Chapter 59: The Establishment of the Maritime Defense Fleet

  After the chaos of the early revolution, except for the provinces in East China, the business across the country was quite bleak. However, under the boost of the National Assembly election, the three industries in the voting places were exceptionally prosperous and became direct beneficiaries of the election.

  These three industries are: hotels, restaurants and brothels. During the election period, hotels were fully booked, restaurants were crowded with guests every day, and rooms in brothels were pre-booked early, each issuing a fortune in election funds, and the driving force behind this lavish spending was the small ballot.

  For example, Hubei is a region with abundant financial resources for the Republican Party. The Wuhan branch of the Republican Party took over the "Hankou First East China Hotel", several brothels in Sanfenli and Sichengli, and several large restaurants, using receipts printed by the reception office to indulge in extravagance and luxury, making a big splash at the time.

  In Hubei, where the forces were relatively weak, "the Alliance Provincial Assembly had 30 or 40 members, who rented a house on Sandao Street, the original Salt Administration Office of the Alliance Branch. There were many people and little space, so poor that it was difficult to open a partnership."

  The Republican Party, with its strong financial resources, carried out a vigorous campaign of canvassing and electioneering, but in the congressional elections in Hubei it encountered powerful competition from the East China Chamber of Commerce.

  In terms of preliminary selection alone, it was manipulated by the Huadong Chamber of Commerce through administrative officials who were previously planted in Hubei by the two Huai administrative offices.

  In addition, in the re-election, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce supported the non-partisan candidates who had already been elected, while secretly buying Republican congressmen to push them forward.

  Many Republicans find it hard to resist the temptation of the wealthy and powerful Chamber of Commerce in East China, as long as they join the Chamber, they will have a comfortable life in the future, be able to focus on politics without violating their ideals and bottom line.

  This result allowed the Republican Party to be gradually controlled by the East Coast business community, while the internal organizational ability of the Republican Party was low, and the internal mutual destruction made it impossible for the Republican Party to stop the infiltration of the East Coast business community.

  However, this election really made a lot of people rich. The East China Chamber of Commerce alone spent 28 million silver dollars, and those interested in politics, such as gentry merchants and non-partisan individuals, also spent their own money on bribery, or entertaining guests with food and drink to build relationships, etc., the expenses in this aspect are indeed relatively large.

  The hotels under Huadong Group are always fully booked every day.

  After attending the fashion show, Jiang Yu wore casual clothes and walked onto the street, only to see that the atmosphere on the street was very lively, with all sorts of flyers and banners everywhere.

  Entering a teahouse, I immediately saw the candidates who were in the midst of debating, among whom was a group of students advocating for democracy and freedom, as well as Three Principles of the People.

  Jiang Yu drank tea and suddenly sighed: "This Beiyang is too free, people's minds will be chaotic!"

  Han Muxia shook his head and said, "How could you, my junior brother, suddenly have such a feeling?"

  "It's nothing." Jiang Yu smiled and didn't continue the topic, but in his heart he thought it was time to get things in order, this Beiyang era was indeed too free.

  "By the way, Shixiong, what about that matter of recruiting those civilian martial artists I asked you to handle?" Jiang Yu asked Han Muxia.

  "Things are going smoothly, and now it's getting harder to find martial artists escorting caravans nationwide. Many martial artists can no longer make a living by their skills, and some have even changed professions. By proposing to recruit them, we've solved the problem of their livelihoods, and since our junior brother won the Sino-Russian War, those martial artists are also willing to serve us." Han Muxia said.

  In this era, most martial artists relied on warlords. Those with high martial arts skills became bodyguards for the warlord leaders, but those who were not top-notch martial artists did not fare as well.

  Jiang Yu, however, was deeply aware of the strengths of these people. During the later Liberation War period, some of the Nationalist Party's secret agents were extremely formidable and generally very difficult to kill, with many being pinned down in houses and killed by machine guns.

  "We can't let traditional martial arts be lost, we need to open more martial arts schools among the people and have these martial artists go to schools to teach students martial arts. And select a batch of martial artists with potential to become special agents to absorb into the intelligence organization." Jiang Yu instructed, now his intelligence network is mainly managed by Zhou Ziyue, but it's more focused on collecting commercial intelligence, which can no longer meet the needs of counter-espionage and infiltration and reconnaissance against enemy countries.

  The establishment of a new intelligence agency is imminent.

  Jiang Yu walked around the street and then went home. The next day, Jiang Yu rushed to Hangzhou again. The National Defense Army officially established the 'East China Sea Defense Fleet' and the 'Hangzhou Naval School' in Hangzhou.

  The East Sea Fleet was equipped with ten small-tonnage escort ships, as well as hundreds of torpedo boats, and also secretly equipped with twenty newly launched submarines.

  Hangzhou Naval School was headed by Xie Baizheng, who had experience in running a naval school in Shandong.

  And Xie Baozhang is a relatively straightforward person, a typical military man who can be entrusted with important tasks, so Jiang Yu specially invited him from his hometown in Fujian.

  Xie Baoyu's daughter, who was just a few years old at that time, would later become the writer Bing Xin.

