The Senate in Washington was having a very formal discussion about whether the number of federal troops should be expanded to a level that was comparable to China's forces in North America.
The United States was a very young country, and its foreign relations were even younger. Before the British sold a large number of territories to China, the biggest threat to the United States was the Royal Navy. Now the United States had to face another threat that was far greater, which was China's Navy and China's Sixth Army.
According to the intelligence collected by the United States and the direct inquiry of China. The total number of China's troops in North America had reached more than 50,000. Of course, in the eyes of China, only 500,000 troops on a territory of millions of square kilometers was not a big deal. It was clearly a small number!
But the United States' view was completely different from China's. The Sixth Army of the United States now only had 100,000 troops. As for the United States Navy, the canal connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea had not yet been opened, and the United States did not have a decent fleet in the Pacific region. Even if they did, the United States did not think that their fleet could challenge the China Fleet that defeated the British Royal Navy.
In the latest news, the Chinese Navy Fleet had arrived in Hawaii and set up a foothold there. China had not announced that it would annex Hawaii for the time being, but it had begun to build ports and other facilities in Hawaii. What the United States' new neighbor in the north showed was an unparalleled obsession with land and a terrifying financial ability to occupy first and then buy later. How to get along with the new neighbor had always been a headache for the United States' upper echelons. Maintaining a situation of equal military strength with China was becoming more and more accepted by the United States Congress.
"Can the country's finances support sending 500,000 troops to the northern border?" The Republican Senator was very doubtful.
"Before sending 500,000 troops, the Federation will have to recruit another 100,000 troops first." The Democratic Senator who opposed this approach also put forward his own opinion. It had not been long since the Civil War ended. In the middle and late stages of the Civil War, both sides began to rely on immigrants who had just arrived in the United States. The Europeans who had just disembarked from the ships were pulled in to serve as able-bodied men. There were even tragedies of fathers and sons being pulled away by people from different camps, and not long after, they began to fight each other in different military uniforms.
"If the National Guard of each state has a conflict with China, what should we do then?"
When the time comes for China to invade, these councilors would not oppose going to war with China. Because of this, they had to come up with a solution to the problem. The United States Federal Army had always been a relatively restricted existence. Whether it was the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, every time the United States expanded the Federal Army on a large scale, it would begin to be greatly reduced at the end of the war. Perhaps this was similar to how after the American War of Independence, the veterans demanded that the federal government honor the promissory note signed by the commander-in-chief, Washington. Therefore, the federal government arrested this group of veterans who dared to take up arms to collect debts. After various reductions in their sentences, they were still sentenced to death.
Relying on the federal government to support hundreds of thousands of troops would mean a huge increase in taxes. This was a very, very serious issue for the federal United States. The more serious problem was that the United States had fallen into a severe economic crisis since 1882. This economic crisis followed the collapse of a new round of railway speculation in the United States.
From 1879 to 1883, the United States built nearly 50,000 kilometers of railroads. In 1882, the United States had built twice as many railroads as it needed, and parallel railroads competed viciously to cut freight rates. Railroads could not make ends meet, and banks and investors sold railroad stocks and bonds. In 1883, the price of American railroad stocks fell below par on the London market.
Under these circumstances, the United States Federal Government had no room to raise taxes. It was already very good to be able to maintain the current tax revenue. As for increasing the budget of the Federal Army by 40,000, this was not a goal that the United States could achieve at the moment. Napoleon said that war was fought with money first, then with money, and then with money again. The biggest feeling that the United States had right now was that they really did not have money.
The American system made it impossible for them to do anything without money. China's millennium-long history of coinage made it impossible for the country to have a lack of money. After peace was restored with England, China's exports to England showed a retaliatory blowout. First, silk could be sold in large quantities to England again. Second, tea became a major export once again.
In this peace delineation, China obtained the entire southern Tibet, including Assam. Ceylon also fell into China's hands. All the tea-producing areas in the world were now owned by China. Within a year, China first had a surplus of 100 million taels of customs silver. At this time, the price of silver on the world market was extremely cheap. China frantically searched the world for silver and shipped it back to China. China immediately announced that it would use the "paper silver" standard. In other words, when foreigners took a large amount of RMB and couldn't spend it, they could go to the Central Bank of China to exchange it for "paper silver", which was the same denomination of silver that God knows when it would be cashed out.
