Volume 1: The Battleship Yitian Changes into the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 Chapter 75: Sino-French Secret Agreement
It turned out that the old fox had not been idle these days. After receiving Sun Gang's letter, the old fox immediately convened his staff (both Chinese and foreigners) to discuss and determined that it might not be possible to buy battleships from foreign countries at the moment. Faced with the grim situation, the old fox started to play the old trick of "using barbarians to control barbarians" again. First, he vaguely revealed the plan of Britain and Germany to restrain France through diplomatic channels to the French. Then he tried to pass the news of Britain and Japan joining forces to fight against Russia to the Russians through abnormal channels. He also vaguely expressed to the Americans that China was willing to further open up to the United States. The strategy of "muddying the waters" by the Lord Zhongtang was effective immediately. Soon, the French extended an "olive branch" to China.
Before the unification of Germany, France had always been the natural overlord of continental Europe. The newly born Germany took Alsace and Lorraine from France, which made the French people hate it. In order to compete with other countries, France and Russia came together unconsciously. When the Prime Minister said that China might be "closer" to France in the Far East, the French, unwilling to be restrained, immediately took the initiative to come to China.
France, located on the European continent, is also constantly developing its navy. Unlike Britain and Germany, the French Navy accepted the "New School" thinking, began to build large ocean-going attack ships, and paid special attention to speed, endurance and rapid-fire gun firepower, taking an extremely " alternative " route. Britain has always been extremely concerned about the movements of the French Navy, fearing that once a war breaks out, these powerful ocean-going "Scuds" of France will mess up Britain's overseas colonies, so it has made moves to win over Germany to restrain France. At that time, the French shipbuilding industry was also very advanced. Japan's "Sankei" was built with the help of the French. China's Fuzhou Shipyard was also planned and built with the help of French consultant Yige. Therefore, many ships built by the Fuzhou Shipyard have a strong French style. It's just that France's occupation of Annan and the "teacher's" sneak attack on the "student" in the Battle of Majiang made the Chinese very hateful, so that the relationship between the two countries has been very tense. Now, the "teacher" has come to "please" the "student" again, and Lord Zhongtang immediately seized this opportunity to discuss the possibility of "cooperation" with France.
The French were not stupid. They knew that the British would not sell battleships to China and they also pressured Germany not to sell. If the French agreed to sell battleships to China at this time, the British would come knocking on their door. So they politely rejected the desire of the Lord Zhongtang to buy French battleships. Seeing that there was no hope of buying ships, Li Hongzhang tentatively expressed his idea of recruiting shipbuilding technicians in France to help China build another large shipyard as a gesture of "friendship" between China and France. This time, the French agreed, but the conditions were that France hoped that China would allow the French Navy to use Guangzhou Bay for "wintering" at an appropriate time. If China agreed, French naval officers could help China train the navy and serve in the Chinese navy. French shipyards could provide equipment and technical information to China and be responsible for training Chinese shipbuilding personnel. French shipbuilding technicians and staff would be paid more in China, but their identities could not be made public, etc.
Lord Zhongtang considered it for a long time and finally agreed with great reluctance.
Li Hongzhang wrote in his letter to him, "During the Sino-French peace treaty, the Chinese people all said that those who negotiated peace should be killed. Don't you know that with China's current strength, can it destroy France? Can it swallow Britain? As long as the 'Ding' and 'Zhen' are not returned, the navy will not be built. The vast sea will eventually be a passage for other countries. How can empty words make a country strong? I dare not sacrifice my reputation and make mistakes for the country. Now I have accomplished this great plan for you. I only hope that you will succeed in the future and don't forget the people who have been cursed."
The old man's words showed unspeakable sadness. In the Sino-French War, although there was a great victory at Zhennan Pass on land, it could not be said that a decisive victory was achieved. On the sea, the Fujian Navy was annihilated in the Battle of Majiang, and the Nanyang Navy was defeated. The newly built "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" were far away in Germany and could not return to participate in the war (the French threatened to rob them at sea). The old man wanted to end the war as soon as possible to develop the navy, but the French took advantage of him (losing Vietnam and opening Yunnan), which attracted a lot of criticism and almost lost his job. From a strategic point of view, if the strength is not as good as the opponent, temporarily sacrificing local interests to buy time to catch up with the opponent is a feasible but helpless choice. However, in this era, how many people will understand and agree with this?
No matter how the Chinese people evaluate him, everything Li Hongzhang did must have been very difficult. The old man almost used up all his strength to pry this huge and bulky court forward. What he faced was a broken, devastated and rotten ship sailing in the vast ocean. Suddenly, a storm came. Many people were frightened and turned pale. They scrambled to escape into the cabin. Li Hongzhang and a group of people stayed at the bow, resisting the oncoming storm. When the storm finally passed, the hull also suffered some damage. The people hiding in the cabin ran out again, accusing Li Hongzhang and others of not doing their job well, which caused the damage to the ship. They were "traitors" and "humiliating the country"!
