"Ladies and gentlemen, news has just come from our homeland that the British have signed the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro with us, and we have won the Argentine war."

In the main island fortress of the Natuna Islands, Mei Dongxing said, "South America is the foundation of the country, the efforts made by the South Sea Legion, the Peace Society in the East Indies and the Malay Peninsula are all for the purpose of serving the local strategy, Argentina won the war, according to the provisions of the Rio de Janeiro agreement, the government decided to withdraw the 1,500 troops stationed in Songkhla, and the number of troops stationed in the Natuna Islands will also be reduced to less than 400 people, and from next year, the total number of regular troops stationed in the South Seas will be reduced from the current 5,000 to less than 3,000." , the number of militia fighters was reduced to 3,500 people,

All in all, after the end of the Argentine War, the country's development focus will shift back to the mainland, in terms of overseas forces, the development of Congolese colonies and the development of transit bases in the South Pacific, and in the South Seas, the main goal is to transport and transfer immigrants, and in the future, the goal of the activities of the Taiping Society will also change from organizing the Nanyang Chinese to compete with the local natives to consolidate the economic and political interests of the Chinese in the region, without the consent of the local central government, the Taiping Society is not allowed to start conflicts with foreigners without authorization, The local branch branches of the Taiping Society have gone underground, and the leaders of the regional branches who have been targeted by foreigners have withdrawn from their local posts, and those who have not been exposed continue to keep a low profile............"

Mei Dongxing introduced the Han ** team, intelligence agencies and other forces, and the focus of future actions in the Nanyang region, and continued, "The date of His Majesty's coronation of the emperor is officially determined to be carried out on December 26, at that time, the Han Kingdom will be officially restructured into the Han Empire, and the day after the enthronement ceremony, His Majesty will officially marry Miss Wu and Miss Zhang as queens and concubines, and before the ceremony of claiming the emperor, the Nanyang side must solve the problem of the separation of indigenous chieftains within Songkhla in advance, and General Wang and I will also be before November, Take a steamship and take the South Pacific route to return home, so the time is pressing, and in the next half month, the Nanyang Army must coordinate and handle the withdrawal and transfer time of the Natuna Islands as soon as possible, and cannot delay the major event. ”

"Lord Mei, Songkhla governs five provinces, of which, Songkhla covers an area of 7,393 square kilometers, Pattani covers an area of 1,940 square kilometers, Yela covers an area of 4,521 square kilometers, Tao Gong covers an area of 4,475 square kilometers, and Kelantan covers an area of 1,490,000 square kilometers!

In the Songkhla region, the total area of four prefectures, one state and five places combined is only 332.29 million square kilometers! With a total population of more than 1 million, with the strength of the troops that the Nanyang Army can currently draw, it can easily solve the separatist forces within Songkhla, but the main factor determining the political stability of Songkhla is not in Songkhla, but in the hands of Thailand and the British Malay colonial government. ”

Liang Xing led the intelligence gathering work in the Nanyang region and had his own understanding of the situation in the Nanyang countries.

"On the side of the Malay colonial government, Frederick, the governor of the Straits Settlements, was an ambitious politician, and it is not difficult to see from his actions of promoting the establishment of a British garrison in Negeri Sembilan and the introduction of Indian colonial troops that his aim was to expand the direct territories of the Straits colonial government, and in the Malay Peninsula and North Borneo, the area south of North Borneo and the opposite side of the Malay Peninsula were all under the rule of the Dutch, and the Dutch were allies of the British government, and Frederick did not dare to seize the Dutch colony without the instructions of the London government.

In addition to the territory controlled by the Dutch, the Straits Colonial Government has only one direction of expansion on the Malay Peninsula, that is, across the Songkhla region between the Straits Settlements and Thailand, Songkhla is narrow and weak, and the subordinates of the Wu City Lord can obey the command, only one or two thousand rabble equipped with cold weapons and a small number of eliminated muskets, even if our army replaces the Wu City Lord to sweep away the internal separatist forces, after the Han ** Fu is evacuated, the existing military strength of Songkhla alone cannot guarantee its own independence and security. ”

"Last year, General Wang and General Chen sent a total of 80 grassroots officers as military instructors, and conducted training for about one year and three months on the army directly controlled by the lord of Songkhla, so far, about 500 Songkhla troops have passed the training assessment and reached the standard of becoming an army, and among the remaining 1,500 people, 800 who failed and 1,300 newly recruited people are undergoing the second stage of training, and it is expected that the acceptance of the army will be completed by the end of next year.

According to the instructions of General Wang and Lord Liang, when the Songkhla army was selected for training, the majority of the Songkhla army was young and middle-aged Chinese, so the number of Chinese in the two batches of Songkhla army accounted for about 85 percent, and although the training results could not be compared with the local regular army, the trained Songkhla New Army was not without the strength to fight when it faced the local armed provocation of the British colonial army again. ”

Li Wencai has been in Songkhla for more than a year, and he does not think that the Songkhla army, which is also a Chinese laborer, will be too far behind the regular army of the Nanyang Army after being trained by the grassroots officers of the Nanyang Legion.

