In March, when Wang Chenhao was in London, the project of cooperating with British Third Sea Secretary Fisher to develop a hunting destroyer (known as a torpedo boat destroyer in the United Kingdom) has already yielded results, and the British Royal Naval Engineering Administration has built the first batch of C-class torpedo boat destroyers on the basis of the "Turbonia" high-speed yacht of Parsons Company, a subsidiary of Beiyang Science and Technology, after installing armor and weapon systems, including a number of hunting destroyers belonging to Wang Chenhao.

According to the first batch of contracts reached between Wang Chenhao and Fisher, Britain built 16 C-class torpedo boat destroyers, six of which were purchased by Wang Chenhao, called Exocet-class hunting ships.

The six Exocet-class hunting ships were named "Exocet", "Pegasus", "Flying Rabbit", "Flying Cat", "Flying Badger", and "Flying Wolf". Numbering starts with CN-DD-101, and the first 100 numbers are reserved for use.

Due to the outbreak of the Qing-Russian War, Wang Chenhao urgently needed these hunting ships to participate in the war, so he added an order for six ships, a total of twelve ships. The last six ships were named "Flying Snake", "Flying Leopard", "Flying Fox", "Flying Tiger", "Flying Dragon" and "Flying Squirrel".

In the next four to six months, the British Naval Engineering Administration gave priority to the construction of hunting ships for Wang Chenhao. A total of eight Exocet-class hunting destroyers were built in the UK, all of which were completed around the first month, and returned home after a short sea trial, and arrived at Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry in late December after more than three months of sailing.

At the same time, the four Exocet-class hunting ships assembled by Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. are also in full swing. Because of the end of the Qing-Russian War, these destroyers failed to participate in the war, and after some overhaul and maintenance by Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, they were incorporated into the Pacific Fleet, and then reorganized into the Fifth and Sixth Fleets of the Royal Navy as the Destroyer Fleet.

The fifth team is organized into "Flying Fish", "Pegasus", "Flying Snake", "Flying Leopard", "Flying Fox", and "Flying Tiger".

The sixth team is organized into "Flying Dragon", "Flying Squirrel", "Flying Rabbit", "Flying Cat", "Flying Badger", and "Flying Wolf". Among them, the "Flying Rabbit", "Flying Cat", "Flying Badger" and "Flying Wolf" four ships were assembled locally, and the parts and components were shipped back to China late, and they were not completed when they were formed.

According to Wang Chenhao's proposal, the Navy Yamen was changed to the Admiralty, and Prince Gong Wang Yi was still the Minister of the Admiralty, in order to reassure the imperial court. Li Hongzhang and Wang Chenhao are vice ministers, but Li Hongzhang has long had no energy to take care of naval affairs, and the reason why he agreed to continue as vice minister was actually to help Wang Chenhao control the Navy Department with two enemies and one enemy.

However, Wang Chenhao couldn't trust Li Hongzhang, he knew that Li Hongzhang would always be loyal to the imperial court, so just in case, Wang Chenhao set up the Navy Staff Headquarters.

The General Staff Headquarters has eight divisions, the first of which is called the military system, the second is called the military administration, the third is the military science, the fourth is the military defense, the medical department is called the military doctor, the secretary department is called the military hub, and the general affairs department is called the military reserve.

The main personnel of the Eighth Division are all carefully selected by Wang Chenhao, and they firmly control the rights of the General Staff Headquarters. The General Staff Headquarters is between the Navy Fleet Headquarters and the Admiralty, and if Wang Chenhao is willing, he can overhead the Admiralty at any time and take control of the Navy.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※ said that this Tokyo, the palace of Prince Chihito.

Since the withdrawal of the army from Korea on its own initiative, the international pattern in Northeast Asia has undergone tremendous changes. In the past, it was said that the contradictions between Russia and Russia allowed the Qing Empire to reap the benefits, but now it is said that the original withdrawal from Korea has eased the contradictions between Russia and Russia, which has caused the contradictions between Qing and Russia to surge. The outbreak of the military conflict between Qing and Russia this time has made them even more combine. The contradiction between Qing and Russia suddenly surpassed the contradiction between Russia and Russia, and this greatly improved the international environment of the Qing Dynasty.

