Shen Honglie was very excited, for many years, because he was a foreigner, he was excluded from the navy controlled by Fujian generals from top to bottom. When it comes to ability, he is confident that he is definitely the dragon and phoenix among people. He has a stubborn personality, but he believes that kindness will be rewarded.

In his early years, he went east to Japan to study, specializing in the navy. In school, there is a training called "wrestling", and the rule is that if a person who falls slaps his hand on the opponent, he will admit defeat, and it will be counted as a round. Because of his thin and short stature, he was thrown to the ground every time, but he had to participate every time. After he fell, he never slapped the opponent with his hands, but stalked and beat him, so that the opponent could neither get out nor win, until the referee blew the whistle and ordered him to stop falling, so he was called the "undefeated general." ”

Zhang Hanqing, as a landlubber, is not difficult to know about things in the navy, after all, his identity is here. But he was able to discern people and promised a lot of money as soon as they met, and then insisted on designing to let Wang Chongwen get off the horse and help him for a ride, and he was an insider and also participated. Before, it was he who strongly recommended himself to take over as the commander of the fleet in front of the commander, which made him feel a kind of excitement about the death of a confidant.

But he wisely refused. In the navy, which is a provincial citizen, for a moment, he does not think that he can hold these long-time companions. For the sake of the young marshal's trust, he thought that the best way was for the young marshal to serve as the commander, and he could assist in some work.

Zhang Zuolin finally agreed, the navy is different from the Feng army, and it is controlled by the eldest son at the initial stage, which is very beneficial for him to cultivate his own echelon within the Feng department. In addition, the landlubbers who followed him may be good at horses, but he really doesn't feel comfortable handing over the "mysterious" game of playing with warships.

There was a person who had this vision and ability before, but unfortunately he made a mistake, his name is Yang Yuting. Now, looking at the northeast, there is no one who can have this mind and this strength than his son, because he put forward the policy of "walking on two legs" a long time ago, and in the plan of the father and son, the strength of the army in the future is large enough, and the first thing to recover is the maritime control of the Bohai Bay. The main force doing this work is none other than the navy.

Because Zhang Hanqing spared no effort to lobby and risked his political life to save Chen Jiliang, who borrowed artillery from the Soviet Russian army in the Temple Street incident, Zhang Zuolin was greatly touched. The eldest son's decision has always been right, and it may not be fruitful for a while, but the time must not have come. Based on this insight, Zhang Zuolin began to pay attention to the river fleet.

Zhang Hanqing would not object to this idea. In the initial stage of the navy, he really needed to be the anchor of the sea god to carry out the development of the navy smoothly. Due to the inland rivers in the northeast, gunboats of about 200 tons can go to many places, and they will inadvertently touch someone's interests; In addition, the navy is a money-burning industry, and financially Zhang Zuolin may be willing to spend money for the first time, but after a long time, the move of not seeing the effect of just giving money will inevitably make him think, after all, the growth of the army is real. At that time, it may not be easy to talk if someone else is the commander.

But that's not all he can do. He talked about the strategy and future development of the navy, but when it came to specific management, he was completely blank. Therefore, he, the commander of the fleet, is destined to be in name and "take a back seat" at the right time.

He stopped everyone's cheers, took out a letter of appointment from his bosom, and read it aloud: "I now announce the order of the three eastern provinces to patrol the embassy: Colonel Shen Honglie, staff officer of the Jiang Defense Fleet, will be promoted to chief of staff of the fleet, and the acting commander will have full authority to handle the training, patrol, and combat affairs of the fleet;

"All matters related to the construction of naval bases, the supply and management of materials and funds, transportation, ordnance, munitions, health, engineering, etc., shall be under the unified responsibility of the Director of the Aviation Police, Chen Shiying;

Political work is in charge of Lin Zun, director of the First Military Intelligence Division of the Major Marshal's Office. ”

He did not announce his position, but everyone knew that he was the appointed candidate for the commander of the fleet, but he was only "ashamed" of his qualifications and experience in not serving in the navy, so Shen Honglie "acted on his behalf". However, according to the degree of control he has over the navy, his command position completely covers the three parts of the General Staff, the Logistics Department, and the Political Department, that is, the work of the above three departments, which are all under his responsibility.

In this way, he completely integrated a territory of his own within the Feng lineage. The stronger the navy, the greater his say. In the navy, the fleet staff is the main battle, the aviation police department is the main building, and the political department is the main supervisor, and the troika is formally formed.

Why is it not called the Navy Command but the Aviation Police Department? This is also Zhang Zuolin's shrewdness: the northeast is a local government, and the blatant establishment of a navy is easy to cause trouble; In addition, in the international arms embargo against China, it is easier to use the name of the Aviation Police Department to carry out equipment.

In order to eliminate the impact of Wang Chongwen's forced dismissal, Zhang Hanqing promoted the existing captains to one rank and formed the command groups of the three detachments of the Heilongjiang, Ussuri River, and Songhua River, although there were only eight gunboats in total. This idea still adopts Lin Zun's idea of "high-ranking officials and few soldiers", and the effect on recruiting and surrendering people has always been good.

