Passionate music was played on the wharf of Dongfang Port, and Liu Weimin, chairman of the executive committee, stood on the edge of the wharf with a group of military and political officials, quietly waiting for the officers and men of the navy's escort fleet, who had been away for more than half a year, to set foot on the land again.

As soon as the commander of the escort fleet, 6 Ming, went down to the dock, Liao Meng, chief of the general staff of the national armed forces, greeted him with a smile and whispered in 6 Ming's ear. 6 Ming was also very happy when he heard this, and immediately sent his adjutant to inform the officers of the ships. Soon, enthusiastic cheers rang out from the more than 10 ships moored in the harbor -- it turned out that the ceremony of conferring honors and promotions was to be held on the pier on the spot, and a large number of officers and soldiers who had made meritorious contributions in the escort battle would be awarded medals and then promoted to military ranks, while the rest of the officers and men would also be treated with condolences and bonuses from their superiors.

The solemn ceremony was carried out under the blowing of the hunting sea breeze, 6 Ming and 27 officers were promoted to one rank, and 135 non-commissioned officers or soldiers were escorted to the special class of the navigation school for further study. Among them, 6 Ming was awarded the unprecedented rank of colonel for his courage in leading his troops to Europe and his calm command in battle against the Spanish Navy, in addition to a freshly baked silver medal of the Goshawk with two swords.

Silver medals are awarded to officers, while bronze and steel medals are awarded to soldiers. In addition to the medals, everyone also received a bronze medal for the Battle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, which made the eyes of the few officers of the 6th Army present almost burst with envy.

Perrotta, an Italian immigrant from Florence and a royal painter of the military department, who watched the ceremony, said that he would spend a year working on two new paintings: "The Burning Tyrrhenian Sea" and "The Naval Medal Ceremony". Prior to this, one of his paintings, The Surrender of Buenos Aires, had been included in the collection of the National Military Museum.

The unofficial who had the privilege of observing the normal rituals with the Perrotta painters were the less than 6,000 immigrants from Livonia and Greece who arrived with the ship (nearly a quarter of the fatal rate). They were now being organized by sailors and port authority officials to enter the quarantine camp. Accept a half-month quarantine residence. Now the plague is still raging in many places in the old big 6. The East Coast, which is already extremely underpopulated, cannot afford to slack off, so it is necessary to implement a policy of quarantine and observation, for fear of causing some epidemic disaster on the East Coast.

The single women of these newcomers will be enriched into settlements that have been built in previous years to balance the sex ratio of the local population. As for the remaining part of the Livonian and Cretan Greeks, it will be enriched into several new settlements this year, such as Qingdao Port, Shengjie Fort, Baoan Township and other places. Together with the Akito, who had arrived there in advance, they would participate in arduous pioneering activities.

The Executive Committee's policy towards these new immigrants is becoming more and more "harsh", because neither land, nor houses nor women are free. Moreover, the Executive Committee's requirements for new settlements are becoming more and more stringent. Generally speaking, a new settlement (if not in poor natural condition) must have suffered a huge loss in the first year, a narrower loss in the second year, and more or less self-sufficiency in the third year. According to this theory, the Executive Committee set the rule that the new settlement should be transfused for a maximum of three years, and if it is still not self-sufficient within three years, then the local chief officer will be evaluated in the worst class, and the principal official will be immediately dismissed from class and put on duty.

After the ceremony, the officers and men of the Navy were allowed to take turns on leave. Before that, they also need to drive the ships into several shipyards such as the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, Zhenhai Shipyard, and Modern Special Shipyard to do some thorough maintenance of the ships. Leaky planks need to be replaced, broken canvas needs to be repaired, faulty guns need to be repaired, plankton on the bottom of the ship needs to be removed, coatings made from tar and sulphur glass slag need to be reapplied, and so on.

The supplies and coins brought back with the ship also need to be cleaned and received. Metals such as copper, lead, and tin, which are urgently needed for industrial production, are hoisted onto small steamboats. It is then distributed to various factories; Livestock (Lusitano, Turkmen and a small number of Rascek horses) will be driven to the military horse farm in the pasture township to be raised; What attracted the attention of the Executive Committee the most was naturally the money collected from Bordeaux, Florence, Riga, Danzig, Smyrna, Burgas and other trading stations for the previous year. The Venetian Ducat, the French Tourriver (i.e., Liver, named after the minting in the Abbey of Tours), the Imperial Lira (the currency of the Duchy of Milan, which is used in the Duchy of Tuscany), the Dutch Ducat, the Groz (i.e., the Zloty), the Spanish rial and other currencies filled a large number of cash boxes, totaling more than 14o yuan (after deducting the cost of material purchases).

