King of Beiyang

In Li Jingyuan's memory, the Japanese warships were not large in displacement, mostly in the range of two thousand to four thousand tons.

However, these Japanese warships generally had more powerful firepower and were equipped with more rapid-fire cannons.

As a result, the Beiyang Fleet possessed two ironclad warships, the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan.

However, they are still at a huge disadvantage in terms of firepower.

Li Jingyuan's purchase of a batch of warships from the German Empire was precisely to solve this problem.

After hearing Li Jingyuan's request, Rudolf Hacker, the chief engineer and technical director of the Vulcan shipyard, frowned.

Among the many warships of the German Imperial Navy, it seems that none of them meet Li Jingyuan's requirements.

"Mr. Li, we can design a new warship according to your requirements!" Rudolf Harker clearly didn't want to let go of the order that was about to be in his hands.

Li Jingyuan nodded, accepting the answer.

"The warship's displacement was controlled to be below 7,000 tons, and its maximum speed had to exceed 25 knots. In terms of firepower, the main guns were three triple-mounted 155mm rapid-fire guns with a 45-caliber barrel. They were arranged in a two-forehead-one-aft configuration, deployed on the fore and aft decks respectively."

The two main guns on the foredeck were designed with a superimposed mounting to ensure the firing arc of the No. 2 main gun.

此外，战舰两侧各三座双联装45倍口径120毫米速射炮，四门45倍口径88毫米速射炮，再加上8门47毫米速射炮和两门35毫米速射炮。

To enhance the warship's protective capabilities, the 155mm main gun and 120mm secondary gun were designed with turrets.

The main armor of a warship—the waterline armor, main gun turret armor, and conning tower armor—must be at least 100 millimeters thick. Furthermore, it cannot be inferior composite armor; it must be a new type of armor steel with superior defensive capabilities!

Li Jingyuan put forward a series of demands.

Rudolf Hacker immediately took out a pen and wrote down Li Jingyuan's series of requests.

  

He suddenly realized that, based on Li Jingyuan's requirements, this warship was definitely an extremely powerful cruiser.

Even within the German Imperial Navy, there was no warship of the same class that could rival it.

This was also because the German Imperial Navy was still very conservative in its warship design during that era.

When Li Jingyuan made his demands, he directly used many design concepts commonly used in later generations. But in this era, this was undoubtedly very novel.

This immediately caught Rudolf Hacker's eye and gave him many new ideas for warship design.

The biggest problem with the German Imperial Navy's warships at that time was actually the waste of their tonnage.

比如，德意志帝国海军的『奥古斯塔皇后』号巡洋舰，排水量达到了六千三百多吨，居然只配备了四门30倍口径150毫米主炮，8门35倍口径105毫米速射炮，8门30倍口径88毫米速射炮，4门30倍口径37毫米速射炮和5具356毫米鱼雷发射管。

For such a massive warship, such firepower is indeed far too weak.

要知道，沙俄海军同等排水量的战舰可是装备了12门45倍口径152毫米速射炮，12门50倍口径75毫米速射炮，8门47毫米速射炮和两门37毫米速射炮，再加上6具381毫米鱼雷发射管。

In comparison, the firepower of the protected cruiser "Empress Augusta" was simply pathetic.

"Mr. Li, I will immediately organize designers to analyze and design according to your requirements. It is expected that the relevant design can be completed within a month. However, you have requested that the warship be equipped with the latest type of armor steel."

However, steel-wrought iron welded armor, also known as composite armor, is the most advanced armor steel that we can currently use.

Even our upcoming Brandenburg-class battleships are planned to use this type of armor.

Rudolf Hacker explained.

Li Jingyuan then suddenly realized that the armor steel of this era was still mainly composite armor with steel on the outside and iron on the inside.

In 1855, the warships used wrought iron armor.

In 1876, the Gallic Empire was the first to use Schneider steel armor.

In the second year, the British began using welded armor made of outer steel and inner iron, also known as composite armor.

Until two years ago, the British and the Gauls began using nickel alloy steel.

This year, a man named Harvey from the United States invented surface carburized hardened armor steel.

Subsequently, major naval powers around the world purchased the patent and adopted this armor steel.

Even the famous Krupp armor steel of the later German Empire was an improvement on the Harvey armor steel.

However, the improved Krupp armor steel has a much stronger hardness than Harvey steel.

This may be an important reason why the warships of the German Imperial Navy possessed stronger defensive capabilities and became prominent in future naval battles.

"Your Excellency, I have a formula for a new type of armor steel. I will apply for a patent as soon as possible. I hope that the warships I purchase next will be able to use this new type of armor steel!" Li Jingyuan said.

If he remembers correctly, Harvey Steel is under development.

The patent application will not be formally filed until April 1st of next year. It will not be officially granted until September 29th of next year.

This was undoubtedly an opportunity for Li Jingyuan.

If we can register the patent for this new type of armor steel in advance.

That way, he could not only equip his warships with more advanced armor steel, further enhancing their protective capabilities, but he could also make a fortune from this opportunity.

It's important to know that 152 mm thick Harvey armor steel has the same defensive capabilities as 254 mm thick composite armor.

If the cruisers that Li Jingyuan requested to be built could be equipped with 100mm of Harvey armor steel, then their defensive capabilities would be equivalent to 167mm of composite armor.

Among all the protected cruisers, this level of defense is already considered very strong.

In addition, they can also obtain substantial patent licensing fees when authorizing various steel mills to produce the products.

For example, Krupp paid a large patent licensing fee to obtain the patent for Harvey steel. In addition, Krupp had to pay an extra fifty marks in patent fees for every ton of armor steel it produced.

Taking the fact that a battleship requires thousands of tons of armor steel as an example, this means that the German Empire had to pay a patent fee of two to three hundred thousand marks for every battleship it built.

When you calculate it this way, it's not a small amount.

Li Jingyuan could even take this opportunity to get these warships purchased from the Vulcan shipyard for free.

Moreover, Li Jingyuan felt no guilt whatsoever about plagiarizing the achievements of the American people.

Anyway, the people of the "beacon of light" aren't any better!