Whether it was before, now, or in the next few years, Chen Jingyun has no plans to expand his naval strength on a large scale, let alone invest tens of millions. Chen Jingyun's finances have always been very tight, and even now that Zhejiang has been occupied and Zhejiang's finances have been incorporated into the national army system, the financial tension has not been greatly alleviated.

After all, the territory occupies more, so the corresponding need for more troops to guard, when only one Fujian was occupied before, Chen Jingyun's 50,000 men under his command was generally enough, but now after occupying Zhejiang, relying on the original troops is not enough at all, so the expansion of the fifth, sixth and seventh divisions. Only after the expansion of these troops can there be enough troops to control Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.

At present, Chen Jingyun has seven infantry divisions and one guard division, a total of eight regular divisions, and then there are several garrison regiments in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, a coastal defense regiment, plus other personnel under the national army system, the total number of the national army is close to 100,000. With so many people, not to mention those equipment and equipment, the salary of the personnel alone is enough to give Chen Jingyun a headache.

Under such circumstances, Chen Jingyun simply did not have the extra money to expand the navy. Even if Chen Jingyun still has some money left in his hand now, but Chen Jingyun is going to use this money to raise the army, and it is impossible to throw it out casually.

After Chen Jingyun talked with Sa Zhenbing and Lin Yingqi, after carefully considering it for a day, he had already rejected Lin Yingqi's suggestion in his heart.

Although it is said that the sale of the Feihong will damage the future of the Chinese Navy, from a realistic point of view, Chen Jingyun would rather see the warship sold than come up with millions himself.

However, when Chen Jingyun was thinking about it, Yuan Shikai and others in the north estimated that the news had spread the news, and they were promoting it everywhere, and in just two days, the Kung Fu newspaper was full of news about the Feihong, and Chen Jingyun also received telegrams from local governors, including Cai Yi, not only that, in addition to the telegrams sent by these upper-level political figures, Chen Jingyun even received letters from some ordinary people, and even the teachers and students of Fuzhou Middle School jointly signed a petition to him, asking Chen Jingyun to pay for the purchase of the warship.

This sudden situation surprised Chen Jingyun extremely much.

He couldn't even understand how this already ordinary thing could suddenly become boiling.

"Check, I can't find out who is doing the ghost, I don't care about other places, and I can't care about it, but in Fujian and Zhejiang, I must not let them have a surname!" Chen Jingyun threw the newspaper in his hand to the ground.

The newspaper is the Fuzhou newspaper in Fuzhou, the scale is not small, and the influence is also great, and the local newspapers in Fuzhou generally support the position of the Nationalist Army, but at this juncture, the Fuzhou newspaper actually put the Feihong and the navy in the headlines one after another, this situation is obviously abnormal, Chen Jingyun can guess that there is someone behind the scenes.

"There is also the Investigation Bureau, it's all rice buckets, I can't see such an obvious basket, why haven't I controlled the situation after a few days!"

Chen Cai lowered his head and listened to Chen Jingyun's words silently, in fact, he was a little wronged, the investigation bureau he was in charge of didn't look at Chen Jingyun and saw a lot of power, but it was mainly in charge of the [***] or loyalty issues of internal officials, and then there were unsightly things such as espionage and assassination. As for controlling public opinion, it is not Chen Cai's essential job, at least the regulations of the Military Investigation Bureau drafted by Chen Jingyun and Chen Cai did not include these contents.

But Chen Jingyun didn't care, there is no such thing as the Propaganda Department in the military and political axe, and this incident is obviously controlled by someone behind it, and it is definitely not a normal phenomenon of public opinion, and this kind of matter involving the enemy naturally has to be managed by the Investigation Bureau.

Chen Cai saw that Chen Jingyun's face seemed to have softened slightly, and then he spoke: "Commander, I will seal those newspapers when I go back, and I will definitely not see anything about the navy tomorrow!" ”

However, when Chen Jingyun heard this, he was angry again: "You have been with me for many years, why haven't you grown your brain, this newspaper can be closed casually, if it is blocked, what should the people say about me?" I don't have to say that I'm a scholar! ”

Chen Cai also spoke without thinking just now, and Chen Jingyun also came back to his senses when he said it: "The commander taught me a lesson!" ”

Chen Jingyun was afraid that he still didn't understand, so he simply continued to explain: "Check it carefully, find out all the relevant people who reported these things, find out the mastermind behind it, and get rid of those newspapers, you look at the arrangement, let them not make this matter to the front page every day, and think about what to do!" ”

After Chen Cai was reprimanded, he said: "I understand my humble duties! ”

After Chen Cai went out, Feng Qin then came in: "Commander! ”

Seeing Feng Qin coming, Chen Jingyun said: "What, you also came here today, isn't it because of the navy?" ”

Feng Qin said: "Commander Mingjian, I really came here this time for this!" ”

Seeing that Chen Jingyun didn't answer, Feng Qin continued: "In the past few days, the Feihong and the Navy's arrears have been in an uproar, and many people below have also come to me to inquire about it!" ”

Chen Jingyun naturally knew what Feng Qin was worried about, and he even understood what the group of people in the National Army were worried about at this time, so he said directly: "This incident is an accident, Sa Zhenbing and Lin Yingqi came to see me before, saying that there was a ship built in the United States by the Admiralty, but there was no money to pay the final payment, so they came to me here." At that time, I didn't agree, I just thought about it for two days, but I didn't know how to spread it, and not only the Feihong, but also a large number of ships purchased by the former Qing Dynasty said that I wanted to pay for it back! ”

Feng Qin also heard the rumors more or less, and this time he just wanted to hear Chen Jingyun say this with his own ears, so as to prevent Chen Jingyun from throwing out tens of millions of yuan without thinking about it.

