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The two elite airborne battalions made Zhang Zhidan feel a lot more at ease, so he transferred to Singapore overnight and went to India to meet Jinnah. Although the Muslim League is not directly involved in the operation, its power can contain the Soviet army and the Afghan puppet army stationed in Kandahar. Yue Peng also returned to Beijing ahead of schedule to personally arrange the airborne battalion and subsequent training. Because airborne is a very dangerous tactical operation, a lot of simulation and landing training need to be arranged before the operation, for which he also mobilized the Blue Sword Brigade to cooperate, imitating the sniper of the elite units of the Soviet army.

Yang Qiu continued to inspect the northeast, and also stayed briefly in Anton to meet with Jin Jiu and Zhang Zongchang. The latter has now shed his uncomfortable political coat and has become the big boss of the North Korean Development Corporation. However, he still remembered the three bullets that Yang Qiu gave him back then, so he had been secretly helping the country. Because of his pivotal role in North Korean politics, the Security Service has retained the post of deputy head of the North Korean sub-bureau for him.

The spring and summer of 1937 was the busiest period since Yang Qiu entered politics, and those who had not experienced it did not know how much the consumption of the world war would be, and the war in this time and space was likely to undergo major changes, so even if it was an extra bag of food, it was precious. So, after completing his inspection in Northeast China, he went to Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Fujian, and inspected the two Shandong-class battleships that were under construction at the same time in Jiangnan and Mawei.

The construction of super battleships was a big test for the industry of the Republic of China, and a total of more than two thousand enterprises participated in the construction work. Looking at the behemoth that was forming little by little, even he forgot how painful it was when he first allocated the funds.

Just as he was heading south from Jiangxi to Guangdong, the negotiations for the renewal of the Navy, which had been in London for final communication, broke down. Although Chamberlain and the British government did their best, except for Roosevelt's false promise to renew the treaty, France, Italy, Japan, and China had already decided not to renew the treaty. and the United States, which began to trade in the old for the new on a large scale, made the whole world feel as if it was back in the fierce naval competition before the European War.

After 25 years of development and hard work, the Chinese Navy, who has long dreamed of becoming a world-class navy, is determined to stop being a spectator. So, on the same day that the renewal negotiations broke down, the last two Beijing-class battleships were laid keels at Zhanjiang Zhonghua Shipyard and Qinzhou Bay Shipyard respectively. In addition to the four super battleships, the construction of the last four Xiangjiang-class light cruisers and four Liaoning-class (Liaoning, Andong, Guangdong, Guangxi) aircraft carriers has also been accelerated. At the same time, in order to restrain the Japanese Navy's heavy cruiser group, the Navy, which no longer has tonnage restrictions, ordered six new Xi'an-class heavy cruisers from the three shipyards of Jiangnan, Qiuxin, and Qingdao at the same time.

The first large-scale construction in the history of the navy, a total of 60 Qinling-class fleet destroyers, known as "Little Taishan", have also been launched one after another. For the first time, this destroyer, which uses sonar and radar as standard equipment in the navy, has very strong comprehensive combat capabilities. The maximum speed is 35 knots, the cruising range is 15 knots/4500 nautical miles, the standard displacement is 2370 tons, and the full load is 3250 tons. Three twin 120 mm/L56 high-level dual-purpose naval guns, two quadruple 550 mm torpedo tubes, four twin 40 mm rapid-fire anti-aircraft guns, eight single-barreled 25 mm machine guns, two 24-pack hedgehog launchers, two mine-laying and depth charge rails, were installed.

Don't look at the fact that it has installed a large number of advanced weapons and equipment, but because it actively reduces the speed, it has built a large number of parts, and it adopts the standardized production method of spare parts. So even if you count the expensive radar, it is equivalent to only three-quarters of the latter.

After visiting the naval projects of several major shipyards, Yang Qiu, a "naval blind", finally had confidence. At least in his opinion, because of the late start-up, the sufficient technical reserves, and the help of the data machine in the subsystem, the quality has far exceeded that of the Japanese Navy, which started too early. If it weren't for the lack of foundation. If no one has experience, and neither the officers nor the sailors have received actual combat training in the ocean, they may have been able to claim to be among the world's naval powers.

After returning to Beijing from this round of coastal inspections, he received three pieces of information.

