The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 123 The second set of steelmaking blast furnace equipment

When Wu Siwen was extremely surprised and said, "No way?", he had never thought of the possibility of a joint invasion by European powers, and naturally had no preparations militarily.

Feng Guohui was neither surprised nor disappointed.

Most of his generals are proficient in writing. They have grown into generals with their rich war experience and natural sense of smell, and their potential has basically been exhausted.

It is almost impossible to gain any more gain.

The generals of the Nanyang Army have no international vision, let alone any strategic pattern. They are even more ignorant of the current international situation and the pattern of regional hegemony in Nanyang.

Although they usually talk about Europa in meetings, how much do these generals know about Europa?

That is pure fantasy.

Fortunately, there is an understanding person like Feng Guohui who has been reborn through time travel.

Today's international landscape
It is still a competition for hegemony with Europe as the center stage. France is in the period of Napoleon III. This is also a very special honeymoon period between European land and sea powers.

For the powerful British and French fleets, it was just a window paper that could be broken with just one poke.

this period
It was also the historical period in modern history when the British and French forces appeared most frequently, frequently launched wars of colonial conquest around the world, and achieved great successes.

The British and French forces did not intervene in the colonial war in the East Indies, which does not mean that under the current situation, after the Nanyang Army represented by the Chinese emerged.

There are three things that prevent them from reaching agreement;
First, the always proud Dutch colonists underestimated the strength of the Nanyang Army.

This includes the First Opium War launched by the British and French forces from 1839 to 1842, the Crimean War launched in 1854, and the Second Opium War launched from 1856 to 1860, all of which have great influence on the world. Large-scale aggressive colonial war.

The shore artillery fire blockade in the Surabaya Strait is an insurmountable death trap for the Royal Navy's outdated fleet in the Netherlands East Indies.

Feng Guohui would not be surprised at all if the Kingdom of the Netherlands persuaded the British and French bandits to join in the encirclement and suppression of the Nanyang Army on the premise of substantial concessions to colonial interests.

At a huge cost, Tsarist Russia was almost driven into isolation.

The Napoleonic era in the early 19th century was the heyday of the continental powers with the French Empire at its core. The French Emperor Napoleon, with his unrivaled outstanding military talents, conquered almost all major European countries.

From a demand perspective, the Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies has such a strong desire.

in the original history

Secondly, the interests of the Governor-General's Office and the Kingdom of the Netherlands are inconsistent. The colonial Governor-General's Office prefers to reduce major issues to trivial matters and use its own strength to resolve the rebellion.

When they thought they could solve the problem, they would not bring two more greedy bandits into the dining room and lose control of the East Indies colony.

The strength of the two is not at the same level at all.

Thirdly, with the current situation still unclear, does the Kingdom of the Netherlands have enough courage to cede large sums of overseas colonial interests to satisfy the two robbers with huge appetites in Britain and France?
Perhaps the last question is the most critical.

Since Emperor Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, France fell into a swamp of internal strife between the restoration of the dynasty and the republic until the political speculation of Napoleon III succeeded in the restoration.

The Dutch colonists would not collude with them to suppress the Chinese forces.

The success of Napoleon III was based on British support, which also created the honeymoon period between Britain and France today.

The latest cooperation was during the Crimean War that broke out in 1854, when Britain and France jointly intervened in the Russian Empire's invasion of the Crimean Peninsula.

He conquered Vienna three times, conquered the Italian Apennine Peninsula, conquered Egypt, established the German-Rhine League subordinate to the French Empire, expelled traditional Spanish forces from the European continent, and captured Moscow...

Today, the powerful ships and artillery of the British and French forces are still anchored in Tanggu Port in Tianjin, where they use force to put pressure on the Qing government in Peiping.

under the current situation
Never push the Dutch colonial governor-general to a dead end, such as establishing an independent regime, uniting with indigenous forces to counterattack West Java, occupying Bandung or even Batavia, etc. These are very dangerous moves.

It seemed to be a relief, but in fact it was clearing the way for the Dutch colonists to introduce intervention from external European powers.

Gamblers who have lost all their chips may lose all their wealth when faced with a desperate situation.

Precisely considering various factors, Feng Guohui did not dare to expand his power easily and drastically increased his army from 16000 to 5 or even 6, and officially started the military attack on Batavia.

There aren’t enough flintlock muskets, what about spears and broadswords?
Many of Feng Guohui's subordinates made similar suggestions, but they were rejected one by one.

The reason is based on strategic concerns.

Showing weakness to the enemy was particularly evident in the occupation of Solo City.

From the beginning to the end, the Nanyang Army invested only more than 2,000 troops, showing signs of depletion of troops.

Craden was unable to capture even nearby Salatiga, which sent a strong signal to the Dutch colonists;

The Nanyang Army's military strength has been used to the extreme, and it is unable to continue to expand.

The idea of ​​defensive and counterattack operations focusing on steady defense is based on the determination of strategic goals to avoid exposing the true strength.

Feng Guohui plans to focus on maintaining the current region militarily within two to three years.

Economically, we will continue to develop ourselves, work hard on internal skills, and make every effort to increase the intensity and quantity of immigrants, laying a solid foundation for the next expansion. After inspecting the Guqian Fortress, the group took a dozen carriages and drove straight to the Taniguchi Fortress. Through here, they entered the Landa Mountain Base.

