Jincheng itself is geographically distributed and already belongs to the high-malaria area. Without quinine, without DDT, it would be impossible to eradicate malaria, but some artificial measures could be taken to change some urban areas from high-malaria to low-malaria areas. Before the promulgation of the regulations on urban health services, a draft for the prevention and control of malaria had been issued for implementation. Interestingly, the Health Bureau, during its observation of rural areas, found that ducks prey on mosquito larvae, so it added measures to encourage duck breeding in the final draft.

Among all active populations, the military, as a densely populated group that often exercises in the field, has a very high rate of malaria infection, and the incidence rate remains at a high level of 10%.

The Kaneshiro Health Bureau can only do its best to reduce the infection and incidence of infectious diseases, including malaria, within the scope of its ability through some means that can be artificially controlled. In addition to this, the Army has added a health company to the infantry brigade, headed by 3 young doctors.

Fortunately, most of the key personnel of the army were natives, and some European officers and non-commissioned officers had also lived in the tropics for many years, and their resistance to tropical diseases was stronger than that of the soldiers of the Dutch company who had just come from Europe to serve.

The news of the land granted to the soldiers of the army by Jincheng has now spread throughout the South Seas, and adventurers and exiles from all walks of life have poured into the newly formed country.

The first to come were some Portuguese mercenaries who were unable to return to their home country due to the loss of Malacca to the Dutch, and Indian soldiers and black soldiers who served the Portuguese. Then he was introduced by his fellow countrymen, these exiled samurai were cheap, able to fight, and had good loyalty. There are also Khmer, Vietnamese, and indigenous people of the East Indies.

In late August, thousands of Mon people appeared in Jincheng. The Mon are the dominant ethnic group in the Lower Burma region, and they once had their own kingdom of Bago. At the end of the 16th century, Bago was destroyed by the Burmese Taungoo and the Arakanese alliance. Portuguese Felipe. Morality. Brito's adventures in the kingdom of Salian are also based on an alliance with the Mon people. But de Britto forced the Mon people from Buddhism, which destroyed the foundations of the state by Catholicism.

Unwilling to endure being slaves to the Burmese people, the Mon people have been revolting repeatedly, the most recent of which took place six years ago. Although the Mon fought hard, they were eventually suppressed by the Burmese. Many Mon people fled to Siam to escape the pursuit of the Burmese.

For an exiled people, manpower is always cheap. Except for the soldiers brought by the Portuguese, who had to pay some cash, the rest of the exiles basically met their needs with food and cloth. And the land gives them hope for the future.

In order to manage these exiles, Chen Shouxu urgently expanded the size of the army. The 3rd Reserve Battalion was replenished and became a full-fledged combat unit. At the same time, the 4th Reserve Battalion was formed.

The army took the 1st and 2nd field battalions as instructors, and added 6,000 personnel to set up 12 local guard battalions. The exiled soldiers of the guard battalion basically have some combat skills, and some of them are still elite soldiers. With a little training, the guard battalion will have basic combat capability.

The armament of the guard battalion did not meet the standards of the field battalion, and most of the weapons were captured, except for their own armament. Nanyang's spears, balem knives, rattan cards, and firearms are equipped with arquebuses and miscellaneous artillery left over from the field battalion.

In order to meet the needs of the army expansion, Chen Shouxu applied to the Nanyang Bank for a military expenditure of 100,000 pesos, and the navy was stunned by Chen Shouxu's large investment in the army.

After the Army's operational objectives were revised, there was no longer the restriction of the southwest monsoon period, and the plan to jointly attack the Le Sap area of Chenla Tung with Siam was postponed. Chen Shouxu explained to several Siam eastern border guards who participated in the preparation and apologized. It was agreed that after Jincheng further strengthened the army, they would jointly launch a large-scale attack on Jinla, which was larger than the scale of 10,000 troops planned now.

At the end of November, the army was dispatched on three fronts.

