When the 6 ironclad battleships and 8 transport ships carrying Japanese prisoners of war of the Second Fleet of the Naval Academy arrived in the waters of Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu personally came to the flagship Tenkuma, and Mutsu Munemitsu bowed as soon as he saw Jiang Chen and said: "Contemptible Japanese Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu, on the orders of the Emperor, has come to negotiate with you about the release of our Japanese prisoners and the evacuation of your fleet from the waters of Tokyo!" ”

Jiang Chen nodded and said, "Okay! As I have already told your representatives, as long as you Japanese pay 20 tons of gold for the food of the prisoners of war, plus 10 tons of gold for the convulsion of our principal, we will immediately release your nearly 8,000 naval and army prisoners of war and evacuate the waters of Tokyo! But you have to remember that if you Japan make another move like the Weihai Acropolis, our entire naval fleet of the Naval Academy will definitely be bombed to all of your Japanese port cities, no matter what the consequences are! Our naval fleet in the Sailor Academy counts! ”

A trace of anger appeared in Mutsu Zongguang's eyes, and the muscles on his face twitched because of anger, but they were immediately covered up without a trace, Mutsu Zongguang nodded and said: "Okay, our Emperor Xià is willing to pay 30 tons of gold to you Governor Lin for the sake of peace between Japan and the Qing Dynasty, and we Japan will also restrain our military and civilians not to do anything that causes Governor Lin's anger, and I hope that our Japan and the Qing Dynasty and the northeast region of Governor Lin will become friendly neighbors and live in peace forever!" ”

Jiang Chen pursed his lips at Mutsu Zongguang's words and didn't say anything more. **.

The Japanese soon delivered 30 tons of gold to the Second Fleet by transport, and Jiang Chen immediately gave the order. Eight transport ships carrying Japanese prisoners of war docked at the port of Tokyo one by one, and nearly 8,000 naval and army prisoners of war were returned to Japan.

Then Jiang Chen also ordered the six ironclad battleships of the Second Fleet, the Heavenly Bear, the Heavenly Tiger, the Heavenly Eagle, the Heavenly Wolf, the Heavenly Fox, and the Heavenly Leopard, to cruise around the waters of Tokyo. Only then did he turn the bow of the ship and began to return to the direction of Weihaiwei.

After the Second Fleet of the Naval Academy left the waters of Tokyo, Emperor Meiji summoned Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu, and the new commander of the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, to the Japanese Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Emperor Meiji first asked Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, "What about the two all-steel battleships that the Imperial Empire custom-built to Britain in 1894?" ”

After the war between the Qing Dynasty and Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War, because the Beiyang Naval Division increased Lin Daxin's purchase of several main warships of the Chilean Navy, Japan deeply felt that the strength of the combined fleet was insufficient, so it ordered the construction of the all-steel battleship Fuji from the British Thames Iron Works. Ordered the all-steel battleship Yashima to Armstrong Shipyard.

The 2 all-steel battleships are an improved version of the all-steel battleships of the British Navy's Sovereign-class, with a standard displacement of 12,533 tons and a length of 125.5 meters. The ship has a beam of 22.4 meters, a draft of 8 meters, 2 triple expansion steam reciprocators, and 14 boilers. Dual-shaft drive. The speed is 18.3 knots, and the maximum coal loading is 1200 tons. Waterline armor 360 mm to 457 mm, deck armor 50 mm to 63 mm, main gun turret armor 360 mm, secondary gun turret armor 230 mm, conning tower armor 360 mm. It is equipped with 2 twin 35-caliber 305 mm main guns, 10 single 40-caliber 152 mm secondary guns, and 24 47-mm rapid-fire guns. 5 x 457 mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 637 people.

Hirobumi Ito replied: "The news from the British side will be at the beginning of next year. The two all-steel battleships Fuji and Yashima can be built and returned to Japan! ”

Emperor Meiji said: "Now that the empire is blessed by Amaterasu and has received the treasure of the Tokugawa shogunate, which makes the empire very well-funded, Ito-kun, has the next plan for the reconstruction of the combined fleet of the empire been formulated?" ”

Ito Hirobumi nodded and said, "It's been formulated, let's let Togo-kun introduce our next plan for the reconstruction of the combined fleet!" ”

Then the new commander of the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, said to Emperor Meiji: "Your Majesty the Emperor, we have reached a preliminary agreement with Great Britain, France and Italy to have British shipyards build four British Majestic-class all-steel battleships for our combined fleet, two French Charlemart-class all-steel battleships for our combined fleet by French shipyards, and two Italian Queen Margaret-class all-steel battleships for our combined fleet by Italian shipyards. In addition, at our rebuilt Yokosuka shipyard, four British Majestic-class all-steel battleships were built under the guidance of British experts. At our rebuilt Kure Port shipyard, 2 French Charlemart-class all-steel battleships were built under the guidance of French experts, and 2 Italian Queen Margaret-class all-steel battleships were built under the guidance of Italian experts. ”

Ito Hirobumi then said excitedly: "Your Majesty, this is only the plan of all-steel battleships, 8 ships will be built for us from abroad, 8 ships will be built by our domestic shipyards, plus 2 all-steel battleships of the improved Sovereign-class class, our combined fleet will have 18 powerful all-steel battleships by the end of 1898!" ”

When Emperor Meiji heard this, he excitedly shouted, "Good! Very good! What else? ”

Heihachiro Togo continued: "We will also place orders for four large fast armored cruisers with a displacement of nearly 10,000 tons to British and Italian shipyards, and we will also build four large fast armored cruisers of the same type at the Yokosuka Shipyard and Kure Port Shipyard in China under the guidance of British experts, and this total of 12 large fast armored cruisers will be named the Asama class by our combined fleet." In addition, we will build a number of protective cruisers, but the selection of protective cruisers is still being studied. This is the number of 16 all-steel battleships and 12 large fast armored cruisers to be built! ”

After saying that, Heihachiro Togo handed Emperor Meiji a piece of paper, and Emperor Meiji took a closer look at it, on which were written the number of 3 types of all-steel battleships and 1 type of large fast armored cruisers.

