"On August 6, the 27th year of the Republic of China, Fang Ying, captain of the Fuqing Navy, and Li Kongrong, the ordnance department of the Navy, respectfully led all the officers and men to pay tribute to the soul of the brother of Gao You, the commander of the Navy and captain of the Ninghai, with the ceremony of purity and shyness: Woohoo! The island was raging, ravaging our sea frontier, Lugou stealing, and then Beijing and Hangzhou. Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info Huanhuan Gao Gong, the hope of the people, go to sea to break diplomatic relations, shock the enemy's courage, fight on a lonely ship, and have high morale. Hu Tian is not blessed, an ant hurts the good, seeks benevolence, knows the public and does not hurt, and the name of the thousand autumns is overflowing. Thinking about sentimentality, the flag is fluttering, paying deep tribute, and offering a tribute. Feast! ”

After Captain Yang Yanwei, the clerk of the Fuqing, finished reciting the memorial text, Fang Ying and Li Kongrong on the deck leaned over to pour wine, and for a while the honey wine overflowed, and the white waves on the sea were surging.

It had been six days since the sinking of the Ninghai, and in the past few days, divers have found the wall that Li Kongrong had mentioned, and brought up piles of silver and gold bars, as well as 500 kilograms of precious stones, more than 200,000 silver coins, and thousands of pieces of jewelry. In addition to the moment when they found the wreck, everyone was still immersed in a faint sadness, especially the students who had just graduated from the sea school. On the first seven days, the clerk Yang Yanwei racked his brains to write a memorial text, and Fang Ying and Li Kongrong led everyone to sacrifice the dead.

"Brother Youzhi is gone, but there are still us, more than 20,000 officers and soldiers of the navy, and ......" Fang Ying had to speak to the crew on this occasion, but his speech was very dry. …… With Colonel Lee here, we will definitely be able to rebuild the navy, and I hope that you will fulfill your duties and fulfill the orders of the department. I will now speak by Colonel Lee. ”

"Brothers: I don't have anything to say, everyone is a gentleman, what we have to do is very simple, eight words: kill for kill, blood for blood." Li Kongrong raised his hand and said. "To do this, in addition to the wreck that we are salvaging now, we have to salvage another wreck. Only with money can you buy a boat, and only with a boat can you kill the Japanese. It's as simple as that, put away the tears of the girls, the navy doesn't need tears, what the navy needs is blood.

What does the Ninghai tell us? Telling us is not only martyrdom, not only unyielding, but the most important of the many things that Ninghai tells us is: we must always attack! Only a constant offensive can inflict a fatal blow on the enemy, consolidate our sea power, and protect our compatriots. We once forgot this spirit, but now the Ninghai once again reminds us: The navy is an offensive service, even if we only have one ship and one person, we must not stop attacking.

I know that the Japanese navy is very strong, and I also know that after the sinking of the Ninghai, we will not have a single ship that can sail to the ocean. Don't worry, it'll be soon. I tell you very clearly that within two years, the Navy will have its first aircraft carrier, and in three years, we will have an aircraft carrier fleet. In six years, we will fight in Yokohama, Japan.

Don't think it's impossible, many things are possible, it's just that you don't dare to think about it. Look at the present, look at the stuff heaped in the cabin. Do you dare to think before that? Didn't you suspect it before you found the wreck? But we did it. We're going to find another ship, which is full of Tang Dynasty porcelain and is worth as much as this one. Brothers: Throw away all baggage, as long as we do it, we will succeed one day. After this war of resistance, the navy will be reborn from the ashes, pick up the soul that was lost before, we are the navy, we will attack forever! Okay, that's it. ”

After Li Kongrong finished speaking, everyone applauded neatly, and after Fang Ying announced the disbandment, only the two of them were left on the deck.

"What are we going to do next?" Fang Ying asked.

"The next step is to find a bank to receive this batch of gold." Li Kongrong said. "We're not selling gold, we're going to mortgage it."

"Mortgage?" Fang Ying was a little puzzled, "Who to mortgage with?" So what's the interest? ”

"Find a bank mortgage, either the United States, or the United Kingdom, or Switzerland." Li Kongrong said. The gold fished out of the wreck was greater than expected, and it seems that the treasure hunter named Misher in later generations concealed part of it, I don't know whether it was to avoid his partner or the IRS, but no matter how much he concealed it, it was only more than 8,500 kilograms. The 8.5 tons of gold sold directly to the Fed can be sold for about $10 million, which is $1.5 million more. For an individual, $1.5 million is of course a lot, which is equivalent to $24 million in 2016, but for a fleet and an aircraft carrier, this is only equal to 30 aircraft and one-tenth of a modified aircraft carrier, which is not enough to build a destroyer.

