Xiao Zhenlei insisted on waiting until Cheng Biguang's fleet arrived and participated in the review ceremony before going to the hospital to get the bullets, this news was known by the people on the dock were extremely moved, people paid attention to Xiao Zhenlei, seeing that he had gauze wrapped around his arm, the bleeding had stopped, but he still looked calm, his body was straight, everyone was quiet, and no one spoke anymore.

Sa Zhenbing, Ma Boyang and others saw Xiao Zhenlei insisting, although they were anxious, they had no choice but to give up persuasion, and let people get sugar water for Xiao Zhenlei to drink, drinking some sugar water after blood loss can indeed relieve the weak state of the body, Xiao Zhenlei felt better after a few minutes after drinking a bowl of sugar water.

Fortunately, only half an hour later, there was a melodious whistle in the distance, and three ships appeared on the river, each of these three warships was about 100 meters, although it was not as large as the large warships of the great powers, but at this time it was already the largest ship in the Chinese Navy.

"Coming, coming, this is our battleship!" Seeing the ship appear on the river, the people on the pier immediately cheered and waved one after another, most of them holding small national flags.

Soon, three warships including the Haiqi arrived, Haiqi Hao was the first to dock, the Zhaohe and Yingrui were moored side by side on the river, and the sailors on the ship stood in a neat line on the side of the ship facing the dock, although these sailors were still wearing the clothes of Qing Dynasty soldiers, but they had already lost their whips.

The bridge was lowered and set up on the pier, and Cheng Biguang, who was wearing the uniform of the Qing @ Korean Navy, walked towards the pier with the main officers of the battleship, and the chief officers of the other two warships also rowed towards the dock in a small boat.

Seeing Xiao Zhenlei and Sa Zhenbing, Cheng Biguang and the officers behind him didn't know how to salute for a while. According to the rules of the Qing Dynasty, it is obviously inappropriate to perform a thousand lines of kneeling, but it is not appropriate to perform a military salute.

Xiao Zhenlei saw the embarrassment of Cheng Biguang and others. Hurriedly stepped forward and held Cheng Biguang's hand and said, "General Cheng, welcome you back." You have cared for the motherland, not only completed the task of participating in the enthronement ceremony of the British king, but also publicized the national prestige of our country in Mexico and other places, protected overseas Chinese, and won glory for the motherland, thank you! ”

Cheng Biguang was excited when he heard this, and he was already emotional, but now he couldn't help but shed tears in his eyes, and he hurriedly said with tears: "As a member of the country's coastal defense force. It is our duty to uphold the dignity of the country! ”

"Good, good!" Xiao Zhenlei shook hands and walked over to the officers behind him.

Cheng Biguang saw that he had gauze wrapped around his arm, and was wondering, he turned his head to look over, this was Sa Zhenbing coming over and saying: "There was an assassination incident on the dock just now, and the target of the assassin was the commander-in-chief, he was shot in the arm, and the bullet was stuck in the bone. We're going to take him to the hospital, but he insists on waiting until you arrive and you're done with the parade, and you go ahead and arrange the parade, the sooner the Commander-in-Chief goes to the hospital, the better! ”

Cheng Biguang didn't expect such a thing to happen. Thinking that Xiao Zhenlei had to wait until they arrived despite his pain, he was moved in his heart and hurriedly turned around and went to the battleship to prepare. In fact, before this, when the fleet was berthed in Zhoushan Port, he had already received a telegram from Sa Zhenbing in the port, so he had already made preparations. Just waiting for Xiao Zhenlei to go on the battleship for review.

In order to buy time for Xiao Zhenlei to go to the hospital, under the auspices of Sa Zhenbing. The welcoming ceremony ended quickly, and Sa Zhenbing, Cheng Biguang, and other admirals surrounded Xiao Zhenlei and walked to the Haiqi ship to inspect the officers and men and the equipment on the warship.

"Welcome home!" Xiao Zhenlei walked in front of a row of drainage soldiers, waving and shouting as he walked.

The sailors shouted in unison: "Swear to die to serve the motherland!" ”

After inspecting the sailors, Xiao Zhenlei watched the weapons and equipment, the control tower, the sailors' accommodation cabin, the dining room, the ammunition depot, and the power room on the battleship, accompanied by the admirals.

Xiao Zhenlei then inspected the Zhaohe and Yingrui respectively, the sailors and officers on these two battleships had gone to London for training a few years earlier, and when the training was completed, the two battleships were also built, and they drove these two battleships back with Cheng Biguang.

For Zhaohe and Yingrui, Xiao Zhenlei believes that according to the tonnage of these two battleships, the caliber of the guns is somewhat large, and the number is small, cruisers of this tonnage generally do not need to install such a large-caliber main gun, only need to follow the rapid-fire guns of 100 mm caliber, which can save some tonnage and increase power to increase speed, but now that the battleship has also been driven back, it is impossible to let the British modify it, so they can only use it first, and then see if they can modify it themselves.

