In the endless Pacific Ocean, a small fleet of three warships was sailing westward through the waves. This fleet consisted of a Cleveland-class cruiser and two Fletcher-class destroyers.
At this moment, on the bridge of the flagship Cleveland-class cruiser, Fang Lang was chatting with several naval officers while blowing the cold wind.
"The cold wind in the North Pacific is really biting! I heard that many officers and soldiers in the fleet are sick?"
Fang Lang asked the captain of the Cleveland-class cruiser beside him.
"Yes, boss! Our fleet has been stationed in tropical waters for a long time, and the officers and soldiers have difficulty adapting to this severe cold weather."
"This is not possible. It seems that our navy needs to strengthen combat training in severe cold environments in the future. After all, we are also a navy that participated in the Pacific Naval War. It has only been four years, and you are already not used to the severe cold climate."
The officers on the side lowered their heads in shame after listening to Fang Lang's words.
"Yes, boss!
When we go back, we will incorporate combat training in severe cold conditions into our training program to ensure that our fleet can still have strong combat effectiveness in all weather conditions. "
"Well! It's not too late to make amends.
This time we were invited by the British Navy's Far East Fleet to visit the port city. You must show enough professionalism and not embarrass the Brazilian Navy. do you know? "
"Yes, don't worry, boss! We must show our best side to each other."
Yes, this was Fang Lang's way of avoiding the domestic whirlpool. Through Reinhardt's relationship, he got the British Navy to send an invitation to the Brazilian Navy to visit.
As for why they visited the port city, the reason was very simple. The army from home was about to liberate the country. This was the moment when the British army in the port city was most hesitant.
Not long ago, the British Far East Fleet was severely beaten by the home army on the Yangtze River with army artillery, which showed them the determination of the home army to liberate the country. As a result, most officials in the British government are pessimistic about the future of the port city.
Therefore, the entire British Far East Fleet is gathering in the port city. On the one hand, it is of course to deter their hometown, and on the other hand, it is ready to cover the British government's withdrawal to Australia at any time.
The reason why the British are pessimistic is also very simple. Chang Kaishen's millions of troops have been wiped out by others. The British garrison in the port city is not enough to fill the teeth of others!
In addition, the port city is a small place with no strategic depth at all. If a fight really breaks out, others can push the British army directly into the sea. The only means of counterattack by the British army is naval gunfire.
But the British Navy, which had just been taught a lesson by its home army with land-based artillery on the Yangtze River, did not think that others would be afraid of their naval guns.
If we don't use the navy, we can only use the air force, but now our hometown doesn't have an air force. After all, the captain of the transportation team still left a lot of good things for his hometown.
The combination of this series of factors has given the entire British government a pessimistic view of the future of Hong Kong City.
Therefore, at this time, Fang Lang expressed his intention to come out for a visit. Whether it was General Henderson, the chief of staff of the Royal Navy, or Reinhardt, in their opinion, this was Fang Lang's act of coming out to support them. Of course they couldn't refuse such a request.
Of course, the Brazilian government will not refuse to arrange for several warships to visit the port city to support the British allies.
Fang Lang was not worried at all whether his hometown government would change its established strategy just because these three warships appeared in the port city. After all, recovering the port city had never been a military issue, but a political issue.
In the short term, it is much wiser to leave a place like Hong Kong City as a window than to directly cut off contact with the outside world. You must know that your hometown is suffering from isolation. If the port city is really recovered, the hometown will be completely cut off from communication channels with the West. This is a result that a good politician absolutely does not want to see.
Therefore, Fang Lang has absolute confidence in his hometown. The appearance of his fleet in the port city at this time can only be regarded as harmless to his hometown.
More importantly, Fang Lang's visit to the port city was not really for a visit, nor was it simply to avoid the right and wrong in Brazil. He made an appointment to meet an old friend in Hong Kong City.
After returning to his room in the warship, Fang Lang said to Qi Qingshan beside him:
"Have you made any appointments there?"
Qi Qingshan heard Fang Lang's words and looked outside the room. After making sure it was safe, he lowered his voice and said:
"We have made an appointment, and the other party said that he will come to Hong Kong to meet you in person."
Hearing this, Fang Lang glanced at Qi Qingshan in surprise and said:
"Meet me in Hong Kong? That is British territory. Is his safety guaranteed?"
