…… Did you hear that? Those Qiu Baye are going to France to help the foreigners fight. ”

"France? Is it where you are hiring? ”

"Yes, the newspapers in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Nanyang are all talking about this, and I heard that it was Commander Yang's own order, ready to send a million troops, and he will also drive the expedition in person."

"Fuck your mother's fart, the royal driver? You should still be a Manchu state. ”

"What's that? Now no one in the whole country knows that the president is the emperor and Commander Yang is the emperor. Why can't the Emperor Taishang drive in person? ”

"Gotcha, what's there to fight about. Is it true or false to send troops? It's hard to live a stable life, and it's not boring to fight again? Besides, in the year of Gengzi, the Eight-Nation Alliance, these foreign devils did not harm us, and helping them fight the target in Chapter 385 is not taking our lives and sticking to the cold ass of foreign devils! Could it be that when he saw that the Japanese were deflated under Commander Yang, and seeing that he couldn't even find anyone to talk to now, he deliberately harmed us? ”

"Don't be nonsense, my nephew just came back from Japan last month, and I heard that the foreign devils originally intended to ask Japan to send troops to help them, but little Japan is now unable to protect itself, and there are people on the street every day who protest that they can't send troops, so they want to pull us in."

"This is terrible, my second boy has already gone to work in the French shipyard, wouldn't this be a fight...... Worried, anxious, surprised, watching a play. On the occasion of the Lunar New Year again, countless moods were mixed with rumors that China would send troops to Europe, and the news began to spread rapidly in teahouses and liquor stores across the country.

Rumors belong to rumors, but the Far East during this period was rarely peaceful. The aftermath of the 510 riots in Japan has not yet dissipated, and because no suitable candidate can be found, a temporary imperial cabinet was finally created, with Prince Kanyuan Palace, who was idle at home, serving as interim prime minister until the end of the political competition. The prestige of the Japanese imperial family in the country is still enough for the goal of Chapter 385, so the battle between land and sea. The battle for the prime minister and so on has turned from a fierce conflict to a secret competition, and the Constitutional Council, which has been devastated by the vitality, has no hope of being nominated for the next prime minister because there is no one.

But in the eyes of Britain and the United States, the emergence of an imperial cabinet was a serious regression of Japan's democratization, so relations between Europe and Japan did not improve with the Kongo's patrol in the Indian Ocean. The temporarily powerless country also affected the ambitious Japanese Navy. Except for a few warships, there is no longer a picture of the sun flag running rampant in the past, but the Republic of China Navy changed its passive defense strategy and took the initiative to fill the power vacuum in the northeast and southwest Pacific, especially the Second Fleet stationed in Sanduao, which often haunts the South China Sea waters that were rarely visited in the past to escort merchant ships.

Throughout the second half of the 15th year and the spring of the 16th year, the biggest event in the Far East was undoubtedly the export of labor by the Chinese government to France and Russia and the cooperation of China, Italy and France in the affairs of the Austro-Hungarian shipyard in Capore.

In the U.S. Consulate in the Shanghai Public Concession, the bearded new U.S. Minister to China, Reinsch, stood in front of the window and quietly watched two ocean-going ships carrying more than 3,000 Chinese laborers sail out of the Huangpu River waterway. Hangel was silent, a staunch supporter of the Democrats' policy of honorable isolation. He disliked the Wisconsin-born Republican interventionists who had recently been promoting a declaration of war in an attempt to get the United States into a European war for perhaps greater good.

As the two largest countries (referring to population and territory) that are now out of the way, when he submitted his credentials, he suggested to Li Yuanhong that China and Germany sever diplomatic relations, trying to push China to send troops. He also secretly contacted Japan to pit these two countries with the potential to become world powers against each other, and finally realized the Greater Asia strategy under the leadership of the United States.

