Chapter 322 The opponent of the European War

After the incident of joining the Allied Powers spread, a huge storm soon caused in China..com's first release was naturally very excited about this matter. Many newspapers even claimed that this was because the heroic performance of the National Defense Forces in the Battle of Shandong was recognized by the British and French powers, so they were invited by the coalition forces to join the Allied Powers. In fact, Yan Guang took the initiative to apply.

However, some commentators believe that in the fierce European war, although China is an Allied organization that does not send troops to join, it is not a wise move to choose to take sides when the war is not clear. At least it should wait until some ends appear in the European war and choose which side to join.

After all, China and Germany have a good relationship, and the German army is famously strong. Now on the battlefields of the Eastern and Western Fronts, the war between the Allies and the Allies is stalemate and has not fallen at all. It is really not a wise thing to choose to join the Allies at this time.

If one day in the future, the allies rather than the Allies will win, then China will not be able to explain to Germany...

For a moment, the government and the country were arguing endlessly. Even in some schools, in teahouses and brothels, there were often voices of disputes.

However, the dispute below cannot affect Yan Guang.

After signing an agreement to join the Allied countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has begun to discuss matters such as changing the unequal treaties signed in the past with Britain, France and other countries.

This time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a big statement and directly took out all the concessions, unequal treaties, reparations and tariffs. Anyway, it was asking for a lot of prices and paying back the money.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' estimates, the only things that the great powers can agree to in the end are probably some insignificant treaties and reparations.

However, even if you can just waive the compensation, it is a great benefit.

After all, during the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government had to pay more than 50 million taels of silver almost every year, which was equivalent to about 90 million silver dollars. Although the part of Germany and Japan is missing now, it still has to pay more than 50 million to compensate the British and French powers every year...

More than 50 million yuan is naturally not worthy of this small amount of money, Britain, France and other countries, but for China, it is one-fourth of the fiscal revenue per year - calculated based on 700 million silver dollars per year.

More than 50 million...

The super dreadnought sold by the UK to Chile was only 25 million. This compensation was enough to buy two dreadnoughts for the Navy...

"Two dreadnoughts, if we really get the agreement, even if we only buy one for the navy every year, it will greatly improve the navy..."

In the living room of the Presidential Palace, Yan Guang smiled at Sa Zhenbing, who was sitting next to him.

After December, although Beijing is already covered with snow and the weather becomes colder, the Presidential Palace is not only equipped with air conditioners for summer, but also heating for winter, so it looks very warm indoors.

After hearing Yan Guang's words, Sa Zhenbing also put the Longjing tea in his hand aside and laughed softly.

"Yes..." Sa Zhenbing sighed again as he said. "Speaking of this, the President now allocates more than 100 million yuan of military expenditure to our navy every year. Unfortunately, Europe is now in a group, and the United States is only busy doing arms business in Europe. Otherwise, I really want to buy a dreadnought ship and come back to make flagships for the navy..."

"That's right, Europe and the United States are busy. Now they have money to buy something and don't pay any money... But now the Shipbuilding Bureau has started construction in the Chaofeng Ship. I believe that it will not be too far away from the dreadnought we built our own country..."

"This is due to the president's support for the Navy..."

"Where are, after all, we have suffered too much in the navy. It is impossible not to pay more attention to the navy..."

Half of the fiscal revenue of more than 700 million yuan in the year is used by Yan Guang for military expenditure. In this half, after allocating more than 100 million to the Navy, the remaining more than 200 million yuan was allocated to the Army and the Air Force respectively. The big of the more than 200 million yuan is the Army and the smallest head is the Air Force. After all, the air force aircraft now does not cost much, and it is almost enough for more than 10,000 yuan per aircraft. The most expensive one is the engine. As for other fuselages, it doesn’t cost much...

So even if the military expenditure is very small to the Air Force, it is enough to buy hundreds of planes in a year.

However, after the military expenditure was allocated, only a little over 200 million was in the hands of the army. Fortunately, the current size of the army is only at the number of more than 600,000, otherwise the military expenditure of more than 200,000 a year would not be enough.

"By the way, how is the progress of the Chaofeng Ship? Did Director Chen and Mr. Wei tell me when will the completion be completed?"

This sentence was not said to Sa Zhenbing, but to Yue Chang standing beside him.

When Yue Chang blurted out Yan Guang's words, he already understood that this sentence was said to him, so he quickly stood up and said. ("Net", watch the latest update of this book)

"Director Chen sent a message back a few days ago, saying that the progress of the Chaofeng Ship was very smooth, but because the German engineers on the Shipbuilding Bureau are now a bit passive and slacking off. In addition, the Shipbuilding Bureau has never contacted such a large warship, so if it is finished, it will probably take until May and June..."

