Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, it is April 1893, and more than 40,000 students of the Sailor Academy have been training for more than three months.

The equipment and technicians of Jardine Matheson have also arrived in Weihaiwei, and now the workers recruited by Lin Daxin have begun to install the equipment and conduct trial operation under the guidance of British technicians.

The German Lihe & Foreign Company also transported the arms purchased by Lin Daxin and the equipment of a large arsenal to Weihaiwei, and the technicians who helped the arsenal install the equipment also came to Weihaiwei.

In January, the general manager of Lihe Foreign Bank personally came to Weihaiwei and talked with Lin Daxin for a morning, and finally Lin Daxin purchased two old ironclad ships from the German Admiralty, which were the prototypes of the Dingyuan ship and the Zhenyuan ship of the Beiyang Naval Division, and the last two of the German Saxony-class ironclad ships, namely the "Württemberg" and "Bayern" of the German Navy.

A total of four German Saxony-class ironclad ships were built, "Württemberg" and "Bayern" are the last two, the Saxony-class is 93 meters long, 18.4 meters wide, 6.53 meters draft, using a horizontal reciprocating steam engine, power 5000 horsepower, and a maximum speed of 13.5 knots. It can carry 700 tons of coal, 8 boilers, standard displacement of 7411 tons, full load displacement of 7935 tons.

Armed with 6 260-mm Krupp breech guns, 2 in the open battery near the bow and 4 in the central gun room. 6 87-mm guns, 8 37-mm guns. The outer layer of armor was a layer of iron armor of 127 mm - 254 mm, lined with a layer of teak of 200 mm - 288 mm.

Although they are all more than ten years old ships, Lin Daxin still paid 800,000 pounds, Lin Daxin is not bad for money, he also wants to buy a few more German * ships, but the German Navy considers the needs of his own navy, and is only willing to sell these two old ships to Lin Daxin.

Moreover, the German side is willing to re-maintain these two warships, replace them with new barrels, and repair the boilers of the warships.

Now these two warships have been maintained in Germany, and have been sailed to Weihaiwei by the personnel of the German Navy, and are now sailing on the sea!

These two ironclad ships are already relatively backward warships in the West, but in Asia, they are only giant ironclad ships second only to the Zhenyuan ship and the Dingyuan ship, and Lin Daxin is still very satisfied with being able to buy these two warships.

And Jiang Hui, Sun Xitao and Jerson, who went to South America for a few months, are thanks to Jerson's familiarity with the door. Three Chilean people in South America sent a telegram to Lin Daxin, saying that they had negotiated with the Chilean government, because after the end of the South American war, Chile's finances were tight, and during the war, Chile's new warships customized to the West were about to be built, and the Chilean government decided to sell a large number of active warships.

Jiang Hui and the others took this opportunity to purchase the six main warships of the Chilean Navy in active service.

The ironclad ship "Captain Pratt" has a displacement of 6,901 tons, a length of 99.97 meters, a width of 18.49 meters, a draft of 6.96 meters, 5 boilers, 2 shaft propulsion, a speed of 18 knots, and a maximum of 1,100 tons of coal. The thickest part of the waterline armor was 390 mm, the thinnest bow armor was 130 mm, and the open battery armor was 300 mm. It was armed with 4 35x 305 mm naval guns, 8 45x 155 mm naval guns, 6 x 57 mm guns, 4 47 mm guns, 10 37 mm guns, 4 600 mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 480 people.

The armored cruiser "Esmeralda (II)" has a displacement of 7,000 tons, a length of 132.89 meters, a width of 16.21 meters, a draft of 6.17 meters, 8 boilers, 2-shaft propulsion, a speed of 22.25 knots, and a maximum of 1,300 tons of coal. Waterline armor is 200 mm at its thickest, 150 mm at its thinnest, deck armor 50 mm, main gun turret armor 200 mm. Armed with 2 40x 260 mm naval guns, 16 200 mm naval guns, 8 75 mm guns, 3 600 mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 500 people.

"Blanco. The armored cruiser "Enkarada" has a displacement of 4568 tons, a length of 112.78 meters, a width of 14.17 meters, and a draft of 5.64 meters. 6 boilers, 2-axle propulsion, speed 22.8 knots, coal loading up to 866 tons. Waterline armor was 130 mm at its thickest, 100 mm at its thinnest, and 45 mm at deck armor. Equipped with 2 40x 260 mm naval guns, 10 40x 200 mm naval guns, 12 47mm guns, 12 37mm guns, 5 600 mm torpedo tubes, crew: 427 people.

