Major General Madahan, a Finn, followed the French scientific group to spy on various intelligence from Kashgar to the eight northwestern provinces of Beijing ten years ago, paving the way for Tsarist Russia to immerse himself in the northwest. At that time, because he was holding a Finnish passport, once he was arrested by the Qing government, Russia could have room for relaxation, and today, also because he was a Finn to find a reason, he was sent to Yunnan again.

Just as Germany was unable to fight on two fronts, Russia was pinned down by China in the Far East, and it was also unbearable. Once China cuts off the Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia's foreign trade is only two seaports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk on the Arctic Ocean, but these two seaports are close to the Arctic Circle, and it is difficult to transport materials from East Asia, and there is no shortage of Chinese laborers who can save money without losing money when they die, and the Murmansk Railway has not been able to be repaired, and now it can only rely on a port in Arkhangelsk to maintain import and export trade.

As German submarine warfare raged and began to be deployed on the Arctic Ocean route, there were fewer and fewer merchant ships to and from Arkhangelsk, and if China was really provoked to cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Russian army would immediately fall into a state of collapse with a shortage of ammunition and guns -- and now Russia is completely dependent on China and Japan for the supply of ammunition and ammunition, and even if it produces its own part, its raw materials come from China.

It is the best choice for Russia and even the Entente to maintain the current truce relationship with China and to settle the Far Eastern problem after the end of the war in Europe, but according to the investigation of the Russian intelligence department, the State Security Bureau, which is the largest in the world and has 15,000 workers, it was found that the Western Regions Railway under construction in China is a heavy-haul railway, with a load of more than 2,500 tons on a single train;

Then according to the missionary's description of the setting of each station, the length to the departure line, the slope, the radius of the curve, etc. It can be judged that the line can open 24 pairs of trains per day, and the transportation capacity from east to west in a single day is 30,000 tons. It is more than the combined volume of the Trans-Caspian Railway and the Central Asian Railway, and if this railway is built to Ili. Then Russia's original transportation advantages will be gone. Although there were many Russian immigrants in Central Asia, the local pagans have always been inexhaustible, because when the Western Regions Railway was built to Ili, it was the time when the Chinese intervened in Central Asia and provoked chaos.

In addition, according to the State Security Bureau's spying on the revolutionary party in China, the Bolsheviks, who have now become the largest force in the revolutionary party, are financed by East Asia -- after the outbreak of the Russian-Chinese war, the Chinese government and Chinese businessmen began to refuse to accept rubles, and at the same time, the rubles in their hands were also exchanged into the currencies of other countries through financial institutions in Europe and the United States. However, because the amount of rubles exchanged was too large, some rubles were still in the hands of China, but these rubles, which were transferred to the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank, flowed out of the hands of the Bolsheviks frequently, which shows that China not only supported the Russian Revolutionary Party, but also did not hide this relationship in the slightest, and was unscrupulous.

The financing of the domestic revolutionary party and the Western Regions Railway, which will be opened to traffic in the next two or three years, made the tsar's close ministers believe that Russia will not create some more incidents to provoke domestic contradictions in China. Disrupting the Baath government's plan to conquer the Western Regions would conceivably prevent Central Asia from being occupied by China without the end of the war in Europe. Yes, between short-term weakness and long-term benefits. The Tsar finally decided to support the Chinese Revolutionary Party in making troubles far from the Russian sphere of influence in order to contain China's westward advance.

As for whether France agreed to transport the arms of the revolutionary army to Kunming, it was a diplomatic mediation. After the Eastern Front offensive last year. Russia paid a heavy price to give the Anglo-French forces on the Western Front a rare respite, and now the German front is turning to the Western Front. In particular, the battle for Paris, which had just begun, caused tens of thousands of daily casualties among the British and French troops. It is expected that at the end of this year, when Britain and France will not be able to withstand it, they will beg Russia to launch an offensive to relieve the pressure on the Western Front.

If Britain and France do not support Russia's troubles in Yunnan, and do not help Russia conceal and assist in this matter, then the Russian army will stop on the Eastern Front, not only will it not share the pressure of the Russian army, but it may even withdraw from the war. Therefore, following the warning of Russian Foreign Minister Sazonov, French President Poincaré had to order Governor Annan to let the arms of the revolutionary party cross the border, and be ready to bear the blame for the Russians at any time.

