Li Kongrong's original suggestion made Lin Xianxi change his mind, it is not difficult to build a simple supply base between Fujian and Zhejiang, and the specific content has been refined. It is envisaged that the simple supply base is just a small fishing village, with a water depth of five meters, and there is no need for caves, just a detachable wooden trestle, and the submarines are covered with camouflage nets when they arrive at the port to prevent enemy aircraft from detecting them from the air. Of course, this kind of fishing village can only allow the crew to rest and replenish the supplies on board, and the maintenance has to go to another place. Even if the Americans are strictly neutral, they have 24 hours to refuel, and if they can't do it, they can lease a foreign cruise ship or merchant ship and refuel on the high seas in the middle of the night.

The most difficult thing about this idea is the setting of the maintenance base, which is crowded with many people, many buildings, and must have a dry dock, which naturally attracts attention. Even if the base can hide it from the outside world, there is no way to hide the foreign purchase materials, and the parts and steel materials needed by the submarine must be purchased from the outside, and as long as these things are traced, they can find a place.

But it is not that there is no possibility at all, as long as the personnel and equipment of the Mawei shipyard can be secretly transferred, the accessories and steel can be hoarded in advance, and then find a small place with acquaintances, it can still be kept secret for a period of time. After all, Fujian is the Fujian of Fujianese, and it is said that there will be no enemy special informants in the poor and remote areas, and this local friendship still exists.

During the period after Kong Xiangxi left, before the Germans took everyone to visit the submarine, Chen Shaokuan and the others were discussing this matter. The fishing village is very simple, the submarine can be docked, and it can be placed in Sanduao, but it is difficult to select the location of the maintenance base, and I don't know where to put it properly if I think about it. However, Lin Xianxin felt that this problem could only be determined after he went back, and the German side would sign the contract first. In addition, submarines are small and easy to build, and the construction period is also short, so as for Li Kongrong's repeated requests to order 700-ton ocean-going submarines, then order two -- one for Lin Zhun and one for him, and the rest of the money will buy 200-ton offshore submarines.

Standing on the deck of the Type VII.A submarine and having a brief discussion, Lin Xianxin asked Vice Admiral Bastian for permission to visit the Type II submarine. Type VII has been shown to the Chinese, and Type II naturally has no need to keep secrets. So they went around in each of the Type II.A and Type II.B submarines. It is difficult to see the difference between Type A and Type B, but Li Kongrong suggested that if Lin Xianxi really wants to sell Type II submarines, he must buy Type B, which is an improved type after all, and its operability and internal structure are better than Type A.

When the group left the dock, the sun was already in the west, their clothes were glued to their bodies, and they didn't know how much sweat they had. On the way, Vice Admiral Bastian looked at the thoughtful Chinese and said, "German submarines are the best, I hope you will be satisfied." ”

"Your Excellency, Vice Admiral, we are basically satisfied, but we don't know how long it will take the shipyard to build a submarine?" Chen Shaokuan replied aloud.

"If it's a large submarine, it will take at least two years." Lieutenant General Bastian gave an incredible time. "If it's a small submarine, it should be enough for that year."

"Your Excellency, this is just a small ship of a few hundred tons." Chen Shaokuan looked at the Germans and then at Li Kongrong. The two-year period is completely inconsistent with what Li Kongrong reported, and the two-year period is also beyond his own plan.

"But this is a submarine, Your Excellency." Lieutenant General Bastian squeezed out a small smile. "It's so difficult to build that it takes at least two years to build, and we have to wait for the steel mill to make the steel plates and the engine factory to make the engine, I think it will take at least half a year here. If the plan is not good, the construction period will be longer. ”

"Your Excellency, with all due respect, this time is extremely wrong, because when I looked at the nameplate of the diesel engine just now, it was dated April 1936, and I asked the sailor just now, and he told me that he had been on the boat for almost a year and was very accustomed to life on a submarine." Li Kongrong smiled, and the German's face quickly became difficult to see.

"Major, you shouldn't inquire about those things, it's ...... It's espionage! The lieutenant general was a little angry.

"Your Excellency, Vice Admiral, I just gave the sailor a cigarette in the spirit of Sino-German friendship, and then asked him with concern if he was suitable for life on a submarine. You were by my side just now, you should stop me. Li Kongrong was extremely sorry for leaving the Germans helpless.

