"emperor……"

"Huh?" Zaitian realized that she was distracted again. During these days, it seemed that it was difficult for her to control the jumping of her thoughts and she was always distracted.

"Where did you talk about it just now? Oh, the marriage matter. I have already assigned the Queen to arrange this matter, and the Prince Chun Mansion has also made complete preparations. So, you can be a hand-off manager and just wait for five days to become a groom. But now, you should go to wash first, and then go to the Prince's Mansion to see the old prince."

Liu Shaoqing felt that the emperor was in a bad mood, so he didn't say anything more, but said, "I would like to think about the people of the world and take care of the dragon body. I will leave first."

‘Make a living for the people of the world?’ Zaitian smiled and shook his head.

Because Yi Huan's health continued to deteriorate and it was no longer possible to take on any position, the court handed over the seal of the Navy yamen to Li Hongzhang. After a year, Li Hongzhang returned to Tianjin again.

Also worried about his father's body, the emperor did not hold the annual enlarged naval meeting, but instead entrusts Li Hongzhang to preside over the meeting. Because the level was reduced, the address of the meeting was changed to Tianjin, so naturally there were not so many people participating. Moreover, this was the time when the North Sea Fleet traveled southward and joint exercises every year, so only Ding Ruchang participated in the real naval aspect.

The North Sea Fleet will go to the south to "winter" every winter, and will conduct joint drills with the East Sea Fleet and the South Sea Fleet. If this time, even Ding Ruchang would go with him.

Ding Ruchang's report was mainly from the navy. "We Beiyang only received two small boats worth more than 1,000 tons this time, and the newly built large boat worth more than 2,000 tons was given to the East China Sea. That's all, but even people have to be transferred from the Beiyang. The court is too biased towards the East China Sea. Zhongtang, I heard that Huang Jianxun went to the East China Sea, but he wanted to receive the latest fast cruiser. In this way, even that ship is from the East China Sea?"

Although the Beiyang Navy has long been renamed to the Beihai Fleet, Ding Ruchang still uses an old name in front of Li Hongzhang. Fortunately, there are no outsiders here. Whether it is Zhou Fu, Sheng Xuanhuai, or Zhang Wenxuan, they are all Li Hongzhang's old subordinates.

Li Hongzhang did not answer Ding Ruchang's question, but turned to ask Zhang Wenxuan. "Desan, where are you?"

Zhang Wenxuan said: "Five forts in Donghong, Huangdao, Qidingshan, Yingmendong, Nandao and other places have been completed. I built a trap fort in Majingzi. In terms of defense, Weihai can be said to be solid. Some time ago, Liu Shaoqing also went to Weihai and divided the Weihai team into the Marine Brigade and the Weihai Guard Brigade. Huang Chengyong and I were responsible for it."

Li Hongzhang asked again: "What do you think of that Liu Shaoqing?"

Liu Shaoqing had previously consolidated the army in Tianjin and captured many Huai generals. After Li Hongzhang asked this, there was also this factor in it. Therefore, Zhang Wenxuan's reply seemed very cautious.

"From the training of troops, this person is indeed extraordinary, and De San is inferior to himself. As for combat, it is hard to say that he has not worked together."

After a pause, Zhang Wenxuan said again: "There is a saying in the middle hall, the lower officials, I don't know whether to speak or not."

Li Hongzhang smiled and said, "What else should I say between you and me besides talking about it or not? But it doesn't matter."

Zhang Wenxuan said "Yes" and then said, "From the general, Liu Shaoqing should not be specifically dealing with our Huai Army as rumored. Let's not talk about me here, just say that he recommended Jia Qisheng and Nie Shicheng to the court. This is not a way to attack the Huai Army. I heard that there are only six guards granted by the court now, and the first division is still in the hands of the royal family. Our Huai Army can now take over two divisions, and Zhang Gaoyuan has also entered Beijing, and may take over the newly formed Fifth Division, which shows that the court has no intention of crossing the river and destroying the bridge. Moreover, in Shandong, this person is also watching during the process of reorganizing the army and training. It is indeed difficult for some people to convince the public, so they were taken down by the court."

Zhang Wenxuan said this very fairly. The Guards, together with the newly formed Fourth and Fifth Divisions, only six divisions, among which only the commanders of the Third Division and the Fourth Division were from the Officers' School. Generals from the Huai Division took down three divisions. No matter how you look at this, it is also the rhythm that the court relied on.

But in this case, Zhang Wenxuan, who is very close to the Li family, can only say that others are worried about it.

After hearing Zhang Wenxuan's words, Li Hongzhang laughed unexpectedly, pointed at Zhang Wenxuan and said to everyone: "Listen, this is a pertinent and blunt statement. Yu Ting, you should also look at the one and two warships. Don't always stare at the one and two warships in the acre of three-point land. I am not the Minister of Beiyang, but the Minister of Navy. Yes, the East China Sea has taken two new ships, but even so, they will have Zhiyuan and the four main battleships of Jingyuan? You must know that Beihai has the foundation of Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. In the future, the court will not equip Beihai first? Now, if you have one or two small boats, you can get more big ships after that. You can't even calculate this account?"

In fact, Ding Ruchang can calculate this account. You know, just the Guards helped Ding Ruchang restrain the Fujian team in the Beihai Fleet, which made Ding Ruchang laugh out loud. In contrast, the gambling houses on the shore were not harmful at all. It was just that old Beiyang's habits were habitually complaining and being poor. At this time, Li Hongzhang said, and hurriedly said: "Yes, the lesson of the central hall."

Sheng Xuanhuai also smoothed out: "Dingyuan is about to start the transformation. I heard that after the transformation, it will not only have stronger firepower, but also increase the power. After half a year, I am afraid that Dingyuan will be able to fight against the four main battleships in the East China Sea by one ship."

