"You mean the Navy never looks back?" Lin Xianxin listened quietly, and he gradually understood Li Kongrong's choice. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Yes. Otherwise, after the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the navy will be thrown into the civil war no matter what it does. We can not listen to Chang Kaishen, but we can't ignore the Congress. Li Kongrong said helplessly. The only way is for those on the mainland to return to the mainland, for overseas Chinese to return to overseas Chinese, and for the navy to stand with overseas Chinese and not to intervene in the civil war. ”

"But everyone's family and ancestral homes are all in the country?" Lin Xianxi seems to be able to sense who will rule the mainland after the war, and he is also helpless.

"Then move them all to the Ryukyus." Li Kongrong looked at the corner of the wall, "Avoid it." ”

"You hate Chang Kaishen so much?" Lin Xianxin asked. "If the Navy does not stand in the country. On the military side, people have the help of the Soviet Union, just like the Northern Expedition, rubles, weapons, a steady stream, the country. The army can't win no matter what. ”

"I don't hate Chang Kaishen, I really admire Chang Kaishen. But he's like a horse in the opposite direction, the more you try, the more you get wrong. After the war, local factions ceased to exist, and the communist army would engulf everything like a flood. He thought he had the will and prestige of the people, but these things were never useful.

The Anti-Japanese War Navy must resist Japan under his leadership, and the Civil War Navy must also fight a civil war under his leadership, and according to his usual routine, the Navy must be the end of the rabbit and the dog after the war. Everyone has their own fate, and the affairs on the mainland are by no means something that the navy can intervene in, and instead of being consumed in the civil war, the navy should be unique overseas and help overseas Chinese spread their desicpancy. ”

"I can understand your thoughts, but others may not." Lin Xianxin kept looking at Li Kongrong, and only looked away when he finished speaking. "It's likely that the time comes... Cough... Cough...... Ahem..."

"Let's take a sip of water." Li Kongrong saw him coughing and carefully helped him up. "It doesn't matter what other people think, starting next year, the school will recruit overseas Chinese students on a large scale. When the time comes, those who want to go back to the mainland can go back to the mainland, but the entire aircraft carrier fleet belongs to the navy, and they can't drive the aircraft carriers away, and they can drive away the spoils captured by Japan. ”

"You've got gray hair, too." When he was close to drinking water, Lin Xianxi saw Li Kongrong's temples white. "What about Myanmar? The Navy will also help the country. Does the army hold Rangoon? ”

"Yangon is too close to the Malay Peninsula to hold." Li Kongrong put down the cup and helped Lin Xianxi to lie down. "I mean defend Singapore first, it's still the key point of the South Seas. If Singapore could not hold on, it would retreat to the Indian Ocean, with the port of Kyaukphyu in Myanmar's Rakhine State as its estuary, which connects to Magway on the banks of the Irrawaddy River. Magway is forty kilometers south of Ringanqiang. As long as the southernmost part of the railway line, Tonggu, and the lower reaches of the Irrawaddy River, can be held, this external passage can be preserved. The navy was only responsible for the safety of merchant ships entering Kyaukpyu Harbor, and at the same time carried out timely air raids on cities behind enemy lines such as Yangon and Bago; If the Japanese Navy appears in the Indian Ocean, then a decisive battle at sea will be fought and they will all be sunk. ”

Lin Xianxin only knew that Kyaukphyu was a port in the Indian Ocean west of Myanmar, and when the British invaded Burma, it was from Kyaukphyu port. It would be better to have a port here than Yangon, a few hundred kilometers to the south, but he was worried that he would suffer a decisive battle at sea. "If all the main forces of Japanese aircraft carriers appear in the Indian Ocean, can we win?"

"I can win." Li Kongrong, who has seen the radar of early warning aircraft, firmly believes that he can defeat the Japanese mobile forces. "The problem of the Navy now is that there is not enough money, so it is necessary to wait for the Japanese to go to war against Britain and the United States. If the money is enough, then we alone will destroy the Japanese Navy. When I was in England, I visited some shipyards and talked to many people, and on the way I came, I thought, why don't we produce a low-speed aircraft carrier with a full load displacement of 20,000 tons, a speed of 25 knots, no armor, and only a single-story hangar in wartime? The aircraft carrier costs no more than three million pounds, is easy to produce, and takes less than a year to build.

In this way, the fleet has more than five aircraft carriers, and these low-speed aircraft carriers carry more than sixty-four aircraft, which are not much worse than the Ninghai class except for speed and protection. It only takes five ships to build and merge the previous five to gain a decisive advantage over the Japanese Navy. After the annihilation of the Japanese Navy, the sea area outside the range of shore-based aircraft will be controlled by us. ”

Li Kongrong did not go to many shipyards in Britain at all, and the low-speed aircraft carrier he was talking about was actually the British Giant class in World War II, and the average cost of this class of aircraft carriers was about 2.5 million pounds. But he had an even crazier idea: to produce an escort carrier like the Casablanca-class, which would cost less. It's just that the speed of this class of aircraft carriers is lower, only twenty knots, and the officers and men required for each aircraft carrier are similar to those of the Giant class, and if you really want to build a new aircraft carrier, it is still suitable for the Giant class - the Navy does not have so many people to fill the Casa Blanca aircraft carrier.

