During negotiations with the Chinese Navy, the British side knew that the Chinese had the habit of taking advantage of small advantages, so they wanted to buy Shen Honglie privately. But although Shen Honglie is exquisite, he is a true patriot. He sneered at the Chinese with a Cantonese accent who came to buy: "Are you a descendant of the Chinese nation?" Are you still worthy of being a descendant of the Chinese nation? Tell the British, I will go to Italy now, and with the good relations between our Xiushuai and the Italian government, we will certainly buy cheaper warships from Italy. "Regardless of the Italian Army, the Italian Navy is still more than capable of defending its home - as for going abroad to fight, this is not to be expressed or ashamed to express for the time being.

The Chinese are not Chinese, they are Cantonese who went to Nanyang in the early years, and later after the British occupied Southeast Asia, the family served the British, and it was already very good to be able to speak Cantonese. Shen Honglie is a native of Hubei, and his personality is like Hubei's nickname, the nine-headed bird, but when it comes to the issue of the national bottom line, he will never give in. Therefore, he reprimanded the Chinese lobbyist and immediately approached the Italian consul in England, hoping to negotiate with the Italian Navy about the purchase of warships.

Wang Maoru's friendship with the Italians is genuine, and his help to the Italian people is also immense, so far, there are nearly hundreds of former Chinese soldiers who have stayed in Italy and become Italian-Chinese, and a considerable number of them have fully integrated into Italian life. These people always remembered Wang Maoru's goodness, and also led to the friendship between China and Italy, so that Italy and China have a very close relationship.

The British intelligence agency analyzed that if the Chinese purchased from Italy. Not only will they get more orders, but they will also order them at the cheapest price, so that the decommissioned ships of the British Navy will really have to be sent to sell scrap metal. The British immediately found Shen Honglie, repeatedly retained, and said that the previous group of negotiators had been transferred out of the naval department, and the renegotiators would definitely give the Chinese a reasonable price.

Shen Honglie continued to negotiate with the British side, and finally paired the two old man star battleships with the old man star battleship the old man star with the revenge, and with the four destroyers the Calle River and the Hunter, the Banshee, and the Kangaroo. The price of two torpedo boats and two supply ships totaling 1.14 million pounds was finalized. The British side was responsible for sailing these ten ships to China and delivering them to the Northeast Navy of China, and it would cost 1.5 million pounds to replenish and hire them. Of that amount, £360,000 relate to transport and management costs, as well as maintenance costs, as well as part of the cost of ammunition.

If this business is completed, the navy's planned consumption will exceed 50 percent, and Shen Honglie doesn't know how to explain it to Wang Maoru. Wang Maoru's requirement for him is less than one million, but now it is one and a half million.

When Wang Maoru received Shen Honglie's quotation. was so angry that he kicked over the table and scolded: "Shen Honglie, this king and eight calves." When the money is blown by the wind? What the hell! All I need is one, and the fuck get me ten ships that are about to be demolished, so why do you get ten? Isn't it pretty? Exhibitions? it, Ma Liang, you tell Shen Honglie that within five years, if you follow this procurement plan, the navy will not buy more warships within five years. ”

Shen Honglie received the reply, and after thinking about it for a day and a night, he still couldn't make up his mind. He gathered the staff officers and naval officers together and said, "Brothers, because of this plan, he is crazy to show handsomeness, and he said that if we follow this naval procurement plan, we will not have the money to buy new ships in five years." ”

"Chief of Staff, let's buy it, we must buy it. From the beginning of the previous dynasty to the present, the Chinese Navy has not increased a single warship. At present, the largest tonnage of the Chinese Navy is the Haiqi of the Southern Government, a cruiser of 4,300 tons. I think the total tonnage of our navy will increase quite a bit. Navy staff officer Lei Yunguan said immediately.

Shen Honglie said helplessly: "But if we don't purchase new ships in five years, won't our Northeast Navy be stagnant?" ”

Zheng Hai, an officer of the Navy's General Staff, said: "Chief of Staff, now that the British Navy is selling off, the opportunity must not be lost, even if new ships are not purchased within five years? We have these warships, and it is enough for the Navy to catch up for ten years. ”

After that, the naval officers had a fierce debate, and finally Shen Honglie stated: "In this way, we are a total of fifteen people, let's vote, we are not allowed to abstain, or for or against, write a note." ”

In the final vote, the number of people who supported this big purchase was nine votes, and the number of votes against it was six, and it was decided to support this big purchase, Shen Honglie immediately called Wang Maoru, and after discussion among all the naval officers and staff officers, it was decided that this opportunity should not be missed, and it was necessary to buy warships. Wang Maoru called back and said that since you have decided, I will support it, I just hope that you can not be deceived and don't bring back a group of scrap copper and rotten iron to the people. After deciding on the purchase of these 10 fleets, there is now a difficult problem that is where to dock the warships, if they can dock in Qinhuangdao or Huludao in summer and autumn, but in winter the Northeast Sea is frozen and cannot dock, where should the warships of the Northeast Navy dock?

