Chapter 216 Military strength is tight
Even if Li Jifeng and Liu Xiang really have any contact in private, the goals pursued by both parties are still very different. Li Jifeng's business activities must be to ensure smooth and stable shipping routes and obtain more commercial benefits, while the pirate gangs want to continuously expand their power and defend their right to exist at sea. Such a cooperative relationship with different goals is destined to be fragile, and the pressure Li Jifeng can put on Liu Xiang's side is certainly quite limited. At least the Crossing Group cannot bet all its money on him.
"And what's the situation with the pirate gang on Dangan Island?" Yu Yao continued to ask.
Schneider said: "From what Li Jifeng said, the group of people on Dangan Island should be working alone and are not Liu Xiang's subordinates."
"It's very troublesome to be so close to Wanshan Islands!" Xiao Liang muttered with a frown while looking at the map. As Schneider predicted, the Military and Police Department would obviously have a headache with this situation.
"How about just killing this group of people, and then we take over the island?" Schneider took the initiative to propose a solution, which was inspired by his previous question and answer with Yu Xiaobao. Although Yu Xiaobao's method is very direct and simple, sometimes simplicity and crudeness can be regarded as a way to solve difficult problems.
"The possibility of victory is very high, but the possibility of complete victory is very small." Xiao Liang carefully checked the map and commented: "If what Li Jifeng said is true, this group of pirates only has one or two hundred people, then we have to win this The place should not be difficult. But this island is more than ten square kilometers. If these people escape to the dense forests and mountains on the island, it will be difficult for us to send enough manpower to slowly chase and suppress them on the island. Go, then our actions will be exposed, which may attract the attention of other pirate groups.”
Yu Yao added: "Dangan Island is only a few nautical miles away from Hong Kong. If someone hides until night and then takes the opportunity to launch a boat into the sea, we can't intercept it even if we want to."
"Also, even if we take down this place, I'm afraid we won't be able to garrison it for the time being." Xiao Liang said with regret.
Schneider asked curiously: "Why don't you send someone to station there? To monitor the waters east of Hong Kong, Dangan Island is a very good observation point. The east end of the island is only about ten nautical miles away from Fotang Gate, the gateway to and from Hong Kong. The weather When it’s good, you can observe the situation on the sea nearby with the naked eye.”
"Of course I know this, but don't forget our current armament level. Just a supply problem is difficult to solve. Moreover, the scale of our existing militia is very limited. There are only a few hundred people, and they are often full during the training period. Before it was completed, he was already taken out to serve as a regular military envoy. "Speaking of this problem, Xiao Liang was really helpless. The lack of soldiers was one of the important reasons that limited the expansion speed of the crossing group, but if he wanted to expand his soldiers, he had to face another problem. More practical questions.
"Isn't the establishment of your military and police department ready to be promoted to the battalion level? Mr. Tao and Mr. Yan were promoted to the rank of major three months ago. The reason given by your military and police department at that time was to facilitate management. The rank of major serves as the battalion commander!" Schneider said disapprovingly.
Schneider remembers this very clearly. At that time, there was a lot of fuss about the military and police department's expansion of its establishment. Later, this matter was specially submitted to the executive committee for discussion. Although many people questioned the expansion speed and funding plan of the military and police department, However, they finally agreed to the request of the Military and Police Department and agreed to the plan to recruit the third batch of naturalized civilian soldiers. After the third batch of militiamen completed their training and were included in the establishment, the establishment scale of the Military and Police Department was increased from the previous company level to At the battalion level, the total number of militia and security personnel will reach more than 500 people.
"Is one battalion too many? Then let me count them for you." Yu Yao started to count the current establishment of the Military and Police Department with his fingers: "There are currently four companies in the militia, and Heitu Port occupies one company. The establishment of the base camp is actually only three companies. Among them, the security team still occupies the establishment of one company. There are only two companies of real armed militia. Currently, one company is doing maritime training and preparing to develop into the navy in the future. , the other company focuses on artillery training, and plans to serve as a garrison for the Shengli Port coastal defenses in the future. The size of the existing troops is not enough to meet the current military needs. How can there be places to be stationed in overseas strongholds? It is the stronghold of the Wanshan Islands, and we have to wait until at least the end of this year and the beginning of next year to implement the plan. The fastest we can do about Dangan Island is next year.”
"But your Military and Police Department's militia has more than 500 people. Is it really that difficult to send a few people to build a stronghold on the island?" Schneider did not fully agree with Yu Yao's explanation.
"Not all of the more than five hundred people are combat troops!" Xiao Liang shook his head and retorted: "These five hundred people include militiamen with security, artillery, sailors, logistics, baggage, communications, medical and other professional militia. These auxiliary soldiers It is not suitable to be sent to the front line to perform combat missions. Although we have hundreds of people, the real army combat troops are actually very limited.”
