Chen Hao quickly publicly stated at the forum that in line with the principle of mutual benefit and win-win, he was willing to buy steel from Ruan Zhiwen at the market price. No matter how much Ruan Zhiwen's steel mill produced, he bought it all and shipped it to Cam Ranh Bay and the coast of Guangdong, because he had three shipyards in his hands.

Chen Hao was so cheerful and did not arouse the suspicion of others, part of the steel he used before was provided by Hanyang Iron Works, the quality was poor and the price was expensive, and the transportation was not very convenient. Another part was attacked from Russia, which was also very cumbersome in transportation, and it was much more cost-effective for him to buy it at Nguyen Chi Van at the Thanh Hoa steel mill at the same price.

Domestic players in Vietnam can only sigh that Nguyen Zhiwen is lucky, not only got the construction drawings of the A-level steel mill, but also did not worry about sales at all, and it can be said that the money is rolling in the game in the future. The truth of the matter is that this steel mill has nothing to do with Ruan Zhiwen, Ruan Zhiwen at most got Chen Hao's promise to sell him some cheap arms, and he will have a few more warships in his name.

That's right! Ruan Zhiwen has such a big steel mill, and he doesn't have to worry about sales, then he must have made a lot of money. Ruan Zhiwen doesn't have that much money, how can this avoid suspicion? The method is very simple, Chen Hao will borrow a few more warships for Ruan Zhiwen to use, and it can be explained by nominally saying that Ruan Zhiwen bought them.

In addition, Chen Hao can also sell artillery and guns to Ruan Zhiwen cheaply, and on the surface, Ruan Zhiwen's troops are well-equipped whether they are the army or navy, so naturally no one will suspect that the steel mill is not his. After Nguyen Zhiwen's strength becomes stronger, he can occupy more territory, and Chen Hao can build more factories and mines in Vietnam at that time, and the cooperation between the two sides will be further deepened......

Ruan Zhiwen got a lot of benefits after getting on the thief ship, and the longer he cooperated, the more he was mastered by Chen Hao, and there was no possibility of turning back at all. But because Chen Hao didn't do too much, Ruan Zhiwen not only showed the scenery on the surface, but also got a lot of benefits. He didn't have any opinion on Chen Hao either.

According to Chen Hao's request, the Russian experts were sent directly to Thanh Hoa in north-central Vietnam, and then the prospectors soon began to explore. The veins in Thanh Hoa are shallow and rich, and only a month later Russian experts agreed on reserves. After the establishment of a mine to arrange work for mining, a steel mill was built in Thanh Hoa under the command of Russian specialists. The factories employ local Vietnamese NPCs.

In order to avoid leaking the news, Chen Hao has high requirements for the NPCs working in the mines and steel mills, and these NPCs must be "good citizens". The so-called good people don't care about his occupation of Cam Ranh Bay, and secretly defect to his Vietnamese NPC after getting certain benefits. He has the "Imperial Heart" stunt, and it is impossible for these NPCs to betray him, and it is impossible for them to leak the news of the steel mill.

After the establishment of the A-class steelworks in Thanh Hoa, Chen Hao secretly sent a merchant ship to send another group of Russian experts and technicians back to China, who were to build new power plants and steelworks in Guizhou. The Russians needed Chen Hao's fleet to help them fight. He was also conscientious, and the construction of the factory was completed at the beginning of 1908.

Chen Hao rest assured, the navy was handed over to Chen Shaokuan, and he handed over the production of warships to Ziying Donglai and Xu Jianyin, who were only responsible for proposing plans, and these two were in charge of Cam Ranh Bay Shipyard. After the Russians sent the drawings of the Gangut-class battleships and some related technologies, the shipbuilding technology of the Purple Eagle from the east broke through to the Grandmaster-class, and it was already possible to start designing its own new dreadnoughts in Cam Ranh Bay.

Purple Eagle Donglai is obsessed with shipbuilding, and he has completely recovered from the trauma of falling out of love. Stop paying attention to your ex-girlfriend. But he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, didn't those people look down on me? Lao Tzu must design an NB dreadnought. I'm looking forward to what Ma Chan and Li Hongbo's expressions will be when I succeed.

Chen Hao, the government affairs of Cam Ranh Bay, is more assured, with Yang Du in charge of the overall situation, plus a group of NPCs with good management attributes of the Revolutionary Party, it is not difficult to handle the affairs of Cam Ranh Bay. Since all the NPCs in the government affairs area are loyal to him, the new revolutionaries can't make waves in Cam Ranh Bay, even if they have any ideas.

Chen Hao left Cam Ranh Bay not because Cam Ranh Bay had nothing to do. Rather, it was because he received a telegram. This telegram was sent from the Guangdong Navy Division's station, and the person who sent the telegram was Li Zhun, the deputy commander of the Water Division, who reported to Chen Hao about a recent incident and asked Chen Hao to return to the Water Division as soon as possible to deal with it.

Li Zhun was historically the Admiral of the Guangdong Navy and participated in the suppression of the Huanggang Uprising and other events. After Chen Hao served as the admiral, he became the deputy admiral. When Chen Hao took office, many people jumped up and down to oppose it, and there was also Li Zhun's shadow in secret, but this person was very smart, he didn't directly oppose Chen Hao, so Chen Hao didn't take him down.

Li Zhun's commander attributes are good, and he is a rare talent of the water division, and Chen Hao is unwilling to kill them all. He entrusted Li Zhun with a heavy responsibility, and now although Li Zhun did not take refuge in him, he also worked hard, so when Chen Hao was no longer a sailor, he would generally let Li Zhun sit in charge.

