Master Yuan, start!

Under Admiral Ding Ruchang, the left and right wing commanders and the eight captains of the main battleships were all from Fujian.

As for the naval officers who graduated from the Tianjin Naval Academy and were close to Li Hongzhang, most of them are now the first or second mates on ships.

The current South China Sea Navy is in such an awkward situation. The admiral is a close confidant of Li Hongzhang, but he is not familiar with naval warfare.

The students who graduated from the Tianjin Naval Academy were familiar with naval warfare, but they were not well-trained and were not as skilled as the Fujian school who had received a lot of Western education.

Coupled with the insufficient number of main battleships, the new recruits of the Huai Navy can only play deputy positions.

5 It can be said that the Huai faction at the top of the South China Sea Navy and the Huai faction at the middle and lower levels are completely separated by the Fujian faction in the middle.

7 This also led to Li Hongzhang not completely trusting the naval commanders sent from Fujian. He did not exclude them, but he definitely did not regard them as his confidants.

He also repeatedly instigated conflicts between the Fujian faction and the British instructor, Lang Weili, the "Deputy Admiral" of the South China Sea Navy, in an attempt to weaken the influence of the Fujian faction in the South China Sea Navy.

6 If it is during the holidays, when the middle and lower-level students of the Tianjin Naval Academy have grown up, Li Hongzhang can naturally use his own men to replace the Fujian faction in the middle.

However, time waits for no one. The Beiyang Fleet in the original time and space was defeated in the Yellow Sea only 7 years after its establishment and was almost wiped out.

There was no talk of replacing the SI faction, which led to the faction of Fujian being the same in both the northern and southern navies during the Republic of China period. The root of this lies here.

So after showing goodwill to the Fujian faction of the South China Sea Navy headed by Liu Buxian, Yuan Shikai decided to buy some main battleships.

After all, you won't be panicked if you have a gun in your hand.

On the second day, after Deng Shichang, Ye Zu and others arrived at Incheon Port, Yuan Shikai allowed all the sailors to go ashore and rest on the pretext of rewarding the naval officers and soldiers.

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After arranging the grassroots personnel, Yuan Xiangcheng invited Liu Buxian and Lin Taizeng, the two actual operators of the South China Sea Navy, to go to the Germans' residence together.

The German was named Wilhelm Klauen. You can tell from his name that he was not a nobleman, as it did not contain "Bo" or "Fon".

As a fallen aristocrat, he achieved his current status by acting as an arms broker between China and Germany. Therefore, after staying in China for a long time, he unconsciously decorated himself according to the image of foreigners in the minds of Chinese people.

Dressed in a suit and top hat, he looks more like a British gentleman than a German.

William Crown looked at the man in front of him with a smile on his face. He heard that he was a rising star in the Eastern Empire and had recovered a piece of territory that had been lost for hundreds of years for this ancient country.

“What a remarkable person”

Yuan Xiangcheng did not pay attention to William Crown's expression. In front of Liu Buchan and Lin Taizeng, he asked him directly whether the German shipbuilding industry was willing to take on a new business.

"Yes, I'm very willing to do so." William Crowne was so excited that he could hardly contain himself and almost lost his grip on the gentleman's cane.

There was a reason why William Crown was so cheerful.

Germany's steel production surpassed that of the British Empire about ten years ago, and the surging steel production capacity needed to find an industry to carry it.

Relying on its abundant steel resources, Germany's railways, urban construction, shipbuilding and other industries that require large amounts of steel began to move on the fast track.

However, Germany's shipbuilding industry started late and did not have a long-term reputation accumulation, so it did not have many orders from outside the country. It was difficult to cover the R&D costs by relying solely on domestic orders, so it turned its attention to overseas.

However, it was unexpected that it was very difficult to develop overseas markets. There were not many countries in the world that could afford warships. European industrial countries could build them themselves and would not buy from Germany.

Most of the remaining places were colonies, and there was not enough financial resources to purchase them. The few colonies that had needs, such as Canada and South Africa, would only choose the mother country.

Germany does have colonies, but the black people in Africa don’t have such needs.

Only a few semi-independent feudal states in West Asia and East Asia were willing to purchase.

It was in this context that the Qing Dynasty, which continued to expand its coastal defense, established contact with the Germans, and built two ironclad ships, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, and cruisers such as Jingyuan, Laiyuan and Jiyuan for the Beiyang Fleet.

The leader was Wilhelm Crown, the German representative stationed in China. As a salesperson at the Vulcan Shipyard, in order to expand his own business, he worked tirelessly from the Ottoman Empire to Egypt, from Egypt to Siam, and then north to China, Korea, and Japan.

