Chapter Thirty-One: The Origins of Conflict

While Wang Yue and Alexei were deliberating on how to persuade the Navy to purchase sixty torpedo boats, the Torpedo Fleet performed another miracle. They brazenly wandered near Jinshanwei in broad daylight and attacked a Japanese transport ship right under the noses of the enemy. Although they were subsequently chased and destroyed by a responding destroyer, the ship they struck—carrying over three thousand tons of ammunition—was rendered a total loss.

As the war reached its current stage, the ammunition Japan had stockpiled for the Battle of Jiangcheng was running dry. These three thousand tons were shells urgently needed at the front; while their loss did not mean the front could no longer fight, it certainly guaranteed greater casualties. When the Japanese front-line command heard the news, they were incensed. These supplies had been difficult to scrape together, and the next shipment would take at least another week to arrive.

While the Japanese were hopping mad, the Military Commission was exceptionally encouraged. Under current conditions, even holding out for one more day allowed for more personnel and supplies to be evacuated westward. Trading a torpedo boat for thousands of tons of ammunition and a cargo ship was a bargain by any measure, not to mention that they had also used an auxiliary 57mm mountain gun to sink a Japanese torpedo boat.

It is said that the person who had once praised Ouyang Ge at a meeting even seated him directly opposite Commander-in-Chief Chen, a gesture whose implications were lost on no one. This enraged Commander-in-Chief Chen, who, after the meeting, ordered the acceleration of negotiations to acquire the torpedo boat unit as soon as possible. If things continued as they were, the Military Commission wouldn't even need to intervene; the rank-and-file naval officers would be in an uproar.

Alexei had no intention of making things difficult for the Navy; he simply wanted more supplies. After all, even Commander-in-Chief Chen himself likely had no idea how many assets the Navy would retain after retreating westward. Even the current stockpiles might be requisitioned at any moment, given the keen nose of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics.

With both sides eager to reach an agreement, a deal was struck on September 22. The terms paid by the Naval Headquarters were as follows:

VZ24 Rifles: 6,700
Mauser 1871 Rifles (second-hand): 1,515
6mm Lee Navy Rifles: 700
6.8mm Year One Pattern Rifles: 1,200
7.7mm Five-Shot Quick-Fire Rifles: 1,109
Hanyang-made Rifles (brand new): 750
Hotchkiss M1931 Light Machine Guns: 457
FN1930 Light Machine Guns: 108
FND Light Machine Guns: 50
ZB37 Heavy Machine Guns: 58
M1928 75mm Infantry Guns: 12
75mm Artillery Shells: 2,000
Brandt 120mm Mortars: 9
120mm High-Explosive Mortar Shells: 1,000
Brandt M1935 60mm Mortars: 100
60mm Mortar Shells: 50,000
Shanghai-made 75mm Krupp Mountain Guns: 3
75mm Mountain Gun Shells: 1,000
Type 20 82mm Mortars: 64
82mm Mortar Shells: 3,000
Sichuan-made 47mm Mortars: 100
47mm Mortar Shells: 3,000
Schneider M1936 105mm Cannons: 2
105mm Cannon Shells: 500
7.9mm Pointed Bullets: 5 million
7.9mm Round-Nose Bullets: 6.7 million
11mm Rifle Cartridges: 70,000
6mm Rifle Cartridges: 50,000
6.8mm Rifle Cartridges: 100,000
7.7mm Black Powder Rifle Cartridges: 30,000
7.63mm Pistol Cartridges: 1 million
Gong-pattern Hand Grenades: 300,000
M24 Hand Grenades: 20,000
Imported Serge Sailor Uniforms: 10,000 sets
Type 24 Military Uniforms: 2,000 sets
M35 Steel Helmets: 8,000
MK2 Steel Helmets: 2,000
I-16 Fighter Aircraft: 1

The Umbrella Corporation would deliver the 60 torpedo boats in batches, with 30 delivered on the 22nd itself and the remainder within 30 days of the contract signing. Citibank provided a guarantee for the transaction; in the event of a breach, the bank would compensate the Naval Headquarters using temporarily frozen funds.

This single transaction effectively drained the Naval Headquarters of its "off-the-books" assets. These items were difficult for the Navy to liquidate; large-scale sales would attract unwanted attention, while small-scale sales lacked the necessary personnel and channels. Transporting them could not be done openly, so they would likely have either benefited the Military Commission or been lost entirely.

Of course, these were only the assets in Jiangcheng. The Min clique had managed the Navy for years and had accumulated much; otherwise, the Military Commission would not have tolerated them for so long.

It is hard to say who was right or wrong. Much like when the Navy moved the Mawei Arsenal to Shanghai—while it severed the Min clique’s industrial foundation, it also put the Navy on alert. The subsequent lack of cooperation actually began then. Who knew if the Military Commission was harboring malicious intent? Keeping a stockpile of goods was never a mistake.

Yet the Military Commission was not wrong either. The Navy personnel had been flip-flopping since the first year, often taking their warships with them. Who could trust them to commit to a shared cause? Spending money to buy them warships—for what? To be turned against the government? Coupled with the later independence of Fujian Province and the internal strife of the Third Fleet, the Military Commission would have to be insane to place heavy reliance on the Navy.

Later, some often cited the Navy's development plans—talk of aircraft carriers and cruisers. But heaven help us, the plan from Commander-in-Chief Chen was simply not supported by the current national treasury. Even if they had exhausted the treasury to complete it, the Navy lacked the manpower to face the Combined Fleet, let alone defeat them.

Furthermore, the Military Commission had not entirely abandoned maritime defense. Setting aside the Min clique to establish the "Electric-Torpedo" branch and building small warships to train personnel were efforts in their own right. You couldn't expect an army-dominated commission to know how to run a navy, but what they achieved wasn't bad. Large warships were truly unnecessary for inland river combat. If not for the Navy's apathy in misleading the Commission to sink ships to block the Yangtze, the Battle of Jiangcheng would not have been so difficult. At the very least, the artillery batteries and forts along the river would not have had to endure the baptism of Japanese naval gunfire so early.

As for the Third Fleet scuttling their ships, there was truly no other choice. In open water, they were no match for the Japanese. The Third Fleet's ships didn't even have a chance to fire against the Combined Fleet. Internal instability caused by the mutiny made it impossible to resist the Japanese effectively. Of course, not immediately leading the Third Fleet south into the Yangtze was a misjudgment, but the Min clique’s greed was notorious.

Regardless, the Navy finally obtained the torpedo boats they had been dreaming of. At the very least, they could now show a presence in the waters around Jiangcheng. The northern section of the Beijing-Hankou Railway was only operating at 23% of its designed capacity, and in North China, the monthly attrition rate for mules and horses was as high as 12%. Thus, Japanese logistics still relied heavily on the Yangtze. Small Japanese transport ships were everywhere in the inland rivers near Jiangcheng, with even small motorboats of a few dozen tons swaggering about. The Torpedo Fleet's primary mission was now blockade and harassment—a mission the Navy could now perform as well.