When the two warships returned to the Hamburg waterway, it was almost 7 o'clock. A red sun rose from the sea to the east. The fog floating on the sea surface also thinned a little bit of a strong smell. The clear blue sky was sparse, and only a few places were sprinkled with several extremely thin clouds, some as white as newly picked cotton, and some were slightly red like the drunken color on the beautiful face.

In the direction of the Hamburg waterway, the masts of several sailing ships appeared, and they drove towards the two warships.

Cowell, who was in the command center, smiled and said, "Look, that should be the ship to rescue us."

Zhang Wei said: "The storm and waves were really big last night, and there was almost a level 7 sea condition."

Cowell nodded and said, "It should be at level 7. Even if there is no, it will be too much. Such sudden weather changes are rare. To be honest, if it were the same ton-class warship we built, the wind and waves yesterday were indeed very dangerous, but the seaworthiness of this warship is indeed very good. This is the first time in my more than 40-year sailing career that I saw the waves on the bow of the ship, and I could carry it out of the water so quickly. You have indeed built a very excellent warship."

Schell also said: "Yes, as far as I know, even Britain does not have such excellent warships."

As everyone was talking, suddenly the lookout reported that a ship opposite sent a flag utterance to the ship, asking about the safety of the ship and whether it needed rescue assistance.

Cowell laughed and said, "Answer them, everything is normal and thank them for their concern."

It turned out that the climate suddenly changed last night, and the person in charge of the Blom Foss Shipyard was frightened because he knew that the two warships were being tried on the sea. If an accident occurred, the consequences would be unimaginable. Now the warships of the two ships have not been officially delivered. Once something happened, the consequences would be taken into account at the shipyard. However, the night was blind and the wind and rain were heavy, and the rescue ships could not go out to sea to carry out rescue in the night. Therefore, although they were anxious, they could only helplessly. They finally waited until the morning of Foxia, and the weather improved and the wind and waves on the sea were slightly calmer, so they hurriedly sent five rescue ships to go out to sea to rescue. However, they did not expect that they encountered the Qingzhou and Yizhou as soon as they left the waterway, and it seemed that they were not seriously injured.

The two warships were led by tugboats and slowly sailed into Hamburg Port. At this time, thousands of people had gathered on the dock. When the two warships entered the port one after another, there was also a warm cheer on the shore to celebrate the safe return of the two warships in the storm last night.

After the warship was stable, the staff immediately stepped on the two warships for inspection. However, except for some places on the deck, including a small number of ship-based weapons, the structural equipment in the cabin was basically damaged by the waves, so there was no need to undergo an overhaul. The person in charge of the Brom-Foss Shipyard finally breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time felt a sense of joy. Although they were scared for a night last night, the two warships returned safely and were fine. The bad weather of the 7th level sea conditions last night, the two warships were still safe and sound. Although there were contributions to the design of overseas Chinese, German manufacturing also made an indispensable contribution, which of course had a positive effect on enhancing the reputation of German manufacturing.

At this time, the trial sailing of the warship had been completed. The shipyard also had to conduct a comprehensive maintenance of the warship, so the warship could be officially delivered to the East China government. Therefore, the ship pick-up work team also began to prepare to return to China.

The German Navy also formally sent a delegation led by Major Schell, with a total of 6 officers, who followed the warships and went to Qingdao to receive the drawings. The two shipyards also sent more than 50 staff members to set off with the ships. On the one hand, they were responsible for the maintenance of accidents on the way back to China. On the other hand, after arriving in Qingdao, some of them stayed and were responsible for fulfilling the new shipbuilding contract. They were guiding the Qingdao Shipyard to build the next batch of warships and replace the first batch of staff. The materials and equipment needed by the two shipyards will also prepare to load and set off immediately.

The East China government's shipbuilding supervision working group is still in Germany, and only Huang Zhe returns home with the warship because he wants to participate in the work of the two types of warships designed for Germany.

Zhang Wei asked that in addition to allocating food, drinking water, boiler water and coal to the two warships, they should also bring enough ammunition and some training ammunitions to facilitate training of the ship's personnel on the way back to China. Training during the voyage of warships is a common practice for navies in various countries. On the one hand, it is to improve the professional quality of the army, and on the other hand, it is also to let soldiers have something to do during voyages, because long-term sea navigation is very boring, and it is easy to get into trouble if you don't find anything to do.

It took a total of 12 days to prepare and repair the two warships officially set off from Hamburg Port on March 6, 1903 and embarked on a voyage back to Qingdao.

