Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 401 Make arrangements in advance
ps: Two chapters in one, to make up for yesterday's interruption
Holding joint military exercises between the army and navy is an effective way to test the combat effectiveness of troops in peacetime. However, the navy is different from the army. The navy's warships are deployed in the Atlantic, Pacific, South Pacific, Caribbean, South Ocean, the mouth of the Congo River, etc. Whenever a joint military exercise is held, generally only the Atlantic Fleet and the Pacific Fleet stationed at both ends of the mainland participate, and the other four small squadrons do not have the opportunity to be tested in the exercises.

In order to prepare for the future and be prepared to deal with the changes in South America in advance, Li Mingyuan decided to change the naval ship deployment plan and regroup the overly dispersed naval warships.

"Once the war breaks out, the Caribbean Squadron, the South Pacific Squadron, and the Congo Squadron will all face the risk of being blockaded. Among them, the Caribbean Squadron is relatively weak overall, with only one island, Tortuga, which is over 100 square kilometers in area, stationed there. The U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet across the Caribbean Sea has dozens of various ironclad ships. If the U.S. government intends to intervene in the Paraguayan crisis, the Caribbean Squadron will become the first target of the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet."

Li Mingyuan stood up and looked at the huge map on the table with a heavy face. He analyzed: "The waters around the Caribbean are all colonies of Western powers such as Britain, France and the Netherlands. The US Navy's Atlantic Fleet is stationed in the northern Caribbean Sea. If a naval battle breaks out in the Caribbean Sea, the Caribbean Squadron has no chance of winning."

"Since 1869, Tortuga has been under national rule for nearly years. There are more than Chinese people on Tortuga and the main island of Haiti behind it. Even though the Caribbean Squadron is weak, it will do its duty to defend the land and the people! Fight with the U.S. Navy until the last ship and the last man!"

In the spacious and simple hall, a young officer in a white navy uniform stood up and stated his position as a navy officer.

"Xu Zhixuan, I have heard of your deeds. You were a student in the Naval Training Class for Young Children in the United States. You are currently the Lieutenant Commander of the fifth ship of the Yongxing class (1350-ton light cruiser) of the Atlantic Fleet. You once organized and participated in actions to protest against the U.S. government's anti-Chinese laws."

"The American barbarians bullied our great Han people. As a Han man, I wish I could avenge my country right away. I can only devote my passion and what I have learned from ten years of hard study to join the navy, serve my country, and avenge the past humiliation!"

Xu Zhixuan stood up and spoke in a loud voice.

"The Han men still have courage and passion, which is great, but the country is just starting to develop, and every soldier who has the passion to serve the country is a very valuable asset and cannot be sacrificed in vain."

Li Mingyuan waved his hand, motioning for the other party to sit down, and then explained: "Torti Island is located in the center of the Caribbean Sea. The court is unwilling to abandon it unless it is a last resort. However, in the face of the absolute power gap between Han and the United States, evacuating the Caribbean Squadron and temporarily evacuating the people on the island to Haiti to survive is the only reasonable solution under the current circumstances."

"Your Majesty, are you really going to give up the plan to capture Haiti Island?"

"It is only put on hold temporarily. Returning Tortuga Island to the Haitian warlords is a stopgap measure. Once the situation in the Caribbean becomes clear, the Haitian island attack plan will be resumed."

Li Mingyuan answered the questions of the naval officers and generals, and continued to make arrangements: "After the Caribbean Squadron withdraws, the safety of the Chinese people who move to the main island of Haiti will still be the responsibility of the militia and some marines stationed there.

As for the Nanyang Squadron, all ships will evacuate to the Izu Islands via the Pacific route before July next year, and then join the South Pacific Squadron's combat sequence to assist the local marines and island-based officers and soldiers in defending core islands such as Samoa and Pahiti."

