In March 1880, Han Dynasty's shipbuilding consultant and French naval expert Farmant declined the country's repeated attempts to stay, and returned to China by ship together with more than 20 shipbuilding experts whose contracts had expired. Within the next six months, Li Mingyuan ordered the Han Dynasty to
The foreign officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were looking for suitable shipbuilding experts in Europe to fill the vacancy left by Darman's departure. In mid-September 1880, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs successively recruited people from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
More than ten experts were selected and submitted to Li Mingyuan to make a decision.
The main operational areas of the navies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy are in the Mediterranean Sea. In order to meet combat needs, the warships built by the two countries also have the shortcomings of short range and slow speed. Britain and France have military conflicts with Han Dynasty, and
Worried about the uncontrolled naval power of the Han Dynasty and preferring to keep things a secret, Li Mingyuan was worried that even if he invited shipbuilding experts from the two countries to the mainland, they would not wholeheartedly teach the local Han craftsmen to improve the level of ship construction.
After excluding the four countries of Britain, France, Austria, and Italy from the alternative plans, in October 1880, Li Mingyuan finalized the candidates for hiring foreign shipbuilding experts and appointed the ship engineer of the German Volcan shipyard, Kraugern.
Han naval advisor.
Kraugern was born in East Prussia in 1840. He has nearly thirty years of experience in shipbuilding. He once led the construction of Ariadne-class ironclads and Leipzig-class ironclads. He is a shipbuilding expert with rich construction experience.
, in order to express the attention of the Han State and invite him to work in the Han State, the government offered a high salary of 24,000 Han yuan per year, which was more than ten times higher than the salary standard of ordinary shipbuilding experts.
Thanks to the sufficient preparations made by the Chinese side in advance and the communication with the German government, Kraugern accepted the invitation from the Chinese side and immediately led a technical team of about 100 people to set off for South America.
In November 1880, Croghan concurrently assumed the position of Chief Superintendent of the Royal Dockyard. In February 1881, he proposed four improvement suggestions for the locally built 1,350-ton light cruiser. After the implementation of each of the 1,350-ton light cruisers, the construction of the 1,350-ton light cruiser
The cycle was shortened by twenty days, and the construction technology and process were slightly improved. The service life of the 1,350-ton light cruiser was also extended by about half a year.
Kraugern showed his professional and technical abilities and was paid a salary that was ten times higher than that of ordinary experts. Later, after seeing the achievements of the highly paid Kraugern team, Li Mingyuan continued to appoint him as a naval officer.
Ship Director, awarded the rank of honorary naval colonel, is responsible for warship construction, warship technology evaluation, etc.
While the shipbuilding work in the Han Kingdom was progressing smoothly, changes in external circumstances interrupted Li Mingyuan's original naval development plan.
After the Argentine War ended in 1879, the Brazilian Empire was divided into two. Although the Chilean Republican Government gained four or five provinces of new territory from Peru and Bolivia, it also lost the Patagonia region in the western Andes, and its homeland security was affected.
It eliminated threats from the Han Dynasty from both land and sea.
In order to safeguard homeland security, the Chilean government continued to build permanent fortifications in the Temuco area close to the Han-occupied areas and deployed about 7,000 army soldiers to guard the area. The Chilean government continued to use the sale of saltpeter, copper, iron and other minerals
With sufficient funds obtained from resources, the Chilean government ordered a large number of ironclads from the United Kingdom. In November 1879, the Chilean government ordered two 2,400-ton cruisers from the Portsmouth Shipyard in the United Kingdom. In April 1881, in response to a strong application from the navy, the Chilean government
Two more 6,700-ton battleships and one 3,000-ton armored cruiser were ordered from the British.
According to the construction schedule given by the British, all three ironclad ships were completed in early 1884. After being delivered to the Chilean government, Chile will become the largest naval power in South America. At the same time, it will occupy about three-quarters of the former Brazil.
