In addition to the appropriations from the imperial court, where will the army's profits come from? Li Jin did not have a very good way to deal with this, and his understanding was limited to the relatively "traditional" method of eating empty salaries and drinking soldiers' blood and reselling military supplies, but such a method could only fatten the pockets of the military leaders, and did not have the slightest effect on improving the combat capability of the troops, and was obviously not the method Zhang Xin said.

From Li Jin's point of view, he couldn't imagine the operation method of launching foreign wars to obtain benefits, after all, in recent years, the wars that the Ming Dynasty participated in did not have too many outstanding achievements, and often suffered huge losses themselves, and there was no benefit at all, but every year the imperial court collected more and more taxes from the people for the war.

Li Jin wanted to continue to ask, but Zhang Xin obviously had no interest in continuing to discuss this issue with him, so he opened his mouth and ordered: "Come here, send General Li back to his house!"

Zhang Xin was in a hurry to send Li Jin away because he had just received a telegram from the Executive Committee and had important matters to discuss with the military. After three months of preparation, the Executive Committee decided that the time was ripe for the southward seizure of the Natuna Islands and was ready to begin the operational plan.

After the end of last year's Qiongbei War, the Executive Committee and the Central Military Commission selected the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea as the next place to settle down, and the reconnaissance fleet led by Wang Tom successfully completed its reconnaissance of the Natuna Islands and the surrounding waters in January this year, and also got in touch with the spies of the Ministry of Security who were lurking on the islands to obtain first-hand intelligence information.

However, after Wang Tom and Lin Nan returned from Nanyang, they did not get much rest, and after only a little more than a month, they met again in Danzhou, Qiongbei, to participate in the investigation of the rebellion here. At present, Zhao Ye, one of the main culprits, has not yet been caught, and the executive committee has ordered the main fleet of the navy currently stationed in the Qiongzhou Strait to complete the replenishment in Danzhou Bay and be ready to leave at any time. And what supplies this fleet needs to supply in Danzhou, Zhang Xin must first communicate with the military.

"I'm still really working hard, and I'm not halfway through the vacation, so I'm going to be busy again. Although Wang Tom was full of complaints, his expression was eager to try.

Haihan wants to cross the sea to attack the Natuna Islands in the South Sea, and this combat mission can be said to be the main force of the navy, and it is reasonable for Wang Tom, as the commander of the navy, to personally lead the army to the south. The defense on the side of the Natuna Islands is not strong, so it can be said that this southward battle is an opportunity to improve the record, and Wang Tom, who wants to become a famous general, will certainly not give up the battle for his vacation.

Zhang Xin naturally understood Tom Wang's mentality, and shook his head helplessly: "Commander Wang, don't show it, you know that you are a busy person, hurry up and count the supplies needed by the military, and I can organize the supply for you." ”

Wang Tom nodded and said, "I'll do my best to get it done, and I'll hand over the list to you tomorrow at the latest!"

At the same time that Danzhou received the notice, the naval fleet in the Qiongzhou Strait was also being redeployed. One of the two "Majesty-class" hybrid warships will serve as the flagship of the Southern Expeditionary Fleet and lead some of the navy's warships southward, while the other will continue to sit in the Qiongzhou Strait in case the situation changes.

In view of the results obtained from the previous reconnaissance, the scale of the fleet of the Southern Expedition organized by the Central Military Commission this time is not too exaggerated, with one "Majestic-class," two "Expedition-class," and four "Exploration-class," a total of seven combat vessels, as well as four "Exploration-class" modified troop carriers and logistical supply ships, totaling 11 ships in the entire fleet, with more than 1,000 combatants and crew members. It is indeed not too much of a problem for such a fleet to attack Natuna Island, which does not even have shore defense batteries.

However, this is not the whole of the southward fleet, according to the plan of the Military Commission, the Annam Military Region will also dispatch a part of the army, and their task is to be responsible for the long-term garrison of the Natuna archipelago after the fleet captures the main island of the Natuna Islands.

