Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2178 partial security regime

On May 1692, 5, a large cargo ship was sailing on the East China Sea.

This is a 1200-ton large clipper cargo ship eliminated from the local area. It belongs to the Immigration Department and can be used to transport goods and personnel.Once, after sailing from South Africa to Dinghai Port, it was sold to the Bank of Taiwan according to the prior agreement and became one of the largest ships of the company.

In fact, the Bank of Taiwan did not intend to buy this ship, mainly because the service life of this ship is a bit long and the hull is relatively dilapidated, especially after the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.But there is no way, the transportation capacity in the Far East is already in short supply. Food from North Korea, coal from Sakhalin Island, timber from Manchuria, and building materials from Denglai are all bulk materials, and the transportation volume is increasing year by year. .

In the past few years, because of the peace with the Qing Dynasty, the transportation capacity of the east coast government or private companies (mainly the Bank of Taiwan) has been greatly improved, and a large number of ships have been liberated from the state of requisition and can be used for various civilian transportation.At that time, the sea freight rate fell again and again, and the businessmen who were engaged in overseas trade were smiling.

However, the speed of economic development is also amazing.Especially after the economies of North Korea, Japan, Fujian, Guangdong, and Nanyang were more deeply integrated, the transportation volume of various materials increased year by year, which gradually swallowed up the original redundant transportation capacity and pushed up the price of freight.

Taking the Ningshao area as an example, as more and more manufacturers use steam power, the consumption of coal is also increasing day by day.Seeing the business opportunity, the Bank of Taiwan increased its efforts to transport coal from Sakhalin Island, and gained a lot of profits from it.For the transportation of bulk materials such as coal, large-tonnage ships are undoubtedly the first choice. This explains why they bought the old ship from the Immigration Department and did not hesitate to overhaul it to prolong its life. The market is really booming.

Today, this large cargo ship set sail from Heishui Port in Sakhalin Island. On the way, it stopped at Ishinomaki Port in Sendai, Japan, unloaded some war horses, armor, saddles, sabers, guns, etc. Some Japanese sea goods, screens, folding fans, samurai swords, and copper pieces set sail directly to Dinghai Port along the northeast wind.

Dinghai is the largest consumer goods market in Ningshao area, and it is also a large production base of light industrial products.The coal, wood, medicinal materials, leather goods, wild goods and Japanese specialties loaded by the cargo ship were sold at a good price here. At the same time, they loaded a lot of textiles and re-exported goods from neighboring areas and set sail for Mawei Port, Fujian.

Zheng Kezang's status in Fujian is basically as stable as Mount Tai.The execution of Feng Xifan, Liu Guoxuan and their henchmen has greatly shocked those officials in Fujian Province who had some doubts about their succession. Now they are all behaved. No matter what strange thoughts they have, let's spend this time in a low-key manner. .

Under the advice of the military adviser on the east bank, Zheng Kezang comprehensively reformed the military system and eliminated most of the army officers and soldiers who were dawdling or lacking skills. Only 3 elite soldiers were retained and organized into three divisions.Zheng Kezang appointed division commanders one by one, and planned to use these three divisions as seeds to reorganize at least [-] troops.

Of course, the East Coast consultant is not very optimistic about his idea.If the [-] army is configured according to the current configuration of the new army, Fujian's finances will not be able to afford it. Even if they have obtained a lot of money through overseas trade, this is still impossible.You know, Fujian also maintains a navy of the same size!

To be honest, Fujian's navy has been shrinking for many years.This is actually easy to understand. In Zheng Zhilong's era, there were no big bases on land, and the expenditure on land defense was very small, and most of the funds were spent on the navy.But after occupying the whole Fujian, the situation is quite different!To the west of them is Jiangxi, the core province of Shunguo. There is a long border between the two provinces, and there are many soldiers and horses that need to be stationed; and to the south, they once fought against the Li family of Guangdong for Chaozhou Prefecture. Although Chaozhou has returned Li Yuanyin, but as long as the Zheng family does not give up their ambition to invade Chaozhou, it is necessary to station a large number of soldiers and horses here and prepare a lot of war materials; their only relatively peaceful border is probably the place where the northern part meets the king of Lu , is basically very loose, and there are very few soldiers and horses, only a mere three thousand people.

