After a few days of exchanges with the army of the Lanfang Kingdom, Yuan Shikai's officers and soldiers became familiar with the officers and soldiers of Lanfang, and they were very envious of their food, their treatment, and his equipment. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info Even Xu Shichang felt that the combat effectiveness of the army of the Lanfang Kingdom would be very terrifying, and before returning to Beijing, he left a letter to Yuan Shikai, asking him to gain the trust and support of the Lanfang Kingdom no matter what.

Yuan Shikai had great trust in Xu Shichang, knowing that Xu Shichang was right, and besides, he was also very envious of the strength of the Lanfang Kingdom's army, and also hoped to strengthen the relationship with the Lanfang Kingdom.

These people in the Lanfang Kingdom have a very good attitude towards the Beiyang Army from top to bottom, not only have they carried out military exercises and mutual learning between individuals these days, but also often communicate with each other in private, instructing the Beiyang Army on how to train, and finding out a lot of deficiencies in training, many Beiyang officers and soldiers have become very good friends with Lanfang officers and soldiers; Several of the main leaders of the Beiyang Navy were immersed in the warships of the Lanfang Kingdom every day, and the Lanfang Kingdom was not wary of them at all; It can be seen that the Lanfang Kingdom did not regard the Qing Dynasty as an enemy at all, or did not regard the Beiyang Army as an enemy, which should be a good breakthrough.

Now the question is how to gain the trust and support of the Lanfang Kingdom.

Yuan Shikai also has the qualifications of a hero, and he will never let go of any opportunity in his favor, and he did not drag his feet in this matter, and first summoned the three heroes of Beiyang to discuss the matter. Wang Shizhen's point of view is to first contact, and then carry out military exchanges, and gradually gain the trust of the other party, and now they still don't understand us, how can they trust us, and why should they support us? The first step is to hire their Army personnel as instructors; The second step is to negotiate the purchase of arms from the Lanfang Kingdom; The third step is to train a strong army and show strong combat effectiveness, and then it will have the value of use, so that it can gain the support of the other party, that is, the chess pieces must also have the value of the chess pieces.

Yuan Shikai also knew that this matter was urgent.

He also summoned Sa Zhenbing and others from the navy to Yuan's mansion and asked how the strength of the Lanfang navy compared to the Japanese navy. Sa Zhenbing and the others were amused by Yuan Shikai, Sa Zhenbing felt rude, and hurriedly got up to salute Yuan Shikai and apologized, and said that even the Far East Fleet of the British Empire was completely annihilated by the navy of the Lanfang Kingdom, can the Japanese Navy be an opponent? And the warships you see are only a very small part of the navy of the Lanfang Kingdom, and this small part is enough for the Japanese Navy to deal with, the Japanese navy is all old-fashioned warships, and three or five Japanese battleships are not the opponent of a Lanfang battleship.

That night, Yuan Shikai hosted a banquet at the Yuan Mansion to accompany the chief of staff of the Lanfang Navy Fleet and the captains of various ships, as well as the main leaders of the Beiyang Army and the Beiyang Navy.

This was the first time that Yuan Shikai had hosted a separate banquet for the naval officers of the Lanfang Kingdom.

Yang Yili and others readily agreed to go to the banquet. Before leaving, Zhang Wei explained that he wanted to make a good relationship with the Beiyang Army.

Yang Yili left the captain of the No. 3 battlecruiser behind, checked the defense again, and instructed the officers on duty again, and then took the other captains to Yuanfu in Tianjin. Now around the dock, there are strangers wandering around from time to time, and there must be Japanese inside, and we must be careful to beware of this people who like to engage in sneak attacks.

During the banquet, Sa Zhenbing proposed the idea of hiring Lan Fang's naval officers and sailors as instructors.

Yang Yili said that in modern naval warfare, warships, soldiers and tactics are extremely important, and now the Qing Dynasty is not lacking good naval officers and soldiers, but lacking good warships; The navy has invested a huge amount of money, and it is difficult to develop without the efforts of the country, so my opinion is that if the limited funds are invested in the development of the army, the results will be faster and better; Otherwise, millions of taels of silver, or even tens of millions of taels of silver, will not even be able to see a blister in the navy.