"And this kind of surveillance stronghold must be staffed by our people. Otherwise, the radio cannot be used, and the meaning of establishing a stronghold will be lost." Yu Yao went on to talk about another reason: "The danger of this kind of mission is comparable to that of stationing a stronghold." There are too many Yafu and Guangdong offices. That stronghold may be attacked by pirates and needs to be stationed for a long time. The Executive Committee may not agree to the Military and Police Department taking this risk.”
After listening to their explanations, Schneider realized that his previous ideas were really too simplistic. Planning a military operation is not just about making a simple decision to "fight" or "not fight". There are many other factors that need to be considered. The current military scale of the Crossing Group is not enough to support large-scale outward expansion - even if this expansion is just the establishment of one or two more overseas strongholds, it is not so easy to achieve.
Xiao Liang sighed: "If the Executive Committee had opened up and approved our militia training plan, maybe we wouldn't have to worry so much now."
"It's not the intellectuals who are causing trouble! They don't know any common sense about military affairs. Every time they have a meeting, they know how to use the budget of our military and police departments to talk about things. Apart from stumbling upon the military and police departments, they can't help anything! The report on the expansion of the militia I've called him countless times, but every time I didn't call him back with the excuse of budget overrun." Yu Yao complained angrily. When he looked up, he found that Schneider's face didn't look good, and he quickly explained: "Mr. Shi, I'm not talking about that. You.”
Schneider's face really didn't look good, because he was among the people who voted down the expansion plan of the Military and Police Department. The civilian government has always been wary of the growing power of the Military and Police Department, especially when it comes to proposals such as increasing military expenditures and expanding staffing, and they are generally opposed to them.
This is not entirely because the civil service system is unconditionally competing with the Military and Police Department. In fact, in terms of budget, the relevant departments do have difficulties. The cost of raising a soldier requires the work of several labor forces to make up for the gap. The expansion of the Military and Police Department A company may only be a matter of words, but for the human resources department, hundreds of additional laborers are needed to make up for this funding gap, and the financial department has to change various budget arrangements that have been made for this purpose. No matter from which angle you look at it, military expansion is a measure that affects the whole body. Moreover, considering the current foreign policy of Chuanchuan Group, which focuses on developing commerce and trade, military expansion will undoubtedly occupy a lot of foreign trade resources and slow down the revenue from foreign trade. , and these are things that the Military and Police Department does not know much about and is unwilling to understand.
Such differences of opinion can also be resolved through communication within the executive committee, and most of them reach some kind of agreement after mutual compromise. However, ordinary members may not fully understand the basis for the decision-making of the Executive Committee, so there are still many people with more extreme ideas like Yu Yao. Moreover, this kind of thing is difficult to explain, because different positions have different perspectives on the problem. Peripheral personnel may only regard military expansion as a purely political stance or economic issue, but only a few people with decision-making power know this. How involved is this and what difficulties will be encountered in its implementation.
There is nothing to say about not being in one's position and not seeking to govern, so although Schneider looked a little ugly, he had no intention of explaining to them the twists and turns of the inside story at this juncture - even if he explained it, they might not be able to understand it. Instead, one might think that the decision-making process of the Executive Committee is too bureaucratic. "So now even though we know that Liu Xiang's territory is in the east of Hong Kong and that there is a small group of pirates on Dangan Island, we still can't do anything?" Schneider still felt a little unwilling that the intelligence he had worked so hard to collect could not be used immediately.
"Military construction is not to start a war immediately, but to win when a war starts." Xiao Liang had to emphasize what he said before: "The work we are doing now will not be used immediately. It may even never play a role in the battle, but the preparations must still be done, and we must not be sloppy at all, because if we are negligent during the preparation stage, the price we pay may be the lives of soldiers. ! ”
"Got it." Schneider responded listlessly, stood up and said, "You guys can continue to study the strategy. I'd better go and see if the goods ordered yesterday have been delivered."
After Schneider left, the remaining two people drew on the map for a long time. Finally, Yu Yao couldn't help but give up: "If troops are to be stationed on Dangan Island, at least one platoon will be required. But with the current scale of the militia, I estimate that the Executive Committee can at most approve a platoon for the Wanshan Islands, but Dangan Island may not be able to do anything about it.”
Xiao Liang also sighed and said: "Without the troops, no matter how well planned it is, this battle will not be fought. According to the arrangements of the base camp, I am afraid that there will be no militia available in the near future."
Xiao Liang was right. The Executive Committee has recently used the militia in other places. The plan for the Pearl River Estuary can only be put aside for the time being, and further plans will be made when the demand for military power can be alleviated.
After the second echelon completed their inspection of Ironforge Port, the inspection results they obtained have been fed back to the base camp through telegraph communication on the way. The decision-making speed of the base camp was also very fast. Just two days later, a second expedition team was sent to Iron Furnace Port. In addition to people from the shipping and military police departments, this second inspection team also included technical staff from the Ministry of Construction, and Anxi, an authority on salt field construction.
Although the executive committee has not yet announced the final decision, Anxi's personal intervention has actually determined that Tielugang will be the next construction area of the Cross Group, and is likely to assume the main production task of salt in the near future. .
