While the enthusiastic people in Yanjing City were still marching and cheering for the return of Jiaozhou Bay, the licensed political axe was also quite satisfied with the support of the British political axe.

So not long after Zhu Erdian left the presidential palace depressed, the minister to China, Yue Zhiyi, had already found Yan Guang's door.

And after seeing Yan Guang, there was only one word for Zhiyi.

"Hand over the more than 5,000 German troops who are covered by your political axe, otherwise something may happen that neither your nor our country is happy to see."

Scratching his head, looking at the person who seemed to be less tall than his chest, but still looked arrogant, Yan Guang asked in a very strange tone.

"If I hand over those few thousand Germans to your country, will your country really not do anything else?"

"This..."

Said Zhiyi hesitated for a moment, as the minister to China, he can be regarded as the kind of person with a little identity in Yueben, and he also understands some of the thoughts of Yueben's political axe, so after considering the wording, he can only say.

"After the Entente declared war on the Central Powers, Germany once had a cruiser fleet sailing out of the fortress of Tsingtao, and is now circulating in the Pacific Ocean.

Speaking of this, Yue Zhiyi glanced up at Yan Guang.

"Under these circumstances, this German fleet has seriously threatened the security of the Entente, so we hope that you can lend the Qingdao Fortress to our country, and after the war with the Central Powers, we will return the Qingdao Fortress to you......... Of course, this will also be of great help to your country, after all, this German fleet, which has nowhere to inquire, also poses a certain threat to your country at sea..."

Although Ben is simply coveting Jiaozhou Bay, he can't say it directly.

And after listening to Yu Zhiyi's words, Yan Guang sneered in his heart.

Of course, in addition to sneering in his heart, Yan Guang's face also brought out a sneering expression, and in cooperation with Yan Guang's weird gaze, Yue Zhiyi, who was also relatively thick-skinned, felt a little uncomfortable.

It was when Zhiyi was looked very uncomfortable that Yan Guang spoke.

"If it's just those few thousand Germans, maybe I can still think about it, but since your country still asks for Qingdao Fortress, hehe, Mr. Minister, it seems that Yan can only be difficult to obey..."

Borrow Qingdao Fortress? Yan Guang asked himself if he had already figured out what he was thinking.

It's nothing more than stationing troops in Qingdao Fortress first, and when Yan Guang is unprepared, he is doing something like the Lugou Bridge Incident. For example, in the Jiaozhou Bay alley exercise, and then told Yan Guang that a small soldier was missing during the exercise, and only when he asked to send troops to find it, the rest, hehehehe...

Of course, it is unlikely that the time to play this hand will be fast.

He said that he would definitely wait until the Shandong garrison was withdrawn to do so, and he might even demand that he withdraw part of his army on the grounds that he threatened the safety of his own army.

After that, when the European war has come to an end, and at that time it is really seamless.

Although Yan Guang also has the heart to play with this group of people, but now Shandong's arms and materials have been hoarded, and the troops in the Yanjing Military Region and the Nanjing Military Region are also ready, and now they are waiting for the person to come and improve their status.

And after listening to Yan Guang's refusal, Yue Zhiyi continued after frowning.

"Mr. President, I hope that Mr. President will give more thought to it, otherwise, I am afraid that this incident will have a great impact on the diplomatic relations between China and China, and it is even very likely that there will be something that we do not want to happen..."

"You've said this many times..."

Said Zhiyi was choked by Yan Guang like this, and his face was inevitably a little ugly, but just when he wanted to continue, Yan Guang had already spoken.

"Mr. Minister, I have already said that if it is a matter of German soldiers, I can think about it, but if your country insists on linking Qingdao Fortress with German soldiers, Yan can only refuse..."

Seeing that Yan Guang would never agree, Yue Zhiyi shook his head with an ugly face.

"Mr. President, I still hope that you can think about it more, so according to the meaning of our political axe, as long as Mr. President answers before August 10, but if Mr. President still answers this way on August 10, then I am afraid that something regrettable will really happen..."

With that, Zhiyi put his top hat on his head, and then stood up.

"I hope that Mr. President can think more about this matter in these days, so that the harmony between China and China can be preserved..."

Looking at Zhiyi's appearance, although Yan Guang wanted to give him two feet, he also had to say with a smiling face.

"Since Mr. Minister is going back, then I won't send it down, please rest assured, Mr. Minister will definitely think it through carefully..."

Anyway, the longer the time drags on, the better the preparations for the war in Shandong will be completed, and Yan Guangzhi really doesn't worry about things dragging on.

In fact, if this matter can drag on for three or five years, Yan Guang will be the happiest, after all, three or five years later, well, it will be five years later. Five years later, not to mention industrial strength, I am afraid that by that time the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau will even build battleships―――――― of course, even so, in terms of strength, the naval force is still unlikely to compete with the navy.

Yan Guang is still very self-aware of the strength of the Chinese Navy and the Navy.

