One really dares to buy and one really dares to sell! Tell me where the generation of famous ships Zhongshan Ship came from.

One of the most famous naval warships in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China was the Yongfeng ship. Maybe you are not familiar with the name Yongfeng Ship, but its other name is widely known, that is Zhongshan Ship! Many people are familiar with the performance of this legendary warship in the Revolution of 1911, the National Defence War and the Northern Expedition War, but few people know where this legendary warship came from.

Surprisingly, this warship, which has a special position in the history of China, turned out to be a Japanese-made warship. Tracing back to the source, most people think that it was ordered to be built by the navy minister Zaixun when he returned from his visit to the United States in the late Qing Dynasty. It seems random, but is this real history?

19 10 On August 23rd, at the strong invitation of the US government, a delegation of 2/kloc-0 naval officials, including the Qing navy minister Zai Xun and the general Sa Zhenbing, left for the US. However, at that time, the only way from China to the distant United States was to cross the Pacific Ocean by sea. During this long voyage, Japanese ports are usually used as transit points for international cruise ships or ships. On August 26th, the merchant ship carrying the Xun delegation arrived in Nagasaki, the port at the western end of Kyushu Island, Japan, and was warmly received by the Iwasaki family, the head of the famous Mitsui chaebol. In the afternoon, the delegation came to Nagasaki Shipyard, where beiyang fleet's giant ship was located 20 years ago.

On the 28th, the delegation arrived in Kobe, a Japanese port city, and visited two shipyards, Kawasaki Kobe Shipyard and Mitsubishi Kobe Shipyard. Then I visited the Japanese naval artillery school, torpedo school and other institutions, and then boarded the passenger ship to the United States again and left in a hurry.

This visit seems to be no different from other visits, but in fact it has had a strange impact on the changes in China in the coming decades. Although it is called public relations inspection, it is actually an inspection of the construction of two gunboats ordered by the Japanese navy. These two warships are Yongfeng-class gunboats. However, the construction of these two gunboats did not take place during this visit, nor was it on the way back from a visit to the United States in June+10, 5438. In fact, long before the delegation left the country, the Qing court signed a contract with Japan to build warships.

As early as 19 10 August 16, the Navy Department of the War Department of the Qing Dynasty signed contracts with Japan's Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard and Kawasaki Shehu Kobe Shipyard respectively, and ordered 1 gunboats of the same model from various shipyards. This situation of choosing several famous foreign shipyards to build the same or similar warships is exactly the same as the Qing court's previous mode of buying ships in Europe. It has the nature of testing, evaluating and inspecting the shipbuilding capacity of foreign shipyards, and the types of warships ordered are also urgently needed by the Qing court!

1900 after the boxer movement, the Qing court set out to rebuild the navy. However, due to the poor national strength and limited financial resources, the warships purchased are far from so rich, and the warships purchased are biased towards offshore defense gunboats and light cruisers. Interestingly, the imaginary enemy of the two Yongfeng-class gunboats ordered by the Japanese Qing court is the Japanese mother ship. In the process of rebuilding the navy, the Qing court built a large number of gunboats with Jiangyuan class and Taielementary class as the core, and with the German gunboats with Jiangxi class and Jiang Kun class, the Qing court navy basically had the ability to control and protect the navigation of the whole Yangtze River basin. At this time, the Japanese navy announced the construction of a brand-new Yangtze River gunboat, which made the Qing navy feel the danger approaching and gave it a new goal of catching up with imitation.

To say that the Qing court and notebook are two goods that follow the trend in the construction of gunboats in Jiang Fang. You chase after me and follow closely. 1903, Japan built a 540-ton large-scale Yangtze River cannon "Yuzhi", while the Qing court designed and built Jiangyuan-class and Taiprimary gunboats in the shipyards of Liangjiang and Huguang. Therefore, the Japanese navy, deeply impressed by the lack of force deterrence in the Yangtze River basin, plans to build a brand-new first-class gunboat at 1909, that is, a craggy gunboat!

Compared with the Uji class, the cragginess class gunboat mainly increases the tonnage and improves the defects such as poor habitability and insufficient firepower. Its hull is a whole circle larger than that of Yuzhi class, with a displacement of 785 tons, a length of 64 meters and a width of 9 meters, a power of 1.600 horsepower and a speed of 1.5 knots, which basically meets the navigation requirements in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The first floor of the ship is high, so living facilities can be arranged on the first floor, with good lighting and ventilation conditions. Although living here is much more comfortable than living in the narrow space under the main deck, it is especially important for a warship that has to wander for a long time and perform cruise missions.

The equipment of craggy gunboats is also much stronger than the previous model. The main gun is a 4 1 naval gun with a caliber of 1.20 mm, 40 times, and three 76 mm naval guns. You can hit both sides with three shots. Whether it is speed or firepower, this ship can overwhelm all gunboats in the Yangtze River! At the same time, due to the design of the Gao Qian side of the Dragon Tower, this warship can not only undertake certain offshore patrol tasks, but also look mighty, which can better demonstrate the existence of the Japanese navy.

19 10 1 month. The "craggy" gunboat Sasebo naval factory in Japan began to be built, and China, separated only by a strip of water and an old enemy, has long regarded this close neighbor as an imaginary enemy. However, the Qing court was also very satisfied with the design indicators and operational capability expectations of the ship, so it took the "rugged" class as the prototype and ordered two new gunboats from Japan at a cost of 680,000 yen. Among them, Yongxiang Ship was built by Kawasaki Kobe Shipyard, and Yongfeng Ship, later Zhongshan Ship, was built by Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard.

Therefore, in such a strange atmosphere, the Japanese navy's own sophisticated warships are under construction, and two warships of the same type of Qing navy with them as imaginary enemies are quietly starting work at the berth of the Japanese shipyard. I have to say, these two guys really dare to buy and sell.