ish Chapter 21 The commander-in-chief has a plan, and the president also has a plan

"...The commissioning of the battlecruisers "Pinghai" and "Dinghai" and the long-range artillery drill off the coast of Lianyun means that China's maritime power has once again moved to the ocean after 31 years of silence. It also means that

The new maritime power of the Republic of China faces the challenge, and as this challenge unfolds, the balance of maritime power in the Pacific also changes!"

"New York Times" September 28: Peace in the Pacific"

Due to the crisp autumn air for many days, Beijing still has a golden autumn atmosphere.//www.//

The sweet-scented osmanthus in the Summer Palace is in bloom, and the fragrance spreads from Wanshou Mountain to Kunming Lake. It is a rare calm day, and the air is refreshing and fragrant with flowers. Most of the men and women in Beijing walk out of the courtyard and go to places with trees and flowers to soothe their tight chests.

, went to breathe fresh air, but in teahouses of all sizes in the capital, people were talking about the artillery drills outside Lianyun. For the old and young men in the capital who rarely heard anything new, they finally

I found a good talking point.

"Hey, dear, as soon as the cannon started firing, the British consul was frightened out of his wits. Do you know what?"

"What's up?"

"That cannon shot was accurate. At a distance of more than twenty miles, one shot hit the chimney first, then another hit the waist of the ship, and then another shot. Do you know what?"

"What's wrong?"

"The ship was sunk!"

At this time, in their words, it seemed that they had witnessed the bombardment with their own eyes, and each of them spoke vividly and excitedly. In fact, this is not surprising. After fighting in the Beiyang Navy, who has seen China on the sea of ​​China?

Of the battleships, the only battleships to see were those from foreigners. The "Jiangsu Army Navy" suddenly appeared, and they also had two big ships with 12 12-inch cannons.

How could they not be excited when the British Consul General made a show of force?

"Hey, I said, don't blow your bullshit to the sky!"

Suddenly a tea guest said something loudly, and his words immediately caused a burst of dissatisfaction. Someone immediately lifted it up with him. But when the man saw someone lifting it up with him, he put down his cup and said seriously.

"Qingliu, do you know that my brother-in-law was working there on business?"

"Third Master, you are Master Xuan. Isn't he in the Admiralty?"

Someone immediately spoke up and said, it was obviously a very familiar group of people. In fact, these people often hang out in teahouses, how could they not be familiar with each other? As soon as this person finished speaking, someone immediately mocked him.

"Master Xuan, aren't you going to Tianjin Wei to carry aniseed now?"

For this group of banner people, although the government of the Republic of China is still distributing their money and food, not all of them are waiting for the money and food that cannot be seen tomorrow. There are always some people who are looking for help in order to maintain their families.

After the planning and construction of the Binhai Industrial Zone in Tianjin, it not only attracted the extremely poor people in Hebei to work, but also attracted the urban poor in Beijing and Tianjin, including many banner people with large families and difficulty in food and clothing.

, but there are still people who look down on these people, especially some of them who used to be "respectable people" among the banner people.

"It's only 12 yuan a piece to carry aniseed. It's okay to support the family. Of course I can carry this aniseed. I don't want to let my daughter-in-law spread her thighs to earn meat money to support her heavy smoking like some people do."

!”

The tea guest sneered, but he just stopped. After all, everyone's life is not easy. Naturally, he changed the topic to the previous topic.

"My brother-in-law has studied abroad. He has spent several years in the Admiralty. How can his experience be compared to those of you who can only carry bird cages?"

He snorted proudly, took a sip of tea and said after taking a sip of tea without looking at this group of people.

"It was a coincidence yesterday that my brother-in-law received his monthly payment and happened to go home. He looked at the large warship mentioned in the newspaper. What do you think he said?"

"How to say?"

Obviously, his words attracted everyone's attention. After all, they were all just messing around. Mr. Xuan was a master who had worked in the Admiralty, so what he said was definitely true.

"He said that the two warships were newly built by the Japanese, that is, the Japanese, three years ago. Although they were built, compared with those of Britain and Germany, they were already slightly behind. Otherwise, the Japanese would not have ordered from Britain.

