In the past year or so, Song Biao has made a lot of perverted choices, such as serving the Russian army to fight the army, continuing to serve the Russian army to completely cripple the army, and now, he wants to fully cooperate with the army, for what? In order to build a more powerful Northeast New Army as soon as possible to overthrow the Manchus, and then go to war with Russia in the Far East?

Thinking of this, Song Biao patted his head helplessly.

Fortunately, the current army really doesn't need to care too much, based on the current debt situation, if it hadn't been given money in the First World War, its army would have basically collapsed completely, and even if it was rebuilt, it would take a while to recover.

After thinking about it, Song Biao realized that he could only cooperate with Yueben.

Song Biao and Cai Yi, Jiang Fangzhen, Jiang Yanxing, and Zhao Tingzhu carefully discussed, speculating about the room for the army to continue to make concessions, as well as the new cooperation that the Northeast New Army and the three eastern provinces need to develop.

In fact, they also carefully calculated that the three-year-old rapid-fire gun was not the best choice for them, and after comparing the artillery of the two armies, they still preferred to use the three-inch Lucia field gun, and the difference in surname energy was too big.

Compared with large-caliber mortars, the three-year-old rapid-fire gun is really not much stronger, and Song Biao has already planned to secretly develop an 81mm caliber mortar by hiring first-class foreign engineers and technicians.

Of course, there are some special uses for the three-year-old rapid-fire gun that cannot be replaced by the three-inch Lucia field gun and mortar, that is, the special value of the mountain artillery, which itself is also a mountain artillery, and it can also be used as a cavalry brigade artillery with a slight modification, because it is light, and the range is also very good, at least five kilometers away.

In general, the number of needs is not too large.

As long as there are enough horse-drawn pack-drawn artillery, and at the same time it is fighting in non-mountainous areas, and the non-mixed cavalry configuration, the three-inch Lucia field gun is definitely better than the three-year-old rapid-fire gun, of course, it would be better if there was a long-range 7 and a half centimeter field gun, such as the 75 miss of the French Schneider company.

It is a very good choice to sell some of the three-year-old rapid-fire guns, make room for a three-inch Lucia field gun, or buy German artillery, like the current one because there are too many Schneider guns, and their own lack of shell production capacity, as a result, the French strangled their throats and asked for a sky-high price, which really made Song Biao very helpless.

As for the war horses, Song Biao actually does not need the war horses of the army, but prefers to use the Don hippopotamus and the Mongolian horse system, which are both pull-and-ride and hard-working war horses, and the significance of retaining nearly 20,000 horse steers is not great, and his choice has always been to introduce cheap Don hippos in large quantities, and directly improve them on the basis of Don hippos and Mongolian horses.

Although the Anglo military horses are good, the appetite is too picky, China is vast, before the emergence of the mechanical stream in World War II, and even after World War II, it is still necessary to retain a large number of cavalry as mobile troops to use, war horses can not be refined, but must be practical, cheap and practical is the best.

Although Song Biao had decided to implement this cooperation plan with the Army, he still sent Li Enfu and Cai Ye to the United States to inspect the American industry, especially to go to Connecticut to see the New Haven Gunpowder Company, and if the other party had the ability to fulfill the contract, it would be used as an alternative to select a suitable supplier for a long time to deal with various complicated situations that might arise.

…… The next night, Song Biao hosted a banquet for Akiyama Mayuki at the guest house for the second time, and at this time, he had already asked the Second Staff Department to draw up a new cooperation plan, and his plan was called "the cooperation between the three eastern provinces and the army." Compared with the "draft plan for the redemption of the army's equipment," the scale of his cooperation was even larger, and in addition to requiring cooperation in the field of military industry and military equipment, he also demanded that the cooperation be expanded to the field of education, and the army noncommissioned officer school should provide 10 places for the Northeast New Army separately every year. The University reserves three places each year for graduates of the Far Eastern Army Non-commissioned Officer School.

Akiyama Mayuki carefully read this cooperation plan and asked cautiously: "Your Excellency the Governor, since this is such cooperation, I take the liberty of asking, with regard to the three eastern provinces and the economic aspects of the capital, can there be further cooperation between the two sides?" ”

Song Biao had already expected it, and replied: "It's completely possible, I am planning a Pulandian Special Economic Zone, and I can invest in factories in the Pulandian area, and when I sell my goods to the three eastern provinces, everything will also enjoy the preferential terms you originally held, including the coal and iron ore owned by the three eastern provinces, which can be purchased." Economic cooperation is handled by the private sector itself, and as the governor of the three eastern provinces, I have no intention of interfering with the free development of the economy, industry and commerce. ”

