Unconsciously, the warships in the dock were rising at a speed that was difficult to detect with the naked eye until the deck was more than 1 meter above the ground. The sea water in the dock had been filled. More than a dozen staff members who were still on the ship ran back and forth to check the condition of the hull. In fact, there were more than 10 staff members in the lower cabin to check the sealing conditions of each cabin.

After more than half an hour of inspection, there were basically no major problems. Therefore, after awarding the German engineering awards, the launch ceremony of the warship reached the most important part, which was the docking.

Li Ya first ordered the gate to be opened. He heard a harsh metal friction sound of "creaking" and "creaking". The two gates of the dock slowly opened. The two tugs that had been waiting at the dock entrance immediately slowly turned up the dock, and threw the cables at the stern to the staff on the deck and fixed them on the deck. Then the two tugs started together, dragging the warship, and slowly sailed out of the dock.

On the edge of the dock, there were warm applause and cheers again. The workers were waving the small colorful flags in their hands. Many people jumped up excitedly, and the military band also performed majestic music. When the warship was dragged out of the dock, firecrackers were set off, which also made the whole atmosphere reach the highest level.

After the warship was completely towed out of the dock by the tugboat, two more tugboats came over. The four tugboats worked together to push the warship to the edge of the outfitting platform and fixed it on the shore to prepare for outfitting. After the warship was out of the dock, the gates of the dock slowly closed, drainage and cleaning up to prepare for the construction of the next warship. Germany has reported that the second batch of shipbuilding contracts between the East China government and Germany have been signed, and the Qingdao Shipyard will soon start building two armored cruisers, and the dock will be used again soon.

Li Ya has also announced that the launch ceremony of the warship has ended. The workers gradually dispersed. Some went to install the platform to prepare for new work, and some went back to the platform of another warship, because the next step is to launch the warship, but the launch of that warship is not in this ceremony.

The officials of the East China government who attended the launch ceremony also stood up and shook hands with the staff one by one to express their congratulations on the successful launch of the warship. Xia Bohai and Qin Zheng also exchanged a few words with the representatives of the businessmen, welcomed their arrival, and hoped that their inspection in Qingdao would go smoothly. Moreover, the East China government attached great importance to the development of national industry and commerce, sincerely welcomed them to invest in Shandong, etc., and then left the shipyard.

The industrial and commercial troupe continued to stay in the shipyard to visit. Li Yaxian took them to visit a warship and introduced the details of this warship to them in detail. Of course, Li Ya did not hide it and told them very frankly that this warship was designed by the East China government and built a total of 4 ships, two of which were built in Germany, while the two ships built in Qingdao were sent by Germany to guide the construction of the Qingdao shipyard. Most of the materials, equipment and weapons used for shipbuilding were imported from Germany. Therefore, these two warships cannot be considered to be built by themselves, and can only be considered to be self-assembled at most. However, through the construction of these two warships, the shipyard has accumulated experience in building warships and trained a group of shipbuilding technical workers. The East China government is also gradually improving its industrial system and plans to complete most of the supporting systems for warship manufacturing in 10 years to achieve complete independence of warship construction.

In fact, this model of purchasing foreign materials and equipment, asking foreign experts to guide the construction, assemble and build their own, and even designs are purchased from abroad. It is very common among enterprises founded by the Westernization Movement, and even many Westernization factions have become accustomed to it. Therefore, it is normal for the East China government to purchase materials, equipment, weapons and build warships on their own from Germany, which is normal for many merchants, but no one expected that overseas Chinese would have such a grand goal to achieve complete autonomy of warship construction.

Some merchants, such as Sheng Xuanhuai, are very clear that the construction of warships is a very large system, involving multiple supporting systems such as steel, construction, steam engines, boilers, weapons, etc., and there may be as many as hundreds of related factories. This is the original Westernization officials of the Qing court that the Qing Dynasty did not dare to think about building a complete system of fully self-built warships. Overseas Chinese actually boasted that this system would take only 10 years to complete. If it were someone else, Sheng Xuanhuai would definitely disdain, but overseas Chinese never spoke, and overseas Chinese have done many impossible things over the past two years, so Sheng Xuanhuai could only believe and half-doubt about this.

After introducing the situation of shipbuilding, Li Ya introduced the situation of the shipyard, management agencies, distribution of powers and responsibilities, production processes, supervision and supervision, etc. to the merchants, and then led the merchants to visit other warships under construction in the shipyard.

Although the Qingzhou-class protective cruiser has superior performance, it is a large protective cruiser after all, and is relatively expensive. Moreover, this type of protective cruiser is mainly used for long-range breakthrough and escort. In the current People's Army Navy sequence, it will not be built in large quantities. Therefore, it is necessary to design a type of protective cruiser with a small tonnage and cheaper price. It can be built in large quantities, which has the combat capabilities of long-range breakthrough and offshore cruise, and it also forms a high and low combination with the Qingzhou-class protective cruiser, which is the 3,500-ton medium-sized protective cruiser in the East China government's shipbuilding plan.

