The reputation of the Imperial Government is still brewing among the people, but the result is on the good side, and the Imperial Government has taken advantage of this opportunity to swipe a wave of prestige and once again consolidate the position of the new regime. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Regarding that reputation, Wang Sirui didn't care much, he was more concerned about negotiations with the Japanese.

Moreover, Wang Sirui also felt a little bit of a bad feeling, it seemed that the flapping amplitude of his butterfly's wings was a little too great, and now although the European side is still calm, it is surging and surging in secret.

After the Germans got a lot of resources from the Chinese Empire, they began to be dissatisfied with the status quo, although the Chinese Empire was able to meet their needs, but after all, the distance was too far, and almost all the ports on the way were British and French, and the requirements for the Germans could be described as harsh.

So, the Germans seem intent on changing the situation.

A few days ago, the Germans had secretly contacted Wang Sirui more than once, and they even took the initiative to sell several sets of military production equipment to the Chinese Empire at an extremely low price, but faintly, but it also revealed another meaning to Wang Sirui.

At a price far below less than half of the cost price, it was sold to the Chinese Empire five sets of machine gun production lines, ten sets of rifle production lines, and corresponding ammunition production lines, and even two 75 artillery production lines, as well as a 105 mm caliber artillery production line, a total of four shell production lines.

The Germans only needed 10 million taels of silver to sell these 22 sets of production lines to the Chinese Empire, and transferred the corresponding production technology to them free of charge.

This kind of pie-in-the-sky good thing fell on the head of the Chinese Empire without warning, and for a moment, even Wang Sirui was a little stunned.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, Wang Sirui knows this truth better than anyone else, he has close cooperation with the Germans, and even the Germans have built a large steel plant in Shandong for free, and the price paid by the Chinese Empire is only to let them use it for free for five years, and in these five years, provide them with enough ore for free.

Of course, there is no need to pay for ore, but the Germans still need to pay for labor or something, so this is equivalent to indirectly stimulating domestic demand and improving the living standards of local people.

Moreover, according to the contract, after five years, the steel plant will belong to the Chinese Empire, and they can directly use it to produce steel for themselves.

Although the output of these five years was enough to buy several such factories, another benefit to the Chinese Empire was that Germany sold the equipment of several steel plants in the Chinese Empire at almost cost price, and if these were added, the cooperation would be mutually beneficial.

Now the steel mill has two and a half years to go, and in two and a half years, the steel mill will belong to the Chinese Empire.

With the increasingly strict control of Britain and France, the Germans are no longer as easy as before to transport steel back to China from the Chinese Empire, and the cost alone has increased several times.

Although Wang Sirui has long known the whereabouts of the time, but now, he still can't believe it, could the world war break out ten years early?

But now, all countries are obviously not ready, Wang Sirui's dreadnought built in the United States has just been launched, and there is still a long time before it is delivered, and the Americans also plan to use the two dreadnoughts for experiments, and European and American countries have just started the construction plan of dreadnoughts.

At present, the countries have not completely fallen into the vicious circle of building battleships, and their economies have not been rapidly pulled down, so it is obviously unlikely that a world war will break out at this time.

World War I in history was triggered by the arms race caused by the large-scale construction of battleships by various countries, but if European and American countries learned that the Americans were building dreadnoughts, then they would inevitably accelerate their own construction plans, so that the military race would start early, and it would not be impossible for a world war to break out in advance.

But in any case, the early outbreak of the world war had advantages and disadvantages for the Chinese Empire, the advantage was that after the outbreak of World War I, they had enough energy to concentrate on development, and the disadvantage was that the Chinese Empire did not have enough funds to develop.

Therefore, it is particularly important to extort a sum of money from Japan, in addition, it is necessary to find a way to get a lathe machine from Europe and the United States as soon as possible, otherwise once the war breaks out, the development of the Chinese Empire is bound to come to a standstill, because no one is willing to sell him these industrial equipment.

"Your Majesty, the minister has just held informal talks with the Germans to discuss the content of military aid. The minister felt that the Germans' plans this time were not small, and he hoped that His Majesty would think twice. Wang Shizhen solemnly reminded that through his conversations with the Germans, he seemed to smell the smell of war, and if the Chinese Empire chose to stand on the same line with the Germans, then the future would be difficult to determine.

"Oh? Tell me about it! Of course, Wang Sirui knew that the Germans had no small intentions, and what they wanted to provoke was not a war between two countries like the German-French War, but a world war.