Of course, he also drew a big piece of the pie: In addition to vigorously expanding surface ships, it is also necessary to form a marine corps, coastal defense artillery, military ports and bases, and is in contact with the purchase of seaplanes, and in the future it is necessary to study the construction of submarines. All in all, the future of the Navy is brilliant, and following the steps of the major marshal will be very large.

There are many problems to be made about the establishment of the navy, but Shen Honglie grasped the root of the problem, and he proposed at this meeting: "Young marshal, I believe that in order to support the cultivation of naval personnel, we need a special training school for naval officers. ”

Zhang Hanqing came up with a killer idea: "Director Chen and Director Lin have already discussed this matter with me in detail, not only to train combat officers, but also technical officers, I have obtained the consent of the patrol envoy to first spend 2 million yuan to build a naval engineering school in Harbin to train all kinds of talents for the navy." When the conditions are ripe, I will set up a special ship command school at the right time and in the right place, as well as a special training ship. At that time, there were well-trained personnel, there were mechanics who could produce all kinds of weapons and equipment that we needed, and our navy would definitely be turned upside down. ”

As a soldier, there is no one who does not like the growth of power. Zhang Hanqing's foresight and huge support quickly dispelled the turmoil caused by the change of commander, and everyone was immersed in promotion and optimism about the future.

Zhang Hanqing believes that the stall of the Northeast New Deal has been spread very large, but each industry is working independently, and what is made up is the arrears left over the years. After several years of development, Zhang Hanqing feels that he has the ability to go deeper. Complex, time-consuming, simple, and not a fist, but it is a good idea to build some inland warships and transport vessels.

Although the navy has invested a lot, once it is effectively operational, it is completely possible to realize the conversion of military to civilian use. Building warships is much more complicated than building civilian ships. In China, where military and civilian ships are basically bought, if the Northeast takes the lead in achieving a breakthrough in the shipbuilding industry, it will be quite beneficial to enhance the influence of the Feng system and promote the development of the national economy.

Unlike coastal defense warships, its armor requires special treatment, which is not possible with the industrial capacity of Northeast China. Inland warships do not have particularly strong opponents, although the warships of the Japanese are powerful, they have no way to go up the Amur River, and they can't walk when they reach Temple Street. So you don't need to pay much attention to it, as long as the tonnage is big enough, fast enough, and able to equip some slightly stronger firepower.

A shallow-water gunboat like the "Lisui" has a standard displacement of 170 tons, two coal-fired boilers of 1,300 horsepower, a maximum speed of 13 knots, a crew of 45 people, and is equipped with two 57mm guns and three machine guns. In terms of overall strength, it is roughly equal to or greater than the strength of a reinforced army company of the current Feng Army. If more gunboats like this are built, it is equivalent to a mobile army company running on the inland river, and its role in stabilizing the hinterland of the northeast is self-evident, and the Feng army can also free up its hands to concentrate on what the army should do.

The pressure of Feng's tough seizure of power began to ferment, and the Jihei River Defense Fleet and the army blocked all the Sino-Russian borders in Northeast China, and Zhang Zuolin repeatedly expressed his determination not to allow any challenge to his authority, which greatly surprised the Japanese government and felt that it had kicked the steel plate.

Then, on May 8, the US envoy questioned the Chinese Foreign Ministry about the Japanese army's inspection of passengers in Manchuria on the Middle East Road, objectively expressing the United States' concern about the incident. Koichiro Tachibana, the commander of the Kwantung Army, felt that they could no longer hold on, and he instructed the Japanese consul general in Mukden, Yoshida, to make concessions in order to quell the incident.

At Zhang Zuolin's strong request, the Japanese side promised to maintain the old situation and withdraw its troops from Hailar and Harbin, thus easing the situation. However, along the South Manchurian Railway, which is inherent in Japan, the Japanese army continued to increase its troops. But in any case, the People's Party headed by Zhang Hanqing and the Northeast Government made a loud roar on behalf of the weak China, which shook the whole country and caused foreign observers to once again focus on the young young marshal.

Following the establishment of the Far Eastern Republic on April 6 and the declaration of the commander of the Japanese forces in Vladivostok on May 11 that Japan had no territorial ambitions for Siberia and would not favor any party in Russia.

On May 16, the declaration of the Far Eastern Republic demanded that the Russian Red Army stop its eastward advance (Zhang Hanqing judged that it was deliberately instructed by the Russian government to respect the equality of the two countries and not allow the two sides to interfere in their internal affairs. Through this expression, to block the Japanese government's possible idea of intervention, in order to obtain the real buffer effect of the Far Eastern Republic), foreign governments should not aid the old party of Chita (mainly referring to the Japanese government), withdraw foreign expeditionary forces (mainly referring to the Japanese army), and immediately conclude diplomatic relations with the Entente countries (with a pack of tigers to contain lone wolves?). ）。

Zhang Hanqing closely followed this process and sent a telegram welcoming the establishment of the Far Eastern Republic and looking forward to the stabilization of the situation in the Far East.