In line with the intention of quietly making a fortune, after the end of the "Wool War" in July 1910, the Ocean Empire led by Li Fushou did not make any moves in the international arena, but focused wholeheartedly on domestic affairs, electing a new cabinet, merging the metropolises of the Red River Valley, and restoring and rebuilding thousands of factories relocated during the war, all in a low-key manner.

Time flies quickly, a year has passed, and in 1911 there were two major events in the world that shook the world, causing the world to turn its attention to the Far East and West Asia, helping the oceanic empire in the center of the stage to exit safely.

The first is the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in the Qing Dynasty on October 10, 1911, and on January 1 of the second year, the rebel army announced the establishment of the provisional government of the Republic of China in Nanjing, and Sun * was sworn in as the provisional president.

On February 12, Emperor Puyi, a descendant of Emperor Yutai of the Qing Dynasty, issued an edict of abdication of the Qing Emperor, granting Yuan Shikai full powers to organize the provisional government, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was destroyed, and the Republic of China was established.

The second was Italy's decision to go to war against the Ottomans on September 17, 1911, and the declaration of a general mobilization for war on September 19.

If there is any reason for this war, in fact, there is no reason, that is, the Kingdom of Italy sees that the Ottoman Empire is rotten and weak, and it is easy to bully, and it can't wait to go up and take a bite.

The war was fought mainly on the islands of the Mediterranean coast and in Western Asia, which attracted great attention from European countries and public opinion.

Especially when he was ridiculed by German Chancellor Bismarck; "With a bad tooth, but with a good appetite." The Kingdom of Italy made a new appearance, trying to subdue the Ottomans with a thunderous advantage, and play a beautiful battle of public opinion

On 29 September, Italy declared war on the Ottomans, and the Italian navy attacked the Ottoman fleet in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Italian navy ranks 7th in the world, with a total tonnage of 400,000 tons, and the Ottoman navy ranks 14th, less than 70,000 tons, and its naval strength is only 1/6 of the opponent's.

The Ottoman navy's top officers were rife with corruption, the ships were poorly maintained, the soldiers were oppressed and exploited, and they had to go ashore to do small business in order to make a living.

On October 2, Lieutenant General Carlo Caneva, commander of the Seventh Army of the Kingdom of Italy, led an Italian army of 41,000 men to land in Tripoli, while the Ottoman garrison in Libya was only more than 4,000 people.

By the end of October, the Italian army had occupied almost all the coastal ports of Tripoli, Homs, Benghazi, Derna, Tobruk, etc., and in the face of the unfavorable situation on the battlefield, the Ultraman Army tried to reinforce on a large scale, but was blocked by the British.

The land connection between Ottoman Palestine and Libya had to pass through Egypt, but Britain did not allow the Ottoman army to enter Libya through Egypt, and the Ottomans could only watch the ports on the Mediterranean coast fall.

The Ottoman navy was so different in strength from Italy that the seaborne forces committed suicide without controlling the sea.

The Ottomans were forced to mobilize local Arabs to form a guerrilla force of more than 20,000 people to deal with the Italian army.

At this time, Italy had already shown the attributes of the Noodle Army, which belonged to the dual incompetence of positional warfare and guerrilla warfare, and was beaten all over the ground by Ethiopia in Africa, and could not handle the 20,000-strong Arab guerrillas in West Asia, but continued to lose troops.

On November 6, Lieutenant General Carlo Caneva telegraphed Rome to say that there were no 100,000 people who could not take Libya, and that the Italian government had decided to send an additional 70,000 to Libya.

This incident caused a great uproar in European public opinion, considering that the Ottoman Empire's regular army in Libya was only 4,000 people, and there were more than 20,000 Arab guerrillas, and from any point of view, there was no need for an army of 110,000 people to encircle and suppress it.

By January 1912, the Italian army had finally gained a foothold along the Libyan coast, but in the face of the vast desert in the south-central region, the Italian army was discouraged, feeling that the environment was too harsh to even eat a meal of spaghetti, and the battle could not be fought.

Italy decided to recruit 10,000 mercenaries from Somalia to fight the Turks and Arabs in Libya, at a high cost of 160 million lira, which is equivalent to more than 6 million pounds.

So, the famous Somali mercenaries took part in the Ito-Austrian war again, and soon beat the poorly armed Arab guerrillas to the ground, fleeing everywhere.

But guerrilla warfare is like that, it's not hard to defeat the enemy, but it's 10 times more difficult to destroy the enemy completely.

Of course, there is also an intention to raise self-respect.

If the Arab guerrillas are wiped out, what do you need mercenaries for?

