The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 564 The Governor is also helpless
What surprised Li Yulin was that not only did the Germans seem very serious and solemn when proposing this condition, but Teng Yuzao also readily agreed.

Moreover, Teng Yuzao only clarified the time for underwriting the rifles and increased the quantity, and the Germans agreed to his request to jointly build an arsenal in Baoding and a shipyard in Dagukou.

However, the Germans were somewhat dissatisfied with Zhili's funding method.

However, after Teng Yuzao personally came forward and told the Germans that Zhili would purchase at least 800,000 tons of qualified military and civilian ships from the shipyard within ten years, Krupp not only agreed to establish a joint venture, but also readily agreed to build submarines in Dagu Shipyard according to the submarine drawings purchased from the Germans.

“For the steel mills that adopted the same joint venture model, the Germans did not make any additional demands.

It’s just that the steel plant was not under the management of his Ordnance Department, but Li Yulin did not say it.

"According to the Marshal's plan, the new Beiyang Army will begin to gradually change its equipment next year."

Li Yulin continued, "Gradually replace the rifles and artillery in the army and unify the rifle and artillery standards in the army."

"The Tianjin Machinery Bureau has also purchased brand new machines from the United States. Not only has it resumed weapons production, it has also set up a shipyard on the coast of Taiping Village south of Xiaozhan. The shipbuilding equipment here is also from the United States."

Li Yulin's introduction was very brief. He only talked about the situation of the arsenals and shipyards under the Ordnance Department and did not say anything more.

Because his Ordnance Department now has many secrets that he is not convenient to talk about. For example, regarding the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, he only briefly mentioned the construction of a new shipyard and the resumption of weapons production.

But in fact, the arsenal under the Tianjin Machinery Bureau is not only responsible for the intensive production of mortars, but also strives to improve this small artillery that provides powerful artillery support to the vanguard army.

They even developed and trial-produced new ammunition and explosives in accordance with Teng Yuzao's requirements. In particular, they secretly developed two types of firearms that even the great powers did not have according to the weapon sketches provided by Teng Yuzao.

The Taiping Village Shipyard was also kept secret. It was testing the torpedo drawings given to it by Teng Yuzhao. On the surface, it was producing white-headed torpedoes, but in fact it was developing a newer torpedo that was much more advanced than the one given to the Chinese.

Li Yulin now had the utmost respect for Teng Yuzao. Not to mention that Teng Yuzao was able to come up with a simple and practical new weapon like the mortar, he could also think of more advanced firearms and even more complicated things like torpedoes. Moreover, these were weapons that even the world's most technologically advanced powers did not have.

After Li Yulin finished introducing the situation of the Ordnance Department, he leaned back on the sofa and stopped talking. Teng Yuzhao smiled and spoke to everyone.

"I forgot to mention this just now. After everyone has introduced the work of their department, if you have any questions, you can ask them and I will answer them for you."

After Teng Yuzao finished speaking, Zhan Tianyou leaned forward and said, "Marshal, I think that we must import the most advanced technology. We should import the most advanced technology from any country. This will help us narrow the gap with the great powers as soon as possible."

"We can even introduce advanced technologies from multiple countries at the same time, provided that they are not duplicated. This is the best way for us to save money, introduce more technologies and start more businesses."

"But I don't quite understand. Dagu Shipyard has already introduced shipbuilding equipment and technology from Germany. Why did our Tianjin Machinery Bureau's Taiping Shipyard introduce shipbuilding equipment from the United States instead of Germany?"

"As far as I know, although Germany is a newly rising power, their industrial technology is developing very fast. Now their industrial technology has caught up with the French and should be second only to the UK. Why don't we buy all our technology and equipment from Germany, but import some from the United States?"

"I think that introducing them separately is not only a waste of our scarce funds, but more importantly, it is not conducive to our training of technicians and skilled workers. I would like to ask the Marshal to help me solve this problem."

Some people were surprised at Zhan Tianyou's bold questioning, while others admired him.

Those who were once Chinese students studying in the United States tend to feel more like the former.

