Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 257 Response and Layout
ps: Thank you to classmate Haihua Empire Emperor for the reward of 100 coins!
“The tree wants to be still but the wind does not stop!”

Mei Dongxing received intelligence from Liu Wu and Zhang Zhenxun in one day. He said in a somewhat uneasy tone, "The escort fleet hasn't left yet, and some evil spirits have already jumped out and are ready to attack the fleet. General Wang, the burden on the Nanyang Army is not light!"

"The Nanyang Corps has only 5,000 regular troops, and they are stationed in Annan, Songkhla, and the Natuna Islands. The military forces are dispersed, and it is inevitable that someone with ulterior motives will find flaws."

Wang Dashan shook his head.

"If we fight those lackeys of the foreigners, what are the chances of General Wang winning?"

"It is not difficult to defeat the forces of the many Chinese Kapitans in Southeast Asia, but it is easy to defeat them, but it is very difficult to eliminate them all."

"The total number of Chinese militiamen in Annan, Natuna Islands and Songkhla is 7,000 to 8,000. Before the war, we will gather the members of the Taiping Society scattered across Southeast Asia. Our armed strength should be more than four times that of those Chinese Kapitans. Can't we defeat them with such strength?"

"The outcome of a war is not determined in this way." Wang Dashan smiled bitterly and explained, "The Chinese Kapitans who planned to attack the transport fleet have the support of the Dutch. The British may also have a hand in it. If we cannot severely damage or completely wipe them out in the battle at sea, the Chinese Kapitans who escaped will inevitably rely more on the Dutch. In that case, it will be difficult for us to launch an attack on them again."

The Taiping Society was the largest underground force in Southeast Asia, but its influence could only extend to areas where the Dutch had no power or where their control was weak. For areas controlled by the Dutch and the Chinese Kapitans who obeyed the Dutch's orders, the Taiping Society had always been secretly infiltrating in a cautious manner, trying its best to maintain superficial peace with the Chinese Kapitan forces in the Dutch-controlled areas.

The Taiping Society was under the command of Wang Dashan during the war, but Wang Dashan did not have much confidence in the fighting capabilities of the Taiping Society's members.

"Your Excellency the Governor has been in the mainland for some time. You should have seen the training of the national defense forces in the mainland?"

Wang Dashan paused for a moment and then asked about the situation of the National Defense Army’s local forces.

"Yes, I have accompanied His Highness on two inspections of the army."

"Then what does Lord Mei think of the strength comparison between the Nanyang Army and the local troops?"

"The Nanyang Army is considered an elite division compared to the French and Dutch colonial armies, but it still lags behind the local troops."

Mei Dongxing is pragmatic.

"The colonial army is a second-rate force, not as good as the regular armies of France and the Netherlands. The Nanyang Army is of little significance compared to them."

Wang Dashan waved his hand indifferently and continued, "The weapons and equipment of the Nanyang Corps are distributed according to the standards of the regular troops of the National Defense Army. However, because Nanyang is too far away from the mainland and the transportation costs are expensive, the live-fire training intensity of the Nanyang Corps soldiers is only 60% of that of the domestic troops. In addition, the Nanyang Corps troops lack combat experience with white countries, and there is a big gap in actual combat capabilities with the domestic troops."

"Although the Nanyang Corps is a regular army, the ordinary soldiers and grassroots officers are mainly selected from Annan, the East Indies and other places. The proportion of veterans is much lower than that of domestic troops. It is understandable that the overall combat capability is slightly weaker."

“Before Lord Mei served His Royal Highness the King of Han, he managed eight or nine hundred men in Australia. Lord Mei should be aware of the difficulty of maintaining an armed force.

Take the Nanyang Army's 5,000 regular soldiers for example. His Highness allocates 2 million Han yuan per year for military expenses, equivalent to 1.07 million taels of silver.

Excluding basic expenses such as military pay, weapons maintenance costs, and soldiers' food, clothing, housing, transportation, etc., the military pay will be almost used up if the troops conduct a medium-scale live-fire exercise.

The National Defense Force is a firearms force. The insufficient frequency of live-fire training and tactical exercises has greatly affected the combat effectiveness of the force. In regular combat, the Nanyang Corps should be able to deal with foreign colonial armies of the same to three times its size. However, it is difficult to exert satisfactory combat effectiveness when the militia forces and Taiping Society members equipped with old and obsolete muskets are brought onto the battlefield.

So, Mr. Mei, the Taiping Society members can be used to deal with the indigenous armed forces equipped with cold weapons and the Chinese armed forces in the civilian world, but it is very unwise to deploy them to the front line to fight against the Chinese Kapitan supported by the Dutch and the Dutch colonial army. "

"The domestic war is imminent. In order to reserve war materials and prepare for emergencies, Your Highness is raising funds from various sources. However, it is impossible to increase military expenditures for the Nanyang Army at this time."

The ability of modern armies to absorb gold is incomparable to that of troops equipped with cold weapons.

After the Han Empire occupied southern Argentina, its population soared to more than five million, and the number of men of working age reached 1878 million. However, compared with the relatively large number of men of working age, the number of Han's national defense forces had remained at the scale of four divisions and three brigades for seven or eight years. It was not until the beginning of that the organization of seven main forces of four divisions, three brigades, was completed in order to meet the needs of the Argentine War.