  At the founding ceremony of the East China Sea Fleet, Xie Baozhang wore a tall and straight military uniform, with an indescribable excitement on his resolute face.

  The defeat of the Jiawu year was regarded by Xie Baochuan as the greatest shame of his life, but due to national circumstances, the day he had been eagerly awaiting for revenge became increasingly elusive.

  However, a turning point emerged during the Xinhai year, and Jiang Yu found him.

  However, at that time Xie Baoyi had no confidence in Jiang Yu and did not have a good impression of the local warlord Jiang Yu, so he did not accept Jiang's invitation to come out of retirement.

  The end of the Sino-Russian War completely changed Xie's views.

  Through this war, he realized that Jiang Yü was the only Chinese military commander who dared to declare war on a powerful nation and had sufficient financial resources to do so.

  There was also sufficient financial resources to build a truly modernized navy.

  Just as Xie Baocang was somewhat regretful, Jiang Yu sent someone to invite him again. This time, Xie Baocang did not refuse again and took up the post of President of Hangzhou Naval University and Commander-in-Chief of the East China Sea Defense Fleet under Jiang Yu's invitation.

  When Jiang Yu arrived at the ceremony, Xie Baoyi gave him a solemn and respectful military salute, and Jiang Yu responded with an equally solemn military salute.

  The two men did not exchange pleasantries; a military salute was all the language they needed.

  More than 2,000 sailors wearing spotless white uniforms stood solemnly on the drill ground. This was the naval foundation that Jiang had started training earlier and even invited many German instructors to come over, although there were not many equipment before and no formal establishment of the navy yet.

  Xie Baizheng first spoke, standing on the high platform, looking at the neat and uniform naval soldiers below, saying in a loud and clear voice: "Today, the East China Sea Defense Fleet is officially established. I only hope you remember that the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War is the greatest shame of my Chinese Navy. To wash away this great shame, we must be united, work hard, and have a spirit that fears no death. Only then can we revive our Chinese Navy. Although this will be a long process, it may take one or two generations, or even three generations' efforts. However, if we do not work hard, there is no hope for the Chinese Navy. From now on, I will train you with the strictest standards, and I hope you have sufficient mental preparation."

  Jiang Yu stood by, hearing his determination and conviction from Xie Baizheng's speech. Just this proved that he had not found the wrong person. As soon as Xie Baizheng finished speaking, there was a warm applause.

  Xie Baoyang made a inviting gesture to Jiang Yu, Jiang Yu nodded and walked onto the high platform.

  The naval soldiers below saw Jiang Yu step onto the stage, and a look of reverence suddenly flowed out in their eyes, despite Jiang Yu being extremely young.

  Jiang Yu looked around in a circle, then said with great energy: "Today, the East China Sea Defense Fleet is established. Although you are not the Central Navy, nominally just a local navy. However, given China's current situation, the central government has no power to build a modernized navy of a certain scale, while our East China Sea Defense Fleet will become the fleet with the largest investment in China. It can be said that you are more central than the Central Navy, you are the true Chinese Navy, and you are the hope of the Chinese Navy. Although we fly the flag of sea defense, what does the navy do? The navy is a branch of war for a country's external warfare, and it is also the most expensive branch. Many people say that I, Jiang Yu, am just a local warlord, why spend money to build such an expensive navy? I only need to have an army."

  "That's right, I am a warlord. As long as I want to, I can replace the central government immediately. When Japan defeated Russia when I was 13 years old and became a new world power, a small Japan became a world power. From then on, I vowed that one day I would make Chinese people proud and let China stand tall again in the world. So I want to be a warlord because I don't trust those old bureaucrats or any revolutionary party. My purpose of being a warlord is to make China win in foreign wars, so I want to establish a navy, no matter how much money it takes to build up our Chinese navy. Maybe there will be civil wars in the future, maybe many parties will try to lure you. But you must remember three iron rules: First, you are soldiers, and soldiers' duty is to obey; soldiers should not get involved in politics. Second, no matter how intense the civil war in China may become, as sailors, you must remain neutral. Third, your goal is to win foreign wars, and always take the Japanese navy as a hypothetical enemy."

  "You may think that it is extremely difficult to defeat the Japanese Navy, and that our naval equipment is far inferior to Japan's. But this is no excuse. Whatever level of training the Japanese Navy can achieve, you must also achieve the same level, or even surpass them. As long as you can do so, I, Jiang Jieshi, will spare no expense in building warships for you, even if it means selling all our copper and iron. China's land area is twenty to thirty times that of Japan; surely we can build more warships than Japan? You just need to give me a little time, but you must also intensify your training. Otherwise, when I provide you with the warships, you will still be as clumsy as you are now, and how can I face the ordinary people who have contributed money to support the purchase of warships?"

  "Tell me, can you maintain strict discipline?" Jiang Yu asked loudly to all the naval soldiers.

  "Affirmative!" The naval soldiers responded in a low voice.

  "Tell me, can you guys really endure hard training?" Jiang Yu asked again.

  "Right!"

  "Tell me, can you fight without fear of death?"

  "Got it!"

  "Good." Jiang Yu nodded in satisfaction, and again loudly said: "Today I make a vow with all of you once more. Whoever fails to keep it will apologize with death."

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  The first update is here!

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