Chapter 449

"Your Majesty, I have a plan."

Unwilling to fail at this, Black Snake came up with a clever plan.

"speak."

"In the south of Zhaoqing County, there is a territory called Wulong County, which has basically been captured by the Black Snake Guards. I suggest that we temporarily form an alliance with Wulong County, and send the army directly to the rear of the allied army, and return it in the same way. body."

Hearing this, Ouyang Shuo looked at Hei Snake in surprise, "Are you sure?"

It's okay to form an alliance, but I'm afraid that the alliance will fail, and they will startle the snake. With the fall of Tianshuang County, [Shanhai League - Tianshuang League] also disintegrated.

In Zhaoqing County, Shanhai City is now isolated and helpless.

"I would like to issue a military order." Black Snake's tone was firm.

"Okay, I'll give you two days."

Given this opportunity, Ouyang Shuo decided to take a risk. Although Black Snake has a rough appearance, he is extremely delicate in his work. Since he dares to boast, there is absolutely no problem.

***********

On August 10, the army of the Southern Border Protectorate began to move.

In Shanhai City, under the leadership of Wang Feng and Zhao Kuo, the 3,000 Shenwu Guards rushed to Beihai Port to assemble, and together with the first formation of the Beihai Gulf Fleet, they went to Jiaozhou Port to surprise Yufo County.

The entire voyage, close to 4,000 nautical miles, requires at least ten days of sailing.

In Qiongzhou County, Sun Bin led the first division of the Huben Army and continued to sit in Qiongzhou to suppress the local resistance. Huben's Second Division and Fourth Division immediately pulled out their camps, first rushed to Qiongshan Mansion, then took a boat, crossed the Qiongzhou Strait, landed in Leizhou County, passed through Leizhou County, and went to Zhaoqing County to join the army.

The entire journey is more than 2,000 kilometers. Even with a rapid march all the way, it would take at least twenty days for the army to reach the battlefield. It can be seen from this that it would be a pain in the ass to fight across regions without a teleportation array.

The transfer of the two divisions of the Huben Legion this time has another purpose besides reinforcing Zhaoqing County.

The purge operation in Qiongzhou County is basically coming to an end. Next, it would be too wasteful to place an entire legion like the Huben Legion in Qiongzhou County.

Ouyang Shuo planned that in the future, Fan Lihua would lead the first division of the Huben Legion and station in Qiongzhou County for a long time, so that basically everything would be safe. Don't forget that the Yashan Fleet is still expanding, and the military power of Qiongzhou County in the future will still be dominated by naval forces.

On the island, the field army has the first division of the Huben Army, and it is enough to cooperate with the Qiongzhou County Garrison Division.

Taking this opportunity to gradually transfer the Huben Legion to the Lingnan battlefield is another intention of Ouyang Shuo. In the next step, whether it is to attack Chiyou City or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a huge army is needed.

In addition, after Zhaoqing County was conquered, the eastern border also needed to station a large army.

At the same time, the first formation of the Yashan Fleet departed from Nanshan Port, joined the first formation of the Beihai Gulf Fleet at sea, and then went to Jiaozhou Port together.

It was the first time that the two fleets assisted in combat, and they happened to be practicing at sea.

The only difference is the Imperial Guard Division.

The imperial guard division had just completed its assembly, and received a military order to temporarily station in the barracks.

Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to raid the Allied army's rear, and pressed the second and fourth divisions of the Huben Legion together. The three divisions are active in the enemy's rear. Once the food and grass are not available, the consequences will be disastrous.

Only an ace division like the Imperial Guard Division can handle such a heavy burden. Ouyang Shuo believed that even if there was no food supply, the Imperial Guard Division could solve the food problem on the spot.

As the saying goes, before the soldiers and horses move, the food and grass go first.

The reserve of strategic materials of the War Preparedness Agency has never been cut off. All prefectures and counties have special military granaries for hoarding military rations, which are guarded by local city defense forces.

Therefore, as long as the army marches in the territory, it can supply wherever it goes.

In this way, it saves a lot of manpower and material resources.

As the Battle of Zhaoqing unfolded, a large amount of food and grass were transported to the front line under the dispatch of the War Preparedness Department.

Now that the battle situation has changed, the front line needs to increase troops, and the food and grass originally calculated are somewhat insufficient. Therefore, when the armies from all walks of life set out, the combat readiness department had already started a new round of food and grass dispatch.

Ge Hongliang, the director of combat readiness, personally sits in Leizhou County and supervises the transportation of grain and grass.

In addition to food and grass, there are also a large amount of military supplies such as weapons and equipment, arrows, and siege equipment. For this reason, the Combat Readiness Administration has set up a general arsenal in each county, and then set up arsenals level by level in prefectures and counties.

Ordinary arrows will no longer be provided by the Shanhai City Weapons Workshop, but by the weapons workshops in each county. You know, after a big battle, hundreds of thousands of arrows will be consumed.

If the battle is fought for a long time, it is normal to consume millions of arrows. Relying solely on the supply from Shanhai City, the transportation cost alone exceeds the cost of the arrow itself.

Whether it is a large amount of food and grass, or a large amount of military supplies such as arrows, it consumes real money. The war's consumption of the territory's finances is unimaginable in other fields.

The hierarchical combat readiness system planned by Ge Hongliang was praised by Ouyang Shuo.

Combat readiness is the lifeline of war.