Hanger was deeply unhappy with this, and his job was ostensibly to be a Wall Street spokesman to help capture greater economic interests at home. But he was not a diplomatic idiot, he understood that the news of the Republic of China's participation in the war that was currently flooding China and even the Far East was completely deliberately released by Yang Qiu, and he was testing the domestic reaction to sending troops. It is also hoped that this will make the country that has been closed for hundreds of years understand that China and the world are closely related. The young man's political skills have become more and more proficient, and many times he can use small gestures to guide the outside world without speaking in person, but this proficiency is what Hanger fears the most, especially after winning the Sino-Japanese War, he has gradually emerged from the United States and realized a diversified foreign diplomacy.

"20 francs." Reinsch broke the sinking and pointed at the distant sea ship with some contempt at the corners of his mouth: "Send labor to export power under the pretext of 20 francs, Your Excellency Hangel, that friend of yours seems to care very much about Europe. ”

"Your Excellency the Ambassador (after the Republic of China was officially recognized, the ministers of various countries in China were promoted to ambassadors), 20 francs is nothing in the United States. But it's a very significant income for families here, and there are many people living below the extreme poverty line in the country, and some people need that money to support their families. Hanger frowned, he didn't like the question of what to say, and raised his voice a little: "In my opinion, this is a very good business. Yang Qiu used 500,000 laborers to boost Sino-French relations. The French government also needs to teach one fifth of them about basic industries, and when they return home, they will have 100,000 very good junior workers for nothing. ”

Ruiensch turned his head, he could see through Hangel's eyes and see the dissatisfaction inside, but he would not explain like his predecessor Jia Leheng, and continued to ask: "I heard that they bought a lot of equipment from Italy?" ”

Hanger nodded, the Caporetto incident caused a small sensation in Europe, which once caused tension between China, Germany and Austria, but because of the fear of intensifying the contradiction and completely pushing China into the arms of Britain and France, in the end, after the Republic of China government secretly compensated part of the money, Germany and Austria had to pinch their noses and admit it. In this context, through the money, grain and women offensive, the diplomatic envoy Wang Zhengting, on behalf of the government of the Republic of China, reached a grain for machinery agreement with Italy, in order to provide 3 million pounds worth of grain to buy a large amount of equipment, including a shipyard and a medium-sized steel plant, and bring them back to China in ships transporting laborers. Moreover, in this incident, the Italian garrison also secretly handed over to the government of the Republic of China more than 170 Austro-Hungarian engineering designers and their families, including the shipyard technical team that participated in the design and manufacture of the Combined Forces-class battleships. Of course, the secret compensation and the design team's affairs are still top secret, and no one including Hanger knows about it.

In the face of the sudden deterioration of the war situation on the Western Front, this // fastest text update has no pop-ups and no ads // The turmoil was quickly drowned in artillery fire, but Hanger was very worried about this, because the attitude of France in this incident was very ambiguous. The sudden start of a turnaround in Sino-French relations is what worries the United States the most, and the two countries even recently formally signed the "Changchun Hanyang-Schneider Steel Cooperation Agreement." France will provide equipment to build the largest steel plant in Asia. Yang Qiu took advantage of the instability in the north and the need to implement military control, and delayed opening this market to the United States but introduced France, which made Wall Street regret and began to worry about whether this would be a harbinger of Yang Qiu's abandonment of the United States and his choice of Europe, and began to put pressure on the US business delegation to China headed by Hangel. It is required to further establish a trade agreement between the Chinese and US markets.

Reinsch didn't care about this kind of thing, he saw that taking advantage of the general contraction of Europe was the most important thing to establish the United States as the leader in Asia, and he was more concerned about one other thing: "Is there any news for our dear Far Eastern friends?" He's been away from Nanjing for half a year, right? ”

Yang Qiu had indeed left the Nanjing center for almost half a year, and since he inspected Baotou in August, he had carried out a series of inspections around the north, as if he wanted to keep himself out of the rumors of sending troops. Compared with Britain and France, who were more anxious, Rui Ensch was also very much looking forward to meeting with him as soon as possible to promote his theory of sending troops, and Hanger naturally wanted to talk to him. Regardless of whether he eventually sends troops to Europe to fight, it is also important to deepen and establish trade relations between China and the United States.

"A representative from GE sent a telegram from Chengdu in the morning, saying that he will inspect the hydropower project we are building with China this week and is expected to return to Wuchang next week for the Chinese New Year."

