Chapter 383 Naval Issues

"In the past three months, the naval officers have been exhausted in order to carry out maritime missions, and the condition of many ships is not optimistic, and there is an urgent need for maintenance and rest!" Cheng Biguang's face was very clear: "Of course, the navy also knows that this is not a reason to shirk responsibility, but not only the situation of naval ships is not optimistic, but also lacks enough transportation ships to transport a large number of soldiers to land in Shanghai!"

"If you want to make a plan to land in Shanghai, I'm afraid..." Cheng Biguang did not continue to say anything, because his meaning is very obvious. With the maritime power now controlled by the navy, he is unable to launch a large-scale landing battle!"

In fact, Cheng Biguang has not said more problems faced by the navy. The number of ships is scarce, the ships are in poor condition, and the crew is tired. More importantly, the navy has not been paid the salaries of naval officers and soldiers for several months, which is very resentful.

Although the Beiyang Soviets in early 1908 ostensibly accepted most of the naval heritage of the pre-Qing era, the situation was quite tragic.

In October 1906, Beiyang rose up and then overthrew the former Qing Dynasty, followed by the establishment of the Southern Federal Empire and the Chinese Republic. After the official outbreak of the North-South Civil War, although many people wanted neutrality in the navy, the situation was also divided. Some ships defected to the Southern Federation and some turned to the Northern Ocean.

After the Anhui army marched into the south in 1907 and successively conquered the two rivers, Fujian and Zhejiang, and Guangdong and controlled all the coastal provinces in the south, many naval vessels that had originally defected to the Southern Federation also declared a republic and were loyal to the Northern Ocean.

After the Soviet army entered the customs in June 1907, Zhao Dongyun took control of the power of Beiyang and became the nominal supreme commander of the Beiyang Navy, but only nominally.

Because there are Soviet and Anhui systems in the North Sea, the navy belonging to the Beiyang Republican Government is also divided into two parts, one is the naval vessels directly loyal to the Soviet system, and the other is the navy loyal to the Anhui system. Although the navy controlled by Zhao Dongyun has four ships: Haiqi, Hairong, Haicho and Haichen. The only capital ship of the Chinese navy and the only destroyer, the Flying Eagle.

However, the naval power controlled by the Anhui system is not too weak. It has a total of eight gunships including Jian'an, Jianwei, the Chuzi series and Jiangzi series.

People may ask that the navy controlled by the Soviet Navy has four cruisers, and there is also a cruiser with more than 4,000 tons of eight-inch heavy guns, which is far better than those gunships of the Anhui series in terms of tonnage and firepower. Why are they still afraid of them?

Because the battle area of the two navies in the future is not a decisive battle, but concentrated in the Yangtze River, especially the Yangtze River Basin, coupled with the fire support of the Anhui and the forts along the river, it is a very risky thing for the Soviet navy to venture into the Yangtze River and the Anhui navy.

In addition, it is also related to the neutral thinking of naval generals. The contemporary Chinese navy is a relatively special group. Those naval generals are very exclusive, and most of them have the idea that they are mothers.

Anyway, it is impossible for the navy to go ashore to compete for hegemony, so many naval generals, including Cheng Biguang, Liu Guanxiong and Sa Zhenbing, their first priority is not to help a warlord compete for hegemony, but to protect naval ships and compete for naval funds.

Some time ago, Zhao Dongyun was able to successfully take over many naval ships controlled by Wang Yingkai, because when Zhao Dongyun first moved into the capital, he set up a naval office and allocated 80 yuan to the navy to reissue the navy that had been in arrears for a long time. The salary of officers and soldiers, later he shouted the slogan of naval reconstruction by borrowing aftermath, and also sent a naval investigation team to the United States and European countries, saying that he wanted to buy battleships or something.

In the later aftermath of the loan, Zhao Dongyun was forced to abide by his agreement to rebuild the navy due to the strong demands of the United States.

In the aftermath loan signed with the United States, after prioritizing the repayment of the arrears and compensation to the United States, the remaining part must be used to purchase warships from the United States, deducting all kinds of messy expenses. After the arrears, it is approved to be about 2 million pounds for the purchase of warships from the United States.

This money is probably the price of a contemporary battleship!

And this money is also an important bargaining chip for Zhao Dongyun to attract the navy to be loyal to himself. In order to make proper use of this money, and due to Zhao Dongyun's strong demand, part of the funds for the purchase of warships are used to purchase equipment needed to build the naval arsenal.

In the relevant agreement reached by the Chinese republican government and the United States in January, about 500,000 pounds will be spent on the introduction of a large amount of equipment to build a naval repair house. After the wing is completed, it will have the technical ability to maintain and repair medium warships.

The capital of 1.5 million pounds will be used to purchase weapons such as warships and naval guns and shells. The detailed purchase plan has not yet been finalized. The Ministry of the Navy attaches great importance to this procurement and hopes to purchase the best and largest number of warships with limited funds. Due to many issues such as model selection, a relatively clear plan has not been reached within the navy.

Using the two million pounds borrowed from the aftermath to prepare for the construction of a naval repairhouse and the purchase of warships from the United States can be said to be the main reason why Cheng Biguang and other Soviet admiral officers support Zhao Dongyun.

