Song Biao, in his capacity as the emperor of China, who also had an incomparably lofty position in the eyes of the whole of Europe, personally hosted a banquet to entertain Marshal Xia Fei, which not only gave the French favor but also proved that the Sino-French alliance relationship was strong and inseparable.

On the afternoon of that day, Song Biao and Marshal Xia Fei went to inspect the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the Central Army stationed in the defense area of the Central Military Headquarters in Kyoto County.

Regardless of the empire's military expenditure, a large part of which is used for long-term scientific research projects, the army equipment is generally maintained during the Sino-Soviet war, and there is indeed no need for large-scale renewal, and new equipment is usually only replaced in a small number of army divisions to accumulate experience.

After inspecting the two elite divisions of the Imperial CSKA, Marshal Xia Fei was very surprised, he had never imagined that the Chinese army would reach this level, and it should be that this is indeed the future army that they had discussed countless times within the French Defense Council and could not be determined.

In order to let Marshal Xia Fei see the elite of the two major armies of the empire at one time, Zhao Tingzhu deliberately mobilized both divisions to Zhuozhou County for exercises, and the empire arranged an airship to carry Emperor Song, Marshal Xia Fei, Jiang Fangzhen, chief of the general staff of the Central Military Department, and Zhao Tingzhu, commander of the Zhili Military Region.

They inspected the frontal offensive exercises of the two divisions at a distance of 300 meters above the ground, and Song Biao and the others had long been accustomed to this method, and only Marshal Xia Fei still found it very strange.

For safety, the German airship was smaller and had a safer multi-bag design and more expensive argon.

Watching the two tank brigades rampage in front, the two mechanized infantry divisions followed the operation quickly and mobilely, quickly captured the enemy's obstacle area, and directly crossed the defense line to attack the enemy's rear position, which made Marshal Xia Fei sigh and sigh for a long time.

It was getting late, and the airship landed safely on the ground after the exercise, and Marshal Xia Fei, who had just come out of the airship, couldn't wait to praise Emperor Song: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty the Emperor, your army has deserved to be the strongest army in the world, and there is no one. ”

March in the north is still very cold.

Song Biao draped the big army tighter, locked his brows and said to Marshal Xia Fei: "Military spending is also unprecedentedly amazing, but just like our military commanders who have experienced countless wars, we all know that war is a money-burning machine, don't try to defeat your opponent if you don't burn enough, if we don't burn money, we will compensate a more extravagant huge sum, and we will be divided into the country's most valuable territory, which is a defeat that we can't afford to lose." ”

The pot-bellied Marshal Xia Fei didn't seem to believe that there was also a problem with the Empire's army spending, and said with a smile: "As far as I know, China's financial situation is simply the best among the world's powers, and except for the United States and the United Kingdom, there is no country that has more military spending than China." ”

Song Biao said: "No, the Soviet Union is higher than us, but their national economic system is different from ours, so we can't see it clearly." If we always think that our military spending is very high, we will generally not laugh when we compare it with this book. After the Ise incident, the relationship between the British and the Chinese alliance became even closer, and the British continued to receive long-term support, which led to their rapid economic development, and in the past few years, we have always believed that the British have been the biggest beneficiary in the international community. Compare them to their navy, and I think that even China and France combined will not be able to defeat them, and think about it, my Excellency Marshal Xia Fei, what an embarrassing thing it is for us. ”

Marshal Xia Fei helplessly carried the thick black belt, as if holding his fat belly, and sighed: "Yes, it is really an embarrassing thing, but our financial situation is always annoying and embarrassing, and there is nothing worse than this, and China is one of the largest countries in the world like the evil Soviet Union, which is destined for your country to focus more financial resources on the army, and we know this very well." From the present point of view, what we are most worried about is happening, that is, if the Soviet Union and Germany adopt a policy of mutual peace, whether the Soviet Union attacks China or Germany attacks France, it will be difficult for us to contain each other, and of course, what is more terrible than this is the union of two evil countries. ”

Song Biao sneered in his heart, thinking to himself, you, the marshal, can never imagine what the truly evil Germany looks like, the current Germany is simply harmless to humans and animals, where is the evil? That is, no matter how France looks at Germany, it just thinks that this country is the most annoying.