This kind of thing was a financial means for foreign countries and had no meaning for the people of China. The country was not short of money right now, what it lacked was infrastructure. It was planned to build a 50,000-kilometer railway network in North America in four years. Once the railway network was built, in theory, the war against the United States could enter the countdown stage.
Lieutenant Qi Rui did not know his father's strategic idea. It didn't matter whether he knew or not. As a member of the system, Lieutenant Qi Rui received an order. "The troops will start participating in the railway construction work from now on, and engage in mapping and geological exploration."
"You said mapping, I thought it was useful before. Geology class, I thought it was just to see how to use the terrain to build the fortifications, I didn't expect this class to really be useful. " Hu Xingzhi didn't know if he was happy or complaining. Anyway, there were a lot of things in his tone.
"Do you think that rank is for nothing? Why should we have three years less than others? Now we have to prove it with work." Li Shaokang laughed.
"As a soldier, we have to shoulder the responsibility of a soldier." Lieutenant Qi Rui said what his father once said. At this time, he had some fear for the hard future, but more of it was the understanding of the military organization. The military had responsibilities and obligations. When soldiers received better treatment than others, it also meant that soldiers had to shoulder more things. When the army could not bear the hard work, what was the meaning of the army and soldiers?
Lieutenant Hu Xingzhi quickly explained, "I'm not dissatisfied. I just feel that the things we learned can be used, it's really beyond my imagination. "
Lieutenant Zhou Shun nodded, "I just feel that the future is very hard, and I'm afraid that I can't do it well. But from another perspective, when we see each other next time, everyone should be a major, right? We can sign up for the new military school examination! "
That certainly sounds like an inspiring future. The junior commander of the Liberation Army needed to be at least a first lieutenant rank. However, the comrades who came to North America to serve also knew that their rank was not for nothing, so no one dared to mention applying for military school. It was just that if they wanted to be promoted, they had to work very hard.
Lieutenant Qi Rui was waiting for the army to be assigned. Now there were three directions to build railways in North America. The first was naturally from Vancouver, and the second was from Prince Rupert's Harbour, now known as Zhenglan Harbour. The third was from Alaska, building a railway near the Arctic Circle. If there was anything that the railway could do, it was probably to be able to quickly advance or retreat when China's North American territory was hit hard.
Construction in three directions at the same time meant that the efficiency was increased by three times. The higher the efficiency, the earlier the completion. Lieutenant Qi Rui didn't want to be assigned to Alaska at all. There were people in the army who came from Alaska. Everyone's evaluation of Alaska was "barren." Only an organization like the army could survive in Alaska and even build a railway.
Lieutenant Qi Rui didn't dare to think that he could go to Alaska. Other areas had an examination every three years, but the Alaska Military Region had an examination every two and a half years. Other people's fathers might dare to do something behind the scenes, but Lieutenant Qi Rui didn't dare to expect his father to do so.
After the army was assigned, Lieutenant Qi Rui was stunned. He didn't expect his army to be assigned to Dannu Lake, and he didn't expect Huxi City in the Dannu Lake area to build a port. After talking about the situation, Lieutenant Qi Rui realized that he was ignorant. When the Liberation Army entered North America, they went south along the Mackenzie River. Huxi City was originally one of the strongholds of the Liberation Army.
Dannu Lake was located in the northern part of China's North American territory. There was also a railway starting point here, and the increased efficiency was not comparable to simply adding a construction site on the coast. The port of Huxi City was already piled up like a mountain of materials, and a large number of machinery, including trucks, were put into use. Time was tight, and the task was heavy. Without any nonsense, everyone threw themselves into the work.
Even though it was winter in October in the Central American Province, the construction site was still in full swing. If they could go further south, they would be further away from the winter. After using a large number of machinery, as long as there was no heavy snow, the railway could continue to be built. The railway from Huxi City to the south ran through the plains of the Central American Province. As long as they could reach the first large military farm, the supply of the railway would no longer be a problem. Even at a place 50 kilometers away from the nearest large farm, the supply pressure was greatly reduced with trucks taking over the transportation work.
Practice was the best teacher. Lieutenant Qi Rui used to worry about his research topic for the military school, but now he had found his research topic. The application of the railway and trucks in the future large-scale war. Although this topic was very big, it was still a relatively new topic as far as Lieutenant Qi Rui knew. Also, the army didn't care if the same topic was raised by many people at the same time. What the army cared about was the knowledge that the officers showed when analyzing the topic.
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