"According to what I mean, a large navy exists to seize overseas interests. So China currently has no overseas interests. Our most important thing is to avoid being beaten. Does it seem that developing a large navy is unnecessary?"
It took Wu Yulin a while to digest the meaning of Zhang Tinglan's words. Any warship is a combat platform on the sea and must obey the needs of naval strategy. As the person in charge of the shipyard, Wu Yulin must understand the needs of the navy. strategic direction, so that we can choose a good development direction and produce suitable products.
Zhang Tinglan nodded slightly: "China currently does not need to pursue overseas interests. Our core mission is homeland security and ensuring that our territory is not invaded by enemies. Developing a large navy is really too luxurious for us and there is no need."
Shen Honglie also asked from the side: "What the Commander-in-Chief said is true. It is indeed possible to build a more economical and practical navy, but I don't know who our main imaginary enemy is?"
Shen Honglie has already started to hit the road. He no longer directly pursues the world's most advanced echelon under passionate impulse, but starts to think about actual needs.
"The ones that can threaten us from the sea are the great powers. Initially it was Britain, France and other countries. But after the current war, Britain, France, Germany and other countries will definitely decline. They will only have the power to defend the city and no enterprising spirit. As long as China can consolidate its army and maintain its military strength, With a capable armed force, there is no need to worry about them. Today, China's biggest maritime threat has become the Japanese. Their combined fleet has become the most powerful maritime force in the Far East, and the Japanese's ambitions towards China are obvious to all. There are many conflicts between Fengjun and Japan, and our goal in developing the navy is to target the Japanese."
"To deal with the Japanese, we must not use our own shortcomings to attack the enemy's strong points. The task of the navy is not to act as the main force and go to the far sea to fight the Japanese decisively, but to maintain the safety of the coastline with the cooperation of land and air, and then wait for opportunities to harass Japan. Man's lifeline at sea, the real key to victory lies in the competition between land and air power. For a big country like China that has both land and sea, the army will always be the foundation of the country. Only if the army can sustain it, China will not be subjugated. As for the true role of the navy, It is only after China has resolved its survival that we can fight for China’s overseas interests.”
Having said this, Zhang Tinglan concluded: "The Army is related to our life and death, and the Navy is related to how we live. Both are very important. But there is a difference in severity."
Wu Yulin said with a smile: "I'm sorry, what you said makes so much sense. It reminds me a bit of the land and sea dispute between Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang. If only this eloquent comment could have been made decades earlier. , Mr. Li Zuo no longer needs to argue!"
Mentioning Li Hongzhang, Zhang Tinglan couldn't help but sigh: "Zuo Zongtang said that Li Hongzhang would be infamy for all the people if he made mistakes. In my opinion, Zuo Zongtang was right at all. Li Hongzhang's mistake was not The defeat of the Sino-Japanese War was not due to the signing of the "Xinchou Treaty" but to the insistence on a wrong national defense strategy with him, which ultimately led to the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War and even the Gengzi national disaster. Li Hongzhang cannot escape the blame."
Different positions lead to different views on historical figures. Only after Zhang Tinglan truly began to think about the strategic policy of a country and an army did he discover Li Hongzhang's fatal mistake. He was right to call himself a paper framer.
In the later stages of the Taiping Rebellion, Tsarist Russia supported local forces in Xinjiang and tried to launch a rebellion. At this time, Zuo Zongtang focused on fortification defense and led his troops to regain Xinjiang, while Li Hongzhang emphasized coastal defense, believing that giving up Xinjiang would save money.
Spend money on military expenditures and develop the navy. With a strong navy, crises at sea can be avoided forever.
Li Hongzhang's proposition sounds reasonable, but in fact it is completely bastard logic. After abandoning Xinjiang, there will be no place in the northwest that can be annexed, and the land north of the Great Wall will be lost. At that time, Beijing will be directly exposed to the military front of Tsarist Russia.
The entire country will come to a time of life and death.