"His Royal Highness the Prince is really clever in this move, and I admire it so much."

In the living room of Prince Chihito's palace, Prime Minister Kiyotaka Kuroda, Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu, Director of the Navy Command Department Shikinori Kayama, Admiral Aritomo Yama of the War Department, and Minister of Finance Ito Hirobumi gathered here to celebrate his 61st birthday.

Prince Chiren, who should have died in the attack on Taiwan in the First Sino-Japanese War, survived because of the change of history. As the backbone of the Navy, Chiren's life brought hope to the revival of the Navy, and also brought unforeseen potential threats to China in the future.

"It is undeniable that this king can make this important decision, and he has to respect our enemies, all thanks to Wang Chenhao."

Chiren raised his glass, and everyone followed suit, but they all looked at each other.

Kayama asked puzzledly, "Why did Your Highness say that?" Wang Chenhao is the biggest enemy of the empire, why do you respect him? ”

Chi Ren looked at the others and saw that the others also had the same expressions as Kayama Shiki, so he smiled and explained, "As an enemy, this king can't wait to eat his flesh and drink his blood. But as an opponent, the king admires him as a hero. If it weren't for his accurate analysis of the pattern of Northeast Asia, this king would not have come up with a strategy to withdraw his troops from Korea and provoke Qing Russia to go to war, so as to profit the empire! Therefore, it is precisely because we have a strong enemy and opponent that we will continue to correct our own shortcomings and continue to improve. Therefore, I propose, a toast to the fact that we can have a formidable enemy! ”

Shiki Kayama exclaimed: "I agree, but Your Highness, your mind is the great hero!" ”

Everyone agreed, laughing and accompanying Chiren to drink it all.

Chi Ren put down his glass and exclaimed: "Wang Chenhao is the most experienced opponent this king has ever seen, this person is almost omnipotent in politics, economy, military and diplomacy, and is the biggest obstacle to the empire's continental policy, and even the biggest threat to the empire. ”

"I agree with Your Highness!"

Ito Hirofumi took a sip of the liquor and said: "Wang Chenhao's body is really incredible, his identity has always been a mystery, except for what he said, we can't find any news about him." ”

Yama Prefecture Aritomo also agreed: "Ito-kun's thoughts coincide with mine. I just can't figure out how he did this at such a young age. He traveled the world and became a billionaire. And it's self-made. If we can know his methods and tricks, the empire will be just around the corner. ”

Kuroda Kiyotaka said with envy on his face: "I really hope that Yamasan-kun's words can come true!" If there is Wang Chenhao's means, it doesn't need much, and raising hundreds of millions of funds will be enough for the empire to recover! ”

Chihito asked, "Kuroda-kun, how is the state politics now?" ”

Kuroda Kiyotaka then said: "Your Royal Highness, because of the strategic layout you proposed, we have given up the competition for Hawaii with the United States, eased the antagonistic relationship with the United States, and also received a large amount of economic assistance from the Americans, which has played a key role in the recovery of the imperial economy. At the same time, it was precisely because of your wise decision that the Empire withdrew its troops from Korea and improved its hostile relations with Russia. Now the Russians are all focused on dealing with the Chinese, and relations with us have improved. And because Russia no longer regards us as enemies, France and Germany are no longer hostile to us. Recently, we have also improved relations with France and Germany, and we have received their commitment to invest in helping us rebuild our economies. ”

Ito Hirobumi suddenly asked, "What is the impact of this international silver crisis on the empire?" Is it still intensifying? ”

Everyone immediately looked at Kuroda Kiyotaka, this problem is very serious, and everyone understands how big the damage caused by the international banking crisis has been to the financial system.

