1890 King of Southeast Asia

On October 25, a new high-speed freighter with little cargo left the dock in London.

Two old-style armored cruisers, two destroyers, and a Huaxia Empire supply ship also left the dock with it.

This freighter is not big, and it looks like it is only 45,000 tons. Its characteristic is that it runs fast, and its cruising speed can reach 16 knots.

Xu Sunming, Luo Yu, Hu Xihua and members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs watched the ship leave on the dock. So many people stood on the dock until the freighter disappeared on the sea level.

"Old Xu, I want to know how you made those stingy British people bleed so much. I have studied the British for more than ten years, but I can't figure out why." Hu Xihua said with emotion after watching the freighter disappear on the sea.

The freighter was loaded with a full 1,000 tons of gold, which is almost one-third of the British gold reserves.

Half of the gold was taken out by the British, and the other half was taken out by the French and Russians. However, the latter two countries exchanged their assets and bonds in the UK in the form of selling overseas assets.

Britain does not have much gold of its own, in fact, it only has a few hundred tons of reserves, but gold coins are still circulating in the UK, and various banks (private) store a large number of gold coins or gold bars, totaling thousands of tons.

Britain is serious about playing the gold standard.

"Of course they don't want to. No one wants to see the golden gold flow away from their hands. In fact, I didn't expect the British to pay with gold." Xu Sunming smiled, and this smile couldn't stop.

"Yes, the country is ready to accept pounds or bonds, but I didn't expect there to be an unexpected surprise." Hu Xihua also laughed.

"But in this way, the time for us to join the war may be advanced. I don't know if the country is ready. Money is not so easy to get!" Xu Sunming looked at the horizon with lifeless eyes.

"This war is very fierce, more intense than all the wars in the past hundred years combined, but that's why we have to participate."

"If we want to enhance China's influence and participate in world competition, we can't miss this kind of large-scale war, and we must win beautifully."

"Only in this way will these shameless Westerners listen to you."

Hu Xihua thought Xu Sunming was worried about the future.

"I have also fought so many wars, I understand this truth." Xu Sunming nodded, still absent-minded.

"What about your expression?" Hu Xihua looked at Xu Sunming in confusion.

"Oh, I was thinking, with so much money, can we build a few more warships? The newly started 406mm battleship will be the main force of the Chinese Navy for a long time in the future. I think if we have money, can we build one more level." Xu Sunming said.

Hu Xihua: "..."

That day, Xu Sunming was talking about this and that very seriously. In summary, Liu Yiming might feel that the war would slow down domestic development, and coupled with the British's wrong performance, the attitude of the Chinese Empire might change.

To change this situation, the British must convince the Ministry of Finance. As for how to convince them, Xu Sunming did not say.

Xu Sunming's original intention was to let the British talk to Hu Xihua, and Hu Xihua also received a quote - a high-priced order for destroyers and shallow-water heavy gunboats.

Among them, the destroyers were prepared by Liu Ming, and the UK had already purchased several squadrons. This time, the second-hand "90% new" destroyers were sold at a high price, and the performance was not bad.

As for the shallow-water heavy gunboats, this was a new order due to the sale of old materials and the needs of the British.

The British positioned the shallow-water heavy gunboats not as a near-shore defense role for the navy of a weak country, but as a support capability to China.

The British took a lot of junk and saved some of them for coastal support to China, which was quite effective. The Chinese army liked it very much, so the UK is starting a new batch.

These shallow-water heavy gunboats have a shallow draft, simple structure and function, and a slow speed. The weapons and equipment on them are basically second-hand or non-military.

However, the current draft of British shallow-water heavy gunboats is not enough to enter the inland river, or to go deep into the inland river, even the shallower ships cannot do so.

Because the displacement of the British Type 1 shallow-water heavy gunboat reaches 8,000 tons, it uses merchant ship power, plus four twin-mounted 356mm naval guns taken over from the United States that could not be delivered due to the war.

There are a total of 4 shallow-water heavy gunboats of this type, because there are only 4 turrets.

The second type is even more excessive, using the Mark VIII 305mm 35-caliber naval gun on the old Majestic-class battleship, which is the main gun that has been eliminated, with a displacement of 6,500 tons.

The later the more excessive, the equipment used mainly depends on the hand speed. If the hand speed is too slow, it is not impossible to use older guns.

In the market of large-tonnage shallow-water heavy gunboats, Liu Yiming does not intend to compete with the British. There is no point in competing. China has no advantage in playing large-tonnage shallow-water heavy gunboats in terms of cost or performance.

However, the Huaxia Empire also has so many old goods, and there are a lot of old things shipped back from Japan. Those old weapons are a waste if they are melted down, and they are useless if they are left alone.

For example, the old artillery from the Qing Empire and Japan during the war, except for some left as commemorations, the other old artillery can be recycled.

There are also a large number of naval guns dismantled from Japan, 152/254/260/305 mm, and even 320 mm Ghana guns. These guns cannot be left to the Japanese. They were useless when they were dismantled, but now they are useful.

According to the choice of keeping everything simple, the Huaxia Empire Navy Design Bureau has made a new design for shallow-water heavy gunboats, focusing on simple manufacturing and easy operation.

