After both parties have signed the VAM agreement.

The cooperation was reached.

And Lu Xiangsheng and others, who achieved the purpose of buying a car, did not leave Harbour City immediately, but stayed for a while.

They first went to a professional cycling training school to learn how to ride a bicycle under the guidance of a professional instructor.

This process is naturally inevitable wrestling and bumps, if it weren't for the excellent quality of the bicycles in the training school, maybe they would have to be tossed and damaged by these rough people.

Fortunately, they are all relatively smart, as short as three days, as long as five days, that is, Sun Yuanhua, an old man who has just passed his fifties, did not fall into a big problem during the practice process, and also rode the bicycle fast in three or four days, which shows that the adaptability and learning ability of the ancients are very strong.

After learning to ride a bike.

Lu Xiangsheng and others were arranged into the No. 1 bicycle production factory, as interns, doing some chores on the assembly line, helping to make screws, understanding the structure of Jinlong brand bicycles, and even learning how to repair bicycles.

The purpose of this is to let them learn how to maintain, maintain and repair the bicycle, so as not to use it without repairing, and it will not take long for the bike to break down, or it will be difficult to use or not use.

In addition, staying in the bicycle factory, they can also intuitively see the output of bicycles, and directly receive, one by one, personally counting, the quality is more aware of the whole process, by them to check the whole process, so as to avoid a lot of problems.

Finally, there is capacity.

At present, the production capacity of the first bicycle factory has climbed to 1,000 units per week.

However, under the overtime mode of two shifts, the production capacity can be increased to 1,200 vehicles/week; If the workers work overtime in three shifts, the assembly line runs 24 hours a day, and the maximum capacity is about 1,800 vehicles per week.

The order of 7,000 bicycles can be delivered to Tianxiongjun in about six weeks.

……

In the sixth year of Chongzhen, March 28.

Lu Xiangsheng and others, who had been in the harbor city for half a month, finally embarked on the journey back to the Daimyo's Mansion.

But this time they didn't ride back, but each of them rode a Jinlong brand bicycle (the previous horses, Xujiazhuang had already arranged for someone to deal with them).

Along the flat cement road more than three meters wide, Lu Xiangsheng and others pedaled hard, riding the fastest speed they could achieve.

"Fifty yards, I'm afraid this speed is more than fifty yards (1 yard = 1 kilometer)." In the sound of the wind whirring in his ears, Lu Xiangsheng, who was riding in the front, said loudly.

"At a speed of 100 miles per hour, at this speed, you can ride thousands of miles in a day!" Zhang Huayu behind him.

"This is not much slower than riding a horse, and the endurance is much stronger, and it can carry more than 100 catties of baggage." The entourage Li Chongzhen sighed.

"Slow down, slow down, I'm riding a little hard, wait for me!" Sun Yuanhua, who was lagging behind, said.

Lu Xiangsheng had to slow down a little bit, maintaining a speed of twenty yards per hour.

And not far behind them, followed by a caravan of thousands of people from Xujiazhuang, each of them riding a Golden Dragon brand bicycle, also at a speed of fifteen to twenty yards per hour, not fast or slow, each carrying more than two hundred catties of goods, the destination is also to the Daimyo's Mansion.

In other words, the bicycles that this caravan rode and the commercial goods they carried were all prepared for the Tianxiong Army, which was purchased by Lu Xiangsheng.

And this is only the first batch, and there will be a second and third batches later, which will be sent to the Daimyo's Mansion in a steady stream with the efficiency of sending one batch every week.

It's just that after leaving Yangzhou Mansion and getting off the cement road built by Xujiazhuang, riding on the dusty, potholed and muddy official road, even the speed of the bicycle will be reduced by a large margin, and there is a risk of slipping and overturning.

When Lu Xiangsheng passed by a mud puddle, he accidentally slipped and fell to the ground, making him covered in yellow mud, which was quite embarrassing.

"What a broken road! Why can't the cement road in Xujiazhuang be paved all over the world, everywhere? ”

He couldn't help but scold, but also found that it may also be related to the fact that he wore a Confucian robe and did not wear tight trousers, and his flexibility was seriously affected, so in order to avoid and reduce wrestling, even if as a Confucian he was very reluctant to Xu Jiazhuang's clothing style, and had to change to a pair of tight trousers, and quickly realized the benefits, he would not shout out if he was really fragrant, but he had to admit that Xu Jiazhuang, who was pursuing efficiency in all aspects, had indeed achieved the ultimate.

……

It's April.

The spring ploughing work of the estates has begun one after another.

However, recently, the senior personnel of Xujiazhuang have held meetings for many days and made a major decision:

Expand!

Recruit a large number of young and strong, and greatly increase the number of Xu Jiajun.

The number of Xu Jiajun personnel has been increased from 11,500 to more than 50,000, and about 40,000 new recruits will be recruited.

As a result, the establishment of 100 companies in 10 battalions of two brigades of the Xu Jiajun was expanded to 500 companies in 50 battalions of 10 brigades, that is, the establishment of the army was expanded by five times.

Generally speaking, according to the new army structure, brigades are the basic combat units participating in campaign-level battles, including five battalions, including three infantry battalions, one artillery battalion, and one logistics baggage battalion, with each battalion numbering between 1,000 and 1,200 men.

Each battalion has ten companies, five of which are backbone companies, two firepower companies, two logistics companies, and one company directly under the battalion headquarters, each with between 100 and 120 men.

Each company is divided into six platoons or ten squads, so I won't go into details.

In short, it is basically the above structure.