Since it was said to be a silver-standard country, it was hit hard in the international silver crisis and suffered heavy economic losses, which can be described as an even worse blow since the First Sino-Japanese War.

However, Kuroda Kiyotaka's means are still very strong. In response to the crisis, he implemented a financial reform based on the country's creditworthiness in the face of fiscal constraints.

The so-called national credit is based on the people's trust in the country, instead of gold and silver as the basic reserve for issuing money.

Kiyotaka Kuroda carried out a financial reform based on national credit, abolishing the silver standard and directly using paper money as the main currency in circulation, the paper money standard.

This reform is very bold, but it is also a reluctant move. It was said that there were not enough gold reserves to reform the gold standard. However, with the deepening of the international banking crisis, it is said that the continuation of the silver standard will cause heavy losses. In order to change this situation, Kuroda Kiyotaka directly implemented the epoch-making paper money standard with the guarantee of national credit.

The banknote standard, also known as the "free standard". A monetary system in which banknotes issued by the state are used as the standard currency. Its characteristic is that the state does not stipulate the gold content of paper money, nor does it allow paper money to be exchanged with gold (silver), paper money as the main currency circulation, with unlimited legal solvency. At the same time, the state also issued a small amount of metal coinage as auxiliary coins for circulation, but the value of auxiliary coins has nothing to do with the value of the metal commodities used to mint them.

Since the issuance of banknotes is the prerogative of the state, after the nationalization of the central bank, the state entrusts the central bank with the issuance of banknotes. The way in which the central bank issues banknotes is through the credit process, so banknotes are actually a credit currency.

Kuroda Kiyotaka used national credit to enforce the paper money standard, which in the eyes of other countries was absolutely unworkable. However, Kuroda Kiyotaka succeeded, thanks to the single surname of the Yamato people and the incomparable loyalty of the Yamato clan to the Yamato political axe. Kuroda Kiyotaka implemented a compulsory paper money standard and strictly regulated the purchasing power of paper money, thus controlling the huge impact of the depreciation of silver on the economy.

However, despite this, Kuroda Kiyotaka can stabilize the economy by enforcing the paper money standard. However, the mainstream monetary systems of various countries in the world still rely on hard currencies such as gold, silver, and copper as the financial basis, and the hard currencies are used as the benchmark guarantee, which is not recognized by the international community. In order to prevent the outflow of silver and gold, the government had to reduce the scale of foreign trade, and even forbade the private sector to trade gold and silver in large sums of money, which had a certain impact on the economy.

Of course, in terms of the economy as a whole. Under the circumstance that Kuroto was unable to carry out the reform of the gold standard, Kuroda Kiyotaka's method kept the economy from continuing to be hit hard, and the overall gains outweighed the losses.

"To be able to do this, Kuroda-kun, you have already done a very good job!"

Chihito proposed to toast Kuroda Kiyotaka with a glass, and everyone accompanied him to drink.

Hirobumi Ito said, "If you look at countries such as Mexico, it is said that they have suffered heavy losses. One of the main reasons for Russia's war with the Qing Empire was that Russia's silver standard system had been seriously affected and its finances were tight. ”

Chi Ren then turned to Mutsu Munemitsu and asked, "What is the movement of the Qing Zheng Axe?" ”

Mutsu Somitsu said: "I heard that Sheng Xuanhuai established the Daqing International Commercial Bank in Shanghai, and is currently accumulating funds in Shanghai, and I heard that it is preparing to carry out the reform of the gold standard. ”

Kuroda Kiyotaka said: "The Qing government axe does not have a central bank, and his household department is overwhelmed in financial reform, so this Daqing International Trade Bank is testing the waters in advance." It is estimated that if the funds are raised and sufficient funds are obtained, the currency reform will be carried out. ”

Chiren nodded and said, "You say, will that Wang Chenhao get involved?" ”

