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"Chief of the General Staff, Hu Junshuai has already captured Fengyang! We've seized more than twenty thousand kilograms of gunpowder, and Hu Junshuai has sent you ten thousand kilograms. "The communications staff officer sent by Shouzhou's commander, Hu Chenghe, brought Vézé" good news. "
"Has your Hu Junshuai expanded his army?" This was the only reason Vézé could think of. If it weren't for the expansion, Hu Chenghe might not have needed so many resources in such a short time.
The communications staff officer replied, "Chief of the General Staff is wise. Hu Junshuai has begun to collect taxes in many areas near Shouzhou. He has expanded a lot of territory near Fengyang, and a large number of local citizens have come to join the army. "
"Then isn't Hu Chenghe afraid that Qing Yao will return and collect taxes from the local citizens again? Since he's collected taxes, he has the responsibility to protect them. What can he do north of Huai River? "Vézé asked.
The communications staff officer didn't seem very supportive of Vézé's conservatism. He replied, "Chief of the General Staff, Qing Yao has been retreating in defeat, and our army has been expanding its territory. With the current trend, it won't take much effort for us to control all of Anhui."
Vézé couldn't be bothered to discuss strategy with the communications staff officer. He asked, "How many people did Hu Chenghe expand?"
"Right now, the 15th and 19th Corps have thirty thousand people," the staff officer replied.
"Three times the size of the army? No wonder Hu Chenghe dared to leave behind twenty thousand kilograms of gunpowder. Without that much gunpowder, he probably wouldn't even be able to complete his army training. I know he opened a munitions factory, but does Hu Chenghe have that many guns? "Vézé asked.
"That's why Hu Junshuai requested the General Logistics Department to provide more resources to Shouzhou. Hu Junshuai promised that as long as the resources can keep up, he can guarantee that there won't be any problems along the Huai River from Shouzhou to Hongze Lake. "The communications staff officer earnestly conveyed Hu Chenghe's point of view.
"Is Hu Chenghe trying to get you to tell me that he's already prepared to attack Wuhe River? After conquering Wuhe, Hu Chenghe had the 19th division defend Wuhe while he took the 15th division to defend Shouzhou and Fengyang. "Vézé said in a mocking tone.
The communications staff officer was stunned for a while before he probed, "Chief of Staff, has Hu Junshuai sent you the document?"
"Humph!" Vézé sneered. "Is there a need to send a document? Wouldn't it be clear if he looked at the map? Furthermore, was the 19th Division going to become a fake army? Or were they planning to let the 19th Division expand once they reached Hongze Lake? What was Hu Chenghe thinking? Or rather, has he ever thought about the fake reviewers? "
"Chief of General Staff! You're too amazing! " The communications staff officer immediately flattered Vézé. "For the past month or so, Marshal Hu has been dispatching troops all over Shouzhou. Qing Yao has fled at the mere sight of him. Hu Junshuai saw that the situation was good, so he followed the Chief of Staff's suggestion of defending the river and defending the Huai River. He drew up a defensive plan from Shouzhou to the mouth of Hongze Lake. If he used 60,000 troops to carry out an offensive defense in this area. "
"Then are his 60,000 troops a field army or a tax police regiment?" Vézé smiled.
"What regiment? Chief of General Staff, can you repeat that? "The communications staff officer had never heard of the term tax police regiment.
"Nothing, I'm just saying." Vézé didn't want to criticize Hu Chenghe. After all, to be able to adhere to Vézé's strategy of defending the river and defending the Huai River was already a strategic point of view. As for turning the field army into a tax police regiment, Vézé didn't think there was anything wrong with this idea. After all, the few tax police regiments during the era of the national army weren't weak in combat.
"Go back and tell Hu Chenghe that if he wants to create so many mouths to feed, our logistics department won't be able to provide for it. I suggest that he look at historical examples of military reclamation, such as Cao Cao's system of farming. If there are people, it's better to farm. "
After sending away Hu Chenghe's people, Vézé didn't want to waste time thinking about Hu Chenghe's ambition to build a defense line at the Huai River. This idea seemed very reasonable, but in fact, it was a classic case of not grasping the crux of the problem.
Before the establishment of new communication technology and social systems, the imperial power of each country didn't descend to the county. Europe was a feudal lord, and the United States was dominated by local interest groups. Compared to them, China's imperial power had infiltrated the grassroots quite well.
But Vézé knew of the unprecedented social management system in human history. This high-intensity management system not only allowed the central government's policies to penetrate the county level, but also allowed the grassroots organizations to penetrate the villages. And Hu Chenghe's problem was that he didn't understand the meaning of the grassroots.
Vézé's current grain tax system was in itself a reshuffle of the grassroots. The best result was that Wei Ze could create a whole new rural system by paying taxes after the grain was sold. Of course, this wasn't realistic. The new rural system of new China, first of all, was supported by an industrial idea, and the rapid development of new China's industry also provided a large amount of heavy industry to the rural areas. Vézé didn't have these two conditions on hand.
