Wu Peifu lowered his head and looked at the upper of his shoes, and then turned his gaze to Cao Kun, who obviously regarded him as the backbone: "Ziyu, what Mr. Yang said is very good, but can you tell me what we can do?" ”

Wu Peifu shook his head and said, "Cao Shuai, it's a big problem for us to even eat the brothers in the support center now, what can we do?" ”

Cao Kun immediately understood and looked back at Yang Yongtai and said: "Brother Changqing, don't you think that my life is better when you see what kind of Henan overseer my old Cao is. In the place of Henan, what kind of Red Gun Society, a lot of bandits, except for Kaifeng, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Anyang, plus Baoding Mansion that I control now, I can't even collect taxes in other areas. That Duan Qirui is indeed not a good thing, not only is he thinking about you there, he is also thinking about me and Ziyu, no, since I became this overseer in May, he has not allocated a single ocean to me, and the arms have not even seen a bullet. If it weren't for Lao Yuan's previous arsenal in Gong County, I would have been able to save even live-fire training now. So although we are also very dissatisfied with Duan Qirui's traitorous behavior, but at the moment we can't even pay the salaries of these soldiers and ruffians, and now these bastards are making trouble every day, and we really can't help it! ”

Yang Yongtai secretly applauded in his heart, these two are really exemplary representatives of sworn brothers, and their cooperation is seamless! Naturally, he came to give money this time, but he can't be taken lightly.

Yang Yongtai pretended to shake his head sadly and said: "I didn't expect Cao Shuai to be so difficult here, what the junior brother just mentioned is indeed a bit difficult for a strong man to think about it now." The little brother will go back and explain Cao Shuai's difficulties to the chairman of my family, I think he will be considerate, so it won't take much time, so I will leave. ”

Cao Kun and Wu Peifu were immediately dumbfounded, what kind of road is this surnamed Yang, and how to say that they can go.

It was Wu Peifu's secretary Yang Chaoqing who was well-informed and knew that he should appear at this time. This Secretary Yang is a Chang acquaintance of Jiangsu, with a history of word clouds, and served as the consul of the Qing Dynasty in Singapore during the former Qing Dynasty. (The plot requires, this Li Hongzhang's grandson-in-law was mixed with Xiao Wu a few years in advance) This kind of negotiation, Yang Yunshi is obviously more reliable than Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, the two military leaders.

"Brother Changqing, don't worry, my Cao Shuai is not shirking, don't get me wrong, it's just that Duan Qirui and them are stuck in their necks, so the current life is very difficult. If we can get the help of friends from all walks of life and successfully overcome this difficulty, then it is naturally the duty of our generals Cao Shuai and Ziyu to honor the country. ”

Look, what he said is worthy of being an intellectual, and he wants money so implicitly.

Yang Yongtai naturally knew Yang Yunshi's name, otherwise the group of spies of the Military Intelligence Bureau would have been dragged out to shoot targets. He stopped very politely and said: "I think this is Brother Yang Yunshi, a famous man in Jiangnan, listening to you say this, it is indeed Changqing who is too anxious, patronizing the chairman of my family, but forgetting this solution, ashamed and ashamed." ”

If you believe that you have forgotten, there will be a ghost, Wu Peifu scolded secretly. However, he still hurriedly spoke: "These two are from their own family, it's rare to see each other, sit, sit, sit down and talk." ”

Yang Yunshi, who was full of elegance, said with a smile after Yang Yongtai sat down: "What Jiangnan celebrities are not celebrities, Yunshi still can't figure out a lot of things, and I'm about to ask Brother Changqing?" ”

Yang Yongtai is also a member of the Appearance Association, and he generally has a good impression of the children of a family like Yang Yunshi, so he naturally has to answer his questions.

"Brother Changqing, we don't say secret words, right now, your marshal Wang dominates the nine southern provinces, has hundreds of thousands of heroes, and it is said that he will expand the expeditionary force by 400,000. Looking at Shenzhou, who can be as strong as your Wang Shuai, and sending troops to the Northern Expedition to unify China is also a matter of raising hands, right? Yang Yunshi spoke quickly, and asked Cao and Wu the most worried questions in one sentence.

In fact, before Yang Yongtai came to Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, these two had plans to contact the southern anti-Anhui system. However, they have not done so for a long time, and in the final analysis, a very important reason is that the Nationalist Government is a bit powerful. As a result of their union, will Zuihou's fate be annexed? Now that Yang Yunshi asked about this worry for them, they turned their eyes to Yang Yongtai to see what this old boy had to say.

What kind of person is Yang Yongtai, how could he not know what kind of calculations Cao Kun and Wu Peifu are playing. He replied solemnly: "Since some things have been raised, I will also tell the truth." Our China will be divided for a long time, and the country will be united for a long time, and the future country will inevitably be one, but at present, the chairman of our committee is not similar to the Jihua of the Northern Expedition, and the 400,000 expeditionary force is bound to go to Europe to play the national prestige of our China, and the current national situation is surrounded by foreign powers, and our pressure is not small, if our youth army goes north at this time, it will inevitably lead to the intervention of the foreign powers, which is not in line with our current strategy of bowing our heads and seeking development. To put it simply, before the success of the construction of large industries in the south, our youth army had no idea of going north. So I asked Cao Shuai and General Ziyu to put their hearts back in their stomachs, and not to worry too much about the future. As for the success of industrial construction, we are not necessarily the Northern Expedition, the military struggle is just a continuation of political means, and many things do not necessarily have to be decided on the battlefield, and can be resolved at the negotiating table. And now I think we still have a common enemy and a goal of cooperation, and that's the basis for us to start helping each other. ”

