Liu Chang smiled, but his smile was always a little helpless: "In front of me, can you mention him as little as possible...... But I promise you, I'll keep this man alive as much as I can! ”

"Thank you!" Xu Xianggui imprinted a kiss on Liu Chang's face, but told Liu Chang a little secret: "Actually, I don't love him, both of them pay too much attention to the position of the king, so that they despise our sisters too much, but I still have to do everything in my power to protect him, as long as he survives!" ”

Liu Chang nodded: "I know!" ”

"But if I was on Ye Niangniang's position, I would have made the same painful choice!" Xu Xianggui continued: "But that kind of fate will not befall me, I just want to say to you: check that you are really a great man......"

"We sisters are willing to serve you together for the rest of our lives!"

Such words made Liu Chang suddenly excited: "Then do we still have to waste time?" ”

……

Huzhou Mansion.

It had been a full week since Feng Sixian arrived in Huzhou Prefecture, and in the past week, together with the Hongjun troops in Huzhou Prefecture, he had dealt a annihilating blow to Zhou Tian, the Jiangnan battalion that had invaded from Guangde, and even occupied a small piece of territory in Guangde.

However, in view of the limited strength of the troops, the main force of the 64th Regiment remained in Huzhou and was ready to continue the security operation.

And today he welcomed a special visitor: "Zhu Jiumei? ”

"That's right! You should know the commander of the 63rd Regiment, right? That's my sister! Zhu Jiumei answered Feng Sixian's question: "I, like Yang Niangniang and Shi Niangniang, used to be the female Chengxuan of the East Palace. He is now in charge of the construction of warships for the Taihu Lake Naval Division. ”

"I know!" Feng Sixian had a smile on his face, and he said: "When will the first steam warship be built, we have been waiting for such a warship for a long time, and we hope to enter service as soon as possible." In this way, it will be very helpful for our law and order operations! ”

"It should be soon!" Zhu Jiumei replied: "We will be able to launch in June, and we will strive to fight while trying to form combat effectiveness in the shortest possible time, and we have already had successful experience in Panshizhai before......

"That's great, but what did you come to me for?"

"Coal!" Zhu Jiumei replied directly: "You should know that coal is the power source of industry and warships, and our current steam engine needs a lot of coal. ”

Feng Sixian knows something: "I know that the pot camel machine doesn't need to use coal, right?" It seems that using straw leaves and the like will do the trick! ”

"That's just expediency!" Zhu Jiumei told Feng Sixian: "And the most important thing is that the pot camel machine cannot be used on the ship." Nor can it be used in critical positions, and I hope to get the help of Head Feng in this regard. ”

Regarding Zhu Jiumei's suggestion, Feng Sixian was kind and flowing: "Then what can I do to help you?" I know that to help you is to help ourselves. If you don't have enough coal, then the ships can't be dispatched. ”

He had heard before that a steamship was not like a sailboat, and if it set sail, it had to stay in operation for a long time. Otherwise, it will be an hour-long or two-hour process to fire again, and if the enemy attacks during this period, it can cause serious losses.

As for Hongjun's coal reserves in Huzhou, he knew that Zhu Jiumei had exhausted all means. However, it is only a few hundred tons of chips, and if necessary, it is ready to replace it with charcoal. Therefore, he naturally hoped that Zhu Jiumei could get more coal, after all, Taihu Lake is an area almost the size of a state capital. There were too many fishermen, guns, bandits, and part of the Qing army's Huaiyang Naval Division, although the Rainbow Army had occupied the land, the Qing Army's Naval Division never withdrew from this water, and they used their water superiority to try to hinder the Rainbow Army's domination of the entire Hangjiasuchang region. …,

And Zhu Jiumei told Feng Sixian a good news: "A good news is that we have discovered a coal mine!" ”

"That's great!" Feng Sixian knew that this was good news: "We only have some coal mines in Fujian now, but they are not areas under our strong control, and the mining progress is also very slow. ”

"It's not Huzhou, it's Guangde!" Zhu Jiumei told Feng Sixian the next bad news: "So we ask the comrades-in-arms of the 64th Regiment to provide a strong guarantee for the construction and mining of coal." ”

This is the Changguang Coal Mine in later generations, this coal mine was explored in Zhejiang, but the results made Zhejiang people quite disappointed, the quality of the coal mine is not high, it can only be used for industrial coal, and the coal mine is not in Zhejiang, but in Anhui.

But the whole of Zhejiang, except for a part of the mud coal mine that has little mining value, can not find a second coal mine, so the leadership of Zhejiang to the State Council, and Premier Zhou Enlai was finally moved, he persuaded the leaders of Anhui Province, the Changguang coal mine lent to Zhejiang, forming a special enclave of Zhejiang in Anhui, Changguang coal mine lasted in Guangde for almost fifty or sixty years, until the coal mining of Changguang coal mine basically came to an end.

