In the many secret sand table exercises held inside the Red Fort, it took about three and a half to six months to completely conquer the southern states, and the reason for such a big error was that the pre-set resistance intensity was different, and the results were naturally very different.

If the southern states are united, not afraid of sacrifice, and twist into a rope to fight fiercely with the north, then it will take a huge price to conquer every town and win every battle, and coupled with the geographical distance, it will take at least half a year to achieve the final victory.

If the policy of dividing and disintegrating the secret front in the setting takes effect, the strength of the southern states' sworn resistance will inevitably drop by a large margin, which is reflected in the war of conquest, which is naturally overwhelming, greatly reducing the losses of the side and the difficulty of conquest.

The Civil War was a war of conquest on a grand scale.

With the city of Beilun as the forward position of heavy troops, it will take 900 kilometers to advance south to Melbourne, and continue to the southwest to regain the whole territory, and this number will be multiplied by 2.

Such a long distance, in this era when long marches can only be relied on foot, even if the final destination is Melbourne, it would take more than 40 days for the army to march.

A large-scale war of conquest is never a few months of fighting on the battlefield, and the preparation and training before the war, the public security survey after the war, and the suppression will last for a long time.

As for how long the specific time will be, Li Fushou can't give a positive answer.

This requires a multi-pronged policy in the post-war period, and the use of both suppression and appeasement is a water mill.

In this way, the 34 million pounds that have been painstakingly saved up is far from enough.

The landlord's family has no surplus food!

Li Fushou sighed lightly, in order to prepare for this civil war, he had been frugal for six or seven years, and he didn't dare to use such a huge amount of money there, just to meet the needs of the untimed.

According to his original intention, he originally wanted to delay it for a few more years.

By then, the coastal railway had reached Victoria's northern border, and the Chinese settlers had infiltrated New South Wales on a large scale, and the war would be much more certain in two months.

The scale of war mobilization will also be drastically reduced from 300,000 to 100,000, and the intensity and cost of war will also drop by an order of magnitude.

The southerners are not stupid, it seems that they have reacted.

Queensland's urgent submissions uniting Western Australia and South Australia, one after another, are now on the desk of the London Colonial Office, but they have been lost and there is no response.

According to Tang Shaoyi, a diplomatic representative in Europe;

Sir Alex Ferguson, the new Conservative Colonial Secretary, was on a far-right side, and he himself was optimistic about the success of strengthening white arming in the southern states to prevent the invasion of Chinese forces, and was not prepared to intervene.

meanwhile

Sir Alex Ferguson also did not want to see the Southern states completely intensify the conflict and trigger the thunder of war, which would cause great additional trouble to the colonial department, so he did not respond to the demands of both sides, and his attitude was very ambiguous.

The Colonial Minister's opinion tended to influence decision-making, and no amount of requests could be submitted.

Li Fushou received similar information from the Duke of Norfolk's family, and Vice Admiral Philip Howard, Parliamentary Undersecretary of the Admiralty, made it clear at the same time;

It is hoped that the Earl of Queensland will restrain the southward expansion of Chinese forces, not take the initiative to intensify the contradictions between the north and the south, restrain the impulse of Chinese immigrants in a timely manner, and at least make a relaxed posture in Australia to avoid a complete detonation of war.

In the face of the warning of London's backers, Li Fushou had to introduce relevant bills to cancel the preferential policies for immigration to Australia, and the amount of immigration loans was also reduced by half (only in Australia), and the missing part was supplemented by other private banks, which he couldn't control.

In any case, the superficial gesture still has to be made.

This is tantamount to facing an arrogant maniac, stepping back step by step with his hands tied behind his back, trying his best to make a gesture of easing the contradictions, which is impeccable from any angle, which is not only a relaxed gesture for the Duke of Norfolk and the Duke of Victor, but also for those nobles in the Colonial Department and London.

If you don't take into account the differences in skin color and race, it can almost be said that you have done your best.

In this case

If the opponent punches him, he must resolutely fight back until the opponent is completely killed, and no one can find anything wrong.

If you want to say that the British are grandmasters who play with intrigue and tricks, and have a long heritage of 5,000 years, the Chinese nation is not far behind.

What is called "retreat for advance", what is called "defense for attack", what is called "Ming Xiu plank road, dark Chen Cang" to understand, what is called "stealing beams and changing columns", what is called "stealing the sky for changing the day", what is called "moving flowers and trees" to understand......