Rui Enshi didn't want to leave Yang Qiu with a feeling of urgency, so he spread his hands and smiled: "Then we will also enjoy a beautiful Chinese holiday and wait for him to come back." ”

In the sound of crackling firecrackers again, Yang Qiu finally returned to Wuchang from his long northern inspection. Compared to last year, the three towns are busier today, thanks to the improvement of Sino-French relations after sending workers to France. In exchange for China's participation in the war, Britain and France began to deliberately strengthen trade orders and tilt towards the Far East, and after Gu Weijun and Wu Tingfang visited the United States at the beginning of last year, they also dug up a batch of OEM orders from the United States in accordance with the "three to one supplement" strategy proposed by Yang Qiu. The only consequence of the overlap between the United States providing raw materials and technology and China's cheap labor to accelerate industrial learning and worker training is that domestic factories have to work overtime even during holidays.

If it weren't for the Republic of China government's imposition of a maximum 10-hour working day, it is estimated that a factory would immediately appear in the country that requires workers to work 20 hours. Fortunately, with the three-shift system that first appeared in Hanyang, it began to be imitated by factories large and small across the country, and they started work day and night to make money by replacing people without stopping the machine.

According to the data of the Ministry of Finance brought back by Cai Gongshi, although the economic data of the Republic of China in 15 years is not as high as last year's crazy export technology and the dividends of the Sino-Japanese war, it has officially exceeded the 1 billion mark. The number of registered factories of all sizes in the country exceeded the 2,000 mark for the first time from 272 in 1911 and reached 2,355. Among them, there are 117 state-controlled mines, power plants, chemical industries, metal processing enterprises, and other enterprises that have a bearing on the national economy and the people's livelihood, and the private sector is mainly concentrated in the light industry fields such as cement, cotton spinning, grain, wood processing, and small commodities. After the financial situation improved, the Ministry of Finance finally showed its courage, and the budget for the construction of railways, roads, and bridges in 16 years alone was as high as 400 million yuan, and the newly established Reform and Development Committee also made for the first time clear priority projects in electricity, transportation, steel, and telecommunications, and even transferred more than a dozen steam turbines from the navy's inventory to build a number of important thermal power plants.

Yang Qiu did not interfere in this round of national economic tide, as Xu Xiujun said. At present, it is a good opportunity to take advantage of the rapid expansion of Europe, no matter what to build, as long as there are more factories, the better, and he hopes to make tens of thousands of them overnight. Resource ores can also be sold in exchange for hard currency, as for the industrial surplus what is completely unnecessary to consider, because this round of economic ** is export-oriented, the domestic market is basically not moving, not to mention that even if so many factories are added, most of them are small and broken technology of inferior processing plants, the real private and state-owned large enterprises are still scarce and pitiful, can completely ignore the consequences of the expansion of a certain industry. Therefore, his mind was still focused on the upcoming trip to Europe and the choice of time to participate in the war, and even if he came to Hanyang according to the old rules, this thought was swirling in his mind.

Song Ziqing didn't know if he listened to Jiang Fangzhen's suggestion, and immediately pulled Zhang Wenjing back to Wuchang in the name of New Year's greetings. When he arrived in Hanyang, Yang Qiu was experimenting with the semi-automatic rifle developed by Liu Qingen on the shooting range, and at the same time, Cai Yizheng, who had returned, was chatting with Su Hongsheng, who had handed over Hanyang to Liu Qingen to be the general manager of the Changchun branch under construction.

Yang Qiu was also very excited to touch China's first semi-automatic rifle, knowing that in order to save money, he had never taken out the bullet-swallowing monsters of semi-automatic rifles and general-purpose machine guns. Therefore, this rifle is almost exactly the same as the historical prototype, the only change is the use of the stock of the Type 12 rifle and the oblate bolt that is not easy to slip, and the bullet is still the 7.62*51 bottomless rifle cartridge of the Wehrmacht standard.

