"What is the Bank of Taiwan doing? Not once or twice. If this continues, I'm afraid I'll have to report to my superiors and ask for a change of supplier. "Just when Jiang Yunfan was on behalf of the Denglai Pioneer Team and the Southern Pioneer Team on behalf of the Shunguo, thousands of miles away in Denglai Jiaozhou Port, the logistics staff of the Jiaozhou Fortress was facing some goods.

The goods are all supplied to the army, including tea, sesame, broad beans, peas, gallnut, pig bristles, tung oil, etc., and the production areas are basically Shunguo-controlled areas, which are specially sent by the Bank of Taiwan to be handed over from Shunguo merchants outside the Madang Fortress, with a total value of more than 65,000 yuan.

There are no problems with the goods themselves, the quality, although not superior, is above average, and what is supplied to the army has not yet dared to be neglected. However, there is no problem with the quality, but the quantity is quite insufficient, only about two-thirds, which is far from meeting the needs of the troops, so the logistics staff officer went crazy on the spot.

According to him, it is not the first time that Taiwanese banks have not been able to deliver goods in a timely manner. Since the successive battles between Shun and Qing, and the Southern Pioneer Team also got together with the Hangzhou battalion, the supply capacity of the largest material supplier of the Denglai army system began to be slowly criticized, and then developed to the point where it has been openly questioned.

Han Jin, assistant to the general manager of the Bank of Taiwan, who came with the ship escorting the goods, immediately stepped forward and handed out a cigarette to the lieutenant officer, and then said with a smile: "It's fine in the next few months, and the next batch will be all made up for you, and a batch of tobacco will also be given. There is no way, the situation in the south is tense, there are frequent wars, many ships have been requisitioned, and there is a serious shortage of capacity, which the Security Command is also aware of, and I hope you will understand. ”

In fact, the tight capacity mentioned by Han Jin just now is indeed one of the important reasons for the untimely supply of materials. As everyone knows, although the Bank of Taiwan has been slowly building its own transport fleet and fleet in recent years, this is not an overnight affair and requires a short period of time. What is even more speechless is that it may be because it can pay to lease as many as 11 "Yaksa" class armed transport ships in the Sea of Okhotsk of the Third Fleet -- at this time, the ship that Han Jin took to deliver goods to Jiaozhou Port was the "Chukotka" of this type of ship -- the Bank of Taiwan has not invested as much in the formation of its own fleet in recent years, and so far it has only ordered two and one 650-ton flute-shaped transport ships at the Heishui Shipyard and Kushiro Shipyard respectively, and the rest of the funds have been spent on ordering "stars" from the mainland class light cruisers (there are already two, last year two more were ordered) and the formation of their own marine battalion.

In particular, this marine battalion has four infantry companies, and when it is full, it looks like it is more than 1,000 people, and it has been a year and a half since it was formed, and there are currently more than 600 people, and its combat effectiveness is steadily improving. The main officers of this battalion were all veterans hired from the mainland, and some of the non-commissioned officers were veterans with combat experience in the Far East, and ordinary soldiers included Tunguska, Japanese, and people recruited in Macao, and of course recruits recruited in Denglai and Ningbo.

The standard of equipment of these men was obviously higher than that of the new divisions established by the three feudatories in the Far East, as can be seen from the caliber and number of artillery equipment, but it was still a little far from the regular army such as the 1st Mixed Battalion. However, the daily expenses of this reserve-based unit, officially known as the "Taiwan Marine Battalion," are not a small amount. Even if he is as rich as the Bank of Taiwan, it is quite painful to raise it, so much so that Shao Shuguang, general manager of the bank, once wanted to reduce the troop establishment to about 500 men in two infantry companies, but he was vetoed by several major shareholders -- in fact, the three feudatories of the Far East -- and Commander Liu Jianguo and Liu of Denglai gave special instructions to "fully equip the staff," "strengthen training," and "not be wasted," which suddenly blocked the way for the Bank of Taiwan to save money.

