Chapter Fourteen: The Grand Plan

  Yang Da Boss is causing trouble in Europe, but his ultimate goal is still to return and harm the Qing Dynasty. This is his life's ambition. However, for someone like him, a three-nothing person, to try to develop in China at this time would be truly seeking death. In just a few days, not even a bone might be left behind. Whether or not they admit it, Europe at this time is far more civilized than the queue-wearing ones who view merchants as pigs and sheep, and also more civilized than the New Continent where people are crazy about robbing money. This is a place with the highest safety guarantee. Yang Da Boss should gather his capital in Europe and wait for an opportunity to strike back.

  This suitable opportunity is Jia Wu.

  His plan was to assemble a mercenary army, or arm a group of overseas Chinese, and then use the pretext of offering assistance to launch a surprise attack and plunder, with Taiwan being an ideal place for him to pillage. Once Li's forces were defeated and he was forced to cede Taiwan, he would lead his men there under the guise of defending it, but not in the manner of Tang Jingxing's rebellion against the emperor and the empress dowager. Instead, he would resolutely pledge loyalty to the imperial court and the empress dowager. When Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao's treacherous clique caused chaos in the imperial court, he would seize the opportunity to extend his evil clutches towards the mainland, and as for whose side he would take, that would be decided later, depending on who offered him more benefits.

  But in that case, Li Er Guizi must be allowed to consume the Japanese strength to the greatest extent possible, and it would be best if they could fight each other to a two-sided defeat. If the Beiyang Navy can be destroyed together with the Combined Fleet, then it will be perfect. Then, 350,000 of the Japanese army can be eliminated, after which things will become much easier to handle.

  So first, the Beiyang warlords were sold arms, hand grenades, automatic pistols and mortars. To be sure, there were a few among Li's men who really wanted to fight, like Nie Shicheng, Zuo Baogui and Zhang Gaoyuan, but their level was limited, and they still fought with the old brains of Peng Dehuai, so they let the Japanese trample them on the ground.

  Besides, there are fewer people now. In the entire fragile system, these few people not only cannot turn the tide but may also lose their lives. Giving them some advanced weapons would at least make it less embarrassing to lose. For example, if Zuo Baogui were given a dozen or so 82mm recoilless guns, he might still be able to teach Li Jianwu a lesson on Mudan Platform.

  For example, if the Beiyang Fleet were to be equipped with a batch of shells using picric acid or several steam-powered torpedoes, what would be the outcome of their duel with the Combined Fleet? In addition to the steam-powered torpedoes, they could also purchase several 152mm Armstrong quick-firing guns and give them to Deng Shichang, letting him replace his main cannons with these. At that time, he probably wouldn't need to ram into Kajiwara anymore.

  But in that case, a good excuse is needed. If he rashly goes to tell Xue Fu Cheng that he admires Li Er Ge Zi so much that he wants to give him weapons and ammunition worth hundreds of thousands of silver coins, it would be strange if Xue doesn't suspect that he has ulterior motives! He's an old fox, with this kind of investment, he could go back and buy a governorship, why bother flattering Li Er Ge Zi?

  What if we buy a cruiser? Let him, in the name of the Beiyang Fleet, order a cruiser from the Yangtze Shipbuilding Factory and set the delivery date to be 15 years later. Of course, the Yangtze Shipbuilding Factory would not have the capability to do so, so this order would be outsourced to Armstrong Whitworth. They could build such a warship in two years at most, and then it would become the property of the Yangtze Shipbuilding Factory. Whatever they want to do with it is up to them; after all, this is an order from the Chinese Navy, so even if they sail around Europe every day with big guns, there won't be any problem - that's just a sea trial. As for taking 15 years to try it out, one can only say that the Yangtze Shipbuilding Factory has very high technical requirements.

  This guy is so excited about his own idea that he has already bought a shipyard in Gothenburg, as the oldest port in Northern Europe, there are naturally many shipyards here, but they are all small workshops, with three super industrial powers of England, France and Germany nearby, just struggling to make a living. Under Ericsson's contact, it was bought at a low price and renamed Yang Shipyard, which is currently undergoing expansion, but even after the expansion is completed, it can only build ships of around 1,000 tons, and it is impossible to build large cruisers. Besides, Yang Feng didn't plan to build such things in Sweden either.

  Such a great plan needs to be carried out, and Yang Da Boss naturally has no interest in staying in Sweden. Anyway, with Eriksson as the local snake, the construction of the remaining factories is proceeding steadily, let alone those projects that have already been put into production.

  The Swedish parliament has approved the military's order for automatic pistols, although only a thousand, but enough to keep Bofors' arsenal busy for a while. Yang's Power Systems Company is producing diesel engines and hand tractors in small batches, with larger factories under construction. The diesel engine is also being used by shipyards on fishing boats, with two diesel engines and a transmission driving a 10-ton fishing boat very popular. Under these circumstances, Yang Feng naturally couldn't wait to start his own plan, leaving Swedish affairs to Eriksson. He drove his small yacht back to London with his new bodyguard Strongson, his sister, Yang's little maid, and **Catherine.

