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Chapter 1792 Weihaiwei Exercise

Tianjin Wei, many officers and soldiers wearing the uniforms of the Ministry of the Navy appeared here. They are getting up and going to Weihai Wei to prepare for the combat exercise of the steam fleet.

This is the first joint operation of four fleets. The officers and soldiers come from the Zhili Fleet, the Nanyang Fleet, the Beiyang Fleet, and the Fourth Fleet. The ships participating in the exercise are all steam ironclad ships with a displacement of more than 1000 tons in the four fleets.

Since the first steam ironclad ship entered the service of the Admiralty, many steam ironclad ships have been launched one after another in more than ten years.

This time most of the steam ships gathered in Weihaiwei, which was an unprecedented event for the Admiralty itself.

The reason why the officers and soldiers are in Tianjinwei is that they were allowed to take a vacation one or two months ago, and after the vacation is over, they are going to Weihaiwei's naval base for exercises.

Zheng Chenggong took a list of supplies and found several merchants on the pier: "Is the supplies we want ready?"

The businessman was directing the dock workers to carry wooden boxes to the merchant ship. When he saw Zheng Chenggong coming to the ship, he hurriedly said flatteringly, "Mr. Jun, how dare we neglect the supplies you want? Aren't they all loading the wooden ships?" ?”

"An hour is all right?"

"no problem."

Businessmen urged porters to move supplies faster.

Except for the basic materials such as shells, gunpowder, and food, the steamships are directly provided by the port, and some other living materials are purchased by each steamship with its own budget.Every ship has auditors who report directly to the logistics department.

Zheng Chenggong, as the captain of the steamship "Fog" of the Beiyang Fleet, came to purchase supplies together with the auditor of the steam iron-clad ship "Fog" after the vacation, to replenish some daily necessities on board, and also to improve the living standards of the crew .

"Success, how is your side?" Hannah, who is also an officer of the Admiralty, asked.

"We still have a while, are you going? Then we will see you at the port of Weihaiwei." Zheng Chenggong and she did not serve on the same steamship.

In fact, according to the internal regulations of the Ministry of the Navy, relatives or couples are not allowed to serve on the same ship, and Hannah served as a navy captain on the ironclad ship "Snow".

The Admiralty is a technical department, and it is generally difficult to get promoted in the Admiralty. There are less than ten generals, and a colonel is enough to command a steam ironclad ship.

A Navy captain is already the management of a ship.

"Okay." Hannah nodded.

Hannah and other officers of the steam ironclad "Snow" left Tianjin Wei with their supplies.

Zheng Chenggong patiently waited for the supplies on his side to be loaded before leaving in a wooden boat.

There are other officers and soldiers serving on the steam ironclad ship, like Zheng Chenggong and the others, they bought a batch of supplies directly after the vacation and brought them back to the ship, which happened to be on the way.

A series of small and medium-sized wooden boats transported supplies to Weihaiwei, where the armored ships assembled, where there were coastal defense forts and deep-water harbors.

However, two steam ironclad ships with a displacement of about 2000-3000 tons appeared in the waters outside Tianjin Wei. They were the "Yun" and "Feng" ironclad ships of the Zhili Fleet.

Naming rules for the Admiralty are simple.Non-capital ships are named directly with one word, such as fog, snow, cloud, and wind, while capital ships are named after an important historical figure, such as Huo Qubing and Wei Qing.

The first ship to serve in the Admiralty, the Admiral Fubo, was an exception.

The two steam ironclad ships "Cloud" and "Feng" appeared here to protect the passenger ship Dongfang which was about to go to Weihaiwei to watch the steam fleet exercise.

A team came down from Tianjin Wei Railway Station one after another.After they got off the train, they went to the pier again.

The diplomatic missions of various countries participated in the World Expo that impressed them, and also visited the steam fleet's exercise.

The steam ironclad ship is definitely one of the representative symbols of the steam age.

People who were used to seeing sailboats secretly marveled at the strange appearance of the steel hull, mast and chimney of the steam ironclad ship coexisting.

This time, Chu Yun personally took these envoys to show them the armed forces at sea, forcing countries that were still hesitant to join the world system dominated by the East.

He also wanted to see the combat effectiveness of all the fleet's steam ironclad ships gathered together.The four different fleets are deployed in different places, and there are not many opportunities to gather their steam ironclad ships together.

"This is the steam ironclad ship 'Yun' and 'Feng' of the Zhili Fleet, usually escorting the capital ship 'Weiqing'..."

Chu Yun recognized the two iron-clad ships Yun and Feng at a glance.

Before the era of dreadnoughts, the division of ship functions was not very obvious, and tasks were generally distinguished by the number of artillery pieces and tonnage.

The 9000-ton sister ships Huo Qubing and Weiqing are not very suitable for performing tasks as the main ironclad ships.

The prototype of the main ironclad ship is the battleship of the sail era, and it consumes a lot of materials. It consumes a lot of materials, officers and soldiers to go to sea to perform tasks, and the cost performance is too low.

Therefore, the two sister ships "Huo Qubing" and "Wei Qing" are usually only active near the port, and generally do not participate in the escort of merchant ships, which play a deterrent role.

The tonnage of the cruiser next to the main ironclad ship may only be 1000-5000 tons at this time, which can completely replace the main ironclad ship to perform ocean-going missions and save money.

In the 17th century when wooden warships were rampant, small and medium-sized steam ironclad ships of 1000 tons and 2000 tons could run unimpeded, perfectly replacing the main ironclad ships to complete the tasks of escort, patrol, and blockade.The 1000-ton small ironclad ship only takes up a fraction of the coal and officers and soldiers of the main ironclad ship.

In short, the opponent is too weak, and there is no need to spend a lot of money to save face for things that can be done with a small amount of money.

Therefore, in the past few years, the Ministry of the Navy has not added a third Daqin-class ironclad ship, and has always maintained the size of the two capital ships "Huo Qubing" and "Weiqing", plus a group of small and medium-sized ironclad cruisers.

The Ministry of the Navy is invincible. It clearly has the ability to build capital ships on a large scale, but it has no motivation to build capital ships.

Chu Yun saw this, but the reality was like this. There is no need to use "Huo Qubing" and "Wei Qing" for things that "Yun" and "Feng" can do, otherwise it will increase the burden.

"The research and development of the second-generation main steamship should also be put on the agenda as soon as possible. Although there is no need to launch a large-scale battleship, the research on capital ships should be a generation ahead." Chu Yun thought to himself.

When the ambassadors from various countries came to the passenger ship Dongfang, only the highest-ranking group of envoys were eligible to board the Dongfang.Chu Yun boarded the "Yun" steam cruiser.

The goal of their trip this time is Weihaiwei on the Shandong Peninsula, which is the port of the Zhili Fleet.

(End of this chapter)