But I saw the sincerity of Nakajima Saki's face, and even said many times that he asked for more help, and Nakajima Saki also repeatedly said that he hoped to be flexible in the purchase of ships.

The implication is that we can't afford brand-new, good-performing ironclads, but we can expect them to be slightly less effective, even second-hand.

That's the trouble of talking about the ordnance business with these small countries!

The same 1858 rifle, the Turkish Ottoman purchased 50,000 in one go, or brand new, but compared to the Ottoman, he missed the United States during the civil war more, in those years, the Americans had to purchase several batches every year, and there was no need to talk about it, the Americans directly issued orders, and at that time it was hundreds of thousands of rifles to buy.

It's a pity that there are no such big tyrants as the United States anymore.

Now if you want to negotiate a batch of ordnance business, you have to touch it around, and you may not be able to negotiate it even if you say that your saliva is dry.

After the representative of the Pacific Trading Company returned, he first consulted with his colleagues, and finally came to the conclusion that if he wanted to make money from these Beihai people, he could only buy second-hand goods for them, and they could not afford to buy new goods.

After determining this, they immediately approached the Imperial Navy and asked if they had any small-tonnage gunboats to be retired in the near future, or if they were interested in directly retiring the active ones and selling them to the Beihai people.

Decommissioned warships? And it's a small-tonnage gunboat, so there must be one!

If someone else came to the door and asked for those second-hand warships of more than 1,000 tons, the Imperial Navy would definitely not bother with them, and the Imperial Navy did not have many warships of several thousand tons in its hands, even if there were warships retreating from the first-line fleet. However, it will still take on second-line tasks in the combat sequence of the Navy.

Even if it is too old to undertake second-line tasks, then it will be converted into a training ship, a supply ship or something.

Not to mention. At present, in the Imperial Navy, warships of more than 1,000 tons are still relatively new. Although the oldest wooden-hulled sail cruisers are no longer combative, they are still the main force of the Imperial Navy's daily patrols, so it is impossible to decommission them and sell them.

But if there are no second-hand warships of large tonnage, it does not mean that there are no gunboats and gunboats of small tonnage!

Since the era of the Yusheng Army's naval division, the Imperial Navy has served the largest number of gunboats of about 100 tons, Xingwu-class, Guangcheng-class, and Jining-class, and the total number of these three gunboats has exceeded 60 ships, in addition to those 4 or 500-ton offshore gunboats, there are also many wooden-hulled gunboats, and there were six or seven wooden-hulled gunboats in the past. Later, the number of Zhenguang-class gunboats exceeded 16, and the improved version of the Zhenguang-class continued to be built.

Among the above-mentioned gunboats, some of the gunboats that were in service in the early years have been retired one after another, such as the Xingwu-class gunboats have actually been decommissioned almost, and even the Guangcheng-class gunboats have begun to be retired one after another in the past two years.

If the Japanese wanted these Xingwu-class or Gwangseong-class gunboats, the Imperial Navy would be happy to sell them, and then return the funds to replace them with newer iron gunboats.

As for the Zhenguang-class gunboats. This depends on the situation, although the Zhenguang-class gunboat is nothing in the Imperial Navy, but at present, this kind of gunboat is still the main equipment of the Navy, although it is not impossible to decommission and sell. But certainly not too cheap.

However, those people in the navy looked through the roster of warships, and then found a Zhenguang-class gunboat: "If I want this one, I can consider selling it to them!" ”

The Zhenguang-class gunboat, which the Navy has expressed its willingness to sell. But judging from the appearance, it is definitely a new ship that has only been in service for a few years, and it is quite well maintained.

But actually. The ship had already been retired from the Imperial Navy's front-line strength and was currently serving in the East China Sea Fleet.

The name of this ship is Zhennan. The ship has a proud history, the ship was launched in November 1864, officially joined the Navy in February 1865, the first service in the Oriental Fleet and served as the flagship of the Oriental Fleet, in 1866 the situation in the South Seas was tense, the ship was transferred to join the Combined Fleet, the Nu Snail, Bi Fang, Zhenbei, Zhendong together formed the second column, and successively participated in the Battle of Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong, the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary.

In the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, its sister ship Zhenbei was hit and sunk, and the Nu Snail was also sunk, but Zhennan was lucky to stop the battle, but although it survived the battle, it was seriously damaged.

Because the ship withstood a large number of intensive artillery fire from the British fleet, although it did not sink on the spot, it also entered a lot of water, and even the boiler room was flooded at one point, and then lost power, and was later dragged back to Guangzhou for repairs.

At that time, due to the tense war situation, the Imperial Navy wanted to restore the combat effectiveness of the battleship as soon as possible, so the Zhennan at that time was only hastily repaired, that is, it returned to the first-line fleet service.

