As the most important strategic material, nitrate has always been the focus of federal attention.

Shou Xuan said to Zeng Ying: "There is a way to solve it, but it requires more manpower, and it is also a bit dangerous." ”

"How dangerous is it?"

Shou Xuan smiled, "The environment is harsh, and there are many poisonous insects and beasts. ”

"It's not going to be harder than fighting Jianyu, let's hear it."

"Dig up manta dung and boil nitrate."

Zeng Ying became interested, "Can bat dung boil out fire?" ”

"We have investigated," Shou Xuan said, "that in some places on the border of Yunnan Province, gunpowder is produced by boiling bat dung. ”

"Is there a lot of this kind of bat droppings?"

"Zhongcheng can imagine that millions of bats gather in the cave, and how many bat droppings will accumulate in the cave for thousands of years?"

Zeng Ying's interest became higher and higher, "Where is this giant bat cave you are talking about?" ”

"There are many islands in the South Seas." Shou Xuan thought about the conditions for the formation of the giant bat cave, "Guangxi and Qiongzhou should also have them, but I haven't investigated the resources of these two places. ”

Zeng Ying had a kind of blind trust in the order, and when she heard that Qiongzhou might also have it, she immediately wrote a letter to send it back to Qiongzhou Mansion and ordered Wu Yanliang, the prefect of Qiongzhou, to start an investigation.

Order: "Zhongcheng, this bat cave may not be easy to mine. ”

If bat manure was easy to mine, it would have been done a long time ago. Only the bat caves on Lingjiawei Island around the Federation mainland are relatively easy to mine, but there are not many bats there. Lingjiawei Island is a fiefdom that has just arrived in order, and the development work has not been carried out for a long time.

It is difficult to dig dung, and it is even harder to dig bat dung.

Large quantities of fresh bat droppings and dead bats cause carnivorous beetles on the ground to multiply, forming a dense layer. Under the action of nitrifying bacillus, these accumulations have complex chemical reactions with water, soil and deposition of plant ash, etc., and the reactant nitrate is finally deposited in the cave.

This nitrification reaction requires temperature, humidity, vegetation around the cave, and the South Sea islands are all three conditions for the generation of good conditions, and dense forests provide potassium ions.

Giant bat caves are inevitably based on large islands or continents, and natural caves with karst terrain are more common. There are many such caves in Vietnam, the Philippines, and the East Indies.

Bat feces contain not only potassium nitrate, but also sodium nitrate, magnesium nitrate and other nitrates.

The metabolites produced by the nitrification reaction combine with water vapor to form large amounts of ammonia, which can be fatal at slightly higher concentrations. The common feature of giant bat caves is that they are located deep in the mountains and old forests. A large number of bats attract many predators, and venomous snakes and pythons are the most common.

In order to extract enough bat droppings, transportation is often a challenge. People are susceptible to illness in humid forests, which makes the manpower required to mine giant bat caves very high.

Zeng Ying and Shou Xiang have their own different comparative advantages, Shou Shou is relatively short of people, and Zeng Ying is relatively short of money. Qiongzhou is rich and has great development potential, but Zeng Ying lacks hard currency for external payments. For projects that are too high for the labor cost to be implemented in order, Zeng Ying may be able to try.

Investigating in Qiongzhou alone is not safe, Zeng Ying asked, "If I want to completely control a Nanyang manta manure production area, where do you think it is better?" ”

Shou Xuan smiled, "Zhongcheng, what does it mean to be in full control?" ”

Zeng Ying lowered her head and took a sip of tea, "Of course it's a place where you can garrison troops." ”

Zeng Ying, who was an official in Fujian back then, knew some about the Nanyang countries, but she was certainly not as familiar with the intricacies of foreign relations as she was with order.

If it's just a purely commercial bat manure, the Philippines, Vietnam, Siam and the Malay Peninsula, and even Sumatra and South Borneo can do it.

Zeng Ying was worried that the cost of sea transportation was high, and he would definitely not be able to use the precious tonnage of merchant ships to transport bat manure back to Hainan. It is best to do preliminary purification locally and transport it back to China. This is a key problem, saltpeter is a strategic material, small-scale transportation will not be too much of a problem, but a large amount may attract the attention of the local government, in case the country sends troops to control the production of fire and salt, this is also the possibility of making wedding dresses for others. If things turn out like this, then it is better to buy Indian saltpeter directly, anyway, it is all spent money to buy, and Indian saltpeter saves trouble.