Therefore, the pressure on the Fujian regime's land defense is very high, and the expenditure is also very large, so it has to greatly reduce the expenditure on the navy.Of course, it is inaccurate to say that the navy’s expenditure is reduced. After all, the Fujian Navy’s funds have not been significantly reduced in terms of absolute amounts, but the problem is that the proportion has been greatly reduced, and now that it has been formalized, the expenditure has also increased sharply.

To give an example, the Fujian navy in Zheng Zhilong's previous era consisted of a small number of professional officers and soldiers, supplemented by a large number of fishermen.These fishermen usually make a living by farming and fishing at home. This does not require Zheng to pay any fees. During wartime, they are recruited and set up their own boats to the designated places. The core professional officers and soldiers of Zheng will distribute weapons and equipment to them. , directing them to fight, only at this time will the cost be incurred.In addition, there were many small and medium-sized pirate organizations at that time. They managed themselves on weekdays, and they might follow Zheng Zhilong to fight in wartime, but the expenditure of this part was actually not heavy.

However, after the Zheng family acquired the entire province of Fujian, they began to formalize it, and everything was different.The number of professional officers and soldiers of the Fujian Navy has greatly increased, and the maintenance costs have naturally increased greatly.Therefore, although the size of the Fujian Navy has shrunk too much compared to before, the expenditure has not increased, but the proportion of military expenditure has decreased a lot.

The Fujian Navy has also undergone reforms now.After Liu Guoxuan, the No. 1 naval division, was ransacked and exterminated, Zheng Kezang organized the entire Fujian Navy into two parts at the suggestion of the east coast consultant, namely the coastal defense fleet mainly composed of small boats, non-professional warships, and miscellaneous ships. A member of the Zheng clan served as the admiral of the fleet; in addition, the warships purchased from the east coast and the warships he imitated formed the Ocean Fleet. Fleet Admiral.

Huang Youcai was in his thirties, and his qualifications were slightly shallow. It seemed that he was not suitable to be the leader of the Ocean Fleet.But because this person has been studying the new generation of naval techniques and tactics in Sakhalin Island for many years, he also participated in the supervision of the first modern warship of the Fujian Navy (the imitation "Yaksa" class 30-ton armed transport ship). The shipyard helped imitate this warship, and its strength in all aspects is very outstanding, because it was appointed as the admiral of the Ocean Fleet, officially in charge of the elite of the Fujian Navy.

Of course, Zheng Kezang is not a three-year-old child, and he also doubts whether Huang Youcai has been controlled by the East Bank, so he also sent two senior and loyal generals to serve as deputy admirals. They don't take care of daily training. , except for fighting, but has a great say in logistics and personnel, and at the same time forms cliques to prevent the navy from being twisted into a god, so as not to be taken away by Huang Youcai alone.

This will of course lead to problems in the combat effectiveness of the navy, but for the sake of the superiors' peace of mind, this is the only way to go.In this era, there is no concept of nationalism or nationalism, and the cohesion of the common people is not very strong. In fact, it mostly doesn't matter who becomes the emperor.Therefore, to control the army must use tactics. The more capable and capable Huang Youcai is, the more he needs to be restrained, and the more he needs to be hindered, so that Zheng Kezang can sleep at night.After all, the story of Liu Guoxuan is not far away, and he doesn't want a second Liu Guoxuan to appear in the navy.

This large cargo ship on the east coast, loaded with various commodities, met a "Yacsa" class imitated by the Fujian Navy just off the Minjiang River.Because the flag of the east coast was flying, this warship belonging to the Ocean Fleet did not say anything. Of course, this matter is not in their control, and the Coastal Defense Fleet is the master.

The large cargo ship entered Mawei Port without any trouble.They unloaded a large amount of metal products, weapons and equipment in the port, and then loaded a lot of tea, sugar and other agricultural products. They planned to go south to Chaozhou and Guangzhou in two days.

Li Yuanyin, the general soldier of Chaozhou, now has only one mansion. After the people on the east coast have given security promises, he is now concentrating on economic development, and the development of characteristic agricultural products and traditional handicraft workshops is very rapid.And the East Bank also cooperated, buying a lot of goods here and selling them within its sphere of influence, allowing it to share the benefits of this economic circle of tens of millions of people.