If people knew that this Chinese-made battleship project was won under such circumstances, would he and Li Hongzhang be called traitors by the Chinese people?
Thinking of this, he felt a chill in his heart.
He thought about it carefully and wrote back to Li Hongzhang. In the letter, he expressed his deep understanding of the old man's painstaking efforts, but also hoped to minimize the adverse effects. According to his consideration, this "secret alliance" between China and France is best achieved in the form of a "secret military agreement" and not disclosed to the outside world. Guangzhou Bay can become a supply station for the French Navy in the Far East, but it is not a military base of the nature of a concession. It can be used for French ships to dock, but not for garrison. If war breaks out between France and Britain or other European countries, China can provide Guangzhou Bay to France as a logistics base and can provide secret military support. Similarly, if China is threatened by Japan, Russia or even Britain and the United States at sea, the French Far East Fleet also has the obligation to secretly support China.
The reason why he proposed such a condition was that he had given it careful consideration. Among the European powers in China, Britain has the strongest influence. The Yangtze River area is Britain's sphere of influence. France's current influence is in the Indochina Peninsula, and its hand has just reached Yunnan, which is still far behind Britain. China's current main enemies are Japan and Russia. The strength of the French Navy was second only to the British Navy at the time. Properly using France's power to contain Britain would allow China to have time to accumulate enough strength to resist the threats from Russia and Japan around it, or even the United States (not without such a possibility). This should be a feasible option.
After sending someone to deliver a letter to Li Hongzhang again, his thoughts returned to the shipbuilding work at hand.
Shipbuilding is not something that can be done by just talking about it. This work requires cooperation from many other aspects. Steel for shipbuilding is one problem, and there is also equipment. It is still uncertain how much help the French can provide. As far as he knows, France currently only has the "Jauréguiberry" class battleship launched in 1890 that can compete with the "Monarch" class on paper (certainly not in actual practice). Although he has a lot of detailed "Monarch" data on hand, some key details are not something that a half-baked military fan like him can solve. He still needs experts and samples for reference.
However, because China's shipbuilding industry learned from France from the beginning, there is no problem with equipment standards and calibers ( the equipment standards and calibers of shipyards in different countries are different. The equipment of German shipyards may only be sold as scrap metal in Britain. This is also the reason why Britain auctioned off all German shipbuilding equipment at the end of World War I). This can be considered an advantage.
Everything else will come slowly.
But does he have enough time now to give birth to the Chinese version of "monarchy" successfully?
While he was waiting for news from Li Hongzhang, the preparatory work for the "Beiyang Shipyard" had already begun in full swing.
Old man Pei Yinsen was a typical pragmatist. After obtaining authorization from Sun Gang, he immediately recruited many of his students and old friends to Lushun. Together with the existing Beiyang personnel, he began to make plans, purchase land and build factories. Under his command, all work was carried out in an orderly manner.
Sun Gang's plan to establish the "Beiyang Shipyard" has been reported to the court, but Emperor Guangxu has not yet approved it. Sun Gang is somewhat worried that something may have gone wrong with Master Weng again. Hearing his concerns, Ma Yue orders the Beiyang Military Intelligence Department to take immediate action, contact the personnel in the capital, and find out what has happened.
While he was busy with the Beiyang Shipyard, Ma Yue had decided to let the Beiyang Military Intelligence Department recruit personnel to establish an intelligence network in the capital to monitor the court's movements at any time. Since there was no radio and the telegraph was not safe, she could only use pigeons instead. Sun Gang comforted her and said that she was very thoughtful. During the First World War, the army still used pigeons in large quantities. Only then did she feel relieved. However, he was surprised by the speed of intelligence work in Korea and Japan. It turned out that after the end of the Sino-Japanese War, China, Japan and Korea resumed normal trade. In order to facilitate trade, both sides set up many trading stations. Ma Yue took the opportunity to do business with the Japanese while inserting people from the Military Intelligence Department. In her words, she made money while collecting intelligence, with a red heart and two hands prepared, "grasp both hands, and both hands must be strong."
"I wanted Kim Sun-hee to be in charge of Korea," she said. "The news from Yuan Shikai said that the Kaihua Party members are having a hard time there. I wonder if she can get in touch with them."
"She should be a member of the Kaihua Party." Sun Gang said nonchalantly.
"You're amazing. She even let you know her identity." The beloved wife said, but with a sour taste in her mouth, "Why haven't I seen her come over these two days?"
"She asked me for leave to teach Wen Junfeng how to fly knives, saying that she wanted to learn on a submarine." Sun Gang replied: "The Changjing is now the training submarine of the Beiyang Fleet (the nine old torpedo boats are also used as training boats by him). In order to increase the combat capability of the Beiyang Fleet's new recruits, he and Lin Taizeng discussed and let the new recruits practice on submarines and torpedo boats for a period of time, and then be assigned to practice on large ships, so that they can be familiar with the operation of different types of ships, so as to better adapt to different combat environments. This is actually the experience he got from some books in later generations.
Moreover, this is also a little caution he should keep for the future.
That is……
"Wolf Pack".
