Chapter 68 Yamamoto Junichiro (1)

  Looking at Chen Jingyun's urgent expression, An Hualin knew that this was not the time for any nonsense, so he didn't say anything else and directly replied: "According to what the British man said, we can provide a short-term loan of about one million pounds, with the remaining customs duties in Fujian Province as collateral, and repay the principal and interest within four years. The interest rate is 9%, and it will be paid at a discount of 94%."

  Chen Jingyun thought to himself, "The British are really good at taking advantage of others. The interest rate is high, and the handling fee is even more exorbitant, amounting to six times that of the Japanese. Compared to the Japanese, they are even more ruthless. Although the Japanese have ulterior motives, their loan interest rates are not high, only 6%, and the payment terms are also reasonable at 97% off. However, this can be understood as the British loans are commercial in nature, and whether it's Oda or that commercial bank, they are all driven by profit. In contrast, the Japanese loans have strong political motivations, with a large number of advisors and instructors sent to Fujian to infiltrate and influence, but more importantly, to support the southern faction against the Beiyang government, creating a divided China."

  "Are there any additional conditions for their loan?" Chen Jingyun didn't want to be like last time with the Salt Administration loan, where the other side came up with a condition that it couldn't be used for military purposes.

  Chen Jingyun did not have the mind to spend such a huge cost to borrow a large sum of money for the development of people's livelihood. At least before leaving Fujian, he did not plan to do so, and now his only goal is to expand the army again, and after taking down Guangdong or Zhejiang, consider developing people's livelihood and doing practical business, it's not too late.

  An Hualin said: "The condition is there!"

  Chen Jingyun furrowed his brow: "What's going on? Can't we use it for military purposes like last time?"

  An Hualin said: "This is not the case, but the British side says that this loan cannot be used to purchase any products from third countries. If you want to buy from abroad, you can only purchase goods from British companies, and specify that they are represented by Ouyi Yanghang."

  Upon hearing this, Chen Jingyun's brow furrowed even tighter! If he agreed to the British proposal, in order to utilize this batch of money to purchase military equipment, they could only buy British products. However, at present, the National Army had already been equipped with a large quantity of German-made weapons and a considerable number of Japanese-made artillery pieces. At this time, if they were to procure more British military equipment, the National Army's weaponry system would become too complicated, which did not align with Chen Jingyun's original intention of unifying logistics.

  However, there are also ways to turn things around. For example, Chen Jingyun does not plan to use the money from this batch of British people to buy things, but instead uses it all as military pay, and then uses the Japanese people's batch of money and his own taxes to procure military equipment and various devices from Germany or Japan.

  Chen Jingyun thought for a moment and felt that these conditions were not too harsh, as long as he got the money in his hands, accepting them was no problem.

  "These conditions can be discussed, but more importantly, it's about whether we can borrow more money. Now they offer one million pounds, which is just over 10 million yuan. You know that our Fujian province's tax revenue is over 500-600 million every year. If we repay the principal and interest in 10 years, borrowing 3-5 million pounds is not a difficult task." Chen Jingyun said carefully: "The interest rate cannot be too high, you need to continue negotiating with them on this aspect."

  Chen Jingyun currently has nearly 100 million yuan in his hands, and there will be no risk of financial collapse in the short term. He is anxious about finances because he is making plans for next year, so he can wait for a while.

  "In short, borrow as much as possible. If all else fails, we can directly use loans to buy their industrial products!"

  An Hualin listened to Chen Jingyun's words and said, "This is probably very difficult, because the other side is not an official action, a family business bank can provide one million pounds, which is already not a small amount, and it's hard to get more!"

  Anhua Lin's words were not false, and after he went back, he immediately visited Odo Jones. The result was also about the same tone, and there was no more money available. Even with this ￡1 million, it was still a risky investment, and they hoped that Chen Jingyun could use this batch of funds to directly purchase products through Ovi Ocean Shipping Co.

  Anhualin slightly heard, only to find that the Ouyang Ocean Shipping Company was newly established, and the major shareholder was actually Odo Jones! It seems that corrupt officials are not unique to my China, this British man is also blinded by money. Not long ago, he turned up his nose at the loan proposal for Fujian, talking about national policy and international influence, but now he has come himself to provide private loans, doesn't he worry that after losing official guarantees, the Fujian military government will default on their debts?

  But then he thought that this batch of loans was used as collateral by Guan Yu, and Guan Yu was originally controlled in the hands of the British, An Hualin was relieved.

  These loans were shady from the start, and O'Donnel Jones even conducted them in secret, violating Ambassador Zhu Jintian's overall policy towards China.

  To know that the British government, following Curzon's China policy, currently advocates for North-South peace talks while supporting Yuan Shikai as President of China, maintaining a unified but weak China. If Curzon were to find out that some Britons are secretly providing loans to Chen Jingyun to expand the military strength of the South, solely for the high profits, he would likely be furious.

  People, after all, can't be saints, most have private motives. Odiousness just showed his at the wrong time. With enough profit, anyone can take risks! Besides, this era's Britain advocates free trade, and Jewell can't control the bankers' heads.