In the region, the Republic of Brazil, which has core cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, inherited most of the debt left by Brazil and received support from the British government. It also invested a large amount of borrowed funds to develop its army and navy. It plans to expand its armaments
After the expansion is ready, launch a war against the Brazilian Empire and complete the reunification of Brazil.
If the Chilean government expands its navy, its impact will take time to be verified. However, the Brazilian Republic's behavior of strengthening its army and navy in an attempt to reunify Brazil is something that the Chinese cannot tolerate.
The Han State was surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the country's development and expansion direction was only in the north. If a unified Brazil appeared in the northern part of the Han State, it would undoubtedly block the expansion channel of the Han State.
The South American market is too small and can only allow one big country to exist. The actions of the Republic of Brazil and Chile have obviously hindered Li Mingyuan's development plan for Han.
For this reason, when Germany expressed its willingness to build a battleship of the same level as the Qing Dynasty Dingyuan ship for Han at a suitable price through Kraugern, Li Mingyuan decisively expressed his intention to purchase the ship and put enough money into it.
The ship incident was linked to the reorganization of the Navy's organizational structure, which triggered internal discussions within the Navy.
"Your Majesty, before 1878, the Imperial Navy had a total of six main battleships, three of which were captured from the Imperial Navy of Brazil. One was seriously damaged in battle and was dismantled in November 1879. The other two were older due to their age.
Long, it was damaged many times in naval battles. According to the opinions of ship experts, it is expected to be retired from active service in January 1883. If the three ironclads are removed, there will be only two main ironclads in the local navy, purchased from the French Mediterranean Shipyard.
For cruisers with a displacement of 3,200 tons, even if the four 1,350-ton light cruisers built and produced locally are included, the strength of the navy is less than half of that of 1878.
Therefore, I request your Majesty’s approval to restart the ship purchase plan again and add new combat warships to the navy to deal with the maritime threats from Chile and Brazil.”
At the end of the annual development report, more than 20 major naval officers gathered in the Zhongji Hall. On behalf of everyone, the First Fleet Commander Chen Sen was the first to suggest.
"If the Navy has any suggestions on the ship purchase plan, please put them forward first and let everyone discuss them."
"I heard that the puppet Qing minister Li Hongzhang ordered two large battleships from Germany, so I thought that although the Han Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty are not at odds with each other, since the Manchu Qing Dynasty is determined to purchase giant iron-armored ships, the Han Dynasty cannot lag behind.
The minister believes that the imperial court should order one to two battleships and two to three 4,000-ton or above naval defense ships from Germany. In this way, the mainland’s maritime security will not be threatened by Chile and Brazil.”
"What's your opinion?"
"Iron-armored ships are important weapons of the country and are indispensable. I agree with General Chen's view."
"There are places where money is used everywhere in the country, and every penny spent must be valuable."
Li Mingyuan explained noncommittally and continued, "There are two other railway ships in service, one with a displacement of 6,500 tons and a volleyball with a displacement of 3,500 tons. Although they are more than 20 years old, they were tricked by the British when the Brazilians bought them.
There are many unreasonable things in the design of the ship, but it would be too wasteful to withdraw from active service after one or two years. Let's let the German naval engineers think of a way to carry out a major repair on the two ironclad ships.
, try to keep the two ironclad ships in service for two or three more years, at least until 1886, before being withdrawn from active service, and then used as training ships for the Naval Academy to train new naval officers and soldiers, what do you think?"
"Your Majesty is wise."
After more than 20 officers and generals paid compliments, Chen Sen respectfully asked, "As for the purchase of new ships, does your Majesty approve it?"
"It is imperative to purchase new warships for the navy, but the ship purchase plan you submitted needs to be changed."
Li Mingyuan nodded in agreement and gave everyone a positive answer.
"Since we want to vigorously develop the navy, we cannot just purchase large warships, communication ships, frigates, supply ships, and transport ships. We need all these auxiliary ships.