Li Yuanyin has basically accepted this pattern.With his current situation, it is impossible to expand in Guangdong, so the next best thing is to keep his current position and vigorously develop the economy.And when you and your family have almost the same amount of money, even if Chaozhou is occupied by others, you can go to the east bank to become a rich man instead of dying like before.

Compared with Li Yuanyin, Li Yuanhao, the owner of most areas in Guangdong, is very entangled.He controlled the two most elite provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Huizhou, and opened up trade with foreign countries at the same time, so he was actually very healthy financially.But because of the huge pressure from Shunguo in the northern mountainous area-Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangxi are all threatened-Li Yuanhao had to invest a lot of money in the new army to defend against the enemy.

But Li Yuanhao knew very well that his army was not at the same level as the experienced Shun army.Don't look at the army he has spent huge sums of money to pile up, but if he doesn't do it well, he will end up collapsing at the touch of a button.After all, this is not the same as suppressing bandits in Lianzhou and other places. The wolf-like Shun army is much more difficult to deal with than those mountain people.But this time when they jointly dealt with Gaozhou General Soldier Qiu Lin, the Lianzhou new army that Li Yuanhao was once proud of did not perform particularly well, and did not have the effect of crushing.The reason is probably related to the lack of reliable generals, unless you rest assured that the East Coast Military Advisory Group will take over the command, but this is obviously impossible.

Li Yuanhao is now entangled in whether it is worthwhile to continue to invest huge sums of money in the construction of the army - he has also ordered several warships in recent years, spending money like water.With all this money, he might as well immigrate to the east coast, which is definitely at the super-rich level. If he manages some industries, not to mention the wind and rain, he must be a man of the industry. Isn't it better than being a grassroots king in Guangdong?

Of course, Li Yuanhao only thought about it that way occasionally.But the huge territory of Guangdong was handed down by his father, and he dared not and could not lose it at will, not to mention the wealth that Guangdong can provide him with is still amazing, far more profitable than operating industries on the east coast, provided that he Don't spend large tax dollars on military buildups and local spending.

Li Yuanyin is still reluctant to give up his ancestral foundation, but he is also pessimistic about the future of Guangdong, thinking that even with all kinds of help from the East Bank, Shunguo can still easily destroy them.Therefore, he now has a negative attitude towards how well Guangdong is being built. Apart from not saving much on military expenditures, he embezzled a large amount of funds originally used for local economic construction or people's livelihood expenditures and deposited them in the East Coast Bank in Ningbo. This is his capital in case something happens and he runs away in the future.

It can be seen from this that among the several partial security regimes in the south, the most promising and aggressive one is actually the Zheng Group in Fujian.At least they are willing to invest a large amount of money in the navy and army, and do their best for the security and future development of their jurisdiction.The Zheng family certainly understood that once Shunguo sent troops from Jiangxi, they might not be able to resist in the end, but this was definitely not a reason for them to reduce local administrative expenditures and army building.If that is the case, then it is really a complete warlord. Once a warlord regime that has lost popularity is defeated militarily, the speed of complete destruction will surely exceed everyone's imagination.

The East Bank actually has nothing to look forward to from these four regimes.The gendarmerie department has already given a report, and believes that even if the regimes of Guangdong Erli and King Lu have a shot from the East Bank, there is a high probability of their perishing.Shun Guo is very determined to annex the land, even at the risk of being completely blocked by the east coast.The Zheng family of Fujian can probably resist for a period of time, but in the end, under the impact of the Shun army's hundred-fighting army, the land will be completely defeated, and most of Fujian will be lost.

The final destination of the Zheng family and King Lu's regime in Fujian is probably to retreat to the two outlying islands of Taiwan and Qiongzhou, and then rely on the protection of the navy on the east coast to survive.Of course, there must be a lot of struggle before that. The warlord style of the Republic of China like Li Yuanhao who only knows how to make money but not build is definitely not allowed.The Southern Exploration Team has already decided to send a special envoy to Guangzhou in a few days to urge Li Yuanhao to increase local people's livelihood expenditures (this will involve a series of trade activities with the east coast), and at the same time to carry out large-scale construction in Nanxiong Mansion, a key place, The old forts should be repaired, and at the same time, new forts will be built in other key throats, making it more difficult for the army to go south.

These ineffective partial security regimes, even if they perish, they must perish to be worth a little bit!

(End of this chapter)