On the beach in Rio de Janeiro, Bu Zigao squinted at those hotly dressed Brazilian girls frolicking—————— of course this is impossible, although the Brazilian girl has a fiery personality, but now is the twentieth century after all, the people are conservative, sometimes wearing a swimsuit is even tighter than daily clothes, even if there are really so many girls frolicking on the beach, it is estimated that there is nothing to see.

In fact, Buzigao and a few members of his entourage are eating breakfast at a hotel on the beach.

"I'm bored, I don't know when those Brazilians will be able to send someone to see me...", swallowing the food in his hand, Bu Zigao sighed a little boredly.

"Wait a little longer, General..."Hearing Bu Zigao complaining there, Liu Shixun, the Chinese minister to Brazil, said helplessly. After all, you're here for ......... They will hesitate and rightfully so..."

Liu Shixun was the minister to Brazil during the Beiyang government—————— and by the way, he also served as Peru.

In his early years, he studied French at the Tongwen Museum in Beijing, and later went to France to study and enter the University of Paris. He has served as a translator and counselor in the embassies of France, Russia, Germany and other countries. After the Boxer Rebellion, Sasuke Li Hongzhang negotiated with the Great Powers. In September 1905, he was appointed Minister to France and Spain by provincial governor, and in 1911, he was relieved of the post of Minister to Spain and changed to Minister to Brazil.

By the way, this person was supposed to go to Brazil as a minister in December of 13, but I don't know if there was any change in history, so I arrived early at this time, and it was a matter of course. He was also China's first minister in Brazil.

Since the Kuomintang government was established after defeating the Beiyang government and absorbing many of the former Beiyang government officials, there were a large number of members of the original government in the new government. Without further ado, the ministers and other diplomatic officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stationed in various countries can be said to have almost never moved.

After all, these years of transportation are inconvenient, and it will take a long time for a country like Brazil to send a minister back and forth, not to mention that Yan Shao does not have so many diplomatic talents in his pocket, if it were not for this, it would be impossible to continue to let Lu Zhengxiang or Gu Weijun manage the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This time, Liu Shixun undertook the preliminary contact, and after confirming that the Brazilians did have this intention, Yan Shaocai sent Bu Zigao over.

Equally. Liu Shixun also knew that Lu Dao Buzigao was an old man during the Anhui Military Government, and he was still an extremely rare naval general, and he was more or less Yan Shao's henchman. So the words are very polite.

"That can't leave us here hanging for so long, right..."

That being said, but there is no other way than to continue waiting.

But it is no wonder that he is in such a hurry, after all, the purpose of his visit to Brazil is extremely important to the Navy.

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Just stayed in the hotel for more than three days. The Brazilian government finally sent a few people.

"General Bu. This is Vice Admiral Debamul of the Brazilian Navy, and he has come to speak to you on behalf of the Brazilian Government about that matter..."

Led a few Brazilians into the hotel, Liu Shixun hurriedly introduced the identities of those people to Bu Zigao.

It's just that you can see that the expressions of these people are a little stiff.

However, Liu Shixun, who knows the high intentions of the Dao step, is not surprised at all by this, after all, his intention this time is...

Although the expression is a little stiff, and the eyes look a little bad when looking at the high step, there is still to be politeness, so Liu Shixun is used as a translator. The two sides exchanged pleasantries.

"Alright, let's get down to business," led them to find a seat in the hotel's restaurant. Buzi Gao is a little anxious. "This time I am here on the orders of the president, and I would like to know if your country is willing to sell the two battleships that are currently equipped? If so, our country is willing to buy these two battleships at a more reasonable price..."

That's right, that's what Buzigao was aiming for, buying the two battleships they were equipped with from the Brazilian Navy.

The decade leading up to the outbreak of the First World War was the golden age of dreadnought battleships, and the number and quality of such sea forts represented a country's position among the great powers. Battleships were also the largest and most expensive commodity in the world at the time, and successfully marketing a battleship meant a deal of about £2.5 million and jobs for thousands of people within 2 to 3 years, as well as the political and economic willingness of the buyer country to accept influence from the seller's country.

Commercial representatives of major shipbuilding companies traveled all over the world to market their battleships, with strong support from their own national financial and diplomatic departments, consulates and embassies abroad, and national banks doing their best to conclude contracts.

On December 14, 1904, Brazil's Congress passed a vast naval development plan for the purchase of 29 warships, including three battleships. However, at that time, the Armstrong people persuaded the Brazilians to wait a little longer, because there were rumors that the British government was building a super battleship.

A little more than a year later, the veil of mystery was unraveled on this type of battleship, which became the most famous dreadnought ...