Li Hongzhang just placed an order to build two battleships with the German Volcan shipyard this year. A month ago, the Germans came to us and wanted to build two more warships of one or two of the same level and sell them to us. First, for
Using the same construction drawings and docks to reduce construction costs, the second is to use the warships sold to us to build the reputation of the German shipbuilding industry and expand the German shipbuilding industry's market share in the world.
It just so happens that there is also a demand for purchasing warships in China at this time. Therefore, since the Germans have offered economical and affordable conditions, we cannot waste this opportunity.
Buying one battleship is buying, buying two battleships is also buying, the local sea area is vast. Just one main battleship is a bit monotonous, so we might as well order two large ironclads at once, and then discuss it with the Germans in advance and have them dispatched.
A ship expert, in 1884, the construction of two armored cruisers with a displacement of about 3,500 tons began locally."
"Whether the construction plan of the two battleships needs to be slightly changed, Colonel Clawgern proposed a week ago. He believed that installing a twin 305mm main gun at the front and rear ends of the Saxony-class battleship might be more effective.
"
The performance indicators designed by the German Vulcan shipyard for the Dingyuan-class battleship are:
The ship is 94.5 meters long, 18 meters wide, and has a draft of 6 meters. Its normal displacement is 7335 tons or 7430 tons, and its full load displacement is 7670 tons. It is powered by two horizontal three-cylinder reciprocating steam engines, eight circular coal-fired boilers, power 6200, and speed
14.5 knots, endurance of 4500 nautical miles/10 knots, equipped with a searchlight with an illumination of 8,000 candlepower and a searchlight of 20,000 candlepower. Three generators provide 70 kilowatts of power. The total weight of the armor is 1,461 tons, and the armored fortress
The armor thickness on the waterline is 14 inches, the armor thickness below the waterline is 12 inches, the armor thickness of the 305 gun mount is 304mm, the gun mantlet is 15mm thick, the armor thickness of the command tower is 203mm, the coal capacity of the coal bin is 700 tons, the maximum coal capacity is 1000 tons, the establishment is 329
-363 people.
The port and starboard sides are each equipped with a twin turret, powered by water pressure. Each gun weighs 31.5 tons and has a caliber of 305 mm.
tools, and the total number of guns plus the main gun is 22.
In the future, the performance of Dingyuan and Zhenyuan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-88 exposed the design flaws, so Li Mingyuan asked for the opinions of ship experts such as Crougn and combined with some opinions of later generations, decided to strengthen the number of artillery pieces of the Dingyuan ship and enhance the attack performance of the warship.
"The performance of the warships designed by the Germans for the Manchu Qing government was not suitable for the local navy and required some changes."
Li Mingyuan replied, "After discussions between Colonel Crougn and local ship experts, the improvement opinion given is to change the position of the main gun and install two high-magnification 305mm cannons at the front and rear of the ship to allow the warship to attack maneuverably
expanded perspective,
The main mast is located in the middle of the ironclad ship, separating the two sets of twin main guns to avoid the mutual influence of the muzzle wind.
The number of secondary guns at the bow and stern of the ship has been increased to 4, using 4 single 210mm cannons, 8 155mm Krupp cannons, 8 75mm howitzers, and 8 37mm rapid-fire cannons.......
The improved battleship has 32 guns of various types. Compared with the prototype ironclad ship, its weapon performance and quantity are more advantageous. In actual battles, its attack power against enemy warships will be somewhat stronger."
The improvement plan proposed by Li Mingyuan was not very different from what Crougn revealed to the naval admirals. After Chen Sen, Li Han and others listened, they all agreed, and no one raised any objections.
"The price the Germans offered Li Hongzhang was 1.42 million taels of silver per battleship. The price offered to the local side was not much different from that of the Manchus. It was 2.86 million Han yuan per ironclad ship. However, what we did with the Germans was a package deal.
