After several changes to the shipbuilding plan of the Sino-US naval cooperation plan, after two months of negotiations, it was finally decided, and the next thing was simple, anyway, the money was a loan provided by the United States, Chen Jingyun did not have to worry about it, and directly sent a telegram to Yu Wentao in the United States, asking him to formally sign the procurement contract, and the next thing was to wait for these warships to return to China. With the shipbuilding capacity of the United States, the battleships will be launched in two or three years at most, and the battleships ordered by the Fuzhou fleet are all middle and lower ships, and if the money is in place, it will only be more than a year at most, and if it goes well, we may be able to see them return to China at the beginning of the next year.

It will take more than a year to see these ships that have just signed orders, but the Feihong built by the United States has already been launched, and this time Yu Wentao went to the United States in addition to signing a new procurement contract, but was still ready to accept the Feihong. Due to the financial guarantee for the construction of the Feihong, coupled with the urging of the Fuzhou Navy Department several times, the United States quickly completed the main construction work, and has now been launched in the United States.

Although the Feihong is a training cruiser, its tonnage and armament of up to 2,500 tons are not weak, and it is also very important to strengthen the strength of the Fuzhou fleet, and the Fuzhou fleet can also use this ship for crew training. The U.S.-China naval cooperation program has already begun, and a large number of warships will return home in the next two years, and these ships cannot be left unmanned. In order to meet the needs of many sailors and naval officers in the future, the Fuzhou Naval Department has launched a relevant talent training program, although the Fuzhou Naval School has nominally been under the management of the Admiralty, but now the Beiyang Naval Department does not even have a few ships, and the Fuzhou Naval School is located in Fuzhou, so in fact, the Fuzhou Naval Department has taken over the Fuzhou Naval School and began to expand enrollment.

At the same time, naval generals such as Sa Zhenbing and Cheng Biguang have sent letters of invitation to many idle naval generals in China, inviting them to serve in the Fuzhou Navy Department; since most of the navy's ships defected to the Nationalist Army, the original Beiyang Navy Department has existed in name only, and only a few senior generals remain, and many naval officers have resigned, most of whom are idle at home to watch the development of the situation, and a few are directly going south to Fuzhou in an attempt to obtain an official and a half post in the Fuzhou Navy Department.

In addition to domestic training, the Navy Department has sent the first batch of naval students to the United States under the Sino-US naval cooperation plan, and plans to send the second and third batches of students in a few months, and these students will go to the United States Naval Academy to study and receive training in this field.

Taken together, these plans are enough to ensure the talent needs of a large number of warships after returning home in the future.

In fact, in addition to the Feihong, among the many warships ordered by the former Qing Dynasty from abroad, including two training cruisers ordered from Britain, several warships ordered from Germany, and two gunboats ordered from Yuan, they have all been launched one after another, but this part of the warships was paid by Yuan Shikai some time ago, and the Fuzhou Naval Department cannot accept them openly. The question of the future ownership of this batch of warships depends on the development of the situation in the future.

In this regard, Chen Jingyun has also instructed Sa Zhenbing to actively contact other naval officers who are still in the Beiyang Admiralty, especially those officers who have gone to various countries to receive warships, and strive to attract these officers to the Fuzhou Navy, and it is best to directly sail the ships back to China and directly join the Fuzhou Fleet when the time comes, but this process will take time, and it will not be urgent in a short time.

Chen Jingyun is not anxious about the development of the navy, and he focuses on long-term planning. If Chen Jingyun still did not pay much attention to the navy before, even the purpose of signing the naval cooperation plan with the US side was only to get in touch with the US side, to finalize the military assistance plan, and to obtain assistance from the US side in all aspects.

In the past two months, however, the Nationalist Army has captured Guangzhou, Guangdong, and controlled a large area in eastern Guangdong, and although the fierce battle with the Beiyang Army in southern Jiangsu has not yet achieved complete victory, judging from the current situation, the Nationalist Army has fallen into an invincible position, and at most it is a matter of the size of the results. The rise of the Nationalist Army is inevitable, and it is not impossible to compete with the Beiyang Army and other domestic warlords or even unify China in the future.

When the Nationalist Army has developed to this point, especially when the Nationalist Army already has the vast majority of the Chinese Navy's warships, the Nationalist Army's development of the Navy will have to shift from the original consideration of local forces to the consideration of the whole country, and it is also necessary to appropriately increase the Navy's military spending.

Chen Jingyun has already begun to consider that in addition to these purchased warships, he also has to find a way to build his own warships, for the time being, those large warships are impossible, but small warships should be no problem. For example, the three gunboats built by the Mawei Shipyard and the Jiangnan Shipyard are an attempt, and this kind of gunboats with low technical requirements can supplement the extremely weak naval strength of the Chinese Navy on the one hand, and at the same time can accumulate technology for the shipyards. To provide the basis for the later construction of real naval ocean-going warships.