It was only after the signing of the contract with the British that the Imperial Navy had time to put the warships that had not been fully repaired back into the repair program.

However, because the hull of the Zhennan was quite badly damaged, it was not cheap to completely repair it, and the Zhenguang-class gunboat was not expensive in the first place, so those people in the navy pondered that if it cost tens of thousands of yuan to repair, it would be better to buy a new one.

So the maintenance plan of the Zhennan gunboat was rejected, and then it was very simple to withdraw from the ranks of the front-line forces and return to the service of the Oriental Fleet, but this time it could not assume the position of the capital ship even in the Oriental Fleet, the hull of the ship was seriously damaged, so it was difficult to bear the high intensity of frequent use, and at the same time, the steam engine system was blistered, the output power was reduced a lot, and many of the armor belts of the hull were not repaired, but simply put on an iron plate.

Therefore, after the ship returned to the Oriental Fleet, it rarely went to sea, and most of the time it went around the port.

Although it has only been in service for four years, the ship has entered the final stage of its service life, and if nothing else, the navy will completely decommission the ship in two or three years, and then dismantle it and sell it for scrap iron.

Originally, the service life of these small ironclad ships was not long, not to mention this kind of warship that had suffered large hull damage and had not been completely repaired.

Now those people in the North Sea Country have to ask for bargains, and the navy is willing to sell this Zhennan, which is much more than selling scrap iron.

When Nakajima Saki learned that the Imperial Navy was willing to sell a number of second-hand gunboats, and that one of them was a Zhenguang-class gunboat, he was excited.

As the only middle and senior general in the Hokkai country who served in the shogunate navy, Nakajima Saki knew the name of the Zhenguang-class gunboats, and the two 500-ton gunboats in the shogunate navy evolved from the Zhenguang class.

Now that the Beihai Navy has the hope of acquiring a Zhenguang-class gunboat in active service with the Chinese Navy, how can this not excite him.

Although he also knew that there was no good goods at a low price, the Zhennan of the Pacific Trading Company, which was only priced at 80,000 yuan, had certain defects, such as the speed of the ship could not be driven at the original eight knots, and the fastest could only run to about 7.3 knots, and the wrought iron armor belt of the hull had also fallen off a small part, and now it was only covered with some iron sheets, and the cost of use was higher than that of the new ship.

But none of this is a problem in Nakajima's view.

Low speed? It doesn't matter, anyway, the Beihai Navy is the weak side, and it mainly carries out defensive operations, and if the speed is slow, it will be slower.

The armor belt is not complete, it doesn't matter, he doesn't believe that he is so unlucky, after being hit by the enemy, the shells will go directly into those holes, if that's the case, it means that the character of the Matsumae family is really not good, and he simply won't build an independent country and surrender directly to the shogunate.

If the cost of use is higher, although this is a little troublesome, it is better to use it more expensive than nothing!

Crucially, it's at least half as cheap as buying a brand new T500 gunboat.

As long as the price is cheap and it can be used, I care so much about you, just one word! buy

A few days before he arrived in Shanghai, Nakajima Saki was still sad all day, but since he saw the newly cleaned Zhennan, his mood has become much more comfortable, and he is even used to the new naval uniform that he is not used to.

With this Zhennan, then the Beihai Navy in his heart finally has a foundation, and his Beihai Navy is justified.

Today's Zhennan is a new wash, but it is only limited to washing, anyway, the sea water does not need money, as for repainting, the Imperial Navy must not be willing to pay this unjust money, do you think the paint does not cost money.

After boarding the Zhennan, Nakajima Saki looked everywhere, touched everywhere, and talked with the naval officers and officers of the Hokkaiguo who came with him from time to time, and always compared the Zhennan with the two small ironclad ships of the shogunate navy.

In the end, they came to the conclusion that this ship could be compared with the two ironclad ships of the shogunate navy, the "Kaiyo" and "Chaoan".

And as long as it can fight these two ironclads, then it is enough.

The scale of the Tokugawa shogunate's navy in this era was actually not small, the number of ships was as high as dozens, but most of them were technologically backward ships, most of them were sailing ships, some were paddle ships, at least a few were steam dark ships, and except for the two ironclad ships purchased from the empire, the others were easily wooden-hulled ships.

And most of them are semi-armed ships converted from some merchant ships or transport ships, and there are very few real professional warships, and the professional warships that can keep up with the times are actually only Kaiyang and Chao'an, two ironclad ships.

As long as these two ironclad ships can be stopped, then the other ships of the Tokugawa shogunate navy are not worried.

Within a few days, Nakajima Saki signed a formal contract with the Pacific Trading Company, and in addition to the purchase of the Zhennan, he also purchased three second-hand Guangcheng-class gunboats of the Imperial Navy and a batch of ammunition for supply. (To be continued.) )