How much is the annual military expenditure for the nearly 75 regular troops of the National Defense Army, including the 1.2th Division and rd Brigade? According to the cost price of a rifle produced by the Han Kingdom, taels of silver, a Gatling machine gun, taels of silver, and a mm field gun, taels of silver, excluding the consumption of artillery shells, the cost of purchasing weapons alone for a full-strength division of troops would be at least million taels of silver, and the cost of purchasing weapons for National Defense Army troops would be more than million taels of silver.

Compared with the navy and the army, military spending will only be more, not less.

Li Mingyuan was reborn ten years ago. He worked hard to develop the rubber industry and improve the basic industrial development of the Han Kingdom. However, every time he received a sum of silver and pounds, he spent it like water. The final result was that for the development of the country, the Han government, including Li Mingyuan, not only did not save much, but also owed a lot of national debt.

There are countless areas that require capital investment. For the sake of the overall situation, the Han government can only limit the military expenditure of the Nanyang Corps. However, the effect of Li Mingyuan's debt-raising to develop the country is also very significant. The most obvious is the state-owned companies under the name of the government, including the Han Ocean Shipping Company, Xinjing Machinery Manufacturing Plant, Han Steel Company, Xinjing Military Shipyard...

Including the Han Guo Mining Company, which was established less than two years ago, any one of them can be sold at a high price of several million or even tens of millions of taels of silver.

Mei Dongxing agreed with the development strategy implemented by the Han Kingdom from the perspective of a civil servant. Wang Dashan had been guarding Li Mingyuan since he was a child and was loyal to Li Mingyuan and would not disobey the orders of the Han government. Therefore, after Wang Dashan raised the difficulties faced by the Nanyang Corps one by one, he gave a way to deal with the challenge of the Chinese Kapitan.

"After the Chinese Kapitan fled back to land, our army was unable to effectively attack them. Therefore, if we want to wipe them out completely, we have to find a way from the sea."

Wang Dashan spread out the map, took out a ruler and measured it. He said, "It is about 6000 kilometers from Kismayo in Somalia to the Malacca Sea in the South China Sea. It will take about three days based on the sailing speed of the navy led by Lord Hu and General Li. And those Chinese Kapitans are going to attack the fleet transporting the ship workers in half a month. So we can notify Lord Hu and General Li in advance and ask them to postpone their departure. After more than ten days, they will gather the main force of the navy and sneak to the Malacca Sea to cooperate with our army to wipe out the pirate fleets supported by the Chinese Kapitans and the Dutch."

"It is indeed feasible to ask General Li's fleet to cooperate in the battle, but we don't know the background of Kirby, the foreign devil mentioned by Zhang Zhenxun. Will a hasty attack offend the British?"

Mei Dongxing said with some concern considering Kirby's British identity.

"Don't worry about this, Lord Mei. Liang Xing, director of the Military Intelligence Department, has provided a piece of intelligence about Kirby. Lord Mei can take a look at it first."

After Wang Dashan finished speaking, he gave a few instructions to his adjutant. More than ten minutes later, the adjutant walked into the conference room holding a notebook with dozens of pages.

"Kirby, a British citizen, owns more than 20 companies, including Kobe Iron Works, Kobe Steel Works, and shipyards. Due to excessive business expansion, he owes HSBC Bank of the United Kingdom 800,000 pounds and Jardine Matheson & Co. 200,000 pounds..."

After carefully reading the intelligence introduction of the foreign devil Kirby, Mei Dongxing breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "I thought Kirby was a great figure in the UK, but now I know that he is just a paper tiger pretending to be a big shot. However, it is admirable that a low-status British worker can make it to where he is now."

"Master Mei may not have had any dealings with the foreign devil Kirby, but seventeen years ago, when I was in Changzhou, Zhejiang, I met Kirby several times."

Wang Dashan recalled, "At that time, Kirby was a guard in the concession. After His Royal Highness the Prince of Attendants occupied Changzhou, Kirby took a rifle with more than ten bullets and claimed to help the Heavenly Kingdom brothers fight against the Qing army. After hearing the report from the brothers below, His Royal Highness the Prince of Attendants gave Kirby more than 100 taels of silver and arranged him in the foreign soldiers. Later, Kirby left the foreign soldiers on the pretext of being injured, and then started a raw silk business in Changzhou City with the name of the Heavenly Kingdom and the silver rewarded by the Prince of Attendants. In less than a year, he made 10,000 taels of silver. Later, the Prince of Attendants evacuated Changzhou and there was no news about him until Director Liang mentioned that a foreigner was spying on the ship workers at the Jiangnan Shipyard. Then I recognized him as a foreign devil again."

"Haha, look at General Wang and Kirby, they are still old friends."

Mei Dongxing said with a smile.

"Master Mei, you must be joking. The foreign devil Kirby only cares about money. In order to obtain huge profits, he dared to risk his life to cooperate with the Dutch and Chinese pirates to obtain more than 200 Jiangnan Shipyard workers. Such a person is a wolf that cannot be tamed and will have no friends."

“That’s not necessarily the case. Since Kirby was able to profit from the Heavenly Kingdom, Japan, and the Qing government, it shows that he is indeed extraordinary.

The country is in a period of development and needs all kinds of talents. If Kobe can serve the Han Kingdom, the government will not be stingy in giving him the remuneration he deserves."

Mei Dongxing is a government official who considers more practical interests when dealing with issues. As long as Kirby can bring benefits to the Han Kingdom, Mei Dongxing doesn't care how bad Kirby's personal character is.

"Since Lord Mei intends to keep Kirby, if I capture him in half a month, I will definitely hand him over alive to Lord Mei."

"In that case, thank you General Wang for your concern."

(End of this chapter)