In the early morning of 16 October, Lu Dayou led the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the Second Army and Li Changshun's Independent Artillery Brigade to Hangzhou after a brief swearing-in ceremony.

It was not until 25 October that Wang Feng led the Second Division of the First Army, two divisions of the Fourth Army, one division of the Third Army, 400 special combat personnel, and part of the women's special combat army, to the south along the old road of Lu Dayoubu, and on the same day, the East China Sea Fleet, headed by General Li Guangbi, led three frigates, 100 armed merchant ships, and 20 small gunboats out of Xiangshan Harbor to the south.

The 30 or so small steamers originally captured from the British, and the red single boats in Chen Cun were renovated and equipped with engines, and all of them were used as inland river fleets, of which two-thirds were deployed in conjunction with some mine-laying ships and minesweepers to patrol the Yangtze River in Anqing, Nanjing, and Baoshan, and the other third were deployed in Bengbu and Huai'an to patrol the Huai River.

The 20 gunboats were launched less than half a year ago, and they were small ships developed in cooperation with France and the United States, with a wooden hull structure, which did not have the capability of ocean-going warfare, and could only be used for coastal and river defense, with a length of about 50 meters, a displacement of 630 tons, and two naval guns modified from 122 mm cannons and four 75 small mountain guns.

In addition to cooperating with the land forces and undertaking the heavy responsibility of transporting supplies, the East China Sea Fleet's other goal was to capture Macao and wait for an opportunity to seize Hong Kong.

Macau is a Portuguese colony, a small country with a big palm, and there is no trade, Wang Feng does not like him at all, and occupies it. He came to protest, just listen. And Hong Kong is a problem that Wang Feng focuses on solving, if it is found that Ye Mingchen has the assistance of the British army. He will not hesitate to order the capture of Hong Kong, and if not, it will also create some friction as a pretext for occupying Hong Kong.

The long line marched south, although the heavy artillery was handed over to the two vanguard troops, but it was also extremely spectacular to look at, Su Sanniang, who was riding a horse beside Wang Feng, didn't seem to be uncomfortable, and her beautiful eyes shone brightly: "This army is very different from two years ago, I can't tell you the specifics." But I feel that there has been a qualitative change, and since our Fourth Army became an army, it has only practiced with the Green Battalion, Water Bandits, Salt Lords, etc., and has not fought a decent battle. ”

"Hmm!" Tang Caifang, commander of the Second Division of the Fourth Army, nodded fiercely!

The Fourth Army was different from the other Ten Armies. It is a mix of male and female soldiers to fight, although there are many female soldiers in the army, but they all come out of the bloody storm, and their combat effectiveness is definitely not weak!

"Good season. It is the dry season in South China, and we must take down Liangguang before the arrival of the spring rainy season next year! Wang Feng smiled.

Ding Daquan also felt something: "Two years ago, Chen Alin and I and my brothers were sent by the commander-in-chief to Shunde on a mission. It was raining all the way and sneaking around. How did you think that you could go down to Lingnan again with great fanfare today? This is the change brought about by strength! ”

Su Sanniang couldn't help but think about what it would be like now if Wang Feng hadn't been born. Then he smiled dumbly!

Why do you want to do so much, without Wang Feng, his own army has been wiped out in the Linqing Dynasty, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will probably fall into a long-term civil war.

Secretly shook his head, "Huh? Su Sanniang noticed that the guns carried by several special team members were obviously different from the guns used in her army, and she couldn't help but be surprised: "Wang Feng, what kind of gun is that?" ”

Yang Shuijiao rushed to say: "Sister Sanniang, this is my army's secret weapon, the 54-style rifle, currently only equipped with a special combat team, it can connect five bullets at a time, come, I will teach you to use it." ”

Wang Feng gave a soldier a look, and the soldier took down the gun knowingly, then took a yellow cancan bullet from the armed belt, and handed it to Yang Shuijiao.

"Sister Sanniang, it's convenient for such a bullet, the bullet case and the bullet are one, but the price is too great, it is made of copper, a bullet is about equivalent to a pound of rice, you see, the bullet is loaded like this, and then the gun is tied and closed, I will shoot first, and then hit the dead branch!" Yang Shuijiao raised her gun in a manner and aimed at a dead branch about half an inch thick about 600 meters away, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang!" The muzzle of the gun flashed, half of the shell popped out, and almost at the same time, the dead branch exploded from the roots!

"So powerful? I'll give it a try! Su Sanniangfeng snatched the 54-style rifle and released more than a dozen guns in a row, which was secretly enjoyable!

Weighing the gun in her hand, Su Sanniang realized that more than a dozen catties of rice had been beaten by herself, and immediately said distressedly: "Wang Feng, this gun is good, but it is too expensive, now it is only equipped with 400 people, if the whole army uses it in the future, maybe you will have to kill millions, or even tens of millions of catties of rice in one battle!" ”

"Huh?" Wang Feng was stunned, and his strange gaze looked at Su Sanniang, Su Sanniang, who was looking directly, was uncomfortable, and her pretty face was covered with a hint of red, and she said unhappily: "What do you see?" You're getting less and less of treating me as a sister! ”

Su Sanniang is Chinese New Year's Eve three today, and it is in the modern era, when it is in its prime, and at such an age, if women do not have special means to maintain it, most of them can be classified into the category of frosted eggplant, but Su Sanniang is not among them.

