At first glance, the actions of the Chu Empire in the Kingdom of Siam seemed to be anticlimactic, with not a single serious battle being fought...
It cannot be said that it was nothing. The Kingdom of Siam first surrendered to the dignitaries of the Kingdom of Chu. However, it led tens of thousands of surrendering troops to attack the city of Ayutthaya and fought a battle with the Siam royal family's army of more than 10,000 people. Even the reinforced troops suffered casualties. There were two to three thousand people.
However, the Chu army themselves did not fight. The Temporary Third Mixed Brigade of the Guards did not fire a single shot, and the Siamese royal family took the initiative to surrender.
The Army's side was even more embarrassed... The Army's troops had just been prepared. Strictly speaking, they hadn't even crossed the border yet. As a result, the Kingdom of Siam on the other side completely surrendered.
Although when troops were subsequently sent to take over, they encountered some stubborn enemies and fought several small and medium-sized battles, but these low-intensity battles are not worth mentioning.
It can be said that this military operation in the Kingdom of Siam is not even comparable to the Chu army's series of military operations in Africa. When they were in Africa, those European colonists rarely surrendered on a large scale. They usually surrendered. He resists with all his life, and only surrenders when he can't bear it any longer. Sometimes he will run away first.
And fighting those African natives who are still in a tribal state is actually more dangerous... Those African natives don't care if you have advanced guns... In fact, I don't understand how advanced the Chu army's guns are and what they have. threaten.
They have an ignorant and fearless mentality, and they often resist fiercely when fighting against the Chu army... Of course, the fierce resistance does not mean that they can cause any actual harm to the Chu army.
Overall, the Chu Army's series of military operations in Africa, both before and now, were more intense than the Battle of Siam on the Nanyang Peninsula.
The fact that this military operation came to an end does not mean that the subsequent matters will be easy to deal with. In fact, the handling of many subsequent matters will be more troublesome and complicated, and will also test the dominance of the Chu Empire in the newly occupied areas.
On the 16th day of the first month of the 34th year of Chengshun, the newly appointed Siam governor Zhang Yulong arrived in Bangkok and established a governor's residence in Bangkok. At the same time, he established a series of other official agencies under the governor's office.
Along with Governor Zhang Yulong came several other local administrative agencies of the Chu Empire, such as the Siam Inspectorate, the Siam Tribunal, and the Siam Taxation Department.
The Great Chu Empire directly classified the Siam area into a province and carried out comprehensive direct rule. The settings of all administrative agencies were consistent with those of other provinces.
Provincial governor's offices, supervisory courts, courts of justice and taxation departments as well as the military's provincial garrison headquarters are all available.
The newly established Siam Province has jurisdiction over all the current areas of the Kingdom of Siam and Bangkok, the original colony of the Chu Empire, and the governor's residence is Bangkok.
This upgraded administrative structure is available, but local institutions are still lacking... Of course, the main reason for this situation is that there are not enough local immigrants.
At present, the population of the Chu Empire in Siam is mainly concentrated in the former colony of Bangkok. Excluding the garrison, the number of officials and civilians is only a few thousand, while there are scattered Chu businessmen immigrating to other places.
Except for the soldiers, the total number of officials and civilians would be more than 10,000!
If you want to truly develop and actually control the Siam region, you will need to immigrate in large numbers to enrich the population of the Siam region.
The construction of administrative institutions in the newly occupied territories overseas by the Da Chu Empire was generally accompanied by the population.
Organize a group of immigrants, establish a group of settlements in villages and towns, and simultaneously build actual administrative institutions at all levels in villages, towns and counties.
Other vast areas that have not yet received a large number of Chu immigrants are often directly and generally under the nominal jurisdiction of higher-level prefectures or provinces.
This is the same whether it is overseas territories in America, Africa and other places, or newly occupied areas in Southeast Asia.
In the early years, it was the same in Malacca, Java Island, and Luzon Island. The Chu State first set aside a large area to establish a province, and then carried out immigration and established basic immigration settlements. After there were people, villages and towns were established. , county-level practical administrative agencies, gradually covering the entire newly occupied area.
