"This is the latest intelligence from Bangladesh," said Jin Qi, who has stepped down as head of the military intelligence department and now serves as the director of the military intelligence department, and Jin Qi, a veteran of the advisory house, put a piece of information on Zhang Qiang's desk.

"Well, how are the Spaniards?"

Zhang Qiang was eating, and he didn't look up, and asked casually.

"The Spaniards are now training the tribal forces of the Bengal region, compared to the pre-war period, these armed forces have improved their combat effectiveness a lot, and can exist as an elite garrison, of course, if they can cooperate with each other to the end, these people don't look at you pinching them together, but just like sand, without the moisture of water, the cohesiveness of mud, they are still a plate of loose sand."

"Yes, the Spaniards are very dangerous right now, perhaps they feel that they are the weakest group in the region, so they must hold on to these tribes, at least make up a number, how many men do they have?"

Jin Qi said casually: "According to the latest information, the Spaniards have four hundred regular troops, six hundred mercenaries, more than six hundred other lightly wounded who can fight, seriously wounded, disabled, and now there are more than five hundred, and the rest are dead or have withdrawn with the ships they sent back." ”

"There are now 30,000 elite tribal armed forces, and there are about 50,000 militia troops that can be used, and there are 3.3 million people in Bengal in total, and these people have basically gone to the territory of the Spaniards, and about 500,000 people remain in the places occupied by us and the British, and the Spaniards have armed 5,000 Indian prisoners, and these captives are led by the captured mercenaries of the British and the British soldiers who have not been ransomed, which is also a considerable fighting force, These men are currently stationed in the area of the former battlefield near Dhaka, which borders us, and are apparently used to defend against us. ”

"It seems that the Spaniards are not stupid, they know about waste utilization, they know that we are not reliable, hehe." Zhang Qiang pushed away the empty plates on the table, took a sip of tea, and the attendant cleaned up the table, then bowed and exited the study.

Jin Qi continued: "Of course, after all, people have been at war for hundreds of years, and conspiracies, court struggles, domestic and foreign battles, if you can't even understand your own situation, then you must be a fool who doesn't know the height of the sky, such people are generally pedantic officials or nobles who have not seen the world, but I know that the major general of Montro is not, I heard that before he became a major general, he was a nobleman, and had at least thirteen years of pirate history, and was later persuaded by another baron, It was finally added to the Spanish Navy. ”

Zhang Qiang picked up the intelligence information given by Jin Qi, slowly flipped through it, and while listening to Jin Qi's words, Jin Qi continued: "This time the Spaniards took a three-thousand-ton battleship, transporting about five hundred wounded and one hundred regular army soldiers, one hundred sailors, and some goods and the wealth they got from Bengal, it is estimated that the whole ship will be crowded, with their sanitary conditions, as well as navigation conditions, if everything goes well, they can return to Spain in three and a half months."

After all, the speed of their ships is not slow, about seven to eight knots, if they are forced to accelerate, day and night, the average speed is about twelve knots, and the type of clipper ship that we have sent them to learn through the war, the bow of the high waves, greatly reduces the risk of their navigation at sea, and speeds up their ship.

If the road is smooth and smooth, it should be back to Spain by now. If they send reinforcements right away, they're probably already on their way. ”

"If it's still those warships, it is estimated that they will still fail, but if they can send some qualified naval generals, maybe they can contain the enemy's advantage through other advantages, but at least they must have a numerical advantage, just like the last naval battle, if the Spaniards didn't have thirty-five warships, they might be defeated, although it seemed that they withdrew last time, but the British didn't please them, and only one of the three ships could be started in the end, which is why the British didn't trouble the Spaniards again during this time."

Zhang Qiang sat upright and put down the intelligence folder, "Yes, both sides lose, on the whole, the British, who have steam engine warships, outrank the Spaniards in terms of potential, and the Spaniards offset the enemy's qualitative advantage with their numerical superiority." ”

"Well, how about the British?" Zhang Qiang asked.

