King of Beiyang

"The Beiyang Fleet's current strength is indeed enough to crush the Japanese. However, the Japanese are not stupid; they are also good at patience and will absolutely not start a war with us at this time."

They would not go to war until the warships they had ordered from the Gauls and the British were commissioned and all preparations were complete.

At that point, our advantages will likely vanish completely.

After all, according to my father, the Beiyang Fleet no longer had the funds to purchase more warships.

Li Jingyuan addressed the crowd.

"How could this be? The Japanese are united in their efforts to tighten their belts and buy warships. If my Beiyang Fleet stops buying warships, won't the Japanese overtake us?"

As Brother Jingyuan said, if the Japanese are treacherous and determined to retaliate against our Beiyang Fleet, wouldn't that put the entire Beiyang Fleet in danger?

Li Yuanhong looked grief-stricken.

The other naval academy students also looked very grim.

"Gentlemen, the Beiyang Fleet has always been severely underfunded. According to custom, the annual military expenditure for the Beiyang Fleet is 176.8 million taels of silver. However, when the provinces allocate funds, they often withhold a portion. In reality, only one million taels are received, at most one million three hundred thousand taels of silver."

The remaining shortfall was all raised by my father from other businesses in Beiyang.

And the funds for purchasing the ship were extremely scarce.

Furthermore, the Empress Dowager wanted the garden finished before her birthday. Meanwhile, the princes and nobles of the court had already amassed enormous fortunes and were bloated with greed.

However, they did not intend to spend money to build a garden for Empress Dowager Cixi. Instead, they set their sights on the funds for purchasing ships for the Beiyang Fleet.

It is very likely that starting this year, the Beiyang Fleet will no longer be able to purchase warships from abroad.

Li Jingyuan remarked with emotion.

"Damn it! A bunch of parasites, are they trying to destroy the Beiyang Fleet?" Xie Baozhang cursed.

The other naval academy students were equally filled with hatred.

They were all members of the Beiyang Fleet, and even if they returned from studying abroad, they would still join the Beiyang Fleet.

But the Qing Dynasty treated the Beiyang Fleet this way, which was clearly sending them to their deaths.

The Japanese are biding their time, heavily investing in developing their navy. Meanwhile, the Beiyang Fleet's military funds have been diverted. If war breaks out between the two sides in the future, will the Beiyang Fleet still have a chance of winning? Isn't this just sending them to their deaths?

"In addition, the Beiyang Fleet had another major weakness. Although the main guns of each ship had a large caliber and were very powerful, everyone knew that hitting a target on a rough sea was not an easy task."

Even though the 305mm main guns of two ironclad warships were extremely powerful, their hit rate at sea was very low.

Even the most powerful main gun is just a waste of shells if it can't hit the target.

Therefore, many of the Japanese warships were equipped with rapid-fire cannons with a high rate of fire.

Even though many of our warships are thick-skinned and not easily sunk by rapid-fire cannons.

But let's not forget, the sailors are fighting on deck. What would it look like if the concentrated fire of rapid-fire cannons swept across the entire deck?

Li Jingyuan reminded him.

  

A flicker of fear flashed involuntarily in the eyes of the naval academy students. Their faces even turned pale.

They were all experts in naval warfare, and as soon as Li Jingyuan spoke, they could imagine what kind of scene would occur.

Warships have thick armor protection that can withstand small and medium caliber rapid-fire guns.

But sailors are made of flesh and blood!

Those rapid-fire cannons could easily tear them to shreds.

If the sailors suffer heavy casualties, even if the warship is not sunk, it will probably be unable to exert much combat power.

Ultimately, they were either sunk by the Japanese with torpedoes or captured by the Japanese.

This outcome is absolutely unacceptable to everyone.

"Brother Jingyuan, what should we do?" Wu Guangjian asked.

Everyone else also looked at Li Jingyuan.

"Gentlemen, I will inform my father about this matter and ask him to find a solution. For the next few years, you just need to focus on your studies."

Only by learning as much of the Germans' skills as possible can everyone put their own abilities to good use upon returning home.

The Japanese warships will take another three or four years to return home; we still have time.

Li Jingyuan addressed the crowd.

The students of the naval academy all nodded in agreement.

Now they can only place their hopes on Li Jingyuan, or rather, on Li Hongzhang, who is behind Li Jingyuan.

Li Jingyuan had actually been thinking about this issue as well.

Given the strength of the Beiyang Fleet, it was destined to be no match for the combined fleet of the Japanese a few years later.

If nothing changes, it will be another crushing defeat. Or rather, it will simply be history repeating itself.

But making changes is undoubtedly very difficult.

To defeat the Japanese Combined Fleet, the Beiyang Fleet needed to possess even more powerful warships.

For example, a warship capable of hunting down the cruiser "Yoshino" must be fast and have powerful firepower.

But warships like these are not cheap!

After the Beiyang Fleet's ship purchase funds were misappropriated, the Beiyang Fleet simply couldn't afford to buy warships.

Although Li Hongzhang had embezzled a considerable amount of silver, he could easily have bought several warships if he had poured all his wealth into it.

But how could Li Hongzhang possibly do that?

If he really does that, what will happen to the people below him? Should they learn from Li Hongzhang?

There may have been some honest officials in the Qing Dynasty, but they were a tiny minority. The vast majority were corrupt and ruthless, each more greedy than the last.

If Li Hongzhang were to use his own money to subsidize the Beiyang Fleet, he would be breaking with official norms and would inevitably be attacked by the masses.

Besides, Li Hongzhang wasn't without political enemies in the imperial court.

Weren't the leaders of the Qingliu faction, such as Weng Tonghe, constantly fighting to the death with Li Hongzhang?

Even Empress Dowager Cixi probably wanted to get rid of Li Hongzhang as well.

Will Li Hongzhang still be able to remain in power in the court at that time?

Once Li Hongzhang falls, the Beiyang clique will likely fall apart.

If such a situation were to occur, the Japanese would probably be laughing in their sleep. They could defeat the Qing Empire and win the war with almost no effort.

Therefore, Li Jingyuan thought about it for a long time and realized that this problem had to be solved by himself.

But warships are really expensive! Especially those with a displacement of several thousand tons, which are even more pricey.

Raising that much money is not an easy task.

Therefore, Li Jingyuan must now find a way to make money!

We need to acquire as much money as possible to purchase a few warships. Then, we can reverse the future of war.

Fortunately, Li Jingyuan already had a plan for this.

If successful, they should be able to raise a large sum of money and purchase several warships without any problem.