Volume 1: The Battleship Yitian Changes into the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 Chapter 78: The Long Road to Shipbuilding
Sun Gang finally knew what it felt like to regret something so much that his intestines turned green.
I feel so sad! I regret it! I didn't even think about this. What was going on in my mind all day?
"It's already like this, don't regret it." Seeing his annoyed look, Ma Yue comforted him and said, "Every failure makes you wiser. Think carefully about how to run the shipyard business well and build a Chinese version of 'Monarchy', so that you can find back what you lost on the battlefield in the future."
"Madam is right, there is no need to regret, there is a long time to come, and whoever laughs last laughs best." Jin Shunji also said from the side. She looked at him worriedly, afraid that he would regret it and get sick.
"You learn really quickly." Ma Yue glanced at Jin Shunji and teased her. Seeing her blushing, she walked over with a smile and put her arm around her shoulders. Ever since Jin Shunji saved them last time, they both had been getting better.
Looking at the two beautiful women whispering to each other and looking at him, Sun Gang felt as if he was dreaming.
Is this also happiness?
Finally, there was no more resistance, and the Beiyang Shipyard began to operate in full swing.
Throughout Chinese history, once the Chinese people made up their minds about a cause and devoted all their attention to it, they would quickly achieve achievements that would shock the whole world. Although many of them gradually declined due to their inability to maintain sustained concentration, that moment of brilliance was still enough to shine through the ages!
But today, Sun Gang, this little butterfly, wants to make this glory continue forever!
Originally, Sun Gang wanted to recruit redundant personnel from the Fuzhou Shipyard and the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Administration to Beiyang, but now he is depressed to find that the possibility is not very high.
Since the last court meeting, Emperor Guangxu decided to expand the navy rapidly and obtained the approval of Cixi. China once again set off a new wave of shipbuilding and ship purchasing. While the coastal provinces purchased new cruisers from foreign countries, they also began to seek self-production. The Fuzhou Shipyard, which had been operating dismally, was dizzy with a large number of orders and immediately began to recruit all idle personnel. Even the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Administration (that is, the Jiangnan Shipyard, because Li Hongzhang believed that building ships was not as good as buying ships in those years, the Jiangnan Shipyard had a "record" of building a ship every four years) which had been idle for a long time ushered in its "second spring", and idle personnel were also utilized. Although these two shipyards expressed support to the Beiyang side, Sun Gang now had to consider finding a way to get people himself.
At this time, Mr. Pei Yinsen showed his strong organizational ability. He found a way to find many students who studied shipbuilding in France to come to Beiyang, including Wei Han, Chen Zhaoao, Li Shoutian and other professional technicians who supervised the construction of the "Pingyuan" ship. Fuzhou Shipyard, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Tianjin Machinery Bureau also supported some technical personnel to the best of their ability, and transferred some from Lushun Ship Machinery Bureau, but it was still not enough. At this time, Ma Yue showed her business talent. She made inquiries and contacted two larger private shipbuilding companies in the United States. She was prepared to spend a lot of money to get some of their technical personnel and equipment to Beiyang in the future, which barely laid the foundation for the backbone of technical staff of Beiyang Shipyard.
Under the coordination of Li Hongzhang, the French government arranged for the Lasayeny Shipyard (where the "Kaiyuan" from Chile was built) to contact the Beiyang Shipyard. After much discussion, it was decided that the Beiyang Shipyard would provide funding and the Lasayeny Shipyard would help purchase all machinery, equipment and steel, which would be shipped to Dalian. Shipbuilding technicians would also arrive with them. By then, it was hoped that the Beiyang side would complete the preliminary preparations so that work could start as soon as possible after the arrival of personnel and equipment.
"You have to be careful." Ma Yue said to him one day, "You have so much money in your hands now, be careful of people getting jealous."
"I have distributed so much to the south, and anyone dares to say anything!" Sun Gang replied somewhat depressed.
Yes, the navy funds are now in his hands, a total of 13 million taels of silver. The court originally promised to give him 20 million taels of the Japanese indemnity for naval construction, but because the people helped to collect another 10 million taels, Master Weng immediately took away half of it under ! In order to allow the three southern fleets to have funds for development, he allocated 7 million taels from the rest to them, including 2 million taels for the Nanyang Navy, 2 million taels for the Fujian Navy, and 3 million taels for the Guangdong Navy. Although it was a bit painful, he also had some considerations. One was to prevent the court from suspecting that the Beiyang Fleet was the only one, and the other was to have a good relationship with the three southern fleets. Once fighting broke out again, the three fleets and the Beiyang Fleet could not cooperate with each other, which would cause disastrous consequences.
