Even if Li Jifeng and Liu Xiang really have any dealings in private, the goals pursued by the two sides are still very different. (Baidu search update is the fastest and most stable) (.) Li Jifeng must be a businessman like Li Jifeng to ensure the smooth and stable shipping route and obtain more commercial benefits, while the pirate gang is to continue to expand its power and defend its right to survive at sea. Such a cooperative relationship with different goals is destined to be very fragile, and the pressure that Li Jifeng can exert on Liu Xiang's side must be quite limited, at least the crossing group cannot bet on him.

"And what about the pirate gang on Dangan Island?" Yu Yao continued to ask.

Schneider said: "I listened to Li Jifeng's tone, the gang on Dangan Island should have done it alone, not Liu Xiang's subordinates. ”

"It's so close to the Wanshan Islands, it's very troublesome!" Xiao Liang muttered with a frown as he looked at the map. As Schneider predicted, the Military Police Department was clearly troubled by such a situation.

"How about just knocking out this gang and then we taking this island?" Schneider offered a solution, which was inspired by his previous Q&A with Yu Xiaobao. Although Yu Xiaobao's method is very straightforward and simple, sometimes simple and crude can be a way to solve difficult problems.

"It's very likely to win, but it's very unlikely to be a complete victory. Xiao Liang carefully checked the map and commented: "If what Li Jifeng said is true, this group of pirates only has one or two hundred people, then it should not be difficult for us to take this place." But this island is more than a dozen square kilometers, and if these people escape to the dense forests and mountains of the island, it will be difficult for us to send enough men to slowly pursue the island. If someone escapes from the island, our actions are exposed, which may attract the attention of other pirate groups. ”

Yu Yao added: "Dangan Island is only a few nautical miles away from Hong Kong, and if someone hides until night and then takes the opportunity to release a small boat into the sea, we can't stop it." ”

"Besides, even if we take this place down, I'm afraid we won't be able to garrison this place for the time being. Xiao Liang said with regret.

Schneider said: "Why don't you send people to guard there? To monitor the waters east of Hong Kong, Tangan Island is a very good observation point, the eastern end of the island is only ten nautical miles away from the Fotangmen, the gateway to Hong Kong, and the naked eye can observe the situation on the sea near there when the weather is good." ”

"Of course I know this, but let's not forget about our current level of armaments, and it is difficult to solve the problem of supply alone. Moreover, the scale of our existing militia is very limited, and there are only a few hundred people, and they are often pulled out to serve as regular military envoys before the training period is completed. Speaking of this problem, Xiao Liang is really helpless, the lack of soldiers is one of the important reasons that limit the speed of the expansion of the crossing group, but if you want to expand the troops, you have to face more practical problems.

"Isn't the establishment of your military police department ready to be promoted to the battalion level? General Tao and General Yan were promoted to the rank of major three months ago, and the reason given by your military police department at that time was to take up the post of battalion commander with the rank of major in order to facilitate management!" Schneider said disapprovingly.

Schneider remembers this very clearly, at that time, the military police department in order to expand the establishment of the matter of the uproar, and later this matter was also submitted to the executive committee for discussion, although many people questioned the expansion speed of the military police department and the funding plan, but finally agreed to the military police department's request, agreed to the plan to recruit the third batch of naturalized civilian soldiers, and after the third batch of militia completed training and included in the establishment, the establishment scale of the military police department was raised from the previous company level to the battalion level, and the total number of militia plus security guards will reach more than 500 people.

"Is there a lot of battalions? Then I'll count them for you. Yu Yao wrenched his fingers and began to count the existing establishment of the Military Police Department: "Now there are four companies in the militia group, and Heitu Port has taken up the establishment of one company, so there are actually only three companies left on the base camp. Among them, the security team also accounts for the establishment of a company, and there are only two companies of the real armed militia, and now one company is doing sea training, preparing to develop into a navy in the future, and the other company is mainly engaged in artillery training, and intends to serve as a garrison for the coastal fortifications of Shengli Port in the future. The size of the existing troops is not even sufficient to meet the current military needs, so how can there be a quota for being stationed in overseas bases? Even if it is a stronghold in the Wanshan Islands, at least it will have to wait until the end of this year and early next year to implement the plan, and it will be next year at the earliest. ”

"But there are more than 500 militiamen in your military and police department, and it is really so difficult to send a few people to build a stronghold on the island?" Schneider did not agree with Yu Yao's explanation.