Chen Qimei sat comfortably opposite Madahan, although he couldn't see through the international situation and the intrigue between the powers, he could still feel that the current Madahan and the French could be trusted, but he didn't know what would happen to Mr., himself, and the Finnish in front of him after Yang Jingcheng chose to join the Entente.

"Mr. Madahan, this means that tomorrow we can issue a law protector against Yang and the enemy?" Chen Qimei exhaled deeply, excited and uneasy.

"Yes. That's what we've agreed to be. Madahan laughed. Is your article ready? ”

"It's already written." Chen Qimei stood up suddenly, he wanted to beg Ma Dahan to persuade Mr. Zhongshan not to go to Kunming, but after thinking about it, he would not agree. Mr. Zhongshan is the banner of the revolution, and his uprising in Kunming's will certainly be much weaker, which is what Russia, which is bent on making a big deal out of it. "Mr. Madahan, I will go back now and inform Mr. that tomorrow I will send a telegram to declare the independence of Yunnan!"

On January 29, 1916, the Yunnan Revolutionary Governor's Mansion was led by Mr. Sun Zhongshan, a great revolutionary, and Mr. Liang Qichao, the leader of the Constitutional Protectorate, and declared the independence of Yunnan; At the same time, the Yunnan Revolutionary General Headquarters issued a telegram to all provinces in China, accusing the Baath Council government of being a dictatorial government, exposing its ten major crimes, such as rebuilding feudalism, restoring the imperial system, violating the Constitution, plundering people's wealth, preying on the gentry, and persecuting celebrities, and calling on righteous people all over the world to discuss it.

Yandian is shocked all over the world! The pioneer of China's modern national democratic revolution, the great forerunner of China's democratic revolution, the founder of the Republic of China and the Chinese Kuomintang, and the advocate of the Three People's Principles [Note 1: This sentence is copied and pasted from Baidu Encyclopedia.] ], the founding father of the Republic of China, empty two spaces [Note 2: This comes from the Wikipedia title and the habit of vertical typesetting books in Taiwan. Mr. Sun Zhongshan appointed Cai Ye as the commander-in-chief of the First Army of the Yunnan Revolutionary Army, Li Liejun as the commander-in-chief of the Second Army, Tang Jiyao as the commander-in-chief of the Third Army, and Hu Yisheng as the commander-in-chief of the Fourth Army, and announced that the revolutionary army would begin the Northern Expedition on the same day. In order to achieve the goal of overthrowing the autocratic government and rebuilding the democratic republic.

Yunnan is in chaos. The Shanghai stock market was the first to be turbulent, but after the stocks fell, a huge amount of money suddenly came out of the tray. Those shareholders who threw away their stocks in a trance due to the war are unable to regret it at the moment, but if they throw it away, they will throw it away, and the loss of one out and one in is unavoidable. Outside the stock market, there was also a lot of controversy in the press circles, and although the penmen who hated the government because of the Zhang Yuanji case and the land reform were not able to loudly applaud Yunnan's uprising because of the increasingly strict newspaper censorship system, there were not a few articles in the newspapers that were "overjoyed with poetry and books."

The literati discussed that the dynasty had committed many acts of injustice to provoke this great chaos, and those landlords who had wanted to look around again began to take a chance as soon as they heard that the Constitutional Protector Party and Liang Qichao had participated in the uprising in Yunnan. At present, I will no longer go to the yamen to sign and draw a pledge, but I only hope that the northern expedition of the four armies of Yunnan will be successful.

As public opinion was concerned, 12 of the 20 Yunnan deputies of the Inspectorate had learned of the rebellion in advance and had taken refuge in the Tianjin Concession before the uprising, and then fled to Shanghai to watch or to Vietnam, while the other eight deputies went to the Prime Minister's Office to reprimand Yunnan for causing chaos to the country and the people, and demanded that the Prime Minister send troops into Yunnan to quell the rebellion on the same day. In order to return the tranquility of the people of Yunnan.

The deputies were righteous, but Yin'an Hall did not immediately announce that they would send troops immediately, and Yang Rui asked the delegates to wait for a few days for the questioning of the Inspectorate. The matter dragged on until the afternoon of the twenty-seventh day of the Yamen seal. In the morning of the same day, the Information Office of the Prime Minister's Office informed Chinese and foreign reporters to attend the press conference, and Lu Bicheng, who had already decided to resign and traveled all over Europe and the United States, still recited the press release without expression, when she heard her claim that the Yunnan rebellion was caused by Sun Wen's collusion with Russia. There was chaos in the press conference room.

