"The Second Coal and Iron War will be an unprecedented miracle in the history of our country, and will lay the most solid foundation for our country's transformation from an agricultural country to an industrial country, so we must be fully prepared in terms of talents, technology, equipment and military!"

When Zhou Xiuying talked about the significance of this coal and iron battle in the conference room, Feng Sixian was the first to jump out and object: "Brigade Commander Zhou, I have reservations, we must put the military first, not the steel first, victory is the most crucial!"

"Neither the Qing Demon nor the Taiping Army in Anhui Province are our opponents!" Zhou Xiuying immediately stood up: "The most important thing now is that we lack enough steel, lack of enough gunpowder, lack of enough cannons and rifles, lack of enough industrial products, we have a gap of two hundred years with foreigners, we must speed up our efforts!"

"But we can't get a complete victory on the battlefield in Anhui, and there is no point in talking about this!" Feng Sixian, the commander of the independent brigade, as the veteran of the Hong Army, was not afraid of Zhou Xiuying at all: "Now that you are leading the troops of the Dragon Lance Battalion, I hope that the Dragon Lance Battalion can always maintain his honor, not to mention, in the first Coal and Iron Battle, although we dealt a great blow to the Qing Demon in southern Anhui, but after the main force of our army was transferred eastward to the Shanghai Theater, they almost returned to the original defense area, which shows that they have a certain combat effectiveness!"

"As for the Taiping Army in Anhui Province, we don't know much about them, we only know that several units of the Taiping Army with combat effectiveness are fighting in Anhui Province, so we must not take it lightly!" Feng Sixian said: "Military issues come first, and we must put victory first!"

Zhou Xiuying did not expect that her opinion would be openly opposed at the meeting, so she had to reiterate Feng Sixian's point of view: "You are right, the military issue comes first, and we must put victory first, but the current situation is different, we not only have to think about the current war, but also the future of the whole country!"

"It's time for us to lay out the world." Zhou Xiuying's voice is very magical: "An army that only knows how to improve the efficiency of killing people may not be the final victory." We should learn from Zhu Yuanzhang, but the rules of this era have changed, we not only need food and character, but also need steel. ”

"Steel!" Duncan stood up, "You're right. The war of this era is a contest between steel and gunpowder, but I don't think there is much need to create a complete industrial system now, for example, in the case of steam warships, I don't have to do everything, some ships are better to buy, buy than to rent, and the problem now is that the noodles are too big. ”

Feng Sixian said angrily: "Duncan." Don't interject! Brigadier Zhou, I still insist on the original opinion, and we must give priority to the military. ”

Zhou Xiuying knew that Feng Sixian was an old cadre from the Dragon Lance Brigade, his qualifications were old enough, and his military achievements were outstanding, Liu Chang had always trusted him, so he had to make concessions: "I put both military and economic considerations in the first place, in fact. There is no need to worry about the enemy troops in Quang Duc, we have a whole cavalry brigade, a whole infantry brigade. In addition, the independent brigade of Brigade Commander Feng Sixian coordinated the operation, plus other combat units, and it is very certain to advance the whole of Anhui. ”

Feng Sixian was a little worried: "If the first division is all transferred, I am confident, but our three infantry brigades combined, there are only 12,000 people, and it seems a bit exaggerated to control the whole of Anhui and divide our energy to carry out the battle of coal and iron." ”

"I accept your opinion." Zhou Xiuying pointed on the map: "But when His Royal Highness King Yan was leaving, he told me that I must organize this battle well." ”

Duncan next to him had already interjected and said, "What about my opinion?" ”

"I accept your opinion." Zhou Xiuying had already thought about it: "In fact, this is also His Highness's opinion. The reason why we had built 47 factories near Huzhou was that we had a special need during the war, but now that we have resumed trade relations with Shanghai, some factories can be considered for closure. ”…,

"No, it's a transfer!" Duncan directly exposed his ambitions: "Certain unnecessary factories can be transferred to private individuals. ”

"That's right!" Zhou Xiuying is as good as flowing: "We should support strong capital to start a business with us, whether he is a foreigner or a Chinese." Before I came to Huzhou, I had invited strong people from Shanghai's industrial circles to come to Hangzhou to participate in the grand event. ”

"Shanghai business?" Duncan was taken aback, his plans were not inherently hindered: "Westerners? ”

"That's right!" Zhou Xiuying replied: "As long as there is strength, they are our friends." ”

For Shanghai's business community, especially those powerful Westerners and compradors, Zhou Xiuying's invitation can be said to be the best gift they have received.