After returning to the dock from the battleship, Sa Zhenbing, Cheng Biguang and others strongly asked Xiao Zhenlei to go to the hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds, but Xiao Zhenlei couldn't survive it, so he had to take a car to the hospital under Ma Boyang's arrangement.

Before getting into the car, Xiao Zhenlei thought about it and called Sa Zhenbing and Cheng Biguang into the car, and the two knew that Xiao Zhenlei might have something to talk to them, so they hurriedly arranged the affairs of the fleet and got into the car with Xiao Zhenlei.

On the way to the hospital, Xiao Zhenlei said to Sa Zhenbing and Cheng Biguang, who were sitting on the left and right: "The construction progress of the two battleships and two heavy cruisers we ordered from the four shipyards in the United States has been completed by about one-third, and this speed is still very fast, so we must arrange for enough sailors to go to the United States in the near future to participate in the warship operation training, and when the ship is completed, we will drive back directly. ”

Sa Zhenbing nodded and said, "Okay, let's prepare immediately after we go back, so how can the recruited sailors go to the United States?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei said: "Take the merchant ship to the United States, I have negotiated with the American side about these things, the staff of the American Embassy in Shanghai will find a ship for us, anyway, as long as there is a ship to the United States, we will arrange for some people to get on the ship, until all the sailors are sent away, General Sa, you have to contact the people of the American Embassy in Shanghai in advance for a good time!" ”

"Understood!"

At this time, Cheng Biguang asked: "Commander-in-chief, you just said two battleships and two heavy cruisers?" We all know about battleships, battleships with large-caliber main guns and more than a certain number of tonnage, but what is the matter with this heavy cruiser, I only know about cruisers, but I don't know when there will be heavy cruisers? ”

Xiao Zhenlei was stunned when he heard this, and then remembered that the concept of heavy cruiser was only put forward after World War I in his previous life, and there is no such name as heavy cruiser now, he smiled: "That's the case, I call a cruiser with a displacement of more than 6,000 tons, no more than 10,000 tons, and a main gun caliber of no more than 203 mm as a heavy cruiser; The upper caliber of the main gun is less than 155 mm, and the displacement is less than 6000 tons for light cruisers! ”

Sa Zhenbing only then understood why Xiao Zhenlei said that there were two heavy patrols, and Cheng Biguang suddenly realized when he heard it: "So that's the case!" And what if a heavy cruiser with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons? ”

Xiao Zhenlei smiled when he heard this: "There is no need to build such a big heavy cruiser, it is a waste of silver to build so big, it is better to build a battleship directly, if the main gun of a battleship is 203 mm caliber, unless the other party is a battleship with rough skin and thick flesh, otherwise other types of battleship protective armor cannot prevent such a large caliber fire attack of 203 mm, what is the use of a cruiser no matter how big it is?" The greater the tonnage, the higher the requirements for power, forget it, let's not talk about this for the time being, call the two of you, in addition to the matter of organizing sailors to go to the United States for training just now, another thing is that I just looked at these three warships, and the Haiqi ship has also been in service for more than ten years, can it still maintain a speed of 24 knots now? In addition, Yingrui and Zhaohe, I also looked at it just now, the design is a little unreasonable, a lot of space is wasted, for the current light cruiser, what can a speed of 20 knots do? Such a slow speed can only be chased by others, I have thought about it, now our power machinery plant has been able to produce large steam turbine units and large diesel units, if you agree, drive these three warships into the shipyard for refit and maintenance, replace and upgrade the power system, the weapon system will not be replaced for the time being, and then talk about it later, what do you see? ”

Sa Zhenbing and Cheng Biguang glanced at each other, and Cheng Biguang hurriedly said, "How long does it take to upgrade the modification?" How many knots can the speed of these three ships be increased after the refit? ”

Xiao Zhenlei said: "I have already found someone to calculate, if these three warships are carried out at the same time, it will take three months, and one will need a month to be refitted and upgraded, after the modification and upgrade is completed, the speed of the Haiqi can be increased to 25.5 knots, and the speed of Zhaohe and Yingrui can be increased to 28 knots, which is already 2 to 3 knots higher than the speed of the fastest cruisers in the world!" ”

The greatest credit for the progress of engine power technology belongs to Tesla, and it is his guidance and technical support provided by the Power Research Institute, which makes the power of the large steam turbine and large diesel unit developed by the Power Research Institute exceed that of other countries.

The two were very happy when they heard this, and Cheng Biguang hurriedly said, "Is this true?" Does our warship really have any hope of surpassing the great powers in speed? Isn't this the hope of our navy catching up with and surpassing the great powers? ”

Xiao Zhenlei saw that the two of them were a little overjoyed, and couldn't help but pour cold water and said: "In a short period of time, it is impossible for my country to catch up with and surpass the Western powers, because we have no money now, besides, whether the navy can be strong is not just a matter of money, I think you should be very clear about this!" ”

Although he received a certain blow, Cheng Biguang still said: "We know this, as long as we do not lag behind in technology, it is a matter of time before we catch up with and surpass the powers. Hahaha??????". (To be continued......) R1292