The day after the contract was signed, the German government announced that in retaliation for the starvation blockade of the British Navy, the waters near the British Isles, including the English Channel, would be designated as an engagement zone, and the German Navy would sink all enemy ships in the engagement zone. Because British merchant ships frequently flew the flag of neutral countries, the German navy would indiscriminately attack ships in the war zone, and the ships of neutral countries would be responsible for the losses themselves.

Yang Rui, who saw the telegram, exhaled deeply, and he didn't know why Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare more than a month later than in history, but fortunately, at least the reality was moving forward in the direction of history. Based on Germany's current scale of 100 submarines, the number of merchant ships sunk every month is estimated to double according to the calculations of the General Staff Headquarters, and it is estimated that the number of merchant ships sunk will be doubled every year, or more than 4 million tons in a year. But this is only a numerical calculation, in history after the sinking of the British cruise ship "Lusitania", the Germans, in order not to anger the United States, in September of that year, terminated the unrestricted submarine warfare, just a few months, plus the limited number of submarines at that time, the results achieved were not too much.

"I'll call Zhang Shi right away." Yang Rui put down the telegram and said to Li Zilong with some excitement.

Half an hour later, Zhang Shi, commonly known as the Admiral of Xichang, hurriedly appeared in Yin'an Palace. As soon as others arrived, the slightly noisy offices outside suddenly fell silent, and Zhang Shi, who passed by the outside, could even hear the sound of cups falling to the ground and shattering in those small cubicles. He only felt funny about this, he felt that what everyone needed to be afraid of was Liu Boyuan's security bureau, and the intelligence bureau was only external.

Seeing that Zhang Shi came to see him alone without bringing a secretary, Yang Rui didn't say business immediately. Instead, he cared: "I heard that your marriage is not yellow again?" ”

"Yes, sir." Zhang Shi laughed embarrassedly. Stroked his nose. "People are too ugly, no one is rare."

"Fart!" Yang Rui handed him a cigarette and said with a smile: "A good man who is upright and talented, where is he ugly!" Nowadays, there are a lot of false rumors, and the teahouse restaurant has nothing to say, so I know that the two of you intelligence departments are being used to make fun of it, and all the jokes have come out. I heard that Yuanshi's wife is afraid to go out on the street now, and when people on the street see her, they hide from her. Those foolish people don't want to think about it, the east and west factories really want to be like everyone else. How can they be allowed to mock at will? ”

Yang Rui said words of relief, and Zhang Shi just smiled. He met a new school woman some time ago, met a few times, said a few words and liked it, the woman also liked him, I didn't want to mention the kiss, the woman's parents inquired about his official position, and took his family to the Tianjin concession overnight, and then found a Chinese person to say a lot of reasons. begging for mercy, hoping that Zhang Shi would let their whole family go. There was no result of begging for mercy here, so I took a boat to Japan over there, and things were so yellow.

Later, when Liu Boyuan reported the matter, Yang Rui laughed. After Liu Boyuan's explanation, he learned that the family was a Manchu official before. It is estimated that there were some treasures left at home when he entered Beijing that year, and he was very afraid of the government's investigation, and I heard that Zhang Shi was the governor of Xichang. Frightened, he fled overnight. Although Yang Rui knew what was going on, he was afraid that Zhang Shi's face would be thin. Just pretend not to know.

"Sir, what is the matter with Zhang Shilai this time?" Zhang Shi said. Quietly get the topic to the point.

"What's going on in Germany?" Yang Rui put down the half-smoked cigarette and remembered his original intention of finding Zhang Shi.

"The arms we sold to Russia were extremely effective, and Austria-Hungary suffered defeats in two months, and the Germans were fighting the fires everywhere. After the bombing of London was ineffective, and feeling that the war was gradually turning into a war of attrition, the Kaiser was finally persuaded by the chancellor and the general staff to agree to start unrestricted submarine warfare. Zhang Shi gave a brief introduction to the situation in Germany, which he had already reported last month.

