In the autumn of 1935, nothing was more important than the World's Industrial Exposition, which was held for the first time in Asia. With the economic improvement of the Republic of China, merchants from all over the world rushed to Shanghai to try to take advantage of this opportunity to promote their products, even the high tariff barriers could not stop their enthusiasm.

On the other side of the Pujiang River, a group of large and different pavilions of different shapes is the site of the World Expo. For this event, the Shanghai municipal government shortened the original three-year construction period of the cross-river tunnel to two years, and built two more in one go to facilitate the passage of vehicles. Not far from the venue is Shanghai Qiuxin Shipyard, and next door is the country's largest Jiangnan Shipbuilding Group. However, due to the geographical location and the Pujiang waterway, the two factories have begun to actively develop outward, and the Hangzhou Bay Shipyard, which is wholly owned by the new factory, and the Zhanjiang Zhonghua Shipyard, which is a cooperation between Jiangnan and Qinzhou, are among the representatives.

After more than two years of publicity, the Expo has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the citizens who come and go also hope to open the museum as soon as possible to see what it is. Fortunately, the wait finally has a result, and more and more foreigners who have poured into Shanghai tell everyone that the opening of the World Expo is just around the corner.

Early in the morning, Bingwen drove a jeep to the German Consulate in Shanghai, and he couldn't say anything about Hakan's arrival. In fact, a discerning person can guess the reason for his visit to China at a glance, but the president's side has always been lukewarm to Germany, so he can't guess his mind. He has a deep affection for Germany, even deeper than Jiang Fangzhen and Yue Peng's generation. Not to mention the great naval battle that still affects the navies of the world, the Rhineland Project alone helped lay the foundation of modern industry in China.

Sometimes even he feels that Yang Qiu is too ruthless, only the interests of the country in his eyes, and he always likes to act with the momentum and solve the problem with the most secure and least costly method. The Yellow Sea conflict and West Borneo are the United States' desire to cut off the Anglo-Japanese alliance, the Saudi crisis is the United States' attack on Britain, and the recent embargo on the Soviet Union is a borrowing of Britain's desire to contain the Soviet Union. Wait, bringing the momentum of these old empires can really make things go more smoothly, and as long as you don't do it, you don't have to worry about it really getting out of control.

As president, he can avoid the country's and the economy's ups and downs, but from the perspective of military feelings, it is too impersonal.

However, he has always suppressed these things in his heart, after all, Yang Qiu is no longer a soldier, standing at his height, he must give priority to ensuring that the lives of hundreds of millions of people do not have major ups and downs, not to mention that this kind of borrowing does benefit the country and ordinary people. Taking advantage of Europe in exchange for funds to plunder Tsarist Russia to obtain an industrial base, undermine the Anglo-Japanese alliance, strengthen Sino-US relations, continue to strengthen industry, obtain oil from the Borneo crisis, stabilize the Nanyang Chinese circle, and pull the rich Nanyang Chinese into the Chinese economic circle. The Saudi crisis reaped the friendship between oil and Saudi Arabia, and also made the Republic of China the best partner of the Arab world for the first time, smoothly opening markets such as Persia, Iraq, and Turkey. As for the recent Soviet embargo, it dealt a heavy blow to the Soviet Union, forcing Stalin to become more and more nervous, and it is very likely that a series of risky moves will be made.

In just 23 years, the economy has more than tripled, manufacturing has grown from scratch, compulsory education has benefited hundreds of millions of people, agricultural reform has promoted growth, and the total number of businesses and workers has reached or even exceeded that of the United States, which has underworked after the economic crisis.

So he's still the best president!

It's just that this good president is not very enthusiastic about Germany that helps him, although on the surface Sino-German trade is rising, and even takes the initiative to sell strategic metals such as tungsten and manganese to him at low prices, and also exports some technology patents, Bingwen can see that Yang Qiu is unwilling to get too close to Germany. It also subtly reminded him that he had to be careful with his words when he met Hakan for a while.

After the jeep arrived at the consulate, Bingwen was just about to guess the brakes when he saw Hakan and Ambassador Wellman walk out of the door, followed by an unfamiliar face. He is also half a celebrity in the German-speaking social circle of the Republic of China, and he often provides some help to German citizens in China, and also makes several large trade orders, so Ambassador Wilmann recognizes him at a moment.

"Mr. Ambassador, is General Hakan going out?" Bingwen jumped out of the car, and after Wellman shook hands, he and Hakan hugged each other warmly. Although the two do not have the name of master and apprentice, their relationship is closer than that of master and apprentice. Hakan was also very happy to meet Bingwen, he introduced Falkenhausen next to him, and when he learned that the vice admiral in front of him had just been promoted to commander of the South China Sea Fleet (Second Fleet) of the Republic of China, Falkenhausen's eyes lit up with great enthusiasm.

