In the conference room, Fang Nan, Zhou Lei, Zhao Hong, Hu Zhuang and other high-level leaders of the People's Army discussed this war that was still in progress, thinking about how to get more development time after the end of this war.

"We have to beat the Ming army to a painful beat, as long as the Ming army loses a lot of troops, it will not be able to gather enough troops to attack us in a short time." Hu Zhuang, Minister of War, said.

After Hu Zhuang finished speaking, Shen Minghui, the head of the Criminal Department, continued: "It is not enough to consume the strength of the Ming army, after demonstrating the strength of our people's army, we must also make a posture that we will only stay in Guangdong, so that the Ming court will not attack us at all costs." ”

"We can force the Ming court to the negotiating table by promoting peace through war, saying that if we sign an armistice agreement, our side needs time to develop, and the Ming court will definitely need time to expand the army and train new soldiers." Secretary-General Zhou Lei also said.

A group of high-ranking people of the People's Army in the meeting room discussed and discussed, and finally decided on a plan to promote peace by war and force the Ming court to the negotiating table.

This plan was very simple, that is, the People's Army would attack from all sides and launch an attack on the Ming army in Guangxi, Huguang, Fujian, and even Jiangxi, so as to eliminate the living forces of the Ming army as much as possible and demonstrate the strength of the People's Army to the Ming court.

At this time, the Ming court was unable to mobilize enough troops to resist the People's Army in a short period of time, so it was forced to negotiate with the People's Army, and through negotiations, a paper agreement determined the People's Army's right to rule Guangdong.

Of course, how long this armistice can last depends on the situation of both sides, if the Ming court or the KPA think that they are ready, then this armistice can be abolished and a new war begins.

Many times Fang Nan, Zhou Lei and other high-level people of the People's Army still have to think about the Ming Court, they don't want to see the Ming Court rush to exterminate the People's Army and transfer the Ming Army from all over the country, once the Ming Army from all over the country is withdrawn, then chaos is prone to occur in various places, and the unlucky people are still the people.

At the end of the meeting, Fang Nan also made a decision, ordering He Yan's Third Army to mobilize troops to capture Qiongzhou with the navy after eliminating some of the Guangxi Ming troops.

The capture of Qiongzhou was not for the sake of natural rubber, which was native to the American continent and was used by the local inhabitants of Central and South America long before Columbus discovered the American continent in 1492.

It was not until 1876 that the Englishman Wickham collected rubber seeds from the Brazilian Amazon estuary, transported them back to the Royal Botanic Gardens of England for sowing, and tried them in Ceylon, Indonesia, and Singapore, all of which were successful, and the Brazilian rubber tree officially settled in the Far East, and the rubber cultivation industry developed very rapidly since then.

If you want to plant rubber trees in Qiongzhou Mansion, Fang Nan needs to send a fleet to the American continent to bring back rubber tree species.

Although rubber is very important to the steam engine, there is no rubber on the steam engine for a long time, but the principle of thermal expansion and cold contraction of iron sheets is used to ensure the air tightness of the steam engine.

Capturing Qiongzhou Mansion, Fang Nan actually took a fancy to an iron mine in Qiongzhou Mansion that had not yet been discovered - Shilu Iron Mine.

Shilu Iron Mine is definitely the largest iron-rich ore in the land of China, with iron ore reserves of about 300 million tons, accounting for 71% of the iron-rich ore reserves in China, and is a large-scale open-pit mine, easy to mine.

Shilu iron ore ore is of high quality and high grade, with an average grade of 51.2% and a maximum of 69%, Shilu iron ore is not only rich in iron, cobalt and copper resources, but also nickel, sulfur, aluminum, gold and other mineral resources.

Basically, with the Shilu Iron Mine, the People's Army has a very good foundation for industrial development, and there are still coal mines available for mining in Qiongzhou Prefecture.

Fang Nan planned to arrange for a large number of people to go there after the People's Army occupied Qiongzhou Prefecture to build roads, mine iron ore, and build a large steel plant.

However, mining iron ore to build a large steel plant is not a matter of overnight, and other steel plants will continue to exist under the rule of the People's Army, and the question of whether to shut down other steel plants will not be considered until the large steel plant in Qiongzhou is completed.

The difficulty of the People's Army to capture Qiongzhou Mansion was not great, the Ming Court's strength in Qiongzhou Mansion was less than 10,000, and the Ming Court Navy Division was almost not stationed in Qiongzhou Mansion, and there were only a few warships, which did not pose much threat to the People's Army's attack on Qiongzhou Mansion.

Basically, He Yan's Third Group Army transferred 10,000 people to attack Qiongzhou Mansion, and it was soon able to take down the entire Qiongzhou Mansion.

Now that Mei Yousong's army has been severely damaged, even the commander Mei Yousong has been killed, and the other people's armies will also launch large-scale attacks, and after the war is over, the people's army will be able to draw troops to capture Qiongzhou Prefecture.

Iron mines, iron and steel plants, the purpose of which is to support the industrial development of the People's Army.

Hydraulic machine tools can also help industrial development, but the limitations of hydraulic machine tools are too great, but the production and sales of hydraulic machine tools to Foshan Arsenal have been greatly increased, throughout July, the three arsenals under the rule of the People's Army have produced a total of more than 1,400 tiger head guns, and the output of tiger head guns in August will increase to a certain extent.

The central government of the People's Army has issued an order to dismantle the Hutouzhai Arsenal and the Yongan County Arsenal, and the craftsmen of the two arsenals will go to the northern, western, and eastern borders of Guangdong to set up three maintenance factories for the three group armies of the People's Army.

Limited by the material of the barrel of the tiger head gun, the life of the barrel is relatively short, and after firing dozens of times, the barrel is seriously worn, and the barrel needs to be repaired at this time.

The matter of maintenance must be put in the arsenal, but the distance between the three arsenals is not close, and it has become the best choice to dismantle the arsenal and establish a maintenance factory close to the front line.

The number of hydraulic machine tools in the Foshan Arsenal is increasing, and the output of various firearms is also increasing, but at this time, the project team of Tang Bei and Wang Dazhui has begun to study the steam engine.

Compared with the hydraulic machine tool and the steam engine, there is no doubt that the hydraulic machine tool is simpler, after all, the hydraulic equipment has already been used in the land of China, and the steam engine is a new thing, even if Fang Nan gives some steam engine principles and structural diagrams, the project team is not able to study the steam engine in a short time.

After studying the principle of the steam engine, more than a dozen researchers in the project team began to make a model of the steam engine, a task that naturally had to be handed over to Wang Dazhui and other craftsmen.

The first model of a steam engine is now being built, and the first model of a steam engine is not made of iron, but is made of wood that is easier to modify.

The first steam engine model was more important to understand the structure of the steam engine, and only by determining the structure of the steam engine would the steam engine be made of steel.

Fang Nan has been paying attention to the research of Tang Bei and Wang Dazhui project team on steam engines.