Liu Hai felt a little embarrassed under Zeng Guoquan's praise. Speaking of this matter, as long as the Qing Dynasty really purchased warships, any one of them could do it. There is really nothing to show off.
Afterwards, Liu Hai took Zeng Guoquan and important officials from the Liangjiang area aboard the armored cruiser Barbaric.
After Zeng Guoquan boarded the giant ship, he looked around like a child, and finally stood in front of the sailor's giant cannon with some emotion.
Zeng Guoquan was silent for a long time and asked Liu Hai who was standing next to him: "How does this battleship compare with the two giant ironclads in Beiyang?"
"Back to the Governor, the displacement of this battleship has reached 8,500 tons, but the armor is only 254 mm, which is slightly worse than the Dingyuan. The Dingyuan's artillery is a 305 mm caliber short-barreled gun, which is the same as the 234 mm of our new battleship.
The power of millimeter rifled breech-loading guns is about the same, but in terms of speed, we are much stronger than them. Our new armored cruiser can increase the speed to 17 knots when pressurized and ventilated."
Liu Hai looked at Zeng Guoquan next to him and couldn't help nodding, and then leaned in front of him and said in a low voice: "I also ordered an ironclad ship in the UK. This ironclad ship surpassed the Dingyuan ship in all aspects, and its speed can reach
At 17 knots, our cruiser can keep up with the new ironclads and become the main force of the Nanyang Navy."
Now Zeng Guoquan was satisfied. If there was another ironclad ship, then their Nanyang Navy could become the overlord of the south like the Beiyang Navy.
Don’t you have two giant ships in Beiyang, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan? I, Nanyang, have now bought two ships with larger tonnage than yours, and they have not spent any money from the court. They are all self-raised. Let me see where you, Li Hongzhang, put your face.
After visiting this giant ship, Zeng Guoquan took the civil and military officials to the county government office in Shanghai County and sat in the middle of the lobby.
Other officials stood on both sides, waiting for Zeng Guoquan to lecture.
Zeng Guoquan coughed, and then said: "This time Liu Hai traveled thousands of miles to England. With the silver raised by wealthy businessmen in the south, he bought a huge ship for the imperial court, and there is also a huge ship under construction. This time
He has made great contributions to the court, and without a reward, it cannot comfort the hearts of the soldiers."
After Zeng Guoquan finished speaking, he looked at the officials below. None of these people had recovered from the excitement just now, and they had no objection to Zeng Guoquan's praise of Liu Hai.
So Zeng Guoquan continued: "I have reported to the imperial court, and the Queen Mother has issued an edict to specially promote Liu Hai to the deputy admiral of the Nanyang Navy, the leader of the new armored cruiser, and Liu Jie will succeed Liu Hai and continue to command the Nanyang Marine Corps.
Listen to the moderation of bangs."
After Liu Hai heard Zeng Guoquan's reward for him, he immediately stood up, knelt on the ground, and thanked Zeng Guoquan and the Queen Mother in the capital.
That evening, Zeng Guoquan and Liu Hai met at Zeng Guoquan's temporary residence in Shanghai.
But now Zeng Guoquan is no longer as energetic as he was during the day, and now there is a sense of fatigue between his brows.
"Father-in-law, please take care of your health. When I saw you and I leaving the Qing Dynasty, your expressions looked much worse."
"As I get older, I don't have as much energy as I did when I was young. When I was dispatching bandits, I didn't sleep for several days and nothing happened."
"What's going on with that armored ship you ordered? I calculated our money and it's just enough for this armored ship."
After hearing Zeng Guoquan's question, Liu Hai naturally couldn't tell him that he had raised money now, so he could only lie to him.
"Father-in-law, when I passed through Nanyang this time, I solved some fundamental problems of the Chinese in Nanyang and greatly increased their status. Therefore, these wealthy businessmen donated generously. They collected millions of taels of silver. I did the math.
It was just enough to buy an ironclad, so I took the initiative and ordered another 10,000-ton ironclad from the UK."
After hearing this, Zeng Guoquan nodded with satisfaction, and then said: "Now that you have become the leader of the new battleship, you can be considered as integrated into the Nanyang Navy in the future. As for those people in the Nanyang Navy, if you can't stand it,
, just close your eyes and do your own thing, don’t meddle in other people’s business.”
"Yes, father-in-law, I will only be responsible for my own affairs from now on. Other matters have nothing to do with me."
"Well, when the new iron-clad ships return to the Qing Dynasty, I will form a small formation with you two warships, so that you can be considered alone."
"My father-in-law is very considerate. My son-in-law will obey my father-in-law's arrangements in everything."
Zeng Guoquan rubbed his temples tiredly, and then asked: "Is there anything else? Just go back and rest if you have nothing to do. I'm going to sleep too. This man can't bear the tiredness when he gets old."
"One more thing, I don't know what to name our newly returned warship. When it was in the UK, the British Navy had already given it the name of the Arrogant. Should we still use it?"
"No, since we have returned to the Qing Dynasty, we should act according to the rules of the Qing Dynasty."