Jin Qi said: "In addition to the fact that the British are actively preparing for war and actively preparing like the Spaniards, they just sent a 180-ton old sail armed merchant ship back to China to ask for help, the wounded and the dead were basically not dealt with, the wounded were thrown in the hospital to fend for themselves, although there was a little monetary reward, a little compensation, but where the doctors could not treat them, most of them were disabled, no one asked about the dead, only their comrades-in-arms or people they knew attended the funeral, not to mention the death and disability of the Indians." ”

After taking a sip of tea, Jin Qi explained again, "The British only care about the security of their colonies, and they have formed quite a lot of new Indian troops, all kinds of weapons and equipment are quite backward, and their regular army is more than that of the Spaniards. Most of the regular army that went to war did not go to sea, and then some were ransomed, and some were still in the rear, so it was not difficult to regroup at all. ”

In general, compared to the Spaniards, the British were transferred back to England because of the Governor and the Governor's envoy Portman, Phillips, so they seemed to have a large territory and a strong territory, but on the whole they were still in chaos, but with the confidence of the British, once a new Governor arrived, they would quickly grow stronger, and even domineering.

What the Spaniards lack is the foundation, and what the British lack is opportunity and situation.

"It's been four months now." Zhang Qiang sighed, it's been four months, plus the time for sorting out and transmitting intelligence, as well as the time for sorting out Bengal for a period of time, the time for different Spaniards and Britons to come into contact with them, it's almost five months.

According to the distance, starting from the Indian Ocean, arriving at the Persian Gulf, going ashore, and then hurrying up, almost the time for the Spanish and the British to get the news is more than a month, so calculated, if the British and the Spanish decide quickly, they have already sent reinforcements and new appointments decided, but I don't know how the British and the Spanish view this war, how to face the relationship with the Chinese Empire, after all, they are all Westerners, or the same family, Or maybe they were all noble relatives of the upper class, and perhaps they achieved some unanimity.

Then there are several possibilities, the first possibility is that the two sides sent fleets and troops against each other in accordance with the idea of the Chinese Empire, and then sent representatives for peace talks with the Chinese Empire to maintain this civil balance with the Chinese Empire, and then the British pressed the Spaniards to fight, and the Spaniards approached the Chinese Empire, relying on the Chinese Empire to survive and keep the colonies.

The second point may be that they reached an agreement with the Spaniards, died down, developed separately, and then improved relations with the Chinese Empire, secretly accumulated strength, secretly continued to make trouble for the Chinese Empire, and secretly attacked the overseas territories of the Chinese Empire, overseas governorates, although the population and immigrants in those places are almost the same, and the development area is stable, but no matter how big the territory is, tens of thousands of miles of sea area, if they have steam warships, although they drive to a place where the defense is weak, and then concentrate their forces to capture a place, without seeking to occupy, It is to kill the civilians there, annihilate the garrison troops and naval warships there, and then wait for the Chinese Empire to get the news, sneak away, and watch from the side, without evidence, the general Chinese Empire can't do anything with them.

This is the most troublesome thing in the Chinese Empire, a huge empire is most afraid of the enemy's guerrilla warfare, so Zhang Qiang summoned all the officials of the Privy Council, issued an order to prevent the enemy's guerrilla warfare, and the order was quickly conveyed to the Viceroyalty, and sent Milin who was familiar with that area to the Australian Governorate, Ruan Jin to the Treasure Island Governorate, Gu Yuesheng to the Indonesian Governorate, and at the same time sent Ruan Tian to Southeast Asia, as Ruan Jin's eldest son, to replace Ruan Jin as the director of the Navy, Appearing in Southeast Asia is convenient for him to mobilize the naval fleets in Southeast Asia at any time, and the strength of the overseas naval fleets plus the naval fleets of the four fleets is enough to block many sea lanes in that area and overseas.

As these Zhang Qiang is a little tired, he thought that if a strong dynasty was established, then Huaxia could rise, but Westerners don't seem to be able to kill it all, no matter how they have to come to the East to infiltrate a water, and they are not restless, although many things may be their own laissez-faire, such as their own thoughts, a huge country must always be in contact with the outside, always have to trade with the outside, and cannot be a closed country, which will greatly hinder the development of productive forces.