No one believed that Russia would collude with the opposition forces in China to launch a rebellion in China, which was unacceptable to any civilized country. Moreover, Yunnan is not at all Russia's sphere of influence, and if Russia wants to support the rebellion in China. It should be in the Western Regions or Mongolia, not in Yunnan at all.

In the face of the doubts of reporters, especially foreign reporters, at the suggestion of Lu Bicheng, the staff members next to him began to distribute a stack of photos, including photos of Chen Qimei, the No. 2 wanted criminal in China, talking and negotiating with the Russians, photos of Sun Wen talking and laughing with the Russians in Annam, and photos of Liang Qichao and Sun Wen. When the reporter circulated these photos, Mo Li, who has always been pro-China, asked puzzledly: "May I ask Ms. Lu, how did these photos come about?" If you can take these pictures, why can't you arrest them? ”

As if he had known this question, it was also at the suggestion of Lu Bicheng that a small display cabinet with lights was carefully arranged, and Lu Bicheng said: "Ladies and gentlemen, in view of the breakthrough of the Royal Chinese Academy of Sciences in photographic film materials, China's Phoenix Photographic Products Company will launch Phoenix cameras and Phoenix films from now on. The camera used for this shoot was a Phoenix camera that was small and easy to hide without exposure......"

A good state conference turned into a new product launch conference, and starting from the introduction of the Phoenix camera and Phoenix film, Lu Bicheng never mentioned half a sentence about the Yunnan rebellion, so that when the staff announced the end of the press conference, the reporters found that the Prime Minister's Office only mentioned that the Yunnan rebellion was carried out by Russian spies supporting the rebellious party, and did not say anything about how the government would deal with it, and did not mention a word about when the army would be sent to quell the rebellion.

Donald, a reporter from the Far Eastern Times, who has always been unfriendly to China, suddenly shouted: "Gentlemen, this is a conspiracy of the Germans, and even if these photos are true, it can only prove that the Finns are supporting the Chinese revolutionaries in launching a rebellion in Yunnan, which has nothing to do with Russia." ”

"But the arms of the rebels are all from Russia, and they are part of the arms sold by China to Russia." The reporter of the China Times had inside information, and he walked away after an initiative here, so Huang Yuansheng, a reporter from the Imperial Daily who has always been a staunch supporter of the government, immediately refuted the words of the British. "This man's name is Madahan, and his real name is Karl. Gustav. A Finn from Mannerheim, a graduate of the Nikolai Cavalry School in Petersburg, a member of the Tsar's guard, was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 52nd Russian Dragoon Regiment in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War, and was promoted to colonel during the Battle of Mukden for killing nearly 100 Japanese soldiers and defeating the Japanese pursuit......"

Just now, Lu Bicheng just announced the name and photo, and the rest of the things were automatically added by the reporter, I don't want Huang Yuansheng to pay attention to the history of the Russo-Japanese War before, and he knew the details of this person as soon as he heard the name. Huang Yuansheng mentioned it here. Mao Nakajima, the editor-in-chief of the Shuntian Times who has returned to the capital, also jumped out excitedly and shouted: "I can vouch for it with my personality." This person is definitely a cavalry officer of the Lu Army. Gentlemen, there is a de facto truce between China and the two countries. And with the growth of trade, there is already the possibility of negotiating peace, but it is unwise for Lu to rashly support China's opposition forces. ”

Chinese fart and Japanese call incense, this is the current diplomatic relations between China and Japan. Soon after the start of the European war, the two countries began to negotiate peace, and even if diplomatic relations were established after the peace talks, they would be hostile to each other, but after the peace talks between China and Japan, they actually showed that they were like glue, and they would be tired of doing everything together. Sell arms and sell arms. The two countries set up military sales companies, consistent pricing, division of production, slaughtering customers, and making money every day; The two countries are also entangled in shipping, not to mention controlling the shipping logistics of the whole of Asia, and also sending merchant ships to the Atlantic Ocean to stir up peace, in the name of supporting the ocean freight of Britain and France;

Even in the case of steel and coal, the two countries have formed the Asia Coal and Steel Joint Venture Co., Ltd., despite the strong opposition of the United States based on the open-door policy, and flooded the Asian coal market with low-cost Fushun open-pit coal. It is conceivable that even if the war ended, the coal market in East Asia would be monopolized by this company; And steel is even more infuriating, China and Japan steel not only occupy the whole of Asia. It also took advantage of the high price period when American steel and shipping could not keep up with the increase in steel for a while, and transported a large amount of steel into the western United States, which made a lot of money.