"Hmm." Yang Rui agreed, and he asked again, "What about Leo, what is he doing?" ”

He suggested that the Kaiser immediately set up a national material control agency and a press control agency, but the Kaiser did not care about this. It is said that the Kaiser thought that it was a mistake for Mr. Wilhelm to go back, and that if he left China, Sino-German relations would plummet, especially since last month we sent a volunteer squadron to London to protect the legation, which made the Kaiser hate him even more. During this time, Mr. William should be at home, but it is also possible that he will be at the front to command the troops, and most likely to go to the Eastern Front. Zhang Shidao.

"Eastern Front?" Yang Rui had long guessed that Leo and his people would not be reused by the Kaiser when they returned, and in the eyes of the Germans, their importance was linked to China, and without China, they were nothing.

"Yes. Mr. Wilhelm believed that Russia was very weak, and that an early defeat of Russia would improve the situation of Germany on two fronts. As soon as he returned to Germany, he contacted Colonel Hoffmann on the Eastern Front, and then asked the Kaiser to send him to the Eastern Front, but the Kaiser still did not agree, and Mr. Wilhelm is a duke in our country, and if the army under his command is too small, I am afraid that I will be sorry for this title. Zhang Shidao.

As soon as Zhang Shi said Colonel Hoffman, Yang Rui remembered this German military attaché, he knew all the strategies and tactics of the Baath Army against Russia, and it was said that the siege of Tannenberg was the battle plan he drafted, and if Leo could mix with him, he would also have a confidant.

After asking about the things he cared about, Yang Rui said: "There is one thing that I came to you. Now that Germany has announced the start of unrestricted submarine warfare, the British will definitely find a way to sabotage, and their best way is to drag the United States into the water. Once an ocean-going liner in the Atlantic was sunk by a German submarine, there would be only two outcomes: either the U.S. government would start fighting Germany because of the death of American citizens and eventually declare war on Germany; Either Germany announced that it would abandon unrestricted submarine warfare and compromise with the United States, but ultimately lost the war because of lack of supplies.

As for us, how to earn enough construction funds in this war is what matters. The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry have already negotiated with the Japanese, and the two countries will work together to control the wartime shipping market, so we need the Germans to insist on unrestricted submarine warfare, so that the more merchant ships they sink, the more money we make. Therefore, we are to monitor every British cruise ship with Americans on board, inform it to Germany, and advise them to be careful not to fall into the tricks of the British.

Here's a way. But President Wilson, and the consortium that did business because of the European war, are all pro-British, and it is difficult to say how long this method can be careful. One day there will be Americans who will die in unrestricted submarine warfare. At that time, it is necessary to find a way to interfere with the decision-making of the German top and make them persist in unrestricted submarine warfare. Didn't the German Navy know wolf pack tactics. Those who feared the declaration of war by the United States that even if the United States declared war on Germany, his army would not escape the wolves and safely transported it across the oceans to the European continent.

This is one of them, and the second is to prevent large-scale shipbuilding in the United States. The United States is the only country that can surpass us and Japan in mass production of ships. Once the Americans are fully engaged in building ships, then our shipping revenues will shrink significantly. Now the CIA has come up with a solution that will take our merchant ships to the Atlantic to make up for the loss of British merchant ships, and then try to maintain a low freight rate. Make the Americans think that shipbuilding is unprofitable, and wait for a year after the implementation of unrestricted submarine warfare, and then raise the freight rate. It's just an economic strategy, and then there's the Germans instigating American shipbuilders to strike and so on. I believe that you can find a way to drag the shipbuilding industry of the Americans for a year or even longer. Having said all that, can you see what I mean? ”

"The gentleman meant two things, one was to exclude Germany's internal and external interference, and let them insist on unrestricted submarine warfare; The second is to delay and sabotage the shipbuilding of the Americans. So that when the freight rate is high, there are not so many merchant ships that can be put into operation. Zhang Shidao.

"Looks like I'm being verbose." Yang Rui smiled, this is actually a matter of two sentences, but in order to bring out some historical events. He had to ramble a few more words.

