It was lunchtime, and in addition to the attendants on standby, the only thing in the grand dining room was the young officers in navy uniforms who sat on either side of the long table. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The dining table is inlaid with delicate gold motifs, with tulips and daffodils in the center, and the crystal chandelier on the ceiling emits a soft glow, creating a warm and cozy atmosphere. The band played classical music on the side, and the attendants kept bringing freshly cooked delicacies.

These young naval officers sat respectfully on both sides of the table, all of them looked flattered, and when they looked at the marshal at the head of the table, they were full of admiration and admiration, and the hands holding knives and forks were even more gentle, for fear of a sound.

Feeling the admiration from these naval officers, Guan Mingtang just smiled secretly in his heart, now he likes this kind of "cage" more and more, such as meeting with the outstanding cadets of the army and naval academy, compared to the "Emperor's saber", his way of entrapment is undoubtedly closer, after all, he has a teacher-student friendship with those people.

It is not uncommon for teachers to invite outstanding students to a meal, and in the same way, giving students some gifts, such as giving them a saber with "My Reputation and Loyalty", of course, can also serve as an incentive, this kind of saber is similar to the so-called "Emperor's imperial saber", but compared to the "Emperor's" stinginess, every time, Guan Mingtang will meet with 60 people, they can get the "loyalty sword", for the officer, of course, there is also the opportunity to enjoy a family feast in his home.

It's just a meal, a sword, what do you get?

It's loyalty! It's worship!

And this is exactly what Tang Haoran needs, just like now. He invited Han Che and other students who had returned from studying in the United States to come to his home for dinner. The same effect was obtained.

Although there are bigger and more imposing restaurants in the Doge's Palace. However, it is far less direct than the signal transmitted by the family banquet, which will make him feel Tang Haoran's attention and appreciation for them.

"Han Che, the timing of your return this time is a bit unfortunate, the positions that should be placed on the "Zhenhai" ship have been almost placed, but I have instructed the Admiralty to play your role, after all, ......"

Hanging knives and forks. Tang Haoran's words paused, and he looked at Han Che, who was sitting beside him, and explained.

"After all, you are the first batch of naval students we sent, and no matter what, you must use them!"

In fact, without much thought, Tang Haoran could vaguely guess why the Admiralty would so quickly appoint the chief officers and main posts of ships such as "Zhenhai", this is to avoid Han Che and others being appointed to important posts immediately after they returned. Especially Han Che, the Admiralty was not very comfortable with him who had just graduated. But he was taboo that he was his own student, so he used the method of preemptive appointment, so that Tang Haoran could not be directly recommended, as for others, the same is true.

"Thank you for your cultivation and trust!"

Han Che first thanked him as a student, and then continued.

"However, before returning home, I have thought very clearly, after returning to China, I am not ready to take up the post on the ship as soon as possible......"

Han Che's answer made Tang Haoran's brows jump slightly, and he looked at him with some puzzlement.

"Headmaster, we have no intention of getting on the ship!"

At this moment, several more people chimed in.

Could it be that this is forcing the palace? It was to show dissatisfaction with the Admiralty.

Looking at the young officers who were looking at him, Tang Haoran could see from their faces that this was definitely not a forced palace. Apparently they may have other ideas.

"Oh, then tell me what you think!"

Putting down the knife and fork in his hand, Tang Haoran wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin, the reason why he will eat Western food is because of the dining habits of the navy, which is completely accustomed to the British navy, and retains the habit of eating Western food for dinner, which is a habit that must be developed since the naval officer school, even on the ship, and regardless of the cold or summer, you need to wear a coat and eat according to British table manners. In order to take care of this habit, the lunch served to them this time was naturally replaced with Western food.

"Teacher."

As a student of Tang Haoran when he was teaching in the Tongwen Pavilion, this directly determined the difference between Han Che and others, and this title was originally in the Northeast Department, which was an extremely rare title, perhaps students in the Northeast Army and Navy School, University, and Administrative School can call Tang Haoran the principal, but that principal is more just maintaining the friendship between teachers and students on both sides, so that Tang Haoran has the name of a teacher and a teacher, and there are only a few dozen people who really have a teacher.

