The Navy can afford the tuition not because the Navy is rich, but because of...well, the friendly sponsorship from Argentina.
The sponsorship was not much, just over 20 million silver pesos. But it was also real money and silver contributed by the Argentine people sincerely.
When the two of them met for the first time that day, the reason why Li Xuelin was so happy was because of this huge sum of money.
Although this huge sum of money is still at the bottom of the river, Navy divers have already begun salvage work. However, in just two days, several million silver pesos have been recovered.
Those silver pesos packed in the box are all pure silver! Besides, there are also a lot of gold coins! Soon the money will be deposited into the South China Bank, and then 40% of it will go into the special account for naval construction.
This money itself is used to build the navy and expand maritime armaments. The wealthy navy not only has money to build warships, but also has money to pay tuition.
Thank you Argentina!
Without Argentina, there would be no future for the South China Navy.
However, the South China Navy had no chance to say thank you. After all, as a country, Argentina no longer exists.
Argentina may have perished, but its aftermath has not disappeared. As South China's most important ally in this war, the French Empire's performance was extremely competent. Not only did they invent the name "South China versus Argentina" at the first time,
An attack is not an invasion, but the inability of civilized people to sit back and watch barbaric acts. What did the Argentines do? They massacred the surrendered soldiers, they ravaged women, and killed children. No one with any conscience will tolerate these atrocities...
Nanhua's expedition is in the name of justice and in the name of God!"
It doesn't matter whether the people of South China believe in God or not. What's important is that France, a big country, stands so directly and unequivocally on South China's side, which is of great benefit and no harm to South China.
Especially after the fall of the Argentine capital, France also expressed its immediate support for any adjustment plan made by South China to the territory of Buenos Aires Province. In other words, France supports South China's occupation of Argentina.
In France's official context, Argentina has disappeared, leaving only provinces one by one, objects waiting for Nanhua to occupy and annex, and that's all.
Regarding all this, the British unexpectedly remained semi-silent. They just answered reporters' questions routinely - we call for peace! We call on all parties to exercise restraint. Argentina exists as a country for its historical reasons...
The end of all this is one sentence - Argentina was abandoned by Britain.
Why do the imperialist powers unexpectedly maintain such unity? To put it bluntly, they all have their own agendas.
"The French Army and Navy delegation arrives in Nanhua!"
At the end of 1869, the French Navy's ironclad "Joan of Arc" sailed into Nanhua Port. Although her arrival was not to stand up for Nanhua, Nanhua's newspapers reported their arrival as soon as they arrived.
The news is spread widely.
The reason why they want to tell the whole world with such great fanfare is, on the one hand, to tell other countries that France is on the side of South China, and on the other hand, it is to tell the countries concerned that the French are coming.
Why do the French come here?
I understand everything!
They came here to ask for remuneration! Because France had always supported Nanhua during the war, they came to ask for remuneration.
On that day, with the military band playing, a visiting group composed of more than a dozen army and navy officers directly felt an unprecedented impact the moment they set foot on Nanhua.
In front of a long carriage without horses, Major Wang Yunxin, a naval officer who just graduated from the French Naval Academy last year, made an invitation to the open door.
"Siring officers, please get in the car!"
"what car is this?"
Major Courbet of the Navy looked at this green car in surprise.
"Major Courbet, watch your manners!"
The leader of the visiting group, General Michel, who was a cavalryman, reprimanded from the side,
"Yes, sir, I was just curious."
Major Courbet's answer made Michel nodded slightly. This time the army and navy delegation came to South China, the army took the lead. As for the navy, in his opinion, it was just accompanying them.
Faced with the strength of the army, Major Courbet could only compromise. He had no choice but to do so. He was just a minor major, and he was already the highest-ranking naval officer in the visiting group.
But he will definitely become a general one day. In another world, his other name is familiar to the Chinese - Guba, well, he is the commander of the French Far East Navy who wiped out the Nanyang Navy in the Battle of Mawei and later died in
The one from Taiwan.
Now Courbet is just a major, and he and a few colleagues look very different among a group of army officers wearing red trousers.
General Michel said curiously as he stroked his mustache and looked at this strange-looking horseless cart.