Of course, Song Biao never thought that the strength of the empire was expanded, and the British Empire was forced to open up the colonial market step by step, especially after the Ise incident, which was really an unexpected ending.

In short, in order to contain China and the United States, the British Empire simply tightened its belt to support the British Empire, and would rather have its own industry damaged than sign a new trade treaty similar to the "Sino-US Strategic Reciprocal Trade Treaty", which provided the British Empire with sufficient preferential treatment and a broad parasitic development space, just like a roundworm in the body of the British Empire.

This did not hurt Britain much, because it is a well-known fact that after the reintroduction of the gold standard, Britain's domestic industry was severely damaged, coupled with the gradual decline in the prices of commodities and raw materials around the world, it was said that the company imported raw materials from China and other places to supplement its own industrial shortcomings, and then exported cheap goods to the British market.

Another factor is that the economic and trade war between China and China has basically ended, China in the Ouyang Geng cabinet stage more focused on expanding domestic demand, constantly increasing workers' wages year by year, and then with the gradual improvement of industrial technology, China's industrial exports have gradually developed towards machinery, electrical, automobile, shipbuilding, steel and other products, but in the field of textile industry and the capital still has fierce competition, the decline in global cotton, wool, raw silk prices has attenuated China's advantages in the field of raw materials, The main gap between the textile industries of the two sides lies in the size of the domestic demand market, and the share of the foreign market is roughly the same.

The strong competitive situation in China is beneficial to both sides to a certain extent, both sides are desperately trying to improve the industrial level, increase the scale of technological research and introduction, but the empire occupies a greater advantage in the field of machine tools, electricity, and automobiles.

From the point of view of the total economic output, the gap between China and China is widening, and from the perspective of per capita, the gap between the two sides has not been significantly widened.

In 1924, the GDP of the Chinese Empire exceeded 75 billion yuan, close to 1/2 of the United States, while the capital was close to 13 billion yuan, the increase was also amazing, affected by the sharp decline in global agricultural products and mining products, the advantage of China and the United States over the capital was obviously reduced, but the economic development of China and the United States was more comprehensive, and the total output value of the military industry and related industries accounted for 1/4 of the entire national GDP.

Of course, the national output does not represent the strength and potential of each country, after all, the empire still has a broader space for development, and at this stage, it is no longer seeking speed but stability and the continuous expansion of domestic demand. In the event of a great depression in the world economy, as long as the policy is reasonable, the foundation established by the empire during the Ouyang Geng cabinet is enough to ensure that the empire can continue to maintain steady development, but the current development relying on the opening of the British colonies is too affected by external influences, and once it encounters the global depression, it must maintain its development through war.

It is for this reason that the Empire will shift a lot of military spending to the navy in the next few years, and rapidly expand the navy as a precautionary measure.

Riding a Great Wall brand off-road vehicle from the exercise site, Song Biao and his entourage returned to the exercise headquarters in this way, before they came by airship, and now they are sitting in this special military light vehicle, the burly and fat Marshal Xia Fei can't help but feel bored, but he is full of wonderful interest in this kind of off-road vehicle that can be strong.

The Great Wall Heavy Industry is a joint venture between the Far East Consortium and the Jin Merchants Gang, the main base is in Shanxi, with the military industry as the main body, but also produces automobiles, and is currently the third largest automobile company in the empire, and the military vehicles of the emperor [***] Department have four major suppliers, just the four major automobile companies each scrape 1/4, off-road vehicles are the advantages of the Great Wall Heavy Industry.

Although it is the first generation of light off-road vehicles, it is still very new to Marshal Xia Fei, in fact, it is also very new to Song Biao and others, because the first batch of off-road vehicle orders from the military department was only in place at the end of last year.

