Mediterranean hegemon

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Three days later, Contini and others finally arrived at the Taj Mahal accompanied by colonial bureaucrats. Looking at the majestic and spectacular scenery, Agnes and Ada, who had been depressed along the way, finally improved. When they learned that the Taj Mahal The mausoleum was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his second wife Mumtaz Mahal, and Ada was obviously touched by the story that her hair turned gray overnight.

Contini smiled and said: "I can't build the mausoleum, but we can build warships now. When we go back, the hull of the Ada is estimated to have begun to take shape. The shipyard assured us that it can be built in August 1930." It will be completed before then and we can take this boat for our honeymoon.”

"Really? That's great? Brother Calais, thank you!"

While they were talking and laughing, Zakaria suddenly sent a telegram: "President, there is a telegram from Japan, which was sent in the name of their Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

"Japan?" Contini was confused for a moment, "What is it?"

"First, I invite you to visit Japan at your convenience this year or early next year; second, Japan wants to do some business with us, exchanging raw silk or other agricultural products for crude oil with us."

"What does this mean? Aren't they used to purchasing crude oil from the United States and Shell? It may not be cheap to ship it from Africa to Japan."

"But those cost them precious foreign exchange, so Japan considered that if we could accept their products, it could be exchanged. The price would be based on the FOB price, and each would bear the freight."

Contini tilted his head and thought for a moment: "Do you think this is necessary?"

"From a purely economic point of view, I think it is necessary. On the one hand, Italy's clothing industry is very developed in Europe, but our raw material supply is unstable. Japanese raw silk can provide materials for silk clothing in the civilian field. I think it is beneficial. The development of Italy's domestic clothing industry; on the other hand, silk also plays a great role in military use. Silk is the main material for parachutes. Currently, we are promoting aviation on a large scale, and the demand is huge, and it is also used by heavy artillery and battleship main guns. Silk-wrapped propellant packs are all realistic needs. 2 million tons of crude oil, which is about 2.5 million U.S. dollars, can be digested. The key now is to measure whether it is cost-effective.”

Contini nodded: Zakaria's reminder suddenly made him react. Before the DuPont Group in the United States overcame the technical difficulties of using nylon materials for parachute production, silk was the only main force. As for nylon, he has told the joint laboratory that it is researching it intensively, and even roughly described its characteristics. He believes that once it is launched, it will bring about earth-shaking changes.

Zhang Zuolin gritted his teeth and agreed, so from August to September, three Italian scrap steel ships were unloaded in Wuchang and Nanjing: 6.5mm Carcano rifles eliminated by the Italian Army, old Breda machine guns, French Hotchkiss machine guns, Austro-Hungarian mountain cannons, Field artillery, German G98 rifles, and Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher rifles all poured into Marshal Wu and Marshal Sun. After the fierce battle, their vitality was gradually recovering. This time, the Marshal also fought hard for the territory of Shaanxi. The Skoda and Krupp 150mm heavy guns transported from scrap steel were also handed over to Wu and Sun, and they were asked to build turrets and blockade the Yangtze River.

Is Marshal Zhang really a living Lei Feng? No! It was forced, because the Navy forcefully bought the Leonardo through Zhang Xueliang, and Yang Yuting, as an Army faction, had to do something, so he proposed to buy train guns, two of them, which happened to be the time when Contini demolished the Roma. A batch of 203mm train guns were rebuilt, and the Army was a little tired of playing with them. Now they wanted to use 305mm train guns, and they just sold them to Marshal Zhang on the pretext of making full use of them. The price is not cheap. As usual, the reasonable price is 1.5 million oceans per unit. However, the Italians not only cover transportation but also assembly and teaching, and also provide 100 shells, and can pay in installments over 4 years. This pressure feels relatively light. Although Marshal Zhang had always opposed the use of train guns, Shen Honglie's bombardment of Shanghai Beach was a great success this time. It was said that he used a 203mm naval gun, which suddenly made everyone superstitious about the caliber.

