The crossing group named itself "Haihan", and has always attached great importance to maritime control. Related units such as the Military Police Department and the Maritime Department are almost always studying the information of their maritime competitors of the same era when they are free. Of course, most of the information they studied came from the work of amateur historians such as the Ministry of Information Industry and Ning Qi.

A super-large pirate gang like Eighteen Zhi is naturally the focus of research. Zheng Zhilong's family history is to strengthen himself by constantly annexing other forces, first annexing Yan Siqi, then Li Dan, and then all kinds of pirates of Eighteen Zhizhi. If he realizes that there is a force at the southern tip of Hainan Island that can threaten him in the future, then he will definitely not sit idly by and let this force continue to develop.

Correspondingly, it is also impossible to watch Zheng Zhilong grow step by step through the group, and Zheng Zhilong in 1627 and Zheng Zhilong in 1635 are completely different things. If he really let his power develop to a scale that has appeared in history, it will definitely not be a good thing for the Crossing Group. The Executive Committee will certainly not agree to the so-called "protection fee" paid by its own ship to a pirate like Zheng Zhilong, and it should only be a matter of time before a conflict of interest arises between the two parties in the future, so it is extremely unlikely that he will coexist peacefully with Zheng Zhilong, and some things must be prepared now.

Tao Donglai said: "For Zheng Zhilong's opponents, we should strategically carry out some support, for example, in the arms sales strategy, we need to consciously make some tilts. ”

Schneider nodded in understanding and said, "I will discuss this matter with that Young Master Li again, and let his firm also adjust the strategy of selling arms, and try to sell as little or no as possible to Zheng Zhilong's side." ”

"Delaying the pace of Zheng Zhilong's pirate group to unify the southeast coast as much as possible is actually to leave time and space for our own development. Tao Donglai continued: "If we want to achieve Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the future, or even further north, we must ensure the stability of the shipping routes, and the survival of Zheng Zhilong's pirate group will obviously become a big stumbling block for us to develop the northern maritime trade in the future!"

"But at the same time, we must not let him notice our existence prematurely. Yan Chujie pointed out a loophole that everyone didn't care too much about: "If Zheng Zhilong learns that there is a place on Hainan Island where muskets and artillery can be produced, what will he do? Is he doing business with silver? I can't see it, maybe he will directly attack here with his subordinates, and grab it back to Taiwan with people and goods." ”

"It is not difficult to get 'Fu Ruifeng' to promise to keep trade secrets, but the difficult thing is not to let anyone with a heart find out about this information. Schneider shook his head and said, "As long as they sell the first batch of arms, someone will soon find out where these arms are coming from." I think it's more practical to think about how to strengthen our defenses here than to think about how to keep trade secrets in the trade that spans the three provinces. ”

Tao Donglai frowned, and asked Yan Chujie, "When will the fortifications of the Shengli Port shore defense artillery be completed?"

Yan Chujie said: "If you only build forts and fortifications, you can complete more than eighty percent of the first phase of the design plan by the end of the year." But the problem is that we still have two big gaps at the moment, one is the gun, and the other is the gunner. ”

"The batteries of the coastal defense artillery are designed according to the 24-pound guns or even larger, but now there are some small technical problems in the casting process of the 24-pound guns, which are still in the stage of tackling key problems, and the military industry department cannot say when it will be finalized and produced. ”

"The other 24-pounder front-loading gun is very cumbersome, even if we use mechanical brakes and guides, we still need at least six gunners to operate, this problem we mentioned at the beginning of the artillery seminar, gunner training cycle is relatively long, the investment is large, this gap can not be made up in a short time. According to the design of the batteries in the first phase of the plan, there are eight 24-pounder guns, so we need at least 50 or so gunners, in fact, considering the possible attrition during the battle, we also have to set aside a part of the replacement rotation, so the actual number will have to rise by at least one-third. ”

"This is only the first phase of the project, and the second phase of the project will build the same number of batteries on this side of Yulin Corner, which has a steeper slope, so the gunners stationed there will probably need so many. As for the coastal defense artillery fortress system conceived by the Military Police Department, because the rear-loading artillery can not be renovated until the rear-loading artillery is finalized and put into production, I am afraid that it will not be able to carry out construction within one or two years. ”

Tao Donglai sighed and said, "This means that if we want to complete the preliminary coastal defense artillery system, we must be equipped with at least one company of artillery?"