"In addition to the problems of management and training, the main reason for limiting the combat effectiveness of the Songkhla army is the lack of standard weapons and equipment."

Wang Dashan agreed with Li Wencai's point of view to a certain extent, and said, "At the end of last year, at the end of last year, upon General Li's application, the Nanyang Army took out 200 imitation Dresser rifles and 20,000 rounds of matching ammunition from the reserve arsenal and delivered them to the Songkhla army for use, plus the old-fashioned breech rifles purchased by the Song City Lord before, the total number of muskets equipped by the Songkhla army was about 300 shots, and the Songkhla army was congenitally at a disadvantage against the British colonial army equipped with new breech-loading rifles with 300 old-fashioned rifles. ”

"There is no mature military factory in the Nanyang area, the weapons and ammunition needed by the Nanyang Army and the militia are all transported from the mainland, the distance between the two places is long, it takes four months to go back and forth, and the weapons and equipment equipped by the Nanyang Army itself are at the lowest level among all the units of the National Defense Force, and it is unlikely that it will provide sufficient weapons supply for the Songkhla army."

"The situation on this side of the South Seas, the central government already knows that after the British lifted the blockade of the mainland, the central government is preparing to organize a large transport and supply fleet to be sent to the South Seas, which will be loaded with 2,000 local newly mass-produced Hanhua 1878 breech rifles imitation Mauser 1871 rifles, 20 75 mm field guns, 6 105 mm howitzers, 3 imitation Dleisa rifle production lines, 20 Gatling hand-cranked machine guns, 2 rifle ammunition production lines and some other supply materials. Commodity.

In the list of weapons and ammunition, 500 Hanhua 1878 rifles, 4 Gatling hand-cranked machine guns, 6 75mm field guns, 2 105mm howitzers will be deployed in the Songkhla area, and in order to prevent the northern provinces of Annam from being occupied by the French, rifle and ammunition production lines will also be placed in the Songkhla area. ”

"Lord Liang, there are more than 2,000 troops in Songkhla, so you can't use so many weapons, right?"

Chen Xingui was puzzled.

"There are only more than 2,000 troops in the Songkhla region now, and the number of troops will almost expand to about 3,500 to 4,000 in the face of pressure from the British and Thailand, and the demand for weapons and ammunition will more than triple compared to now."

Liang Xing explained, "And the situation in the Annam region is getting worse and worse, according to the analysis of the local central government, the British annexation of the entire Annam region, that is, in the next two or three years, according to the current development of the territory, there is no way to prevent the French from encroaching on the Annam region, and when the French occupy the entire Annam, the Nanyang Army in the two provinces north of Annam can not be retained, at that time Songkhla is our last support point in the Nanyang region, although we promised the British to withdraw the Songkhla garrison, However, it does not mean that the management and support for Songkhla will be abandoned.

The 1,500 troops stationed in Songkhla can be withdrawn, and at the same time, the native and Nanyang legions will once again select a group of outstanding officers to enter the Songkhla New Army as Nanyang Chinese, and then take the command of the Songkhla New Army in our hands.

Brother Li, yesterday I sent a telegram to the General Staff, recommending you to be the next commander of the Nanyang Army, and your duties will remain unchanged for the time being, and you will continue to be responsible for coordinating and controlling the training of the new army in Songkhla, while the Nanyang Army in the two northern provinces of Annam will be temporarily managed by Chen Zongbai. ”

"What about General Wang?"

"His Royal Highness sent a telegram and appointed Zai Xia as the commander of the Third Division, and in the future, the affairs of the Nanyang Legion will be entrusted to Brother Li."

Wang Dashan bowed his hand to Li Wencai, and after being polite, he suggested: "I heard that since King Rama V of Thailand succeeded to the throne, there have been quite a few measures to reform and strengthen the country, and after Brother Li took over the post of commander of the Nanyang Army, in addition to being vigilant against the armed provocation of the colonial government in the strait, he cannot relax his vigilance against the Thai side. ”

"General Wang thought of going with Liang."

Liang Xing took over the conversation and explained, "Rama V was born in 1853 and ascended the throne as the king of Thailand in 1868, only one year younger than His Royal Highness.

In 1873, after taking power, he began to carry out domestic reforms, and the following year, he abolished the slavery system and stipulated that all Thais born after 1868 were free people, and following the example of the Meiji Restoration and the German reform, King Rama V built a new army of 6,000 people in the country, intending to curb the land invasion of Thailand by Britain and France.

The land of Songkhla, located in the middle of the Malay Peninsula, far away from the control of the Thai government, has been ruled by the Goh family for more than 100 years.

In order to avoid the influence of the Thai side on the next action, I think that after the combat operation of clearing the armed separatist forces, the city lord of Wu should come forward and send a representative to the royal palace in Bangkok to meet Rama V, on the one hand, to show the armed strength of the Wu family, to dispel Rama V's bad intentions towards Songkhla, and on the other hand, to temporarily stabilize Rama V, indicating that the Songkhla regime is dominated by the Thai royal family and has no desire to separate and stand on its own. Maneuvering between Thailand and the colonial government of the Straits retained the independent status of the Songkhla region, providing time for the local region to arm and support the Songkhla regime. ”