April 20, 1641, fine, southeast wind force 6. After bidding farewell to Fort Xinhua, the battleships "Common Market" and the high-speed cruiser "Chaoyong," loaded with supplies, left New China Bay and headed north, and they will embark on another great voyage of the navy of the Republic of China on the east coast of China to explore the eastern route.

Ten days before Wang Tiehammer and the others left, the armed transport ship "Galician Exocet" and two merchant ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company had already left the Xinhua Fort wharf with a full load of people, timber, coconuts, hump cattle, and other materials and livestock, and headed for the South African River Harbor.

After their departure, on April 20, Lieutenant Xu Gang, the newly appointed commander of the security of the new Huaxia region and commander of the 101st Company of the Army, also began to conquer and plunder the Bezimisaraka people in the south. They will travel south along the coast in the many canoes they have captured last time, raiding indigenous villages along the way to plunder people and supplies and enrich the new Chinese colony.

At a time when various operations in the New China area were in full swing, the South African Fort in the River was also in full swing to make preparations for the war. More than half a year after the Red and Green Banners advanced to the Gouda area, several battles have broken out between them and the Xhosa herdsmen on the other side of the mountain, especially the one at the end of last year, when the well-armed warriors of the Eight Banners have also suffered dozens of casualties. Of course, their opponents were even more unbearable, and after the war, more than 200 corpses were abandoned on the site alone. Although the battle has been silent since the battle, the tension has not dissipated, on the contrary. As the people of the East Coast pressed forward step by step. The smell of gunpowder between the two sides was unprecedentedly strong. At this time. Even the most stupid black man can see that this is the rhythm of a big war between the two sides.

Since January this year, a large number of construction materials have been transported by horse-drawn carriages and boats to the Hezhong Fort, and some architectural designers have come with them. They chose a great location about three miles on the north shore of the lake, which was named South Lake, and began to design and build the fort. This fortress is on the south bank of the Beige River, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the terrain is dangerous, and the access road from the Dongshan Mountains into the Shanxi Great Plain is completely controlled.

Arguably. If the Xhosa allowed this fortress to be built, not only would the abundant Nanhu area be far away from them, but the people on the east bank would be able to use it as a base for advancement, and they would be able to enter the eastern river valley to attack the Xhosa tribes and capture slaves, which was unacceptable to the Xhosa.

Thus, since the arrival of the first supplies in January, when the Red and Black Banners began to mobilize the bannermen and slaves to build the fortress, the Xhosa backlash began to grow fierce. First of all, some small tribes living in the vicinity spontaneously united and took the initiative to attack the fortification of the bannermen. However, they were easily repelled by the Eight Banners warriors.

After mid-February, perhaps the great black tribes on the other side of the mountain began to be able to free up some of their hands. Some of the apparently experienced and experienced black fighters appeared in the confrontation between the two sides, which took place almost every few days. The Eight Banners warriors were a little careless at first, and they were caught off guard by these people, but they were also not good at training collectively for several years, and soon with excellent equipment and good cooperation, these black warriors were once again expelled to the other side of the mountain, which effectively guaranteed the construction of the castle site.

Mo Ming, who noticed that the situation was gradually heating up, was mixed with joy, and was happy that the fire in South Africa had finally burned under his deliberate and intentional connivance, but at present, it seems that the fire is still a little too big. The will of the Xhosa blacks to fight was much stronger than expected, which made him a little wary. To this end, on February 15, the 104th Company of the Army was again mobilized for intensive training under his orders; The South African Cavalry Company and the South African Field Artillery Company were also reinstated, and the South African Cavalry Company was slightly expanded, reaching a scale of more than 100 cavalry.

At the same time, in order to be more confident of a decisive battle with the Xhosa, Mo Ming then returned to the mainland on a ship carrying sorghum and wheat to the port of Vostom, and began to visit Laoguan, lobbying the Executive Committee to strongly support his actions in South Africa.

Although some members of the Executive Committee were a little annoyed by Mo Ming's "provocation on the sidelines" and thought that he had disregarded the overall situation, interrupted the country's plan for the "golden decade" centered on economic construction, and threatened to remove Mo Ming from his post and transfer him back to his homeland, Captain Mo, who had received the strong support of the military department, simply turned a deaf ear to these adjustments of the civilian faction.

