After the Wuchang Uprising in Xinhai year, the attitude of the navy has been changing, at the beginning of the navy basically maintained a suppressive attitude, but as the Wuchang uprising became bigger and bigger, after the southern provinces announced the liberation one after another, the navy changed its mind, from active suppression to later bystanders, and maintained a fragile neutral attitude, and then when the overall situation of the southern republic was decided, the navy broke out one after another with the tacit consent of Sa Zhenbing, so as to preside over the revolution.

If you carefully understand the situation of the navy ships at that time, you will find that although the navy revolted in the middle and late stages of the Xinhai Revolution, their goal was very clear, that is, to protect the ships and draw a line with the revolutionary parties such as the League.

After Liu Guanxiong became the chief of the navy, although he was personally inclined to Yuan Shikai's side, he still worked hard to maintain the neutrality of the navy, and issued an official document prohibiting any naval officers from joining political parties and not getting involved in politics, and violators were expelled from the navy.

But on the other hand, because the navy needs maintenance funds, and at the same time needs a huge amount of funds for building ships, the navy must rely on it.

The most important reason why the navy in history firmly stood on Yuan Shikai's side was that Yuan Shikai's central political axe not only raised the entire navy, but also raised nearly 10 million yuan of shipbuilding funds to pay for the final payment of the warships ordered by the former Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, the navy during the Republic of China was extremely contradictory and helpless.

After Sa Zhenbing's ship arrived in Fuzhou, there were only a few people who came to pick him up, and Sa Zhenbing did not tell anyone else about his return to Fuzhou, and even the people on the Yanjing Navy side did not know that Sa Zhenbing had gone to Fuzhou. On the one hand, this kind of thing cannot be made public, and if Yuan Shikai knows that someone from the navy secretly contacted Chen Jingyun, the consequences will not be good. On the other hand, Sa Zhenbing is also ready to act secretly first, first touch the bottom of Fuzhou, at least to find out whether there is any money left over in Fuzhou, if he is also poor, he will not open his mouth, if he is really rich, then how much, how much Chen Jingyun can come up with for the navy, this has to be predicted one by one.

So he was not in a hurry, first returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors, and then rested overnight and went to visit Lin Yingqi who was in the tomb of Fuzhou Province.

"Tang Zhuxin (Tang Qian inscription) just came to report yesterday that Brother Sa you may come to Fuzhou, I was thinking about whether to send you a telegram to ask one or two, but it's only been a day, and you're here!" Lin Yingqi and Sa Zhenbing have a deep relationship, graduated from the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Academy in the same period, and then went to study in the UK in the same batch, which can be regarded as ten years of classmates and decades of colleagues!

But after the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War, the encounter between the two has changed a lot, Lin Yingqi slowly faded out of people's sight, while Sa Zhenbing rose all the way, and on the eve of Xinhai, he was already in charge of the national sailors.

Sa Zhenbing walked over with a smile: "I heard that you were sick at the beginning of the year?" ”

Lin Yingqi said: "It's okay, it's just an occasional cold, and it's okay to lie down for more than ten days!" ”

The two walked into the main hall while talking, and after the two of them sat down, they each took a sip of tea, and Lin Yingqi said: "If what Tang Zhuxin said is true, I'm afraid you came back to Fuzhou this time for the Feihong?" ”

Sa Zhenbing nodded: "This time I went back to Fuzhou to really mean this." You and I are well aware of the situation of the navy, since the first day of the afternoon to the present, just a few years ago when we were just preparing to rebuild the navy, we encountered this incident last year. Looking at the current situation in the country, the governors of the north and south have their own countless troops, and it is completely a scene of warlord melee, if President Yuan Da is not good at cutting the feudal domain, I think this naval reconstruction plan will not be seen for more than ten years! ”

Speaking of this, Sa Zhenbing sighed and continued: "Although there is no hope of building new ships in the next few years, those warships ordered by the former Qing Dynasty still have to strive to get them back!" ”

Lin Yingqi said in a deep voice: "Isn't Liu Guanxiong now the chief of the navy, this person also has the ability, and he also said that he will strive to get back all the warships ordered!" ”

Sa Zhenbing smiled bitterly: "What's the use of Liu Guanxiong himself saying that President Yuan Da doesn't come up with money to get the warship back, and from Tang Qianming's letter to me, under the financial constraints on the political axe's side, some warships that have already paid most of the money may still pay the final payment, and those who only gave a small deposit will simply not want it, and even plan to cancel the shipbuilding contract with Austria-Hungary and Italy!" ”

Lin Yingqi frowned: "The Feihong over there in the United States should be more than 100,000 pounds away, right?" If it's so bad, it's no wonder that those people in the north don't want to continue to pay! ”

Sa Zhenbing said: "There is still a difference of 170,000 pounds, and the first payment is only 30,000 pounds." Now the ship is about to be launched, and there have been many reminders over there! ”

"170,000 pounds! I'm afraid it's hard to solve it! Lin Yingqi said: "If you can't get it out from the north, how can our navy make it up alone!" ”

Sa Zhenbing continued to smile bitterly: "Isn't this the reason why I came to Fuzhou!" ”

Unexpectedly, Lin Yingqi shook his head: "I'm afraid this is also difficult, at least it's not easier than asking for money from Yuan Shikai!" ”

Sa Zhenbing said: "If it was easy, I wouldn't have to go this way." ”

