Captain Sato is not a professional agent, he is just an intelligence analyst who was recruited by Army Intelligence because he is familiar with China issues, and does not have the professional sensitivity of an agent. But no matter how stupid you are, you know what the situation is now, and the bar owner on the other side called Yuma Hashiguchi is probably an agent of a certain country!

"Do you want me to keep reading?"

Yuma Hashiguchi put down the papers, put a pack of cigarettes in front of Sato, lit one himself, and ten minutes later Hashiguchi broke the silence: "Japan has reached a crossroads, you and I both know that there is no way out to follow the United States, this country does not even have many regular armies, and the rifles used by soldiers have to be imported from Europe, so they can't stop the attack of China." On the contrary, China has all the ingredients to become a world power and has become the hegemon of the Far East. ”

"You're an agent of Huaguo?" Sato's sudden exit interrupted Hashiguchi's prepared tirade.

"Yes."

"Tell me what you need me to do."

On the contrary, Hashiguchi was a little at a loss, and the rhetoric he had prepared before was useless, and this Yasuke Sato seemed to have the initiative in the conversation. As for the investigation bureau Japan station has been inspected for a long time, the investigation bureau Uraguchi station director Hashiguchi Yuma and Chinese name Huang Qiao comprehensive intelligence analysis of more than a year of investigation, Sato Annosuke is interested in China, is a target that can be won over. Moreover, although this person does not have a high position within the Army Intelligence Department, he can have access to a large amount of classified intelligence because of the particularity of his profession, and his value is very great.

Seeing Hashiguchi's puzzled look, Sato sneered: "I am a staunch patriot, but all such people have their own obsessions, and my obsession is to make Japan a truly independent and free and powerful country." If Japan becomes stronger, I don't mind waging war against the people to whom I learned to take refuge, as long as I can fight for Japan's interests. Now the same is true, I can help you. As long as it can bring benefits to Japan. ”

There is no doubt that this is a smart person, and Hashiguchi likes to deal with such people, because it doesn't take too much talk to achieve the goal, and once a decision is made, this kind of person will not easily change it.

"Very good, what is required of you is simple. Just send a copy of the information you handle every day, and we'll provide you with miniature cameras and other spy equipment, and the connection location is in this bar. ”

"Need I to connect with like-minded people?"

"No, the most important thing is to keep your safety, you and I have one-line contact, as long as there is no alcohol price tag hanging at the door of the bar, don't come in to contact, you can enter the incubation period when necessary, and someone will contact you afterwards."

The next afternoon, Captain Sato delivered the first piece of information. Moreover, it was very important information, and that same night, Qiaokou sent the information back to Wuhan through a secret communication line, and handed it over to the Intelligence Section of the Investigation Bureau Headquarters to analyze and verify the authenticity, and then submit it to a higher level.

This information is about the Japanese part of the U.S. military equipment plan for 1907, covering three aspects of the navy and air force, from which the strategy of the Americans can be seen.

According to the plan, the United States would help Japan build two large shipyards, two large munitions factories, an aircraft factory and a large steel plant in 1907. Among them, large shipyards can build 10,000-ton warships, and munitions factories can produce rifles, machine guns, small and medium-caliber artillery and related ammunition. The aircraft factory can produce the first generation biplane fighter developed by the United States itself, the specific combat capabilities of which are unknown. The large steel plant will use U.S. steel smelting technology, coal iron ore and smelting equipment. Bringing Japan to the level of one million tons of steel per year.

Compared with the British pounds, the support of the Americans is more in line with the hearts of the Japanese, and it is no wonder that Japan is desperately throwing itself into the arms of the United States.

In fact, according to the information obtained by the Bureau of Investigation from the United States, it will be found that the United States has increased its military investment since Roosevelt stepped down, although its technological progress has not been as fast as that of Britain, France, and other European countries. However, with its deep industrial strength, it has still expanded a large scale in more than half a year.

The Russo-Japanese War began, and several large-scale naval battles made the United States realize that the two oceans were no longer a natural barrier for the United States, and without a strong navy, the security of the long coastline could not be guaranteed. In the past, there was not much of a threat to the Pacific Ocean, and the Chinese navy emerged. The west coast is directly threatened by China, and just from a geopolitical point of view, it is necessary to have a fleet on the west coast that can compete with the Chinese navy.