In Li Kongrong's plan, considering the soaring price of gold after World War II, gold was not intended to be sold, but only mortgaged. American banks showed little interest in this, so he thought that if the Americans did not agree, they would go to England or Switzerland, and even if they could only mortgage 90% or the interest rate was higher, he would be willing to mortgage.

"Anyway, we all have money." Li Kongrong continued. "The silver bars have been contacted by the bank, but unfortunately they can only be sold for forty-three cents per ounce, and the jewelry and copper cannons will be auctioned, and these will be shipped to New York."

"That is, the gold bars are still on the ship temporarily?" Fang Ying said. "Our next stop is New York?"

"Yes. However, the silver bars and gold are shipped separately, so that everyone will not pay attention to the Fuqing. Li Kongrong said. When the mortgage matter is in sight, it will be seen whether it will be sent to the United States or shipped to Europe. I think it's likely to be shipped to Europe, where private ownership of gold is prohibited by law. We'll go separately tomorrow, I'll go ashore from Florida and I'll wait for you in New York. ”

"Understood." Fang Ying nodded, and then he said, "Don't worry, with me, the gold bars are foolproof." ”

"Of course I'm relieved." Li Kongrong said with a smile, through the contact in the past few days, he didn't feel that there were any uneasy people in Fuqing, especially those young students, who were in the state of secondary two, and regarded gold and silver as dung at all.

"The ministry wants to send a message to inform the success of the plan." Fang Ying remembered this incident. He asked this because, according to Chen Jiliang's orders, the shipwreck plan was actually commanded by Li Kongrong.

"Not yet." Li Kongrong said, "From now on, the Fuqing will start radio silence until it arrives in New York Harbor. There are also ships with the name of the ship to be changed, and the province is tracked. There is an order, and I will inform you as soon as possible. ”

"I understand." The plan has already been related to the completion of the salvage, and Fang Ying knows very well what she will do next.

"What is this?" Five days later, in the basement of the U.S. subsidiary of New China Defense on Fifth Avenue in New York, he saw a large pile of black and silver bars Zhi Bingyuan inexplicably, and the copper cannon was just that, he didn't know what Li Kongrong was doing with so many black stones.

"Silver." Li Kongrong put on his military uniform again, and with him were Lin Xianxi, director of the Ordnance Department, as well as Zhou Yingcong and Chen Wenlin. Several of them received a telegram from Li Kongrong from San Francisco, of course, they did not come to see the treasure, but after talking to the airline last month about the intention of bidding, the address of the bid proposal was notified in New York.

"Silver?" Zhi Bingyuan didn't believe in evil and went up and touched it, and wanted to raise it with one hand, but the silver stripe didn't move. "So heavy?" He finally picked up a forty-kilogram silver bar in both hands, and his face was flushed.

"Of course it's silver." Li Kongrong said with a smile. Lin Xianxi, Zhou Yingcong and others were also laughing, they were worried that they couldn't find the sunken ship or it would be difficult to find it, who knew that it would be a result in a few days. "Didn't you say last time that everything is expensive in the United States and there is no money to pay for start-up? Now that we have the money, these silver bars can sell for five or six hundred thousand dollars. ”

"Five or six hundred thousand?" Zhi Bingyuan looked at the more than 800 silver bars thoughtfully.

"At the current price of silver, these are worth just over half a million dollars. But we have other things, and these cannons can be bought for a lot of money, and several collectors have quoted prices, and they may end up selling for a million dollars. Li Kongrong shook his head, more than 800 silver bars were not worth as much as 12 Spanish bronze cannons. Anyway, you don't have to worry about money later. He concluded.

"Understood, understood." Zhi Bingyuan smiled, and after a while he asked another question, "Then how can this money, this money and Xinzhong be good?" Is it counted as a stake or a loan? ”

"Borrowing." Li Kongrong made the final decision. "Xinzhong just pays the normal interest, and the loan term is ten years."

"Understood." Zhi Bingyuan breathed a sigh of relief, he was worried that the navy would invest the money, and then the equity of Xinzhong Company would change significantly, which would be extremely unfavorable to the old man in Xinzhong.

"Mr. Zhi, you can run the company well, Hansheng trusts you, the navy trusts you." Lin Xianxin does not know how the defense of Singapore will develop in the future, but in addition to believing that Li Kongrong's choice is right, he also believes that cash is better than shares.