According to the previous plan of the Military Commission, the navy would not use the banner of Haihan in the process of attacking Natuna Island, but occupied this area in the name of pirates, and replicated the practice of Qiongbei in the South Seas again. The main reason for this is to avoid a direct conflict with the Dutch in the short term, after all, several ports in the south of Annam are still in the construction stage, and they cannot afford to deploy a large number of navies near Natuna Island in the near future, and Natuna Island itself lacks a natural harbor to station a naval fleet, so the Military Commission is currently only aiming at the strategic node of actually controlling Natuna Island, and does not intend to immediately use this as a springboard to compete with the Dutch for control of key positions in the South China Sea shipping lane.

In order to achieve this goal, the Annan militia army, which has Annan as the main source of troops, is obviously more suitable for stationing in the local area, so that at least it will not lightly expose the details of the armed forces on the island in front of the Dutch. Even if the Dutch sensed that something was wrong, Haihan's side could push it all out and buy more time for their military deployment in the South Seas.

On March 27, some ships of the Southern Expeditionary Fleet mobilized from the Qiongzhou Strait arrived at Danzhou Bay and began to load supplies and supplies. The fleet blockading the Qiongzhou Strait did not spend much ammunition in these months, so there was not much of the supply to be transported from the base camp. The only supply that required a large amount of cross-sea supplies was probably anthracite coal from the port of Heitu, and one of the four supply ships arranged by the fleet was specifically responsible for transporting consumables such as coal, fresh water, ammunition, and weapon spare parts to the battleship "Majesty".

Although the "Majesty" is equipped with the world's most advanced power propulsion system in this era, due to the limitations of materials and processes for manufacturing steam boilers, its service life and maintenance methods are greatly limited, and the fresh water consumed by the boiler for a long time is by no means a small amount, so in most cases, the ship is actually mainly sail power, and steam propulsion will only really come in handy in a small combat time.

During the docking of the fleet in Danzhou Bay, Li Jin, who was unwilling to be lonely, naturally did not let go of this opportunity to explore the military strength of the Haihan Dynasty, and had to go to Danzhou Bay almost every day, in order to have a close look at the peculiarities of this Haihan warship.

Wang Tom could probably guess this guy's thoughts, but he didn't care about it, just like the Haihan Army, the advantages of the navy were not something that a few Ming officers could just look at and go back to imitate - if the Ming Dynasty had this ability, how could it be that the pirate forces on the southeast coast had been unable to level the southeast coast all these years?

"General Wang, I want to ask, how did Haihan build such a powerful naval division?" After watching the excitement for two days, Li Jin finally couldn't help it, and wanted to find Wang Tom to solve his doubts in person.

Tom Wang smiled: "Didn't Director Zhang explain your question a few days ago?"

Li Jin scratched his head and said, "So it's also a matter of money?"

"It's a matter of money, of course. Tom Wang nodded and said, "The amount of money spent to build this fleet should be more than the entire Guangdong Navy." ”

"It's so expensive!" Li Jin was taken aback, although the combat power of the Guangdong Navy Division was relatively scummy, but the money was not less, even if it was an ordinary warship of two or three hundred materials, it would cost two or three thousand taels of silver, and the ships under the entire Guangdong Navy Division were added together, and there were hundreds of large and small ships. When Wang Tom said this, wouldn't this fleet be worth at least two or three hundred thousand taels of silver?

Seeing his look of disbelief, Tom Wang pointed to an "Exploration-class" warship near the dock and said: "This is the 'Exploration-class' warship with the smallest displacement in my Haihan Navy, although the size is about the same as the Dafu ship of the Daming Navy, but the cost is much higher. Do you see that the mainmast of the ship is much higher than the one you have seen before?"

"That's true, when I first saw it, I wanted to ask, isn't this mast so high that it won't break when the wind blows, or will the wind and waves affect the balance of the ship?" Li Jin immediately asked.

Wang Tom smiled: "The two questions you asked, we have already thought of when designing this ship, so some special processes are used to make the mast. If the shipyard of Daming built such a high mast, it is likely that the problem you are worried about will appear, but the mast on our ship will definitely not. This mast alone is worth at least a thousand taels of silver!"

