"If you have the opportunity, you will have to meet that Yu Wentao another day, since this person can not hesitate to turn against the army in order to compete for the funds for building ships, then he should also support the navy!" Sa Zhenbing said.

Lin Yingqi shook his head and said, "If you think so, I'm afraid you're wrong!" ”

"It's true that this Yu Wentao is fighting for funds for the navy and the army, but this is not for the Central Navy, but for the Fuzhou fleet under his command. Although the Fuzhou fleet is small in size and not worth mentioning in terms of personnel and ships, it is a self-contained system like the army of the Nationalist Army. When we were still using the former Qing Dynasty system, the national army made a set of military ranks by itself, and if you look carefully, you will find that the military rank system and even the style of epaulettes implemented in Beiyang are basically imitations of the national army. Lin Yingqi continued: "Although this Fuzhou fleet sparrow is small, it has all kinds of organs, and it does not obey the orders of the Admiralty, let alone accept the dispatch of the Admiralty and the dispatch of officers!" This is completely different from the local fleet in the pre-Qing period! ”

After hearing this, Sa Zhenbing frowned and said: "Isn't it unified now, why is Chen Jingyun still doing this!" ”

Lin Yingqi sighed: "Reunification is only superficial, if you stay in Fuzhou for a few more days, you will find that the Fujian military and political axe is the Fujian military and political axe, and the central political axe is the central political axe, and there is no direct connection between the two." Moreover, the national army under Chen Jingyun is still expanding, and there are several divisions gathered in Zhejiang! ”

"Could it be that Chen Jingyun wants to rebel?" Sa Zhenbing asked suspiciously: "If he is against this joint, I'm afraid the whole country will not tolerate him!" ”

"I guess he doesn't have the guts, he probably just wants to keep his territory and prevent the Beiyang Army from going south!" Lin Yingqi said: "But no matter what, the National Army is the National Army, and the Beiyang Army is the Beiyang Army, and the two are readable." And this Fuzhou fleet is subordinate to the Nationalist Army, how can you say that Yu Wentao can listen to the orders of our Admiralty! ”

"That's going to be a bit tricky!" Sa Zhenbing was also a little depressed, he came to Fuzhou to ask for money, but he didn't plan to take money directly from Chen Jingyun's pocket, but was ready to persuade Chen Jingyun to use the 800,000 ship-building funds for the purchase of the Feihong. Sa Zhenbing thought that when the time came, he should be sure to use the interests of the country and the nation to persuade Chen Jingyun.

But now it seems clear that Chen Jingyun did not pull out the funds for the construction of the ship, but for the sake of increasing his own rights and interests.

Lin Yingqi continued: "And I also inquired, these shipbuilding funds are limited to the purchase of warships in Mawei Shipyard, and this Mawei Shipyard has been acquired by Fuzhou Arsenal, and Fuzhou Arsenal is controlled by Chen Jingyun himself, so this money is basically left hand out and right hand in." If you want Chen Jingyun to take out this batch of money to the Admiralty, I am afraid it will be extremely difficult. ”

After hearing so much, Sa Zhenbing was already a little shocked, although he already knew the difficulties of this trip before he came, but he originally expected that Fuzhou was controlled by Chen Jingyun, but in any case, it was also a Chinese province, and if Chen Jingyun wanted to run a navy, he would also support the construction of the entire navy, but he didn't expect that Chen Jingyun obviously regarded the Fuzhou fleet as a private army, and the money was only used to expand his own private army

"Even though there are thousands of difficulties, I still have to go for a trip!" Sa Zhenbing stood up: "I'm going to meet Yu Wentao first and see what he means!" ”

Lin Yingqi said at this time: "I'll go with you, I also saw that young man last time, and it will be more convenient when the time comes!" ”

When Sa Zhenbing and Lin Yingqi were about to go to see Yu Wentao, Yu Wentao was meeting Chen Jingyun with Xi Zhixing at this time.

"Commander, look, this is a rough sketch!" Yu Wentao spread out a drawing on the table, and the sketch on the drawing was a gunboat.

Chen Jingyun didn't have any intuitive feeling about the gunboats on the design drawings, and he didn't even know what kind of surname the gunboats should have in this year, and most of the warships in his memory were battleships and the like, the main guns were sixteen inches, fifteen inches and the like, and the tonnage was tens of thousands of tons, and occasionally he would pay attention to some cruisers and destroyers, but they were mostly concentrated in World War II. As for the gunboat on the drawing in front of him, he didn't know very well, and after looking at it carefully, he found a few data on it and asked: "The speed of the ship is only fourteen knots?" Why is it so low? ”

Chen Jingyun wondered, this ship was only more than 800 tons, and he remembered that the speed of small warships such as destroyers during World War I was more than 20 knots, and even 30 knots.