After all, the administrative governance structure of the Chu Empire was not used to rule the natives, but to rule its own people...
The same is true for the newly established province of Siam!
After the newly arrived Siamese governor Zhang Yulong arrived in Bangkok, the first thing he did was to organize the officials and the people to prepare for the large number of immigrants who were about to arrive from the country.
In order to cooperate with the development of Nanyang, the Dachu Empire officials began to organize official immigration last winter.
According to the preliminary preparations, the first batch of about 15,000 official immigrants will arrive in the Siam area in the early stage. They will land in Bangkok and then march to surrounding areas with Bangkok as the core point, along the rivers, transportation Settlement settlements were established on key roads and other areas, and local farmland was reclaimed.
And this is only the first batch of official immigrants. The Chu Empire will continue to organize official immigrants to arrive here in the future, according to the preliminary plan.
In the thirty-fourth year of Chengshun, the Dachu Empire officials will organize at least 150,000 official immigrants to arrive in Siam to settle down and develop their lives.
This is only talking about official immigration.
In fact, most of the immigrants in the Chu Empire these days are actually not official immigrants, but self-funded immigrants.
After all, after the large-scale application of steamships, shipping costs have dropped significantly, and ticket prices have also dropped significantly. At the same time, many government-run banks in the Dachu Empire have provided low-interest immigration loans, so immigration costs have been significantly reduced these days.
Many people are not willing to follow official arrangements to go to certain places in order to save some money. They prefer to borrow their own loans and choose a place they think is better.
In order to attract self-funded immigrants, Siam Province has also put forward quite good immigration conditions: the first is naturally land and land reclamation-related benefits.
As long as immigrants come and register, a large amount of land and forests will be distributed free of charge, and agricultural taxes will be exempted for the first three years, and agricultural taxes will be halved in the fourth and fifth years.
At the same time, a ticket subsidy is provided. Although the ticket cannot be reimbursed in full, half of the ticket price will be subsidized.
Subsidizing the interest on immigration loans... Those immigration loans from government-run banks are naturally not charitable. In fact, these immigration loans also have interest.
However, in order to attract immigrants, many overseas territories often subsidize the interest on these immigration loans, allowing immigrants to obtain equivalent to interest-free immigration loans.
The local ship ticket subsidies, immigration loan interest subsidies, and official immigration fees provided by Siam Province are certainly not a small sum.
But since they can come up with such a policy, Zhang Yulong and others are naturally confident.
First of all, the central finance will have a special fund for immigration development subsidies in Siam Province. Secondly, there is actually a lot of local business tax revenue. There are now many investments and construction projects from the Chu State in the Kingdom of Siam, or simply investment and construction by local indigenous dignitaries. What about rubber plantations...
New immigrants can obtain agricultural tax exemptions, which does not mean that companies investing in rubber plantations do not have to pay taxes.
Furthermore, the huge Siam area is also rich in various resources.
The first is rice export. The Kingdom of Siam has always exported large quantities of rice to the empire.
There are also many other resources, such as wood, spices, precious metal minerals, etc.
The Siam Governor's Office has long made plans to monetize various resources... Those indigenous rubber plantations are very good assets, and they can be auctioned to collect money.
Then those forest resources can also be auctioned for a wave of money. Timber is also a very important basic resource. The domestic demand is currently huge. Although there are many timber resources in the country, it does not mean that Siamese timber cannot be sold!
There are also mineral resources such as precious metal minerals and even ordinary iron ore and coal, which can also be sorted out and then introduced to mining companies for development.
Just like Maputo House in Africa, they are so remote, but just relying on a piece of gold can make the local government very fat...
In order to attract immigrants, the immigration conditions offered by Maputo Government are very good. In addition to fully reimbursing boat tickets and reimbursing immigration loan interest, new immigrants will be given free construction of a wooden house, free distribution of agricultural tools and grain, and subsidies for their third home. Partial rations for a year and so on.