Ito Hirobumi snorted coldly and said, "That's a certainty!" Wang Chenhao now controls the elite of the Qing Empire's sea and land army, and has built a huge industrial base in the Beijing-Tianjin-Tang region, greatly promoting foreign affairs, coupled with a large amount of money in Wang Chenhao's hands, he will definitely not let go of this opportunity. Because if you can take a stake in the Great Qing Commerce Bank, you can participate in the financial reform of the Qing Zheng Axe, and if you can obtain the currency issuance right of the Qing Zheng Axe, and even manage the financial and tax revenue of the Qing Zheng Axe, it will be equivalent to controlling the economic and financial lifeline of the Qing Zheng Axe. ”

Youpeng in Shanxian sighed: "It looks like this!" ”

Mutsu Munemitsu smiled, "Although your worries are right! However, I don't think the Qing Zheng axe will definitely give Wang Chenhao this chance. ”

Chihito looked at Mutsu Munemitsu and asked with doubts, "What does the foreign minister mean?" ”

Mutsu Somitsu then said: "You may not know that a very interesting thing happened in Yanjing, the capital of the Qing Dynasty, yesterday! ”

"Tell me about it? What's interesting? ”

Prince Chiren hurriedly asked, and everyone hurriedly pricked up their ears.

I only heard Mutsu Munemitsu say: "The Qing-Russian War has just ended, and the Chinese, who have no external threat, immediately began internal strife. Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Empire ordered Wang Chenhao to hand over his Pacific Fleet to the state. ”

Youpeng in Shanxian immediately interjected: "Didn't Wang Chenhao buy the Pacific Fleet with his own money?" Why did Guangxu ask him to turn it in? ”

Everyone had this expression, and they didn't understand it.

Mutsu Munemitsu smiled, "Here's the problem!" The Pacific Fleet was bought by Wang Chenhao himself, which is true. However, such a large fleet was in Wang Chenhao's hands, and Emperor Guangxu was worried that he would rebel. Therefore, it was intended to seize his fleet. But what is interesting is that as soon as Guangxu gave the order, all public opinion began to criticize Guangxu, strongly accusing him of persecuting loyal ministers and spraying the blood of Guangxu's scolding. ”

Ito Hirofumi suddenly laughed and said: "If I'm not mistaken, this must be Wang Chenhao's dissatisfaction with Guangxu, he did it!" ”

Prince Chiren said: "As a courtier, Wang Chenhao should not do this even if he is dissatisfied. That Guangxu is the emperor after all, and he may kill Wang Chenhao in a fit of anger. ”

Mutsu Munemitsu smiled slightly and continued, "The wonderful place is here! After Wang Chenhao scolded Guangxu, he immediately ran to the Empress Dowager Cixi and dedicated the Pacific Fleet to Cixi. Moreover, the reorganization of the Pacific Fleet and the Beiyang Naval Division into the Royal Navy of the Qing Empire won the favor of Cixi, and also blocked Guangxu's mouth, so that he could not be mad at Wang Chenhao. However, Cixi and Guangxu did not agree with each other, and Cixi appointed Wang Chenhao as the commander of the Royal Navy, which was equivalent to returning the Pacific Fleet to Wang Chenhao, and also attached the Beiyang Naval Division to him. ”

Youpeng in Shanxian suddenly said: "Isn't this Wang Chenhao not only not compensating, but also making a lot of money?" ”

Ito Hirobumi also said: "And he also rubbed Guangxu's prestige fiercely, making Guangxu lose face and lose the hearts of the people in front of the people!" And he himself became a great loyal minister, and the common people admired him even more. ”

Chi Ren sneered: "This Wang Chenhao is really kind! High! It's really high! ”

Kuroda Kiyotaka was also full of admiration, but he guessed the words of Mutsu Munemitsu, so he said: "I'm afraid that the foreign minister has something else, this Chinese has just driven away the foreign enemy, and now it is starting to fight." This shows that the contradiction between Guangxu and Wang Chenhao is escalating, if the Qing Empire is in civil strife, or if a civil war breaks out, it will be a good opportunity for the Great Empire! ”

Mutsu Munemitsu smiled: "It's still the Prime Minister's Vision!" ”

Kuroda Kiyotaka smiled and nodded, and the others suddenly understood, and they all showed joy.

