Of course, Sun Dashuai was actually a step slower, he finally understood that when he came over and started to play scrap steel, the old marshal in Beijing had begun to play with train guns and cruisers, after Shen Honglie's many persuasions, and Zhang Xueliang helped on the side, Zhang Dashuai ruthlessly bought the 3.6 million ocean Garibaldi, after all, the down payment was only 720,000, and the president of the follow-up money said that it could be directly deducted from the annual taxes, so why not use it quickly? These two battles of the Yangtze River all relied on the navy, otherwise it would be really unreliable to rely on the soldiers of Wu Dashuai and Sun Dashuai.

In fact, the southern army did not dare to station on a large scale within 10 kilometers of the south bank of the Yangtze River, because it was all covered by the naval guns of the Northern Army, and it was to stand up and be beaten if it went up. No matter how brave the Yugoslav army was, there was also a sense of fear for the naval artillery that could not fight back.

Of course, the Northern Army will not put its troops on a large scale to the south bank, they are not opponents for the time being in land warfare, they can only barely hold Wuchang, Nanjing, Zhenjiang and other important salient areas, although Shanghai is all south of the Yangtze River, but Shanghai still has the main fleet of the Northern Army to protect, Yang Yuting even drove the 203mm train guns to Wuxi near standby, so it is said that the Yangtze River defense line, in fact, in the easternmost section is the two sides to Taihu Lake as the boundary, Suzhou, Xi, Chang, Shanghai and other prosperous areas south of the Yangtze River are all in the hands of Sun Chuanfang, In addition, Zhoushan Island in Zhejiang was also in the hands of the Northern Army.

However, the northern army is also very measured, the south is lost, it is lost, there is no need for the navy to harass Xiamen, Taizhou, Ningbo and other coastal areas, and the southern army is not in the direction of Jiashan to harass the suburbs of Shanghai, the two sides have formed a tacit understanding of the actual ceasefire control line, and now they are only using means to attack the opponent, Sun Dashuai is most proud of the leaflet to let the southern army surrender anyway - many of them are his former soldiers. However, he also objectively realized that his land combat level was not good, and humbly asked Contini for advice on how to train troops, and even asked if he could bring in Italian instructors.

This stumped Contini, because the Italian army was also a mess, and he was relying on German officers for help, but he soon had the idea that he could let some of the oil guards export to the Far East, and there was an excuse to expand the army. So the two hit it off, and Contini exported 1,200 joint guards to the Union Docks, and set up the Blackwater Security Company in a big way, and these guards were all hung under the Blackwater Security Company - security guards, not soldiers. Sun Chuanfang, on the other hand, agreed to buy advice and services from a security company to help train troops, especially the technical arms that are scarce in the army.

Wu Dashuai of Wuhan is still superstitious about his own training level and plans to train by himself, but he also likes scrap steel, of course, he prefers Hanyang Arsenal, so he also signed a contract to introduce some Italian industrial equipment, but he only adds and increases sporadically, and the scale cannot be compared with Sun Chuanfang, who is almost rebuilt. In fact, the main problem restricting Wu Dashuai is money, Zhang Dashuai in Beijing has Beijing, Tianjin and Northeast China, and there is no shortage of financial resources, and Sun Dashuai in the southeast has Shanghai and Jiangsu, which is also quite wealthy, and he has done dock business with the United Group, making a small fortune; Only Wu Dashuai, who owns Hubei and Henan, can't get anything, Henan has been poor since the white wolf anyway, Hubei was still so-so, but since Xinhai, he has been fighting continuously, and he has been burned by Feng Guozhang for several days, and the withering is becoming more and more visible, and it is not even as good as when Zhang Zhidong was the lord of Hubei, so he can only be careful in his calculations.

Fortunately, Wu Dashuai himself is more diligent and thrifty, and he is not like the other two who use private fraud, and finally it can be maintained in all aspects, and now Wu Dashuai is the person who needs the most respite time, although his subordinates as a whole claim to have 150,000, in fact, they know their own family affairs, and the backbone troops that can fight are only more than 20,000 people, if the Northern Expeditionary Army is not afraid of sacrifice to fill in a few more regiments, Wuhan may be penetrated, and Wuhan will be completely finished as soon as it is penetrated. Therefore, Wu Dashuai can only use war to support the war, and use the products of the two arsenals of Hanyang and Gongxian to maintain the survival of other troops.

On the whole, although Contini went to China, although he took out more than 25 million oceans on the surface, he actually gained a lot: the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone drew a circle; took land by the Huangpu River; The city of Tianjin was expanded to show the image of Italy as a great powerhouse – which was very attractive to Mussolini. As for the 25 million oceans, at least a quarter of it was offset by the old model, half of it was exported from all kinds of scrap steel, and more than a quarter of the real money was taken out.

Of the half of the scrap steel, the Garibaldi class itself was intended to be retired in 1930, and in the face of the vacancy of its withdrawal, Contini once again used the stick of interference, asking the Navy to add four more Zara class ships, and said that he would pay for it, but his opinion must be adopted for adjustment. This shocked the Admiralty, but after thinking about it for a day, I agreed-the Admiralty's original construction policy of the Zara class was 4, but it was suddenly doubled, which was simply unexpected.

