On September 29, nearly 15,000 men of the 3rd Infantry Division, 14th Auxiliary Defense Division, and 17th Auxiliary Defense Division of the Chinese Army launched a fierce attack on Lu'an City, which was defended by nearly 60,000 Taiping troops.

After a morning of fierce fighting, the third division finally conquered the eastern wall of Lu'an, and then tore the turtle shell of Lu'an City.

On the same day, Chen Yucheng led the remaining more than 20,000 elites to break through from Xicheng, and at the same time left 20,000 or 30,000 people to continue to resist stubbornly in the city, delaying the pace of the Chinese army besieging the city.

The Chinese army was limited by the lack of troops and the war in the city was still tense, so it could not stop Chen Yucheng's escape.

But although Chen Yucheng ran away, Lu Ancheng won it.

With the capture of Lu'an City, and the previous Huoshan was also captured, this also means that the major cities in the western part of northern Anhui have fallen under the control of the Chinese army.

From the beginning of the march into Lu'an Mansion, the whole Lu'an campaign lasted for about two months, the Chinese army and the Taiping army fought many times, the royal army of the Chinese army killed about 400 people, wounded more than 600 people, more than 1,000 casualties in the battle, the other two auxiliary defense divisions in the cooperative battle were even more casualties, at least more than 2,000 people were killed in the battle, and more than 3,000 people were wounded.

These casualty figures do not include attrition due to disease, which last month continued with hundreds of casualties in the Third Division and at least 1,000 casualties in the Auxiliary Division.

The direct casualties and the deaths and injuries due to illness add up, that is to say, the third division has lost at least 2,000 people, and the auxiliary defense division has more than 6,000 or 7,000 people.

The total number of casualties is close to 10,000.

If it weren't for the Military Training Department, a large number of recruits would continue to replenish the Third Division. It is estimated that the third division would have to be disabled, if it were not for the fact that the Chinese army accepted a large number of prisoners of the Taiping army. As a result, the 14th and 17th Assistant Defense Divisions will be replenished at any time, and it is estimated that there will not be a few people left in these two auxiliary defense divisions.

Take the city of Lu'an. Shi Qingxuan didn't have time to rest for a few days before he received an order from the headquarters.

The high command ordered him to immediately lead his troops eastward to Sizhou, saying that according to intelligence reality, the Qing army in northern Jiangsu had increased on a large scale within a month, and it was very likely that northern Jiangsu would face a large-scale southward attack by the Qing army in the near future.

After receiving the order, Shi Qingxuan's main force immediately moved towards the northeast, but this time in addition to taking the third division, the troops of the auxiliary defense division that cooperated with the operation were all newly accepted prisoners, the newly organized 19th and 20th auxiliary defense divisions.

The 14th Auxiliary Defense Division under its original jurisdiction was left behind in the areas of Lu'an and Huoshan. The 17th Auxiliary Defense Division went south to reinforce Anqing.

In a series of battles in Lu'an Province, as usual, the Chinese army accepted a large number of prisoners, with a total number of more than 30,000 people, and the treatment of these prisoners was carried out in the usual way, first selecting young and strong people to supplement the existing auxiliary defense divisions, and then forming a separate auxiliary defense division with the extra prisoners.

Of the more than 30,000 people, most of the elite were added to the 14th and 17th Auxiliary Defense Divisions, and these two troops suffered a lot of losses in the offensive of Huoshan and Lu'an City. The cumulative attrition has reached six or seven thousand, and the attrition is so large, why can these two auxiliary defense divisions in the final Lu'an general offensive station still maintain full strength?

It's because of the replenishment of a large number of captives!

After taking Lu'an City, the two assistant defense divisions were supplemented first. Then, the extra 10,000 people were newly reorganized into the 19th and 20th Auxiliary Defense Divisions.

The establishment of the 20th Auxiliary Defense Division also made the scale of the Chinese Army's auxiliary defense divisions break through to as many as 20, and the total number of 20 auxiliary defense divisions is added. The total number of troops is about 90,000, nearly double the current total of more than 50,000 in the Royal Army.

Purely quantitatively. The auxiliary defense division has become the main component of the Chinese army!

However, a large number of troops does not mean that the combat effectiveness is strong, although the number of auxiliary defense divisions is large. However, the combat effectiveness is weak, and the main combat strength of the Chinese army is still the small number of the Royal Army.

When Shi Qingxuan led the Third Division and other troops to northern Jiangsu, the newly appointed governor of Anhui, Guo Longyun, also arrived in Wuhu and began to fully preside over the civil affairs of Anhui Province.

Although the Chinese Empire followed the example of the former Qing Dynasty and the former Ming Dynasty established the post of governor, the governor of the Chinese Empire was not the same as the governor of the former Qing Dynasty and the former Ming Dynasty, because it did not have the power to govern military affairs and finance, but only administrative power.

In terms of power, it is actually similar to the previous political envoys!

This is mainly because the distinction between military power and administrative power and financial power within the empire is very obvious, and the military power, needless to say, has always been controlled by Lin Zhe himself, and all the armed forces are commanded by the Supreme Command.

In particular, the major power of tax collection is directly responsible for the financial departments, divisions and sections set up by the Ministry of Finance in various localities, and these financial institutions are also a member of the local government, under the dual leadership of the local government and the Ministry of Finance.

