The first blast furnace was built in 1901, and the Japanese attached great importance to it, and the opening ceremony was attended by Japanese government dignitaries such as Hirobumi Ito. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

However, the production of this factory was not smooth, the door of the iron furnace could not be opened, the molten iron could not flow out, the Japanese could only continue to improve the process, until July 1904, the first furnace of steel was really smelted, and thanks to Sheng Xuanhuai, the rich Daye iron ore of the Hantie Iron Works was mortgaged to Japan, and the excellent iron ore of Daye obtained by Yawata Iron was finally smelted.

However, the Hanyang Iron Works on which Jang Zhidong had high hopes was struggling, unable to turn a profit, and the quality of the steel produced was not ideal, and the rails of the Hanyang Iron Works were often refused to be used by foreign engineers when the railroad was built.

Compradors are not all bad, some compradors are just for money, they act as agents for foreigners' goods to make money, it is understandable, and there are not many agents in later generations.

However, if you use your official identity to resell the government-run property to the bureaucratic compradors of foreigners, this is too hateful, and the second generation of those red officials in later generations will be hated, isn't this problem?

Sheng Xuanhuai is a typical example of the bureaucratic compradors in the late Qing Dynasty.

In his hands, the Hanyang Iron Works has never turned over, even if the railway is overhauled, it will not be profitable, because Sheng Xuanhuai used the iron factory to sell personal affairs, and installed too many children of bureaucrats to mix wages, these people are not satisfied with that salary, not only in the iron factory to control the official positions at all levels, those real technicians are suppressed and unable to operate, but also often resell factory materials, so that it can be profitable.

The matter of the Hanyang Iron Works is still dragging on, thanks to a large number of officials in Hubei, Yang Chao did not dare to move here out of stability.

"It's time to do it."

After blowing up the Yawata Iron Works, Yang Chao felt that the time had come, which had nothing to do with the Hachiman Iron Works, but because after such a long time of preparation, Li Yuanhong had already sat firmly in the presidency, and the local forces were now honest, and it was time to take action against the local industry.

Yang Chao plans: "Reorganize the official property!" ”

It is certainly more efficient to auction off the official properties of the Westernization Movement for more than 30 years and sell them to private individuals for operation than in the hands of bureaucrats.

This kind of thing is not a trivial matter, it is quite important, so Yang Chao plans to personally submit it to the cabinet for discussion, so that when Li Yuanhong has the most power in his hands, he can do something quickly. In the future, when these things need to be discussed in Congress, it will be strange that those stakeholders will be able to allow it.

The arrival of Peking was just in time for the Russian envoy to inform the new news that the Russians had increased their troops.

With the victory of the Chinese Defense Forces, they were indeed stimulated, and Wu Peifu had already driven the Japanese across the Ussuri River today.

Wu Peifu had already drawn up a plan to cross the river and attack Boli at the confluence of the Heilongjiang and Ussuri rivers.

The Russians had not yet captured Chita, and did not want to ask for the cooperation of the Chinese Defense Forces, and they judged that once the Chinese crossed the river, the Japanese would definitely recover their forces, which would create an opportunity for them to capture Chita, so they decided to increase their troops to 4 million, temporarily focusing on the eastern front, and when they regained lost territory, they were returning to the army to fight against Germany and Austria.

"The Russians really picked a good time."

This year, the Germans launched the Battle of Verdun, this place is a French fortress, close to Paris, it is impossible for the French to give up, the Germans chose to break through here, not really planning to break through here and capture Paris, but knowing that the French did not dare to give up here, they wanted to squeeze out the French troops here, so that the French would dry their blood.

The Germans concentrated more than a dozen divisions and launched a frantic attack under the leadership of the crown prince, with an offensive force of 210,000 troops alone, nearly one million troops in cooperation and reserves, and millions of people from the French who continued to reinforce them, and nearly two million people on both sides fought frantically here.

In order to relieve the pressure of France, the British jointly launched the Battle of the Somme with the French army in the area of the Somme, which was also a great battle that was not lost to Verdun, and the number of troops invested was also millions, more than 60 divisions of the British and French coalition forces, and Germany also sent more than 40 divisions, plus reserve troops, which was larger than the Battle of Verdun.

Germany, Britain and France both fought these two major battles as decisive battles, and invested all the forces they could, at this time the Germans had absolutely no spare strength to attack the Russian army on the eastern front, and the Russians could rest assured that they would transfer front-line troops to fight in Siberia.

Yang Chaodu lamented that the Russians had a good abacus, but it was a pity that their high-level commanders had a good level, after all, they were a fighting nation, but the quality of the grassroots officers was too poor, the quality of the soldiers was even worse, and ninety percent of the ordinary soldiers were illiterate, which led to the long-term rigidity of their fighting methods and the difficulty of keeping up with the ever-changing changes in the war.