, in addition to the two battleships and the two armored cruisers to be started in 1884, we also need to purchase a communication ship, an ocean-going supply ship, a shipyard capable of producing medium-sized ocean-going transport ships, plus 700 naval officers and 300
The training fees for shipbuilding experts and technicians,...the total number of expenses should be about 8.6 million Han yuan, which is about 4.3 million taels when converted into silver."
Li Mingyuan reported the total budget for the ship purchase project, and Chen Sen, Li Han and others in the palace were greatly excited.
"Your Majesty, the Pacific immigration transportation route is of fundamental importance to the country. I request that the two battleships and two armored cruisers on order be allocated to the Second Fleet to ensure the safety of the immigration route."
"The Atlantic coast is the strategic center of the country. Two battleships gathered in the Atlantic Ocean will be more deterrent. I request that all two battleships and two armored cruisers be deployed on the Atlantic coast."
As soon as the warship matter was decided, Li Han and Chen Sen started fighting over the distribution of warships.
"Earthquakes occur frequently along the Pacific coast. The naval port infrastructure at Yishui Port and Baisha Island is insufficient. It temporarily does not have the maintenance and repair tasks for large battleships. Therefore, after the warships were built, two battleships were allocated to serve in the First Fleet, and two armored ships were allocated to serve in the First Fleet.
Cruisers, one will be delivered to the First Fleet for reception, and the other will be delivered to the Second Fleet for use."
"But the total tonnage of the Chilean Navy far exceeds that of the Second Fleet. If the current fleet size is used, once a war breaks out, the Second Fleet is no match for the Chilean Navy."
Li Han explained.
"If a war breaks out, the war in the direction of Chile will be mainly handled by the army. The task of the navy is to disrupt the Chilean army's maritime supply lines and contain part of the Chilean navy's strength while preserving its own strength. It does not need to undertake the task of confronting the Chilean navy head-on.
"
Li Mingyuan added, "The Pacific direction is also the focus of the country's future development. However, it is limited to the country's strength and can only tilt its naval power towards the Atlantic. However, the construction work in the Pacific direction will not stagnate. The ordered ironclads will arrive in 1885 at the latest."
After returning home, the government will remove the 3,200-ton Victory from the First Fleet and allocate it to the Second Fleet. At the same time, the 1,350-ton HMS Victory built by the three major shipyards, Xinjing Shipyard, Xinghe Shipyard, and Royal Dockyard
Light cruisers will be given priority to the Second Fleet.
Warships and cadets who graduate from the Naval Academy will be assigned to the Second Fleet. However, the construction of ports and bases on the Pacific coast must also keep up. The infrastructure construction of Yishui Port and Baisha Island must be accelerated, and the construction of naval bases in the Polynesian Islands must be accelerated.
The plan must also be carried out quickly. If there are problems with manpower and material supply, they can be raised in advance to avoid being unable to solve them in time when difficulties are encountered later.”
"I plan to build a warship maintenance shipyard on Pahiti Island in the Polynesian Islands, which will be responsible for providing warship maintenance and maintenance tasks for the South Pacific Squadron."
"Can I approve it? Is there anything else?"
"When I landed on Easter Island, I heard that the island used to have dense trees and rich animal and plant resources. Later, the local natives overproduced and cut down the trees excessively, which led to soil erosion and soil degradation on the island. Therefore, I requested to
The same type of palm trees, oaks and other plants as those on the island are collected locally and transplanted to the island to improve the natural environment of the island in the hope that the island can provide more food supplies for the troops defending the island."
Marine Corps Commander Feng Guoan asked for instructions.
"There is abundant rainfall in the sea area around Easter Island. If the destroyed local vegetation can be restored, the supply pressure on the officers and soldiers stationed on the island will be greatly reduced."
Li Mingyuan agreed, "Remind the troops stationed on the island and the people who immigrated there in advance to control the population and livestock numbers on the island, and not allow cattle and sheep to eat the vegetation on the island."