Wang Maoru didn't think of this problem, but Shen Honglie reminded him, Wang Maoru thought for a while and said: "Shanghai, Songhu Port." ”

Shen Honglie was startled and called back: "Xiushuai, Songhu Port is the territory of the Anhui system." ”

Wang Maoru replied: "Yes now, but not in the future, you just need to manage the navy, and there is no need to ask more questions about the army." If Shen Honglie Autonomous Wang Mao had his own plans, he didn't ask any more, and then the Italian Navy recommended ships to him. Shen Honglie was a little embarrassed, so he privately ordered six second-hand transport ships for only 100,000 pounds. This time, Wang Maoru was already numb, and called back directly: Shen Honglie, you are a king and eight calves, if the navy is ineffective, you will jump into the sea by holding a stone and sinking yourself. Shen Honglie's face was bitter, and his heart became happy, sixteen ships of all sizes, plus four warships docked in the Northeast, the prototype of the Northeast Navy has been completed, in fact, only relying on the fleet composed of ten ships of the British Army has swept through the Republic of China Navy, and even reached one-tenth of Japan's total tonnage...... Of course, in terms of combat effectiveness, it was not at all an opponent of the Japanese Navy.

1.6 million pounds sterling is enough to arm ten army divisions, Wang Maoru felt that blood was dripping, the navy was a gold-swallowing beast, it was really a gold-swallowing beast.

He sat in the command car and sighed, and Zhu Yongquan said, "Xiushuai, what's wrong with you?" ”

"Let's see."

"Battleship?" Zhu Yongquan was surprised, "Two more battleships?" ”

Wang Maoru said with a wry smile: "The British designed the coastal battleships for China, but now they are eager to convert wartime industry into peacetime industry because of the end of the European war, and nearly half of the warships are sold and dumped. Chief of Staff Shen really took a big advantage by buying two battleships, but even if he took advantage of it, we couldn't afford it. ”

Yong Xingbao shook his head and said, "The country is strong, there must be a navy, and there must be a strong navy to protect the coastal cities." Throughout the world's major cities, all of them are next to the sea and rivers, China's Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan, Nanjing, Fuzhou and other cities, in fact, all important cities are indispensable for the development of one is the circulation of materials, the other is industrial development, and industrial development must use water, so all large cities are built on the water's edge. Since they were built on the water's edge, they needed to be protected by a strong navy or river fleet, and these two battleships, I know, were built for coastal defense. So I support the purchase of these two battleships, although they are outdated. ”

Wang Maoru shook his head and sighed: "If I have money, I would rather buy the British Dreadnought-class battleships, buy as many as I want, buy twenty directly, pull them out and beat the small Japanese Navy, and avenge the First Sino-Japanese Naval War." But the key is that we don't have money, and now the five northeastern provinces have to support more than 400,000 troops, which is already overwhelmed. Then he looked like a money fan and said, "If we get the gold of Tsarist Russia......

After receiving Wang Maoru's instructions, Shen Honglie immediately negotiated with the British Admiralty, and finally after repeated negotiations, the deal was finally reached at 1.44 million pounds, and the British side was responsible for delivering the Northeast Navy. This is more than the total tonnage of the eight giant ships in the transaction, which is far more than the sum of the Second Fleet of the Southern Navy and the Beiyang Navy. He wanted to show it to the whole world, but he calmed down, he knew that he couldn't make a public announcement, and he shot a bird.

The Japanese Navy also got the information at the first time, but when they saw the purchase of the Chinese Navy, they looked at each other and couldn't help laughing, Chinese it was really ...... No ambition. These ten ships can only be used as offshore warships, which is not to be feared at all, but the Chinese are so willing to spend money, which makes the Japanese very unhappy. And what makes the Japanese unhappy the most is that the Japanese intervention army is very spineless and actually fled with the Chinese, so spineless, where is the spirit of the Royal Japanese Army! The Navy believed that the Japanese Army had lost the spirit of bushido, and that the Japanese War Minister should resign for it, while the Japanese Army was extremely dissatisfied with the government's continued favoritism in favor of the Navy, and the two factions once again engaged in a war of words. At this time, it showed the lack of qualifications of Prime Minister Yuan Jing, a prime minister from a poor background, and the two factions quarreled so much that Yuan Jing couldn't even intervene, so he had to invite a friend from the old county to mediate the conflict between the two sides.

Not all contradictions can be resolved, and the contradictions between the Japanese land and navy have developed to the point where the Japanese military department is rolling up its sleeves and fighting in a big way, and Yamaguchi Aritomo can only bring up the "Washington Treaty" to divert the attention of the navy and the matter of the intervention army losing half of it to divert the army's attention.