Time flies quickly in peace and construction, and in the blink of an eye it is already the spring of 1929 AD.

The severe cold in the north and the Far East has not yet left, but the spring rain has enveloped the entire water towns in the south of the Yangtze River. Early in the morning, the canteen at the Navy's Beilun base was already packed, and there was a long queue of soldiers and young officers in blue navy uniforms. Because of the new batch of graduates of the Cheung Chau Island Naval Academy, the canteen is particularly lively.

'Did you hear that?' The Zhongshan' aircraft carrier has completed sea trials and delivered to our navy! Some of the graduates we reported to Beilun Port were going to board the aircraft carrier. ”

"Well, there is such a thing. However, it is not that some people want to get on the aircraft carrier, but all of them have to go on the 'Zhongshan'. ”

"All on the 'Zhongshan'? Gao Lao Chen, aren't you talking nonsense after drinking too much? How many establishments can be on an aircraft carrier? There are more than 200 graduates who came to Beilun Port together, can we arrange it? ”

"Of course, an aircraft carrier can't be arranged, but isn't there still the 'Zhantang' and 'Yaoru'? Those two aircraft carriers will be delivered to the Navy early next year at the latest, so the 'Zhongshan' is now a training ship, and not only will we serve on the 'Zhongshan', but the Navy will also transfer a number of senior brothers from various fleets to the 'Zhongshan'. ”

"It seems that our graduates of the Changzhou Island Naval Academy have caught up with the good times, and they will be able to go to the aircraft carrier as soon as they graduate.

"This is all thanks to the Prime Minister, without his old man, where would there be the great development of our navy? In the next three years alone, the navy will add three 'Zhongshan' class aircraft carriers and six 'Guangdong' class battle cruisers to the navy. Our Chinese Navy has become a naval power overnight! ”

As soon as Feng Yundong, who was dressed in training uniforms, and several admiral-level officers walked into the cafeteria, they heard everyone talking about aircraft carriers and battlecruisers, and the corners of their mouths couldn't help but hook up a smile. Since a large number of Japanese shipbuilding engineers and skilled workers fled to China and joined several major shipyards in China. China's shipbuilding industry has made leaps and bounds of development, and with the improvement of the national education level, more and more young engineers and skilled workers have joined, as well as the development of several important technical cooperation projects between China and Britain and China and Germany, and has injected strong stamina into the development of China's heavy industry, and the time for China to leap into an industrial power is just around the corner.

China's second five-year plan began to be implemented more than two years ago, after the talent bottleneck was greatly eased. China's labor and resource advantages are in full swing. According to figures released by the State Planning Commission, China's steel production in 1928 exceeded 6 million tons, and crude oil production and oil processing both exceeded 1.5 million tons. Cement production reached 18 million tons, and the fastest-growing fertilizer and coal production reached 2.5 million tons and 70 million tons. Moreover, with the support of huge pension funds raised by the Ministry of Social Security, dozens of large-scale thermal power plants and hydropower stations (by the standards of the 20s) have already started construction across the country.

Furthermore. The international economic boom cycle that began in 1924 has also added unimaginable impetus to the development of China's heavy industry. According to the report of the Central Bank. In 1928 alone, the amount of capital flowing into China from Europe, the United States, and Nanyang was as high as 1.2 billion US dollars! Fifty percent of this is direct investment from large European and American industrial enterprises, including steel, automobiles, shipbuilding, tractors, electrical equipment, electronics, non-ferrous metals, railways, and even international giants in the aviation and military industries, all of which have invested and set up factories in China, the country with the fastest economic development in the entire capitalist camp. Most of the remaining nearly $600 million in investment went to Shanghai's securities market and the real estate market in the five major free cities. Although it cannot directly promote the development of China's industry, the prosperous stock market and property market also make it easier for China's national capital to raise capital, so that China's light industry, where private capital is concentrated, has achieved a development speed that is no less than that of heavy industry. Industries including daily chemicals, cotton spinning, garments, toys, porcelain, silk, food processing, bicycles, instrumentation and other industries are all growing rapidly.