Back at the exercise command headquarters, on the way to the guest house restaurant, Marshal Xia Fei couldn't wait to sigh with Song Biao: "This kind of military car with good power is really a very good choice, and France should also produce such vehicles." Of course, this expedition to the Empire is of great significance to us, and it seems that we do have to take a big step forward more courageously. ”

Song Biao suggested: "There is no need to take a big step now, but every small step is to be taken, in fact, there are not many troops in the Imperial Central Army that have really achieved mechanization, but in the case of limited military spending, our method is to first ensure the mechanization of elite troops, explore experience from it, spend the least amount of money to experiment with various possible surnames, summarize experience and data, constantly accumulate new improvements, slowly move forward, and gradually improve the mechanization of the entire army. This allows us to accomplish a big change with minimal military spending. ”

Marshal Xia Fei praised: "Yes, this is the best way, but as we know, the progress of technology is becoming more and more difficult for us to cope with the new military changes, ah, this is the best era of the military, but also the worst era, if we are not careful, we will be eliminated by the times, and to always be able to grasp the ever-changing world is impossible, and the cost is huge, in my military career, I have never encountered a more difficult and complex period than now, It seems that there are countless options to deal with, but war will teach us that only one of them is the right way. ”

"yes!"

Song Biao had the same sigh and said: "But how to adopt the method of joint research and development, our expenses will be greatly reduced." For example, we have begun to officially install the Hanyang rifle, which has been in service for 10 years from design to service, during which it has undergone three major improvements and perfections, and has been constantly tested by small-scale troops. Including in production, we have been constantly changing the mechanical equipment and machine tools, and even the basic technology has been changed many times, and to this day, it will be our most perfect infantry weapon, and it will have a cheaper production price, as well as the ability to mass production. ”

Marshal Xia Fei sighed and said, "Then let's take a look at it." ”

Song Biao bowed slightly, and motioned for Zhao Tingzhu to personally go and get a Hanyang rifle.

Because the army has officially begun to replace a large area of M1918/25 Hanyang rifles, this kind of rifle has become very common, especially the main elite troops full of honor, Zhao Tingzhu quickly borrowed a Hanyang rifle from a soldier, and personally checked himself as a precaution before handing it over to Marshal Xia Fei.

Marshal Xia Fei, who was born as an infantry captain, was naturally very familiar with rifles, and after a little effort, he realized more and more that this was a very good semi-automatic rifle.

Everyone was a little itchy, and before dinner, they found a shooting range nearby to test the gun in person, Song Biao also shot six shots in a row, although the hand felt rusty, but he still hit four bullseyes, Marshal Xia Fei hit three bullseyes with ten shots, but Zhao Tingzhu hit the bullseye with seven consecutive shots, worthy of being a commander who has been on the front line all year round, and the gun never leaves his hand.

If you can't hit the bull's-eye, you can't shoot badly.

What's more, the Hanyang rifle is really good, since it was put into service in 1913, it has undergone three improvements, especially the modification in 1925 using special machine tools and stamping technology, which greatly reduced manufacturing costs on the basis of maintaining data such as accuracy, range, and power, and also further increased the efficiency of mass production.

The M1925 model was not yet popular, and the one Marshal Xia Fei got was the M1918/22 model, which was a minor improvement in 1922 on the basis of the 1918 overhaul model.

After personally testing the firing speed, Marshal Xia Fei was a little embarrassed, initially China proposed that the French army directly use the Shenyang rifle, for many considerations, the French army finally chose to absorb part of the design of the Shenyang rifle to improve the Betier rifle, as a result, there were many unsatisfactory situations in the war, and they were forced to buy a large number of Shenyang rifles from China.

Because the French army was equipped with too many Shenyang rifles, the National Defense Committee could only completely abandon the Betier rifle after the war, and named the Foch rifle on the basis of the introduction of the Shenyang rifle patent.

To this day, the Foch rifle still has a very good advantage in terms of surname and cost compared with the Lee-Enfield rifle and Mauser rifle mainly installed in neighboring countries, and the National Defense Committee, which does not want to forge ahead, no longer wants to waste an extra franc for rifles, as if the Foch rifle is the pinnacle of the world's rifle, and does not want the enterprising spirit of the French nation at all.

The advantage of the Foch rifle is actually very simple, it is cheaper and easier to use than Enfield, it is simple, fast and smooth to use, it is more accurate than the Mauser rifle, it is fast to reload, and it is very reliable, it can adapt to all kinds of complex and dirty environments, the only drawback is that the rate of fire is a little slower than the Enfield rifle.