Teng Yuzao had great respect for the chief engineer of the newly established Beiyang Railway Company, who was hailed as the "Father of Railways". When he saw Kuang Sunmou, the new general manager of the Beiyang Railway Company, quietly pulling on the corner of Zhan Tianyou's clothes, trying to remind Zhan Tianyou and questioning Teng Yuzao's many inappropriate actions, he realized that Zhan Tianyou was not doing anything right.

Teng Yuzao couldn't help but smile and said, "Xingchi, you and Juancheng are not only classmates in the United States, but you were also the one who recommended Juancheng to work on the railway. You should know Juancheng's character and personality best. How could I blame him?"

Then Teng Yuzao turned to Zhan Tianyou and said in a friendly manner, "Juancheng, you are right. When introducing technology, we should introduce the most advanced technology. It doesn't matter which country the technology comes from. But when introducing equipment, it is best to have systematic ones. This will not only help us cultivate technical strength, but more importantly, it will also facilitate maintenance."

"Now, the country with the best shipbuilding technology in the world is naturally Britain, but the British are only willing to sell us warships and civilian ships. They are unwilling to build a joint venture with us. We have no choice but to settle for the second best and cooperate with the Germans instead."

"As for why we don't import technology and equipment entirely from Germany, there are mainly the following considerations."

"Logically, Germany's shipbuilding technology is more advanced than that of the Americans, so we should just import it from Germany. However, Germany's environment is not good. They just fought a war with the French. Although they won, it also made the British more vigilant against them, and even prompted the British and French to get closer."

"I can say with certainty that the next European war will break out sooner or later, and by then, the British will certainly stand closely with the French to fight against the Germans together, and our cooperation with the Germans will probably be affected."

"You have all been in the United States for a long time. You should know that the United States has a unique geographical location. It is separated from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean. They do not have any serious conflicts with Britain, France, Germany, and Russia. The war in Europe is unlikely to affect the United States. This will allow Americans to develop with peace of mind."

"Their industrial technology, especially in shipbuilding technology, is not as good as that of the Germans and the British, but as long as they focus on development, I believe they will catch up with them soon. They have great potential."

"Take railways as an example. The development of railways in the United States was later than that in Britain and France. During the American Civil War, their railway mileage was only 48,000 miles. But as of last year, after only 30 years of development, the United States' railway mileage had grown to 310,000 miles, which has exceeded the total railway mileage of European powers."

Teng Yuzao took a breath and continued, "And the most important point is that the Americans are not like the old powers like Britain and France, who have been operating in our country for a long time. The United States, a rising power, has much less influence in our country than Britain and France."

"So they are eager to expand their influence and are more keen to gain economic benefits, especially in Zhili, especially the Americans."

"Therefore, Americans are very enthusiastic about cooperating with us and have fewer technical restrictions."

"Another important point is that due to the distance and the fact that the Americans are now implementing a more conservative international policy, they do not want to see our country being divided up by the powers, so as not to affect their commercial interests, and they are less potentially hostile to us." "So, in the long run, we should maintain close contact with the Americans in terms of technology and equipment introduction. For example, this time we not only jointly built a shipyard with Germany, but also cooperated with the Americans to purchase shipbuilding equipment and introduce technology from them."

"We even imported a comprehensive engine factory from the United States that can produce steam engines, gasoline engines, and diesel generators."

"This will not only allow us to maintain good relations with the Germans while maintaining good relations with the Americans, but it can also trigger competition between the two countries when they sell equipment and technology to us, including joint ventures, so that we can get fewer restrictions and more benefits."

Finally, Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Juancheng, are you satisfied with my answer?"

"satisfy!"

Zhan Tianyou nodded in admiration and said, "Marshal has a far-sighted vision, Tianyou is far behind!"

Teng Yuzao looked at the other people again and saw that they were all very impressed by his explanation and analysis, especially those former Chinese students who had studied in the United States. The expressions on their faces showed that they admired Teng Yuzao very much, which made Teng Yuzao secretly proud in his heart.

Afterwards, Teng Yuzao named Artillery Director Liu Changfa and Deputy Chief of Staff Sun Shijun to introduce the situation.

The two men did not introduce much. Liu Changfa only introduced the integration of the artillery of the three artillery towns and that they would gradually receive and replace unified metric caliber artillery in the future. The three artillery towns will mainly retain heavy artillery with calibers ranging from 105 to 155 mm.

