At the farewell party for the special envoy, Zhou Hexuan and Kong Xiangxi shook hands warmly, with smiles on their faces and no contradiction at all.
There are 12 official members of the mission this time. Kong Xiangxi serves as the special envoy, Chen Shaokuan and Zhou Hexuan serve as deputy envoys, Weng Wenhao serves as the secretary-general, and the rest are officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Of course, the actual number of people traveling must be more than these. Kong Xiangxi’s wife, eldest daughter,
The second son will all go, and there are more than 30 people including reporters and attachés.
"Hello, Mr. Zhou!" Navy Minister Chen Shaokuan took the initiative to come over and say hello.
Zhou Hexuan shook hands quickly and said with a smile: "Minister Chen, I heard that we are going to send a warship over?"
Chen Shaokuan smiled bitterly and shook his head: "I was originally going to take the warship, but it has been cancelled. There were two countries that failed to make good contacts along the way."
A warship's long voyage involves too much, including supplies along the way and the possibility of passing through the territorial waters of other countries. If two or three countries are unwilling to cooperate, then the warship's voyage becomes a joke. China obviously does not have such a big international reputation at this time.
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Zhou Hexuan comforted him and said: "The country is poor and weak, so it can only be like this. It will get better one day, and then the Chinese navy can go to any sea area in the world."
"I hope so, I won't be able to see it anyway." Chen Shaokuan's tone was waning.
Such words obviously should not come from the mouth of the Minister of the Navy. Even if he thinks so in his heart, he cannot say it directly. It can be seen that Chen Shaokuan is really confused and lost. He cannot see the future of the Chinese Navy at all. He can't even say a few words in the scene.
Too lazy to say anything.
Just a few years ago, Chen Shaokuan was still very ambitious and wanted to build a "world-leading" navy. However, the hammer of reality hit him hard on the head.
First of all, there are internal problems within the navy. Factional struggles are serious. Not to mention Chen Shaokuan, even Chang Kaishen is helpless.
By 1937, the Chinese Navy had four major factions
First, the Fujian faction headed by Chen Shaokuan accounts for two-thirds of the entire navy. These Fujian faction officers are domineering, corrupt, and intricately connected. Chen Shaokuan once couldn't stand it, and required the captain to study at the naval school.
, they could only use less than 20% of the public funds of the warships under their control for activity expenses. As a result, more than 20 captains rebelled and filed a lawsuit with Chiang Kai-shek, saying that Chen Shaokuan should not hire Japanese as teachers. Chen Shaokuan was so angry that he resigned directly
.
Second, there is the Northeastern Department under Zhang Xueliang, which has very strong combat effectiveness and weapons and equipment. The Northeastern Navy has been defecting to the central government for several years, but it is not obedient at all. It treats Chen Shaokuan's orders as farts and only listens to Chang Kaishen and Zhang Xueliang's orders.
command.
Third, there is the so-called Guangdong clique. Most of them surrendered to the central government after pacifying Guangdong and Guangxi. The Guangdong clique's navy mainly consists of small ships. In Chen Shaokuan's view, they are just a bunch of bumpkins. Moreover, they are still stubborn bumpkins and do not care about anything at all.
The Admiralty took it seriously.
The fourth is the lightning department that emerged during the Anti-Japanese War. It came from the Whampoa Military Academy in the navy founded by Chiang Kai-shek. The lightning department at this time was still very immature, and students who had just graduated could only become low-level officers. But these
He is a direct descendant of old Chiang Kai-shek, represents the future of the navy, and is not in the same pot as Chen Shaokuan.
With such a large number of factions, Chen Shaokuan was completely unable to use his hands and feet, and even he himself was forced to get involved in the factional struggle. As the leader of the Fujian faction, Chen Shaokuan needed to use the Fujian faction as a bargaining chip to suppress other factions and make them obey. And the Fujian faction
The military officers used this as a bargaining chip to put pressure on Chen Shaokuan to obtain more benefits and benefits. At the same time, the Fujian, Northeast and Guangdong naval forces were deeply afraid of the young and energetic Lightning Faction.
They work together in a very tacit understanding to suppress the development of lightning-type officers.
It is normal for the navy to have factions, but if factional struggles affect the normal development of the navy, it is really too much.
Over time, Chen Shaokuan himself became a faction master. After he led the naval uprising and surrendered to the Communist Party, he still played the old trick of "non-Fujian people cannot be captains".
Chiang Kai-shek couldn't stand the chaos in the navy, so he went crazy in cultivating new people in the lightning department. Until the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the Northeast, Fujian and Guangdong departments suffered heavy losses in the battle. Chiang Kai-shek took the opportunity to make a major change in the navy, and young electricians were recruited one after another.
The thunder officer quickly took up the position.
In addition to factional struggles, the more serious problem of the Chinese Navy is the lack of military spending. The navy is a money-burning service, and it is useless to develop without money. At the victory of the Northern Expedition, Lao Jiang shouted the slogan of building a first-class navy, but it has not been changed in the past ten years.
