If Xu Jie was asked to evaluate the naval lineups of China and Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1898, there was only one sentence: "The main forces of Beiyang were deployed against Japan's elite fleet." Compared with Beiyang, which dispatched almost all warships capable of long voyages, Japan only dispatched other warships.

The main force is about 23. In addition to the well-known 6 battleships and 4 fast cruisers, Japan also has 2 second-class ironclads and 5 unprotected cruisers. Among them, two second-class ironclads (with a tonnage of 2200

+ tons, the firepower is not weaker than the general cruisers of Beiyang) The other five protected cruisers have a tonnage of more than 1,300 tons. Although they have no protection, their combat performance is still much stronger than that of Beiyang's Chaoyong Yangwei (especially the firepower, such as Tianlong

, with a tonnage of 1,358 tons, there is one 170mm Krupp gun and 6 120mm guns). As for gunboats and torpedo boats? The Japanese Navy has 23 torpedo boats alone. So no matter from which perspective, the Beiyang Navy is not defeated at all.

Injustice. If the Japanese navy had been deployed in full force in the Battle of Dadonggou, it is estimated that the Beiyang Navy would not only have lost 5 warships, but whether Dingzhen could return would have been very difficult.

If we consider Japan's potential, we can refer to the fact that Japan directly ordered two battleships on the day of the Sino-Japanese War and spent a high price to purchase the Izumi from Chile during the Sino-Japanese War. It can be roughly inferred that Japan had at least about 750,000 pounds during the war.

The remaining balance can be used for military purchases. (Two battleships with a unit price of about 1 million pounds are calculated based on 25% of the down payment, while Izumi is calculated based on 250,000 pounds.) From this point of view, Japan will have the potential to purchase 2 to 3 dome-armored cruisers.

.In other words, the final number of first-line battleships that Japan can reach is 20 (including 5 unprotected cruisers), including 7 fast cruisers. And it also needs to consider how to deal with the Russian Navy's robbery.

In response to the above situation, Xu Jie's transformation plan for the Beiyang Navy is as follows. First, the Badayuan will be equipped with rapid-fire guns. Based on historical facts, Dingzhen plans to install 6 guns each. If the other ships are calculated as supplementary 4 guns, 36 guns will need to be purchased.

4.7-inch rapid-fire cannon. Including the ammunition and other costs of maintaining the warship, it will cost about 300,000 pounds. (In fact, it is expected to cost 610,000 taels of silver to purchase 16 120-inch rapid-fire cannons and their accessories)

Second, purchasing three **-class cruisers, if calculated based on one twin 6-inch gun at each end, the three battleships plus additional accessories and ammunition will cost about 900,000 pounds. At the same time, each ship has 400 people.

To calculate, there must be at least 1,200 sailors. Personnel consumption is calculated separately.

Third, purchase 2 to 3 improved Garibaldi armored cruisers, each calculated at 700,000 pounds. The total cost is 2.1 million pounds. Each battleship is calculated as 600 men. The three battleships require a total of 1,800 men.

To sum up, Xu Jie will have to spend at least 3.3 million pounds to purchase weapons and warships. As for the personnel, he will need at least 3,000 people, which is almost equivalent to rebuilding a Beiyang Fleet. You must know that the Beiyang Fleet has a total of more than 4,000 officers and soldiers. Including the cost of personnel

, without 3.5 million taels of silver, Xu Jie had no certainty of winning the crucial war of the Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895. Moreover, the premise of all this was still based on historical estimates. Looking at a few pieces of white paper filled with data,

Xu Jie felt a deep sense of powerlessness. 3.5 million pounds, a total of more than 22 million taels. From a historical perspective, the Qing government's borrowings from foreign banks during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1899 only amounted to 24 million taels.

Worrying is not the solution to the problem. The only thing Xu Jie can do now is to make money first, become famous first, and then find ways to make friends with Xue Fucheng, the Qing minister to the four countries, and then find ways to enter Beiyang. At the same time, he must maintain a certain degree of communication with the technical and political circles of various countries.

Contact us to prepare for future shipbuilding. As for where to choose to build ships? Xu Jie still prefers France and Italy. Why? First, the United Kingdom. The British shipyards for building warships are not very abundant.

Is it possible to launch three 8,500-ton warships in Beiyang at the same time? It is obviously impossible. Moreover, the British pro-Japanese tendency was already very obvious at that time. Xu Jie could not guarantee that the British would not tell all the information to the Japanese. Second, Germany. Let’s put it this way

, before Germany produced the Bismarck, Germany's battleship construction could not compare with Britain, France and Italy. When Germany was building a town for the Qing Dynasty, Italy was already building a 13,000-ton battleship (speed 20.3 knots!

!Four 343 main guns. But the waterline armor is very thin, only 4 inches. It is a typical thin-skinned fast battleship.) The Kaiser-class battleship that Germany started building in 1895 is not as good as the ammiragliodisaintbon-class battleship that Italy started building in 1993. Therefore, Xu
Chapter completed!