  As for Lin Luo, she had long returned, and she still had her beloved manga career. The first volume of Versailles Rose was sold out as soon as it came out. Now countless girls are waiting for her and the comic creation studio to release the second volume.

  After returning to London, he threw the Strongson siblings into his estate and then ran to the Chinese embassy to report. His current identity is still a secretary of the embassy, but he just took leave to deal with his own private affairs.

  "Sir, let me show you something good." He said with a smile as he approached Xue Fu Cheng.

  Xue Fu Cheng looked at him calmly, Yang Feng had been building an industrial empire in Sweden for some time, and he was somewhat aware of it here. Although China and Sweden didn't have much diplomatic relations at the time, a lot could be learned from newspapers alone, after all, there were tractors and automatic pistols, these new things that London's newspapers cared about, let alone the Ming Daily which was still sparing no effort to create momentum for the big boss here.

  Xue Fu Cheng didn't cooperate at all, and this guy chuckled and pulled out a Mauser C96 from his pocket.

  "Is this one of those automatic pistols you invented?" Xue Fu Cheng asked curiously, looking at the ugly-looking handgun.

  Yang Feng smiled and took out a clip of bullets in front of him, then slowly loaded them. He stood up and walked to the window, Xue Fu Cheng hurriedly got up and followed him, just to see Yang Feng aiming at a small tree in the yard and firing ten shots in an extremely short period of time, hitting the trunk and causing wood chips to fly everywhere. After finishing the bullets, he quickly reloaded another clip and continued to shoot at the poor little tree until it was broken into two pieces.

  Just as the tree crown fell, Yang Feng pretended to blow away non-existent gun smoke from the muzzle and said with a proud smile: "Sir, how's this shot?"

  "How much for one?" Xue Fu Cheng asked directly without any hesitation.

  "What's the point of money, anyway? Considering my loyalty to the imperial court and Empress Dowager, my admiration for Li Zhongtang, and my respect for you, sir, why would I ask for money? Alright, I'll give you 500, but due to production issues, it might not be delivered until after the new year." Yang Feng said with a generous expression.

  Xue Fu Cheng nodded in satisfaction and said: "Since that's the case, I'll help you speak to Li Zhong Tang about it. Later on, I'll get you a fifth-rank official hat."

  He imagined himself wearing a wild chicken feather and a zombie costume, and Boss Yang couldn't help but feel a chill. He quickly swallowed his saliva to suppress the nausea and said, "Sir, actually I have an even bigger gift to give to Lord Zhong."

  Xue Fu Cheng looked at him with a profound gaze, seemingly thinking that this was more reasonable. Given Yang Feng's personality, if he was willing to give something away for free, then he must have had an ulterior motive.

  "What gift is it?" Xue Fu Cheng asked casually while sipping his tea.

  "Twenty 6-inch Armstrong quick-firing guns!"

  Pfft! Xue Fu Cheng spat out a mouthful of tea water and stared at Yang Feng with an incredulous gaze.

  Yang Feng said nonchalantly, cracking his fingers as he continued: "Six hundred rounds of German-made 305mm high-explosive shells, four thousand rounds of British six-inch cannon high-explosive shells."

  "On what condition?" Xue Fu Cheng's eyes widened and he said without any hesitation.

  "It's very simple. The Beiyang Fleet has ordered a cruiser from the Swedish shipyard, and I'm currently researching the specific model." said Yang Feng.

  "What does it mean?" Xue Fu Cheng said in confusion, of course he wouldn't think that Yang Feng really wanted to sell the warship.

  "This cruiser, you only need to sign the contract and then you don't have to worry about anything else, including the money issue, the Beiyang Navy doesn't have to spend a single penny. However, the delivery time must be set after fifteen years on the contract. If we can do that, the Beiyang Navy will get those things I mentioned." Yang Feng said with a smile.

  "In other words, you want a cruiser for yourself?" Xue Fucheng was not an idiot and immediately understood what this guy wanted to do. He just wanted to use the name of the Beiyang Fleet to get a cruiser for himself, which would be delivered 15 years later, by which time he would have lost interest anyway.

  "You see, talking to clever people is just simple." Yang Feng said with satisfaction.

  "What do you want with a cruiser?" Xue Fucheng asked in puzzlement.

  "Play? When one has too much money and nowhere to spend it, they always have some strange ideas. Just like our Empress Dowager likes to build gardens, and Li Zhongtang likes to soak his feet, I like to play with various weapons, especially warships. Now that I have the money, of course, I want to get one. But the Armstrong shipyard will definitely not sell me, an ordinary citizen, one. However, the Beiyang Fleet is different."

  "So you have the Navy place an order with your shipyard, and then you subcontract it to Armstrong's shipyard. Once it's built, you bring it to your shipyard under the guise of continued construction, and use it as a toy for yourself until you're done playing with it, at which point you'll give it back to the Navy." Xue Fu immediately understood his train of thought.