Ding Yuntong was not surprised by the response of Britain and the United States, because historically, the open-door policy was originally proposed by the United States. The United States is a rising power, and its strength is not comparable to that of other powers, and by the time it is strong enough, China has almost been carved up. Based on this, the United States in history put forward this policy, demanding that the great powers "equalize interests" in China, have equal opportunities, and refrain from engaging in specialization within their own scope.

Now that Ding Yuntong has taken the initiative to put it forward, it really surprised and delighted the US government. It's like a pack of hungry wolves biting a sheep, and one of the hungry wolves is too late to intervene and is depressed, and the sheep itself cries: "All wolves have a share, and every wolf must eat meat equally!" "What a ridiculous scene, but now it's happening.

But Ding Yuntong has carefully considered that this policy has two sides: when China is weak, every hungry wolf eats equally and freely. When China becomes stronger, one wolf is forced to spit out some meat in its mouth, and the other wolves will spit out a little in return.

Either way, there's no time to lose. The U.S. Secretary of State will begin his first trip to Asia.

As for the United Kingdom, it is even more desirable that someone would be willing to buy their own second-hand warships. You must know that this era is the era of great changes in the navy, and the replacement of warships is extremely fast. Often a warship, when designed to be the most advanced and stylish. By the time the construction was completed, it turned out to be outdated.

In this case, unless there is an urgent need for replenishment in the war, all countries will choose the latest design, the latest manufacture, and will not spend money on what someone else has used for several years. If you have money to buy the old one, you might as well add some money to buy a new one. Historically, the Beiyang Naval Division, Japan, the Ottoman Empire or South American countries were all looking for the most haode experts to build the latest warships with the latest ideas.

Now there are unjust big people who come to the door to buy them, and Britain is just spending other people's money to build new ships. So it is not surprising that the list of warships was handed over to the Chinese side very quickly.

Ding Yuntong looked at this list sent from London, and was a little depressed, there was not a single ironclad ship on it, including the Inflea White, which was about to be completed, which would have a significant impact on future battleships. However, it is not surprising that the old ships were originally used to make money, and the British, of course, would not put the latest cutting-edge warships in the list.

Combined with the history of the previous life, the French Far East Navy is extremely powerful, and Ding Yuntong believes that it is unrealistic to defeat the other side. However, since you know the future goal of the other party, you can design in advance, prepare in advance, and strive to inflict heavy damage on the other party, and you can be satisfied if you can achieve this goal.

Under such a premise, Ding Yuntong carefully browsed the list, looked at the performance parameters of each warship, and learned from the experience of the previous life, no matter how good the warship is, no matter how good the warship is, no armor protection will be wanted, as the firepower of naval battles becomes more and more fierce, especially after a few years, rapid-fire guns will begin to appear, and no armor will die quickly and miserably.

The first thing he had in mind was the Shannon, the only armored cruiser he had eyed, the first armored cruiser built by the British, and was said to have been designed and built in the wake of new Russian warships.

As a cruiser, the "Shannon" is already a bit unworthy of its name, with a displacement of 5,670 tons, which is larger than the tonnage of the "Fuso" ironclad ship that Japan just purchased at the beginning of the year.

At this time, the "Fuso" was recognized as the strongest warship in Asia, and together with the "Kongo" and "Hiei" second-class ironclad ships built during the same period, the core strength of the Japanese Navy was already extremely terrifying, and it is no wonder that the next provocation in Korea was to be carried out in history.

As for firepower, the Shannon has 4 254mm front-loading rifled guns, 7 228mm double-loading front-loading rifled guns, and 6 20-pounder breech guns.

At this time, due to the fact that the technical problems of the breech guns equipped in the early stage were not solved, the British Royal Navy returned to the breech guns. But with so many large-caliber heavy guns, the firepower of which is already beyond the imagination of an ordinary cruiser.

In terms of armor, the armor belt of the "Shannon" covers the entire length of the hull, with a thickness of 203-228mm at the thickest part of the ship and 152mm at the thinnest part of the stern, which is comparable to the thickness of the "Fuso" ironclad ship.

Combined with its armored firepower, it can even fight hard with ironclad ships.

But the shortcomings of this ship are also obvious, due to the drag of heavy artillery and ironclad, its speed is very low compared to ordinary cruisers, only a little more than 12 knots, and in naval battles, maneuverability is too poor. Even if she encounters an advantageous ironclad ship, she can't even escape.