There is no need to look at the Taniguchi Fortress. This dangerous fortress is located at the Hulukou of the valley. Any enemy who wants to break it will have to pay a huge price.

But there are advantages and disadvantages
Taniguchi Fortress was unable to deploy its troops due to the constricted terrain, and the defenders could only deploy one company of troops.

Whether it is the offensive or defensive side, they can only use fueling tactics to fight for consumption. If the first line of defense cannot be defended, then this line of defense cannot be defended, which is almost certain.

After entering Taniguchi Fortress

The road along the Hulu River becomes wider and wider, and after more than two kilometers, a clear view suddenly opens up, with large areas of valleys, plains and hills appearing.

There is lush green everywhere here, and large tracts of neat cultivated land come into view, with village houses dotted among them, making it appear peaceful and peaceful.

From time to time, horse-drawn heavy-duty trains rumble past on both sides of the road, loaded with goods, and the long whips whipped by the grooms make loud cracks, making this place look different from other places.

Continuing seven or eight kilometers deeper, you can see a dense array of chimneys in the distance, spewing black smoke day and night.

This is the industrial town, Tieshan Town.

Following the road along the Calabash River all the way, the carriage drove fast and steadily, with almost no bumps or bumps.

Fly ash and cinders after incineration in steel plants are the best materials for road construction. After repeated rolling and tamping, the road surface is smooth and wide.

The four-wheeled carriage ran as smoothly as gliding on the water.

Compared with the last inspection, Tieshan Town is now much larger. People busy with construction can be seen everywhere outside the town, which indicates the vigorous vitality here.

Every time I come here, it's always under construction.

Feng Guohui's carriage team did not stop at Tieshan Town, but drove straight into the steel plant.

The second set of self-produced blast furnace steelmaking equipment has been officially put into operation. After some technological innovations, the monthly output can be increased to more than 3000 tons, which is half the original blast furnace output.

After the two sets of blast furnace steelmaking equipment enter full production, the monthly steel output can reach 5 tons. Subtracting the time when the blast furnace is shut down for maintenance, the annual output is about tons.

This number is almost one-fifth of the steel production of the Kingdom of France, which is really quite a lot.

You must know that the total population of France is more than 3200 million, and the population under the rule of the Nanyang Army is only more than 170 million. The difference between the two is nearly 20 times.

Nanyang Army has an annual production capacity of 5 tons of steel, and it uses advanced blast furnace steelmaking, ranking first in Asia.

It is particularly important to point out that

This second set of improved blast furnace steelmaking equipment was completely developed and manufactured by Tieshan Town Iron and Steel Plant. This not only saved Feng Guohui more than 30 silver dollars.

It also means that Nanyang Army has made a breakthrough in high-end blast furnace steelmaking equipment and has the ability to continue to expand steel production.

This bold attempt has trained the scientific and technological team, overcome many difficulties, and greatly improved the level of steelmaking and casting, which is particularly gratifying.

“Hahaha… a hard work, a harvest.

To be able to develop a complete set of blast furnace steelmaking equipment, Brother Zhengcao and a group of steel plant technicians have worked hard and deserve to be heavily rewarded.

The second set of blast furnace steelmaking equipment was successfully put into operation, which proves that our own capabilities are no worse than Guilao. "

Feng Guohui stood not far from the second set of steelmaking blast furnaces and spoke highly of it with a joyful expression.

Tieshan Town Mayor Lu Zhenchao and a group of scientific and technological workers from the steel plant and other entourage responded with warm applause, and everyone's face shone with excitement and glory.

In the development and production that lasted more than 9 months

Several scientific research groups led by foreign engineers overcame numerous casting difficulties, including the blast furnace group, pipeline group, high-temperature materials group, round tube group, and production technology group, and launched efficient scientific and technological research and achieved a series of fruitful results.

The biggest motivation comes from Feng Guohui's huge reward.

The second set of blast furnace steelmaking equipment was developed and produced by ourselves, and the price paid was no less than that imported from the United Kingdom. The heavy gold reward alone cost tens of thousands of silver coins.

But it was all worth it. It cultivated a large number of Chinese scientific and technological backbones for Tieshan Iron and Steel Plant and mastered the world's advanced blast furnace steelmaking equipment production technology.

based on this
The Tieshan Town Steel Plant will have the ability to rapidly expand steel production and improve production processes, which is an important aspect that affects military war capabilities and is of particular significance.

More steel means more guns, more cannons, and more bullets. The annual steel production capacity in the Kingdom of the Netherlands is less than 20,000 tons, while in the Dutch East Indies colony this number is zero.

This meant that the Dutch colonial army relied on imports of all its guns and bullets, making it difficult to carry out sustained high-intensity operations.

In terms of logistical supply capabilities, the Nanyang Army was already superior to the Dutch colonial army.

Even in the worst case scenario, the Netherlands and European powers joined forces to intervene in the war in the East Indies, blocking Java's foreign trade routes and isolating island traffic.

The Nanyang Army relied on the strong production capacity of Tieshan Iron and Steel Plant to ensure a continuous supply of weapons and equipment and continue to fight the war.

(End of this chapter)