The Soviet navy is different from the army. The army generals regard unification as the highest priority, while the admirals regard the navy's own interests as the first priority. Among other things, if Zhao Dongyun cuts off the plan to purchase warships from the United States, it is estimated that the ships of the Soviet navy will have to go south to Duan Qirui the next day.

The principle that the navy takes its own interests as the first priority, that is, whether it is the Anhui navy or the Soviet navy, will not easily let warships be involved in danger. At least since 1906, the navy has been divided into three, but in fact, there has not been even one naval battle between the navy.

When Duan Qirui went south, in the face of the Southern Federation's request for a confrontation between the navy and the Beiyang Navy and prevent the Anhui army from crossing the river, the naval vessels such as the Haiqi, which belonged to the Southern Federation at that time, were very straightforward and turned around and announced the republic.

Zhao Dongyun also had no doubt that when he forced the navy to venture into the Yangtze River and let the navy's ship only be sunk, he was afraid that Cheng Biguang would not hesitate to lead the naval ships south to defect to Duan Qirui.

Anyway, in the view of a large number of naval generals, no matter who will unify China in the future, their navy will be fearless. Zhao Dongyun gave the navy money to buy ships, then the navy will declare allegiance to Zhao Dongyun, but don't expect the navy to go south to fight a decisive battle with the Anhui navy.

Because in the view of the admirals, whether it is the navy controlled by the Anhui system or the navy controlled by the Soviet system, they are the family themselves. Zhao Dongyun and Duan Qirui are just the wrongdoers who provide them with military expenses now. For the sake of outsiders, they opened the film with their own people and took the hard-won naval family to accumulate for The ambition of a warlord, whether it is Sa Zhenbing, Cheng Biguang or Liu Guanxiong, is unwilling.

They also expect to keep the current fire of the navy and rebuild the navy after a warlord unites China.

The family that took more than ten years to rebuild after the First Sino-Japanese War must not be lost in a civil war, which is generally the consensus of contemporary domestic naval generals.

Of course, these ideas cannot be directly stated, so Cheng Biguang postponed them for many reasons, such as insufficient transportation capacity, ships need to be repaired, and unpaid salaries.

In a word, no matter what a wonderful plan the combat department has made. It's okay for you to ask the navy to transport supplies, but you have to let the navy face the firepower of the Shanghai fort and the risk of maritime warfare with the Anhui navy to cover the landing of the army in Shanghai. Shi Yanglin will die early!

Although Cheng Biguang didn't say it clearly, Zhao Dongyun understood what kind of navy he was under him.

Zhao Dongyun lowered his head slightly, and a trace of experience flashed in his low eyes. He had made a secret decision in his heart. When I unified China, he would be the first to launch a cleanse against the navy. If he didn't kick out all the current admirals, I would not be surnamed Zhao!

Although there was already a great upset in his heart, Zhao Dongyun only lowered his head slightly and looked normal.

The navy expressed its rejection of landing in Shanghai, but the meeting always had to continue. Zhao Dongyun did not intend to be furious, but Shi Yanglin explained a few words, but it was also a scene. If you want to land in Shanghai, the Shanghai Battery is an unavoidable nail.

If Fengjun wants to send troops to land in Shanghai, unless it lands on the east bank of the Huangpu River and then crosses the Huangpu River, this combat plan is not feasible at all, because although the Huangpu River is not a big river, it is also hundreds of meters wide. It is not difficult to cross the river, plus landing The troops are not too many, and they are not sure to cross the river directly. In this way, it's better to cross the Yangtze River directly from Yangzhou, Nantong and other places.

In addition, the fire-cover troops of the Shanghai Fort can only cross the mouth of the Yangtze River and then land on the northern Yangtze River coast of the Shanghai Fort. Although it is very tactically feasible, it is necessary for the Navy to take a very large risk, and Cheng Biguang of the Navy also made a statement: the Navy does not Do it!

There is a dispute over the landing in Shanghai, but this is only one of the small problems for a huge river crossing battle plan. The battle office's plan to cross the river and land in Shanghai is just a side attack plan, which is mainly used to attract and contain the strength and attention of the Anhui army.

In fact, this is not only in Shanghai, but even the whole area of southern Jiangsu is not the main attack direction of the Feng army. From the beginning, Shiyanglin made it clear that the future main attack direction of the Feng army is in southern Anhui, and the main attack area will be the area between Jinling and Tongling.

Why did you choose here? Because the south of Tongling is a hilly mountain area, which is not conducive to the large-scale deployment and mobile operations of troops.

From Tongling to Xuancheng to Huzhou, based on the straight lines connected by the above three places, to the south is a large mountain and hilly area, and to the north is a vast plain area. Although there is also a problem of dense water network in Jiangnan, this terrain is more convenient for the deployment of troops than mountain hills. .

Therefore, looking at the topography of the Jiangnan region and the water volume and width of the Yangtze River Basin east of Nanjing, it can basically be determined that if the Feng army wants to cross the river in the future, the general location of crossing the river and the subsequent main attack direction are there, which is about 150 kilometers of width between Jinling and Tongling.

Fengjun himself knew that the Anhui generals on the opposite side were not stupid. They could also judge it, otherwise they would not have deployed the two main forces of the Fourth Division and the Second Mixed Brigade, in this area.

But the question now is, where exactly does Fengjun land in this area?

This is not only a problem that needs to be solved and decided by the Feng Army Operations Department, but also a problem that all the generals of the Anhui army are trying to guess!