The meeting on the drawing up and discussion of the shipbuilding plan was attended by the principal officials of the Military Command Department, the Navy Ministry, the Ship Administration Headquarters, the Aviation Headquarters, and the Combined Fleet, but no one expected that there would be such a quick quarrel. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info Kusaka Ren on the representative table of the Combined Fleet was very anxious, and he accompanied Horikichi to attend the meeting, but Hori Yoshichi had to accompany the German envoy Kohl to meet with Foreign Minister Tani Masaiichi, so Kusaka Ren read out the next stage of the revised plan on behalf of the Combined Fleet, but before he could speak, the Ministry of the Navy and the Military Command Department had a dispute. Either of the Kusaka was soft-spoken and couldn't suppress the scene, but he couldn't help but complete the task assigned by Horiyoshi, so he was eager for the other party to appear.

Just as he was anxious, a loud roll call finally sounded outside: "Marshal Admiral, Commander of the Combined Fleet, Chief Horikichi has arrived!" ”

The roll call is also a real effort.,On the one hand, you have to be full of energy.,On the other hand, you have to be familiar with the characters.,It's a big disrespect to sing the wrong name or position.,But Horiyoshi is in full swing now.,Obviously, no one will make him mistake.。

Everyone immediately stopped when they heard the argument, Kusaka Ren and other officers stood up to greet them, and the only people in the entire venue who did not need to be greeted according to the rules were King Fushimi Palace Bogong and Yamamoto Fifty-six, but everyone never expected that Yamamoto Fifty-six actually stood up, and looked at King Fushimi Palace Bogong with a smile, forming a situation where everyone was standing and Fushimi Palace was sitting alone.

Yamamoto annoyed the latter with this hand, and the scene was very passive: if he did not stand up, in two days someone would accuse him of neglecting the hero; If he is standing and feeling uncomfortable - why should he greet his subordinates? The embarrassing scene lasted until Horikichi's footsteps appeared at the door of the conference room, and Fushimiya reluctantly stood up.

"I'm sorry, guys, I'm late." Horikichi was stunned for a moment after seeing this meeting, and then saw Yamamoto Fifty-six's smiling expression and Fushimi Palace's annoyed look, and immediately guessed something, and bowed slightly to the two of them, "Please sit down, Your Highness and Your Excellency the Minister." ”

After the two of them were seated, he sat down, and then said, "Everyone, please take a seat." ”

Kusaka wiped a cold sweat, he witnessed the whole scene just now, but he didn't expect that even such a trivial matter as sitting up was faintly filled with a strong smell of gunpowder, and more importantly, the shipbuilding meeting was obviously led by the Military Command Department, but Minister Yamamoto put pressure on the Chief of the Military Command Department through this practice just now, coupled with the fact that Inoue Narumi presided over the meeting (Vice Admiral of the Navy and Director of the Ship Administration Headquarters), it was obviously a preemptive posture - there was really no fuel-efficient lamp to be the Minister of the Navy.

The Japanese Navy has a very strange system, and the Naval Administration Headquarters as a whole is under the management of the Ministry of the Navy, but the fourth of them, the Shipbuilding Department, is responsible for the construction of warships - the reason is that it is for the sake of war readiness, which is a typical manifestation of the erosion of the Minister of the Navy by the expansion of the functions of the Military Command Department over the years. Yamamoto did a great job this time, he did not let the chief of the fourth department preside over the meeting, but let the supreme commander of the ship administration headquarters and also a hardcore confidant, Inoue Narumi, preside over the meeting, and the attitude of trying to fight for power was very obvious.

"Do you need to report back to you on what you just discussed?" Inoue Narumi turned her head first and asked Horikichi.

"No, please let me know what you have agreed upon."

Inoue Narumi nodded and instructed the staff officer in charge of the record to read it.

"First, in view of the uneven implementation of the various plans of Marugo, Gaigo, Marurin, Maruku, and Maruchai, and the confusion of the relationship, it is proposed to re-establish the Marushin Plan ......"

In 1940, after the Japanese Imperial Council decided on the "Outline for the Implementation of the Imperial National Policy", in view of the inevitability of war between Japan and the United States, and due to the large-scale expansion of naval armaments by the US military, in order to make up for the shortage of naval armaments and achieve a situation in which it would soon be able to compete with the US military in the Pacific, the Japanese side successively put forward the (Marurin) armament defect supplement plan, the (Marukyu) wartime emergency construction plan, and the (Marusei) additional plan. It's basically changed and changed. The United Fleet's nearly one-year trip abroad can be regarded as a period of minimal adjustment.

"Second, due to the improvement of the country's situation and the increase in military spending, the Marushin plan plans to use a budget of 9.2 billion yen, and the overall estimate is to complete 1.38 million tons of warships -- not including the warships currently under construction."

Hori nodded quietly: At the beginning, the military budget for the Fifth Plan was 6.24 billion yen, and the overall expected tonnage was 1.15 million tons, but now it seems that the situation has changed again, although this plan has greatly improved from previous shipbuilding plans, but compared with Hoffman's proposal of 60 billion marks per year (of course, it is impossible to use all of them to build ships, but to build ships is not less than 15 billion), it is really pitiful. Moreover, judging by the fact that the scale of military spending has increased by almost half and the tonnage has only increased by 20%, the domestic inflation index continues to rise.