The 1st Battalion was led by Battalion Commander Karl Brown. Led by Langemann and attached to the three newly established guard battalions, he dispatched northward to reoccupy Chana, Diba, and Sabayu counties in the north of Jincheng. To the north of the three counties is Songkhla Province, which is also an almost independent autonomous state in Siam with a large number of Celestial Christians. The current law and order environment in Songkhla is very bad, and the forces of the Celestial Sect are rampant in the territory, and the Siamese garrison in Nakhon Thammar is very weak against this. Therefore, although the north is a friendly country, Chen Shouxu still sent 1 field battalion and 4 guard battalions.

The 2nd battalion was led by Ludwig. Led by Filhoff and accompanied by three guard battalions, he moved south along the coastline to reoccupy Kelantan and confront the Johor-Pahang Sultanate across the Kelantan River.

On the 3rd road, up the Jincheng River, a total of 3 guard battalions were dispatched. Recapture of Jala, Ban Sananda and Patong. There were not many enemies along the way, and the army did not use field troops. The guard battalion up the river consisted mainly of Portuguese and Mon.

The upper reaches of the Kim Cheng River after crossing Jala Province have truly entered the high-malaria area, which is the main area of concern for the epidemic reconnaissance and health service reconnaissance of the Army Staff before this combat operation. Although it was not a field unit, the army did its best to equip the guard battalion with medicinal herbs and guard equipment, and the health company also sent half of its personnel to operate with them.

Behind the soldiers of the Three Roads were the first freed Jinla slaves. In the construction of various projects, some Zhenla people performed better and were lucky enough to live to the time when the land was allocated.

The remaining three guard battalions are mixed mobile battalions with the Che Chi Dan as the main force and the Chenla people as the auxiliary. The Army placed one of the battalions in Yala Province and one battalion in Tao Gong Province. The Chezhidan battalion was second only to the field battalion in terms of armament, and in addition to spears, swords, iron cannons, and armor, they were also equipped with a number of light Francos.

The first and most trusted Chezhi Dan battalion to join the city was stationed in the north of the province as a backup to the three guard battalions in the north.

With the exception of the Portuguese, all the soldiers of the guard battalion were allocated land, farming tools, cattle. The so-called local guard battalions are only partially covered by the central government. In the future, the local government will bear another part of their military expenses, and the land will also be paid to the soldiers, who are also obliged to provide some of their own armament.

The soldiers who split up did not meet with fierce resistance, and the few Heavenly Sect bandits were quickly suppressed. Some fled deep into the forest, others to neighbouring countries to the north and south.

So far, except for the coast of the Andaman Sea, which is inaccessible, Jincheng has completed the occupation of the original territory of the country of Pattani. The north and south borders both have obvious river channels as landmarks, and the troops of Jincheng stopped one after another when they reached the border, with the exception of the upper reaches of the Jincheng River in the southwest.

To the southwest, bordering Jincheng is the country of Perak. With a registered population of only 5,000 people, Perak is the smallest country on the entire peninsula. Perak is completely dependent on tin mines within its borders, maintaining a difficult balance between several large countries.

The boundary between Jincheng and Perak is the Sangalakli Mountains, and the only tin mine in Jincheng is buried in the mountainous area of Jincheng.

In order to explore the tin mines, the soldiers of Jincheng broke through the ridge of Sangarakli Mountain. It doesn't matter at all, Perak's control over this area is completely non-existent, and the Sultan of Perak doesn't even know that it is his land.

Tin mining is extremely profitable at this time. Some will never be released, such as those who resisted the invasion of the conquerors. The Senate threw 5,000 prisoners of war into tin mining in the upper reaches of the city.

Chen Shouxu found a problem in the previous construction project. In the process of contracting the construction of roads, the Lin family used prisoners of war manpower leased from the state, which led to them not paying attention to the protection of slaves' lives, and there were many unnecessary deaths.

Chen Shouxu has made some reforms to the construction system of project contracting. It has been changed from EPC project general contracting to PPP public-private partnership, such as the mining of tin ore this time. First of all, it is open to all bidders, and the bidding conditions will set some thresholds such as engineering experience and financial resources. For the winning bidder, Jincheng Bank issued a construction loan, and the winning bidder used its own funds and loans to buy all the slaves to develop the tin mine, and these slaves will belong to the company completely.

