I want to be emperor

In fact, the Great Chu Empire didn't care too much about the Tokugawa family's response... So what if they actively mobilized troops to fight, the real fight is a matter of minutes.

You must know that the Great Chu Empire has continued to gather troops in the Pusan ​​Port of Donghae Province on the Koryo Peninsula, and there are not many, just preparing to transfer two new divisions.

These two divisions are used as a strategic reserve force for Fuso affairs. If necessary, these two divisions can cross the Tsushima Strait and fight to Kyushu Island at any time.

At that time, the Great Chu Empire Army will bring together three infantry divisions, with a total strength of more than 5 troops. With the Chu Army's weapons and equipment and comprehensive combat quality surpassing the Fusang Army's for several generations, it will be easy to sweep the Fusang Islands.

The Tokugawa family concentrated their forces in advance, and it would be convenient to fight at that time. A few large-scale battles will basically be over, and it will save you looking for enemies everywhere to fight.

Because of the weapons and equipment and tactical characteristics of the Chu army, they are actually better at large-scale combat, especially frontal combat.

If the enemy spreads out to play various small-scale ambushes with them, the Chu army will actually have even more headaches.

Not to mention the Chu army, this is a headache for any strong army, because you have a strong combat power, but you can't find the enemy... The enemy will play with you and hide, and then fight if you have the opportunity Sneaky guns let go of cold arrows.

When the enemy is in the dark and we are in the clear, these sporadic small-scale attacks will actually cause more casualties to the Chu army than the frontal battle.

Therefore, when the Tokugawa family dispatched troops to face the battle, the Great Chu Empire was not worried but happy, and was happy to see it succeed.

Therefore, when the Tokugawa family mobilized troops to prepare for the battle, the Chu army was also doing its own thing. It was not in a hurry to directly kill the land of Kyushu Island, but to carry out some infrastructure construction on Hirado Island, such as repairing and strengthening The coastal defense turrets left by the Fusang people were then installed with some retired second-hand medium and large-caliber naval guns brought over by the navy.

At the same time, port facilities will be built to facilitate the berthing and replenishment of the subsequent large fleet.

Then a large number of barracks will be built, because more soldiers will arrive and station on Hirado Island in the future, especially a large number of soldiers from the No.40 Fifth Division are already on the way, and they will arrive here in a short time.

This camp always needs to be prepared in advance isn't it.

For administrative convenience, they began to recruit the young and strong women of Fusang on the island to build various fortifications, buildings, etc. for themselves, and forcibly expelled many irrelevant people.

According to the high-level plan of the Great Chu Empire, they planned to use Hirado Island as an outpost for marching into the entire Fusang Islands, a base camp for shifting, garrison and logistics.

Therefore, Hirado Island is very important, even more important than Tsushima Island.

As for the envoys sent by the Tokugawa family to inquire about the situation, the officials from the Fusang Office of the Department of Feudal Affairs had finished drinking tea and watched the play, and came directly to beat him up, saying that the Tokugawa family had instructed the Zong family that the Matsuura family had a good relationship with the Great Chu Empire. Large-scale smuggling was carried out, and many contraband were smuggled, such as flintlock guns, grenades and other strategic materials that were strictly prohibited from being exported by the Great Chu Empire.

The Tokugawa family is required to immediately punish the murderer severely, and apologize to the Great Chu Empire. The emperor will remove the title of emperor and become a vassal to the empire.

The annual tribute is 300 million Chu Yuan.

And a one-time compensation of 3000 million Chu yuan was used to compensate the huge losses suffered by the empire in the previous smuggling and to compensate for the cost of sending troops this time.

Fusang unilaterally opened all the ports in the whole territory, allowing the merchants of the Great Chu Empire to freely go to any place for trade, mining, road construction and other commercial activities, and allowed the empire to set up leased land in necessary areas for the living and business of the imperial subjects. And can freely send unlimited armed personnel stationed to protect the subjects of the empire.

In order to protect the subjects of the empire, the imperial military has the right to freely pass anywhere in the Fusang Islands, even the emperor's harem.

