Chapter 55 The Northern Ocean and the Southern Ocean
In response to Zeng Guoquan's inquiry, Liu Hai already had a plan in mind, "Father-in-law, this Jiangsu number is the hard-earned money of the wealthy businessmen and people in Liangjiang. How can it be transferred to Beiyang for nothing? We have already given up to Beiyang in terms of military expenditure. If we continue to
If this continues, will Nanyang still have the value of existing?"
"Then you mean you don't agree to let the Jiangsu go north?"
"That's natural."
Zeng Guoquan nodded with satisfaction, and then said: "This time Li Hongzhang has spent a lot of money to let you serve as the deputy admiral of the Beiyang Navy. In terms of status, you are one step higher than the admiral of the Nanyang Navy."
After Liu Hai heard this, he said with disdain: "You would rather be a chicken head than a cow queen. I just brought the warship to the Beiyang Navy as the deputy admiral. There is an admiral there, and I am just an admiral.
Decorations.”
Liu Hai is now very disgusted with the internal relations of the Beiyang Navy. Others may still have some respect for him, but Liu Buchan, the commander of the Dingyuan ship, is a thorn in the side.
In the near future, the famous flag-removal incident will be instigated by this commander-in-chief. It would be a lie to say that he has no selfish motives.
At that time, the Beiyang Navy, which had gone to Southeast Asia to spend the winter as an aid, took refuge in Hong Kong for maintenance and freezing. Admiral Ding Ruchang led four warships including the "Zhenyuan" to leave Hong Kong and patrol Hainan Island.
On the flagship "Dingyuan" of the Beiyang Navy, the five-color admiral flag was suddenly lowered and the three-color general flag was raised. According to the "Beiyang Navy Regulations", the fleet only has one admiral and two generals. Under the admiral, the general
The rank of military officer is the highest. Therefore, Liu Buchan, the commander-in-chief of the right wing and the commander of the "Dingyuan" ship, took this action to declare that he would take command of the fleet on his behalf.
However, the highest-ranking officer in the Beiyang Navy at that time was the British deputy admiral Langweili.
Langwei argued with reason: "Admiral Ding has taken up his post and I am still in the fleet. Why did the general flag be raised?" A foreigner asked Liu Buchan sternly. How could Liu Buchan feel angry?
"According to navy practice, this should be the case!" Liu Buchan responded tit for tat.
Lang Weili walked away and immediately called Li Hongzhang to question his status.
In the end, because Li Hongzhang protected his own Liu Buchan, the British deputy admiral could only resign sadly.
From this point of view, the competition for military power in the Beiyang Navy was so fierce that he did not want to participate.
And on the surface, it seems that Liu Buchan did not want the British to interfere with the Beiyang Fleet. In fact, he was not selfish there. He was allowed to be in the Beiyang Fleet. Besides Ding Ruchang, he was Liu Buchan.
Zeng Guoquan understood what Liu Hai meant and said directly: "Without my order, the Nanyang Navy cannot send a ship northward. As for the Navy Department, I will handle the negotiations."
After hearing this, Liu Hai finally felt relieved. If it was Zeng Guoquan who had languished, he would not be able to keep the Jiangsu number no matter how capable he was.
After Liu Hai met with Zeng Guoquan, he hurried back to the Nanyang Navy. Because the people in Nanyang Water were now unstable, everyone was a little discouraged. They had just trained well, and suddenly they had the most sharp Jiangsu trumpet of the Nanyang Navy.
Going to Beiyang makes me feel unhappy.
After Liu Hai left, Zeng Guoquan immediately sent a report to the court: "The Jiangsu is a treasure of the people of the two rivers. Since returning to the country, it has been the flagship of the Nanyang Navy. If it is transferred to the Beiyang Navy, I am afraid that the people's hearts will change."
Heart."
After Li Hongzhang received Zeng Guoquan's telegram in Beijing, he curled his lips and expressed great contempt for his disregard for the overall situation.
Because in Li Hongzhang's strategic concept, he aimed to strengthen Beiyang with all his strength so that Beiyang would form a backbone force that could deter other countries and defend the Qing's national defense.
Instead of doing it like the Nanyang Navy does now.
However, Zeng Guoquan still has some weight in the Hunan Army and the imperial court. If this old guy is not dealt with, he may not be able to transfer the Jiangsu to Beiyang.
So Li Hongzhang, in the name of the Navy Department, once again sent a report to Zeng Guoquan: "The overall situation of the imperial court is like this. If the navy's strength is scattered in two places, how can it concentrate its strength to deter foreign countries? The Jiangsu has arrived at the Beiyang Navy, and Liu Hai will be the deputy admiral. This time
This is a major plan of the imperial court, I hope my brother will act quickly."
Zeng Guoquan looked at the telegram in his hand and thought that what Li Hongzhang said made sense, but the current strength of the Hunan Army was already much weaker than that of the Beiyang Army under Li Hongzhang. If Li Hongzhang continued to toss like this, then their Hunan Army might really
The division collapsed.
Besides, Liu Hai is his son-in-law and is already the admiral of the Nanyang Navy. Although his status is actually not as high as the deputy admiral of the Beiyang Navy, on the surface he is of the same rank as the admiral of the Beiyang Navy, Ding Ruchang.
Moreover, he saw that his son-in-law was very good at management, and when he heard him thinking about his future, he also wanted to vigorously develop the Nanyang Navy.
If Li Hongzhang really did what he did, and if the Nanyang Navy acquired a warship, he would transfer one to Beiyang, then would it still be necessary to establish the Nanyang Northern Navy?
