After returning to Port Arthur, the Zhenyuan ship was immediately sent to the dock for repairs, and Wang Chenhao was once again met with strong onlookers, but he still refused to disclose the relevant details, and others could not force him to say it.

In the next few days, Ding Ruchang assigned all the 800 officers and men of the mine battalion to Wang Chenhao's dispatch and organized them into a mine fleet to be responsible for demining work.

In this way, Wang Chenhao was promoted from the Jiaolong pipe belt to the governor of the mine fleet, and his rank soared to the rank of deputy general in just one month, which is equivalent to the modern rank of rear admiral.

As the governor of the mine fleet, Wang Chenhao first had to understand the types, models, mine-laying methods, mine-sweeping techniques and other relevant knowledge of contemporary mines. So he selected 20 excellent mine operators, who were responsible for explaining to Wang Chenhao the layout and characteristics of various types of mines, and the most important thing was to tell him how to clear mines, so that Wang Chenhao knew what to do.

Mines have appeared for n years ago, but the first time they became famous was in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, when Russia caused a number of large battleships and cruisers to sink the navy at a very small cost of mines, and since then countries around the world have begun to pay attention to the role of mines.

But in the last decade of the late nineteenth century, mines, although developed to a certain extent, were far less complex than later generations.

At this time, there are generally two kinds of mines in the world, one is drifting mines, and the other is anchor mines. Drifting mines do not have a fixed position, they drift with the tide and float on the surface of the water. An anchor mine is a kind of mine fixed to a certain depth, which is fixed to a certain depth by means of a mine anchor and a mine.

Because there is no fixed location, drifting mines are only widely deployed in the sea area of the declared war zone, and they drift on their own with the currents and tides, and the chance of hitting them is not great, but it can scare the enemy.

They did not dare to release drifting mines near the waterway and port, because if they drifted on the waterway and at the port gate, they would accidentally injure their own warships and civilian ships. Therefore, the mines laid in the waterways and ports are basically anchor mines.

Anchor Thunder, as the name suggests. It is an iron anchor for fixing the depth tied to the lower end of the mine, and a rope (iron chain) to prevent the mine from drifting away.

The mines of this period are triggered by mines, that is, they explode after impact, of course, the impact requires a certain speed and tonnage of ships, and it cannot be hit by a small fish and explode.

Each mine of the Beiyang Naval Division Mine Battalion has 36 impact antennae, which are arranged in a 360-degree direction, and are equipped with a firing pin primer to detonate the mine. Small mines have a charge of 180 kg each, which is equivalent to the explosive yield of an 18-inch black-headed torpedo, which can easily sink a 2,000-ton ship; The medium size is used to deal with ships of about 5,000 tons, and the explosive yield of large mines reaches the power of three 18-inch black-headed torpedoes, which is enough to sink any battleship of more than 10,000 tons.

Mines are called "weapons of poor countries" because they are cheap to build, easy to arrange, and 10 to 200 times more difficult to remove. Until the 21st century, there are still 520,000 mines from the World War II that have not been removed because of the high cost.

However, decades later, advanced mines such as pressure, magnetism, and noise had not yet appeared at this time, so Wang Chenhao dared to use sonar and ultrasound to detect mines.

Although the means of laying mines in this period were simple, demining was not an easy task. To remove an anchor mine, remove its anchor and bring it to the surface, then retract it. However, mine soldiers can only rely on manpower to remove iron anchors, so often the iron anchors hanging under a mine weigh several tons, and it takes considerable manpower and time to remove them. However, some mines directly tie the iron cable to the bottom of the seabed, and it is difficult for manpower to pull it out.

But these are quite simple for Wang Chenhao, and the underwater lifting capacity of Jiaolong's robotic arm can easily handle them.

Wang Chenhao quickly figured out the division of labor in the mine fleet, and he drove the Jiaolong to be responsible for detecting the location of the mines, and holding up the mine anchors and mines, while the officers and men of the mine battalion were responsible for removing the mine anchors and mines and removing the mines.

This is to deal with the anchor mines in the waterway, and there is no need for Wang Chenhao to deal with the floating mines outside the harbor, and the officers and men of the mine battalion can take a big fishing net and drag them away.

After Wang Chenhao finalized the matters related to the mine fleet, Ding Ruchang also prepared the lightning strike fleet.

Mine-strike ships, which later represented torpedo destroyers, at this time denoted a fleet of torpedo boats.

The main fleet of the Beiyang Naval Division has 15 torpedo boats, including "1st on the left", "2nd on the left", "3rd on the left", "1st on the right", "2nd on the right", "3rd on the right", "Fulong", "Dingyi", "Ding2", "Zhen1", "Zhen2", "Zhongjia", "Zhongb", "Ganyi", and "Gan2".

Looking at the name, you can know that they are carried by the camels of the ships of the Beiyang Naval Division, the left prefix is carried by the ships of the left wing, the right prefix is carried by the ships of the right wing, the Dingzhen No. 2 ship can carry three torpedo boats, the first and second ships are carried by the Jiyuan ship, and the first and second are carried by the Zhiyuan ship.

These torpedo boats are generally between 28 tons and 74 tons, equipped with a 150-degree wide-angle torpedo launcher, with a speed of 13~16 knots. Fulong has the largest and most advanced tonnage, 120 tons, two 210-degree wide-angle 14-inch torpedo launchers, four torpedoes, a speed of 24.2 knots, and a defense of 37 rapid-fire guns.

Fulong was bought back by Li Hongzhang from the Fujian Navy Division for 60,000 taels of silver, but in order to cooperate with this operation, Li Hongzhang once again made a low voice to Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Liangjiang, and spent 180,000 taels of silver to seconded eight mine-shaped torpedo boats under his control to Beiyang, namely "Lei Gan", "Lei Kun", "Lei Li", "Lei Kan", "Lei Zhen", "Lei Xun", "Lei Gen", and "Lei Dui", known as the Liangjiang Bagua Torpedo Battalion. These eight torpedo boats were ordered by Zhang Zhidong in 1884 from the Elbingschichau shipyard in Germany, with a displacement of 26 tons, a speed of 19.5 knots, and a 14-inch torpedo tube.

Then, Li Hongzhang spent another 50,000 taels of silver to seconded the three torpedo boats of the Guangdong Navy Division, "Thunder Dragon", "Thunder Tiger", and "Thunder Central", to Beiyang from Li Hanzhang, the governor of Liangguang.

Li Hanzhang and Li Hongzhang are brothers, so naturally they don't have to spend money on secondment, but Li Hongzhang still used 50,000 taels of silver as the starting fee for the three torpedo boats in Guangdong.

These three boats, like the torpedo boats in Beiyang, were purchased in 1882 from the Volkeng factory in Germany, and they were also ordered by Zhang Zhidong when he was the governor of Liangguang to compete with Li Hongzhang.

And Zhang Zhidong relieved himself to help, in addition to Li Hongzhang spending money, it was mainly because the Beiyang Naval Division won the battle in the Yellow Sea. Because the Southern Navy Division refused to seconded the warship to the north before, for fear that Li Hongzhang would ruin their family background. Now that Beiyang is victorious, Zhang Zhidong is no longer easy to refuse, so he will send a favor to Li Hongzhang along the river.

On 24 October, 11 torpedo boats seconded from Nanyang arrived at the Lushun Naval Base one after another, and Ding Ruchang assigned them to the lightning strike fleet. In this way, the number of torpedo boats in the Thunderstrike Fleet surged to 26, which raised the morale of the officers and men of the Beiyang Naval Division.