At the same time, the Chinese Empire did not set up auxiliary military forces such as militias in various localities, only police institutions such as patrols, so the governors did not have the power to govern local military forces.

In order to prevent the local governor from becoming bigger, Lin Zhe would not make the same mistake as the former Qing Dynasty, and military power and financial power must not be decentralized.

After Guo Longyun took office as governor of Anhui, the first and most important task was to restore the livelihood of the people in southern and northern Anhui, which had been traumatized by the war, to provide relief to refugees and restore agricultural production.

It is not such an easy task to keep tens of millions of people in a province short of food to survive.

Comparatively speaking, Bi Xuanxi, the governor of Taiping Province, who had not been in office for a long time, was much more relaxed, and although Taiping Province was also a newly occupied area, the most difficult months had passed.

Although the former governor of Taiping Province was a former Qing official, he still had the ability to do things, and the relief work in the first few months was quite effective, agricultural production has resumed as before, and with the arrival of the autumn harvest, the people's livelihood in the vast Taiping Province area can be initially stabilized.

Therefore, Bi Xuanxi's focus is on the mining affairs of Dangtu!

In order to develop the iron ore in Dangtu County, the empire specially approved the establishment of the Jiangnan Mining Company, which was established by the Finance Department of the Palace Affairs Department, which was a standard royal industry, and the subsequent development of heavy industries such as iron ore development and steelmaking in Dangtu was also based on the Jiangnan Mining Company.

However, Bi Xuanxi did not expect to be able to undertake the heavy industry development plan of Dangtu County by relying on the Jiangnan Mining Company, so after he took office as the prefect of Taiping Prefecture, he formulated to establish a heavy industry base in Dangtu that integrates 'iron ore, steelmaking, ironmaking, and machinery manufacturing'.

Following the example of the Shanghai Business Zone, a plan was drawn up for the establishment of the 'Dangtu Industrial Zone' and submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for approval.

After Lin Zhe saw this report, he thought it was very interesting, this Bi Xuanxi's thinking was still relatively broad, and he actually wanted to build an industrial zone, but the requirements put forward in this industrial zone were not small, in addition to the ordinary requirements, he also asked to add Dangtu to the treaty port and allow direct trade with foreign businessmen.

For this point, Lin Zhe didn't think too much about it and vetoed it directly!

This is not because Lin Zhe is xenophobic or dissatisfied with foreigners, but because Dangtu is located in the hinterland of the interior, along the Yangtze River, if these foreigners are allowed to go freely, it is very easy for China to lose the right of passage on inland rivers for China, which is currently weak, and Lin Zhe does not want to see foreigners' warships and merchant ships entering and leaving the Yangtze River without obstacles.

Although Lin Zhe supported open trade and cooperated happily with the British, Americans and French, it did not mean that he was willing to see foreign warships walking unscrupulously throughout the Yangtze River.

However, although he vetoed the conditions for direct trade between Dangtu and foreign countries, he still approved the industrial zone plan provided by Bixuanxi.

And the concession of the industrial zone tax incentives, all the enterprises living in the business zone, the first year of tax exemption, the second four and a half years of tax, a total of five years of preferential tax period, at the same time approved the Ministry of Finance, requiring the Ministry of Finance to appropriately allocate funds for the development of the Dangtu Industrial Zone.

When the Tu Industrial Zone is not like the original business zone, it can rely on the early stage of commercial tax and real estate transaction tax to meet the demand for sustainable development, because the industrial zone cannot have a large number of people and wealthy people to come to the final decision, the demand for real estate is very small, and the construction period of heavy industry is relatively field, and it is difficult for the industrial zone to receive enough tax to maintain development in the early stage.

However, if the industrial zone wants to attract enterprises to settle in, it needs to do its own work, including leveling the land, including the construction of wharves, bridges, roads, water supply and other basic public facilities.

After all, now the businessmen in the Jiangnan area want to invest in the construction of factories, the first area is the business district of Shanghai, where there is a mature public setting, convenient transportation by sea and river, whether it is import and export or transportation to other parts of the country is very convenient.

There are also a large number of proletarian workers waiting to be hired, and it is extremely easy to recruit workers.

In addition to these hardware advantages, the unique political environment of the business zone also ensures its attractiveness to businessmen, with industry and commerce as the core pillar of the business zone has a sound system of laws and regulations, and there are laws to follow when opening factories and running enterprises, and there will be no messy officials to interfere with.

At the same time, since this is one of the treaty ports, the British, French, etc., have great interests in this place, and they will not sit idly by and watch any unnecessary disturbances in the trade area affect their interests.

In order to compete with the Shanghai Business Zone, which has advantages in all aspects, it is not difficult to attract capital to invest and set up factories in the Dangtu Industrial Zone.

However, Dangtu also has its own advantages, that is, it has the largest iron ore mine in southeast China, and Lin Zhe also gave tax incentives to Dangtu Industrial Zone, you must know that the commercial tax of the Chinese Empire is relatively heavy, in addition to the tax of the circulation link, the most important thing for manufacturers is the business tax.

And this business tax is very heavy, depending on the industry, generally between 5% and 20% of sales.

The five-year tax exemption is enough to attract some businessmen to take the plunge and invest. (To be continued......)