Hearing Lin Zhe's words, Lin Dabiao said: "Lord Hui, since Lord Zun ordered the preparation of the Sailor Battalion, more than 200 soldiers from the Sailor Battalion have been practicing day and night, and the sergeants can barely fight in boats!" ”

"However, all the ships in my sailor battalion are old boats, and the largest warship is only more than 50 soldiers, and the remaining five ships can only plant 20 or 30 soldiers!"

To Lin Dabiao's words, Lin Zhe said: "Now that the sailor is creating, although there are few people in the boat, your practice cannot be slackened!" ”

When he said this, Lin Zhe was also a little helpless, the difficulty of running a navy was even greater than he expected, although at present, he did not expect that he could run an ocean-going navy, or even an offshore navy, he just wanted to make an inland water division.

However, the difficulties of the establishment of the inland water division were still beyond his imagination, not only the lack of qualified naval officers and soldiers in the army, but also the lack of boats.

However, if you want to buy a steam warship, the price is high enough to make Lin Zhe stop, just a two-hundred-ton steam warship, its price is at least 50,000 taels of silver, if you want to buy a steam warship of four or five hundred tons, the hull alone will cost 100,000 taels, if you add artillery, shells, etc., at least 150,000 taels of silver.

Such an expensive price is simply not something that the current Yu Shengjun can afford!

The price of professional steam-assisted power warships is extremely expensive, and ordinary style warships are not cheap, and large-tonnage style warships are tens of thousands of taels.

Although Yu Shengjun's military expenses in the small treasury are a lot, it costs 40,000 taels a month to support those 5,000 people, and it is impossible for Yu Shengjun to take out the money in the small treasury to buy warships.

Therefore, Lin Zhe could only sigh, and first pulled out a few traditional Chinese-style sailing ships under the jurisdiction of the original Bingbei Dao Yamen to the sailor battalion, and as for the new ships, he planned slowly.

So at present, there are only five warships in this naval battalion, all of which are traditional Chinese-style inland river sailing boats, each with an old-style mountain-splitting cannon, a large mountain-splitting cannon of 800 catties, and a small one, a mountain-splitting cannon of 500 catties.

What is even more ironic is that the ships of this naval battalion are not even as good as the ships of the Jianghai Patrol Police Department under the Yamen of the Trade Zone, which not only has many wooden sailing ships, but also has two steamships, namely the Taiping and the Tiebo.

"I learned that several foreign companies are interested in selling their old ships, so I'm going to take you here today!" As soon as Lin Zhe said this, Lin Dabiao next to him showed excitement:

"My lord, but you're going to buy a ship?"

Lin Zhe said: "Now the sailor battalion can't fight like this, so although the money is tight, but it is also necessary to buy a few ships, but don't be too happy, these ships are not new ships, big ships, you go back and take the people from the sailor battalion and the Lin family firm and the Ordnance Bureau to take a look, carefully check the condition of these old ships, turn around and give me a detailed report, and then confirm the purchase of that one!" ”

Speaking of this, Lin Zhe said: "By the way, when you go to see these ships, you must ask clearly, see clearly, if it is a pure sail ship, it must be able to modify the steam engine in the future, and if it cannot be modified, it cannot be wanted!" ”

Lin Dabiao looked puzzled: "Will it be converted into a hot wheel in the future?" ”

Lin Zhe said: "Now this world is already the world of steamships, you look at those foreigner warships on the Huangpu River, there are not a few equipped with steam engines, although we started late, but we can't be too backward!" ”

He can't afford a professional steam warship, and even a professional style warship he Lin Zhe can't afford it, but it's not a big problem to buy a few second-hand sail merchant ships with a smaller tonnage, and the merchant ships in these years are basically armed merchant ships, and there are gun emplacements on them, but they are much less than professional warships.

These armed merchant ships were bought, and they were modified one or two by themselves, and some artillery pieces were added, so it was barely enough to be used on the Yangtze River.

Armed merchant ships with second-hand merchant ships equipped with artillery and steam engine paddle wheels are much cheaper than professional steam warships, and they are suitable for the shy Yu Sheng military.

Lin Dabiao went out with a look of excitement, this sailor battalion purchased ships to expand the scale, he, the battalion commander, was even happier than Lin Zhe, although he didn't understand what the navy was before, and he didn't understand the tactics of water warfare, but among so many senior officers in Yu Shengjun, he was the only one who was proficient in water, and more importantly, in addition to those regiment commanders, he was the most senior deputy regiment commander, even if it was his turn to be promoted.

That's why Lin Zhe transferred him to the Navy Division Battalion as a battalion commander and was promoted to major.

Let an army general take a group of infantry to become a sailor, which is also Lin Zhe's helplessness, because his Yu Shengjun has no professional naval talents and soldiers at all, so he can only let this group of landlubbers get on the boat.

However, since Lin Da became the commander of this naval division, his interest in the naval division has become greater and greater, and he has become more and more eager for those large battle ships, and every time he sees those British battleships with dozens of guns on the Huangpu River, he will show a look of envy and jealousy.

The next day, Lin Dabiao and Han Xiangfang, the general office of Yu Shengjun's Ordnance Bureau, went to inspect several second-hand armed merchant ships that foreign companies were preparing to sell.