Although Theodore Roosevelt was not lightly cheated by the consortium during his reign, under his vigorous auspices and promotion, the United States already had the world's second largest naval strength (except for China) in 1906, second only to the maritime hegemon Britain and equal to Germany. The number of twenty battleships once made Roosevelt extremely inflated, wielding the big stick of the Monroe Doctrine and trying to act as the "world's policeman". It's just that Roosevelt's ambitions were destroyed by Hua, and the defeat of the expeditionary fleet showed how vulnerable the battleships of the pre-Gotsugaku period were in the face of the Gotsugaku.

Although Roosevelt stepped down, the spirit he left behind was inherited by the Americans. At the end of 1906, the two newest Mississippi-class battleships "Mississippi" and "Idaho" that were still on the slipway were sold to the Japanese Navy, the first Gotake-class battleship "South Carolina" was also keel laid in August 1906, and the second ship of the same class, "Michigan", was also built at the same time as the East Coast shipyard. This class of battleships is limited by the tonnage stipulated by Congress, there are many congenital deficiencies, and the subsequent more advanced types of battleships are stepping up the design, but due to technical limitations, it will take time for the battleship armor, main guns, power systems, etc. to break through.

According to the plan of the U.S. Navy, in 1908 there would be fifteen Gotake-class battleships, and such a shipbuilding speed was comparable only to Britain, but although British shipbuilders had such capabilities, Britain did not have so many resources for the navy to squander. Steel production is limited, and army armored units and air force aircraft will thin out a portion of steel resources. The Americans have less concerns, and they can even allocate some of them to support Japan.

If the Navy's shipbuilding frenzy is in line with the world's naval arms race after the advent of the Wuyue, then the performance of the US Air Force fully reflects its expansionist ambitions. Compared with traditional European powers such as Britain, France and Germany, the Americans are half a step ahead in the design and manufacture of aircraft, and the main reason is that the Americans got the wreckage of a Chinese F01 fighter.

During the Shandong Campaign during the Second Northern Expedition, a fighter plane of the Chinese Air Force accidentally crashed due to mechanical failure during the high-density operation, and when the army received the order to destroy it, it was found that the wreckage of the plane had been snatched by the Japanese. This incident is also one of the reasons why the Air Force strongly wants to be replaced.

The Japanese lacked technical and industrial capacity, and even if they got the wreckage of the plane, they could not simulate production, so they had to use it to exchange some supplies from the United States, which is why an American freighter ventured to break through the Chinese naval blockade and go to Tianjin.

If the United States got the treasure, it immediately transported the plane to the aircraft research and development center near Pittsburgh, organized public relations for scientific and technological personnel, and six months later came up with the first imitation fighter, which was named the P01. Although the P01 could not be compared with the F01 in many aspects, it finally broke through the boundaries of what is not there, and the Pittsburgh aircraft factory that was established later came up with three improved models one after another. In February 1907, the successful test flight of the F01-I was recognized by the United States Air Force, and the newly established United States Air Force could not wait to obtain training aircraft, and after obtaining it, it was renamed the "Falcon" fighter, and the first batch of 200 aircraft was purchased. At the same time, the aircraft of Britain, France, Germany and other countries have not yet left the factory.

The Falcon fighter/reconnaissance aircraft adopts a mature biplane fuselage design, which is not much different from the F01 fighter in appearance, and due to the limitations of materials and technology, the Falcon fighter has a maximum flight speed of only 95 kilometers per hour and a endurance of 35 minutes. The biggest problem was that the technicians did not figure out why the Huaguo fighter placed the machine gun behind the propeller (the shooting synchronization coordinator was lost after the plane crashed), which led to the fact that the Falcon fighter could only install a machine gun on the side of the fuselage.

In contrast, the progress of the US Army was slow, and the US Standing Army was 90,000 during the Roosevelt period, and the number of standing armies in such a large country was not as good as that of its southern neighbor Mexico! Moreover, there is an extreme lack of heavy weapons in the army, and the combat qualities of ordinary soldiers are not different from cowboys, and the officers are even more unbearable.

In this military expansion competition, the army did not actively strive for resources, nor did it invest energy in improving equipment and expanding its scale. On the contrary, the San Francisco Vehicle Factory produced the first generation of American tanks, but due to the lack of interest from the Army, they could only be converted into tractors and sold to the civilian population. (To be continued.) )