readx; "Do you expect them to be indifferent to this?" Cheng Biguang was disdainful of the protest of the "Ben", but Yu Wentao opposite him showed greater concern: "Although I expected that the "I would protest", I didn't expect their reaction to be so big, although our navy is not afraid, but I am afraid that the guys in the Government Council will soften, and if they oppose it on this ground, I am afraid that the special funds for the second phase of the naval development plan will be even more difficult to be approved!" ”

Cheng Biguang also looked depressed when he heard this, the second phase of the navy development plan proposed by the navy was not only opposed by himself abroad, but also opposed by many people at home, not to mention the group of guys in the army, the navy and the army in the national army in the era of the Fuzhou military and political axe are competitors, the two of them have been fighting for military spending in recent years, and the intensity is no less than the competition between the navy and the army, but there is a powerful boss Chen Jingyun on the top, whether it is the navy or the army. But nothing out of the ordinary came out of the ordinary

In addition to the opposition from the Army, there was also opposition from the Government Council, a large group of so-called economists brought up a lot of data to try to convince Chen Jingyun that the second phase of the Navy's development plan was a move to waste the people and money, saying that now that the country is at peace, and it is precisely when we have to devote all our energy to developing the economy and people's livelihood, how can we invest precious financial revenues in the bottomless pit of the Navy?

What worries the people in the Government Council is that if the navy wants to expand its scale, it does not mean that it will be enough to take out 200 million yuan this time, but it will have to come up with huge funds to maintain the scale of this navy every year in the future, and according to the standard of saying 'the navy is the first line for eight years, the second line for eight years, and the third line for eight years, if you want to maintain the size of the fleet, then the navy will have to build two replacement ships in five or six years. The annual increase in maintenance costs and the large number of auxiliary ships that need to be rationed in order for these two capital ships to exert their combat effectiveness also need to be renewed, so once the second phase of the Navy's development plan, which appears to be only 200 million yuan on the surface, is approved, then it is necessary to approve at least 200 million more funds in the next few years, and in seven or eight years it will be necessary to approve the plan to replace the ships. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In a word, although the Navy only needs 200 million yuan in the second phase of the development plan, once it is approved, the government will need to pay far more than 200 million yuan in the next few years.

And this is also because the military wants to expand the establishment will face strong opposition from the political axe, because once the expansion of the establishment means that a large amount of military spending will increase every year, which is unacceptable for the political axe side that has always wanted to limit the growth of military spending.

In 1918, the fiscal revenue of the Nanjing Republican Axe was 1.5 billion yuan, and this figure has been said to be 'the same as the fiscal revenue of Ben'. However, the difference between the financial expenditures of the two countries is very large, and nearly half of the financial expenditures of the two countries are military expenditures of the navy, and if the military expenditures of the army are added, then most of the financial expenditures of the two countries are used as military expenditures. In the republican political axe of Nanjing, which is in ruins, the military expenditure has been controlled at about 30% in recent years, and in 1916, the military expenditure has been unprecedentedly compressed to 28%, so that the grumpy new deputy chief of operations of the General Staff Lieutenant General Zuo Yugang scolded An Hualin and a group of civilian officials in front of Chen Jingyun in the budget meeting for misleading the country, although the military expenditure has climbed to 32% in 1917, it is still relatively low, and in 1918, affected by the civil strife in Russia, part of the military expenditure was increased in the budget. As a result, the military expenditure in 1918 rose to 530 million yuan, accounting for 38% of the fiscal expenditure of that year, and this military expenditure standard was still relatively low compared with other countries.

In addition to the administrative expenses of up to about 30%, most of the remaining money is invested in industrial and commercial development and education, and the domestic and foreign debt expenditures that accounted for more than 15% of the fiscal expenditure in previous years have begun to be reduced to only about 5% now, mainly because after China signed a mutual defense treaty with Britain in 1916, China in order to obtain countries to exempt Gengzi indemnity and other parts of the former Qing Dynasty, Great efforts were made in arrears during the Beiyang period, and the two great powers of Britain and France successively exempted China from the Gengzi indemnity, while Russia's was not exempted, but with the outbreak of civil strife in Russia, China stopped paying these arrears, and then the Russian Provisional Political Axe, which made the capital of Vladivostok, and the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nanjing signed by China officially announced the renunciation of all arrears.