If there were not such generous conditions, apart from official immigration, which had little choice, few people would be willing to immigrate at their own expense and settle in Maputo...
As for those who go gold mining, most of them will not settle down in Maputo. They just go gold mining, and when they get rich, they will return home...
Although most people will not make a fortune and will not return to their country, in the end it is estimated that most of them will settle down locally and become farmers or workers in mines.
But at least most gold diggers have the same dream at the beginning: to go overseas to find gold and make a fortune, and then return home to become a master!
It’s just that the reality is cruel. The dreams of most gold diggers cannot be realized. Many people even survive until the end and cannot even afford a ticket to return home.
In the end, he had to settle down locally, received free land and various subsidies, and became a farmer honestly.
The many immigration policies and local development methods in Siam Province are actually similar to those in other overseas territories. A series of policies are particularly skillful methods used by the Chu Empire.
The locals only need to follow the established steps step by step, and within a few years, hundreds of thousands of immigrants will be able to gather in the Siam area, establish a real Chu Empire to rule the local area, and carry out large-scale development.
When Zhang Yulong began to engage in immigration development in the Siam area, the military also provided great cooperation.
The Chu people are coming over to carry out large-scale immigration development. This is not a good thing for everyone... After all, the land is limited. When the Chu people come, they directly establish immigration settlements and then squander the land. Reclamation and development... the indigenous people will definitely not agree to it.
Although the Siamese royal family and the powerful nobles of Siam have surrendered, they have now become Chu people, obtained the Chu country's household registration, and also retained some floating private assets, but what about the ordinary Siamese natives?
They didn't surrender!
Some of them saw that the general trend was irresistible and began to move to places where the Chu people had not yet touched. Others were unwilling to move and resisted.
These things require the cooperation of the military to carry out powerful attacks on some indigenous people who dare to resist with arms.
Some large-scale or relatively powerful rebels will be handled by field troops, while ordinary bandit suppression tasks are basically handed over to the newly transferred or expanded C-class garrison divisions.
In order to protect the safety of immigrants, the military directly expanded a garrison battalion stationed in Bangkok into a garrison division. It also transferred a garrison division from Hue next door and a garrison division from Malacca.
A total of three garrison divisions were stationed in various important locations to vigorously suppress the armed resistance that came and went.
There is also the indispensable militia!
Militia teams will be set up in every village and town in the newly occupied areas of the Great Chu Empire, and a considerable number of young immigrants will be incorporated into the militia teams.
In order to protect themselves, these militiamen would often carry out force attacks on surrounding indigenous gathering places.
Continuous armed suppression, deportation and immigration, these two steps are carried out simultaneously...
Without corresponding military means to protect it, simple immigration would not be like killing the local indigenous people.
Therefore, in the next few years, it is estimated that the Siam region will continue to be in this state of constant small battles and no major wars. This was also the norm when the Chu Empire first established directly-administered territories overseas.
How can we have a happy new life as an overseas immigrant without experiencing a lot of gunfire and blood?
You don’t really think that the natives will happily applaud you to welcome you as immigrants from Chu country?
Immigrants from the Chu State came and robbed the indigenous land, burned the indigenous houses, and expelled the indigenous people from the place where their ancestors lived. It is normal for the indigenous people to fight for their lives with you.
Some immigrant settlements in the overseas territories of the Dachu Empire, especially new immigrant settlements close to the natives, were regularly attacked by the natives. Occasionally, poor resistance would eventually lead to the entire immigrant settlement being massacred by the natives.
These are normal conditions, and the senior officials of the Dachu Empire will not even be angry about this. At most, they will send more troops to fight back.
After all, you can kill the natives, but why don't they allow the natives to kill you? It doesn’t make sense!
The Great Chu Empire's overseas immigration operations have always believed that life and death are determined by destiny, wealth and wealth are determined by heaven. Death at the hands of the natives during the immigration process is fate. No wonder others!
On the other hand, if you natives die in my hands, don't scream...
This is what the empire did before when it fought with the Spanish in the Americas. The local Chu officials in the Americas couldn't even understand why the Spaniards protested?
