There is a very formal debate going on in Washington's Senate about whether the federal army should be large enough to match China's forces in North America.

The United States is a very young country, and its foreign relations are even younger. Before the British spinelessly sold a large amount of territory to China, the greatest threat to the United States came from the Royal Navy of the British Empire. Now the United States is facing another threat that goes far beyond it, and that is China's navy and Chinese army.

According to the intelligence gathered by the Americans, as well as frontal inquiries about China. China's total military presence in North America is as high as 500,000. Of course, from China's point of view, there are only 500,000 troops on a territory of several million square kilometers. It's obviously very rare, it's not good!

But the Americans' view is completely different from China's, and the U.S. Army now has no more than 100,000 troops. As for the US Navy, the canal connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea had not yet been opened at this time, and the United States did not have a decent fleet in the Pacific region. Even if it did, the United States did not believe that its fleet would be able to challenge the Chinese fleet, which had defeated the British Royal Navy.

In the latest news, the Chinese Navy's Grand Fleet has arrived in Hawaii and has established a foothold there. China has not announced the annexation of Hawaii for the time being, but has only begun to build ports and other facilities in Hawaii. America's new northern neighbor is a display of an unparalleled obsession with land and a terrible amount of money to take it before it happens. How to get along with new neighbors has always been a headache for the upper echelons of the United States. Maintaining military parity with China is increasingly becoming a plan approved by the US Congress.

"Sending 500,000 troops to the northern border, will the state finances be able to support it?" Republican lawmakers are very skeptical.

"Before sending 500,000 troops, the Federation must first levy another 100,000 troops." Democratic lawmakers who oppose this approach also put forward their own views. Not long after the Civil War, in the middle and late stages of the Civil War, both sides began to rely on immigrants who had just arrived in the United States. As soon as the Europeans on the ships got off the boat, they were pulled into the boat. There have also been tragic cases of fathers and sons being dragged away by people from different camps, and it didn't take long for them to start fighting each other in different military uniforms.

"If there is a conflict between the National Guard in the states and China, what will we do then?"

When it comes to a Chinese invasion, these legislators will not oppose a war with China. That's why they had to come up with a solution to the problem. The U.S. federal army has always been relatively restricted, whether it is the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, every time the United States massively expands the federal army, it will begin to reduce it massively at the end of the war. This may be the result of a white slip signed by Commander-in-Chief Warzenton after the American Revolutionary War demanding that the federal government honor it. So the federal government arrested these veterans who dared to rise up and collect debts, and after various commutations, they were sentenced to death.

Relying on the federal government to feed hundreds of thousands of troops means a huge increase in taxes, which is a very, very serious problem for the federal United States. The more serious problem is that the United States has been in an extremely serious economic crisis since 1882. The economic crisis came after a new round of railroad speculation in the United States collapsed.

From 1879 to 1883, nearly 50,000 kilometers of railroads were built in the United States. In 1882, when the construction of railroads in the United States ebbed, the United States built twice as many railroads as it actually needed, and the parallel railroads competed viciously, competing to cut freight rates, making railroad operations unable to make ends meet, and banks and investors sold railroad stocks and bonds one after another. In 1883, the price of American railroad stocks fell below par value in the London market.

In such a situation, the U.S. federal government simply has no room to raise taxes, and it would be nice to be able to guarantee the existing tax revenue. As for increasing the budget of 400,000 federal troops, this is not an achievable goal for the United States at the moment. Napoleon said that the first thing to fight a war is money, the second is money, and the third is money. The biggest feeling in the United States now is that there is really no money.

The American system makes it impossible for them to do anything without money, and China's thousands of years of coinage history has prevented the problem of running out of money at home. After the restoration of peace with the British, China's exports to the UK showed a retaliatory blowout. The first is that silk can once again be sold in large quantities to the British, and the second is that tea is once again the bulk of exports.

In the territory demarcated by this peace, China took the entire southern Tibet region, including Assam, and Ceylon also fell into Chinese hands. All tea-producing regions of the world are now owned by China. Within a year, China had a surplus of 100 million taels of silver. At this time, the price of silver in the world market was extremely cheap. China frantically scoured the world for silver to be shipped back home. China then announced the use of the "paper silver" standard. That is to say, when foreigners take a large amount of RMB and cannot spend it, they can go to the Central Bank of China to exchange "paper silver", that is, God knows when to cash the equivalent denomination of silver.

This kind of thing is a foreign financial means, and it has no meaning for the Chinese people. The country is not short of money now, what is lacking is infrastructure. The plan is to build 50,000 kilometers of rail network in North America over a four-year period. Once the railway network is built, theoretically speaking, the countdown to the war against the United States can begin.

