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"Your Majesty, what about our fleet?" Rear Admiral Xu Hai, commander of the 2nd Fleet, asked. It was not easy to be promoted to rear admiral, and if the fleet was abolished, what would they do? Of course, they can also understand, after all, the sail battleship is far from being the opponent of the steam battleship, and in the future naval battle, it will not be used at all. But why can't we build more steam warships?

"After that, the Navy will retain only two fleets, the 1st and 5th fleets. The commander of the 1st Fleet is Vice Admiral Wei Yong, the chief of staff is Rear Admiral Xu Hai, the commander of the 5th Fleet is Rear Admiral Lu Haipeng, and the chief of staff is Rear Admiral Ye Feng. As for Rear Admiral Ye Feng, commander of the 3rd Fleet, after the war in Australia is over, he will make proper arrangements for him. Long Yufei said. Keeping only two fleets was a deliberate decision he made. In this way, all the warships of the Xinhua Navy are steam warships. The sail warships will be decommissioned one after another and handed over to the coast guard fleet for use. From now on, the new warships of the Xinhua Navy will be successively assigned to the 1st Fleet and the 5th Fleet.

Hearing Long Yufei say this, everyone understands. Having Rear Admiral Xu Hai, commander of the 2nd Fleet, and Rear Admiral Ye Feng, commander of the 4th Fleet, serve as chiefs of staff of the 1st and 5th fleets respectively, which can be regarded as a good way out for them. Major General Xu Hai and Major General Ye Feng were not dissatisfied with this. Certainly. Both the 1st and 5th fleets will be formidable fleets of steam warships, much more powerful than the fleets of older sail ships.

"Your Majesty, only the 1st and 5th fleets are retained. In this case, the Navy would have only 24 warships left. We have a huge sea area to patrol, and such a small number of warships does not seem to be enough! Vice Admiral Wei Yong, commander of the 1st Fleet, said with some concern.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Although the 1st and 5th fleets were strong, we had too few warships. Brigadier General Lu Haipeng, commander of the 5th Fleet, also hurriedly said. The 12 'Xia-class' cruisers of the 5th Fleet had already proven their strength in the last naval battle. The 12 'Shang-class' cruisers of the 1st Fleet have entered service. Now it's going on intense training. The strength of the navy of the new China is now somewhat empty.

"The 2nd and 3rd Fleets are not going to be abolished right now. It's just a plan, one step at a time. Soon the follow-up new warships will be put into service one after another, and the dilemma of too few warships will be solved by then. Long Yufei said.

"You don't have to worry about that. The construction of the Western Zhou-class warships has already begun. And build eight ships at once. After completion, the 1st and 5th fleets were divided into four ships each. When the time comes, the strength of the fleet will be further enhanced. "General Zhao Yi, Deputy Chief of General Staff and Minister of Logistics and Equipment, said. The 'Western Zhou-class' battleship is the official name of the previously designed 'Zhou-class' battleship after modification.

The 'Western Zhou-class' battleship has a total length of 87 meters, a total width of 8.1 meters, and a draft of 5.6 meters. Displacement of five thousand one thousand tons. Four large steam engines were used as power, and two shafts were used for propulsion. The maximum speed should be at least 16 knots. The thickness of the armor on the foredeck was 30 mm, the thickness of the armor on the bridge and engine room, as well as in the turret, was 100 mm. The Zhou-class ships were armed with twin 210 mm guns in the bow and stern, and six 155 mm secondary guns, four 105 mm secondary guns and two 75 mm naval guns on either side of the hull. The 'Western Zhou-class' battleship is the first all-steel warship of the Xinhua Navy, which is not only powerful in firepower, but also perverted in defense. Once the 'Western Zhou-class' warships are put into service, the strength of the Xinhua Navy will be raised to a higher level. Of course, the cost of the 'Western Zhou-class' warships is also very high, each costing 2 million yuan, and building eight warships will cost 16 million yuan, which is undoubtedly a huge pressure on the finances of the new country. This is also the reason why Long Yufei will dismantle the other fleets and only keep the 1st and 5th fleets. If the five fleets continue to be retained, and all of them are equipped with steam warships, the finances of the new China Kingdom will be dragged down!

"The construction of the 'Western Zhou-class' battleship has begun? That's great! General Zhao, when will the 'Western Zhou-class' battleship be able to enter service? Rear Admiral Lu Haipeng, commander of the 5th Fleet, shouted. After learning about the performance of the 'Zhou-class' battleship that had not yet been finalized, he never forgot this kind of powerful battleship. Now that the construction has begun, his 5th fleet will be divided into 4 ships, which makes him very satisfied.

"The 'Western Zhou-class' battleship is the first all-steel warship we have built, and the entire construction period is expected to reach two years. In two years at most, the 'Western Zhou-class' warships will be put into service. Admiral Zhao Yi said with a smile.

