"Good ship indeed." Wu Guohua replied with a smile, "This is the largest and fastest warship I have ever seen in my life." Even the Royal Fleet of the British Empire did not have such good ships. ”

Hearing Wu Guohua's praise from the bottom of his heart, Cheng Biguang and other admirals looked at Yang Shuoming, with gratitude and reverence in their eyes. After Liu Guanxiong put forward the plan for the development of the navy, none of them expected that in their lifetime, they would see the emergence of a Chinese navy on a larger scale than in the plan.

And the reason why the Chinese Navy can achieve such a qualitative leap is inseparable from the efforts of the young soldier in front of it.

"I heard that the Japanese Navy's battle cruiser fleet was completely annihilated by the German Navy, and if the Germans had encountered such a battleship, the result would have been different." Fu Xiaoxin, who was standing beside Wu Guohua, said loudly.

Looking at her husband who was a little excited, Wu Jiayuan glanced at him, and a faint smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

Compared with the excited Fu Xiaoxin and others and the Chinese naval officers, Yang Shuoming seemed very calm and calm, but Fu Zhuoyao seemed to be able to feel that the hearts of the young people in front of him were also turbulent.

"I would like to know why the Chinese government is in a hurry to get these six new battlecruisers back home." Wu Guohua asked, "Now the war in Europe is not over, the German battlecruisers have just destroyed the Japanese fleet in Europe, the French navy has also suffered serious losses in the Mediterranean, and the Chinese battlefleet is being repaired in the harbor, and it is time to need these new warships to join." ”

"It seems that His Excellency Earl knows the war situation in Europe very well." Cheng Biguang looked at Wu Guohua and said in surprise.

"I don't know everything about it, I just care about it." Wu Guohua replied with a smile, his eyes returned to Yang Shuoming, as if expecting him to answer his own question.

"Your Excellency the Count knows about the battle cruiser that Germany gave to the Ottomans, right?" Yang Shuoming smiled slightly and asked rhetorically.

"You're talking about the Goburn." Wu Guohua nodded, "I heard that this battle cruiser has caused great losses to both the British Navy and the Russian Navy. ”

"The Ottoman navy was not worth mentioning, but because of this 'Goben', the situation is very different." Yang Shuoming said, "The Germans gave full play to the advantages of the battle cruisers with the Ottomans, and I think this kind of battle has a very important enlightening significance for us to 'prevent trouble'." ”

After listening to Yang Shuoming's words, Wu Guohua immediately understood, and his eyes couldn't help but be full of surprise, and the eyes of Cheng Biguang and the others were also bright.

The officers and men of the Chinese Navy are no strangers to the legendary warship "Goeben", which has caused countless troubles for the British Mediterranean Fleet and the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The battlecruiser "Goeben" was the first generation of battlecruisers of the German Navy "von? Morality? The enlarged version of the "Tann" has a standard displacement of 22,978 tons, a full load displacement of 25,399 tons, is equipped with 10 280 mm main guns, twelve 150 mm secondary guns, and is powered by a steam turbine main engine, which is powered by 24 boilers with 52,000 horsepower, a speed of 25 5 knots, a cruising range of 7,600 kilometers at 14 knots, and a crew of 115 "Ben" retains the "Feng ? Morality? The Tann was low freeboard, with two main guns in the middle staggered arrangement, but with the addition of a twin main turret, bringing its main guns to 10 (five twin turrets). Compared with the British battlecruisers of the same era, the biggest advantage of the "Goeben" is the enhanced defense, the "Goburn" turret and bridge armor thickness of 8 inches, this emphasis on defense design ideas made the German large ships show a strong vitality in battle. Armed with a total of 34 heavy guns of more than 100 mm, the "Goeben" could rain more than half a ton of heavy guns on any target within a radius of 23 kilometers in one minute. Launched in Hamburg, Germany in 1911, the Goeben was officially commissioned on February 7, 1912, and became one of the main warships of the Fourth Battleship Squadron of the Imperial German Navy. In the summer of 1914, the Goeben sailed into the Strait of Gibraltar and became Germany's only surface combat force in the Mediterranean.

On October 29, 1914, the "Goeben" suddenly attacked the Russian ports of Sevastopol and Odyssey on the Black Sea, opening the prelude to Turkey's entry into the war. The 280-mm guns of the "Goben" destroyed important buildings and military points in the port of Sevastopol and the city of Odyssey one by one. In the face of the powerful firepower of the "Goben", the Russian army was caught off guard, many warships were injured, and the stack of ammunition stacked in the open air in the port of Sevastopol was hit and exploded, causing heavy losses. In the ensuing Battle of Cape Sochi, the "Goeben" sank a number of Russian ** ships, posing a great threat to the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In the subsequent Battle of the Dardanelles, two more shallow heavy gunboats of the British Navy were sunk, and if it had not been for the "Goeben" that later hit a mine, the Turkish Navy would probably have inflicted even greater losses on the Allies. ,

If a battleship changed the pattern of the First World War, only the "Goeben" could afford this honor. If it had not reached Istanbul, Turkey would not have joined the German side in the war, and if Turkey had not joined the German side in the war, Britain would not have needed to launch a Turkish campaign to open the way for support to Russia, and then there would not have been a British defeat at the Battle of Dardanelles and the Battle of Gallipoli, and Admiral Fisher and Admiral Churchill would not have been forced to resign because of these two fiascos. If Britain and France could have had the southern front to support Russia, Russia would not necessarily be defeated by Germany on the eastern front, then Lenin's "October" would not have succeeded, and Russia would not have fallen.