The acquisition of spring steel technology, the trading of German Krupp special steel formulations have made it possible to produce semi-automatic rifles in-house. The only problem is that it's too heavy. The 5-kilogram gun was really not suitable for the Asian physique, and because the rate of fire could reach up to 50 rounds per minute, the shoulders needed to withstand the recoil of high-powered bullets continuously, and the muzzle bouncing was very difficult, so even veterans who had used the German Mauser 98 rifle were very painful. In addition, the muzzle and bolt are simple to use to borrow from the Japanese Type 38 rifle dust cap design, which is not suitable, and the built-in fixed magazine cannot clearly prompt the soldier after shooting.

Although there are still many problems with the design from Yang Qiu's eyes, although the world's first semi-automatic rifle appeared in Germany. The first large-scale armament was the Mexican 1908 rifle, but it is undeniable that this was a huge leap forward in the history of Chinese firearms, and it also gave him the opportunity to equip himself with a semi-automatic rifle.

Yang Qiu, who was born as a scout, is very aware of the conditions required for semi-automatic rifle equipment, which is not only a problem of the gun itself, but a problem of financial resources and the entire weapon system. Because from the point of view of the oriental physique, it is necessary to shoot continuously with a semi-automatic rifle and maintain a high hit rate. It is necessary to improve the use of intermediate-power ammunition, but if it is necessary to change the manufacture of 7.62*39 intermediate-power bullets, it is necessary to replace all the military standards. Because no army logistics department is willing to use two powerful bullets of the same caliber at the same time, this can seriously lead to logistical errors. In the end, when the troops needed high-power bullets, they sent 39 short bullets, or 39 bullets but 51 high-power bullets long.

The best solution is to use different calibers, such as machine guns that need power to continue to use high-power bullets, rifles use small-caliber bullets, but small-caliber bullets are not said to be made and can be used, first of all, it is necessary to break through the propellant to ensure that the charge is reduced and the power is not reduced, Yang Qiu has no way to do this, because the data machine is full of military drawings, such as materials, industrial facilities, and other technologies are very scarce and there is no propellant technology at all, otherwise he would not use precious foreign exchange to buy so many technical industrial equipment. And to change the caliber, it is necessary to completely replace all the current production lines! It is very uneconomical when the country is not rich. So is there a way to overcome it? Yes. A relatively rare semi-charge bullet. That is, to reduce the 51 times the diameter of the high-power bullet propellant, under the condition that the shape remains the same, the warhead is coated with a special pigment to distinguish between full-charge and semi-charged bullets, the consequence is that the reduction of the propellant will lead to a change in the trajectory, and the warhead shape needs to be appropriately modified through long-term experiments.

Anyway, he was not in a hurry to equip it, so he took the opportunity of Song Ziqing and the two of them to test the rifle, and proposed a plan to use semi-charged bullets first and slowly transition from 51 bullets to 39 intermediate power ammunition. Suggestions for improvement were also put forward on the rifle, and finally a structural sketch was drawn according to the very familiar Type 56 semi-automatic rifle and handed it to Liu Qingen, which made the Republic of China version of the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, which did not catch up with the good time in later generations, appear many years in advance.

That's all for later.

After the four of them returned to Yang's house, Song Ziqing immediately said Jiang Fangzhen's original words. In fact, Yang Qiu had already seen the intention of the two, and after pouring tea for them, he smiled at Cai Yi and said, "Songpo, when did you, an old classmate, learn to hide behind." ”

Cai Ye and Zhang Wenjing hid in the sofa and rolled their eyes, and their hearts were not to learn from you. Song Ziqing was also very worried about logistics, and continued: "I think Baili's suggestion is very reasonable, Britain and France have perfect logistics support capabilities, and the United States is quietly helping behind the scenes, so we don't have to worry too much about logistics when we send troops." Russia is very bad in this regard, although there is enough food in Siberia, the Urals and other places, but the railways and the weather are bad and even our own army cannot be supplied, how can we ensure our needs? ”