"Wen, does it feel good to lead a fleet?" Bing's pronunciation in German is jerky, so Hakan simply called one word, but this made Bingwen feel affectionate, and deliberately quipped: "General, you should really try." ”

"Wen, did you do it on purpose? I've retired, and I'll be angry if you call the general again. Of course, if you could take me to visit the Gangnam Shipyard, I would have forgotten what I just said. Hakan deliberately grimaced. His biggest dream in this life is to lead a fleet, but unfortunately after the European War, the German Navy was completely abandoned, although there has been a slight improvement under the leadership of Raeder over the years, but the technical fault is too large, even if all the experts of the Rhineland Project return home, it still feels difficult, so he wants to seek cooperation this time. Although many people in Germany scoffed at naval cooperation with China before he came, he knew best that because China is the only country in the world with a large amount of blank tonnage, naval research and construction has not been interrupted, and it has taken the opportunity to absorb a large amount of technology from the United States, France, and other countries, so its technical capability is not bad.

I don't dare to say anything else, at least pull out the current German navy, and it is not the opponent of a detachment under Bingwen.

Bingwen knew that he wanted to visit the Jiangnan factory as a joke, and he probably wanted to test whether it was possible for China and Germany to join hands in addition to cooperation. It is not up to him to decide whether to carry it or not, and it is difficult to even visit the Jiangnan factory. It was fine to visit casually three months ago, but not now. Because the Jiangnan Plant has already begun to build a new aircraft carrier, and is still actively preparing for the construction of battleships. And most importantly! The four Zhujiang-class light cruisers, which were commissioned two years ago, are undergoing secret modifications at the factory to install a new equipment that can detect targets called radars for tens of miles away. Not only the first four, but also the last four Pearl River-class ships built under the name of North Korea will also be equipped with radar, and if the experiment is good, all ships will have to install them in the future.

But at present, this technology is very confidential, if it were not for the Lenovo company that developed it and the Jiangnan factory has a cooperative relationship, other factories have not yet dabbled in this technology, and it will definitely not be placed in such a prosperous place as Shanghai.

Hakan has lived and worked in China for more than a decade, and has spent most of his time dealing with the Chinese navy, so seeing his contemplative appearance, it is clear that the Jiangnan plant may have an important military mission. In the past, he might have been able to find Yang Qiu to try, but now that he has served the Krupp shipyard, his identity is different, so he smiled and said: "Wen, don't be too embarrassed." ”

"Well, how about I take a few of them to the new factory to see the latest tankers?" Hakan's identity is different, not to mention that although there is no alliance between China and Germany, it has not reached the point of tearing his face, so Bingwen decided to take them to visit the new factory that has no major projects recently.

Hakan was a pity not to see the latest Chinese naval technology, but Falkenhausen was very active, presumably believing that co-opting a fleet commander would lay the groundwork for the rest of the work. However, Ambassador Wellman had little interest in shipbuilding, and after a few conversations, he and the three of them parted ways to inspect the German Pavilion at the World Expo, hoping to take this opportunity to take Sino-German trade to a higher level.

Even the commander of the fleet could not take people to visit factories with military projects at will, so Bingwen first went to the Shanghai branch of the National Security Bureau for the record, and then took the two to the shipyard. Due to the transition period of the shipyard, only one oil tanker and two destroyers in the shipyard were on the slipway, but the outfitting area saw the battleship Chongqing who came here for maintenance. The Beijing class is the only top-level battleship in the world to start construction during the treaty period, and the degree of secrecy is still relatively high, so as Bingwen, he can only take two people on the deck.

Even so, Falkenhausen still had a bright eye, asked very carefully, and from time to time spied a few words about the economic data of the Republic of China. Hakan, on the other hand, is more concerned about the world's largest 80,000-ton oil tanker on the slipway. Does this tonnage mean that China has been able to build its own larger battleship platforms? So he couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked, "Wen, how are you going to deal with the Japanese Navy?" The Washington Treaty will expire in June next year, and Italy, France, and Japan should not be abiding by it. ”

His words resonated with Bingwen. Speaking from the heart, Bingwen was in a hurry, because he knew very well that it was no secret that countries had broken through the naval treaty. The United States has already started or is close to starting construction of the Italian Veneto class and the French Richelieu-class, which are already designing the North Carolina-class battleships and the Supra-Treaty, and the Yamato-class that Japan is secretly preparing is also in the final stage, and it is expected to start construction in the spring of 1936, and even the German Bismarck-class has actually sent back information that it will start construction next month. At this time, there were different opinions in China on whether to build new battleships of larger tonnage, and many people in the navy felt that aircraft carriers should be added instead of the old thinking weapon of building battleships.

