The military expansion of any country will arouse strong concern from neighboring countries, and the news of the Beiyang Naval Division's order for Dengyun-class battleships quickly made headlines in newspapers of various countries.

The British Times reported that the Chinese Navy, which had been reduced to a second-rate navy since 1891, restarted the naval expansion plan for the first time after the First Sino-Japanese War as a victor, and the British Navy was the strongest battleship in the world in terms of tonnage, firepower and speed of the Dengyun-class battleships under construction for the Chinese Navy, surpassing the strongest battleship in the Royal Navy in service, the Sovereign, and also leading the warships under construction in various countries.

For this report, the British Royal Navy is very sad. However, they have become accustomed to it, British shipyards have always been money first, whoever gives money will build it, and it is not the first time that British export warships are always much more advanced than those in service at home.

In Europe, the Dengyun-class battleships reminded countries of the time when Germany built two giant ships in Dingzhen for the Qing Empire. France and Germany were jealous at first, and they were naturally unhappy that such a large order had been given to Britain, but they were relieved when they learned that the cost of building the ship was only 10 million taels of silver. It doesn't make much money at this price, and if it were built by Germany and France, they wouldn't be able to build it at all.

In Northeast Asia, the Russian Far East Navy was always concerned about the situation of the Beiyang Naval Division, and after learning of the construction of the Dengyun-class battleships in Britain, the Russian minister to China, Cuman, immediately sent a note to Prime Minister Yamen, asking Qing Zhengaxe to report on the situation of the Dengyun-class battleships and the purpose of their construction.

Prime Minister Yamen instructed the Navy Yamen to reply, saying that the Dengyun-class battleships were only used against the Fuji-class battleships under construction by the Yumoto Navy, and were not aimed at the Russian Navy.

After receiving the assurances of the Prime Minister's Yamen, the Russian side was still not at ease and asked for the detailed parameters of the Dengyun-class battleships.

In the face of such unreasonable demands, Prime Minister Yamen did not dare to disobey, so he instructed the Navy Yamen to inform the Russian side of some of the structural parameters of the Dengyun-class battleship.

It is said that both the navy and the Chinese navy are building battleships, and in two or three years, there will be all-steel battleships cruising in the seas of Northeast Asia, while the most powerful of the Russian Far East Navy at the moment is only a large armored cruiser of 8,000 tons, and the future superiority at sea will no longer exist.

The future operational objectives of the Russian Army are aimed at the Korean Army, followed by the Chinese Army; The future combat target of the Russian Navy is aimed at the Beiyang Naval Division, followed by the Navy.

Nicholas II's behavior when he came to power was somewhat similar to that of Wilhelm II, the new monarch of the German Empire, and both young monarchs had a lofty dream in their hearts - to build a "great navy".

At the beginning of his reign, Nicholas II had a cumbersome grand plan to build a "great navy", although for Russia it was more appropriate to "revive" it than to "create" a navy.

According to this plan, Russia will form three modern fleets, namely the Baltic Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet, and the Far Eastern Fleet. Since Russia's center of gravity is in Europe, the Great Navy plans to form a new Baltic and Black Sea Fleets first, and the Far East Fleet last. This choice was made mainly because of the lack of Russian funds.

The Qing Empire ordered Dengyun-class battleships and Fuji-class battleships, and the navies of the two countries would seriously threaten the Russian Far East Navy in three years. For this reason, the Russian Far East Fleet asked the Russian political axe to allocate funds to build ships to contend with it, but the Russian Admiralty vetoed it with two words -- no money.

When the news of the construction of the Dengyun-class battleship came back to China, the Chinese people were excited, and the glorious glory of the first in Asia brought by the second ship of Dingzhen seemed to have reappeared.

The officers and men of the Beiyang Naval Division were the most excited, and they had not seen a new type of battleship for seven or eight years, and they were all gearing up to serve on the new type of battleship.

