It was the end of October. Three months after the Guards occupied Fujian Province, the war machine was in motion again, and nine detachments of field troops gathered in Fujian Province.

This is the largest gathering since the reorganization of the Guards.

I think back then, when Dong Liang and others lived on Ishigaki Island, there were less than 500 people in total.

At that time, they were still using spears made of ship nails and wooden sticks, and there were only dozens of muskets stolen from foreigners in the team.

Now he has 50,000 to 60,000 regular field troops, hundreds of thousands of garrison troops, and countless militiamen.

The Chinese practice a system in which all citizens are soldiers. This system is not good. A healthy society should not be like this, but it is the most suitable for the Chinese at this time.

Because the Chinese are too weak, weak people need to arm themselves to the teeth, otherwise how can they fight with those big guys.

The Chinese government works very efficiently, and every department is very capable. The secret service has even penetrated into the Guangdong and Guangxi Governor's Mansion in Guangzhou. The deployment of the Qing army in Guangdong has been passed to Dong Liang, and the staff department formulated a combat plan immediately.

The Ministry of Household Affairs has been stocking up on supplies, and the Chinese are not short of money for the time being. The Ministry of Commerce’s previous operations, coupled with the crackdown on the local tyrants and evil gentry in Fujian Province, have brought a large amount of cash flow to the Chinese.

Zhejiang's trade routes have always been smooth, and supplies were continuously transported by sea ship to the Zhangzhou front line for storage.

After the disappearance of foreign ships, Chinese sailing boats along the southeast coast became active again.

Qin Lizheng took advantage of the Chinese loan policy to purchase two lucky ships from the government. He used these few months to frequently travel along the southeast coast. In just a few months, he almost filled up the ship capital.

There are actually many businessmen who have benefited like him, and the construction of the Chinese nation requires a lot of materials.

Dong Liang cast all the captured silver into ships and went around to buy things. These merchants just accepted the orders.

After these currencies were spent, the Chinese did not become poorer, because the vouchers used by the Chinese to pay wages internally were the Chinese's own banknotes. This special banknote was endorsed by materials.

As long as the materials in the Chinese supply and marketing cooperatives can meet everyone's needs, it will be fine.

Most of these materials are produced by the Chinese themselves.

The commodities imported by the Chinese from outside are mainly grain, steel, raw silk, cotton and other raw materials.

The money spent on these things can be recovered by exporting silk, cloth, and Chinese-specific glass, bone china, soap, perfume, sugar frost and other commodities.

Finally, the money that circulated into the hands of businessmen was put back into circulation by Dong Liang by encouraging them to invest in setting up factories and granting preferential policies, and the money would flow into the hands of the people.

The people need to improve their lives and spend their money, most of which flows into the hands of the government, because the bricks and tiles for people to build houses need to be purchased from the brick kilns managed by the government, and the daily necessities and production tools also need to be purchased from the supply and marketing cooperatives.

Buy.

Anyone who knows a little bit about the market understands that currency can only promote social progress if it circulates.

The silver left in your hands will do nothing but be oxidized and lost.

Moreover, foreigners are now implementing the gold standard system, and silver has become a dumping product exported to the Chinese. As the amount of silver continues to increase, its value will still decrease in the future.

Dong Liang was eager to return the silver to foreigners, even if it was exchanged for a pile of steel, it would be better than silver.

In the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance, only gold cast into large gold bars is not allowed to be used.

The Ministry of Industry even coordinated production, and in just a few months, the weapons and equipment that the generals lacked were replenished.

Next, they will continue to work hard to prepare the ammunition and materials needed for war, and at the same time, they will gradually complete the equipment update of the garrison and militia.

Lin Ben basically has to travel between Fujian Province and Dongpan Island, because the arsenals that the Chinese have built are basically on Dongpan Island.

In terms of shipyards, the two self-produced steam battleships of Iriomote Island have been handed over to the First Fleet. The shipyard of Iriomote Island has suddenly started construction of four more iron-walled wooden hull steam battleships. This time they are built according to the standards of shallow water gunboats.

, Dong Liang is ready to be handed over to the Second Fleet for use.

The Second Fleet operates in the Yangtze River Basin and needs some support ships with strong maneuverability and fierce firepower.

This kind of shallow-water gunboat has a tonnage of about four to five hundred tons. It is modeled after the Crimea-class shallow-water gunboat built by the British a few years later. This kind of gunboat posed a huge threat to the Russian fortresses during the Crimean War. At the same time,

It also shone brightly in the second Opium War in history.

Mawei Shipyard will start building a real ironclad ship that will be used as the main battleship of the First Fleet in the future.

After adding two more battleships, the First Fleet now has nine steam-powered battleships.

However, this kind of first fleet is dwarfed by the British fleet. They are also steam-powered battleships, and the steam battleships modified by the British from battleships are much more powerful in terms of firepower.

Although part of the firepower was sacrificed after the modification, its firepower is still several times that of the Chinese navy's steam paddle cruiser.

Dong Liang has been having a headache, how to arrange the fleet.

It was at this time that news came from Luzon, saying that the Spanish had sent a fleet north from Manila. Although this fleet was all sail-powered battleships, it included two second-class battleships.

As the American colonies were lost one after another over the years, the Spanish began to pay attention to this colony in the far east.

The Spaniards could still make some money by selling silk, tea, and porcelain shipped by Chinese merchants.

Most of the European markets are occupied by the British, and more than half of the goods shipped from the East every year are shipped by the British.

There was no way, the British controlled most of the important supply points on the route from the Indian Ocean to the East, and merchant ships from other countries had to pay a lot of taxes when passing there, which raised the cost of the goods they transported.

This puts them at a disadvantage when competing for the market.

However, other markets cannot be competed with, and the Spaniards’ own homeland is also a big market.

A skinny camel is bigger than a horse. There are many nobles in Spain, and their spending power is also very impressive.

For this reason, Spain even stationed two of its few battleships in Manila, coupled with seven or eight frigates. The size of this fleet is one of the largest in the Southeast Asia region.

Zhang Ming only brought two steam battleships, and the others were mostly rocket boats. After a duel with the opponent, they were no match. There was nothing they could do. The gap in firepower was too big. Sometimes firepower can make up for mobility.

After losing several rocket boats and still failing to pry open the opponent's defense, Zhang Ming could only use his mobility to escape.

Some of the rocket boats escaped into Jiajiang, and the two steam battleships escaped back to Kaohsiung County.

Moreover, this time the Spaniards also mobilized 4,000 land troops and assembled nearly 20,000 servants to attack Jiajiang City at the mouth of the river from both land and water directions.

Living in a foreign land, Ah Fu did not attack rashly, but chose to stay in Jiajiang and fight defensively.

In the past few months, he had raided all the surrounding plantations, rescued many slave workers, and obtained a large amount of supplies.

Among these slave workers were local natives, some were captured from Dongfan Island, and even some Chinese. After asking, I found out that most of these Chinese were local overseas Chinese.

They originally had their own properties, but they were targeted by the local aristocrats. These people joined forces with the Spanish colonial authorities to convict them under clever names, confiscated their properties, and then arrested them.

Then he was sold to the local aristocrats in prison as slave labor.

The supplies stored in Jiajiang City at this time are enough to feed the southward column for the first half of the year.

During this period, Afu also rebuilt the fort at the mouth of the river and transported new artillery from Dongfan Island to install it.
Chapter completed!