"At present, although on the surface, the navy is a shortage of officers, but in fact it is a lack of experience, which cannot be made up for in the short term, and the reason why the navy is building training ships on a large scale is to allow officers and sailors to gain maritime experience and provide sufficient human resources for the next expansion of the fleet......

When mentioning this, Han Che couldn't help but look at Tang Haoran, whether it was "fishing with soldiers" or "serving soldiers at business", it was not far inferior to "serving soldiers on ships", the first two were only for preparation, but the latter two could be replenished at any time, the Northeast Navy has more than 60,000 tons of training ships and nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers in training, perhaps these officers and soldiers are operating training ships of the "armed merchant ships" level, but compared to the conscription of merchant fishing ship crews, they have received extremely strict naval training, and they can replenish the fleet at any time, only after a short period of running-in, you can immediately operate the battleship into naval battle. This is exactly what the first two do not have, and this method of "combining troops with ships" is exactly what the teacher proposed.

It is precisely because of this that in the eyes of outsiders, the Northeast Navy may not be worth mentioning, and even after the "Zhenhai" combat ship is put into service, it is still not worth mentioning, but in fact, the strength of the Northeast Navy has now surpassed that of the Beiyang Fleet -- in terms of soft power, it has surpassed the Beiyang Fleet, which has been established for more than 10 years, but few people have noticed this point, and now all the Northeast Navy needs is warships, and as long as there are warships, the Northeast Navy can be expanded into a larger fleet than the Beiyang Fleet at any time.

However, in Han Che's view, this navy still has its shortcomings, or weaknesses.

"But, perhaps, because of the inexperience of the ship's personnel, the current training of the fleet is being trained. It is often dominated by the Yellow Sea. Only a handful of fleets have ever penetrated deep into the Pacific or South Seas. In contrast, now the Beiyang Fleet has more experience in the oceans. ”

This is the habit of Beiyang for many years, deployed in the north in summer and autumn, and south of Hong Kong and Guangdong in winter and spring, while although the Northeast Navy has sailed to Hawaii, but only that time, most of the time it is at the door.

"And the navy is destined to be an offensive service. He advocates that the enemy should be kept out of the country, and that future naval warfare will also require the navy to have the ability to fight in the ocean, so it is also required that the officers and men of the navy must have the ability to sail in the ocean, so I believe that the navy should strengthen its training in this area so that it can have this view......

Han Che's words made Tang Haoran nod appreciatively, in the words of later generations, it was the difference between the "Yellow Sea" and the "Blue Ocean". The difference between the two is not in the tonnage of the fleet, but in the ideas. Just as the Soviet Russian Navy was ridiculed as "the world's largest Yellow Sea Fleet", it is precisely because of its ideas.

"Well, it's necessary,"

After nodding his head and agreeing, Tang Haoran motioned for Han Che to continue.

"If I could, I would like to be able to get a training ship from the Admiralty for a long voyage. My initial thinking is that in the next three years, the Navy should keep at least six training ships in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, and that every officer must have flown at least one round-the-world or semi-round-the-world training mission before going on board. ”

Circumnavigating the globe was exactly what Han Che wanted to do, and in an era when maritime powers often sent warships to carry out similar tasks in order to keep their fleets capable of sailing, the farthest Chinese navy was to sail warships back from Europe.

"Considering that our hypothetical enemy is Russia at the moment, I thought that my plan for the first ocean-going mission would be to sail from Arthur to St. Petersburg in order to determine the duration of the voyage and the impact of the long-distance voyage on the sailors, and then collect data for the future navy......"

Great White Fleet!

Almost subconsciously, Tang Haoran had such an idea in his mind, in history, when the world thought that the "Great White Fleet" was the United States after the Russo-Japanese War, showing off its force to Japan and the world, but they ignored one point, in fact, its more important point is to collect ocean-going data for the US Navy, so as to determine the impact of sailing from the US mainland to the Philippines on the speed and performance of warships, and make targeted improvements.

It was the result of that voyage that made the United States determined to strengthen the construction of Pearl Harbor, so that the US Navy would face the same situation as the Russian Second Pacific Fleet in the future naval war between the United States and Japan.