In the summer of 1918, when the Russian Provisional Axe Wehrmacht was engaged in a fierce battle with the Soviet army in Omsk, a large number of Chinese troops were stationed in the Far East of the Russian Provisional Axe, and so far China had sent up to eight infantry divisions and two cavalry divisions to Russia. Some of these troops were stationed in Vladivostok and other Russian Far Easts, and two divisions in the direction of Outer Mongolia were stationed along the Siberian Railway, such as Irkutsk, and one division was also stationed in the western part of Xinjiang Province, which fought in conjunction with the local Russian Defense Forces.

Although the more than 100,000 troops sent by China did not participate in the direct battle with the Soviet army, according to the agreement reached between China and the Entente countries, the Chinese side sent troops to the Russian rear, especially along the railway line to provide cover supply lines for the Russian Wehrmacht and fight against local partisans. The greatest effect of the troops sent by the two countries is to allow the Russian Defense Forces, which are short of strength, to send all their main forces to the front line without worrying about the empty situation in the rear, and as for whether China and the two countries will take the opportunity to take advantage of the Russian Defense Forces' hometown, no one will be worried, because most of the materials and ammunition used by the Russian Defense Forces are provided by China, and these ammunition and materials are paid for by Britain, France, and the United States. Moreover, Chen Jingyun also wants the Russian Wehrmacht to block the eastward advance of the Soviet army in front, and then there is an extremely important point that China needs a divided Russia! Just as he said, 'I hoped that China in the Xinhai era would be divided into two countries, the north and the south, but now Chen Jingyun dreams of Russia splitting into two countries, the east and the west.'

Shut down

After years of negotiations, China finally obtained the autonomy of countries to return tariffs after sending troops to Russia, and it came into effect in September 1918, while Britain and France and other countries also returned most of the concessions to recognize China's allies and recognize the huge role it played in this world war, and of course, more importantly, in the war to stop the spread of red tides throughout the world.

As a result, China's fiscal expenditure has much less to pay the principal and interest of the arrears, and now there are only domestic national debts and some of the loans borrowed by the Nanjing Republican Axe, and this part is also rapidly decreasing.

In recent years, China's fiscal expenditure has accounted for a very large part of the industrial development expenditure, which has remained above 20% in recent years, and even as high as 28% in 1916, this part of the funds is mainly used for the construction of infrastructure, including water conservancy, transportation, etc., in addition to policy support for some strategic industries, such as fertilizer enterprises.

Although this year, we have taken the opportunity of sending troops to Russia to increase military spending to 38 percent, but this is only a temporary military expenditure, not a fixed fund allocated to the troops, in other words, there will be no money next year. Therefore, in this case, it is extremely difficult for the Navy to obtain concessions from the Government Council. Unless the Navy can squeeze out money from the fixed military expenditure of about 60 million a year to carry out the second phase of the naval development plan, this kind of thing is impossible without thinking about it.

The Ministry of Finance did not reply after delaying the application for special funding for the second phase of the Navy's development plan for half a month, so Sa Zhenbing, the navy boss, had no choice but to find Chen Jingyun again.

When Chen Jingyun looked at Sa Zhenbing, an elderly admiral, and said that the navy was in financial difficulties, and if special funds were not allocated to the navy, then the second phase of the navy's development plan would have to come to naught, and the corners of his eyes were red, and Chen Jingyun couldn't stand it anymore.

"The second phase of the plan is related to our country's 100-year coastal defense plan, our navy colleagues have been looking forward to rebuilding the navy for nearly ten years, and your president, you are also sympathetic to the navy, not only supported the first phase of the plan that year, but now also approved the second phase of the plan. But Anwarin's group of villains deceived people too much, they not only refuted the first proposal of 50 million special funds, but after the reduction of 30 million special funds, Zhuang Nan directly rejected them without even looking at them, they deceived people too much! When Sa Zhenbing spoke, his voice was a little high, but he seemed to be extremely aggrieved when he spoke.

Looking at the expression of this veteran admiral, Chen Jingyun also didn't know what to say, as a family member, he was naturally clear about this matter, but he did not stop Zhuang Nan from vetoing the navy's application for special funds, mainly because there were too many special funds proposed by the navy at the beginning, and even if the financial side approved it, it would not be able to take it out, according to Chen Jingyun's thoughts, it was already October 1918, and it would be 1919 in two months. At that time, the navy will be able to temporarily allocate funds for special ship construction in next year's budget expenditure, and as for this year, most of the surplus money will be used for the expansion of the army.

