Wen Deji said: "I unconditionally approve of this jihua. He sighed, "I'm going back to where I fought."

"Yes, I think that back then, Mr. Wen, you broke the bandits alone, the PPK machine gun swept through thousands of troops, and the demeanor of the bandit leader was really revered by my generation...... "Skade said.

"It's all in the past, don't mention it again." Wen Deji waved his hand absently.

"Don't go off-topic, guys." Ma Qianzhu said, "Continue to discuss the development of Hongji. ”

Dongmen Fuyu, speaking as the representative of the Military Governor's Court, said: "Our current strength is insufficient - the only mobile forces available are the Lingao Garrison Battalion and one battalion of Ma Yuan. ”

The lack of military strength has always been a curse that has plagued the Lingao regime -- on the whole, Lingao is an island regime at this stage, which is very suitable for the idea of building a large navy and a small army, and the army will act as a dispatch force for overseas intervention by exchanging sea supremacy for the homeland not to be attacked.

It stands to reason that under this system, the mobile forces of the Lingao regime should have been abundant -- the Senate had the strongest maritime mobile projection capability in the time and space, and could maneuver forces along the coastline at great speed, and one battalion could be used as several battalions.

Despite the efforts of the senators to buy hearts and minds, and the 17th century was not yet too nationalistic, the chaotic social order of the medieval state prevented the full use of social resources, which forced the military to take on the task of social transformation, which was not its primary responsibility.

Although more than half a year has passed since the Battle of Chengmai, although the Senate has controlled the counties of northern Qiongbei for more than three months. However, the main force of the army was still used to carry out a comprehensive "purge" of the localities. The security campaign launched by the General Staff in northern Qiongbei contained most of the army's strength -- four regular infantry battalions of the army were scattered throughout the northern Qiongbei region, carrying out a variety of guarding, escorting, and suppressing bandit combat missions. The Army, which was supposed to be a projection force, could no longer afford to divide its forces to support the new operations.

“…… If the Hongji front is to be opened, the only way to do this is to use the general reserve of the army. "Dongmen Blowing Rain expressed concern that in order to defend Hongji, it was necessary to form a Hongji garrison battalion, and three companies had to be withdrawn. In case the Northern Dynasties insist on "defending the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity," it is very possible to recruit 12,000 troops to besiege Hongji according to the level of mobilization of the Northern Dynasties, and it is very doubtful whether the three companies can keep Hongji. During the war games, the General Staff believed that at least a full infantry battalion was needed to defeat the North Vietnamese crusading army.

The veteran officers of the Military Administration Tribunal conducted many exercises on various jihua and plans, and the final result was that Lingao's military liliang was still insufficient in terms of numbers, and could only be satisfied with fighting a short-term war that was fast in and out of the country, and there was still a danger of being overstretched in a long-term war.

The solution, of course, is to expand the army, whether it is to expand the regular rules or to create a new second-line garrison force...... However, the veteran officers themselves felt that they could not speak: the population statistics of the entire Qiongzhou have not yet come out, but the total population is estimated to be 500,000 at most, and the current army and navy have exceeded 15,000. Compared to one soldier in every 30 men, the Lingao regime was the most militaristic regime in history, surpassing even Prussia, which claimed to be an "army with a state". If it weren't for the continuous supply of blood drawn from the mainland by export-oriented trade, and the fact that the army still spends a considerable amount of time to support construction, such an army would not have been able to sustain itself.

After the Battle of Chengmai, the Executive Committee once conceived the idea of reducing some of the soldiers of the Navy and Army to enrich the grassroots cadres, but the subsequent development of the form made this disarmament completely aborted.

“…… The expedition to Vietnam is equivalent to another division of troops, and it will have to maintain a certain presence in the enemy-occupied area for a long time, and may even have to fight for a long time, and the threat of Zheng Zhilong and other sea lords has not been eliminated......" Dongmen Fuyu continued to report.

"We are now in a strange circle," Zhan Wuya said, "if we want to engage in large-scale industrial production, we need to grab land and raw materials and fuel, and the rioters need a lot of munitions, and the arms need big industry, and the big industry needs raw materials and fuel, and the raw materials and fuels need to be obtained by grabbing land, and if we want to grab land, we have to ...... the army."

Wen Desi interrupted Zhan Wuyan's grumbling: "It's really difficult, but it's useless to just lay the nail on the side - let me give you my opinion: first set up an armed trading station, pay for certain currencies or commodities, hire local natives to dig coal, and then recruit mine guards from among the miners......"

"Let the Vietnamese natives dig coal? "Skede questioned the labor efficiency of the Vietnamese natives, who came from a foreign trade background, and many foreign trade factories moved to Vietnam in order to save labor costs, but it didn't take long for them to complain that the Vietnamese workers were too lazy.

