A heavy rain extinguished Zhou Fu's plan to go to Yanzhou to inspect the pharmaceutical factory. The crisis of the Yellow River pointed out by Long Qian made Zhou Fu worried, a section of the river in Wuding Mansion was in disrepair, and it had already been reported to the province, and if it broke again this year, it would be difficult to explain it in all aspects. Therefore, after the rain stopped on the second day, Zhou Fu immediately returned to Jinan with his governor's guard and the new carriage given to him by the vehicle factory.

Before leaving, he and Long Qian once again secretly discussed the personnel arrangements of Yizhou, and together with the Ministry of Officials' writing about Tang Shaoyi, he appointed Wu Yong as the prefect of Yizhou. Because Long Qian said that he would go to Yanzhou to inspect a routine exercise organized by the second standard, he could say hello to Zhang Lianfen and Wu Yong first. According to the usual practice, the imperial court would greet the governor when officials at the prefect level were transferred, and he estimated that there would be no problem with this arrangement.

Lu Nan's situation is very good, he is simply politically connected. Nowadays, the other state capitals in Shandong are very envious of the industrial construction of the two prefectures in southern Shandong, and in terms of taxation, the commercial tax is more than a little bit stronger than the agricultural tax. No matter what dynasty or any level of government, the more taxes in the hands of the government, the better life will be.

Zhou Fu has already noticed the balance of the province's economy. Due to the rise of Lunan economy, the population began to flow towards Lunan. Even the capital city of Jinan has seen such a situation, which must be taken seriously. Ding Weiji repeatedly asked Zhou Fu to intervene in the industrial layout of Xia Lunan and build some factories in Jinan. Zhou Fu also recognized the correct factors, after all, Lunan's traffic problems hindered the radiation expansion of its economy, so through formal channels and private occasions, he greeted Long Qian, the real decision-maker of Lunan's economy, and Long Qian gave Zhou Fu a lot of face. The cigarette factory owned by ZTE has been placed in Jinan, which is a matter of mutual benefit, but it still struggles to convince Yanzhou. The profit of tobacco is amazing, the quality of the tobacco produced locally is not comparable to that of Lianghu and Yungui, and in the future to build a cigarette factory with advanced technology, if you order tobacco from Yunnan and Guizhou, the cost of taking the sea route to Qingdao and then transferring to Jinan by land is not higher than that of transferring the Grand Canal from the sea to Yanzhou, and it is also safe. This is only a consideration of raw materials, and a deeper consideration is to use the economy to open the way and radiate the influence of Lunan to the whole province. It is necessary to pave the way for the Mengshan Army to take over the province. Now. The cigarette factory has been basically built after the introduction of German equipment and technology, and it can be put into production in the autumn, and the paper used is provided by Yanzhou Paper Mill, but the added spices still need to be purchased from Germany. And also because the Germans got a slice of the pie. Therefore, the construction of the cigarette factory and the procurement and transportation of raw materials are very smooth. This time Zhou Fu came to Lunan. It was also agreed with Huayuan Company to set up a match factory in Jinan. Specific matters need to be further discussed by both sides. So when Zhou Fu returned to Jinan, Zhou Xuexi, as the president of Huayuan Industrial Group, also went to Jinan with his father.

Zhou Fu greatly appreciated Long Qian's suggestion to dispatch the right flank of the Weisheng Army to fight the flood. Of course, the army's ability to resist floods is stronger than that of the people. Since Yuan Shikai's Wuwei Right Army, the main force of the right army was transferred north to Gyeonggi. The strongest military strength in Shandong Province is the right wing of the Weisheng Army. As the governor of Shandong, Feng Guozhang only had a standing army of 3,000 under his command, and its core was a battalion of Cao Kun's department left by Yuan Shikai, that is, the Ma Jianxun department originally stationed in Yanzhou. Due to the difficulty of military spending, the imperial court could not take care of the Gyeonggi garrison alone, where was the silver allocated to Shandong? However, Shandong Province still struggles to bear its daily military expenditure, and has no money to buy weapons for it. Feng Guozhang was very dissatisfied with Yuan Shikai for this - he felt that Yuan Shikai seemed to have abandoned him.