"Yes, I mentioned to the other party that we could take a seaplane and go to Shanghai to meet the other party. But the other party said that Shanghai is not very safe now, and there are many Chang Kaishen's spies operating in Shanghai.
If they find out that we are in Shanghai, it will be hard for us to explain when the Americans hold us accountable. "
Fang Lang sighed softly, not because he was sad, on the contrary, he was a little moved.
"Alas! I have to say that my friends back home are really good friends. They would rather take risks themselves than let me take risks.
I'm not afraid of the Yankees' accountability. I'm a Brazilian general, not an American general. Why should the Yankees hold me accountable? I don’t believe that anyone in Brazil dares to stand up and hold me accountable at this time. "
"Then should we talk to each other again and meet directly in Shanghai?"
Fang Lang pondered for a moment and then said:
"Forget it! We still have to accept other people's wishes. Since we have decided to meet in Hong Kong City, we must ensure each other's absolute safety in Hong Kong City.
You can send a telegram to my uncle Fang Xinshui later and ask him to prepare a few absolutely safe and hidden places for us in the port city.
Those who have lived in Hong Kong City for a long time should not believe it too much, including Bai Cunbao, the leader of the local Hongmen Dasheng Hall in Hong Kong City. They should also let people from our group’s investigation department in Hong Kong arrange this matter. "
From Fang Lang's words, Qi Qingshan could tell how much he attached importance to this matter, and of course he did not dare to neglect it.
He nodded with a serious expression and said:
"Yes, boss! I'll go over and send the telegram myself right away."
"This matter is not urgent. We have not arrived in Hong Kong so soon. You should not send this telegram on the warship. Although I believe in the loyalty of our fleet officers and soldiers, there is no guarantee that no Americans will want to pry information from them.
We will arrive in Japan at noon tomorrow. Then you can send them a telegram from the Japanese branch of Fangyuan Group. This will be more concealed. "
Upon hearing this, Qi Qingshan quickly nodded in agreement.
Yes, of course Fang Lang's visit to Hong Kong will not go directly to Hong Kong this time. He is also planning to settle in Japan to exchange feelings with good friends and talk about business by the way.
The Far East is going to be lively soon. As a traveler who knows the future situation well, Fang Lang must of course make plans early.
A year ago, Global Morgan Bank opened its first bank in Tokyo, Japan, in a low-key manner, and then Global Group and Fangyuan Group also opened branches in Japan in a very low-key manner.
Because the Japanese economy was very difficult during this period, about 7.6 million retired soldiers, about 1.5 million overseas officials and their families, and about 4 million workers in military industrial enterprises were unemployed. These unemployed people had a negative impact on the Japanese economy. Comes a very heavy burden.
In the original history, many Japanese chose to leave their homes and immigrate to Brazil during this period. However, due to the emergence of Fang Lang, history has undergone major changes in this time and space. Now Brazilians are very disgusted with the Japanese.
Coupled with the influx of a large number of Chinese, Brazil's population demand has been alleviated, so that Brazil does not need the Japanese population at all. Instead, many Japanese in Brazil were repatriated to Japan, further increasing the pressure on Japan's unemployed population.
Except for those organizations engaged in gray industries, which will find some young and beautiful girls from Japan and smuggle them to Brazil or other countries to work in some entertainment industries, Japan has very little population outflow, which makes the current pressure on Japan’s unemployed population far greater than in history. situation.
In addition to the pressure of the unemployed population, Japan also has a series of economic problems such as shortage of material supplies and serious inflation. This makes Japan now in dire straits.
Therefore, when Global Morgan Bank, Universal Group and Fangyuan Group came to Japan to invest, they were naturally warmly welcomed by the Japanese authorities.
So why did Fang Lang arrange for his group companies to enter the Japanese market at this time?
The reason, of course, is that he knows history well and knows that the upcoming Peninsula War and the subsequent Vietnam War will rapidly develop Japan's economy and allow the Japanese who should be punished to be easily relieved. This is not what Fang Lang wants to see.
He knew there was nothing he could do to stop this situation, but being unable to stop it didn't mean he couldn't steal the fruit.
Therefore, as early as last year, he had quietly begun to arrange for his industries to come to Japan. His purpose is very simple, that is, to contain Japan's development in many aspects.
