In the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Emperor Meiji, after agreeing to the plan for the reconstruction of the Combined Fleet, asked Heihachiro Togo, "The Imperial has built so many warships for the Combined Fleet, does the Navy have problems in terms of personnel?" ”

You must know that in the battle with the naval fleet of Lin Daxin Naval Academy, the combined fleet was defeated twice, and finally it was completely annihilated at its own doorstep, and the entire Japanese navy not only lost all the main warships, but also suffered heavy losses in personnel. ~~x~

Heihachiro Togo replied: "The Admiralty has drawn up a very large plan for the expansion of the army, including a large number of cadets from the Japanese Naval Academy, and an increase in the recruitment of ordinary sailors and gunners in the Navy!" Please rest assured that the Combined Fleet will never appear, and there will be warships without personnel. ”

Emperor Meiji nodded in satisfaction, and then asked Tsuchioku Munemitsu, "How is the expansion plan of the Imperial Army?" ”

Japanese Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu said: "In addition to the Guards Division, the other 16 standing divisions of the Imperial Army have begun to be reorganized and replenished, but some of them have suffered heavy losses in the war, and the entire army needs to replenish more than 200,000 people to reach the state of full strength, so it will take some time to complete the reorganization!" ”

Emperor Meiji nodded, he also knew that it would not be easy to reorganize the army into 17 standing divisions, so Emperor Meiji said: "Don't be in a hurry about the reorganization of the army, it must be gradual, and you should pay attention, although the imperial army is fighting against the Qing army, including the elite of the Qing Huai Army." Good results were achieved, but the Imperial Army suffered a crushing defeat in the battle against the Dingbei Army. Therefore, this time the whole army must improve the combat effectiveness of the army! ”

Mutsu Munemitsu nodded and said: "In the battle against the Dingbei Army, a big reason for the defeat of our army is that the weapons and equipment are not as good as the Dingbei Army, the Dingbei Army is not only equipped with a large number of Gatling tube machine guns, but also has a repeating rifle, while our soldiers of the Great Japanese Army only have single-shot rifles. The Dingbei Army was also equipped with advanced weapons such as steel chariots and grenades, which could only be resisted by our soldiers of the Great Japanese Army with flesh and blood. Therefore, the War Department has asked the Imperial Arsenal to start producing the Reich-developed repeating rifle equipment for the soldiers of the Imperial Army. In addition, the Imperial Arsenal also began to develop steel chariots. This kind of army weapon. In addition, grenades, machine guns, mountain artillery, field artillery and howitzers were already available in the arsenal of the Empire, and were also ready to produce equipment in large quantities for the army. But the production of repeating rifles, grenades, machine guns, various cannons, plus the development of steel combat vehicles required a lot of money. Therefore, if you want the Japanese Army to complete the replacement of new equipment, you need a large amount of funding from the Empire. ”

Emperor Meiji said with satisfaction: "As long as the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Army is improved, the Imperial Army will definitely not be stingy with funds, and will allocate 50 million yen to the Army first." If it's not enough, the empire will continue to allocate funds to the army! And the army divisions of the Reich were finished after the reorganization of these standing divisions. It is possible that new divisions will continue to be added. Gentlemen, for the rise of the Japanese Empire, in order to deal with Lin Daxin, the biggest enemy of the Empire, so that the Empire can take revenge, please work hard! ”

Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu, and the new commander of the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, shouted in unison, "Hey! His Majesty the Emperor! ”

Emperor Meiji finally said: "In addition, the will to fight of the army and navy of the empire needs to be strengthened, and the soldiers of the empire lack the determination to fight to the end, but this time the Dingbei Army released nearly 8,000 soldiers of the navy and army captured in the empire!" This is an absolute disgrace to the Great Japanese Empire. In the future, I will instill the spirit of bushido in the army and navy of the Empire, and I think this spirit of bushido is very good. The spirit of bushido should be vigorously promoted not only among the Imperial army, but also among the common people of the Empire! ”

Since then, the spirit of bushido has become popular in Japan from top to bottom, and war trains throughout Japan have begun to move at high speed......

The second fleet of the Sailor Academy returned to Weihaiwei 2 days later, and transported 30 tons of gold into the warehouse of the Sailor Academy. I got back 30 tons of gold on a trip to Japan, and I shouldn't have been okay to send the fleet to Japan to wander around.

