Chapter 5: Xu Jie's Ambition
Christmas 1888 passed in the bickering between the two. With the arrival of 1889, Li Rongmao began to rush around for the detailed design drawings of the second-class protected cruiser. And Xu Jie? Finally had the opportunity to plan his future plans carefully. There were still five and a half years until July 25, 1894, but the seemingly long time was not a bit too narrow for Xu Jie. The gap between the Qing dynasty and Japan became more and more obvious in the long competition of over 20 years. Compared with Japan's Meiji Restoration, the Qing dynasty's Westernization Movement was just a superficial decoration. Except for a few Westernization officials who were struggling to make progress, the entire Qing dynasty was slowly declining in a state of intoxication. If one had to find an army that still had some fighting power in the Sino-Japanese War, it would be this branch of the Northern Navy, which was established nearly 20 years ago and was the closest to modernization in the Qing dynasty. As for the land army? From Korea to the Yalu River, to Lushun and Weihai. Compared with Japan's six main force divisions of nearly 100,000 troops, the Qing dynasty's land army didn't even count as a flock of sheep! Let alone rebuilding a new-style land army, which was simply a joke. Japan's land army took nearly 20 years to complete its six mainstay divisions. The Qing dynasty's new army, the Northern Navy's six battalions, took about 10 years to take shape. Therefore, Xu Jie could only rely on Li Hongzhang, the leader of the Northern Navy, and the Northern Navy, which was currently the number one in East Asia.
However, although the Beiyang Fleet performed well in the Battle of the Yellow Sea (with a few exceptions), after extensive analysis and calculations, Xu Jie discovered that it was extremely difficult to achieve a stalemate through strengthening the Beiyang Fleet. What is the reason? The fundamental reason lies with one person and one thing.
Let's talk about money first. According to historical records, the Beiyang Fleet should have received an annual appropriation of approximately 2 million taels of silver, but in reality, only around 1 million taels were actually allocated, barely enough for daily expenses. As for purchasing new ships? Since the "Request to Stop Purchasing Ships and Reduce Troops" was submitted by a certain official, the Beiyang Fleet had completely lost any possibility of buying new ships from abroad.
Even on the eve of the war, when the Beiyang Fleet wanted to purchase 18 4.7-inch quick-firing guns and other equipment for 610,000 taels of silver, they were rejected due to lack of funds.
In contrast, Japan's financial resources had not reached their limit during the First Sino-Japanese War. On the day the war broke out, Japan ordered two battleships, Fuji and Yashima, from the British Armstrong Shipbuilding Company. Referring to the price of a 10,000-ton battleship at around ￡1 million at that time, the down payment for the two ships would not have been less than ￡500,000, which is equivalent to over 3 million taels of silver.
Additionally, Japan had also purchased the Izumi from Germany during this period. Before 1894, if Japan felt it necessary, they could easily spend another 4 million taels of silver. This means that Japan could have bought two or three more protected cruisers like Yoshino!
In contrast, even if the Beiyang Fleet were able to obtain new appropriations for purchasing ships, they would only be able to gain an advantage by buying at least three armored cruisers; otherwise, their newly purchased ships would not be as good as Japan's. The gap between them would only continue to grow.
This calculation only includes the cost of purchasing ships and does not take into account maintenance costs, replacing guns and boilers, and other expenses. If both the Beiyang Fleet and Japan were to purchase new ships at the same time, following the standard of three armored cruisers, the Beiyang Fleet would need to spend around 4.5 million taels of silver on purchasing ships, and then another 2 million taels on acquiring sufficient quick-firing guns, high-explosive shells, and boilers.
This means that they would need an additional expenditure of nearly 6.5 million taels of silver (assuming the annual appropriation of 2 million taels for military expenses was actually allocated). This is only the minimum cost required to maintain a gap with Japan's fleet, without even considering personnel salaries and other expenses. The cost of auxiliary ships would be another additional expense.
As for the personnel, it seems that there is no big problem, but in fact, it's not a simple matter to solve. A new-style cruiser has a crew of over 400 people, and three ships would require around 1,300 people. However, the total number of personnel in the Beiyang Fleet is only 4,000 people, which is the result of nearly 20 years of training. Even if the ships are purchased, it's still a problem to find so many experienced naval officers and soldiers. Moreover, it can be confirmed that 1,300 people for three ships are definitely not enough. All this has been giving Xu Jie, a naval transmigrator, endless headaches.
As for how large the Beiyang Fleet needs to be in order to guarantee sufficient deterrent power in East Asia after defeating the Japanese Navy, Xu Jie also made some calculations. The British China Squadron and the Beiyang Naval Force have a good relationship (at least before the flag withdrawal incident), so they can be excluded from consideration. Germany and France are still vying with each other in Europe and cannot intervene in the Far East. As for the United States, it can basically be ignored before defeating Spain and gaining control of the Philippines. However, the evil neighbor to the north of the Qing dynasty must be guarded against. Others may not dare say so, but if someone says second, no one will dare say first. In the Second Opium War and afterwards, Russia took 1.5 million square kilometers of land from China, and the independence of Outer Mongolia during the Republican era was all planned by the Russians. If we say which country has caused the most harm to China in modern times, it's probably a tie between Russia and Japan. As for the difference, that is, Japan failed to swallow, while Russia succeeded in nibbling away, leaving behind the greatest harm. The Russians are the most formidable, with 3 million square kilometers taken. Even if the Beiyang Fleet defeats the Japanese Navy, how to deal with the Russian Far East Fleet must be considered.
As for the Russian Far Eastern Fleet in 1895, it was not very strong, with only six cruisers, all of which were quite old. The only two ships worth noting were the Nakhimov armored cruiser, a weird ship with eight 203mm guns arranged in a diamond shape, built in 1884, and the Rurik-class armored cruiser (Rurik I, followed by Rurik II after the Russo-Japanese War), which was a large ship of over 11,000 tons, 132 meters long, 20.4 meters wide, and 8.4 meters deep, with four 8-inch guns and sixteen 6-inch guns, reaching a speed of 18.7 knots during light load trials. Although it was later surrounded by Japanese armored cruisers in the Russo-Japanese War, it is undeniable that Rurik's combat power was still quite high in 1895. As for how to deal with this Russian Far Eastern Fleet, which was always ready to launch a surprise attack, Xu Jie had put in some effort.
Simply adding 3-4 protected cruisers is absolutely not enough. Even if the Northern Fleet barely wins against the Japanese Navy, its remaining strength will be far from sufficient to counter the Russian Far Eastern Squadron. The Chiyoda, Yangwei, and even the Pingyuan and Zhiyuan will likely suffer heavy losses. Only the Dingyuan can still be used. However, compared to the Russian cruiser Rurik, even the supposedly usable Dingyuan has a significant gap in capabilities. To counter the Rurik and also prepare for the Russian Far Eastern Squadron's future expansion, Xu Jian did not hesitate to plagiarize the work of the owner of this private residence, commissioning the Italian-made Giuseppe Garibaldi-class armored cruiser.