Li Mingyuan arranged the deployment plans for the South Pacific Squadron, the Caribbean Squadron, and the South Pacific Squadron one after another, and finally gave instructions on the deployment of the Congo Expeditionary Squadron: "The coastal area of ​​the Congo colony is narrow, and the left and right sides are held hostage by the Portuguese Angola and French Congo colonies. The local naval squadron has extremely limited space for activities. However, in recent years, the Congo colony has imported a large amount of precious metals and ores to the mainland. Considering the importance of the Congo colony to the mainland, the size of the Congo Expeditionary Squadron remains unchanged. If the war in the mainland spreads to Africa, the Congo Expeditionary Squadron should prioritize preserving its strength, and withdraw all naval officers and soldiers and their warships through the estuary upstream to the inland basin of the Congo River, and then cooperate with the Congo Expeditionary Force to step by step meet the invading Western colonial forces."

"The Congolese Expeditionary Force has a total of 10,000 armed forces. I assure Your Majesty that if a war breaks out in the mainland, the Congo colony will never be lost!"

"Your Majesty, rest assured. The Navy is confident that it can assist the Army in defending Congo!"…………

"It's good to have confidence, but we can't underestimate the enemy."

The Congo colony was relatively close to mainland South America, and the large transport ships that shipped from Africa to mainland South America every year not only increased the government's fiscal revenue, but also brought in a variety of much-needed metal deposits.

The Congo colony is rich in natural resources and is known as the "world's raw material warehouse", "Central African Gem" and "geological miracle".

全国蕴藏多种有色金属、稀有金属和非金属矿，其中铜、钴、工业钻石、锌、锰、锡、钽、锗、钨、镉、镍、铬储量颇为可观，在世界上占有重要地位。铁、煤、黄金、银等储量也很丰富，还有白金、铅、磷酸盐、硅酸盐等。主要矿产储量为：铜7500万吨（占世界15%）、钴450万吨（占世界1/2）、铌钽3000万吨（占世界80%）、钻石2.06亿克拉（占世界23%）、锡45万吨、黄金600吨、铁10亿吨、锂3100万吨、铬镍2250万吨、锰700万吨、锌700万吨、铝200万吨。已探明的石油海上储量3150.66万桶，陆地储量2000万桶，天然气海上储量200亿立方米，陆地储量100亿立方米。此外，位于刚果（金）与卢旺达交界处的基伍湖深水中蕴藏着丰富的天然气资源。

The gold, copper, diamond, iron and aluminum mines that have been explored and developed have supported more than a dozen large local mining companies. With the help of the mineral resources of the Congo colony, more than a dozen state-owned enterprises such as the Xinjing Mining Company and the Royal Mining Consortium have become important large-scale metal mining and smelting companies in South America.

In the past, mineral resources from the Congo colony supported dozens of giant international mining companies in Belgium, Britain, France and other countries. Now, the Congo colony, which is like a virgin land, is playing a more important role than in the past under the supervision and command of the Chinese army and armed militia.

Adhering to the principle of digging three feet underground and not letting go of a ton of resources,

The Congolese troops and the more than 100,000 Chinese people who were settled there not only strictly followed the mineral resource distribution map provided by Li Mingyuan to conduct exploration and mining one by one, but also paid great attention to non-metallic mineral resources such as high-quality anthracite, which had slightly inferior economic value but were in short supply in the local reserves.

Ignoring the negligible labor costs of mining and taking into account the costs of transfer and ocean transportation, the price of high-quality anthracite imported from the Congo colony is 20% higher than the price of high-quality anthracite mined locally in the United States during the same period. At the same time, it is also 30% to 40% lower than the cost of purchasing directly from Canada, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela and other countries.

Anthracite is the main raw material for refining crude steel. Although the local coal reserves in Yangzhou and Luozhou are considerable, sufficient to meet the consumption needs of the Second Industrial Revolution, the coal in Yangzhou and Luozhou is mainly sub-bituminous coal, which can be used as raw material for smelting pig iron but not for smelting crude steel.

Taking into account the surrounding environment faced by the Han Kingdom, in April 1883, the Han government announced that except for two anthracite mines that were currently being mined, mining would be allowed. The other seven newly discovered anthracite mines, including those to be discovered in the future, would all be sealed up, and local governments and private individuals were prohibited from mining. The anthracite needed for local steelmaking came from the Congo colony and foreign purchases on the one hand, and from coke burned by cutting down subtropical forests in the north on the other.