"Sir, there is no verbosity." Zhang Shi knew that Yang Ruiyan must be successful, and he was already thinking about how to start things. "Sir, if you can get the depth charges out there. Under the hype, then I think the Americans will think that unrestricted submarine warfare will not have a serious impact on shipping. The number of shipbuilders will not increase significantly. ”

"That's a way to do that, too." Yang Rui nodded. Because the training was together, the German Navy was fully aware of depth charge and anti-depth charge tactics – submarines were designed with dirty oil bunkers. In the event of a depth charge, the captain can open the oil tank and let the oil debris float to the surface, and the destroyer on the surface will think that the submarine has been sunk. At that time, the British Navy will find that the German submarines are fighting more and more, and when it finally finds out that something is wrong, it will be more than half a year later.

"I'll leave this to Japan. Sending merchant ships to the Atlantic to assist allies in transporting cargo is also their business, and we are outsiders after all. Yang Rui added.

"Okay. Mr. In addition, if the Germans want to buy our submarines, can we sell them them. Zhang Shi asked.

"Why, didn't the Germans disdain it last year and say that our submarine models are too old and don't want them at all." Hearing that Germany actually wanted to buy back submarines, Yang Rui's interest immediately increased.

"Last year was last year, but this year the news came that the German top brass thought that its number of submarines was too small and wanted the shipyard to build more submarines." Zhang Shidao. "If you talk about it again, it's very likely to be successful."

"Really!" Yang Rui said heavily, and his heart couldn't help beating violently several times. Although China is a non-belligerent country, if it sells submarines to Germany in large quantities at this time, it will definitely be pursued by Britain and France after the incident. If the secret is leaked during the sales process, it will definitely affect the earning of money, thinking of this, Yang Rui said. "Can you make sure that this is not discovered by British intelligence? Also, when Germany is defeated after the war, this matter will not be found out? ”

"The British intelligence officers are concerned about our army, and the navy is not the focus of their concern, and the number of submarines is too large, and there are many deliberate repetitions of the number of submarines, and there are still hundreds of ships sold in a third, even if the British ask for inspection, they can't find any clues. Transport is not a problem, Portuguese Mozambique can be used as a relay station, even if you don't go to Mozambique, you can go with the merchant fleet. As for the post-war ......," Zhang Shi considered: "Before the defeat of Germany, we can find a way to destroy those transaction documents, so as not to fall into the hands of Britain and France." ”

"There is no need to destroy it, the British and French troops will not occupy Germany, they will only disarm Germany and force him to sign a defeat treaty." Yang Rui himself was also thinking about this matter, "In this case, it can still be sold, but this matter must be negotiated with Krupp, and the payment for the goods will be paid by Krupp, and the less people know about the whole thing, the better......"

"I understand." Zhang Shidao. "It's just that how many submarines do we probably sell to Germany?"

"How many? Don't say how many ships there are first, we will deliver ten ships and ten ships after one qiē is negotiated, if the British don't pay attention. So how many ships can be sold, I asked the General Staff, and they said how many ships they would keep. Then keep as many ships as you want, and sell the rest. When Yang Rui said this, he suddenly thought of the two 25,000-ton aircraft carriers that were about to be ordered from Japan. The crews vacated on these submarines can be pulled to the aircraft carrier.

In just over 20 minutes of explanation, several major events related to wartime world shipping were thus determined. After Zhang Shi left, Yang Rui thought about it again, and felt that the speed of selling submarines to Germany should be controlled, otherwise the unrestricted submarine war would be too fierce, and the British would starve to death because of lack of food, and it would be fun for Germany to win.

He was thinking about it, and Li Zilong brought in the people from the Navy Design Bureau who were originally going to meet. Yang Rui thought it was just Wang Pingxuan's designers, but he didn't want Zhu Luhe, the head of the General Logistics Department, to bring a group of people in.