Chinese immigrants are related to Li Fushou's fundamental plan for Australia's layout, and it is impossible to relax the pace of progress under any circumstances.

Although the preferential immigration policy has been cancelled, Australia's reputation in that ancient oriental continent has long been spread, known as the "new gold mountain", "dream paradise" and "paradise flowing with milk and honey", which cannot stop the enthusiasm of Chinese immigrants.

The hard-working sons and daughters of China are like dandelions, they will take root and thrive wherever they fly, and build a better future with their hard hands and diligent labor, and they don't need any preferential immigration policies at all, and it's just a big deal to do it for one or two more years.

Although Shangri-La Bank has cut huge bank loans, dozens or hundreds of private banks will quickly fill the gap, and the overall situation will not be harmed.

Pan Asia Shipping Company has reduced flights, but relying on the power of the market itself, more Australian private shipping companies will quickly fill this demand, there must be demand, there must be supply, and the market will inevitably find a balance in the changes.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese immigrants are eager and will not change with the will of the Red Fort and the cancellation of several preferential policies.

As for restricting the entry of local Chinese immigrants in Australia, it is simpler, and whether it is complicated to immigrate to Shangri-La in the early stage, it is at most a two-step process.

This is a good thing, after raising the threshold, immigrants with stronger capabilities can be screened out to enter Australia, which improves the quality of local Chinese residents, which is beneficial from the perspective of long-term development.

Li Fushou's plan for the Australian mainland is an industrialized society, and is vigorously developing scientific research and education forces, bringing continuous impetus to Australia's scientific and technological innovation, and a high-quality population is the high-quality labor required by a large number of factories.

"Sixian, get ready, and tomorrow I will inspect the Azure Weapons Manufacturing Company." Li Fushou commanded.

Li Sixian, deputy director of the Secretariat (promoted from assistant to deputy director), immediately appeared at the door of the study, bowed respectfully, and replied; "Yes, sir, do you have any other commands?"

"A few of you will also follow, and then notify the army general staff, and let them send someone to accompany them, and we will talk about the reorganization of the basic militia."

"I understand the lowly position, and I will arrange it immediately." Li Sixian bowed down to receive the order, and hurriedly went out to do things.

Li Fushou looked at his departing back and smiled slightly, there are many people with the surname Li in Australia, and there are also many people with the same name, and there are no less than a few thousand people with the name Li Sixian alone.

He has an impression of more than 10 people, not to mention Li Sixian, deputy director of the secretariat, and Li Sixian, who was transferred from the mayor of Qingdao to the director of the Koi Mining Bureau.

There was also Colonel Li Sixian of the Navy (who was promoted not long ago), who was appointed captain of the cruiser "Kokang", which was the ninth ship in the "Courage" class cruiser construction program.

Thinking of this, Li Fushou showed a confident look on his face, walked back to the desk with relaxed steps, and took a leisurely sip of coffee.

After 14 years of hard work, the Red Fort's naval force has developed into a maritime powerhouse in the South Pacific, with four heavy cruisers with a displacement of more than 9,000 tons, namely "Green Dragon", "White Tiger", "Suzaku" and "Xuanwu", supporting the strong backbone of the Queensland Navy.

In particular, the latter two "White Tiger" and "Xuanwu" heavy cruisers, as later improvements of the Qinglong-class heavy cruisers, are equipped with six powerful 305-mm main ship guns, with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, and the three elements of firepower, defense and speed are balanced, and their strength is even stronger.

Besides

The "permanent plan" for naval equipment, which began at the end of 1885, has borne fruit.

By the end of 1889, all 12 "Courage-class" cruisers had been completed and put into service as planned, and they had become the backbone of the three major fleets of the navy, which was enough for anyone to underestimate.

In time

When these 12 powerful cruisers form a complete combat strength, they will surely become an important weight in Li Fushou's hands and be qualified to sit on the world table.

In the Navy's original "permanent plan", it was to build 12 brave" class ocean-going escort high-speed cruisers, which were planned to be equipped with two twin 280 mm long-barreled main guns, a twin-mounted main gun emcourse in the bow and stern of the ship, and the main gun positions were arranged along the central axis, and a high-trunk outboard floating ship bow was set up to deal with complex sea conditions, and multi-compartments were applied, and the armor belt design was strengthened to increase the anti-sinking resistance of the main battle ship.

