Chapter 2924
While Li Yuandezhang was intensively preparing for his next move in Sanya, on Luzon Island at the other end of the South China Sea, the garrison troops were already preparing to set off south.
The Manila authorities have been on hold in recent years, failing to completely clean up the Spanish colonial forces still operating in the southern Philippine Islands. It is generally believed that Qiu Yuan and Xiao Liang, who are in charge of Manila, do not seem to have much ambition to expand their territory, but focus all their energy on the development and management of Luzon Island.
But this is just a superficial phenomenon. This pair of partners are not so honest and kind people. The reason why they do not take further action against the Spaniards in the southern Philippines Islands actually has a very practical reason.
After Haihan captured Manila from the Spanish in 1637, there was no opponent comparable to Haihan's army in the central and northern parts of the Philippine Islands, including Luzon.
Although the indigenous tribes in some places were unwilling to submit to Haihan's rule, the primitive swords and bows were ultimately no match for strong ships and cannons. The efficiency of the Haihan army in destroying hostile tribes was much higher than that of the Spaniards. In just a few years, Lu All the rebels on Song Island were wiped out.
If there are no opponents, there seems to be no need to continue to maintain a large armed force. At this time, the Executive Committee had begun to shift its focus to the mainland and put military resources into the far north. While containing the Manchu and Qing Dynasties for the Ming Dynasty, it gradually encroached on the southeastern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty.
During this period, the top priority of the Manila authorities was no longer external expansion, but to try to maintain the scale of the existing armed forces on hand and prevent the Executive Committee from finding reasons to reduce military expenditures, control armaments, or even disband local armies.
Therefore, the defensive pressure from external hostile forces became the best reason for the Manila authorities to maintain local armed forces. Even though the Spanish's sphere of influence has shrunk to the sea thousands of miles south of Manila, under Qiu Yuan and Xiao Liang's efforts to exaggerate, the Spanish still play the role of "a major regional threat" to Haihan.
To put it bluntly, this actually means that the bandits are self-respecting, but in this special period, no one is investigating the inner truth. The Executive Committee only needed the Manila authorities to suppress Spain's northward expansion, and did not want them to fall into a time-consuming and energy-consuming battle for islands in the southern Philippine Islands.
Even after successfully driving away the Spanish and occupying some islands, Haihan did not have enough energy to develop these areas at that time. Instead, he had to invest more Han immigrants and garrison troops in the local areas to maintain his rule, which was not in line with the rule of law. The committee's major policy policy was to shift the center of governance northward. Even if the Luzon Region wants to do this, it may not be able to get the support of the Executive Committee.
Therefore, under the influence of many internal and external factors, the Luzon Region has maintained a subtle attitude in recent years. On the one hand, it has proactively reduced its conquests against the Spanish colonists in the south, allowing the Spaniards to continue to survive; on the other hand, it has Still maintaining a considerable scale of local armed forces, patiently waiting for opportunities to arise.
Although this has greatly slowed down the Luzon Region's external expansion, due to the significant reduction in military operations, the Luzon Region has also been able to invest more resources in the development and construction of existing sites, and its financial situation has been improving over the years. .
However, the military expenditures allocated to garrison troops have not been affected by the reduction in military operations. On the contrary, they have been increasing year by year. However, advanced weapons and equipment are given priority to the Northern Region and Donghai Region, which are in the war zone. Even if the Luzon Region is willing to spend money, it will be difficult to implement large-scale equipment upgrades for the garrison troops.
However, such frustrating days are over. With Qian Tiandun and the special warfare division moving south, Haihan's external expansion direction has finally begun to adjust. The South China Sea area, which has been shelved for ten years, finally has hope. A long time coming opportunity. According to the discussion results of the Cam Ranh Port Conference, the Luzon Region will be responsible for the external offensive on the east side of the South China Sea. The planned scope of military operations includes but is not limited to the southern Philippine Islands, Borneo, Sulawesi Island, Maluku Islands and other vast areas. .
To carry out military operations in such a large area, the Luzon Region certainly has sufficient reasons to expand its military and prepare for it. After the meeting at Cam Ranh Port, Xiao Liang immediately applied to the Ministry of National Defense to purchase a batch of weapons and equipment for the Fourth Detachment of the South China Sea Fleet and the Fourth Army Division under the Luzon Region to replace those currently on the list. Loaded with lots of old equipment.
The purchase list proposed by Xiao Liang includes 4,000 new rifles, 150 artillery pieces of various calibers, 12 latest model warships, as well as special weapons such as grenades, mines, and sea mines. There are also a large number of military uniforms, ordnance, tents, medicine and other supplies.
The entire list contains more than 70 procurement items. Regardless of the type of items or the total amount, this is the largest military purchase order in the Luzon Region in the past ten years.
Xiao Liang also generously said that since the Ministry of National Defense and the Manila authorities have not yet reached a conclusion on the military expenditure sharing for this operation, the Manila authorities can advance the procurement funds for these equipment and supplies.
Of course, Xiao Liang also understood that the Luzon Region's request was a big deal. Not to mention whether the Ministry of National Defense could agree to it, even if it agreed, the Ministry of National Defense did not have enough inventory to complete the delivery in a short period of time. The final review result will probably be that both parties take a step back. The orders submitted by the Luzon Region will be significantly reduced, but the advantage is that the proportion of spot delivery will be greatly increased.
As for whether the equipment delivered to the Luzon Region can reach the same level as the special warfare division, Xiao Liang does not have too many illusions about this. One is the local garrison that has made basically no achievements in recent years, and the other is the ace unit of the Haihan Army, the undefeated division respected by all people. It is completely impossible for the two to enjoy the same treatment.
The more practical goal is to first replace the "antiques" from the 1930s that are still used by local garrisons, so that the combat effectiveness of the troops can be effectively improved.
Xiao Liang is also a little worried. If the generation difference of the replacement equipment is too big, the troops may need some time to adapt to the new equipment, and such an adaptation period will greatly delay the progress of military operations. From this perspective, temporarily retaining and using some old equipment is not necessarily a bad thing.
The response of the Ministry of National Defense was beyond Xiao Liang's expectation. There was no bargaining negotiation process. Yan Chujie directly cut off half of the order, and then quickly allocated part of it from the weapons inventory to deliver to the Luzon Region.
Although this is far from Xiao Liang's original procurement target, at least the delivery period is short enough. Xiao Liang was even able to organize some of the troops to replace weapons and equipment for a ten-day assault training before the operation began.
Xiao Liang actually knew that it would be difficult for the soldiers to adapt to the new weapons in such a short period of time, but in order to launch operations as soon as possible, he had to hurry up and get the weapons ready.
(End of chapter)