America has no owner, only those with virtue will live in it!
I am more benevolent than you, so I occupy this land, and you are just protesting... If you don't like it, just call me. It's not like you are not allowed to call me.
The competition for living space has always been extremely cruel and naked!
This is true for the colonization of Europeans, and the same is true for the immigration of Chu people. This is not a question of whether it is good or not, but a question of survival.
And when the Chu State began to carry out subsequent immigration development in the Siam area, the Chu State was also simultaneously conducting military operations against the Kingdom of Myanmar.
It has to be said that the senior leaders of the Kingdom of Myanmar are more courageous. They rejected a series of conditions for annihilation proposed by the Chu State and were only willing to accept some of the conditions.
They were willing to cede part of the land to the Chu Empire, and even the land around Dagon, but they still hoped to retain most of the land and retain the state.
This is obviously inconsistent with the Chu Empire's strategy for the Nanyang Peninsula.
What the Chu Empire wants is the Nanyang Peninsula that belongs entirely to itself... The Railway Corporation is thinking of continuing to build the Southwest Railway in the southwest direction, all the way from Kunming to Dagong Port in Myanmar, so that Dagong Port will become the Great Chu Empire. The outlet to the sea in the southwest region of the empire.
How can we tolerate the continued existence of a Burmese kingdom!
So war is inevitable!
But after the fight started, the Chu people found that they still underestimated these Burmese people... The fight was not as smooth as imagined, and the enemies did not flee. They did not engage in large-scale field battles with you, but made full use of the terrain and Chu The army engages in small and medium-sized entangled battles.
They used the familiar terrain to ambush the small troops and logistics troops of the Chu Army's Eighth Division every three days... Although it was impossible to cause any large-scale casualties to the Chu Army, this kind of ambush was very exciting.
The front-loading firing muskets equipped by the Chu army are naturally very powerful in regular face-to-face combat, but they are inadequate when faced with some scattered small-scale battles!
The rate of fire is too slow, and the firepower is not dense enough. It is difficult to take advantage of the equipment in scattered battles. Sometimes it is even not as useful as the indigenous bows and arrows in complex terrain!
As for the large number of front-loaded smoothbore artillery equipped by the Chu army, they are of little use in this small-scale combat!
But correspondingly, the only infantry battalion in the Eighth Division equipped with Type 18 breech-loading rifles and a matching 75mm breech-loading rifled field artillery post performed extremely well in this war.
The breech-loaded rifled gun showed extremely amazing strength when it first entered the battlefield, which directly shocked the top brass of the army.
The ultra-long and accurate shooting range of the breech-loading rifled rifle and its convenient loading allow the Chu soldiers to spread out and form a skirmish line. They can also shoot behind various bunkers and carry out various long-distance precision attacks on the enemy. blow.
Not to mention the 75mm breech-mounted rifled field gun, which has high accuracy, long range, and extremely powerful explosion.
Once you find the woods or hills where the enemy is hiding, you can directly fire a burst of artillery fire to eliminate a large number of enemies.
After entering the era of breech-loading rifled artillery, artillery has further demonstrated its important role in war.
However, this 32-year-old 75mm field gun is also available, but it is still a bit heavy. The gun with a 24-caliber barrel weighs 750 kilograms, and it comes with a lead vehicle and ammunition. As for the car, it reaches 1.6 tons.
This kind of artillery is still a little inconvenient to maneuver in tropical rainforests and mountainous areas like the Nanyang Peninsula.
For this reason, the frontline troops quickly proposed that they urgently needed a breech-loaded rifled artillery that was lightweight and capable of rapid maneuverability.
This demand was directly raised by frontline troops on the battlefield, coupled with the amazing performance of breech-loaded rifled guns on the frontline. This light artillery project received great attention from the Army Ordnance Department, and the frontline requirements were passed back to Jinling City.
The Army Ordnance Department summoned the heads of the five major weapons companies in Jinling City to propose new artillery needs for frontline troops.
