Beiyang reactionaries

Sure enough, money is the most powerful.

In the third five-year plan, after the cabinet decided to invest a large amount of funds in the military industry, China's military industry developed at an alarming rate.After all, it is 40 billion U.S. dollars per year, which is between 100 billion and 150 billion French currency when converted into Chinese currency.

With so much money thrown in, the production speed of weapons and equipment is amazing.

Check out these plans from the Naval Command.

Aircraft carriers, destroyers, light cruisers, escort destroyers, submarines, torpedo boats, whatever you want, and there are a lot of builds.Even the Navy Command has to try to build some battleships, heavy cruisers and other ships.Although China's shipbuilding industry is backward compared to the great powers, the warships it produces are all technology imported directly from the great powers.But China is large in scale, and the military alone can build so many large shipyards.

But Duan Xun asked Shen Honglie directly.

The boat is there, what about the people?

"Prime Minister, we have also made some plans in this regard. In order to adapt to the current situation of building a large number of warships, the Navy Command has decided to increase the number of students in all naval schools across the country, and the annual enrollment will increase to about 3700. It is also planned to increase the number of students enrolled each year. The scale of recruits. The warships that we have retired are all involved in recruit training. It can barely keep up with our current needs."

"Ah."

Duan Xun nodded slightly.

The biggest problem with the navy and air force is that they are not as easy to train as the army.At present, the Chinese Army has a large number of reservists, mainly because it is easy to train and expand the army.Those who have received the most basic military training, as long as they go to the new barracks for two or three months of training, or even one and a half to two months of training, they can supplement their entry into the field troops.Then stay in the field army for a few months. If you have the opportunity to fight two battles, you are a qualified veteran.

The cultivation of grassroots officers is also easier than that of the navy and air force.

Those army veterans can become grassroots officers as long as they undergo a few months of short-term training in the military academy.

But the navy is different from the air force.

It is too difficult to cultivate.

"But it's still not enough. Chengzhang (Shen Honglie), I won't hide it from you. The prime minister's office meeting has judged that war will definitely break out within two years. At that time, the cabinet's support for your navy will definitely increase, and you need to produce more. There are many warships. By then, the navy will expand its army very quickly, and your current reserves are far from enough."

"Prime Minister, we also know this. But this will not be completed in a short time."

"Don't you have a lot of half-retired officers in your navy? Let them participate in the training of new officers and recruits."

"But... Prime Minister, their half-retirement is not voluntary. Let them come out now, this..."

"Leave this to me."

"Salao, how have you been recently?"

The navy is expanding.

But the training of the navy is not easy, and it is not as fast as the army.Not to mention anything else, the naval school alone is much less than the army school.And now time has not allowed China to slowly cultivate naval talents.

There are too many things that have been pulled down before.

Therefore, Duan Xun asked those naval officers who had withdrawn from the front line and were semi-retired to join the school, or serve as training instructors to train naval talents.There are quite a few of these people, but there are two to 3000 people gathered together.If these people are all involved in training naval personnel and training naval recruits, they can train a large number of qualified naval officers and soldiers for China in a short period of time.But Shen Honglie was very embarrassed.

why?

Because those naval officers who are currently half-retired, including many former admirals, did not retire voluntarily.It was Duan Xun who divided the navy into the first, second, and third rounds, and then pulled all the new naval warships into the third round, and let some old-fashioned warships all withdraw from the first line.As a result, the Navy blurred the first and second rounds, marginalized the first and second rounds, and slowly turned them into a half-retreat situation.

To put it bluntly, Duan Xun forced them to withdraw from the front line.

Because Duan Xun hated too many factions in the previous navy, and the traces of factions were too obvious.Not only do they not cooperate very much with each other, they also like to tear each other down.It had a very bad impact on the development of the navy, so Duan Xuncai semi-mandatoryly let them retire.

Letting them come out of the mountain again now, Shen Honglie doesn't have that kind of face.Because those people have more qualifications than Shen Honglie, and they have no relationship with Shen Honglie.If the situation was not urgent, Duan Xun would not let them come out again to help train naval officers and recruits.

But no way.

So after thinking about it, Duan Xun came to the home of Sa Zhenbing, the former deputy chief of the military department and the former commander-in-chief of the navy.

Sa Zhenbing is 78 years old, but his body is still very strong.Duan Xun wanted to visit him, and Sa Zhenbing was still quite puzzled.Duan Xun and Sa Zhenbing did not have any personal friendship. Duan Xun continued to use Sa Zhenbing back then only because of his high prestige in the navy.Hope to use Sa Zhenbing's prestige to suppress the navy, so that they can all be honest.