"I understand," Cao Kun nodded, "What you mean is that you want to develop industry and economy in the south with peace of mind, and for the north, your idea is not to go to war." ”

Yang Yongtai nodded and said: "Cao Shuai is wise, but not only don't want war, we hope that the economy of the north and the south can develop." As we all know, the nine southern provinces are now independent customs areas, and the tariffs have been raised to 20 percent, so we don't have to worry too much about the impact of foreign goods when we develop industry and commerce. But what about the North? It's not good that it's still being plundered by foreign powers, so the chairman of the committee wants to set up a trading company to be responsible for trade between the north and the south, and you can also take a stake in it. More importantly, the resources of the north can bypass the tariffs and enter the south, and the goods of the south can also bypass the tariffs and enter the north, which is tantamount to allowing the whole country to enjoy the benefits of tariff autonomy in disguise, which is a blow to foreign goods. The nine southern provinces under the leadership of the Nationalist Government have begun to set up foreign exchange administrations to withdraw foreign exchange from the circulation market, thus ensuring that the Chinese dollar becomes the only currency in circulation. ”

Although Wu Peifu didn't understand it very well, it sounded like the south was really thriving, and he frowned and said: "So how to carry out our cooperation, you must know that our current difficulties are really difficult to overcome on our own." ”

Yang Yongtai thought for a moment and said: "I am here on behalf of the chairman of the committee this time, and the cooperation is sincere, so I will not hide it, and we will send a lot of 20 million yuan of military expenses to Cao Shuai and General Ziyu every month, in addition, we will also support a batch of arms, the specific number is roughly 20,000 rifles, 2 million bullets, and other weapons can be discussed." ”

This condition is already very generous, Wu Peifu and Cao Kun glanced at each other and nodded together......

When it comes to munitions, Wang Zhenyu is indeed the most arrogant one in China now, and he has four major military factories in Anjiang, Hanyang, Jinling, and Jiangnan. After defeating Feng Guozhang, the Ministry of Armaments began to take over and transform the four major factories.

The negotiations with the Americans were not entirely fruitless, and although the Zuihou Americans were still unable to smash a large amount of naval aid, the cooperation with the Springfield Arsenal made a major breakthrough. That is, regarding rifles, the Springfield Arsenal agreed to authorize the China Military Industry Corporation (a military factory under the Ministry of Armaments and established in May 1916) to produce the M1903 rifle.

The M1903 Springfield rifle (M1903 Springfieldrifle) is a rotary pull-back bolt rifle produced by the Springfield Arsenal, which was the standard rifle of the U.S. Army in World War I and World War II.

The M1903 rifle was developed by the Springfield Arsenal under the license of the Mauser Arsenal, and the rotary pull-back bolt is modeled after the German Kar98, which can be regarded as a variant of the Mauser rifle. The M1903 has a shorter barrel than the Mauser rifle, and the pull handle has been changed to a xiangxia curve for easy carrying. Feed from a magazine with a capacity of 5 rounds, and load with a 5-round split magazine. The M1906 rifle cartridge (.30-06 rifle cartridge) used in the M1903 rifle was an improvement on the Mauser bottomless round, and the early M1903 rifle was also equipped with a rod bayonet, and later changed to a dagger-type bayonet.

The quality of this rifle is obviously much stronger than that made by Hanyang, Wang Zhenyu thought about it again and again, and finalized it with Wang Zhenkun, general manager of the China Military Industry Corporation, to introduce a standard production line on the basis of this gun, and improve this gun, Zuihou formed a strengthened version of the "Wen Zheng" rifle (named after Wang Zhenyu's words).

The military industrial complex will also build eight general military factories in Anjiang (071 factory), Hanyang (072 factory), Nanjing (073 factory), Shanghai (074 factory), Fuzhou (075 factory), Guangzhou (076 factory), Haikou (077 factory), and Guilin (078 factory) with the help of Luxembourgers and Americans after a huge allocation of 2 billion Chinese yuan.

Among them, Haikou and Shanghai are owned by the navy and are only responsible for the manufacture of naval warships, but Haikou is still on the drawing board, and Shanghai can only build some small boats.

The other six factories (under the firearms, ammunition, clothing, artillery, food, medicine and other branches) are mainly responsible for the production of army equipment, according to the requirements, their production capacity will reach an astonishing monthly output of 600,000 sets of military uniforms, 500,000 grenades, 120 to 360 cannons (look at the caliber, the current jishu can produce 75mm, 105mm), artillery shells ranging from 200,000 to 300,000 rounds, 400 mortars, 400,000 shells, 1,000 grenadiers, 300 heavy machine guns, 480 light machine guns, 8 million rounds of various machine gun bullets, 20,000 rifles, and 40 million rifle bullets.

This is Wang Zhenyu in accordance with the largest arsenal in the history of the Republic of China Fengtian Arsenal, Wang Zhenyu allocated 2 billion Chinese yuan in one go, at the latest in January 1918, these factories can be put into operation, then Wang Zhenyu will have six Fengtian Arsenal, he estimates that even small Japan will not dare to touch themselves.