Lin Yingqi said: "What I said is not a lie, Fuzhou is different from Yanjing or Nanjing. ”

Hearing Lin Yingqi talk about the difficulties of this trip again, Sa Zhenbing immediately asked: "Didn't the Fuzhou military and political axe allocate 800,000 yuan to the navy before, if this money can be moved, it will be almost half solved, and when the time comes, a few old men of our navy will be able to make up for it!" ”

Lin Yingqi said: "It's different! As far as I know, this money is allocated to the Navy Department under the command of the National Army for special shipbuilding, and strictly speaking, they did not take into account our Navy! ”

Sa Zhenbing was also stunned when he heard this, before this, Sa Zhenbing thought that the Chinese Navy was a whole, whether Yuan Shikai gave money or Chen Jingyun gave money, it would eventually go to the hands of the Navy, whether it was a central ship or a local ship, then the ship would eventually belong to the Chinese Navy, but listening to the meaning of Lin Yingqi's words, the navy in Fuzhou did not seem to be integrated into the entire naval system.

Immediately, he said: "You have to talk about the things in Fuzhou in detail!" ”

Lin Yingqi nodded and began to say: "When Fujian was recovered, I happened to be at home in the province, and at that time, there was chaos in Hubei, so I stayed in Fuzhou and didn't leave. After the recovery of Fujian, Chen Jingyun took over the Fuzhou Shipbuilding School and the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, as well as the Fujian local naval division and coastal defense troops.

You must have heard about the Fuzhou Shipbuilding School, and the Admiralty and Fujian also had several troubles and wanted to take it back, but Chen Jingyun was stunned and refused to give it, and finally let Fujian continue to contribute funds, and the administrative management was under the jurisdiction of Fujian, and other aspects were the same.

And the Harbour Administration Bureau was first taken over as a military and political axe, and then it was acquired by the Fuzhou Arsenal because of lack of funds, well, the Fuzhou Arsenal is a joint venture between the government and business, I heard that Chen Jingyun himself took out millions to expand, to put it bluntly, it is Chen Jingyun's factory. ”

Hearing this, Sa Zhenbing was also stunned: "I didn't expect this Chen Jingyun to be so willing to take out so much money and invest it in the arsenal!" ”

Lin Yingqi said: "Don't say it, this is really a good business, as long as he Chen Jingyun does not fall, and the national army continues to exist, then the Fuzhou Arsenal will not worry about running out of money." And you think, there are a few of so many provinces that can make their own ordnance, and it's nothing more than Hubei. If you have time to take a look at the Fuzhou Arsenal, you will find that the factory is not much smaller than Hanyang! ”

Sa Zhenbing nodded and continued to listen, while Lin Yingqi also continued: "I heard that the coastal defense troops have also formed a coastal defense regiment, and the funds for maintaining the fort are sufficient, which is much better than the coastal defense in other provinces. And some old ships in Fujian were compiled together by him Chen Jingyun to form the 'Fuzhou Fleet', which is actually a fleet, that is, there are only three old gunboats, which have fallen into disrepair for a long time! Both the Coastal Defense Regiment and the Fuzhou Fleet were placed under the management of the Navy Department under the Nationalist Army Command.

When the Navy Department was established, he invited me to take up a post, but I politely declined! Now it's Yu Wentao in charge! ”

"Yu Wentao, I haven't heard much of this person!" Sa Zhenbing thinks he knows all the people in the Chinese naval community, but why hasn't he heard of Yu Wentao.

Lin Yingqi said: "This Yu Wentao is only about thirty years old, and you naturally don't know about these young people. Although this person is young, he still has the ability, and after graduating from the Harbour Master Academy a few years ago, he also went to the UK to study for a few years. ”

Sa Zhenbing still doesn't quite understand how a young man can become the chief of the navy department of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, you must know that the navy pays more attention to seniority than the army, and it is impossible to ascend to a high position in the navy at a young age.

Seeing that Sa Zhenbing didn't seem to understand, Lin Yingqi explained: "This person has only been in office for half a year, and he got a sum of money from Chen Jingyun to overhaul the gunboats under him, and some time ago he even proposed a five-year shipbuilding plan, which is said to have frightened several leaders in the national army. ”

Speaking of this, he also chuckled: "It is said that the five-year shipbuilding plan said that two first-class cruisers, several second-class cruisers and related ships were to be built!" ”

Sa Zhenbing also chuckled when he heard this: "This kind of plan comes out, not to mention that the army in the national army is frightened, I think even those people in the capital will be frightened!" ”

"Of course, it seems that the plan was rejected as soon as it was proposed, and then it was rumored that Yu Wentao and Feng Qin of the National Army had brought the lawsuit to Chen Jingyun's side, and I heard that it took a long time to make a fuss, and finally although the plan was gone, it was good to say that it earned 800,000 naval shipbuilding funds!" Lin Yingqi said: "With this courage to compete for funds alone, many generals of our navy are inferior to him!" ”

Sa Zhenbing also said: "In this way, this person's ability is still good!" ”

Playing the navy is playing with burning money, and the more you burn it, the more powerful it becomes, and among the admirals, it is the ability to command operations, but even if you don't know anything about commanding operations, if you can fight for funds, then the role is not much worse than that of the generals who can command operations, or even stronger.

In the current situation, hundreds of thousands of more funds for building ships have been forcibly obtained from the mouth of the army, and Sa Zhenbing still affirms the ability of this Yu Wentao.