King of Beiyang

Isidore Weller warmly saw Li Jingyuan off, though he had originally intended for Li Jingyuan to stay for dinner.

However, I only have one semester left before graduation.

Li Jingyuan had to arrange all the affairs in the German Empire before graduation.

Once he returns to China, he will probably have little time to attend to things here.

His industries in the German Empire were directly related to whether he would have enough funds to build a powerful army and fleet, and even to drive the rapid development of the entire Beiyang Group.

In other words, the industries in the German Empire were like cash cows for Li Jingyuan, extremely important.

After declining Isidore Weller's invitation, Li Jingyuan returned to the Kiel Naval Academy without stopping.

Li Jingyuan purchased a large number of rifles, machine guns, and artillery pieces this time, and also obtained production licenses.

For a long time to come, there will be enough weapons and equipment available.

The weapons purchased this time alone are enough to equip three divisions.

Furthermore, each of them consisted of two brigades and four regiments, plus a cavalry regiment, an artillery regiment, an engineer regiment, and a supply regiment. When fully manned, the divisions were large-scale divisions with a strength exceeding 28,000 men.

There are only two or three such teachers.

  

Therefore, the probability of winning on the land battlefield in the upcoming Sino-Japanese War would undoubtedly be much greater.

Furthermore, once he possessed such a massive military force, no one in the entire Qing Empire could do anything to Li Jingyuan.

If Li Hongzhang always considered himself a loyal subject of the Qing Empire and never had any intention of rebelling.

But Li Jingyuan was different; he had absolutely no loyalty to the Qing Empire.

Whether it's the emperor or the Empress Dowager Cixi, if they really push him too far, he might as well rebel.

Of course, if possible, Li Jingyuan hoped to deal with domestic issues after defeating the Japanese in the upcoming Sino-Japanese War.

Whether it's directly overthrowing the Qing Dynasty or taking other methods, it's all acceptable.

But one thing is certain: we must never allow those princes and nobles to ruin the entire country again.

Under their exorbitant taxes and brutal exploitation, the common people are barely surviving. The nation's overall strength is also steadily declining. If this continues, in this unprecedented upheaval, the entire country and its people will utterly perish.

To achieve Li Jingyuan's goal, the prerequisite is to build an army capable of defeating the Japanese invaders.

Only in this way can all of Li Jingyuan's ideas be successfully realized.

Li Jingyuan was very confident about the upcoming war.

Not only was the Beiyang Fleet strengthened.

The six powerful "Sea Sky-class" protected cruisers, once they join the naval battle, would be enough to crush the entire Japanese Combined Fleet.

In ground operations, Li Jingyuan also plans to start building the Marine Corps after returning to China next year to prepare for the upcoming ground operations.

Rifles, machine guns, and artillery were all available.

With its formidable firepower, the Beiyang Marine Corps was armed to the teeth.

Even though the Japanese army was not weak, their chances of winning were slim given their overwhelming firepower.

Especially after the Japanese navy was destroyed and they lost control of the sea, it became even less likely that the Japanese could defeat the Beiyang Army.

For example, the gap between the two sides in terms of weaponry and equipment is very large.

For example, during the First Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese mainly used the Murata Type 13 rifle, which was a single-shot rifle with an 11mm caliber and was loaded with black powder.

Only a very small number of elite troops were equipped with the Murata Type 22 rifle, a rifle that used smokeless powder round-nosed bullets and was fed by an eight-round tubular magazine. Although its rate of fire was not slow, it had many problems and was prone to jamming.

In contrast, the improved Type 88 Commission Rifle, used by the Beiyang Marine Corps, had a significant advantage.

In addition, during that era, the Japanese army was equipped with very few heavy machine guns; an infantry regiment was only equipped with four Hotchkiss or Maxim heavy machine guns.

In contrast, a single company of the Beiyang Marine Corps was equipped with five Maxim heavy machine guns.

The same applied to artillery; a Japanese infantry regiment was equipped with two 70mm mountain guns. An infantry division was equipped with 24 75mm field guns and 12 75mm mountain guns.

而在李经远的计划当中，北洋海军陆战队的炮兵团，将会装备48门75毫米野战炮和24门105毫米轻型榴弹炮。而每个团也将会下辖一个炮兵连，装备6门75毫米山炮。

It can be said that the Beiyang Marine Corps had an overwhelming advantage in terms of firepower.

Powerful firepower will make up for the gap in individual soldier skills.

This gave the Beiyang Marine Corps the ability to directly confront and even easily defeat the Japanese army.

This will give the Beiyang Group a greater chance of winning in the upcoming wars.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was already August of the eighteenth year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign.

It has been more than three and a half years since Li Jingyuan and others arrived in the German Empire to study.

It's time for them to graduate.

Although Li Jingyuan's grades were almost at the bottom, at least he passed every subject. Even if there was a lot of favoritism involved.

After all, the Hollen family wields considerable influence at the Naval Academy, and the faculty members of all departments within the academy would give them face, so naturally no one would deliberately prevent Li Jingyuan from graduating.

As for the students from the Beiyang Naval Academy studying at the Imperial German Naval Academy, they all performed exceptionally well.

These elites all passed their graduation exams based on their genuine abilities.

Moreover, they were all among the top students and had earned the recognition of the teachers at the Naval Academy.

Li Jingyuan has already made arrangements for these elites from the Beiyang Naval Academy.

The six "Sea Sky-class" protected cruisers built by the Vulcan Shipyard for the Beiyang Fleet have been basically completed and are ready for delivery.

Next, the sailors and officers dispatched from the country to the German Empire will receive six cruisers.

In addition, Li Jingyuan also hired a large number of retired officers and sailors from the German Empire to work on these six cruisers, assisting the Beiyang Fleet in operating these warships and ensuring that the Beiyang Fleet could quickly gain control of these ships and form combat capability as soon as possible.

According to Li Jingyuan's plan, these six "Sea Sky-class" protected cruisers will temporarily stay in the German Empire to train and carry out missions together with the German Imperial Navy in order to train the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Fleet.

Two years later, these warships would travel to the Far East under the guise of a visit to participate in the war.

Then we can catch the Japanese off guard.

At the end of August, the Naval Academy held its graduation ceremony.

Li Jingyuan graduated successfully and became a qualified naval officer.