Beiyang 1917

State Prime Minister Duan Qirui never expected that Wang Geng would go to Baoding by himself and actually deal with Wu Xiaogui. At this moment, the relationship between Cao Kun and Lao Duan is really good, and Lao Cao is in the third division. Letting go and appointing Wu Peifu has aroused criticism from the people around him. At least the brothers of the Cao family have some opinions. The head of the brigade is not in his eyes at all.

And this little ghost Wu is too arrogant and lofty, the first of the four no principles is not to take concubines, nima, let alone the commander and brigade commander in this era, how many concubines are there in the company commander's family?As soon as Duan Qirui greeted Cao Kun, Lao Cao probed Wu Peifu's own tone again, and Wu Peifu said that there was nothing wrong with it. He went to join the war, so we can not lose the benefits of American aid to Japan and full-style American equipment , stay in Baoding, no problem.

Listen to the drums and gongs as you speak, Cao Kun and Cao Sanye are standing next to Duan Qirui, the Prime Minister's thick legs, in his opinion, both Zhang Xun and Ni Sichong are far worse than his third division Here, he should be the boss of the warlord regiment. Although he is reluctant to part with Wu Xiaogui, the temptation is hard to resist at the thought of being able to mix his own sand into the participating army.

What's more, unless he gave up the position of commander of the third division of the army to Wu Peifu, otherwise Wu Xiaogui would be the commander of the third division.With a full establishment of 3 people, the artillery of a mixed brigade exceeds that of a Beiyang division!This kind of temptation Cao Kun thinks that he is absolutely irresistible in Wu Peifu's position.

In the end, after Wang Geng promised Duan Qirui to wait for the arrival of the next few batches of American aid, Cao Kun's third division would be allocated a mixed brigade of American equipment, Cao Sanye reluctantly agreed to the transfer order issued by the Ministry of Army, and the Beiyang Army Wu Peifu, commander of the [-]th Brigade of the [-]rd Infantry Division, will be promoted to the commander of the [-]rd Division of the Model Army for participating in the war. He will add the rank of Army General to the original rank of Lieutenant General and confer General Fuwei!

On the same day, the Ministry of the Army also issued a new appointment. In view of the rebellion in Suiyuan, the commander-in-chief Jiang Yanxing resigned and retired from the military and political circles. From now on, Wang Geng, the supervisor of the war, was appointed as the governor of Suiyuan!

Wang Gengsuan officially became a member of a warlord with an army and territory. The Suiyuan matter is also very coquettish. Originally, in June, the military governors held a meeting in Beijing. The Nanyuan inspection and inspection witnessed the formal establishment of the third division of the participating army. Unexpectedly, Jiang Yanxing, the capital of Suiyuan, arrived in Beijing.

The Beiyang Suiyuan mixed brigade commander and Koubei commander Wang Pihuan took the opportunity to conspire with Lu Zhankui to kill the deputy head of the Metropolitan Administration, acted as the deputy of the Metropolitan Zhang Fengchao, and stole the power of the Metropolitan Administration, and was suppressed by Cai Chengxun within a few days. Here, Jiang Yanxing After taking the blame and resigning in Beijing, Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui wanted to grab the vacated position of Suiyuan Dutong. In the end, there was still a Prime Minister with a thick arm who had [-] direct descendants of the participating army, and the Ministry of War was under his control. In the end, Wang Geng, who deserved his name, concurrently served as the capital of Suiyuan.

The reason Duan Qirui gave Feng Guozhang was also very simple. The great powers urged the army to join the war. The progress of the Zhangjiakou section to Suiyuan section of the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway that Little Japan helped build was slow. Yu opened up the railway line as soon as possible, which will help show the great powers that the Chinese participating army has set foot on Suiyuan, and is one step closer to the European continent!

The nephew of Feng Guozhang, Liu Xun, the former division commander of the [-]th Division, cried in front of his uncle, saying why when I went to join the war army, I would go down to the teaching regiment and return to the furnace. That Wu kid could become a division commander if he went alone?It must be that Cao Kun secretly hugged Duan Qirui's thick legs and threw himself into the arms of Wanxi!Feng Guozhang scolded angrily, you have to be a little promising, why are you fleeing back by yourself after being eaten up by a brigade of troops!Even if you die, you should die in the teaching regiment of the participating army!

With the arrival of the second batch of arms, in addition to the full set of equipment and engineers of the auto repair and assembly plant, and the oil refinery equipment with an annual output of 10 tons, it is also a team of oil exploration and drilling teams worth nearly one million US dollars. The Rockefellers and the Morgans each had half of the staff, and it happened that they also had two sets of equipment.

In addition, the most important piece of goods was a tightly wrapped box, which was sent directly to Wang Geng's headquarters.That is 1000 servings of penicillin freeze-dried powder.

