After Wang Chenhao reached an agreement with Chile and Argentina on the transfer and sale of warships, he obtained a total of 7 main warships with a total tonnage of more than 48,800 tons. Among them were one armored battleship Brad (6,900 tons), one dome armor protection cruiser Blancou (4,600 tons), five large armored cruisers Ismeralda (7,020 tons), Rivadavia (7,500 tons), Moreno (7,500 tons), Takabuku (7,628 tons), and Minister Centno (7,700 tons).

Since the Rivadavia, Moreno, Takabuku, and Minister Centno were still being outfitted, Wang Chenhao had to pay the final payment for the four warships. Among them, the two warships of the ** shipyard have entered the final stage of outfitting, and the outer outfitting has been completed, only the inner outfitting part of the interior is missing. Wang Chenhao took into account the tense situation, stopped the decoration, and sent the two warships to Portsmouth, England, where the final outfitting was completed if there was time. Give up if you don't have time.

The two warships at the Laseyne shipyard in France have only carried out the second stage of outfitting, and the outer outfitting still needs rudder equipment, anchor equipment, 88 and 47 rapid-fire gun systems, as well as masts, fences, ladders, etc., and the inner outfitting part also needs to be painted with galleys, sanitary and interior insulation materials, interior decoration, etc., which takes a total of 9 months. In addition to paying the final payment of 125,000 pounds, Wang Chenhao added an additional 30,000 pounds to the Laseyne shipyard to rush work within 24 hours, and at the same time the most time-consuming interior decoration project was cancelled, so that the second ship could be outfitted within two months.

The problem of warships has been solved, and Wang Chenhao still has to solve the problem of personnel on board.

Seven warships required more than 4,000 men to operate normally. Wang Chenhao sent a telegram to Li Jingfang, the minister to Britain, asking him to help recruit sailors in Britain.

Li Jingfang then contacted the British Foreign Office and the British Royal Admiralty and asked them to help introduce a group of highly skilled retired Royal Navy officers or reserve sailors.

The British Foreign Office was surprised to learn that Wang Chenhao had purchased seven capital warships from Chile and Argentina, but they were happy to see this result, and at the moment as long as they were dealing with Russia, they were the object of their support. British Foreign Secretary Chingbery saw this as a good opportunity to win over the Qing Empire, so he gave strong political support, and he instructed the Royal Admiralty to do a good job.

For the British Royal Navy, they are also eager to know the combat effectiveness of the Russian Far East Navy, especially the large armored cruiser Rurik in service with the Russian Navy has always been a huge maritime threat to them, and they hope to test the actual combat effectiveness of the Russian Far East Navy by sending people to join Wang Chenhao's mercenaries. Therefore, the British Royal Navy appointed Admiral Sir Algernon McLennan Lyons (1833-1908) as Wang Chenhao's personal naval adviser, and 103 senior officers and sergeant majors from the Royal Navy's home fleet formed an advisory group to assist Wang Chenhao in commanding his new fleet. At the same time, at the request of Wang Chenhao and Li Jingfang, the British Admiralty originally planned to transfer officers and men from the Home Fleet for active duty, but the British side, considering that the dispatch of a large number of officers by the Royal Navy might cause international disputes between Britain and Russia, changed to recruit 1,000 retired officers of the British Royal Navy and 3,000 reserve sailors. At the same time, Admiral Algernon and his officers of the advisory corps were employed by Wang Chenhao in their private capacities, and did not represent the [***] side of the British Empire.

Although Wang Chenhao recruited enough mercenaries through the British Admiralty, he always couldn't trust foreigners, and for the sake of insurance, Wang Chenhao ended his studies at the Royal Naval School in the British and some of the cadets who were familiar with warships in the shipyard ahead of schedule. This batch of cadets totaled more than 600 people, all of whom were outstanding cadets of the Naval Military Academy who Wang Chenhao had recruited from the Tianjin Naval Academy, the Jiangnan Naval Academy, the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Academy, and the Guangzhou Huangpu Naval Academy. Of course, Wang Chenhao took into account the fact that the fighting quality of the officers and men of the domestic navy was inferior to that of the British mercenaries, and although he himself served as the chief officer, Wang Chenhao asked them to learn from the British with an open mind, and once a war broke out, the British mercenaries would be the main hands, and the domestic officers would assist in learning experience and technology.

For this group of domestic officers, they never dreamed that they would be able to work on a big ship so quickly, and they also had the opportunity to work with the mercenaries of the British Navy, which was an excellent learning opportunity, and there was no better way to improve their military combat literacy.

Among them, the Esmeralda has completed sea trials and is currently being overhauled at the Portsmouth shipyard and will be ready for service in a few days. Wang Chenhao appointed Lin Jianzhang as the captain of the ship and led the trainees to get acquainted with the environment.

Of course, the British's strong support for Wang Chenhao was not without conditions. The British side has a large number of active warships and old retired warships, which can fully meet Wang Chenhao's requirements for ship purchase, but Wang Chenhao only bought warships at a high price with Chile and Argentina, which made the British side not very happy.

In return for the Admiralty's strong support for mercenaries, Wang Chenhao ordered three additional Haiqi-class armored cruisers from the British Royal Navy Shipyard, two of which were built in Britain and the other by Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry.

In this way, together with the two Haiqi-class armored cruisers that Wang Chenhao ordered from the British Royal Shipyard, the 4,600-ton armored cruiser has a total of five, three of which were built in Britain and two were built in Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry.