Zeng Guoquan knocked on his forehead, thought for a while and then said: "The two battleships in Beiyang are called Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, and the other cruisers are also named after the character Yuan. We don't need to learn from them. This battleship is called
Jiangsu, the next armored ship coming back will be called Jiangxi."
"My father-in-law is very considerate. My son-in-law, I have learned a lesson."
"Go back if you have nothing to do. We are here today and I really can't hold on any longer."
Seeing that Zeng Guoquan really couldn't hold on any longer, Liu Hai hurriedly stood up and left, letting Zeng Guoquan take a good rest.
In the next few days, Liu Hai knew what it meant to be busy. From the moment he opened his eyes every day, he would accept banquets from various places and eat from morning until night.
You can't shirk these things, because everyone who comes to invite you has a good reputation. If you can't guarantee it in the future, you will have to use them. If you refuse them now, how will you contact them in the future?
Therefore, Liu Hai could only suffer from the pain in his stomach. He felt like vomiting after eating delicacies in the past few days. Now Liu Hai's wish is to have a bowl of millet porridge for him to make.
In addition to accepting the banquet, Liu Hai also has to build relationships with these people in the Nanyang Navy. After all, everyone will be messing around in the same fleet in the future, and when your big ship goes out, these small ships are not allowed to escort it, so
After all, you have to have some relationship with others, right?
Just like this, a month passed, and Liu Hai finally calmed down, and he began to devote himself to training again.
Liu Hai is not worried about the new Jiangsu armored cruiser. The biochemicals under his command are all highly skilled and there are no mistakes.
Now Liu Hai's main training is to cooperate with these battleships of the Nanyang Navy. You must know that the current Jiangsu armored cruiser can be said to be the fastest in the Nanyang Navy, and its firepower is also the most ferocious.
Once a war breaks out, he will be at the front as the main force, and there must be a group of small ships around him to escort him.
It's just that Liu Hai's wish was too wishful. After only about 20 days of training, the Nanyang Navy team stopped working.
All of these people are very reasonable. If you train too hard, the wear and tear of the equipment will be even worse. Once something goes wrong with the warship and the court does not pay, then the warship can only be abandoned. In the end, what should be done if the court wants to use it.
And every time you go to sea, you need high-quality coal, which also costs money, not to mention that when the cannon is fired, there are tens of thousands of gold, and every cannonball fired is worth silver.
In the end, Liu Hai had no choice but to give up. What he was thinking was that he would introduce the construction of a separate squadron in the future, which might have more combat effectiveness than these old Nanyang fleets.
Liu Hai had just finished training that day. When he returned to his home on the shore, he immediately found that his home was more popular.
Liu Hai immediately realized that his wife Zeng Yuying had returned from Nanjing.
So Liu Hai entered the house in three steps and two steps at a time. Sure enough, he saw Zeng Yuying instructing the servants in the house to do this and that in the yard. These maids and women were being ordered around, and they didn't get a word from Zeng Yuying.
Good words.
Fortunately, Liu Hai came back and Zeng Yuying turned her attention to Liu Hai, which gave these maids temporary relief.
That night, the young couple reunited after a long separation. It wasn't until dawn that Liu Hai fell asleep for a while.
The bangs were loosened for the time being, but there was a time limit for the loosening. In June 1887, another major event happened in the Qing Dynasty.
Between the sixth and ninth years of Guangxu (1880-1883), Portugal tried many times to force the Qing government to recognize Macao as belonging to Portugal, but failed. On March 2, the thirteenth year of Guangxu (1887), the General Taxation Department sent Jin Dengqian to negotiate with the Portuguese side.
The representatives agreed on a "Sino-Portuguese Draft Treaty" (also known as the "Lisbon Protocol"), which recognized Portugal's most-favored-nation status and allowed it to permanently reside and manage Macau and Macau-affiliated territories. Portugal would cooperate with China in Macau to prevent opium smuggling.
Naturally, the Qing government in Beijing was very angry about the agreement signed by Chief Tax Officer Hurd with Portugal.
In order to recover the losses on its own territory, and the Beijing government has received news that the Nanyang Navy has added a giant ship.
So the Qing government issued an order, ordering Liu Hai to lead the Jiangsu and other main forces of the Nanyang Navy southward to blockade the Macau port.
This made Liu Hai a little impressed. You must know that in history, after Hart signed an agreement with Portugal, the Qing Dynasty did not even dare to let out a fart. Finally, in October, they signed a treaty with the other party, officially recognizing the existence of Macau.
Permanent jurisdiction of Portugal.
After the imperial court issued the order, Li Chengmou, the admiral of the Nanyang Navy, immediately convened the ship management leaders at the Nanyang Navy Yamen to discuss the matter of going south.
So this time almost all the warship management and management personnel of the Nanyang Navy were present.
These included the main six cruisers of the Nanyang Fleet.
These people include: Xu Chuanlong, the commanding officer of the Kaiji, Jiang Chaoying, the commanding officer of the Huantai, Song Wenhui, the commanding officer of the Jingqing, and the deputy commander of the Nanrui, Xu Changshun, the deputy commander of the Nanchen.
The registered commander of the ship's command team - Yuan Jiugao, and the deputy admiral of the Jiangsu command team - Liu Hai.