General Nero Mora turned around and forced a smile at Fang Lang, nodded, turned around, pushed open the small door to the balcony, and quickly walked into the bustling banquet hall.
In response, Fang Lang just smiled and stopped paying attention.
The impact of this incident is definitely not limited to this, but for him, the benefits have already been pocketed, and he really has no interest in participating in the remaining struggles.
Based on his understanding of General Crook, the other party will definitely find a way to expand the influence of the navy, and his target will definitely be next year's military budget.
Fang Lang had no interest in getting involved in all this right now. After all, if the navy's military spending really increased, even if his fleet wouldn't get any benefits, his shipyard would definitely get some.
Logically speaking, he should stand up to support his own Navy Minister, but his influence in the current Navy is already strong enough, coupled with the expansion of the Marine Corps to 5,000 people.
If he continued to rush forward, his naval comrades would think that he was greedy and wanted to grab things from his arms, which might backfire and make his comrades dissatisfied.
Therefore, being low-key is the right thing for him now.
Just when he wanted to hide here for some peace and quiet after he had set Air Force General Nero Mora off on a rant, someone else soon came up to him, but this time the person who came could be considered one of his own.
...
...
The new Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, Colonel Adams Teach, had been keeping track of Fang Lang's whereabouts for a long time. Given their relationship, he didn't need to deliberately approach him at the banquet, but this time he still wanted to express his gratitude to Fang Lang in person.
"Haha... General Fang, so you hid here."
Hearing the voice behind him, Fang Lang smiled, stood up, shook hands with the other party and said:
"Brother Tiqi, why do you come to me instead of making more friends in there?"
Adams Teach, who was shaking hands with Fang Lang and smiling, listened to Fang Lang's words, took a step closer and lowered his voice and said:
"Didn't you come here specially to thank me, brother?
When you reported your military achievement to me, I was sitting in the office and the credit just fell from the sky.
The chief of staff even asked me when I participated in the formulation of your action plan, which almost exposed me."
Fang Lang heard this and waved his hand to signal the other party to sit down and talk. Then he also lowered his voice and said:
"Since you promised to promote me to the position of Chief of Naval Staff, I will naturally find a way to give you more credit! Otherwise, how can you stand out?"
After saying that, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Upon hearing this, Adams Teach quickly raised his glass, bowed slightly and clinked it with Fang Lang's glass, then lowered his voice and said:
"I cannot thank you enough for your kindness. From now on, no matter where you go, I will follow your lead."
Fang Lang picked up the wine glass and took a sip, then smiled nonchalantly and said:
"We are brothers, there is no need to be so clear-cut. When you become the Chief of Naval Staff, I will have a lot of trouble for you!"
In Adams Teach's heart, he had long considered himself as Fang Lang's man. However, in such a public place, he couldn't show it too obviously, so he pretended to be affectionate and called him "older brother" and "younger brother".
If the two of them were talking in private, he would rather call Fang Lang "boss". After all, he knew very well that whether he could be promoted would depend on the other party's attitude.
I am just a chess piece arranged by the other party in the general staff. I just need to do what the other party asks me to do.
But Fang Lang's attitude towards him always made him feel warm and comfortable, treating him as a good friend of equal status, so he was always very grateful to Fang Lang.
After hearing Fang Lang's words, he stopped being polite and casually pulled out the chair next to Fang Lang and sat on it. He glanced at the banquet hall behind the balcony door and whispered:
"Just now, the new Secretary of the Army was secretly competing with General Crook in front of Marshal Morais! From what I heard, he seemed to want to insert a few Army officers into your Marine Corps."
Fang Lang's eyes narrowed when he heard this, but he remained calm and said:
"This Mr. Minister of the Army has a nice idea."
Adams Teach also laughed when he heard this:
"General Crook didn't give him a chance to interfere and rejected him directly.
He even said in front of Marshal Morais that he was afraid of affecting the combat effectiveness of the Marine Corps, which made the Minister of the Army very angry.
Fang Lang smiled, raised the wine glass to his lips, and said calmly:
"What did Marshal Morais say?"
“Hehe… His Excellency the Marshal just shook his head and said that this is an expansion, not a new one, so there is no need to transfer people. When the navy recruits soldiers this year, it can just recruit enough new soldiers according to the manpower gap.
It seems that he is not very satisfied with the new Minister of the Army."
Adams Teach said with a wicked smile on his face, taking a sip of wine.
Obviously, Marshal Moraes was also very clear about the intention of the Ministry of War, so he rejected the other party's proposal without hesitation.
Hearing this result, Fang Lang also smiled, while at the same time becoming more alert in his heart.
"It seems that these army generals may not let go so easily. If you hear any news about our fleet in the Admiralty, please inform me as soon as possible.
So that I can have time to prepare.”
Upon hearing this, Adams Teach patted his chest generously and said:
"Don't worry about that. As long as I receive any news about your fleet, I will report it to you immediately.
