Shanghai is the largest industrial city in China, and it is also home to many major domestic enterprises, so Lin Zhe stayed in Shanghai for a longer time, and the day after arriving in Shanghai, he visited the Linde Arsenal under the Jiangnan Arms Company, the No. 1 Silk Reeling Factory under the Shanghai Textile Company, and the largest privately-funded heavy industry enterprise in China, namely the Longfeng Machinery Company.

When listening to the report of the management office of the first silk reeling factory, he pointed out that the current working environment of the silk reeling factory is not ideal enough, and the working hours of the workers are too long.

However, Lin Zhe also knows that even if he says it, I am afraid that whether it is a royal enterprise or a private enterprise, they still put too many resources on improving the treatment of workers.

The industrialization of the nineteenth century benefited the capitalists and the state, but for the workers themselves, the improvement in remuneration was not much.

Now that the poor treatment of workers is common, it is unlikely that Lin Zhe wants to change it in a short time, so he can only try to raise these issues as much as possible to make the outside world pay more attention.

After all, as the emperor of the empire, his words and deeds represent the supreme authority, and every word he says needs to be pondered and explored by the people below.

Just as later generations studied the spirit of the speech every day, the current officials also have to delve into the deep meaning of Lin Zhe's every sentence.

In Longfeng Machinery Company, he also highly praised the courage and determination of the management of Longfeng Machinery Company, saying that they have set an outstanding example for private capital to enter heavy industry and develop imperial industry.

On the third day, Lin Zhe went to the North Shore Industrial Zone, inspected several large-scale enterprises in the North Shore Industrial Zone, and also gave some short speeches and gave some instructions at any time.

This made a group of Shanghai government officials who followed Lin Zhe not know whether to be happy or afraid, because although Lin Zhe gave most positive ratings, he sometimes pointed out some shortcomings unceremoniously. For example, the problem of poor treatment of workers mentioned earlier.

As a result, for many days in a row, the issue of workers' treatment was highlighted in the newspapers, and of course, the articles published in these newspapers were censored and had to be politically correct. Many of these newspapers focused on the aspect of 'Your Majesty's concern for the well-being of the workers'.

On the fourth day, Lin Zhe's itinerary was not so much, and there was only one form, that is, to go to the Shanghai shipyard.

In addition to visiting the largest shipyard in China and even in the Far East, he will also preside over the launching ceremony of the Zhurong, the fourth and second ocean-going ironclad ship in the empire, the Pangu-class ironclad ship.

Ever since the Empire decided to build ironclads in 1861, the Navy had invested a lot of money in it, before that. Four ironclad ships have been built one after another, namely the 1,800-ton offshore ironclad Nu Snail, which is also the Bi Fang, which is also an offshore ironclad ship. Then there was the 2,400-ton ocean-going ironclad ship Pangu. In addition, there is an ironclad ship USS Washington, which was exported to the US Confederate States.

The launch of the second ship of the Pangu class, the Zhurong, marks the end of the Empire's early ironclad research and development and construction work, and has achieved perfect results.

Although there is still a gap between the ironclad ships built by the empire and the ironclad ships of Britain and France in terms of tonnage, at least it is no longer the epoch-making gap between the wooden-hulled and woodclad battleships and the ironclad ships of the past.

As long as the empire is given a certain amount of time, then the construction of 10,000-ton giant ships in the future is just around the corner.

In the Shanghai shipyard, Lin Zhe personally presided over the launching ceremony of the Zhurong. In his speech at the launching ceremony, he asked the Navy to continue to maintain the current momentum of development. Don't be constrained by tradition and old thinking, and have the courage to innovate and practice.

After presiding over the launching ceremony of the Zhurong, Lin Zhe boarded the royal cruise ship 'Yanhuang' and inspected the Imperial Navy at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

In addition to the three ironclad ships of the Navy, namely the Pangu, the Nuluo, and the Bifang, the parade ceremony was attended. There are also a number of wood-armored and wood-hulled warships, such as the Shaoxing, the empire's first self-built ocean-going warship, and its sister ships Suzhou and Ningbo. In addition, there are the second and last class of wooden armor and wood-hulled cruisers in the Empire, the Wuchang and Taiyuan in the Nanjing class.

As for the other three warships of the Nanjing class, the Tianjin and the Nanjing are currently in Japan's own waters. Protect the interests of the empire in Japan during the unfinished civil war.

The last one was to return to Hue, Vietnam, to protect the interests of the empire in Vietnam, to deter and prevent French warships from breaking into Hue and landing directly.

In addition to the above-mentioned capital ships of the Imperial Navy, there are also a number of large tonnage of offshore and inland river gunboats, such as when the empire was not yet established, it was also the empire's first self-built large-tonnage warship 'Zhenhu', although the tonnage of the ship is only 500 tons, the speed and firepower and other aspects are unsatisfactory, and the freeboard is too low, the ship type is not suitable for ocean navigation, can only be used as offshore or inland river gunboats, but in any case, this is the first self-built large-tonnage warship in China, with quite strong symbolic significance.