In 1907, Brazil ordered two battleships to start construction at Armstrong and Vickers. Although the plan for a third battleship was temporarily cancelled, in 1910 Brazil had two powerful dreadnoughts—————— 'Minas Gerais' and 'São Paulo'.

Chile soon ordered two battleships from Armstrong, other countries such as Uruguay and Venezuela also bought second-hand warships, and even Ecuador bought a second-hand torpedo boat to drive the sea. Argentina had originally ordered two 1,000-ton gunboats from Armstrong, but when the parliamentarians saw their opponent's move, they immediately changed their minds and announced in December 1908 that they would order two battleships.

However, as the arms race among South American countries intensifies, a very important factor has put an end to all this.

The Brazilian government's main source of revenue comes from the export of coffee and rubber. In 1906 Brazil suffered a huge loss from the world's coffee market, but they were just emerging from the crisis. The seismic shift in the rubber market has brought the Brazilian economy to the brink of ruin.

At the beginning of the 20th century, some people illegally smuggled rubber seedlings from Brazil to the United Kingdom, transplanted them to Malaya and artificially bred them in the United Kingdom. In 1912, Brazil's rubber exports could pay for three Rio de Janeiro (the famous battleship Alcukin), but by 1913 it could not even earn one. In a grim economic form. Brazil can only cut from the navy, which accounts for a fifth of the annual budget.

Admiral de Alanca, who had served as Admiral and again Minister of the Navy, was forced to announce that the 'Seven Turret Relic', which was in the process of outfitting, would be auctioned on the international market, and that two other battleships of the Navy might also be sold.

Immediately after the decision was announced, Argentina and Chile also announced a slowdown in the development of their navies. The naval race in the South American countries came to an abrupt end when most of the capital ships ordered had not yet been delivered.

It can be said that the above news is not good news for countries such as Europe and the United States, because their customers are gone. But for Yan Shao, this is great news, and it is precisely because of this that Yan Shao will send Buzigao to Brazil...

How Brazil has nothing to do with Yan Shao, although the iron ore resources there are very rich, and it is an important source of iron ore resources in China in later generations. But at this time, China's steel industry was just getting started. Domestic resources are very abundant, there is no need to buy them from abroad, and South America is the backyard of Americans, so Yan Shao has little interest.

However, these two battleships were different ...

At present, the Chinese navy has been weakened to the extreme, the most powerful warship in the entire navy is actually a 4,300-ton cruiser, and the remaining ten thousand-ton gunboats purchased by Yan Shao from Britain can also be used as capital ships, so you can imagine how weak the Chinese navy is at this time.

If you buy it out. It is a good idea, but at this time, the main target of outsourcing is only the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the United States and other European and American countries. To put it simply, it is the two continents of Europe and North America—————— and then again, it seems that Japan can also be counted, but if you buy it from Japan......... It seems that there is no need to say more.

It's nothing to buy warships from Europe, but if World War I breaks out, there is a ninety percent chance that these warships will be detained in Europe and left for their own use, and the most they can do afterwards is to give Yan Shao some compensation, and wait until the end of the war to sell them back to Yan Shao at half price.

The problem is that Yan Shao wants these warships to be used to enhance the strength of the Navy in the short term, and it took four years from the outbreak of World War I to the end, and Yan Shao can't afford to wait for such a long time.

And if you buy it from the United States ...

The American battleships still seem to be okay in terms of performance, although they are not as strong as the British and German ones, but at least they are quite good, and they are cheap—————— to put it simply, very cheap.

The problem is that if World War I really broke out, then Yan Shao would definitely have to fight the Japanese in Qingdao, and it would be difficult to say whether the Americans would still be able to deliver the battleships by that time, not to mention how to drive the battleships back...

So it's better to buy ready-made ones directly, but the British side wants to clean up Germany, and it is definitely impossible to sell the ones in service, and the same is true for Germany's reasons, and the French battleships are somewhat ...

So Yan Shao quickly set his sights on the South American ships, especially the Brazilian ones, because the situation in Brazil seemed to be the most urgent one.

As for self-construction, of course, this is also an option, but the problem is that there seem to be only two shipyards in China that can build warships, one is the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau and the other is the Anhui Shipyard.

The former has been abandoned for a long time, and in its current state, 3,000 tons is already the limit, while the Anhui Shipyard has just been established, and like the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, the 3,000-ton class is also considered the limit, and it itself exists in the Yangtze River, and it is not suitable for building such a large ship as a battleship.

Even if there is no problem in this regard, it is impossible to build a 10,000-ton ship without a year, two, or three years of effort, as for the battleship? Let's wait a few more years, at least until the end of World War I is almost over...

Thereupon. The step is high...

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Listening to Bu Zigao's words, the faces of Debamur and a Brazilian admiral next to him were a little ugly.