After running all the way, he only got a few big orders from the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the Vulcan Shipyard gave very favorable prices in order to expand the Chinese market, hoping to do business slowly and steadily.

Who knew that after the Qing Dynasty purchased the first batch, there was no follow-up investment, which made William Crown, who was eagerly looking forward to promotion and salary increase from subsequent orders, very anxious.

But there was nothing they could do even if they were anxious. The Japanese did have a need to buy ships, but they looked down on German technology. Initially, they all asked the British to build their ships. I heard that they recently asked French designers to design the construction drawings and planned to start construction in their own country.

In other words, German shipyards did not get a share of the warship orders placed by the Japanese Navy in the past two years.

So now that he saw Yuan Xiangcheng being such a popular guy, he naturally wanted to seize the opportunity to fight for him.

"My colleagues in the navy told me that German warships have superior performance and perfect after-sales policies, so I intend to purchase excellent German products again." Yuan Xiangcheng tried to get close to him right from the start.

William Crowne didn't expect Yuan Xiangcheng to be so direct when he came up, and seemed to be more anxious than him?

Thinking of this, he suddenly had the idea of ​​raising the price.

He calmly drank a sip of tea and said in a smooth voice, "I wonder what level of warship General Yuan wants to order?"

Yuan Xiangcheng glanced at Liu Buchan and Lin Taizeng beside him and said, "We can just design and build it based on the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan cruisers to save on initial design costs and get it launched as quickly as possible."

Yuan Shikai had no intention of building giant ships and cannons. Spending a lot of money on giant battleships before the dreadnought came out was completely not worth it.

In the early days of naval development, following the Japanese path was the right way. The heaviest Japanese warship in the Sino-Japanese War of 4000-7000 had a draft of only more than tons, while the two flagships of the Beiyang Fleet at that time, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, were both more than tons.

The Japanese ships were small and fast. After the encounter, the First Guerrilla Squadron of the Japanese Combined Fleet took advantage of its speed advantage to get in front of the Beiyang Fleet.

The Yoshino and Naniwa of the First Guerrilla Unit and the Japanese ships that arrived later attacked from the front and back, making the Beiyang Fleet vulnerable to attacks from both sides.

Although the high speed was not necessarily the decisive factor for the Japanese victory in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the artillery of Japanese ships was also more advanced than that of the Beiyang Navy.

But at least it has a fast speed, so if you can't win, you can run away, and you won't be surrounded and annihilated.

"But the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan were not built by the German shipyard. If they were copied, the workers would not be skilled enough, which would increase the cost." William Crowne stated the reason for the price increase in a casual manner.

Yuan Xiangcheng, however, seemed not to have heard and continued, "We have the design drawings of the Zhiyuan II warship in our country. We also welcome German engineers to come and visit us."

The reason why Yuan Shikai chose the Zhiyuan class was that he was influenced by the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 in the original time and space.

The Zhiyuan and Jingyuan purchased by Li Hongzhang were of the same level as Japan's Naniwa, and both were launched from the Armstrong shipyard in the UK.

It can even be said that the Zhiyuan was built a year later than the Naniwa, and its design avoided many of the shortcomings of the Naniwa. However, while the Naniwa had the same speed, it was more than 1000 tons heavier than the Zhiyuan.

In the final analysis, the Qing government was reluctant to spend money. It wanted a navy, but was reluctant to spend the money it had.

Therefore, the Zhiyuan could only be built into a "shrunken version" of the Naniwa, not equipped with the same rapid-fire guns, and its firepower was far inferior to its predecessor, the Naniwa.

Even so, the Qing court still felt that the British charges were too high, and finally turned its attention to the emerging German shipyards. In order to open up the market and attract orders, the Germans were willing to build the battleships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan at a low price.

The Japanese spent money on key areas, while the Qing government went from horse-drawn trains to high-phosphorus carbon steelmaking, and then to buying ships, but was reluctant to spend money on artillery.

It has to be said that the Qing government always saved money where it mattered most, which was also a kind of ability.

Chapter 106: No Beiyang Tragedy

"Sir Yuan, as you know, the German Vulcan Shipyard can be said to have built the best quality and cheapest ships, even producing at close to cost at one point.

If you want to order again, the price might go up quite a bit. I wonder if Master Yuan would be willing to accept that." William Crowne was now completely arrogant, raising the price the moment he opened his mouth.

"I wonder what your price is?" Yuan Xiangcheng thought to himself.

The total construction cost of the two Zhiyuan warships was about 150 million taels of silver, with a total search of: ...ba si san! 70J each costing more than taels.

"One million taels for each ship!" William Crown slowly stretched out a finger.

When these words were spoken, not only did Yuan Xiangcheng feel that they were a bit exaggerated, but even Liu Buchan and Lin Taizeng, who were listening to the conversation between the two, were a little surprised.