Captain Qi Rui didn't know his father's strategic vision. It doesn't matter whether he knows it or not, as a member of the system, Captain Qi Rui received an order, "The army will start to participate in the construction of the railway from now on, and will be engaged in surveying, mapping and geological exploration. ”

"You talk about surveying and mapping, I used to think it was useful. In the geology class, I thought it was just to see how the terrain should be used to repair fortifications, but I didn't expect this course to really be used. Hu Xingzhi didn't know whether to be happy or complaining, anyway, there were a lot of things mixed in his tone.

"You think that level is for nothing, why do we have to be three years less than others, and now we have to prove it with work." Li Shaokang said with a smile.

"To be a soldier is to assume the duties of a soldier." Captain Qi Rui said what his father had said. At this time, he had some fear of the hard work of the future, but more of it was the recognition of the army as an organization. The military has responsibilities and obligations, and when a soldier is treated better than others, it also means that the soldier has to take on more things. What is the point of the army and its military when it is no longer able to do the hard work?

Captain Hu Xing hurriedly explained: "I don't mean to be dissatisfied. I just think that what we've learned can be used now, and it's beyond my imagination. ”

Captain Zhou Shun nodded, "I just think the future is very hard, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to do a good job." But to put it another way, the next time we meet, everyone should be majors, right? Let's sign up for the new military academy exams! ”

This is indeed an inspiring future for listening. The junior commander of the Liberation Army needs to be at least a lieutenant rank. However, the comrades who came to serve in North America also knew that their rank was not promoted in vain, and no one dared to propose the matter of applying for a military school. It's just that if you want to go up this level, you have to work very, very hard.

Captain Qi Rui is waiting for the distribution of troops, and now there are three directions for building railways in North America. The first one naturally departed from Vancouver, and the second departed from the deep-water port formerly known as Prince Rupert Port and now known as Zhenglan Port. The third is to build a railroad from Alaska near the Arctic Circle. What the railroad really said it could do, it was probably the ability to advance or retreat quickly when China's North American territory was hit hard.

Starting work in all three directions at the same time means a three-fold increase in efficiency, with the higher the efficiency, the sooner the completion will be. Captain Qi Rui didn't want to be assigned to Alaska at all, and there were people from Alaska in the unit. Everyone's evaluation of Alaska is two words: "barren". Only an organization like the military can survive and thrive in Alaska, and even build a railroad.

Captain Qi Rui didn't dare to think that he could go to Alaska, other regions are assessed every three years, and the Alaska Military Region is assessed every two and a half years. Other people's fathers may dare to operate behind their backs, but Captain Qi Rui doesn't dare to expect his own father to do this.

After the troops were distributed, Captain Qi Rui was stunned. He didn't expect that he would be assigned to Da Nu Lake with his troops, and he didn't expect that Huxi City in the Da Nu Lake area would actually build a port area. As soon as he exchanged information, Captain Qi Rui realized that he was lonely and unheard. When the Liberation Army marched into North America, it went south along the Mackenzie River, and Huxi City was originally one of the strongholds of the Liberation Army.

Danu Lake is located in the northern part of the North American Territory of China, and there is a railroad starting point here, so the increased efficiency is not comparable to simply adding a construction point on the coast. The port in Huxi City has been piled up with mountains of supplies, and a large amount of machinery and equipment, including trucks, has been put into use. Time is tight and the task is heavy, no nonsense, everyone is in full swing into the work.

In October, even if it is winter, the construction site is still in full swing. If you can go a little more south, you will be a little farther away from winter. With the extensive use of machinery, the railroad can continue to be built as long as it does not snow. The railroad south from Huxi City ran through the plains of the U.S.-Central Province, and as long as the first large army farm could be reached, the supply of the railroad would no longer be a problem. Even 50 kilometres from the nearest large farm, the need for trucks to take care of the transport has greatly reduced the pressure on supplies.

Practice is the best teacher, Captain Qi Rui once worried about the research topic of his application for the military academy, and now he has found his own research topic. The application of the cooperation between railways and trucks in future large-scale wars is a very large topic, but as far as Captain Qi Rui knows, it is still a relatively new topic. And the army doesn't care if the same topic is raised by many people at the same time. What the military cares about is the insight that officers show when they analyze topics.

After learning this from his father, Wei Ze, Captain Qi Rui was no longer afraid that he would not be able to stand out from the crowd and be ingenious. As long as it comes from your own cognition and ideas, then do it. As for other people's evaluations, it's too late to wait for others to say it and then consider it. Just like what Wei Ze often teaches his children at home, "When you eat breakfast, you concentrate on breakfast, and it's too late to think about lunch after breakfast." ”