The Fortress Project is actually a game of exchanging time for people's hearts! Don’t say that the people in the late Qing Dynasty were backward and decadent. They were just not used to change. Coupled with the backward media and closed clan concepts, they didn’t know what the outside world was like.
Just like the various contradictions that Xishuimen is encountering now, in the final analysis, the people who are resisting do not understand the special zone at all, let alone what the special zone represents to them.
In the eyes of these refugees, the Special Administrative Region may just be a place where they can eat well and make money. They can work here for a few years to save some money and return to their hometowns to buy houses and land. They can live as small landowners or rich farmers with peace of mind. This is how they will spend their whole lives.
This is the ideal of the refugees, but for those Tanggu people who have been influenced by the special zone, this place not only represents a better material life than outside, but also represents a sense of security and hope.
Willow walls and trenches, coupled with new troops and artillery, the victory of three consecutive defense battles has shown these people the sense of security brought by Xiao Letian, which was the most in demand in China in the late Qing Dynasty and even in the next few decades. resources.
Not only that, the people here also have hope for the future. They can enter Western-style schools to learn new knowledge. Even bolder families will send their girls to school. The new education system has opened up a different future for them. Sky.
Their lives will gradually be separated from the land. Some will become blue-collar workers, some will become merchants in ocean trade, others will join military schools, and some will even enter universities for further studies to become senior engineers and scientific researchers. .
When the only single-plank bridge between the future of life and the imperial examination is loosened, China, a nation with an unusually large population base, is destined to enter a period of great development as brilliant as the Renaissance.
But everything requires strong military strength to protect it. Without security, everything is just an illusion.
This is what Xiao Letian wants to provide, artificial differentiation. Every industrial zone is a fortress to preserve the vitality of the nation. Tanggu, Shanghai, Liaodong Peninsula, Shandong Peninsula, the Huaihe River Basin in northern Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangzhou and even along the Go upstream along the Yangtze River.
As long as the firepower of the armored warships can cover the area, as long as the Ryukyu Marine Corps can quickly control the area, it will be the target area in the future fortress plan.
At present, the Manchu and Qing dynasties will certainly not be stupid enough to open up so many special zones for Xiao Letian to occupy and develop, but opportunities are always left for those who are prepared. When the Manchu and Qing dynasties are fighting because of the estrangement of interests, as neutrals Ryukyu can naturally take advantage of both sides and take advantage of others.
The conservative faction and the reform faction within the Manchus will definitely have a battle, and the Hunan Army Group will definitely laugh at the split within the Manchus. The three parties will always take action. This is like the Three Kingdoms fighting for hegemony. As long as the Ryukyus floating overseas do not show up If the ambition to compete for hegemony is high, then all parties will not care about opening up some land for Xiao Letian to establish a special zone.
The key point is that Xiao Letian does not want sovereignty at all. This is the most reassuring point for all parties. All special zones are lease contracts, but Xiao Letian has obtained autonomy of several hundred square kilometers in fifty or eighty years. .
This is just like the Ming Dynasty recognizing the Portuguese's right to settle in Macau. As long as you promise the sovereignty of the Celestial Empire and not to rebel, the Celestial Empire will not care about that county at all.
But none of them have ever thought that if Xiao Letian rules over that piece of land for fifty years, will you still be able to take it back?
This is basically two different concepts fighting. Xiao Letian's strategy and tactics that only care about face but not face are simply impossible for people with medieval thinking to deal with.
Once a conflict escalates, not to mention that all parties need Xiao Letian's financial and military support. Sometimes, just to exchange him for neutrality, it is a piece of cake to cede 180 kilometers of land.
Compared to 10 million square kilometers of land, what are those dozens or hundreds of square kilometers? Not even a hair on their head, the arrogant emperors, generals and ministers will one day be able to lead an army of millions to sweep across these special zones the size of sesame seeds and mung beans. In their eyes, this little sparrow poses no threat at all.
Is there really no threat? The world has already thrown those medieval thinking into the Mariana Trench, and the future war model will definitely change beyond their imagination.
A regime that only has land and population but no industrial or technological strength will be a lamb waiting to be slaughtered in the future. Not to mention that you have conquered the Qing Dynasty, even the French regular army in Dakar still have no power to fight back in the face of advanced tactics that exceed theirs for 20 years.
How was the Battle of Songhu lost? We started a group army to attack the 3,000 Japanese concession defenders, but they couldn't defeat them! Then both sides increased their troops, the Japanese army invested two divisions, and the Chinese army invested eight army groups, but the result was that nothing could be done!
In the end, the Chinese army invested a total of 600,000 troops, and Japan also increased its troops to 130,000, but it still couldn't be conquered!
Are Chinese soldiers bloodless? No, the performance of the Chinese soldiers in the Battle of Songhu was absolutely outstanding! Is that because individual soldiers’ weapons and equipment are backward? No, what was put into combat at that time were all German weapons and equipment built with heavy investment. Most of the field artillery was imported from Germany, and all data were no less than Japanese weapons and equipment.
The key to the problem is the mode of war. Japan used a large number of naval warships and naval aviation in the Songhu Battle. At that time, the Huangpu River estuary was completely controlled by Japanese warships, and Japanese bombers were flying in the sky over Shanghai.
This is a battle in which a three-dimensional attack occurs on a flat surface. To put it in a sci-fi tone, this is a strangulation of the three-dimensional world against the two-dimensional world!
No matter how elite the individual soldiers are, they cannot withstand the bombardment of a single aerial bomb. No matter how excellent the field artillery is, its caliber will never catch up with the main gun of the battleship.
Without the support of absolute firepower, relying solely on bravery will not help at all.
The fortress plan is absolutely feasible. Xiao Letian wanted to take advantage of the inertial thinking of the Chinese people at that time and their psychological blind spots to take a look at the cloth.
Others think that each special zone is a money-making machine, and there seems to be no threat. However, Xiao Letian knows very well that what he places on the land of China is definitely a murderous fortress, and these fortresses will eventually form a ring. The interlocking chains are then put on the heads of all ambitious people.
Xiao Letian looked at everyone with bright eyes and sneered, "So, don't worry about the conflict of ideas in Xishuimen anymore, and work hard to prepare! The civil war will definitely start in Beizhili in three years, and it is bound to happen by then." There’s a wave of refugees!”
"Tanggu Special Administrative Region must prepare in advance! These refugees who have lost their opportunities now will definitely regret it in the future, because we will impose more stringent immigration requirements by then."
"We must perform a cutting operation on people's hearts and let them see with their own eyes what is right and advanced and what is wrong and backward."
"Those who abandon me today will regret it in the future!"
