Chapter 656: Piercing the sky will also be fought to the end

Li Xian could probably think of the depression of the Dutch, and the involvement in the war in Burma was just fishing in troubled waters behind the British, encouraging the sultanates to be hostile to the British and Chinese, and it was only based on the fear of losing Malacca, but they did not expect that there were more than 10,000 Chinese in their old nest Batavia. "The Dutch overreacted, fell on these Chinese, and fed back to the Anglo-Chinese, causing the Anglo-Chinese strategic objectives in the south of Burma to suddenly shift from Malacca to Batavia.

Self-inflicted ......

Li Xi took a deep breath and wrote down with a pen, "There are not enough soldiers, I will send them again!" If there are not enough ships, I will rebuild them! The affairs of Nanyang must be completed in this battle! ”

Get out! Counting the era of the Heavenly King's Mansion, Yinghua has been established for eleven years, and the structure of a country is basically complete, even if it has crossed the threshold of a modern country, Li Xian faintly began to be anxious in his heart. As soon as Nanyang cannot be completely pacified, it will always drag its resources and cannot turn its head to look north. He didn't think that it would take him to return to China until he was seventy or eighty, and as a mortal, this bit of good reputation could never be dissolved.

Originally, Li Shi did not expect to drive the Dutch out of Batavia, after all, the difficulty of attacking Batavia was not much less than the attack on Manila that day, and the cost would be very high, as long as the Strait of Malacca was held in his hands and the Anglo-Chinese could enter the Indian Ocean unimpeded, the Dutch would soon be marginalized in the South Sea.

Now that the Dutch themselves jumped out, they were still pulling the Nanyang Sultanates behind their backs, and a hundred and twenty people came to the table with a hundred people, and Li Xi didn't care about the price, so he met them together, which was a good opportunity to make the final decision on the Nanyang.

Of course, this has to raise the fire and rush to work, and it is easy to say that the national strength can support it?

"Official, fighting a war is like a bottomless pit...... 20 million special expenditures are estimated to be spent by the end of the year. ”

"Zhang Hanwan on the North Road has attacked Chengdu Mansion, and when the middle of the river is restored in the month, Hubei and Jiangxi will also have Forte. Liu Xingchun in Jiangnan has already controlled Songjiang Mansion, and is invading Hangzhou and Suzhou Mansions, and may be able to eat Jiangnan next year, and all the special expenses for next year will be included, which is not enough to appease the needs of Forte, and it will also add special military expenditures, which may be ...... Hard. ”

Li Shi convened an emergency state meeting in the political hall, and the most important thing was to solve the problem of military spending. Nowadays, the Anglo-Chinese Central Government has an income of more than 50 million yuan, which seems to be abundant, but because it wants to promote social transformation, it has a large spread, how much money is used, and the cost of mobility is not much. The military expenses in the early stage of this war were still raised by borrowing and then converting these military debts into shares of several colonial companies.

Tang Youzeng's tone was heavy, and Fan Jin was helpless, both of them felt that the Nanyang war stall was already amazingly big, and if it was so expanded, it would really be impossible to live.

Gu Xiyi blocked another way: "I can't borrow anymore, now the total amount of national bonds on the market is as high as 40 million, and the total annual interest is 3 million." In order to prevent the national debt from continuing to expand, military spending was transferred to the stocks of colonial companies. ”

Not only can it not be borrowed, but it is also difficult to convert debts into equity, and the huge sum of tens of millions of dollars is a fierce beast for the stock market, and only the colonial companies can eat it, but they have already eaten it before, and if they eat the colonial companies, they will break the capital chain.

The second assistant Wu Yaluo shook his head unconsciously: "Treasury bonds, stocks, and all walks of life, there are too many places where our country consumes silver, and even ordinary villagers have begun to no longer store silver, but take it out and invest it in these places, and almost all the silver money in our country has been squeezed out, and it is circling outside......"

This is an achievement worthy of the pride of Li Xi and everyone, throughout the ages, which emperor, which dynasty, can allow the common people to use the balance of silver and money in hand to make profits, instead of hiding and covering it?

