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On February 14, the sixteenth year of Wucheng, Zheng Kezhang left Wuchang and went on patrol again. This time, he will first go east along the Yangtze River, inspect Jiujiang, Anqing, Taiping, and Zhenjiang in turn, and then go north along the canal to Yangzhou, Huai'an, Xuzhou, Jining, and other places to learn about the post-war recovery of Haixi and Shandong provinces. Subsequently, he will arrive in Tianjin to review the construction of Tanggu Port and Dagu Port, the construction of Tianjin New City and Tianjin Xinggong, and the management of Haihe River, Yongding River and North Canal; After leaving Tianjin, he will go straight to Chengde to receive the kings of Transkhalkha and Jebtsundamba Hutuktu; After receiving the Trans-Khalkhas, Zheng Kezhang will continue to tour Xuanfu, Datong, Taiyuan, and Pingyang in the west, and then cross the Yellow River from Yuncheng to Tongzhou and Xi'an; After meeting with the officials of the three western provinces, Zheng Kezhang will return to Xijing and Henan Prefecture, and then return to Wuchang via Zhengzhou, Xuchang, Xinyang, De'an, and Hanyang.

In view of the fact that the entire trip took at least half a year, Zheng Kezhang ordered the eighth son of the emperor, the prince of Baekje County, to supervise the country.

There was a lot of discussion about Zheng Kezang's arrangement for Zheng Anwen to override the princes and arrange for Zheng Anwen to supervise the country, but after the news of Zheng Anwen's imminent succession to the Korean throne spread, public opinion in the government and the opposition suddenly changed, and everyone from top to bottom believed that Zheng Anwen's imprisonment was only his first experience in ruling in Korea in the future, and it would not have any impact on the competition for the Chinese throne.

As soon as the turmoil caused by Zheng Anwen's imprisonment of the country had dissipated, a piece of news once again detonated the Chinese government and the opposition -- after inspecting the Taiping Iron Mine and the Taiping Iron Smelting Plant, Zheng Kezhang told the accompanying minister that he intended to reduce the Taiping Detention Mansion to an ordinary government and sell the shares of the Taiping Iron Smelting Farm to the people of China.

Taiping Iron Mine and Taiping Iron Smelting Yard were once the largest iron and steel production bases in China, with a daily output of 400,000 catties of iron and 150,000 catties of crude steel. Although the Royal Dongguan Steel Mill in Huizhou, Guangdong, which uses Qiongzhou Shilu Iron Mine, Vietnam Shixi Iron Mine, Guangnan Nanyang Coal Mine, and Chongqing Manganese Mine in Gaoping Prefecture, Annan, to produce has reached an annual output of 22,000 (summer) tons, officially exceeding the production capacity of Taiping Iron Mine and Taiping Iron Farm, the profits and taxes provided by Taiping Iron Mine and Taiping Iron Mine have greatly increased.

This seems incredible, but the reason is also very simple - Xia Jun has completely switched to high-manganese steel products produced by the Royal Dongguan Steel Yard, and the steel products of the Taiping Iron and Steel Yard are no longer used for military supplies and can be sold to the private sector in an all-round way.

Steel has always been a scarce commodity, so the benefits of large-scale sales of steel to the private sector are geometric, and the profits and taxes brought by it are naturally well known to the government and the opposition. The Ministry of Planning and the Ministry of War naturally opposed the sale of the Taiping Iron Mine and the Taiping Iron Smelting Plant, but Zheng Kezhang knew that the disadvantages of the government-run enterprises were difficult to eliminate, so he was stubborn. Under the circumstance that the holy will has been decided, the planning department and the military department have no choice but to obey their orders, but this gives the local and civil opportunities to do so.

In order to compete for the Taiping Mansion, the three provinces of Jiangnan, Jianghuai, and western Zhejiang immediately launched public relations, and although the three provinces in Wuchang were unable to directly establish relations with the cabinet ministers, the ministers of various ministries, and the ministers of the yamen, they also tried their best to lobby the squire, the assistant ministers, and even the officials at all levels, such as the ministers of the various divisions, the members of the foreign department, and the cabinet secretaries, who might have an influence on the planning. And the merchants who made a lot of money in the spin-off of Sihai and Tonghai Money Village also asked around when the imperial court would officially sell the shares of Taiping Iron Farm.

