At noon on the 31st, Zhang Wei returned to Shangjing. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Li Civilians came to report on the arrival of the Kaiser's deputies. Zhang Wei was extremely appreciative of Li Mingmin's performance, especially the matter of free aid and loans to Germany, which made Zhang Wei even more satisfied, knowing the trend of history, if the long-term loans are now, when the mark is depreciated into waste paper after the end of World War I, it is equivalent to using their loans in vain; However, if it can't withstand the attack of the Anglo-Dutch coalition this time, it is estimated that Germany will not provide free aid and loans, after all, even if it is a chess piece, it must have the use value of the chess piece, and no one will want a valuable chess piece; Regarding Germany's proposal to visit the naval fleet, Zhang Wei emphasized that after Germany provided free aid and loans, he could let them visit, and he could also sell the battle cruisers to them at the cost of production to make money in gold and silver; With the current processing technology and production conditions, even the cost price is sky-high, Zhang Wei will definitely make a lot of money.

"Your Majesty, won't this reveal the strength of our navy?"

"We can buy more advanced battleships at any time, so we are not afraid of technology leaks, and we are not afraid of a naval race, and I am very eager for their naval arms race, so that we can sell warships in a big way. Every time we have to start selling when they are about to go into production. And the price of selling is cheaper than what they produce, just to make them more inclined to buy from us instead of producing it themselves. ”

"For the sake of their own military industry, they won't buy from us."

"That's easy to do, sell British warships to the Germans, sell German warships to Britain and France, I'm sure they'll buy them. By the way, what is the situation with the British army now? Isn't it to form an Anglo-Dutch coalition? “

"According to information sent back from Rangoon, two British divisions were assembled in Rangoon; There has been no news from Kolkata yet. In the afternoon, I sent another telegram to ask about it. “

"I hope they come soon, this time we can show our weapons well, and we can sell weapons after repairing the UK." Now we have no income, so we have to make money by selling weapons. Okay, you go and get busy, come over in the evening with the two chiefs of staff of the General Staff, and let's figure out how to deal with the British. “

"Yes, Your Majesty"

At 7 o'clock in the evening, Lu Weimin, Li Zhaoshui and Li Minmin came to the palace together.

In Zhang Wei's study, Zhang Wei first asked Li Civilians to introduce the situation of the Anglo-Dutch coalition army.

"The information sent back through the intelligence officers in Paris shows that the British had intended to invite France to participate in the operation, and that the British representatives were moving around Paris with little effect; The news sent back from The Hague was that this time the Netherlands would no longer send troops, but only the Dutch troops stationed on the island of Sumatra to cooperate with the actions of the British army. According to the news that had just returned from Calcutta, the British had drawn four divisions and two artillery regiments from the Indian colonies with more than 60,000 men, plus 150,000 servants, and the departure date was around February 5. The Navy's escort fleet is the Far East Fleet stationed in Singapore, 3 former Dreadnought-class battleships, some cruisers, escort ships, etc., and the light cruiser fleets in Calcutta and Rangoon will also participate in the escort. These are the forces that have been determined to depart, and which have now been assembled in the city of Calcutta, and it is possible that they will send more troops than this; The news coming back from Rangoon was that two divisions had been assembled and would not set off for the time being, but only as reserves. “

Zhang Wei knew that Britain and France were now relatively close to each other because of the Moroccan incident, and they had a tendency to form an alliance, and although they had not yet formed an alliance, it was a matter of time before they formed an alliance. Before the alliance is formed, let's teach the British a lesson. He asked Chief of General Staff Lu, "Now that we know the number of British troops, what tactics should we adopt to keep all the more than 200,000 British troops?" “

Lu Weimin asked: "Your Majesty, this time we are just destroying these British troops, or will we continue to expand the results of the war?" “

"My original minimum goal was to occupy the whole Dutch colony, and then stabilize and develop for a while; Now that the British are involved, at least the Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands will be occupied, so that we will have an additional security barrier in the south, and as for the other results, it will depend on the British, if they can negotiate smoothly after repelling the British this time, then they will not be busy increasing the results of the war, if they do not want to negotiate, they will talk about it according to the situation. “

"Your Majesty, there are now two plans, the first is to have the submarines attack, first to ambush their convoys, and then the navy to send battleships and battlecruisers to crush their convoys, capture or sink their troop carriers, then we will be victorious; The second plan was to put the British troops into Sumatra, send submarines to constantly harass the opponent's logistics supply lines, and then gradually advance with superior forces. “

Li Zhaoshui said: "Your Majesty, I agree with the first plan, we can buy a few dreadnought-class battleships and battle cruisers to wipe out their escort fleet at sea, so it will be so trouble-free." “

Zhang Wei said: "I also mean this, buy a few dreadnought-class battleships, and make achievements in this battle, let the world see our naval strength, after the war, we can sell warships to make money, as long as these British troops are eliminated, just get more points than the cost of buying battleships." “

Li Zhaoshui said: "Your Majesty, then it will be much more convenient for us, the army has occupied Palembang, Jambi and Pekanbaru, this time the target port of the British army can only choose Belao Bay, the outer port of Medan, we just need to wait for the rabbit in the west of the Strait of Malacca, first submarine attack, and then battleships and battle cruisers to completely destroy it, our contribution is not big, and the results are not small." ”

Zhang Wei said: "Yes, the war in the future is to be like this, to exchange the minimum price for the greatest result, and remember in the future, we will not fight a war that loses money." This time, all the British battleships, light cruisers, and baggage ships were to be sunk or captured, and the destroyers and torpedo ships were to be sunk as much as possible. In this way, after the war, we will earn a fleet of battleships for nothing. In the past, I did not buy battleships, nor did I build a large cruiser fleet, that is because the Netherlands is not qualified as our opponent, and it is also a wrong message to the potential enemy, we only have 2 battle cruiser ships, and we still need to protect Shangjing, and the enemy will definitely not pay too much attention to our navy; This time, we will suddenly send a powerful fleet of battleships, and we will definitely catch the British by surprise. ”

Lu Weimin said: "Your Majesty, won't you completely offend Britain by doing this? Is there room for negotiation after that? ”

Zhang Wei said: "There are only interests between countries, there is no such thing as offending him, we have not offended him, doesn't Britain still want to destroy us?" Since they dare to come, we must teach the ocean overlord a lesson. Only by beating them hard and hurting them can they return to the negotiating table. After you go back, you will come up with a plan as soon as possible, what type of battleship do you need to buy, how many ships to buy, where to ambush, etc., the more detailed the better, the time is very tight, the commander of the fleet is still Li Yunhai, and you and Yang Yili are mainly responsible for this battle plan; As for the army, it is better to think more about how to occupy the entire island of Sumatra after the British navy is eliminated. After the British navy had been eliminated, the navy would occupy Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands, as well as the Riau and Nasner Islands, and the army would cooperate. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, this time it will definitely teach the British a profound lesson."