As soon as the news came out, the people were eager to pick off Hu Chuyuan's skin.

They shouted angrily, roared, and cursed, but they fell into the arms of Hu Chuyuan, who regarded this distorted wailing and swearing as a kind of despicable character of the Manchu people who turned a blind eye to the interests of the country and regarded it as a despicable character of the Manchu people's selfishness, and fiercely criticized and exposed it in the "Oriental Daily".

The article was drafted by Liang Qichao, with Hu Chuyuan's name on it, and the editorial of several thousand words suddenly stirred up a monstrous wave.

Originally, it was said to be "suspended", but it quickly complied with public opinion and became a permanent suspension.

Let's make trouble, make trouble.

With the last bit of life of the Manchurians, even if there was only one special brigade of the Secret Service left in his hand, Hu Chuyuan didn't take them seriously.

To be honest, from the hands of those down-and-out Baylors, Hu Chuyuan still made a lot of money.

In particular, Hu Pinyuan and the pawn shop, Poly Auction House, and Rong Bao Zhai held by him have really acquired a lot of fine products over the years, and they have doubled their profits at low prices and changed hands.

Lending usury to the Manchurians is really a sure-fire business, and the principal of a few hundred yuan rolls over for two months, and the antique calligraphy and paintings worth thousands of dollars belong to the pawnshop.

Although they are brothers, Hu Pinyuan is a well-known person who is good at talking, three religions and nine streams, willing to deal with anyone, and has a better relationship with the Manchurians, and many things from Prince Baylor have fallen into his hands.

He is also a master of domestic connoisseurship, and he basically doesn't look away.

That night, Hu Pinyuan received a few special good things, and in the middle of the night, he couldn't wait to go to the East Garden of the Capital Administration Garden to find Hu Chuyuan to appreciate and play with him.

These are rare boutiques, and after a rough look, Hu Chuyuan knew that they were good things flowing out of Prince Gong's mansion.

In particular, Han Hu's "Illuminating the Night White", this painting, Hu Chuyuan saw in Prince Gong's mansion.

Authentic works, such as fake and authentic works.

Hu Pinyuan said to Hu Chuyuan in a quiet whisper: "I heard that Pu Wei has sold a lot of things recently, and he plans to mortgage Prince Gong's mansion, it seems that he wants to raise a large amount of money." ”

Hu Chuyuan bowed slightly, he knew that Hu Pinyuan was talking about another thing.

During this time, Pu Wei was the most restless person, selling a lot of priceless antique calligraphy and paintings to raise money, obviously with some intentions.

Seeing that Hu Chuyuan didn't speak for a while, Hu Pinyuan couldn't help but continue to ask, "Big brother, do you want to buy his things?" ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Why don't you buy it, do you want him to sell all these old things to foreign countries?" These are all left by our Han people, why let him sell the country? If it weren't for his grandfather's sake, I would have wanted to get rid of his prince a long time ago. ”

Hu Pinyuan said: "Otherwise, let's investigate this matter strictly, and if we catch the evidence, we will confiscate it. ”

This is true.

Pu Wei has been selling things very mysteriously recently, and he basically doesn't look for the Hu family, but Hu Pinyuan has great powers in the antique world, and he can always bring the goods back secretly.

Hu Chuyuan thought for a while and said: "Let Chen Shanyuan do this, don't alarm too many people, if you catch the evidence, you will directly handle it secretly, don't make a public announcement, and then send it together when the big thing is decided." ”

Hu Pinyuan agreed repeatedly, and then said: "I have already checked out, Wang Xizhi's "You Mu Post" is in his hands, do we find a way to get it." If this thing is left in our house, it will be a big treasure in the town's house. ”

Hu Chuyuan laughed hesitantly and said, "The confession post is enough, you don't need to be so powerful, you can give it to the National Central Museum in the future." ”

"This ......!"

Hu Pinyuan was a little reluctant.

What a nice thing!!

Although the two brothers donated more than 160,000 pieces of their collections to the National Museum at one time in the spring of last year, the collection of the Hu brothers is still the first hegemon in China.

At present, there are more than 600,000 pieces of various collections in Phu Quoc Villa, including calligraphy and painting, bronzes, porcelain, and ancient books, and there are 300,000 rare books of all generations alone.

In the past seven or eight years, Hu Chuyuan's interest has gradually shifted to bronzes, especially the bronzes of the late Shang period and the Western Zhou Dynasty.

He originally wanted to donate it to the National Museum, but unfortunately, he was really reluctant to do so, so he continued to hide it in his hands.

