The navy is equipped with more than 5oo warships, and the main ships are 1oo American-made steam sailboats. The tonnage is about tons, which is the main ship in the American Civil War. However, a total of 3oo warships were purchased from the United States, except for the 1oo main ships, the remaining 2oo warships were changed into transport ships, because these ships came from the US military to cruise fast cruisers. The firepower was not enough but the speed was fast.
At the beginning, the main purpose of buying these ships was to prepare for the attack on Beixun. Just buying the ships cost 100 thousand taels of silver, and finally the Qing court was reimbursed through the army.
But now that the war is over, especially when a new trade treaty was reached with Britain last year, the crisis of the war between the two countries has been relieved. Apart from Britain, there are not many big countries that can be threatened by the East, so it is unnecessary to maintain such a large fleet tonnage. What’s more, these ships are about to get old and become a burden in the coming ironclad era.
Warships may no longer be suitable, but merchant ships can last for decades. After all, these hulls are more than half of new ships, which are directly from American slipways to new ships. It is more than enough to maintain the service life of iron-ribbed wooden hull ships for 30 years.
Therefore, at the beginning of this year, the navy sold these warships, first from transport ships and then from small tonnage cruisers. Finally, it plans to keep warships with a scale of about 100. By selling these ships, especially by cutting maintenance, it will continue to build armored ships.
Warships are easy to downsize, but it is not easy to downsize large armies. So far, no layoffs have been made. The main concern is that these soldiers will be placed after they are abolished. During the Qing Dynasty, both green camp and Xiangyong became bandits once they were abolished. It is better to keep them in the army if they turn soldiers into bandits.
This time, the soldiers who accompanied Zhu Jinglun on a visit will not be abolished because they are absolutely elite, and almost all of them are officers. Yes, the navy specially selected officers of various levels to form this naval fleet to escort Zhu Jinglun to missions.
This is not an expression of attaching importance to the facts of the emperor. This is Zhu Jinglun’s initiative, and Zhu Jinglun is not a reputation lover. All he has to do is to exercise the navy.
The huge navy is close to 100 thousand, and almost all the soldiers have no experience in ocean navigation because the qualifications of this army are too shallow. Most officers and soldiers have only been in length of military service for five years
This trip, which lasted for three months, was the best ocean training, and it was the first time that the fleet from China arrived in Europe. It was a pity that it was not good to go to Gali.
The flagship is the armored ship. At present, the flagship of the great navy is located and named after the Guangdong province. It can be seen that we attach great importance to this warship. After building this armored ship, we have accumulated experience. The navy plans to build two armored ships named Fujian and Guangxi in the later period, and the tonnage of these two armored ships will be on a par with that of the first-class armored ships in the British Empire, that is, it will be as high as 9ooo tons and close to 10,000 tons. This is a huge challenge, but the navy is not in a hurry. Obviously, the great navy is confident that they will not encounter challenges in 10 years.
The journey is not only long and arduous, although there are 10 main ships and 30 auxiliary ships besides the flagship, there are coal carriers, supply ships and medical ships, but the journey is still unexpected
Being sick is the biggest challenge, and the most shameful thing is seasickness. It is said that most naval soldiers from Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian have sailing experience. Although they may be fishing boats, they are not seasick. However, this long journey is really challenging people’s physical strength. Even some strong sailors in Fujian have seasickness at the most tired time.
At this time, the usual living habits show great superiority, and the best performance is precisely those who were dirty, poor and emaciated before serving as soldiers. The people have been swimming in the river for a long time, and they may not leave the boat for life or death, but they may not even go to the sea, but they are used to taking a shit and sleeping in the boat. They are used to the boat shaking and bumping since they were babies, but they perform best in the end.
Moreover, what they are most suitable for this kind of ocean voyage is that they live in a normal life, that is, they keep moving in the water and live by the water, and they go wherever the fish go, which also makes their mentality much better than that of ordinary fishermen and soldiers. During this long boat journey, their roots will not feel lonely, because in their mind, there is no root belonging to their 6 places.
