The tea king has lived aggrievedly under the feet of the Filipinos for decades, so he has developed the habit of being cautious, for fear that he will offend people if he is not careful, which is very similar to Chen Jingui, but Chen Jingui speaks very quickly, while the tea king speaks with a lot of words.

Liu Daming dislikes this kind of timid and fearful person the most, and when he saw him half-talking, his heart suddenly became angry, he slapped the table fiercely, and said angrily: "Lao Wang, it's not the Filipinos who are in power now, it's us Chinese, what else do you have to be afraid of?" If you have something to say, just say it! ”

The tea king was startled, and even made amends, so he said: "I lived in Guangdong in my early years, and there was a civil uprising in our village, and the common people took hoes and shovels to smash the county master's yamen, killed the county lord's family, opened the granary, and robbed the grain inside......

Lin Fei frowned when he heard this, thinking to himself what Lao Wang was doing with this? What the hell is he going to say? Lin Fei wondered in his heart and didn't speak, Liu Daming slapped the table again, and said angrily: "Lao Wang, what are you doing with all this?" ”

The tea king said: "I want to say that the people are terrible, eh, it's worse than a big flood." ”

Liu Daming said angrily: "What does this have to do with us? ”

The Tea King said: "Just now the city lord also said that our agricultural population is 140,000, and the industrial population is 40,000, and every three peasants have to feed a craftsman, and the burden on the peasants seems to be too heavy. ”

Only then did everyone understand what the Tea King meant, and they all frowned, Lin Fei nodded and said, "What Lao Wang said is right, this is indeed a problem." ”

Liu Daming asked, "Then how should we solve it?" ”

Lin Fei said: "There are two solutions, one is to improve agricultural technology so that each farmer can produce more food, and the other is to expand the territory and get more land and farmers. ”

Lin Fei is right, to improve agricultural technology, on the one hand, it is to produce chemical fertilizers, but there are no minerals for chemical fertilizer raw materials on the island, so it is impossible to produce chemical fertilizers, and on the other hand, it is to improve crop varieties and increase crop yields, but this technology is even higher, and the current Chinese Empire does not have these technologies at all, so it can only take the road of expanding its territory.

At this time, Guan Shanyue said: "City Lord, if you take the latter road, Mindanao is a good place to go, I have walked on Mindanao, there are a lot of minerals on the island, and there is fertile land, if we extend our influence to Mindanao, we will not worry about not having enough food to eat." ”

Lin Fei sighed and said: "Mindanao is indeed a good place to go, rich in all kinds of ores, and there is a very important point, that is, there is a large area of cotton cultivation in the western part of Mindanao, cotton is an important textile raw material, and the Spaniards let the local people grow cotton in large quantities in order to make a lot of profits. ”

"Cotton is also very important to us, because our propellant is nitrocellulose, cotton is the raw material of nitrocellulose, and there is not much cotton left from Taiwan before, and we need cotton from the island very much."

Guan Shanyue said: "Then let's send troops to attack Mindanao." ”

Lin Fei shook his head and said, "You may not know much about the situation on the island. ”

Guan Shanyue hurriedly asked, "What's the situation on the island?" ”

Lin Fei said: "There was originally the Sultanate of Majindanao on the island, but later this sultanate was annexed by the Spaniards, and the Spaniards immediately occupied the vast area of western and central Mindanao. ”

Liu Daming said loudly: "Touch it!" Who's afraid of whom! Back then, when we were on the island of Ibayat, we didn't have our own weapons, didn't we beat the Spanish army to the ground? ”

After Liu Daming finished speaking, he looked at Li Mingming, and sneered: "Your army shouldn't be afraid of the Spaniards, right?" ”

Li understood that Liu Daming said this, and he also felt that his face could not be hung up, and argued: "Who said that we are afraid of the Spaniards......"

Lin Fei cleared his throat, stopped the quarrel between the two, and then said: "Let's attack Mindanao, the biggest obstacle is not the army, but the navy!" ”

Li Mingming's face showed a burst of pride, Liu Daming couldn't hold it on his face, and said angrily: "Lao Lin, you are nonsense!" Our navy's warships can't sail to land, so what does attacking Mindanao have to do with the navy? ”

Lin Fei frowned and said, "The obstacle I'm talking about is not our navy, but the Spanish navy!" ”

Everyone was stunned and discussed: "Why is it still related to the Spanish Navy?" "Isn't the Spanish Navy all in Manila? What does it have to do with Mindanao? ”

Lin Fei explained: "Our industrial base is on Samar Island, and all the ammunition supplies must be sent from Samar Island, and Samar Island and Mindanao are separated by the sea, and a sea transportation line must be established for the transfer of materials, and the Spanish Navy is a mortal threat to our transportation line!" ”

"Mindanao is connected to the Visayas and Luzon by submarine telegraph lines, and as soon as we attack the Spaniards in Mindanao, Luzon will get the news, and then the Spanish Navy will be dispatched in a big way to assist in the war at sea. The current Spanish fleet has one protected cruiser, three unprotected cruisers, and five gunboats, which are more than enough to beat our transports. ”

"We have sacked the plantations on the islands of Ibayat, Batan, and Babuyan, plundered a lot of property, and killed a large number of Spaniards, who have long hated us to the core, and if they find us on Samar Island along the transport line, they will send a large number of troops to attack, and then our Chinese Empire will be in danger!"