The hull ranges from 100 tons to thousands of tons, with a draft of 1.5 to 3 meters. Of course, if the draft is too shallow and the tonnage is too low, the ship width must be increased to maintain stability when firing.

The steam engine is too large and too heavy, so a diesel engine is used. If the high-horsepower diesel engine is too heavy, the power standard is reduced, and the main purpose is to enter the inland river.

Liu Ming considerately considered the French allies and installed a 203mm gun on the 560-ton hull. This is a new gun from 16 years ago! There is also a 120mm gun-Armstrong 7-inch rapid-fire gun.

In order to reduce weight, the turret became a 100mm gun shield, the turret mechanism was cancelled, and a simple extraction mechanism was rebuilt to lift the shells from the cabin.

If the gun carriage could not be cancelled and no old gun carriage was preserved, the people in the Navy Design Bureau would have replaced the gun carriage.

Liu Ming also considerately matched an 180-ton inland transport boat to transport shells. At most, 200 shells could be transported at a time, because the gunboat did not have much space to transport shells.

In fact, because the space was occupied, the soldiers on this ship could not even sleep on the ship. There were only two sailor cabins that could accommodate 8 people, and no captain's room. The reason was that it took up too much space and was cancelled.

These ships have been produced, a total of 8 ships. Although they may sink at a wave in the sea, Liu Ming believes that the French will pay for it.

In fact, it is true. After Hu Xihua took out the quotation, the British took half of the shallow water heavy gunboat orders without frowning, mainly some large ships.

The French took 16 ships, including 8 inland waste ships equipped with 203mm naval guns, 4 gunboats equipped with 1 152mm turret gun, and 4 gunboats equipped with two 152mm single-mounted guns.

The tonnage of the two is similar, only about 200 tons, but the turrets are removed from battleships, the turret structure is relatively complete, the firing rate is fast, and the safety is high.

France also built a batch of inland gunboats with a displacement of dozens of tons, equipped with 140mm caliber guns and two rapid-fire guns.

Originally, dozens of ships (destroyers plus gunboats, shallow water heavy gunboats) were sold at one time, and there were orders for dozens of ships. The old goods were cleared at a high price at one time, and a large amount of purchase intentions were signed.

As long as China joins the war, the raw materials that China needs to import from the Allies will be subsidized, and at the same price, the Allies will give priority to purchasing Chinese products.

Hu Xihua thought that it was enough to get these, but who knew that the British suddenly proposed to pay back part of the debt.

Hu Xihua thought it was settled in pounds, after all, China did not want its overseas assets.

Britain has huge overseas assets, with an overseas investment scale of more than 4 billion pounds before the war, distributed all over the world.

Because of this, China has no time and energy to confirm the reliability of overseas assets. What if they are non-performing assets?

So China refused fixed asset mortgages, as long as cash, bonds, or high-quality stocks are also OK, but the British are unwilling.

Then, the British approach was completely beyond Hu Xihua's expectations, and also surprised Liu Ming and the Chinese Empire.

The British took the initiative to return a debt of 667 million yuan, which is equivalent to 1,000 tons of gold, and pay with gold!

Just when Liu Ming thought the British were testing something, the British had already loaded the gold on the ship and sent a telegram to China, asking China to send a ship to escort! No compensation if it is lost!

It was not until Hu Xihua and Xu Sunming confirmed the amount of gold that Liu Ming believed that the British really prepared gold.

Then Liu Ming stopped pretending and ordered the Arab fleet to separate an escort fleet and sail to London at full speed.

And organized an escort fleet in the mainland, an aircraft carrier, two cruisers, and twelve destroyers. Now they are almost in Arabia, and the two sides will meet in the Mediterranean.

But as Xu Sunming said, although the British paid back the money, this gold is not so easy to get.

…………

Arabia, Baghdad, the former headquarters of the 4th Division of the Arab Production and Construction Corps, has now been reorganized into the Empire Arab Theater Operations Command, and has also become the Arab Theater General Logistics Base.

However, this matter has not been publicized, because the Huaxia Empire still relies on the Istanbul-Basra Railway to sell products to the Allies.

"Report!" Huang Zhengfang came to the door in a dusty manner.

"Zhengfang is here? It's been a hard journey." Zheng Lei was listening to the staff report on the material reserves. He turned around and saw that it was Huang Zhengfang.

"Report to the commander. I was either sitting or lying on the way. It was not hard." Huang Zhengfang said with his back straight.

"Alas, if the railway plan had been launched earlier, you wouldn't have to be so tired now." Zheng Lei shook his head and turned to take out the roster.

"Colonel Huang Zhengfang!" Zheng Lei found Huang Zhengfang's name and took out a pile of documents.

"Here!" Huang Zhengfang straightened his back.

"Huang Zhengfang, the former colonel staff officer of the 6th Army Grassland Frontier Defense Army, has been transferred to the commander of the 9th Brigade of the 6th Army. Take this certificate and report to the headquarters of the 3rd Division."

"You have one week to find out the situation of the 9th Brigade. This week is also your last preparation time."

"After one week, the 9th Brigade will be directly involved in the mission. Do you understand?"

Zheng Lei gave him all the documents in front of him.

"Understood! Complete combat preparations within 1 week!" Huang Zhengfang saluted and then took the document.

"Go ahead, you'll be busy." Zheng Lei waved his hand, signaling him to leave...

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