"The deputy minister of the Tianjin Machinery Bureau and the deputy chief teacher of the Sailor School are appointed, and the day of civilization is coming. When that is, you are the official of my Great Qing Kingdom from the fourth grade. Li Hongzhang looked at Xu Jie in front of him kindly and said.

"Thank you, Lord Nakado, for cultivating." Xu Jieye replied with a little joy.

"Are you ready to go to see the third province?" Li Hongzhang asked.

"In addition to the handwritten letter from Lord Zhongtang, the students also specially prepared 100,000 taels of silver and 100 1889-style rifles, 50 self-defense pistols and 50 combat pistols for Lord Liu." Xu Jie respectfully handed over the list and said.

"The Italian Guard doesn't have so many extra guns to draw from." Li Hongzhang frowned slightly and said.

"Naturally, this was not purchased from the Italian Guard. This batch of arms was sent to Italy by telegram from Wechen 1 month ago, and where it was purchased directly, this is only a small part. Xu Jie explained.

"You've only been in Italy for just over nine months, so it's amazing to have such financial resources." Li Hongzhang said quietly.

"Listen to Youqiao, you really want to make friends with Deng Guandao? This Beiyang Army has a higher position than him, Ding Ruchang, Liu Buchan, you don't make friends, why is Deng Guandao worthy of your attention? Li Hongzhang asked curiously.

"Competence and responsibility." Xu Jie replied unusually simply. In addition to the well-known battle of the Yellow Sea in which Deng Gong covered the flagship and finally died of injuries and crashed into Yoshino, Deng Shichang also set another record that was unique in the Beiyang Fleet, and only returned home three times during his service in Beiyang. From the perspective of due diligence alone, I am afraid that there is no one else in the entire Beiyang.

"It's also a reason, in that case, this time you and Zhang Youqiao will take the Zhiyuan that went south to inspect." As Lao Li's protégé and pipe band, since Xu Jie intends to date, Lao Li is naturally willing to thread the needle.

"The student thanked the teacher here." Xu Jie made a big gift excitedly.

Without further ado, after Xu Jie received the official appointment, he boarded the Zhiyuan dome cruiser that came to Dagu to greet them with Zhang Youqiao 3 days later, and Xu Jie also got his wish to meet the national hero he admired. After the greetings, the conversation between the two naturally shifted to the navy.

"I don't know if Brother Ji Shixian has heard recently that Master Li plans to equip my Beiyang ships with new fast guns." Deng Shichang asked cautiously, after all, this matter of returning the cannon is very important, and it is not something that he can interfere with as a lieutenant.

"There is this plan, the imperial court has just allocated a batch of funds, and with the money, this artillery replacement will inevitably continue, and some warships may have to add artillery." Xu Jie replied. "Does Lord Deng want to add artillery to Zhiyuan? If an adult has this intention, Xu is willing to help. "To admire heroes, Xu Jie is naturally a helper.

"Naturally, the matter of changing the cannon will be decided by Admiral Ding, Sect Lang Weili and the two chief soldiers." Deng Shichang couldn't help but shake his head and said. "What I am concerned about is that if the cruisers in the Beiyang compete to increase the side-chord artillery, and all learn from the Japanese side-chord to meet the enemy, how will this battle formation be arranged?" Speaking of this, Deng Shichang said with a sad face.

Hearing the latter sentence, Xu Jie couldn't wait to slap his mouth, and now he really realized what it means to worry about the world first, and be happy after the world. and the true meaning of the two sentences of living the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain. To say that as the fastest and latest dome cruiser in Beiyang, Deng Shichang asked for nothing wrong with adding artillery to Zhiyuan. But in the face of huge interests, Deng Gong did not think about how to improve the combat power of his warships first, but focused on the overall situation and analyzed the pros and cons of this gun change from the perspective of the integration of the entire fleet.

"This town is a gun-waist battleship, I'm afraid that no matter how much it is changed, it will not be able to be changed to a battleship with a sideline against the enemy. If all our Beiyang cruisers increase their sidestring guns and meet the enemy in columns, who will cooperate with which Dingzhen? Seeing Xu Jie, who was quite shocked, Deng Shichang explained.