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"Dear Alfred, I have read the evaluation reports of the shipyard and the Admiralty. It seems that they are quite satisfied with the warships designed by our collaborators and give high praise."

William II sat behind a huge mahogany desk, with an open book called Gaul's Battle. He held a gold pen in his right hand and placed the coffee he had drunk on the table with his left hand. Behind him was a huge oil painting of the battle. The left and right walls were full of portraits of outstanding German kings, but William II's eyes were always on Tirpitz, who was sitting opposite him.

Tirpitz sat on the chair, bowed slightly, and said, "Yes, your Majesty. Now the young men of the Navy are eager to wait for the completion of the Samoan-class protective cruiser."

William II nodded and smiled, "Of course, the guys want to drive the best warships, and we are also obliged to provide them with the best warships. It seems that building a Samoa-class protective cruiser is indeed the right choice. To be honest, even I am a little impatient."

Tirpitz said: "This is of course, but before leaving, overseas Chinese expressed their gratitude to us, because only German construction technology can turn their excellent design into reality."

William II lowered his head and laughed as he wrote something on the [Gallic War], saying, "This is such a group of interesting people."

Tirpitz said again: "So they asked me to send a gift to His Majesty."

William II stopped his pen, raised his head and said, "Gift?"

Tirpitz smiled slightly and waved her hand. The four guards raised two glass boxes, each of which was a model of a warship. William II hesitated for a moment, but stood up from the chair, walked to the two boxes to watch carefully. Tirpitz also stood up beside him and introduced the two warship models.

It turns out that these two warship models are models of two types of armored cruisers commissioned by Germany by the East China government. Among them, the 7,000-ton armored cruiser and the Samoa-class protective cruiser built by Germany have the same ship-based weapons. Tirpitz focused on introducing William II to the 10,000-ton armored cruiser, as well as the design ideas of full-heavy firepower, integrated fire control system, integrated type two proposed by the time traveler.

After William II succeeded to the throne, he vigorously developed the navy, including his side that he liked merit, but it did increase Germany's maritime competitiveness. Therefore, William II did do some research on the navy's technology, tactics, strategies, etc. Although some research was not done well, it was completely misunderstood. For example, his understanding of Ma Han's [Theory of the Sea Power] was completely wrong, but he was not a layman in the navy. Therefore, when Pitts introduced the time traveler to propose the navy's technical ideas, William II could understand it.

After Tirpitz finished speaking, William II pointed to the 10,000-ton armored cruiser model and said: "In other words, are the Schánhorst-class armored cruisers and German-class battleships designed by overseas Chinese for us based on this warship?"

Tirpitz nodded and said, "According to the evaluation of the Navy, the displacement of this warship is about 10,000 tons, but its actual combat effectiveness is stronger than the Schonhorst-class armored cruiser we designed earlier, and the Schonhorst-class armored cruiser we designed earlier is 12,000 tons; overseas Chinese will also design another type of battleship on the hull of this warship, and its combat effectiveness is also stronger than the German-class battleship we designed. Therefore, I think the original design should be abolished and overseas Chinese should be entrusted for redesign. The combination of the excellent warship design capabilities of overseas Chinese and our excellent warship manufacturing capabilities in Germany will definitely be able to build the most powerful warship of this era." After a pause, he said, "It's just a year or two."

William II was silent for a long time before saying, "Well, even if we are obliged to provide the best warships for the young men of the German Navy, then we should have the patience! Alfred, I am very happy to receive this gift."

After hearing this, Tirpitz was relieved. It seemed that the emperor could wait patiently and not waste his efforts. Therefore, he said goodbye to William II and left the palace.

After Tirpitz left, William II's eyes passed over the warship model still in the room and fell on the oil painting hanging on the wall behind Tirpitz's seat just now. The picture is in the center of the picture standing on a cliff, holding a holy sword, with a serious and sacred angel. On his left, there are seven angels holding spears and shields, with a background of a large cross above his head; and below the right side of the picture, there are deep cliffs, vague mountains and rivers, and a strange cloud hanging in the air. A strange-shaped statue of the Buddha in the flames flashes in the center of the dark clouds, riding on a Chinese-style dragon. At the lower right corner of the picture, there is a line of words that read "European countries unite! Defend your faith and home."

The oil painting is called [*], which is a print created by German court painter Hermannknackfuß in 1895 based on the imagination of William II. The eight angels in the picture symbolize European countries, while the Buddha and the dragon symbolize Eastern and Asian yellow people, of course, mainly Japan, which had just won the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. The inscription was written by William II.
Chapter completed!