It's a pity that Lin Daxin didn't know that Japan had already obtained a huge amount of wealth from the buried treasure of the Tokugawa shogunate at this time, otherwise he would not be satisfied with just blackmailing 30 tons of gold.

During the time when the Second Fleet went to Japan, Lin Daxin also met with the British minister to the Qing Dynasty, Ougen, in the office of Lin Daxin in the Naval Academy, the British were mainly very interested in Lin Daxin's submarine in the naval battle, Ogner proposed to buy Lin Daxin's submarine, Lin Daxin asked Ougner if Britain could produce all-steel battleships for him?

Ogna regretted that the docks where Britain can now build all-steel battleships have all been filled, and in two years Britain should be able to produce all-steel battleships for Lin Daxin.

Lin Daxin pursed his lips, and then perfunctory the British minister Ogna with his words to the Germans.

Ogener listened to Lin Daxin's words, obviously shirking, so Ogener said: "Doesn't Governor Lin want to get the friendship of our British Empire? ”

Lin Daxin shot back forcefully and said: "I really want to gain the friendship of your British!" But you Englishmen must also show me where your friendship is! ”

In the end, the British minister Ogener left Weihaiwei in disgrace, and after returning to the British legation in Beijing, he sent a telegram to Britain, in which Ogener portrayed Lin Daxin as a Qing ruler who was hostile to the British Empire, and Lin Daxin was blacklisted by the British.

After the British minister Ogna left, Lin Daxin thought depressedly that in the countries in the world that can produce all-steel battleships, in addition to Germany, the United States may also build for itself, but now the shipbuilding level of the United States is generally lagging behind that of Western countries, and it is better to go to the American shipyard to order and build all-steel battleships, it is better to let your shipyard build all-steel battleships! It is also possible to raise the level of their own shipyards and improve the experience of their workers.

So Lin Daxin asked Wei Han, the person in charge of the shipyard, to come over.

Wei Han walked into Lin Daxin's office in a hurry. Seeing a cup of tea brewed on the desk, he picked it up and drank it up, and then said, "Daxin." What's the matter? I'm almost busy with the back of my head, I'm busy with the final construction of 8 fast-protection cruisers, I'm also going to customize the equipment needed by Dalian Shipyard at the Machinery and Equipment Factory, and I'm also busy with the relocation of workers from Weihaiwei Shipyard to Dalian! I wish I could do it now! ”

Lin Daxin hurriedly laughed and said, "Hehe! It's hard work Uncle Wei, who made you Uncle Wei capable, and those who can work hard! This time, I asked Uncle Wei to ask Uncle Wei, does our shipyard have the capacity to produce all-steel battleships? ”

When Uncle Wei heard this, his eyes lit up and he said, "The design drawings of the warship you brought last time. There are several design drawings of all-steel battleships, and even design drawings of British majesty-class all-steel battleships, where did you get it? Never mind. I don't ask you where you got it! The kind of all-steel battleship you brought is called the dreadnought-class all-steel battleship, because the displacement is too large, although we are not sure of the construction, but the now popular all-steel battleship Our shipyard has gone through the construction of 8 fast-protection cruisers. So that the workers accumulated a lot of experience in building large warships. I think that our Weihaiwei shipyard can now build all-steel battleships quite well. ”

Lin Daxin heard that Wei Han, who could be called the first person to build ships in the Qing Dynasty. Saying that his shipyard could build all-steel battleships, he immediately confirmed it with great joy and asked, "Great! Uncle Wei, can we really build all-steel battleships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons? ”

The corners of Wei Han's mouth turned up slightly, and he said proudly: "The equipment of our Weihaiwei shipyard is no worse than those shipyards in the West, and even some equipment is more advanced than them, as long as our workers' technology keeps up, Western shipyards can build all-steel battleships, and we can also build them." It's just that we have too few workers to meet the requirements and have to wait for the construction of 8 fast protection cruisers. in order to spare manpower to build all-steel battleships! Otherwise, I would have come to Daxin for you a long time ago! ”

Lin Daxin said complainingly: "Such good news, Uncle Wei, why didn't you come to sue me earlier!" ”