If Vézé knew the chips in his hands, Hu Chenghe was obviously worse. He didn't have a theoretical understanding of the current situation, but simply believed that the problem could be solved by excluding the Qing Army from the base. This was undoubtedly the beginning of a militaristic approach. At present, the Qing Army's level was terrible, so this wasn't a stupid move. If there were really smart and capable people in the Manchu Qing court, there were many ways to resolve this situation.
So Vézé could only let Hu Chenghe deal with it for now, while he focused on another matter. If it was a northern expedition, there were many ways to go north, but which way to return to Anhui?
"Prince Of Qi, do you want to select people from the Gentlemen's Battalion to join the Northern Expedition Army?" Wei Changrong asked.
"Select people from the Gentlemen's Battalion?" Vézé was stunned.
The Gentlemen's Battalion was Vézé's move to learn from Shi Le. In the controlled area, all the families designated as landlords and gentry had to send at least one person to join the army. These people were included in the "Gentlemen's Battalion." Naturally, Vézé's words were very pleasant. These people could also be treated like soldiers' families. Their wives and children didn't have to pay taxes, and their parents could also have their taxes reduced by 3%. Vézé also announced that after training and training, these people could be used as future officers and civil servants.
Vézé never told the landlords and gentry that there was no such thing as lucky promotion in his army. No matter how good the treatment of the "Gentlemen's Battalion" was, it was just to give the landlords and gentry something to use against them. Moreover, Vézé believed that the landlords and gentry wouldn't be so stupid that they couldn't see this point.
Whether they should obediently send people to join the Gentlemen's Battalion or not, this was a game and a compromise between the Taiping army led by Vézé and the local landlords and gentry in Anhui. In other words, Vézé had drawn a line for tax reduction. If the landlords were willing to submit and expressed their respect and support for Vézé, then Vézé wouldn't mind giving them a tax reduction. If the landlords insisted on not cooperating, then they would have to accept Vézé's rule of paying taxes. Those with more land would have to pay more taxes, those with less land would have to pay less taxes, and those without land would have to pay no taxes.
Up until now, the Gentlemen's Battalion had very few people. The total number of people was less than 200. Among these 200 people, at least 180 were the sons of landlords with more than 100 mu of land. Moreover, these sons had no status in the family. There were even a few daring landlords who adopted some godson and sent them over.
As for this group of people, Vézé didn't care at all. But he didn't know why Wei Changrong wanted to use them. Vézé refused: "That's not appropriate. I've told them that I definitely won't send them to their deaths. If we use these people, then it's tantamount to going against our promise."
"There are some among them who aren't afraid of death. There are twenty or thirty of them who want to join the army." Wei Changrong replied.
"Let them …" Vézé paused halfway. After thinking for a moment, Vézé said: "Then you tell them that they are also ordinary soldiers and may die in battle. Also, if these people dare to run away and surrender to the Manchu Qing. Their whole families will suffer along with them. If they still want to fight together after confirming this, then let them join the army. "
After settling these matters, Vézé still had to solve the gunpowder problem. The world's best saltpeter came from Chile. At least before the Germans invented the ammonia synthesis process before World War I, the British controlled a large part of the Chilean saltpeter sales channels. At that time, the British believed that the Germans would soon be unable to hold out due to the lack of saltpeter, so they dared to fight to the death with Germany. As a result, because they ignored the power of technology, the British Empire was almost exhausted in World War I.
Vézé had done an exercise in a junior high school chemistry textbook about the problem of solubility and saturation. It said that there was a lake in Xinjiang where salt could be harvested in summer and potassium nitrate in winter. He asked why. This was a problem that tested the saturation under different temperatures. If the information was correct, this problem was also related to the source of potassium nitrate.
Since Vézé couldn't go all the way to Xinjiang to get potassium nitrate, the rest of the method was very, very simple. Find some saline-alkali land, extract the underground brine, filter it, and boil the brine. Separate the crystals according to the different solubility. The crystals of sodium nitrate were like salt, square in shape. The crystals of potassium nitrate were long crystals.
Anhui didn't lack saline-alkali land, so this problem was quite easy to solve. Anhui wasn't an active volcanic area, so there was a lack of sulfur. Nearby China, Japan, and Ryukyu were all sources of sulfur. The volcanoes in these places were very active, or at least they were very active in the past, so there were a lot of sulfur mines.
This was the biggest headache for Vézé. One sulfur, two saltpeter, and three charcoal. Although the sulfur ratio seemed to be the lowest, it was a product that was particularly difficult to obtain in large quantities. Charcoal could be casually burned, and the preparation of saltpeter was a bit more troublesome. Without sulfur mines, he could only do it blindly.
Vézé even considered whether he should just give up on black gunpowder and make full use of Anhui's sulfur ore resources to develop smokeless gunpowder. However, he held back in the end. The problem of technology diffusion couldn't be solved. The new technology that Vézé had painstakingly created could be leaked with just one or two insignificant mistakes. If that was the case, then he might as well continue to play with black gunpowder.
Just as Vézé was worrying about the shortage of gunpowder in a large-scale expedition, a young staff officer in the new General Staff Department found Vézé. "Chief of General Staff, this subordinate has already contacted a batch of sulfur, I hope the Chief of General Staff can approve the contact transaction."
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