He looked at Zhang Wenjing and continued: "In addition, the scale of the war is also a problem, after all, the European war is different from the last time, and the ammunition and materials required are about five times that of Japan, so Wenjing and Xu Xiujun calculated before the end of the year that if we invest five infantry divisions, our current financial resources can support it for two years." If ten divisions can only support one year, and twenty divisions will resign from you. The last sentence made the four of them laugh, and Zhang Wenjing even smiled: "I don't care if I resign, it's a big deal to go back to Hanyang to find Liu Qingen on an errand." But if the front-line military supplies are insufficient, Ziqing, you, the chief of staff, will be scolded to death. ”

With Jiang Fangzhen and Song Ziqing in front, Cai Ye finally said what he had been thinking about for a long time: "In addition to logistics, we also have other plans!" There was another general strike in Russia last month, and more than 200,000 telegrams were sent back from Lu Zhengxiang, a sign of the pre-May 10 riots in Japan. If you send troops, you must be prepared in advance, and once the situation in Russia deteriorates, it is a question of whether to withdraw immediately or intervene with arms!

I agree with Baili. There is an inevitable geopolitical conflict between us and Russia, and there is no possibility of reconciliation of this contradiction at the moment! However, interference cannot be done just as it is said, and the current state does not have the financial resources to kill Russia with a stick, and rash intervention will only deepen the contradictions with Russia, which will lead to even greater conflicts in the future. Moreover, we can no longer coexist with Japan, and if the north is also restless, a two-front attack will inevitably occur, unless ...... Unless it is supported by Britain and the United States, right? Yang Qiu gave him the answer.

Cai Yi nodded: "Without the support of Britain and the United States, my country's current national strength cannot stop a two-front war." Only by allowing Britain and the United States to restrain Japan's rat trap will they have a chance to interfere with Russia. ”

Yang Qiu took a deep breath. China has never lacked strategists, with thousands of years of dynastic changes. How can there be no visionary figures on the soil that has given birth to hundreds of famous generals through the ages? Cai Ye and Jiang Fangzhen are the best portrayal, in a fog, they can see through all kinds of signs that Russia is bound to have civil strife, and also see the necessary external conditions for intervention! Thinking about how to end without starting is the reason why they can be proud of the Republic of China.

But they were not themselves after all, and they could not see through the eyes of the future, and when the poor party took power and signed the Peace of Brest with Germany, how angry Britain and France would be! In the face of the current quietly changing situation of the war, once history continues to follow the trajectory, France, which is suffering even more, will inevitably seek to carry out external intervention against Russia to drag Russia back into the war, and they will certainly need to intervene in Russia without their own strength. Historically, China has been powerless. Japan was anxious to absorb Qingdao and Shandong, so it did not create the Czech Legion until the end of the war, but now that China, which has a long border with Russia, has stabilized and has a certain strength, they will definitely have other ideas, which is why he suddenly changed his attitude and strengthened relations with France, and decided to visit France first.

Practice has proven. China, a country that lacks technology and has not yet come out of feudalism and has been pulled away by the world for many years, must rely on external blood transfusions if it wants to catch up, first Germany and then the United States, and now France has begun to improve.

That alone was enough for him to make the choice of sending troops.

But Song Ziqing and Cai Ye are not wrong in their worries, after the trip to the north, everyone has been completely disappointed with the road, tens of thousands of people may be able to grit their teeth and persevere, once it involves a few divisions or even army-level battles, they will be completely blind. Historically, in addition to withdrawing from Siberia under pressure from the United States, Japan was also overwhelmed by Soviet partisans because of the long supply lines and had to withdraw 100,000 troops. He is not an immortal, and he does not have millions of troops under his command who can watch every inch of the supply line, so he will also encounter these situations after making a move. So from the beginning he did not intend to fall into this quagmire, and when he walked to the map, his finger suddenly went straight from Kulen to the most important transit point on the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Irkutsk fortress, which is known as the pearl of Lake Belga.

This action made Song Ziqing and Cai Ye stand up suddenly, and their eyes suddenly became clear. Afterwards, no one knew what kind of explanation Yang Qiu made at this small party to persuade the three of them, and it was only when Miao Luo walked into the house with a happy face that he heard his man say this: "Make sure to control this place for at least five years!" cut off Russia's European orientation from Siberia and give the North a five-year buffer period without any external interference...... To be continued...... rq！！！