He had no choice but to turn to Chen Shaokuan and said: "Your Excellency, the reason why I said that it will take two years is because the original shipyard has already filled up the order, if you want to order a submarine, we can only arrange the order at the Lübeck Flanders shipyard, they have built submarines before, but they have not built this model, so the construction period will take longer." ”

"Lübeck-Flanders shipyard?" Chen Shaokuan and Li Kongrong read the name and knew nothing about it.

"Not far from here, across the bay from the city of Lübeck." The lieutenant general smiled, finally there was something that the Chinese did not know, and he was very satisfied with it.

"Your Excellency, you can't do that! As far as I know, this shipyard has not built submarines for almost two decades. Li Kongrong was the first to speak out and express his opposition. He thinks that no matter how bad it is, it is in Hamburg, what is Lübeck? It is not well known, and it is likely that not many submarines were built throughout World War II.

"Mr. Major, the orders from the other shipyards are already full." The lieutenant general said, and seeing that the Chinese were dumbfounded, he had to explain: "Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you frankly that Japan is protesting to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Admiralty, and they have a deep prejudice against you, believing that you are the parasite of communism, and selling submarines to you is equivalent to selling submarines to the communists, and the Russians will definitely know all the secrets on the submarines, and they are our mortal enemies." ”

"No, Your Excellency, I guarantee by my honor that all the secrets on the submarine will never be known to the communists!" Chen Shaokuan immediately expressed his position.

After he finished speaking, Li Kongrong said: "Your Excellency, let me tell you the truth, the navy does not have much contact with the central government, and they really want to break into the navy and let us all become them, but they have not succeeded." I think you should know that the Electric Mine School is the same people who ordered torpedo boats in your country, and they are the navy directly under the Nanking government, and we, you can see us as a mercenary group, although it is not good to say this, but the actual situation is like this. ”

"Mercenary regiments?" The lieutenant general was obviously surprised by this, and Chen Shaokuan and the others did not understand German and did not know what Li Kongrong was talking about.

"Yes. When the Japanese attacked Shanghai five years ago, we had a private agreement with them, that is, we promised not to attack them, and we did not allow others to borrow our cars and steel plates to fight the Japanese soldiers, or even ......," Li Kongrong exhaled - he wanted to vomit by proving himself anti-communist with such a shameful thing, "During the war, we also sent a lot of supplies to the Japanese navy as a sign of our friendship, even though they were attacking Shanghai at that time. You can check this matter with the Japanese. ”

"Then why did you buy submarines?" The vice admiral asked, "In the eyes of the Japanese, the only purpose of your purchase of submarines is to deal with the Japanese Navy. ”

"No, Your Excellency, not at all." Li Kongrong shook his head greatly, "We have only one purpose from beginning to end, and that is to protect the ship." It's not that we want to buy submarines, in fact, we really want to buy cruisers, but the Nanjing government only allows us to buy submarines, so we buy submarines. For us, warships are jobs and jobs! With more ships, we will have more jobs, and without ships, we will not have jobs, so we will not refuse to buy submarines. ”

"Is that so?" Lieutenant General Bastian had the characteristic dullness of the Germans, but fortunately he somewhat understood what Li Kongrong meant.

"Of course it is." Li Kongrong nodded. "If we don't buy submarines, then those who buy torpedo boats will buy submarines, and if they have more boats, then they will crowd us out and make us lose our jobs. And they are the parasites of the Communist Party, we are not, we are just a mercenary group, so your navy can rest assured about this.

Do you know Fujian, Your Excellency, which is a coastal province of China. The vast majority of the officers on the navy's warships are from Fujian, and people from other provinces are not qualified to be captains, and our Minister of Navy, Admiral Chen, is also from Fujian, and he is our chief, and within the navy, his promises are more effective than those made by Chang Kaishen, the leader of the Nanking government. ”

Chen Shaokuan and others understood the word 'Fujian', they knew that Li Kongrong was convincing the Germans, but they did not know that he was using the disgraceful experience of the Navy to persuade the Germans, and they smiled politely at Vice Admiral Bastian when he looked at him.