The battleship Dingyuan with a draft of more than 7000 tons only cost 140 million taels. Now the Germans are asking for 100 million taels for a cruiser. Isn't this obviously a rip-off!

Seeing that the expressions of the three people in front of him were a little strange, William Crown was a little hesitant about whether he had said too much. He turned his head and added:

"However, if there are enough orders, we can still order it at the original price of over 70 taels per vessel."

Yuan Xiangcheng had never held out hope that the ships could be built at the original price. He thought that a slight price increase from the Germans would be acceptable, but he did not expect that the price would be increased by 30 taels per ship. So he lowered his voice and said:

"How many orders do you think it would take to get back to the original price?"

"Ten? If Lord Yuan is willing to purchase ten, I can have the Vulcan Shipyard give him five gunboats as a bonus!"

When Yuan Xiangcheng heard this, he almost spit out the tea in his mouth. It was really amazing that the Germans could say that if he could afford 10 Zhiyuan ships, he could destroy the entire Japanese Combined Fleet by now.

During the Sino-Japanese War of 12-, the Japanese Combined Fleet had only cruisers, but the Germans asked them to buy an entire Japanese fleet in one go.

Flying Bass Marriage Group 6679102

"Two ships, at most. As compensation, I will give priority to German factories and purchase German weapons in subsequent purchases."

William Crown hadn't done business for a long time, so he naturally didn't want to make so little money. So he shook his head and said, "Five ships, I can assure you that the Vulcan Shipyard will definitely build them as quickly as possible.

Besides that, I heard that your country has found a large iron mine in the south of Shengjing City?

Germany's steel industry is the best in Europe. I wonder if Mr. Yuan is willing to introduce German technology. Of course, if there is a shortage of funds, we can provide equipment support, provided that you accept German technology investment."

Yuan Xiangcheng cursed inwardly. The Germans had a very sharp nose. They actually knew that he wanted to build a new ironworks in the Sanxi area.

He had just contacted people from Carnegie Steel and wanted to set up another steel plant in Northeast China, but he didn't expect the Germans to know about it.

Liu Buchan and Lin Taizeng were dazzled by what they heard. In order to keep it secret, Yuan Shikai did not hire an irrelevant translator, but instead communicated with the German Wilhelm Crown in English.

Therefore, Liu and Lin, who had spent a few years in the UK, could understand what the two people in front of them were saying.

When had they ever seen foreigners bargaining like street vendors? They never thought that Yuan Shikai also had no regard for his reputation. As a governor, he would haggle with a German.

Compared with this, Lord Li Hongzhang was much more straightforward. He never cared about such business matters and left them all to his subordinates.

However, when they thought that although Lord Li was efficient, the results were somewhat unsatisfactory, they felt balanced.

"Three ships, at most three! And each ship is only 3 taels. I can cooperate with Germany on the construction of a new steel plant in southern Shengjing, but I have one condition. Otherwise, I would rather cooperate with the Zhiyuan's parent company." Yuan Xiangcheng pointed at Liu and Lin and said threateningly:

"These two have studied in the UK for several years and are highly regarded by the British Admiralty. If they come forward, I believe the British will be very willing to take on this business.

Although the cost of building a ship at the Armstrong shipyard is a bit higher, the century-old shipbuilding technology of the British Empire is still trustworthy."

William Crown's face changed slightly. He didn't expect Yuan Xiangcheng to use the British to lower the price.

When he started talking, he noticed that these two people were sitting next to him but did not say a word. He thought they were Yuan Shikai's followers, and it turned out that they were waiting here.

It was the first time that Clown had seen such a good negotiator from the East. He was even better at bargaining than the haggling Russians. He could only say helplessly:

"Alright, as you wish, Master Yuan, as long as we can reach cooperation in the steel industry, three ships wouldn't be out of the question. What are your additional conditions?"

Yuan Xiangcheng was ecstatic, it worked!

However, he remained calm and said, "The main guns on the warships are all the latest 150mm Krupp rapid-fire guns.

Of course, in addition to the 150mm, I will also purchase a large number of 105mm rapid-fire guns to serve as secondary guns on warships or to equip the army."

In addition to warships, Yuan Shikai's most coveted thing was rapid-fire guns. In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese army relied on a large number of rapid-fire guns to continuously bombard the Beiyang Fleet, which was mainly equipped with recoil guns, and thus achieved a decisive victory.

The so-called rapid-fire gun is relative to the previous "slow-fire gun"

In the early to mid-19th century, most of the popular cannons were slow-firing cannons, also known as "recoil cannons".

That is, the cannon is placed on a frame, the small-caliber one is the carriage, and the large-caliber one is the fixed gun mount.