What... King Kong is a warship sunk by the Jiangsu Army. The current warships of the Jiangsu Army are scary enough in our eyes, but they only have 12-inch main guns. Japanese warships are now at least 14-inches.

, British warships even have 15 inches. What does the navy fight? The fight is about who has more cannons and who has bigger cannons. The one with more cannons wins and the one with fewer cannons wins. The one with bigger cannons wins against the smaller cannons."

While drinking tea, the tea guest was talking like a naval expert.

"Not to mention the cannon, let's talk about the warship in Jiangsu. It was sunk by the air force first, then fished up again and made a few patches. You guys are all decent people. Do you think the clothes are new or better?

Old is better? It’s true that clothes are not as good as new, but it’s also true that a ship is not as good as new, not to mention that the ship is still patched..."

"A patched battleship is also a battleship!"

In the office upstairs at Jurentang, Chief of the Navy Liu Guanxiong looked at the president who was sitting sullenly in front of him, and said in an extremely affirmative tone that at the beginning Lianyun salvaged the "Hanoi" and "Setjin" battleships.

At that time, he didn't realize that there was anything. Anyway, Lianyun kept salvaging the turrets of Japanese warships, and even salvaged the wreckage and sent it to the steel-making furnace for steel-making. They wanted to salvage the "Hanoi" and the "Settsu" battleships.

It is also sent to the steel-making furnace.

Liu Guanxiong, who was in charge of the cruiser "Haitian" when he caused the "Haitian" to run aground and be silenced, naturally knows that salvage profits are extremely lucrative. Nowadays, the selling price of scrap iron is as high as one hundred taels per ton, and a 10,000-ton warship alone is discounted.

The iron capital is worth two million, plus the machinery and equipment such as steam engines and boilers salvaged from the sunken ship can earn millions of silver from a sunken ship, and Lianyun is also going to vigorously build Lianyun and Qingdao.

A fortress requires a large number of artillery. Salvaging the sunken ship's artillery alone can save Lianyun tens of millions of yuan. It is precisely because he knows this very well that Liu Guanxiong pays little attention to Lianyun's salvage.

If we are concerned about it, I am afraid that when it started to salvage, we negotiated with it in the name of the Navy Department to purchase 8-inch and 6-inch naval guns and artillery shells. However, that was because after the outbreak of the European War, the naval gun body

The source of pipes and ammunition was interrupted, and the Navy's cruisers were faced with aging guns and a shortage of ammunition, so they turned their attention to salvaging Japanese sunken ships. However, due to the misunderstanding of the cooperation between the two sides in the Battle of Arashiyama, the Navy finally got

Four 8-inch, 18 6-inch, and 38 12-centimeter naval guns as well as a large number of shells. Even two months ago, under the instruction of Li Zicheng, the salvage company sold two guns to the Ministry of Navy in the form of "scrap iron".

It is a twin 12-inch turret. Although it is an old-fashioned turret, it really shocked Liu Guanxiong.

"With these two combat ships, the sea of ​​China will be owned by the Jiangsu Army and Navy..."

Liu Guanxiong felt a twitch when he mentioned the "Army and Marine Corps". The majestic combat ship actually bore the name of "Army". This made him annoyed. What was even more irritating was that the so-called

The officers in the "Army and Marine Corps" were actually all non-Fujian cadets studying in the Japanese Navy who had been rejected by them. Now those people are proud of themselves, flying China's largest and most powerful warships.

"I know, I know..."

Apart from saying that he knew, the extremely depressed Yuan Shikai really didn't know what to say. After receiving the news yesterday that the two ships "Dinghai" and "Pinghai" were in service with the Jiangsu Army, he immediately realized that the Jiangsu Army had this

What do two battleships mean? As long as they are willing, with these two battleships alone, Li Zhiyuan can threaten Tianjin in the north, go straight to Guangzhou in the south, and cross the Yangtze River in the middle. They originally wanted to use the excuse of sending troops to participate in the war to cut off Li Zhiyuan's arm.

Yuan Shikai, before he cut off his arm here, he grew another arm over there.

