The "West Court" in the former dynasty of the Siam Palace belongs to the military minister system. The area of this area is exactly the same as the "East Court", but in terms of the number of high-rise buildings, it is about half less than the "East Court".
This is not to treat military officials lightly, but the affairs in the "West Court" are not as complicated as in the "East Court" and do not require as many administrative manpower. In addition, the "West Court" also has the function of garrisoning, so there are only one row. There are currently only two large public rooms in the military camp, and there are only two real administrative buildings.
There are two administrative buildings, one is temporarily named "Southern Xinjiang Garrison Military Command Headquarters" and the other is temporarily named "Dingnan Garrison Headquarters". As for the Siamese Ministry of War after the reform of the "Six-Ministry System" in the Kingdom of Siam, it is not in the "West Court", but in the "East Court". However, the current affairs of the Siamese Ministry of War can be said to be very few, and the military power is all in the "West Court". ".
The current real owner of the West Courtyard - or the "acting owner" - is none other than Huang Zhiting.
However, even Huang Zhiting does not have a very clear and formal position to lead the "Southern Xinjiang Garrison Military Command Department". The authority of the orders she issues in the name of the Military Command Department comes from the seal given to her by Gao Pragmatic.
After all, this Military Command has great power in theory, and all the major garrison forces in southern Xinjiang need to act in accordance with the orders issued here - with one and only one exception, that is, each ministry directly receives the order from Gao Pragmatic, otherwise the Military Command will The order is considered the highest order.
As for the "Dingnan Garrison Headquarters", there was a garrison commander at this time. It was none other than Huang Zhiting's number one general, Huang Hu.
The number of troops under the garrison headquarters is not very large, only 8,000 in total. Five thousand were Huang Zhiting's own wolf soldiers brought from Annan Haidong Town, and three thousand were the group Liu Xin left behind.
Although in accordance with Gao's pragmatic requirements, Huang Zhiting personally breastfed Gao Yuan for a period of time. I don’t know if the mother’s physical fitness also has a positive impact on the child. When Gao Yuan was only seven months old, the female medical officers sent by the Department of Medicine unanimously agreed that he could be weaned.
So Huang Zhiting seemed to be liberated, and began to care about the Dingnan garrison again, and immediately took action personally to complete a major transformation of this "last line of defense".
The ferocity of the wolf soldiers is well known, their reputation is absolutely resounding, and their military exploits are worthy of their reputation. However, Huang Zhiting, who has personally commanded several guard armies, is keenly aware that the wolf soldiers must be reformed, otherwise they will sooner or later be eliminated by the increasingly powerful firearms-based armies.
What's more, since these wolf soldiers will serve as the royal city's garrison in the future, their defensive ability while standing on the tower and shooting arrows will definitely not be as good as firing cannons and shots from the tower.
Besides, the walls of the royal city and the royal palace are built into bastion-style crossfire walls. The openings for shooting are very small, and you can't allow you to shoot arrows stupidly inside.
So in recent months, in addition to going to Nanzhang to deal with her ineffective brother, Huang Zhiting has been training this army - not only the wolf soldiers, but also Liu Xin's three thousand people.
The firearms training already had the garrison as a template. In order to obtain a "personal inheritance", Huang Zhiting specifically asked Gao Pangshi to transfer Gao Jue from Jingang. First, he served as the commander of the Dingnan garrison, and second, he helped correct her. Training plan to avoid problems.
[Note: Gao Jue was originally the commander of the Thang Long Garrison. Because the garrison always had a rotation system, he was later transferred to Jingang until he was transferred to Dingnan this time. ]
According to Gao Jue, there are two most critical issues for the success or failure of a firearms-based army: First, discipline must be enforced and prohibited, as the master said, "soldiers must fear military law more than death."
The second is the mastery of firearms techniques and tactics. This is relatively simple. Maintain high-intensity training and conduct simulated actual combat drills regularly. In addition, engage in more live ammunition shooting. In short, you have to be willing to spend time and even more willing to spend money.
The time-consuming problem is easy to deal with. Huang Zhiting has no time to fight now, and government affairs are basically left to professionals like Gao Mengnan. The local situation in several other garrison armies has basically stabilized, and there are not many major tasks that must be decided by her personally, so she has a lot of time to focus on training.
The trouble is spending money here. Of course Jinghua has money, but Dingnancheng is now a bit like a bottomless pit. Although many nobles, officials and wealthy households have moved in after the establishment of the inner city, and there have been some commercial activities. Gao Mengnan can start to gradually collect taxes and slowly "recover", but overall it is still a drop in the bucket.
Beijing's current estimate is that at least the construction of the royal city must be completed in order to ensure a balance of revenue and expenditure. After one or two years, Dingnancheng's finances will begin to accumulate surplus, and then they can consider continuing to build the outer city - the construction of the outer city. Task Jinghua does not plan to continue to invest huge sums of money, and it depends on Ding Nancheng's own efforts.