"Sir. These are all international students who studied in the UK a few years ago and then transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, and now the country's demand has made them return to China early. Zhu Luhe's introduction to the point, he pointed to the four humanists standing on the side, "These people are studying aviation, Ba Yuzao, Wang Zhu, Zeng Yijing, and Wang Xiaofeng." ”

Zhu Luhe said whose name it was, and whoever bowed to Yang Rui, and the names of the four Yang Rui were familiar with, that is, Ba Yuzao and Wang Zhu. But he didn't pretend to be a fan of these two, he felt that in the new environment, who would be successful and who would be mediocre, it would be interesting to see.

"Good! Very good! Yang Rui was rarely praised. As soon as he said this, the expressions of some reserved international students suddenly changed from restraint to excitement. But he said, "The country needs aircraft designers." There is also a need for ship designers, especially those with professional backgrounds. Originally. It is necessary to support you to set up your own design office and design bureau, just as you did to Feng Ru Aircraft Company before.

But. In order to let you have more experience and a more open-minded mind, we can only send you to the state-owned aircraft company to work hard. When you feel that you are qualified and can show your achievements, you can ask the General Logistics Department or the Ministry of Industry to approve the establishment of a new design office; If you feel that you are not valued and your achievements are not recognized, you can quit your job and write a business plan to convince the venture capital firm to invest in you, but this is a pure business practice, and the profit and loss are ...... you."

The General Logistics Department and the Ministry of Industry have been poached by venture capital companies managed by the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Commerce dares to poach because of Yang Rui's support. Now as soon as he heard that Yang Rui came to venture capital again, Zhu Luhe immediately smiled bitterly and said: "Sir, don't dig it, there will be no one here to dig the military industry again." ”

Zhu Luhe complained, but Yang Rui said: "I'm here to help you, when Feng Ru's gang was nationalized, can he have today?" State-owned companies must be there, but private companies cannot do without, and there will be no progress without competition. Besides, with the current situation of our country, who else can this aircraft be sold to the military government and exported? Let them set up their own company, then the pressure is all on themselves, whether it is a dragon or a tiger, it depends on their creation. ”

Ba Yuzao and Wang Zhu and others returned to China because they wanted to do a great career, but when they returned to China, they were worried that they would fall into political strife - when they were abroad, they had heard that the new dynasty did not like the Min navy very much, and although they were not all Fujian, they had something to do with the Fujian system, so they were always worried; As for those who studied shipbuilding, although they designed the Shenwu, they never knew what it was, and they didn't know until last year that it was the emperor's yacht, so they couldn't help but be a little disappointed.

After returning to China, the students were even more excited to learn that they could see the prime minister in person when they were flattered by the head of the general headquarters, Zhu Lu and Lieutenant General, but now that they heard the prime minister's words, they thought that they could be reused.

At this time, Yang Rui's words were not finished, and he continued: "My concept is still the same as before, technology determines success or failure. Since it is a human talent, what the government needs to do is to make it use what it has learned. For this reason, you all have two paths, one is to stay in the state-owned company, and then borrow the resources of the state-owned company to display your talents, and the other is to jump out of the state-owned company and go to the venture capital company of the Ministry of Commerce, they will not value your family affairs, your character, your academic qualifications, or even your talent, what they want is to make money, as long as your project can make money, and does not violate the patent law, they will invest in you, let you play your strengths.

The Taiwei Mansion, the Prime Minister's Office and the Tingwei Mansion all have special procurement departments, and all external procurement is subject to bidding; It doesn't matter if it's a state-owned company or a private company. All are treated equally; If someone violates the rules, even if it is a government violation. Then there is a special body called the Bidding Supervision Committee under the Inspectorate, and you can write your comments there. There is no need to sign the account, as long as there is real evidence, they will investigate the fraud, and those members of the House of Auditors, in order to be re-elected, the favorite thing to do is to catch rats and eliminate the harm of the people.