In order to protect the freedom of trade between the two sides and prevent Fuso’s convenient customs officers from disrupting the trade between the two countries, the customs agency in Fuso should be supervised by the empire and be responsible for it. The tariff rate is determined by the two countries through negotiation, and the tariff on any goods shall not exceed 5.00%.

Any Fuso declaration of war, war, peace talks, and signing of treaties with foreign countries must accept the guidance of the empire. Without the permission of the empire, it is not allowed to engage in diplomatic activities with third-party countries.

The financial, military and other power organizations of the Fuso Edo Shogunate are guided and supervised by supervisors sent by the empire.

These series... are even harsher than the conditions that the Great Chu Empire offered to Cambodia, Siam, Burma, and the Kingdom of Aceh.

Even if the Tokugawa family's brains are collectively broken, they probably won't agree to this condition.

If you really want to agree, then don't let the country perish, and it will be even worse.

In fact, it is impossible for the Tokugawa family to agree, and it is even impossible to negotiate.

There is no sincerity in this condition, so the Tokugawa family can only bite the bullet and continue to mobilize troops to prepare for the battle.

Soon, [-] troops gathered in Nagasaki first, and more troops came from other directions, especially Honshu Island.

These days, the Fuso people have a population of nearly 2000 million, and their average life expectancy is very low, which means that if they don't care about the life and death of the people, the shogunate and daimyo can actually recruit hundreds of thousands of troops.

Of course, the young and strong can recruit enough, but the weapons and equipment cannot be guaranteed. It is already a great deal to be able to prepare a spear or a knife for most soldiers.

Regarding the preparations of the Tokugawa family, the Chu army had already expected it, and did not carry out any obstruction or interference. Otherwise, as long as the Great Chu Imperial Navy randomly sends a fleet to blockade the horses between Kyushu Island and Honshu Island In the Guan Strait, if the shogunate wants to mobilize troops from Honshu Island, it will become very troublesome.

But Chu Jun didn't stop him!
Still the same sentence, in the future, it is better to wait for the enemies to gather themselves, and then have a large-scale battle to kill them directly.

At that time, it will even be possible to block the Maguan Strait to close the door and beat the dog!
So far, the progress of the situation in Fusang has been within the expectations of the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire.

First seize the advance base of Hirado Island, and then put forward a series of harsh conditions to force the Tokugawa shogunate to sue for peace and have no choice but to bite the bullet and mobilize troops to die.

Then the Chu army will be able to slap and kill the troops mobilized by the Tokugawa shogunate.

Only by completely killing the army of the Tokugawa shogunate can they better understand the reality, give up all illusions, and then accept a series of conditions from the Great Chu Empire, so as to provide the Great Chu Empire with a comprehensive and practical control of Fusang , and then lay a good foundation for colonization and plundering of economic interests.

That's right, what the Great Chu Empire wanted was not just equal trade with Fusang.

What the Great Chu Empire wants is a colony that allows itself to unilaterally plunder economic interests.

At least in the short term, first plunder the economic benefits, as for the annexation... For the time being, the empire has no such idea.

It is naturally impossible for Fusang to become a colony obediently, so their backbone must be completely broken first.

This is how the current seemingly unconventional plan came into being.

When the Tokugawa family continued to mobilize troops from all over the Fusang Islands to gather in Kyushu Island, the Great Chu Empire also continued to mobilize troops.

First, the follow-up troops of the No.40 Fifth Division were transported to Hirado Island, followed by the Third Division and the No.60 Second Division. These two divisions also arrived at Hirado Island through the Tsushima Strait.

By April of the 23rd year of Chengshun, the Army of the Great Chu Empire had gathered 160 troops on Hirado Island, with a total of more than 19 field artillery pieces of various types. In addition, there was a siege artillery regiment that was temporarily reinforced. .[-] Heavy Artillery Regiment'.

Based on these units, the Army established the No.20 Army by order.