In short, it's not that Huang Zhiting can't ask Gao Jingjing for money, and it's not that Gao Jingjing can't afford the training expenses for this mere 8,000 people. However, she always felt that as a wife, it was her duty to share her husband's worries, and it was inappropriate to keep causing him trouble, so she had to find a way to handle the money herself.
There weren't many solutions to think of, so naturally she still had to look at her territory in Haidong. Haidong is not poor, but although it is close to the Red River Delta, it is just outside the delta. The irrigation is definitely worse, and it is not considered a fertile land. The grain produced can only be considered as a certain surplus, which can be sold, but not much profit can be made. money.
Making money now mainly depends on two points. One is sugar production. This place is close to Siming Mansion, which is also a good sugar production area. Moreover, there is no need to worry about the sales of sugar. It is impossible to be cheated by directly selling it to Jinghua.
The second is to sell coal. One of the reasons why Gao Pragmatic gave Haidong to her was that it contained the largest coal mine in later Vietnam. At this time, Haidong Prefecture included all of Quang Ninh Province in later Vietnam, and this province was the largest coal mine in Vietnam. In the main production area, the veins are 200 kilometers long and the reserves are estimated to be as high as 3.6 billion tons.
Moreover, the coal produced in this area has high calorific value, low ash content, no smoke, and is of very high quality. It is almost rare in the world. It has a long-standing reputation and has been exported to many countries in Asia, Europe, Oceania and other places for a long time.
But the problem is not that there are no problems. The main problem is that the "industries" that need coal in southern Xinjiang are concentrated in the Ha Tinh-Jingang generation in central Annan, and there are not many. The largest users are Jinghua's steel plant in Ha Tinh and Jingang. Arms factories and others are just small-time retail investors, and their consumption simply cannot keep up with coal production capacity.
Huang Zhiting thought about it, but still felt it was difficult to handle. There is no so-called winter in southern Xinjiang, and there is no need to count on heating. The north of the Ming Dynasty is in great need of coal for heating, but unfortunately there is no shortage of coal in the north of the Ming Dynasty. Jinghua has coal mines all over the north, so it can cover the entire market.
So Huang Zhiting decided to open her own arsenal in anger, but instead of engaging in internal competition with Jinghua, she planned to produce products such as cold weapons and armor.
There is a leading enterprise of this kind in the Ming Dynasty, which is the Wang Arsenal of the Wang family (Wang Chonggu family). Because they have been using Jinghua's steel and iron as raw materials, and they are still very pragmatic relatives, Jinghua is too lazy to compete for this piece of business.
However, there is no such thing in southern Xinjiang. Although military power in southern Xinjiang is concentrated in the hands of the garrison, there are not many places that need cold weapons. In terms of armor, due to the weather, the amount of iron used is not large. However, although the local market in southern Xinjiang is limited, , but there is no problem with external sales.
Huang Zhiting had been paying attention to the situation in India mentioned by Gao Jingshi before. The Mughal Empire was in the expansion period, and their level of firearms was not high. They had a great demand for cold weapons, armor and other items.
In addition, the Mughal Empire was a northern empire in India, and there were a lot of kingdoms and local governments in the south. Who among these people is not afraid of the mighty Mughal Empire? Who can't get some equipment to strengthen their courage?
As soon as she said it, Huang Zhiting quickly recruited a group of craftsmen from Foshan and southern Xinjiang. She even sent people in Chittagong to recruit some craftsmen who knew about Indian weapons and armor to Dingnan. An arsenal was established in the outer city of the center (on the west side of the Chao Phraya River).
At the same time, the Burmese Squadron of the Nanyang Fleet was asked to promote the trade in India to see if they could get a few orders. The results turned out to be really good. The current smelting level in India is not very high. The main reason is that the efficiency is very low, which leads to high prices for iron products. Since Huang Zhiting’s products use steel produced by Jinghua in Ha Tinh, the quality is good and the price is good. The advantages are also obvious.
The financial personnel recommended to her by Jinghua calculated that the gross profit could reach a little more than twice the production cost. Excluding transportation and other costs, the income was still considerable.
However, the profits here are slow and steady, and the initial investment was real money. As a result, Huang Zhiting has always felt that she is short of money recently. It was under this situation that Special Envoy Alfredo was invited by Gao Mengnan to see Huang Zhiting. It was already the morning after he met with Gao Mengnan.
The special envoy entered the Siam Palace again and thought that he had heard it wrong when he learned that "Her Majesty the Baroness" would receive him at the Xiting Military Camp.
Although he also knew that the Baroness was famous for her military exploits, he was the special envoy of the Governor of Goa and was here on a diplomatic mission. Shouldn't the Baroness give him a more formal occasion to pay his respects? Just like His Excellency Gao Mengnan, he also received me in the "Prime Minister's Office" after all!