As a minority shareholder of the bank, Shao Shuguang had no choice but to do so even if he was not happy. Therefore, he specially approved a large amount of funds for the battalion headquarters, purchased a large amount of ordnance and baggage for them, and at the same time rented a piece of wasteland on Sakhalin Island and Xiangshan County to use the two wings of the battalion as barracks and training bases -- the left wing had two companies under its jurisdiction, which trained on Sakhalin all year round to adapt to fighting in cold areas; The right wing also has two companies under its command, which are trained in Xiangshan County all year round to adapt to fighting in hot areas, and the battalion headquarters is in the north one year and the south one year, alternating movements.

Therefore, it can be seen from the pattern that the cost of the Taiwan Marine Battalion is more than that of ordinary troops, and it may be even greater than the New Huaxia Infantry Battalion, which is the only one in China that has rich experience in tropical warfare. Therefore, after "pitting" so much money down, the Bank of Taiwan really does not have much spare energy to order new ships and set up its own transportation team, and you must know that this enterprise, which is entangled with the government, will be apportioned a bunch of inexplicable expenses every year, and the burden is still not light.

Fortunately, they can continue to "share" some armed transport ships with the Sea of Okhotsk detachment, which allows them to operate more or less. Of course, this is under normal circumstances, and under abnormal circumstances – such as the outbreak of war – when the navy needs to cooperate with the army, these ships have to be driven to the front line to transport supplies, soldiers, prisoners and trophies, and the Bank of Taiwan can no longer use them.

The Ningshao War, which began last year, is an excellent example, in those bleak years, the bank had to rely on its own ships to carry out transportation tasks - even a new 650-ton flute transport ship was requisitioned by the navy to transport grain, and it was also depressed - this naturally made some cargo transportation not timely enough, so the demand side had some complaints, in fact, it was really common, which their higher departments also knew, so the logistics staff officer's complaints could only be complaints. The Bank of Taiwan has carried such a big pot for the government, and the government is still a major shareholder, how can it be disqualified as a major supplier?

"In a few months, we will have two more ships in service, which will greatly reduce the pressure on transportation, and there will be no mistakes when the time comes." Han Jin said with a smile. The Blackwater Shipyard will complete a custom-built vessel by the end of this month (September), and then have the Bank of Taiwan wait to take it to the port of Yuanbo on Rishiri Island for the final part of the work (because the waters off the port of Heishui will be completely frozen in late October). In the Kushiro shipyard established by Wei Boqiu, a 650-ton transport ship will also be officially delivered in mid-December, and it can be used to run the route between Jiaozhou Port and Gerancha Port to buy sugar, tobacco, rice, camphor, tropical giant trees and other commodities from Taiwan Island.

Of course, in addition to the above-mentioned transportation factors, the lack of sufficient quality goods in the market is also a factor that cannot be ignored. This is actually very easy to understand, the Shun and Qing wars, affecting several provinces in the central part, the eastern and Qing wars, affecting most of the southern parts of the Yangtze River, the southern Fujian, Guangdong secession regimes are also sabre-rattling, everyone is not stupid, they all know to buy all kinds of materials on the market and hoard them, save the time when you are in a hurry to use it without or spend a lot of money to buy from others. Don't look at the five or six people in your Taiwan bank, everyone also gives a few thin noodles, but in the face of this life-and-death event, everything is a floating cloud! After all, no one will risk losing their own army or even their own demise to make it convenient for you, you must know that these are all warlords who regard territory and the army as their life!

So, with this in mind, the Bank of Taiwan is now learning to behave. Just last month, they applied to the Southern Pioneer Team to open a supply base in Madang Fortress in Jiangxi, and it should not be a problem to get through. The Bank of Taiwan initially plans to open an egg powder factory next to Madang Fortress, using semi-mechanized production equipment imported from the local area, and using local egg resources in Jiangxi to produce egg powder, which is one of the important military supplies.

In principle, the egg powder produced is transported back to Ningbo, Denglai and Heishui by ship after being barreled to supply military supplies. Of course, if there is a surplus, they don't mind selling it to Shunguo on the spot, and of course it's hard to say whether they can collect it or not. According to Han Jin's view, the nutritional level of the officers and soldiers of Shunguo is obviously relatively low, and it is impossible to regard the nutritious material such as egg powder as a long-term supply of military supplies. In this regard, the people of the East Coast are undoubtedly ahead of the times, and they are really good to the big soldiers.

