The 280mm shell is just a tickling battleship with heavy armor protection and cannot pose a serious threat. The 305mm shell is different, which is enough to pose a serious threat to the Zhenyuan-class iron armor ship and the British old woman-class iron armor battleship.

In a nutshell, it means hurting each other.

The 343mm heavy armor-piercing projectile is extraordinary and can cause serious damage to the Qinglong-class heavy cruiser. It can break the keel of the Dutch "Seven Provinces" light cruiser with one shot. As long as you hit one shot or fire a near-lost bullet, the powerful water pressure can tear the "Seagull"-class ocean-going patrol ship to pieces.

Today's big ships and cannons are the kingly way and the eternal theme of the battle for supremacy of the ocean.

In front of the battleship's giant cannon, no matter how fast the patrol ship runs, it is impossible for the shells to fly fast. The range of more than ten kilometers that the armored battleship passes is all restricted areas. This is the infinite power of the armored battleship.

When the tall and cold triangular masts floated on the sea, the black smoke from the chimneys dyed the sky black, and the trembling armored battleships came to the waves. These steel war monsters exuding the breath of death showed absolute dominance.

I believe that the Borneo fleet Qinglong and White Tiger heavy cruisers arrived at Yantai Port and could clearly convey information that cannot be ignored.

It is unknown whether those confused Manchu princes and ministers could keenly realize it, but Li Fushou firmly believed;

As the Minister of the Prime Minister's Naval Office, Li Hongzhang will inevitably realize the benefits and choose a way to protect himself.

If it really doesn't work, it's not impossible to take a walk to Tianjin Bay...

The position of the old father-in-law Gu Yanchuan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, is really important, and can affect the southeast half of the country. For the Australian immigration plan, the Guangjitang plan and the talent recruitment plan are crucial, and there must be no losses.

Helping him is helping himself, and Li Fushou can still understand this clearly.

After the Qing army entered the pass

The army controlled by the Manchus was always the most elite unit of this dynasty and the basis of the rule of the Qing Dynasty. However, in 1860, the last 70,000 troops controlled by the Manchus were destroyed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

During the Battle of Jiangnan Camp, the Qing Dynasty completely lost its underwear.

In the next few decades, the Qing Dynasty's battle flag was actually carried by the army led by the Han people. The Qing Dynasty could only rely on the Han ministers to survive and maintain the false prosperity of the dynasty.

The power of the Qing court today is in the hands of Han officials. Since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was wiped out, the powerful has become increasingly powerful. The officials from all over the country listened to Xuan and did not listen to the order, and many people did their own affairs without hiding the court, presenting a scene of the decline of the dynasty's doomsday.

Especially Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army, Li Hongzhang's Huai Army, and Gu Yanchuan's Guangdong Army in the south were the most powerful, with a faint tendency to overthrow the imperial court.

"In the near future, I will write a letter to Guangzhou to support the expansion of the new army by 30,000. The originally rotten Green Camp Army will vigorously lay off and take advantage of the current momentum of defeating France to make this happen in one fell swoop."

Pause

Li Fushou considered it and continued, "The Guangdong and Guangxi regions are all purchased with cash and their financial resources are limited. In my opinion, they will send all the active equipment eliminated from the army to Guangzhou, symbolically collect some tea and silk goods. Nowadays, there are soldiers and generals, and the court dare not move lightly."

"What Yuan Ding said is very much, then do what you told me."

"Come on, have tea."

Li Fushou made a gesture of invitation, and Fan Zhongzhai did not dare to ask Da to serve tea cups with both hands, and the two of them quietly tasted the fragrant tea.

Not long after

Li Fushou said with some point of view, "Brother Zhongzhai, Baixi Naval School is going to expand recruitment of students again. Do you think it is necessary?"

"From the perspective of naval development, it is always good to train more talents. Even if there is too much talent, it is better than unmanned warships, so I support the expansion of enrollment of naval and army schools."

"Well, it makes sense, how is the preparations for the School of Administration?"

"Schools will be opened almost at the beginning of next year. This is also a college that cultivates junior and middle-level administrative talents. Now our territory is getting bigger and bigger. It is a very meaningful task to select and train junior and middle-level administrative talents and further study and cultivate them."

"Yes, selecting a group of young, energetic and ideal administrative talents to cultivate them will help strengthen government management capabilities and reduce the adverse effects of corruption. The British regard the Indian colonies as a test field for cultivating administrative talents, which is worth learning from."

"I understand. I will ask the secretary to organize some relevant materials, analyze the pros and cons in detail, and come up with a practical set of talent training methods."

"This is not urgent, just do it slowly." Li Fushou smiled and said, "The new shipbuilding plan proposed by the Navy is quite large. I have been hesitating. This year and next year will be the concentrated period for large ship delivery. The Navy's annual budget allocation for 1886 reached 1.62 million pounds, which can't be increased any further."

The cost of a majestic battleship is between 700,000 and 800,000 pounds, and a Qinglong-class heavy patrol is about 550,000 to 600,000 pounds. The two ships of Zhuque and Xuanwu in the later period have been more than twice, and the real gold-swalking beast is a major contradiction in the current tight naval budget.

If it weren't for the continuous support of the koi copper and gold mines, the accounts of the inner warehouse would have long been red.

