The winter of 1939 seemed particularly cold. Navy Minister Chen Shaokuanda left the Navy headquarters in Tieshizi Hutong early in the morning and went to the Presidential Palace in Xinhuamen for a meeting. ●⌒There were few pedestrians on the street, and only some early cleaning workers were cleaning the snow on the road.

After the Japanese army approached the Great Wall, most of the agencies of the State Council and government departments had moved to Xi'an. The Beiyang government was ready to welcome the long-term war of resistance. Only the Land, the Navy, the General Staff and the Military Base still insisted on working in Beijing. President Duan Qirui insisted on staying in Beijing, so most of the personnel in the Presidential Palace did not evacuate.

The streets of Beijing are much colder than before the war. Most of the rich people have gone to the northwest. About a quarter of the shops on both sides of the street have been closed. On the streets of Beijing, the young men and the rich ladies have disappeared, but there are more soldiers in military uniforms.

In the lobby reception hall on the first floor of the Presidential Palace, a group of army and naval generals carrying at least a golden star on their shoulders were already sitting on the sofa in groups chatting. It seemed that Duan Qirui had not come yet, and there was still some time before the meeting began. Chen Shaokuan greeted the generals whom he knew in the living room one by one, and then sat down to the position where the naval generals were.

"General Chen, I heard that the Germans were interested in fighting the shipyard in Qingdao to transfer it to the Navy Department. Is this true?" Yang Xuande, director of the torpedo rikes of the Navy Ordnance Bureau, asked after seeing him sitting down.

"It's interesting that Qingdao Shipyard is a private shipyard, but the government is now unable to pay for it for the time being and is negotiating with the Germans to see if it can be used to offset the war bonds." Chen Shaokuan said that domestic torpedo and mine manufacturing are mainly completed by the original Fuzhou Mawei Shipyard and the Dagu Naval Shipyard. Due to the relocation of the Fuzhou Shipyard, the defensive mine laying of the Bohai Bay is mainly produced by the Dagu Shipyard. The output is far from meeting the needs. At present, the Dagu Shipyard is under the guidance of German and Austrian experts to carry out new renovation and expansion of the shipyard.

Before the war, the Navy Department had a total of four shipyards in the Bohai Bay, Tianjin Dagu Shipyard, Yantai Navy Shipyard, Weihai Shipyard and Qinhuangdao Shipyard. However, due to insufficient investment over the years, these four shipyards were very small in size, and only built some small ships such as patrol gunboats or torpedo boats with a drainage of less than 400 tons or small ships such as torpedo boats, and they were unable to build large ships at all.

After the war started, the naval bases in Weihai and Yantai were raided by the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet, causing heavy losses. The two main battleships "Zhenhai" and "Jinghai" were severely damaged and forced to hide in Qingdao for repair.

With the development of the domestic economy, the Beijing government achieved a state of maintaining the balance of domestic revenue and expenditure after 1928, and finally some of its capabilities began to strengthen military production. However, the funds invested in military production per production were only more than 10 million yuan. These funds were basically used by the Army Department to expand the production scale of the three major arsenals in Dalin County, Dexian and Hanyang. Although the Navy Department argued, the annual allocation could only maintain the transformation of the two shipyards in Fuzhou and Shanghai Jiangnan.

It was not until the end of 1934 that the Navy Department began to receive large funds for the relocation of Fuzhou Shipyard and Jiangnan Shipyard. The Mawei Shipyard was moved to Qinzhou, and the Jiangnan Shipyard and Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau moved to Hanyang as a whole and merged with the Hanyang Arsenal. The Navy Department did not have some funds until this time to expand and transform the four northern naval shipyards such as Dagu Shipyard. However, the transformation and expansion projects of these shipyards were not completed, and the war broke out.

Yantai and Weihai Shipyards were not attacked. With the strengthening of the Chinese naval aviation force, after suffering several air strikes, Japanese warships did not dare to easily enter the Bohai Bay. The four shipyards in the Bohai Bay have also completed expansion projects. According to the plan, the Weihai and Qinhuangdao Shipyards are small in scale and can only build light ships with a displacement of less than 3,000 tons. Dagu and Yantai Shipyards can build cruisers with a displacement of less than 10,000 tons. In addition, the two shipyards have also introduced a submarine production line from Germany and Austria.

