However, at least those rebels are still holding on, so Britain will not be able to spare their hands - France alone, even if it is known as the first power in the army, but it still has to be transported by the navy - Feng Yunshan has not taken it seriously.

Even if Napoleon III was so attached to and eager for Mexico, he only sent more than 7,000 French troops to land at the beginning of the invasion of Mexico, and even some of them were North African Foreign Legions. Even after the final defeat at Puebla, Mexico, Napoleon III, who was embarrassed and angry, sent more than 30,000 French troops with all his might. This shows that the French simply did not have many expeditionary troops to send out.

As for Russia in the north, there are still some troubles, but it is also difficult to become a problem for the henchmen—they are not yet within reach—either because the Manchus were too weak or simply because the bloodless Manchu nobles did not want the lands in the Outer Northeast, otherwise, they would not have been so easily ceded and occupied.

Thinking like this, Feng Yunshan's heart gradually widened. He just wanted to ask Zuo Zongtang how much of the empire's troops can fight now, and now the empire's army has been rapidly expanding and training, and it is different every two months, and now he has to ask the General Staff from time to time to know how much his family is worth.

Fan Ruzeng suddenly said: "Your Majesty, the Indian subordinate of Weichen, the one sent to the northwest of India is named Samit. Kumar's guys, probably have turned their backs on the Empire. It has been half a year since the news has been delivered, and several dark lines sent by the Special Services Department have also been broken. Among the Indian rebels today, this guy is the most powerful, attracting more than 40,000 British troops.

Several other rebel armies fought on their own, and had been broken by the British individually. In particular, the rebels in the south and central fled and surrendered when they heard that British reinforcements had arrived. However, if the British want to completely pacify India, I am afraid that it will take some time, and now those rebels have also woken up, such as the queen of Jhansi who fled from Jhansi to Gwalior and Tandia there after being defeated by the British army? Toby's rebel army joined, and the two rebel armies combined to increase their strength and barely withstand the British attack. And Kunwar in Bihar? Although the Singh brothers were captured by the British in Calcutta, the remnants of the remaining army fled to Kanpur and joined the Nana? The rebel army led by Sahib caused the rebels in Kanpur to increase their strength and capture the city of Lucknow, although it was soon counterattacked back by the British army, but at least it had the strength to attack the British army, which was the second largest force. In other words, in today's India, the main remnants are the Sikh kingdom of Punjab, as well as the three rebels of Kanpur and Gwalior. ”

After listening to Fan Ruzeng's report, Feng Yunshan was not surprised.

Even if he arranged it himself and let these Indian rebels start a year earlier, it still couldn't change the fate of these rebels being suppressed by the British army. For this, Feng Yunshan had already been mentally prepared, he just wanted this time, at least to slow down the expansion of British forces into East Asia. Of course, in fact, there are some changes: at least, the rebels have not been basically pacified in more than a year, as in history. Now, although the situation is not as good as when the rebels just broke out a while ago, slowly the British army has the advantage, and the rebel army is compressed in three places in northern India, but in fact, the rebel forces are still very strong, not to mention, the Punjab Sikh Kingdom alone has withstood several attacks by the British army, and the rebels in Kanpur have gathered nearly 100,000 people, and the British army really can't overcome it for a while. It seems that although the rebels have been confined to the rebel area and will be surrounded and annihilated by the British army sooner or later, it seems that at least they can hold out for a year or two, which means that for at least one or two years, Britain will not be able to make major moves overseas, and it seems that they have at least one year to develop well.

For the man who surrendered named Summit. Although Feng Yunshan was a little sorry for the defection of Kumar's Indian-British army, DNA was not surprised. is the so-called non-mine race, its heart must be different, not to mention Ah San, who has always been inferior to the roots?