"Thank you, General Lin!" Zhi Bingyuan glanced at Lin Xianxin gratefully, and then said, "Let's help first, if there is something to order, just say something." ”

Zhi Bingyuan thought that Li Kongrong and the others were going to talk about something, so he left in a hurry. In fact, there is nothing important, Li Kongrong is concerned about the situation of aircraft bidding.

"Brother Hansheng, many aircraft companies are not very interested in bidding." "They are worried that we will not be able to buy a sufficient number of aircraft, and only small companies are interested, and they are also doing this because they have no business." ”

"There is also the fact that the R-2800 engine is not mass-produced, and the price is more than $30,000 a unit. The manager of an aircraft company said that the aircraft made with such immature engines was expensive and the performance was not guaranteed, and they suggested that we use the Curtiss R-2600 engine, which only costs 26,000 US dollars, and some models can reach 1,800 horsepower...... "Zhou Yingcong also said, and he and Chen Wenlin came forward to bid for the tender.

"No way!" Li Kongrong shook his head categorically, "The R-2600 has no development potential, it will only have 1,800 horsepower if it dies, and the R-2800 is different, it is a new engine, 1,800 horsepower is only the initial model, and the power of the subsequent model will reach 2,400 horsepower." Since we customize the aircraft, we must think about the long-term, otherwise we will only be pressed and beaten by the Japanese. ”

"But we can't guarantee the amount of purchases." Zhou Yingcong said bitterly. "What should I do if the purchase volume is too small and people are not willing to do it?"

"How much purchase does it take for the other party to agree to do it?" Li Kongrong understands that the purchase volume is a problem, after all, this is a naval aircraft, in addition to the use of star-shaped air-cooled engines, the fuselage design of the naval aircraft is not as slender as that of land-based aircraft, which is caused by increasing the capacity of aircraft carriers.

"At least two hundred." Chen Wenlin said. "In fact, we also promised that the purchase volume would definitely exceed 200 aircraft, but the other party did not believe it. In addition, Mr. John Jurid, President of the American Aviation Chamber of Commerce, advised us not to do so. ”

Ju also advised major aircraft companies not to participate in the bidding, saying that the government has no plans to rebuild the navy and the government has no special funds. Zhou Yingcong added. When he said this, the aircraft company was even more suspicious.

"Why did Jurid say that?" Li Kongrong was curious about the reason why Ju Lide did this.

"I guess it has something to do with Curtis, in addition to importing German and Italian aircraft, the domestic Air Force has always bought Curtiss aircraft, and Curtiss doesn't have the model we want, so he said so." Zhou Yingcong said. "This is my speculation, and there is no real evidence."

"Then why didn't Curtis develop these two aircraft?" Li Kongrong is still puzzled.

"Curtis probably thinks we can't buy many planes." Chen Wenlin said. "They didn't send anyone at the time, they just asked us to send the tender request by telegram, but we didn't do it, it was too dangerous, and the Japanese would probably know the content of the tender."

"In that case, then ignore him." Curtiss built the C46 transport aircraft, the P40 fighter jet, and the SB2C dive bomber in World War II. The SB2C was notoriously difficult to maneuver in the Navy, making Curtis no match for Grumman's SBD on dive bombers, and his Wright R-2600 engine was not wanted by Lee Kong-Young.

"Once again, we invited the designers or heads of various aircraft companies to come to New York. Before returning to Europe, I would like to meet with designers from several major companies. Li Kongrong said. On the issue of purchase volume, we can ask Singapore-China to endorse it, and if the purchase volume does not reach 200 aircraft within three years, we will compensate the aircraft company for one million US dollars. ”

"Is that okay?" Zhou Yingcong was very surprised, but Lin Xianxin nodded slightly.

"That's all there is to it." Li Kongrong also had no choice but to come up with this policy, "In the future, the procurement will be in the name of Xinzhong Company, and the actual operation and use will still be the Ordnance Division." ”

"Brother Hansheng, I have another worry, that is, the Japanese have been paying a lot of attention to us recently, is it too ostentatious to let people from the aircraft company come so frequently?" Chen Wenlin was silent for a while and expressed his worries.

"The Japanese know that it is a matter of time before we rebuild our navy and build an aircraft carrier fleet, and we just need to do our thing." Li Kongrong has money in his hands, and he already disdains the Japanese.

"But aren't we going to capture Japanese cruise ships yet? It's not going to ......," Chen Wenlin is still worried.

"There will be a foolproof solution." Li Kongrong said. "Besides, it's not just the Japanese who have cruise ships." (To be continued.) )