The "West Court" in front of the Siam Palace belongs to the military minister system. The area of this area is exactly the same as the "East Court", but in terms of the number of high-rise buildings, it is about half less than the "East Court".
This is not to treat military officials lightly, but the affairs in the "West Court" are not as complicated as in the "East Court" and do not require as many administrative manpower. In addition, the "West Court" also has the function of garrisoning, so there are only one row.
There are currently only two large military camp halls and actual administrative buildings.
There are two administrative buildings, one is temporarily named "Southern Xinjiang Garrison Military Command" and the other is temporarily named "Dingnan Garrison Headquarters". As for the Siam Military Headquarters after the reform of the "six-ministerial system" of the Kingdom of Siam, it is not in the "Western Xinjiang Garrison Headquarters".
"Ting", and on the "East Court" side, but the Siam Ministry of War currently has very few affairs, and the actual military power is in the "West Court".
The current real owner of the West Courtyard - or the "acting owner" - is none other than Huang Zhiting.
However, even Huang Zhiting does not have a very clear and formal position to lead the "Southern Xinjiang Garrison Military Command Department". The authority of the orders she issues in the name of the Military Command Department comes from the seal given to her by Gao Pragmatic.
After all, the theoretical power of this Military Command Department is very great, and all the major garrison forces in southern Xinjiang need to act in accordance with the orders issued here - with one and only one exception, that is, each ministry directly receives the order from Gao Pragmatic, otherwise the Military Command Department
The order is considered the highest order.
As for the "Dingnan Garrison Headquarters", there was a garrison commander at this time. It was none other than Huang Hu, the number one general under Huang Zhiting.
The number of troops under the garrison headquarters is not very large, only eight thousand in total. Five thousand are Huang Zhiting's own wolf soldiers brought from Haidong Town, Annan, and three thousand are the ones Liu Xin left behind.
Although in accordance with Gao Yuan's pragmatic requirements, Huang Zhiting personally breastfed Gao Yuan for a period of time. I wonder if the mother's physical fitness also has a positive impact on the child. When Gao Yuan was only seven months old, the female medical officers sent by the Department of Medicine unanimously agreed that he could be weaned.
.
So Huang Zhiting seemed to be liberated, and began to care about the Dingnan garrison again, and immediately took action personally to complete a major transformation of this "last line of defense".
The ferocity of the wolf soldiers is well known, their reputation is absolutely resounding, and their military exploits are worthy of their reputation. However, Huang Zhiting, who has personally commanded several guard armies, is keenly aware that the wolf soldiers must be reformed, otherwise sooner or later
Will be eliminated by increasingly powerful firearms armies.
What's more, since these wolf soldiers will serve as the royal city's garrison in the future, their defensive ability while standing on the tower and shooting arrows will definitely not be as good as firing cannons and shots from the tower.
Besides, the walls of the royal city and the royal palace are built into bastion-style walls for crossfire. The openings for firing are very small, and you can't allow you to shoot arrows foolishly inside.
So in recent months, in addition to going to Nanzhang to deal with her ineffective brother, Huang Zhiting has been training this army - not only the wolf soldiers, but also Liu Xin's three thousand people.
The firearms training already had the garrison as a template. In order to obtain a "personal inheritance", Huang Zhiting specifically asked Gao Pangshi to transfer Gao Jue from Jingang. First, he served as the commander of the Dingnan garrison, and second, he helped correct her.
Training plan to avoid problems.
[Note: Gao Jue was originally the commander of the Thang Long Garrison. Because the garrison always had a rotation system, he was later transferred to Jingang until he was transferred to Dingnan this time.]
According to Gao Jue, there are two most critical issues for the success or failure of a firearms-based army: First, discipline must be enforced and prohibited, as the master said, "soldiers must fear military law more than fear death."
The second is the mastery of firearms techniques and tactics. This is relatively simple. Maintain high-intensity training and conduct simulated actual combat drills regularly. In addition, do more live ammunition shooting. In short, you must be willing to spend time, and even more, be willing to spend money.
The time-consuming problem is easy to deal with. Huang Zhiting has no time to fight now, and the government affairs have been basically handed over to professionals like Gao Mengnan. The other police forces have basically stabilized due to the local situation, and there are not many major tasks that must be handled by her personally.
to decide, so she had a lot of time to devote to military training.
The trouble lies in spending money here. Of course Jinghua has money, but Dingnancheng is now a bit like a bottomless pit. Although many nobles, officials and wealthy households have moved in one after another after the establishment of the inner city, and there are already some commercial activities, Gao Mengnan can
It began to gradually levy taxes and slowly "recover", but overall it was still a drop in the bucket.
Beijing's current estimate is that at least the construction of the royal city must be completed in order to ensure a balance of revenue and expenditure. After one or two years, Dingnancheng's finances will begin to accumulate surplus, and then they can consider continuing to build the outer city - the construction of the outer city.
