Zeng Guofan threw a written document heavily on the desk.
As for what Zeng Guoquan said about dispersing the roaring crowds of refugees, Zeng Guofan would not believe it.
My younger brother got himself into big trouble this time. He didn't get any advantage, but instead exposed his situation.
First of all, the Huaihai Navy can find out that the Hunan Army has replaced a batch of new equipment.
Originally, Zeng Guofan sent Liu Rong to Guangdong to secretly purchase equipment in order to hide the Huai Navy.
Secondly, Zeng Guoquan did not harm Huai Haijun's soldiers, but Huai Haijun could make a fuss about it. Even if it was said that the Hunan army massacred civilians, it would be troublesome.
At this time, Zeng Guofan thought of Huai Haijun's newspaper, if Huai Haijun made a big fuss about it.
Although it cannot fundamentally hurt the Hunan Army, it is disgusting enough.
Of course, there is also the worst possibility, that is, Huai Haijun uses this as an excuse to attack, and they can do it.
When did Dong Shuheng expand his territory without using these unfounded reasons?
"Come here, call Mr. Liu." Zeng Guofan said to an attendant.
Zeng Guofan had recently formed a habit of constantly asking Liu Rong when something happened.
Liu Rong is thirty years old this year. She once gave lectures with Zeng Guofan. Although she was only born in Zhusheng, she was a master of ancient prose.
Later, he decided to abandon literature and join the military, and trained with Luo Zenan of the Hunan Army. After Zeng Guofan came back, he transferred him to his side.
Liu Rong rushed over after a while. Being available on call is a basic quality of a staff member.
Zeng Guofan handed Liu Rong the text from Zeng Guoquan's newspaper.
Liu Rong looked at it for a while, frowning. Whether this matter is big or small, the key depends on how the Huai Navy operates. Now the enemy is strong and we are weak, and the initiative is in the hands of others.
"Meng Rong, what do you think?" Zeng Guofan looked at Liu Rong.
"Governor, my subordinates feel that our speed must be faster. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei and Henan are not moving now. I feel that they may be waiting for someone to take the lead."
"So, who will take the lead?"
After speaking, Liu Rong looked at Zeng Guofan.
I saw him sigh deeply: "When the country is in danger, there are many people who know how to protect themselves."
"Meng Rong, how is the construction of Luo Zenan's warship going?"
Zeng Guofan sent Luo Zenan to Xiangyin a few months ago to build warships.
This time more than a hundred artillery pieces were purchased, and Zeng Guofan allocated some small-caliber artillery pieces to the infantry.
He planned to use all the other artillery pieces to build a navy.
Zeng Guofan knew that the Huai Navy owned steam gunboats, and he originally wanted to buy a few to build the Hunan Navy.
But now that the entire lower reaches of the Yangtze River are occupied by the Huai Navy, even if Zeng Guofan bought a gunboat, he probably wouldn't be able to sail to Dongting Lake.
So he could only build his own warships. It turned out that the warships in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River were either too thin or too slow.
Zeng Guofan summarized the experience and lessons learned from the battle with the Taiping Army and found that the lack of a reliable navy was the main reason for the defeat.
The Taiping Army had many warships and could maneuver quickly on the water. This was the reason why the Taiping Army was able to grow in size for a while.
The Taiping Army failed in the end because the Huai Navy's navy was stronger than theirs and was able to block waterways, preventing the Taiping Army from supporting each other.
At the same time, it can quickly deliver Huaihai Navy's troops to any location.
For this reason, Zeng Guofan himself studied and determined a construction strategy for the Hunan Army's navy: in terms of the military bravery of the navy, Zeng Guofan chose "boat owners and sailors".
In terms of establishment, one battalion is composed of one "quick crab" boat, ten "long dragon" boats and ten "sampan" boats, with each battalion having 500 people.
The "Kuai Crab" boat is the vanguard and is commanded by the battalion commander.
In terms of weapons and equipment, "every ship cannon, two long-headed cannons weighing 800 to 1,000 kilograms, four side cannons weighing 700 kilograms each, one tip cannon weighing 700 kilograms, all Yangzhuang cannons, and waist cannons specializing in pearls
Two, hit forty or fifty pounds."
"Sir, the warships are enough to form the fifth battalion of the navy. Mr. Luo built some of the warships himself. In order to speed up, some of the warships were rebuilt from requisitioned civilian ships, and their performance is not inferior to the new ships." Liu Rong replied.
.
"Well, Zhong Yue is a practical man. I feel relieved to have him in charge of the Navy." Luo Zenan is indeed a capable official who is good at getting things done.