That's it, everyone has a headache, resources have been squeezed to the limit, if you want to increase income, you can't borrow money, you can only raise taxes or levy new taxes, and this is moving the people's hearts. ..., Peng Xianzhong proposed: "Didn't Ji Si just issue excise taxes on tobacco and jade? Can it be pushed to other valuable commercial goods, and the tax rate is lower? Directly drawing money from the rich, with the support of public opinion, and taxes are only levied when buying things, the impact on the people's hearts will not be so great. ”

Li Shi pondered for a moment, shook his head and said: "The consumption tax will eventually be pushed to all commercial goods, which is the foundation of the country's future finances, but the steps cannot be so big at once, starting from the new things such as tobacco and jade, and slowly expanding to other things, taking a hundred years as a calculation, we can't damage the foundation of the future because of the urgent need in front of us." ”

Song Jigang was transferred back to the middle school, with a bachelor in charge of the Hanlin Academy and a counselor in the consular hall, he suddenly said: "I can't find money in the country, but there is a lot of money in Jiangnan......"

Of course, Jiangnan has a lot of money, but it is not his own.

Everyone complained, but Li Xian's heart moved, and motioned for Song Ji to continue.

"Can we issue treasury bonds in Jiangnan......

Song Ji's words shocked everyone, this guy really dares to think about it, you dare to sell, Jiangnan people dare to buy?

"If we dare to sell, someone will dare to buy it, and I also use my surname as a guarantee, there must be a lot of people who come to buy! Our Yinghua treasury bonds have an outstanding reputation, and in Longmen, Songjiang, Jiangsu, Hangzhou, and other places, there are Yinghua treasury bond markets spontaneously formed by local people, which are of course underground. ”

"This is also normal in Europa, the battlefield is in full swing, and the government bond market is still thriving? Whichever country has a good reputation, which country's national debt will be sold well, and who cares whether it is an enemy country or not? ”

Song Ji's words were a bit harsh, now it is Yinghua who is selling treasury bonds, if the Manchu Qing Dynasty also sells treasury bonds, does it matter if Yinghua people buy them?

But this is the reality of the capital world, and if the Manchu Halal can sell government bonds in Yinghua, then it is not the Manchu Qing.

Yinghua will rely on the Jiangnan Bank, formerly known as the Jiangnan Bank, and the banks in Longmen to issue 20 million three-year treasury bonds in Jiangnan with an annual interest rate of 7%.

Military spending has been settled, but other problems still hang, such as sea capacity, which was originally the basis for Li Xian to dare to use troops in Nanyang. In the third year of the Holy Dao, in order to support the war in Luzon, a country's sea ships were empty. Now the number of registered ships of more than 400 large ships that can go to sea in Anglo-Chinese countries has reached more than 17,000, which naturally benefits from the explosive growth of the shipbuilding industry in recent years.

But even so, it is barely enough to support the supply of 200,000 overseas troops, after all, most of the sea ships still have to maintain basic trade and material exchanges, and it is impossible for all of them to serve the military.

Tian Dayu, who is in charge of the Ministry of Supervision and Works, reported that the shipbuilding industry has now introduced iron-wood keel technology and iron rib technology, and the shipbuilding speed has increased a lot, and as long as there is a suitable profit margin, the shipbuilding industry can break out again in a short period of time.

It's a simple matter, military spending is not only used on the battlefield, but also in these places. After discussion, it was decided to reduce the shipping tax for each ship built by the shipping company, and to give further preferential treatment to all ships built by the new method, that is, ships that use steel. In addition, the annual feed tax for ship owners has been reduced, and port operators have been given subsidies to reduce berth and handling costs. Such a chain link should be able to increase the profits of the shipping industry by about 20%, which is enough to detonate a shipbuilding climax.

There are still more than 100,000 Shengdao four-year muskets and hundreds of artillery pieces of more than 12 catties in the Foshan Manufacturing Bureau, and in terms of gunpowder, saltpeter stocks are enough to support next year, and sulfur is still pouring in due to the founding of Japan, in short, it is enough to arm an army of 100,000 people.

As for eating, there is no need to worry, Yinghua is no longer an ancient country, and there is no need to draw from the farmer's population to fight. Moreover, the main force of the army is fighting in Nanyang, which is close to the rice-producing area, and there is plenty of grain and convenient transportation. ..., Li Shi's only concern is whether the war will be further expanded, such as the British East India Company is unwilling to accept the defeat of Burma and pushes the British Royal Government to intervene, in that case, the Anglo-Chinese Navy, and even the Anglo-Chinese country, will face more difficult challenges.

