Since the economic crisis, the trade volume between China and Lanfang has shrunk rapidly, not only less cargo ships, but also fewer passenger ships, and the Chinese immigrants in Nanyang are mostly immigrants from the south, so Shanghai, Fuku, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places are the ports where Nanyang immigrants land, Yantai here, "Report to the captain!" The Admiralty called back

Just as Sa Shijun was studying the Lanfang passenger liner. An officer walked up behind him. A copy of the telegram was in his hand.

"Yu.

Sa Shijun didn't look back, just said a word.

"Yes! Ministry of Communications: At present, the navy's funds are tight, and the flight unit equipment required by your ship cannot be transferred to the ship at present, and the radio stations that need to be supplemented cannot be immediately transferred in place. ”

After listening to the officer's telegram, Sa Shijun smiled bitterly, waved his hand, motioned for the officer to leave, and then put down the telescope and sighed.

In the past, it was the captain of the real ship who soaked mushrooms with the Admiralty, asked for planes and pilots, and now, Sa Shijun acted as the captain, and the work of this soaking mushrooms was handed over to him, and yesterday he sent a telegram to the Admiralty, requesting that the equipment and personnel of the flight unit required for the "Nanhai" aircraft carrier be immediately completed, but today this telegram from the Admiralty shows that his plan has failed again, and it seems that this large aircraft carrier can only continue to stay in the harbor and bask in the sun, and in this case, it is no longer of much sense for the warship to go to sea for training. After all, this is an aircraft carrier, and the combat weapon is an aircraft, and an aircraft carrier without an aircraft is equivalent to an active target at sea, and now the only value of going out to sea for training is probably to serve as a target for an imaginary enemy fleet.

In fact, strictly speaking, "South China Sea." The aircraft carrier still has two planes, but both are reconnaissance aircraft, and they are old models, which have long been outdated, and one of them was damaged when testing the steam catapult, so the current large aircraft carrier with a displacement of 20,000 tons has only one aircraft available. Now I parked in the hangar, and I didn't dare to drag it to the deck, for fear of being embarrassed.

Sa Shijun also understood the helplessness of the Admiralty, although the Li Yuanhong government had promised to strengthen the construction of the Navy at the beginning of its coming to power, not only approved the Admiralty's, "66th Fleet." It was planned to build six battleships and six heavy cruisers to replace the old battleships of the aging battlefleet, and at the same time promised to approve the construction of at least four large aircraft carriers.

The promise is good, but the reality is cruel"The financial turmoil broke out in the United States, then quickly swept the world, and finally evolved into this catastrophic Great Depression, since then, the Li Yuanhong government has repeatedly cut naval spending, not only canceling the "66 Fleet Program." And it also withdrew its commitment to build a few more large aircraft carriers, and in this case "officially incorporated into the active service of the Navy" in the South China Sea. It is not incomprehensible that the large aircraft carrier is still not equipped with a flight unit.

In Sa Shijun's view, it is "the South China Sea." In fact, it does not cost much naval funds to equip the aircraft carrier with flight units, and it is even possible to transfer flight units from the two small aircraft carriers that are about to be decommissioned, but the Admiralty cannot even do this, and the problem is still on the side of the Li Yuanhong government, according to the plan of this central government, the current priority is to maintain the army after all. There was no sign of war in sight, at least in the Far East, so the government's priority was to secure the funding of the army.

Now there are rumors that the Li Yuanhong government intends to hold talks with Britain, the United States, and other countries in exchange for the partial opening of foreign markets on the condition of reducing the size of the army, so as to solve the problem of exporting domestic industrial products.

This is called a small family "Sa Shijun despised it very much, to tell the truth, he was very nostalgic for the era when Zhao Bei was president, in that era, although the navy has always been in the national defense force, "gas bag" but the central government has always attached great importance to the development and upgrading of new naval equipment, in fact, even this "Nanhai" aircraft carrier is also the construction plan set by Zhao Bei that year, otherwise, count on Li Yuanhong's misers, I don't know that the Ma Yue Navy can have a large aircraft carrier in the year of the monkey.

"South China Sea. The construction process is also a little difficult, after all, this is the first large aircraft carrier built by China itself, although there is experience in building small aircraft carriers before, but China's shipyards have never built such a large warship, which requires further exploration, take the design of the ship, is it designed to be fully enclosed or designed to be semi-open? This question alone has been studied for a long time.

In this way, while groping and building, it took the "Nanhai" five years to complete the final glaze, and when the navy saw that this large aircraft carrier was put into active service, it was surprised to find that this aircraft carrier actually had no aircraft available.

An aircraft carrier without aircraft is a toothless tiger, and no one can be frightened, so it can only make the country's navy full of resentment, and if it had known that there were no aircraft available for aircraft carriers, perhaps the Admiralty would have built two new battleships first.