As soon as he talked about the aircraft carrier, Li Kongrong's eyes lit up, Lin Xianxin knew that he was like this, and this time he just smiled. He said something else: "Hansheng, it's time for you to be promoted." ”

"Promotion?" Li Kongrong smiled, "Isn't this too early?" ”

"It's not early." Lin Xianxin shook his head, "After you sank the Canglong, Ji Liang and I decided to promote you to rear admiral, but the matter was delayed later, and the funeral was not held, so it has been delayed until now." Now that they are here, your promotion order will be issued in advance, so that he will not be troubled. The submarine will be handed over to Lin Xiangguang, and you will be in charge of the fleet in the future. ”

Promoting to rear general is an important step in taking charge of the aircraft carrier fleet, Fang Ying and others are all colonels, and to be the commander of the aircraft carrier fleet, Li Kongrong's military rank must be a major general, or at least a deputy general. In addition to being in charge of the fleet, this promotion also has the meaning of competing with the domestic navy, the navy of the Republic of China is not large, and the generals are all civilian generals except for Zeng Yiding of the 2nd fleet.

Thinking of competing with Chen Shaokuan for control of the fleet, Li Kongrong's joy was suppressed again. He said: "The submarine should wait until the last two cruise ships are captured and then handed over to Xiangguang, these two cruise ships have the largest tonnage, and once they miss, they will never have a chance." ”

Li Kongrong still thinks about the aircraft carrier fleet, but on the way to New York, Chen Shaokuan thinks about getting off the horse - after Chen Jiliang's death, the New York Navy Office was in charge of the Lin Xianxin brothers, and Li Kongrong was not promoted early or late, but he was promoted when he went to New York, purely to show his own color. Originally, he also wanted to go to the hospital in New York to catch up with Lin Xianxi, and advised him to turn back and stand on his side. Now when he saw this order, he didn't want to go to the hospital.

Chen Shaokuan thought about how to win back the hearts and minds of the navy, but when the train arrived in New York, the office did not send a special car to greet him, and Zhou Xianxian, who was in charge of the trip, suddenly sweated on his forehead. He remembered that he had sent a telegram to New York asking for a car, and he didn't want to have a ghost now.

Chen Shaokuan's face was pale, and he looked at Zhou Yingcong: "Have Chairman Lin and Minister Song arrived?" Where do they live? ”

"Chairman Lin and Minister Song should have arrived, and they live in ...... It's like staying at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Zhou Yingcong said, he saw that Chen Shaokuan wanted to live with them, so he had to say: "The hotel is good, but it is very expensive, and it costs hundreds of ...... a night." ”

"We're not short of money." Before leaving, Chang Kaishen specially approved 100,000 US dollars, and Chen Shaokuan was indeed not short of money. "Find a car, go to the Waldorf Astoria."

Chen Shaokuan settled into the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, but unfortunately Lin Sen had already gone to Chinatown to pay respects to Chen Jiliang's coffin, while Song Ziwen was in his room to meet guests, who was in close talks with David Luo, the new president of the New York branch of the Bank of China.

"I didn't expect them to be so popular in New York." After Luo talked about the situation between the New China Defense Company and the US financial circles, Song Ziwen couldn't help but sigh with emotion. When he saw that Robben wanted to know the real background of the Xinzhong Defense Company in the United States, he talked about the relationship between the Xinzhong Company and the financial circles, and then he realized that the big tree of Xinzhong was not easy to pry.

"Yes, sir, the Jews have a good opinion of the Singapore-China company, which seems to have a lot to do with the fact that Lee used to work in Germany. Then there was Lee's very good knowledge of the situation in Germany, and many people believed his predictions of war in Europe. David Luo didn't know the true purpose of Song Ziwen's inquiry about Xinzhong's defense, and he said with regret: "It's a pity that although Xinzhong has opened an account in our bank, it doesn't have much deposit, and they have closer relations with Jewish bankers and Swiss bankers." ”

"David, Xinzhong will not deposit money in the Bank of China." Song Ziwen smiled and lit a cigarette calmly, but did not smoke it. "They have a problem with the government and are worried that the government will freeze their accounts. I need you to inquire when the shares of Xinzhong Shipbuilding will be issued, who is the issuer entrusted to it, and how many people are interested in this stock. ”

Fighting snakes and fighting seven inches, the navy now relies on self-financing of military spending, and its weakness is precisely self-raising of military spending. As long as he can pose a threat to the navy in terms of funding, Song Ziwen believes that Li Kongrong will eventually have to compromise with the government - a country can mobilize much more resources than a company. The United States is a pragmatic country, and he believes that as long as he has enough chips, the Americans will definitely change their minds.