It's not that they don't know how bad Brazil's economy is right now, the problem is that they are admirals. How can they be happy if they sell their country's most powerful warship?

In fact, Buzigao and they were thrown here for so many days because of the protest of the navy, otherwise I am afraid that the Brazilian government would have sent someone to meet with Buzigao early.

It's just that no matter how strong the Brazilian Navy is, after all, it still has to listen to the government, so the Brazilian government still decided to have a good talk with Bu Zigao and Liu Shixun to see how the other party's bid is, if it is reasonable enough...

However, given the attitude of the Navy. The Brazilian government still asked the navy to send two servicemen over...

It is important to know that when one of the two battleships sailed back, the navy soldiers had shelled Rio de Janeiro (because they had come back just in time for the Portuguese naval coup, and the coup sailors had driven away the Portuguese king). It was at that time that the naval soldiers who witnessed all this realized how powerful the weapons in their hands were, and the firepower of the battleship São Paulo was stronger than that of the entire Portuguese navy at that time), although this did not interrupt the enthusiasm of the Brazilian government for battleships, but since this lesson has been learned. They always have to be cautious.

"Those two battleships are the strongest battleships in our country at the moment. Although there are some problems in our country's economy right now, these two warships are not something that can be sold at will..."Touching his chin, it was a government official who spoke, and it seemed that his name was Diodoro.

But what he said is equivalent to not saying it, can't be sold at will? In fact, doesn't it mean that if the price is right, you can sell it?

Hearing the representative sent by the government say this, Debamur and the admiral's faces suddenly became a little ugly, and at the same time, Liu Shixun translated the diplomatic language and told Bu Zigao.

"Can't you just sell it?" Bu Zigao, who understood, nodded. He glanced at Debamur and the two.

Although the attitude of these two people was very rude, Buzigao didn't think about getting angry at all. Because he understands those two people very well.

The two best warships in their own country are about to be sold to the navies of other countries, even if they are replaced by Buzigao, they will feel annoyed, it can be said that if these two people really don't react at all, I'm afraid that Buzigao will be the first to look down on them...

"But the most important thing now is to buy the warship and restore the vitality of the navy, so I can only be sorry for these South American colleagues..."

"Let me first talk about the price code before the president leaves..." Three million pounds, two ships..."

Hearing the price given by Bu Zigao, the faces of Debamur and the others suddenly became very ugly, and even Diodoro said loudly. "How is this possible, do you know how much it cost us to buy these two battleships?"

Three million pounds, which means only one and a half million pounds, is not the price the Brazilian government wants...

"How much money was spent was also at that time..."This sentence was said by Liu Shixun, as a minister in Brazil, Liu Shixun's task is not only to help contact the Brazilian government and act as a translator for Buzigao, but also to help him win this deal, after all, Buzigao is a soldier, and his words are inevitably a little clumsy, and the situation will be somewhat better with the help of a professional diplomat like him.

So before Buzigao arrived in Brazil by boat, Liu Shixun had already learned about the situation of the two battleships and the current situation in the international naval market...

"If it was six years ago that these two battleships were worth more than two million pounds, but now? Now you can buy a battleship with a full load displacement of 30,000 tons for two million pounds, and compared to this type of battleship, don't you think that the Minas Gerais class, which is only 20,000 tons, is no longer worth the price? Not to mention that they've been in service for more than two years..."

As mentioned earlier, although these battleships still have strong combat effectiveness, in fact, when the full load displacement is only 20,000 tons, there is a big gap compared with the latest battleships with a displacement of more than 30,000 tons.

Hearing Bu Zigao's words, De Bamur was a little speechless, because they knew very well which 2.2 million pound battleship Bu Zigao was talking about, of course, the two that the old enemy Argentina bought...

And even Debamur has to admit that compared with the two ships of the old enemy, the gap between the two ships in Brazil is indeed too big, if it were not for this, the Brazilian Navy would not have gone to the UK to buy the 'Seven Turret Relic'...

Seeing the hesitation of Debamur and the others, Buzigao continued to add a handful of firewood.

"This money was personally donated to the Navy by the president of our country to buy large ships, so Bu Mou must save some money, but Bu Mou is also very aware of the attachment of your country's soldiers to these two warships......... Well, before the departure, the President told me that if your country is willing to sell these two warships, then the President is willing to pay in full, all at once..."

After listening to Liu Shixun's translation, Debamur and his colleagues bit their lips, and their hearts were full of envy, after all, the president of other countries used his own money to buy equipment for the navy, and what about them? But they are trying to find a way to sell the warship, the difference is too big, and they are a little unable to balance...

But compared to them, the Brazilian government official reacted much more directly.

"Really?" (To be continued......)