This trip is not only a test for the navy, but also a test for the foreign affairs department. They need to arrange the fleet’s itinerary before they need it, and they need to be responsible for the fleet’s arrival at the port along the way, or for adding coal and water or for local foreign affairs activities.
It can be said that this is a joint training between the navy and the foreign company.
Not to mention stopping in India, Zhu Jinglun also met with Indian British colonial officials and stopped in some native States for one day.
After stopping in South Africa for half a day, the main port of call was the French colonial port, which was arranged by the French. They probably wanted to show their strength to the big countries, but it revealed the fact that even if France wanted to sail the world, it would not be able to do without the support of the British colonial port.
Two years ago, when they stopped at Dakar, the port of Segal, a French colony, for two days, although the colonial port was still desolate, the French built the Governor’s Mansion in a luxurious way. The French explained that the fact of this Governor’s Mansion was the fact that the Portuguese made profits from selling black slaves in the past. The French sold slaves at all, but now they put on a face of opposing the slave trade as if they had given freedom to the black people. In addition, they mainly wanted to show their friendship to Zhu Jinglun, because the trade stance against coolies was very firm. The French government will also express its position on this trip to France, which will make the
After Dakar, we sailed along the African coast to Rees, Portugal, and then took a rest again. The Portuguese people were not very enthusiastic. No one in position received Zhu Jinglun and his party, and there was no boat. Several bishops boarded the boat and welcomed Zhu Jinglun and his party.
Because of the forced entry into Macao and the final agreement reached with Britain, Portugal completely lost Macao. Of course, their government would not welcome the arrival of a large fleet. However, after the large army entered Macao, it was not destroyed for hundreds of years, and the Macao church did not interfere with their religious activities. The church recognized this.
Finally, all the way to Europe, naval officers and men also conducted an intensive training in geography. Naval officers have all received various geographical knowledge training, but there is no objective understanding that there are still soldiers who insist on refusing to believe that the earth is round. It can be said that their knowledge level may not reach the level of a middle school student in the future.
However, the biggest impact of this voyage on them was not knowledge, but ideas. They sailed all the way to Wan Li. Now the world seems to have been divided up by white people. Without a place, an instructor pointed to a globe or a high-scale map and told them that it was the territory or colony of a certain country. After passing through so many places, they did not see a piece of land occupied by China people.
This kind of intuitive stimulation is more responsive than preaching. It may be different in everyone’s mind, but some people have a sense of crisis. They see that the vast geographical base from Europe has been divided up by Europeans. Although Europeans have built a port in many places, all the places worthy of it have been controlled by Europeans, especially in some countries at everyone’s door. They have heard that Borneo was destroyed by the Netherlands, Java by the Netherlands and Tianzhu (India) by the United Kingdom.
And the French have already reached Vietnam.
After Portugal arrived in Spain, the reception standard was much higher.
This is mainly due to the fact that Spain and France and Portugal are British protectorates. They don’t give French noodles, but Spain can’t give them.
It is France’s glorious duty to protect Catholicism outside Europe, while France is a Catholic country appointed by the Pope.
A dying empire, Spain’s overseas interests need to be protected by France to a great extent.
Six years ago, when France was fighting the Qing court, why did it go to beat the Vietnamese? Although there were reasons why France wanted to expand in Vietnam, the most direct reason was that Spanish priests were killed in Vietnam. France fought the Vietnamese in the name of protecting religion, and Spain also sent troops to participate in that war.
In Spain, they have the heart to expand their interests, and it is not easy to hold the one-acre three-point land in the Philippines
The Spaniard did not say Zhu Jinglun, but said that he told Spanish diplomats that it was the duty of the big government to protect the interests of Chinese businessmen in the Philippines, and he hoped that the Spanish colonial government would treat Chinese people as they deserved, causing unnecessary conflicts between the two countries.
The Spanish also made a guarantee for this and spoke highly of the great construction significance of Chinese businessmen operating in the Philippines. Chinese businessmen are very welcome to invest and trade.
These are all nonsense. I believe that if it weren’t for the crazy expansion of the navy in recent years, Chinese and overseas Chinese would be a group of fat pigs to be slaughtered in the eyes of the Spanish.