The British Majesty-class all-steel battleship has a standard displacement of 14,900 tons, a full load displacement of 16,000 tons, and a length of 128.32 meters. The beam is 22.86 meters, the draft is 8.38 meters, and there are 2 triple expansion steam reciprocators. 16 boilers, twin shaft drive, speed 17.5 knots, maximum coal loading 1,500 tons. Waterline armor 360 mm to 457 mm, deck armor 50 mm to 63 mm, main gun turret armor 360 mm, secondary gun turret armor 230 mm. Command tower armor 360 mm. It is equipped with 2 twin 40x caliber 305 mm main guns, 12 single 40x caliber 152 mm secondary guns, and 16 76 mm rapid-fire guns. 5 x 457 mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 670 people.

The French Charlemagat-class all-steel battleship has a standard displacement of 11,693 tons, a length of 121.5 meters and a beam of 21.7 meters. The draft is 8.4 meters. 2 triple expansion steam reciprocators, 16 boilers, twin shaft drive, speed 18 knots, maximum coal loading 1000 tons. Waterline armor 275 mm to 450 mm, deck armor 50 mm to 78 mm, main gun turret armor 400 mm, secondary gun turret armor 275 mm. Conning tower armor 400 mm. It is equipped with 2 single-cell 40-caliber 305-mm main guns and 2 single-mounted 40-caliber 274-mm secondary guns. 8 single 138-mm secondary guns, 20 47-mm rapid-fire guns, 6 450-mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 600 people.

The Italian Queen Margaret-class all-steel battleship has a standard displacement of 13,400 tons, a full load displacement of 14,974 tons, a length of 138.6 meters, a beam of 23.8 meters, a draft of 8.9 meters, 2 triple expansion steam reciprocators, 16 boilers, a twin-shaft drive, a speed of 20 knots, and a maximum coal load of 1,500 tons. Waterline armor 152 mm to 203 mm, deck armor 50 mm to 76 mm, main gun turret armor 203 mm, secondary gun turret armor 152 mm, conning tower armor 203 mm. It is equipped with 2 twin 40x 305 mm main guns, 4 twin 40x 203 mm secondary guns, 16 single 40x 152 mm rapid-fire secondary guns, 20 76 mm rapid-fire guns, and 4 460 mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 820 people

The Asama-class large fast armored cruiser has a standard displacement of 9,700 tons, a length of 134.72 meters, a beam of 20.45 meters, a draft of 7.43 meters, 2 upright three-stage bulging reciprocating steam engines, 12 boilers, a two-shaft drive, a speed of 21.5 knots, and a maximum coal load of 1,000 tons. Waterline armor 180 mm to 356 mm, deck armor 50 mm, main gun turret armor 200 mm, secondary gun turret armor 152 mm, conning tower armor 356 mm. It is equipped with 2 twin 40x 203 mm main guns, 14 single 40x 152 mm rapid-fire secondary guns, 12 76 mm rapid-fire guns, 7 47 mm rapid-fire guns, and 6 457 mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 600 people.

At the end of this piece of paper is written the cost of 16 all-steel battleships to be built, and the follow-up cost of 2 all-steel battleships under construction, plus the cost of 12 large fast armored cruisers, the cost of rebuilding and adding equipment to 2 shipyards, and the cost of expanding and training the officers and men of the Japanese Navy, the reconstruction plan of the entire combined fleet will cost a total of about 270 million yen, which is converted into more than 30 million pounds.

Emperor Meiji saw that more than 30 million pounds were needed, which was enough to catch up with Japan's fiscal revenue for a year.

This made Emperor Meiji feel a little distressed, although Japan got the Tokugawa Shogunate treasure worth hundreds of millions of pounds, but it still needs to repay the British tens of millions of pounds of loans, if you follow this combined fleet reconstruction plan, it is equivalent to most of the treasure wealth has been consumed, but Emperor Meiji thought that he had just been blocked by Lin Daxin's fleet at his doorstep, and he had blackmailed 30 tons of gold, so he gritted his teeth and nodded: "The reconstruction plan of the combined fleet will be implemented according to this!" ”

When Emperor Meiji looked at the number of warships on paper, Heihachiro Togo was very nervous, knowing that the Combined Fleet would need more than 30 million pounds to formulate this reconstruction plan, and after the completion of this reconstruction plan, although the Japanese Combined Fleet is still not comparable to the British Navy, the world's naval hegemon, the Combined Fleet is very likely to compete for the title of the world's second navy.

Now that Emperor Meiji has agreed to this plan for the reconstruction of the Combined Fleet, the new Commander of the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, suddenly said excitedly: "Your Majesty, the Combined Fleet will not let you down again!" After the completion of the reconstruction of our Combined Fleet, it will be the day of shame for our Combined Fleet! (To be continued......)

ps: Because there are warships with a number of jù, I wrote more than 400 words. I don't dare to write more, and if I write more than 500 words, I will be charged again.

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