As a time-traveler from later generations, Yang Shuoming doesn't know much about the navy. But he still knew that although a battlecruiser with the firepower of a battleship and the high speed of a cruiser but relatively weak protection was not suitable for participating in a decisive battle of the fleet, for Japan, an island nation facing the sea on all sides, a battlecruiser was definitely a deadly "weapon of destruction"

Thinking of the disaster that these battlecruisers might bring to the Japanese in the future, a grim smile appeared on the corner of Yang Shuoming's mouth.

Under the tugboat tow, the "Civil Rights" slowly sailed into the harbor, and at this time, there were more and more onlookers on the shore, and the cheers like landslides and tsunamis were heard from time to time on the shore.

At this time, in the excited crowd, a young woman was looking at the slowly moving battlecruiser "Civil Rights" and the huge three-color "human" flag fluttering high on the mast with extremely resentful eyes.

Empire State Building, Tokyo, Japan.

"The battlecruisers of the China Navy have returned home." With a gloomy face, Katsuta handed the newspaper in his hand to Nishihara Kamezo, "It seems that the information from the last time is true, and the Shina people have six more capital ships that are enough to pose a mortal threat to us. ”

"Won't it?" A look of disbelief flashed in Nishihara's eyes, "Aren't these the six ships that are fighting the German Navy in Europe?" ”

"No, you, like the Germans, think of them as the six ships in the British Navy." Master Katsuta shook his head and said, "They are battle cruisers built by the Americans for the China Navy. Left in Britain were six battleships. They are similar in appearance, and they are also sixteen-inch cannons. ”

"How is this possible?" Nishihara Kamezo's voice was inexplicably hoarse.

"I asked the people in Naval Intelligence, and they said that it was because they were so similar to the six damned battleships of China that the Germans mistakenly thought that the China had driven them back to the country, so they wanted to take the initiative, only to be destroyed." Katsuta said again.

"But the question is, how can the Chinese have so much money to build such a large warship?" At this time, Nishihara Kamezo instinctively still didn't want to believe the facts that Katsuda was talking about.

"The Chinese did not use the US loan to build these warships, the money was paid by themselves." Master Katsuta stood up and paced back and forth in the room, "I'm trying to trace the source of this money. According to the information that has been obtained, as you said before, the money comes from the US capital market, but not from the US consortium. ”

Nishihara Kamezo remembered the letters and reports about Yang Shuoming that he had read, and couldn't help but shake his head again and again: "This is impossible, the conclusion I have studied is that those so-called prediction theories are outright nonsense." ”

"I don't believe in those things either." Master Katsuta smiled bitterly and said, "However, how do you explain the gold price crash and the Chilean saltpeter futures incident that happened the year before last?" ”

"The fall in the price of gold was due to the British government's dumping of large quantities of gold around the world in order to raise funds for the war. The decline in the price of saltpeter in Chile is due to the disclosure of artificial potassium phosphate technology by DuPont in the United States. Nishihara Kamezo is worthy of being one of Japan's first-class financial geniuses, and he immediately said what the problem was.

"Do you think the Chinese government can influence the financial policy of the British government? And the corresponding technology provided to DuPont? Nishihara Kamezo asked, staring at Katsuta's master.

"The Chinese government certainly doesn't have that kind of power." "However, I know that many companies with Chinese backgrounds have traded gold shorts at the right time, and as a result, they have won huge profits. The drop in saltpeter prices has brought the same result to the Chinese. ”,

Hearing Katsuta's master say this, Nishihara Kamezo's brows furrowed ugly.

"What's interesting is that our intelligence agents got this information through the bribery of some officials of the Chinese government, which is that the Chinese government happened to receive a lot of financial donations from private companies during the time of these two incidents, and many of these companies belong to the 'people' and 'company' you mentioned earlier." Master Katsuta continued.

"Is that so?" Nishihara Kamezo screamed again.

"And you may not know that DuPont is working with another company on artificial potassium phosphate, and this company is actually a Chinese company."

"What?"

"I haven't found out who the real owner of this company is, and if my guess is correct, this company probably also belongs to the 'people' company." I think you know very well who the real owner of the company is. ”

"It looks like I underestimated this ** person."

Nishihara Kamezo remembered that his investigation of Yang Shuoming's life history had not been able to grasp the essentials, and there was an inexplicable sense of panic in his heart.

"It's a pity that the temple is no longer there. And our business is not yet complete" Thinking of the late former Prime Minister Masaki Terauchi, Nishihara Kamezo couldn't help but feel sad.