After Lin Fei said these words, everyone was silent, and all of them showed a worried look, the current Chinese Empire is facing a dilemma, if the territory is not expanded, the peasants will be overwhelmed, once the people are provoked, the Chinese Empire will be in danger, if the territory is expanded, it will encounter the Spanish Navy, and the Chinese Empire will also be in danger at that time.

In the silence, Ling Xue's crisp and pleasant voice sounded: "City Lord, can't we build our own warships?" ”

"You can't build warships yet!" Before Lin Fei could speak, a gentle and soft voice sounded, and the speaker was none other than Chiyo Mika.

Ling Xue glanced at Chiyo Mika and said angrily, "What's not to do?" You don't know how you can't, how do you know you can't? ”

"Although I don't know technology, I know that I need a lot of raw materials to build warships, and these raw materials have to be purchased from mines and factories, and we have to print a lot of money to buy them......

Ling Xue hurriedly said: "Print money, print money, anyway, the printing press is in your hands, can't you print as much as you want?" ”

Chiyo Mika frowned and said: "Money can't be printed a lot, if it is printed too much, the money will be worthless, and then the people will feel that they have been deceived by us, and they will oppose us, which is much more terrible than the peasants' people!" ”

Ling Xue was about to say more, Lin Fei waved his hand and said: "Don't say it again, Chiyo Mika is right, our current economic strength does not allow us to build warships, not only does our economic strength not allow it, but there are also many immature places in technology." ”

Ling Xue's expression darkened, she lowered her head and stopped talking, Lin Fei continued: "There are a lot of things needed to build a battleship, if I say the same thing, I'm afraid I won't be able to finish it tomorrow, now I'll say the same thing first, the Ministry of Industry will build it, so that the thing is the slipway, and the construction of the battleship in the future needs to be carried out on the slipway." ”

Ling Xue nodded, took out a pen and wrote down Lin Fei's words in a small notebook, Lin Fei said: "Although we don't have a warship now, but the education of the navy can't be left out, I'd rather let people wait for warships than let warships wait for people, Lao Yu, you prepare for this matter, let's establish a naval officer school." ”

Yu Xier asked, "Then who teaches in the military academy?" ”

Lin Fei said: "It's still the original Zhiyuan ship, and everyone takes turns to teach." ”

Yu Xier nodded and agreed. Lin Fei saw that everyone's faces were full of worry, knowing that they were still worried about the affairs of the Spanish Navy, and suddenly Lin Fei came up with a solution, so he smiled at everyone: "Don't worry, everyone, I have already thought of a solution, as for what the solution is, please stay with the comrades of the Navy, and I will talk to you alone." ”

Everyone then walked out, only the navy was left in the room, everyone looked at Lin Fei, waiting for his solution, Lin Fei smiled leisurely, and said: "My way to deal with the Spaniards' attack is very simple, that is, to take the initiative and destroy their capital ship!" ”

Yu Xier was stunned for a moment and didn't speak, Liu Daming laughed and said, "How can we destroy their capital ship?" Is it to go to the station of the Spanish Navy in Manila Bay? ”

Liu Daming was obviously sarcastic, but Yu Xier didn't hear it, he said seriously: "It's absolutely impossible to go to Manila Bay, Spain once fought with the British, in order to defend against the British fleet, the defense of Manila Bay is very tight, to use a Chinese idiom to describe, that is, 'impregnable', we have this little strength now, and to go there is to find death!" ”

Lin Fei smiled: "Of course we can't go to Manila Bay, we're going to another place." ”

Liu Daming and Yu Xier asked in unison, "Where are we going?" ”

Lin Fei took out a map, pointed to it with his hand, and said, "Look here!" ”

Liu Daming and Yu Xier took a closer look and said in unison: "Hele Island? Why go there? ”

Lin Fei said with a smile: "It is December 15, 1894, and in a few days, the Spanish naval fleet will go to Hele Island to escort the army to fight with the local Muslims. ”

This book was first published from 17K Novel Network, the first time to see the genuine content! I734