At the beginning of August 1917, when the political situation in Mawei stabilized and various industrial developments were rapidly developing, the spies from Fuzhou did not manage to obtain any useful military intelligence, especially in the direction of Xili. The strict reconnaissance system made those almost stupid spies become a laughing stock. They could not even reach the outer area of Mawei, let alone the core area of Mawei Military Factory!
As for Zuo Zongming's Ponytail, the hearts of the army and the people were now united. They were constantly working together to hide the useful information of the entire Ponytail. What was announced to the public was probably some false information. The military strength and economic development of Ponytail were unknown figures!
However, this was all based on the premise that Li Houji from Fuzhou looked down on Ponytail and Zuo Zongming, giving Ponytail enough time to develop!
And the truth was just as Zuo Zongming had expected. After bribing a few Min Army higher-ups, a large number of ponytails appeared in Li Houji's ears!
Fuzhou, Military Governor's Office!
"Overseer, I think that making Ponytail our main target is not in line with the development plan of our Min Army. As far as I know, Ponytail's army is extremely weak. As for the matter of Maxim and the mortar, it's even more non-existent. As for the fire on the Heavenly Snake Mountain, it was only that night when muffled thunder sounded in the sky, it accidentally hit the bandit lair and caused a fire!!”
"I agree with Advisor Lin, Overseer. We didn't sense any large-scale mobilization of troops in Xili, Changle, and Lianjiang. The troops in Mawei are at most two to three hundred people, so there's no need to be on guard!!”
Li Houji nodded noncommittally. It seemed that he was too careful. If there was really a large-scale army in such a small place, how could Fuzhou not know?
Li Houji, who was dressed in a loose robe, did not take the matter of the ponytail to heart. Could such a small place really cause a storm in front of tens of thousands of Min soldiers?
"Pass on my orders. Have the 1st division head north today and station themselves at the border of Fujian and Zhejiang, in the Shouning area. Damn it, that old thing Lu Yongxiang, relying on his friendship with Duan Qirui, has expanded another infantry division in a short period of time!!”
Li Houji raised his eyebrows, and a dark look flashed across his face. Li Houji was still quite afraid of Lu Yongxiang. This old fellow was a ruthless character. In addition to the original Zhejiang Army, their combat strength was powerful. Their firepower configuration was a level higher than his Min Army!
"Yes, Overseer. I'll go and generate electricity for Division Commander Wang of the 1st Division now!!”
The scorching summer light passed through the gaps of the leaves and left some mottled shadows on the ponytail land. As time passed, it was more like drinking sake, becoming more mellow and sweet...
On August 12th, Mawei finally rebuilt an abandoned freighter that had lost its power. Together with the original maintenance machines in the shipyard, it took nearly six months to rebuild this brand-new freighter at Mawei's harbor!!!
In the northeast of Mawei, this morning, the place was already surrounded to the point that not even water could pass through. There were even people with their families who came to watch the first freighter of the new era in Mawei officially enter the water!!
This cargo ship, which was once named King, was built in the Ying country in 1876. It took three months to officially arrive at the East China Sea. It stayed in the Mawei Dockyard for nearly ten years. In the end, the decayed Qing Dynasty wanted to sell the power system of King because of compensation. However, the facts proved that this was a ridiculous result. If it was not for Zuo Zongming, King, which was docked in the dock, might have been sealed forever!
Even Ruan Lingyu had followed Zuo Zongming to see the glory of the freighter. It couldn't be helped. In this ancient country with extremely backward industry, even trains were rare, let alone freighters with a displacement of thousands of tons.
Not far away, Mawei's No. 1 dock was just that. Zuo Zongming really did not have the money to build No. 2 and No. 3 docks. However, Mawei did not have much urgent need for the construction of warships. If it were not for such a scrapped freighter, Zuo Zongming would not have been able to build such a large freighter at this time!
The sea breeze blew. As the former military port of Manchu and the ship port of Mawei, the responsibilities it bore were definitely different from those of commercial ports. For example, Quanzhou, even after the war in Europe, had a daily handling capacity of more than 200,000 tons!
The person in charge of the shipyard was currently Xu Youshu, a cloning technician. As a ship-type talent, he had a unique advantage in controlling the shipyard and restoring the construction of some small ships!
However, due to the thickness of their own industry, the technology of the shipbuilding industry was still in the accumulation stage!
From a distance, the modified King looked like a prehistoric giant beast entrenched on the ground. The huge steel lump shocked everyone!
"Brigadier General, King, length 79.6 meters, width 13.3 meters, height 6.7 meters, standard displacement 2600 tons, full load displacement 3400 tons, standard speed 11 knots per hour!!”
"The power system uses a reciprocation steam engine with a horsepower of 1500 horsepower. Compared to the current cargo ships in Europe, the performance standard is also very outstanding. Unfortunately, this cargo ship is impossible to build with the current industrial capacity of Mawei. The navy is a hundred-year-old foundation. Even if the technical problems are solved by us, without the supporting industry, we can't even produce a cargo ship unless the entire Mawei Shipyard recovers to its peak production!!!”
Zuo Zongming could not help but look at everything in front of him. The brand new silver-white paint, the black base, the tall mast, the hanging flag of the Iron Blood Army, and the cross pattern of rifles represented the power politics of this era!!
The raging sea breeze blew from afar. Zuo Zongming looked into the distance. In the future, maybe five years, maybe ten years, he would build an imperial navy that dominated the world's sea!
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