"Marquis, I have a plan."
Black Snake didn't want to lose and thought of a plan.
"Speak."
"There's a territory in the south of Zhaoqing County called Wulong County. It's basically been conquered by the Black Snake Guards. I suggest we form an alliance with Wulong County and teleport our army to the rear. We'll give them a taste of their own medicine. "
Ouyang Shuo glanced at the black snake in astonishment when he heard this. "Are you confident?"
Forming an alliance wasn't a problem, but he was afraid of alerting the enemy. With the fall of Tianshuang County, the Mountain-Sea Alliance-Tianshuang Alliance would disband.
In Zhaoqing County, Shanhai City was isolated and helpless.
"I'm willing to make a military pledge." Black Snake's tone was resolute.
"Alright, I'll give you two days."
Ouyang Shuo decided to take the risk. Black Snake might look rough, but he was meticulous. Since he dared to make such a promise, there must be no problem.
On the tenth of August, the army of the Protectorate of Southern Border started moving.
In Shanhai City, under the command of Wang Feng and Zhao Kuo, three thousand Divine Guards gathered at the North Sea Port. They followed the first fleet of the North Bay Fleet to Jiaozhou Port for a surprise attack on Jade Buddha County.
The entire journey was four thousand nautical miles and would take at least ten days.
In Qiongzhou County, Sun Bin led the First Division of the Tiger Legion and continued to suppress the local resistance. The Second and Fourth Divisions of the Tiger Legion broke camp and went to Qiongshan Prefecture. Then they crossed the Qiongzhou Straits and landed in Leizhou County. Then they went through Leizhou County and met up with the army in Zhaoqing County.
The entire journey was over two thousand kilometers. Even with a rapid march, it would take the army at least twenty days to reach the battlefield. This showed how troublesome it would be to fight across regions without a teleportation formation.
Apart from reinforcing Zhaoqing County, there was another reason for mobilizing the two divisions of the Tiger Legion.
The purge in Qiongzhou County was coming to an end. Next, it would be too wasteful to place an organized army like the Tiger Troop in Qiongzhou County.
Ouyang Shuo planned to have Fan Lihua lead the First Division of the Tiger Legion and station them in Qiongzhou County for a long time. Not to forget that the Cliff Mountain Fleet was still expanding. In the future, Qiongzhou County's military would be dominated by the navy.
On the island, there was the First Division of the Tiger Troop in the field army. Together with the Qiongzhou County Guard Division, it was enough.
Using this opportunity to gradually move the Tiger Troop to the Lingnan battlefield was another of Ouyang Shuo's intentions. The next step, be it attacking the Chiyou City or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, would require a large army.
Apart from that, after conquering Zhaoqing County, they would also need to station troops at the eastern border.
At the same time, the First Formation of the Cliff Mountain Fleet departed from Nanshan Harbor, rendezvoused with the First Formation of the North Bay Fleet at sea, and then headed for Jiaozhou Harbor together.
This was the first time the two fleets were assisting in a battle, so it was a good chance for them to practice on the sea.
The only difference was the Imperial Guard Division.
The Imperial Guard Division had just finished assembling and received military orders to set up camp in the barracks for the time being.
Even if Ouyang Shuo wanted to launch a sneak attack on the rear of the allied forces, he did not dare to use the Tiger Legion's Second and Fourth Divisions. The three divisions were active behind the enemy lines. Once they ran out of rations, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Only a trump card regiment like the Imperial Guard Regiment could take on such a heavy responsibility. Ouyang Shuo believed that even if they didn't receive any rations, the Imperial Guard Division would be able to solve the problem of rations on the spot.
As the saying went, before the troops and horses moved, the rations and fodder moved first.
The War Preparedness Department had never stopped stocking up on strategic resources. Every prefecture and county had their own military granaries to store rations, and they were guarded by the local city defense troops.
Therefore, as long as the army marched within the territory, they would be able to get supplies wherever they went.
This way, they could save a lot of manpower and resources.
As the battle of Zhaoqing unfolded, under the War Preparedness Department's control, large amounts of rations and fodder were transported to the frontline.
Now that the situation had changed, the frontline needed more soldiers, and the originally estimated amount of rations and fodder was not enough. Therefore, when the various armies set off, the War Preparedness Department had already started a new round of rations and fodder allocation.
The War Preparedness Department's Chief Ge Hongliang was personally stationed in Leizhou County, supervising the transportation of rations and fodder.
Other than rations and fodder, there were also weapons, arrows, siege equipment, and a lot of other military supplies. For this, the War Preparedness Department set up an armory in every county. Then, they set up armory level by level in the prefectures and counties.
Ordinary arrows were no longer supplied by Shanhai City's weapons workshop, but by the weapons workshops in the prefectures and counties. One had to know that in a war, hundreds of thousands of arrows would be used up.
If the war went on for a long time, it was normal to use up millions of arrows. Just by relying on Shanhai City's supply, the cost of transportation alone was more than the cost of the arrows themselves.
Whether it was the huge amount of rations or the large amount of arrows and other military supplies, they were all consumed in real money. The expenditure of a war on the territory's finances was unimaginable in other areas.
Ge Hongliang's plan for a tiered combat readiness system was praised by Ouyang Shuo.
Combat readiness was the lifeline of a war.