It's a pity that it doesn't matter what he thinks. Huang Zhiting has to meet him wherever he says, whether you want to come or not.
Although Alfredo was a little dissatisfied, Captain Pedro was very satisfied, not only satisfied, but even excited. He especially hoped to see Her Majesty's army practicing, because this would give him the opportunity to observe and evaluate the combat effectiveness of the Siamese army (actually the garrison) at close range, which was a very meaningful thing.
Captain Pedro's wish was quickly fulfilled, but unfortunately only part of it was fulfilled - he was not able to see very formal training, such as battle formation marches, formation changes, live-fire drills, etc.
What he saw today was a strange training: Her Majesty's guards were standing in military posture under the scorching sun.
Eight thousand soldiers stood motionless under the blazing sun in Dingnan, each with a coconut shell on their head that looked like it had been roughly processed. Captain Pedro thought at first that those coconut shells were for sun protection, but later he discovered otherwise. It seemed to be some kind of criterion - if the coconut shell fell from the head, the training must be unqualified.
"Her Majesty the Baroness" obviously would not accompany them to bask in the sun. She sat under the shade of a shady tree, blowing the cool breeze of the Chao Phraya River (anyone who has been to Hainan knows that although the sun is extremely poisonous, once there is shade, The wind is very cool), she is wearing a women's official uniform (misunderstanding, it is her official uniform), and there is a table next to her with some fruits on it.
"Alfredo, the special envoy of the Governor of Goa of the Kingdom of Portugal, has met Her Majesty the Baroness and wishes that Her Majesty's beauty will last as long as the Chao Phraya River."
"Pedro, the captain of the Royal Portuguese Navy's Grandura, has met Her Majesty the Baroness. In front of your beauty, even the beautiful Chao Phraya River pales in comparison."
Huang Zhiting used to get angry when she heard such European compliments, but as she saw more and more Europeans, she had become immune to it. She just smiled lightly and asked, "I heard from uncle, do you have something to do?" Want to talk to me?"
Alfredo was a little surprised that Huang Zhiting didn't even move to stand up. This seemed to him a bit rude, let alone "diplomatic reciprocity". It seemed that Pedro was right before, the Ming Empire's The official was indeed quite arrogant - he knew that Huang Zhiting had an official position in the Ming Empire.
Fortunately, Alfredo was very tolerant, especially when facing a beautiful lady, he didn't want to appear rude in any way. Therefore, the special envoy bowed politely again and said: "Yes, Your Excellency, I am here to..."
"To find out whether my husband or I have any intention of using force against the city of Malacca, right?" Huang Zhiting interrupted him firmly, although her voice was not loud.
Envoy Alfredo was stunned at that time, as if his mind was shut down for a short time. After a while, he forced a smile and said: "Your Excellency, the Countess, is joking. There is no conflict between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Ming Empire, I guess..."
"I have always wanted to capture the city of Malacca, and I think this can be done easily... Are you satisfied with this answer?" Huang Zhiting said still calmly.
The smile on Alfredo's face finally couldn't be held on, and even his voice changed slightly, as if someone had strangled his throat: "Your Majesty, Baroness, with all due respect, should I regard your answer as a threat of war?"
"There's no need to threaten you. I'm just too lazy to talk nonsense, so I'll tell you the truth." Huang Zhiting leaned back on the chair casually, without even looking at Alfredo, and said to herself: "If it weren't for my husband's letter asking me to When I returned to the capital to celebrate the New Year, I originally wanted to send troops to wipe out the Aralia Peninsula next month (old Chinese books often referred to the Malay Peninsula as the Aralia Peninsula).
The Portuguese ships in Malacca currently include five large Galenic warships and seventeen ordinary Galenic armed merchant ships. The Nanyang Fleet has assured me that if a war breaks out and a decisive battle occurs, they will definitely be able to annihilate your fleet in one battle.
As for the land division, haha... Portugal has a total of 837 people in Malacca, of which 600 are regular troops and the rest are mercenaries. Musali said that he could ensure that the outer city was broken in one day and the whole city could be captured in three days at most. "
Alfredo and Pedro turned pale at the same time. They were so shocked that they couldn't say a word and didn't know how to answer.
But it seemed that Huang Zhiting didn't intend to wait for their answer. She just gently pressed a text that was originally on the desk with her slender index finger, pushed it forward, and then calmly said in an unquestionable tone: "Sign If you peacefully hand over Malacca, I can, on behalf of my husband, grant you free navigation to the Southeast Asia and the East - of course, navigation fees and future transaction taxes from Malacca will still have to be paid."
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PS: Grandpa is going to have a heart-related operation and has to rush back to his hometown today, so I finished coding this chapter in the middle of the night and posted it first. It’s unclear when tomorrow’s update will be.