The Italo-Austrian War, Britain, the Ocean Empire, Russia openly supported Italy, France declared neutrality, Germany declared neutrality, but continued to send arms to the Ottomans and send military advisers; Austria-Hungary, for its part, openly supported the Ottomans.

The Italian Navy has an overwhelming advantage in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden, but the Army is struggling to advance in the Sahara Desert, relying entirely on Somali mercenaries.

Today's Humen mercenaries are not only Chinese, it can be said that it is an international organization of adventurers from all over the world, there are Germans, British, French, Russians, Dutch, Norwegians, Spaniards, Italians, etc., who advocate the spirit of adventure, forming a unique small and medium-sized mercenary group in the Humen area, and the Chinese are the mainstay of it, accounting for more than 8% of the total number of absolute advantages.

The Italians' single war business directly made the Humen mercenaries supportive.

The reason for this

In the long-term development, many large mercenary teams have firmly occupied the coastal sphere of influence in West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, not only engaged in the mercenary industry, but also operated smuggling caravans, occupied land to collect taxes, opened brothels and casinos and other side businesses, many bigwigs have been laundered ashore, and a large number of early mercenary leaders have made a lot of money and began to turn to the right business.

This is the origin of the Somali merchant gang, these mercenary leaders have fields, land and houses at home, and after turning to a regular business, they make a lot of money, and they don't have to eat sand in the desert of West Asia, who wants to go back to their old business?

Therefore, today's Somali mercenary team is supported by a group of new recruits, and the total number has been greatly reduced, and it has long been less than 10,000.

If it weren't for the import of a batch of new blood from Europe, it would not have been possible to make such a big list of war hires as Italy......

Early March 2012

Castle of Dreams

Immortal Residence Hall

Li Fushou likes the feeling of Dream Castle overlooking the entire Red River Valley metropolis, and he always stays here every few months for a while.

Today, he met with Prime Minister Zhang Li and Speaker of the House of Nobles Fan Zhongzhai here, sat around drinking tea and chatting about some major events at home and abroad.

"Your Majesty, now the great changes in Shenzhou have entered the Republic of China period......"

Zhang Ligang said a word, Li Fushou waved his hand, he didn't want to hear anything about Shenzhou, and he couldn't care about it sincerely, but it only added a lot of trouble.

After the assassination of Gu Zhixue, the Liangguang region, which had been in operation for a long time, was eroded by various forces, and it has long since become unrecognizable and returned to the original track of history.

The Political Intelligence Bureau traced back to the source and found Sheng Yeyun and his family, who were behind the scenes, and brought them to Gu's tomb for execution.

Although it lost the Liangguang region that it originally controlled, the empire has grown to the point where it is today. It already has a strong endogenous population growth momentum, coupled with spontaneous immigration from Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, it can still guarantee nearly one million Chinese immigrants every year.

Spontaneous immigrants are different from policy immigrants in that they are generally of higher quality, have better family backgrounds, and have a much higher proportion of family immigrants during periods of turmoil in the mainland.

Follow current trends

Natural population growth plus immigration is about 4.1 million to 4.4 million per year, with more turbulent years and fewer peaceful years, fluctuating between two or three hundred thousand.

At the end of 1911, the total population of the empire had reached 84.21 million, which had surpassed Germany, and only ranked fifth in the world after Qing, Britain, Russia, and France.

At present, there are no obvious shortcomings in the population growth and the development of industry and agriculture in all aspects of the empire, and now the immigration work, mainly in North and South America, needs to be further strengthened.

Li Fushou took a sip of the teacup, the refreshing tea fragrance was all over the body, he put down the teacup and said slowly;

"How can you see a rainbow without experiencing wind and rain? Every country and nation has its own tribulations, so the same is true of the country, so let's not let mediocrity disturb us.

In 1912, the international community became increasingly turbulent.

The government of the Kingdom of Italy sent several letters to inquire about the Empire's intervention in the Italian-Austrian war, and some of the ministers of the main war faction in the DPRK and China were unwilling to be lonely and advocated intervening in the war.

I rejected them all, why?

It's too much.

The Balkan issue is a long-standing historical problem, and all ethnic groups live together, and there are foreign powers behind them.

I was really dizzy by some petty hooks, and I couldn't figure out the situation.

The essence of the Italo-Austrian war was that the Italians grabbed territory in the Balkans and West Asia, took the initiative to meddle in the complex Balkan powder keg, and it can be seen from the fact that Germany remained neutral on the surface, secretly took the initiative to send arms and military advisers to help the Ottoman Empire, it can be seen that things are not so simple. ”

"Your Majesty, living in the courtyard and the candle is thousands of miles, I can't wait for it." Speaker Fan Zhongzhai waved his hand and said with admiration on his face; "A group of members of the lower house of the Imperial Parliament jumped high, and they couldn't suppress the pressure of shouting and killing, and the group of military nobles in the House of Lords also coaxed, which is really a headache!"

