As the republican government in the north released rumors that it would prepare for the construction of the Tianjin-Pudong Railway and the rebuilding of the navy, the calm situation in the Far East was suddenly broken!

It didn't take long for Zhu Erdian to visit Foreign Minister Lu Weixiang again, and asked about the Jinpu Railway and the Navy Reconstruction Plan, and bluntly said that British shipbuilding is strong and fully capable of building the most advanced battleships, and British enterprises are also enough to build an ultra-long railway of thousands of kilometers.

It didn't take long for the American minister Rou Keyi, the German minister Rex, and the French minister Pasteur to find Lu Weixiang one after another, and the topics they said were similar to Zhu Erdian's, all for the railway and navy orders.

To tell the truth, these diplomats actually know that Zhao Dongyun is shy in his pocket, not to mention preparing to build a huge fleet with eight battleships, it is estimated that a battleship cannot afford it, but it is a matter of time before China wants to rebuild its navy, even if the scale of reconstruction is smaller, but even if it is an order for a few cruisers, it is a large order of millions of pounds, and as diplomats, their main task is to safeguard national interests.

What is the National Interest? Especially in this part of China, what is the interest for them? Two words: market!

In the eyes of many great powers, contemporary China is actually a dumping market for industrial products, from cotton cloth to light industrial products to heavy industrial products and military products, which are all markets that the great powers compete for.

And the construction of railways and military purchase orders and aftermath loans are strictly separated, railways and military purchase orders for the great powers, this is the cake that belongs to their domestic enterprises, and the aftermath loans are purely the cake of the financial industry of various countries, which was originally a matter of non-interference, but for Zhao Dongyun, these two are the same thing, so when Zhao Dongyun put the two together, it is invisibly increasing the bargaining chips.

However, when the negotiations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the foreign powers had not officially begun, the people in the navy were overjoyed to find Zhao Dongyun, why? Because no matter how big the scale of the final naval rebuilding is, who will be the ultimate beneficiary? There is no doubt that it is the Navy.

The situation of the Chinese Navy today is very bad!

After the First Sino-Japanese War, although the Qing court spent efforts to rebuild the navy, especially the reconstruction scale before Gengzi was very large, so that the Qing Dynasty navy regained two protective cruisers, that is, Haiqi and Haitian, but only one was left after the Haitian ran aground and sank in 1904, in addition to the three cruisers of the Hairong class and the destroyer Flying Eagle, four destroyers of the Hailong class, two Jianwei-class destroyers, and the training ships Tongji and Jingqing, and the four destroyers of the Hailong class were captured by various countries in the year of Gengzi.

In addition to the cruisers, destroyers, and other ships that can go to the sea, there are also many gunboats and torpedo boats, including six Japanese-made 740-ton gunboats of the Chuzi series, four 550-ton gunboats of the Jiangzi series, a 740-ton Fu'an gunboat, and more than a dozen torpedo boats of less than 100 tons.

Among the above-mentioned naval vessels, last year they were divided into the north and the south, and many naval ships took refuge in the Southern Federation, although many naval ships returned to the Northern Republic at the beginning of this year, but there are still many ships loyal to the Southern Federation.

At present, the naval combat vessels under the control of the Navy Department of the Beiyang Republic Government include the Haiqi, Hairong, Haichen, Haichou, etc., which generally include most of the combat power of the domestic navy, but since last year, the navy has become an outcast, basically both the Southern Federation and the Northern Republican Government have stopped providing a large amount of military spending to the navy, and a large number of naval ships in the first half of the year transferred from the Southern Federation to the Beiyang, in fact, it is also because the Southern Federation is unwilling to provide a large amount of military spending to the navy.

Now this small navy is nominally under Zhao Dongyun's command, but Zhao Dongyun also knows in his heart that the reason why these navy generals are loyal to him is only because he has provided part of the military expenses to the navy.

Today's navy's scarce military spending is very difficult to maintain the normal operation of the fleet, and at this time, Zhao Dongyun actually shouted to rebuild the navy, and he will expand eight battleships at once, although he also knows in his heart that this kind of thing is unlikely to become a reality, but it also makes many generals of the navy like chicken blood, as soon as the news is released, Liu Guanxiong, the chief of the navy, proposed a formal plan to Zhao Dongyun to rebuild the navy!

"In view of the maritime threats facing China's coastal areas, the Navy believes that only by preparing for the construction of at least two battleship fleets can we effectively safeguard China's coastal security!" Liu Guanxiong talked boastfully: "A battlefleet is stationed in Weihaiwei and a battleship is stationed in Shanghai, which can effectively control and defend the mouth of the Jinggi and Yangtze River!" ”

"The two battlefleets need a total of eight first-class battleships, eight first-class cruisers, sixteen second-class cruisers, and thirty-two destroyers, so that it is enough to build the world's first-class navy, which is not weaker than the Japanese navy in the slightest!"

This is true, if it is really done, the strength is estimated to be stronger than the Japanese navy, although there are many battleships in the Japanese Navy, but many of them are former dreadnought battleships, and now the dreadnought battleship has appeared and entered service, and the service of the ship has made countless former dreadnought battleships in the navies of various countries around the world obsolete.

Putting aside Liu Guanxiong's various unrealistic remarks, Zhao Dongyun actually agrees with the fact that the navy can be so active in making a naval reconstruction plan.