In fact, the crisis in Xinjiang has revealed Li Hongzhang's strategic idiocy and selfishness. The subsequent Sino-French War shattered Li Hongzhang's fallacy with cruel facts. In the Sino-French War that began in 1884, the Chinese Army successively
They were defeated and driven out of Vietnam. Then the French raided the Fujian Navy's station and the entire Fujian Navy was wiped out.
The successive disastrous defeats had stunned the Qing Dynasty. At this time, the Manchus had to use Zuo Zongtang to clean up the mess. After Zuo Zongtang arrived in Fujian, he actively assisted the Black Flag Army in Taiwan and at the same time suppressed the Qing Dynasty.
Nanguan and other places were heavily fortified, and veteran general Feng Zicai achieved a great victory at Zhennanguan, which suddenly changed the overall situation of the Sino-French war.
"As a master who never forgets the past, Zuo Zongtang has actually seen through the mistakes of Li Hongzhang's insistence on coastal defense. China is a big land country. We can lose ten land wars, but as long as we can win one, we can turn the tide of the war.
, because the great powers have come a long way after all, and the troops they can invest are very limited, and there is no way to fight for a long time."
Shen Honglie nodded hurriedly and said with a sudden realization: "Commander-in-Chief Zhang is so right. In the past, when enemies came from the sea, we thought we should strengthen coastal defense. In fact, this was asking for fish in the woods. The reason why the great powers can run rampant is because of our
The army is too weak and is simply vulnerable. Otherwise, it would not have been defeated by more than 10,000 people. Whether it was the Sino-Japanese War or the Eight-Power Allied Forces' invasion of China, as long as we can win the land war once, we will not be defeated.
Losing power and humiliating the country!”
Wu Yulin also said: "In the past, we relied on the sea and thought it was the failure of the navy. However, after the Battle of the Yellow Sea, China did not lose to the Japanese and we could still support it. Instead, the Japanese army invaded the three northeastern provinces and invaded.
In Shandong, we couldn’t hold on and had to sign a leap that would cost us our power and humiliate our country.”
"Yeah." Zhang Tinglan nodded and said: "Looking at all the invasions of China, we ended up because the army could not hold on. It is true that the crisis never came up, but if the army can hold on, it will not suffer a disastrous defeat.
After talking about it in such a big circle, it falls on Li Hongzhang’s coastal defense proposition. In fact, it is an evil path that achieves twice the result with half the effort. We do not have a developed industry, and there is no chance of competing with our opponents in the navy. The Sino-French War and the Sino-Japanese War of 1898, the Fujian Navy and
The Beiyang Navy suffered a disastrous defeat in the first battle and then collapsed. However, the Army was able to recover quickly and continue fighting."
When Zhang Tinglan said this, Shen Honglie and Wu Yulin carefully digested these opinions. They indeed subverted the traditional understanding, but the more they thought about it, the more they felt that what Zhang Tinglan said made sense.
After a long while, Shen Honglie said with a wry smile: "Commander-in-Chief Zhang, after you have said so much, are you not planning to develop the navy? However, there is something wrong with your approach. I am really confused!"
Zhang Tinglan said with a smile: "I am opposed to the development of a large navy when the national strength is insufficient. Our maritime strategy should be coastal defense. The main focus is torpedo boats, destroyers and patrol ships. These light ships patrol and defend the coast." When necessary, lay mines and blockade the port. Then cooperate with the forts on land and aircraft in the air to guard the near shore so that the enemy does not dare to invade us at will. This is enough!"
When Shen Honglie heard this, he had to admit that what Zhang Tinglan said was reasonable. If you can't even see the water under your nose and still want to fight in the distant sea, then you want to run before you can walk. It must be To wrestle.
"Commander-in-Chief Zhang, do you think we are just pretending to be beaten and not fighting back?"