In addition, except for a 120mm heavy artillery brigade established in each town's infantry, the rest of the artillery is mainly mm mountain and field artillery.

Sun Shijun simply gave a brief introduction to the training of new recruits in the Teaching Corps under his jurisdiction, and vaguely said that the Teaching Corps was also responsible for officer training, but he refused to say anything else.

Sun Shijun is very satisfied now, and is very glad that he did not leave Teng Yuzao last year but chose to stay.

Although he does not have much power in the military now, his rank is not low. In principle, if we only look at his position, he should be ranked fifth.

Moreover, looking at the current situation, it is unknown whether Teng Yuzao can make further progress, and his status will rise even higher at that time.

However, this also made Sun Shijun more cautious.

The next people to be called out were two generals wearing beautiful naval uniforms, Ye Zugui, the Minister of the newly established Beiyang Navy Department, and Sa Zhenbing, the fleet commander.

Ye Zugui's statement was also very simple. He only introduced the situation of the merged South and North Ocean Fleets, mainly the personnel establishment, number of ships, and total displacement tonnage.

In addition, the Navy Department has restored the Beiyang Naval Academy in Weihai, which has now been renamed the Beiyang Naval Officers School.

Ye Zugui merely euphemistically expressed that the newly established Beiyang Navy urgently needed to increase the number of ships and reserve personnel. It was necessary not only to train talents based on the Beiyang Naval Academy, but also to send as many people as possible to study abroad, preferably in the UK, which had a high level of navy.

Ye Zugui also hoped that Teng Yuzhao could urge the imperial court to negotiate with the British as soon as possible and force the British to give up the Weihai naval port that they forced the imperial court to lease to them.

Compared with Ye Zugui, Sa Zhenbing was a bit impolite.

After Sa Zhenbing gave a brief introduction to the training situation of the Two Oceans Fleet, he began to complain that the fleet was in urgent need of adding large ironclad ships, and it would be best if it had large-caliber naval guns that the great powers were only beginning to equip. Otherwise, the fleet would find it difficult to avenge its previous defeat in the confrontation with the Japanese navy.

Although the Beiyang Army and Navy military meeting had just been held in the morning, because each town needed to report and solve too many problems, Ye Zugui did not have enough time to report on the navy's situation. This made Sa Zhenbing very dissatisfied, and he took this opportunity to vent all the difficulties of the navy.

Sa Zhenbing's outburst made Ye Zugui so anxious that he could not sit still. He wanted to stop Sa Zhenbing, but he could not dissuade him in front of so many people.

Teng Yuzao felt helpless about Ye Zugui and Sa Zhenbing.

Although both of them have studied in the UK and have performed well in commanding naval operations, they are not the ideal candidates for Navy Minister and Fleet Commander in Teng Yuzhao's mind.

Teng Yuzao chose them as temporary transitional candidates.

Teng Yuzhao remembered very clearly that in history, Ye Zugui contracted typhoid fever a few years later and died in the army.

Although Teng Yuzao still admired Ye Zugui very much, even Sa Zhenbing, Teng Yuzao also admired his character.

But one of them will die of illness soon, and the other is too loyal to the current court.

Because, even when the Qing court was already in turmoil, facing internal and external pressure, Sa Zhenbing finally chose to leave the fleet rather than fight back, which made Teng Yuzhao very conflicted.

In addition to their current positions and the fact that they had a certain prestige in the Beiyang Fleet, there was another very important reason for choosing them as Navy Minister and Fleet Commander, and that was that they were all from Fujian.

Although Sa Zhenbing's ancestral home is Dai County, Shanxi Province, he was born in Fujian and can be considered a Fujianese.

The Nanyang Fleet and the Beiyang Fleet were not subordinate to each other in the past, and each formed its own system in history. Having these two senior generals who came from the Nanyang Fleet and are now serving in the Beiyang Fleet in command will be more conducive to the integration of the two navies.

As for the candidate for the fleet commander, Teng Yuzao had another person in mind, Song Wenhui, the current fleet chief of staff who was promoted by him.
(End of this chapter)