As for whether to come or not, it is not up to Chen Jingyun to control, if they really want the courage to come to Fuzhou, then it doesn't hurt for Chen Jingyun to raise it, anyway, with the support of the Bethlehem contract, it is not a problem to raise a few boats. As for the so-called [***] Chen Jingyun, it doesn't matter, anyway, everyone is about to tear their faces now, it's not such a trivial matter.

Sa Zhenbing said: "With the word commander, I will mention them first and thank the commander." ”

After saying this, Yu Wentao on the side had already handed over a heavy plan in his hand: "Commander, according to the contract between us and Bethlehem, our Navy Department has drawn up a preliminary plan for the reconstruction of the navy!" ”

After Chen Jingyun took the plan, he opened it and said, "Tell me!" ”

Although this naval reconstruction plan is said to be planned by the Navy Department, in fact, it was made by Sa Zhenbing and Yu Wentao together, after all, this matter is still a secret, and it is impossible for ordinary naval officers and soldiers to know, and in addition, there is a lack of sufficient talents in the Navy Department of the National Army, and these development plans and other things can only be done by Sa Zhenbing and Yu Wentao.

Yu Wentao raised his voice and said: "According to the Bethlehem contract we signed with the United States, we can get about 50 million yuan in construction funds, of which 10 million is for the expansion of the Mawei Shipyard and the construction of the Navy Gun Factory, and because the Mawei Shipyard and the Gun Factory belong to the Fuzhou Arsenal, the Fuzhou Arsenal is responsible for the specific affairs in this regard." And our Navy Department has formulated a ship purchase plan based on the remaining 40 million yuan!

In view of the current scale of the Fuzhou fleet and in consideration of the future development of the Chinese Navy, the Navy Department plans to purchase ships mainly to train ships and train talents.

It is estimated that a 10,000-ton first-class cruiser will be ordered, equipped with four eight-inch guns, and the estimated purchase unit price will be 8 million yuan. Two 5,000-ton second-class cruisers are expected to be purchased at a unit price of about 400,000 yuan, two 3,000-ton third-class cruisers are expected to be purchased at a unit price of 3 million yuan, and four 2,000-ton reconnaissance destroyers are expected to be purchased at a unit price of 2.5 million yuan.

The total purchase amount will be controlled within 40 million yuan, and if it goes smoothly, it will be possible to build the Fuzhou fleet into a fleet with basic ocean-going combat capability. ”

Chen Jingyun looked at the plan in his hand, and had some understanding of the idea of the Navy Department, the first point was that because the money was given by the United States, and 40 million of it was limited to the purchase of warships in the United States, it was said that all the money must be used to purchase warships, and it was impossible to set aside funds for maintaining the navy. But this money is not too much, and it is not too much to say less. Compared with the US Navy's military expenditure in 1912, which was about 120 million US dollars, the funds for this naval program were 25 million US dollars, which seems to be a lot, but the US Navy is hundreds of millions of US dollars every year, and the more than 20 million US dollars in Chen Jingyun's hand are used immediately, but not every year, it can be said to be a surname transaction, even if the United States wants to continue to support it in the future, it is impossible to continue to provide unsecured loans on a large scale, besides, even if it is an unsecured loan, it will have to be repaid. Based on the current state of China's economy, it is unlikely that there will be a large-scale expansion of the navy before the large-scale development of industry and commerce.

How to put it, this is a hammer deal! Building a ship is also a surname, and it is impossible to give so much money to build a ship every year.

After Chen Jingyun looked at it, he said: "I think the plan of the Navy Department is still okay, but we can't do the plan for building ships ourselves, and we have to see what the United States means." After all, we are buying their warships, and they have to have them before they can be sure! ”

However, as soon as Chen Jingyun finished speaking, Sa Zhenbing over there said: "Commander, rest assured, we have negotiated with the United States before formulating the plan, and the main ship types are based on the US Navy, and they have also sent the general data and prices." Of course, the specific situation needs to be agreed between the two sides! ”

Chen Jingyun nodded and said, "Well, you Navy Department will take care of this matter!" ”

Speaking of this, Chen Jingyun thought of the aircraft carrier again, but the aircraft carrier is still too far away, and it is estimated that it will take a few years to talk about the aircraft now, but now that the aircraft carrier is the main force in the future, it is time to build the navy around the aircraft carrier battle group. Chen Jingyun didn't know much about the rest of the aircraft carrier, but he knew that the aircraft carrier formation required extremely high speed, so if he built a ship, he had to choose a high-speed warship.

So after thinking about it, he said: "I looked, the speed of the warships in your plan above seems to be too low, only more than 20 knots, I give a general requirement, that is, the speed of the ocean-going mobile fleet should be maintained at 30 knots, even if it does not meet such a requirement, it should not be too far behind." ”

I was also afraid that they wouldn't understand, and I couldn't explain these things to them, so I simply said: "Whether it's now or for a period of time in the future, we can't fight hard with myself, this head-on fight must not be beatable, since you can't beat it, you have to run it, when the time comes, you can rely on the speed of the enemy to advance and I retreat, I retreat and I advance!" ”

In fact, this idea is not new, it is basically the way of high-speed cruiser formation, Sa Zhenbing and Yu Wentao have considered this problem when planning battleships before, but the speed of battleships in this year is still more than 20 knots, even most of the battlecruisers are only about 278 knots, so it is enough to get rid of the enemy's main fleet without a high speed of 30 knots, so their planning book does not require a high speed of more than 30 knots.