“May and June…”

Yan Guang smiled bitterly, and Sa Zhenbing, who was beside him, also smiled bitterly.

When the British man built the first dreadnought, they were not familiar with it, but it took only more than four months to build the dreadnought. Now, it takes a first-class cruiser on the Shipbuilding Bureau to build a first-class cruiser until May and June, so it cannot be said that it is not too slow. After all, the Chaofeng Ship started laying keels in November on the Shipbuilding Bureau...

But Yan Guang couldn't complain, after all, the slow construction of the Chaofeng ship was also related to the passive slack work of German engineers. The passive slack work of German engineers was closely related to the decision made by Yan Guang, the president...

"Forget it, just treat it as a training for the people in the Shipbuilding Bureau, otherwise we can't always rely on the Germans to do everything? If we really rely on the Germans, if we offend the Germans one day, then we won't be able to do anything?"

After saying these words, Yan Guang began to inquire about the expansion of Qijiang Iron Factory and Hanyang Iron Factory and the construction progress of Ma'anshan Iron Factory. Then there are Sichuan Arsenal, Hanyang Arsenal and Ma'anshan Arsenal, and Fengtian Arsenal in the Northeast, etc.

All these things can only be asked by Yue Chang...

It’s not that the Minister of Finance and Industry both make a living, but...

The above-mentioned iron plants, arsenals, supporting aircraft factories and automobile factories. Even the newly built shipyards in Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin, and the shipyard in Sichuan that only builds submarines, are in theory all of Yan Guang, which is Yan Guang's private industry...

Because at the beginning of construction, these factories were built by Yan Guang with his own private funds. At that time, the government was just established and everything was in trouble. Even if they could not pay for military expenses, how could they still have money to support industrial development?

The government has been busy with the few railways being built across the country. Moreover, the government has exempted both Lijin and agricultural taxes according to Yan Guang's wishes.

So at the beginning, just like when I was in Sichuan, all important industrial facilities were privately funded by Yan Guang.

only…

Yan Guang has nothing to say about private investment. After all, Yan Guang’s own intention is Yan Guang’s own intention, and it is also for the country. However, you can’t use all your money to build things for the country, right?

So in the end, these factories built with Yan Guang's private funds were finally classified under Yan Guang's private name. Of course, Yan Guang never thought about bringing all these factories to the ground. Yan Guang had already thought about it. When he was about to die, he would make a will and leave the factories to the country. Of course, he can't tell others now, otherwise he would be afraid that he would hang up after two years.

However, when Yan Guang was still alive, all these factories were Yan Guang's own.

Moreover, the profits of these factories are all attributed to Yan Guang's name.

This is also a means. As long as you can control the country's industry and the country's economy, Yan Guang's position will naturally be as stable as Mount Tai.

——————————

In the office, Yan Guang, Sa Zhenbing and others talked about a lot.

However, the most important thing is to participate in the European War...

"……Do you think there is any problem if the current National Wehrmacht rushed to Europe to participate in the war?"

"this…"

Cai E, who had already returned from Shandong, also Jiang Baili, who was staying in Beijing, looked at each other, and spoke after hesitating for a moment.

"President, although we did win against Japan in Shandong, the dozen infantry divisions in Shandong have also been tempered in actual combat. But I'm sorry, the current National Defense Forces still have many disadvantages in terms of training quality compared to the Japanese army. The reason why we were able to win this time was mainly because we had advantages in equipment, and unexpectedly damaged the Japanese expeditionary fleet and burned most of the supplies in Huangxian. The most important thing is that we were fighting on the ground and were able to collect supplies on the spot, but the Japanese army could not do so, but if we went to Europe..."

Jiang Baili, who was standing beside him, interjected.

"We do have many advantages in local combat, especially in terms of equipment, and are stronger than the Japanese army in terms of heavy firepower, which also enables us to suppress the Japanese army during the war. But if the target of the battle is the German army, our army's advantages in terms of heavy firepower will not only disappear, but may also fall into a state of suppression. After all, our army is still a little worse in terms of quality and first-class European troops. Moreover, if we fight in Europe, it is easy to solve the problem of ****, but the problems with other weapons are..."

"Yes, it's okay to say that the Madeson machine gun is here, but the Maxim machine guns equipped by our army are 12.7mm caliber, and both the Allies and the Allies are equipped with 11.43mm caliber, as well as shotguns, grenade launchers, mortars and other equipment. At present, in addition to shotguns, Europe only has a certain amount of mortars, and the rest, such as grenade launchers, are not equipped. If our army rashly enters Europe, there will probably be a big problem in logistics. After all, it will take some time for the Allies to establish a special ammunition production site on the Western Front battlefield."