This second expedition team stayed in the Tielugang area for three full days and made a very detailed investigation of the local hydrology, geography, colonial settlement construction conditions, etc. At the request of the Executive Committee, the Ministry of Construction has even selected the local settlement site and the construction site of the first phase of the salt farm project, and made a relatively detailed plan. Although the Military and Police Department has given up on the plan to set up coastal defense artillery at the entrance to Tielu Port, the necessary lookout and early warning posts must still be there. For this reason, people from the Military and Police Department have also been in and out of Tielu Port several times. , and specially climbed to several commanding heights in Tieliangjiao to determine the location of the outpost. Because Anxi has rich practical experience, he will be responsible for overall control, summarizing the preparatory work done by various departments, and then formulating a unified construction plan.
In order to cooperate with the Tieliang Port development project, the Executive Committee had to activate control measures again, providing policy preferences for the preparations for the Tieliang Port project, and requiring all relevant departments to fully ensure the needs of materials and personnel. In particular, the large amount of cement required to build the salt ponds. For this reason, the executive committee even stopped the coastal defense fort construction at the Port of Victory Port in advance to save the cement and supply it to the Iron Furnace Port project on a limited basis. Of course, the consequence of this was strong protest from the Military and Police Department.
In terms of manpower, the Human Resources Department also responded to the call of the Executive Committee and began to recruit a new batch of members for the immigrants who came to Victory Port. Some of these new members will be assigned to existing saltworks communes to fill the labor vacancies left by the salt workers who will be transferred to Ironforge Harbor. The remaining people will be assigned to Tielugang. After completing the initial infrastructure tasks, they will all be included in the establishment of the future Tielugang Saltworks Commune.
At the same time, the renovation and expansion work of the existing Shengli Port Salt Farm has not stopped. Although the innate geographical conditions of the Shengli Port Salt Farm restrict development, a small half of the area is still not fully developed and utilized. After this part of the renovation project is completed, the production capacity of the salt farm is expected to double on the current basis.
Of course, this relatively large-scale construction of a new colony will definitely require the participation of militiamen. In order to effectively guarantee the security of the new salt field, the Military and Police Department must send at least one platoon of militiamen to garrison. This is undoubtedly another test for the currently stretched militia force. Of course, the Military and Police Department did not forget to take advantage of this opportunity and once again proposed to the Executive Committee the proposal to expand the militia establishment.
However, this time Yan Chujie learned his lesson and learned the lesson from the rejection of previous proposals, and instead proposed a curve-saving solution, which was to only expand the number of trainees but not the formal militia establishment.
Simply put, this plan is to popularize popular military training and conduct large-scale phased military training for naturalized civilians of a designated age group. This kind of training does not seek to train all commune members to the fighting level of the militia, but it requires mastering basic military skills and knowing how to obey and execute military orders. Naturalized civilians who have undergone this kind of training will not be the main force in military operations in the future, but may serve as auxiliary units such as logistics and baggage, and if necessary, can be used as a source of troops to supplement the main combat force. The establishment of real full-time soldiers will not be affected by this training plan, and will not be expanded for the time being - if expansion is really needed, they can be directly recruited from naturalized civilians who have received certain military training.
This plan is much less expensive than the military expansion plans originally proposed by the Military and Police Department, both in terms of military expenditures and manpower. It will not have such a great impact on the economy and human resources of the Crossing Group. Moreover, the current development trend of the Crossing Group is There is indeed a need for more people with certain military skills, so the Executive Committee does not have much resistance to this proposal. If nothing unexpected happens, this plan will be passed at the centralized voting meeting of the Executive Committee this week.
The reason why the base camp is rushing to launch a new salt farm project is that on the one hand, it has previously formulated a corresponding development plan due to objective needs, and on the other hand, it is news from Vietnam.
On the second day after the second echelon set off from Victory Port to Guangzhou, the coal ship returning from Black Tu Port brought back news that there were big businessmen in Thang Long Province in the north, that is, Hanoi, who hoped to conduct large-scale transactions with the Crossing Group. Salt trade - 100,000 kilograms of Haihan refined salt per month. The other party said that as long as the supply is stable, the price and transaction method are easy to negotiate. Currently, due to the civil war, local salt production has been almost abandoned. The price of salt on the market has soared, several times higher than the normal price. It is still affordable but not available. The merchant sent by Heitu Port tentatively quoted a price of two hundred taels of silver per thousand catties, and the other side agreed quickly.
This price has reached four times the current price of private salt supply to the outside world, and the demand from the other party is also large enough. It is a very profitable business for the Crossing Group, and it is definitely impossible to let it go - in order to To seize this big deal, it is worthwhile even to suspend the supply of salt to the mainland first.
And the other party also agreed that barter could be used when necessary. For example, the high-quality rice produced in the Red River Triangle could be used as a price in exchange for the refined salt produced in Haihan. In addition, after repeated testing by the Black Earth Port, the other party seemed to be very interested in the arms produced by the Crossing Group and intended to purchase them for trial use.
(End of chapter)