Ge Hongliang, the chief of combat readiness, undoubtedly made Ouyang Shuo very satisfied.

In the future, the military industry in Shanhai City will only be responsible for the production of high-end equipment, such as Mingguang Armor, Burenjia, etc. Others such as Tang Dao, Horse Lance, Arrow, etc. will all be completed by workshops in various counties.

In addition to considering the factors of artisans, there is also the supply of iron ore.

In the field of mineral resources, Gaia's design is very realistic. A mine not only has the setting of the maximum reserve, but also the difficulty of mining.

With the level of mining in ancient times, only a small part of the surface minerals can actually be mined. If the minerals buried deep in the ground are exploited at a risk, human life will be lost, and the gain outweighs the loss.

Of the two iron mines in the western suburbs of Shanhai City, the earliest one, the one that was explored during the village stage, has been exhausted and can no longer be mined, and has been officially sealed.

The second mine is also on the verge of being exhausted.

After a year and a half, the weapons and equipment manufactured by Shanhai City are too large, and the consumption of iron ore is astonishing. In addition, it is the completed steelmaking plant, which is a big demand for iron ore.

Ouyang Shuo consulted mineral experts to estimate that the iron mines in the entire Lianzhou County are added together, and at the current consumption rate of iron ore in Shanhai City, it can only last for about one and a half years at most.

One and a half years later, Shanhai City will have an embarrassing situation where there will be no iron ore available.

Upon receiving the news, Ouyang Shuo panicked on the spot.

He did not expect that after food, a new round of resource crisis would hit the territory again.

In his previous life, Ouyang Shuo was just an adventure player, and he still had some impressions of food price increases; but he didn't pay much attention to the rapid increase in iron ore.

Unexpectedly, it almost caused a big mistake.

Fortunately, it was discovered in time, and there is still time to remedy it.

If it wasn't for Shanhai City's excessive consumption of iron ore, it is estimated that this problem would not have been exposed so early. By then, it would be too late.

Ouyang Shuo was also a decisive person, and immediately ordered that the mining speed of the iron mines in Lianzhou County be cut in half to ensure the iron ore reserves in the base camp.

After all, transporting iron ore from other places is a very laborious and expensive matter, which is much more troublesome than transporting grain.

Sealing up the iron mine in Lianzhou County is only a temporary solution.

Ouyang Shuo then issued an edict, requiring all counties to immediately organize their troops to find out the iron ore and other mine reserves in their counties and report them to the War Preparedness Administration.

The good news is that more than a dozen large iron mines have been detected in both Qiongzhou County and Leizhou County.

Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered that the two counties increase their efforts in iron ore mining. In addition to the consumption of the county, more than half of the iron ore should be intercepted and transported to Shanhai City by sea.

For this reason, Ouyang Shuo specially ordered the shipyard to build a special cargo ship. Compared with land transportation, sea transportation is much more convenient, and the transportation cost is relatively low, which is still within the acceptable range.

As a result, the shortage of iron ore in Shanhai City was slightly alleviated.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo still didn't dare to be careless.

It can be predicted that with the expansion of the territory, the size of the army will also increase, and the demand for weapons and equipment will only increase; correspondingly, the consumption of iron ore will only increase.

In addition, the No. 7 Research Institute has to be mentioned.

The expert team of No. 7 Research Institute has expanded to hundreds of people. After the completion of the steelmaking plant, the research on steel accessories has entered the critical stage.

In the future, it is possible, even inevitable, to manufacture muskets, artillery, and even build ironclad ships. In that case, the demand for iron ore will increase, and it will be a bottomless pit.

Ouyang Shuo can't guarantee that the counties that will be occupied in the future will have rich iron ore reserves. Therefore, the import of iron ore will become a necessity.

In the later stage, when all the territories realized the shortage of iron ore, it would be too late.

Shanhai City must go one step ahead.

Ouyang Shuo immediately instructed the Department of Finance to allocate a special fund to the War Preparation Department every month for the purchase of iron ore in the market. At the same time, signed an iron ore purchase agreement with major chambers of commerce.

From now on, Shanhai City will start hoarding iron ore.

For this reason, Ouyang Shuo ordered to build dozens of large iron ore storage warehouses in the eastern suburbs of Shanhai City to store the iron ore purchased from the market or the chamber of commerce.

Purchasing iron ore is not a small expense. In the market, a unit of iron ore now costs 120 copper coins, more than six times the price of grain.

If you purchase in large quantities, you can imagine the burden on the territory's finances.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo had to grit his teeth and unswervingly implement this strategy.

In addition to importing, there is actually another way, which is to plunder from outside. Not to mention other places, in the Southern Ocean, there is a huge island called Australia.

In reality, Australia is a major exporter of iron ore.

In the game, with Gaia's rigorous setting, it must be the same. As long as Australia is occupied, the entire territory, no matter how it expands, will have no worries about iron ore.

It's a pity that the current Shanhai City is still too weak to start a national war.

You must know that after the game map is expanded ten times, the whole of Australia is not so much an island, it is more appropriate to say that it is a piece of land.

Not to mention, Ouyang Shuo doesn't know how Gaia set up Australia. At least, it won't be a wild island like Qiongzhou Island.

If you want to capture Australia, you know how difficult it will be.

In the medium term, it can be considered to start iron ore trade with Australia. The ultimate goal, of course, is to own the whole of Australia.