The dome cruiser "Esmeralda", displacement: 2950 tons, length 82.30 meters, width 12.80 meters, draft 5.64 meters, 2 boilers, 2 axle propulsion, speed 18.3 knots, coal loading up to 600 tons, waterline armor 100 mm to 67 mm, armed with 2 30x 330 mm naval guns, 6 26x 200 mm naval guns, 2 75 mm guns, 3 460 mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 296 people.

The torpedo cruisers "Erasuris" and "Pinto" of the same type, displacement: 2047 tons, length 81.78 meters, width 10.9 meters, draft 4.39 meters, 4 boilers, 2-shaft propulsion, speed 18.35 knots, maximum coal loading 400 tons, waterline armor 110 mm at the thickest point, 45 mm at the thinnest point, equipped with 4 195 mm naval guns, 2 155 mm naval guns, 4 57 mm guns, 3 460 mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 170 people.

There were also 8 torpedo boats of two models of 4 each. One model has a displacement: 80 tons, a length of 38.10 meters, a width of 3.96 meters, and a draft of 2.13 meters. It had a speed of 20 knots and was armed with 2 37-mm guns, 2 460-mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 16 people.

Another model has a displacement of 110 tons, a length of 45.72 meters, a width of 4.42 meters, and a draft of 1.07 meters. It had a speed of 25 knots and was armed with 2 47-mm guns and 3 600-mm torpedo tubes. Crew: 16 people.

The 6 active main warships of the Chilean Navy plus 8 torpedo boats cost a total of 2.6 million pounds, although the price is very high, and it is about to catch up with the new warship, but Lin Daxin still jumped up from the spot happily after receiving Jiang Hui's news. Jiang Hui: They almost wiped out most of the elite warships in active service in the Chilean Navy!

Jiang Hui and the others were still worried about buying so many warships, could Lin Daxin agree? As a result, Lin Daxin also asked them in the telegram, can they still buy other warships? Price is not an issue!

Jiang Hui and the others received Lin Daxin's telegram, so they were relieved to pay a down payment of 300,000 pounds to Chile. These Chilean warships purchased are about to be piloted by the Chilean Navy to Weihaiwei.

Originally, Jiang Hui, Sun Xitao and Jerson were going to return to Weihaiwei with these warships, but suddenly an Argentine military person found the three of them, saying that the Argentine Navy also wanted to sell active warships, and I don't know if Jiang Hui and the Qing Dynasty were interested. In addition, Lin Daxin sent a telegram to continue to buy warships, so only Sun Xitao returned to Weihaiwei with the Chilean warship, and Jiang Hui and Jerson went to Argentina with the rest of the money.

Lin Daxin happily thought, when the two German ironclad ships and the Chilean warships come back, these warships are equivalent to another Beiyang naval division! Moreover, the performance of the overall warship should be much stronger than that of the main warship of the entire Beiyang Naval Division.

But Lin Daxin tossed such a big move in the Weihai Weishui Academy, which has attracted the attention of people with a heart, and in the Governor's Mansion of Liugong Island, Ding Ruchang and two staff members are talking about Lin Daxin and the Sailor Academy.

A staff member said: "Admiral, that Lin Daxin made such a big move!" Even Lord Li Hongzhang sent someone to inquire! How did Lord Admiral deal with this Lin Daxin? And what about that Sailor Academy? ”

Another staff member said: "Admiral, that Lin Daxin said that he was making a school, but he got tens of thousands of people at once, which is a school, it is simply an army." You must know that even the Tianjin Water Master School, which has been established for many years, only enrolls more than 100 people! But this Lin Daxin is really rich, and he can raise tens of thousands of people! It's better for the Admiral to take Lin Daxin down and ask for the guilt! In this way, the Admiral doesn't have to worry about the funds of the Beiyang Naval Division! ”

Ding Ruchang listened to the words of the staff, frowned, and said: "Lin Daxin is all my Beiyang disciple, and he also has the consent of Admiral Ben to set up the Beiyang Weihai Weihai Naval Master Academy!" But I don't want to ask him about it! Although my Beiyang Naval Division lacks funds, it will not be forcibly taken! Use your brain to speak in the future, how to say that Lin Daxin is also Lin Yongsheng's son! ”

The two staff members hurriedly nodded yes.

Lin Daxin has sent silver to the Admiral's Mansion several times in the past few months, adding up to 50,000 taels of silver, so although Ding Ruchang knew what Lin Daxin did in the Sailor Academy, he did not ask Lin Daxin for trouble.

Ding Ruchang thought for a while and then instructed his staff: "Send someone to the Sailor Academy, just say that the sailor in Lushun has returned, and he will be able to go to Liugong Island tomorrow, let Lin Daxin come to the Admiral's Mansion, and greet the Sailor with the old man tomorrow!" ”