"Playing music!" As the officers and men of the Navy's First Fleet, who had returned home with honor, stepped onto the military wharf of Vostokha, the military band immediately played cheerful music. Even though he was quite unhappy with this kind of pomp, Lieutenant Colonel Lu Ming couldn't sweep everyone's hearts, so he buried his heart in the bottom of his heart, put on a smile, and happily accepted the congratulations of the officials of the military department and the executive committee.

"This joint attack on the port of Buenos Aires by land and sea was carried out, destroying the enemy's fleet of La Plata, sinking five enemy ships, capturing three enemy ships below the flagship, and nearly 200 naval officers and men. Commander Lu, this battle was carefully planned and commanded freely, and he should be the first to take credit. Minister of War Liao Meng, acting chief of the General Staff of the National Armed Forces, held Lu Ming's hands tightly and said enthusiastically.

Chief of Staff Liao praised falsely, this battle depends on the lives of the soldiers. In particular, the army soldiers who captured the fort seized the Spanish fort regardless of casualties, and turned their guns to bombard the military port, causing the Spaniards to be in disarray, the two ships ran aground, and the momentum of the group rushing forward was also dispersed by the arsonist ships floating down from the upstream. Therefore, I really don't dare to take the first credit, and Chief of Staff Liao should be able to understand. Lu Ming gently withdrew his hand, shook his head and said with a smile.

"Commander Lu is really humble." Liao Meng smiled a little embarrassedly, and then said: "Anyway, now that the Spanish fleet has been destroyed, our ships can crisscross the Río de la Plata River, and no one can stop them. The next step is to mobilize heavy forces and completely occupy the entire La Plata area, including Asunción, and then threaten the Spanish silver mines in Potosí. ”

"It's easy to start a war, but it's hard to end it." Lu Ming no longer had a perfunctory smile on his face at this time, and he sighed and said, "The war potential of the Spaniards is far superior to ours. They had a population of more than four million in the Old World; They have several shipyards in Seville, Barcelona, Valencia, Cádiz, Havana, Veracruz, Cartagena, Lima, etc. There are countless technicians and workers; They had several gold and silver mines in New Spain, Peru, and Chalkas; They also have a vote of Catholic allies; Such strength is not comparable to that of the East Coast, where the country is weak. Even if we win for a while. So what. The Spaniards can escalate the war! Whether the Spaniards are willing to end the war depends on their mood, and can we in the Eastern Republic really control our own destiny in this war? I don't think it's easy! ”

Watching Lu Ming board the carriage, he walked towards the city without looking back. Liao Meng's face was gloomy at first, but he quickly adjusted his feelings and continued to meet with the naval officers who came over one by one with a smile on his face. The ages of these officers varied and their origins were quite complex: some of them were pirates recruited in the Caribbean, some were poor sticks from Shandong fishermen, some were officers from navigation schools, and some were naval cadets trained at the Corps Fort. No matter where they came from or how different their backgrounds were, although they were accepting Shangguan's praise with tense faces at this moment, the excited look in their eyes was fully revealed.

As soon as the fleet of La Plata is destroyed, the control of this sea area will be firmly in the hands of the people on the east coast. No, in the half month since October, a large number of inland steamboats have been dispatched to the valleys of the La Plata and Paraná rivers to transport booty, supplies, and personnel. According to statistics, at present, the inland river transport company has dispatched about 40 72-ton inland river steamboats to undertake transportation tasks in the above two places, and this naturally leads to the extreme shortage of domestic transportation capacity, and the flow of various materials such as coal, building materials, wood planks, grain, and cotton has begun to slow down. The war has only just begun. The negative effects on the economy are already beginning to be felt.

Since the tension with the Spaniards, the country has expanded the production capacity of three shipyards. At present, the largest Zhenhai shipyard has 9 slipways. The Dayuhe Naval Shipyard also has 6 slipways, and the Modern Special Shipyard has 5 slipways, and at the same time, a large number of junior high school graduates have also been recruited, and some engineering and technical graduates from the Corps Fort have also joined in, plus a small number of ordinary craftsmen with little technical culture, so the three factories can barely be operated.

The slipways of the three factories are now almost entirely filled with steam engine sailboats of all kinds, because only such ships can escape the pursuit and attack of hostile maritime powers, relying on their prodigious speed. Among them, there are three steam engine sailboats for immigrants, three special ships for immigrants, and three large flying scissor transport ships ("Scud" modification with steam engines); two ammunition supply ships, two fresh water supply ships, one troop carrier, one coal carrier, and one repair ship for the First Fleet; In addition, the Executive Committee took out the remaining Brazilian mahogany to start the construction of a battleship again, and also started the construction of two frigate gunboats with the timber brought back from New China; And, of course, there was a dredger and a whaling ship built for the country's development – even during the war years, which could not be said to be without construction.