The design of this type of warship was finalized in November 1902. The size of the hull is: 95 meters long, 12 meters wide, 4.8 meters in weight, and the displacement is about 3,500 tons. The ship-based weapons are: one double 155 mm main gun in front and rear, and the secondary gun is 2 double 100 mm guns, four double 75 mm guns, and four double 50 mm rapid-fire guns; the armor is: the low part of the dome armor is 100 mm, the arc top is 60 mm thick, the main gun armor is 150 mm, the secondary gun is 100 mm, and the command armor is 180 mm; the power is: two 5,000 horsepower reciprocating three-rise steam engines, 12 boilers, and the estimated speed is 22-23 knots. The cost is expected to be around 800,000-900,000 silver.

Compared with Qingzhou-class protective cruisers, the displacement of this type of warship is only about 60%, and the ship-based weapons have been reduced to 40%. The armor has also cancelled the side armor and only retained the dome armor. The speed has also decreased by about three knots, but the cost is quite considerable. A Qingzhou-class protective cruiser can build about 2.5 of this type of warships. In addition, although the firepower, defense and speed have been greatly reduced, it can still perform breaking and escorting tasks. After all, completing these tasks does not require very strong combat power.

This type of warship was started in January 1903. Since the steel plant was able to produce keel steel and homogeneous steel plates for this small and medium-sized warship, the self-production of materials has been greatly improved. It can be said that except for armored steel plates, other hull steels can basically be produced by the East China government. It can be said that this is a major improvement in the self-production of shipbuilding.

Moreover, with the experience of building Qingzhou-class protective cruisers, the time travelers began to try to build this type of warship independently. All the workers were employees of Qingdao Shipyard, and all the German technicians did not take it themselves, but provided consultants and technical guidance when necessary.

In addition to this medium-sized protective cruiser, the Crossover also designed two types of destroyers, which are also equipped with heights. The high-end one type is between 1500-1600, with a length of 90 meters, a width of 10 meters, and a draft of 3.5 meters. The weapons are equipped with one dual 125 mm diameter main gun in front and rear, two dual 75 mm diameter secondary guns, four dual 50 mm rapid-fire guns, two triple 530 mm* launch tubes, and a speed of 24-25 knots. The mission of this type of destroyer is mainly to be able to cooperate with the main warships to conduct ocean-going operations.

The low-end model one has a tonnage of about 1,000 tons, with a length of 86 meters, a width of 9 meters, and a draft of 3.2 meters. It is equipped with a single-mounted 125 mm diameter main gun in front and rear, two single-mounted 75 mm diameter secondary guns, four dual-mounted 50 mm rapid-fire guns, two dual-mounted 530 mm* launch tubes, and a speed of 21-22 knots. The mission of this type of destroyer is mainly in offshore patrol, escort, fishing protection, maritime security, and entry into the inland river.

Because the construction technology of the two types of destroyers is relatively low and the requirements for hull materials are not high, ordinary steel is enough, and ship-based weapons can also be produced by Qingdao Arsenal, with only a few construction equipment such as steam engines, boilers, motors, etc. that need to be imported from Germany, the self-production rate has been further improved. It was started in November 1902, and now it has basically been formed and is expected to be launched within one month. However, because these two types of destroyers are really inconspicuous, and the destroyer is a cannon fodder role in the naval sequence of this era, the time traveler did not make any publicity.

After walking around the Qingdao Shipyard, the businessmen in the industrial and commercial delegation were quite touched. Although the shipyard had the original German low-ranking man, overseas Chinese could achieve their current appearance and technical capabilities after taking over two years. It was quite rare to measure by the standards and efficiency of the Qing court in the past. Merchants have heard in Shanghai that overseas Chinese value industrial and commercial industry, similar to European countries, but they have never seen them with their own eyes. Moreover, none of these merchants have been abroad, so they have no intuitive feeling. In the minds of merchants, it is probably similar to the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and Tianjin Machinery Bureau established by the Westernization Movement. Of course, it is also necessary to be slightly better.

But after visiting Qingdao Shipyard, the merchants realized that they had thought it was wrong before. The factories established by overseas Chinese and factories founded by the Westernization Movement have essential differences in organizational structure, management, and operations. From this point of view, there will probably be more surprises in the next inspection in Qingdao.

Because of Sheng Xuanhuai, because almost all the Westernization factories founded by Li Hongzhang were involved, and most of them were founded by Sheng Xuanhuai, it could not help but bring great wealth and reputation to Sheng Xuanhuai. At the same time, it also allowed Sheng Xuanhuai to go from business to politics. Now it is also a second-rank official from the court. Therefore, Sheng Xuanhuai is sometimes quite content and believes that he has established a considerable achievement in his life. However, compared with factories built by overseas Chinese, Sheng Xuanhuai realized that although he had founded many companies, it was not worth mentioning at all.

In fact, it is not just Sheng Xuanhuai, but Yuan Shikai and Li Jingfang are also eye-opening. It turns out that factory companies can be founded like this. I feel that this trip to Qingdao is indeed worth it.
Chapter completed!