Feng Guozhang was just a mere admiral - the nominal commander of the Shandong Provincial Military Region, with no financial power, so naturally he could not be compared with Yuan Shikai, who was in charge of Shandong and had the imperial court's support. It is impossible for Zhou Fu to support himself desperately, and Zhou Fu can't ignore the half-pulled project left by Yuan Shikai's expansion of Jinan City, and Zhou Fu thinks that Yuan Shikai's idea of expanding the provincial capital is correct, and naturally uses all his financial resources for the economy, and he doesn't care about investing in armaments.

Zhou Fu was more concerned about the construction of industry than with reckless military force. He followed Li Hongzhang to run foreign affairs, which can be regarded as realizing the significance of industry, without a strong industrial foundation, where can a strong army be built? Zhou Fu focused his main attention on the establishment of industry, and the establishment of industry with Lunan as the core, naturally neglected the construction of the army. Zhou Fu rarely asked about the situation of Long Qian's troops, but only gave 500,000 silver every year. During this inspection, seeing the situation in Huayuan, he even wanted to overturn the agreement of 500,000 yuan. That day, I talked to Long Qian about this at the State Guest House, and Long Qian said that it would be better to support it for another year or two. Now Lunan has invested every piece of money in industrial construction, and those enterprises that are under construction have to invest a lot. It will take time for the completed enterprises to become fully profitable. Zhou Fu promised to support it for another year, and from next year, all the military expenses of the right wing of the Weisheng Army will be taken from the two prefectures of Lunan Province, and the province will not allocate a penny of silver......

Press Zhou Fu and his son to return to Jinan. After Long Qian sent Zhou Fu away, he didn't even return home and took people to Yanzhou. The new drugs of Zhongxing Pharmaceutical Factory are about to go offline is not what Long Qian is most concerned about, the promotion of new drugs still needs a process, the people's understanding of Western medicine is not so in place, and the scheduled price reported by the pharmaceutical factory is also high.

Long Qian's visit to Yanzhou this time was mainly to identify a weapon. A sample of the first product produced by the first pure military factory in a chemical plant, the wooden-handled grenade, was also available, which he had been looking forward to as a single weapon, and according to Situ Jun, the European armies, at least the Germans, had not yet been equipped with such a simple technique and low cost. All the battles after the birth of the Mengshan Army were completed by rifles and bayonets, and the firepower configuration was seriously lacking, but now there are machine guns and artillery, but all the shells and bullets need to be purchased, and the birth of the grenade will become the first powerful and completely self-made individual weapon of the Mengshan Army, which is of great significance.

In the process of developing the grenade, the problem of a weak industrial base was greatly exposed. The reason why the first arsenal of the Mengshan Army was placed in Yanzhou was because the explosives factory was located in Zhongxing Company, and because there was a small machinery processing factory serving coal mines in Yixian County. The manufacturing process of the grenade is not complicated, and it is mainly composed of three parts: the projectile body, explosives, and the fuse. The use of casting methods to build the projectile body has long been completed, but the effect is not good. The main thing is that the degree of fragmentation of the projectile is not ideal. The current technology has not yet achieved the level of prefabricated fragments, but the manufacture of detonators was only realized after the introduction of Swiss patents, and many materials still need to be purchased or even imported, which is the most laborious part of grenade manufacturing. But now I've finally overcome them one by one...... The problem was that the cost was too high - a wooden-handled grenade cost as much as 2.3 silver dollars, which was unacceptable to Long Qian...... This time I went to Yanzhou, just to arrange a matter of reducing costs, of course, with the increase in production, the cost will naturally decrease. Long Qian's goal was to drop below half a silver dollar, which was the highest price. And higher. The Mengshan army can't afford it.

In addition, Long Qian will also observe the battalion-level live confrontation exercise between the two infantry targets. The personnel concerned with the first standard and the instructors of the military academy with the battalion will be present. The exercise is scheduled to be held on June 12.

Over the past year, the troops' live-fire confrontation exercises have been greatly intensified. Almost once a month. The scale varies from company to battalion level. But the confrontation at the regimental (standard) level has not yet been held. The subjects of the exercise are also different. Field marches, construction, live firing to offensive and defensive confrontations. The intensity is getting stronger. The units participating in the exercise included units within the same standard, between two targets, and between units directly under the headquarters and two infantry targets. The units participating in the exercise were selected by the General Staff Office by means of random sampling, which was very random. According to comprehensive statistics, in the company-level confrontation, the first bid won six times, the second bid four times, and the guard battalion directly under it twice. In the battalion-level confrontation, the first bid won twice, and the second bid once. The direct team has not yet participated in the battalion-level confrontation, and they are more likely to be carried out with two infantry targets.

