The head is high. The streets are busy, rickshaws, animal-powered carts and motor vehicles are congested, and the traffic police don't know where to go. For a moment, the traffic at this intersection was in a state of chaos, and many vehicles had to slow down. It moved slowly to the shouts of the drivers.

Several domestically made cars were also blocked at the intersection of the street, and the identity of the passenger in the first sedan was not ordinary, but it was Tang Xiangming, the chief of the Admiralty.

Tang Xiangming's mood has been very good recently. The navy performed well in the Sino-Japanese war, which not only made the Admiralty raise its eyebrows, but also made Tang Xiangming's waist stiffened, the performance of the Navy in the war was quite eye-catching, all countries have noticed the Chinese Navy's bold use of submarines in this war, especially the European naval powers paid special attention to the performance of the Chinese Navy, Tang Xiangming, as the chief of the navy, naturally became a star in the eyes of the admirals of the great powers, and the praise of the young naval chief could not help but be a little exaggerated. made Tang Xiangming a little fluttery.

Of course, after Piao Piaoran, Tang Xiangming did not forget the real role he himself played in this Sino-Japanese war, in fact, in the entire war. The role of the Admiralty is only to provide logistical support and communications support for the naval fleet, and as for specific operational matters, they are under the overall planning of the General Staff, and he, the chief of the Navy, only attends the meetings of the General Staff as an observer, and the person who presides over the meeting is usually the president himself.

Without the president's command, there would have been no victory in the war against Japan, and this is basically the consensus of the top brass of the army and navy, and Tang Xiangming also sees it this way, so he does not dare to arrogantly think that he is a naval genius; in the face of a strong president, he still keeps a low profile, rejects all requests for reporters' interviews, and is mostly cautious about the praise of military attachés of embassies of various countries, and never dares to boast in front of others, let alone say that the navy is the decisive force in this war against Japan.

It is also true that China is a land power. The truly decisive strategic force is the army, and the navy is only a foil in this war against Japan, and there will be no victory in this war without a decisive victory on the battlefield.

However, as the chief of the navy, Tang Xiangming still insisted that the navy had indeed made great contributions in this war against Japan, and that without the navy's outstanding performance, this war would probably have become unremarkable, and without the legends of naval warfare created by the navy, perhaps the people would not be talking about "modern warfare" now.

It is precisely for this reason that Tang Xiangming decided to take advantage of the navy's outstanding performance in this war to create more conditions for the navy's development, such as applying for more ship purchase fees from the central government, adding some ships to the navy, and taking over the management of some shipyards from the Ministry of Heavy Industry to the Admiralty, so that the Admiralty can manufacture desirable warships more handily or develop better combat weapons.

This time he went to the presidential palace, Tang Xiangming not only went to hand over the operational report compiled by the Admiralty to the president. In the hope that the president will change his contemptuous attitude toward the navy to some extent for the sake of the navy's outstanding achievements, and increase investment in naval construction, at least the Chinese navy will become a regional maritime military force.

In the briefcase that Tang Xiangming carried with him, he now contained a draft naval construction policy drawn up by the Admiralty, according to which the Chinese navy would spend five years building an ocean-going combat fleet with five battleships and five battlecruisers, and would build a large military port on the Zhoushan Islands and on Hainan Island. For the ocean-going fleet to berth and repair, if the two ocean-going assault ships that have already been built and put into service are also incorporated into this fleet, then the strength of the Chinese Navy will achieve a real leap.

Of course, considering the importance that the president attaches to the construction of the army and the air force, the Admiralty also thinks that the naval construction policy they have formulated is a bit too idealistic, so they also drew up a reserve plan at the same time, which was also carried by Tang Xiangming, in this backup plan, the number of battleships and battle cruisers was reduced by two each, according to the calculations of the senior staff of the Admiralty, with the current central financial situation, it is completely possible to meet the requirements of the navy's construction funds without affecting the construction of the army and the air force. The senior staff of the Admiralty did not take into account the funds required for industrial construction and the "idea of a five-year compulsory education system" proposed by the Chief of Education.

Due to the traffic congestion, the congestion at the street intersection affected the progress of Tang Xiangming's motorcade, but Tang Xiangming did not urge the driver, taking advantage of this traffic jam, he sat in the car and seriously pondered how to hand over this naval construction policy to the president after meeting the president, after all, the president called him over today to ask him to report the combat report of the Admiralty, not to ask him to ask for debts, first the army, the air force, and then the navy, this is the military construction policy that the center has long determined, and now the air force has not yet put forward the plan for strengthening armaments." The navy was so anxious to get up to it, and it couldn't help but feel a little begging.

Before Tang Xiangming could figure out how to ask the president for money, a few traffic policemen finally came to the street. Under the command of these traffic policemen, the traffic at the intersection quickly returned to normal, and Tang Xiangming's motortrocade finally drove onto East Chang'an Avenue.

