Chapter 74: Eyes That See Through the Essence of Things

  Gao Yang's hand, holding a cigarette, trembled slightly, and his eyebrow twitched as he thought to himself, "The British really do have big appetites!" The entire room was stunned by the enormous number that Major Parker had just mentioned.

  Major Parker said 200 million pounds! Not taels! If converted to dollars, it's almost a hundred million dollars!

  It is worth noting that even in this era, the United States, which has the strongest economy, had a gross national product of just over $1 trillion only this year.

  If not taking inflation into account and only calculating with the price of gold, 20 million pounds is at least equivalent to 40 billion RMB in modern times! This would be a huge military procurement contract that could change government decisions in this time and space!

  So much money, even for Gao Yang, is a huge expenditure. There are many places where Gao Yang needs to spend money now, whether it's paying wages and daily training expenses for the army, purchasing weapons and ammunition, buying raw materials and machinery for military factories, or various civil engineering projects and salary expenditures for public officials in local areas, all of which rely on Gao Yang's continuous investment to support.

  Because Gao Yang adopted a low-tax approach to support rapid economic development, the taxes collected within its jurisdiction were not even enough to cover expenses.

  Everything Gao Yang has now is built on his huge financial expenditure. Once the capital chain breaks, Gao Yang will immediately fall into a desperate situation.

  Gao Yang fell silent, sitting quietly in the chair with his left hand stroking his chin and his right index finger lightly tapping on the table. Gao Yang also had some worries in his heart, this was just the initial investment after all. He still planned to spend a large sum of money on the Americans.

  Gaoyang's original plan was to take back Jiangnan Shipyard, which was directly under the jurisdiction of the Navy Department in Mogadishu, and invest heavily to expand it into a top-notch shipbuilding factory.

  Then directly provide Americans with technical materials for North Carolina-class battleships to start building two, one in the United States and one at Jiangnan Shipyard.

  Once these two battleships are completed, the number of battleships will be sufficient. Of course, new battleships will still be built in the future, but that will have to wait until after the war with Japan is over.

  Kao Yang's plan was to use the remaining tonnage of main force ships to exchange for more aircraft carrier tonnage. At the same time, provide the technical data of Yorktown-class aircraft carriers to the Americans, and have the Americans build 2 in the United States according to the construction mode of North Carolina-class, and build another 2 at Jiangnan Shipyard, so as to greatly exercise the technical workers of the shipyard and improve their experience in building large warships.

  At the same time, Jiangnan Shipyard also had a dock and various shipbuilding equipment that could build 20,000-ton and 35,000-ton warships! These docks and construction equipment were also a large sum of money!

  Also because it is directly providing technical materials, Gao Yang estimates that the cost of a single Yorktown-class aircraft carrier will not exceed $13 million.

  While the cost of a single North Carolina-class battleship would not exceed $40 million, after all, the British Royal Navy's HMS Nelson, which had just been launched a few days ago, cost ￡7.11 million.

  The North Carolina-class treaty battleship, which is on par with Nelson, does not require R&D costs. Even if you add profits and the cost of transporting raw materials to China, personnel salaries, and technical equipment upgrades, it won't exceed Nelson's by much. After all, the Americans got advanced technology for free.

  Gao Yang originally wanted to build an Essex-class, but the technological strength of this time and space was not enough to complete the construction of this class aircraft carrier, and for this time and space, the Essex-class was too black-tech.

  Gaoyang is preparing to wait until 4 aircraft carriers form combat effectiveness and then immediately go to war with Japan and take back Taiwan!

  But now, just buying warships from the British has already cost tens of billions of dollars. And if we add to that the warships ordered in the United States, plus the costs of recruiting and training the hundreds of thousands of sailors needed to man this fleet, it's a staggering expense.

  In addition, the military port will be expanded, new berths will be built, deep-water piers will be dug, a new naval base will be established, various factories supporting the navy, and various fuel and ammunition depots will be built.

  The original estimate was as follows, even without taking into account the cost of preparing new warships from the United States and shipyards. The current tentative fleet size will need nearly $20 million in expenses to have basic combat capability after completing initial training.

  Gao Yang can't just have a navy! He also wants to maintain an army of tens of thousands, build several provinces, and undertake many large-scale construction projects. Gao Yang's money is not unlimited!

  Everyone in the conference room held their breath and stared at Gao Yang, waiting for his final decision. Lin Jianzhang and Du Xike were already tense with sweat all over their bodies, their tightly clenched fists trembling slightly. Now was the best opportunity for the Chinese Navy to be reborn! It all depended on Gao Yang's one sentence.

  As Gao Yang's fingers beat out a rhythmic pattern, the hearts of the crowd also began to throb. The atmosphere started to become oppressive, and the mood of the people present became increasingly tense.