In Wang Chenhao's heart, he has always had a fleet plan, and at this time he already has five 7,000-ton large armored cruisers, counting five Haiqi-class armored cruisers, which just makes up a high-low five-year fleet. The Blanco, which was purchased from the Chilean Navy, is a 4,600-ton dome cruiser, which is comparable to the firepower and tonnage of the Haiqi class, but the armor protection method is one dome armor and the other is armor. In this way, there will be six 4,600-ton cruisers, so Wang Chenhao decided to build a six-six fleet, the reason is only that this number is better than the five-fifth fleet.

Considering the great threat posed by the 10,000-ton armored cruiser Rurik of the Russian Far East Fleet, no armored cruiser in the Far East Pacific has the ability to fight it alone, and in the event of a breakout engagement, no battleship will be the opponent of the Rurik. Therefore, Wang Chenhao decided to order another large armored cruiser from Britain that could fight against the Rurik, so as to form the overall frame of the 66th Fleet.

Of course, the framework of the 66th Fleet is not yet perfect. The 66th Fleet in the real sense needs to include six battleships, but Wang Chenhao considered that if he paid for the battleships, he was afraid that the imperial court would not be able to explain it, so Wang Chenhao decided not to challenge the authority of the Qing court too much before his personal power reached the level of confrontation with the imperial court.

The British side received an order for four warships from Wang Chenhao, and the first three Haiqi-class armored cruisers had ready-made drawings and could directly start construction. The fourth large armored cruiser had no previous design drawings, and although the British had designed the Rurik against the Russians several times, they had never come up with a workable plan.

Historically, the Royal Navy did not serve a single armored cruiser during the thirteen years from 1886 to 1898, despite its continuous assistance to foreign countries in building armored cruisers. The British looked down on the Russians, and Russia vigorously developed armored cruisers because they did not have the money to build battleships, which the Russian Navy called second- or third-class battleships, while the British called them first-class protective cruisers.

The British Navy's Ship Administration Headquarters designed five protection cruisers of three classes for the Russian large armored cruiser Rurik, but only the Blake class first-class protection cruiser barely meets the requirements, but it can only maneuver with the Rurik, but it cannot sink it, because the Blake class only has a displacement of 9,000 tons, and although the speed exceeds that of the Rurik, the endurance is far less than that of the other party, you must know that the Rurik is more than 11,600 tons, The ability to run from St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea to Vladivostok in the Pacific Ocean in one breath is not blown. At the same time, the Blake-class gun was 234 mm, and although the caliber exceeded the Rurik's 203 mm, it was only 32 times the diameter, which was much slower than the Rurik's 45 times the diameter of the main gun. The main guns of naval warfare in this period were mainly fired at enemy ships in a straight line, and the main guns with high double diameter had high accuracy and strong penetration, so the comprehensive combat power of the 203 main guns of the Rurik surpassed the 234 main guns of the Blake class.

Therefore, when the British came up with the design plan of this class of ships to Wang Chenhao, they were directly vetoed by Wang Chenhao. Wang Chenhao asked the British side to refer to the design ideas of the 7,000-ton armored cruiser built by Italy for Argentina and give him a new plan. His requirement is aimed at the Russian Rurik, and the new ship is required to surpass the Rurik class in terms of speed, endurance and firepower, and the protection is at least comparable, that is, it can be consumed, found, chased, and fought.

Wang Chenhao put forward this idea for long-term consideration, and in addition to the Russian navy, the future navy will also be a strong enemy. In addition to the decisive battle of the frontal fleet, it is indispensable to carry out the battle of breaking the engagement. Because the economy of the island country will certainly not be able to withstand a war, and the vast Pacific Ocean will be an excellent sea area for the implementation of a war, Wang Chenhao's requirements are very high.

However, Wang Chenhao did not embarrass the British too much, and he copied a copy of the design drawings of the Rivadavia to the British Naval Administration Headquarters as a reference.

Then, the British Ship Administration Headquarters convened several famous warship designers to study the design drawings of the Vadavia, which can be said to have benefited a lot, so the British also had a plan to design a large armored cruiser, and after integrating the advanced experience of the Blake class, the first large armored cruiser project in the history of the British Navy was officially launched. After Wang Chenhao's butterfly wings were fanned this time, the British Navy designed and started building a large ocean-going armored cruiser two years ahead of schedule.

The Qiangsheng-class ocean-going first-class protection cruiser has a design displacement of 14,200 tons, a speed of 22 knots, a cruising range of 7,000 nautical miles/14 knots, a coal load of 3,000 tons, three 234mm/32 times rear-loading rifled guns, 13 152mm/40 times, 16 88 rapid-fire guns, 12 37 machine guns, 4 457mm underwater torpedo tubes, and a crew of 894 people.

Building ships depends on needs, Wang Chenhao does not need to pursue the British Navy's global projection capability, he only requires deterrence in the Pacific Ocean, so the Hunter does not need such a large displacement and endurance.

According to Wang Chenhao's requirements, the British modified it on the basis of the Qiangsheng class, and finally designed the battleship that Wang Chenhao needed, that is, the hunter-class large armored cruiser.

Only one Hunter was built in the same class, and as the name suggests, it was built specifically for the Russian Rurik for the purpose of hunting the Rurik. It has a displacement of 12,100 tons, a speed of 21 knots, a cruising range of 7,000 nautical miles / 10 knots, and a firepower of two twin 210 mm 45 times diameter main guns, 16 152 mm 50 times diameter secondary guns, 8 88 mm rapid-fire guns, 8 47 mm rapid-fire guns, 4 450 mm torpedoes, 80% armor coverage, rated 720 people. Because of the slipway, the ship was planned to lay the keel at the Thames Iron Works in England in August 1896, launch in December 1897, complete the outfitting in March 1899, and enter service in July of the same year.