Tianjin Dagukou Wharf.

Next to the two big brothers, "Champion" and "Shooting Voice", ten new partners who just arrived at the port yesterday are lined up according to the tonnage.

Two "armored cruisers", "Longxiang" and "Huben".

There are two "dome cruisers", "Mine Destroyer" and "Ceden".

Two "standard cruisers", "Fubo" and "Chaohai".

There are four "all-armor gunboats", "Zhendong", "Zhennan", "Zhenxi", and "Zhenbei".

From the design, manufacture to launching of these ten warships, the Xuan Navy and Citigroup's European Division participated in and supervised the whole process. After the warship left the factory, it passed the inspection in Britain and was sailed to Hong Kong by the British, where Ding Ruchang, the admiral of the Xuan Army and the new minister to Britain, Zeng Jize, led a brigade to Hong Kong to pick up the ship. After the handover, Zeng Jize made his first trip from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom, while Ding Ruchang led his new fleet all the way back to Tianjin.

The sun rises in the east, and twelve warships, large and small, are bathed in the morning sun.

Masts, cables, anchors, chimneys, bridges, decks, cannons, and black-painted hulls and snow-white bow sculptures all glitter.

On every warship, the navy flag of "Red Wave Bloody Eye Blue Shark" is hunting in the wind.

Closing one's eyes and simply listening intently to the sound of the flags is enough to make one's blood boil: it is not three or four flags, but thirty or forty flags whistling at the same time, proclaiming-

China's first modern ocean fleet has officially become an army!

This is a brand new fleet.

Notice the word "new" - it's not just that it's a "newborn" fleet; It's not just that most of these warships have just been launched. This "new" word. It also means that most of the warships in this fleet are the latest and most advanced warships in the world.

In particular, the newly arrived "armored cruisers", "dome cruisers", and "all-armored gunboats".

These three types of warships were designed and manufactured by Britain in accordance with China's requirements, and were designed and manufactured solely for China by the elites of Britain's own ship design and manufacture. In today's world, there is only one and no semicolon - even the British themselves are not equipped.

Of course, the so-called "China's demand" is actually "Prince Guan's demand".

A trip to Japan, Guan Zhuofan felt deeply. A fleet in the true sense of the word must be coordinated with high and low levels, rationally allocated, and cannot blindly pursue tonnage. Not to mention the construction of the Chinese Navy, after all, it has just begun. Resources and talents are limited, and there are too many large warships, and they will not be able to bear the energy.

More importantly, China's naval construction has its own special phased strategic goal, that is, to engage in a medium-sized fleet showdown with the world's second naval power in China's coastal waters.

There are two key words here: one is "China's offshore waters". One is "medium-sized".

The so-called "offshore China" is as far as Japan in the east. South to Indochina, farther away, is so ambitious.

The so-called "medium scale" means that the number of warships invested by the opposing sides is about a dozen or so each. Exceeding this number, Guan Zhuofan believes: this is the Far East. Far from the European mainland, even if it is the "second naval power in the world". I'm afraid I can't do it.

The first "five-year plan" in the construction of the navy, the configuration of warships, strategy and tactics. One qiē one qiē, all around this big goal.

The "Champion" is 9,100 tons, an all-ironclad giant, a super ocean-going giant, and one is enough to be used as a flagship and capital ship -- within five years, there is no need to consider a second one. Otherwise, it is needless to say whether you can eat well or not, and there is no need to say how the "world's second naval power" is, and the "world's first naval power" will probably first express "do not understand".

There is no need to surprise the "friendly countries" for the time being.

The "Shooting Sound" is 4,500 tons, and it is also a first-class ocean-going celebrity. For a medium-sized fleet, there is already a 9,100-ton "Champion" in front, then, at this level of 5,000 tons, with such a capital ship as the "Shot", it will be enough for the time being.

The focus of the new ships was put on the level of 2,000 to 3,000 tons.

Ships of this class roughly fall into the category of "cruisers".

The concept of "cruiser", in the twentieth century, began to deform and distort, giving people the feeling of a heavy ship. In fact, at the time of the birth of the "cruiser", it was really as the name suggests, and its task was to "cruise".

Include:

protecting merchant ships, fighting piracy, and patrolling overseas colonies -- the so-called "Zhou subordinate department"; In wartime, give a hand to the capital ship, the ironclad ship, do some communication and reconnaissance work, and compete with the colleagues on the opposite side - attack the enemy's merchant ships and destroy the enemy's sea transportation lines.

In general, the "cruisers" did not directly participate in the decisive battle of the fleet.

Because of the above special uses, naturally, the "cruiser" has the following characteristics: high speed, large endurance, at the same time, light protection or no protection, firepower is relatively limited.

However, what "Prince Guan" wanted was a "cruiser" -- 2,000 to 3,000 tons, and the specific requirements he put forward were extremely strange: high firepower, heavy protection, and high mobility.

The British man was stunned, frowned, and said in his heart: This guy looks very smart, how can he say such a layman's words?

It is better to say that the "big firepower" is to appropriately reduce the number of guns on the ship and greatly increase the caliber of the guns.

But this "heavy protection" and "high mobility" are natural contradictions, in the words of you Chinese: how can you have both fish and bear's paws?

"Heavy protection" means that warships must be clothed with ironclad -- in this way, the "cruisers" will become "small ironclad ships," and the weight of the warships will increase greatly, so how can they run fast? If you can't run fast, how can you "maneuver high"?

"Prince Guan" said lightly: Wouldn't it be enough to change the engine with high horsepower?

This sentence is even more layman's.

The British couldn't help but laugh: His Royal Highness, the engine with more horsepower needs a larger engine room and a larger coal tank, the space on the ship is relatively fixed, and the best designer has no way to conjure up a new space to accommodate these two things that have become larger at the same time.

His Royal Highness nodded and said: You are right, it is inevitable that the cabin will become larger. However, I don't think there is any need to get bigger -- the coal tanks of the "cruiser" are already too big, let alone bigger, and I think it's okay to shrink a little.

Because most of the missions to be carried out are ocean-going or long-term, in order to maintain a large endurance, cruisers have an oversized coal tank.

The British were stunned: shrink the coal tank? So, how do you maintain a large battery life?

Guan Zhuofan smiled: I put forward three requirements - "high firepower, heavy protection, and high mobility".

*(To be continued)