Yang Yuanzhao's arrival had already been notified to the British side, and his whereabouts were not concealed, and he came directly on a British ferry, and even when he was leaving, Lawrence sent a report to the British side, Lawrence had no way to follow for various reasons, but he told Yang Yuanzhao that everything was ready, and Foreign Secretary Gray would personally go to the port of London to greet him.

The ferry entered the Thames, which is different from the scene seen in Germany, ancient and prosperous, this is the first feeling that Britain gave Yang Yuanzhao, different from the rise of Germany in the later period, Britain's century-old factories abound, which may also be the fundamental reason why Germany can surpass Britain from the industry.

At the port of London, Yang Yuanzhao really met British Foreign Secretary Gray, and even more than one cabinet official, including the Minister of Commerce, the Minister of Industry, and Vice Admiral, at least a dozen senior officials in the military and political circles, it is obvious that the other party has been prepared.

Yang Yuanzhao doesn't care about this, as long as he pays attention to it, his task is very simple, to see what he wants to see in the UK, before that, it is to determine part of the intention, to put it bluntly, it is to spend money.

Gray was also prepared, knowing that Yang Yuanzhao came to the UK on a temporary basis, so he took out a list of goods that could be purchased and asked Yang Yuanzhao to choose, which was almost after the end of the welcome ceremony and after entering the hotel. Yang Yuanzhao was also a little helpless about the eagerness of the British, and it was obvious that if he didn't complete this, he was afraid that if he wanted to visit the battleship, it was unlikely.

Britain is not a pure fool, if you don't see a rabbit and don't scatter an eagle, everyone knows this very well, that is to say, if Yang Yuanzhao doesn't take out some real money, I'm afraid that what he promised before is also an empty word, let alone seeing the ship, the ship hair can't be seen.

What is good to get, Britain is not an empty glove white wolf, face still wants, what they come up with, basically mainstream products, even in terms of price, have also made a certain concession, if it is changed to 4 years ago, or even 5 years ago, any Chinese who is not Yang Yuanzhao will roar and buy it, many of these products are not bought if they want to.

A large number of machines and equipment have been ordered from Germany, and even if they are stronger than Germany, these are limited on the part of the British, and some are inferior. Yang Yuanzhao had a headache for a while, and was thinking about it, if he didn't suffer a loss, it would be good to import a little machine equipment, and China would also need some machine equipment in the future, but when he turned over the back, he saw a batch of ships, all of which were second-hand ships, and the prices were about the same, ranging from 3,000 tons to 15,000 tons.

Second-hand ships, this is a direction, Britain as a shipping power, the number of second-hand ships is huge, there are a lot of replacement every year, although Britain is aware of the threat of Germany, the future will definitely do something to Germany, but from a certain Cheng dù above, they have not yet realized, which war will be so tragic, in the eyes of both sides, prepare half a year, or even a year of materials, enough to fight the whole war, but do not have to consider the ship, these second-hand ships, are also sold as usual, the number is relatively large.

Yang Yuanzhao gently knocked on the table with his hand, silently calculating in his heart, how much benefit can be obtained from this pen, the process of World War I was beyond the expectations of all countries before, Britain did not expect that Germany would use unlimited submarine warfare, only 4 years of war time, the German submarine sank tonnage, more than 12 million tons, the whole world is lacking capacity, not only the price of new ships has risen head-to-head, the current 10,000-ton giant ship is probably between 90-1.1 million, but in the period of World War I, It has skyrocketed to between 1.7 million and 2 million, almost doubling, and many aspects related to the war, such as steel and machinery, have also grown in chains.

As long as you get these, so that they can sail, even if they are sold at that time, they can also get more than 3 times the income invested now, this is simply a money grab, Yang Yuanzhao carefully looked at the information of these ships, this batch of ships, except for a small number of particularly old, others can also, as long as they undergo a certain transformation, they can quickly exude vitality and vitality,

The Northwest can not only get enough value from this batch of ships, now may be 100 million to buy, the future can be sold to 2-3 times, the most important thing is that the Northwest has been trying to devote itself to the shipping industry, can also enter, on the one hand, in the future war, unrestricted, to obtain huge benefits, on the other hand, how not to train personnel, China has not had a capital ship fleet for many years, although there is still a navy, but the navy personnel compared to 20 years ago, I don't know how much reduction, Even if the Northwest spares no effort to cultivate, it may not be able to meet the needs of the navy, and no one can use the dozens of capital ships.