"There is one more thing you have to pay attention to." His beloved wife added to him, "If you want to get things done, you must manage the relationships between the superiors and the subordinates. I think that the 'cursed gold' would only be worth about 300,000 taels of silver, which is enough to build a few submarines at most. Now that you are not short of money for shipbuilding, you might as well use it as funds to do favors or buy some things from the Japanese and give them back. I feel uncomfortable if you keep it with me all the time." It seems that she also believes in this Feng Shui thing.
"That's good. I'm afraid the ship will sink if I use it to build a ship." Sun Gang said with a smile.
"There's a question I've wanted to ask you for a long time. Even if China can build battleships, have you ever thought about what the future holds?" She looked around to see if there was anyone else, then tilted her head and asked, "The dynasty we're 'serving' right now is actually very corrupt. If you want to accomplish anything, you have to spend too much energy on things that are irrelevant but must be done, such as bribery. Have you ever thought that what you're doing now is actually just delaying the aging process of this dynasty? Are you sure that this delay is good for the country?"
"You have finally raised your consideration of issues to the level of the country and the nation . Haha, congratulations." Sun Gang said with a smile: "You make me feel very accomplished."
"I'm telling you the truth." The wife blinked her big eyes and said, "Hurry, answer me."
"You're right. I'm not sure where this butterfly effect will lead the country." Sun Gang said with a sense of loss, "I'm not a politician. I know nothing about politics. I can't be a leader. As long as I do everything I can think of, I'll be satisfied."
"Although this is not the answer I want." She looked at him tenderly and gave him a playful kiss, "But I will still help you."
Once he got busy, Sun Gang felt that time passed very quickly. Winter was not a good time to start construction, but Sun Gang knew that he didn't have much time, so he asked Pei Yinsen to find a way to break ground. Anyway, he had sufficient funds at hand, so he might as well spend two more.
Because Lord Zhongtang also said that even if it was not enough, he would have a way to get it from Master Weng.
Last time, Master Weng took advantage of the fact that China could not produce ship steel to discredit Zhang Zhidong, but he did not expect that he would shoot himself in the foot, and he also did Sun Gang a great favor. Zhang Zhidong was planning to build new ships for his Nanyang Fleet, and he could not help but fly into a rage when he heard the news. In order to save his temper, he immediately began to introduce equipment from Germany to the Hanyang Steel Plant, and hired German technicians at a large expense to teach Chinese technicians and workers how to produce ship steel and other types of steel. He also extended an invitation to the Beiyang side, "Please report the types of steel needed for Beiyang to build giant ships as soon as possible. We are willing to provide them. If you cannot use them, we will not charge you a penny." After reading the telegram sent by Zhang Zhidong in a rage, Sun Gang could not help but laugh and be happy. China's steel industry may have inadvertently reached a new level. Is this a butterfly effect?
This time, Sun Gang had the urge to write a letter of praise to thank Master Weng.
If China could produce high-quality ship steel on its own, the impact on China's modern industry would be profound.
Although the plan to build its own battleships was progressing smoothly, some unexpected problems were a headache for him, the Minister of the Navy who was originally a bank clerk.
Since the Fuzhou Shipyard and the Jiangnan Shipyard were both filled with orders from the other three fleets, they had no time to help Sun Gang build battleships, and their conditions did not allow it. The slipways and docks at the two shipyards were not large enough to manufacture 10,000-ton ships, and it was too late to expand the slipways and docks. Sun Gang's original plan to start construction of two battleships at the same time came to nothing. There was no choice but to wait until the infrastructure on the Beiyang side was completed and start construction of one ship first.
He heard that the French had already started purchasing equipment and raw materials, and some technical personnel were ready to go along with them, but he felt uneasy until the first day.
Plans don’t change as fast as they should!
Several months passed, and before they knew it, it was spring, and the Beiyang Fleet was about to return from the south. But on this day, Sun Gang and his beloved wife had just celebrated the one-year anniversary of his "time travel" when Jin Shunji came to tell him that the Fuzhou Shipyard had sent someone to bring him a new submarine.