More than 1872 percent of the forests in the north of the Han Dynasty were undeveloped virgin forests. Between 1876 and , the newly migrated Chinese people chose to set fire to the forest in order to open up new land. They burned down dozens of kilometers of virgin forest at a time, and then carried out reclamation work on the bare land.

It is true that Han China had abundant forests, but it was a pity to waste tens of millions of trees in the process of land reclamation, so in August 1886, the government issued a decree prohibiting large-scale forest burning and encouraging the people who were reclaiming land to use the cut trees to refine coke and then sell the coke to the government. The people who were reclaiming land were all poor and owed a debt to the country, so after learning that refining coal could not only get economic compensation, but also get the government's promise to reduce part of the debt, the phenomenon of forest burning was quickly stopped, and the number of people who adopted industrial methods to cut down trees and then concentrated on refining coke increased.

The local experience of using trees as raw materials to obtain coke through simple burning was passed on to the Congo colony in less than a year. The governor of the Congo colony looked up some information and found that the forest coverage rate in Congo exceeded 53%, about 1.25 million hectares, accounting for 47% of the forest area in Africa and 6.5% of the world's forests. However, only 6 hectares have been mined so far, which means that there is a huge potential for mining.
Therefore, in order to share the worries of the local government, Huang Naishang issued orders to every local chieftain in the Congo colony who was under the management of the Han Kingdom, requiring each tribe to hand over varying weights of coke as a substitute for tax based on the number of people.

Under the intentional governance of the Han Dynasty, the population of the Congo colony has been controlled within a reasonable range. The number of indigenous blacks is small and the pressure of survival is not great. It is not good for the indigenous blacks to wander around with nothing to do every day, so finding them a job in mining mineral resources and burning coke can make their lives more fulfilling, right?

Under the Han State's propaganda method of "for your good", more than one hundred indigenous chiefs and kings successively expressed their willingness to accept the governor's orders and hand over the prescribed amount of coke on a regular basis every month.

Those tribes that were unruly and refused to accept Huang Naishang's kindness, after being taught a lesson, either reformed themselves or were assigned to other tribes by Huang Naishang and integrated into another large indigenous family.

The Congo colony played an increasingly irreplaceable role in the overall grand strategy of the Han State. Huang Naishang was doing an increasingly good job as the Governor of Congo. Considering two reasons,
Li Mingyuan decided to increase support for the Congo colony.

"More than a decade ago, the Western powers did not discover the huge economic benefits hidden in the Congo colony, so we were able to defeat the small country of Belgium and gain control of the Congo colony. But now, the transport ships that rush to the mainland every year cannot be hidden from the eyes of Western countries. In order to guard against the spying of Western powers, especially the French Congo colonial army and the Portuguese Angola colonial army near the Congo colony, we must strengthen our strength in the Congo colony."

Li Mingyuan pointed his pointer at the location of the Congo colony on the map and ordered: "The fortress defense project in the Congo colony must be built more vigorously. The defense fortress system in the five core strongholds of Cabinda, Kinshasa, Sangiganyilebo, and Kananga must be expanded. With the five fortresses as the main body and the tributaries of the Congo River as the link, the entire Congo colony will be connected into a whole. Each fortress group will deploy troops and militia forces ranging from two to five thousand people. In wartime, the small ironclad ships, gunboats and gunboats retreating into the inland basin of the Congo River will be used as tentacles. They will rely on each other and cooperate with each other to firmly grasp the control of various regions."

"Yes, Your Majesty. I promise to complete the fortress expansion project in the Congo Colony within one year."

Huang Naishang, who had just returned from Africa with a tanned face, stood up and expressed his opinion.

"The Congolese colony's 10,000 armed forces are not enough to deal with future threats from all sides. Therefore, before July next year, the central government will draw two large infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, an engineering battalion, an independent heavy machine gun battalion, and a field logistics hospital from the mainland, totaling more than 10,000 people to support the Congolese colony.