Yan Chujie nodded solemnly, but before he could speak, Ning Qi had already preemptively said: "Now counting the third phase of the militia that has just been recruited, there are only three companies of militia in the mainland, and it may not be realistic to train so many artillerymen." But don't continue to talk about the idea of recruiting more, we are now close to 10 to 1 in the military, and I think you should know what that number means. ”

As veterans, Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie certainly understood what it meant that the proportion of military personnel in the total population was too high, which would make the political, economic, cultural, educational, and production aspects in the control area have to be tilted towards the military aspect, and the social ideology and political system would also be greatly affected by it.

Although the Military Police Department has always advocated strengthening armaments, it has not been crazy enough to turn the Crossing Group into a militarist stronghold. The result of the great disasters and disastrous defeats caused by the reckless militarism of Germany and Japan in World War II is a lesson that every soldier must take as a warning. So in the face of Ning Qi's beating, both of them couldn't argue.

Ning Qi continued: "Of course, the fortifications of the shore defense artillery should be repaired, and the gunners must also be trained, but I think that under our existing conditions, it cannot be completed overnight, but should be carried out in stages like the planned construction plan. Our defense is not completely dependent on shore defense artillery, in fact, the No. 1 base we are now in has been built stronger than Yazhou City, even if there are thousands of enemies attacking from the sea or land, we can rely on this place for effective defense. And the foreign enemy can't afford to be here for long, because there is no supply in the vicinity except for our arable land. ”

Tao Donglai thought for a moment, nodded and agreed with Ning Qi's opinion: "After we start selling arms, we may attract the attention of the Fujian side, and may even attract an armed attack from outside. But let's not forget that the distance from Fujian or Taiwan to here is more than 600 nautical miles in a straight line, and it takes at least ten days for a large fleet to complete this voyage, so it is not so easy to launch an expedition against us. At present, the strength of these parties that are at war in the Taiwan Strait is above ours, but it is impossible for either side to draw too much strength to carry out an expedition against us at this critical juncture. ”

After discussion, several people came to the conclusion that Victory Port might be attacked from outside for some time to come, but not very strongly, and should be within the range of local defense capabilities. At present, there are only two routes to the outside of Shengli Port, one long and one short, in the direction of Yazhou and Heitu Port, and there is a radio station that is convenient for communication, so there is no need to worry too much about the ship returning to Shengli Port being blocked outside the port because of poor news.

Of course, this does not mean that the Executive Committee has underestimated the dangers that may arise, and the Military Police Department will continue to expand the scale of gunner training and speed up the training process, so as to train at least 40 or so qualified gunners by the end of the year when the coastal defense batteries are put into operation. However, there is no need to think about recruiting new recruits for the time being, and the cost of subsequent gunner training will certainly be expensive, and the budget of the military and police department has indeed begun to tighten, and this situation can not be alleviated until at least a certain amount of arms export trade in the military industry department has formed a certain scale.

Li Nai was poured meat and vegetables by several old rivers and lakes the night before, and was arranged to live in a guest house in Base No. 1 with his entourage. It is said that it is a guest house, but it is just a row of prefabricated houses, because a considerable number of people have moved to the No. 2 base of Tiandu Industrial Zone to live, so the prefabricated houses here are vacant a lot, and the civil affairs department has packed up a few rooms to use as guest houses, such as people from Yazhou who want to spend the night in Shengli Port, and they will also arrange here.

Li Nai was in a deep sleep when a loud sound of music woke him from his sleep. Li Nai didn't know where this huge sound came from, and jumped down in a panic. He Qiang, who was in the same room with him, was also flustered, and the two hurriedly opened the door, but saw that it was already dark outside, and the Haihan people, who were also sleepy-eyed, walked out of the barracks one after another, and went in one direction after saying good morning to each other.

The two exchanged glances in disbelief, but quickly went back to the room to change their clothes and followed. However, they soon realized that it was just a false alarm, and it turned out that the place where the people went was just a stall where breakfast was distributed. The breakfast stall was set up outside the gate of Base One, and by the time they arrived, there were already two long queues. Li Nai had heard that the Haihan people had a rule of "queuing", so together with He Qiang, they honestly lined up at the end of the line according to the appearance in front.

Li Nai noticed that not all of the people in the team were Haihan, but there were also many Ming people, Li Miao mountain people, and even yellow-haired and white-skinned Westerners, and couldn't help but be surprised. He Qiang found another point, touched Li Nai's arm and said softly: "Third Young Master, look ahead." ”