Soon the convoy drove into the presidential palace, and the adjutant of the chamberlain was already waiting for Zhuo Xiangming to see him coming. led him to the commander's hall and met him directly

When Tang Xiangming walked into the president's office. Zhao Bei has just concluded a meeting with the Minister General of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The minutes of the meeting, which had been compiled by the Secretary, were being studied.

Tang Xiangming first submitted the operational report compiled by the Admiralty, and the thick stack of reports was enough for the president to study for several days, but he was not in a hurry to submit the "Five-Year Navy Construction Policy" formulated by the Admiralty, and he was patiently waiting for the opportunity so as not to arouse the president's dissatisfaction.

Zhao Bei instructed the adjutant to put the combat report in the corner of his desk, and then talked to Tang Xiangming for a few words. The discussion was only about the daily training of the Navy and the award program for naval meritorious service, and since these issues had already been studied, there was no need to talk about them now, so there was no topic for discussion.

"Chief Tang, there's nothing else to command. If you don't have anything else to say, go back to the ministry. Seeing that the president had been evicted, Tang Xiangming scratched his ears and cheeks, reached out and lifted the briefcase containing the "Five-Year Guidelines for the Construction of the Navy", and hesitated how to mention the matter of naval construction to the president.

"What, does Chief Tang have anything else to say?"

Zhao Bei glanced at Tang Xiangming, having been president for so many years, his ability to observe words and emotions has improved a lot, and he knew that Tang Xiangming had something to say at a glance.

"This" President Jun Jian. Yesterday, a German newspaper revealed that the British Government was trying to provoke the Japanese Government to declare war on Germany, and now people from all walks of life are speculating about what the Japanese Government will choose. The military attache of the German embassy came to the Admiralty to talk to me, and listened to him as if Germany was quite dissatisfied with Japan. If Japan really dared to declare war on Germany and send the Combined Fleet south to fight on the German islands in the Pacific, then Germany would simply hand over those islands to China for trusteeship, which would not be able to hold on anyway, and there would be no need to hold on. ”

Tang Xiangming thought about it and decided to knock on the side first to avoid a frontal battle, so he started with the topic of Germany.

"Oh? That's what the German military attache told you? Is it a joke, or is it a temptation? Zhao Bei raised his eyebrows and asked.

"I can't say this well, if it's a joke, but the Germans have always been rigid, especially this kind of thing involving sovereign interests, generally will not joke on this, but if it is not a joke, but a temptation, then it is a little unbelievable, after all, our naval strength is still very weak, even if those German Pacific islands are handed over to our trusteeship, our country may not be able to defend, although after signing a peace treaty with Japan, Japan may not be able to attack those islands. But it's hard to say whether other countries will have the idea of attacking those islands in the future. Besides. Those islands in the Pacific Ocean are too far away from our mainland and too remote to be attacked, and they are really easy to attack and difficult to defend, and according to me, the German government might as well sell those islands to the United States. ”

Tang Xiangming also frowned, when the German military attache told him about it, he didn't think about it carefully, but now he thinks about it carefully. It suddenly dawned on him that this was probably another bait for Germany to lure China into joining the Allies, but it was a little worse, and even he, the chief of the navy, was not much interested, let alone the central government, and the main purpose of bringing up this topic was to emphasize the inadequacy of China's naval strength.

"It's good that you can think like that. There's a document on the German Pacific Islands, which you can look at, but it's top secret and you are not allowed to tell anyone. Even if it's a cronie close to you. ”

Zhao Bei nodded, stood up and walked to the filing cabinet. took a document and turned around and handed it to Tang Xiangming.

Tang Xiangming took the document and looked at it, very surprised. This document was a transcript of a telegram from Manila, Philippines, and the person who took the report was Gu Weijun, and according to the content of the telegram, Gu Weijun was being ordered by the central authorities to have some exchanges with the Japanese representatives of the peace talks.

"I don't understand. Since Gu Weijun was in the Philippines to negotiate a peace agreement with the Japanese mission. Why is the issue of German colonization of the Pacific suddenly brought up? ”

Tang Xiangming was really a little confused, he thought that Gu Weijun was only negotiating an armistice with the Japanese mission in the Philippines, but now it seems. Gu Weijun's task is obviously not so simple.

"To put it simply, now the Japanese are proposing. It is not impossible to return the island of Taiwan, but there is a premise, that is, to provide "convenience" for Japan to attack the German Pacific colonies in the south, that is, when the Japanese naval fleet goes south to attack the German colonies, we in China should not interfere and should acquiesce in Japan's "freedom of action" in the Pacific. This is one of the additional conditions for the Japanese Government to return the island of Taiwan. ”

Zhao Bei explained briefly, and Tang Xiangming understood what the "exchange of interests" mentioned in the telegram was.

"China does not interfere with Japan's freedom of movement. Japan agreed to return the island of Taiwan? ”

Tang Xiangming asked, and he didn't blame him for getting to the bottom of it. Japan has been working the island of Taiwan for almost 20 years, and the island has been included in Japan's colonial economic system and is vital to Japan's economy.

You must know that the Admiralty has drawn up an operational plan for landing on the Taiwan islands. To be done. If you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the heart, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!