Prince Chiren pondered for a while and said, "In the opinion of this king, a civil war will definitely break out in the Qing Empire. This Wang Chenhao took control of the Beiyang Army, and 100,000 elite divisions surrounded the capital of the Qing Empire. He also controls the Royal Navy of the Qing Empire, most of the elite military power of the Qing Empire is in his hands, and his ideas are contrary to the Qing Empire, he is likely to rebel. ”

Hirofumi Ito agreed, "I think so too! Wang Chenhao's ideology was advanced, and the Qing court's ideology was backward, and the two were absolutely incompatible. Now that Guangxu must hate Wang Chenhao to death, even if Wang Chenhao does not rebel, Guangxu will continue to retaliate against him and force him to rebel in the end. ”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Prince Chiren then said: "The Qing Empire is in turmoil, and Russia and other powers are bound to intervene and get a piece of the pie. This is a good opportunity to carve up China, and we cannot be absent. We should be prepared. ”

Shiki Kayama said: "However, our current navy only has some old warships of the West Sea Fleet, and the new warships Fuji and Yashima will return to serve next summer, but with the strength of our navy, it is not enough to compete with the Qing Imperial Royal Navy." ”

Prince Chiren said: "Don't forget that the Russians suffered a great loss in this Qing-Russian war, and they will definitely retaliate. I don't think it will be long. At that time, there will be a full-scale war between Qing and Russia, and we only need to actively prepare for it, and when the time comes, we will take the opportunity to reap the benefits and reap the benefits. ”

Youpeng in Shanxian was worried: "But our military spending is too small, and I am afraid that we will not be able to participate at that time." ”

Prince Chihito smiled slightly, turned to Kuroda Kiyotaka, and said, "This is up to Kuroda-kun, I hope you will restore the empire's economy as soon as possible!" The fate of the empire depends on you! ”

"Please!"

The others also nodded their heads and saluted, and Kuroda Kiyotaka hurriedly returned the salute and said, "Don't worry, you gentlemen, I will do my best!" ”

In order to confront the Royal Navy of the Qing Empire and the Russian Far East Fleet, the Admiralty of the Empire was extremely short of funds, and tightened its belts to save a sum of money for the rebuilding of the Combined Fleet of the Navy.

Since the navy and army have withdrawn from the Korean Peninsula, Russia no longer regards the navy and army as a fierce enemy. In order to confront the Qing Empire, the Russians adjusted their strategy of confrontation and turned from hostility to alliance. Although Russia did not have any money of its own, it could help to improve relations with France and Germany, and at the same time help Russia borrow money from France and Germany to restore the economy.

However, on the pretext of reviving the economy, he used the loans of the United States, France, and Germany to vigorously restore the navy.

At the end of December 1896, he borrowed from France, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and received a total of 350 million yuan, equivalent to 35 million pounds.

With this loan, on the one hand, the general staff headquarters has also drawn up a 10-year military development plan. On the surface, the plan focused on the Qing Empire and was understood by Russia, Germany, and France, but in fact it still wanted to dominate East Asia on its own, and there was no lack of defense against Russia.

In the military expansion plan, the Qing Empire planned to expand to 20 divisions in response to the new army of 36 new towns. Against the Royal Navy of the Qing Empire, it was said that Ben was preparing to restore the combat effectiveness of the combined fleet.

At this time, among the main warships of the Qing Imperial Navy, only the two Dengyun-class battleships that were about to be completed were the two Dengyun-class battleships that were about to be completed, and in this regard, the Fuji-class battleships were two Fuji-class battleships in the Navy. In Wang Chenhao's 66 Fleet plan, it is planned to build six large armored cruisers and six cruisers. In response to Wang Chenhao's plan, the navy also proposed a naval armament plan to build six large armored cruisers and six cruisers.