And the Ordnance Department also formulated a series of performance requirements based on the needs of the previous troops:
The Ordnance Department hopes that various weapons companies can develop and provide an artillery with a caliber of 75 mm that can fire the existing 75 mm collision fuze grenade. This caliber requirement is to compete with the existing 75 mm field gun. to consistent ammunition supply.
At the same time, the combat weight of the artillery is required, that is, the laying weight should not exceed 250 kilograms, and the marching weight should not exceed 350 kilograms. If necessary, it can be disassembled for piggyback transportation.
The maximum effective range shall not be less than three thousand meters, and the barrel life shall not be less than one thousand rounds.
The most important thing is that the research and development time should be short. The Army hopes to see the prototype cannon within three months. After confirming that there are no problems, it will directly purchase a batch and send it to Burma to fight against these indigenous people.
As soon as the heads of the major weapons companies heard this, they knew that what the Army wanted was not a long-barreled field gun, but a light howitzer, also known as a mountain gun.
Even this weight is basically the same as the previous 115mm smoothbore light howitzer.
The current 24-year-old bronze 115mm light howitzer, also known as the 115 mountain gun within the Chu army, has a combat weight of 260 kilograms and a marching weight of 360 kilograms. It can be disassembled and transported. This series of artillery is It is standard equipment for regimental artillery in many overseas troops and mountain troops of the Chu Army.
These army officials obviously made the request by referring to this thing and then lowering the weight data by ten kilograms.
It’s just that the development time is too short, just three months is not enough!
However, the person in charge of Hebei Arms Company looked happy...
Their company was originally working on a light howitzer and had already produced a prototype for test firing.
Although there are still some discrepancies in the specific data of the project, the weight is somewhat excessive, and the barrel life is also somewhat insufficient.
But if you improve it, the weight won't be a big problem... If it doesn't work, just shorten the diameter. Anyway, the effective range of rifled artillery is already very large. Even after shortening the diameter, the effective range requirement of three thousand meters can still be easily achieved.
As for the issue of barrel life, it sounds like some of the top brass in the Army are too far-fetched and don’t know much about technology to figure it out right away... With the current level of basic materials in the empire, the rifled artillery wants to have a thousand barrel barrels. Lifespan is impossible.
The current 75mm field gun has a barrel life of only 600 rounds... Even a howitzer with a short barrel and low chamber pressure has an improved barrel life, but it can reach 800 rounds.
Moreover, the domestic basic materials are at this level, they cannot produce them, and it is impossible for other weapons companies to produce them.
As a result, their Hebei Arms Company has great hopes of winning this order.
After the meeting dispersed, people from each weapons company went home to conduct internal discussions on this new project.
It's just that although various weapons companies have research and development projects for breech-loading rifled guns, the ones that can produce finished products in a short period of time must be in the field of small and medium-caliber breech-loading rifled guns, which has the strongest technology and is currently the only one that can provide The manufacturer that provides breech-loading rifled artillery to the Army: Hebei Weapons Company.
The 32-year-old 75mm 24-caliber field gun currently in active service in the Army is their product.
At the same time, they also have a research and development project of a 75mm caliber howitzer. Although the weight is a bit excessive, a simple improvement of one or two is enough.
Soon, after the news was sent to Tianjin by train, the artillery research and development team of Hebei Weapons Company in Tianjin immediately began to modify the design and prepare to bid for the project.
Among the other companies, Huguang Arms Company is more concerned about it because they also have similar projects under development and are close to producing results.
As for the other three companies, they lack the corresponding technical reserves, and it will not be easy to come up with it for a while.
Especially Jiangnan Weapons Company, they basically focus on artillery research and development on large-caliber artillery. They are obsessed with winning orders for the Navy's new generation of breech-loading rifled naval guns. There was no research... After their company discussed the project for a while, they simply gave up on the project.
If the business is not in line with the business, and there are no corresponding projects and technical reserves, forcing a project is a loss of money and is unnecessary.
In this way, the final competitors for this Army's 75mm light howitzer project are Hebei Arms Company and Huguang Arms Company.
(End of chapter)