Song Ziwen focused on finance, and the first official business that Li Kongrong had to deal with when he left the hospital was also finance. It's not that I'm worried about the tightening of the capital chain, but Singapore's Lee Kong Chian and Yunnan's Miao Yuntai have to meet and negotiate first. What he didn't expect was that Miao Yuntai and Chen Guangfu were very familiar with each other, so these three giants in the banking industry of the Republic of China came to Xinzhong Defense Company together to do important business.

Chen Guangfu is a representative of the Chongqing Nationalist Government, and the reason why he is in the United States is that Kong Xiangxi is a pro-German faction, and the British and American sides suffer from lack of network resources, and Song Ziwen is a British and American faction, and he has resources in the United States, but Song Ziwen's coming to power is equivalent to Kong Xiangxi's coming to power, so Kong Xiangxi had no choice but to send Chen Guangfu to the United States. Chen Guangfu was a student studying in the United States, but he was valued by the Americans not because he had studied in the United States, but because of his ability to establish and operate the Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank.

Li Kongrong also admired him very much, and then thought that Wang Pseudo was about to issue the China Reserve Bonds, and he needed some people who knew banknotes to observe and collect information on the China Reserve Bonds in Shanghai, and he was a little kind to him. Unexpectedly, Chen Guangfu said soon after the discussion: "Brother Hansheng, Dean Yongzhi asked me to ask you a question: Do you still remember the promise made by the King's Lake back then?" ”

Chen Guangfu's sentence of 'do you remember King's Lake' made Li Kongrong think of 'do you still remember Daming Lake', he shook his head in disgust, and said: "Of course I remember, but Mr. Yongzhi didn't fulfill his promise." If he had been able to advise Chairman Chang not to fight in Shanghai and not to listen to the so-called mediation of the League of Nations by Song Ziwen and Gu Weijun, the War of Resistance would have been a different situation. Even if the Japanese attack Shanghai, Nanjing will not be so easy to lose, right? ”

Chen Guangfu is not Kong Xiangxi's person, he just told Kong Xiangxi on his behalf, as for what the two said on the shore of Königssee, Germany, he didn't know. But listening to Li Kongrong's rhetorical question, especially when it came to the Battle of Songhu and the loss of Nanjing, he subconsciously felt that Li Kongrong seemed to be more reasonable: If Shanghai was not greatly attacked, Nanjing would indeed not be lost so quickly.

"Last year, the equalization fund was almost gone, but fortunately, the depreciation of the pound has eased up, otherwise the credit of the fiat currency is difficult to guarantee. But this is only for now, and the situation will be even worse next year, so can't the Navy help? Chen Guangfu knows the predicament at home, although the United States has loans, but loans are really a drop in the bucket. The Navy has a huge amount of money in the United States, and if the Navy can spare some funds to support the national government, the equalization fund will definitely last longer.

"Xinzhong Shipbuilding is preparing to go public, if you ......" thought of Kong Xiangxi's chubby face - this person is still quite generous, not as domineering as Song Ziwen. At first, he did not reprimand himself for treason, but after hearing that the navy had salvaged the wreck, he sent a telegram in very gentle terms, hoping that the money would be temporarily lent to the country.

"Brother Guangfu, I fully understand the difficulties of Dean Yongzhi, but the money for the navy is not mine alone. If it is my own, then how much money can be lent to Dean Yongzhi to level the fiat currency or support the war of resistance. On the navy's side, we have to make a financial statistics first, if the new China shipbuilding stock goes smoothly, the navy can probably temporarily lend some money to the dean of Yongzhi, the term of the loan is very generous, and the interest and conditions are easy to say. However, the navy also has some things to ask Dean Yongzhi for help: First, the naval aviation unit will return to China for practical training, that is, to replace training with war, and I hope that the government can facilitate it......"

"Go home to fight?! That's a good thing! Chen Guangfu was overjoyed, the domestic air force was short of planes, and there was no foreign exchange to buy planes (even if there was foreign exchange, the US aircraft companies were all busy with British and French orders, and it was estimated that they could not buy them), and it was just right for the navy planes to go back.

"Mr. Mitsufu, naval aviation will only listen to the orders of the Navy. Because of the limited scale, they didn't go back in many numbers. I am very worried that Chairman Chang and his wife will be very unhappy that the naval pilots do not obey orders. Li Kongrong had no joy on his face, and his expression was very cold. Another matter is even more tricky, because many officers and men of the Navy are still stranded in China, and I hope that the Standing Committee Chairman will raise his noble hand and let them go abroad, because they are all fighting the Japanese, and their role in the country is very limited. ”