Yang Yuanzhao's eyes lit up, and he directly looked at all the second-hand ships, a total of 127, the total tonnage is about 430,000 tons, the average is about 4,000 tons each, the earliest was built 15 years ago, the price is relatively cheap, the average price per ton is about 37 US dollars, which is a third of the new construction, or even a quarter of the price.

Yang Yuanzhao directly demarcated these ships, but it was only about 16 million US dollars, and told the officials of the British Ministry of Commerce that as long as there are such second-hand ships, he will want them, and it doesn't matter how old the ships are, as long as there are no problems with the main structure, even if the power system is a little old, there is no problem.

Britain is an absolute shipping power, and they really found a number of second-hand ships, all of which are old ships that are more than 20 years old, but the price is cheaper, a total of 550,000 tons, but only 11 million yuan, an average of only 20 US dollars per ton, almost the price of scrap iron, the two have accelerated by 30 million, plus some other projects, 30 million have been made.

30 million, sell the old ships, you get 30 million, the same as the white pickup, for Britain, the number of these old ships is too large, sporadically may sell a part, but it is impossible to sell them all, with 30 million funds, not only the Admiralty can add an Iron Duke-class battleship to order the current mainstream 10,000-20,000 tons of cargo ships, but also to obtain 200,000 tons of tonnage, which is definitely a win-win result.

However, compared with Germany, this is still the beginning, Germany signed hundreds of millions of orders, so that the British are extremely red, how to say, can not be worse than Germany, it seems that the Northwest wants to meddle in the shipping industry, these old ships, it is estimated that they are doing business in Asia, which has little impact on the UK, the core and main territory of the British, or Europe and the Americas, Asia is just taking into account, even if the hand is stretched out, with these old ships, competing with the new ships, it is a joke.

In Britain, there are no more ships, and at that time in the Commonwealth, the United States, and even Germany, there are many similar ships, and after the news came out, Britain used its connections to get about 1 million tons of ships, the United States is 700,000 tons, and Germany also got 900,000 tons, and everyone is rushing to sell ships, for fear that the northwest will change their minds.

Although the tonnage price of this part of the cargo ship is about 30-40 US dollars, more than half of the ships are built within 10 years, and they are still in the mainstream in terms of tonnage and energy efficiency ratio.

Zhou Yu hit Huang Gai, one is willing to fight and one is willing to suffer, all countries saw a fool who bought a large number of second-hand ships, but Yang Yuanzhao hoarded a large number of second-hand cargo ships in advance, which is equivalent to, all of a sudden, China's shipping level, from the original not worth mentioning, broke through 3.5 million tons in one fell swoop, although it is only an old ship, a lot of tonnage is not high, and the efficiency is not high, but it has been cobbled together to create such a big shipping country.

The total tonnage is there, but the future modification, the formation of shipping companies, the construction of routes, the transportation of goods, it is necessary to do it slowly, in the past few years, the northwest has also purchased some cargo ships, trained a part of the sailors, but the total amount is only about 150,000 tons, and now it has expanded 20 times all of a sudden, if you want to eat it, let it play its due effect, it is really not an easy thing.

The purchase of ships, here in the UK, is equivalent to spending about 70 million US dollars, which seems to be a lot of money, but at most it is to let Britain revitalize those old ships, let them become funds, and turn them into funds, and turn them into ships, or use them in more important places, but the opportunity that Britain has high hopes for is the key, in this era, no one has studied the impact of industrial input and output on the national economy, but the production and manufacturing industry has been paid attention to.

Yang Yuanzhao also understands that the opportunistic thing cannot continue, and the British also advertised to him their 10,000-ton cargo ships, and the price is also very reasonable, but Yang Yuanzhao is stunned and does not dare to buy it, there are still 2 years to go to war, the production time of large cargo ships, more than a year or two years, when the war comes, God knows what the British will do, in short, second-hand, can be taken directly, or spot can be, and the rest, it will not work.

The next discussion is still ongoing, and Yang Yuanzhao mentioned it, and the people below also know that they are spending it here with the British, discussing slowly, and trying to get some good things, it is estimated that in the end, the order will not be less than 400 million, maybe it will exceed 500 million.

After eating the benefits of a long time, the British also opened up the permission to visit, the British High Seas Fleet, fully open to Yang Yuanzhao, as for the Japanese purchased King Kong, it is the first batch of visits to the list, since it is a purchased warship, of course the British are happy to give favors, after signing several agreements, do not need Yang Yuanzhao to take the initiative to say, to go up to visit, the British Admiralty invitation letter, directly to Yang Yuanzhao's hands, nominally reasonable, to invite the northwest leaders, on the purchased ships for a field visit. R1152