There are only two roads, and it is more comfortable in the DPRK, after all, there are advantages in first mover and resources; In the opposition, it is harder, but people are free. As long as you have the ability, or are not afraid of the company going bankrupt, you can sleep every day. ”

The unique welcome speech made these dozen international students applaud. Yang Rui didn't care, suppressed the applause and said: "But what I'm worried about is that you are so ambitious, and as soon as you come back, you want to reuse it, which is not right." Ideals are one thing, practice is another, that is, I really want to make a career. Then you should also suffer for a few years first, go to a state-owned company to work hard for a few years, and only when your wings are hard can you fly. ”

Seeing that the prime minister pointed out such a clear path, the international students present smiled again. Zhu Luhe kept shaking his head. He is public-minded, and he is very puzzled when he sees that Yang Rui only uses a state-owned company as a training station. Yang Rui saw him like this. And not to blame, in his opinion. As long as we do not embezzle or embezzle the tangible and intangible assets of state-owned companies, what is the pity of cultivating a few talents? Wouldn't it be a pity that the Faculty trains tens of millions of people for free every year?

And those college graduates. Many people who do not join state-owned companies go to private companies, do they have to ask for training fees? The most important thing for the government is to prosper the economy and develop science and technology, as long as the economy and science and technology are in the country, why care about public and private? On the contrary, in the future, the concept will be open, and the state should levy a resource occupation tax on those high-tech talents who immigrate to the United States, otherwise they will suffer a loss.

Yang Rui's welcome speech was just an episode, but these words made everyone present lively, and the rest of those who learned to build ships introduced themselves, Yang Rui heard the names of the Shenwu last time: Wang Pingxuan, Ye Zaifu, Wang Kaizhi, Ma Deji, Situ Quan, Guo Xifen, Wu Daming, Yu Jianfu.

Judging from the evaluation after use, the Shenmu is a generally successful design, but because the shipbuilding technology of the United States is too inferior, the people who go to supervise the construction of this kind of warship do not have much experience, and the construction is very unsuccessful, and the longer it is used, the more failures will occur. As for the fact that the Japanese will steal the ship's information, this is no longer a concern, after all, there are two aircraft carriers to be built by Japan, and with the care of the Japanese, no matter how to prevent it, the drawings will also be copied by them.

After the four people who studied aviation went out, the rest of the room was the people of the Shenwu design team, a drawing that had been grabbed by Zhu Lu and the adjutant was spread out, and the chief designer Wang Pingxuan stood on one side and was ready to introduce the situation of the new aircraft carrier to Yang Rui, but Yang Rui still looked at the ship's drawings and asked: "When will this ship be built?" ”

Unexpectedly, the prime minister was so anxious, Wang Pingxuan coughed and replied: "Back to the premier, the tonnage of this ship is as high as 27,500 tons, and with the progress of Japan's battleship, it can be completed in two years, but it will take another year to enter service, a total of three years." ”

The tonnage is not 25,000, Yang Rui made a silent calculation in his heart, feeling that according to this design, the tonnage of the aircraft carrier has reached nearly 130,000 tons, and I don't know if the European and American people will increase their aircraft carrier tonnage at the Washington Navy Conference, such as increasing it from 135,000 tons to 150,000 tons or more.

I will think about it later. Yang Rui asked again: "Compared with the Shenwu, what are the improvements?" ”

"Back to Prime Minister, this ship has not changed much due to the attack on Shenwu." Wang Pingxuan is a very honest person, and his answer is also very honest: "The biggest change is the power, the total power weight of the Shenwu is more than 7,400 tons, and the Japanese shipyard can borrow the power technology of the United Kingdom, and the same as the Hiei will use the improved Yarrow boiler, although the oil-coal mixed boiler is used this time, and the power compartment will also be staggered, but the total tonnage of the power system is still below 7,000 tons......

"Oil-coal mixed burning?" In the eyes of the designer, the Shenmu can only burn oil and not coal, because of the small tonnage, it is impossible to install a mixed oil and coal boiler, and now the tonnage of the new ship is large, and the Japanese shipbuilding technology is more superb than that of the American private shipyards, so this time they changed the boiler back, I really don't know what people say about them. (To be continued......)