As soon as the words were finished, everyone here laughed happily.

Although in the past few years, many old people have been cleared out from the Machine Bureau to the Army to the Army to the Local Officials, and even their homes have been raided. It seems that the number of officials in the Huai Group has been reduced by half, but the remaining half has not been affected, but on the contrary, the power has increased. I just mentioned the military part. In fact, there are still a large number of Huai Army troops in the Northeast that have not been reorganized. Song Qing, Ma Yukun and others have not seen one or two divisions. In the Navy, even if Ding Ruchang is a little bit stingy, it cannot be denied that Deng Shichang is an old man from the Beiyang. What's more, the entire navy is under the jurisdiction of Li Hongzhang. Although the East China Sea Fleet is stationed in Liangjiang, there is no Liu Kun at all. Can't you tell this high and the low?

In terms of industry and commerce, Sheng Xuanhuai, Zheng Guanying, Zhan Tianyou, who was not from Beiyang? There are also local officials including Li Hanzhang, Liu Bingzhang, Liu Mingchuan, Zhou Fu, and Ma Jianzhong. The strength of the Huai Group is much greater than before. What's more, the rest are truly capable elites. Just as Zhang Wenxuan said just now, the imperial court cleaned up all mediocre officials who were difficult to convince the public. This is equivalent to doing the work that Li Hongzhang should do and is indeed inconvenient to do, making the Huai Group stronger and more refined. How can everyone not laugh?

After laughing, Sheng Xuanhuai, who had just spoken, continued: "When talking about the transformation of 'Dingyuan', because of the original design problems of the ship, the boiler system cannot be completely replaced, so the final power is still only around fifteen knots, and it cannot reach the speed of eighteen knots required by the emperor."

Li Hongzhang said: "It's okay. I have met the emperor before coming, and the emperor also knows the current situation. The two ships of 'Dingyuan' and 'Zhenyuan' mean to maintain the power as much as possible, mainly to replace the rapid-fire cannons on the ship. "

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "I understand. In terms of rapid-fire artillery, the Jiangnan Machinery Administration has started production, and it is definitely no problem to meet the "Dingyuan", but the "Zhenyuan" transformation may not work. If the court is anxious, it is better to purchase it from Germany first."

Li Hongzhang frowned and asked, "Can't Tianjin be built here?"

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "Tianjin can naturally be built, but according to the previous plan, Tianjin is now working hard to tackle the technology and production of large-caliber naval guns. The previously introduced 1,000-ton hydraulic forging presses, 600-mm edge smashing machines and 400-mm steel rolling mills are also arranged in the Tianjin factory. In addition, Tianjin is also responsible for the production of shells, so it is impossible to extract energy to produce rapid-fire guns."

Li Hongzhang said: "Since that's the case, then buy it separately. In short, the emperor means that the two ships in the city must be transformed this year."

Then he said: "You just talked about the production of artillery shells in the Tianjin factory. I heard from the emperor that the Tianjin factory has switched to production of new artillery shells this year. Tell me in detail what the difference is about this new artillery shell."

This was a question about Sheng Xuanhuai's weakness. He was a business genius and could take into account industrial production. As for what was good about this shell, he really couldn't say.

Fortunately, Ding Ruchang was still there. He saw a embarrassed look on Sheng Xuanhuai's face and immediately responded: "I will feel deeply when I go back to the central hall to talk about this new shell."

Ding Ruchang took the topic without showing off his appearance, and Li Hongzhang asked, "Oh? Then tell me what's the difference."

In Sheng Xuanhuai's grateful eyes, Ding Ruchang said: "This new type of shell is actually divided into two types. One is a grenade and the other is an armor-piercing shell. I will first talk to Zhongtang about this grenade. In fact, there are two types of grenades, one is a small caliber, that is, a shell with a caliber of less than 15 years. In order to pursue the firing speed, shells with a caliber of steel shells are all integrated bullets. The other is a large caliber, that is, shells with a caliber of more than 15 years. This type of shell uses a medicine bag to launch the shell, so the firing speed is slower. However, because the current medicine bags also use smokeless gunpowder, the firing rate is much faster than before, at least it does not need to be fired once and then it will be opened once."

"These men know that smokeless powder is not used this year, so I don't know something."

Ding Ruchang said a little embarrassedly: "Yes. I just said that this grenade uses a high-explosion yellow explosive. This explosive is a hundred times stronger than the black explosive we used before. After the explosion, in addition to the shock wave and shell fragments, there will be a fire with a temperature of up to thousands of degrees. The flame will flow like oil, and it can continue to burn in the water for a period of time, and even ignite the steel."

The yellow explosives mentioned by Ding Ruchang are naturally the secret formula taken out by the plug-in emperor. In fact, even if this trinitrotoluene explosive is known to produce, it is still difficult to produce because of the problem of process and ingredients, so there are not many shells for this kind of charge at present.

"The other type is armor-piercing bombs. The new armor-piercing bombs are also equipped with the gunpowder mentioned earlier, so they can cause greater damage after breaking through the enemy's protection. If such armor-piercing bombs penetrate the boiler compartment or ammunition room of the enemy ship... hehe, then the enemy ship will definitely have a dead end."

Speaking of this, Sheng Xuanhuai suddenly interrupted, "I heard from Chu Bao that even the foreigners exclaimed when they saw this prescription. It is certainly a technique that the Western world does not have. Where did the emperor get it?"

Li Hongzhang's face sank after hearing this: "The emperor is ordered by heaven, and people cannot do anything. We just need to do the errands well, so why do you know the rest!"
Chapter completed!