Akiyama Shinyuki asked: "Then in the recent boiling railway planning of the three eastern provinces, can this book have a place?" ”

Song Biao said: "This is a bit difficult, although I do intend to choose the second largest partner in the three eastern provinces through this transaction, but it is absolutely impossible to include the three eastern provinces, this does not depend on my will, for me, as long as it is most beneficial to the three eastern provinces, it is naturally the best, but for Russia, the new partner they are willing to accept." The trick here is that our cooperation with Russia is mutual, and we all need a new ally. So, I can only regret it. ”

Akiyama Mayuki sighed and smiled again: "Even so, I think I can go back to the business, it's actually much better than we expected, at least more comprehensive than we imagined, this kind of cooperation is always a good thing." ”

"Yes!"

Song Biao bowed slightly, but there were some indescribable emotions in his heart.

Yesterday, I had invited Akiyama Shinyuki to eat some local dishes in Kanto, and tonight it will be more formal, Song Biao specially asked the guest house to cook a few signature dishes, and drank with Akiyama Shinyuki, and together we renegotiated some details of the cooperation between the two sides in more detail.

Considering that Yue Ben is not capable of producing 31-year artillery now, Song Biao has no plan to produce 31-year rapid-fire guns in China through cooperation with Yue Ben for the time being, but he still considers slowly pondering the improvement plan on the basis of 31-year rapid-fire guns, and then launches more suitable 75mm caliber mountain guns and cavalry light howitzers.

In this respect, relying on Russia is definitely better than being realistic, and Russia still has the ability to produce cannon steel, gun bodies, and gun carriages, and at this time it is the real three-nothing. If these problems can be solved through the United States, it will certainly be more practical than relying on Russia, or at the same time cooperate with American private enterprises and the Russian Army, plus use the cooperation with the United States, perhaps...... Song Biao estimated that it was really possible to solve the problem of artillery production in five or six years, even if it was only the smallest caliber field artillery, it would be better than not being able to produce anything.

That night, Song Biao and Akiyama Mayuki talked for a long time, and they also talked about some strange events in the Battle of Liaoyang and the Battle of Tsushima, in short, things that neither side understood, for example, Song Biao still did not understand why the army had been storming Liaoyang at that time, and he did not choose a suitable alternative for a long time.

Akiyama Shinyuki's answer is very simple, that is, the army has always been a group of diehards and fools who do not know how to be flexible, and it is difficult to make accurate estimates of the actual level of the opponents, just like the high-ranking officers of the navy who basically do not understand the modern navy, "always relying on luck to fight wars, sooner or later it will be unlucky."

Just like when he got along well with Aoki Xuanjun, Song Biao and Akiyama Shinyuki got along very well at this time, and the two even talked very speculatively, almost even having a similar surname.

Until the early hours of the morning, when sending Akiyama Shinyuki to rest, Song Biao was still sighing pity halfway through, but unfortunately one of them is Chinese and the other is himself, doomed, maybe one day they will be enemies of life and death, even if one of them is now the army and the other is the navy.

Things are just as Song Biao had guessed before, in order to reach this redemption plan with him, the War Department sent a lot of spies to operate in France, and sent confidential information such as the artillery equipment status and training ammunition consumption data of the Northeast New Army to Schneider Company, which made Schneider Company very cooperative with a big price increase.

Even so, Song Biao still chose to cooperate with the War Department, and the reason why he continued to cooperate knowing that he was deceived was precisely because the War Department was actually far from knowing how huge his plan was.

Before Akiyama Shinyuki returned to China, Song Biao sent Jiang Fangzhen to serve as the representative of the Northeast New Army and himself, and once again went to Yumoto and Foreign Minister Kato Takaaki to negotiate a more complete "Secret Treaty of Cooperation between the Three Eastern Provinces and the Three Eastern Provinces", the prototype of which came from the fact that Song Biao and the Russians were about to sign the "Secret Treaty of Cooperation between the Three Eastern Provinces and Russia", referred to as the "Secret Treaty of Eastern Russia", which would officially determine that Russia was Song Biao's first ally in the three eastern provinces.

No matter how much benefit the Association gave to Song Biao, the three eastern provinces, and the Northeast New Army in the "Secret Treaty of the East", it is actually impossible to change the fact that the book is only ranked fourth and fifth, and both sides actually understand this in their hearts, not so much that Song Biao said the opposite, but that Russia rejected the British infiltration of the three eastern provinces, and Britain was an ally and supporter of the book.

On the night when Jiang Fangzhen left Fengtian City, Song Biao suddenly received a belated telegram from the German Arms and Ammunition Company, which made Song Biao overjoyed, unlike Schneider, the German Arms and Ammunition Company was a state-owned arsenal in Germany, and their quotation fully reflected the political will of the German Empire.