After the State Council, Li Shi went non-stop, and then went to inspect the Huangpu Shipyard and Dongguan Machinery, visited Huang Zhuo's team who was still researching high-pressure steam engines, and went to the Panyu recruit training camp to cheer up the recruits. And a similar itinerary has been lined up for the next few days, what he said to Xiao Sheng and Jia Hao is not empty words, Nanyang battlefield, he can't go to the front line in person, so he can only provide sufficient troops and materials for the generals, so that they can rest assured that they can fight.

Li was sweating, and the front-line soldiers were bleeding.

Off the coast of Burma, Hu Hanshan was immediately swordsmanlike, and with the courage of General Hu, he took his "Nujiang" flagship as the tip of the knife and rushed to the "multinational fleet" with more than 20 ships put together.

The multinational fleet, which was dominated by the armed merchant ships of the British East India Company, was firmly guarding the battle line, lined up as a long wall on the sea, pouring artillery fire on the seemingly chaotic Anglo-Chinese ship columns, and looking at their confident battle line, Hu Hanshan's deputy, Commodore Gonzalez, let out a low sigh that did not know whether it was pity or mockery.

The battle, later known as the "Battle of East Andamana", was almost a repetition of the Battle of Subic. Hu Hanshan's Western fleet consisted of only four cruisers and fourteen sea carp ships, while the British East India Company had four cruisers of nearly 1,000 tons, thirteen armed merchant ships ranging from 400 to 800 tons, and five armed merchant ships from the French and Dutch East India Companies.

Relying on their numerical superiority, the British, in their own naval tradition, set up a long line of battle against the "inferior" enemy rushing up from the south.

But the problem was that there were no battleships on the British side at all, and the four Anglo-Chinese cruisers, each with a displacement of 13,400 tons, were larger than the cruisers of the British, and they carried 32 guns of 30 pounds and four artifact "three-inch guns". Although the British cruisers had a large number of guns, the largest was only 24 pounds. And these details, the Britons did not know.

"the Britons!"

When the Nujiang was only half a mile away from the other side, Commodore Gonzalez changed his decadent appearance, shouted wildly, rushed to the bow of the ship, and personally operated a three-inch cannon to bombard. As a former Spanish naval officer, it was a great pleasure to be able to beat the Britons with his own hands, even if it was just a colonial company ship.

The Nu's three-inch artillery bombardment was only a signal, and the group of ships led by the four cruisers slammed into the British's battle line like fierce assault horses, spitting flames from both sides of the hull, and the defenders were invincible.

The Britons were defeated, badly defeated. The 30-pound guns of the Anglo-Chinese cruisers were so powerful that the British cruisers who dared to bomb could not withstand a few rounds at all. However, whether fighting for the East India Company or for the Kingdom, the Britons were unwilling to lose face at sea, and rarely fled or surrendered, showing their will to fight to the death.

After all, the will cannot be eaten, the four British cruisers sank, one became an unmanned empty ship, and those clumsy and thin-skinned armed merchant ships rushed to embrace the bottom of the sea, and the Anglo-Chinese sea carp frigates developed a set of tactics, they first used two-inch guns to make holes, and then used twelve-pound guns to smash holes, smashing a large area.

The fierce battle lasted nearly four hours, and the commander of the British formation, Major Howard, who should be said to be the third commander in a row in this battle, finally admitted the reality of defeat, and retreated north in panic with two seriously wounded cruisers and several armed merchant ships that were still running, while the French and the Dutch had fled two hours earlier.

Because the sea area ahead was unfamiliar, and his own damage was not small, Hu Hanshan gave up the pursuit, and this naval battle came to an end. On the Anglo-Chinese side, two sea carp ships were sunk, one cruiser and four sea carp ships were seriously damaged, and more than 300 people were killed and wounded. On the British side, seven ships were sunk, two were captured, and 1,200 men were killed or wounded.

After the war, Xiao Sheng also criticized Hu Hanshan, if he had an artillery advantage, he did not give full play to his artillery advantage, and fought against the battle line, why did he have to learn from the Subic naval battle, rushing up to fight with bayonets with the attitude of a weakling?

"This is not the posture of the weak, this is to let the Britons know that we don't take them seriously, they are the weak."

Hu Hanshan said unashamedly, for the sake of winning the naval battle, and the Britons did seem to be frightened, there was still a fleet on the Bengal side that had no movement, and no ships entered the Burmese waters again, so Xiao Sheng let Hu Hanshan go.

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