King of Beiyang

Kiel Naval Academy was arguably the highest naval academy of the German Empire at that time.

It was founded by Albrecht von Störsch, the first Inspector General of the Navy of the German Empire.

Generally speaking, those who study and receive further training here are officers of the German Imperial Navy.

Besides these, there were also students from other countries, like Li Jingyuan and others, who were sent to study in the German Empire.

However, there are very few transfer students like Li Jingyuan who have already completed more than half of the semester.

This greatly displeased the traditionally conservative Germans.

Fortunately, after enrolling, apart from Li Jingyuan who lacked a foundation and struggled to keep up, the other elites of Beiyang were able to keep up after overcoming the language barrier.

At the same time, everyone worked very hard, which impressed the teachers and instructors.

As for Li Jingyuan, after trying for a while and realizing that he was really not cut out for it, he gave up.

His study abroad in the German Empire was merely a means to gain prestige.

Having this experience of studying abroad makes it easier to plan for returning to China.

With Li Hongzhang's status and influence, it was easy to make arrangements both within the Beiyang clique and in other systems of the Qing Empire.

Besides, you can't expect Li Jingyuan to personally lead troops into battle, can you? Or to personally lead the fleet out to sea to fight, can you?

  

On the one hand, that's extremely dangerous. Having finally been given a second chance at life, you still need to do everything you can to save your life.

On the other hand, professional tasks should be left to professionals.

This time, he brought more than ten elite students from the naval academy to study. Once these elites complete their studies, the Beiyang Fleet will be able to obtain a group of qualified captains or commanders.

In the future, we will continue to make studying abroad a customized program, sending people to study here every year.

The Beiyang Fleet will continuously acquire a large number of talented individuals.

Furthermore, domestic naval academies will be upgraded, eventually becoming the Beiyang Naval University, thus enabling the Beiyang Fleet, or the future Beiyang Navy, to cultivate its own naval personnel and develop its own talent pool.

This is far more important than Li Jingyuan spending all his time studying relevant courses at the Naval Academy.

After all, whether it's buying warships or building large, modern shipyards, it all requires a lot of money.

For Li Jingyuan, nothing is more important than making money.

Despite Li Jingyuan's slacking off, Rear Admiral Edward von Jahrmann, the principal of the Kiel Naval Academy, was very dissatisfied and even considered expelling him.

But soldiers must obey politics.

Now is the time when the German Empire is trying to expand its influence in the Qing Empire, and they absolutely cannot afford to antagonize the powerful faction in the Qing Empire.

Therefore, even though Li Jingyuan's performance at the military academy was not very good, Kiel Naval Academy still gave him the green light.

Major General Edward von Jahrmann had even planned to give Li Jingyuan a passing grade upon graduation.

Besides, Li Jingyuan isn't the only one with connections; they exist everywhere.

Even in the German Empire, there were quite a few.

For example, Li Jingyuan's current roommate, Carl von Hollen, is such a person.

In the class, Li Jingyuan and Carl von Hollen were almost at the bottom of the class.

Furthermore, both of them enjoyed certain preferential treatments.

For example, while the others lived in four-person dorm rooms, these two lived in two-person dorm rooms. The stated reason was to prevent them from disturbing the other students.

Over time, Li Jingyuan and Carl von Hollen became acquainted, often going to bars together on weekends, and gradually became close friends who could talk about anything.

Carl von Hollen was a very outgoing person who claimed he didn't want to be a soldier or a naval officer, but rather a businessman and entrepreneur. His family was, after all, a noble and military family; how could they possibly accept their eldest son not joining the military but going into business?

This greatly troubled Carl von Hollen. Even after entering the Kiel Naval Academy, he simply gave up.

The reason he wasn't fired was because he had a very strong background.

His father, Georg von Holen, is currently a Rear Admiral in the German Imperial Navy, holding a powerful position in the Baltic Fleet. Georg von Holen is also a staunch supporter of Emperor Wilhelm II's naval policies and enjoys the emperor's deep trust.

His uncle, Gustav von Hollen, served in the cavalry.

In the history that Li Jingyuan was familiar with, Gustav von Hollen was later promoted to cavalry general.

Furthermore, his uncle was Albrecht von Störsch, the founder of the Kiel Naval Academy and the first Inspector General of the German Navy, who was essentially equivalent to the Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy.

It is evident that Carl von Hollen had an extremely powerful background.

This is why he didn't get expelled despite slacking off at the academy.

However, Stösch stepped down a few years ago and is no longer the Director General of the Navy. He is currently a member of the Prussian Senate.

Furthermore, his naval ideology was to establish a continental navy consisting of coastal defense ironclads and cruisers, advocating against rushing to challenge the maritime hegemony of the British Royal Navy.

Such a naval ideology clearly could not satisfy Wilhelm II's ambitions.

Therefore, this is why Tirpitz completely overturned this naval building ideology after coming to power.

Making friends with a classmate like Carl von Hollen, who has a powerful background, would undoubtedly be beneficial to Li Jingyuan's future plans.

Even though he obtained a patent for the drug sulfonamide.

However, there is still a long way to go before patents can be monetized and turned into a gold mine.

For example, establishing a pharmaceutical factory required obtaining permission from the relevant departments of the German Empire. Furthermore, it necessitated obtaining market access permits from other Western countries, among many other hurdles to overcome.

On his own, especially since he is a foreigner, even if he spends all his time studying abroad, he might not have made any money and might have even lost his entire fortune.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Li Jingyuan planned to cooperate with the local strongmen of the German Empire.

Although this would distribute a large portion of the profits, it would allow him to achieve profitability sooner.

Besides, sulfonamides were just a project that Li Jingyuan prepared on a whim.

He has many more such projects in his plans.

However, to implement these projects, you must first earn your first pot of gold.

Without start-up capital, none of the subsequent projects could be carried out.

More importantly, we are only a few years away from going to war with the Japanese devils.

Before that, we must strengthen the Beiyang Army as much as possible.

Otherwise, if we are defeated again, the suffering in another time and space will be repeated.

This is undoubtedly something Li Jingyuan absolutely does not want to see.

Carl von Hollen, or rather his family, was undoubtedly a good partner.