Li Fushou said with a smile; "Then find something to do for them and improve the rule of law, including the urgently needed "Traffic Safety Law", "Trademark Law", "Standard Measurement Law", "Civil Law" revised version, "War Mobilization Law", "Food Safety Law", etc., you see I can list so much in one breath, which shows that there is a long way to go to improve the rule of law, and it will take decades of continuous efforts to achieve phased achievements."

"This is a good way, Weichen and the others will obey Your Majesty's holy will." Fan Zhongzhai replied.

"Hmm!" Li Fushou answered, then looked at Prime Minister Zhang Li, and asked with a warm expression; "Where is the immigration work of the Northern Federation?"

Zhang Li got up and saluted respectfully, Li Fushou beckoned him to sit down and answer, Zhang Li sat down again and organized the following sentences, and replied cautiously;

"Your Majesty;

In the two years since the end of the war in July 1909, the expeditionary force's reinstatement work has progressed smoothly, all the land grants have been in place, and the follow-up preferential loan support policies have been strictly implemented, helping hundreds of thousands of demobilized soldiers to settle in the Northern Federation, and great results have been achieved.

According to statistics;

In the past two years or so, as many as 576,400 officers and soldiers have retired from active duty and have been resettled in Oregon, Iowa, Snow Mountain (formerly Washington State), and Utah, and all of them have entered the reserves, which has played a great role in stabilizing the localities.

With a total of more than 1.3 million officers and soldiers and their families (according to Chinese tradition, non-monogamy), coupled with more than 600,000 Chinese immigrants in the past two or three years, the Chinese population of the Northern Federation has increased to more than 1.3 million, affecting more than 2 million immediate family members.

In the Northern Commonwealth, it is equal to about 2/5 of the ratio.

In the past two years, we have organized forces to deport 100,000 blacks from the Northern Union to the southern states of the United States, a move that has been warmly welcomed by the owners of the southern cotton estates, and now the existence of black residents is basically forbidden in the Northern Union.

After a long period of propaganda and guidance, we believe that the conditions for a referendum in the Northern Union are basically gradually ripe, and we plan to promote the referendum sometime at the end of this year and join the empire.

Before that, we will further increase the intensity of immigration in North America by vigorously subsidizing immigration costs, and strive to immigrate another 400,000 by the end of the year, further consolidate the population structure of the Tang ethnic group that occupies the mainstream ethnic group, continue to promote the popularization of Chinese and English schools, and expand the influence of the Chinese cultural circle. ”

"Sometime at the end of the year, are you sure?"

"Please rest assured that Your Majesty is sure that we will control more than 90% of the votes cast in the referendum, and we have made thorough preparations for this."

"It's okay to have more than 9 percent, don't make it too mysterious, that would be too distorted." Li Fushou nodded to express his satisfaction, and after thinking for a while, he added a sentence and said; "In order to promote legislation in the states of the Northern Union, the threshold for independent referendums in each state must be set at more than 90 percent, so as to eliminate potential dangers that may occur in the future."

"Understood, we'll arrange it."

"What about Panama?"

"Your Majesty, the local government of Panama has acted perversely, persecuting the people is extremely serious, causing many local people to take up arms to resist, and the intermittent guerrilla war has exacerbated the fear of the people, and the population loss has become more serious, and now the whole country has less than 200,000 people left, and we feel that the time is ripe to do it."

"Don't worry, wait a minute, find a way to make a big incident for the guerrillas to enter the city, let the guerrillas run into the city to make trouble, this is much better than doing trouble in the field. The smaller the local population, the less trouble we will have when we take over. ”

"Wechen obeys the holy will."

"Alas, most of those in Central America are descendants of white Spaniards, not to mention anything else, the ability to make trouble is first-class strong, and I am also thinking about long-term peace and stability!"

Li Fushou sighed leisurely, and said with a look of me thinking about you; "Let the troops in the Canal Zone work a little harder, and take the initiative to send them to the surrounding areas far away from the war and turmoil by boat, and give them some tent daily necessities and food as appropriate, remember to send them as far away as possible, and don't be afraid of trouble."

"Obey the order, and the ministers will take care of it." Prime Minister Zhang Li respectfully accepted the order.

He knew in his heart that these refugees who were sent out had no identity documents, and second, they could not prove their houses and fields, so they basically didn't want to come back.