"That's right, and if our army loses its advantage in equipment and wants to gain an advantage in fighting with the German army, it may not be an easy task. After all, many of our army's tactics are currently based on Germany, and we can't understand the level of the German army..."

In between words, Cai E and Jiang Baili had already told everything clearly.

In fact, the reason is very simple. The current National Welfare Forces fight against the Japanese army on the ground, with artillery advantages, equipment advantages, logistical advantages, and even military strength advantages.

The National Defense Forces are all occupied by the time, place, and people, so when fighting with the Japanese army, they will naturally be invincible.

But when we arrive in Europe, first of all, the Germans' heavy artillery must be stronger than the National Wehrmacht. By that time, the National Wehrmacht will rely on the artillery fire support of the coalition forces, and their majeure will definitely be lost.

Secondly, when the National Defense Forces fight, they often rely on combined attacks of weapons such as shotguns, grenade launchers and mortars. However, among the series of weapons equipped by the National Defense Forces, many things may not even be heard of in Europe. In this way, the ammunition supply of these equipment may need to be transported from China.

China, Northeast Asia…

The distance between Northeast Asia and Europe is more than ten thousand miles?

Although there is a Suez Canal that will not make the traffic between Asia and Europe as troublesome as the Age of Discovery, and you need to bypass the Cape of Good Hope. But even so, it is difficult to transport a ship of arms to Europe, not to mention that there are a large number of German submarines on the road...

If an arsenal is established in Europe and directly provides ammunition to the National Wehrmacht.

Let’s not mention whether they are willing to do this. According to the information from the Military Intelligence Agency, France’s steel production this year is likely to be reduced to more than one million tons…

More than one million tons, China itself can reach more than one million tons by next year.

As for the steel output of more than one million tons, it is probably difficult to provide the coalition forces itself. How can we draw a part of it to provide it to the National Defense Forces who don’t know how powerful it is?

Moreover, the Chinese team has always had many "excellent results" in history. Even if the National Defense Forces really went, people may also have to doubt...

"If you say so, won't you go to Europe?"

After listening to the explanations of Cai E and Jiang Baili, Yan Guang frowned and asked.

You should know that participating in the war in Europe is one of Yan Guang's countless strategies. Because only by participating in the war in Europe and achieving certain results can we continue to bargain with the British, and even "redemption" the customs.

And if you just sit there and wait for Europe to decide the outcome.

Although China's strength will definitely improve by leaps and bounds during this period, it may not be afraid of the British, but the British may not be able to give up at that time. In addition, there is a Japanese eyeing him on the side, so it would be a troublesome if the two of them had another British-Japanese alliance.

After all, even after the Battle of Longkou Bay, the Japanese Navy had considerable combat power.

Not to mention anything else, there are ten battleships alone, and there is also one of the latest battle cruisers.

If the British and Japanese really colluded, it would be difficult to deal with.

After all, the navy is not like the army, and a century-old navy is by no means empty talk.

It is unlikely that it would catch up with Japan before the European war on the main ship alone. Moreover, the navy is not a military force that only relies on equipment, and now it is not the computer era in later generations. As long as the quality of naval officers and soldiers is passed, the rest depends on the automatic system on the ship.

Now is the era of manual control. Even if the naval gunfire control system is already available, the quality of naval officers and soldiers, especially the level of the naval generals themselves, is still very important. In this regard, it is precisely the place where the Chinese Navy lags behind Japan.

Since even Japan can't catch up, I don't agree with Britain, which is still the world's number one navy even after the European War...

After listening to Yan Guang's words, Cai E and Jiang Baili looked at each other again.

"Please rest assured that although the overall level of the National Defense Forces is currently weaker than that of Europe, especially the armies of Britain, France, Germany and other countries, the gap between them is not too big to catch up."

"Especially the most elite infantry divisions, even compared with the first-class German infantry divisions, there is not much difference. The main problem now is that, except for these infantry divisions, the remaining troops, even those who have seen the Japanese, are somewhat unable to make any move when put in Europe. So my opinion with Songpo is that we should not rush to participate in the war situation in Europe..."

"That's right..." Cai E nodded. "President, Baili and I have the opinion that it is best to wait for Europe. The blood flow between the Allies and the Allies is almost the same, and we are joining in. In this way, first, our importance will be greatly improved, and it will be fine to make some demands to Britain, France and other countries. Second, and most importantly, if there is more blood flow in Europe, the overall level of the army will naturally decline. When we go there at that time, the losses will be much smaller, and it is not impossible to even make a few more impressive results..."
To be continued...