There are too many things in Pu Wei's hands, it is too troublesome to buy one by one, and it costs too much money, Hu Chuyuan is surnamed ruthless, even if he sends all the national treasures of Prince Gong's mansion to the National Museum, he can't get any of them, he hopes to end this matter at once.

In the early years, there was only the truth of extortion and investigation of the Hu family by the Manchurians, but now the feng shui is in turn, as long as it is the Manchurians, except for the royal treasury, the rest are within the scope of Hu Chuyuan's extortion and seizure.

He's taken a fancy to you, so you're going to fucking pay the public and not kill you...... Unless you really know each other enough, you don't want to make trouble at home every day.

In other words, the allowance of the full people, the prince and the royal family's internal service is not worth much, and the sum is only more than 40 million yuan, which is not worth half a month's expenses of the full [***] fee.

As soon as 140 million yuan of education funds and 175 million yuan of agricultural investment and construction funds were allocated, Hu Chuyuan's hands were extremely tight.

The Hu family's factory could not make money, but the wages of the workers had to be paid, and the expenses of raw materials and other small factories had to be paid.

As soon as the contract for the production of military supplies was settled, the military expenditure in hand was again insufficient.

Hu Chuyuan's original plan of 3 billion yuan has been used up, and the State Military Commission only has 1.47 billion yuan of war bonds left, which will last for another year at most.

On 15 December, after auditing next year's political budget, Hu Chuyuan returned to the Prime Minister's Office and asked Lu Guangquan, Lu Han, and Li Yuanhong to submit their plans for next year's armament expenditure.

The counterattack will begin in March next year, and military spending is very large.

In terms of armament spending, by the end of March next year, the large ship program will basically be suspended, and at present, the contracts of the Fuzhou Shipyard and the Jiangnan Shipyard have shifted to the production of destroyers and armored cruisers.

The Weihai Shipyard and Qingdao Shipyard of Fuguo Heavy Industries and the Tangshan Shipyard of Great Wall Heavy Industries each received contracts for two Weiyuan-class battlecruisers, in fact, this was only a chance for them to make a final transition to the production of 10,000-ton capital warships.

By March next year, the number of warships in the country will expand to an unprecedented limit, with the main battleships Liangzhou-class and Ningyuan-2 reaching 16, Weiyuan-class battlecruisers 28, and Jinzhou-class battleships 12.

These four classes are all 10,000-ton warships, and their total displacement tonnage alone will exceed 648,000 tons.

On the whole, next year's plan for spending on warships will be much smaller than in 1900 and 1901.

The army's equipment spending will only begin to be gradually reduced in June next year, and by March next year, a total of 2,700 armored vehicles and 11,000 auxiliary vehicles will be produced, and the rest of the conventional artillery will be counted separately.

If the counterattack in March next year does not work, it means that we will have to continue to increase production and purchase new armaments for the time being...... Expenses, expenses.

Hu Chuyuan read these materials very calmly and didn't say anything.

...... next March!

Let's talk about it then!

He sighed inwardly.

After he put the data book together, Lu Han said: "My lord, the navy can already fight a decisive battle with the Far East Combined Fleet, and the few ships temporarily reinforced by the Dutch side are not worth mentioning at all, and the main force of the Allied Far East Combined Fleet is still French and Russian ships, and this fleet is concentrated on the coast of the mainland. France and Russia have only begun to increase the number of ships built in an all-round way since June this year, especially France, which, according to the information we have gathered, is currently adding an average of 13,000 tons of new ships per month. ”

Hu Chuyuan thought for a moment in his heart and asked, "What about Russia?" ”

Lu Han said: "Russia is an average of 4,000 tons per month, and the restrictions on naval funds are relatively large, almost about 3,000 tons per month. Although Belgium withdrew from the Entente, they still helped France build warships. It is expected that by September next year, France will add at least 155,000 tons of total tonnage, which are basically 10,000-ton main battleships. ”

Hu Chuyuan sighed: "It's very expensive. ”

"yes!"

Lu Han couldn't help but sigh a little.

The navy really hurts the national strength when it fights.

The cost of a Liangzhou-class is basically not less than 30 million yuan, 10 is 300 million, the domestic price is still relatively cheap, the same capital battleship is built in France, the cost is absolutely impossible to be less than 4000 yuan.

At present, it is still 12,000 tons, and when it reaches 30,000 tons or 40,000 tons in the future, a main battleship can consume hundreds of millions of clear yuan, which is equivalent to 1/10 of the annual financial revenue of the political axe.