There has been no war operation since 1885. The maintenance fee for the Coast Guard allocated about 190,000 pounds, the logistics, fuel, oil, water and ammunition consumed about 300,000 pounds, and the purchase of weapons and equipment accounted for the majority, exceeding 1.1 million pounds.

This situation is very special

The main reason is that the four majestic battleships are spending at an annual cost, and the four Qinglong-class main battleships are built in a concentrated manner. 1886 is the last year. At that time, all four armored battleships will be completed and delivered to the Royal Navy of the British Empire. The factor that caused a big budget hole will be gone, and the budget will be greatly reduced in the next year.

"The military has military considerations. If the shipbuilding plan is pushed back, there will be a lot of financial space to be implemented in 1887." Fan Zhongzhai said cautiously. He glanced at the count's thoughtful face, and knew that his words hit his mind, so he said sincerely;

"The problems raised by the Navy have always existed, and as an offensive military force, it is crucial to implement the expansion policy of Lord Yuanding. Navy construction has always been a huge amount of money. If it can be distributed to each year, the financial pressure will be reduced a lot."

"What I said makes sense, but the Navy proposed a plan to build two types of cruisers of 4,000 tons and 6,000 tons, which was rejected by me." Li Fushou looked out the window with deep eyes, and said with a wise look on his face;

"The Navy wants everything, and I want to be greedy for foreign countries. Not to mention the two types of cruisers of 4,000 tons and 6,000 tons, they want to have 12,000 tons of battleships, and they also want to continue to build heavy cruisers equipped with 305 mm six main guns. All of these were rejected by me.

What a joke?

For Queensland today, immigration and development are the themes, and any work must be operated around these two core points. Expansion is only a secondary topic, with less priority and less urgent.

In terms of the main battleship, it is enough to have 4 Qinglong-class heavy patrols. Building more is just a waste and consume money, and there is no real need.

As for the issue of cruisers, considering the huge gap between equipment from 2,000 tons to 8,000 tons, it is still necessary to maintain a balanced naval force.

So the question is, what kind of cruiser to build meets the current needs of the Queensland Navy?

Is it a heavy cruiser that lined up to fight for the oceans, with large-caliber artillery and heavy armor, or is it a light cruiser that mainly cruises the seas and borders, showing its existence and safeguards territorial interests?

The two have different combat purposes and different design indicators, which will inevitably lead to large performance differences.

Well... My idea is that I urgently need a cruiser of about 4,000 tons, mainly for large ranges, equipped with two front and one rear three 280mm long-barrel cannons, with high freeboard and superior navigation performance. I do not pursue expensive heavy armored multi-cabin design, the most important thing is to be cheap.

This is not simply reflected in the cheap purchase price, but also the need to adopt mature power and not one-sidedly pursue the advanced nature of power, because the advanced nature of power means expensive.

It requires few crew members and low unit cost to use artillery warships suitable for large-scale equipment, so as to reduce the procurement cost of a single ship.

If the procurement cost of a single ship is less than 200,000 to 220,000 pounds, it is still possible to arrange construction of 1 to 2 ships per year, and the burden will not be too heavy."

"Haha... I'm afraid that the Navy will not want it!" Fan Zhongzhai laughed and shook his head and said, "Pearls and jade are ahead, how can they look at cheap cruisers of 4,000 tons?"

"These grandsons don't pay attention to them, as if my money is blown by the strong wind." Li Fushou couldn't help laughing. His preference for the navy was seen by blind people. "If I hadn't pressed me, the army's warriors could have quarreled, their favorite 60mm field cannon has not been fully equipped yet, so it would be understandable to have some complaints."

There was no war in 1885. The expenditure of the five divisions of the Army was only 330,000 pounds a year, and the Navy's budget was more than 1.6 million pounds apart, which almost made the Army General Staff crazy and cracks emerged.

Considering that there are four majestic battleships in the naval equipment budget, deducting this factor in a normal year, the naval budget and the army budget are 2:1, about a scale of one million pounds.

After talking about the issue of naval equipment for a while, Fan Zhongzhai mentioned the navy's new light cruiser development plan, the navy's six-year shipbuilding plan, known as the "Yonggu Plan", is currently under discussion.

This is based on the shortcomings in the Navy's current equipment development, and the improvement and enhancement plan is proposed, aiming to build a coast guard team with both offense and defense and balanced combat power.

The Queensland Coast Guard has obvious characteristics. The fleet is equipped with a large number of seagull patrol ships ranging from more than 900 tons to 2,000 tons. It has the characteristics of small and fast spirits and is a naval force that cannot be ignored in the South Pacific region.

After the Blue Dragon and White Tiger were put into service, a huge gap appeared in the fleet from 2,000 tons to 8,000 tons. From the perspectives of the diversity of tasks to the construction of coastal defense, they are all unbalanced naval forces.

When going to sea to perform deterrent cruise missions, with the "Qinglong" class heavy cruisers with displacement of more than 8,800 tons, only 8 Seagull Type 2 with displacement of 2,000 tons can be reorganized into the fleet. The other high-speed cruisers with displacement of 8,900 tons to more than 1,600 tons are just small, and the difference is too huge.

These light ships only have the ability to combat and patrol in the midshore. Because the hull is too light, the space is narrow and the endurance is weak, it cannot suppress the wild waves in the ocean.
Chapter completed!