Eleven years ago, the United States supported Japan's victory over Russia. But afterwards, Japan turned its face and did not recognize people, and Prime Minister Katsura Taro tore up the draft of the sale of the South Manchurian Railway; Ten years later. The United States, which originally supported China in resisting Japanese aggression, was later abandoned by China. Against the backdrop of China and Japan getting closer and closer, the opposition party in the US Congress, which is well aware of the situation, attacked Wilson's policy of dialogue, claiming that Mahan's Germany has dragged Europe into hell, and if the president follows in the footsteps of Wilhelm II, then the United States will eventually go to hell.

The industrial alliance and the stimulus of the war in Europe caused a surge in the financial surpluses and gold reserves of China and Japan, and according to Japan's internal estimates, as long as the European war lasted for another two years, Japan would not only be able to pay off all its internal and external debts, but also have a surplus in its finances. As soon as this news came out, coupled with the stimulus of China building two 20,000-class ships in one go, the Japanese Navy immediately put forward the 84 shipbuilding plan.

However, this matter was vetoed by the Congress -- although the slipway is now sufficient, and the high-grade steel required for building ships has also been solved by the Benxi Steel Mill, when Japan has the money to build ships, with the current speed at which the two countries are building standard ships and the speed at which German submarines sink merchant ships, I am afraid that all the shipwrights will not be able to make up for the merchant ships sunk by German submarines without sleeping day and night, and now China and Japan are making up for the losses of British merchant ships with the stock of merchant ships, but if one day there is a shortage of merchant ships and submarines can no longer be concealed, that will be the beginning of the world's shipbuilding race. Whether China and Japan can surpass the United States in the amount of merchant ships launched and reach the target of 10 million tons of merchant ships is a question that determines whether the two countries can control freight rates and how much money they can make in the wartime world shipping market.

One qiē and one qiē are in shipping, which is the common understanding of the high-level of the two countries. Therefore, on the last office day of the fourth year of Shenwu, Yang Rui was no longer in the capital, but inspected the Tianjin Taigu Shipyard, accompanied by Xu Huafeng and Chen Shishi of the Ministry of Industry, Yan Deqing, a waiter of the Ministry of Transportation, Zhao Bingjun, the governor of Zhili, and Wu Yulin, the general office of the Tianjin Dagu Shipyard.

Dagu is the key place of Jinmen, every time a foreign enemy invades, Dagu is the first to bear the brunt, after Gengzi, the forts are all bulldozed, and this place can no longer be called a key place; Dagu is like this, and Dagu Shipyard is also like the fate of Dagu, after several twists and turns, it has only been rebuilt on a large scale until today.

"My lord, this is the dock." Wu Yulin, the general office of the shipyard, pointed to the docks full of workers and cranes around the east and said, countless riveters clanged, everyone's eyes looked at the standard war slag ship that was about to be built, its hull seemed to be about to be completed, at the current speed of shipbuilding, it would not take many days to be launched and outfitted, and then handed over to the merchant ship crew who had been waiting for a long time - because every merchant ship is the same, so the merchant ship crew is streamlined training, through guò training on the training ship, It didn't take long for them to master the usual boat handling techniques, and then several ships were formed into a team and sailed by veterans.

Yang Rui became more and more silent, if it was in the past, he might have asked a few more questions, but now that all shipyards across the country are building ships, the dock is not a rare thing. "If the new dockyard expansion is completed, how many ships can be built in that year?" Yang Rui stood on the pier of Tanah Lot Temple and glanced at the docks on the left and right. Then look at the turbine shop in front, and all the state-owned factories implement quality control. The entire shipyard looks neat and orderly, and the workers in various overalls are trotting as they walk.

