Comment on Big Dream for a small navy by Tzoli

More like a Civil war:

THE 1908 NAVAL PLANS
In 1908 an approximate programme of modernisation and reorganisation of the Navy was prepared. The Chinese Navy was to consist of three fleets (North, South and Central), each with 1 battleship of 14,000 tons, 1-2 first class cruisers, 4-5 second class, 5-6 third class and 6 fourth class and an uncertain number of dispatch vessels, gunboats and torpedo craft. The large ships to be built in Japan and the smaller in China. An edict of 15 July 1909 created a naval and military advisory board to centralise administration. A Chinese naval commission was sent abroad and on its return at the end of 1910 two new programmes were announced. The First 'small' four-year programme called for 3 training cruisers of 3000 tons, 8 gunboats of 500 tons, 1 destroyer and 1 naval transport of 2000 tons at a total cost of 19.5 million taels (about 3 million pounds). Nearly all of these ships were ordered and built. The 'large' seven-year programme called for 8 battleships of 16,000 tons, 20 cruisers, 30 destroyers and torpedo boats as well as numerous gunboats and auxiliary ships at a total cost of 160 million taels (about 53 million pounds) or one and half times the Empire's estimated revenue in 1908. Two new naval bases in Nimrod Bay (on the coast of Chekiang, East China) and Nienshan (North China) were planned. Moreover coast defences, river flotillas and the training squadron were to be strengthened.