Of course, if the Chinese Empire can really reap a lot of benefits from it, then it doesn't matter who he stands with, he doesn't care at all. On the land of the Far East, there is no one who is no match for the Chinese Empire, and now he only needs to wait for a maximum of two years, and after the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other countries promise to deliver the warships to him, then the navy, they can be regarded as having the power to protect themselves.

As for the Japanese Navy, to put it mildly, I can destroy them with two dreadnoughts, except for the battleships, the other warships and dreadnoughts can almost kill one with one shot, if they can't do it, are the great powers crazy? Or even stop building other warships and go all out to build dreadnoughts?

"The Germans sold us the equipment at a low price, and they took 70 percent of the total production for the first three years, then 50 percent for two years, then 10 percent each year, and after 10 years, the line was completely owned by us. We need to be fully responsible for production, and the Germans will send some technicians to supervise and guide. Wang Shizhen said.

"Hmph, the Germans have a good calculation, a few production lines want us to work and contribute, and they also have to contribute materials to build 2.55 million rifles for them for free, and when these equipment are returned to us in ten years, I am afraid that it will have already reached the point where it has to be eliminated, what use do we have to use it? Instead of that, we should just spend money and buy it. Wang Sirui snorted coldly, the Germans' ideas are inevitably too naïve, this is even more damn than the landlords and old money, and will exploit the common people.

But then again, it is not impossible to cooperate with the Germans, but the conditions must be changed, in fact, Wang Sirui still attaches great importance to the artillery technology of the Germans.

Although there were not many artillery production lines sold to them, and it could even be considered as technology given to the Chinese Empire for free, in order to get them to agree to this condition, no one in this world is stupid.

"When you go back, you tell the Germans that after these equipment come, I will give him a maximum of 20 percent of the output for three years, and deliver it after three years. At this point, the price we pay is far more than the total price of these devices. If they don't agree, then there is no need to talk about it, anyway, we are not short of guns now, with the stability of the troops, the output of the arsenal can also ensure the needs of the troops, if we wait a few more years, we can still store hundreds of thousands of guns. Wang Sirui added.

"Your Majesty, if we are so eye-to-eye with the Germans, I'm afraid that the British and French will not be able to explain." Wang Shizhen hesitated slightly.

The intentions of the Germans are already obvious, with the industrial capacity of Germany, can they still take the trouble to move the factory to the Far East? And the Germans did this for only one purpose, they wanted to hide from Britain and France, quietly produce armaments in the Far East with the help of the Chinese Empire, and then launch a surprise attack on Britain and France.

And because the armaments were produced in the Far East, and nominally all of them were needed by the Chinese Empire itself, and had nothing to do with the Germans, even if they attracted the attention of Britain and France, it would not cause them nervousness.

It is even conceivable that once the Germans have sufficient armaments and then suddenly attack, if Britain and France and other countries have not even stockpiled enough weapons, then who dares to imagine the outcome of the war?

"Anglo-French? Hehe, I will ask them for an explanation sooner or later, remember, unified delivery after three years is the key, before our naval warships come back, we must not let the powers find out these cats, if it really can't work, we can set up factories in Sichuan or Shanxi. Speaking of this, Wang Sirui couldn't help but tell again:

"Our urgent task now is to step up the construction of the Pingguang Railway, the Zhongshang Railway, and strive to complete and open to traffic within three years, on the other hand, set up industrial zones along the railway, and step up the development of domestic industry, no matter what the industry, must be involved. We don't have much time left, and we have to seize every minute. ”

"Your Majesty, are you saying that they will fight in the future?" Wang Shizhen was a little surprised, although what Wang Sirui said was not clear, but Wang Shizhen heard the deep meaning.

"In the next ten years, they will definitely fight, and now every little bit we accumulate, it will be transformed into a little power for us to rise, don't look at the gap between us and them now, but if everything really goes according to my prediction, within fifteen years, the empire will be on par with those powers." Wang Sirui said.

It is actually very easy for the Chinese Empire to develop, especially in this era, it is not as difficult as imagined, and now there are some industrial bases in the country, and all that needs to be done is to strengthen it, make the industrial capacity stronger, and then learn from the United States, and accumulate in the time of the world war.

Although the conditions of the Chinese Empire were inferior to those of the United States, they were far superior to the United States in terms of popular cohesion, which was their advantage, and this was also the reason why Wang Sirui was determined to be on par with the great powers within 15 years.

Because in addition to its own progress, the First World War would destroy the industrial base of the European countries, which would be tantamount to weakening their overall strength. (To be continued.) )