Several new ships.
It is difficult for a clever woman to make a meal without rice, not to mention that Chen Shaokuan is not a clever woman, she is just a well-behaved housewife.
Here, the author reminds me of a joke about the two legendary arms of the 20th century: the Soviet Navy went ashore and the Chinese Army went to sea.
Well, we shouldn't joke about the seniors of the People's Liberation Army Navy...
In addition to the special envoy, more than 200 people including Song Meiling, Song Ailing, Song Ziwen, He Yingqin, Wang Zhengting, and Xu Shiying attended the meeting. Song Ziwen and Wang Zhengting were old acquaintances, and they came over to say hello to Zhou Hexuan. Soon after, Song Meiling also joined the chat.
Finally, the farewell party officially began, and Chang Kaishen took the stage to deliver a speech. After talking a lot of nonsense, he said: "Envoy Conte has devoted his whole life to the country over the past few years and has made contributions to all aspects of industry, finance and economy, especially his financial achievements.
As the first president since the Republic of China, he will represent the country in the UK to attend the coronation of the King of England. He will soon be leaving the country. I would like to express my special greetings!"
After hearing that Chang Kaishen praised Kong Xiangxi and praised him as the person with the greatest financial achievements since the Republic of China, Zhou Hexuan couldn't help but turn his head and look at Song Ziwen.
Song Ziwen was seen with a sneer on his face, and the sarcasm on his face was not concealed at all.
Chang Kaishen added: "I would also like to mention Deputy Envoy Zhou in particular. Deputy Envoy Zhou is well-known at home and abroad. He has also devoted all his efforts to Sichuan disaster relief and is a rare talent for the Republic of China. In addition, Deputy Envoy Zhou is also a British hero.
As a close friend of King George VI, he will participate in the coronation of the British King this time, and Deputy Envoy Zhou needs to do more to help China and the United Kingdom forge a profound international friendship."
After the speech, there was another ceremony for awarding medals and letters of appointment. All official members of the special envoy will receive a letter of appointment and medals.
Originally, the medal awarded this time was of commemorative significance and was just an ordinary special commemorative medal.
After Kong Xiangxi got the commemorative medal, he felt very boring, so he quietly approached Chiang Kai-shek and asked him to award him the highest civilian medal, so that he could wear it when he went to London to increase the dignity of the special envoy. Chiang Kai-shek then asked He Lian, the director of the Executive Yuan's Administrative Affairs Division, who was sitting next to him.
He said: "Where is the leader? Please take care of him and award Dr. Kong with a medal. Caiyu, Qingyun or Zhongshan medals are all fine. The highest level is required."
Any medal awarded by the Nanjing National Government needs to be proposed and approved at an Executive Yuan meeting, and then sent to Chairman Lin Sen to be awarded by the head of state Lin Sen personally, or by Lin Sen dispatching specialized personnel to issue it.
But Chang Kaishen issued the order, and He Lian had no choice but to notify the relevant departments overnight to deliver the medal to Kong Xiangxi before the mission set off.
Just like what Zhou Hexuan got before, what Kong Xiangxi got this time was the First-Class Qing Yunzhang. The difference is, one was awarded by Lao Jiang on his own initiative, and the other was begged from Lao Jiang himself.
Zhou Hexuan finally saw the style of the old Shanxi rich man. Not only did Kong Xiangxi seek medals from Chiang Kai-shek, but his children also visited the UK together and asked Chiang Kai-shek for a quota at the farewell party (Song Ailing had a quota as the special envoy's wife).
Yes: Let the juniors open their eyes.
Taking his daughter abroad is nothing. If Kong Xiangxi pays for it himself, he can just go with the ship. But he insists on getting an official place to accompany the group, and all the expenses are spent on public funds, which is simply unacceptable.
A finance minister and a big capitalist actually saves money for his children to go abroad. The more money he has, the stingier he becomes!
Regarding this behavior, Song Ziwen complained loudly to Zhou Hexuan after the meeting, ridiculing Kong Xiangxi as "China's contemporary Grandet".
Zhou Hexuan laughed loudly and walked out of the venue with Song Ziwen.
The Yangtze Hotel is on Baoshan Street and Song Ziwen's Residence is on Jilongshan. They are not far apart and both are located in Xuanwu District.
Seeing Song Ziwen inviting Zhou Hexuan into the car, the members of the Black Dragon Club who were in charge of watching were dumbfounded. Due to the blindness, they didn't even see whose car Zhou Hexuan got into, and for a moment they didn't know whether to implement the plan.
The leader of the Black Dragon Society was afraid of causing trouble, so he had to change the time of the assassination and decided to wait until tomorrow morning.
What the hell is going on here?
The plan changed again and again, causing the assassins to squat on the street for several hours in the cold wind, and came home at night with colds and fevers.