Contini's suggestion was very simple: the overall shape of the Zara class remained unchanged, the torpedo tubes were removed, and some facilities were switched to electric welding in order to reduce weight, but in fact the president did not want to reduce the tonnage, because he hinted that the Zara class should also thicken the horizontal defense, considering an overweight of 2,000-2,500 tons on the basis of 10,000 tons (in fact, the Zara class is overweight by 1,500 tons), the Navy did not think about it, gritted its teeth and agreed, there is always a way to solve the overweight thing.

In addition, Contini also added 2 Trent-class lists, but this time the requirements were more strange, the speed should be 36 knots, but the naval gun was reduced from 203mm to 128mm high-level dual-purpose artillery, just when people thought that the president was going to strengthen the defense, Contini threw out a shocking theory: a little strengthening, but more importantly, stacking firepower. After hearing this, the designers felt that the scalp was troublesome, because the president planned 12 twin-mounted 128mm electric high-level dual-purpose guns on the warship, and there were also dense plans for 76mm and 40mm anti-aircraft guns. Asked what this ship was for, the president explained with a wittic: "This...... I'm afraid of death, so I prepared 2 special guard ships for the Ida special cruise ship. ”

Of course, being afraid of death is a joke, the president's direction is very clear, that is, to prepare a professional air defense cruiser, but Italy does not have a caliber of 128mm at this time, let alone a 128mm high-level dual-purpose electric gun, Contini smiled: "It doesn't matter, I commissioned Rheinmetall to develop it, you build the Zara class first, and this kind of guard ship will be talked about in a few years - anyway, I will pay for it." If you think this 128mm gun is useful, in the future new destroyers can all switch to this high-level dual-purpose gun. ”

As for whether the plane threat will be so big, everyone has questions in their hearts, but they don't dare to ask, because the president said that he will pay - the boss who pays is the boss, and you can do whatever you want, why do you mutter? Therefore, from 1928 onwards, designers were considering the task of designing a special cruiser of the president's class or the bodyguard. Fortunately, there is no rush in this matter, and then take your time when the 8 Zara levels are finished, everyone still has time. As for the question of what to do with the old ships after the Zara class is put into service, everyone is not worried, because these presidents are going to be recycled, and he has found a good place in China, and he is not afraid that no one will want it - not in the north and in the south!

On February 6, 1928, after Contini attended the celebration ceremony of the first anniversary of Zhang Dashuai's inauguration as supreme ruler and signed the concession contract on behalf of the Kingdom of Italy, he left from Tianjin Port. Of course, this is of great use, because Zhang Xueliang is older than the president and Huang Xinguo, if he directly swears with Contini, then Zhang Dashuai will become an uncle, this advantage is too big, but Zhang Dashuai and foreigners younger than his son go to worship, this meeting is also a bit discordant.

Later, Yuan Jinkai came up with an idea: Huang Xinguo treats the president with a courtesy, and he is a descendant of the Huang family in Yuyao, and he is only 3 years old from the handsome son, and it is feasible to bow down, which is not humiliating! After the swearing, the president is the teacher of Xiao Liuzi, then he can be on an equal footing with the old handsome, Zhang Zuolin was overjoyed, and applauded again and again, which can be regarded as solving the problem in his heart.

So Huang Xinguo suddenly became hot in the north and south: Mrs. Chang in the south recognized him as his younger brother - although it was indeed a bit of a twist and turn, Chang Dashuai was his brother-in-law; Zhang Gongzi in the north recognizes him as his younger brother, and Zhang Dashuai is his uncle. Of course, he is very sober, and people befriend him not because he is the son of the Yuyao Huang family, but because he has the president standing behind him, so he is even more convinced and determined to help Contini handle everything well.

Contini, deputy director of the SAR Management Committee, will draw people from Italy again, but in the early stage, Huang Xinguo will definitely be assisted, and the reason why Huang Xinguo is not allowed to take the position is very simple, he is Chinese, if he comes forward on behalf of the Italians, he will not be able to deal well - or he will not be able to complete the task, or he will be scolded by the Chinese as a traitor, if the Italians come up to compete for him in the middle, this role and status will be tight, so he understands in his heart.

After replenishing fuel and supplies at the port of Tianjin, the Contini fleet set sail again, and after 4 days and 3 nights of sailing, it arrived in Tokyo, Japan on the morning of February 10, and after entering the waters of Japan, the combined fleet that had been waiting here sent 2 Kongo-class and other fleets to escort it, showing respect for the Italian envoy and not forgetting to show off its strength, but Japan is still low-key, did not pull out the Nagato, but only used the Kongo-class.

Contini knew it, and he didn't care.

Arriving at the port of Tokyo, there were only other Foreign Ministry officials, as Prime Minister Yoshiichi Tanaka was also the foreign minister, but Contini soon discovered other, more visible targets: naval officials standing behind the crowd, the captain of the Mutsu and the Navy Osahirokichi who was anchored in the port of Tokyo.

"Hori-kun, goodbye to Geneva, we meet again......"