And now Zhu Jiumei is seeking Feng Sixian's support with joy: "The grade and reserves of the mine still need to be further explored, but even if it is peat, it can also be used in industry, or it can be used for boiler combustion, we have been short of coal for too long!" ”

Feng Sixian immediately agreed: "Okay, I'll immediately mobilize a reinforcement battalion to cover your exploration operations, does Guangde really have coal?" ”

"There's coal!" Zhu Jiumei told Feng Sixian: "The local chronicles are very clear, but they have been repeatedly banned by the government. ”

In view of the historical lessons of the Ming Dynasty's repeated incidents of miners, the Qing Dynasty was very strict in controlling the mineral development that led to the displaced people, and it can even be said that the reason why the number of peasant uprisings in the Qing Dynasty was relatively low was not because of any moral politics, but because of the relationship between the extremely strict control of household registration, and several peasant uprisings in the Qing Dynasty were often related to the loopholes in population control, such as one of the root causes of the White Lotus uprising, that is, there were a large number of shanty people, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was able to succeed because of the dispute over the land.

Therefore, although Guangde Coal Mine has a history of hundreds of years of mining, the official attitude has always been to prohibit the development of coal mines, so as not to attract a large number of displaced people to form the fuse of civil uprising, but for the Hongjun, they urgently need coal and iron, Zhu Jiumei even conceived the next step with Feng Sixian: "Although Guangde does not necessarily have iron, but it is good to have coal, even if the grade is poor, it doesn't matter, as for iron, we can buy it from Shanghai, if we can stabilize Huzhou, Then we are going to relocate some of the industrial equipment in Panshizhai to Huzhou, but the premise is to do a good job of law and order......"

One of the reasons for the industrial construction of Panshizhai is that it is the oldest base of the Hongjun, with good public security and close proximity to the river, so it can receive a steady stream of relief from the sea, and Huzhou is connected with Shanghai by waterway, and the industrial base of the Hongjun can continuously receive assistance from Shanghai.

Feng Sixian said: "The idea of buying scrap iron or iron ore from Shanghai is good, but I transferred the main force of the regiment, and I have the impression that there are a lot of iron mines in Anhui!" ”

Zhu Jiumei was a little surprised: "But the main force in Huzhou is only your sixty-fourth regiment plus two or three infantry battalions, if you want to use troops in Anhui, then who will be in charge of Huzhou?" ”

"That's what the inspection considers!"

……

"Two small coal mines have been found in Guangde, which are of average grade, but can be used as boiler coal ......"

As soon as Liu Chang got the news, he clapped his hands and applauded: "Very good, very good, I have finally found a stable industrial base, Huzhou ......"..., he carefully observed Huzhou on the map, as a particularly commercially developed area, it can be used as a qualified industrial base: "There is coal, very good, very good......"

Zhou Xiuying asked beside her, "Checkpoint?" Do you want our cavalry brigade to send one or two companies over to support, there is only one regiment of the sixty-fourth regiment over there, and there are a lot of demons to deal with. ”

"Of course, of course!" Liu Chang replied: "This is an unexpected joy, as long as there is coal and iron, there is everything!" ”

The industry of this era is roughly coal, iron and sulfuric acid, and now Hongjun can use the lead chamber method to produce sulfuric acid, and there are small coal mines in Guangde, as for the source of iron, even if it is to smash the pot and sell iron, it is necessary to build the Huzhou industrial base.

However, as soon as Zhou Xiuying heard that Liu Chang was going to smash the pot and sell iron, she couldn't help but smile: "Check, this is too exaggerated, just the gold collected in Huzhou is enough to build these coal mining factories!" ”

Although she didn't know much about industry, she grew up in Shanghai after all, and had seen foreign steamers and steamships, and even had contact with small factories run by foreigners.

"No, it's the power of the whole country...... Liu Chang has already made up his mind: "Build a coal mine, a steel mill and a gunpowder factory as soon as possible, and then a gun factory......

Even if it is not possible to produce a mini rifle, let alone a newer breech rifle, Liu Chang is already determined to make a big fight in Huzhou, so Liu Chang continued: "Also, it's not just a few cavalry companies that are reinforced, Xiuying, you go over and take charge in person!" ”

"Then the cavalry brigade is not going to Jiangxi?"

"The terrain in Jiangxi was originally not suitable for large-scale cavalry operations!" Liu Chang continued: "Not only to set up a factory, but also to move the technical school, right...... The reserve brigade will also be transferred to Huzhou! ”

Reserve brigade? Zhou Xiuying was taken aback.

Although there are only four infantry battalions, Liu Chang did not plan to use this reserve brigade even at the critical moment of the Suchang operation, and the only plan was to use this reserve brigade if the Suchang operation was frustrated.

It can be imagined how determined Liu Chang is now!

ps: Make up for yesterday's lack of a watch, today during the day in Wenzhou to see the eyes, check a bunch of items, the doctor said it's OK, prescribed two medicines, it is estimated that Thursday will run to Wenzhou (to be continued......

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