In the First Sino-Japanese War in history, the Beiyang Naval Division was annihilated by the Japanese in Weihaiwei and the whole army was annihilated; So after that, does the Chinese Navy not even have a single hair? The answer is clearly no.

In another plane, after the Sino-Japanese War in 1895, the Beiyang Naval Division, which once dominated Asia, was completely wiped out; The northern gateway of the Qing Dynasty was opened, and the Gyeonggi region was directly threatened by the strong ships and cannons of the great powers. In order to defend the capital, the Mites Qing government decided to rebuild the Beiyang Naval Division, so they purchased ships everywhere, setting off the second ship-buying boom of the Mite Qing Dynasty. At this stage, the purchase time lasted from the end of the First Sino-Japanese War to the early years of the Republic of China, and about 40 ships were purchased. These ships formed the New Beiyang Naval Division after the First Sino-Japanese War, known in history as the "Later Beiyang Naval Division". Due to the super huge indemnity of 1.17 billion taels of silver in the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War and the Gengzi Revolution, as well as the embezzlement of another 4 million taels of silver by the old witch Cixi in the restoration of the Summer Palace destroyed by the Eight-Nation Alliance, for her own enjoyment, the navy's military budget was seriously lacking; In this case, the ships purchased by Mites Qing are far inferior to the first Beiyang naval division in terms of quantity and quality, and can only exist as an extremely limited regional maritime force.

Two 4,300-ton "Haitian" class, three 2,950-ton "Haichen" class, one 2,600-ton "Zhaohe" class, and one 2,460-ton "Yingrui" class, these seven protective cruisers, which have long been outdated in terms of type, constitute the main core of the Mites-Qing Navy in the post-Sino-Japanese era in history. Not only are they light in tonnage and weak in firepower, but their protection is even more scum and slag without even vertical armor, and they cannot play the role of the mainstay of the second ship in Dingzhen at all. All they could do was to scare the rebellious people internally, and then bully goods like Cuba and Mexico, which did not even have navies (the Haiqi carried out a successful gunboat diplomacy against Cuba and Mexico in 1909, forcing the two governments to apologize for the anti-Chinese riots at home); If they were to fight the Japanese fleet, they would never be able to hold out on the battlefield for 5 minutes! The most deplorable thing is that the Haitian, the first "giant ship" of the largest displacement and the most expensive mite water division, ran aground and sank after only 5 years of service, which was a loss to my grandmother's house.

Although Qingying has extreme contempt for Mites Qing's cheap behavior that he has to wait for his skin to be torn out before he realizes that he is wrong; However, this time Li Hongzhang came to Germany to buy ships, and he still attached great importance to it. Among the seven cruisers in history, the first five main warships were ordered by Li Hongzhang during his round-the-world visit in 1896: two Haitian-class ships were purchased from Britain and three Haichen-class ships were purchased from Germany, with a total cost of 1.15 million pounds sterling. In this plane, Mites Qing only paid 100 million taels of silver to Japan, which was only more than 40% of the same period in history; Its treasury is much more abundant than it is historically, and it has more funds to build a stronger fleet. If this mite halal can take advantage of the three-point heat that was beaten by the Japanese and buy a few good ships to go back, then he will have the capital and confidence to be alone in the upcoming Russo-Japanese War!

However, it is estimated that this is the only time for Mites to purchase ships. In the next two years, the naval strength of the Qing and Japan will remain roughly equal; And after that, when their three-point heat mixed with humiliation and unwillingness has passed, they will immediately return to the old way of the walking dead. As the saying goes, "Let the boiling water boil, I will die a pig", what is the outside world like, and what does it have to do with mite Qing?

Because the Mites Qing regime itself was crowned by an alien barbarian, and then it was extremely lucky to steal the artifact of the Central Plains that had been restored for hundreds of years; Therefore, for the rulers of the Mite Qing Dynasty, their greatest enemy was not a foreign enemy, but the tens of thousands of Han people living on the land of China. The core interest of the Mites Qing is not to let the country take off and develop, but to ensure their ruling power, so that this group of barbarian mongrels can continue to dominate the land of China.

The newly established Beiyang Naval Division on the ruins of the First Sino-Japanese War in history is the best example. The so-called Huanghuang Qing Dynasty was defeated by the projectile thieves they had always despised, and the fleet of sailors who had been painstakingly managed for 20 years was wiped out and a huge indemnity of 230 million taels of silver was extorted. However, this is the end of the enthusiasm for the revitalization of the country. Since at the same time as paying 230 million taels in compensation, he also had to pay a total of 7 million taels for the purchase of these five warships, and he complained bitterly when he boarded up, saying that he could not do such a thing personally. At this time, the revenge of the rulers of the mite Qing gradually subsided, and they suddenly found that their situation was not as unbearable as they imagined! They just lost the war in the First Sino-Japanese War, and "only" lost the Beiyang Naval Division, ceded the "projectile land" of Taiwan, and compensated 230 million taels of silver! The Japanese did not have the strength to annex the Qing court, and they were still able to hold power, prestige, and fish and flesh in this anointed land, and live a life of drunken dreams and death! As long as your regime does not fall, what does it matter if you act as a lackey of the great powers and help them lick the beep beep?

