Ding Ruchang said: "This is a good thing, our naval division has not added ships and artillery for seven or eight years, and if it were not for the help of Lord Wang in the naval battle last year, the naval division was almost ruined, and the purchase of warships is imminent." ”

Liu Buyun handed over a compiled report to Li Hongzhang and explained: "According to the investigation of the Minister in Britain, the displacement of the Fuji and Yashima ships purchased by the British Navy is about 9,000 tons, and it is modeled after the British Navy's 10,000-ton Pavrel-class, and the cost of building each ship is about 8 million yuan. ”

After reading the results of the investigation, Li Hongzhang nodded and said: "These two big ships are more than our existing Dingzhen No. 2 ship in terms of speed, armor and firepower, and the threat is indeed very great, but fortunately, there are still three years to go, and we still have time to catch up." ”

Deng Shichang said: "But it's too expensive! One is 8 million yuan and 6 or 7 million taels in exchange for Kuping silver, and two ships are as much as 13,400 million, and the people can only afford to borrow from the British, but can the imperial court give us so much silver? ”

Li Hongzhang said: "The old man estimates that he can get about 8 million taels this year, and after excluding other consumption, he can leave 4 million taels, pay a down payment to buy two warships, and he can get warships in three or four years." ”

It seems that this time the imperial court is really generous, and can give eight million taels of silver as funds, in previous years it was only four million taels, and after being embezzled, only about one or two million silver remained.

At this time, Lin Tai saw that Wang Chenhao had been silent, and asked with a smile, "Why didn't Chen Hao speak?" You're still the admiral of our naval division, won't you forget about us with the new army? ”

Li Hongzhang turned his head to look at Wang Chenhao and said with a smile: "Chenhao, you are familiar with the development of the navies of various countries, tell me what you think?" ”

Wang Chenhao looked at everyone, took the investigation report in Li Hongzhang's hand and read it again, and finally said with a wry smile: "If I say that the displacement of the two Fuji-class battleships ordered by this navy is at least 12,000 tons, do you believe it?" ”

Everyone immediately looked at each other, and Li Hongzhang quickly figured it out and asked, "You mean that our information is wrong?" ”

Wang Chenhao nodded, noncommittal.

Liu Buyun looked a little incredulous, and said: "This is the information given to us by the British Embassy, it won't fool us, right?" ”

Ding Ruchang touched his beard and said suddenly: "Presumably, the British Legation does not have the courage to go directly to the shipyard to verify, I am afraid that this data was taken directly from the British Ship Master's Office, and there must be moisture." ”

Wang Chenhao said: "The British say that it is an alliance, and the Pafleur class is only a reduced version of the Sovereign class, and the two Pavrell and the Centennial built by the British Navy are to be sent to the Far East to fight against the two newest Russian Admiral Nasimov-class large armored cruisers in Vladivostok with a tonnage of 9,000 tons." Before the First Sino-Japanese War, the Admiralty had already surpassed us, so it was impossible for the Admiralty to be so short-sighted, and their opponents had long been aiming at the Russian Far East Fleet. The British had the money, and could use a smaller version of the battleship against the Russian armored cruisers, but he didn't have that money, so he had to think more long-term, as far as I know, the Fuji-class battleship was an improved version of the Sovereign-class, and it was powerful. ”

Deng Shichang asked: "Even if Britain and Yuben are allies, then there is no reason for the British to sell the strongest warship to Yuben?" ”

Wang Chenhao said with a smile: "The goal of any warship is to be the most powerful in the world when it is designed, but the construction cycle of warships is long, and any new warship is outdated during the period from launch to service." The Fuji-class construction period is as long as three years, during which the British will have more advanced warships launched. ”

was explained by Wang Chenhao like this, and everyone had an epiphany.

Li Hongzhang nodded, feeling that Wang Chenhao was reasonable, "It is in line with military laws that the Navy keeps secrets about warships under construction, and it confuses us to think that their Fuji-class is only ** thousand tons, which makes us careless, if we also order ** thousand tons of warships, then we will fall into their trap, and a few years later we find that others are thousands of tons more than ours, and this strength is suddenly pulled away, which is equivalent to our tens of millions of taels of silver." ”

In the late 1880s, two German-made battleships, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, the hypothetical enemy of the Qing Dynasty, entered service with the Beiyang Fleet. These two ironclad giants with a displacement of 7,220 tons. Compared with the Fuso, which was the largest tonnage of the Navy at that time, it was extremely threatening.

For this reason, it was planned to build battleships that could fight against Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. However, budgetary issues have never been achieved. In 1892, it was planned to build a 12,400-ton battleship. However, due to budget constraints, the proposal was rejected again and replaced with a smaller version of the 9,000-ton battleship. However, the following year, Emperor Meiji took the initiative to take the lead in saving court expenses, and together with the imperial decree that the salaries of civil servants were reduced by 10%, the necessary budget for the battleships was secured.

However, the Navy also used this excuse of insufficient funds to deceive the world and conceal the actual tonnage of construction. Britain also kept it secret based on its alliance with the British, so that it not only deceived the Qing Empire, but also Russia and the United States in the Pacific region.

He ordered the construction of the Fuji from the British Thames Iron Works and the Yashima from the Arms Shipyard. The construction cost of Fuji was 10.38 million yuan, and the construction cost of Yashima was 10.5 million yuan. Construction began in April and November 1894, and was expected to be completed in June 1897, with the Navy commissioned in December.

The Fuji-class is an improved version of the British Royal Monarch-class warships. The front and rear are equipped with 1 40-caliber 305 twin-mounted main gun, 10 152 single guns, 24 47 rapid-fire guns, and 5 450 torpedo tubes, which can be described as powerful firepower. Its main engine is equipped with 2 reciprocating engines, 10 coal-fired boilers, 13,500 horsepower, and a 2-shaft propulsion speed of 18.3 knots.

Once completed, these two battleships will become the most powerful warships on the surface of the Far East, and the threat to the Beiyang naval division is considerable.

After listening to Wang Chenhao's analysis, everyone gasped, and the soldiers considered that the powerful combat effectiveness of the two Fuji-class warships was enough to defeat the entire Beiyang Naval Division. Li Hongzhang and Ding Ruchang were stuck in the funds, and the British said that the alliance relationship was more than 10 million yuan, and the relationship between the Qing Empire and the British was in a downturn, and the price was at least 10 million taels of silver.

Even if the negotiation is completed, the down payment will have to be four million taels of silver per ship, and two ships will be eight million taels of silver, which is only the cost of building the ship, and other maintenance, maintenance and other expenses, which will empty out all of Lao Li's funds.

Thinking of this, Li Hongzhang felt a little tired, so he said: "Zhengqing and Chen Hao, you will discuss and come up with a specific shipbuilding plan first, and the old man will have to go to the navy yamen first." ”

Ding Ruchang and Wang Chenhao received the order, and they all knew that Li Hongzhang went to the navy yamen to ask Yi for money.

Ding Ruchang shook his head and said helplessly: "Two battleships will cost 20 million taels of silver, which is really not good for the Qing Kingdom, which has a financial income of only 80 million taels of silver." ”

Wang Chenhao said: "And the navy is a money-eating machine, even if the imperial court grits its its teeth and buys it, the usual expenses are astronomical." If it is not well maintained, the warship bought for tens of millions of taels of silver will soon become scrap metal. ”

After the two finished speaking, they looked at each other, and they both smiled bitterly.