Of course, the show of Li Hongzhang's visit was greater than that of Zhang Peilun. Shanghai Shipping Merchants Corporation specially sent two ships: Ping'an and Tai'an to send Li Hongzhang and his party to Tianjin. Ping'an was Li Hongzhang's ship, as well as Li Hongzhang, Zhang Peilun, Li Jingfang and eight followers, while Tai'an carried members of the observation team and reporters.

The observation group consists of six countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States, with a total of 20 people, with British McCreeley as the leader. The UK sent the largest number of people, with a total of five. In addition to the regiment commander McCreeley, there are two officers, namely Colonel Martinez, the deputy captain of the Centurion battleship, Lieutenant Colonel Brown, and the other two were McCreeley's assistant and the other was a painter. Although there were cameras in this era, the camera was huge and inconvenient to transport, so it was mainly hand-painted by the artist; France and the United States sent four people, two diplomats; two officers, Japan and Russia sent three, but Russia did not send officers. This was not because Russia did not want to send officers, but because there were no officers in the Russian consulate in Shanghai, so people could not be sent.

Only Germany only sent one person to participate in the observation group. It turned out that the envoy sent by German Emperor William II had arrived in Guangzhou, China and could rush to Tianjin to negotiate with overseas Chinese within ten days, so there was no need to send more people in the observation group.

The escort warship sent by the Beiyang Navy was the Haiqi and the Hairong, and the leader of the team was Sa Zhenbing, and he was also the leader of the Haiqi.

Sa Zhenbing was an old general of the Beiyang Navy. He had studied abroad with Ye Zugui, Liu Buchan, Fang Boqian, Yan Fu and others as the first batch of overseas students in Fujian's naval administration, and studied driving at the Royal Naval Academy of Greenwich, England. During the Sino-Japanese War, Sa Zhenbing did not participate in the Dadonggou Naval Battle, but during the Battle of Weihaiwei, he was stationed on Japanese Island and fought fiercely with the Japanese army for 11 days. Finally, he received an order from Admiral Ding Ruchang before withdrawing Liugong Island.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Qing court rebuked the navy and reopened the dismissal of the former Beiyang Navy Ye Zugui, Sa Zhenbing and others, and was appointed as the commander of the Navy Ye Zugui, and the commander of the Sa Zhenbing Gang and the Haiqi management.

Haiqi and Haitian are ships of the same class, belonging to the dome cruiser. They were built by the British Armstrong Company. They are an improved version of Yoshino, the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet in the Dadonggou Naval Battle. The cost is 328,242 pounds. The ship is 12o.7 meters long, 14.22 meters wide, 5.11 meters draft, 43oo tons of water, and 950 tons of coal load, with a power of 12 coal-fired boilers, 2 3-seater reciprocating steam engines, a power of 17ooo horsepower, a maximum flight of 24 knots, and a 445 people. The main weapons are: 2 2o3mm main guns, 12 12omm fire cannons, 12 47mm machine guns, 4 37mm machine guns, 6 7mm machine guns, and 5 torpedo tubes.

The Hairong and Haichou, the Haichen, are of the same class, and are also dome-armored cruisers. They were built in the Volkeng Shipyard in Germany, with a cost of 163,000 pounds. They are 99.97 meters long, 12.42 meters wide, 5.79 meters in draft, 2680 tons of water displacement, and can carry 580 tons of coal. The power units of the warship are 8 coal-fired boilers, 2 3-seater reciprocating steam engines, double-axle double-saltitude sculls, a maximum of 19.5 knots, and a maximum flight of 274 people. The main weapons: 3 15ommm guns, 8 1o5mm guns, 6 37mm machine guns, 6 8mm machine guns, and 3 torpedo tubes.

Unlike Dingyuan, the main force of the Beiyang Navy, the two ships of Zhenyuan focused on thick armor and large-caliber artillery. These two types of warships were more important than Gaohang and large-scale endurance, and their firepower was mainly small and medium-caliber artillery. On the one hand, this was the lesson of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and on the other hand, it was also a helpless choice. Because after the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, the Qing court compensated Japan 230 million taels of silver. The Qing court was in a tight financial situation and was unable to purchase heavy ships and giant cannons, so they could only switch to buying relatively cheap dome-armored cruisers. Japan, which received huge compensation for Sino-Japanese War of 1895, took the road of heavy ships and giant cannons during naval construction. In the 10 years after the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, the plan of the Six Six Fleet was completed. That is, a standing fleet consisting of 6 battleships and 6 large armored cruisers.

A fleet of four ships left Shanghai and arrived in Qingdao at dusk after a day. That night, the fleet was moored in Qingdao Bay. At this time, three large ironclad ships, the Saxony, Byrne and Baden, were still stranded on the beach, and the hull was scarred. It can be imagined how fierce the battle had passed. The other two armored cruisers, the Earl Bismarck, and the Election Emperor battleship, also had a small number of superstructures exposed to the water.

These three large stranded ironclad ships were the prototypes of the two ships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan of the Beiyang Navy back then, which made Li Hongzhang and Sa Zhenbing sigh. The representatives of the observation missions of other countries also sighed when they saw this scene.