It's just that Chen Jingyun asked like this, and Sa Zhenbing could only say: "Okay, I will negotiate with the United States!" ”

This plan is only a preliminary plan at present, the specific ship type, the specific cost, etc. still need to be discussed in detail by the personnel of both sides, these things naturally cannot be completed in a day or two, Chen Jingyun is not in a hurry for the navy, just take your time.

When Chen Jingyun was busy with the Americans in August and September, Yuan Shikai also paid close attention to the domestic situation, although the newspapers said every day that the republic was over, the world was peaceful, and they lived and worked in peace and contentment, but in fact, the domestic situation was becoming more and more tense, and there was still a chaotic war in Sichuan. And Guangxi's Lu Rongting is also grinding his fists, and now he has also made about four divisions of troops, and Guangdong is also in chaos, Hu Hanmin, who originally went to Nanjing, returned to Guangdong as the governor with the support of Sun Wen after the disbandment of Nanjing's political axe, although Chen Jiongming was unwilling but could not do anything, but the contradiction between the two has become more and more intensified, although Hu Hanmin became the governor, but Chen Jiongming previously established two divisions in Guangdong, although the combat effectiveness is not good, but it is 20,000 troops, So it's kind of supportive.

Long Jiguang, who was entrenched in Guilin, also stared at the direction of Guangzhou, as long as there was turmoil in Guangzhou, Long Jiguang would definitely lead a large army to attack Guangzhou.

The warlords in the south were restless, and Yuan Shikai in the north did not relax, on the one hand, he was actively negotiating with the banking group, trying to get a big loan for the aftermath as soon as possible, and on the other hand, he was also in the midst of the general trend of army expansion. In addition to supplementing the losses suffered during the suppression of the Wuchang Uprising in Xinhai years, Yuan Shikai also recruited many new recruits, and built a new seventh division based on the Zhili Mixed Association, formed the eighth division based on part of the Jiangbei battalion and the Jiangfang army under Zhang Xun, and formed the ninth division based on the Henan New Army and after drawing some troops from the second town.

You must know that the division under Yuan Shikai is a large establishment of four infantry regiments and a 54-gun artillery regiment, unlike Chen Jingyun's division, which only has three infantry regiments and a 36-gun artillery regiment. Most of Yuan Shikai's ordnance sources came from Yuben and Germany, and a considerable part of them were self-made, which was similar to Chen Jingyun.

So far, Yuan Shikai has the 1st to 9th Divisions, the 20th Division, the 23rd Division, and then a 16th Division reorganized from the Praetorian Guard. There were a total of 12 regular divisions, in addition to a considerable number of other units, such as the Yi Army of the attached faction, the 3rd Mixed Brigade trained in Shandong, and two mixed brigades in the northeast.

These troops add up to hundreds of thousands, which is the highest in the country. Of course, at the same time as the Beiyang Army expanded its army on a large scale, the original qualified officers also became scarce, and the weapons and equipment became insufficient, although Yuan Shikai tried his best to raise money to buy ordnance, but at this time Yuan Shikai did not have a large arsenal on hand, and could not make his own weapons and ammunition like Hubei or Fujian, basically Yuan Shikai even had to buy rifle bullets, not to mention other ordnance, so the purchase price was naturally extremely high.

In this kind of arms procurement, he can be said to have made enough money, because of the proximity of the place, and Beiyang has a tradition of using this weapon, so Beiyang has purchased this weapon on a large scale.

When a large number of arms purchases are related to the banking group, in recent times, the company has gradually tended to support the pro-Japanese faction within Beiyang, which can be seen from the fact that he does not mention providing loans to Chen Jingyun and no longer takes the initiative to send military instructors to Fuzhou.

When Chen Jingyun occupied Zhejiang, he was afraid that Chen Jingyun would continue to expand, and then it was not to support Chen Jingyun against Yuan Shikai, but to support Yuan Shikai against Chen Jingyun. He needs to be a balance between the two sides, a balance that can allow him to seek greater benefits, and he does not want to see either side strong.

Now the situation in China is secretly tense, but on the surface it is harmonious, Yuan Shikai even officially invited Sun Wen to go north in September to discuss state affairs, and Sun Wen also agreed with a smile.

Sun Wen also invited Cai Ye and Chen Jingyun to also go north, but Chen Jingyun smiled and said that he was sick and didn't go, and Cai Yi also said that he would wait for the next year. If you go to Yanjing, you have to put a question mark on whether you can come back. Besides, Chen Jingyun doesn't have the spare time to go to Yanjing now, because of the cooperative relationship with the United States, in addition to many machinery and equipment and naval warships, he also purchased a considerable batch of artillery, although the American goods are more expensive than the original goods, but Chen Jingyun still bought two regiments of 75 mm caliber artillery regiments, and then purchased a battalion of 105 mm caliber field guns, and these nearly 100 guns are several million.

Now that they are ready to buy two artillery regiments, then they have to form two more infantry divisions!

In 1912, Yuan Shikai was expanding the army, Chen Jingyun was also expanding the army, Cai Yi was also expanding the army, and other warlords were also expanding the army, which was basically an arms race. Although it is not tasteful compared with the arms race in the West, it has also greatly stimulated the price of arms in the Far East, although it has not doubled, but it has risen by as much as two or three layers.