Only the garrison can control the production area, and now Qiongzhou definitely does not have troops to send to Nanyang, Zeng Ying wants to understand how difficult it is to invade Nanyang by force.

In addition to clothes, the most important luggage that you carry with you is a map. asked someone to find a map of the Nanyang countries, and Shou Xuan knocked on one of them, "I can't send many soldiers, so I can only rely on yourself." ”

The federal finances and military forces were already strained to maintain the current territory, and the Borneo front would be too long. If the Ming army is interested, Shou Xian doesn't mind doing a favor and sharing a piece of the pie at the same time.

It is not advisable to challenge the great powers of the South Seas, and Siam Vietnam does not need to think about it. The Philippines and Java are the territory of the Yangyi and can also be ruled out. Sumatra is more developed, Aceh and Miganambu are not easy to bully, and Makassar in Sulawesi is too far away. In fact, there is only one place left, North Borneo.

The towering mountains on the island of Borneo form a watershed, and the northeast-southwest trending mountains cut Borneo into two regions with no land transport links. It is customary to call South Borneo and North Borneo, which is later Kalimantan and East Malaysia in Indonesia.

North Borneo is theoretically now the territory of Brunei. Brunei still exists, relying on the Sultanate of Sulu to hold off Spain to the north.

In the South Seas, Brunei is probably the weakest country. Brunei was once the suzerainty of Sulu, and since the capital was captured by the Spaniards once, Sulu in turn became the protector of Brunei. The Sabah region of North Borneo was given to Sulu by Brunei, and the Spaniards fought for 70 years without taking Sulu, so naturally it was not an opponent that the Ming army, which was now lacking in troops, could defeat.

In this way, there is only one place left in the whole South Sea, Sarawak in the south of North Borneo. Sarawak was economically backward and was now run by a few Malay maharajas, nominally to the Sultan of Brunei in Bandar Seri Begawan.

These Malay maharajas, who are also outsiders, have their own indigenous people, the Iban. Although there are no large iron ore mines, the Sarawak Delta was once the center of iron production in Nanyang, and it was not until the arrival of large numbers of Chinese iron in Nanyang and other factors that the iron production there collapsed. The Iban tribe's force is not weak, at least with Zeng Ying's current strength, it is definitely impossible to conquer.

Zeng Ying was fascinated by the Sarawak River Delta that Shou Xuan said, "Are you familiar with the situation there?" ”

Shou Order: "I understand a little." ”

Zeng Ying glanced at Shou Order, "That's good, help me keep an eye on it." ”

Shou ordered to nod his head to indicate that he had written it down.

Borneo is close to Java, and the Dutch regard the Java coast of Borneo as their own yard and are not allowed to interfere with outside influences. But for North Borneo's South China Sea coast, they have no ambitions.

North Borneo, especially Sarawak, is barren and sparsely populated, with no worth mentioning output and no trade demand. Amsterdam gave the East India Company a directive to centralize control of the Spice Islands and Java, and not to be allowed to mix in North Borneo's politics. The Dutch were too open, and they were nervous, and fighting everywhere would worsen the company's financial situation.

In the entire South Seas, only North Borneo has room for expansion.

Whether it is expansion or defense, you have to reorganize the army first, and take stock of the military resources in your hands with Zeng Ying.

Western Guangdong has always been an important place for coastal defense, and by the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was barely maintaining the shelf of coastal defense.

In the past, when the army was at its largest, Zeng Ying's current jurisdiction of Lei Lianqiong's three mansions should have 6 land battalions and 3 water battalions. The land camps are the 4th battalion of Yangwei and the 2nd battalion of Haibei in Qiongzhou, and the 3 water battalions of Baigemen, Baisha and Wutu.

Since the beginning of Chongzhen's financial constraints, the pressure on coastal defense in western Guangdong has eased slightly, the Wutu water camp has been dismantled, and the Lianzhou defense area has been managed by Leizhou Baigemen Water Village, maintaining the situation of one water camp in Hainan and one in Haibei.

The guards in western Guangdong were not completely deserted, and the system of the Ming army, the military system of the garrison and the military system of the guards, was somewhat intersecting and chaotic here. In this regard, Zeng Ying made a small modification.

The reorganization of the army in Hainan is proceeding step by step, and Zeng Ying's trip to Haibei will start the reorganization of the officers and troops of the Lei Lian Second Prefecture.