This is also the first time that the Great Chu Empire has set up a new army-level field command organization since the establishment of the No.20 Second Army in the Nanyang region.

This kind of field army with an official designation is different from the former Lena River Dispatch Army, Yenisei Dispatch Army, and Ob River Dispatch Army in Siberia, which were temporarily organized and whose designations were abolished on the spot after the battle.

Once this kind of field army with an official designation is established, it will exist for a long time and maintain a considerable number of troops.

It can be seen from this that the Great Chu Empire has great determination towards Fusang, and those who come here do not intend to leave...

In addition to the army strength, the navy also dispatched the Fifth Marine Regiment, which is a mixed regiment with a total strength of more than 5000 people.

The navy's marine corps for large-scale ground combat is basically organized in the form of mixed battalions and regiments, and the total strength is also quite large. There are more than 5 people in total, but the places where they are stationed are scattered. Therefore, it has always been difficult for the navy to assemble a large number of marines for a certain battle.

On weekdays, there are thousands of people, and only when there is a large-scale battle, will a mixed regiment of marines be dispatched.

There are more than 5000 soldiers in the army and more than 6 marines in the navy, which means that the Chu army has gathered on Hirado Island, and the total force available for ground combat has exceeded [-].

This is a rather large number, especially in the case of cross-sea operations.

In order to maintain the combat operations of the 6 ground combat troops and the huge fleet, the Great Chu Empire had already transported and hoarded a large amount of supplies to Busan last year, and began to prepare various transport ships.

After the military officially began to operate, in addition to more than 100 various types of transport ships of the army and navy, they also recruited more than 100 types of merchant ships or armed merchant ships from the two major armed trading companies.

For this battle, the Great Chu Empire used more than 200 armed transport ships/merchant ships alone, and they were all medium and large armed transport ships/armed merchant ships with relatively large displacement when fully loaded. The kind that directly participated in the battle!
These more than 200 transport ships continue to sail between Busan Port, Tsushima Island, and Hirado Island, transporting various weapons, equipment and materials to Hirado Island, and will also undertake to transport the garrison on Hirado Island and a large amount of materials to Kyushu. Missions on this island.

These more than 200 armed transport ships/merchant ships are an important support for maintaining [-] ground combat troops and naval combat fleets!

In addition, ships of many domestic shipping companies transport various supplies for the military to Hirado Island from many domestic coastal and river ports by accepting orders and hiring.

The army and navy of the Great Chu Empire are still well prepared in terms of logistics, and it is impossible for the logistics to be unable to be guaranteed after sending troops there.

After all, because the Chu army has always been more dependent on logistics, it has always attached great importance to logistics.

This was the case in fighting in Siberia before, and it is the same in fighting in Fusang now.

This did not get the logistics done, and the Chu army would not engage in any large-scale battles.

Just when the army and navy of the Great Chu Empire continued to transport personnel and supplies to Hirado Island, they were preparing to do something big on Kyushu Island, completely breaking the backbone of the Edo Shogunate.

In the local city of Jinling, Luo Zhixue boarded a steam ship with a dozen or so concubines

This is an iron-ribbed wood-hulled sailing ship with a displacement of more than a thousand tons, and it is not a warship or a merchant ship. This is a very pure passenger ship.

And the number of passengers expected to be carried is very small, and the decoration on the ship is also very luxurious.

The reason why this ship is so special is purely because it is a royal private cruise ship. Last year, the Palace Affairs Department placed an order with the Guangzhou Shipyard to build a royal cruise ship specially built for royal family members to travel.

Although the royal family members don't travel much, there are many royal family members... Dozens of children and hundreds of concubines, these concubines are occasionally allowed to visit their relatives.

If you can take a boat on the way, you will go there by boat. Before that, the Palace Affairs Office ordered several sailing boats of different sizes to meet the travel needs of royal family members.

Three years ago, Concubine Lu Yuan, the birth mother of the sixth son of the emperor, was allowed to return to Fuzhou to visit relatives. She took a 1000-ton royal ship from the Palace Affairs Office all the way out of the Yangtze River, and then arrived in Fuzhou by land and sea.

