Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 108 Visit to Germany
"Toot..." The flagship Zhenyuan sounded its whistle, and the fleet sailed out of the mouth of the Bohai Sea and entered the Yellow Sea.In the distance, from the direction of Weihaiwei, seven warships, two large, five small, and seven large, came.The two huge first-class ironclad ships Jiyuan and Weiyuan, which belong to the Saxony improved version like Ding and Zhen, have straight sides so that their shape looks more like a slender pencil box than that of later generations. It is a kind of prismatic structure with raised sides. It is said that in order to get China's huge shipbuilding bill, Bismarck personally asked about the construction of the second ship. In fact, this class of ironclad ship can also be called the 80s German shipbuilding industry. A masterpiece.

With a displacement of 7335 tons, the thick and shiny armor looks extremely solid. The perfect protection composed of the armored fort and the waterline armor provides them with great survivability. Think of Dingyuan and Zhenyuan in the battle of the Yellow Sea. After getting up and being shot nearly 400 rounds, she still remained motionless and sailed back to Lushun smoothly. She was called "the unsinkable ship" both at home and abroad.As for firepower, although the Qing government still did not modify them after the rapid-fire guns appeared, the Ding and Zhen ships were not as dazzling as their defenses, but their four 4mm cannons distributed along the ridge line were the best in Asia. No warship's armor could hold up.Historically, Zhenyuan almost sank the Sanjing warship with one shot, and the flagship Matsushima of the Japanese Navy withdrew from the battle.In the time and space of Guan Xuqing, because he is familiar with the history of ship development, it is of course impossible for him to ignore the rapid-fire gun modification of the Dingyuan-class ironclad ships. Now the four ships Ding, Zhen, Ji, and Wei have removed the two 305mm stern terraces. Krupp breech-loading guns and four 150mm Krupp sampan guns on both sides of the ship.Instead, it was changed to six 75mm rapid-fire guns produced by the Jiangning Arsenal of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau (formerly Jinling Machine Bureau).

Following the two ships of Jiyuan and Weiyuan are six cruisers that are obviously smaller in size, "Chengfeng", "Break the Waves", "Sail", and two cruisers "Flying Eagle" purchased in the UK in the 11th year of Guangxu, "Sea Lion" and the "Rise" built by Jiangnan Shipyard imitating "Chengfeng".

The Jiangnan Shipyard, with the help of German and American experts, imitated the "Rising" protected cruiser based on the "Chengfeng". The water volume of both legs is about 5700 tons. The turbines are still produced abroad and then shipped back to China for installation, but it is a new first-class cruiser successfully built in China, and the Rise is a dome cruiser.His imaginary mission is.After the battle between the North and South Main Fleets and the Japanese Combined Fleet, the Japanese cruisers who were injured and escaped were caught up and destroyed. Therefore, the requirements for them were extremely fast speed and powerful firepower, so no matter how far or near they were, they did not need forced ventilation technology to escape easily. 19 knots.This means that in wartime conditions, Japan's active cruisers, including the fastest Chiyoda, cannot escape two
It is equipped with two 2mm Armstrong breech-loading guns and ten 203mm Jiangning rapid-fire guns, which can completely sink the Sanjing ship with a 10mm cannon and the Mubang, which is known as the "matchbox". Any Japanese cruiser, including the

These eight warships, together with Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, are the nine newest warships of the Beiyang Fleet, and they also constitute the entire main force of the Beiyang Navy.

After playing the banner of "Wishing my emperor good health and prosperity, and the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty", eight Beiyang warships led by Lin Yongsheng joined the visiting fleet.For certain purposes, Guan Xuqing's visit was semi-secret, and everything from the cabinet down to the Prime Minister's Office was kept secret. The news of his departure from Beijing is still unknown to some foreign envoys in Beijing.In fact, this is very necessary. We must know that in history, China has suffered a lot from diplomatic leaks. For example, after the Russo-Japanese War, the United States had intentionally signed an alliance with China to jointly contain Japan, which was rapidly expanding in the Pacific region. , which was very beneficial to China, which was poor and weak at that time, and was struggling internally and externally.But it turned out that Tang Shaoyi, who was in charge of the negotiations, hadn't left the country yet, and Japan got it from the Chinese Prime Minister's Office first.

Shocked by the news, the Japanese government immediately ordered the ambassador to the United States to start consultations with the United States. It not only repeatedly expressed its willingness to improve relations with the United States, but also promised that Japanese immigrants would flow to North Korea and Northeast China instead of the United States in the future. No more troubles for the United States over immigration.But requires the US to recognize its "freedom of action" in North Korea and northeast China.