Su Sanniang is still heroic, her chest is still straight, her waist is still slender, and her face is like a young woman in her twenties, but she is covered with a layer of charming style unique to mature women.

'Hey~~ Sister Sanniang, Sister Sanniang, when will you be able to open the shackles of your heart! Wang Feng reluctantly retracted his gaze, and said indifferently: "Sister Sanniang, as long as you can win the battle, money is not a problem, our Democratic Alliance Army lacks everything, that is, there is no shortage of money, you look at the small mountain artillery behind, I won't say the cost, only say that the shells, each round is equivalent to about twenty taels of silver, the British flagship General Li Guangbi that we captured, is definitely worth millions of taels of silver, and in the future, there will be more expensive weapons and equipment coming out one after another, in short, you don't have to worry, our Democratic Alliance Army is really not bad for money." ”

Wang Feng had the face of an upstart, Su Sanniang was angry, and he couldn't wait to kick it hard, but in the end he held back.

Wang Feng turned his head again and asked, "What is the total budget for this war against Guangdong?" ”

A logistics officer saluted: "Report to the commander-in-chief, a total of 26,520,000 taels of silver, and the maximum can be raised by 20%!" ”

"Sizzle~~" Su Sanniang gasped, so much silver? But think about it, the guns and bullets of more than 100,000 people are an absolute lot, and in comparison, the grain and grass that cost the most lives in the past operations only accounted for a small part.

Su Sanniang said again: "No matter how rich you are, but your background is shallow after all, you know, many things can not be bought with money, I estimate that you should have all your belongings, then you have to let the soldiers save some ammunition!" ”

"I don't need to!" Wang Feng waved his hand and said: "Sister Sanniang, what you said is good, but war is not only about consumption, but also about plundering, the ultimate goal of war is nothing more than to grab resources, in terms of thirteen lines, small and medium-sized merchants are not counted, only thirteen tooth merchants, how many assets do they have?" If defeated, these are all ours, compared to which what are the ammunition weapons? Moreover, a considerable part of the assets of the thirteen tooth merchants are abroad, and if we force them, it may become the fuse that triggers disputes, which gives us an excuse to start a foreign war.

There is a good saying, people are not rich without windfalls, horses are not fertile with night grass, if you want to grow your national strength in a short period of time, you can only wage wars and keep plundering, just like Britain, why can it become the world hegemon in a hundred years? The secret is to plunder! ”

Su Sanniang said angrily: "I'm not afraid that others will say that you are reckless and desecrated, and you will be named a tyrant by later generations." ”

Wang Feng beckoned: "Zhou Yanqi, you come." ”

"Hmm!" Zhou Yanqi nodded and said: "Master Sanniang, in ancient times, it was indeed a waste of money to start a war for no reason, but the times are developing, and it cannot be generalized, on the one hand, the ancient productive forces are relatively backward, even if a large number of mineral resources are obtained, it is difficult to exploit, and in today's world, mineral resources can be quickly transformed into wealth, so waging war does not have much impact on ordinary people, on the contrary, opening up territory can also enhance the people's pride and patriotism."

On the other hand, the large amount of land and population obtained by the war means an increase in the market and consumer groups for the national bourgeoisie, and they will not object, for example, the master once called a wealthy businessman from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to visit General Li Guangbi, guess how much money these rich businessmen donated? Sixteen million taels of silver!

Why they are willing to bleed is first of all inseparable from the prestige of the master and our army, and more importantly, this is equivalent to their investment, only our Democratic Alliance forces can build a strong naval fleet as soon as possible, in order to protect them from dumping goods into the vast overseas market, so it is very popular to wage war in modern times, of course, before achieving victory. ”

Su Sanniang was dumbfounded, at first glance, it was a pure fallacy, she was not like Zhou Yanqi who had received a systematic modern education, and she had never gone abroad to open her eyes, but after thinking about it carefully, it was not unreasonable, and she couldn't help but glared at Wang Feng fiercely: "You are a good apprentice of the teaching!" ”

Wang Feng smiled: "The young lady is not bad, Sister Sanniang, I didn't say you, at least you are much better than you in terms of knowledge, you have to work hard, when you go to Lingnan this time to return to the division, you can change your defense, take the Fourth Army to garrison Nanjing, and I will also give you modern scientific knowledge." ”

Su Sanniang's pretty face turned a little red, but she didn't object, because Wang Feng deliberately pointed out the word "change of guard", what he was afraid of was that the army had been stationed in one place for a long time, and it would be inextricably entangled with the interests of the local rich.

Wang Feng looked back, and said: "After the war, let Yanqi marry the young lady, by the way, and Amelia, marry them together." ”

Zhou Yanqi smirked and scratched her head, while Lin Youniang rolled her lips and glanced at Zhou Yanqi with a hint of shyness. (To be continued......)