In the medical laboratory of the technology research and development center affiliated to the Industrial Bank of Manhattan, New York, the doctor and his assistants have solved the problem of cultivating and purifying penicillin in small batches. The current output can reach 5000 copies per month. It is estimated that in another month, the output It can be increased to 1 copies per month, and the mass production process is finalized. The future production capacity will only be related to the scale of the production equipment and plant. It is expected that the monthly production capacity of penicillin will reach 10 copies before the end of the year.

Wang Geng kept 200 doses of penicillin at the bottom of the box, and the military hospitals of the participating troops also distributed [-] tubes, and all the rest were sent to major hospitals in the capital for clinical trials. It can only be used after the patient signs and agrees.At the moment, the cost of penicillin is five dollars a bottle. After large-scale mass production, the cost will drop to one dollar a bottle. As for the market price, Wang Geng has not yet figured out that this magical drug is the largest intellectual property of Manhattan Industries. Use depends on the results of the talks with the US government, after all, it is still in the clinical trial stage!

The beginning of July 1917 was also a disastrous month for the Allies, as the Russian Army on the Eastern Front, under the pressure of the growing crisis of the Provisional Government, prepared to put all their eggs in one basket after the British Army suffered a setback at the third Battle of Ypres in June. launched an offensive against Germany and Austria on the Eastern Front.At the end of June, Wang Geng firmly sent a telegram to inform Jack Morgan, who was sitting in New York, USA, that on the day the Russian government announced the launch of a new offensive against Germany, he would sell all Russian bonds that had rebounded to the peak.

In the end, under the personal management of Jack Morgan, the head of the Morgan family, Wang Geng's Manhattan Industrial Bank invested 1000 million US dollars in Russian bonds, and the final income was 6000 million US dollars!Of course, the Morgan family earned more, almost 7 to [-] million, while the Rockefeller family lost all their money, especially after the new offensive launched by the Russian army in July completely failed.

In addition to the previous two batches of arms equipment and equipment, from April to early July 1917, the huge ocean-going fleet also transported a full 4 tons of rice produced in the United States, which is almost 10% of the rice production in the United States. As well as 10 tons of flour produced in the United States, several 10-ton ocean-going cargo ships dock at Tianjin Wharf almost every day, and grain warehouses in the Gyeonggi area are piled up like mountains.In addition to becoming two large barracks, Nanyuan and Langfang.Numerous warehouses stockpiling grain stood near the railway line.

These are all classified as military restricted areas. In July 1917, the price of rice in the United States plus shipping costs was about the same as the price of rice in China, and even a little more expensive. For example, a stone of rice was about 7 yuan, while The price of flour is 7 yuan per bag (25 kg), equivalent to 3 yuan per load of flour.

The grain that Wang Geng hoarded for the participating troops was imported at a purchase price of 1000 million U.S. dollars. Of the 2 million yen Japan borrowed from China, 2000 million yen was used to pay for the grain purchased by the participating troops from the United States. In fact, these grains It looks like a lot, but it is just enough to feed 30 people for a year, or 10 people for 3 years.

The soldiers and horses are not moved, the food and grass go first, this is an unbreakable truth from ancient times.

At the same time that the Russian army launched an offensive against Germany and Austria on the Eastern Front in July, Nanyuan Airport and Nanyuan Aviation School were formally assigned to the jurisdiction of the Aviation Department under the Command of the Participating Army under Wang Geng’s proposal and request. My own troops put on their wings. After all, in half a month, the planes in the US aid order from the UK will arrive in Tianjin.

With the easing of the atmosphere between the North and the South, all factions are preparing for the re-election of members of Congress in August. With the establishment of the Aviation Department of the Contributing Army and the arrival of a British-style aircraft assembly and maintenance workshop equipment on the US aid procurement list, There are also two that Wang Geng poached from Boeing of the United States through Gu Weijun-Chinese Wang Zhu, a pioneer in China's aviation field, who is the chief engineer of Boeing, and Bayuzao, another engineer who also works at Boeing.

Wang Zhu was the first chief engineer of the Boeing Aircraft Company of the United States. He personally designed and supervised the production of the "b&w—c" seaplane, becoming the first aircraft successfully manufactured by the Boeing Aircraft Company and pioneering the first air mail test in the United States. How could Wang Geng miss such a talent!The throne of the director of the aviation department is reserved for him!

As for Bayuzao, Wang Geng's Jiangsu fellow is by no means simple. This guy was admitted to the Nanjing Navy as a student at the age of 13. At the age of 17, he was selected to study in the UK and studied mechanical engineering for his excellent character and learning. In 1909, he was selected to study in England and learn how to make ship guns.In the following year, he was admitted to Armstrong College to study mechanical engineering, and then went to Weijiasi Factory for internship. In 1915, he transferred to the United States to study and was admitted to the Department of Aeronautical Engineering of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a second-term student and graduated in 2 with a master's degree.He was hired as the first chief engineer by the General Aircraft Factory of the United States.