There are no aircraft available for aircraft carriers, this is simply a strange news in the world, and it is a big joke in the world, even the chief of the navy feels that his face is hot, so he ordered it to be stationed in Qingdao, "South China Sea." The ship was transferred to Yantai, which is close to the Bohai Sea, which is China's Ran Sea, and no foreign warship can get close to it without China's permission. Others only heard that she was ugly, but when she got to know "flail? It's not clear.

However, "South China Sea. In fact, it is not ugly at all, on the contrary, it is very beautiful, the original design was decided by Zhao Bei himself, this aircraft carrier is enough to despise those aircraft carriers of the same era in terms of performance and shape, even the aircraft carriers of the US Navy are not so beautiful.

However, there is no aircraft, in the end it is a huge shortcoming, it is like a scar on the face of a beauty, which seriously affects the visual effect, as long as the aircraft is not fully equipped for a day, this aircraft carrier can only hide in Yantai and act as a training ship for sailors.

Of course, the commander-in-chief of the navy put this aircraft carrier here in Yantai for security reasons, after all, it is close to the Bohai Sea and is a semi-enclosed sea area, and it is indeed very difficult for the enemy navy to launch a sneak attack.

The "Nanhai" aircraft carrier has been stationed in Yantai for almost a year, during which time it has only gone to sea to practice five times, and the main subject of training is not attack, but defense, especially air defense.

Sa Shijun can only look at the sky and sigh, it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and he, the acting captain, is also quite aggrieved, he can only look at the sky in a daze every day, or pace back and forth in the empty hangar.

Soldiers, should not focus on the economy, but now, as a naval colonel, after Sa Shijun finishes work every day, he always has to worry about the current economic situation through the radio, whether it is at home or abroad, his idea is also very simple, the current shortage of naval funds is caused by this economic crisis, when the economy recovers, perhaps, when the "Nanhai" aircraft carrier will be able to have its own flight force, at least, The central government can no longer use the economic crisis as an excuse to make things difficult for the navy.

"A suffocating hero

Sa Shijun sighed, turned his head and walked down the gangway, and returned to the chart room, where the staff officers were busy planning the route, according to the plan of the Admiralty, a small-scale joint military exercise at sea would be held in a few days, and the aircraft carrier "Nanhai" would also participate in the exercise, and the task was to play the role of the attacked, and the attacking side was the two old battleships.

Seeing the captain enter the chart room, the stalks immediately stood up and saluted, Sa Shijun returned the salute, and the military continued to be busy with their work, while Colonel Sa Shijun sat down on the sofa in the corner, and took a stack of charts under his umbrella to look through carefully.

A few minutes later, the sound of a military horn came from outside the porthole, Sa Shijun got up and walked to the porthole to check, and found that some troops on the dock were gathering in formation, it was the marines, judging from the marching equipment they were carrying, it seemed that they were preparing to change guards, or they were training for a long time, and even the marching pot was on their shoulders.

"I haven't heard about any recent exercise plans for the Marine Corps"

Sa Shijun felt a little strange, so he left the chart room and called a major to ask him to come ashore and inquire.

The major soon returned, and the news he brought to him was even more astonishing.

"The Marines are going to Tianjin. It is said to be an order of the Admiralty. ”

"Who gave this order?

Sa Shijun asked, no wonder he found it strange, although the Marine Corps is under the command of the Admiralty, but if necessary, the president can also call this force, in fact, the Marine Corps is also a unit that the president can directly send overseas to carry out military missions without the permission of Congress, and it is for this reason that some people call the Marine Corps the "fourth service" in addition to the army, navy and air. "It's a sword in the president's hand, and some have likened it to a modern-day Guard.

Some time ago, when the president issued a martial law order, the army units were used, but the marines were not mobilized.

"I don't know who gave the order, only that it came from the Admiralty, and it was a written order, and it seems that it was not the order of the president to answer the major.

"Shoot the telegram and ask."

Sa Shijun immediately decided to ask the Admiralty, and the major immediately complied, but the Admiralty's reply was delayed, which made Sa Shijun even more strange, so he decided to take another telegram, and at the same time took a telegram with a different content to the General Staff, reporting the strange behavior of the Yantai Marines to the General Staff.

Sa Shijun didn't know at the moment, just when he was surprised and puzzled by the strange behavior of the Yantai Marines, many units of the Chinese Marines stationed around the Bohai Sea also received orders from the Admiralty, and they were also ordered to go to Tianjin, as for what to do in Tianjin, the order did not say, and no one dared to ask, the situation is indeed a little strange now, although the Congress and the president have made it clear that they accept most of the veterans' petition requests, but most of the veterans are still gathered around Gyeonggi, With no sign of dissipating, tensions in the Gyeonggi area were untenable, and many officers of the Marine Corps believed that they had gone to Tianjin as a reserve to prevent the situation in the capital from deteriorating, although this was only their speculation.

In addition to the Marine Corps, there are also army units that are now moving towards the Gyeonggi area, mainly from the three eastern provinces, especially the border troops near the border with the Far Eastern Republic, and the armed forces of the Ministry of the Interior are also massing in the Gyeonggi area. (To be continued.)