The generals of the Chinese army were not the arrogant generals of the Qing army in history, they knew very well how terrible the enemy they faced was, so they prepared for the worst.

This is true of military preparations, as well as of the internal relocation of the Linde Machine Factory!

Needless to say, the importance of the Linde Machinery Factory as the only arsenal in the Chinese Empire that could supply advanced weapons in batches is now established.

Once the war broke out, the trade area would be affected by the war, and very importantly, the military did not have much confidence that it would be able to hold Shanghai, so in order to prevent the loss of Shanghai, the royal industry had to consider relocating a strategically level enterprise like the Linde Machinery Factory.

However, the Linde Machinery Factory was still working overtime to carry out large-scale production at this time, and it could not stop the large-scale internal relocation at all, because once the large-scale relocation was carried out, even if everything went well, it would at least stop production for more than a few months, and these few months were enough for the Linde Machinery Factory to produce hundreds of artillery, nearly 10,000 rifles and other ordnance weapons.

To this end, the head of the royal family's industry, that is, the head of the finance department of the palace department, Pan Lixuan, once again set off for the business zone to personally take charge of the production and relocation of the Linde Machinery Factory.

"Although the current situation is tense, it has not yet reached the final stage, and in order not to affect the production of ordnance, temporary production still needs to continue!" Pan Lixuan did not hide anything from several executives of the Linde Machinery Factory.

Because there is no secret in the Shanghai Trade Zone, it is not a secret that the British Minister to China ordered to go to Nanjing to issue a final ultimatum to Lin Zhe, although the Chinese Empire has now sent Song Guanqian and other diplomatic officials to negotiate urgently with the consuls of various countries. According to the information transmitted by the British, who participated in the negotiations, although certain concessions had already been made on the part of the Chinese Empire. However, it still failed to meet the needs of various countries for normal business and residence in China.

That is, they do not send out the possibility of continuing the war!

The French consul in Shanghai made a public announcement at a reception. France has mobilized extensively in the Indochina Peninsula, and more troops are being gathered, and as soon as war breaks out, at least 5,000 French soldiers will fight for France!

The French are mobilizing more troops to reinforce them, and the British will naturally not wait to grind with Song Guanqian, when the negotiations are underway, the British are already carrying out large-scale mobilization in India and Burma and other South Asian regions, and more soldiers are being assembled.

Although the British did not openly say how many reinforcements they would come over, it was based on the military strength of the British in South Asia. It was easy to recruit more than 10,000 soldiers, and although these troops were not all British soldiers recruited from the British mainland, but mainly Indian soldiers, the British were very good at training colonial troops.

During World War I and World War II, the soldiers recruited and trained by the British in India and other colonies did not perform badly!

The British Minister to China, Balling, has declared in public more than once that if the situation in the Far East cannot be eased, then he will take the blame and resign as Minister to China.

This so-called resignation does not mean that he will roll back to Europe, but a threat.

Because once he resigned. According to the plan approved by the British mainland last year, the subsequent affairs with China will be entrusted to the Earl of Ergin, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Anglo-French forces, that is, at that time, the war between the two sides will break out.

The shadow of war is already hanging over the trade area. The merchants were not too worried, for the British and French consuls had repeatedly promised privately that they were here to open up trade routes. There will be no disruption to an already well-developed business zone.

This trade zone is not only the lifeblood of the Chinese Empire, but also a money bag for all countries. Even if war breaks out, it is estimated that the trade zone will not be affected much. The production of raw silk will continue, and the export of raw silk will not be hindered.

Why? Because people come to fight the war to do business, if they can't do business because of the war, the shareholders behind the foreign companies such as Jardine Matheson and Sindh Tak have long been clamoring in the British Parliament, and the war will not be fought.

However, the raw silk industry and some ordinary industries may not be affected, but the Linde machine factory will definitely be affected.

Ask the foreigners and Chinese living in the trade zone casually, they all know that this Linde Machinery Factory can be regarded as the royal arsenal of the Chinese Empire, and the weapons it produces are the main source of weapons for the Chinese army.

In order to avoid this from happening, the Linde Machine Factory began to prepare for the relocation of the factory despite the extremely busy production tasks.

Since production cannot be stopped, the preparation for migration is carried out in other aspects.

In order to support the relocation of the Linde Machinery Factory, the Cabinet conveniently approved a large piece of land in Dangtu County near Ma'anshan as the relocation site of the Linde Machinery Factory.

The Linde Machinery Factory will build a new plant on this fast land, which will be temporarily named Linde Machinery Factory Dangtu Branch.

In order to build the factory as soon as possible, the local Taiping government personally requisitioned more than tens of thousands of people to level the land and build the factory.

At the same time, the construction of the Jinling Arsenal was the same, in order to speed up the commissioning time of the Jinling Arsenal, the Jiangning government officially requisitioned thousands of civilian men to carry out civil engineering operations together with the officers and soldiers of the auxiliary defense division who were originally responsible for the construction of the factory.

Of course, the above-mentioned official support is not gratuitous, and these people are not requisitioned for nothing, but to be paid, but it will be difficult for these people's wages to be taken out in a short period of time, so the official just asked them to make an IOU, and the official advance the funds in advance.

The construction of the Dangtu branch of Linde Machinery Factory is very important for the relocation of Linde Machinery Factory, first build a good plant in Dangtu, in case Shanghai really can't hold it, then immediately the machine in the field is dismantled and then transported to Dangtu Branch, and those skilled workers are also going to Dangtu together.

