Just when Zhou Xiuying was amazed by Liu Chang's generosity, Liu Chang had already made the next crucial decision: "Also, Xiuying, Huzhou's military, you have to take overall responsibility!" ”

Zhou Xiuying was already shocked by Liu Chang's words: "I'm coming? It's not easy to deal with the reserve brigade commander over there! ”

"What's so bad!" Liu Chang is very partial to Zhou Xiuying: "You are also a brigade commander, he is just a brigade commander, and you are also a cavalry brigade commander, if you talk about combat merits, you will be several times better than him, don't worry, I will support you in this matter." ”

He is talking about Yu Lingdong, the commander of the reserve brigade, this is an old cadre of the Hong Army, but he can be the brigade commander of the reserve brigade, but he is just a diligent and willing to work in the teaching regiment in the past, and his combat exploits cannot be compared with Zhou Xiuying.

Moreover, the big heel fight planted by the teaching regiment in Yanzhou also made Liu Chang lack enough trust in his ability to command the army, so Liu Chang said very bluntly: "This time I will give you full power, below the regiment commander, you can appoint and dismiss first, and then report to the headquarters for the record." ”

As a swelling group, in the past year or so, the Hongjun has had more and more discretion in personnel appointments and dismissals, and originally even a squad leader had to be finalized by Liu Chang himself, but now only the appointment of the infantry battalion commander and above is in charge of Liu Chang, and now Liu Chang has given Zhou Xiuying enough authorization.

Zhou Xiuying was not ambiguous, she immediately stood up: "Check, don't worry, the cavalry brigade is the most capable unit at any time." ”

Liu Chang snorted and told Zhou Xiuying: "Xiuying, don't worry, don't say anything else, this time the first division went south to Jiangxi, and first lent you a week near Huzhou, remember, it's a week!" ”

"That's great!" Zhou Xiuying felt that everything was ready: "Just have the first division, even if it's only half a week, it's no problem." ”

Although he only lent the first division to Zhou Xiuying for a week. But Zhou Xiuying knew very well that the first division could be said to be the first 10,000-person division of the Rainbow Army. Such troops were deployed near Huzhou. Whether it was dealing with the large force of the Qing army near Guangde, or implementing public security clearance operations, it all made Zhou Xiuying feel like a tiger.

Zhou Xiuying assured Liu Chang: "This time, there is an inspection point to support me, and it is absolutely necessary to build the vicinity of Huzhou into our most stable base!" ”

"That's right. The most stable base, the base of heavy industry of coal and iron, guns and artillery! Liu Chang replied, "What's the problem?" You can consult with Zena, and he will do his best to help you! ”

"We must strive to build Huzhou into a base for coal and iron in one year......

Liu Chang had already thought of the name of the Industrial Conference that had been used in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Therefore, he gave the construction of the Huzhou industrial base a militarized name: "It is called the Coal and Iron Conference ......"

Coal and Iron Battle. Later, the real rise of Hongjun's heavy industry construction was named in this way.

……

"Since the end of the fifth lunar month of 1856, on the basis of the shipbuilding force that arrived in Huzhou in the early stage, with the strong support of the inspection point, and under the leadership of Comrade Zhou Xiuying, all the personnel have been fighting for several months and mobilized 762 technicians from all over the country. There are 140 management personnel and 456 other cadres. There were 87 sets of machine tools, 900 tons of materials, and a large number of materials and equipment totaling 1,700 tons were purchased from Shanghai, laying the foundation for the victory of the coal and iron battle. (Manuscript of the History of the Battle of Coal and Iron, Vol. 1, Open Edition, 1863 Edition)

The battle of coal and iron has a strong military color from the beginning, which can be imagined from Liu Chang's name, but after all, this battle is with a civilian industrial color, so most of the people involved in the construction are not soldiers, and he also changed the fate of many people.

"My dear students, as the first principal of Ilpeng Technical School, I have to tell you great news that what you have learned has been put to good ......"...,

Ma Qianzhu stood on the playground of the Yipeng Military Academy outside the Panshi Village, and delivered a speech to this batch of graduates who interned in advance: "You have caught up with the good time, after half a year of study, we launched a coal and iron battle in Huzhou, and we need technical talents like you, you will be fortunate to become the main force in this coal and iron battle......

Although his speech was enthusiastic, he still had no bottom about the quality of his students, no way, the teaching time was too short, from the beginning of the school to the present, this group of students only after half a year of emergency teaching to be used as the backbone of the coal and iron battle.

