After a long voyage of 12 weeks, the German battleship "Brandenburg" finally arrived at the anchorage of the Qing Empire's Beiyang Fleet, Weihaiwei Port in Shandong.

In the early morning, the mist on the surface of the Bohai Sea is filled, the sky is high and the clouds are light, and several snow-white seabirds spread their wings and cry, crossing a light and graceful curve in the sky. The blue waves in the sea swayed gently, shimmering in the morning light.

Qingying stood at the bow of the boat, her clothes fluttering, looking at the ancient and vicissitudes of the land not far away, her heart was surging. Three years have passed since his previous life, and he has never set foot on this land where he was born and raised, except in the haunting illusion. At this moment, the suffering and torture suffered on the sea for nearly three months have turned into a cool and moist spring, flowing in the heart.

"In half an hour, we will enter the base of the Qing Navy, Your Highness, please prepare to disembark." Captain Claude, dressed in a dark blue navy uniform, stepped out of the command tower, the black eagle emblem on the top of his hat ready to spread his wings. Seeing the old sailor walking onto the front deck, the young sailors around him all showed envy and longing.

Qingying nodded, turned around, and was about to say a few polite words to the old-fashioned and rigorous middle-aged man in front of him, when a deafening wind roar and thunder suddenly sounded in his ears; He hurriedly covered his ears and followed the prestige, only to see that the whistle of this large battleship with a full load displacement of more than 12,000 tons had begun to break through the wind and groan for a long time, and the blazing steam rushed out nearly 10 meters away, like a Suhong slanted frame, and the rain was shining!

After about half a minute, the scorching wind from the whistle finally subsided. Qingying put down her hands with palpitations and stared at Claude, her face expressionless and her eyes burning. Claude shrugged his shoulders and smiled: "The round boiler is this virtue, it will accumulate a lot of staple steam in the case of long-term use, and we have never resupplied it since we started from India to refuel, and it has been more than 2,000 nautical miles away." ”

"Fortunately, the next level of capital ships of the Imperial Navy will all be equipped with water-tube boilers!" Qingying muttered in her heart and glanced at Claude. As the first class of capital ships of the German Navy to go to the ocean, the Brandenburg class was actually not very successful: although the epoch-making arrangement of three twin 283 mm main gun turrets on the central axis of the hull was arranged, the main gun in the middle was only 35 times the diameter, which was shorter than the 40 times diameter of the head and tail main guns, and was not designed with a unified trajectory in mind. Due to the large amount of weight and space occupied by the main guns of the amidships, the Brandenburg class had only 8 105 mm secondary guns and 8 88 mm rapid-fire guns, which were acceptable against torpedo boats and weak against cruisers.

"In any case, the Brandenburg is in the Far East, and it can definitely be called a first-class weapon of war!" Claude seemed to see Qing Ying's belly, and couldn't help but add, "The two largest ironclad ships in the Qing Kingdom were built for them by Volkeng Shipyard 11 years ago, with a maximum displacement of only 8,000 tons, a speed of only 15 knots, and a 25 times diameter short-barreled cannon with a range of not far......" His eyes lit up, as if he had seen something, and the halberd in his right hand pointed behind Qingying, and said: "Huh, Your Highness, look, it's those two!" ”

When Qing Ying heard this, he suddenly threw himself on the bow railing, only to see a few miles away at the corner, a majestic gray-white giant ship slowly chopping waves; The black-gold cannon pointed diagonally at the sky, shining with a cold light in the morning glow. On the mast more than ten meters high, a red yellow dragon flag dances in the wind, hunting and hunting, and the two simple and heavy block letters on the side of the ship are showing her unique identity in the Beiyang Naval Division!

"Dingyuan!"

On the foredeck of the battleship Brandenburg, Qing Ying couldn't help but blurt out the name of the flagship of the Beiyang Naval Division, not only because this heroic and tragic name had been deeply engraved in his mind, but also because he had finally seen the real thing in this time and space! At a distance of thousands of meters, large equipment such as the main turret, lifeboat, and air intake canisters are clearly visible, and even the figures walking on the ship can be recognized if you look closely. In the historical Battle of Dadonggou, the battleship suffered a lot of artillery damage; The reason why the Beiyang Naval Division did not collapse under the rapid-fire guns of the Japanese fleet was all due to Dingyuan and its sister ship Zhenyuan. And because of the extremely high combat quality shown by the officers and men of the Beiyang Naval Division, the 305-mm cannon of the Dingyuan hit the Japanese ships many times, and if it were not for the low-quality flowering shells, at least 3 Japanese warships could have been left!

Following the Dingyuan, another ironclad ship with almost the same appearance broke through the waves to meet it, and compared with the Dingyuan ship, there was a little less complicated command flags and more agility. Due to the fact that it was launched one year later than the Dingyuan, the Zhenyuan adopted more advanced power, and the maximum speed reached 15.4 knots during the trial, which was a full 1 knot faster than the Dingyuan. Although the performance of Zhenyuan was better, for political reasons, the Dingyuan was still the general flagship of the Beiyang Fleet.