After Zhiyi left, Yue Chang stood behind Yan Guang and said.

"I didn't expect this group of people to want to fight Qingdao's idea..."

Indeed, Yue Chang never thought that Jiaozhou Bay and Qingdao Fortress were returned to China by the Germans, and this group of people still did not give up.

After hearing Yue Chang's words, Yan Guang spoke.

"I said that my wolf ambitions are not only in Shandong, but also in Northeast China and Mongolia, and if possible, even the whole of China I am afraid they will not let go..."

Yue Chang nodded, but looking at the direction in which Yue Zhiyi left, Yue Chang was still a little worried.

"President, since I have already asked to get our answer by August 10, if our answer is still ......... after August 10 I'm afraid I'll do it when the time comes. ”

"Of course I know that they will do it, otherwise the troops I deployed in Shandong would not have become decorations..."

“……… That's right, now we do deploy a lot of troops in Shandong, but our own navy ......... If it's just fighting for the army, the lowly post is still very confident in the brothers below, but if it's for the navy, president, this..."

It's no wonder that Yue Chang is so worried, after all, whoever has seen the comparison of strength between the Chinese and Chinese navies will sigh, and even Yan Guang himself is the same for this.

After all, the current Navy has more than a dozen battleships of more than 10,000 tons, but what about the Chinese Navy? The largest tonnage is only the Haiqi ship that was sunk in the Shanghai Naval Port by Yan Guang and has just surfaced until now, with a tonnage of only a pitiful 4,300 tons, which can only be regarded as a decent cruiser.

Among the warships under construction, there is only one Jinghai-class cruiser and two Qinghai-class destroyers built by the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, plus the "Qinghai Ship," the lead ship of the Qinghai-class destroyer that has already been launched.

The only thing that made Yan Guang feel a little comforted was that the quality of the warships in the Navy's navy was not very high.

That's right, there are indeed quite a few battleships in the current navy, and of course, there are even more warships of other types.

For example, there are 2 ships in the Fuji class, 4 ships in the Shikishima class, 2 ships in the Katori class, 2 ships in the Satsuma class and two ships in the Kawachi class.

However, among the 12 battleships, only 2 of the Hanoi-class were Dreadnought-class battleships, and the rest were all old-fashioned battleships, which may have been called cutting-edge before the British Dreadnought-class battleships were launched―――――― just like the Great White Fleet when the Americans were showing off their might around the world.

But when the British dreadnoughts were launched, it was really, hehehehe...

Moreover, regarding the two battleships of the Kawachi class, namely the Kawachi and the Settsu, there are also many flaws, and the originally good dreadnought-class battleships ended up being semi-dreadnought.

In fact, after the Russo-Japanese War, there was a plan for the 88th Fleet, that is, the first generation of the 88th Fleet.

Of course, the dreadnoughts of the British ended up ruining everything.

There was no way, so he had to reverse the plan and start over, and then produced the "Hanoi-class" battleships.

The two dreadnought-class battleships built in the first generation of the "88th Fleet Program" were delivered in 1912, but unfortunately these two ships were built into nondescript "semi-dreadnoughts".

The navy originally planned to equip these ships with the newly developed 50-fold diameter 12-inch Marksxi main gun (at that time, the new main gun had not really mastered the manufacturing technology of large naval guns), and this new main gun was actually the long-barreled version of the 45-fold diameter 12-inch MarkX main gun equipped on the "Dreadnought", which had a longer range and penetration than the MarkX. However, the price of new gadgets was naturally much higher, which was not a good thing for the extremely limited financial resources at that time.

However, Marshal Heihachiro Togo, who was the head of the Navy's military command department at the time, was not interested in this latest gadget. According to previous practical experience, most of the battles of the main ships of the Navy took place within 8,000 to 9,000 yards, (it was not until 1912 that the British obtained a complete artillery command and control system), and the difference between the MarkX and the Markxi was not much in such an engagement distance, and the price of the latter was much higher than that of the former. In view of this, Togo asked the Navy to replace the four turrets on both sides of the hull with a total of eight MarkX, which is reliable and affordable, and only the long-range MarkX in the bow and stern remains.

Although this has caused the inconsistency of the ballistic surname of the main gun, which deviates from the design purpose of the "dreadnought", since the Markxi is directly developed from the MarkX, the ballistic surname of the two main guns is still roughly similar under the condition of appropriately reducing the charge of the former, and the difference is not obvious in practical application.

In fact, the actual evaluation of Markxi by the Navy later was not high. As the original long-barreled gun, this main gun has obvious defects, because it requires a stronger propellant than the MarkX shell, which causes the life of the barrel to be shortened a lot, and based on the defects of the casting technology itself, the gun body is easy to bend and deform, so that the shelling accuracy is significantly reduced, and so on.

After the failure of the Hanoi class, he also planned a new battleship plan, that is, the second-generation "88th Fleet Plan".