If the Qingdao Shipyard can be obtained, the Chinese Navy will have the ability to build 40,000-ton warships in the north at once.

After the war broke out, the Japanese fleet was operating at will on the coast of China, causing great trouble for the army's defense. The Japanese army was able to land at any point in the eastern coast of China and concentrate superior forces, which finally made the Beiyang government truly realize the importance of the navy. If it were not for the Japanese army's maritime support and landing in northern Jiangsu, the Battle of Songhu might have lasted for a long time. The Chinese army was not weaker than the Japanese army in equipment and training, which was also one of the main reasons why the Japanese army was unable to continue to advance westward after capturing Nanjing. Although Wuhu was also occupied by the Japanese army after the fall of Nanjing, on the Tongling line, the National Defense Force used the favorable defensive terrain of the mountains and after repeated and fierce tug-of-war, blocked the Japanese army's advance westward.

In the Huaihe River Basin, although Xuzhou fell, it blocked the Japanese attack from the front line from Shangqiu to Fuyang. Two armored divisions of the Chinese Army and one Austro-Hungarian "Volunteer Armored Division" became the backbone of defense. Several major battles were held here, making both China and Japan aware of the dominant position of armored troops in offense and defense. China is working hard to expand the production of Baotou and Hanyang Tank Factory, and has built three new tank factories in Zhangjiakou, Xi'an and Chongqing.

Due to insufficient production capacity, China's monthly tank production is only about 60 vehicles, which is far from meeting the needs of war. Japan is not much better. The army needs to compete with the navy for the resources of armored steel, and there is also a huge gap between Japan's machinery industry and world powers such as Europe and the United States, so the Japanese army's tank production is not much stronger than China.

China is becoming stronger and stronger in the war. Due to the rich human resources, even if the army reaches 10 million, it will not have a major impact on domestic production. This is the biggest advantage that no country in the world cannot have. After more than two years of adjustment, China has stabilized the situation. In fact, after the spring of 1939, there was no large-scale battle between China and Japan except for the unexpected fall of Guangzhou.

The Japanese army was unable to launch a major attack again, while China was unable to counterattack for the time being. The entire war was in a stalemate.

With the newly built and expanded factories in the emergency armament plan before and after the war, China's steel output reached 3.5 million tons in 1939, and is expected to exceed 4 million tons in 1940, which will surpass France and Italy and become one of the world's powerful countries. With the continuous strengthening of industrial capabilities, the military and the people's confidence in defeating Japan is gradually increasing.

After the outbreak of the war, although the material assistance received from Germany and Austria was cut off, the technical assistance from Germany and Austria to China did not stop. With the help of a large number of German and Austria engineering and technical personnel, China's industrial technology level is developing rapidly. In some fields, it has actually been able to achieve a level comparable to Germany and Austria, especially in the fields of metallurgy and machinery manufacturing, which is rapidly approaching the world level.

However, the development of the Chinese navy is far behind the world.

As the saying goes, "a hundred-year navy", which actually means that a country's shipbuilding industry needs a long development time. This is a bit exaggerated. However, to build a first-class naval country, the shipbuilding industry requires at least two or three decades of rapid development. With the strong support and subsidies of the government, the Japanese shipbuilding industry finally became one of the world's first-class shipbuilding countries in more than 30 years, which created a world-class navy.

In fact, the Japanese Navy's equipment was lagging behind the world until it was able to independently build the "King Kong" class battleships. They were always on the road of "buying-improvement-improvement-improvement". Before that, the performance of the main battleships designed and built by the Japanese Navy lagged behind the entire era, and after the European War, they gradually caught up with the pace of the world.

"Shipbuilding capabilities symbolize a country's comprehensive industrial capacity and cannot be successful in the past. If the Chinese Navy wants to become one of the world's powerful countries, it will take a long way to go." Chen Shaokuan thought, but if he can obtain the Qingdao Shipyard in the hands of the Germans, it will enable the Chinese Navy to achieve a leapfrog development.

Of course he was unwilling to give up.

"President Chen, President Chen has arrived at the conference room, and the meeting is about to begin!" Wang Chongwen's voice interrupted his meditation. (To be continued, please search for Astronomy, novels are better, updated and faster!
Chapter completed!