The first news came from Moscow. Yegorov still did not escape his fate. He was secretly killed by Yezhov, who was eager to make meritorious service, for the trumped-up crime of collaborating with the enemy and treason. So far, only Budyonny and Voroshilov were left among the first five marshals of the Soviet Union, and the new military revolution of the Soviet army initiated by Tukhachevsky and other three marshals died halfway.

The second message came from New York. Shortly after Roosevelt's re-election, the U.S. economy, which had a good upward momentum, suddenly came out with bad news! Due to the overpricing of gold when the dollar is bundled with gold. Previously, Hoover mistakenly exchanged the national debt too early, causing Roosevelt to rush into the New Deal without raising enough money. In addition, there has been no substantial change in the U.S. domestic market. After the US Congress ruled that the "Industrial Act" in Roosevelt's New Deal was unconstitutional, the Spanish Civil War, the intensification of turmoil in Europe, and the intensification of war fears, the US economy that relied purely on public investment and used depreciating currencies to pull the surface data fell again, and the US stock market plummeted by 57 points.

The last one came from the Spanish Civil War. The equipment of Yan Baohang's five infantry divisions greatly shocked the morale of the Nationalist Army, and the addition of 3,000 Jewish officers to the international column made Franco even more defeated, and almost captured Galicia, the stronghold of German and Italian intervention. The major setback made Hitler furious, increasing the number of vulture legions, and Mussolini was so angry that he sent another 50,000 soldiers to Spain. A steady stream of German-Italian intervention forces and advanced weapons turned the Spanish Civil War into a disaster, with 500,000 Spaniards smuggling across the mountains to Portugal and France in just six months. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Gestapo led by Hillem also actively intervened, fabricated rumors to form a trumped-up fifth column, and constantly assassinated the soldiers of the National Army. The Jewish cadets were gradually purged out under the inducement of some people, and by the time the Zionist organization realized that something was wrong, only about 500 remained, and more than 200 of them died in a German submarine attack when they left Spain.

It was at this time that Yan Baohang's sale of weapons to the Spanish National Army was finally revealed. The sight of the British ambassador Xu Gesen coming to the door to ask the teacher for guilt made Jiang Baili retreat three feet. "Mr. President, this is a very serious incident! As a country that declared neutrality, it should seek to end and not sell weapons to the war zone. "With black curly hair and a bookish Xu Gesen

is serious, looking at Yang Qiu's eyes as if he is looking at a criminal.

"Mr. Ambassador. I'm very sorry about this, but I must admit that it was a mistake on my part. Long before the arms were sold, Yang Qiu knew that this matter would not be hidden for a long time, and perhaps even everyone knew about the Jewish non-commissioned officers, so he simply admitted: "This is the case. My country is dealing with a batch of obsolete arms, which happen to be needed by a number of countries in South America. As for why it ended up in the hands of the Spanish National Army, I didn't know at the time. But rest assured, I have asked the security department to investigate thoroughly, and I will definitely give you an account! I can also assure you. There will never be another such incident. ”

This kind of attitude of shirking responsibility happily was something Xu Gesen didn't expect before he came, just like punching cotton with all his strength, making him uncomfortable. was so angry that he secretly scolded in his heart: "You can't be shameless, right?!" One of the most important aspects of the arms business is that it is necessary to know where everything goes, and if it is not even clear who the final employer is, who would dare to sell how many divisions of equipment they have? ”

But he quickly put the matter aside. After all, Franco has German and Italian support, and Britain and France have also reached a secret agreement to blockade together, as long as the Soviet Union does not directly intervene, the Spanish National Army will not last long even if it gets arms. On the contrary, he was more worried about China's next move, and asked: "Mr. President, we can not pursue this matter, but there is one thing I want to know." Have you already made the decision to deepen your cooperation with Germany? ”

"Deepening cooperation? What do you mean, Mr. Ambassador? Yang Qiu's deliberate appearance of pretending to be confused made Xu Gesen's teeth itch with hatred. You must know that Britain is in chaos now, and due to the arms war between the Soviet Union and Germany, there are obvious signs of Japan's strengthening of its navy. It has made Britain more and more uneasy, which has become accustomed to being the world's leader. In this lonely moment, Britain desperately wanted to find like-minded people to contain the war and preserve the important Versailles system. But Roosevelt, on the other side of the Atlantic, was dismissive of this, and Germany and Italy simply withdrew from the League of Nations. The Soviet Union also threatened not to lift the embargo treaty against the Soviet Union if the blockade against Spain was not lifted. They will also withdraw from the League of Nations. As for France, they are still struggling with when they will have the money to finish the Maginot Line.