  At this time, Major Parker suddenly spoke in a low voice and said, "Mr. Gao, in order to complete such a huge contract, any opposing force against this contract will be overturned by the British Empire! Whoever it is!"

  Gao Yang's fingers, which were drumming on the table, suddenly stopped. He slightly raised his head and looked at Major Parker with a faint smile, saying in a low voice, "This time's military procurement contract negotiation, you're the main person in charge, aren't you, Major?"

  Major Parker's face stiffened slightly, but he quickly recovered and smiled lightly, saying "Mr. Gao, this matter is not important, right? What do you think of the plan I proposed?"

  Gaoyang rubbed his brow and smiled, saying "Can the British Empire persuade the remaining signatory countries of the Washington Naval Treaty?"

  "Except for the United States, all other signatory countries of our great British Empire can be persuaded to accept your country's accession to the treaty! As for the American side, with Mr. Gao's good relationship with the US, there shouldn't be any problem, right?"

  Kao Yang nodded slightly and said "I'll talk to the US side, but what if the Japanese are strongly opposed?"

  "A Japanese?" Major Parker said with a hint of disdain in his eyes, "The Japanese wouldn't dare defy the decision of the British Empire!"

  "Good!" Admiral Gao slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly, "￡20 million, deal!" Colonel Parker let out a long sigh of relief. The enormous construction cost of over ￡20 million for the next three Nelson-class battleships had finally been secured! The Royal Navy would spare no expense to ensure that this military procurement contract was successfully completed.

  "Mr. Gao, I will immediately send the message back to my country. Within three days at most, our government will give you a satisfactory reply."

  Kao Yang nodded and looked at Mak Jei's jazz, saying in a low voice, "I think the Washington Naval Treaty needs to be renegotiated."

  He finished speaking and turned to look at the two naval generals beside him, who were already excited, and said with a smile, "Are you satisfied now, Navy?" The two generals nodded hastily.

  After the negotiations, Gao Yang and his party left the British Consulate. At this time, it was no longer suitable for Gao Yang to go back to his villa on Avenue Joffre in the French Concession as a high-ranking official, so he chose to rest at the Shanghai Garrison Command.

  Gao Yang and Gao Feng headed to the Magic Capital Garrison Command together. Sitting in the car, Gao Feng said softly, "Sir, this time the expenditure for expanding the navy has exceeded our bottom line. Such a huge expenditure will have a great impact on other aspects!"

  He nodded slightly and said faintly, "I know! This is also why poor countries can't afford to play with navies. It's not just about spending money, but maintaining them costs even more! However, this is also necessary; in this era, a country cannot rise without a strong navy!"

  He lit a cigarette and continued, "This time it just so happened to be a good opportunity. Mr. Churchill wants to play with the gold standard, and signs of capital flight from Britain have already begun to appear. This big order of mine is not only providing 200 million pounds for the British government, although it's a lot, but for the British Empire, it's not an extremely remarkable income after all, as the foundation of being the king of the world for hundreds of years is quite thick."

  He said with a self-deprecating tone, "I thought I was really rich, but it turns out I'm still far from it."

  He took a deep drag on his cigar and said to Gao Feng, "We have different perspectives on things. The British government wants to use this list to stimulate the market and stabilize the financial turmoil after returning to the gold standard. Their ultimate goal is to defeat the US dollar and regain its position as the world's universal currency! Moreover, there is another reason why Britain has weakened greatly since World War I, and its deterrent power in the Far East has decreased significantly. Japan, which made a fortune from World War I, has posed a substantial threat to British interests in the Far East! So the British government wants to arm us to counter Japan's growing ambitions. This is what they did to Japan before the First Sino-Japanese War, and it's a trick that the British have been using for hundreds of years, and they've got it down pat."

  Gently rubbing his brow, he let out a sigh and continued to say, "So-called allies immediately become potential enemies once they lose their utility value. All sorts of tricks and obstacles emerge one after another. You'll see, tomorrow when we go to the Americans, it will be the same situation - using us to pull Japan's legs from behind. The Washington Naval Treaty was originally a joint effort by England and America to cheat Japan. It's laughable that since Ito Hirobumi died, there hasn't been a single strategist in Japan who can see through all this. Japan's fate has already been sealed since Ito Hirobumi's death, even if it takes a hundred years! Don't be fooled by the fact that the British seem to be supporting me now - in their eyes, I'm just a pawn! As soon as I show any sign of surpassing Japan and threatening their interests, they'll immediately prop up Japan again to maintain balance! Only this time, they've encountered a problem that even Einstein can't solve - I can travel back and forth through time! The great British Empire, which has manipulated the world for hundreds of years, and its successor America have finally gotten themselves into trouble!"