Then, Ding Yuntong picked two more from the remaining protective cruisers: the 4,300-ton "Leander" and the 3,730-ton "Iris".

These two ships can only be regarded as the second class in the British protective cruiser fleet in the future, but for now, the fire and armor are passable, the tonnage is not bad, and the speed is more than 16 knots, which is considered fast in the same batch of battleships. Can be used as an auxiliary liliang for the "Shannon".

After all, it is an old ship, and the price is relatively low, 750,000 taels, 540,000 taels and 490,000 taels respectively.

Look at the rest, there is really no more haode, the British really think that they are garbage collectors, and there are still non-steam-powered sail battleships in the list, which can be sent to the Naval Museum in a few years.

Ding Yuntong selected these three ships and immediately ordered a telegram to London, asking Guo Songtao to negotiate with Britain about receiving warships, and hoped to hire naval instructors, and at the same time instructed the Admiralty to select candidates to receive ships. The Admiralty also quickly submitted the list of key personnel for review.

At this time, the navy had been unified as a national cause, and the Beiyang, Nanyang and Fujian naval divisions of the previous generation no longer existed, and the warships of the provinces were integrated. The Fujian sailors, originally trained by the Fujian Shipbuilding School, have become the core of the current Qing Imperial Navy.

There are wooden steam-powered sail warships such as Wan Nianqing, Fubo, Anlan, Feiyun, Yuan'an, Yuankai, Dengyingzhou, Tai'an, Yangwu, Weiyuan, Chaowu, Kangyu, etc., as well as some small gunboats.

Most of these warships are small ships and lack combat effectiveness. Only the core "Yangwu" wooden-hulled cruiser is more powerful, supervised by the French, with a displacement of 1,560 tons, 13 cannons, a speed of 15 knots downwind, and a cost of more than 250,000 taels of silver. At the beginning of its birth, it was the largest cruiser in Asia, and its performance was in no way inferior to that of warships of the same type in Europe and the United States. During his visit to Japan in 1876, he also frightened his opponents. Stimulated by this, Japan made up its mind to buy the "Fuso" and other ironclad ships. At present, the cruiser "Yangwu" is the flagship of the Qing Imperial Navy.

After comparison, Ding Yuntong chose Ye Bojun, Xu Shoushan, Lu Han and other three people as the captains of the British warships (at this time, the name was no longer the pipe band), took a group of crew members to Britain for training, and was responsible for driving the warships back to China. The history of these three people's previous lives proves that they fought bravely. As for the captain of the "Yangwu" changed from Zhang Cheng to Lin Guoxiang, this Zhang Cheng cannot be said to be useless, but his performance in the Majiang naval battle in his previous life was not good enough, and Lin Guoxiang led the "Guangyi" to perform well, so he simply changed generals now.

Now there is a group of people who are studying in England and will be the commanders of the future Qing fleet. Ding Yuntong's envisioned fleet commander was none other than Liu Buchan. The reason for this person's great controversy in the history of his previous life was that Taylor, an Englishman who had served as the deputy commander of the "Dingyuan" ship, out of personal resentment, wantonly slandered Liu Buyun in his memoirs, saying that he was a coward who was greedy for life and afraid of death by changing the ship formation without authorization and putting the "Dingyuan" ship in the middle. At this time, Liu Buyun had already committed suicide and martyrdom, and the dead would not defend themselves. In fact, Liu Buyun is not only a general with strategic vision, but also a brave and tenacious warrior.

Ding Yuntong thought silently: I really want to go to the army to see it in person, especially to see the military exercises. However, the identity of the emperor is really inconvenient, and he doesn't want the soldiers to see him with his own eyes at the moment, and the object of instilled allegiance is actually a child, which is not very wise, and he has to think of a way.

By next year, the training army will be reunified and equipped with weapons, and after training and reorganization, it is expected that the combat effectiveness will be improved. The Guards can have at least one brigade, which will be used as an elite unit. The navy has integrated the purchased warships with the domestically produced warships, and at the same time, the defense system of the Mawei military port must also be substantially improved. When you feel sure, you don't have to wait until 1881, when France approves money in Vietnam.

Thinking like this, Ding Yuntong immediately issued an order to send Shao Youlian to the Black Flag Army garrison in Vietnam to defend the victory and study and prepare for war. Tang Jingsong, alternate director of the Ministry of Officials, was sent to Hue, Vietnam, as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, to organize the Vietnamese government's anti-French shili.

Now it's time to start laying out in Vietnam.