When Sa Zhenbing was the chief of the navy and the deputy chief of the military department, his relationship with Duan Xun could only be described as mediocre.Because Duan Xun didn't care about the construction of the navy at all at the time, he didn't owe the navy military expenses every year, that's all.Every time Sa Zhenbing made a request for naval construction, he was directly rejected by Duan Xun.At that time, Duan Xun's main construction targets were the army and air force.

After Sa Zhenbing retired, Duan Xun didn't see Sa Zhenbing much.At most, during some important festivals, Duan Xun expressed condolences to veteran generals like Sa Zhenbing on behalf of the government.

The relationship between two people is nothing more than that.So Duan Xun suddenly wanted to visit him, Sa Zhenbing really didn't understand at all.But since Duan Xun proposed to visit him, Sa Zhenbing couldn't refuse.

"Not bad. I wonder if Prime Minister Duan is looking for me..."

Sa Zhenbing didn't talk nonsense with Duan Xun.

Sa Zhenbing is a soldier and has no personal friendship with Duan Xun.So I asked Duan Xun directly, what is it that you are looking for me today.Duan Xun smiled slightly, knowing that Sa Zhenbing didn't like him very much.

Because Duan Xun and Sa Zhenbing didn't get along very well when they were working.

"Salao, I'm visiting Salao this time because I want to ask you something."

"Prime Minister Duan, please speak directly."

Sa Zhenbing frowned slightly.

It has been many years since I retired, and basically I haven't gone out much after retirement.Sa Zhenbing has seen too many things since the end of the Qing Dynasty.Especially after Duan Xun became the prime minister of the cabinet, Sa Zhenbing understood that Duan Xun did not like the existence of forces outside his control in China.Duan Xun is a person with a strong desire to control.You can see that after Duan Xun served as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, he has also served as the Chief of the Army Department, and later served as the Minister of the Military Department.Duan Xun absolutely does not allow other people to get involved in the army.

Sa Zhenbing is a veteran of the navy.

When Duan Xun was rectifying the navy, many admirals of the navy hoped that Sa Zhenbing could stand up and speak for them.But Sa Zhenbing knew Duan Xun's temper.When he was the chief of the navy, the commander-in-chief of the navy, and the deputy minister of the military department, Duan Xun ignored his opinions, let alone the old man who had already quit the front line.Therefore, it has always been behind closed doors to thank guests.But although thanking guests behind closed doors, he also knows what happened in China and what happened in the navy.

Duan Xun is not very satisfied.For those naval veterans, Duan Xun is really too harsh.Anyway, he has already retired, so he was not polite to Duan Xun at all, and clearly expressed his dislike.

Duan Xun didn't care about Sa Zhenbing's attitude.

Said: "Sa Lao, the current world situation is chaotic and unclear, and war is imminent. Not to mention other places, even our Far East is currently covered by dark clouds, and the war is getting closer and closer. If you have read the intelligence of Nanyang, you will know The current Nanyang is very unstable. Under such circumstances, our country is also actively preparing for war, and a large amount of funds have flowed into the military system. The construction of our navy started late, so we can only invest more funds and quickly Build a batch of warships to equip our navy."

Duan Xun is very sincere.

Talk about the current situation.Sa Zhenbing didn't like Duan Xun very much, but he was not an ignorant old man, and he knew something about the current world situation.Although I dare not fight Duan Xun like this, there will definitely be a war, but the current world situation is unstable, which is something everyone knows.

Especially the Nanyang region.

Beginning in 1935, some conflict occurred every year.Although because of the concessions made by Britain and France, the two consecutive Far East Conferences were regarded as peaceful endings.But who knows if it will be peaceful next time.It is possible that Britain and France will not make concessions in the next step, and then it will be a war.

He is also very clear about China's increase in military spending in recent years.After all, a big country like China has begun to expand its military and increase military spending. This is something that is impossible to hide.Duan Xun didn't hide from the expansion of the army, and expanded the army generously.

"I just talked to the people at Naval Command. By 1939, our country will have about eight aircraft carriers, one battleship, one heavy cruiser, sixteen destroyers, four light cruisers, thirty-one submarines, fifty-four Torpedo boats, twelve escort destroyers. The total tonnage of our navy will reach more than 8 tons."

"25 tons?"

"Yes."

Duan Xun nodded, and said: "But this is only the preparation stage for war. If war really breaks out and the war is mobilized, it is not impossible for the total tonnage of our navy's warships to rise to 100 million tons."

Sa Zhenbing was shocked.

Before I didn't pay attention, China already had such strength?Can China's own shipyards produce so many warships?Sa Zhenbing participated in the First Sino-Japanese War. At that time, the total tonnage of the Beiyang Navy was only 27000 tons, which was less than [-] tons.But at that time, it was already the country with the largest tonnage in Asia.