"The monkeys are quite industrious, at least better than the natives further south, who grow three-cropping rice, is this what a lazy man would do?" "Besides, there is no such heresy as a trade union. One more point: Vietnam has a large population and is enough to supply the consumption of coal mining. Aren't they fighting the Civil War now? In this kind of medieval society, which was a little bit of a large territory, and fighting a general war of more than 100,000 people, it is needless to say that the people were not able to make a living, and we were able to get a large number of people at a very low price -- just feed our mouths. ”

"In the long run, the armed merchant station can also be used as a base for the subtle cultivation and transformation of the local natives, which will be beneficial to our future implementation of the new order," said Wu De. ”

In the Senate's master plan, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, which are countries in the "Chinese cultural circle", belong to the "East Asian New Order" system in the future, and are treated differently from the indigenous people of Southeast Asian islands.

There is little problem with the use of local labor by Boon Duc Si, and even if there is not enough indigenous labor in Vietnam, slaves can be transported to fill the mines in the long run.

Dongmen Blowing Rain said: "I'm just worried that the armed merchant station will not be able to support the attack of the Northern Dynasties......"

"We try to trade as peacefully as possible." Bun Tak Si elaborated on his plan, "The trading post is only used as a cover in case of emergency. So the scale doesn't need to be very large, as long as it is strong enough to support the navy to reinforce it. ”

The intention of the traverser is only to dig coal, not to occupy territory. Hongji is not a land of fish and rice, but a barren hilly peninsula. At present, Lingao's great military exploits should have also been passed on to the Northern Dynasties, which were already in a state of war with the Southern Dynasties, and could not afford to fight with a powerful military power for a small wasteland -- especially since the other side's purpose was only to dig coal. Wendesi's plan is based on the premise of this prediction.

Yu Eshui said: "In my personal opinion, Mr. Wen's plan is still feasible. Each time the Northern Dynasties made their southward advances, they were blocked by the Nguyen fortress complex near the 17th parallel and the munitions supplied by the Portuguese, and were now anxious to find foreign aid - the Dutch would act as their advisers soon after, as history had progressed. If we offer some arms in exchange, it will not be an unbearable price for the North to let us stay in Hongji to mine coal. It was also able to squeeze out the influence of the Dutch on the Northern Dynasties. ”

"Sell arms?" Some people feel that it is not easy to accept, in the past, Li Luoyou's attempts to buy arms for the Ming Dynasty were refused, and now he suddenly wants to sell arms to the Northern Li Dynasty.

"Do we have enough steel?"

"With the No. 1 blast furnace, the steel production capacity has expanded more than 10 times, and it is still good for us to consume some in exchange for enough thermal coal." Because of the successful ignition of the blast furnace a few days ago, Zhan Wuya felt a little rich, "The No. 1 blast furnace is not working at full capacity now, and the daily pig iron output is more than 60 tons. The No. 2 blast furnace will be ready for production in another month. ”

"There are also medicines, processed fast foods - food can be processed with supplied materials...... All of these could be sold to the Northern Dynasties as trade goods. It's about the same as goods sold to the Tartars. "I don't think the North will refuse this kind of trade demand." Medicines and fast food are useful in the military. ”

Finally, the decision to open a trading station in Hongji for coal mining was passed. As a first step, the Vietnam Trading Company was separated from the Leizhou Station. The Vietnam Trading Company became a state-owned company directly under the Ministry of Colonial Trade. and Leizhou Sugar has achieved the same status. The station is still located in Leizhou.

In a luxurious residence on Hai'an Street in Haikang County, Leizhou, the elders of Leizhou Station are sitting around a table, and the atmosphere is a little delicate. The table was piled with books and stuff, and in addition to the abacus there was a pocket-sized electronic calculator.

A big black man said at this time: "Okay, the accounts should be clear, right?" ”

The female senator, who was filling in the best numbers on the form, straightened up - she was none other than the Cheka's Jin Zhijiao. "No problem, there are a few that are violations, but they are not serious," she said. She stamped the handover audit form as she spoke, "Okay."

"Lao Wen, I'm about to leave you, don't think about me......" The black man is Chang Shide, a few days ago, he received a telegram from the organization department, asking him to "immediately prepare for the handover, transfer to Lingao for another appointment." "The telegram was followed by this Cheka woman.

Hongji's action began with personnel transfers: Chang Shide was transferred out of Leizhou; Yan Maoda was officially transferred to Leizhou as the general manager of the Vietnam Trading Company, and Pei Kai was appointed as the trade representative in North Vietnam. The latter had already received long-term Vietnamese training at Lingao - he couldn't bear to learn strange Vietnamese on TV every day. Although Bei Kai repeatedly stressed that his family had nothing to do with Vietnam, he was picked for the position of trade representative in Vietnam because of his "very Vietnamese" appearance.