Despite the fact that the Terauchi Cabinet had the majority support in the Diet, Terauchi Masatsuki had been trying to further strengthen the power of the prime minister, and the unconstitutional nature of the Terauchi Cabinet had been thoroughly exposed on the issue of sending troops to Siberia.

In November 1917, when the October 1917 outbreak broke out in Russia, in order to prevent the spread of the "Red Plague", there was a great disagreement in Japan over whether or not to participate in the intervention war. Foreign Minister Harano agreed that it would be a good opportunity for Japan to take control of Siberia and Mongolia and Northeast China, while Hara of the Foreign Affairs Research Committee was firmly opposed, believing that such a move would once again trigger a war with China and a direct confrontation with the United States. In January 1918, at the strong request of Masashi Terauchi, the Japanese government sent part of its troops into Siberia on the grounds of "protecting the expatriate". In July, the US Government sent an official note to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demanding that Japan, the United States and China jointly send troops, and that the three sides should not send more than 700 troops, and the Japanese Government announced that it would send troops to Siberia, but Japan did not abide by the limit on the number of troops to be contributed, and as of October after the establishment of the next Hara Kei cabinet, the total number of troops sent by Japan exceeded 90,000 people, which aroused the dissatisfaction of public opinion in Japan and the vigilance of the United States. In the process of deciding to send troops, the Terauchi Cabinet banned Japanese newspapers and periodicals from publishing content opposing the invasion of Siberia, and banned the publication of such articles. On July 30, before the announcement of the order to send troops, more than 50 newspapers were banned from circulation throughout Japan.

Terauchi's repressive measures aroused strong resentment in the Japanese press. On August 25, reporters from 84 newspapers across Japan held the "Kansai Press Conference" in Osaka. The resolution of the meeting proposed: to demand the immediate resignation of the cabinet of Terauchi Masatsu; demand freedom of expression; Supporting the establishment of constitutionalism, etc. The Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspaper used the phrase "white rainbow through the sun" when reporting on the meeting. Japanese authorities indicted the newspaper on the grounds that "the news implied **". As a result, all newspapers were banned on the day the news was published; Nobuo Yamaguchi, the publisher and editor, and Rifu Onishi, the journalist who wrote the news, were sentenced to two months in prison; President Ryuhei Murayama was forced to resign; Many editors, including the editor-in-chief, were forced to quit the newspaper: the "White Rainbow Crossing the Sun" incident was the largest "speech disaster" in Japanese history. It shows that after the success of the "October" campaign in Russia, in order to prevent the breeding and development of the domestic socialist movement, the Japanese Government has heightened its vigilance and strengthened its control over public opinion.

The First World War stimulated Japan's economic prosperity, and for the big bourgeoisie in Japan, it could indeed be said that it was "a golden world". However, with the general rise in prices, the decline in the real wages of Japanese workers and the increase in labor intensity, the living conditions of ordinary people in Japan have deteriorated sharply. The dispatch of troops to Siberia further increased the price of goods, especially after the United States demanded a joint military dispatch, the price of rice in Japan soared, and grain exchanges across the country were forced to suspend trading. At the same time, the prices of daily necessities such as iron, coal, and paper also exploded due to the hoarding of merchants. On August 3, the "rice riot" broke out in Toyama Prefecture, which soon spread to the whole country, and the anger of the Japanese people erupted like a volcano, forming a nationwide "group ** piece" throughout the three prefectures and 38 prefectures. In April, before Japan sent troops to Siberia, Terauchi expressed his intention to resign to the veteran Yamaken Aritomo on the grounds of poor health, and was retained by Yamaguchi Aritomo. However, as the "rice riots" continued to expand, Terauchi had to use the military in order to suppress them, which led to widespread attacks from the ruling and opposition parties, and the nation's press and magazines impeached him. Under the domestic and foreign difficulties, his patron Yamayama Youpeng had to abandon him at this time, and Terauchi Masayi was forced to resign as prime minister. The collapse of the Terauchi cabinet marked the end of Japan's power unconstitutional politics, and Terauchi himself died of illness in 1919, the year after his resignation.

The death of Terauchi Masatoshi had seriously affected Nishihara Kamezo and Katsuta's plan to control the Chinese government through borrowing influence, and the newly inaugurated Hara Kei cabinet questioned whether this costly plan could achieve the desired effect, and although the current Japanese government did not say that it would abandon this plan, Nishihara Kamezo knew that it was no longer possible to get the kind of unsparing support from within the Japanese government as Masaki Terauchi had spared no effort to support.

"No matter what, we must move forward with our plan," Nishihara said.

"That Yang Shuoming has much more money in his hand than ours, and he got these warships for the China Navy in order to gain the support of the China Navy." Katsuda said, "Despite this, his current strength is not enough to fight against Duan Qirui's Beiyang system, Duan Qirui is not a fool, he has already realized the threat of this person, as long as we work harder, Zhida will fall into war again, and at that time, it will be the time for us to obtain Manmeng." ”

Hearing Katsuta's words about plunging China into war again, a trace of doubt flashed in Nishihara's eyes.

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