The class is equipped with 4 150mm secondary guns, 6 95mm Miss Australia secondary guns, 8 37mm French Haqikes rapid-fire cannons, two triple torpedo tubes, a design speed of 26 knots, and a planned construction unit price of 245,500 pounds, and the entire ship construction plan is a huge amount of 3 million pounds.

It was planned over a four-year period with an annual expenditure of about £750,000 and was built from the beginning of January 1886.

Later, after Li Fushou vetoed the Navy's "Qingtian Plan" to build ironclad battleships, the Navy took advantage of the situation and revised the original design of the "Courage" class light cruisers, increased protective armor, and enhanced the power configuration, so that the displacement increased to 4,380 tons, and the final finished product was 4,400 tons.

Because of the different sea areas in service, the configuration of each ship is different, there are tens of hundreds of tons of floating, ninety percent of which is upward floating, of which the No. 6 ship "loyalty" is assigned to the Far East Fleet, the displacement has reached 4,540 tons, the focus is on increasing the coal storage bunker, the range and displacement are the first of all ships.

The change was enormous, and the cost of building the ships also increased, and the final cost of twelve cruisers reached 3.42 million pounds, almost as much as the cost of four "majestic" ironclad battleships.

Heavy investment will inevitably bring great returns, and the resulting increase in combat effectiveness is obvious, these twelve light cruisers have been transformed from the original light armored cavalry to heavy armored cavalry, and the word "light" in the light cruisers has also been removed, which is a big level higher than the original ability to resist beating.

When necessary, cruisers of this class can be lined up in the battle line and bombarded by hostile bombardment, and the four 280-mm cannon barrels equipped on the ship are no joke.

The 12 Courage-class cruisers were the No. 1 "Courage", the No. 2 "Perseverance", the No. 3 "Dreadnought", the No. 4 "Faith", the No. 5 "Dedication", the No. 6 "Loyalty", the No. 7 "Humility", the No. 8 "Integrity", the No. 9 "Kokang", the No. 10 "Honesty", the eleventh "Mercy" and the twelfth "Justice".

Among them, according to the different fleets served, they are divided into;

The No. 1 ship "Courage", the No. 4 ship "Faith", the No. 7 ship "Humility", the No. 9 ship "Courage", the No. 11 ship "Mercy", and the No. 12 ship "Justice", a total of 6 cruisers served in the Borneo fleet, and the fleet commander's seat ship was the heavy cruiser Qinglong, which was the most powerful of the three first-class fleets.

The commander of the Shangri-La fleet is the heavy cruiser "Suzaku", the second ship "Perseverance" under its command, and the No. 10 ship "Honesty" is the main force of the fleet, which is quite strong.

The commander of the home fleet is the heavy cruiser "Xuanwu", and the third ship "Dreadnought", the fifth ship "dedication", and the eighth ship "integrity", a total of three new cruisers are in service with the home fleet, which is the second largest fleet after the Borneo fleet.

In the naval sequence;

Both the Far East Fleet and the African Fleet belong to the second class fleet, but the Far East Fleet stationed in Okinawa is obviously more valued, because the core interests of the Red Fort are in the South Pacific and the Far East, and on the other hand, it is to deter the Fuso country, which is definitely a role that is not willing to be lonely and needs attention at all times.

Therefore, the newly launched No. 6 "Loyal" cruiser was additionally assigned to the Far East Fleet, as a subordinate ship of the heavy cruiser White Tiger, and such a force could organize a small but strong cruiser fleet in the Far East, so that the little book did not dare to move and was delusional.

As for the poor African fleet, which seems to have been forgotten and does not have a single new cruiser to accompany it, it can be seen from this that the attitude of the African colonies at the time of Li Fushou is about the same.

After all, the African Fleet has the 3,600-ton Naniwa and Takachiho fast cruisers captured from Fuso, and the power on paper is enough.

If needed

This kind of patrol boat can enter the inland river area and has a wide range of uses, which can not only load troops along the river to carry out long-range strikes, but also transport supplies, and use the inland river as the boundary to close the battlefield and prevent the indigenous black people from crossing the border.

It can also be used as a mobile battery, and the most important thing is that it is cheap and good, which is simply a perfect match for the African region.