Yu Wentao knew that Chen Jingyun was not very clear about the navy, so he immediately explained: "This is an offshore gunboat, mainly sailing on inland rivers or coastals, used for artillery support along the coast, the speed of the ship is generally not high, if you want to increase the speed, you have to increase the horsepower, and the adaptability of the hull will also be greatly improved, and when the time comes, it will become an ocean-going destroyer, and the cost will be doubled." ”

Perhaps because he was afraid that Chen Jingyun would not understand, Yu Wentao also gave an example to illustrate: "During the Xuantong period, the two gunboats ordered by the former Qing Dynasty from Yuben each had 780 tons, and their armament was also strong, and the price was only 680,000 yuan. However, the high-speed small destroyers ordered from Germany during the same period were only 390 tons, half the smaller, but the price was 60,000 pounds.! The gunboats are generally in inland rivers or harbors, and the speed generally does not need to be too fast, and there are fourteen knots that can already meet the demand! ”

Hearing this, Chen Jingyun nodded slightly, then took his eyes off the drawings, and didn't bother to take a closer look at it himself, and said directly: "Tell me about this ship!" ”

Yu Wentao immediately said: "Yes!" Then he pointed to the drawings and explained: "This ship is modified from the above prototype by us and the people of Mawei Shipyard with reference to the Yongjian under construction by the Jiangnan Factory and the Yongxiang ordered by the former Qing Dynasty in China." The displacement is 800 tons, the capacity to hold 150 tons of coal and 16 tons of fresh water, the crew quota is 120 people, and the speed of the ship is expected to reach 14 knots. It has a total length of 62 meters, a width of 9 meters, and a draft of 2.5 meters. The main armament is a four-inch (101.6 mm) front main gun, a three-inch (76.2 mm) rear main gun, and four to six small-caliber rapid-fire guns. ”

Chen Jingyun was not very interested in this data, mainly because the tonnage of the ship was not large, the speed of the ship was slow, and it could basically only be used to support the army, which did not play a big role in the development of the navy, so he directly asked the most critical question: "How much is the cost?" ”

Yu Wentao said: "The estimated cost is 750,000 yuan!" ”

As soon as Chen Jingyun heard this price, he knew that this Yu Wentao estimated that he would build a ship according to the price, and he gave him 800,000 yuan, so he got a ship of 750,000 yuan, if he gave him 1 million, it is estimated that he will build a million boats, and there is nothing left!

Then he turned to Xi Zhixing and said: "Manager Xi, I don't know if there is enough equipment and technology in the shipyard to undertake the construction!" ”

Xi Zhixing said bitterly: "It's a little difficult, Mawei Shipyard has not built warships for many years, although some merchant ships have been built and warships have been repaired over the years, but the equipment and workers are a little lacking."

Chen Jingyun said: "It's certain that there will be difficulties! In the past, there were no orders, but now the orders from the Navy Department have been delivered to you, and when the time comes, you will update the equipment, and then invite skilled workers from other places to try to get things done.

Xi Zhixing also said: "Governor rest assured, although there are some difficulties in the shipyard, as long as the money for building the ship comes in, we can use the money to update the equipment and purchase steel raw materials, and it will not be difficult to build it at that time!" ”

After Chen Jingyun gave a few more instructions, he let the two go out, and Yu Wentao walked out of the Governor's Mansion and said to Xi Zhixing with a smile: "Manager Xi, when I go back, I will officially place an order!" ”

Xi Zhixing said with a smile: "We're all waiting, I'm not afraid of your jokes, since I know that the Navy Department is going to build a ship, the group of people below me are staring at it, alas, I haven't built a warship for so many years, and I'm going crazy!" ”

After saying goodbye to each other with a smile, Yu Wentao also returned to his naval office, but as soon as he entered, someone came to report that it was Lin Yingqi and Sa Zhenbing who asked to see him.

Hearing this name almost frightened Yu Wentao, Yu Wentao is just an unknown little person in the Chinese Navy system, but Sa Zhenbing is a well-known naval leader, how could he come to see him with Lin Yingqi?

With respect for the old-timers, Yu Wentao personally went out to greet him.

"Yu Wentao has seen two seniors!" Since neither of them has a military position now, Yu Wentao did not salute the army, but used the etiquette of the juniors.

"On the way, I heard Brother Lin say that you are young and extraordinary, and when I see you today, it is really like this!" Sa Zhenbing first said a good word, and then out of the corner of his eye, he saw a drawing on the desktop not far away.

Then he asked, "That's the gunboat blueprint we ordered from Yuben, right?" ”

Hearing Sa Zhenbing ask like this, Yu Wentao immediately took the drawings and said: "It's not quite, this is our revised gunboat design drawing!" ”

These drawings are all some appearances and approximate figures, plus they were originally imitated to build the Yongxiang, and there is no secret, so the drawings were immediately handed to these two people.

Sa Zhenbing was naturally clear about the Yongxiang that was still in the book, but after a brief look, he found that the drawing in front of him was not much different from Yongxiang.

At this time, Lin Yingqi said: "Could it be that this is the gunboat you plan to build?" ”

Yu Wentao nodded and said: "Indeed, I have already shown it to our commander just now, and I will sign a contract with Mawei Shipyard to start construction!" If you step up a bit, it will be possible next year at most! ”

When Sa Zhenbing heard that it was, he immediately said tentatively: "Director Yuwen should know about the Feihong!" ”

Yu Wentao was puzzled, and immediately said: "The one built in the United States? ”

"Yes, that's the one, and now President Yuan said that he was going to sell it!" Lin Yingqi interjected.

Yu Wentao frowned when he heard this: "It's not easy to order three training cruisers, why do you have to sell one!" ”

Sa Zhenbing said: "This is not to make money a fuss!" ”

As the conversation progressed, Sa Zhenbing and Lin Yingqi just told the whole story, and Yu Wentao also listened carefully, but when he heard Sa Zhenbing say whether he could let the Fuzhou fleet's shipbuilding money be moved to the Feihong, Yu Wentao became a little embarrassed, and he didn't speak for a long time!