After figuring out this layer, the three-point heat of the mite Qing and the rearmament battle 2 years ago instantly cooled down until the freezing point. After buying five ships in 1896, the pace of the Mites Navy's purchase came to a standstill again as it had been 10 years earlier, and it was completely a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water. In the following 10 years, Mites Qing did not order more than one destroyer from a foreign country; It was not until 1909 that the economic situation of Mites Qing improved, and then he reluctantly ordered two super scum cruisers with a speed of only 20 knots, "Zhaohe" and "Yingrui", from the British. What could a speed of 20 knots do in 1909? Battleships 10 times larger than their tonnage can reach speeds of up to 21 knots!

Therefore, due to the class limitations of the mite Qing itself, it is destined that they will never order a large number of warships from abroad in order to make the country strong, as the Japanese did; And this kind of whimsical naval construction method of Mites Qing is simply not comparable to the large and stable investment of the Japanese Navy year after year. It is important to know that Japan, after some hard work, had a powerful fleet of 6 battleships and 8 armored cruisers as the core on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War; Its naval strength has surpassed that of Austria-Hungary and Italy, and ranks sixth in the world. This time, even if Mites Qing's finances are better than historical facts, and he has received a loan of 120 million marks from Germany, how much money can he come up with to buy a battleship? A few years later, the strength of the Beiyang Naval Division will be surpassed by Japan, and it will be in a disadvantageous situation of passive defense again; It's just that compared to the disparity between heaven and earth in history, their situation in this plane is much better.

In this case, Mites Qing can only build an "existence fleet", use a few main warships anchored in the port to contain the main force of the Japanese fleet, and then release small ships to implement the strategy of breaking diplomatic relations. Since there was no naval aviation during World War I, it was impossible to carry out effective search in the open ocean, and the incomparably vast Pacific Ocean was an excellent stage for raiders to display their skills. As long as the captain is in command properly and coquettish, then it is completely possible to capture dozens of merchant ships like the "Oriental White Swan" in history; If Mites can buy a few raid ships to go back, they will be able to play a great role in the war against Japan.

On June 19, a joint sales group composed of representatives from major German shipyards appeared in front of Li Hongzhang. Under Qingying's deliberate hints, the designs they showed rarely had the shadow of heavy artillery iron turtles, and most of them were ocean-going warships with fast speed and strong endurance. Although the Mites were still intoxicated by the glorious victory of defeating the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet head-on in the Battle of Dadonggou, the Japanese cruisers' subsequent attacks on the coast of the Mites Qing also made the Mites Qing remember deeply. Now that the Germans have come up with a-for-tat warship design, Mites Qing has also focused more attention on this.

After some comparison and weighing, a ship purchase contract that was completely different from history officially appeared in front of the world. For a total price of £2.1 million, Mites ordered 1 battleship, 1 armored cruiser and 3 ocean-going assault ships from German shipyards. The indemnity of the First Sino-Japanese War is less than half of the historical facts, and its purchasing power is far from being comparable with historical facts; Coupled with the loan provided by the German side, it was enough to give Li Hongzhang the confidence to conclude the deal.

Among the 6 battleships of this size purchased by Mites, that battleship is undoubtedly a star that has attracted much attention. It has a standing displacement of 10,700 tons, a speed of 18 knots, two twin 42-diameter 283 mm guns, and waterline armor up to 250 mm thick. Although her tonnage is inferior to that of the Fuji class, and her four 11.1-inch cannons are slightly inferior to her opponent's four 12-inch cannons, her main gun rate of fire and armor defense area are 2.5 times that of the opponent. Since the new German 42 times diameter 283 mm gun has increased the weight of the bullet to 300kg, the armor-piercing ability is not inferior to the British 40 times diameter 305 mm main gun, and her actual offensive and defensive capabilities are far superior to the enemy.

In addition to this battleship, the other four battleships were all ocean-going ships with overseas attack capabilities. The armored cruiser was almost a replica of the classic Garibaldi class in historical Italy, but with some secondary guns and armor cut to increase endurance. It has a standing displacement of 7,800 tons, a speed of 20.5 knots, two twin 40 times the diameter of 210 mm guns, and a waterline armor thickness of 150 mm. After converting part of the space belonging to auxiliary artillery ammunition and armor into coal bunkers, the design coal carrying capacity was increased to 1,400 tons, which can travel 8,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 9 knots. The other three assault ships, despite their small size and standing displacement of only 2,880 tons, were able to reach a speed of 23 knots; The 790-ton coal reserve provides it with an ultra-long range of 8,250 nautical miles, enough to travel back and forth on the shipping lanes around Japan.

Of course, there is a price to be paid for; The raider was armed with a measly four 105mm guns, and its 20mm dome armor could only withstand fragmentation damage from near-misses. However, it was designed to bully unarmed merchant ships, so it wasn't a big deal.

Liquid steel poured and furnaces roared, and in 1897 it quietly came to the sound of gold and iron in German shipyards.

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