Just when all kinds of people and other immortals crossed the sea to show their magical powers, Zheng Kezang, who arrived in Yangzhou, ordered the military department to adjust the existing town army system. According to Zheng Kezang's will, the Ministry of War issued an order on the first day of March of that year, stipulating that in the future, the general and deputy general troops of all provinces would no longer be directly under the jurisdiction of the garrison units at the division level; The garrisons in the province garrison the prefectures and prefectures with regiments as units, and set up independent brigades and regiments in important prefectures that can be used for emergencies.

Taking Zhongzhou as an example, the eight prefectures of the province have always been subordinate to the prefecture, and the original garrison division had a strength of 11,000 troops, but after the new system, a total of nine garrison regiments were placed, and one regiment of the middle base, one regiment of the baggage, one regiment of the cavalry, one regiment of the artillery corps, and two independent infantry regiments were directly controlled by the deputy commander-in-chief Yamen.

Taking Yunnan as an example, the 10 prefectures in this province originally garrisoned two divisions with a strength of 22,000 troops, but now in addition to the 10 town corps, there is a second garrison regiment that can be supplied in important positions such as Dali and Zhenyuan, and in Yunnan Prefecture, the provincial capital, there is one regiment each of the middle base, one regiment of the baggage army, and one regiment of the cavalry army, and two brigades directly under the provincial capital, with a total strength of only more than 16,000 people.

Based on the current 22 deputy general troops in the country, each deputy general army department will be reduced by 1,000 people, which will save the strength of two divisions; Similarly, the 11 general corps units in the country can be reduced by an average of 5,000 to 6,000 troops, and the strength of about five divisions can be reduced. However, the downsizing of troops was not abolished -- the military headquarters added one division to each of the two subordinate prefectures and the three subordinate subordinate districts of the three deputy prefectures, and the remaining two divisions were to be used to strengthen the forces directly controlled by the central centers around Wuchang.

In addition, based on Kuching's experience in using cavalry in Mobei, the Huaxia Military Department also reduced the establishment of the existing cavalry and cavalry divisions from the original three brigades and nine regiments to two brigades and four regiments, while the regiments of the middle base, baggage, armored cavalry, and artillery corps and independent ranger posts directly under the division remained unchanged. In this way, the strength of the cavalry division and the cavalry division will be reduced to 6,000 men, or as a way to balance the military expenditure between the cavalry, cavalry and infantry armies and make more efficient use of cavalry units.

In addition, after the bandits in Haixi and Shandong were pacified, the two divisions originally used to suppress bandits were dismantled one after another, and in the next few years, the Xia Army's field troops will temporarily retain 430,000 people, including 24 infantry divisions, 12 cavalry divisions, 12 cavalry divisions, 18 independent heavy artillery regiments directly under the Privy Council, and 8 siege artillery regiments directly under the Privy Council, and the remaining 400,000 people will all be converted into local town troops in the true sense.

However, in order to prevent the rapid weakening of the combat strength of the town army after localization, the Huaxia Military Department immediately formulated a new system for moving towns.

The new version of the town relocation system is divided into three levels: the transfer of towns within the province, the transfer of towns within the country, and the transfer of towns between the town army and the field army.

According to the provisions of the town relocation system: every two years, the garrison in the province must be replaced, and at the same time, the original garrison regiment and the mobile regiment and mobile brigade shall be rotated; Also every two years, the garrisons of the provinces exchanged the strength of a number of regiments; At the same time as the major change of defense in the provinces, the War Department and the Privy Council will also evaluate each field division, and select a regiment with the worst evaluation among the divisions to exchange with the provincial garrisons. In this way, it may be possible to ensure the balance and hierarchical control of the overall combat strength of the Xia army.

Just when there was a storm in China about the reorganization of the army, the division of districts, and the sale of the Taiping Iron Yard, Xia Lu finally reached an agreement in the negotiations at Lingyamen. Speaking of which, this was not only the deterrent of dozens of cruisers of the Xia army around Lingyamen, but also the help of the French - at the moment when the Xia-Dutch War was about to touch, the Portuguese, who knew the strength of the Xia army, were afraid of being burned, so that the Xia army could further drive the Portuguese away from Southeast Asia and India after defeating the Dutch; The French led the Chinese mission to Europe and frustrated the Portuguese's attempt to ban the Chinese from entering their colonial trading points. Under the threat of losing the whole of the East, the Portuguese had to make concessions, and of course the Chinese side also made the gestures they deserved.