The coins would be transported to the Big Fish River Mint as quickly as possible, and then minted into East Coast silver dollars and deposited in banks to replenish the country's rapidly losing silver. According to the statistics of the statistics bureau that was recently split from the Mei Agency, the proportion of silver paid in the wages of workers in various industries in the country has dropped to about one-seventh, and a large number of bank acceptance bills are flooding the market.

And in retail transactions, the transaction volume of banker's acceptance bills is also rising, and now gradually reaching more than 40%, and it is still growing rapidly - no way, who makes coins very scarce? In a country like the East Coast, where commercial transactions are not yet very good and the circulation of silver coins is not very fast, the large demand for currency in the market will inevitably lead people to look at "paper money".

This is certainly something that officials in the East Coast are happy to see, but before that can be done with the rather difficult issue of the imminent maturity of some of the six-month banker's acceptances issued a few months ago, there will inevitably be a peak period of cashing. A large number of bearers will flock to the bank outlets to exchange their maturity bills for silver dollars, which is quite a test of the capital adequacy ratio of the East Coast banking system, and if there is any accident at this time, then the credibility of the government's banknotes will inevitably be greatly affected in the future.

Now, they can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Originally, everyone was still counting on the 6th Army that had invaded Asunción to "make" a sum of money to come back to rescue the emergency, and then talk about it first to push through the threshold in front of them, but now it is obviously not so troublesome. It can be said that the timely return of the previous year's trade payment can be said to have saved the lives of the Ministry of Finance and the two banks. Otherwise, after two months, what do you think they will pay? If the 6th Army had not been able to bring back a large amount of silver from Asunción, they would have had to pay the old tickets with new ones, but then their reputation would have been stinking.

Immediately after the award ceremony, Liu Ming, who had just been promoted to naval colonel, was one of only two colonels in the naval system, and immediately after the award ceremony, he accompanied a group of members of the Executive Committee to the conference room on the third floor of the Executive Committee's administrative building and held a small meeting, focusing on reporting on the various events that had occurred during the trip and the European intelligence he had sold, including their attack on Spanish Santo Domingo in the Caribbean.

As early as on the way back, 6 Ming had already begun to write a special report on his things along the way, and at this time, in the face of the inquiries of the central bosses, he only adjusted his thoughts slightly and opened his mouth to report: "The naval battle with the Mediterranean Fleet of the Spanish Kingdom Navy in the Tyrrhenian Sea broke the shadow in the hearts of the officers and men of the navy. The officers and men of our navy, who were still somewhat afraid of an old naval power like Spain, will have no inferiority complex after this war, and this is of great significance to our naval construction. ”

"This battle must have greatly shaken the Spaniards, making them realize that even in their own backyard in the Mediterranean, their control was so much reduced - thanks to the Dutch. The lack of warships, the aging of the ships, the outdated tactics, and the discontinuation of naval personnel due to repeated fiascos greatly affected the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Navy and became one of the important factors affecting the outcome of this naval battle. 6 Ming went on to report what he had summed up after careful consideration, "In addition, the countries of the western Mediterranean, such as Genoa, Savoy, Tuscany, and Milan, are aware of our prestige, and even Venice and Ottomans in the eastern Mediterranean, and Morocco in North Africa, have recognized our fighting power, which will be of great benefit to the enhancement of our country's international standing, and this statehood will certainly bring us a great deal of tangible or intangible benefits." ”

"In addition, the defense of the Kingdom of Spain in the Caribbean was somewhat lax. They only built a large number of fortifications and deployed a lot of heavy artillery in the ports of Bello, Cartagena, Havana, Veracruz, etc., but the defense of the rest of the region was completely in shambles. Our fleet had breached a large number of Spanish towns in Santo Domingo, and the resistance was minimal, but the spoils received were enormous, and I continued to do so, regularly striking at the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean until the end of the war. But in this process, it is also necessary to choose a good time, that is, try to avoid the time period when the Spanish galleon fleet enters and exits, so as not to suffer losses. 6 Ming concluded by describing his achievements in San Juan and other places in early June, and urged the Central Committee members to approve the normalization of such looting.

However, it is clear that the commissioners have their own considerations. I only heard Nie Xiaoqian, the financial commissar, ask: "In your judgment, does the Kingdom of Spain have any intention of seeking peace?" Would it have any bad consequences if we extended the war to the Caribbean? (To be continued......)

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