In response to one 12,000-ton and five 7,000-ton large armored cruisers of the Qing Imperial Navy, the Navy planned to build six large armored cruisers of more than 9,000 tons as a countermeasure.

Two of them were built in Britain, and the Navy ordered two 9,700-ton large armored cruisers from Britain, namely the Asama and Tokiwa. Two 9,900-ton armored cruisers were ordered from the United States, namely the Izumo and the Iwate. A large 9,600-ton armored cruiser, the Yakumo, was ordered from Germany. Ordered a 9,300-ton large armored cruiser to France, the Azuma.

These six large armored cruisers were designed and built as six large armored cruisers that completely suppressed the Royal Navy of the Qing Empire, but the Navy did not order them in one country, but chose Britain, France, Germany, and the United States to start construction at the same time, which caused a certain pressure on the logistics supply of each ship. Although the Navy understands such shortcomings, it has to do so.

On the one hand, the navy was financed by borrowings from Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, and that borrowing from these countries required conditions, so it chose to build warships in these countries. On the other hand, this move is also aimed at improving relations with Britain, France, Germany, and the United States.

For Britain, although he knew that Britain and the Qing Empire were now in a honeymoon period, it was not good for him. However, he knew that the real purpose of the British in supporting the Qing Empire was only to fight against Russia. Once the use value is gone, the Qing Empire is still the object of partition and aggression of the British Empire, and this cannot be changed. In view of this most fundamental factor, he was also convinced that Britain would sooner or later abandon the Qing Empire and choose Yueben. Therefore, the Navy continued to build a large number of warships in Britain.

In response to the six 5,000-ton Haiqi-class armored cruisers of the Qing Imperial Navy, the Navy planned to build six armored cruisers of similar tonnage as a counterpoint. The six medium-tonnage armored cruisers were all built in Britain, namely the Kasaki, Chitose, Tsushima, Shintakaka, Izumi, and Takasago. The tonnage varies slightly, with a minimum of 4900 tons and a maximum of 5300 tons. Of course, another purpose of choosing to build these six armored cruisers in Britain is to take the opportunity to find out the construction parameters and construction period of the Haiqi-class armored cruisers of the Imperial Imperial Navy, so as to have a good idea of it.

In addition to carrying out large-scale arms expansion, the Navy has also accelerated the pace of building up the naval industry.

At this time, the Tsumoto Navy successively built a series of naval industries, such as the Yokosuka Naval Shipyard, the Kure Naval Shipyard, and the Sasebo Naval Arsenal. Initially, although he lagged behind the Qing Empire in the basic naval industry and initially took the road of introducing foreign shipbuilding technology, his education was more thorough than that of the Qing Empire's Westernization Movement, and he trained a large number of technicians and absorbed and digested more and faster technologies. This led to the rapid development of the naval industry in this area, and at this time it had caught up with the level of the naval industry of the Qing Empire.

This is manifested in the fact that while the Navy is purchasing from abroad, the country is designing and building new warships on its own. For example, the construction of the Suma was started on August 1, 1892 at the Yokosuka Naval Yard, launched on March 19, 1895, and completed on December 2, 1896.

The construction of this warship was very slow, in addition to the fact that the naval industry started late and was constantly studying and exploring, mainly because the economic crisis hindered its construction, and it took more than four years to complete. Despite this, it was also stronger than the Qing Empire. Because after the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Empire has not yet launched a self-built large-tonnage warship.

At the same time, the Navy, despite the economic crisis, did not abandon the construction of warships. Following the Suma, the construction of the Akashi Ship began at the Yokosuka Naval Works on August 6, 1894, and it was named "Akashi" on May 27, 1895. It was launched on December 18, 1896. As a test ship for learning experience, the ship is similar to the Daji of Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, with a long construction period and is expected to be completed in 99 years.

Of course, like Wang Chenhao, the Navy also sent cadets to Britain on a large scale to learn combat tactics.

(To be continued)