"The more than 500 people are not all combat troops!" Xiao Liang shook his head and retorted: "These 500 people include militiamen with security, artillery, sailors, logistics, baggage, communications, medical and other specialties, and these auxiliary soldiers are not suitable for being sent to the front line to carry out combat missions. ”

"And this kind of surveillance base must have our people, otherwise we can't use the radio station, and the meaning of establishing a base will be lost. Yu Yao went on to talk about another reason: "This kind of mission is much more dangerous than that of the Cliff Office and the Guangzhou Office, and that stronghold may be attacked by pirates and need to be stationed for a long time, and the Executive Committee may not be able to agree with the Military Police Department to take this risk." ”

After listening to their explanations, Schneider realized that his previous ideas were really too simplistic, and planning a military operation is not just a simple decision to "fight" or "not fight", there are many other factors that need to be considered. And the current military scale of the Crossing Group is not enough to support large-scale outward expansion, and even this expansion is not so easy to achieve by just establishing one or two more overseas bases.

Xiao Liang sighed: "If the Executive Committee had been able to approve our militia training plan, maybe we wouldn't have to worry so much now." ”

"It's not those intellectuals who are in the way! I don't understand any common sense in military affairs, and every time I have a meeting, I know that I can talk about things with the budget of our military and police department, and I can't do anything but stumble on the military and police department! The report on the expansion of the militia has been sent countless times, but not on the pretext of budget overruns. Yu Yao complained angrily, and when he looked up, he found that Schneider's face was not very good-looking, and quickly explained: "Mr. Shi, I'm not talking about you. ”

Schneider's face was indeed not good-looking, because he was also the one who voted to reject the expansion plan of the Military Police Department. The civilian system has always been very vigilant against the ever-expanding power of the Military and Police Department, and in particular, when it comes to increasing military spending and expanding the number of personnel, they have generally taken an opposing attitude.

In fact, in terms of budget, the relevant departments do have a hard time, and the cost of raising a soldier requires several laborers to work to make up for the gap, and the expansion of a company by the military and police department may be just a matter of one sentence, but for the human resources department, it will need hundreds of additional laborers to supplement this funding gap, and the financial department will have to change all kinds of budget arrangements that have been made for this purpose. No matter from which angle you look at it, the expansion of the armed forces is a measure that affects the whole body, and as far as the current policy of focusing on the development of commerce and trade with the outside world of the Crossing Group is concerned, the expansion of the armed forces will undoubtedly greatly occupy the resources of foreign trade and slow down the rate of income from foreign trade, and these things are not well understood by the Military Police Department and are unwilling to understand.

Such differences of opinion can also be resolved through communication within the Executive Committee, and most of them are reached after mutual compromise and concessions. However, ordinary members may not know the basis of the executive committee's decision-making, so there are still many people who have more extreme ideas like Yu Yao. Moreover, it is difficult to explain this kind of thing, because the position is different, and the height of the problem seen is also different, and the peripheral personnel may only regard the expansion of the army as a simple political stance or an economic issue, but only a small number of people who have the decision-making power know how much is involved and what difficulties they will encounter in implementing it.

There is nothing to say about not being in his position, so although Schneider's face is a little ugly, he does not intend to explain to them the twists and turns of the inside story at this juncture, and even if he does, they may not be able to understand it, but may think that the decision-making process of the Executive Committee is too bureaucratic.

"So now even if we know that Liu Xiang's territory is east of Hong Kong, and that there is a small nest of pirates on Dangan Island, we still can't do anything?" Schneider still felt a little unwilling that the information he had worked so hard to gather could not be used immediately.

"Military construction is not for the sake of immediate war, but for the sake of being able to achieve victory when war begins. Xiao Liang had to emphasize what he had said before: "The work we are doing now will not come in handy immediately, and it may never even be useful in battle, but the preparations that should be done must still be done, and we can't be sloppy at all, because if we are negligent in the preparation stage, the price we pay may be the lives of the soldiers!"

"Got it. Schneider replied listlessly, stood up and said, "You guys continue to study the strategy, I'd better go and see if the goods ordered yesterday have been delivered." ”

After Schneider left, the remaining two people compared to the map for a long time, and finally Yu Yao couldn't help but give up: "If you want to garrison troops on Tangan Island, you have to go to at least one platoon, but with the current size of the militia, I estimate that the Executive Committee can at most approve the establishment of a platoon on the Wanshan Islands, and there is probably no way to do it on Dangan Island." ”

Xiao Liang also sighed: "There are no soldiers available, no matter how well planned it is, this battle can't be fought." According to the arrangement of the base camp, I am afraid that no militia will be able to be transferred in the near future. ”

Xiao Liang is right, the executive committee has recently needed to use the militia in other places, and this Pearl River Estuary project can only be put on hold for the time being, and further plans will be made when the demand for military strength can be eased.

After the second echelon completed the inspection of the Iron Furnace Port, the results of their expedition were fed back to the base camp by means of a telegram on the way. The base camp was also very quick to make decisions, and only two days later, a second expedition was sent to Iron Furnace Harbor. In addition to people from the maritime and military police departments, this second expedition also included technicians from the Ministry of Construction, as well as Anthy, an authority on the construction of salt works.

Although the Executive Committee has not yet announced the final decision, Anzai's personal intervention has in fact determined that the Iron Furnace Port will be the next construction area of the Transit Group, and it is likely that it will take on the main task of salt production in the near future.