"I have also thought about this, and the officials and students in the school have also discussed a lot about the replacement of guns, and Xu feels that it can be summed up in 10 words after research." After Xu Jie recovered from the initial shock, he regained that pampered expression.

"What ten words?" Deng Shichang suddenly became interested.

"Every ship must change its guns, and it is necessary to be cautious in adding guns." Xu Jie said word by word. …,

"The first half of this sentence is naturally very clear, so the second half of this sentence is considering the carrying capacity of the battleship?" Deng Shichang asked.

"Everyone in the Beiyang Army said that Deng Guandao was proficient in maritime affairs, and now it seems to be really good." Xu Jie said with sincere admiration. "Among our Beiyang warships of more than 2,000 tons, needless to say, there is no problem at all in installing some 6-inch rapid-fire guns on the side chord. The displacement of more than 7,000 tons gives it ample room for improvement, and your Excellency's Zhiyuan and the same class ship Jingyuan had planned to install a total of 4 earphones on both sides at the beginning of the design, but only 2 were installed due to lack of funds. So, from the point of view of the ship's structure, there is no problem with the addition of 2 6-inch guns. Although Jingyuan and Laiyuan have a larger tonnage, because they are armored cruisers (well, Xu Jie has a lot of grievances about the too narrow waterline armor of the two ships), although the tonnage is larger, but because the heavy armor occupies too much weight, it may have a greater impact on the stability and structure of the battleship after adding artillery. As for Longwei, this is the product of an enlarged mosquito cannon ship, and it is not suitable for adding artillery. It's Jiyuan, I don't know much about it, so I don't comment. Xu Jie briefly summarized his views.

"Brother Ji Shixian is really proficient in maritime affairs, if it is improved according to this, how should this Beiyang formation be arranged?" Deng Shichang asked.

"If I can, I'd love to hear what Deng Gong thinks." Xu Jie said modestly.

"No matter how the Dingzhen 2nd ship is improved, this bow is necessary for the enemy, and the meaning of coming to Yuan and Jingyuan is not to increase armaments, so that it is still a warship with the bow against the enemy, and it can cooperate with the Dingzhen 2 ship, which can be used as a fast formation to fight the enemy with columnar side-chord artillery. As for the dragon, because of its slow speed (10.5 knots), it can only be used as a support force together with the Beiyang gunboats and torpedo boats. "Deng Shichang is really Deng Shichang, according to the improvement plan provided by Xu Jie, he can quickly come up with a set of basic and reasonable combat formations, and his maritime literacy can be seen.

"If my three new warships in Beiyang are in place, how should they be organized and used?" Then, Deng Shichang asked in a somewhat considerate tone.

"If my three new clippers in Beiyang are put into service, Xu privately thinks that they should be grouped separately." Xu Jie thought for a while and replied.

"Why do you want to group them individually? Is it because the speed of the three ships is too slow? Deng Shichang asked.

"This is only one of the reasons, from the perspective of the overall situation of naval warfare, it is accompanied by a formation of 3 ships, but its principles and functions are different. The speed of the three ships was slightly slower than that of the Japanese fast fleet. Taking into account the age of the ship, there will be a certain difference in speed in actual combat. This will be more passive in terms of mobility, and weaker in terms of firepower. In order to make up for the double gap in speed and firepower, this formation can only maneuver in the inner layer of the battle line to make up for the speed gap, and at the same time cooperate with the main fleet, Zhiyuan and other ships cover the flanks of the main fleet, and the main fleet provides necessary support for Zhiyuan and other ships. to counter the Japanese fast fleet. The newly purchased 3 ships, both in terms of firepower speed and protection, are much stronger than the Japanese fast fleet, and can completely take on the heavy task of external operations, wander away from the Beiyang team, find a suitable entry point, and then cut in at high speed, kill and damage the enemy ships with ferocious firepower, and get rid of the pursuit of the enemy ships in the unfavorable situation. Xu Jie carefully explained the tactics he had already envisioned.

"Wonderful, in this way, my Beiyang Sailor will definitely be able to win." Deng Shichang said excitedly after hearing this.

"This is just to discuss the situation when the Japanese do not add new ships. If you buy a new ship. The number of wins and losses is uncertain!! Xu Jie said with a little sadness.

"But at present, this widow will definitely buy a new ship, and my Daqing may not add a new ship." Deng Shichang said worriedly.