"In the past three months, the officers and men of the Navy have been exhausted from carrying out maritime missions, and the condition of many ships is not optimistic, and they are in urgent need of repair and recuperation!" The embarrassment on Cheng Biguang's face was very clear: "Of course, the navy also knows that this is not a reason to shirk responsibility, but not only is the condition of the navy ships not optimistic, but we also lack enough transport ships to transport a large number of soldiers to land in Shanghai!" ”

"If you want to make a plan to land in Shanghai, I'm afraid it will ......" Cheng Biguang did not continue, because his meaning was already very obvious, with the current sea forces under the control of the Navy Department, it was not capable of launching a large-scale landing campaign!

Cheng Biguang actually did not say anything about the more problems faced by the navy, the number of ships is scarce, the ships are in poor condition, and the crew is exhausted is only secondary, and more importantly, the navy has not paid the salaries of the officers and men of the navy for several months, and the navy is complaining about this.

At the beginning of 1908, although the Beiyang Soviet system ostensibly accepted most of the naval heritage of the former Qing era, the situation was quite tragic.

In October 1906, Beiyang raised troops, and then overthrew the former Qing Dynasty, followed by the establishment of the Southern Federal Empire and the Republic of China.

In 1907, after the Anhui system marched into the south, and successively conquered Liangjiang, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong to control all the coastal provinces in the south, many naval ships that had originally defected to the Southern Federation also declared a republic and then pledged allegiance to Beiyang.

In June 1907, after the Soviet army entered the customs, Zhao Dongyun took control of the Beiyang power, and became the nominal supreme commander of the Beiyang Navy, but only in name.

Because the Beiyang is divided into two parts, the navy belonging to the Beiyang republican government is also divided into two parts, one is the naval ships that are directly loyal to the Soviet system, and the other part is the navy that is loyal to the Anhui system, although Zhao Dongyun's navy has the Haiqi, Hairong, Haichip, and Haichen, the only capital ships of the Chinese Navy and the only destroyer, the Flying Eagle.

However, the naval force controlled by the Anhui system is not too weak, and it has a total of eight gunboats of various types, including Jian'an, Jianwei, and Japanese-made Chuzi series and Jiangzi series.

People may ask, the navy controlled by the Soviet system has four cruisers, and there is also a cruiser of more than 4,000 tons, equipped with eight-inch guns, such as the Haiqi, which is far superior to those gunboats of the Anhui system in terms of tonnage and firepower, why should they be afraid of them?

Because the area of engagement between the two navies in the future is not a decisive battle in the ocean, but a battle concentrated in the Yangtze River, especially in the Yangtze River basin, coupled with the fire support of the Anhui and the batteries along the river, it will be a very risky thing for the Soviet navy to venture into the Yangtze River and fight against the Anhui navy.

In addition, it is also related to the neutral thinking of the admirals within the navy, the contemporary Chinese navy is a relatively special group, and those admirals are very xenophobic, most of them have the idea that if they have a milk, they are mothers.

Anyway, it is impossible for the navy to go ashore to play any hegemony or something, so many naval generals, including Cheng Biguang, Liu Guanxiong, and Sa Zhenbing, their first priority is not to help a certain warlord fight for hegemony, but to protect naval ships and compete for naval funds as the first priority.

Some time ago, the reason why Zhao Dongyun was able to take over many naval ships controlled by Wang Yingkai was because when Zhao Dongyun first moved into Beijing, he set up a naval department and allocated 80 yuan to the navy to make up for the salaries of naval officers and men who had been in arrears for a long time.

In the later aftermath loans, due to the strong demand of the United States, Zhao Dongyun was forced to abide by his agreement to rebuild the navy.

In the aftermath loan signed with the United States, after giving priority to the repayment of the arrears and indemnities to the United States, one-third of the remaining part must be used to purchase warships from the United States, and after deducting all kinds of messy expenses, the amount approved for the purchase of warships from the United States is about 2 million pounds.

That's about the price of a contemporary battleship!

In order to make proper use of this fund, and at the same time, due to Zhao Dongyun's strong request, part of the funds for the purchase of warships were used to purchase the equipment needed for the construction of the naval arsenal.

In the relevant agreement reached between the Republic of China and the United States in January, about half a million pounds of money from the aftermath loan will be spent on the introduction of a large amount of equipment for the construction of a naval repair yard, which is expected to have the technical capacity to maintain and repair medium-sized warships.

The 1.5 million pounds of funds will be used for the purchase of warships, guns, and shells, and the detailed plan for the purchase of ships has not yet been determined, and the Admiralty attaches great importance to this procurement case, hoping to be able to purchase the best and most warships with limited funds. Due to the many issues involved in model selection, a relatively clear plan has not yet been reached within the navy.

Using the two million pounds borrowed from the aftermath to prepare for the construction of a naval repair institute and the purchase of warships from the United States can be said to be the main reason why Cheng Biguang and other Soviet naval generals supported Zhao Dongyun.

The Soviet navy is different from the army, the army generals regard reunification as the highest priority, while the navy generals regard the navy's own interests as the first priority, not to mention anything else, if Zhao Dongyun cuts off the plan to purchase warships from the United States, it is estimated that those Soviet navy ships will have to go south to Duan Qirui the next day.