In addition to this egg powder factory, the Bank of Taiwan also plans to set up a local water-powered rice mill to integrate Jiangxi's relatively abundant rice resources and cheap human resources for deep grain processing. The processed barrels of rice were also brought back by ship to the Far Eastern feudatories for military supplies or sold to the people.

The establishment of these two factories should be able to bring the material supply capacity of the Bank of Taiwan to a new level, because they can use this as a basis to control many basic suppliers, which is equivalent to controlling huge egg and grain resources. At the same time, they can also use their own processing plants and warehouses to stock up on supplies in advance, so that when there is a shortage of supply in the market, they will not stop production immediately, which is equivalent to a buffer period, which is very important.

All kinds of materials transported back from Jiangnan, Guangdong and other places have now been determined to be basically unloaded in Jiaozhou Port, a natural port. Not only has the government invested in the construction of new modern terminals, but even companies such as the Bank of Taiwan have enclosed land along the coastline to build their own exclusive wharves (the closer to the railway station, the greater the value), so that logistics and transportation can be faster.

And when it comes to the Jiaoyan Line Railway, we can't fail to mention the Southern Railway Company. Although Xu Xiangdong, who had come here to preside over the overall situation, had returned to the mainland by boat (President Gao Sheng succeeded Mao Desheng), this huge project is still moving forward step by step under the continuous promotion of the Southern Railway Company and the local government. At present, the two sections from Jiaozhou Port to Jimo and Yantai Port to Taocun have been officially opened to traffic and started commercial operation.

Although it seems that the number of trains is still relatively small, only a few days before a train, the transportation of many materials or by sea or national highway system, but this is not the pot of the Jiaoyan railway itself, but the construction has not kept up, that is, the middle of the important agricultural area of Laiyang County that has not been repaired, resulting in Jiaozhou, Yantai two important ports can not directly "dialogue", this one makes the function of the railway lose most of it.

However, at present, the Southern Railway Company seems to be relatively positive, and the financial situation of the local headquarters should be not bad, and it can continue to spend a large amount of money to purchase railway equipment, hire professional and technical personnel, and hire ships for transportation, which have effectively guaranteed the construction process of the Jiaoyan Railway.

And the Denglai development team has also supported this railway. Although the southern pioneer team attacked Shaoxing Mansion before, the Qing army launched a large-scale diversion attack in the Laizhou area, which consumed a lot of manpower and material resources of the Denglai pioneer team, and greatly reduced the resources that could be invested in the railway construction site. However, now that the war has long ended, the peace between the East and the Qing Dynasty is already a sure thing, so the government of the pioneer team has a lot of money at hand, so Liu Jianguo gave an order to requisition the people of the counties under his jurisdiction in turn, to work on the construction site of the Jiaoyan Line Railway, and do everything to grab this strategic-level transportation artery.

The chief engineer in charge of railway construction of the Southern Railway Company optimistically predicted that by the end of 1682 or the beginning of 1683, the first modern standard railway on the ground in the Far East would be completed throughout the county, which was undoubtedly extremely shocking for the ancient land of China. Although limited to various factors, not many people may learn about the relevant information of the Jiaoyan Railway in time, but after a long time, with the more frequent personnel exchanges, there will always be more and more people who understand, see and marvel at the power of this steel dragon, there is no doubt about it.

In order to build this railway, the Southern Railway Company really smashed the pot and sold iron, and cleaned up a large number of unnecessary assets, so it also had high hopes for the profitability of this railway. To this end, they also went through the path of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and were allowed to set up a wire and telegraph network along the railway, and were fully responsible for commercial operations, which was undoubtedly another money-making weapon, and it was also thanks to their ability to obtain permission.

As for whether there will be the next step after the completion of the construction of this railway, and whether it will continue to build the legendary Pingrong Line Railway, you should spare the Southern Railway Company, and if it continues like this, it will go bankrupt. You must know that even such a powerful super-large enterprise as the local central railway company has been overwhelmed and powerless by the trunk railway that connects the north and the south, and has even asked the Ministry of Finance to help the bank and provide them with low-interest long-term loans!