So, as a British diplomat, his most important mission now is to find allies.

Originally, Britain wanted to cooperate with the United States, but Roosevelt, the hateful cripple, retreated without a fight and deliberately avoided the withdrawal of China and Japan from the Philippines, and connived at the expansion of the two countries to the south to attack the British Empire, which made the Anglo-American Pacific cooperation end without a hitch. China would not have been a good choice, but the problem is that Japan is even worse. Because of its narrow territory and lack of national strength, Japan now has only one way left, so their navy is becoming more and more aggressive, making the Royal Navy worry about the safety of the South China Sea and even the Indian Ocean.

After thinking about it, the British government decided to talk to Yang Qiu first, after all, China still kept its promises and did not seek colonial interests. But before that, the UK must be clear about one thing, that is, whether China and Germany have joined forces? "Nope!" Yang Qiu shook his head unexpectedly: "Mr. Ambassador, Mr. Hitler and I are just good friends who get along well. Since there is no conflict of interest between China and Germany and their economic complementarity is quite strong, our cooperation is currently limited to the commercial sector. ”

Pal? Presently?

Xu Gesen quickly grasped these two words, and for some reason he always felt unsteady in his heart. Before he came to China, he had studied Yang Qiu carefully, he was good at speeches, and he was very flexible in using international relations, and he had a heart more cunning than a fox hidden under his upright appearance. So he didn't believe these words at all, picked up the teacup and blew off the heat, and said with a faint smile: "Mr. President, the current situation in Europe is very complicated. Germany is already rearming, and the armaments of the Soviets threaten the security of your China. These security threats are also a source of concern for some in our country. But I think that since we can beat them once, there will be a second and a third! In particular, the German Navy has been interrupted for almost twenty years, and no matter how hard they try, they will not be able to make up for such serious losses in a few years, and as long as they are trapped on the mainland, then it is impossible for any external power to cross the Royal Navy to support. ”

How could Yang Qiu not understand the meaning of these words, it was nothing more than threatening and warning himself that it was not worth cooperating with Germany, because you could not defeat the Royal Navy, and in the end you could only fight on your own. It's a pity that this disguised strength still can't hide the weakness of his heart. However, there is a saying that is true, Hitler was actually a naval idiot like himself, and what is worse is that he likes to point fingers even though he doesn't understand, so it's hard to believe that the two countries can be connected.

Although he wanted to tell Xu Gesen that he would not ally with Germany, it was not yet time to reveal the secret, so he was quiet for a while before he raised his head and looked at the dutiful ambassador and smiled: "Mr. Ambassador, I think I already understand what you mean." I would like to ask you to tell Prime Minister Chamberlain that I will continue to uphold the principle of neutrality in European affairs. Of course, if there are European countries that threaten the security of our country, then we will not stand idly by! I hope you can understand China's right to self-defense that no country can deprive of itself. ”

"Who else can threaten you in Europe but the Soviet Union? If you are not afraid of death, just go and fight, the British Empire will not only not stop you, but also support some weapons, ammunition and loans. Xu Gesen thought secretly with some malice, and nodded: "Thank you for your hospitality, I will bring this sentence to the prime minister." We in the UK will also unreservedly support you in your fight against GC expansion. Also, before leaving, I feel compelled to remind you that the Royal Navy has recently discovered that the Japanese Navy has grown faster than they can afford financially, and that when a matter is beyond its means, an explosion will be inevitable. ”

"Thank you, I'm going to take this very seriously! Nanyang is not only the Nanyang of China, but also the Nanyang of the world, and it is true that we should continue to maintain peace. Yang Qiu smiled coldly in his heart, his expression serious. When Xu Gesen heard this, he was also very satisfied and took off his top hat from the coat rack, bowed and left in a hurry.

Perhaps he was anxious to send the content of the conversation back to China, or perhaps he was happy that he had provoked Yang Qiu's concern about Japan, but in short, he did not expect that just a few months later, the gunfire in Afghanistan would suddenly intensify.

The moment of the big decision has finally arrived!