"In addition to the 'Western Zhou-class' warships, the improved 'Eastern Zhou-class' battleships have also begun to be designed. When the time comes, you won't have to worry about running out of ships. Long Yufei said. Originally, only four 'Western Zhou-class' warships were planned to be built, but in order to supplement the strength of the Xinhua Navy in the short term, the 'Western Zhou-class' warships had to be added to four for this purpose. Subsequent warships, if there are no unexpected circumstances, will probably only build four or six ships per class, so as to promote the Xinhua Navy to always be ahead of the whole world in the level of warships.

A few fleet commanders, now no more complaints. The 'Western Zhou Class' will be in service in two years, and the 'Eastern Zhou Class' has also begun to be designed. In the future, the Xinhua Navy will only become more and more powerful. Even if the Xinhua Navy cannot compare with the enemy in terms of the number of warships, it is far ahead of its opponents in terms of the performance of warships. In the event of another war with the British, they believed that the final victory would still belong to the Xinhua Kingdom.

"Everyone must remember that in the future, naval battles will no longer depend on the number of warships, but more on the performance and training level of warships! In terms of industrial strength, we are inferior to the British, so we can only find a way from other aspects. Long Yufei said. As warships get bigger and bigger, the cost will continue to increase, and even world-class powers cannot afford the high cost of building ships. In the First World War, there were only about 30 capital ships of the British Navy? Long Yufei believes that the Xinhua Navy took the lead in entering the steam age, and gradually transitioned to the era of giant ships and cannons, always leading the trend of naval development. In this way, Xinhua's navy will be invincible.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Several fleet commanders said convincingly. Now they don't have any complaints. Everyone knows that after this calculation, although the number of warships in the Xinhua Navy has decreased, the combat strength of the Navy has increased instead of decreasing.

In the next Xinhuaguo, the whole country began to get busy. Government agencies began to gradually move to Guangzhou, and the newly incorporated territories began to govern, with decrees issued from the cabinet and a large number of officials sent to Chinese mainland, who would begin to govern these places under the protection of the army.

On August 18, 1844, Long Yufei and his family arrived in Guangzhou by boat and stayed in the new royal palace on the outskirts of Guangdong. This was originally a palace of the Manchu Emperor, but after it was built, there was no emperor to live in, and now it happens to be cheap Long Yufei. The palace of the Manchu Dynasty is much more exquisite than Long Yufei's palace in Manila, which makes Long Yufei very satisfied.

Liang Baochang, the governor of Guangdong Province, led senior officials from Guangdong Province to greet King Long Yufei and other cabinet dignitaries at the docks. The various departments under the cabinet have already moved to Guangzhou ahead of schedule. The new Prime Minister's Office, which is only two kilometers away from the palace, has also been finalized.

Guangzhou can be used as the capital of Xinhua, which makes Liang Baochang and others very excited, which means that Guangzhou is valued, and the ministers at the feet of these sons of heaven have a much greater chance of being promoted.

This time, the provinces south of the Yangtze River were merged into Xinhuaguo, which made the Xinhua government appoint many governors and vice governors at once, which also made the officials on the government side excited. The cabinet only has a few departments, and it is difficult to get ahead, but if you can be sent out to serve as a feudal official of a province, it is not bad. Long Yufei and Prime Minister Li Decheng discussed for a long time before the main positions in those provinces were decided.

Now, these governors and vice-governors have also gone to their respective places of government, and they will govern these provinces in accordance with the policies of Xinhuaguo. Although it is very difficult, everyone believes that with the support of the people at the bottom and the strong strength of Xinhuaguo, every problem will be solved.

In the evening of the same day, in the new royal palace, a banquet was held to celebrate the positioning of Guangzhou as the capital of the new Chinese state. At the end of the banquet, there was a little accident. Liang Baochang, the governor of Guangdong Province in Xinhuaguo, proposed a little construction to Long Yufei.

"Your Majesty, now that my new China has defeated the Manchus and occupied half of China. I implore Your Majesty to ascend the throne and become the emperor and become the co-lord of the world! Liang Baochang said loudly. Before, the Xinhua Cabinet had persuaded Long Yufei to ascend the throne and become emperor, but Long Yufei refused at that time.

The other high-ranking officials were stunned for a moment, and then they all echoed it, begging Long Yufei to be emperor.

Although Long Yufei is now the ruler of Xinhua Kingdom, there always seems to be a little gap between the king and the emperor in everyone's minds. To be an emperor is justified.

Long Yufei was also a little hesitant, the foundation of Xinhua was too shallow and the national strength was not strong, so he rejected everyone's kindness. But now, it seems that the time is ripe for emperor. (To be continued......)