Now in Marshal Xia Fei's view, the Hanyang rifle is an advanced version of the Shenyang rifle, not even the only flaw of the rate of fire, the rate of fire is so fast, he is stunned, and there is no problem in other aspects of accuracy, power, or the smoothness of the work, and there are many innovations in the design.

Obviously, there is really no better rifle than this guy, the only thing that worries Marshal Xia Fei is that the soldier will consume ammunition a little too quickly, and if the psychological quality is not good, I am afraid that all the ammunition will be shot as soon as he goes up.

As for the bullets, the ammunition of the Hanyang and Shenyang rifles is the same, and the rifles can be replaced directly.

In fact, the new and improved primer formula is more efficient and minimizes corrosion, because this improvement, combined with the preservation of the dust cap design, can almost claim that the new Hanyang rifle is a rifle that does not need to be cleaned.

For this small improvement, the army has continuously invested a lot of military spending.

Marshal Xia Fei suddenly shrugged his shoulders, because he guessed that it was difficult for France to accept the fact that the French would continue to introduce Chinese patented gun technology, and rifles were the pride of the French nation.

He thought about it carefully for a moment, and then praised Song Biao: "This is really a very good rifle, if we can, we want to introduce its technology and modify it a little on this basis." ”

Song Biao knew what Marshal Xia Fei meant, waved his hand indifferently, and said: "We are close and inseparable allies, this is not a big deal, and we are very supportive of France to replace the rifle, this is the most important thing, isn't it, Your Excellency Marshal?" ”

Marshal Xia Fei immediately replied: "Yes, who said it wasn't? ”

After a pause, he added: "I think this visit to China is really the right thing to do, and I have gained a lot. I must sigh from the bottom of my heart, Your Majesty the Emperor Hua, as the Emperor Napoleon emphasized, once China wakes up from its slumber, it will be the most terrible nation and country in the world, China and France are the two world powers with the longest history and honor, our union will effectively deter all enemies who dare to invade us, and the close cooperation between France and the Chinese nation will tear apart all enemies. We will prove it with a real war in the end. ”

Song Biao laughed and thought to himself, I have deep doubts, Your Excellency Marshal, you France will always be the best ally in times of peace, and you will be better than Italy in war years.

Because the preparations of the Central Military Department were very thorough, and they all knew that Marshal Xia Fei was a well-known gourmet, even at the exercise command post, the Military Department still arranged a sumptuous Sino-French meal to entertain this world-renowned military commander.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the inner court also lost no time in recommending Yunnan Shangri-La brandy to Marshal Xia Fei for the imperial family.

At present, there are three well-known brandies in the empire, which are produced in Yantai in Shandong, Manas in Xinjiang Province and Diqing in Yunnan Province.

Although Shangri-La brandy does not have the mellow quality that surpasses that of European brandy, its fragrance is very unique, and the wine taste is relatively mellow, and Marshal Xia Fei is really full of praise, thinking that it is the best brandy he has tasted.

Okay, just wait for your words, even if it's a polite word.

After dinner, everyone continued to discuss Sino-French military cooperation at the wine table, at which point some of each other's previous mustards disappeared with the brandy, and everyone talked freely, when it came to technical cooperation, France did not have many new technologies worthy of the Reich's attention.

Therefore, this kind of cooperation is mainly an exchange of military systems and military ideas, as well as the reduction of military expenditures by the two sides through joint research and development, mutual absorption of each other's ready-made technologies and products, and continued to save time.

The standards of the navy, land and air force of the two countries have adopted the metric system, such as 75mm guns, 105mm guns, and 120mm guns, including tanks, aircraft, engines, and armor are all metric units in design, which has always played a positive role in the great cooperation between the two sides.

At this stage, the most troublesome military spending is in the naval field, and it is also the direction in which China and France are seeking breakthroughs, and it happens that the empire is designing a new Yuzhou-class battleship, using a standard displacement of 34,000 tons and a 16-inch 50-diameter main gun, and the style is still a German-style warship.

At that time, the empire will have four Aurora-class, two Qingzhou-class, and four Yuzhou-class battleships, with a total tonnage of 270,000 tons, and the dismantling of the two Combined Forces-class battleships will just reach the upper limit of the Washington Treaty.