In the past two years, some unexpected things have happened. Like what. Some Japanese chaebols and capitalists who fled to China because of the Japanese Revolution actually followed the east wind of China's rapid economic growth. In their new homeland, they made a comeback. The headquarters of Japan's big chaebols, including Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, Fuji, and so on, are now all located in Shanghai Free City, and these four chaebols alone have opened hundreds of industrial and commercial enterprises and employed more than 100,000 workers in just four years, making them the fourth largest chaebol group and clan chaebol in China after the Jiangsu-Zhejiang chaebol, the Nanyang chaebol, and the Beiyang chaebol!

The intelligence agencies of the Chinese federal government are not without a headache for these "indistinguishable" Hemen in China's business circles. For this reason, he made a small report to Premier Chang Da, but Chang Ruiqing only kindly reminded the Hezu consortium not to involve too much in important industries related to national security. After all, the signboard of "Japan-China Cooperation" has not yet been put down, and China's current industry is inseparable from hundreds of thousands of "He" engineers and skilled workers.

However, the State Security Bureau of Soviet Japan is, after all, one of the most efficient intelligence agencies in the world! It is impossible not to use the important position of the Japanese in China's economic life to serve the development of Japan's heavy industry. Under Yasuo Yasuda's command, the Japanese intelligence services were greatly expanded throughout the South Seas, almost monopolizing the side industries such as brothels, drugs, and human trafficking in the South Seas, and at the same time opening a large number of shell companies for money laundering and trade with China. Large quantities of Chinese minerals were re-exported to China through the Philippines, Malaya and French Indochina, while Japanese-made merchant ships were sold at low prices to steamship companies registered in the Nanyang region for transportation along China's coast. Countless Japanese peasant girls were smuggled into China as goods, including female spies trained by the Japanese National Security Bureau. So much so that China's State Secrets Bureau can catch dozens of such "worthless" low-level spies almost every month!

China's army and air force were not very worried about this kind of shameless spy behavior of Soviet Japan. First, the Japanese Army has long been out of their eyes; Second, the Army's tanks and Air Force's aircraft are mainly imported from Germany or jointly developed with Germany. Basically, there are no Japanese engineers, and even Japanese skilled workers are not used much. It's not like China's naval yards, which are full of Japanese technical backbones that have escaped.

But what worries the Navy the most is not the leakage of technology, but the beginning of the increase in the power of the Japanese Red Navy!

Recently, it was rumored that the construction of Japan's capital ships, which had been suspended for several years after the Great Kanto Earthquake, had been restarted in early 1929. The construction of the Akagi, which had been lying on the slipway of the Kure Naval Yard for more than five years, has resumed, and according to accurate information, the original plan to convert the Akagi into an aircraft carrier, which was to be built as originally designed, was cancelled and the Akagi was to be built into a ship with a standard displacement of up to 41,250 tons. A battle cruiser with a maximum speed of 30 knots and five twin 410 mm 45 x guns!

In addition, there are rumors that there was a ship that was secretly built before the Sino-Japanese War with a standard displacement of up to 39,900 tons. With a maximum speed of 26.5 knots, the battleship, also equipped with five twin 410 mm 45 times diameter guns, was ready to resume construction by the end of June 1929!

Naturally, these two rumors could not be recognized by the Soviet Japanese authorities, and on the contrary, the Japanese top brass made it clear in public on several occasions that the focus of Japan's development at present was still on the economy, and even if Japan was prepared to strengthen its armaments. The first to be strengthened will also be the Army. This is because the recovery of Korea and the lost territories in the Far East has always been Japan's national policy.