Ouyang Shuo was very satisfied with Ge Hongliang as the Chief of the War Preparedness Department.
In the future, Shanhai City's military would only be responsible for producing high-end equipment, such as Radiant Armor and Infantry Armor. Other items such as Tang Swords, lances, and arrows would all be produced by the workshops in the prefectures.
Other than considering the craftsmen, there was also the issue of iron ore supply.
In terms of mineral resources, Gaia's design was very realistic. Not only did a mine have a maximum reserve, but there was also the issue of mining difficulty.
With the mining standards of ancient times, they could only mine a small portion of the minerals on the surface. If they took the risk to mine the minerals that were buried deep underground, lives would be lost. The gains did not make up for the losses.
There were two iron mines in the western suburbs of Shanhai City. The earliest one, which was also the one that was explored during the village stage, had already been mined dry and could no longer be mined. It was officially sealed off.
The second mine was also on the brink of being depleted.
In the past one and a half years, Shanhai City had produced too many weapons and equipment, and the consumption of iron ore was very shocking. Apart from that, there was also the steel mill that had been built, which was a huge demand for iron ore.
Ouyang Shuo had looked for a mineral expert to calculate that the iron mines in the entire Lianzhou Prefecture could only last for another one and a half years at the current rate of iron ore consumption of Shanhai City.
After one and a half years, Shanhai City would be in the awkward situation of having no iron ore to use.
When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he panicked on the spot.
He did not expect that after the food shortage, a new round of resource crisis would come to his territory.
In his previous life, Ouyang Shuo was only an adventure-type player. He had some impression of the price of food, but he did not pay much attention to iron ore.
He did not expect that it would almost lead to a huge mistake.
Fortunately, he discovered it in time, and it was not too late to remedy it.
If it was not for Shanhai City's excessive consumption of iron ore, this problem would not have been exposed so early. By then, it would really be too late.
Ouyang Shuo was also a decisive person. He immediately ordered that the mining speed of the iron mines in Lianzhou Prefecture be reduced by half to ensure the iron ore reserves in the base camp.
After all, transporting iron ore from other places was a very tiring and costly matter. It was much more troublesome than transporting food.
Sealing off the iron mines in Lianzhou Prefecture was just a temporary solution.
Ouyang Shuo then issued an imperial edict, requesting all counties to immediately organize people to investigate the reserves of iron ore and other mines in their counties and report it to the War Preparedness Department.
The good news was that more than a dozen large iron mines in Qiongzhou Prefecture and Leizhou Prefecture had been discovered.
Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered the two counties to increase the intensity of iron ore mining. In addition to the county's consumption, more than half of the iron ore was to be intercepted and transported to Shanhai City by sea.
For this, Ouyang Shuo specially ordered the shipyards to build specialized cargo ships. Compared to land transportation, sea transportation was much more convenient. The transportation cost was also lower, and it was still within an acceptable range.
Because of this, the iron ore shortage in Shanhai City was slightly alleviated.
Even so, Ouyang Shuo still did not dare to be careless.
He could foresee that as the territory expanded, the size of the army would also increase. The demand for weapons and equipment would only increase. Correspondingly, the consumption of iron ore would also increase.
Other than that, he had to mention the Seventh Research Institute.
The team of experts in the Seventh Research Institute had expanded to more than a hundred people. After the steel mill was built, the research on steel parts had entered a critical stage.
In the future, it was possible to manufacture guns, cannons, and even ironclad warships. It was even inevitable. If that was the case, the demand for iron ore would be huge. It was like a bottomless pit.
Ouyang Shuo could not guarantee that the counties that he conquered in the future would have rich iron ore reserves. Therefore, the import of iron ore would become a necessity.
It would be too late by the time the territories realized the shortage of iron ore.
Shanhai City had to be one step ahead.
Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered the finance department to allocate a special fund to the War Preparedness Department every month to purchase iron ore from the market. At the same time, he signed iron ore purchase agreements with the major chambers of commerce.
From then on, Shanhai City had to start stockpiling iron ore.
For this, Ouyang Shuo ordered the construction of dozens of large iron ore storage warehouses in the eastern suburbs of Shanhai City to store iron ore purchased from the market or the chambers of commerce.
The purchase of iron ore was not a small expenditure. In the market, one unit of iron ore cost 120 copper coins. It was more than six times the price of food.
One could imagine the burden on the territory's finances if they purchased iron ore in large quantities.
Even so, Ouyang Shuo had to grit his teeth and resolutely carry out this strategy.
Other than importing iron ore, there was actually another way, which was to plunder. Other than other places, there was a huge island in the Southern Ocean called Australia.
In reality, Australia was a major iron ore exporter.
In the game, with Gaia's strict settings, it was bound to be the same. As long as they occupied Australia, the territory would not have to worry about iron ore no matter how much it expanded.
Unfortunately, the current Shanhai City was still too weak. It was not strong enough to start a war.
After the game map was expanded by ten times, the whole of Australia was more like a piece of land than an island.
Ouyang Shuo did not know how Gaia had set up Australia. At the very least, it would not be a barbaric island like Jingzhou Island.
It was obvious how difficult it would be to conquer Australia.
In the medium term, he could consider opening up iron ore trade with Australia. The ultimate goal was, of course, to take over the entire Australia. (To be continued.)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