"Meng Rong, pass my military order to Lao Jiu and ask him to move to Liling County and closely monitor the movements of the Huai Navy on the opposite side." Zeng Guofan ordered.
Jiangning City, Presidential Palace.
A meeting covering the top brass of the Renaissance Army is being held.
The Renaissance Army's preparations to fight against the Qing Dynasty have reached the final stage.
"Everyone, this may be the last plenary meeting before taking the oath of office. The purpose of today's meeting is to unify our thoughts."
"Once we formally swear our oath, we can never look back. We can only move forward and overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty with overwhelming momentum!"
Dong Shuheng briefly made an opening statement.
"Everyone, let me first talk about the preparations for each line so that everyone has an idea. Let me start from you, Lao Zeng."
"Yes, President, through recent overall arrangements, we have fully established the local governments of Fujian and Zhejiang, completed the allocation of officials, and have initially put them into operation."
"Now, we have a large number of reserve officials on hand, including more than 2,700 on-the-job reserve officials under a two-person system. We have organized two batches of more than 3,400 in-training officials to be recruited through examinations.
There are more than 53,000 academy students in the school."
"These are all potential candidates for local officials."
Dong Shuheng nodded. The problem of talent reserve has always been a flaw in the Fuxing Army.
There is a certain contradiction between the current knowledge system studied by Chinese literati and the local management method of the Fuxing Army.
The Fuxing Army passed the examination, passed the training, and passed the post in order to achieve the purpose of bringing back these scholars.
Dong Shuheng never denied the talents of these scholars.
Historically, many people in the Hunan Army lineage were scholars and came from different backgrounds, but many of them later became local officials and became core figures in the Westernization Movement.
Although the Westernization Movement ultimately failed, this cannot deny the talent of these people.
The Huai Navy recruited talents through the five provinces south of the Yangtze River it occupied. Many of these people may be mediocre scholars, and some may even be nerds who study to death.
But there will always be a group of outstanding people among them.
The Huaihai Navy's official system has a very low starting point. After the abolition of the staff system, even the lowest-level clerks are considered officials.
At least there is no class segregation. Every newcomer must start at the grassroots level and then work his way up through his own abilities.
This is like raising a poisonous insect. People who have no real ability, even if they have a background, even if they are smooth-tongued, are good at flattering others, and have climbed to a certain height.
But under such fierce competition, such people will eventually be eliminated.
Enough about the talent issue. The next issue in the military government that is closely related to the expedition is the food issue.
Zeng Xianfeng did not say it himself, but asked Chen Dongsheng from the Ministry of Agriculture to report.
"President, ladies and gentlemen, in the past year, we have worked hard to increase grain production and income. The cultivated land area in the Liangjiang region has increased by 20%, and grain output has increased by 40%."
"This is due to the promotion of guano fertilizer. In Haizhou Port and Haimen Port, we have established a total of seven guano fertilizer plants, with an annual output of 300,000 tons of guano fertilizer. Through self-mining on the islands in the East China Sea and South China Sea, and importing, we
A large amount of guano fertilizer raw material was obtained.”
"In addition, the area of our overseas farms has tripled in the past year, reaching 23 million acres. Including imported grain from other countries, the grain reserves of our grain reserve company under the Ministry of Agriculture have reached 24 million tons.
.enough for this war.”
"In addition, we promote agricultural machinery and increase the number of large livestock in farms and various natural villages. This can basically ensure the normal development of production during the army's expedition."
The Huaihai Navy's attack will definitely last until after spring plowing, and the war will inevitably affect normal agricultural production.
Even if agricultural production in areas under the jurisdiction of the Fuxing Army is not delayed, agricultural production in areas controlled by the Qing court will inevitably be affected.
But after the war, these places became the territory of the Renaissance Army. When famine breaks out, the Renaissance Army cannot care about their life or death.
At that time, these places will definitely need the Renaissance Army to transport food.
More than 20 million tons of grain reserves may sound like a lot, but the grain reserves of each province under the rule of the Qing court were only tens of thousands of tons.
But if tens of millions of people suffer from famine by then, these grains will not be enough.
Compared with the hundreds of millions of tons of grain reserves in later generations, this amount of grain is simply not enough.
Dong Shuheng scoffed at this data, but the people around him were dumbfounded that the Renaissance Army could have so many food reserves.
There are hundreds of grain storage warehouses established by the Renaissance Army in various provinces, not to mention the grain storage stations scattered in various towns and villages.