On the other hand, since China did not have direct ships to the United States at that time.Tang Shaoyi could only go to Tokyo, Japan to change to the JKK ship to visit the United States.When arriving in Japan halfway, the Japanese government used its usual cleverness.He welcomed him with extremely solemn etiquette, and arranged for celebrities from the political, business, literary and artistic circles, and academia to visit him in an endless stream. Tang Shaoyi was often dizzy by the ostentation of a small banquet every three days and a big banquet every five days. , inconvenience.At the same time, in order to prevent him from seeing the flaws, the Japanese side also incited the Chinese Revolutionaries in Japan to carry out protests through groups such as the Black Dragon Society. These passionate young people demonstrated outside Tang Shaoyi's accommodation with the encouragement and even connivance of the Japanese police. , protests, and harassment—sadly, they have also become

A tool with ulterior motives in Japan.Every time the heat was about to arrive, the Japanese police would come forward to disperse the crowd, and then detain Tang Shaoyi with words such as "the crowd is raging" and "there may be assassination activities".

He tried his best to persuade him to stay for a longer period of time under the protection of the Japanese government.

This side delayed Tang Shaoyi's itinerary, while the other side sent diplomats to actively negotiate with the United States. On the day Tang Shaoyi arrived in the United States, he was hit in the face. The content is: the two countries maintain the status quo in the Pacific region, respect each other's territories in the region, maintain the principle of equal industrial and commercial opportunities in the region, and encourage the free and peaceful development of their respective businesses; the two countries use all peaceful means to safeguard China's independence and integrity , to maintain the principle of equal business opportunities for all countries in China.The text of the LEI Agreement is quite grand and cryptic.But the meaning is very clear: Japan guarantees that it has no territorial ambitions for the Philippines and other American territories in the Pacific Ocean, and the United States promises Japan to expand its power in Northeast China by "peaceful means".

Therefore, during this visit, Guan Xuqing did not ask the Beiyang Navy to line up a grand lineup to pick him up in Dagu, but to gather on the route on time just like the ocean training at this time of year.

The North and South Ocean Navy conducts ocean training once a year, either crossing the equator to Myanmar on the Indian Ocean, or crossing the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of the United States.Although such training is costly because China has no overseas ports.However, it is extremely beneficial to improve the ability of naval soldiers to shoot, sail, and rush to repair and manage damage under wind and waves. Guan Xuqing always believes that only close to real training can keep soldiers from panicking during wartime.Therefore, although military expenditures have been cut over the past few years, the training costs for the navy are still high.Under the instruction of Guan Xuqing.The Ministry of Finance still didn't make any deductions.In recent years, although the domestic economy has developed to a certain extent.But the actual increase in fiscal revenue is not much.Firstly, in order to reduce the burden on farmers and alleviate domestic class conflicts, in recent years, various miscellaneous expenses of farmers have been greatly cut down, and only land tax is levied, which makes China's economy based on agriculture lose a big piece of cake; In order to promote the development of industry and commerce, more than half of the road cards and taxation bureaus set up by the provinces have also been abolished. When industry and commerce have not yet developed and the gap is filled by industry and commerce taxation, this gap can only be borne by the central government; thirdly, the first few Years of successive wars wiped out all the foundations accumulated since Tongguang’s arrival, and owed a lot of war debts, which have not been repaid up to now. This is another sum; The United States and the United States also aggressively seized the market through the newly signed treaties, while some factories in China that made their fortunes by relying on war orders lost buyers.

When the extent of the blow, it also affected the growth of fiscal revenue.In addition, due to the abolition of the system of selling officials, there is no income from donating officials, and there is a deficit of several million taels of silver every year.

Although there is not much increase in fiscal revenue, there is no shortage of places to spend money.Let’s just talk about the four major events that Guan Xuqing has paid close attention to in recent years, bureaucratic system reform, popularization of basic education, construction of railway terminals, and modernization of the army. None of these things cost money like water.

The reform of the bureaucratic system has made government institutions and functions more modern, and many new institutions and official positions will inevitably be added, such as the establishment of local courts and judges, the establishment of procuratorates and prosecutors, the establishment of police stations, the establishment of tax bureaus, and the establishment of transportation bureaus. The establishment of new offices, etc., these institutions will need new office space, and they will need to recruit people if they have the space. Poor education" is still in my ears.Therefore, Guan Xuqing has always been open-minded in the state's expenditure on education.After three years, at least one county school (junior high school) and several rural schools (primary school) in each county have been basically realized in the eastern and central regions.Some big houses also have prefectural schools (high schools), while in the west
some minority areas.New schools have also been set up in big cities such as Suiyuan (Hohhot), Ulan Bator, Yili, and Dihua (Urumqi). Today, the national literacy rate in the Qing Dynasty has risen from more than ten percent five years ago to 28%. , a full increase of more than ten percentage points, the current education expenditure accounted for more than 20% of the fiscal expenditure of the Qing Dynasty for a long time, and even reached 25.7% last year, which made other ministries and government offices envious of Rong Hong, who is in charge of the Ministry of Rites; Life at sea is dull and boring. Apart from chatting with officers and soldiers on board every day to learn about the situation of the navy, Guan Xu just stood on the bridge and thought about the sea while watching the sea.Of course, I will not forget to accompany my wife!
The tight finances naturally affected the expansion of the navy. Over the past few years, except for a few warships that had already been confirmed to be built.Combined, the Beiyang Navy added a battleship "Rising", as well as an ironclad ship that was successfully developed and is already under construction.It's far worse than my neighbor with a strip of water.

(End of this chapter)