Now the main direction of competition in the navies of various countries is cruisers, the financial situation of the empire is relatively good, the competition situation is relatively strong, the empire's 10,000-ton cruisers are basically built according to the standards of pocket battle cruisers, or even pocket battleships, but the caliber of the main gun is kept at the limit of 10 inches.

The former is called a heavy cruiser within the Empire, and the latter is called an armored cruiser, which is actually a pocket dreadnought, and the Empire has reservations in design, as long as the treaty is annulled, the Imperial Navy will immediately raise the main gun caliber of most heavy cruisers and armored cruisers to 12 inches.

At the beginning, Britain and Ben refused to agree to limit the number and total tonnage of cruisers, and in fact relied on naval expenditures to maintain an advantage, which is still somewhat embarrassing now, because in the vast majority of cases, heavy cruisers and light cruisers are used the most.

The French Navy really didn't have the money.

France did not even develop a 16-inch naval gun, because of the lack of money, especially when the occupation of the Ruhr industrial area in 1923 led to another economic setback, and the empire was different.

If you don't count the colonies, the empire's economy was four times larger than that of France, and its finances were much better. Of course, this is not to say that the empire at this time was really much stronger than France, which now accounts for 56% of the total industrial output, agriculture has basically recovered to pre-war levels, and the urbanization rate has reached 49%.

France's urbanization rate was the slowest among Britain, France, Germany, and the United States because of the land equalization policy during the Revolution, reaching 49 percent, while the Empire's urbanization rate was around 31 percent, only equivalent to the level of France in 1870.

There is really no way, the empire has too many populations, the territory is too vast, and the land limit policy in Ouyang Geng's cabinet has slowed down the urbanization process of the empire like the French Revolution.

The empire's current hope was to reach 40 percent of the towns by 1930, which is not very difficult at this stage, unless there is a full-blown large-scale crisis in the world economy.

An interesting place is that the urbanization of the empire is learning from Russia and France, this matter must first start from the Northeast period, when the urbanization and urban construction planning of the Northeast copied a lot of Russia and France, and the relationship with Russia and France at that time was also the best, with the rise of the empire from the Northeast to occupy the whole country, this trend spread to the whole country.

After visiting the Northeast, officials from all over the country came back to design urban planning according to the framework of the Northeast, and many cities directly acquired land to develop new areas when the development of old cities was difficult, copying the framework of a square city like Paris.

History is a very interesting thing, copying France a hundred years ago is a trend and a classic, and copying France a hundred years later is uncreative and vulgar.

Of course, one of the characteristics of reformism in this is that it still retains some of the essence of tradition, for example, we also take the road of square city, but in the planning of the street, it is the square of due south, north and east and west, and on this basis, we will absorb the design of squares and parks in Europe, and generally adopt the regional reformist national architectural design framework recommended by the Central Architectural Society in the main building complex.

Anyway, in Song Biao's eyes, this imperial era is very interesting and cute.

The total size of the empire's economy is very high, compared with Britain, France, the United States and Germany, the industrialization rate is not very high, which is very similar to the situation in the United States in 1890, the industry is very developed, but the scale of agriculture and animal husbandry is indeed too large, and this is precisely the foundation of the empire's long-term development.

The economy determines politics, and politics determines the military.

The good financial situation of the Chinese Empire was also really the envy of Marshal Xia Fei, and the Sino-French alliance treaty continued to be renewed, and the matter of deepening the scope of this alliance was basically settled, because France really had too few options, and it had to ally with China in order to maintain its special influence in the world and Europe.

Anyway, they all drank a lot of wine, including Song Biao, and everyone was the military generals of China and France sitting together and chatting.

Song Biao talked about the issue of economy, and he still suggested that the cooperation between China and France must be deepened, France and its colonies must be opened to China to a greater extent, allowing China to sell more goods and investment, and the Chinese market should also be opened to France on a larger scale, so that the two countries will become closer and more united, and take a road of common development.

China still needs France's talents, educational advantages, France also needs China's market, the two sides should also have more solid cooperation in technical exchanges and financial markets, and China now has a large scale of immigration needs, if France opens the colonial market and allows Chinese immigrants, China's population, capital, technology and equipment in the past to build a colony is a very good result for France, it is simply a profit.