After all, although the purchase is fast and convenient, it is okay to expand the naval strength in the early stage, but in the long run, it is quite unfavorable to China, and self-built warships are the foundation of the rise of the Chinese Navy.

Although China's shipyards were still able to manufacture relatively unbackward ocean-going warships before and after the First World War, the naval technology before the First World War was almost a step a day, and today the technical level of the Mawei Shipyard and the Jiangnan Shipyard is far from keeping up with the development of the world's naval technology. Even if the three gunboats under construction are already more than 800 tons, they are only gunboats, with a speed of only 14 knots, and they can only conduct inland river or coastal operations, and cannot really conduct ocean-going operations. Judging from the current level of technology, there is still a long way to go before China can build its own 1,000-ton destroyers or cruisers of several thousand tons.

What Chen Jingyun can do now is to continue to invest and accumulate relevant technology, and the torpedo boat that Chen Jingyun said to Sa Zhenbing before. The development of torpedo boats was very early, and today, torpedo boats, including those of Britain and the United States, have become larger, from hundreds of tons to thousands of tons, and the six thousand-ton destroyers ordered by the Fuzhou fleet are similar products. However, this kind of destroyer is a torpedo hunting boat built by Germany, which belongs to the category of ocean-going warfare, and is used to accompany the main fleet in a decisive battle, and it is expensive, and a 1,000-ton destroyer is more expensive than the 2,500-ton training cruiser that China has purchased and ordered from abroad, so it is impossible for China to equip it in large quantities.

What the Chinese Navy lacks now is coastal defense, such as the defense of important ports, so it needs some small fast torpedo boats, plus land batteries to form a defensive line. In addition, the construction of such small torpedo boats can also improve the technology of the shipyard, and later it will be possible to slowly transition to the construction of larger warships.

Sa Zhenbing, Cheng Biguang, and Chen Jingyun discussed naval affairs for several hours, and left near evening. After sending the two away, Chen Jingyun went up to the second floor and walked into the room to see Dong Bai lying on the bed with a book in his hand.

After getting closer, Dong Bai also found that Chen Jingyun had come up, so he put down the book: "Are you done?" ”

Chen Jingyun nodded: "Hmm!" ”

"My mother just told me about you!" Dong Bai moved his body and approached Chen Jingyun, who was already sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Oh, what did you say, didn't you say bad things about me!" Chen Jingyun leaned sideways on the head of the bed and hugged Dong Bai's family: "It's still your mother worried that you will be bullied by me!" ”

"Aren't you just bullying me, Dong Bai didn't look up, and lay directly in Chen Jingyun's arms: "My mother said that she wanted me to coax you more, don't play with the child's temper!" ”

"Huh!" Chen Jingyun smiled: "Aren't you just like a child now!" ”

After the two snuggled up for a while, Dong Bai raised his head, and then looked up at Chen Jingyun's face: "Can I talk to you about something?" ”

Chen Jingyun nodded: "Of course you can, say, what's the matter!" ”

Dong Bai didn't speak immediately, but paused for a moment before saying softly: "Mother came over just now, saying that the third brother who came to Shanghai with her is causing trouble again!" ”

When Chen Jingyun heard this, he looked at Dong Bai's face carefully, and then nodded: "Oh, what's wrong with him?" ”

"I said I drank too much in a restaurant and got into a fight with someone else! My hands were injured and I was sent to the hospital! Dong Baishi looked like he wanted to cry as he spoke.

Chen Jingyun looked at Dong Bai's appearance and hurriedly asked, "The injury is not serious!" ”

However, Dong Bai's tears remained: "That's not all, those people have also found the hospital, if someone hadn't stopped me, I'm afraid my poor brother would have to be beaten again!" ”

Hearing this, Chen Jingyun was also a little angry, it was normal for young people to drink too much and make trouble and fight, but it was a bit too much to hurt everyone and chase them to the hospital, so he immediately said: "Don't worry, I'll ask someone from the secretariat to go to the hospital tomorrow." ”

"Also, it's the soldiers who beat people!" Dong Bai said: "There are several of them! ”

Chen Jingyun frowned when he heard that he was a soldier, who else could there be in Shanghai except for the Nationalist Army, and now Shanghai has almost become a temporary base camp of the Nationalist Army and an important military material transit station, gathering a large number of Nationalist soldiers. And the matter involved soldiers, and it was a wartime matter, no wonder Dong Bai came to cry to himself.

"Don't worry, I'll let them figure it out, if it's really the other party's fault, I will definitely let them go to the hospital to apologize!" Chen Jingyun still felt a little sorry for Dong Bai's family in his heart, of course, he didn't say it too slowly, if it was the fault of the soldiers of the National Army, then it was okay to let them come to the door to apologize, but if it was the fault of Dong Bai's third brother, it would be forgiven.

Dong Bai burst into tears and laughed after hearing this, and then threw himself into Chen Jingyun's arms: "You are so good! ”

After half a ring, he raised his head again: "My brother is always so idle to cause trouble, can you help him find something to do!" ”