In the mast manufacturing process, the hollow metal cylinder is used to reduce weight and strengthen toughness, this process is simple to say, but the actual manufacturing technology is indeed not the current Daming shipyard can master. Of course, Wang Tom's quotation is also slightly exaggerated, even the main mast cost of the largest "Majesty-class" battleship at present is almost to the price he said, and the size of the mast is more than twice as thick as the "Exploration Class", a full third higher, and the manufacturing process is much more difficult.

Li Jin was secretly shocked when he heard this, although he didn't know the truth of Wang Tom's words, but judging from the achievements of the Haihan Navy in naval battles in recent years, their warships should have a great advantage in performance, and a taller mast can hang a bigger sail, obtain greater thrust and higher speed, so Wang Tom's words are probably true, after all, this can reasonably explain why the Haihan Navy has never been defeated since its establishment.

Wang Tom pointed to the row of clearly visible gun windows on the side of the ship and said: "This kind of warship is generally equipped with about ten guns, each cannon is worth five hundred taels of silver, which is another five thousand taels, and one mast plus the ship's cannons, this is six thousand taels." The whole ship is full, and the cost is at least this number. ”

Wang Tom said and stretched out a finger to shake it in front of Li Jin's eyes, Li Jin swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said, "One ...... Ten thousand taels?"

Wang Tom nodded: "Don't be too expensive, this is only the most basic cost, for example, we require the installation of stainless steel ramming angles in the bow of the ship, further reinforcement of the keel of the hull, installation of a steering wheel transmission system for easy steering, and so on, there are many places to spend money." Add in the cost of training sailors, combat gunners, and musketeers, and it will cost about 20,000 yuan for a ship to come down!"

"Hiss......" Li Jin couldn't help but gasp. Although he is not a member of the water division, he still knows a little about the situation of the water division, like the general state-level water village, equipped with warships and sailors packaging can not be sold for 20,000 taels of silver. And the smallest warship in the Haihan fleet, one has to be counted at this rate, how can this combat effectiveness be equal.

In fact, the "Exploration Grade" is the first model to be developed and built after the crossing, due to the maturity of the process and the number of orders for construction, the current cost is quite low, and the export model that began at the end of last year is only about 10,000 taels, including the monkey version of the artillery. Both Annam and Fujian have already placed orders at the Sanya Shipyard, and in the words of Yue Zhiyun of the Ministry of Shipping, a large part of the cost of building the military's third "Majesty-class" warship this year will come from the profits from the export of warships.

After listening to this, Li Jin, a newcomer, naturally couldn't understand these insiders, and after listening to it, he was also silently calculating, the smallest warship would cost 100,000 or 20,000, and the largest ship was estimated to be 100,000 taels.

Tom Wang continued: "Don't think that you don't need money when the boats are built, these boats have to float on the water, and they cost money all the time. If you want to go to sea, it will cost you money. ”

"That'...... How much does that cost?" Li Jin did not have a clear idea of this.

"Well, if you make a comparison,......" Tom Wang pointed to the stern of the boat, "how wide the waves set up at the stern of the boat, you can spread it with copper coins, and you can sail as far as you sail on the sea, you can spread it with copper coins, and it will probably cost so much money!"

"This is indeed more than the cost of the army on land!" Li Jin couldn't calculate how much it was, anyway, it was much larger than the number he could count, and there was nothing else to say except sighing.

But he still had a question in his heart that was not explained: "How can you afford to consume such a huge fleet?"

"Director Zhang said that day, the investment is big, and the benefits are also big!" Tom Wang replied with a smile: "If the army only spends money and can't bring benefits, then who will keep throwing money into it? ”

Regarding Wang Tom's joke, Li Jin could only pretend not to hear it, he himself was a general who had led soldiers, and of course he knew what the current situation of the Ming army was. Except for a small number of elite troops under the direct command of the imperial court, almost all of the local guards have rotted their roots, and there is no combat effectiveness at all, and the establishment of the guards in many places has already existed in name only, and it is not even as effective as the militia groups organized by the local gentry.

As for the comparison with the over-standard "people's group" like the Haihan People's League, not to mention, the strength of the two sides is indeed too far apart.