Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 114 Purchase of Ships
Seeing Guan Xuqing's actions, the students around were all stunned.Immediately afterwards, the students in the entire pier were boiling.No matter how young Guan Xuqing is, his identity is still the genuine emperor of the Qing Empire, the real dragon emperor and the Ninth Five-Year King in the hearts of all Chinese people. Even these students who have received new education cannot completely get rid of the thousands of Chinese At this time, they only feel that they are full of excitement, and all the hardships they have suffered before are worth it.

All the students spontaneously knelt down in front of Guan Xuqing. In their opinion, they couldn't bear the emperor's bow at all.

At this time, Guan Xuqing straightened his waist, and his tone became deeper and more intense: "In the blink of an eye, this century has entered the last ten years. In these hundred years, we have fallen too far behind, and we have been bullied by foreign powers countless times. The flesh and blood of the soldiers and the heroic souls of the heroes and martyrs have enabled the country to continue to this day, but it also made us understand a truth, if we fall behind, we will be beaten. With dreams in mind, you traveled across the ocean to study in Europe. Catching up, you have suffered a lot. Some of you fell on the land of foreign lands before the day you returned from your studies. Not many people even remember their names. Here I would like to bow to them One bow, although they are dead, their heroic souls will not be dissipated, and future generations will always remember that there is a group of people like them in history." As he said, he bowed deeply again.

Immediately, the eye sockets of all the students around were moist, and faces filled with tears flashed before Guan Xuqing's eyes.The students didn't know what to say anymore, they just applauded enthusiastically.For the suffering of the fate of the classmates, for the expectation of the strength of the motherland, and for the difficult journey of the nation's rise.At this moment, everything was condensed in Guan Xuqing's words.

Many students were given opportunities to study abroad at the imperial court's expense, and the locals took care of their families.This has already moved the students into a mess, but in this foreign country, the emperor bowed to himself one after another.As if he has become the savior of this country, how can we not let them die for the court and the country.

After straightening up for the second time, Guan Xuqing bowed deeply again: "This last bow is for you. At this moment, I am not an emperor, but just like you, an ordinary citizen of the Qing Dynasty. Now the country has reformed. The imperial examination and the official system have been established, a new type of army has been established, and local universal education has been expanded year by year. The country is still encouraging the development of industry and commerce, which is everywhere. I hope that after you finish your studies, you can come back to serve the country, so that our country can Catch up with the virtues of Britain, France, and stand tall among the nations of the world again."

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live!" These ancient words were shouted from the mouths of these young students, which made people feel a little more sincere and passionate.

Some have already cried to the point of tears, and are used to being looked down upon by others in a foreign country.When did he get such treatment, let alone the most honorable emperor in his own country.All of them have already made up their minds to return to China to serve the country after completing their studies, and assist the emperor to rebuild the Qing Dynasty into the most powerful empire in the world!The blood of the predecessors will not be shed in vain.

In this way, the red-eyed students surrounded Guan Xuqing and refused to disperse. They chatted cordially. From Guan Xuqing's mouth, they kept getting news about the motherland and hope for the country's future. With wings, fly back to the motherland and join the wave of development and construction of the motherland.

After Guan Xuqing was welcomed away by the German envoys, the students were still reluctant to leave for a long time.Their conversation lasted from early morning to afternoon, and then it was dark, and the students didn't disperse until the lights came on.It can be said that Guan Xuqing, who was in contact with them for the first time, completely captured their hearts, because only he, who was also deeply influenced by thousands of years of Chinese culture, deeply understood the psychology of this nation, and accurately grasped the pulse of this era, knew about these students. What do you want.

One of the stops of Guan Xuqing's trip was to lead the delegation to visit the Royal William Naval Shipyard.The four pre-dreadnought ships ordered from France put tremendous pressure on Guan Xuqing.Although these four first-class battleships with a displacement of more than 1883 tons were built early and lacked in armor craftsmanship, they are not considered very mature pre-dreadnought ships, but because French ship designers have always had a sense of advancement, Therefore, these four battleships already have the characteristics of the high freeboard of the former dreadnoughts and the outward bulge of the midship, and the Admiralty has been working on improving these four large battleships over the years, just as in the history of later generations, they did to the United States in World War II. They believe that relying on their national strength, it is difficult to surpass China in terms of ship tonnage.Therefore, the navy wants to offset the opponent's quantitative advantage through qualitative advantages, so they have been working on applying new technologies and new weapons on the four battleships.That's why. The "Kyushu", which began construction in [-], was not completed until this year, and the construction of the other three ships will continue until next year.It can be said that these four former Cape Intrepid warships have the longest construction period in the world's shipbuilding history.