The Ministry of Finance of Jincheng promised to give fixed income to the project expenditure of the winning bidder, which will be paid annually. If the profit from tin mine development falls below the payment amount in the future, the Ministry of Finance will pay to make up the difference. If the tin mine profits exceed the amount paid, the Ministry of Finance will give some of the excess as a reward to the company.

In doing so, Chen Shouxu not only turned slaves into private property and encouraged them to save manpower as much as possible, but also smoothed out fluctuations in two ways. During the construction period, most of the construction loans of Nanyang Bank will not be paid in cash, but will be paid directly to upstream raw material suppliers and grain merchants through entrusted payment, which can often be completed in the form of acceptance bills. During the operation period, due to the joint venture, the purchase price of tin ore will not fluctuate drastically with the market.

Of course, this public-private partnership method will continue to improve in the actual operation in the future, and Chen Shouxuan has only completed the beginning.

The small southern states looked in horror at the rapidly expanding Golden City. Chen Shouxu sent credentials to the southern sultanates, announcing to them that Jincheng had no intention of continuing to expand and would be content with the original lands of the kingdom of Pattani.

Everything must have a degree, and Chen Shouxu really has no ability and willingness to expand on land now. In addition to the Jincheng and the border line, where some people and troops were filled, even the fields were abandoned in the vast areas of the hinterland. According to Chen Shouxu's original plan, he wanted to obtain tens of thousands of Zhenla's manpower supplements before carrying out this expansion. This saves valuable silver reserves.

The disadvantages of canceling the Chenla plan and forcibly occupying the land in advance when there was not sufficient manpower were also obvious, and the silver reserves of Jincheng fell further.

After the expansion of the army, the Suqadana port strategy was put on the agenda. Unlike the Chenla Raiders, the port of Suqadana will be played by the navy.

The Jincheng River flows slowly at the edge of the city, and the naval base bastion is located on the left bank of the river, across the river from the city on the right bank.

On this day, Chen Shouxuan did not ride a horse, and crossed the Jincheng River with Marmont by boat. After crossing the river, he did not rush to a meeting, but first inspected the base under construction.

Lynn who was in charge of the construction of the base. Stirling explained to the two admirals: "Your Excellency, the fortress is made of large rocks brought from the upper reaches of the Jincheng River, cut and built with cement. This is the strongest fortress I have ever seen. It's just that, according to the engineer, the cement is not at its maximum strength now, and the building needs to be maintained for another half a year. Therefore, we cannot yet move heavy artillery into it. ”

Looking at the fortress in front of him, which was no less than Fort Santiago in Acapulco City, Chen Shouxu was very happy and asked, "Yes, yes, have you counted it, how much cement is shared?" ”

Stirling: "More than 400 tons of cement. Most of the domestic cement is used in the Golden Castle. ”

Chen Shouxu: "Don't be afraid to use more cement, a century-old project, we either don't build, build the best." ”

Collingwood, who was standing on the side, said in a somewhat mocking tone, "The two fortresses in the upper reaches of the army are not half of the cement used by us, and Holrenne has expressed his dissatisfaction several times." ”

Marmont: "The army has a small number of fortresses, but there are a lot of them, and now that we have pushed the border to the original border, we will definitely build it there now." ”

Chen Shouxu stretched out his hand and touched the cold stone on the city wall, "The army mainly relies on field troops. The army fortress should maintain control over the number of major communication arteries, and the individual ones should not be large. ”

Marmont looked at Chen Shouxu, "Count the days, Alimoud should also bring the next batch of volcanic ash over." The good thing of exchanging ash for silver is only here that we have. ”

Stirling asked Chen Shouxu, "Admiral, when the next batch of cement arrives, in addition to continuing to complete the construction of the dock and dock, we also want to build two auxiliary naval bases on the Chana River and the Golo River." ”

Chen Shouxu: "Have you explored those two estuaries?" ”

Sterling: "Yes, Admiral. The Chana River is relatively small, and only notification ships can be berthed. The Golo River has enough water, and the river mouth can be moored with a little regulation. And because of the sandbar, as long as we build some berths on both sides of the river, we can avoid the waves. ”

"How's the shelter going?"

