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Junior high school history textbooks had mentioned the spirit canal, and Vézé had also seen an introduction to the significance of the spirit canal in The Resurrected Legion. The Liberation Army seized Guangxi and Yongzhou in Hunan in 1860, and the waterway connecting the Lijiang River and the Xiangjiang River was in the hands of the Liberation Army.
The spirit canal was narrow and curved, and the water level in some sections was shallow. Therefore, steep gates were built to raise the water level in the shallow and rapid flow to facilitate the passage of ships. The steep gates were five meters wide and made of rectangular stones. The steep embankments on both sides were curved, with a channel in the middle and a gate. They were the predecessors of locks and the earliest canal navigation equipment in the world. According to records, there were 18 steep gates in the Tang Dynasty, 36 in the Ming Dynasty, and 32 in the Qing Dynasty. Most of them were distributed in the Nanqu.
Vézé admired the wisdom of his ancestors. However, there were no steamships in the era when his ancestors created these. Even with the steep gates to adjust the water level, the draft was still a big problem. The Liberation Army had already finalized several types of inland river transport ships and combat ships and had begun mass production. According to Vézé's wishful thinking, the prefabricated parts were directly transported to the shipyard in Yongzhou, where they were assembled and debugged.
The original purpose of the spirit canal was not to consider the navigation of ships of tens or hundreds of tons. It was originally a river for transporting grain. That kind of small boat was enough to undertake this task. However, this kind of small boat could not carry large objects such as steam engines. The Liberation Army had to create a special ship with a wider, longer hull and a shallower draft to solve this problem.
In September 1861, after more than a year of hard work, the steamship assembled in the newly built Yongzhou shipyard was finally accepted. This was a small gunboat of about 20 tons, made of iron and wood, steam-powered, and equipped with six three-inch gun positions. There were also bunkers on the side of the ship and the superstructure for firing guns.
At the end of the acceptance, the acting Hunan Provincial Party Secretary Shen Xin personally visited the shipyard. He had seen shipbuilding in Guangdong and was responsible for building the shipbuilding and maintenance factory in Qiongzhou. In Shen Xin's view, the shipyard in Yongzhou could only be called an assembly workshop. However, this workshop allowed the Liberation Army's steamships to appear on the Xiangjiang River. This in itself was a great achievement.
At this time, the Hunan military had already received the battle plan to liberate all of Hunan. It was a good thing that the steamships were joining in. However, a steamship had to burn coal. When there was coal, the steamship was mighty. Without coal, this fully armed fellow could only float on the water. It was even inferior to an ordinary boat.
The reason why the ships in Guangdong and Qiongzhou could sail freely was because of the high-quality coal provided by Vietnam's Hongji Coal Mine. The coal mined from that place was transported directly to the port by train. After being loaded onto a hybrid sail- and steam-powered transport ship, it was then set off for Guangdong, Guangxi, and Qiongzhou. In theory, high quality coal from Vietnam could be transported to Yongzhou, but the cost would be ridiculously high.
Yongxing had already discovered a few good coal mines, but if they wanted to use them, they would have to take over Hengyang, the waterway transportation hub. In order to achieve a better combat environment, it had to be achieved through war. War itself was such a thing. Therefore, Shen Xin sent a telegram to the central government, asking if the army could take over Hengyang first.
"Shen Xin is really interesting. What's the difference between taking over Hengyang and taking over all of Hunan?" After Vézé's speech at the military commission meeting, the members of the military commission were all amused.
"What if we don't attack the two lakes first, but go north along the coast, go through Fujian, enter Zhejiang, reach the Yangtze River, and then attack west from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, driving the Taiping army to the west?" A new suggestion appeared.
The Liberation Army was drooling over the grain producing areas of the two lakes. Therefore, the plan was to take over the two lakes first. But after taking over the two lakes, the Taiping army would be blocked at the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. If the strategic goal was to drive the Taiping army away, then the entire strategy would have to be revised.
"What if we drive the Taiping army across the Yangtze River?"
"The Taiping army is filled with veteran generals. If they are forced to, they might accept going to Sichuan. Let them cross the Yangtze River and continue north. It's all plains. Are they going to wait to be surrounded and annihilated on the plains? Those people won't be stupid enough to do that. "
"If we attack Fujian and enter Zhejiang, our sea transportation capabilities can be used to our advantage. By sea, the pressure of transporting supplies can be greatly reduced. "
"Will the British attack our transportation routes?"
"If the British dare to attack, we will take over Hong Kong. Also, we don't necessarily have to go by sea to attack Zhejiang. We can still win by land. "
…
After one discussion after another, new strategic considerations appeared. Since they had decided to fight the Taiping army head-on, it would be better to fight from east to west instead of west. If they fought from east to west, they could force the Taiping army to go west and cause more chaos for the Qing Army.
Ju Junfeng immediately expressed his opposition. "Is our main enemy the Taiping army or the Manchu Qing? Why does it sound like everyone is mistaken? Our current goal is to destroy the Manchu Qing. If the Taiping Rebellion doesn't surrender, we will use weapons to make them surrender. But this doesn't mean that we should fight the Taiping Rebellion first. "
Vézé supported this point of view. "The goal of seizing the two lakes cannot be shaken. Right now, we only have the Pearl River Delta, which is a grain producing area. Although the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions are rich, the food is only enough for ourselves. If we want a large amount of food, we must first seize the two lakes region. This strategic sequence cannot be wrong. Also, the French are fighting fiercely in Vietnam. We have just opened a sea route to Siam. We can't expect this route to be unaffected. "
The opening of the Siamese trade route happened in March 1861. At this time, Siam was under the rule of the Bangkok Dynasty. The ruler was the fourth monarch, King Mongol. King Mongol succumbed to the pressure of the British and signed the Anglo-Siam Trade Treaty with the British government representative, J. Pauling in 1855. Other Western powers followed suit and came to sign the treaty. At the same time, because of the invasion of the Western countries, the Bangkok Dynasty had to open up the country.
The British swallowed India, and the French attacked Vietnam fiercely. The wise King Mongol was very polite to the Liberation Army who came in a steam warship with live ammunition. Since the founding of the Bangkok Dynasty, many Chinese immigrated to Siam. The Siamese government and the local people welcomed the Chinese who came with advanced farming technology. Siam's rice cultivation was booming, and the Chinese immigrants made a major contribution.
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