"Sa Lao, don't get excited, take a sip of tea first!" Personally helped Sa Zhenbing to sit down, Chen Jingyun continued to speak: "I agree with the second phase of the navy's plan, otherwise it would not have been approved at that time, as for the lack of funds, it was said that the navy would solve part of it by itself, and then the Ministry of Finance would allocate a certain amount of special funds, but you also know the situation this year, although the Russian side has gained a lot of benefits for our country, but the military expenditure is not small, and the army is still expanding. This year, the Ministry of Finance has allocated more than 80 million yuan for temporary military spending to the army, and Zhuang Nan's side really can't come up with the money! ”

Sa Zhenbing didn't listen to this, but his face changed when he heard the army's temporary military expenditure of 80 million: "I also know the difficulties of my colleagues in the army, and it should be expanded in order to deal with the situation in Russia, but the army is now as high as more than 400 million yuan a year, while our navy is only 60 million a year." Now their temporary military expenditure of more than 80 million yuan is more than the military expenditure of our navy for a whole year, president, our navy colleagues have also paid great efforts for the coastal defense of the country and the nation. ”

Chen Jingyun also had a big head when he heard it, looking at Sa Zhenbing's posture today, I am afraid that he is not ready to leave if he doesn't get the money, not to mention that Isaac Zhenbing's person will not say such things today, and do this kind of thing, which is clearly to complain. The three families of the Chinese Navy and Air Force are like three children, and although the little brother of the Air Force is the lightest, it is the most loved by Chen Jingyun, and the annual funds are sufficient. As the pillar of the army, Chen Jingyun is also the most concerned about it, and most of the resources are given to the army. And the navy sandwiched in the middle is much more embarrassing, for a mainland country like China, the important surname of the navy is far less important than the army, and once the navy is played, it is to burn money, to be honest, Chen Jingyun is really reluctant to throw so much money to the navy every year, so although the navy's military spending has increased in recent years, the increase is not large, the army from 230 million in 1915 to 1918 is already 400 million, if you add the temporary military expenditure of 80 million, In just three years, it has doubled, these huge military expenditures have laid the foundation for the modernization of the army, large-caliber artillery is almost equipped with the number of several regiments a year, in 1915 there were only 30 105 mm guns, and in 1918 it has reached more than 200 guns, and 150 \ 155 mm guns have increased from more than 20 to more than 80 now. Although the navy has also built a few ships and expanded them into two lightning strike fleets, they are far inferior to the speed of the army's expansion.

When Sa Zhenbing lowered his face, and told Chen Jingyun about the difficulties of the navy with red eyes in front of Chen Jingyun, and finally even told Chen Jingyun in a crying voice that the navy really needed this batch of special funds, Chen Jingyun also had to temporarily change the plan in his heart, and was ready to squeeze out the 30 million from other places to the navy, and then find other ways to move the short.

Sa Zhenbing's appearance in Chen Jingyun's office, the crying and mourning look in Chen Jingyun's office was completely gone, and he immediately returned to the Admiralty and summoned a large number of high-level officials of the Admiralty, and then announced with a red face: "The old man has lost his face for the whole life in front of the president today, and the president has promised to give 30 million special funds, and he has guaranteed that next year's navy funds will be increased by 30 million on the basis of 60 million and 8 million this year!" ”

As soon as these words came out, there was an instant burst of jubilation in this huge conference room of the Admiralty!

"The Ship Administration Department and the U.S. side immediately contacted and handed over the previously formulated No. 59 design plan to the U.S. side, and then discussed the detailed technical details!" Sa Zhenbing was extremely happy at this time: "There are also relevant talent reserves that must be launched immediately, in the words of the president, I would rather let people wait for equipment, but also let equipment wait for people, I don't want to see the situation that we can't drive these two warships when they return to China in the future!" ”

The special shipbuilding funds approved by Chen Jingyun and the tens of millions of funds squeezed out by the navy itself became the starting funds for the second phase of the navy's development plan; when the funds were sufficiently prepared, the Chinese navy quickly made contact with the United States, and the most important thing was that the experts of the two countries had to study the design plan for the No. 59 warship proposed by the Chinese Navy's Ship Administration Department to avoid the embarrassing problem of design defects or technical indicators that exceeded the level of the US shipbuilding industry.

China's super dreadnought era began with the design scheme of the No. 59 battleship!