The second expedition team stayed in the Tielugang area for three full days, and made a very detailed investigation of the local hydrology, geography, and construction conditions of the colony. At the request of the Executive Committee, the Ministry of Construction has even selected the construction site of the colony and the first phase of the salt pan project, and has made a more detailed plan. Although the Military Police Department has given up the plan of setting up shore defense artillery at the mouth of the Iron Furnace Port, it is still necessary to have an early warning post, and for this reason, the personnel of the Military Police Department have also made several trips in and out of the Iron Furnace Port, and have specially climbed several commanding heights at the Iron Furnace Corner to determine the location of the outpost. Because Anxi has rich practical experience, he will carry out the overall check, summarize the preparatory work done by various departments, and then formulate a unified construction plan.

In order to cooperate with the development project of the Iron Furnace Port, the Executive Committee had to use the control measures again, provided policy preferences for the preparation of the Iron Furnace Port Project, and required all relevant departments to fully ensure the needs of materials and personnel. In particular, the large amount of cement needed for the construction of the salt pond was not hesitated by the Executive Committee to suspend the construction of the shore defense fort at the mouth of the Shengli Port in advance, so as to save the cement and supply it to the Iron Furnace Port project in a limited manner. Of course, the consequence of this was a strong protest from the Military Police Department.

In terms of manpower, the human resources department also responded to the call of the Executive Committee and began to recruit a new batch of members for immigrants who came to Shengli Port one after another. A portion of these new members will be assigned to the existing Salt Works Commune to fill the labour vacancies left by the salt workers who will be transferred to the Iron Furnace Port. The rest of the people will be assigned to the Iron Furnace Harbor, and after completing the preliminary infrastructure construction tasks, they will all be included in the establishment of the future Iron Furnace Harbor Salt Farm Commune.

At the same time, the renovation and expansion of the existing Shengli Port salt works has not stopped. Although the congenital geographical conditions of the Shengli Port Salt Farm limit the development, there is still a small area that has not yet been fully developed, and after the completion of this part of the renovation project, the production capacity of the salt field is expected to double on the existing basis.

Of course, this kind of large-scale construction of new colonies must also involve the participation of the militia. In order to effectively ensure the security of the new salt works, the military police department must send at least one platoon of militia to garrison it. This is undoubtedly another test for the militia that is currently overstretched, and of course the Military Police Department has not forgotten to take advantage of this opportunity to once again propose to the Executive Committee the proposal for expanding the militia establishment.

This time, however, Yan Chujie learned from the lessons of previous rejections of proposals, and instead proposed a curvilinear solution to save the country, that is, only to expand the number of trainees, but not the establishment of a formal militia.

To put it simply, this plan is to popularize popular military training and conduct large-scale phased military training for naturalized people of a certain age group. This kind of training does not seek to train all members to the combat level of the militia, but it requires the mastery of basic military skills and the knowledge of how to obey and carry out military orders. Naturalized civilians who have undergone such training will not be the main force of military operations in the future, but may serve as auxiliary arms such as logistics and baggage, and if necessary, they will be used as a source of troops to supplement the main combat force. However, the establishment of real full-time soldiers will not be affected by this training plan, and will not be expanded for the time being.

This plan is much more economical than the military expansion plans originally proposed by the Ministry of Military Police in terms of military expenditure and manpower, and the impact on the economy and human resources of the crossing group is not so great, and the current development trend of the crossing group does require more people with certain military skills, so the executive committee does not have much resistance to this proposal, if nothing else, this plan will be approved at the executive committee's centralized voting meeting this week.

The reason why the base camp is in a hurry to start the new salt field project is that on the one hand, the corresponding development plan has been formulated because of objective needs, and on the other hand, it is news from Vietnam.

On the second day after the second echelon departed from Shengli Port to Guangzhou, the coal ship returning from Heitu Port brought back the news that in Thang Long Province in the north, that is, Hanoi, there were big businessmen who hoped to trade 100,000 catties of Haihan refined salt with the crossing group every month. The other party said that as long as the supply is stable, then the price and transaction method are negotiable. At present, due to the civil war, local salt production has been almost abandoned, and the price of salt in the market has skyrocketed, several times higher than the normal price, and there is still no market. The merchant sent by the Black Earth Port tentatively quoted a price of 200 taels of silver per thousand catties, and the other side quickly agreed.

This price has reached as much as four times the current price of private salt supply, and the amount of demand from the other party is large enough, which is a very lucrative transaction for the crossing group, and it is certainly impossible to let go of it, in order to seize this big deal, even if it is worth suspending the supply of salt to the mainland first.

Moreover, the other party also agreed to barter when necessary, such as high-quality rice produced in the Red River Delta, which could be exchanged for refined salt produced by Haihan. In addition, under the repeated temptations of the Black Earth Port, the other party seems to be very interested in the arms produced by the crossing group, and intends to buy them for trial.