Not to mention fighting with the Germans, even fighting with the Japanese, the casualties of the Russian army were also greater than those of the Japanese army, and the battle loss rate of the Russians during the Russo-Japanese War could be lower, and now it is far greater than the Japanese army.

discussed the military situation with Li Yuanhong, and then Yang Chao proposed to sell the official property, but he didn't want to be rejected by Li Yuanhong, Li Yuanhong refused very tactfully, saying that he would discuss with the Minister of Finance Liang Shiyi, and the words revealed a tone of Yang Chao's overstepping his authority.

Yang Chao is the Minister of National Defense, and these official properties interfere with his affairs and manage too much.

Yang Chao hurriedly said that he was not overstepping his authority, but the Hanyang Iron Works, the Jinling Arsenal, these heavy industries of the Westernization Movement, are related to national defense and security, and Yang Chao also said that he is very relieved to let the Ministry of Finance deal with him.

"Li Bodhisattva also has a temper."

After the meeting, Yang Chao couldn't help but sigh.

What he didn't know was that Li Yuanhong not only did not have a temper, but was secretly happy in his heart, he finally rejected Yang Chao once, and it was reasonable, so that Yang Chao had no way to refute it, and he thought that he had won a small victory.

As long as there are more and more such small victories, he will really become a powerful president, while Yang Chao and those people can only be a ministerial-level minister honestly.

The Russians are going to make a big move, and Yang Chao has to take action.

Immediately rushed to the northeast.

In Harbin, Duan Qirui, Cai Yi and Wu Peifu were summoned.

"The next step is naturally to cross the river, do other people have any opinions?"

Yang Chao listened to Wu Peifu's report on the battle of crossing the river, and he planned to contain the Japanese army head-on, and then choose a place on the Heilongjiang River, with the cooperation of the airship airborne, occupy the bridgehead, and then build a pontoon bridge to cross the river; Wu Peifu believed that the millions of Japanese troops in the Heilongjiang and Ussuri River valleys would not be able to stop the national defense forces at all, and he planned to go to Haisenwei to celebrate the New Year before the end of this year.

"Lord Yang, I think that I will first solve the Japanese army in Dalian before crossing the river. I hope that Lord Wu can send those ironclad cars to me, but there is no river in Dalian, and the Japanese can't run. ”

Duan Qirui has never broken through the Dalian defense line, nor has he really fought with his life, and the battle for Lushun between Japan and Russia has been unsuccessful many times, giving people an understanding that this kind of harbor fortress is difficult to overcome, even if the defense facilities in Dalian are far from being as strong as Lushun, but Duan Qirui does not have the courage to use the appointment to pile up.

Yang Chao nodded: "It makes sense." But there is no need for the ironclad car in Commander Wu's hand, I have three hundred of the latest ironclad cars here, and they will all be allocated to you first. Brother Cai, what is your opinion over there? ”

Cai Yi shook his head, what opinion can he have, he is just a play-watcher.

"Brother Cai, the Russians want to mobilize an army of four million, and Chita can't stop it no matter what. You have to prevent the Japanese from retreating into Manchuria. Block the Japanese, and don't let any of them in. Even if they surrendered, they were handed over to the Russians. ”

The Japanese immigrated more than one million people in the Chita area, and the millions of Russians who originally fled there fled back to Russia, and the remaining peasants who did not flee were also harmed quite badly by the Japanese, and the Japanese almost forcibly expropriated the land of these people and distributed it to Japanese immigrants, which made the Russians hate the Japanese to death, and the guerrilla resistance has never stopped.

I believe that these Japanese pioneer militias are in the hands of the Russians, and they don't mind revenge and revenge.

Whether it is the Russians or the Japanese, Yang Chao does not want them to stay in the Northeast, and in the end, the fewer people in that place, the better, after all, Yang Chao is face-saving, and he can't do the kind of purge of the Soviet Union and Japan.

Well, just a task to prevent the rout of Japan, can Cai Ye still do it well.

"Brother Duan, you must end the battle there within ten days. Then the whole army went north and swept the Japanese army in the Heilongjiang valley with Commander Wu, and within a month, all the Japanese troops in the northeast must be wiped out. Because in a month, the Japanese navy may return, and then we have to guard against them using the navy to land directly in China. They still have hundreds of thousands of veterans of standing divisions and regiments in their country, and if they really put them on China's soil, the losses are incalculable. ”

One month, the longest, because the Japanese would welcome back their navy in a little more than a month.

The Japanese naval personnel had already arrived in Britain, and their fleet was rushing along the African coast to Asia, while the Russian fleet had not yet set off, and Russia had concentrated all its naval soldiers from the Baltic and Black Seas, and after receiving the warships in France, they had to sail out of the Mediterranean Sea before they could make a detour to the African coast, after all, super-dreadnoughts could not cross the Suez Canal.

But the light cruisers could still arrive, but the Russians were afraid of being divided and annihilated by the Japanese, so their fleet was not separated.

Yang Chao also did not expect the Russian navy to be able to protect China, so he had to rely on his own strength to end the war in the northeast this morning, and then mobilize troops to go south and deploy coastal defenses to prevent the Japanese army from landing.

As for the Russian fleet, Yang Chao believed that they were probably not the opponents of the Japanese army and would be completely annihilated by the Japanese again. (To be continued.) )