In this regard, public opinion in Britain and the United States and other countries have also expressed their agreement, and all international political analysts believe that uniting with the Soviet Union to defeat China is the only correct national policy of Japan. Therefore, even if Japan resumes the construction of these two super warships,

Nor will it pose a threat to the interests of Western countries in the South and Pacific Oceans. Because compared to the strong naval strength of Britain and the United States, two warships did not pose any threat at all. However, for China's six "Guangdong" class, these two Japanese capital ships are definitely a mortal danger.

But the Chinese Navy justified this mortal threat. A request to withdraw from the Shanghai Naval Treaty and to begin construction of a new battleship of the first class. was rejected by Prime Minister Chang Ruiqing without hesitation. Moreover, Chang Ruiqing also summoned the admirals of the Wehrmacht in Tangshan, Nanjing, to give a lecture to them, telling them that China would not start construction of any capital ships and aircraft carriers before 1935!

"Oh, Third Brother Mo, you are already the captain of an aircraft carrier, why are you still frowning?"

Vice Admiral Feng Yundong, now head of the Naval Operations Department, was sitting face-to-face with his old classmate Jiang Mosan at a table by the window for breakfast. Through the polished glass, they could clearly see the aircraft carrier "Zhongshan" moored in the military port, which was as magnificent as a floating city. However, Rear Admiral Jiang Mosan, who had just been appointed captain of the "Zhongshan", was not happy at all.

"What's the reason not to frown?" Jiang Mosan glanced at Feng Yundong and said with a wry smile: "We won't have any new aircraft carriers before 1935, but the Japanese will build at least 10 of them!" It's 3:10! ”

After 1935, there will be a world war, and it has almost become the consensus of the whole world! While China's economy was in full swing, the four socialist countries of the Soviet Union, Japan, Poland and East Germany were not idle. Last year, the first five-year plan of the Soviet Union was also completed. In the words of Trotsky: "From this year onwards, the Second Five-Year Plan for building a great socialist country in all respects will be the beginning of the Second Five-Year Plan, and the success or failure of the Second Five-Year Plan will have a direct bearing on the success or failure of the cause of human liberation, so all Soviet citizens must devote themselves with the greatest enthusiasm to this economic battle against capitalism......

Japan's Takeda Heng shouted the same slogan, and he wrote an article in the Red Banner Newspaper claiming: "By 1935, Japan will be built into a powerful socialist country with military modernization, industrial modernization, educational modernization, and agricultural modernization!" Having achieved this goal, Soviet Japan would turn its enemies into a sea of fire, and the Great Japanese Red Army would become the vanguard of the cause of human liberation! ”

The words of these two guys sounded murderous, and the three armed forces of China's navy, army, and air force, which were sandwiched between Japan and the Soviet Union, immediately began to become nervous, and they put forward requests one after another for additional military spending and armaments. However, the federal government only approved the request of the Army and Air Force, and rejected the request of the Navy alone. How does this make Jiang Mosan, the captain of an aircraft carrier, happy? According to his own estimates, in 6 years, he, the captain of the rear admiral, should also be the vice admiral commander of the Chinese Air Fleet! With 270 aircraft on three aircraft carriers, how can you fight against the 800 aircraft on 10 Japanese aircraft carriers (according to the number provided by the Intelligence Bureau)?

And the Japanese battlecruisers Akagi and Kaga also did not look so easy to deal with. If China's six "Guangdong-class" ships are unfortunate enough to encounter them at sea, I am afraid that there is only one way out of running away with their tails between their legs!

"It's not that bad." Feng Yundong took a bite of the poached egg and said with a smile: "Didn't the Prime Minister approve the construction plan of 30 P-class submarines and 70 S-class submarines?" Japan is an island country, most of its resources rely on imports, and 100 high-performance submarines can trap them if they are trapped! ”

Since Britain is now a signatory to the Anti-Third International Agreement, the Chinese navy is now mainly learning from the British. Much of the weapons and equipment were also developed jointly with the British. The P-class submarines and S-class submarines that Feng Yundong said were no exception, mainly designed by British engineers.