What a hassle these civil servants! Stubborn! Can't you see how much support the military has in public opinion today? Can't you see that the most basic village militia chiefs, township armed forces chiefs, and other positions have been occupied by a large number of veterans? Can't we see that the propaganda system, which has been heavily infiltrated by the military forces, has begun to propagate militarism and Songun political arguments among the people? Obstructing Lao Tzu's achievements, these civil officials are really damned! If it was in South Africa, who dared to disagree with Lao Tzu, he would have planted lotus flowers a long time ago.

However, no matter how tired Mo Ming is with these crooked-mouthed civil officials, the existing system still has to be followed. Therefore, before the Executive Committee finally makes a decision, he still has to move around and try to get more members to support him. Of course, even if the final executive committee meeting did not pass a resolution to send troops to South Africa, he still had a follow-up - that is, the army, which had been somewhat marginalized in recent years, made it clear to him that even if the executive committee did not agree, the army would send the most elite first company to South Africa for "field training". If the situation in South Africa is tight, it will not hesitate to mobilize and form the 102nd and 103rd companies. But then again, once the situation in South Africa is really urgent, it is indispensable for the East Bank Republic to have a national mobilization, and the four standing companies and four reserve companies of the army will go into battle together.

After some urgent activities, coupled with the growing demand for South African labourers in the country, some members of the Executive Committee, who had been neutral and wavering, began to be inclined to accept the South African side's opinion. At present, there are more than 7,000 South African laborers active in several brick kiln factories, lime mines, iron mines, farms, lumberyards and construction teams in the East Coast Republic of China, and it is estimated that with the gradual development of domestic industry, the demand for South African laborers in all walks of life will continue to expand, and it is conservatively estimated that thousands more will need to be added to the existing scale within three years.

However, the problem is that in the second half of this year, the first batch of more than 1,000 South African laborers to work on the east coast (originally 2,000, hundreds of deaths in three years) will return to South Africa. The Executive Committee had promised them a pardon for slavery after three years of service and would send them back to South Africa for proper resettlement, and the Executive Committee did not intend to break its promise. That is to say, from next year (1642), the gap in the demand for foreign laborers in the country will be further expanded, which will already affect the overall development of the country's industry and agriculture, after all, the East Coast Republic has become more and more addicted to the "slave economy" in recent years, and it is difficult to extricate itself.

On the afternoon of March 30, 1641, after a heated debate, the Executive Committee passed a resolution to increase the number of troops in South Africa by a margin of 7 to 4. On the night of the adoption of the resolution, the 1st Company of the Army, which was stationed in the Beicheng barracks of Dongfang Port, the only rapid reaction force of the Republic of China on the east coast of China, was urgently mobilized and began to secretly load ships at the military wharf of Dongfang Port together with a large number of war readiness materials.

A few days later, Ping'an County, which received the news, also began a large-scale recruitment of veterans and began to formally form the 103rd Company of the Reserve Army. The formation of the 103rd Company was much slower, first the county government notified the township armed forces ministers, and then the township armed forces ministers checked the rosters one by one and issued a call letter. This process can take several days, even if it is rushed, because it takes a lot of time just to distribute the call letters to everyone scattered in the villages. Then they have to assemble, carry out ideological mobilization, and then receive clothing, weapons, ammunition, and other equipment, a process that cannot be done in ten days. They are not a rapid reaction force like the 1st Company, which is always in a state of readiness and has all kinds of supplies. These demobilized veterans, who usually work as family farmers, workers in brick kilns, or coolies at the docks, still need a period of acclimatization and recovery training before they can go back to the battlefield.

The 1st Company and the 103rd Company of the above Army are the troops that are scheduled to be transferred to South Africa to participate in the war, and after they are transferred, the defense of the homeland will rely on the 3rd Company, the 4th Company, the Cavalry Company, and the internal affairs troops, and at the worst, the 102nd Company and a large number of militia can be mobilized to assist in the defense, so there is no need to worry too much about security.

At the same time as the army was mobilized, a large amount of materials were also transferred from the combat readiness warehouse, and then sorted into packing ships. In fact, this is also a rare opportunity for the various departments involved, such as the Ministry of Materials, the Logistics Bureau of the War Department, the Navy Department, the Port Authority of the Ministry of Communications, the South China Sea Transportation Company and other relevant units. It tests the planning, overall planning, and coordination capabilities of the entire system, and whether these are done well or not also determines the country's war potential and battlefield projection capability to a certain extent. Every man and every department did their part, and the whole country slowly began to move like a sophisticated war machine, and began to devour all the enemies that stood in its way. (To be continued......)