 The main armament consisting of three breech-loading Krupp guns, two paired on a hydraulic powered rotating platform in front of the ship and a single gun mounted on a manual rotating platform in the stern, was still a powerful armament for a cruiser of her size.Both mounts were protected by thick gun shields.The secondary armament consisted of two Armstrong guns mounted on sponsons on either side of the deck, compared to the four limited-traverse 4.7-inch breech-loading guns carried by the Chaoyong.