Shen Honglie learned from Continy's quip that "France is on the rocks and dies, and its boldness sinks with a thunderbolt." Yang Yuting also learned another quip from the CEO that caliber is the truth. At an internal meeting, he explained to Marshal what caliber and truth are, but Marshal Zhang said vulgarly: "I understand, this thing is just like that thing in your crotch, the thicker the better and the longer it is. The better! Only when you poke it like this can people scream..." It made Yang Yuting and a group of senior officers laugh for a long time, but they still laughed. They still did things unambiguously. Now the heavy artillery of the army and navy has the same caliber and barrel. , the same goes for artillery shells. When the time comes, we can adjust support to each other...

In addition to the traditional infantry and cavalry, Feng Yuxiang also used a new unit, the 1st Mixed Special Forces Brigade of the Central Army, nicknamed the Marshal's Tractor Brigade. The tractor brigade is the marshal's favorite. Except for several appearances in Beijing when he took office, the tractor brigade was always on standby in the Nanyuan camp. This time, he decided to take him to the war, especially in Sui. Far away, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway can reach Zhangjiakou, making transfers more convenient. Interestingly, although most of them are French Renault or Fiat 2000 imitating Renault, because they were all collected by Italians, they are all called Italian tanks.

The commander of Marshal's Tractor Brigade is He Zhuguo. Speaking of which, few people in such a large team know about armored forces. Therefore, when selecting officers, Marshal Zhang also asked the Italians how they select officers. The representative of the United Group was very honest. Not only Italy, but also Britain, France and Germany did not have such people at the beginning, so everyone basically chose young generals with cavalry background. Isn't a chariot an iron horse? Yang Yuting was convinced of this, but he added a condition: those from horse bandit backgrounds were not good, and they had to be young people who had graduated from a serious military academy. So the choice of candidate fell on He Zhuguo. Firstly, he graduated from the standard cavalry department of the Japanese Military Academy; secondly, he was only 30 years old, which is when his brain was relatively bright; thirdly, He reluctantly could be considered a new-school figure. , and was on duty at the staff department, Yang Yuting thought it was appropriate.

However, the British said that if you buy it, you can pay one-third upfront, and the other two-thirds will be guaranteed by HSBC Bank, which will be repaid in installments over the next five years. Zhang Dashuai's purchase of the Da Vinci in installments will be interest-free. , the British installment is 6% per annum on the remaining unpaid portion. Although the price of 28 million is not cheap, the British Royal Navy is an old navy after all. The Chinese navy learned from the British. In addition, there are almost no countries that can provide loans. The British have hit their soft spot. Taking into account the disguised diplomatic recognition, the Guangzhou government decided to proceed.

In August, when the fierce war between foreign exchange and crude oil was in full swing, Contini could not take into account the new changes in the Far East. The Guangzhou government and the British signed a purchase contract for two ships, which he could not afford. He would have to sell blood and kidneys. I couldn't afford it, so I decided to buy one first to enjoy myself, so I asked for the Ajax.

In September, before the departure of Contini's visiting fleet, the Ajax had already set off for the South China Sea. Shen Honglie and others felt a little nervous when they heard the news, but the representative of the United Group comforted him: "Don't be afraid, you have 2 There are only one battleship and a group of cruisers. We only have one solitary battleship. It’s still unclear who will win in a fight. In two years, Italy will decommission some old battleships, and they can still be disposed of by you. It won’t be so expensive!”

This is guaranteed to be believed by Shen Honglie, because he knows that Guangzhou spent a sky-high price of 28 million oceans, which is more expensive than buying two ships for him! As for safety and combat control, he was very cautious. The current confrontation between the North and the South was just an illusion. Both sides were accumulating strength and would fight again sooner or later. Regarding the prospect of war, he repeatedly muttered one sentence to comfort himself, This sentence is said to be a famous saying made by the president and others when joking, "France dies on the rocks, but the bold sinks with a thunder", which is used to satirize the weakness and thin skin of the British and French battleships.

France left him alone for the time being. He didn't want to buy a French warship anyway, but he knew that the Bold, which was wiped out by a mere mine, was the same class ship as the Ajax bought by the Guangzhou government. Listen. They said that they would change the name to "Revolution" after they bought it, and hoped that this slogan would become "Revolution will be destroyed with a thunder" in the future. That would be fun...