In order to make up for the sailors needed for these ships, the Executive Committee asked the 36th class of cadets of the Corps Fort, who were supposed to graduate at the end of the year, to graduate ahead of schedule, and about 200 of them were specially trained sailing graduates; At the same time, the door was reopened for the Malays to enter the mainland on the east coast, and about 200 Malay sailors who were deemed qualified after a long period of investigation were granted official identification and were to join the newly launched transport ships as junior sailors; These people, together with a small number of fishermen and sailors among the immigrants, the new graduates of the Dayuhe Navigation School and the new graduates of the Luoqia Seafarers School, these total about 300 people; and then casually recruit some young people who have been on the ship as trainee sailors, and they can almost barely fool around.

At this point, the Executive Committee has spent almost all the money on hand. If trade is cut off next year, the country will not be able to open the pot, and we can't feed the war with war, right?

And when all the shipyards and technicians are concentrating on building these big ships, they naturally have no spare strength to build small inland steamboats with considerable domestic demand. At present, all the inland river steamboats sailing in various canals, lakes and offshore waters in China are 72 tons, with a total of 66 ships, which undertake extremely heavy inland river transportation tasks in China. It's just that almost 40 ships have been transferred to the Río de la Plata and Paraná rivers to transport supplies and personnel, so the domestic transport capacity is seriously insufficient. The lack of capacity affects all aspects of the economy, in short, it is infinitely harmful.

The carriage carrying Lu Ming soon entered the outside of the administrative building of the Executive Committee in the city. After thanking the coachman, Lu Ming went up to the second floor and entered the conference room, surrounded by secretaries and guards. The conference room was filled with smoke and a meeting was underway for future decisions. The meeting has entered the middle of the game, and after seeing Lu Ming enter the venue, the 11 members of the Central Committee headed by Liu Weimin, chairman of the Executive Committee, and some ministers and directors present gave a standing ovation to applaud the commander-in-chief who annihilated the Spanish fleet in La Plata.

Lu Ming smiled unnaturally, and after the military salute, he found a back seat and sat down. Not long after he got off the ship, he received a notice to go to the executive committee for a meeting, saying that Chairman Liu of the executive committee had some "very important" questions to consult with him.

As soon as he sat down, he heard Liu Weimin clear his throat and say: "Regarding the plan proposed by the Planning and Production Management Committee to reactivate the mothballed 35-ton old steamboat, as well as the new No. 2 blast furnace of Ping An Iron and Steel Plant, everyone has no objection, right?" Then we will move on to the next topic, about the transfer of the battleship Bayezid to the Ottoman Empire. ”

In recent months, there have been a lot of ups and downs about the battleship Bayezid. There was a strong call within the Admiralty to temporarily detain the warship and renovate it to join the East Coast Navy, but the Executive Committee vetoed the Admiralty's request after careful consideration. On the one hand, the sailors sent by the Ottoman Empire to pick up the ship have already been stationed in the port of Vostochny, and you directly confiscated the guys who ate at the people's house, so it's strange if you don't make trouble; On the other hand, the war with the Spaniards had only just begun, and it would be extremely unwise to offend the Ottoman Empire, which had now risen to the rank of first trading partner of the Eastern Coast Republic. Under such circumstances, the Executive Committee decided to hand over the ship to the Ottomans.

It's just that the battleship is handed over and the battleship is handed over, and it's not over for them to drive back on their own? Of course, it's not that simple!

It had been more than a month since the war with the Spaniards began, and the ships that had sent the news to the Spaniards should have departed long ago, and by mid-to-late December, the King of Spain would have learned of the ongoing war in the New World. At this time, merchant ships on the east coast bound for the Old Continent were in danger of being attacked by the Spanish navy, so the centralized convoy system was mentioned again, and was quickly approved by the Executive Committee.

The so-called centralized escort means that all merchant ships assemble at a designated place and then go to their destination in a unified manner under the escort of naval warships. This greatly increases the safety factor and avoids the danger of a single ship being attacked by hostile forces at sea, because it is obviously impossible for the navy to have a warship escort for every transport ship. Of course, the size of the fleet under the centralized escort system will also become very large, and it is easy to attract the attention of the enemy's navy, so that a large-scale naval battle will break out, but this is also something that cannot be helped.

At present, there are many merchant ships waiting to depart in the port of Vostochny, and they have long since finished loading, but they have not been allowed to leave the port, because the main force of the Navy's First Fleet has not yet returned from La Plata. Now that the navy has returned victorious, then it is natural to set off for the Old Continent. The destination of their trip was the Ottoman port of Smyrna, where they could sail together with the battleship Bayezid. (To be continued......)