In fact, he had just received a telegram from Hangzhou from Liu Chang the day before yesterday, asking him to immediately organize 120 students to Huzhou to participate in this coal and iron battle, which completely disrupted Ma Qianzhu's teaching plan.

In Ma Qianzhu's teaching plan, although the technical school adopted the teaching method of part-time work and study, he originally waited until August to graduate the first batch of students, but now Liu Chang's military order is like a mountain, looking at this excited face, he has no bottom in his heart.

With the last two months of teaching time missing, what is the quality of this group of students? Although it is now nominally an early internship, in fact, it is an early graduation, and it is too late to even produce a graduation certificate, so this batch of students can only be sent to Huzhou first.

"Although you have left the technical school, I hope you remember to be a part of the school, and you have learned more than just the technical school, I hope you are happy to learn every day, and make new progress every day!"

Looking at the excited faces, Ma Qianzhu didn't know that this would be the largest group of technical achievements of the graduates of the entire Yipeng Technical School, and when they arrived in Huzhou, they just caught up with the critical time when the coal and iron conference battle was full of poor and white talents, and everyone grew into really useful talents in this battle, almost all of them were engineers and senior engineers.

And in Shanghai, Westerners were also shaken by the news of the coal and iron battle.

Although Hongjun had already trial-produced some industrial products and even built a homemade steam warship, in the eyes of Westerners in Shanghai, it was not called manufacturing or industrialization at all, but simple assembly.

Most of the semi-finished products and machine tools were purchased from Shanghai, and even the technicians were Westerners from the Shanghai Concession, so Hongjun's efforts only gave these Westerners in Shanghai more to talk about.

But this time it's different, if nothing else, the name alone can show its nature: "Coal and Iron Battle." ”

This is an industrial revolution that is not different from the West, and for the first time in the ancient East, China in the East will embark on the road of industrialization, and according to the historical experience of the West, such an industrialization process will bring unprecedented large orders.

The purchase of foreign guns and military industrial products in Shanghai Port is just a small order compared to such a large construction, not to mention that the Hongjun has now openly sought to purchase the relevant equipment needed for coal mines and steel in Shanghai, and they are even ready to buy a large amount of scrap iron and steel -- yes, after a large amount of iron ore is smelted, scrap iron and scrap steel will be the food of the steel industry, and the Japanese iron and steel industry has relied on American scrap steel to maintain its main production capacity until the embargo.

Now that many Western businessmen have rushed to Huzhou to negotiate business with the relevant personnel of the Hongjun, in fact, this represents a new direction, that is, Chinese consumption is no longer limited to cotton yarn or a small number of industrial products, but is moving towards a real industrial goods consumption power.

This is the real market that the British and French have worked so hard to open in the past few decades, and it is a perfect era for industrial construction, an era without technical barriers and restrictions on technology output, and even an era when patent protection has just begun to be created. …,

And the old foreign firms that have a long-term and stable trade with Hongjun, such as the famous Anrui foreign firm, have tried to find Liu Chang directly, wanting to occupy the most important share in the trade of machine tools and other important equipment.

But De Mons did not do this, he has been getting the news for half a week now, but he has always sat in Shanghai to command and dispatch, and has no intention of visiting Huzhou in person.

Some Westerners thought that His Excellency the Count of Durmons was too focused on his traditional relationship with General Liu, and that Counts would lose too many opportunities in the face of such a huge order.

It's just that now Demons finally waited for the person he wanted to wait for, he held the crystal cup in his hand, and looked at Rusya who was dragging a long skirt: "Your Excellency Rusya, welcome to you!" ”

Although the two successful merchants, Desmonds and Ruthya, accounted for nearly half of the military trade between the port of Shanghai and the Hongjun, and they were the first Westerners to trade with Liu Chang, they had not met formally until then, except for occasional encounters at drinking parties.

With her pleated dress, pearl-encrusted veil and white gloves in her hands, Rusya looked like a true aristocratic lady, but Demund knew very well that they were all the kind of people who would never miss a chance.

"Good! I know what you have invited me for, Your Excellency, Lord de Mons, so let's talk about it! ”

De Mons had already put down the glass full of red wine: "That's right, I know what you mean, I must explain that this batch of industrial orders will determine the amazing follow-up orders, as the most powerful Western businessmen in Shanghai Port, we hope that we can join forces, not to fight a meaningless price war, but to compete in a more reasonable way." ”

Rusya smiled: "I also hope that we will not fight a meaningless price war, but cooperate at the most appropriate price." ”

De Mons waved his hand and asked, "So, what is the more appropriate price?" ”

Rusya also asked, "So, what is the most reasonable way to compete?" ”

That's a big order!