But the biggest problem comes, the current Xujiazhuang, the development is stable and good, the external environment is relatively peaceful and tranquil, last year occurred outside Yangzhou City, the Jiangnan war has broken the backbone of the Jiangnan gentry, can no longer raise the fighting spirit against Xujiazhuang, coupled with the deterrent effect of the "unfriendly list", most of the Jiangnan gentry, had to choose to lie flat and rotten, or put their hopes on the imperial court, dare not directly challenge Xujiazhuang.

Therefore, for Xujiazhuang, the external environment is quite peaceful and friendly, and there are not many threats, which is a good opportunity for development and development.

Isn't it a bit inappropriate to suddenly carry out a large-scale military expansion at this time, which may cause surprise in the surrounding areas, arouse the vigilance and uneasiness of the imperial court, and may even lead to miscalculation and confrontation.

That being said.

But after some observation and analysis, Xu Yuan believes that it is the right time and very necessary to expand the army now!

There are three main reasons for this.

First, the population size controlled by Xujiazhuang has increased to about 2.3 million, but Xujiazhuang's army has only more than 10,000 people, and there are obviously more people and fewer soldiers, which leads to the weakening of internal control and the crime rate may rise, so it is necessary to expand the army and enhance internal stability.

Second, prepare in advance for the next stage of expansion, although the current Xujiazhuang is far from ready for further expansion, the talents cultivated, and the materials prepared are not enough, and it will take at least three or even five years to start the next round of expansion, but this does not affect the preparation in advance, and take precautions.

After all, it is much better to do a good job in building up military strength now than to be in a hurry for a while.

Third, it serves the maritime strategy.

On March 19 last month, the Harbour City Shipyard, the first 'Yaowu' battleship, was successfully launched, the ship type, tonnage, power and other performance parameters, similar to that of a marine-class cargo ship, but the internal materials are more solid, the surface is attached to a layer of steel armor brushed with anti-corrosion paint, the empty tonnage is 1300 tons, the full tonnage is 2000 tons, and it is also equipped with a 7000 horsepower three-cylinder steam engine, with a maximum speed of about 20 knots.

That is, the naval fleet of Xujiazhuang finally had the first battleship, and finally changed from zero to one.

In the future, the number of warships owned by the Xujiazhuang naval fleet will increase to ten, twenty, fifty, hundred, and even thousands of terrifying ships, creating an invincible maritime fleet.

But every warship needs to be controlled and controlled by the crew.

In the future, every time Xujiazhuang expands a colony overseas, every colonial estate it opens up, and every time it defeats the resistance of Western colonial forces and natives, it will also need a large number of marines to go to a foreign land to carry out landing operations.

Therefore, in Xu Jiajun's expansion plan this time, the number of troops will be increased from 11,500 to more than 30,000, and another 20,000 naval personnel (including marines) will be recruited.

That is, to build a powerful navy and truly implement the "Maritime Strategy".

High-level meetings.

Xu Yuan said to everyone: "The future era must belong to the era of the ocean, even if it is not our ocean era for the time being, we must create an ocean era that belongs to Xujiazhuang." ”

"You all have to broaden your horizons, and look at this globe before you, where we occupy only one-third of our land area and more than two-thirds of our oceans, and we can reach almost any corner of the world through the well-connected shipping lanes."

"The most important thing is resources, as long as we have strength, we can get the resources of the whole world."

"For example, in this location in the southernmost part of Africa, there is a huge gold mine with reserves of more than 50,000 tons, and even if only a fifth of it is mined, we will be the one who has the most gold."

"For example, this big island called Australia, a large red area here, full of red iron ore, all open-pit deposits, with total reserves of more than 100 billion tons, is very easy to mine, enough for Xujiazhuang for hundreds of years."

"For example, this American continent, to the north is an endless cold temperate forest, which can not be cut for hundreds of years, and further down, there is a beautiful great plain of 1.53 million square kilometers, most of which is covered by fertile black soil, and can be renamed 'Tianci Xujiazhuang Plain' in the future, if this plain is all reclaimed, it can feed a billion people."

"There is also the Pampas Plateau in South America, which covers an area of 760,000 square kilometers and has few trees, which is the most suitable place for grazing, as long as this pasture is used, it can at least feed hundreds of millions of cattle and sheep, and bring us countless meat, milk and wool."

"Everyone, look outward, can not be limited to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, the treasure land handed down by the ancestors, is very good, it can be called the treasure of the world, outstanding people, but we must also take down all the treasure land in the world, grab it, for all of us, use, for our descendants to leave countless wealth, so that they can live a life ten times better than now, a hundred times better, as long as this goal can be achieved, we are the incarnation of Shura, by countless righteous people scolded what about it? This is much better than the people of later generations scolding us for being complacent and scolding us for missing great opportunities, as long as future generations thank us for our expansion and competition, then this is the right thing to do! ”

"The First Evolution"

After listening to Xu Yuan's words.

All the high-level executives present were greedy, excited, and enthusiastic!

What the owner said is so good, so right, it is simply the truth that is absolutely correct and must be correct!

If they are ignorant and ignorant, they will be limited by the lack of information in this era, and no matter what gold and silver mountains exist beyond the sea, they will not be interested and excited, because everything is unknown, and the risks they need to take are great, so they can only choose to be complacent.

But what about now?

A large gold mine with reserves of 50,000 tons.

Open-pit iron ore with reserves of 100 billion tons.

The beautiful Great Plains with an area of 1.53 million square kilometers.

A high-quality prairie with an area of 760,000 square kilometers without a single tree.

So many resources and treasures were placed in front of them, and now they knew the specific location, and now there were ships to find a way to reach them.

Then what is there to hesitate and entangle, the moral troubles can only make them pause and feel guilty for a few tenths of a second.

Then a frenzied cheer erupted.

The expansion of the military was unanimously adopted.