Task Jinghua does not plan to continue to invest huge sums of money, and it depends on Ding Nancheng's own efforts.
In short, it's not that Huang Zhiting can't ask Gao Jingjing for money, it's not that Gao Jingjing can't afford the training expenses for this mere 8,000 people. However, she always feels that as a wife, it is her duty to share her husband's worries.
, it would be inappropriate to keep causing him trouble, so I have to find a way to get the money myself.
There are not many solutions to think about, so naturally she has to look at her territory in Haidong. Haidong is not poor, but although it is close to the Red River Delta, it is just outside the delta. The irrigation is definitely worse, and
Not counting the fertile farmland, the grain produced can only be counted as some surplus, which can be sold, but not much money can be made.
Making money now mainly depends on two points. One is sugar production. This place is close to Siming Prefecture, which is also a good sugar production area. Moreover, there is no need to worry about the sales of sugar. If you directly sell it to Jinghua, you will not be cheated.
The second is to sell coal. One of the reasons Gao Pragmatic gave Haidong to her was that it had the largest coal mine in later Vietnam. At this time, Haidong Prefecture included the entire Quang Ninh Province in later Vietnam, and this province was the largest coal mine in Vietnam.
In the main production area, the veins are 200 kilometers long and the reserves are estimated to be as high as 3.6 billion tons.
This chapter is not over, please click the next page to continue reading! Moreover, the coal produced in this area has high calorific value, low ash content, no smoke, and high quality. It is almost rare in the world. It has a long-standing reputation and has been exported to Asia, Europe, Oceania, etc. for a long time.
many countries in the world.
But the problem is not that there are no problems. The main problem is that the "industries" that need coal in southern Xinjiang are concentrated in the Ha Tinh-Jingang generation in central Annan, and there are not many. The largest users are Jinghua's steel plant in Ha Tinh and Jingang.
Arms factories and others are just small-time retail investors, and their consumption simply cannot keep up with coal production capacity.
Huang Zhiting thought about it, but still felt that it was difficult to handle. There is no so-called winter in southern Xinjiang, and there is no need to count on heating coal. The north of the Ming Dynasty needs coal for heating. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of coal in the north of the Ming Dynasty. Jinghua has coal mines all over the north.
, you can cover the entire market by yourself.
So Huang Zhiting decided to open her own arsenal in anger, but instead of engaging in internal competition with Jinghua, she planned to produce products such as cold weapons and armor.
There is a leading enterprise of this kind in the Ming Dynasty, which is the Wang Arsenal of the Wang family (Wang Chonggu family). Because they have always used steel and iron from Jinghua as raw materials, and they are also highly pragmatic relatives, Jinghua also
Too lazy to fight for this piece of business.
However, there is no such thing in southern Xinjiang. Although military power in southern Xinjiang is concentrated in the hands of the garrison, there are not many places that need cold weapons. In terms of armor, due to the weather, the amount of iron used is not large, but the local market in southern Xinjiang is limited.
, but there is no problem with external sales.
Huang Zhiting had been paying attention to the situation in India mentioned by Gao Jingshi before. The Mughal Empire was in the expansion period, and their level of firearms was not high. They had a great demand for cold weapons, armor and other items.
In addition, the Mughal Empire was a northern empire in India, and there were a lot of kingdoms and local governments in the south. Who among these people would not be afraid of the powerful Mughal Empire? Who wouldn’t want to buy some equipment to be brave?
As she said, Huang Zhiting quickly recruited a group of craftsmen from Foshan and various parts of southern Xinjiang. She even sent people to Chittagong to recruit some craftsmen who knew about Indian weapons and armor to Dingnan.
An arsenal was established in the outer city (located on the west side of the Chao Phraya River).
At the same time, they asked the Burmese Squadron of the Nanyang Fleet to promote the trade in India to see if they could get a few orders. The result was really good. The current smelting level of the Indians is not high, mainly because it is very efficient.
Low prices have led to high prices for iron products. Since Huang Chi Dinh's products use steel produced by Jinghua in Ha Tinh, the quality is good and the price advantage is also obvious.
The financial staff recommended to her by Jinghua calculated that the gross profit could reach a little more than twice the production cost. Excluding transportation and other costs, the income was still considerable.
However, the profits here are trickling down, and the initial investment was in real money. As a result, Huang Zhiting has always felt that she is short of money recently. It was under this situation that Special Envoy Alfredo was invited by Gao Mengnan to see Huang Zhiting.
It was the morning after he met with Gao Mengnan.
The special envoy entered the Siam Palace again, and when he learned that "Her Majesty the Baroness" would receive him at the Xiting Military Camp, he thought he had heard it wrong.
Although he also knows that the Baroness is famous for her military exploits, he is the special envoy of the Governor of Goa and is here on a diplomatic mission. Shouldn't the Baroness give him a more formal occasion to pay his respects? It's like
Your Excellency Gao Mengnan, after all, he also met me in the "Prime Minister's Office"!