Perhaps, a training ship will not be able to collect enough data, but at least it will be able to obtain some data, which is undoubtedly a blank for the Chinese Navy.

"Teacher, as a backward naval country, what we lack is not only the spirit of the navy, but also the various scientific data necessary for the construction of the navy, such as the hydrology and other information necessary for ocean voyages, and it is a secret that the navies of various countries do not pass on to the public, even in the United States, when it comes to this course, as we will be excluded, we can only learn some public information, and cannot study in depth, teacher, the US Navy may not be strong, but in the past few decades, it has served the whaling industry by sending military fleets, We have collected maritime data that is not inferior to the Royal Navy, but in this field, we are completely blank, except for the Yellow Sea, the South China Sea and other coastal data, the understanding of the far sea, but only limited to the information on the merchant shipping routes published by various countries, which obviously cannot meet the needs of future naval warfare, so I hope to be able to complete the intelligence collection work in this area through large-scale organization of ocean-going training......"

If he could, Han Che even wanted to send out all the training ships, but he was obviously unable to convince the Admiralty to give this order, so he could only take a back seat and take advantage of the Admiralty's distrust of them to "exile" himself to the sea.

"Considering the current limited military spending of the Navy, if it really can't be done, it can be a sail training ship,"

Of course, Han Che naturally wanted a training ship with a three-expansion steam engine, rather than a sail training ship, the former being closer to a warship, but the latter being more economical - at least it didn't need to replenish coal along the way.

"Headmaster, if we can, we hope to join this voyage with Team Leader Han!"

More than a dozen people expressed their support for Han Che with their own actions, if it weren't for the fact that they didn't need everyone before, I'm afraid they would all make this choice.

"yes, I see!"

Nodding, Tang Haoran did not give an immediate answer, although he admitted that Han Che was telling the truth, and this is indeed a must for naval construction, in later generations, why the United States is regarded as the world's naval power, it is precisely because it has complete maritime information on the world's oceans, and correspondingly, during the entire Cold War, the Soviet and Russian Navy, which took the US Navy as its opponent, was undoubtedly backward in this regard, and it could even be said that it was decades behind, so that they had to devote more energy to the collection of maritime data on the world's oceans, Send out another ordinary oceanographic survey ship.

Perhaps the marine survey of this era is more inclined to the investigation of ports, shipping routes, etc., which is far simpler than that of later generations, but this is a long-term project, not three or five years can be completed, in fact, the vast majority of the world's new routes are opened up by the navy, precisely because the navies of various countries have been engaged in this task for a long time.

However, Tang Haoran did not immediately agree, but after pondering for a while, he looked at Han Che and said.

"That's it, Han Che, you go back and submit a report to the Admiralty, I'll say hello to them when the time is right, you can have this idea, it's good!"

After expressing his support for Han Che, Tang Haoran turned the conversation around again, looked at everyone and said.

"Oceanographic surveys are important, but the construction of the navy is also very important, in the next ten years, the navy will usher in a real big development, perhaps, you don't know, the sister ship of the "Zhenhai" "Zhihai" has begun to lay the keel, and its improved "Jihai class" has also been included in the plan, in the next ten years, we will build a powerful fleet that East Asia has never had......"

Under pressure from Russia, the expansion of the navy has begun, and the navy will be expanded by combat ships, cruisers, destroyers, mine-strike ships, torpedo boats, and even submarines, and the navy will usher in a decade-long rapid expansion, and for these young officers, they will undoubtedly usher in the most glorious moment of their lives, and in a way, they are undoubtedly the luckiest generation of soldiers -- destined to be recorded in history, destined to walk with history.

"So ......"

Standing up, Tang Haoran picked up his wine glass, looked at everyone solemnly and said.

"Your forces will have the most glorious moment of their lives, cheers, my students, I am sure that one day, I will be able to hear the news of victory!"

(Goodbye 2015, thank you for your companionship all the way, it is your support that has made Speechless persist to this day!) Thanks! Add more today! Hopefully, in the new year, we will still be with us all the way! Thanks again! (To be continued.) )