The British continued their diplomatic efforts, with Europe naturally the focus, and London was now an international arena of foreign diplomats who wanted to persuade Britain to join their side. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Although the British have never proven themselves in the army in history, their participation in continental affairs has tended to be supported only by diplomacy and military spending.

But for hundreds of years, the British supported the continental countries through diplomacy and military spending to win wars one after another, and all the countries supported by the British for hundreds of years basically won in the end, even if the Prussian Fredet the Great wanted to go to war with Russia, France and Austria at the same time, and finally reversed the form through a miracle, that miracle was the new Russian emperor succeeded to the throne, the new emperor was an admirer of Frederick the Great, and directly ordered the Russian army to turn the muzzle of the gun and accept the command of Prussia.

Therefore, European countries still attach great importance to Britain, after all, it is a hegemonic country.

But Britain obviously did not want to see Germany, and they could not wait to see Germany, and they had been engaged in an arms race with themselves for several years.

Britain and Germany can be said to fear each other, Germany fears the huge British fleet, and Britain fears Germany's invincible land force.

Kaiser once told British journalists that he was the only German who liked Britain.

During the enlistment of British support, the overly fearful German Chancellor Batemann, at the Kaiser's dinner, even suggested that the jurisdiction of the German High Seas Fleet be temporarily handed over to the British in order to win the trust of the British, and his suggestion was despised by everyone present, and he himself felt a little panicked, and hurriedly ate a few bites of food before leaving.

Although France signed a military treaty with Britain, the treaty was mainly aimed at the division of the colonies, mainly to resolve contradictions, not a military alliance treaty, the British were not responsible for anyone, so the French were also actively fighting for Britain, and the French ambassador often waited outside the office of the British foreign secretary with the German ambassador, waiting for the British to summon them.

At a time when Europe was engaged in intense diplomatic activity.

Yang Chao is in the middle of a tense meeting.

"We have now mobilized 5,029 factories, but less than 200 of them are actually fully operational. Less than 300 have installed the equipment. More than 2,000 devices are being installed. The rest have not yet completed the construction of the plant. ”

Li Sidi reported on the situation of the Industrial Bureau during the war.

Yang Chao frowned and shouted, "Be specific!" I want to be precise about each factory. ”

"197 companies have been fully put into production, and they have been converted to produce parts for the arsenal. After the installation of the equipment is in the process of adjustment, the 284 companies are adjusting the equipment in accordance with the requirements and undertaking the task of military production. There are 2,176 companies that are installing equipment, and the rest are under construction in the plant, and all the construction will be completed by the end of this year to start installing equipment. ”

Li Sidi completes the statistics.

"What's the problem?"

Yang Chao asked.

"Equipment issues. Due to the war in Europe, the equipment of the thousands of factories that we ordered from Germany could not be shipped back. ”

Yang Chao said: "This is easy to do. We produce it ourselves. How many factories in Shandong are waiting to eat these orders? This is what the War Industry Bureau does, and it is necessary to make statistics and place orders in a unified manner, and it must strive for the greatest discount. At the same time, contact the Germans and tell them that since the equipment cannot be shipped, then those orders are cancelled and they must get a refund. It was liquidated at the Dehua Bank in Shandong, although it was all mark, and I also admitted it. It is believed that the German-funded enterprises in Shandong will not refuse their country's currency at this time. After canceling these orders, I should have more than 10 billion marks in my hands, all of which will be placed for these German-funded factories. ”

Well, when these marks become waste paper, a large number of German-funded enterprises can only go bankrupt, whether it is to acquire them or joint ventures, Yang Chao will take the initiative.

"I'm reminding you that it has to be accurate to every factory, every factory! Each family had to send liaison officers and supervisors, and in times of war, all our resources had to be mobilized. Tell all the enterprises under construction to speed up the progress, and give priority to the supply of cement and steel! ”

Li Sidi nodded frequently, and took a pen to record from time to time.

"Pan Xun!"

Yang Chao turned to Pan Xun at this time.

"Although you are in charge of education. But you have a heavy task this time. How many technical schools do we have now? ”

"258 families!"

Pan Xun opened his mouth and replied that he was in charge.

Yang Chao nodded, yes, all the factories that Yang Chao cooperated with must be attached to the technical school, Yang Chao can use his share dividends to maintain the operation of the technical school, or use the tax deduction they should pay to maintain the school's expenses, and the technical school provides technical personnel to the factory, so whether it is the 50 virtue projects introduced in 1907 or the 200 factories introduced in 1909, they still abide by this agreement.

In addition to these cooperative technical schools, the earliest enterprises such as Yantai Iron and Steel Plant and Laiwu Arsenal have also established their own technical schools.