Because the greater the unification, the more you can enjoy a comfortable development time, but in this way, comfort represents laziness, laziness is the nature of people, but it is also the nature of a country, and after laziness, the civil official group will fight among themselves, and use the action of destroying a dynasty to benefit themselves, they dig their own graves, and then let the people in the later civil official group or poor people come up, and the back wave pushes the front wave, and the front wave will die on the beach no matter how good it is.

Rubbing his sore neck, Zhang Qiang had been thinking about this cause and effect after Jin Qi left, and what to do next.

Most of the government was handed over to his son and Prime Minister Tang Dianfeng, but some strategic issues and the Guards themselves were always in control.

If nothing else, decades later, even if there are some bumps in the Chinese Empire, it should still be a huge empire, these decades, the British or Europeans, Western Americans can not threaten the development and destiny of the dynasty, can threaten the development and destiny of the dynasty after the independence of the Americans after 1775, until the American Civil War in 1816, after which the United States has been running towards the status of world hegemon.

Under the influence of its own crossing, the West may develop faster, and then soon enter the age of steam, which is the beginning of the rise of the West.

Now the West is still at the end of the age of sail warships, still in the colonial era, is colonizing everywhere, with the convenience of warships in the sail age, with Africa and Asia lagging behind them a lot, is frantically harvesting colonies, Asia is now almost occupied by the Chinese Empire, then they are likely to occupy Africa and North America, South America, Oceania and other places in a few decades.

Then all kinds of science and technology sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, directly promoting the development of the West, but you must know that if there is no battle in Asia or other places, then the battle in the West must be very fierce, and frequent battles are conducive to the development of Western science and technology, but it is also necessary to make the Western population or other development regress or stagnate, which is the best time for the scenery of the Chinese Empire.

Even if it can be glorious for a hundred years, the Chinese Empire will have an unshakable position in the hearts of Westerners.

Thinking of this, Zhang Qiang is already very comfortable, at least the Chinese Empire still has more than a hundred years of scenery, more than a hundred years, who knows what will happen in the future.

That's all you can do, let your children and grandchildren work hard in the future.

Thinking that in the future life, I can't even afford to marry a daughter-in-law who is poor, in this world, I have a full house of children and grandchildren, and my wife is five or six, it is really good to be an emperor in this era, very good, the previous three, and three have been accepted one after another, and two have just been pampered by themselves, it is really happy, this is a man's victory.

In addition to the three eldest sons who are relatively good, there are three younger sons who have become adults, three daughters who have reached adulthood, four daughters who are still in the juvenile stage, and three who have just been born, and five who are in childhood.

The eldest son is in his forties, he also has three sons, his three grandsons, all in their twenties, the second son, a daughter, two sons, and the third son have inherited their own affairs, and there are already more than a dozen sons and daughters from ten to twenty years old.

The other sons are at least three children, and it is good to have a full house of children and grandchildren, and even a great-grandson, a county lord.

If Zhang Qiang's daughter is a princess, then his granddaughter is the county lord, then the great-granddaughter is the county lord, so the title that can be obtained at birth is much happier than others, if an ordinary person wants to obtain the title of county lord, at least he must be a brave and resourceful military general who has made countless meritorious contributions or a civil official who has made meritorious contributions to the Chinese Empire.

This also needs an opportunity, not necessarily knighted, knighthood must be approved by the emperor, must be reviewed by the cabinet, nominated by the Political Council, the final decision of the Advisory Council, and reported to the emperor for hand-picking, every step is not easy, unless this meritorious service or I have great influence, it can be passed all the way, and the title should be awarded with gold content, the Chinese Empire has just been founded for decades, if the title can be granted casually, then the country is not far from the death of the country.

Until now, there have been no casual awards of merit and titles.

That is to say, no county lord, even the founding patriarchs, their sons, and grandsons have not been awarded the low-level title of county lord, because they can obtain it by constantly demoting the lord, and their own reward is the actual county lord, that is, they can eat the taxes of a county, and at the same time they can influence the county and manage the county, and the next generation can only eat taxes and become local scholars.

(End of chapter)