So Zeng Guoquan once again sent a stern telegram: "It is absolutely impossible for Nanyang Navy warships to go north to Beiyang. If my dear brother insists on doing so, my brother can only report to the court and ask the Queen Mother to make a decision."
And then Zeng Guoquan directly commended Empress Dowager Cixi. The general content was, "The imperial court only regarded Beiyang as the backbone, and Nanyang as nothing. This fear chilled the hearts of the entire Hunan Army."
After receiving this commendation, Empress Dowager Cixi was also very angry. She originally wanted to let the Qing Dynasty go through it peacefully, but she did not expect that Li Hongzhang actually started a dispute between the South and the North over a warship.
And judging from what Zeng Guoquan meant, he already had the idea of destroying everything. If he insists on dividing Nanyang and reducing Nanyang's strength, Zeng Guoquan may no longer listen to the imperial court's orders.
So that night, Empress Dowager Cixi secretly summoned Li Hongzhang, and the two talked at length in a secret room for a long time. The next day, Li Hongzhang never mentioned the transfer of Nanyang Navy warships to Beiyang again.
Liu Hai spent some time at Wusongkou, the base of the Nanyang Navy, and found that the imperial court's transfer of Nanyang warships to Beiyang seemed to have been settled.
It was immediately clear that despite Zeng Guoquan's firm opposition, Li Hongzhang finally compromised.
And from now on, I'm afraid there will be irreconcilable conflicts between the South and the North.
Naturally, the Beiyang Navy believed that the Nanyang Navy was ignorant of current affairs, while the Nanyang Navy believed that the Beiyang Navy was relying on the favor of the imperial court to bully Nanyang. It was probably impossible for the two sides to jointly fight.
But this is fine. From now on, if the imperial court fully supports Beiyang and uses its own private wealth to build Nanyang, the imperial court will be able to form two combat-effective navies and be able to do things to turn the tide when necessary.
The matter quickly subsided, and Liu Hai returned to the time when he was fully engaged in business.
His bangs are now obsessed with money, which is not his fault, since he reached a deal with the Americans in exchange for panacea for iron ore.
The shipment volume of his panacea decreased sharply, and it could only be sold within the Qing Dynasty, and the price was not high, which severely weakened its profits.
Fortunately, by next month, Liu Hai will have 1 million tons of iron ore to sell to Hyundai, which will be able to make up for some of his losses.
After Liu Hai arranged the training tasks for the Nanyang Navy, he began to look for a suitable place to build a shipyard near the Nanyang Navy.
Although there is a Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau in Shanghai now, there are many factions within it and the bureaucracy is too serious. If Liu Hai gets involved, I am afraid that the gain will outweigh the losses. If all the energy is concentrated on those intrigues, it is better to abandon them and start a new one.
Besides, the Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau is Li Hongzhang's territory. Liu Hai just wants to intervene, but I'm afraid Li Hongzhang won't agree.
In fact, Liu Hai had already envisioned that she would circle a large piece of land at the Hyundai Jiangnan Shipyard and prepare to start construction here to build her own shipbuilding base.
The county magistrate in Shanghai already knew about the bangs enclosure, but in the end the magistrate could only turn a blind eye to the right to photograph bangs. In the end, he paid about 10,000 yuan for 5,000 taels.
All the acres of land were sold to Liu Hai.
After Liu Hai purchased the land, he immediately hired British designers to design the Jiangnan Shipyard.
At the same time, in order to immediately strengthen the strength of the Nanyang Navy, Liu Hai sent his confidant, Liu Yu, with five to six hundred sailors who had undergone rigorous training, to sail to England to receive the ironclad ship that was about to be built.
At the same time, Liu Yu was entrusted to order several cruisers of about 5,000 tons from the United Kingdom to support the ironclads and the Jiangsu armored cruiser.
Liu Hai wanted to have a big fight. He was shocked by Li Hongzhang's shamelessness and wanted to compete with the Beiyang Navy to see who was the first fleet of the Qing Dynasty.
Just when Liu Hai ambitiously wanted to rebuild the Nanyang Navy, the imperial court also issued a decree to formally establish the Beiyang Fleet.
Starting from the first year of Guangxu (1875), Li Hongzhang was ordered to supervise the Beiyang coastal defense. He first ordered eight cannon-proof iron ships from the United Kingdom. After the fifth year of Guangxu (1879), he ordered two super-yong ships from the United Kingdom to show off his power.
cruiser) and two gunboats in Zhenzhong and Zhenbian, and ordered two giant iron-armored ships and one steel-armored cruiser from Germany, which later became the three ships of Dingyuan, Zhenyuan and Jiyuan. At the same time, Li Hongzhang also stepped up preparations to build a navy.
Base, a naval academy was set up, and foreigners were hired to train the navy. In September of the 11th year of Guangxu (1885), the Naval Yamen was established. Li Hongzhang took the real power and took the opportunity to expand the Beiyang Navy, ordering Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, and Jingyuan from Germany and Britain.
, four 2,000-ton cruisers from far away. In the 14th year of Guangxu (1888), the "Beiyang Navy Charter" was formulated and the Beiyang Fleet was organized, with a total of 22 ships of various types and more than 4,000 officers and men.
At this point, the Beiyang Navy was officially established.
The formal establishment of the Beiyang Navy greatly shocked Japan, and Liu Hai worked hard in the Nanyang Navy, which put Japan under great pressure.
They are no match against the Beiyang Navy alone now. If a war breaks out between the two countries and the South and Beiyang form a combined fleet, Japan will definitely be defeated.
Faced with this severe situation, Japan had no room for hesitation, so they frugally began to purchase warships in large quantities, hoping to compete with the Beiyang Navy.