Many of these grains were purchased with silver coins used by the Fuxing Army, which was also part of Dong Shuheng's silver dollar outflow plan.
He must find a way to spend the money.
Whether it is buying food or buying warships, machinery and equipment, ore, etc., it is all for the purpose of spending money.
Then use silk, porcelain, and luxury goods to earn the money back.
"Minister Chen, let me make two points. First of all, we need to continue to reserve food, because we are not completely clear about the situation in the areas under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, and we cannot yet judge the size of the food gap. In addition, in addition to wars, there are also unpredictable natural disasters.
It will affect the food gap."
Dong Shuheng's goal is to reserve at least enough food to feed 400 million people for a year. This is a long and arduous goal.
Then, he continued: "Also, your Ministry of Agriculture should organize a group of people into several work teams to ensure that each army can be followed by an agricultural technical work team. Their task is to occupy the local area when the army
After that, we will organize farmers to replant grain."
Chen Dongsheng quickly wrote down Dong Shuheng's two suggestions.
"Please ask the Ministry of Transportation to report on the situation later." Seeing Dong Shuheng finish speaking, Zeng Xianfeng motioned to the Minister of Transportation Wang Qianli to continue reporting on the work.
"President, and colleagues, our Ministry of Transportation has completed the telegraph coverage network from Liangjiang area to the prefecture and county level in the past year. Telegraph lines in Zhejiang and Fujian are being laid and will be completed by the middle of this year. The Ministry of Transportation has established a telegraph network
The Bureau specializes in managing telegraph networks in various places. One thing I want to report to you is that our telegraph machines have been domestically produced. During the war, we will ensure the communication needs of the army."
"In addition, in terms of railway construction, the ring railways in Anhui and Jiangsu north of the Yangtze River have been fully connected. At that time, the transfer of troops and the transportation of logistics materials will be coordinated. In addition, we will do a good job in networking railway transportation and water transportation.
The terminal is seamlessly connected to important water transport ports.”
After Wang Qianli reported, other ministries also reported on their preparations for the battle.
The content of these reports is not only for Dong Shuheng to listen to, but also mainly for other senior officials to have a more intuitive and comprehensive understanding of the resources controlled by the Renaissance Army.
Next is the military's report.
Yan Shikun cleared his throat and said: "After more than a month of mobilization, four of our five-pronged armies are basically in place. The Far East and Heilongjiang regions are still in the cold winter, so they are unable to take action. The specific action time has yet to be determined.
.What needs to be done now is to adjust the deployment according to the specific combat plans of various armies."
Dong Shuheng nodded. The specific combat plans of each army were formulated by themselves. They even made real-time adjustments based on specific situations.
"Where is the logistics department?" Dong Shuheng looked at Han Yun.
"The preparation of logistics supplies has started very early. We will establish a logistics base close to the rear of each army. It will be used to store logistics supplies to facilitate the troops on the front line to obtain timely supplies."
"And in terms of logistical supplies, we have worked with the Ministry of Transportation to develop a set of the most efficient routes. At the same time, the Huaihai Caravan and the Great Wall Caravan, which are located all over the country, will be temporarily mobilized to help us transport logistical supplies."
…
The biggest shortcoming of the new army is its heavy reliance on logistical supplies.
If the rifle is out of bullets, it can still fight with the enemy's bayonet. If the artillery is out of shells, it can only be used as a decoration.
"Minister Ma, how's the gathering of the militia going?"
"Reporting to the president, a total of 400,000 militiamen have been mobilized for this battle, accounting for almost half of our militia reserves. Currently, the militiamen are rushing to various places under the leadership of ministers. They will follow the main force to take over the security of various places."
The Huaihai Navy's militia comes from two sources. One is the militia on the farm. Basically, the young men on the farm will participate in militia training.
There are also militiamen in villages and towns in various places. Huaihai Navy will basically set up a militia team in every village. These young people will participate in training during the off-season. Of course, militiamen can receive certain subsidies for participating in training.
There are also garrison troops under the main force of the Huai Navy, but the number of garrison troops on this expedition is simply not enough, so they can only be placed in more important positions. Most places still have to be temporarily taken over by the militia.
This is an important guarantee for the main force of the Renaissance Army to be able to continue fighting. Once the offensive operations are dragged down by the security war, the army will be delayed.
Moreover, security warfare will have a great impact on the vigor of the main force.
Through this meeting, the participating decision-makers of the Renaissance Army gained the most confidence.
Next, Dong Shuheng will accompany the commanding officers of various armies to discuss their respective combat plans.