Therefore, the royal family has always had ships with high requirements for riding comfort. Now that steam ships have come out, the Palace Affairs Office has also ordered several ships. A river cruise ship of two or three hundred tons.

After all, most members of the royal family can't travel along the big rivers and the coasts. In fact, there are more small rivers and small rivers at this time.

As the order of the Palace Office, the Guangzhou Shipyard attached great importance to the cruise ship used by the royal family, prioritizing the arrangement of materials and labor for production, and the progress was very fast with overtime.

After the completion of the work, the Guards Fleet under the Guards will send crews to accept it and drive back to Jinling City.

That's right, the Imperial Guards of the Great Chu Empire actually have a fleet, and the scale is not small... It has more than [-] ships, most of which are inland river gunboats, and a few are large-tonnage warships of thousands of tons.

The ships under the Palace Office are also maintained and maintained by the Guards Fleet on weekdays.

After the Asia arrived at Jinling City, after several days of maintenance and preparations, Luo Zhixue took a dozen or so concubines on board and prepared to take a stroll on the Yangtze River.

In the past, although the Palace Affairs Office also had royal ships, Luo Zhixue had no interest in pure sail ships, but he liked sail-powered cruise ships.

Just taking advantage of the good weather with the spring breeze blowing on the face, I took a boat ride around.

But I didn't go too far by boat, I just wandered around the Yangtze River near Jinling City and then got off the boat and returned to the palace.

Well, if you go too far and stay for too long, it will be difficult to do security work, and the impact on people's livelihood will be too great, so Luo Zhixue can't be too willful.

After all, it was very important for the emperor to go out, even if it was just to wander around in a boat twice, in order to ensure that Luo Zhixue had fun and was safe when he was on the boat.

The Guards Fleet directly dispatched warships to block both ends of the Yangtze River, and no ships were allowed to enter the voyage.

All the wharves in the roadway were also blocked, and no ships were allowed to leave the port. Anyone who left the port without authorization would be warned or even sunk by the guard gunboats immediately.

At the same time, when the Asia was sailing, there were more than a dozen small steam ships of the Guards guarding around. They were not talking about guarding against any enemies, but purely for the sake of any problems with the Asia, such as water leakage and sinking. Like, Luo Zhixue and those concubines could be transferred to a safe ship immediately.

This trip by boat has such a big impact, Luo Zhixue can only taste it lightly, and just enjoy it.

Moreover, traveling by boat, even a sailboat is not very safe, God knows when it will sink... This makes Luo Zhixue not feel very safe.

He still prefers to wait for the railway network to be built before traveling by special train in the future.

When disembarking, Luo Zhixue saw the trains of the port railway in the distance moving slowly when he returned on the carriage on the special wharf of the Guards.

Looking at the train, he looked forward to the rapid completion of Jinling City and the surrounding railway network, so that it would be convenient to travel in the future, and he would be able to see the great rivers and mountains of the empire he ruled.

According to the current railway construction situation, he doesn't have to wait for many years.

After all, the railway construction of the Great Chu Empire was still very fast, and the scale was very large, especially stimulated by the ultra-high profits after the commercial operation of the Songjiang Railway.

The construction pace of the railway company is very large, and the banks are also very straightforward when providing loans.

With the determination, the funds are guaranteed, and the railway is still built on flat terrain, then things are much simpler.

The railway company started last year and fully rolled out the railway construction.

Most of the Su-Song Railway has been completed this year, and it is estimated that it will be open to traffic at the beginning of next year.

At the same time, the railway from Jinling City to Dangtu Industrial Zone is nearing completion, and is currently in the final finishing touches.It won't take long, three months later, you will be able to take a train from Jinling City to Dangtu Industrial Zone, an important industrial town in the empire.

At the same time, the railway from Jinling City to Zhenjiang is expected to be completed this fall.

The two railway sections from Zhenjiang to Changzhou and from Changzhou to Suzhou are also under construction simultaneously, and the construction period will be completed in the first half of next year.