For the past few decades, Westerners have been trying to open the door to China, but even after the Opium War, they were barely able to trade with China, and it was impossible to further their ambitions in China.

Their dream is to set up factories in China, use China's clean raw materials and manpower to process them locally, and then use Western technology to sell them back locally, which is safer and more profitable than trading with China, but in the past ten years, they have only set up some small supporting factories in the Chinese concessions.

And Zhou Xiuying took a big step towards heaven, although only agreed to set up a factory near Huzhou, but a little bit alone is enough to make these strongmen cheer, they have a lot of Western eliminated technology and equipment in their hands, once the machine tool is started, it can crush the traditional self-sufficient Chinese traditional economy.

More importantly, Zhou Xiuying said in the letter that she was willing to sell half of the 47 Chinese state-owned industries in Huzhou to an old friend who had been cooperating with Hongjun for a long time at a very low price, not only to provide the greatest discount at the price, but also to pay in installments, so that some strong people who had some strength but lacked sufficient strength could cheer for it.

De Mons is one of these people, in the eyes of others, he is extremely glamorous, and he is already one of the best people in Shanghai, especially after the victory of the Hong Army over the French army, many Chinese in Shanghai Tang respectfully call this Dutchman "King of Shanghai!"

Only De Mons himself knows the bitterness, now all this is just the surface of the scenery, although the annual arms in hand is not less than millions, but the cash in hand is only two or three hundred thousand silver yuan, the recent arms embargo has affected his business.

He originally thought that after the war between the French and the Rainbow Army was over, his business would burst out like a flood, but in fact he was wrong, the urgency of the winning Rainbow Army for arms needs dropped a lot, and a large number of competitors in Shanghai appeared.

Some of them were adventurers who had heard that Shanghai was full of gold, and they opened it in Shanghai with a few rifles and a few barrels of gunpowder, and they drove the price to the point where there was almost no profit, and they robbed Demons everywhere for business, even a barrel of gunpowder, which greatly affected Demons's profits.

But the bigger problem lies in those ocean banks, in the past, some ocean companies did not directly intervene in China's trade, but handed over to other foreign companies as agents, or even directly abandoned China as a market, but now the French expeditionary force told the world that there is an amazing world in China, and this country's import trade will reach hundreds of millions of pounds in the next few years, so many ocean companies have popped up.

Behind them are the big factories and big companies that the whole world is familiar with, they are real sharks, much more terrifying than those little loaches, they can not only provide enough discounts, enough inventory, but more importantly, they provide some of the most advanced weapons in the world, some weapons are even products that they are trying to make in factories. …,

For example, De Mons can only provide some European decommissioned light artillery, but now these sharks are transporting heavy artillery that ordinary European armies are not equipped with to China to steal business, in the face of double impact, De Mons has a feeling of powerlessness, even if he uses all his strength, he has been robbed of a lot of business.

Sometimes, he is even powerless to resist, like the siege artillery that the Rainbow Army needs, he provides the old artillery of the Scoop Poleon era, while those provided by the Great Ocean Bank are the new artillery that has been improved after the actual combat test in Crimea.

As for his other businesses, like munitions, they have reached a bottleneck, and De Mons knows very well that if he does not make progress, it is very likely that his business will gradually decline, or even go bankrupt again.

Even if he now holds the franchise of a Huzhou-Hangzhou railway, he does not dare to be sloppy, you must know that now the French and the British are already openly competing for the right to build and franchise the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway and the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, and if these monsters want to eliminate a small foreign company without a background, it will not take much effort at all.

So when De Mons got Zhou Xiuying's invitation, he immediately saw that this was a huge opportunity, perhaps an opportunity that he had only encountered in decades, and he even thought of the time when he was invited by Ye Niangzi to sell arms to a newly rising rebel leader - it was that opportunity that made him millions of silver yuan.

It's just that his pride didn't last long, and soon he found Rusya's figure on the way to Hangzhou, this woman rode on a fast horse, with a dozen revolvers and rushed directly to Huzhou, and he was still sitting on a gorgeous Western carriage, seeing the two revolvers pinned to this woman, De Mences felt a deep sense of crisis.

"Let's find a horse, and we'll ride to Huzhou!" (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to (.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support is my biggest motivation. )