Seeing that Feng Qin obviously had a worried expression, Chen Jingyun said: "Don't worry, I know which is more important and which is more important." Although we have some spare money in our hands now, we will definitely not spend it on the navy. Well, pass on my meaning too, so that a group of big men are worried there! ”

Feng Qin breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this: "Don't worry, Commander, I will pass on the commander's words after I go back to appease the generals!" ”

Chen Jingyun nodded, and then said: "How is the expansion plan of the third division going now, and when will it be able to form combat effectiveness!" ”

Feng Qin listened to Chen Jingyun's question about the expansion plan of the Third Division, and immediately replied: "The expansion of the Fifth and Sixth Divisions was early, and now the personnel are full, but the corresponding equipment and ordnance are still very lacking, light and heavy machine guns and mortars are not in place, and even rifles and pistols are not satisfied for the time being. In addition, the situation of the Seventh Division is similar, most of the guns and ammunition are captured weapons of the Third Division of the former Zhejiang Army, and light and heavy weapons are missing. ”

These three are the expansion plan has begun in May, to July has been carried out for more than two months, in the expansion plan, personnel is the best solution, this year want to recruit soldiers is not a difficult thing, just give a dozen or so yuan to recruit a group of rural young people to join the army, the difficulty lies in raising soldiers, in today's military spending, personnel salaries are the majority.

Personnel are easy to solve, but weapons are not very easy to handle, the first is rifles and pistols, although the production of rifles and pistols in the Fuzhou Arsenal is not low, but even with the addition of the previous inventory and the captured Hanyang, it cannot meet the needs of three divisions in just over two months. At present, the Fuzhou Arsenal produces no more than 20 heavy machine guns and more than 50 light machine guns per month, and it will take several months to meet the needs of the three divisions and supplement the losses of other divisions.

For example, the production of mortars is not high now, and there will be fewer after the average score, and now the first division in Hangzhou is full of mortars, and the others are more or less lacking, and the three new divisions are even less, and only a few are used for training.

However, the situation of artillery is better, because Chen Jingyun's artillery is purchased from outside, and as long as a lot of money is thrown out, a large number of artillery pieces will come a few months later. The two batches of German artillery purchased by Chen Jingyun have already arrived, and the next batch will arrive in a month's time, and when these guns arrive, Chen Jingyun will be able to equip three artillery regiments to replace the 60-mm rapid-fire mountain guns of the 5th and 6th Divisions and the 57-mm Chinese-made Hanyang-made mountain guns equipped with the 7th Division.

"It is expected that the 5th Division will be fully equipped in a month, the 6th Division will be fully equipped in 2 months, and the 7th Division will be fully equipped in three months, that is, around November. It is expected that by the end of the year, the whole army will be able to complete the full force of equipment and personnel! "As the chief of staff, Feng Qin has always been clear about the expansion of the training of the troops, after all, his staff department is responsible for this expansion.

"You must pay close attention to the training of the troops, we spend tens of millions of military expenses every year and cannot be spent in vain!" Chen Jingyun said: "Not only should the training of the regular army be stepped up, but also the local garrison regiments should be paid close attention, and they should not become like the previous garrison divisions, which can only be seen but not used." ”

While Chen Jingyun and Feng Qin were discussing, Yu Wentao in the Navy Department once again ushered in Sa Zhenbing's visit.

Yu Wentao looked dull: "Both, I know what you said, and I want the Feihong too." It's just that it's different now! ”

Yu Wentao is in a very bad mood, and the main reason is that it is now being said everywhere that the National Army wants to come up with money to pay the balance of the warships purchased from the previous Qing Dynasty. But what kind of person is Yu Wentao, although he is a naval general, but he is also a member of the national army, and he is very clear about the overall situation, he wants to build ships, and he wants to buy back the Feihong from the one or two million in Chen Jingyun's hands, but it does not mean that he agrees with Chen Jingyun to buy back all the warships with tens of millions.

Even if he is a naval general, he also understands that the current national army relies on the army, and getting hundreds of thousands or even one or two million from Chen Jingyun should not hurt the foundation of the national army, and even make a five-year shipbuilding plan, it is nothing to take out two or three million a year, but if it is said that tens of millions are taken out at once now, then it will definitely hurt the foundation of the national army, which is what Yu Wentao does not want to see.

Yu Wentao is very concerned about the affairs of the navy, and after the public opinion about the navy suddenly rose in the past two days, he had a premonition, and sure enough, after a little investigation, he found out that this was related to Lin Yingqi and Sa Zhenbing.

Sa Zhenbing obviously didn't expect this situation to happen, when Yanjing released all kinds of rumors, and the newspapers around the country were boiling, he and Lin Yingqi also used some relationships to try to build up this momentum in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, the purpose was to try to influence Chen Jingyun from the side, but he didn't expect that this situation would make Chen Jingyun and Yuwentao quite disgusted.

"Director Yuwen, this fact is an accident!" Sa Zhenbing tried to explain.

But Yu Wentao said: "Sa Lao, I won't say anything superfluous, in fact, I have already met my commander last night, and my commander has already told me personally, don't mention the matter of Feihong!" ”