Volume VIII 1374 Huge military spending

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The queue for transporting supplies is getting longer and longer, and from a distance, it looks like a long dragon day and night.

In fact, the best way to transport supplies from the main island of the Ryukyus to Yuwan Mountain is to dock at Setouchi Village and then take the nearest and best winding road directly up the mountain.

However, the strait is now full of mines, and there are several stranded enemy warships in the reef area outside Setomura, and about 1,000 Russian troops are relying on warships to resist stubbornly, so Setouchi Village has lost its role as a supply center at this moment.

All supplies had to be disembarked from the west and east shores of the island, and they could only be reached to the mountains after a large number of manpower and countless unjust roads.

Xiao Letian stood on the mountain rock and looked down on the qiē in front of him with a telescope, he sighed and said, "If you want to maintain an army of 30,000 to fight here, you must have more than 50,000 logistics support forces, and the funds consumed every day are no less than 400,000 silver coins!

"If there is a great war like the one before, the military expenditure will cost at least two million silver dollars a day...... This is war! This is burning money!"

Putting down the binoculars, Xiao Lotian didn't look back, and asked Wang Huaiyuan behind him, "Is there a statistic? How much money have we spent so far?"

Wang Huaiyuan said with a bitter face, "There is no latest number, three days ago, our detailed statistics were released, for this ambush battle from the preliminary preparation to the enemy officially hooked into the main battlefield, we have already spent 13 million silver dollars, and the expansion cost of the fortress on Tangwan Mountain alone accounts for half of the ......."

"In the past few days of war, half of the ammunition in our stockpile has been consumed, especially more shells, not to mention rifles, bullets, explosives, medical supplies, and food...... And, of course, mines, the cost of the Zhiyuan, as well as the purchase of fishing boats and merchant ships from the private sector for sinking into the sea......"

"The cost of these few days alone can't be paid without seven million silver dollars......! This battle is fought, the cage that locks the enemy is simply made of sterling silver, and the money is too much......"

Rao is Xiao Letian is wealthy, and when he heard this number, he also sighed distressedly and shook his head: "Do you count the cost of supporting the Far Eastern Volunteers?"

"My prime minister, is that another account, okay? The money over there is even more like flowing water, and the dragon master will ask for 100,000 Mausers when he opens his mouth, and the import cost of a Mauser is about 70 silver dollars, and the cost of our own manufacturing is also about 50 silver dollars......

"The cost of the rifle that Long Ye just wants is more than 7 million dragon pattern silver dollars, what about the bullets? Not to mention the rest, the 30 million military expenses that you prepared for Long Ye before the Prime Minister, I estimate that there is not much left now......

The more you settle the account, the more frightened you become, the war is a gold-swallowing monster, no matter what kind of psychological preparation Xiao Letian made in advance, but he still had to gasp when the real numbers were in front of him.

"We can't fight like this anymore, from this moment on, the hot war in Tangwan Mountain must be controlled, and the strategy is mainly siege, as long as the enemy does not go crazy, no large-scale attacks are allowed...... We have to leave some supplies for the Far East!"

Xiao Letian is not wrong, more money and less money is just one aspect of the problem everyone is facing, and the more important factor is that money may not be able to buy things.

On the surface, Tanggu and Ryukyu both have a production line for Mauser rifles, but everyone knows that these two production lines are actually just assembly workshops.

Butt, trigger, bayonet, strap...... Some external equipment can be produced by the Chinese themselves, but the barrel and firing pin have not been produced by the Chinese so far.

The steel for the barrel is now produced in Prussia, and the rifling has been cut in Prussia, and the firing pin is also loaded in Hamburg and then shipped across the ocean to Xiao Lotian.

This kind of transaction efficiency is naturally much faster than the whole gun trading, and the cost is greatly reduced. But the key parts are controlled in the hands of others, even if the other party is their ally, which is very uncomfortable.

Xiao Lotian had a hunch that if the results of the battle on Tangwan Mountain were revealed to the world at this moment, the British and French, who were stimulated, would definitely take action against him.

It is very likely that the merchant ships floating on the sea will be the focus of the enemy, they will block the Suez Canal, they will block the Strait of Malacca, and then send troops to search the ships ship by ship, and they will detain all the merchant ships that carry gun barrels and firing pins to the Chinese.

If that happens, Xiao Lotian will immediately fall into the embarrassing situation of having money and not being able to buy weapons. And it's almost 100% going to happen.

"We still have to think about the fighting in the Far East, and the limited supplies can't be wasted, so let's send more to the Far East...... Send someone to the Americans and ask the Carnegie family for help, and we are willing to spend 15% more cost, as long as the United States guarantees our arms supply......"

"Don't have a problem with the Pacific route, this is our lifeline...... Let's get our college students on it, and let's go on the political offensive team!"

The prime minister gave an order, and groups of Ryukyu university students, who had been on standby on the sea early, took action. These high-level intellectuals of the future Chinese nationality, with great excitement on their faces, began to disembark in a neat line and headed straight for Tangwan Mountain.

Along the way, all the soldiers looked at them in disbelief...... Ma Xiaobao, that's the youngest son of the Ma family in my neighborhood! He's an honor student at the Maritime University, so why didn't he go to the battlefield......

"That's right, that's Longze Yishan, a child in the Fusang neighborhood, very close to my house...... I know that kid too, and that ...... over there."

"Stinky boys, why are you not going to study and come here?" asked the veterans, babbling.

The child said proudly, "We are a newly formed political offensive team, and the future battle will depend on our ability! We are going to the battlefield and go straight to Tangwan Mountain!"

"What?" Everyone was stunned, although the Chinese army has a tradition of showing off talents and serving as soldiers, but it is also a military university, and many of the students who came back are students of ordinary universities!

The veterans present all knew these children, some of them read translation, some read history, some read science, and some studied physics and mathematics...... I heard that these majors are going to be scholars and scientists in the future, so what are they doing on the battlefield?

Everyone was puzzled, but no one dared to question the prime minister's decision, and when these children walked into the forefront of the trenches under the stunned eyes of the 30,000-strong army, the rest of the matter was shocked.

The children each took out a tin horn from their backpacks, set it up on the edge of the trench and began to speak Russian like a flock of foreign birds.

The Chinese Marines couldn't understand what the children were saying, but the Russian soldiers on the hill were all dumbfounded, and the Russian language below was not standard but everyone could understand it, although the accent was not standard.