After Chen Hao personally led the sailors into Guizhou to fight, it was Li Zhun who was always sitting in Guangdong, and a few days ago he intercepted a Japanese smuggling ship according to the order of the imperial court. Originally thinking that this was a trivial matter, Li Zhun carried out the order of the imperial court and reported to Chen Hao. Chen Hao praised Li Zhun for doing a good job, and asked him to report this matter to him at any time, and he would return to China to deal with it if necessary.

In February 1908, the Qing court discovered that Tan Bili, a merchant from Guangheju in Macao, had entrusted the Japanese merchant ship Nichen Maru to smuggle 2,000 rifles and 40,000 rounds of ammunition from the Kobe Tatsuma Merchant House to Macao. The Qing court then sent four warships to patrol the vicinity of Macao. By modern standards, it was a serious case of arms smuggling, and the Qing court, which feared the growth of the revolutionary party, could not tolerate it.

On the morning of February 5, Nichen Maru approached Macau and anchored in the sea of Da Sha Li, about 2 miles from Cambodia on Coloane Island, preparing to unload its cargo here. After Li Zhun led the warship to intercept the ship, Li Yanshan, a patrol officer of the Guangdong Navy Division, and others came on board to check that it was true, and the owner of the ship was also indisputable.

So the sailors temporarily detained the cargo and brought it back to Whampoa, ready to confiscate it according to the regulations, so the Japanese flag on the ship was removed.

Nichenmaru departed from Kobe, Japan, first went to Hong Kong on January 26, and loaded another 1,700 tons of coal in Hong Kong, and anchored from Hong Kong to Macao at 2 p.m. on January 30.

Japan's Izumi has been closely monitoring the situation and has made a report to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japan's Izumi is a three-class cruiser built by the British shipbuilding, launched in 1883, purchased by Japan in 1894, before this warship could show off its might along the coast of China, but after the Guangdong Navy had Chen Hao's supplementary warship, the Japanese warship was completely insufficient.

After the incident, the Japanese government intervened with the Portuguese colonists and the British Hurd, who colluded to deny it. On 14 February, the Japanese minister to China, Hayashi Quansuke, sent a note of protest to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Qing Dynasty, insisting that the Nichen Maru had permission to carry arms into Macao, so it was not a smuggling ship, and that the ship had not been unloaded in the territorial waters of China, and that the place where the cargo was unloaded was in the territorial waters of Macao and Portugal.

The three parties accused the Qing government of crossing the border to intercept merchant ships and acting barbaricly; He demanded that the Qing government release the ship and return the national flag, severely punish all illegal officials, and express his gratitude for the poor handling of the case as an example. On 18 February, the Portuguese Minister Bodero also sent a note to the Qing Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying that the seizure of the ship violated the coastal rights of Portugal and hindered Portugal's sovereignty.

Initially, the Qing court advocated that the Erchen Maru case should be tried by China and Japan in accordance with customs regulations, but the Japanese side flatly refused. Subsequently, on 3 March, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Qing court notified the Japanese minister that it intended to ask the commander of the British fleet to adjudicate the case, but the Japanese side also refused. In the face of diplomatic pressure from Japan and Portugal, the Qing court repeatedly made concessions, and on March 6, the Qing Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a note to the Japanese minister, apologizing for the fact that the Japanese flag on the Nichen Maru was torn off by Chinese soldiers, and promising to punish the soldiers who misbehaved.

On March 13, Japanese Minister Lin Quansuke submitted five demands to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve the case: 1. Immediately return the Nichen Pill; 2. When the Erchen Pill was returned, the Chinese warships fired their guns to apologize; 3. The detained arms were purchased by China at a price of 21,400 yen; 4. Dispose of the officials responsible for the detention of Nichenmaru; 5. Compensation for the losses caused by this incident.

Lin Quansuke claimed that the Nichenmaru case could only be resolved peacefully if all five demands were agreed, and finally the Qing court said on March 15 that it would accept all of the unreasonable terms proposed by the Japanese side. The Qing government accepted all of the five unreasonable demands of the Japanese side, and demanded that the Guangdong sailors release the Japanese merchant ship Nichen Maru on the waters of the Jiuzhou Ocean in accordance with the terms, and fired 21 cannons to apologize to the Nichen Maru.

When this scene happened in history, many Chinese people gathered on the shore wept bitterly, and the whole country was ashamed when the news came out. On the same day, the Cantonese Entrepreneurs Autonomous Association held a meeting of tens of thousands of people for the Erchen Maru case, designated that day as the "National Shame Day", burned Japanese goods on the spot, and decided to carry out the campaign to safeguard sovereignty and boycott Japanese goods.

In the past 40 days, the import of Japanese goods at the Guangzhou port alone has decreased by nearly 3 million yuan, and the masses and overseas Chinese in various parts of the province and Wuzhou, Nanning, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and the Nanyang Islands have responded one after another, resulting in a great decline in Japan's exports of goods to China, and the boycott of Japanese goods has been carried out for a year.

When Li Zhun sent a telegram to Chen Hao, he had already received an order from the imperial court, which ordered the sailors to fire cannons to apologize. Li Zhun was filled with indignation, and when he reported to Chen Hao, he said impassionedly: "My lord, this is an unprecedented shame, if the lord refuses to carry out the order, the subordinate should take responsibility with the lord." ”

Chen Hao quickly called Li Zhun back: "It is up to the governor to decide whether to apologize or not, and it has nothing to do with you, and the governor will not apologize to the Japanese, and he will refuse to release the Erchen Maru." If ordered by the imperial court, the governor will resign from the post of commander of the Nanyang Naval Division, and at the same time take all the warships donated to the imperial court. (To be continued......)