Since the results of the first bid overpowered the second bid, the second bid felt the pressure while not being convinced. Because the results of the exercises are linked to the promotion of officers, and each winning unit is rewarded, and the material reward is secondary, the loss of honor is serious. Therefore, the second standard held his breath and was very concerned about this battalion-level confrontation approved by the headquarters.

Long Qian had ordered Ning Shijun to organize a regimental confrontation exercise, the topic of which was a complete infantry standard attack with two battalions (with small artillery) to build a complete position. The time has been preliminarily determined in the third quarter, whether the first target will act as an offensive force or the second standard, Long Qian has not yet been finalized. Confrontation exercises over the past year have shown that the first target has an advantage in the offensive of the detachment, but the defensive capability of the second target is stronger than that of the first target.

As the number and intensity of the drills increased, the cost of silver skyrocketed. In the second year after the Mengshan Army took over the two states, the exercise cost was more than twice as much as in the first year. Casualties also increased during the exercise, with the artillery battalion shooting three shells into the offensive skirmish line of the 1st Lushan Biao Battalion during the spring exercise, resulting in two dead and three wounded. provoked the wrath of the infantry artillerymen. However, the results of the verification showed that the mistakes of the artillery also lay in the proficiency of the operation. Long Qian suppressed the punishment of artillery, a price that must be borne by forging a strong army, and almost every modern army has paid a similar price.

The addition of artillery greatly intensified the intensity of the exercise. After each live exercise, the staff departments and staff offices of each standard will organize a commentary to find out the deficiencies, and the participating units will formulate corrective measures. It's tedious and tiring. Every exercise exhausted the troops, and it was said that they were more tired than fighting.

Plans for exercises are generally drawn up by higher-level organs, but in the last two times there have been no plans, only topics. For example, when a company attacks, it only informs the goal of the attack and the time of completion, and does not inform the opponent's defensive strength, and everything needs to be determined by its own reconnaissance.

This time it was the same, the first and second divisions were drawn each with a battalion, and the subject of the exercise was assigned by the General Staff Office, and it was an encounter. The area of the exercise has been determined, and it will start when Long Qian arrives.

Long Qian knew that Zhou Yi held his breath. The consecutive defeats to Lu Shan made him gloomy, and he was ready to pull back a game in this battalion-level confrontation. Long Qian knew that if it was a defensive battle, Zhou Yi would be decent and resilient, and he would know how to save troops and maneuver to counterattack. But in the undisciplined encounter, Lu Shan had a better chance of winning. Lu Shan's commander has aura, knows how to improvise, is good at finding the opponent's weaknesses when attacking, is especially good at organizing ambush warfare, and is stronger in the use of terrain than Zhou Yi.

Long Qian was happy to see the formation of this style of the troops. But he is not willing to form a single-one outcome. Therefore, the opportunity of redistribution of military school studies was used to adjust officers at all levels in order to be comprehensive. Long Qian believes that the possibility of a serious military conflict breaking out in the near future is extremely small. According to official information and intelligence from the intelligence department, the imperial court has decided to set up a central military training office, and Yuan Shikai recommended Prince Qing Yixuan to preside over the military training office, and Cixi has already approved it. Cixi's most trusted Rong Lu was dying, and the Manchu magnates with a bit of talent were too young to have enough qualifications and experience to take on this important task, so they had to use the stupid and greedy King Qing. But Yixuan simply fell into the eyes of money, as long as he gave money, he would agree to anything. As long as someone gives it, it doesn't matter who it is. In the past two years, Yixuan has taken a full 100,000 taels from Long Qian, and also got the dry shares of ZTE. Therefore, Yixuan stepped on Yuan Shikai's boat with one foot, and stepped on the ship Lunan with the other. Much of the news about the imperial court came from Yixuan, including the overall plan for the reorganization of the new army that will be launched after the establishment of the Central Military Training Office. Long Qian also put forward his own request, that is, to occupy at least one town's number!

Strength determines everything, Long Qian is not worried about the outcome of the Mengshan Army in the new wave of Manchu Qing army consolidation, he is most worried about the Northeast, if he does not take advantage of the good opportunity of the Japanese and Russian dog-eat-dog to extend the power to the Northeast, he will feel sorry for himself.

Who to send? How to get there? How to gain a foothold in the Northeast? These problems are pressed up like a mountain. (To be continued......)