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"As long as we can settle this year's taxes, things will be easier in the future." Vézé mobilized the General Staff Headquarters before the war.
"According to the three divisions we proposed earlier, the base, the guerrilla zone, and the enemy-occupied zone, in order to turn the guerrilla zone into a base as soon as possible, we need a victory. What we need now is a victory, a great victory against the Qing Army! Wiping out a Qing Army unit can, on one hand, deter the Qing Army, and on the other hand, prove to the local people that the government's army is nothing in front of us! "
When Vézé finished, Wei Changrong complained, "Now that we've occupied a lot of territory, we have more than 30,000 soldiers. Based on the current situation, even if we can only select 15,000 soldiers, we'll have to wait until winter at the earliest to train them into the army we want! If we transfer people now, the training speed will be greatly reduced. "
Ke Gongyu immediately agreed with Wei Changrong's suggestion. "That's right. We have to wait until December to train the next batch of sergeants. The people we trained in the past are all old brothers, and they've all seen blood in wars. Now, the new brothers in Anhui are far from being good enough. If we hope that they can take charge, it'll take at least December. Even then, the army would only be able to use fifteen thousand soldiers at most. Therefore, this may not be a good time for war. "
With these two leading the way, all the departments opposed war. The logistics department naturally thought that the food reserves were running low, and even the military department raised the issue of their lack of manpower. Chen Zhe, the head of the military factory's technology department, said, "Prime Minister, if we want to speed up the modification of the firearms, we need to increase the number of craftsmen. Otherwise, we won't be able to guarantee that we'll be able to equip the 15,000 soldiers with firearms by December. "
Everyone focused on the size of the 15,000 soldiers, which left Vézé somewhat speechless. After repeated discussions and calculations, they finally decided on the number of 15,000 elites.
The Instructional Brigade believed that they could train at most 3,000 sergeants this year. This alone limited the upper limit of the number of soldiers. As for arming these 15,000 people according to the standards of ordinary powers in this era, it was already a huge expenditure.
The arms dealer, Mr. Smith, made two more trips to Anqing. Because he had a big customer in Nanjing, Mr. Smith decisively sold all the gunpowder to Nanjing. What he brought to Vézé was a batch of five thousand secondhand flintlocks and a large number of spare parts. And a batch of second-hand French 12-pounder mountain howitzers. Smith gave Vézé a fair price, 40 pieces, and allowed Smith to do business freely in Anqing. Vézé secretly requested Smith to send some opium to Anqing.
Forty-eight 12-pounder howitzers could only equip two divisions. Vézé's artillery had undergone rigorous training, and with the help of these howitzers, their accuracy was greatly improved. Even with such a powerful weapon in his hands, Vézé was willing to fight the Qing Army. Unexpectedly, it was unanimously rejected by the generals of the General Staff Headquarters.
"Prime Minister, our army really can't move. Qing Yao has been retreating in defeat, but there is something I want to report to Prime Minister, "Hu Chenghe said.
"What is it?" Vézé asked unhappily.
"The Emperor has ordered the elderly, women and children to go out of the city to harvest the rice. After the Old Battalion and the Female Battalion left the city, the Heavenly King ordered them to close the city gate and forbade them from returning to the city … "Hu Chenghe did not sound very confident. If someone had said that the Taiping Army would treat the Old Battalion and the Female Battalion this way a few months ago, Hu Chenghe would not have believed it.
This was akin to seeking their own death. Closing the city gates meant that they would not be able to provide food to the elderly and women. They could only rely on themselves to get food. If there was no way to get food, the result was very simple, they would starve to death. Although Hu Chenghe was very enthusiastic about the God-worshipping religion, he could not immediately accept such a change.
Vézé did not answer immediately. When Vézé discovered a large number of Wuchang people who had left the Taiping army at the south bank of the Yangtze River, he knew that the Taiping Rebellion would definitely cause a big problem. He did not expect things to break out so quickly. It had only been less than half a year since they conquered Nanjing, and there was already a serious food shortage.
"Prime Minister, although the King Of The East has not said it yet, since we are upstream and have conquered such a large piece of land, I'm afraid we can't avoid supplying food to Tianjing," Hu Chenghe said.
Vézé put on a straight face. "I never wanted to avoid it. If it wasn't for Tianjing, we would have been besieged by Qing Yao in Anhui. How could we stay here peacefully until now? If Tianjing can't defend it, what will happen to us? If you can't think of this, you should have quit long ago. "
"Then how much food does Prime Minister want to send to Tianjing?" Hu Chenghe asked.
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