Wang Sheng and ***, who were left behind in Qingdao, also came to the boat, visited Li Hongzhang, and asked Li Hongzhang to go ashore to rest, but Li Hongzhang politely declined.

The next morning, the fleet left Qingdao and bypassed the sharp corners of the Shandong Peninsula at 10 o'clock in the morning. When passing by Weihaiwei, the fleet did not stop. On another ship, Colonel Martinez all told his three companions with the Centurion battleship that he had been stationed in Weihaiwei Harbor just a few months ago, and he had never thought that he had changed hands now.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the fleet sailed into the Bohai Bay. The sailors of the Ping'an reported to Li Hongzhang that the Haiqi, which was leading in front, had flag-speaking, and two warships were currently sailing towards the fleet.

After hearing this, Li Hongzhang immediately took Zhang Peilun and Li Jingfang to the bow of the boat to watch. The weather on the sea today was good, clear and foggy. Sure enough, there were two silver-white military ships driving towards each other at the junction of the sea and sky in front of the fleet.

Zhang Peilun, who was beside Li Hongzhang, immediately told Li Hongzhang that this was the warship of overseas Chinese, and it seemed that Jerusalem should be here to welcome Li Hongzhang and his party. Zhang Peilun had been to Tianjin twice, and the warship of the time traveler was quite different from this era, so Zhang Peiwan could recognize it at a glance. At this moment, the Haiqi came with a flag of flag, and it turned out that the other party had already raised the banner of welcome.

Li Hongzhang was also quite pleased. It seemed that this group of overseas Chinese were still very considerate in terms of etiquette. At this time, observers from various countries also came to the deck on the Tai'an, and many people were watching with monoculars.

Because the two sides were traveling relative, the distance between the two sides had been hundreds of meters after more than ten minutes, and the two warships of the other side were separated from each other, Li Hongzhang also saw clearly what the two warships looked like.

These two warships seem to be of the same type, with a slender and slender shape, smooth and smooth shape; the ship sharpens like a sharp edge, and divides the waves like a herringbone; the superstructure is unusually simple, without a towering mast, a thick and tall chimney, and a messy rope like a spider web, it looks like an exquisite handicraft, but the stern of the ship is square and flat, and it is left on a large platform, and I don’t know what it is for. Moreover, the entire ship only installed a single cannon on the ship, and the caliber is at most 100 mm in thickness.

Li Hongzhang heard Zhang Peilun say that overseas Chinese warships are very different from those of different countries. The ships are slender and the cannons are very few. Li Hongzhang is still a little skeptical. But now when he sees them, he believes that what Zhang Peilun says is true. Although Li Hongzhang argued in his heart that such warships look good, but only have a small cannon, how can we fight? However, it seems that overseas Chinese won the battle of Dagukou and the battle of Bohai Sea with such warships. It seems that there must be other reasons.

In fact, not only Li Hongzhang, but also the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Navy on the Haiqi, and the members of the observation team on the Tai'an were confused about the structure, style and weapons of the two warships and were discussing them. Several painters accompanied the observation team, and at this time they took out drawing boards and paper to draw the appearance of the two warships.

Colonel Martinez frowned and said, "Is this really a warship for overseas Chinese? It doesn't look very strong."

Lieutenant Colonel Brown fiddled with the measuring device in his hand and said, "If it is not very strong, how did the overseas Chinese defeat the German fleet."

Martinez glanced at him and said, "Have you measured the size of this type of warship?"

Brown said: "The captain is about 13o-14o meters in length, and the width is between 15-18 meters."

Martinez frowned and said, "This type of warship is not small in size, longer than our majestic battleship."

Brown put away his measuring instrument and said, "But the width is much smaller, and the aspect ratio should be around 1:8, so this should be a cruiser rather than a battleship. Of course, if it is a battleship, it will definitely not be only one main gun. Of course, it seems that it is not an armored cruiser, it should be a protective cruiser? But even a protective cruiser, the tonnage should be around 10,000 tons, because it is much larger than our Blake class."

Martinez said: "Even the protective cruiser will not be equipped with only one main gun. If it weren't for the ship type and there was no cargo hold, I would have thought it was an armed merchant ship." He looked at it, and he raised his monocular lens again and muttered to himself, "This ship is really strange. There are too many things that I can't understand. There seems to be many covers on the square platform behind the main gun. I don't know what to do. Is it the location where the shells are placed? And what are there so many spherical things on the upper side of the ship? What are the two squares on the top of the mast and the rotating things used for? What are the two rectangular boxes placed obliquely in the middle of the ship? Are they installed torpedoes? What are the uses of leaving a platform at the stern of the ship?"

Brown smiled bitterly and said, "Col. I can't answer any of your questions. But I think if we understand these questions, we should be able to understand what the strength of overseas Chinese is like."

Martinez put down his telescope, nodded, and said, "Lieutenant Colonel, I agree with you." He turned around and asked the painter on the side, and said, "Have you painted it?"

The painter said: "The general shape has been drawn, but there are some details, so I will slowly modify the painting and draw it carefully."
Chapter completed!