Although Bingwen supports the latter, he knows better that aircraft carriers are not omnipotent. Exercise Navy Fury has clearly shown many times that aircraft carriers can only be spectators in night operations, and there are also great limitations in dense islands or coastal areas, so he is in favor of building battleships. But he alone cannot represent the entire Navy, and the most important thing is that the president's attitude on this issue is not clear.

Falkenhausen is a veteran soldier who has experienced the European war and seen the sinking of Germany with his own eyes, so he is extremely sensitive to the fact that soldiers cannot show their strengths. Seeing Bingwen's sudden silence, he vaguely guessed that the construction of the Navy's new battleships must have been blocked. But he also thought that the Soviet Union was threatening too much, and the army was taking up too much military spending, so he lost no time in saying: "Mr. Commander, although I am not a navy, I also know that the construction of the navy must be as early as possible. I believe that the current world situation has reached a very critical period, the situation of Japan and the Soviet Union is very obvious that they are attacking your country, Britain is stuck in the Strait of Malacca, the French East Indies still maintains a sufficient number of French troops, and it is not a secret that the United States supports Japan and the Soviet Union, so your country is in fact at the center of the storm like us Germany. In this case, don't you think that our two countries should have some cooperation? The Führer would very much like us to come closer, because together we can ease your country's land security so that we can free up more energy and money to develop our navy. ”

His words were as eloquent as if he were thinking about the Chinese Navy, but in fact he was trying to see if there had been such discussions within China. Bingwen certainly knew his intentions, and said, "Mr. Falkenhausen, these are not issues that I should consider. Although I studied navy in Germany, you should know that we don't like to form alliances easily, and in fact, since the European war, the president has been emphasizing the path of independence, so there is nothing I can do about it. ”

Although it is a pity, Falkenhausen is confident, because Bingwen's words do not directly veto the possibility of an alliance between China and Germany, so he is not discouraged and says: "China and Germany have no conflict of interest, on the contrary, we are committed to breaking the old world and defeating the infiltration of GCISM." We have the same goals, we have the same enemies. ”

"You're right, the recent build-up of armaments by the USSR worries us, but one.." Bingwen thought for a while, suddenly raised his head and asked, "Please forgive me, although I personally like your ** team very much, but now one." Bingwen looked at Hakan, which clearly meant that the current Wehrmacht was really not very good.

Hakan was not angry, because the current German army did not have much capacity, but Hitler had actively rearmament since he came to power, and various appropriations were very sufficient, so he firmly believed: "Wen, I think in three years at most, you can see a new German Wehrmacht!" ”

"I also hope that it will be the Wehrmacht, not the party army." Bingwen deliberately accentuated the words "the party's army", obviously because he did not like the army with political overtones. Hakan and Falkenhausen didn't mind either, because they themselves didn't like the SS and thought it was the Wehrmacht who could really defend Germany.

After Bingwen finished speaking, he smiled slightly and changed the topic: "By the way, Mr. Hakan, are you here just to participate in the World Expo this time?" ”

"Actually, there are other things." In the face of Bingwen, Hakan did not hide it: "I was entrusted by Krupp to discuss cooperation, I hope to buy 330 mm naval gun technology, and I also hope to carry out some cooperation in submarine and aircraft carrier technology." ”

I have to say that Hakan has a thief's eyes! The 330 mm naval gun is one of the best naval guns of the Republic of China, almost exactly the same as the same caliber naval gun used by the French Dunkirk-class battlecruisers, so it is hoped that he will obtain this information so that the Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers that are about to start construction can know their opponents and carry out preventive reinforcement. Aircraft carriers are also one of the killer features of the Republic of China Navy, especially the Second Fleet, which has four Sichuan-class aircraft carriers, itself plays the role of the Navy's rapid reaction force, and carrier-based aircraft are even more technology that must not be leaked.

As for submarines, it is indeed Germany's biggest weakness at present, don't look at the European war, German submarines were so powerful in the Atlantic Ocean that Britain almost despaired, but because of this, it was the most restricted after the war, and the current German-made submarines could not even reach the level of European warfare. On the contrary, the Republic of China has been the same for decades, investing a lot of manpower and material resources in submarine research, and the speed of refitting is the first in the world. I don't dare to say that the technology is also the most advanced, but at least there are not many that surpass me.

From this, it can also be seen that Hakan and the German navy actually knew in their hearts that the possibility of surface ships catching up with their opponents was very small, so they returned to the old road of European warfare, hoping to break the possible naval blockade with submarines. It's just that this cooperation is also not something he can decide, so he can only make a few perfunctory words first.

Fortunately, the two of them also knew that he could not make a decision, so they simply stopped mentioning the matter......

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