Although the situation is difficult, if there is no ambition to rebuild, how can the Chinese navy be re-emerging?

In the face of the navy's reconstruction plan, Zhao Dongyun used his usual approval: It is said that it has been read!

Zhao Dongyun's disapproval was expected by the admiral, but the child who didn't cry had no milk to eat, so Liu Guanxiong went to the presidential palace to complain to Zhao Dongyun for three days, saying today that the Haiqi was going to be overhauled, tomorrow he said that the salaries of the officers and soldiers on the Hairong had not been paid for three months, and the day after tomorrow he said that the navy's reserve coal had been exhausted and needed to be purchased.

Although he didn't want to give money in his heart, in order to win over the navy, so as not to let the navy's wall grass throw themselves under Duan Qirui's command or simply fall into the arms of the Southern Federation, so Zhao Dongyun still asked Zhou Xuexi to scrape together, and even embezzled a small part of the education funds, and finally raised more than one million yuan to serve as military expenses for the navy, so that it was better to finally pay part of the salaries of the officers and sailors owed by the navy, otherwise those naval officers and soldiers might really betray him and go to the Southern Federation or even Duan Qirui.

As for the naval reconstruction plan of the eight battleships, although there is no actual appropriation, but in order to stimulate the powers, this plan continues, at least on the surface, the navy has made a detailed reconstruction plan, and even announced with great fanfare that it is ready to send a 'naval inspection team' to prepare to inspect the shipbuilding of various countries, and it is a slogan that it is very likely that a number of warships will be purchased during this inspection, including one of the most advanced battleships.

This move has aroused great concern among the shipbuilders and arms dealers in the homes of the great powers, and the US shipbuilding industry has even bypassed the US diplomatic department and directly asked the US Navy to send naval representatives to invite the Chinese Navy to visit US shipyards.

Although the possibility of China actually buying eight battleships is infinitely close to zero, the possibility of buying a small number of warships is very large, and even an order for one or two battleships, plus orders for cruisers, destroyers, and ammunition to cooperate with the battleships, it is a large order of nearly 10 million pounds, and as long as there is a slight possibility, it is enough to make those arms dealers break their heads.

And what do the interests of arms dealers represent? It is the tax and the employment rate, and the tax and employment rate are the most important interests of a country, so it may affect the decisions of those parliamentarians and other politicians, and the decisions of the politicians can ultimately affect the decisions of a country!

In the face of the bait thrown by Zhao Dongyun, even if he knew that this bait was fake and empty, it was still enough for the politicians of various countries, especially those diplomats, to consider it carefully, which can be seen from Zhu Erdian's successive private visits to Foreign Minister Lu Weixiang.

However, when Lu Weixiang talked about military procurement and railways, he mentioned the aftermath of the loan many times, and the idea of linking the two major interests of military procurement and railway with the aftermath loan is already very obvious.

"For the aftermath of the loan, the requirements of the four-nation banking group have been very clear, that is, these bankers need your government to provide sufficient collateral guarantees, after all, the bankers' money is not blown by the wind, they also need to go to London, Paris and New York to issue bonds to raise funds, and if you want to issue bonds, you must provide sufficient guarantees!" Zhu Erdian did not let up in the slightest on the issue of borrowing money for the aftermath.

A loan of 20 million pounds is not a small amount, this money is enough to buy eight of Britain's most advanced dreadnought battleships, such a huge amount of loans in addition to various political conditions, also requires a strong mortgage, and in the eyes of various countries, China, a poor country, can use the mortgage, customs duties and salt taxes, well, the government's fiscal revenue can also be, but these three things are Zhao Dongyun would rather have no money than give out.

Just when the negotiations reached a stalemate, the Japanese themselves found Zhao Dongyun, and then said that they could provide a loan to Zhao Dongyun, and then they didn't want tariff mortgages, nor salt government mortgages, nor did they engage in any financial supervision, and their demands had two points!

First, the loan date should not be repaid in Chinese currency, but China needs to repay it with coal mines and iron ore in Fushun, Tangshan and other places, and the output of these coal and iron ore must be repaid on the first day of supply, and the annual output supply date can be used for export or self-use.

Second, the Japanese wanted to build the Tianjin-Pudong Railway and demanded priority development rights along the railway, so of course the right to garrison troops was also necessary!

In the face of the delusions of the day himself, Zhao Dongyun was not even interested in talking, and directly refused, but the day himself had just left, and the Russians came to the door again, and it was Andre who had a good personal relationship with Zhao Dongyun.

Compared with Japan's own private opening and sinister intentions, the Russians obviously fell into the money pit and couldn't get out, their conditions did not have many messy political conditions, and they demanded only one, that is, the annual interest rate was nine percent, and the payment was paid according to seven percent, and the interest on today's large international loans was usually between four percent and six percent, and the interest and handling fees that the Russians engaged in such were obviously to play two dealers, and the Russians themselves could not take out tens of millions of pounds to lend Zhao Dongyun, If he and Zhao Dongyun can reach a loan agreement, he will go to Paris, London and New York to raise money, and then give the money to Zhao Dongyun, and after the Russians transfer such a hand, it is estimated that the money in hand is more than Zhao Dongyun gets.

After listening to Andre's words, Zhao Dongyun was still as calm as before, but in his heart, he had already begun to scold his mother, this damn Russian is probably also poor and crazy, and he doesn't look at what strength he is, and he dares to play this kind of empty glove white wolf thing,