Although the call back was sent a few days later than the American company, DWM (German Arms and Ammunition Company) was more thoughtful, and they proposed that the Logistics Department of the Northeast New Army should provide two 31-year-old rapid-fire guns and some shells as samples, and that the DWM company would be responsible for testing the parameters of this type of artillery, determine the ballistic parameters of the modified gun as accurately as possible, and ensure that the same standard of high-explosive artillery shells and shrapnel as the French side could be supplied within three months, if it is determined to sign a long-term supply contract, DWM is not only willing to provide the most fair price, but will also submit all the test data to the logistics department of the new army, and on this basis, in accordance with the requirements of the new army in the northeast, all the three-year-old rapid-fire guns of the new army will be technically transformed, so as to improve the various shortcomings of this kind of artillery exposed in the Russian war.

Why the Germans' arms business was invincible before World War II can be seen from the call back from the DWM company, on the basis of being willing to solve the problem of three-year-old rapid-fire guns for the Northeast New Army, the DWM company is very professional to provide the technical parameters and quotations of various other German new artillery, and is willing to supply the Northeast Arsenal with various types of artillery shell production equipment, as well as the corresponding technical training.

Although Song Biao had largely solved the shell crisis caused by Schneider at this time, he was still willing to sign a solid and reliable long-term cooperation agreement with DWM.

For this reason, he called back to the DWM company as soon as possible, in addition to the original negotiation of 75mm mountain artillery cooperation, he was very interested in Germany's 10 and a half, 12 centi, 15 cents howitzers, 88 mm rapid-fire field guns, and 15 cm long-barreled cannons.

Song Biao has always firmly believed that artillery is the king of the army, and although he still lacks the level of understanding of Pakirov's artillery combat theory at this stage, this defect cannot completely hinder his pace of strengthening artillery construction.

Sometimes good things can turn into bad things, and bad things can turn into good things.

The shell crisis directed by Schneider Company cast a shadow on the cooperation between East and France, which had an excellent trend of cooperation, and Song Biao suspended all cooperation negotiations with France, and on the basis of strengthening cooperation with Russia, he also carried out cooperation negotiations with Germany, the United States and other countries in various fields.

In the initial stage, the French took an extremely arrogant approach to this, and Minister Luban did not believe that Song Biao would take the risk of cooperating with Britain and Germany, but the development of events would completely exceed his expectations.

On February 12, 1906, Song Biao and His Excellency Kuzantusov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, secretly signed the "Secret Treaty of Eastern Russia", officially expanding the cooperation between the three eastern provinces, the New Army in Northeast China, and Russia to a new level of incomprehensibility.

According to this agreement, the Russian state-owned Rockiv Arsenal and the Northeast Arsenal jointly established a new Far Eastern Dawn Arsenal in Anshan to produce M1895 87mm field guns (cavalry type with a total weight of 370kg), M1906 75mm mountain guns, M1906 85mm rapid-fire field guns, M1902 three-inch Lucia field guns, and M1905 Maxim wheeled heavy machine guns, with each side holding half of the shares.

The Russian War Department pledged to assist the Northeast New Army Horse Management Office and the Far East Animal Husbandry Company with 4,000 excellent Orlov stallions, and to sell a total of 14,000 Orlov stallions and excellent Don stallions over the next five years to improve the native horse breed.

The three eastern provinces have set up Russian investment zones in Yingkou, Liaoyang, and Shenyang, allowing Russian businessmen to invest and set up factories there, and allowing Russian businessmen to purchase oil exploration and management rights in the three eastern provinces.

After the signing of the Xinchou Treaty, the powers of various countries had the right to open factories in China, and the citizens could also open factories without any kind of restrictions, but in terms of mining rights, the Qing government did not make too many concessions, and the provincial governments still had the right to decide on the mining rights.

Song Biao adopted a relatively relaxed policy in the mining rights, except for the restriction on the mining of gold and silver, the rest can be contracted to foreign businessmen, but only the new political bureau of the Yamen, the governor of the three eastern provinces, has the right to approve, and at this time in the world's most prosperous oil exploitation field, Song Biao promised that except for Russia, he would not open the oil development rights to third countries, but he himself through the Far East Coal and Iron Company gave priority to buying out the oil exploration and management rights in Daqing, Liaohe, and Jinchuan, and the remaining blank space was left to Russia to toss.

Considering the depth of the oil burial layers in Daqing and Liaohe, as well as the current oil exploration technology, although Song Biao sold the exploration rights to the Russians, the Russians did not get any benefits.

(To be continued)