Among them, P-class submarines are large ocean-going submarines with a displacement: 1475/2040 tons (surface / underwater); Maximum speed: 17.5/9 knots; Maximum range: 7,300 nautical miles (10 knots) over the water. 60 nautical miles (4 knots); The crew was 54 people. Dive depth 95 meters; It is armed with eight 533mm torpedo tubes, one 105mm high-level dual-purpose gun and two 6.5mm anti-aircraft machine guns.

S-class submarines are short- and medium-range cruiser submarines with a displacement of 640/935 tons (surface/underwater); maximum speed 13.5/10 knots; Maximum travel: 3,690 nautical miles (10 knots) above water; There are 36 crew members and a depth of 95 meters; Armed with 6 533mm torpedo tubes. A 76.2mm high-level dual-purpose gun. A 6.5mm anti-aircraft machine gun.

Before Jiang Mosan switched to the naval aviation, he also served as a submarine captain, and also made great achievements in the Battle of the Yangtze River Estuary in 1923. Hearing his old boss in the submarine force talk about the two new submarines that were about to equip the troops, he had a strange expression on his face.

"Brother Yizhi, the entire navy knows that you like submarines, for the sake of these 100 submarines, you didn't say good things in front of Chief Bai, right?"

Bai Chongxi, chief of the General Staff of the National Defense Forces, and Feng Yundong are both fellow villagers in Guangxi, although Feng Yundong is not a "white" person. However, colleagues in the Navy often talk about this. Feng Yundong smiled bitterly and waved his hand: "Mo San, this time it's really not about Chief Bai...... Originally, the Navy Command came up with a plan for the expansion of the army, which was to secretly start construction of three 20,000-ton medium-sized aircraft carriers. Two 40,000-ton battleships, six 15,000-ton heavy cruisers and 60 submarines. With the result that the prime minister cut all the plans for the construction of aircraft carriers and battleships, but increased the number of submarines from 60 to 100. It seems that the Prime Minister has decided to let the main fleet of the Navy be the fleet for a while. ”

"There is nothing in the Dangcun zài fleet, but the home port cannot be placed in Lushun, Qingdao and Beilun." Jiang Mosan frowned and said: "The Japanese Navy has made it clear that the carriage and horses are going to bet on aircraft carriers, and the intelligence says that they want to build 10 20,000-ton aircraft carriers, and it is estimated that they can carry a total of about 800 aircraft...... If our fleet is raided by them in our home port, it will be a lot of fun! ”

"How powerful are airplanes?" Feng Yundong was a little skeptical, although in the Battle of the Yangtze River Estuary in 1923, the Chinese Air Force and Naval Aviation achieved good results, but they only sank an old battleship, which could not be compared with the achievements of the submarine force at all.

"Not yet." Jiang Mosan said with certainty: "But according to the current speed of aviation technology progress, it is possible that naval battles will depend on the sky after 1935." ”

"So fast?"

"Of course." Jiang Mosan raised his eyes and looked at Feng Yundong: "Brother Yi, you can't just care about the submarine and ignore the plane!" Last month, the intelligence bureau sent a summary of the United States Platt Whitney and Germany's BMW BMW are both developing 14-cylinder and 18-cylinder star engines, and each cylinder can also be enlarged, so thousands of horsepower aircraft engines will definitely come out in 5 to 6 years, with this kind of high-horsepower engine, the bomb load of the dive bomber may reach 500 kilograms, and the combat radius will also reach hundreds of kilometers. How do you think we can put our navy home port in places like Lushun, Qingdao, and Beilun? Isn't this waiting for the Japanese to come and sneak attack? ”

"So where do you think the home port of the Navy's Nanyang Fleet should be?" Feng Yundong said: "The prime minister will come to Beilun tomorrow to visit Siam on the Zhongshan ship, and you will tell him in person when the time comes." ”

"Leizhou Peninsula, Guangzhou Bay." Jiang Mosan paused and said: "And the navy should not have two fleets, Beiyang and Nanyang, but only a main fleet!" ”