Through this cooperation, China's financial situation is better, France's financial situation is improved, and both China and France can benefit from it, and both can build a strong army to guarantee the joint hegemony of China and France in Eurasia.

Including the colonies and protectorates that China now controls, the size is also very large, and the two sides can enjoy this kind of alliance treatment with each other, and expand the scope of interests of both sides together.

France still owes China a lot of debts, and the interest alone is as high as 500 million francs a year, although the interest on the debts that France collects from Germany, Latin America, Italy, and other countries is much higher than this scale, but if France expands cooperation, China can convert these debts into francs in the French financial market and invest directly in the French and colonial markets.

Therefore, Song Biao's attitude is that either he will not renew the contract, everyone should not engage in alliances, I will do mine, you will do yours, and if you want to do it, you must engage in a grand alliance that is very beneficial to both sides, and truly reach the level of confrontation with the British Alliance.

The problem now is that the navy of the British alliance is indeed too strong, and China and France together are the standard of Britain, and there is a net extra book, more than a dozen dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts in front of the Sino-French alliance.

It's embarrassing, very, very embarrassing.

Song Biao was moved by feelings, and what he said was sincere, and Marshal Xia Fei was also related.

The two of them talked for a while, and they were very silent when it came to this naval issue, and France was also to blame for this matter, when the Washington Treaty was negotiated, China and the United States were extremely supportive of France having a higher standard, and France did not actively strive for its own financial situation and the need to avoid conflict with Britain, and its attitude was very flat.

I really regret it now.

After being silent for a few minutes, Jiang Fangzhen, who had been listening to the discussion on the side, suddenly said: "Can we absorb a new Allied power, a country that is not restricted by the Washington Treaty, and at the same time has a relatively large naval and industrial expansion base?" ”

Marshal Xia Fei thought for a moment and said, "The Ying Alliance will also deal with it in the same way." ”

Song Biao said: "Brazil and Argentina choose one of the two, and there is basically no third choice in addition, Australia and Canada are both British alliance camps, which is extremely unfavorable to us." Another way is to make Indonesia read, but it will not make much sense, and it will be frantically opposed by Britain, whose continental balance policy is very vicious, and the huge colonies it has reserved for the Netherlands and Belgium are to contain Germany, and use Germany to contain France, which is an ingenious policy like a string of pearls. ”

Marshal Xia Fei said: "It would be better to support Argentina. ”

Song Biao understood what Xia Fei meant, which was nothing more than that the United States had special control over Brazil**, and the alliance between France and Brazil would shock the United States, which was a huge challenge to the basic national policy of the United States that "the Americas are the Americas of the United States".

Song Biao has a very long-term consideration for this, although things will be more difficult, but as long as the opportunity is seized, there is no problem, and the Far East consortium has been developing in Brazil through the Bank of America for more than ten years, in the past fifteen years, Brazil has absorbed a large number of immigrants, Chinese immigrants account for half of the new immigration, has now reached as much as 600,000, among South American countries, the number of Chinese in Brazil is the largest.

After a brief weighing, Song Biao still insisted: "Brazil is a better choice, of course, it does not mean that we will not develop close cooperation with Argentina and Peru." The world is always changing, and we are not trying to colonize South America, but we just respect their status more and choose to cooperate with them, and in Central America, where the United States controls it closely, we will never set foot in it. Of course, we still need a long time to make arrangements before the formal alliance is concluded, which requires a lot of complex work. ”

Marshal Xia Fei has nothing to say, he has no more say in matters at this level, and he needs the President of the French Republic and His Majesty the Emperor to negotiate personally, in fact, adding some new allies is something that France urgently needs to do, including in Europe, France also has a large number of alliances around Germany, trying to limit Germany.

China is relatively repulsive to this, because China fears that China and France and Germany will be completely opposed again because of the conflict between small countries, as in the First World War, and it is precisely under China's opposition that countries such as France and the Czech Republic have signed relatively low-level military mutual assistance and strategic cooperation agreements, and there is no clear and strict responsibility for military alliances.

Without the firm alliance of Russia, the Sino-French alliance on the ground would have been far less influential than it had been in the past, lacking the status of an iron triangle.

(To be continued)