"Major, what kind of car is this?"
"General, this is a car! Please get in!"
Major Wang Yunxin's tone sounded a little proud. This passenger bus was remodeled from a Jiefang Truck. There are only two of them in Nanhua. In fact, there are only eleven buses in the world at present, all of which are owned by Nanyuan Locomotive Company.
manufacture.
This bus, which is modified from the chassis of a Jiefang A-type truck, has five rows of seats and can accommodate 15 passengers. There are a total of 14 members of the visiting group, plus his accompanying translator and guide, exactly fifteen
personal.
In fact, this bus was designed and modified under the instruction of Zhu Xianhai, mainly to increase the diversity of vehicle types.
There is nothing new at all in using trucks to transform cars. In another world, for decades, all cars and buses in China had only one model - the old Jiefang truck.
The reason why we need to use this unique bus in the world to welcome this group of French people.
Zhu Xianhai had his own considerations. To put it bluntly, he just wanted to leave a very deep impression on the French. In fact, to put it bluntly, the so-called impression was just a show of intimidation.
A show of force to make the French realize how backward they are!
Although these French people came to Nanhua to buy airships from Nanhua, they, like all Europeans, had the arrogance and pride unique to Europeans in this era.
Why are they so proud? It's simply because they think they are a civilized country. Having just completed the industrial revolution, they always face other countries arrogantly with their strong national power.
Now, what Nanhua needs is to fundamentally eradicate their mentality.
What kind of car is a car?
In their curiosity, everyone forgot about the narrowness of the carriage. After they entered the carriage one by one, the French people sitting on the seats all looked at the carriage curiously. The carriage was very simple, and even the seats were on iron pipe seats fixed by simple leather pressing.
.
The seats were hard and not comfortable at all. There was even an indescribable smell in the carriage, and the roar of machines in the carriage became louder.
In terms of riding environment, it is definitely not as good as a horse-drawn carriage, let alone a high-end horse-drawn carriage.
"What does this smell like? It smells worse than horse stink..."
General Michel couldn't help but feel nagging in his heart. He even felt that he had been neglected by Nanhua.
That is, when he was unhappy, the driver asked.
"Sir, are you ready to go?"
"lets go!"
As soon as Wang Yunxin finished speaking, the driver stepped on the clutch, shifted into first gear, and the car drove away!
"Where's the horse? There's no horse!"
General Michel immediately opened his eyes wide. He stood up suddenly and looked towards the front of the car. Through the window, he could clearly see that there was indeed no horse in front of the car.
"Yes, is it a steam engine?"
Major Kubel, like the others, also stood up.
"Definitely not, I didn't see the chimney!"
There is no chimney, no boiler, no scorching heat wave, but without these, there is no steam engine. But if there is no steam engine, how does this car move?
How does it move?
From generals to majors, these elites of the French Empire were stunned. They looked at the moving scene outside the car window in confusion.
Their expressions were full of doubts, and they all looked left and right trying to find the steam engine because they heard the roar of the machine.
This must be some kind of robotic car!
Whether they were army officers or naval officers, they were all highly educated French elites. Naturally, they knew very well that this car must be driven by some kind of machine, but what kind of machine would it be?
As the driver shifted into second gear and started accelerating, the French guys who were curiously looking for the machine all looked outside the car.
After leaving the port, the car sped through the midday sun, passing through tree shadows and fields, while the motionless sky quickly receded.
How does this car move?
They didn't know the answer, but what surprised them was how fast the car was.
"It doesn't look any slower than a train!"
"It seems to be faster than the train. We just got on the train not long ago. In such a short time, the train cannot reach the current speed!"
Looking at the shocked expressions of the French people, Wang Yunxin felt extremely proud. When he was in France, he had witnessed the arrogance of the French people more than once, but now?
There was no look of arrogance on their faces. Only a look of dumbfoundedness and doubts remained. Now these people were stunned by this unheard of and unseen car.
"Major, major, what drives this car?"
Faced with these French people's questions, Wang Yunxin did not give an answer immediately. He was curious and let them continue to be curious first.
Otherwise, how can we talk about showing off one's power?