But he and the Secret Service Department still have to learn a lesson. Feng Yunshan thought of this, so he said: "Don't touch his family for the time being, don't alarm, just secretly send more people to keep a firm watch on his family, and definitely can't let him escape back to India." At present, he is not in a hurry to turn his face with him, and he can even help them secretly, after all, he still needs to drag the British. But in the future, the secret service department should be cautious in employing people, especially foreigners, try to find out their temperament, and use those who take care of their families. ”

"By the way, Zuo Aiqing, Zeng Aiqing, how are the coastal defense batteries along the coast being built, and how are the local garrisons arranged?" Feng Yunshan thought that since the implementation of the first five-year plan, he had asked the Ministry of Public Works to cooperate with the General Staff Headquarters to build forts at various dangerous locations along the coast. At the beginning, he thought that there were not enough warships, let alone naval officers and men from professional backgrounds, and that it would be difficult to build a strong navy for a while and a half, so he still strengthened the defense through coastal defense batteries. Although this is passive, in case of a large-scale fleet attack, at least, the attack speed of the opponent can be delayed through the forts, especially at the mouth of Guangzhou Bay and the Yangtze River, and a large number of forts and warships can be used to contend with the incoming enemy.

Zuo Zongtang hurriedly replied: "Your Majesty, there is a timely allocation from the Ministry of Public Works supervised by Lord Zeng and the Ministry of Finance and Taxation to recruit 120,000 people and soldiers of the army, but only more than half of the construction and fortification of the main fort have been completed. Because China's coastal defense line is not less than 10,000 miles, if we fortify everywhere and garrison troops in a balanced manner like the Manchu Qing Dynasty, not only will it cost a lot of money, but the troops will also be scattered, and it will not be possible to truly form an effective coastal defense. Therefore, after discussing with Deputy Chief of General Staff Mao, Weichen abandoned all the small scattered artillery batteries of the original Manchu Qing Dynasty and replaced them with warships. Concentrate on the construction and renovation of the main fort groups. Along the coast from south to north, Guangdong is centered on Humen at the mouth of the Pearl River, Xiamen Island and Mawei are centered on Xiamen Island and Minjiang estuary in Fujian, three forts are centered on Dinghai, Zhenhai and Zhapu in Zhejiang, Wusongkou is centered on the Yangtze River estuary in Jiangsu, Dengzhou is centered on Dengzhou in Shandong, and Dagukou is centered on Dagukou in Tianjin. 342 forts were prepared to be built and reinforced, with a total of nearly 2,000 cannons, of which all the newly built forts were made of new cement mixed with iron bars, which were extremely strong and covered with a layer of soil cushion, which was several times stronger than the best masonry forts of the original Manchu Qing Dynasty. Moreover, the new forts are all new Krupp cannons produced by the Imperial Krupp Steel Company, and most of them are the latest rifled shore defense guns, especially giant cannons, which weigh thousands of pounds each, and can sink an ordinary warship with one shot. ”

"Now 159 batteries have been renovated and newly built, including 362 new Krupp cannons, and even 12 Krupp coastal cannons of 10,000 catties or even more than 30,000 catties. It is expected that in another six months, all the fort construction will be completed. But even so, Your Majesty, can only defend these important estuaries, and if a foreign enemy does invade from the sea, avoiding the fort group and landing on other shores, these forts will be useless. Therefore, Wei Chen still felt that it was right to expand the empire's naval fleet as soon as possible and vigorously train naval officers. ”

Zeng Yuheng, Vice Minister of Public Works, continued: "Your Majesty, what Lord Zuo said is reasonable, and Weichen seconded it. The Ministry of Public Works requisitioned a large number of manpower, transported millions of catties of cement, tens of thousands of catties of iron bars, spent more than 300,000 Shengyuan and a large amount of grain, and only completed half of the construction of the forts. ”

Feng Yunshan smiled, he naturally understood what Zeng Yuheng meant, it was nothing more than seeing so much cement and steel bars used to build forts, and he was a little sorry, according to his ideas, it would be better to build factories or mines, and then it would be difficult to build official roads. Now that the empire is so powerful, according to Zeng Yuheng's thoughts, it is difficult for foreign enemies to threaten it.

But Feng Yunshan understood that now he still had to build a fort for the time being, at least the empire's navy was still very weak, and it might be equivalent to the naval level of a small second- and third-rate country in Europe at most. When the four major shipping administrations have been put into production to build warships in large quantities, and the training of naval officers and men in the three major fleets is almost complete, at that time, the imperial naval strength will be increased by a few levels, and perhaps the role of these coastal batteries can be reduced. However, at present, what Feng Yunshan is most looking forward to is Wu Ruxiao and them, who will come back from purchasing warships from the United States as soon as possible.