Wei Han thought about it for a while and said, "The main thing is that I still have some scruples, I'm just saying it now." Our shipyard can build all-steel battleships, but the performance of the warships built, I can only say that we have done our shipyard's best ability to make the performance of the warships built meet the highest standards that our shipyards can achieve. It is quite possible that the all-steel battleships we built will have worse performance than the all-steel battleships built by the great powers of Great Britain! ”

Lin Daxin thought that as long as his shipyard could build an all-steel battleship, he would burn incense and worship the Buddha, and it didn't matter if the performance was poor, so Lin Daxin said with a smile: "I believe Uncle Wei, Uncle Wei is the first person to build ships in our Qing Dynasty!" Uncle Wei, if our shipyard builds all-steel battleships, what are your arrangements for the next shipbuilding plan of our shipyard? In addition, all-steel battleships with a displacement that our shipyards are ready to build? ”

Wei Han said: "I refer to the drawings you brought, and after modification, our Weihaiwei Shipyard is ready to build two types of warships, one is an improved all-steel battleship of the British Majesty class, and the other is a large fast armored cruiser with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons. It just so happened that I brought a number of 2 warships! ”

Then Wei Han took out a piece of paper from his clothes pocket and gave Lin Daxin a detailed description of the number of the two warships.

The British Majestic class improved all-steel battleship has a standard displacement of 14,100 tons, a full load displacement of 15,300 tons, a length of 128.5 meters, a width of 22.3 meters, a draft of 8.3 meters, 2 triple expansion steam reciprocators, 16 boilers, a two-shaft drive, a speed of 18 knots, and a maximum coal load of 1,500 tons. Waterline armor 300 mm to 450 mm, deck armor 50 mm to 65 mm, main gun turret armor 300 mm, secondary gun turret armor 230 mm, conning tower armor 300 mm. It is equipped with 2 twin 40x caliber 305 mm rapid-fire main guns, 14 single 40x caliber 155 mm rapid-fire secondary guns, 16 75 mm rapid-fire guns, 5 500 mm torpedo tubes, and a crew of 680 people.

Large fast armored cruiser with a standard displacement of 10,100 tons, a full load displacement of 10,900 tons, a length of 135.5 meters, a width of 21.5 meters, a draft of 7.6 meters, 2 three-expansion steam reciprocators, 14 boilers, a two-shaft drive, a speed of 23 knots, and a maximum coal load of 900 tons. Waterline armor 210 mm to 380 mm, deck armor 45 mm to 60 mm, main gun turret armor 380 mm, secondary gun turret armor 210 mm, conning tower armor 380 mm. It is equipped with 3 twin 40x caliber 210 mm rapid-fire main guns, 16 single 40x caliber 155 mm rapid-fire secondary guns, 14 75 mm rapid-fire guns, 4 500 mm torpedo tubes, and a crew of 620 people.

Wei Han said that the Weihai Guard Factory has almost successfully developed the naval guns on these two warships, and in addition to the double-mounted 40 times caliber 305 mm rapid-fire main guns, the other main guns have been produced. In particular, the large-caliber naval guns produced are all new 40-caliber rapid-fire guns, and the old-caliber naval guns on the ironclad battleships in the Naval Academy have a rate of fire that is several times higher, and the firing range is much longer.

The double-mounted 40 times caliber 305 mm rapid-fire main gun has also been almost developed, which will not delay the shipyard to install naval guns on warships, and this 305 mm naval gun has a very long range.

For example, the double-mounted 40 times caliber 305 mm rapid-fire main gun to be installed on the improved all-steel battleship of the Majesty class, combined with the new gun scope, can expand the combat distance to 10,000 meters, which can make this all-steel battleship pose a threat to enemy ships from 10,000 meters away.

The new type of gun mirror was purchased by Lin Daxin in modern time and space, because his own factory had no way to imitate it, so Lin Daxin ordered a large number in modern time and space.

In the end, Lin Daxin and Wei Han agreed that after completing the eight fast protection cruisers, Weihaiwei Shipyard would use all the docks that could build these two types of warships, 4 10,000-ton docks to build 4 large fast armored cruisers, and 4 15,000-ton docks to build 4 Majestic-class improved all-steel battleships.

Moreover, Lin Daxin also decided to increase the number of 2 warships in the Dalian shipyard that was about to be built in the future, and Lin Daxin, who was rich in money, began to build his own naval warship! (To be continued......)