The three commanders of the Beiyang Naval Division, Liu Buyun, Lin Taizeng and Deng Shichang, are all candidates for the pipe belt of the new battleships, but there are only two battleships, and one of them is destined to be useless.

As a result, fierce competition broke out among the three men, and they strictly trained their officers and men, and in imitation of the army's reform methods, the three put forward a request for the reorganization of the naval division.

In this regard, Li Hongzhang is naturally happy, in Wang Chenhao's words, there is competitive pressure to make people motivated. In recent years, due to the misappropriation of funds, many funds of the Beiyang Naval Division have been reduced, so that some officers and men have slackened their training, and many of them have gone out to engage in side jobs in peacetime, and their armaments have been lax, and their discipline has been lax.

Now that Liu Buyun, Lin Taizeng and Deng Shichang are competing, and military spending is also available, Li Hongzhang immediately agreed to the proposal to carry out large-scale military training in the naval division, and is ready to carry out the assessment before the winter and redistribute the work according to the assessment results.

As a result, all the officers and men of the Beiyang Naval Division did not dare to slack their armaments anymore, and they carried out strict training under the leadership of their respective commanders.

Wang Chenhao continued to grasp the training of the new army, and he still insisted on the two-hour sparring every day, and the officers and men shared weal and woe more and more with the affirmation and admiration of everyone in the whole army.

In late May, after three months of training, the 12,500 men who were in the back of the queue according to the rules would be eliminated.

After three days of assessment, Wang Chenhao selected a group of top recruits from more than 180 recruit companies, and then reorganized the establishment and divided them into 92 recruit companies as the next stage of training.

After three months of arduous and rigorous training, half of the 25,000 soldiers were eliminated, and those selected would form the 1st Division of the Zhili New Army.

During these three months of training, because Wang Chenhao adopted a strict system of incentives, rewards and punishments, and under the fierce competition and elimination system, the remaining 12,500 people can be said to be elite.

The first three months were just some queues, marches, basic fighting, basic shooting, and intensive physical training, and Wang Chenhao's purpose was to train the recruits to be aware of his absolute obedience to orders, so as to achieve the effect of ordering and prohibiting, running like a wave, and standing like planting trees, which has been achieved.

The second purpose is to train the physical fitness of the recruits, for three months, the daily weight-bearing cross-country, long-distance running, basic fighting and other items will dig out the physical fitness of the recruits, so that they can adapt to the cruel living environment on the battlefield, which has been highlighted through the elimination system, and the remaining recruits are all physically strong and strong-willed.

As for the 12,500 people who were eliminated, because they all had a good foundation and had undergone a period of arduous training, Wang Chenhao felt that it would be a pity to dismiss them after discussing with Li Hongzhang, and that the new army would definitely be expanded after training, and this group of people had the foundation and the fastest speed of forming an army, so they all kept them and organized them as the second division of the new army.

Wang Chenhao will still organize them into 92 companies and appoint a group of officers to continue training them. In order to motivate them, Wang Chenhao said that if the training performance is excellent and surpasses the soldiers of the first division, there is still a chance to return to the first division.

Similarly, if the soldiers of the 1st Division do not work diligently and their results are surpassed by the soldiers of the 2nd Division, they will also be eliminated.

As a result, after the brutal elimination system in the first three months, the second phase of training is still highly competitive. The officers and men of the 1st Division and the 2nd Provisional Division once again engaged in fierce competition with each other, and all of them did not dare to slack off, and the training results were even better.

After Li Hongzhang learned of Wang Chenhao's new idea, he jokingly called this provisional second division a sparring partner of the first division.

For Wang Chenhao's training method, this time not only the student officers of the Beiyang Military Academy admired it, but even Jiang Guidi and other elite generals of the Huai Army also gave a thumbs up, and those German instructors who claimed to be the world's first army were full of praise.

In an interview with the North China Daily, Hannagan said unabashedly: "We firmly believe that in the East, in the Tianjin Military Horse Farm, an excellent army comparable to the German Army will soon be born." ”