However, the construction time of the battleship is indeed much longer than that of other ships, not to mention that the political axe itself is quite lacking in funds―――――― even if they really invest a lot in military spending.

For example, the Fusang in the second-generation 88th Fleet was started on March 11, 1912, and was not completed until November 8, 1915.

Construction began on November 20, 1913, and was completed on March 31, 1917.

Construction of the Ise began on May 10, 1915, and was completed on December 15, 1917.

Construction began on May 6, 1915 and was completed on April 30, 1918.

There was also the Kongo-class battlecruiser, the lead ship, the Kongo, which began construction on January 17, 1911 and was completed on August 16, 1913.

Construction began on November 4, 1911, and on August 4, 1914.

Construction began on March 16, 1912 and was completed on April 19, 1915.

The Kirishima was scheduled to start construction on March 17, 1912, and on April 19, 1915.

Therefore, before the European war, although the scale of the navy was very large, the quality was sincere...

At least it is certainly incomparable with Britain and Germany, after all, there are too many dreadnoughts in these two countries to count.

By the way, the lead ship of the Kongo-class battlecruisers, the Kongo, was built by the British. On January 17, 1911, the first keel of the "King Kong" was laid down at the Vickers shipyard, and the technical backbone from the various shipyards in the company will be open to observe the entire construction project and bring back the perfect technology for building large warships.

Following the "Kongo", on November 7, the construction of the second ship "Hiei" began at the Yokosuka Naval Yard, and the technical staff of the Vickers Company provided technical guidance for the construction work. On March 11 of the following year, after careful preparations, the lead ship of the "Fuso-class" battleship was placed on the slipway of the Kure Port Naval Yard. On March 16, 1913, the third ship of the "King Kong class" "Haruna" was laid at the Kawasaki Shipyard, and the construction of the fourth ship "Kirishima" in the Mitsubishi Shipyard was officially started. The second "Yamashiro", the Fuso-class battleship, which had already passed the budget, was delayed until November 1913 when construction began at the Yokosuka shipyard.

Although the Navy has been diligently learning the advanced shipbuilding technology of the West since the Meiji Restoration, and although it has made great progress, it still lags far behind the old industrial powers such as Britain and the United States. Among the four ships of the "King Kong class," the first ship "King Kong" built in a British shipyard was significantly better than the other three ships built by the shipyard itself, even with the guidance of British technicians. Compared with the first ship, the structural strength of the Hiei, Haruna, and Kirishima ships is much worse, and the hull life is about 20% lower than that of the "King Kong", and its watertight surname also has some problems to a greater or lesser extent.

However, it has to be said that the four ships of the Kongo-class battlecruisers were indeed quite strong in combat effectiveness, and when the first batch of four battlecruisers to start construction in the first half of 1915 were all completed, the whole world was eyed by the sudden increase in naval strength. The completion of the four Kongo-class ships made the navy suddenly have the most powerful battle cruiser fleet in the world, which even made the British Royal Navy envious, and during the tense period of confrontation with the German high seas fleet, Britain once offered to lease these four ships, but was flatly refused.

But it's no wonder, after all, it's also difficult for me to accumulate some family funds, so I can send all my best capital ships to Europe...

You know, the British Navy is very strong, yes, but the German Navy is not easy to deal with, if it really loses one or two capital ships in a naval battle, for example, a war like the Battle of Tereland, then wouldn't the political axe cry to death? They tightened their belts.

And it is basically impossible to have compensation afterwards, after all, Ben Zhengaxe is also a member of the Entente, and it is normal to contribute to the Entente. If I only lost a few capital ships, I would have to compensate......... Then how can you call the millions of Entente [***] sacrificed on the battlefields of Europe to be embarrassed?

――――――――――

Of course, Yue Chang also knew what Yan Guang said, after all, the strength of the Navy and the Military Intelligence Bureau had already probed about it, and Yue Chang was not an outsider, so this level of information would not avoid him at all.

But as long as he thought of the names that were often on the list of naval ships, Yue Chang always had a feeling of numbness in his scalp―――――― in fact, not only Yue Chang, but even Yan Guang himself.

"By the way, President, if there is a war, which fleet will I send?"

"Which one?" Yan Guang smiled bitterly. "How many fleets are there? It is nothing more than the First Fleet and the Second Fleet, and the most likely surname is that both fleets will come. ”

This Yan Guangzhi is not wrong, because in history, during the Qingdao War, it was indeed the Qingdao War in which the First Fleet and the Second Fleet were dispatched...

But let's be honest, a lot of these two fleets are old-fashioned ships.

For example, the three ships of the Second Fleet's Second Sentai Fleet, including Shufang, Iwami, Tango, Okinoshima, and Tango, were the three Russian battleships captured by Saimoto in the Russo-Japanese War......... It's okay to call an armored battleship.

Of course, even these three old-fashioned ships are not something that the Chinese Navy can deal with.

But...

Who called Yan Guang a killer?!

(To be continued)