"Back to the Prime Minister. Now it can build 100,000 tons of ships a year, and after the completion of all dock expansions, the annual output of standard ships can reach 200,000 tons. Wu Yulin replied with some pride, "It's just that it takes a lot of time to build a dock, and only 20,000 tons of docks have been built since the war, and the other 20,000 tons of docks will be built at the earliest, and it will not be until the end of this year at the earliest." ”

"What about the workers, is there a shortage of them?" The construction of the dock is not too difficult with the current shipbuilding technology. What is time-consuming and laborious is actually riveting, which accounts for 30% of the entire ship's man-hours, so Yang Rui's next problem is workers.

"Back to the premier, there are many shipbuilders in Tianjin, and many of the technical schools jointly run by the Ministry of Education and Industry teach shipbuilding, and there are not only many students, but also smart and obedient. Now the shipyard can launch 100,000 tons a year, and it still depends on their strength. Wu Yulin said carefully. When he first took over the shipyard, he was worried about the lack of manpower. I didn't want a steady stream of students from technical schools from all over the country to come, and the problem of workers was finally solved. He continued: "Prime Minister, the morale of the shipyard workers is very high now, but everyone also knows that this shipbuilding is because of the war between the Europeans and foreigners. They are worried that the foreigners will not fight, and this shipyard ......"

The concern that Wu Yulin said is that all shipyard workers are worried, but this issue has been resolved at a cabinet meeting some time ago. Yang Rui didn't want to answer. Xu Huafeng of the Ministry of Industry next to him said: "Last month, the ministries have already discussed, after the armistice in Europe. All technical school students enter a preparatory school for two to three years, and then take the college entrance examination for the faculty. Those who pass guò enter the university hall ......"

College students are generally golden, every year's graduates have not left school by government ministries and commissions, state-owned private companies to rob them, if the shipwright can go to college and graduate, it is no different from being an official, Wu Yulin heard that there is such a good thing, his eyes are straight, he said: "Lord Xu, this is ...... How many workers can enter the university hall? ”

"Now the university hall enrolls 20,000 students a year, and according to the plan, it will expand by 10,000 a year, and after eight years, it will enroll 100,000 a year. The expansion of university enrollment, but according to the original enrollment ratio of high schools, can not immediately have so many high school students graduate, that is to say, the 10,000 places in each of the three years are basically for boatmen, so if you calculate, there will be 40,000 university halls in three years. Four or five people can have one go to the university hall, which is not a lot. Xu Hua sealed. Besides, shipyards don't need so many people, and other factories also need people, and these 200,000 technical school students are too few. ”

Xu Huafeng solved the problem that Wu Yulin was worried about day and night in a few words, in order to appease the workers, he only said that the court would definitely arrange it, but he was afraid that the court would earn the money and not care about other things. He was happy at the moment: "The lower officials announced this matter overnight, and the workers can finally rest assured......

"How long does it take for a merchant ship to be launched now?" Seeing that Yang Rui did the same as he used to inspect the factory, he didn't look at the workshop and looked at the canteen and toilet first, Xu Huafeng wanted to laugh but was not funny, so he began to ask some technical details.

"Back to my lord, the boats are all exactly the same, so they are built very quickly, and they work in three shifts day and night, and one can be launched in three months." Wu Yulin said, he said that Xu Huafeng nodded, and then said: "If welding can be used, then using the segmented shipyard method, it will not take two months to launch a ship." ”

"How much time can you save?" Xu Huafeng asked.

"Yes, sir. Sectional shipbuilding can save at least thirty percent of man-hours, and is not limited to the region, does not look at the weather, and does not occupy the dock, but now the workers are not familiar with this technology, and the engineers are also worried that this kind of ship is not durable, so they first built a two-hundred-ton boat to test the test, and now the test is not very good, and some welding parts are broken when the sea conditions are bad...... "Wu Yulin shook his head, very sorry for this, if it can be welded and shipbuilding, the shipbuilding capacity of Dagu shipyard can at least double.

"The Ministry of Engineering is solving the welding problem, and there will be results." Xu Hua sealed. Welding is a complex technical problem, which is not only related to the welding technology itself, but also related to marine steel plates. According to the current research, boiling steel is not suitable for shipbuilding in the way of welding processing, and only calm steel can become a good welding base material. The technical department has developed the welding technology that matches the calm steel, but the problem is that the calm steel is the raw material for the production of alloy steel, and its technical difficulty, production cost, and working hours are very high. (To be continued......)