They were accompanied by Qin Shenyun, one of the treasurers of the Shanghai branch of the Lin Commercial Bank and the general manager of the Lin Deji Factory, and Fei Xuanbing, the general office of the Yamen Jianghai Patrol Police Department of the Business Zone.

Fei Xuanbing was not a soldier at first, nor was he an official, he was just an ordinary merchant ship captain at the beginning, many years ago Shanghai opened the port, Shanghai merchants raised funds to purchase ships, recruited crew members to establish a ship donation capture and theft bureau, in order to maintain the order of water shipping, but also carried out water salvage and rescue, but later due to the gradual delay of the merchant ships and even did not donate to the ship, the bureau had no funds for a long time.

At that time, Lin Zhe was planning to set up a maritime law enforcement department to maintain law and order on the Huangpu River and the coast, so he directly turned the ship donation and theft bureau that was facing dissolution into the official office of the trade zone and renamed it the 'Jianghai Patrol Police Department', and Fei Xuanbing, who was originally elected to be in charge of the affairs of the ship donation and theft bureau, was also appointed as the general office of the Jianghai Patrol Police Department.

This time, Fei Xuanbing accompanied Lin Dabiao, Han Xiangfang and others to inspect these second-hand merchant ships, as long as it was because he was the only technical bureaucrat who knew how to ship steamships among the many yamen under Lin Zhe, there were these two paddle steamers in the Jianghai Patrol Police Department, and it was better to take this Fei Xuanbing to check whether there was a possibility of adding steam power to these merchant ships in the future.

This group of four people with many entourages soon arrived at the riverside pier!

"This is a merchant ship that Jardine Matheson is expected to sell, with a tonnage of 360 tons, although the tonnage is small, but it is a typical offshore cargo ship, there is no problem at all to go to the open sea, this ship was launched in 1823 in the Western calendar, with six fixed gun positions, which can be equipped with two twelve-pound cannons and four six-pounder guns!"

Qin Shenyun introduced to everyone on the ship: "There is also this one, it is the merchant ship of our Lin firm's partner Xinde Foreign Company, with a tonnage of seven hundred and fifty tons, launched in 1832 in the Western calendar, and the footprints of the service over the years are all over the world, although the gun position is only six fixed gun positions, but its deck area is quite large, and it can be equipped with more guns, and it is not difficult to be equipped with more than ten or even more than twenty guns at that time!" ”

"This is a steamship with sails and steam, with a tonnage of 820 tons, launched in 1837 in the Western calendar, at first it was just a pure sailboat, and in 1845 the Western calendar was equipped with a steam paddle wheeler, with a wide deck area, and the price is half less than other steamships, and the hull price is only 20,000 taels."

"Oh, that's a great price!" Lin Dabiao, who was on the side, was puzzled, according to reason, the price of a brand-new steamship of more than 800 tons in this year started at least 60,000 taels, and even if it was an old ship, it would cost more than 30,000 or 40,000 taels.

This one is only 20,000 taels, which can be regarded as a very cheap!

However, Qin Shenyun quickly gave his answer: "This ship just hit a reef outside the Huangpu River last year, the hull was damaged and a large amount of water was flooded, and the raw silk and tea on the ship with a price of more than 100,000 taels of silver were all soaked. ”

Lin Da nodded after hearing this, no wonder, it turned out that he had to repair it himself when he bought it!

"And this is the ship of the Botong Trading Company, although it is the ship of our Chinese merchants, but the ship was purchased from the South Seas, it is a pure Western sea vessel, with a tonnage of 420 tons, launched in 1844 in the Western calendar, and it has only been launched for ten years, and it is the youngest of these merchant ships sold......"

With Qin Shenyun's words, Lin Dabiao and others checked ship by ship, some of these ships are sail wooden ships, some are sail steam hybrid ships, and there is a pure steam-powered small steamer, most of these are cargo ships running to the ocean, and there are also a few small tonnage and offshore ships that cannot sail far, and most of the ships have a different number of gun emplacements, and they are armed merchant ships with artillery.

The age of these ships is not very large, except for a small number of ships about ten years old, the other ships are generally more than 20 years old, and even more than 30 years old, their maintenance is different, the old and the new are different, but the condition of the ships is generally intact, except for the 820-ton sail steam hybrid cargo ship, the others can set sail at any time.

After considering the newness of these vessels, the potential for refit and the price, Lin Dabiao handed Lin Zhe a report saying that two of them could be purchased.

One was a 420-ton sail ship, and the reason for the purchase was that the ship was still very new, and there was room for later artillery and steam engines, and the price was relatively affordable compared to other ships in good condition.

The other is the 820-ton ship that is damaged and needs to be repaired, the ship is a sail steam hybrid, large tonnage, hybrid these are its advantages, and the most important thing is that its price is cheap, at least half cheaper than ships of the same tonnage, not to mention that Lin Da and others have also checked the merchant ship, the steam engine on the ship is not damaged, it is still usable, as for the damage to the hull, although it takes at least a few thousand taels of silver to repair, but even so the price is still more than half cheaper than the ship of the same tonnage......

The total price required to purchase these two ships is about 30,000 taels, and if you want to increase the number of artillery, you have to depend on the number of artillery, ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 or 30,000.

If you count the cost of the newly recruited soldiers, I am afraid that it will cost fifty or sixty thousand silver before and after, and in the face of such a large amount of investment, Lin Zhe can't help but hesitate!