Colonel Claude obviously knew the two Optimus Pillars of the Qing Navy, he nodded with satisfaction, and said, "The Qing people are still knowledgeable, and they don't casually perfunctory my German Empire. Pass my order, the speed will be reduced to 5 knots, the salute will be fired, and the pennant will be raised! ”

As Captain Claude gave the order, the battleship Brandenburg began to slow down slowly, and the splash in the bow finally showed signs of abating. The hatch opened and closed, the friction was harsh, and several small-caliber copper cannons were pushed onto the deck, where they were tightly locked in place that had already been determined. Looking at the land of the motherland that was getting closer and closer, Qingying couldn't help but open her arms and said in a loud voice in Chinese that was already a little jerky: "The history of Dadonggou, let me change it!" ”

"Bang!" A salute shell flew into the sea, splashing a wave several feet high. Looking down from the sky, three ironclad battleships of the same origin slowly approached at a speed that could be detected by the naked eye, and it was not long before they were close in front of them. The ships touched each other, and the cheers were deafening, and the sailors of the two countries leaned on the railings to look at each other curiously, and occasionally found something strange, which would attract a burst of exclamations with laughter.

Compared with the image on TV, the real thing of the Dingzhen Second Ship is obviously thicker and more atmospheric. However, Qingying has been on the more powerful Brandenburg for nearly 3 months, and he has immunity to large ships, and these two 7,000-ton ironclad ships did not give him a shocking feeling. When the second ship was just completed, they were almost the first-class war weapons in the world at that time, but with the passage of time, they had already slipped from the position of the main ironclad ship, and could only exert their residual heat in the naval battles of the second-rate naval countries. If it were to engage the latest British Sovereign-class battleship, it would be difficult to survive one hour.

Qingying stretched out his index finger and stabbed Claude in the waist, and the admiral turned around in confusion and said, "Is there something wrong with Your Highness?" ”

Qing Ying pouted at the Dingyuan, which was dozens of feet away, and said, "These two Mites Qing Central Fort ironclad ships were built by the German shipyard, right?" ”

"Of course!" Claude nodded, a look of pride appeared in his eyes, "From 305 mm guns to 5 mm rivets, all of them are the crystallization of the sweat of German workers!" In order to get this order, Volkeng Shipyard did not hesitate to spend money, and the price of a single ship was only 370,000 pounds, which was less than 1.5 times the normal price of a dome cruiser! ”

As for the history of Volkeng Shipyard preferring not to make money, but also to get orders from the Qing court to learn shipbuilding skills, and at the same time open up the German warship export market, Qing Ying also learned about it in the Internet forums of later generations, and there is no need to listen to the people of this era to talk about it again. He raised his right hand, pointed his index finger straight at the huge main gun turret on the side of the Dingyuan, and said: "As early as 1882, the German Navy stepped into the club of 305 mm main guns, why did the Brandenburg class, which started construction in 1890, only have a caliber of 283 mm?" ”

Claude looked at him with some surprise, as if he didn't understand what a child who had just turned 11 was doing to understand the history of the changes in the navy's main guns; In addition to being surprised, I suddenly looked at the Zhengtai in front of me differently. He explained: "To tell Your Highness, the performance of the 305 mm naval guns produced by Krupp back then was not as good as imagined, and the thick gun walls and slow rate of fire were indelible wounds. The muzzle kinetic energy of our new 40-fold 283-mm guns is twice that of their 305-mm 25-fold diameter old guns, and their armor-piercing ability is at least four or five grades higher. As for the power, although our 283mm gun is important and light, it is loaded with more explosives, so the explosion power is also our advantage! Afraid that Qingying would not understand these naval terms, Claude made a few simple analogies.

"In other words, these two central battery ironclad ships are the test samples of the Volkeng shipyard and the Krupp military industry?" Qingying's eyes couldn't help but widen.

"From a certain point of view, there is nothing wrong with His Highness's statement." The Admiral regained his serious look, and turned away, his eyes like knives; As far as the eye could see, the sailors who had stopped their work and secretly looked at the bow of the ship were frightened and whispered, only to hear a dense sound of footsteps on the deck, and disappeared without a trace in less than 10 seconds. Claude snorted and continued: "However, it turned out that the performance of these two test ships was very good, and if it weren't for the iron-blooded chancellor's intention to limit the size of the navy at that time, Germany might have purchased two ships." ”

Qingying nodded and didn't ask any more. He lay quietly on the railing, staring at Dingyuan, his eyes were calm, as if he wanted to engrave the appearance of this battleship carrying the glory and sorrow of China in his heart forever.

There are less than ten days left until the outbreak of war.