On March 11 of the 16th year of Wucheng in China (1714 in the Western calendar), Xia and Portugal formally signed the Treaty of Lingyamen.

The treaty stipulates that China will set up a national embassy in Goa and a consulate in Penghu, and the two countries will formally establish equal diplomatic relations; The Chinese side agreed that the Portuguese would bring harmless goods into Penghu and Mud after being inspected, while the Portuguese side agreed that the Chinese merchant ships would carry harmless goods into Azhen, Timor, Myrapur, Goa, Diu, Baziam, Dammam and various Portuguese ports in Persia, Arabia and Africa for trade; Huaxia recognized Portugal's present Timor, Azhen, and Indian, Persian, Arab, and African territories, and promised not to infringe upon them; Portugal recognized the inviolability of China's territorial and suzerainty over Southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific; Huaxia agreed to restore the Diocese of Macao, but the priests of the Diocese of Macao were not allowed to violate the laws of China when proselytizing, and were not allowed to go deep into the areas that were forbidden to China to preach. Portugal agreed to maintain absolute neutrality in the event of a future conflict between China and the European countries in India and the East Indies??????

The Portuguese regained access to trade in the East, which helped to alleviate their poor financial situation at home; Destroying the possibility of a Portuguese-Dutch alliance and allowing the Portuguese to remain neutral in the future Anglo-Xia conflict was also a strategy for the Chinese, who had too many enemies. At this time, with the completion of the assembly of the Xia army in the Sulu and Lingyamen areas, the Xiahe war has entered the countdown at the touch of a button.

Naturally, the Dutch United East India Company did not expect to be so fast, and the Governor of Batavia and the Council, who were still waiting for reinforcements from Europe, could only order to gather all the forces available to fight it. To this end, the Dutch cobbled together about 40 warships with 40 to 70 guns and about 60 armed merchant ships to form two fleets in Java and the Spice Islands, in an attempt to block a possible attack by the Xia army, and at the same time, the Dutch also recruited more than 30,000 indigenous soldiers to garrison the fortresses of Ambon, Maluku Islands, Banda Islands, Java Main Island, South Sulawesi and other places together with the existing more than 6,000 Dutch troops. It was only in view of the possible consequences of the killing of Chinese expatriates that the overreacted commentators did not hastily raise their butcher's knives against the immigrants everywhere.

In addition to the urgent mobilization of troops, in order to delay the army, the Dutch also pretended to send envoys to Lingyamen. Attempts were made to give up the whole of Sri Lanka as a bait to induce the Xia army to suspend military operations, so as to give the United East India Company more time to react.

Naturally, the Chinese side was unmoved. On March 17 of that year, Li Long, the envoy of the Governor of Yamen, signed a secret agreement with the Sultan of Goa (Makassar) to help the Sultan of Goa drive out the Dutch colonists in his territory. In the agreement, the Sultan of Goa promised that after regaining independence, he would formally sign a protection treaty with Huaxia, become a protectorate under Huaxia, and give Huaxia the exclusive right to trade with Goa. Huaxia pledged to exchange rice, silk, cotton, iron, and other goods for pepper from Goa, and bought the entire Minahasa Peninsula north of Mount Kirolaraki outside the Goa Sultan's sphere of influence for 5,000 fine-iron spears, 2,000 refined machetes, 500 flint rifles, 10 six-point cannons, and 500 barrels of gunpowder.

After selling what was not their own, the Makassar people quickly completed their armament and launched an attack on various Dutch strongholds, although they could not conquer it for a while due to the Dutch strengthening the garrison in various places, but when the news reached Batavia, the United East India Company, which was held back by the Chinese, was unable to do anything and had to sit back and watch the situation deteriorate.

At the same time that the Sultans of Palembang were fighting for independence from the people of Makassar, the Sultan of Palembang, with the support of the Chinese, also waged war against the small kingdoms of Minangkapao, which were vassals of the Dutch, and the war quickly spread throughout South Sumatra, and led to the involvement of the Sultanates such as Aceh and Jampe, and the rule that the Dutch had taken nearly 50 years to establish in Sumatra showed signs of collapse.

On the island of Java, the remnants of the Sultanate of Banten and Mataram began to stir up, whether or not their armed struggle was successful, but it created an embattled environment for the United Dutch East India Company. The Dutch had no choice but to ignore the imminent threat of China and mobilize their limited forces to fight the fire on all sides??????