By then, the two foreign infantry battalions and four field infantry battalions, Gatling machine gun companies and other regular army units under the Congolese Governor's Office will be mixed with local support forces to form the Congolese Corps, with a strength of 1.4 people.

In addition, men of appropriate age were recruited from the Chinese people in Congo to form two Congolese Guard Brigades with a strength of 4500 people and four militia regiments with a strength of 4 people, named the Congolese 2000st and nd Guard Brigades and the Congolese st, nd, rd and th Militia Regiments respectively.

The Congolese Army, the Guard Brigade, and the Militia Group have been formed. The Congolese Colony has more than 3 armed forces of various types. It should be safe from attacks by the colonial armies of Western powers such as France and Portugal. "

"Weapons and equipment for 30,000 people is not a small amount. I am worried that before the war breaks out, it will be difficult for the Congolese Army to equip each soldier with weapons and ammunition according to the scheduled schedule."

"Don't worry about the weapons. The local field army is about to expand. The number of eliminated Hanhua 1875 rifles is nearly 6. Excluding the 1.5 rifles delivered to the local garrison and militia, and the 2.4 rifles sold to Songkhla and Lan Fang, the remaining 40 rifles, their ammunition, and Gatling hand-cranked machine guns will all be allocated to the Congo colony.

The total strength of the Congo Colony is 1.3. The Congo Corps is a regular army. Like the local regular army, they are equipped with Jianye 1875-year-old smokeless rifles. The remaining 1.1 people are equipped with a maximum of Hanhua rifles, and rifles are reserved as reserve weapons for subsequent troop expansion and weapon consumption replenishment. "

"Your Majesty, the Congo Colony only has three old-fashioned ammunition production lines. I request that the mainland support several more rifle and artillery shell production lines to supplement the army's combat consumption."

"The locals have successively established primary smelters, textile factories, and gun repair factories in Congo, and they will not care about adding a few more ammunition production lines."

The rapid development of the Congo colony also benefited from continuous local investment. Batches of practical machinery and equipment were transported to the Congo colony. Then, under the guidance of Chinese technicians, various necessary industrial products were produced in factories and supplied to the Han army, civilians, and as rewards to local kings and chiefs.

The Congolese colonial governor's office had extremely strict supervision over the factory equipment. All the workers and security guards within a few kilometers around the factory were Chinese, and not a single black native was hired.

The tight defense, the presence of tens of thousands of armed forces and more than 100,000 Chinese people made the local government dare to transport some obsolete industrial equipment to the Congo colony.

The Congo colony has always been very clear in its local positioning, that is, as a raw material production base, doing its best to provide various raw materials for the development of local industries. As for imitating Western powers, guiding the civilization of local black indigenous peoples, teaching them the language of the colonial country, and cultivating Congo into an economic market for the colonial country, it was abandoned from the beginning.

The Congolese blacks live according to their inherent traditions, without worries. Apart from accepting the tasks assigned by the Han country, they have no troubles every day. If they are asked to learn the Han language and understand the outside world, it will disrupt their lives and add to their troubles. It is better to keep them in their original state.

Moreover, the economic market provided by the indigenous blacks after civilization was better than nothing, and Li Mingyuan simply looked down on it.
Therefore, under the governance of the Han Dynasty, the Congo colony developed towards primary industrialization, but the local black people still maintained their traditional customs and life. The two sides respected each other, took what they needed, and got along very harmoniously.

This is what Huang Naishang and the Han government said every time they introduced the Congo colony to the outside world. Regardless of whether other countries believed it or not, the local people and officials recognized this model.

"It's not appropriate to place the relatively new machinery and equipment in the Congo colony. Let's do this. Dismantle three Hanhua 1875 rifle ammunition production lines, two old 75mm field artillery ammunition production lines, two Gatling hand-cranked machine gun ammunition production lines, and a complete set of old pharmaceutical factory equipment for producing and treating tropical diseases from the mainland, and transport them all to the Congo colony for installation. As for the other various required machinery and equipment and material needs, you should first propose them, and after consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry, the Medical College and other departments, report them for approval."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."…………

(End of this chapter)