"It's not as good as Jincheng Port to shelter from the wind. But the Navy thought it would be better to have a backup base. And in case something happens in the south, the warships at the mouth of the Golo River can also reinforce the army in a more timely manner than the port of Jincheng. ”

Chen Shouxu thought for a while, the army will not face large-scale field battles in the southwest and north, at most some high-intensity public security battles. These two directions should be enough to rely mainly on the original fortifications, at most demolish some vacant dwellings and build a few batteries to assist. In this way, the construction of three forts on the front line of Kelantan City, where war may occur, should meet the defensive needs.

"Well, I agree. However, the scale of the base should not be too large, at most it can only be the size of the fortress on the road now. You will have to build stone docks and docks, and you will not be given all cement. ”

Several captains were delighted to see the goal of reaching the CD. Coutinho took the opportunity to give Chen Shouxu a gift.

"Python skin?"

Cotinho said: "Joao who led the 9th Guard Battalion to Patong County. Cunha is my fellow countryman, and he sent me this monster skin the other day. ”

It was a snakeskin of a reticulated python, all spread out over fourteen meters. The diamond-shaped black-brown and yellow or light gray reticulated markings are the most distinctive features of the reticulated python. The reticulated python is not the heaviest snake, but it is the longest snake and the most muscular snake. In Chen Shouxu's original era, the reticulated python was the only python that had an exact record of being able to swallow adults. Such a large python stands at the top of the food chain here, and even the Indochinese tiger is no match for this monster.

Chen Shouxu was very fond of collecting animals, and was very happy to see this special gift, so he turned his head and instructed the secretary, "Lynch, put away the snake skin." Remember to send a set of Chinese porcelain to Captain Norania tomorrow. ”

After inspecting the fortress, the next step is the dockyard. Because the fleet's warships were not in good condition after the capture of Jincheng, there was no time to reinforce the docks and docks with stones. After digging four mud docks, the battleship was towed into the dock and rolled sideways for repairs.

Chen Shouxu's focus today is to inspect the maintenance of warships.

Lynn Sterling introduced to Chen Shouxu one by one: "The Lima and Nanhai do not need to replace the ship's planks, and now the repairs have been completed and the boom is being modified at the dock. ”

"The Changhe, Changshan, Changbo and Raphael have been fighting for a long time, and the ship's planks need to be replaced, and they are still under intense construction."

"The Melville also needed to have some of the planks replaced, but because of the smaller hull, it's now complete."

Chen Shouxu looked at the four warships that were being repaired sideways in front of him, "Give you two more months, how many warships can you prepare?" ”

Sterling frowned and thought for a while, "At most, add the Long River and the Raphael." Both the Nagayama and the Nagawave were badly injured on Eleuthera Island, and we are lucky to have held out so far. If you want to keep these two ships in service, you need to overhaul them completely. ”

The battleship is a long-term fixed asset, and it is true that it cannot be forced for a while, Chen Shouxu agreed: "Okay. Then get the South Sea, Lima, Changhe, Raphael, and Melville ready. And what about dhows? ”

Raheem Sterling: "Three sloops ready to go. ”

Chen Shouxu: "What about the construction of new ships?" ”

Sterling: "The Lin family shipyard had started construction of four notification ships at the same time, and we didn't dare to build too big at first. Each was built to the standard of 6 4-pounder guns and 4 swing guns. ”

Chen Shouxu: "It's still two months, how many ships can be completed by then?" ”

Sterling: "Two shouldn't be a big problem. ”

"Good." Chen Shouxu said to the captains around him, "Gentlemen, the army has proven their combat effectiveness to the Senate. Now it's the turn of the Navy. There are only 2 months to go, and you have to complete the training of the new sailors in the fleet as soon as possible. ”