It's a pity that it doesn't matter what he thinks. Huang Zhiting said he would meet him wherever he said he would meet him, whether you want to come or not.
Although Alfredo was a little dissatisfied, Captain Pedro was very satisfied. Not only was he satisfied, but he was even very excited. He especially hoped to see Her Majesty the Countess's troops practicing, because this would give him the opportunity to observe them up close.
And assessing the combat effectiveness of the Siamese army (actually the garrison) is a very meaningful thing.
Captain Pedro's wish was quickly fulfilled, but unfortunately only part of it was fulfilled - he was not able to see very formal training, such as battle formation marches, formation changes, live-fire drills, etc.
What he saw today was a strange training: Her Majesty's guards were standing in military posture under the scorching sun.
Eight thousand soldiers stood motionless under the scorching sun in Dingnan. Each of them had a coconut shell on their head that looked like it had been roughly processed. Captain Pedro initially thought that those coconut shells were for sun protection.
, and later I discovered otherwise, it seemed to be some kind of judgment standard - if the coconut shell falls off the head, the training must be unqualified.
"Her Majesty the Countess" obviously won't accompany them to bask in the sun. She sits in the shade of a cool tree, blowing the cool breeze of the Chao Phraya River (anyone who has been to Hainan knows that although the sun is extremely poisonous, once there is a shade,
The wind is very cool), she is wearing a female official uniform (misunderstanding, it is her official uniform), and there is a table next to her with some fruits on it.
"Alfredo, the special envoy of the Governor of Goa of the Kingdom of Portugal, has met Her Majesty the Baroness and wishes that Her Majesty's beauty will last as long as the Chao Phraya River."
"Pedro, the captain of the Royal Portuguese Navy's Grandura, has met Her Majesty the Baroness. In front of your beauty, even the beautiful Chao Phraya River pales in comparison."
Huang Zhiting used to get angry when she heard such European compliments, but as she saw more and more Europeans, she had become immune to it. She just smiled lightly and asked: "I heard from uncle, do you have something to do?"
Want to talk to me?"
Alfredo was a little surprised that Huang Zhiting didn't even move to stand up. This seemed to him a bit rude, let alone "diplomatic reciprocity". It seemed that Pedro was right before, the Ming Empire's
The official was indeed quite arrogant - he knew that Huang Zhiting had an official position in the Ming Empire.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Fortunately, Alfredo is very tolerant, especially when facing a beautiful lady, he does not want to appear rude. Therefore, Mr. Envoy is polite
He bowed again and said: "Yes, Your Excellency, I am here to..."
"To find out whether my husband or I have any intention of using force against the city of Malacca, right?" Huang Zhiting interrupted him firmly, although her voice was not loud.
Special Envoy Alfredo was stunned at that time, as if his brain was temporarily shut down. After a while, he forced a smile and said: "Your Excellency, the Countess, is joking. There is no conflict between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Ming Empire, I guess..."
"I have indeed always wanted to capture the city of Malacca, and I think this can be done easily... Are you satisfied with this answer?" Huang Zhiting said still calmly.
Alfredo finally couldn't hold back the smile on his face, and even his voice changed slightly, as if someone had strangled his throat: "Your Majesty, Baroness, with all due respect, should I regard your answer as a war threat?"
"There is no need to threaten you. I'm just too lazy to talk nonsense, so I'll tell you the truth." Huang Zhiting leaned back on the chair casually, without even looking at Alfredo, and said to herself: "If my husband hadn't sent me a letter, I
When I returned to the capital to celebrate the New Year, I originally wanted to send troops to wipe out the Aralia Peninsula (old Chinese books often refer to the Malay Peninsula as the Aralia Peninsula) next month.
The Portuguese ships in Malacca currently include five large Galenic warships and seventeen ordinary Galenic armed merchant ships. The Nanyang Fleet has assured me that if a war breaks out and a decisive battle occurs, they will definitely be able to annihilate your fleet in one battle.
As for the land division, haha... Portugal has a total of 837 people in Malacca, of which 600 are regular troops and the rest are mercenaries. Musali said that he can ensure that the outer city is broken on the same day and can be taken in three days at most.
Go down to the whole city."
Alfredo and Pedro turned pale at the same time. They were so shocked that they couldn't say a word and didn't know how to answer.
But it seemed that Huang Zhiting didn't intend to wait for their answer. She just gently pressed a text that was originally on the desk with her slender index finger, pushed it forward, and then calmly said in an unquestionable tone: "Sign
If you peacefully hand over Malacca, I can, on behalf of my husband, grant you free navigation to the Southeast Asia and the East - of course, navigation fees and future transaction taxes from Malacca will still have to be paid."
----------
Thanks to book friends "Book Friends 20191124105331057" and "Shaked the Head 0610" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: My grandpa has to undergo a heart-related operation and has to rush back to his hometown today, so I finished coding this chapter in the middle of the night and posted it first. The update time tomorrow is not yet clear.