As far as he knew, Japan's export volume in July 1950 alone increased by 18% compared with June, reaching 74 million US dollars, and about 100 billion to 150 billion yen of unsalable goods were snapped up.
The increase in exports also led to the rapid growth of Japan's foreign exchange reserves. At the end of June 1950, Japan's foreign exchange reserves were US$286 million. By May 1952, Japan's foreign exchange reserves had grown to US$1.2 billion, an increase of more than four times.
More importantly, Japan not only achieved rapid economic development, but also took the opportunity to acquire a large number of advanced technologies, which laid the foundation for Japan's economic take-off in the future.
According to statistics, Japan introduced 446 advanced technologies such as transistors and electronic computers from Europe and the United States at that time, which stimulated the rapid development of various industries in Japan.
By 1953, Japan's gross industrial production had increased by 55% compared with pre-war levels, steel production had increased by 46%, the number of ships had increased by 47%, and cement production had increased by 47%. On the 51st, power generation doubled, and major industrial products greatly exceeded pre-war levels.
The purpose of Fang Lang's early deployment in Japan was, of course, to take the fruits of victory as his own. First of all, Fang Lang's Global Morgan Bank established friendly cooperative relations with Japanese banks through financial means.
Although this bank with Morgan's name was low-key when it entered Japan, the Japanese did not dare to neglect it at this time. After all, not everyone can bear the name Morgan. Therefore, Japanese government officials gave the green light to Global Morgan Bank to enter Japan's financial industry.
Soon, Global Morgan Bank, which had a large number of financial talents, established a firm foothold in Japan and extended its tentacles into Japan's local financial industry, acquiring some high-value companies at extremely low prices.
Immediately afterwards, Universal Group entered Japan, acquired heavy industrial industries such as steel, shipbuilding, and machinery manufacturing from some Japanese consortiums such as Mitsubishi, and began to arrange a small number of order production tasks, allowing these companies to slowly resume operations.
Immediately afterwards, Fangyuan Group also began to enter the market in a low-key manner, quietly acquiring some industries such as cement, textile, food processing, automobile manufacturing, tobacco, medicine, chemicals, etc.
In order to remain low-key enough, Universal Group and Fangyuan Group quietly invested in Japan through their branches in Europe and the United States, establishing companies that seemed to have little connection with the two companies.
From the beginning, Fang Lang had made up his mind that these factories in Japan only needed to become labor-intensive industries that provided labor. The real core technology must be in Fang Lang's own hands.
Although there was no technology embargo organization like Batumi in later generations at this period, Fang Lang was fully confident in imposing a technology embargo on Japan through commercial means. After all, he, who came from later generations, had learned a wealth of experience from the Americans.
Even if the Japanese government has any ideas, they can't do anything to him. After all, Japan, as a defeated country, is naturally in a position of being exploited. No one can blame Fang Lang for this.
As for Fang Lang's actions, will he be suspected of aiding the tyrants? Fang Lang had also considered this issue carefully. It would definitely be wrong to say that there was no problem at all, but as long as he weighed it a little, he felt that he had to do this.
Because even if he doesn't participate, this war cannot be stopped. Since there is no way to prevent him from participating, history will return to its original track, allowing Japan to take the opportunity to rise rapidly.
Should I take the opportunity to seize the opportunities that originally belong to Japan and develop my own industry, or should I allow Japan to develop rapidly? This multiple choice question is not difficult to do.
And will his participation change the outcome of the war? Fang Lang believed that this would never happen again. After all, I don't give advice to the Yankees. I simply provide them with whatever products they need.
Even if they don't participate in this kind of thing, the Americans will get these supplies from other places. It is better to earn this money for others than to earn it for him.
In fact, the leader of his hometown resolutely chose to fight this war under such difficult circumstances. In Fang Lang's opinion, it was an extremely wise decision.
This war not only demonstrated military and national prestige, but also straightened the backbone of overseas Chinese. It swept away the passive situation of repeated defeats in foreign wars since the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and allowed the new government in the hometown to gain huge recognition in the international community. prestige.
It has greatly enhanced the Chinese people's national self-confidence and national pride, and cut off the money rat tail in many people's hearts.
It fully explains the saying "If you hit with one punch, you won't get hit by a hundred punches". It also provides a peaceful development environment and opportunities for my hometown in the future.
(End of chapter)