The principle of taking self-interest as the first priority of the navy, that is, whether it is the Anhui navy or the Soviet navy, will not lightly let warships get into danger, at least since the low of 1906, don't look at the navy has been divided into three, but in fact, there has not been even one naval battle between the navies.

When Duan Qirui went south, when the Southern Federation demanded a duel between the Navy and the Beiyang Navy and prevented the Anhui Army from crossing the river, the Haiqi and other naval ships belonging to the Southern Federation at that time were very simple, and they turned around and declared a republic.

Zhao Dongyun also had no doubt that when he forced the navy to venture into the Yangtze River and put the navy's ships in danger of being sunk, I am afraid that Cheng Biguang would not hesitate to lead the navy ships south to join Duan Qirui.

Anyway, in the eyes of a large number of admirals, no matter who unifies China in the future, their navy will have nothing to fear, Zhao Dongyun gave money for the navy to buy ships, then the navy declared its allegiance to Zhao Dongyun, but don't expect the navy to go south and fight a decisive battle with the navy of the Anhui system.

Because in the eyes of the admirals, whether it is the navy controlled by the Anhui system or the navy controlled by the Soviet system, they themselves are a family, Zhao Dongyun and Duan Qirui are just the unjust ones who provide them with military expenses now, and they will open a film with their own people for the sake of outsiders, and take the naval belongings that they have accumulated with great difficulty to risk the ambitions of a certain warlord, whether it is Sa Zhenbing or Cheng Biguang or Liu Guanxiong, they are unwilling.

They are also counting on keeping the current flame of the navy and rebuilding the navy after a warlord unifies China.

It took more than ten years to reaccumulate the belongings that took more than 10 years since the beginning of the First Five-Year War to be lost in a mere civil war, which is generally the consensus of contemporary domestic naval generals.

Of course, these thoughts cannot be directly stated, so Cheng Biguang used many reasons such as insufficient transportation capacity, the need for repairs of ships, and the lack of salaries for personnel.

In short, no matter what a beautiful plan the War Department has made, it's okay for you to let the navy transport and transport supplies, but you have to make the navy face the firepower of the Songhu Fort and the risk of a naval battle with the Anhui navy to cover the landing of the army in Shanghai, you Shi Yanglin still died early!

Although Cheng Biguang didn't say it explicitly, he understood what kind of kind of navy Zhao Dongyun was under his command.

Zhao Dongyun lowered his head slightly, a trace of history flashed in his lowered eyes, and he had already secretly decided in his heart that when Lao Tzu unified China, he would be the first to launch a purge of the navy, and if he didn't kick out all the current naval generals, Lao Tzu would not be surnamed Zhao!

Although there was already a great upset in his heart, Zhao Dongyun only lowered his head slightly, and his expression was still normal.

The navy expressed its rejection of the landing in Shanghai, but the meeting always had to continue, and Zhao Dongyun had no intention of getting angry, but Shi Yanglin explained a few words, but it was all a scene, and if you want to land in Shanghai, the Songhu Fort is a nail that cannot be bypassed.

If the Feng army wants to send troops to land in Shanghai, unless it lands in the area on the east bank of the Huangpu River, and then crosses the Huangpu River to fight, this battle plan is not feasible at all, because although the Huangpu River is not a big river, it is also several hundred meters wide, and it is not easy to cross the river, and in addition, there are not many landing troops, so there is no certainty that they will directly cross the river. In this way, it is better to cross the Yangtze River and land directly from Yangzhou, Nantong and other places.

In addition, it can only cover the troops to cross the Yangtze River estuary with the firepower of the Songhu Fort, and then land along the Yangtze River in the north of the Songhu Fort, although it has great tactical feasibility, but for the navy it needs to take a very big risk, and the navy's Cheng Biguang also expressed his position: The navy will not do it!

There was a dispute over the landing in Shanghai, but this was only one of the small problems in a huge plan for crossing the river, and the plan formulated by the War Office to cross the river and land in Shanghai was only a side line of attack plan, which was mainly used to attract and contain the strength and sight of the Anhui army.

In fact, not only in Shanghai, but even in the entire southern Jiangsu range is not the main direction of the Feng army, from the beginning Shi Yanglin said very clearly, the future main direction of the Feng army is in southern Anhui, the main range of attack will be the area between Jinling and Tongling.

Why did you choose this place, because south of Tongling is a hilly and mountainous area, which is not conducive to the large-scale deployment and mobile operation of the troops.

From Tongling to Xuancheng to Huzhou, based on the straight line formed by the above three places, there is a large area of mountains and hills to the south, and a vast plain area to the north.

Therefore, looking at the topography of the Jiangnan region and the water volume and width of the Yangtze River basin east of Nanjing, it can basically be determined that if the Feng army wants to cross the river in the future, the general location of the river crossing and the subsequent main direction of attack are there, which is about 150 kilometers wide between Jinling and Tongling.

Feng Jun himself knows this, and the generals of the Anhui army on the opposite side are not stupid, they can also judge it, otherwise they would not have deployed the two main forces of the Fourth Division and the Second Mixed Brigade in this area.

But now the question is, where exactly did the Feng army land in this area?

This is not only something that the Fengjun Operations Department needs to solve and decide, but also a problem that all the generals of the Anhui Army are trying to guess!