Germany's shipbuilding technology has always adopted a thick style, which is somewhat similar to the German car industry of later generations.But obviously this style is not suitable for naval warfare in this era.No matter how thick the guard steel plate is, it will be pierced by shells, but the disadvantage in speed is irreparable.So Guan Xuqing didn't take a serious visit at all, but just took a symbolic look.

Inadvertently, Guan Xuqing discovered a battleship named Brandenburg designed and manufactured by Germany.

His main armor belt has a thickness of 400 mm, but it only covers a narrow area near the waterline on the side. The large area of ​​​​the ship's side and superstructure does not actually have sufficient armor protection.Moreover, because the ship type is modeled after the French battleship, the "Brandenburg" class has a tall superstructure and a very wide bridge, which makes it vulnerable to enemy artillery fire.besides. The guard turret of the "Brandenburg" class battleship is quite special. It retains the basic style of the turret, and has a fixed 300mm turret base armored wall, which is equipped with a "cannon cover". It was only 50 mm, and the frontal shield was only 120 mm. This design later proved to have a terrible result after the large-caliber shell penetrated the armor.Fragments would then fly and bounce around inside the turret.Instantly killed a large number of crew members, resulting in the loss of combat effectiveness.The reason for this design.It is due to the consideration of the combat environment of the German Navy. The North Sea is always windy and rough.The sea conditions are harsh, and the Baltic Sea is narrow, with little room for maneuver.This makes the two fleets often fight at a relatively short distance. At this time, the arc of the shell in the air will be relatively flat, and the chance of falling on the superstructure and deck at a large angle is relatively low, and the shell will generally hit. The ship's side and gun enclosure, these places are the places with the thickest armor defense of the "Brandenburg" class.

It abandons the low freeboard of the "Saxon" class ironclad ship, and adopts a long forecastle structure with a high freeboard, which can greatly improve the wave phenomenon during high-speed navigation. The artillery provides a stable firing platform.

In addition, the coke uses eight 8mm rapid-fire guns as anti-torpedo boat weapons. Compared with the 88-pounder guns (3mm caliber) and 47-pounder guns (6mm caliber) commonly used by British battleships, the advantage is obvious. The rate of fire of 57 rounds is more than enough to deal with targets such as torpedo boats.

In terms of power system, the "Brandenburg" class uses 2 piston steam engines, and 12 old-fashioned round boilers provide steam.The main engine has a maximum power of 10369 horsepower, drives two propulsion shafts and two propellers, and the maximum speed exceeds one hundred revolutions per minute, which makes the maximum speed of this class of battleship reach 18.2 knots. You must know the British battleships and American battleships of his contemporaries , the general maximum speed is only knots.Moreover, the fuel tank of the "Brandenburg" class battleship has also been expanded a lot, it can carry 1050 tons of coal, and can sail 1 nautical miles at a constant speed of 4500 knot.

After three days of investigation, after repeated discussions between Guan Xuqing and Yan Fu, Deng Shichang, etc., Guan Xuqing officially sent a note to Germany and the Royal Wilhelm Naval Shipyard through Li Fengbao, the Chinese ambassador to Germany, hoping to build on the "Brandenburg" class battleship. Order two improved battleships, requiring a tonnage of more than [-].

The improved battleship still retains the design of the "Brandenburg" class's six main guns distributed along the central axis, but by increasing the length of the ship, the twin-mounted main guns with 6 times the diameter of the midship are replaced with the main guns on the bow and stern. The same 35 times the caliber of the gun, so that the six main guns have the same range, so that they can produce a salvo during combat.

In addition, the six main guns originally designed with a turret will all be changed to a closed turret design.Although the ship's side armor still retains the original 400 mm thick waterline armor, it is all changed to the latest Krupp carburized armor, which greatly enhances its protection capability.

The Germans readily agreed to Guan Xuqing's request and promised to deliver the ship within one year.Guan Xuqing named the two battleships "Breaking the Sun" and "Destroying the Sun" on the spot.

Obviously, these two battleships were purchased to deal with people.It is indeed embarrassing for Germany to hand over two such huge warships within a year, but there is not much time left for Guan Xuqing.Facing the rapid development and the upcoming conflicts in North Korea and the Yellow Sea, only by making great strides to purchase more warships can we completely defeat them.

On the fifth day after arriving in Germany, Guan Xuqing really took time to meet the army officers who were studying in Germany. These talents will be the backbone of the future army of the Qing Dynasty.For a long time in the future, the Qing Dynasty will rely on them to command millions of troops to fight east and west, annex Asia, and conquer the world.

(End of this chapter)