The military gate points the troops, and the military generals attend the ceremony.

In the Ming Dynasty, the status of battalion officers was higher than that of the guards.

At the forefront is the supreme commander of the Haibei Ming Army, stationed in Leizhou Mansion, Lei Lian Deputy General Guo Jingcai, followed by Hengshan and Baigemen Water Village garrison He Chengqian and Lianzhou garrison Li Biao.

The three of them are currently the officers of the Zhenshu Battalion in Haibei, Guo Jingcai is from Panyu, and the two garrisons are from Xiangshan.

Behind the battalion were the main officers in charge of the local guards, Leizhouwei and the five thousand households of Hai'an, Haikang, Jinnan, Lemin, and Ningchuan, and the three thousand households of Yong'an, Qinzhou, and Lingshan.

The Leizhou Army Battalion is full of 582 officers and soldiers, the Lianzhou Army Battalion is 552, and the Baigemen Water Village is 900, and half of each is left after inspection. Zeng Ying didn't mean to blame. If it weren't for the sea, these battalion officers would have made a lot of money, and I really don't know how many people would be left.

There are 2,231 people in the Leizhou Flag Army and 1,312 people in the Lianzhou Flag Army.

The situation in Haibei is broadly similar to that in Hainan. The White Pigeon Gate Water Village is full of recruited civilian sailors to maintain a certain combat effectiveness. The number of land battalions was insufficient, and many banner troops were transferred, resulting in not many of the original hundreds of battalions and forts and beacons still playing a role.

The situation of the official army in Haibei was more complicated than that in Hainan, and Zeng Ying did not trust the battalion soldiers here, so he first named the commander of Lianzhouwei.

"Zhang Lie."

The officer knelt down from his shift, "Humble duty." ”

"The ministry transferred you to my Fubiao and served as the commander of the Chinese army."

"I have been humbled by the military gate."

This was all arranged in advance, and Zhang Lie and the other officers present had known about this personnel transfer for a long time, but it was publicly announced by the governor today.

"Assign 2,000 people from Lei Lian's second guard, bring their families to move to Qiongzhou, and Zhang Lie, you will supervise."

The move of defense was a bit unexpected by the officers, Guo Jingcai immediately said: "Military Gate, the current banner army of the second guard is only worthy of more than 3,000 people, and there are still many unusable old and weak among them, do you want to empty them?" ”

Zeng Ying gently sipped the tea, "As long as you are young and strong, don't be old and weak." If the flag army is not enough, people will be drawn from Yu Ding. ”

Guo Jingcai: "Junmen, this is really a bit difficult. ”

Zeng Ying put the teacup on the table, "No matter what method you use, within a month, the headquarters will see 2,000 soldiers go to Qiongzhou." If you can't do it......"

After a sneer, "The garrison is above the strict ginseng, and the garrison is below the law on the spot." ”

The soldiers of western Guangdong have not yet reached the same level as the warlords of the north and the southeast, and there is still room for training.

"Also, don't force the strong men, I'll check them one by one when the time comes."

The officers' hearts were in shock, this new military lord was going to force them to vomit some money.

Guo Jingcai had no choice but to ask: "Military Gate, it is not difficult to recruit 2,000 people from the military household. But after they were evacuated, the beacon camp forts along the coast were almost completely abandoned. ”

Zeng Ying nodded, this is the truth, "It's not important to give up a few camps for the time being. ”

Guo Jingcai opened his mouth wide, it doesn't matter? "Junmen, what about the local defense?"

Zeng Ying looked at Li Biao, the garrison of the Lianzhou battalion, "I remember that the Lianzhou battalion was scattered and stationed in the three places of Lianzhou Fucheng, Qinzhou and Lingshan."

Li Biao: "What Zhongcheng said is very true. ”

"Deputy General Guo, you don't have to worry about the defense of Haikang and Xuwen counties, send your troops to Suixi and Lianzhou, and assign defense areas."

Once ordered, there is no room for negotiation.

Guo Jingcai had no choice but to say: "Humble obedience." ”

Then there is the sailor, "The White Pigeon Water Village is harder, and more warships have been sent to patrol recently." Share the pressure of the Lu Division. ”

He Chengqian, the commander of the naval division, arched his hand and said: "Junmen, we people who run on the sea are not afraid of hard work, but I need to renovate the warship." ”

"You make a list and submit it, and I'll add to you if you need anything."