"Third, through a number of old warship transformation projects, including: 1, Chitose and Chiyoda two water aircraft carriers to light aircraft carriers, the construction period of 7 months; 2. Xianghe was overhauled and installed a catapult imported from Germany, with a construction period of 5-6 months; 3. Three 17,000-ton mail ships (with a maximum speed of 21 knots) -- Asama Maru, Tatsuda Maru, and Kamakura Maru were transformed into auxiliary aircraft carriers according to the German plan, with a construction period of 9 months; 4. At present, the adjustment drawings of the Condor and the Sea Eagle, which have been modified according to the aircraft carrier standard, have been transformed into auxiliary aircraft carriers, and the construction period has been increased by 3 months; 5. The Nisshin was transformed into a marine aircraft carrier (originally a successor to the Mizuho marine aircraft carrier, which was used for high-speed minelaying and is currently mainly used for transporting the first standard), with a construction period of 3 months; 6. The Bayan was overhauled and transformed into a medium-sized aircraft carrier, renamed the Eagle Eagle, with a construction period of 10 months. ”

Many people are puzzled by the motive of the Combined Fleet for proposing five auxiliary aircraft carriers in one go, although several battles have proved that auxiliary aircraft carriers are easy to use, but the number of five seems to be too many, but Cao Lu Yi believes that two should be used as training ships, and three are urgently needed to accompany the fleet's operations, especially when integrated operations, and finally passed.

"Fourth, speed up the construction of existing warships, including: 1. The aircraft carrier Dafeng is equipped with imported catapults and ensure that it is completed by the end of December this year; 2. Use armored steel, prefabricated components and other equipment imported from Germany to ensure that the battleship Shinano was completed ahead of schedule before March 1944; 3. The Yunlong-class aircraft carriers that have started construction are required to be completed in the spring, summer, autumn and winter of 1944; 5. Accelerate the construction of the heavy cruiser Ibuki to ensure that it will be completed on schedule before December 1944; 6. The second ship of the Agano-class light cruiser was required to be completed in this year and 1 in 1944; 7. Complete the construction projects of destroyers, spy ships, submarines, etc. as required......"

Unlike in history, after the Battle of the South Pacific, the Japanese Navy cut many of its haphazard renovation projects, while eliminating the need to repair existing warships (except for the scarred Yamato) for Combined Fleet expeditionary operations. Due to the return of a large number of skilled workers from the army after the coordination of sea and land, and the guarantee of relevant material supplies after the gradual withdrawal of troops from Chinese mainland, the speed of ship construction has been greatly accelerated, and the quality of construction has also increased.

But soon Horikichi spoke: "Let me interrupt, how many ships are involved in the construction of submarines?" ”

"Small submarines (550-ton Lu-100), originally planned to add 9 new submarines, and then all of them were cancelled; Medium-sized submarines (1,000-ton Lu-35), originally planned to add 43 ships, but only 4 have been completed at present, and it is expected that 4-5 ships will be completed at the end of this year; Large submarines, including 72 2,200-ton I-15/16 and 6 2,500-ton I-9, have only 1-2 completed and about 3-4 have been started; In addition, there are submarines such as the D-type (1,500-ton I-361) and so on......"

"Chop them all!" Horikichi explained, "Just now I accompanied the German envoy to the palace to meet His Majesty, and the envoy Kohl reported on the recent exchanges between the two countries, and the German side has received 100 tons of gold from us (50 tons was originally promised by the Bowes government, and the other 50 tons is the money returned by Japan), and the German side has presented us with 10 German submarines of 750 tons of Type VII submarines out of gratitude for the cooperation of the combined fleet; In addition, it said that it could sell German-made submarines to us, including the Type IX of 1000-1500 tons and the XIV of 2000-2500 tons, in addition to the VII series...... The German side is willing to provide a special credit of 300 million marks for this purpose. ”

"What about the price?" Someone nervously asked.

"Because most of them are old ships that have been used, the asking price is very cheap, 3 million marks for the early Type VII submarines, 3.5 million marks for the late ones, and the most expensive ones are not more than 4 million marks."

Inoue Chengmei's eyes lit up: "It's cheap!" ”

"yes, it's cheap!" Everyone agreed in unison.

Officers who understand submarine warfare know that the 750-ton Type VII submarine is stronger than the 550-ton Lu-100, but the production cost of the latter is about 5.5 million yen -- according to the current figure of the basic equivalent of yen marks, building it by yourself is almost half more expensive than buying it, not to mention that 10 ships were sent first, which is simply a cheap and big gift. It would be great news if you consider that the purchase will not take up construction costs and labor.

But what they don't know is that the cost price of a new VII submarine built by Germany is 2.5 million to 3 million marks -- in other words, Hoffman not only used these old submarines for several years, but also sold them to Japan at a good price, and more importantly, now the focus of German submarine construction has shifted to XXI submarines, and it is also a burden to keep the old models, so it is better to clear them to the Japanese.

As soon as a few words were spoken, the atmosphere suddenly became lively, and many people were overjoyed...... (To be continued.) )