Sa Zhenbing asked, can you buy warships from the Lanfang Kingdom?

Yes, as long as you have money, you can buy it, but the navy has invested a lot of money, even if it is the cost price to you, it also requires a very large amount of money.

Wang Shizhen and others also asked Yang Yili about his views on democracy.

Yang Yili said, in the words of the king of our Lanfang Kingdom, now more than 90 percent of the subjects of the entire Qing Dynasty can't even write their own names, how can democracy be promoted? What they care about is not democracy, but how to feed their stomachs, how to bring up a few children, and talk about democracy with these people, isn't that? If more than 90 percent of the people in the country do not participate in democracy, then this kind of democracy is an elite democracy, or it works for the benefit of a small number of people, and it cannot be regarded as a real democracy. At present, it is still necessary to centralize power, concentrate the strength of the whole country to develop mining, iron and steel, chemical industry, shipbuilding, railway and highway construction, develop the military industry, build the navy, develop the army, drive all the great powers out of the Qing Dynasty, and let all the people have enough to eat and study.

What do you think about the form of government?

This is a political issue, we Lanfang Kingdom soldiers don't interfere in politics, and I can't say anything about politics, so you can personally communicate with Ambassador Wu when you have the opportunity.

Duan Qirui asked, can you buy artillery and other weapons from the Lanfang Kingdom?

This is completely fine, the kingdom will definitely give you a very low price, you can buy any weapons you want, we have the same roots, and we should support each other.

Wang Shizhen asked, can you buy your weapons in service?

I'm the navy, I don't dare to say anything about the army, but the navy can buy our active warships, you just want to buy Lanfang-class battleships or Lanfang-class battlecruisers, and even sell these current ones to you It's no problem, anyway, if you buy them, it's not to start a war with our Lanfang Kingdom, right?

Knowing that the Lanfang Kingdom did not restrict the sale of weapons to the Qing Dynasty, it means that they did not take the Qing Dynasty seriously at all, or did not have the idea of being an enemy of the Qing Dynasty at all.

Duan Qirui and the others asked again, how to buy weapons if they want to buy them?

We still have to find Ambassador Wu for this, and our fleet will return home soon, and it will not be stationed here.

Yuan Shikai asked if he could send young grassroots officers to the Lanfang Kingdom for further study?

Yang Yili knew Zhang Wei's thoughts, so he replied, it is completely possible, the king of the Lanfang Kingdom is very supportive of the education of the Qing Dynasty, and this time the ambassador is ready to establish a number of middle schools to train students for the Qing Dynasty, and those who study well can go to the Lanfang Kingdom to study; So if you send someone to learn, you have no problem; And our Royal Army Military Academy and Royal Naval Military Academy are in very good condition, the level of teaching is no worse than that of Germany and Japan, only better than them.

When everyone knew that the king of the Lanfang Kingdom was from Meixian County, Fujian, everyone's enthusiasm immediately came up, not these forces, but most of these Beiyang naval officers were from Fujian Province, and they were considered fellow villagers, and they could be fellow villagers with the king, which was also something worth showing off. So they toasted Yang Yili and others one after another, pushing the banquet to a climax.

Yuan Shikai got the information he wanted, and led his troops back to Baoding the next day.

Deepening the communication with the Lanfang Kingdom is not a moment, it is better to carefully calculate and plan slowly after going back, and you must not make a mistake and miss the opportunity.

Yang Yili reported the exchange that night to Wu Wenbin, and finally the news reached Zhang Wei.

Zhang Wei sighed that Yuan Shikai is definitely an ambitious person, but his development is limited by the times, so it is unlikely that he will directly rebel, and that will also plunge the mainland into war, so it is better to let it be.

Just telegraphed Wu Wenbin, don't get too close to Yuan Shikai, don't be too rusty, just have normal business dealings, and recently put all your energy on organizing immigrants, and is about to receive Western Australia, and a large number of immigrants are urgently needed.