If the war did not happen as imagined. Or that the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army exploded and beat the British and French forces to the head, thus holding Shanghai. Then this migration will naturally not be needed.

However, the building of the Suqian branch will not be repaired in vain, because Linde Machinery Factory will invest in the construction of a second branch here. It is used to expand production capacity, reduce production costs, reduce the threat of war, etc.

Now Linde Machinery Factory is in Shanghai, the initial factory is in the British Concession, and later the British Concession has become a business area, the land price of the business area is high, in order to reduce the construction cost of Linde Machinery Factory is to build a factory in the southeast of the original Shanghai County.

However, with the continuous development of the business district, the total population of the business district, the county seat of Shanghai and its surroundings has exceeded 500,000 people. With so many people crowded into such a small place, the land price is not expensive if it does not rise, and it has only been a few years, and the land price in the southern part of Shanghai County has risen several times.

Even if there is no threat of follow-up war, in order to reduce construction costs and personnel salary costs, the follow-up expansion plan of Linde Machinery Factory will also choose other places, and the best choice is to be close to the Ma'anshan iron ore area, and the supply of raw materials will be more convenient.

In other words, no matter whether the war broke out or not, Linde Machinery Factory would build a new factory in Dangtu!

An unusual movement of the Chinese army. The sudden large-scale return of aid and other official changes can easily make people with good intentions perceive the unusual atmosphere.

In Nanchang, Jiangxi, Lin Chengting put down the secret report in his hand and said with a puzzled face: "What does this Lin Zhe want to do?" At the same time, troops were drawn from the northern front and the western front? Could it be that they want to go west from Fujian or north from Guangdong? ”

Lin Chengting was a little incomprehensible. Why did the Chinese army suddenly have to transfer troops from the northern and western fronts? Could it be that he wanted to ignore the Qing army and the Taiping army first, but instead aimed at himself?

This possibility is not impossible, but it is still very large. Jiangxi is the most strategically important province among the southern provinces, and its strategic position is similar to that of Henan in the north. Once the Chinese army takes control of Jiangxi, it will not only ensure the strategic security of Anhui, Zhejiang, and Fujian. Moreover, it can ensure the security of Guangdong, and it will be more convenient to enter Hunan, Hubei and Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi at the same time.

"What about their Third Army, is there any movement there now?" Lin Chengting asked his men.

The subordinate said: "I don't know for the time being, they have been going south to Guangdong since last month, and we don't know their exact location yet, but it is possible that they are going to Guangzhou!" ”

Lin Chengting had the habit of sending spies to the Chinese army long before Lin Zhe's rebellion, although the scale of the Zhenhu army was not large, but when it came to understanding the Chinese army and Lin Zhe, several other forces surpassed him, such as Zeng Guofan, Shi Dakai or the Qing court, were inferior to him Lin Chengting.

The spies sent by Lin Chengting closely followed every move of the Nanjing side and the various Chinese armies, and he may not be able to know about the ordinary small and medium-sized movements of the Chinese army, but he naturally knows about the large-scale transfers involving the whole army like the current one.

Such a large-scale mobilization of the Chinese army must have a goal, but what is this purpose? Could it be yourself?

Lin Chengting doesn't know!

Because he never imagined that Lin Zhe, who was still on good terms with foreigners and wore the same pants, was going to war with Britain and France!

Even if there was a war with Britain and France, Lin Chengting didn't think that the foreigners who came from afar could pose any threat to Lin Zhe, they had more than two people in Shanghai, and it would be useful to come to thousands of foreigners.

Obviously, Lin Chengting didn't know much about the strength of Britain and France, let alone that Britain and France would continue to reinforce them, and it was possible to come tens of thousands or even 20,000 people at that time.

And Lin Chengting is puzzled by Li Hongzhang, although he was placed under house arrest, but I don't know why the Chinese army can also treat him harshly after arriving in Nanjing, this house arrest is a person living in a courtyard, although it cannot be served by someone as before, but it is also worry-free.

After staying for a long time, he will start reading and practicing calligraphy to pass the time.

And the book he reads is not a scripture, he Li Hongzhang is a traditional reader who was admitted to the Jinshi Eight Classics, these four books and five classics can be said to be memorized backwards, and it has reached the point where there is nothing to see, so some of the books he reads are idle books bought by the officers who guard him for him, and a considerable number of them are so-called new books, and he has been very interested in the so-called physics for a while now.

In addition to reading books, he occasionally chatted with the military policemen who guarded him, and these military policemen would naturally not know about the secrets of these military police, but he could also say some public news that had been circulated, such as the return of the Fifth Army and the Second Army to Beijing one after another.

Hearing that the Chinese Army actually transferred the Fifth Army and the Second Army back to southern Jiangsu, Li Hongzhang also fell into deep thought, why did the Chinese Army suddenly send troops back to help?

Could it be that the infighting that occurred in Nanjing was the same as the Taiping thieves the year before last? Otherwise, how could they have sent troops back on a large scale when the front-line troops were insufficient?

Li Hongzhang knows that the Chinese army is already hundreds of thousands, but the actual main force is only a few infantry divisions of the Royal Army, and the Royal Army in the Chinese Army fighting in the north is only 20,000 or 30,000 people, and tens of thousands of people are sent back to help at this time, which means that there are only more than 10,000 left.

Relying on more than 10,000 people, if you want to march into Shandong and Henan at the same time, as well as enter Zhili, even if the Chinese army is strong, it can't do it! (To be continued......)