"Of course not. Don't we still have submarines? The underwater power is well concealed and can be used to seal the throat with a sword. Germany's underwater submarines have caused so much trouble to the UK. We naturally have to follow suit. And Don’t forget that our opponents are far less powerful than the British, and our position on the mainland is much better than Germany’s. As long as we can hold on to the water and win on land, we don’t have to be afraid of the Japanese!”
Zhang Tinglan told all his thoughts, and Shen Honglie and Wu Yulin also understood it thoroughly. Both of their faces showed joy. Shen Honglie also secretly gave Zhang Tinglan a thumbs up. He was young and could do such a thing. There is indeed something extraordinary about being in a high position.
Zhang Tinglan's proposal to build small ships and submarines is less expensive and more effective. It is suitable for China's current industrial capabilities and is within the financial affordability. It is the most realistic option at the moment. Looking at the entire China, we can formulate There are probably only a handful of people with such reasonable naval strategies. It is also a blessing to work under such a wise and sober leader.
Shen Honglie was completely impressed by Zhang Tinglan's insights and was ready to join the army. Wu Yulin was also very happy. Zhang Tinglan was not not developing a navy, but was developing a yellow-water navy. The shipyard still had a lot to do.
"The Commander-in-Chief's words have pointed out the direction for us. We can build shallow water gunboats of about a thousand tons, patrol boats, and even destroyers. We can produce mines. I will assign tasks now and adjust production capacity as soon as possible. Produce enough weapons and keep them under our noses first!"
Zhang Tinglan also nodded with satisfaction. He spent so much time talking to them about the navy's strategy just to make them clear-headed, know what they should do, and make good use of limited resources. Now I saw Shen Honglie and Wu Yulin. Everyone understood their intentions, and Zhang Tinglan was very pleased.
"After saying so much, the key is to put it into action. Didn't we get a few submarines from Russia? Mr. Shen, I will now appoint you as the commander of the submarine brigade to figure out how to use submarines as soon as possible."
"Don't worry, Commander-in-Chief, I will definitely complete the mission!" Shen Honglie gave Zhang Tinglan a solemn military salute. He was completely impressed by Zhang Tinglan. He is knowledgeable and can vigorously promote himself. He is really the most ideal leader.
Zhang Tinglan was not in a hurry to return to Fengtian, and stayed in Huludao for a while. He personally helped Shen Honglie select a group of outstanding submarine soldiers, and then asked Russian submarine soldiers to guide Fengjun's training. A total of six submarines have been It was used as a seed and became the cradle of submariners.
So far, the three armies of the sea, land and air force are ready, and the Feng army has the foundation to become stronger. Zhang Tinglan is also very pleased that his hard work has been in vain. However, Zhang Tinglan is also a little worried. The most important thing is that it comes from Lao Zhang. Zhang Tinglan is really I don't want Marshal Zhang to compete in the Central Plains too early, but there are some things that he can't say directly.
Zhang Tinglan could only find Chang Yinhuai and ask him to strengthen intelligence work and prevent accidents. After a few months of calm, the three northeastern provinces ushered in another big harvest, and all the granaries were filled with grain. During this period Wang Yongjiang, the governor of Fengtian Province, was very excited.
He took Zhang Tinglan and calculated an economic calculation together: "I would like to say that now the Americans, Japanese, and Russians have to buy food from us to support the war to intervene in Russia. I calculated that it will cost at least 10 million If you calculate a load and earn one yuan and five cents per load, that’s fifteen million yuan. When the cannon goes off, you get ten thousand taels of gold. It’s really not an empty talk!”
Zhang Tinglan was also very happy: "Mr. Minyuan, I think you should sell the grain separately. The Americans give them wholesale prices, the Japanese give them retail prices, and the Russian White Army pays super high prices. Do you want it?"
"Sorry, you have always been a profiteer, but this is a good idea, and those White Russians also have a lot of money."
Just as he was talking, Chang Yinhuai suddenly ran over, came directly in front of the two of them, and said anxiously: "The Kaiser abdicated, the war is over! (To be continued, please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!