"Will you betray your leader?" The German asked a question that Li Kongrong did not expect.

"Of course...... No, but we can refuse to fight. Li Kongrong said. All our goals are to keep the warships, which is equivalent to keeping our jobs. However, if the Japanese attack Fujian, we will definitely fight them to the end! ”

"Fujian?" The lieutenant general pronounced the word, and he already knew that this was a province on the coast of China.

"Yes, Fujian, that's our hometown, no matter who it is, even if our leader attacks there, we will fight back!" Li Kongrong said firmly. He really didn't want the Germans to think that the navy did not dare to sacrifice and that there was no military honor.

"The situation in China is too complicated for me to imagine." The German frowned and shook his head, his head obviously too low to receive such a large file.

"Yes. The situation in China is the same as it was before the reunification of Germany, and of course the situation is getting better and better. In order to make it easier for the Germans to understand, Li Kongrong could only refer to German history, "so the accusations of the Japanese against us are absurd, their enemy is indeed communism, but who is the parasite of communism?" It's not us, it's the Nanjing government. If the submarines were sold to the electric mine school, as was the case with the torpedo boats, the Russians would have known everything as long as they wanted to know, but this was impossible in the navy, and although there was a Kuomintang party department in the navy, it was a special party department, and they did not believe in the theory propagated by the Nanking government, and there were no real Kuomintang members in the navy. ”

"I think we'll reconsider the Japanese proposal." There are no real party departments and party members in the navy, and what does this mean, Vice Admiral Bastian knew very well that he finally agreed with Li Kongrong - they were not parasites of communism.

"Your Excellency, can we buy those two training submarines?" Seeing that the attitude of the Germans was relaxed, Li Kongrong immediately brought up the old matter. "You can transform them and deliver them to us, and we'll be fine as long as they work."

"No, the submarine fleet is completely against this, they are not willing to sell them." The lieutenant general shook his head again. "Your best bet is to build it in the shipyard, it's brand new."

"But you're also deliberately delaying the construction." Li Kongrong shook his head and said bluntly, "As far as I know, even if it is a 600-ton submarine, the construction period will not take a year. Also, you can't place an order at the shipyard in Lübeck, which has no experience in building submarines at all, we would rather be in Hamburg or Bremen. ”

"It can't be, only in Lübeck. Only here did the Japanese ...... "Lieutenant General Bastian suddenly found himself talking too much." The Navy was really worried about the Japanese only because the aircraft carrier Count Zeppelin was to be built with the assistance of the Japanese, and the Navy had no experience in building aircraft carriers.

Li Kongrong obviously guessed this, but he couldn't say it directly, so he had to say: "With the pride of the German eagles, you will never care about the protests of the Japanese, and if you will, it means that you have a request from them." ”

"Nope. We and Japan are allies in anti-communism, and we must care about what our allies think. Seeing the smile in the Chinese's eyes, the lieutenant general immediately avoided his gaze. If you agree to build in Lübeck and promise not to divulge secrets, I think the construction period can be shortened. ”

"How long?" Li Kongrong asked, "Six months for small submarines and one year for large submarines?" ”

"It's hard to do, especially if you don't know how much you're ordering." Lieutenant General said.

"It can be done." Li Kongrong insisted. "As for the number of orders, if Lübeck doesn't have that many docks, then arrange it somewhere else. Emden, Fransburg, Willem, Fergusak are all available. ”

Lieutenant General Bastian wanted to say that you know too much, but he responded with silence. Seeing that the Germans didn't speak, Chen Shaokuan finally asked, "What did the Germans say?" ”

"Minister, the Germans said that because they wanted to avoid the Japanese protests, they could only arrange it in Lübeck." Li Kongrong said: "But they think the construction period can be advanced. I said half a year for small and one year for large, and although he didn't fully agree, I believe that as long as we insist, they will eventually agree. ”

Chen Shaokuan, who did not expect Li Kongrong to reveal all the scandals in the navy, had a headache when he heard the Japanese, and he said, "After returning to Berlin, we will go to other countries to have a look, it will take about half a month, I will leave you 10,000 US dollars, you must do everything possible to open up the joints, eliminate the interference of the Japanese, negotiate the contract, and find a way to make them promise to deliver the ship on time!" ”