Not long ago. During the Sino-Japanese War, China lagged behind the world powers in shipbuilding. At that time, due to the invasion of foreign powers, the naval forces of the Qing Dynasty were vulnerable, so Li Hongzhang agreed to buy two armored ships on March 3 1 day. In the middle of the same year, Xu and Li were sent to Britain and Germany to inspect the navy and buy ships. Xu and Li visited Germany Vulcan Shipyard and its Saxon class armored ships, Krupp Company and its artillery. In England, they visited Armstrong and his latest "inflexible" armored ship. Finally, it was decided that Vulcan, located in Stedding, Germany, would combine the advantages of Saxony and Infineon to build two armored ships with Krupp guns. The design and technology of armored ships were the most advanced at that time. Dingyuan's armor layout is similar to Infineon's. 12 inch thick armor is in the form of a bunker, concentrated in the middle of the hull to protect machinery, main guns and ammunition depots, rather than scattered above the waterline. Its tonnage is also the first in the Far East, and it is known as "the first ship in the Far East". The contract was formally signed by 188 1, and the cost of each ship was 6.2 million marks. Drawing on past experience, the Qing government sent Liu, Liu, Liu and others who were familiar with the navy to supervise the German shipyard. These two warships were named Dingyuan and Zhenyuan by Li Hongzhang himself. On February 22nd of the same year, at 65438, "Dingyuan" was launched, and "Zhenyuan" was launched the following year.

Dingyuan and Zhenyuan should complete the delivery at 1884. However, the Sino-French war broke out at the end of 1883, and Germany, as a neutral country, suspended delivery according to international practice. 1885, China and France signed a peace treaty, and Germany did not perform the contract delivery until July. Dingyuan and Zhenyuan were driven by German sailors, flying the German merchant flag, passing through Suez Canal, Singapore and Hong Kong, and arrived at Dagu Lake in Tianjin on June+10 in 5438. 10 year 10 On October 29th, the Dragon Flag was raised in Dingyuan and officially became the flagship of beiyang fleet, a naval vessel of the Qing Dynasty.

Dingyuan and Zhenyuan were not only the main forces of Beiyang Navy, but also the largest warships in the Far East at that time. The second ship was the target of the Japanese navy's concentrated attack in the Dadonggou naval battle in the Yellow Sea at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War. The second ship was hit a lot, but because of its strong armor, it was only generally damaged and did not lose its combat effectiveness. Later, Beiyang Navy retreated to Ahava to protect itself. Dingyuan was hit by a Japanese torpedo boat that broke into the harbor and was forced to run aground. Finally, it was hit by a battery occupied by the Japanese army on land and sank by itself. Zhenyuan, on the other hand, was damaged by hitting the rocks and eventually surrendered and was incorporated into the Japanese navy.

At that time, Beiyang Navy directed at Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. How can it be called the strongest in the world? Without your own technology, you can never be the strongest just by importing, buying from others and learning from others.