The most annoying thing is that once the Jiangsu Army sends troops to participate in the war, their military salaries will be paid by the central government, to be precise, by the French. This means that Jiangsu can save tens of millions of yuan a year, and these funds can be used appropriately.

On the so-called "Army and Marine Corps".

Thinking that everything he had worked hard for was easily eliminated by Li Zicheng, and he even helped him solve the financial problem, Yuan Shikai felt even more depressed, and there was no way to resolve the anxiety in his heart.

"Ziying,"

At the end of the day, Yuan Shikai said to Liu Guanxiong in a very solemn tone:

"What do you think about setting up a battle fleet?"

Hearing the words of the President, Liu Guanxiong immediately sounded the alarm in his heart. The President's meaning was very clear. He wanted to "legalize the Jiangsu Army and Navy Corps with China", thinking that after entering the Navy, it might be the same as the funds that were not generous in the first place.

The navy was competing for military spending, he replied quickly.

"President, it would be perfect if we could acquire two ships in the center and form a battle fleet. However, if they are still controlled by the Soviet Union, incorporating them into the navy will only create trouble!"

Listening to Liu Guanxiong's objection, Yuan Shikai knew in his heart that what he said was the truth. However, he still said seriously:

"Ziying, this matter is difficult to handle! Zhiyuan used cannons to shock the British, but they were clearly trying to shock me!"

The president's annoyance was seen in Liu Guanxiong's eyes, which only made him sigh in his heart. He knew what the president was worried about. What he was worried about was that Li Zhiyuan's teeth had not been removed but claws appeared again, and the president was unable to deal with these sharp claws.

.

Looking at the president's appearance, Liu Guanxiong suddenly asked tentatively:

"President, it's actually very easy to deal with his naval team!"

"oh!"

Liu Guanxiong's words only made Yuan Shikai suddenly happy, but after he was happy, he couldn't be happy again. Before Liu Guanxiong could speak, he knew what he wanted to say, and what he wanted to say was probably...

"President, building a navy should have been on the agenda long ago. Now Jiangsu Province can show off its power to China with just two combat ships. If there are no combat ships in the central government, I'm afraid..."

The reason why Liu Guanxiong dared to say this big thing now was that he knew in his heart that the president seemed to be "intimate" with Li Lianyun, but in fact he was extremely guarded against him and was constantly planning behind his back in order to hit the target with one hit! Now!

Li Lianyun's throwing of two battleships was a perfect opportunity for the navy. Since the beginning of the Republic of China, the reason why the army's military expenditures have been huge is because Yuan Shikai needs the army to suppress local forces in the country, and now the emergence of the army and navy

, it means that someone is challenging the president on the sea. Although he understands the president's thoughts, Liu Guanxiong is a smart man after all. He does not want to expose the secrets that Yuan Shikai does not want to expose. Therefore, he just said in an extremely serious tone:

"I'm afraid that by then, people will only know about Jiangsu and not the central government!"

Although Liu Guanxiong did not make his words clear, Yuan Shikai didn't understand the meaning of his words. Although he understood the importance of the navy, when he thought of the navy's shipbuilding, it could range from millions to tens of millions or even

The huge expenditure of hundreds of millions still made Yuan Shikai's eyebrows that could not open up tighten even more, and his body was a little stiff, adding to the sense of stupidity.

The sun is turning west, and the shadows of the branches on the ground have slowly moved to the white walls; starting from the far east, the sky gradually pulls a huge gray curtain to the west, and the bright Jurentang also enters from the bright side.

It became hazy, and the lights in the room also turned on.

At this time, Yuan Shikai was still silent, thinking about whether to engage in an unprecedented "arms race" with Jiangsu, or to be precise, Li Zhiyuan. Deep in his heart, he never wanted to engage in this arms race, but if

The Central Navy does not have its own capital ships, so how can it offset its influence? How can it be forced back on track?

For Yuan Shikai, who is 57 years old, he has already felt "too old".

"If it doesn't work out this time, all the hard work in this life will be in vain."

At this time, Yuan Shikai tacitly thought of the legend that the old Yuan family would not live to be sixty years old. It was for this reason that Yuan Shikai believed that God would not give him time. Although Yang Mian Zhang De was 50 years old, he was still 50 years old.
To be continued...