In addition to the large-tonnage warships, there were several river gunboats, namely the Xingwu class and the improved Guangcheng class of the Xingwu class, which had made great contributions in the same war, and three of the two models came.

In fact, although the Imperial Navy has now focused on ocean-going warships, in fact, the Imperial Navy has the largest number of gunboats, and the most widely used at the same time, the Xingwu class and the Guangcheng class.

Only 80 tons of Xingwu-class gunboats, a total of 16 built, participated in almost every large-scale water and land war in the war of unification, and now in Hanoi, Vietnam is stationed a Xingwu-class gunboat, these years and Russia to compete for the control of Heilongjiang, there are also a large number of Xingwu-class gunboats have been sent to Heilongjiang, responsible for the region of the river and coastal operations of the North Sea Fleet, with four Xingwu-class gunboats.

The Guangcheng class was a successor to the Xingwu class, and the hull design was still modeled after the Xingwu class, but the tonnage was expanded to 150 tons, and its early armament was two 12-pounder front-loading smoothbore guns, and later it was modified into two 12-pounder front-loading rifled guns.

Of course, it is not only the Guangcheng class that has been refitted, in fact, the Xingwu class and other gunboats that used smoothbore guns earlier have basically been replaced with front-loading smoothbore guns, and the current main warships of the Imperial Navy are no longer visible smoothbore guns, and only some smoothbore guns are still retained on some auxiliary ships such as transport ships.

As for why not replace all the guns on these battleships with breech-loading rifled guns, the reason is very simple, one word: money!

The manufacturing cost of rifled guns is still very high, and a rifled gun is more expensive than the hull of a whole small gunboat, and this equipment is a typical waste.

In addition, none of these inland river and offshore gunboats were mainly engaged in fighting with the enemy's main fleet, their task was to support the land forces, and at the same time to fight with the enemy's inland river warships, so the front-loading rifled guns were able to meet their operational needs.

Watching this fleet line up in a spectacular queue, with a faint white smoke passing in front of him, Lin Zhe felt an indescribable excitement in his heart.

This is your own navy!

This is the navy that bears the heavy responsibility of coastal defense of the Chinese nation in the future and protects overseas interests!

Although this navy is still very weak, the total tonnage is only about 25,000 tons, and this number still counts the Zhurong, which has just been launched, plus some transport ships, coal carriers and other auxiliary ships, the total tonnage is not even as much as the British Navy's three 9,000-ton ironclad ships combined, but in any case, the navy's shelves have finally been erected.

In the future, as long as we continue to invest in the navy, we don't need to say that we will be hungry like the Meiji to save on the military cost of buying warships, but we only need to maintain the proportion of the navy's military spending that is in line with economic development, and then this still very weak navy will be able to grow up like that.

Lin Zhe did not expect his own navy to surpass the British Royal Navy in a short period of time, at least for more than ten years, and then fight with the British Royal Navy on a global scale, his goal is a bit low, he just hopes that after more than ten years of construction, his own navy can hold this small pond along the coast of China and keep the coastal defense security of the Chinese navy. If the situation is better, it is expected to be able to control the sea control in the South China Sea and Japan's coastal areas.

As for going out to the Indian Ocean to fight the British, let's wait for China to find a naval base in India or in the Middle East.

It's too early to say what will happen in the future, now and in the next ten years. Lin Zhe has always had only one requirement for the navy, that is, to control and defend China's 10,000-mile sea frontier and block the British and French naval powers from eyeing China's coast.

In addition to achieving the above goals, he occasionally bullied and bullied weak countries, such as Japan's gunboat diplomacy or something.

At present, there are six warships of the Imperial Navy stationed in Japan, namely the wooden-hulled cruisers Tianjin and Nanjing, in addition to the gunboat Zhenjia, the armed transport ship Zhenshao, and the coal supply ship Cangzhou.

These warships formed the temporary fleet within the Imperial Navy, the 'Pacific Fleet'.

Although this name sounds domineering, it is actually just a broken shelf, just the ships above, and it is not a fixed fleet formation, but a temporary establishment that will be disbanded at any time.

Its main mission, like the hundreds of marines in the Chinese concession and an infantry company of the army, is to cooperate with the diplomats stationed in Japan and to strive for and protect China's greatest interests in Japan.

Moreover, it is worth noting that the supreme command of the above-mentioned fleets and land combat personnel does not lie with the commander of the Taiping Army fleet or the commander of the troops stationed in Japan, but belongs to Li Bocang, the imperial minister plenipotentiary in Japan.

If Li Bocang felt the need to send troops to the shogunate or other daimyos, then he would send warships and soldiers into battle, and at this time, the commander of the fleet or the commander of the marine corps would lead the troops in specific battles.

In this era of backward transportation and information, diplomats stationed abroad often have considerable authority and can even easily mobilize troops to start a war.

On the 28th day of the first lunar month, Li Bocang, the minister stationed in Japan, personally landed on Kagoshima with the soldiers of the fleet and the Marine Corps together with the British, setting off the climax of the official dispatch of troops from the Chinese Empire! (To be continued.) )