should also be emphasized that although the "Great Sisoya" was equipped with very few guns (in addition to the front and rear twin 12-inch guns, only a total of 6 6-inch secondary guns were installed on the port and port sides), he was equipped with a new 40-fold diameter 12-inch Model 1895 main gun, which was a great improvement in range and penetration ability compared with the 32-fold diameter 12-inch Model 1877 main guns commonly equipped with previous Russian warships.

The first step in Nicholas II's "Great Navy" plan was to start construction of three "Poltavaclass" battleships, a small warship that was modeled after the "Great Sisoya" but built with a moderate reduction, and its design also referenced the American "Indiana"-class battleships. This small warship, originally intended for use in the Baltic Sea, was built as an imaginary enemy of the new German armored cruiser. The most basic combat mission was to protect shipping lines in the Baltic Sea, to drive out and destroy the armored cruisers of the German Navy. Due to the reduced tonnage, a traditional 12-inch gun was too cumbersome for such a small battleship, so the Russians installed a 10-inch gun on their own initiative. With the exception of the four Model 1891 45x diameter 10-inch guns arranged on the central axis at the front and rear, the eight 6-inch secondary guns were all mounted in four turrets on the open deck, rather than the more traditional broadside gun profiles. In this way, the problem of the silhouette secondary gun being unable to shoot due to sea water erosion in bad sea conditions is avoided. At the same time, the "Harvey method" was also used for hardening on the broadside armor belt, and the overall weight of the armor was reduced due to the increase in strength.

In general, the "Poltava class" was slightly inferior in firepower (but it seemed to be enough for a small battleship with a standard displacement of less than 9000 tons), and the nautical surname was good, but the stable surname was lacking. The reason is that the design of its tower secondary gun is really a bit more than worth the loss, because the original design intention of this class is to obtain a relatively good stable surname and seaworthy surname as the premise, but the existence of the armored auxiliary turret on the deck makes the weight of the upper part of the hull increase significantly, so it is inevitable for this small battleship to have a stable surname.

Later, in 1894, only one Rotislav Class could be seen as a smaller version of the Great Sisoa, with the main improvements being the secondary guns, the abolition of the turret design, and the return to the traditional silhouette with three guns on each side. This improvement also paid off, as the "Rytasrov" was excellent both in terms of nautical and stable due to the noticeable drop in the weight of the upper part of the hull. It is worth mentioning that this battleship was also experimentally installed by the Russians with a heavy oil and coal mixed boiler, but the ship is currently in service with the Black Sea Fleet, and judging by the current attitude of the Turkish Empire towards Russia, the ship cannot leave the Black Sea.

Russia only sent one battleship, so it must be the largest tonnage and the most fierce firepower, which is in line with the mentality of the Russians to save face, and Wang Chenhao concluded that it should be the Sisoya.

As for the large armored cruiser, the only thing that Russia is currently capable of going to sea is the improved Rurik-class Russian, which was built by the Balticshipyard and has a displacement of 12,195 tons and six 200 mm guns, which is an improved and enhanced version of the Rurik. This ship was a great headache for Wang Chenhao, because his fleet was already very troublesome against one Rurik, and if the Russians were added, the situation would become very unfavorable.

As for the two protective cruisers, Wang Chenhao has already learned from the French shipyard Lehavre, which suddenly worked overtime to complete the final outfitting of the Svetlana and Admiralkornilov ahead of schedule, and the French media have broken the news that the Russian Navy will send the two latest protective cruisers to the Far East. The tonnage of these two battleships is about 3800, equipped with 6 152 mm main guns, 6 76 mm rapid-fire guns, and the speed is about 20 knots. The second ship cooperated with the operation of the Russians, which would pose a huge threat to its own fleet.

After analyzing, Wang Chenhao muttered after a long time: "You have to solve them halfway!" ”