In addition, I am not far from the Army Department now. Through this period of interaction, I have also met two grassroots officials of the Army General Staff. If there is any news about us, I will inform you as soon as possible. "
In fact, Fang Lang's intelligence department had already begun deploying personnel to the army, navy and air force, some of whom served as spies to gather intelligence.
Some grassroots officials who have been identified as capable will be supported by Fangyuan Group's Investigation Department so that they can get better promotion opportunities in relevant departments.
When these people grow up slowly, they will form a huge interest group.
Even though Fang Lang's business is so big, he is unwilling to leave the army because he knows very well that in an environment like Brazil, the army has a very special status.
Only by controlling military power can one ensure that no one dares to infringe upon one's interests.
What's more, Brazil had a period of military rule in its history. By that time, as long as the Fang family had enough influence in the military, no one would dare to attack the Fang family.
They should be thankful that the Fang family didn't attack them.
It is even possible to be ruthless and make the military government a government that serves the Fang family.
Therefore, Fang Lang never dared to relax his infiltration into the army.
Seeing Adams Teach's generous look, Fang Lang smiled and patted his arm and said:
"Good brother, thank you!"
"Since we are good brothers, why are you being so polite? Haha..."
Adams Teach seemed very happy to hear Fang Lang calling him a good brother. He laughed and raised his glass to Fang Lang again.
The two of them clinked their glasses lightly and laughed out loud with tacit understanding.
"How is the destroyer design work you've been following going?"
Next, the two began to chat. Fang Lang had focused his main energy on the Navy Special Tactics Research Group during this period and had given up much attention to the company's affairs.
I'm having trouble keeping up with the progress of both the shipyard and the aircraft factory, so I'd like to take this opportunity to learn more from Adams Teach.
"Haha... Of course it went very smoothly. I have to say that your Fangyuan Shipyard is really very powerful now. The entire destroyer project was completed in just one month from the establishment to the production of complete design drawings.
Of course, according to your shipyard designers, this is just copying homework, so there is no difficulty at all.
If it weren’t for your request to leave room for future modifications, they said they could complete the design in just over a week.”
In response to this, Fang Lang smiled without comment. You know, the current Fangyuan Shipyard has the technical support of Global Shipbuilding, which has branches in the United States, Britain, Germany, and Italy. It is indeed not difficult to imitate a destroyer of the US military during World War II.
"Oh! Since the design is complete, when will the production of the first ship begin?"
"The production plan was finalized last Wednesday. The shipyard has already placed an order for special steel for warships with Fangyuan Steel Plant. It is expected that the steel will be in place by the middle of next month.
According to the production plan, our first independently designed destroyer will be launched in mid-March next year."
This progress is definitely a bit slow compared to the war period, but after all, it is Brazil's first attempt to produce modern all-steel warships. The team needs to run in, so this speed is acceptable.
Fang Lang nodded when he heard this. Seeing that Adams Teach beside him seemed particularly excited when he mentioned this warship, he looked at him with some amusement and said:
"What's wrong with you? I feel like you seem very happy."
Hearing Fang Lang's words, Adams Teach smiled even more openly, his back teeth almost showing.
"Haha... Of course I'm very happy. Although this destroyer is said to be a copy of the American Fletcher-class destroyer, after the designers' integration, the performance of the warship is higher than the original Fletcher-class.
First of all, in terms of power, we use two steam turbines produced by General Motors, but this model is an upgraded product based on the original Fletcher class. It is more powerful and can bring greater power to the warship. The designed speed reaches 38 knots.
In terms of protection, chromium-nickel alloy steel with surface hardening treated by Krupp carburizing process is used as side protection armor, and molybdenum-vanadium alloy steel is used for the main deck armor. The performance of the steel is 25% higher than that of the original American Fletcher class.
The only pity is that the weapons and equipment are basically the same as the Fletcher class."
Seeing the other party's rather Versailles expression, Fang Lang smiled and shook his head:
"It seems that you are very confident in this destroyer!"
"I am not the only one who has confidence in this warship. Even the Minister of Defense has shown his favor for our first independently designed and built warship!
According to General Crook, Marshal Moraes requested that he be notified to be present in person when the warship was launched so that he could witness this great moment with his own eyes.
Brother, speaking of this, I have to thank you again. This work has made me proud in the entire Navy Department.
The other brothers in the naval base originally thought that the elder brother made a wrong move, but now they all came to curry favor with the elder brother, hoping to take the new ship under their command!
Hey...don't you think that my brother is the real hero! When the time comes, I will definitely give priority to equipping my brother's aircraft carrier fleet!"
Colonel Adams Teach's joy was beyond words, and Fang Lang couldn't help but feel happy too when he saw it.
When he heard the other party say that this replica destroyer should be equipped to his fleet first, he smiled and waved his hand and said:
"Don't even think about leaving this type of warship to our fleet. Our fleet is already strong and powerful. If you continue to equip me with all the good stuff first, other navy brothers will have objections."
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