  Against this backdrop, Anfu Lin began to negotiate with the Odo Jones side. Since Chen Jingyun was not in a hurry, this round of talks was much slower than the previous loan from Japan. To know that last time, since Chen Jingyun and Sato Ryosuke set the overall direction, both sides' personnel talked for only two days before signing the contract, and soon Japanese military equipment arrived in Fuzhou.

  As things are going smoothly as expected, Chen Jingyun's mood has been pretty good lately.

  Financial problems are temporarily worry-free, Chen Jingyun once again put his focus on the military.

  In the Governor's Office, Chen Jingyun was talking to a man in a Western suit.

  "Your Excellency, based on my recent observations of your army, I and several colleagues have discussed and formulated a number of plans. Please review them!" The speaker was Japanese advisor Yamamoto Jun'ichirō.

  "Ah!" Chen Jingyun took over the plan book from Yamamoto Junichiro's hand and carefully flipped through it.

  It has to be admitted that the vision of these Japanese is still very sharp, and in just a few days, they have identified many problems existing in the National Army, among which they directly pointed out that the lack of low-level officers and unqualified technical personnel will directly affect the combat effectiveness of the National Army. In response, they proposed several solutions, including suggesting that Chen Jingyun establish a military academy to cultivate low-level officers as the main goal, and expressing Japan's willingness to dispatch retired military officers to teach. For technical troops, Yamamoto Junichiro suggested that Japanese advisers directly train the Fuzhou Guard Brigade, and after training, promote it throughout the army.

  Looking at such a plan book, Chen Jingyun has already felt the Japanese people's urgent desire to influence the National Army from it. This feeling made Chen Jingyun very uncomfortable.

  Although he felt uncomfortable in his heart, Chen Jingyun had to admit that Yamamoto Jun'ichirō's suggestion was realistic and feasible. Although the National Army now claims to have tens of thousands of people, there are as many as six mixed brigades in the field, and two artillery regiments, but the foundation of the National Army is still the 10th Regiment.

  The former Tenth Division was extremely lacking in high-ranking military officers, and most of the officers were from Fuzhou Army Primary School, with a few from Hubei Army Middle School. As for those who had studied abroad, only Chen Jingyun and Xiao Qibin remained. Later, during the expansion of the National Revolutionary Army, a few more people came to join, including one student who had dropped out of the Japanese Army Academy. All of these were hastily assigned to the Guard Regiment by Chen Jingyun. The quality of high-ranking officers was so low that it's not even worth mentioning the mid-to-low-level officers, most of whom were old-timers from the Tenth Division. Former platoon leaders and company commanders could now lead battalions and regiments, while former squad leaders and non-commissioned officers had become division-level commanders. As for the many platoon leaders and squad leaders, most had been promoted directly from soldiers after attending military school.

  The poor quality of officers is the root cause of the low combat effectiveness of the national army. To solve this problem, it can only be done by establishing military schools and spending time to cultivate one's own officer talents. Chen Jingyun has already started doing this, and more than 50 students from the first batch of accelerated classes at Fuzhou Military School have graduated and joined the Fourth Brigade. The second phase of accelerated training is currently underway. In addition, students in the three-month short-term class are still continuing their studies, and once they graduate, they will be directly awarded the rank of lieutenant and become the cradle of military officers.

  It was just that in the past, due to the limited strength of the Fuzhou Military Academy and the expansion of various troops, it was not possible to dispatch too many active-duty officers for training. Therefore, they could only conduct a one-month crash course through rotation. After graduating from these crash courses, Chen Jingyun specifically instructed the staff department's Ma Cheng that these officers were not allowed to return to their original units but were instead cross-assigned. This was naturally Chen Jingyun's way of preventing the risk of rebellion among his subordinates. Even Chen Jingyun thought that once things had stabilized, he would establish a rule where junior officers who were promoted to senior officer positions would have to go for further study and could not remain in their original units. Senior officers who were promoted to general positions would also have to go for further study, and after graduation, they would be reassigned. This way, it would be possible to avoid the situation where high-ranking generals controlled mid- and low-level officers for a long time, thereby minimizing the risk of rebellion among officers.

  The establishment of the Fuzhou Military Academy to some extent solved the problem of having or not having, but still could not solve the situation where the National Revolutionary Army was extremely lacking in qualified military officers, so Yamamoto Jun'ichirō suggested setting up another military academy, specifically for training low-level military officers.

  However, Chen Jingyun considered much more than Yamamoto Jun'ichirō. He needed to consider the cultivation of officer quality and also consider the control problem of the army. So in the military school, he basically copied the Huangpu model, that is, personally served as the principal, occasionally took out time to give lectures, and finally hoped that all officers of the National Army would come from Fuzhou Military School, so as to form a most direct legitimate power in the officer system.

  Such consideration is not in line with Chen Jingyun's plan, so he said: "Building another military school would cost a lot and take effect slowly. It's better to directly expand Fuzhou Military School and increase the current faculty scale."