Hu Chuyuan sighed and sighed, and also thought in his heart.

After a while, he and Lu Han said: "Concentrate the main force of the navy in the waters of Ryukyu Island, try your best to force it to the Yuchao Strait, and create enough threats to the supply lines of Yuben, and force the Far East Combined Fleet to fight a decisive battle!" ”

Lu Han said: "Then we will launch a full-scale attack from the Ryukyu Islands and force them to attack!" ”

Lu Guangquan flatly denied it: "It is impossible, the army cannot carry out effective coordinated operations, and there is simply not enough troops to carry out landing operations. The immediate priority was not to destroy the combined Franco-Russian fleet in the Far East, but to ensure victory with one blow on the North-Western Front. ”

Lu Han said: "Our army is limited, and mechanized tactics have never been tested, so it is difficult to say that it must be reliable, or we should launch a counterattack led by the navy, land on Kyushu Island, and force the Far East Combined Fleet and the main fleet of our navy to fight a decisive battle." ”

Hu Chuyuan finally understood what the two of them were arguing about.

Today, both the War Department and the Admiralty have a set of counterattack plans, and the Army has put forward a "Sandstorm" plan according to Hu Chuyuan's plan, while the Admiralty, relying on its high merits, has put forward a separate set of "Typhoon" plans, that is, will the all-out counterattack start from the army battlefield or the naval battlefield?

Hu Chuyuan glanced at Lu Han and asked very simply: "Do you think the Russian and French navies will really take the initiative?" ”

Lu Han replied solemnly: "It is entirely possible, as long as we start attacking Kyushu Island, the overall plan of the Entente in the Far East War will be torn apart, and the army in Korea will completely lose its supply line. The number of troops in Korea has increased to 1 million, and now it is suddenly out of supplies, and it is inevitable that it will not be able to join up with the British and French forces in the northeast as originally planned. This was a blow that the Entente could never bear. ”

Hu Chuyuan asked, "The question is, how many troops do you have to use to fight together in order for the Entente to confirm that you have the strength to occupy Kyushu Island?" ”

This is a question that Lu Han can't answer, and he can't get around.

If we have to start a counterattack from the naval battlefield, the military deployment will have to be adjusted throughout the country, and it is too late to think about this.

Hu Chuyuan didn't continue arguing, he knew that Lu Han still knew it in his heart.

He and Lu Han continued: "The Navy's home fleet can be transferred to the port of Jinmu Bay, merge with the Pacific Fleet, and try to occupy the Goto Islands, even Hirado Island and Tsushima Island through naval superiority, and force the Yamaben Navy to continue to attack, and through continuous small-scale naval operations, the Yamamoto Navy can be used to contain the entire Yamaben Navy's fighting force against Korea." At present, this is the main task of the navy, and after continuously weakening the navy, it should reoccupy the port of Busan at an opportune time and use the port of Busan as a springboard to launch a sudden attack on the combined Russian-French fleet. ”

Lu Han could only say: "Yes, my lord! ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Let the Admiralty formulate the plan and hand it over to me first." ”

Lu Han continued to agree, and then officially got up and said goodbye, and returned to the Admiralty to reformulate a new battle plan.

With so much money invested in the Navy, the current total naval strength should be second only to the United Kingdom in the world, and the Navy certainly wants to become the dominant military force in the country, just as the British Navy is in the United Kingdom.

Hu Chuyuan understands this in his heart, but he understands even more that in the long run, China must give priority to becoming a land power.

After Lu Han left, Hu Chuyuan said to Lu Guangquan: "The most important task at present is to ensure the implementation of the sandstorm plan, and the navy can only play a role in containing it for the time being. ”

Lu Guangquan nodded slightly, and said: "Yes, I think the same way, but the colleagues in the Admiralty think too far, in my opinion, in the long run, we still need to maintain close cooperative relations with the United Kingdom, and we should not be in a hurry to challenge the British naval supremacy." ”

"Yes!"

Hu Chuyuan bowed his head, and in this regard, he held the same opinion, the development of the Chinese Navy still needs a long way to go.

In fact, even if the Chinese Navy wanted to fight a decisive battle with the Entente, the crux of the problem was that the Far East Fleet of the Entente would not dare to fight a decisive battle.

Blind people know that the total strength of the Chinese Navy is already second only to that of the British, and in the absence of the French Navy, this combined fleet in the Far East organized by France and Russia cannot be an opponent of the Chinese Navy at all.

(To be continued)