And when these separately constructed railway lines are completed one after another and connected with each other, it means that the main line of the Jiangnan Railway, that is, the 300-kilometer railway line from Shanghai in Songjiang Prefecture to Dangtu Industrial Zone in Yingtianfu, is expected to be completed. It will be completed in the first half of next year.

This has great strategic significance for the Great Chu Empire.

It is not that the Great Chu Empire has no railways. On the contrary, the Great Chu Empire has accumulated more than 1000 kilometers of railway lines before the appearance of trains, but these railways are all non-standard mining railways and port railways.

And most of them are narrow gauge, which are basically small railways between 75 centimeters and one meter, and very few can reach a gauge of 1.2 meters.

These railways are not connected into a network, but a few kilometers here, a dozen or twenty kilometers there, scattered all over the country, and most of them are still in places where there are few people...

After all, most of the mining areas are located in the countryside or even mountainous areas, and there are not many people in the first place.

Therefore, the more than 1000 kilometers of mining area or port railway did not have any intuitive feeling for Luo Zhixue.

Only the Jiangnan railway, which directly crosses multiple cities and connects multiple cities and towns along the way, can make Luo Zhixue feel emotional.

He also looks forward to being able to take a train to a farther place after the completion of the Jiangnan Railway and other railways.

Therefore, at the Imperial Transportation General Meeting held in mid-April, Luo Zhixue once again instructed the Ministry of Communications that the railway, which is related to the national economy and the people's livelihood, can drive the development of the empire's industrial and commercial economy, and bring more convenient travel to the public. Great support.

For railway lines that are relatively difficult to construct, expect relatively large operating income, and can bring relatively high economic returns to the local area, you can be bolder and move faster!
Although the current scale of railway construction is not small, the Railway Corporation has launched construction plans for more than a dozen railway lines, but in fact the total mileage is not much.

In the 22 years of Chengshun, that is, last year, a total of more than 800 kilometers of railway lines were started, and this year, only more than 500 kilometers of railway lines have been started or are planned to be started.

It looks like a lot of numbers, but it is still not enough for the huge Chu Empire, far from enough.

Luo Zhixue's requirements are not too high, he just hopes that the two horizontal and two vertical railway lines that have been planned can be completed as soon as possible.

The main provinces in the country, especially the provinces with large populations and large economies, are connected by railways.

Such as the Ningheng Railway after the connection of the Jiangnan Railway and the Huguang Railway.

This Ningheng Railway runs from Ningbo to Shanghai, then to Jinling City, and then to Jiujiang Hukou. After passing through the Hukou here, people or goods enter the Huguang railway network. The Huguang railway network can lead to Wuchang and then to Yueyang and Changsha. , Hengyang, deep in the hinterland of southern Chu.

At the same time, you can also take a ferry in Wuchang, take the train to the north in Hankou, and take the planned Hanzheng Railway, you can go all the way north from Hantian Hankou to Zhengzhou.

For example, the northern railway, from Jiangpu, Jinling City, to Xuzhou, and then all the way north to Tianjin, that is, the Beijing-Tianjin Railway.

And it can enter Jinan, Shandong through several railway branch lines, go out of Shanhaiguan to Liaodong, and go out of Zhangjiakou to Datong, Shanxi.

Another example is the Haixi Railway, which goes all the way from Haizhou to Xuzhou, passes through Zhengzhou, Luoyang, and Tongguan, enters Shaanxi, and arrives in Xi'an.

These main railway lines will eventually form a two-horizontal and two-vertical railway network.

This is also the main railway line plan that was finalized by the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire last year.

As long as there are these four main line railways, you can take a train from Jinling City, go east to Ningbo, Zhejiang, and go southwest to Hengyang.

Going northeast, you can reach Liaodong.

To the north, you can reach Datong in Shanxi and even Monan.

To the northwest can reach Xi'an.

The world is so big that I dare not say that you can go anywhere, but you can also connect most of the population and economically important provinces of the empire.

Well, except Guangdong!