With more than 200 technical schools, it can be called the largest vocational and technical education system in Asia, and it is close to the factory, which is very convenient for internships and very low school costs.

"How many students are there?"

"13,000 and 83."

There are whole and zero.

These schools are large and small, such as the technical school of Sifang Locomotive, which has thousands of people studying in it all year round, and the small ones must have at least 50 people, which is the minimum requirement stipulated in the agreement.

"There should be 5,000 graduates this year, right?"

Pan Xun nodded.

"You cooperate with Li Sidi and give the students who graduated this year to the newly built factories as much as possible, the German technicians can't be counted on, and as soon as the war starts, maybe the technicians that the factories originally planned to recruit will have to go to the battlefield. And the traffic is cut off, and they can't recruit them. ”

"Also, let all technical schools run night schools, pay teachers salaries, and at the same time give bonuses to Huayang skilled workers in factories to encourage them to teach at night when they are off duty. We don't need highly skilled students, we just need to learn simple machine tool operation, we need numbers, and we want to train 100,000 skilled workers in two years. ”

In fact, many factories are not big factories in Germany, and a considerable number of them are small family businesses, which are inherited in the form of workshops, and slowly adopt machine production in the industrial revolution, and there are generally only dozens of small family businesses with hundreds of people.

The good thing is that the heads of these factories are generally from technical backgrounds, and their skills have been passed down from generation to generation, and there is no problem with technology, but their brains are not very flexible, so they are more likely to be fooled.

The person in charge took the lead, plus a large number of workers who were simply trained in night schools, it was no problem to start machine tools to produce weapon parts, and after these people survived the war, they were all skilled, and there was no need to worry about the quality of the products produced.

"Li Fu'an. You are ready to take over all the yamen in Shandong and Northeast China within a year from now on. At least to the county seat, it must be replaced by our people. By the end of next year, you must complete the modernization of the organization of the government in Shandong. ”

Li Fuan's eyes lit up, he has always had only one industrial bureau in his hands, although he has a lot of power, he is responsible for the industrial projects in the province, from issuing licenses to auditing and collecting taxes, this industrial bureau is in charge, and other government officials are just collecting some grain taxes, and they are still the same old team.

"Then what did President Yuan say over there?"

Li Fuan asked a little nervously.

In order not to stimulate Yuan Shikai, or to leave Yuan Shikai with the impression that he was very obedient, Yang Chao never grasped power, only grasped industrial power in his hands, and the big and small officials in Shandong were either retained during the Qing Dynasty or sent by Yuan Shikai.

Of course, in Yang Chao's view, Shandong's industrial theme industry is the most important, he only grasps the main problem, and will not conflict with others wherever he can let go.

"I have two million troops in my hands, and President Yuan asked him to stay there!"

Yang Chao snorted coldly.

In one month, one million people were recruited in Shandong and Northeast China, mainly miners from mines, and the miners were almost forcibly recruited, and half of the two million miners were sent to the army.

As for the miners, most of them were poor peasants recruited from Henan, whose families had no land, and who came to Shandong to earn money to support their families.

After simple training, these soldiers learn to walk in formation, and after shooting, they will be sent to the front line within two months, and the rest will let them learn in the war, hide in the trenches and shoot guns or something, it will not cause too many casualties, and after a war, they will also mature.

With this newly formed army of one million, Yang Chao believed that Yuan Shikai would not be embarrassed by the appointment of county-level officials, and at most he was unhappy, because it meant that Yang Chao completely controlled these territories, and his power was greater and more centralized than those Beiyang governors appointed by his subordinates.

If it weren't for the war, if it weren't for Yuan Shikai's lack of support for his recruitment in other places, Yang Chao would not have completely offended him, but now that the war has broken out, what Yang Chao wants is the concentration of manpower and resources, which must be grasped from top to bottom, and all the power must be grasped in his hands from top to bottom.

This is understandable, even in a representative government, the president or prime minister in time of war will be authorized by the National Assembly to take over all powers.

"What's wrong with you?"

Other issues, Yang Chao did not let Li Fuan worry about it.

Li Fuan said: "There is no problem, the resources in the hands of my subordinates are enough to control the Northeast and Shandong." ”

Yang Chao said: "That's good, it must be fast." ”

It is believed that soon Li Fu'an's industrial bureau will be divided into the finance bureau, the education bureau, the telegraph bureau, and even the police station.

Because he has been making this kind of preparation all these years, the industrial bureau has its own audit team responsible for tax collection and financial appropriation, the education bureau has found Pan Xun's dignitaries, the telegraph bureau has been arrested from the railway company, the police station is easier to handle, and a group of veterans can solve the problem.

There was a knock on the door.

Zhang Nian walked in with a serious face.

"Chairman, the British are at war!" (To be continued.) )