As Italy methodically carried out secret preparations for war, the time soon approached the end of the year, and during this time there was also an event, that is, the navy of the Qing Kingdom in the Far East was finally built.

This Beiyang Naval Division, controlled by Li Zhongtang, can be described as the essence of the Qing Navy. Possess the Four Great Vajra (internal name); Dingyuan (flagship), Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan, Jingyuan four ships. Needless to say, the second ship of Zhijing is even more famous in the Far East.

In addition to these four King Kongs, the Beiyang Naval Division also has dome armor protection cruisers; Jingyuan, Laiyuan (the original historical Zhiyuan-class dome armor protection cruiser, its main task is to form a fast cruiser formation with the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan ships, responsible for the Zhijing 2nd ship), Jiyuan (due to insufficient speed, not included in the fast cruiser formation).

ramming cruisers; Yangwei, Chaoyong. shore defense ironclads; Pingyuan. unprotected cruisers; Weiyuan, Kangji, Guangjia. as well as gunboats; Caojiang, Maeyun, Zhenhai, Tai'an. torpedo cruisers; Guang B, Guang C. and other torpedo boats, minelayers, transport ships and other types of vessels, with a total tonnage of more than 45,000 tons. Although a fleet of such tonnage in Europe is not particularly powerful, in the Far East, it is the existence of a strong force, and even the great powers of various countries do not have fleets of such tonnage in the Far East.

Moreover, most of its naval ships have been newly built in the past decade, and the warships are relatively new and have very good weapons and equipment.

For this reason, Colonel Antonio, who is currently teaching in the Beiyang Fleet, made an evaluation of the officers and men of the Beiyang Naval Division in a telegram to China.

"Your Excellency Admiral Golek, I have served the Qing Northern Fleet in the Far East for almost four years, and I have a deep understanding of the officers and men of the fleet. On the whole, the officers and men of this fleet are still very good, and they are well trained in all kinds of skills under the strict requirements of advisers from various countries, and they can reach the level of 70 percent of the officers and men in China.

This indicator refers to the officers and men at the grassroots level on the ship, and the middle and high-level officers on the ship are lower, which can reach about 60% of our country, of course, I think this is more due to their lack of proper training. The Qing Northern Fleet was somewhat resistant to the need for more expensive projects. This is also the fact that Governor Li, the actual controller of the fleet, is relatively short of money, which has a lot to do with it.

In addition, there is another big problem in the fleet, that is, the commander of the fleet, Ding Ruchang, is from the army, and he does not know much about the various rules and measures of the navy, and his orders are basically from the hands of the chief adviser, Colonel Lang Weili. Such a result is very worrying.

Moreover, the relationship between Colonel Luang Weili and the middle and upper echelons of the Qing Dynasty was not very good, and his personal strictness and lack of personal affection were somewhat different from that of a humane society like China. In addition, the officers and men of the Northern Fleet are basically from the Fujian region, and this kind of general fleet officers and men are all from the same region, which is also not conducive to future naval joint operations. ”

It can be seen that Colonel Antonio has a very thorough understanding of the Beiyang Fleet, and of course it has a lot to do with the fact that he belongs to the bystander Qing.

Of course, this was only an episode at the end of the year, and in addition to the formation of the Beiyang Fleet in the Far East, the domestic development of Italy continued.

This year, Italy's fiscal revenue reached a new high of 1.518 billion lira, the highest on record. The growth of government revenues also comes from the development of industry.

The demand for electricity in Italian industry has skyrocketed this year. At present, the State Grid Corporation of China has 47 thermal power plants and 2 hydroelectric power stations throughout the country, which can provide 2.14 million kWh of electricity to Italy every year, making it the largest user of electricity in Europe.

Of course, this is not all there is to the State Grid, and in the new year, the company has ambitious plans to bring the electricity to 3 million kilowatt hours in the new year. Strive to initially meet the electricity needs of Italian industry.

That's right, it is to initially meet the industrial electricity consumption.

Speaking of electricity, everyone can see the role of electricity in promoting industry, and the enterprises that want to be electrified at present are like carp crossing the river. And the State Grid is also working overtime to expand its own power plants. However, it can't bear the demand too much, so its efforts to expand the power generation power have not been able to keep up with the power demand.

The development of Italian electricity has also played a leading role, and at present, other European countries have also appeared in the electricity enterprises, but their scale and power plants are not as good as Italy. But it is certain that the big development of electricity in Europe has already begun. Of course, among them, Westinghouse Power, which produces various AC motors, will naturally be able to get a piece of the pie.

And in addition to electricity, Italian agriculture is also doing well this year, with the exception of grapes. This year, European grapes have been attacked by pests and diseases, and the grape production of various countries has been greatly reduced, among which the production of Italian wine has decreased by one-third compared with last year, of course, this is not Italy, but basically the same in all European countries.

So this year's wine prices have risen sharply, but even at such a high price, Italian wine exports have plummeted, because Italy, like the French, is a wine lover, and it is almost like a necessity of life, no matter what you do, you have to drink a glass of wine.

The absence of wine has led to a decline in agricultural exports, but thanks to the good industrial and entrepot trade, Italian imports and exports have continued to grow.

Although Italy's fiscal revenue is growing this year, this year's expenditure is even more fierce, reaching 1.979 billion lira, and the fiscal deficit has reached an unprecedented 451 million lira.

But no matter how difficult it is, it has to be done, and the Ministry of Finance has been busy for this. After several revisions, a financial statement that looked pretty good was released. For example, the army and navy have allocated additional training expenses and weapons procurement expenses under other names. If there is no person with a bottom list, there is absolutely no flaw.

Although the Ministry of Finance has fooled around this year, it will be more difficult next two years, because government spending will have to expand further, and the size of the deficit will be the same.

These expenses were invested by Italy in secret preparations, so they still need to be covered up.

On the other hand, on the military side, in addition to purchasing equipment, the navy and army have also strengthened the training of the army, and the army has held two exercises in succession this year, one at the division level and the other at the army level.

The navy, on the other hand, frequently dispatches warships to carry out continuous naval operations, searches, and escorts, in an effort to enable officers and men to give better play to their own standards.

Of course, 1888 passed anyway.

The new year is coming, and Carlo, as the king, needs to lead the Italian ship to ride the wind and waves and sail in a strong direction.