Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 683 A Different Situation

After the Royal Independent Mixed Brigade set foot on the old land of Anxi, the deepest malice they felt did not come from the King of Xining, nor from the enemies they were about to face, but from this damned road and the confusing place names.

The land occupied by the King of Xining is marked with a name on the map, but if you ask around, no one has ever heard of it.

After going to great lengths to obtain a map from the Xining Army, they discovered that the names on it were indeed different.

The maps in China are marked with names recorded in historical books, such as Suyab, which is now deserted and only ruins remain, a testament to the vicissitudes of life.

The mixed brigade is about to arrive at a place called Bishkek, where Han Chinese immigrants only make up 20% of the population, and the vast majority are military personnel.

After comparing the two maps, Jia Shicai realized that they were still a month's journey from the Russian-controlled area.

According to the report from the King of Xining, due to the complex geographical environment and the lack of a clear boundary line, there have been frequent military clashes between the two sides in uncertain areas. Although the scale is not large, these clashes have never stopped.

That's what they say, but after a meeting, the Mixed Army concluded that the Prince of Xining had been using the threat of Tsarist Russia to ask the court for benefits. In reality, the military strength in the border areas was very limited, and the troops at the border could not even be considered Xining troops, but rather some local tribes that had received military aid from the Prince of Xining.

You can tell this just by looking at the road conditions. About ten kilometers after leaving Xining Royal City, the road conditions are extremely bad.

The mission of the Mixed Brigade was to exert military pressure on Tsarist Russia in the border areas. In reality, the so-called Tsarist Russian troops in the border areas were probably just local tribes supported by Tsarist Russia.

The above is an analysis of all the intelligence gathered after entering Anxi. The Mixed Association formed a report and sent it back to Xin Sheng.

One of the most important pieces of information is that, as of now, the commander of the mixed brigade has not met the King of Xining, but has only met the garrison commander of the Xining royal city.

The Prince of Xining is more wary of the imperial court than of Tsarist Russia. Our troops intend to garrison Bishkek and then postpone our northward advance, resting and awaiting further developments.

The military report sent to the new province contained this sentence, which fully illustrated the current situation of the Royal Independent Mixed Brigade. It was decided that they could no longer continue their northward advance in such a muddled manner; they needed to first stabilize the situation, fully understand the circumstances, and then decide on the next operational plan.

After making their decision, the Royal Independent Mixed Brigade, consisting of more than 10,000 men, disregarded the obstruction of the garrison and forcibly entered Bishkek, establishing it as their base.

The report was sent to the capital almost a year later, but that's another story.

Almost simultaneously, eighteen-year-old Jia Zhi disembarked from the ship and stepped onto the land of Kaiyuan Prefecture's dock. Looking at the bustling dock before him, the long sea voyage left him dizzy, and it took him a while to regain his balance. Xue Ke, accompanied by a group of self-proclaimed officials from Kaiyuan Prefecture, came to greet him, and after exchanging greetings, said, "Xue Ke greets my lord!"

Undoubtedly, the Xue family divided their territories into two separate areas. Jia Zhi, representing Jia Lian, came here to become the city lord and to exercise sovereignty on behalf of Jia Lian.

Jia Zhi recalled her father's instructions before her departure, and politely clasped her hands towards Xue Ke, saying, "Thank you for your hard work, Uncle!"

Xue Ke breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself: Your mother is really willing to spend money.

Baochai's son is naturally one of their own, but no matter how close they are, they still belong to the Jia family. It's inevitable that people like Xue Ke will gradually relinquish their power in the future.

Whether it was Xue Pan, Xue Ke, or Xue Fang, they all knew very well that without Jia Lian's support, the Xue family might be able to establish themselves in the Xinhua colony, but it would be very difficult.

No matter how powerful a family is, without a legitimate claim to righteousness, it is utterly incapable of contending with a great power. Of course, the Xue family had no need to do so.

It should be noted that Kaiyuan Prefecture was able to grow so large in just a few years thanks to Jia Lian's unwavering support.

The Xue family's roots are still in the homeland; the Xinhua colonies are merely branches and leaves.

After resting for three days, Jia Zhi, who had been adrift at sea for almost a year, finally recovered. Calculating the time, it should have been the winter of the eleventh year of the Qianzheng era (1813).

After spending a day listening to Xue Ke's report, Jia Zhi gained a general understanding of the situation in Kaiyuan Prefecture and Xinhua Kingdom.

Xinhua Kingdom was divided into three major cities, from north to south: Kaiyuan, Xinjinshan, and Pingyuan.

Kaiyuan City alone comprised twenty counties and had a population of approximately two million. Its rapid development was attributed to preferential treatment in the distribution of domestic immigrants and resources. In contrast, Pingyuan City had a population of only one million, with about 30% being immigrants from Korea and Japan. On the surface, immigrants from Korea and Japan were treated equally, but in reality, immigrants from these two countries had to work for fifteen years after arriving before they were eligible for land allocation.

This problem did not exist in Kaiyuan City, where all male immigrants were native to the area, while the female immigrants were relatively mixed.

"At the beginning of the year, King Xinhua ordered that the capital be Pingyuan City. Next year, Kaiyuan City will be established as a province, followed by four prefectures, governing twenty counties. Xinjinshan City will also be established as a province, with ten prefectures, each governing six counties. The area under Pingyuan City will be established as Xinhua Directly Subordinate Province, with three prefectures, governing twelve counties."

After Xue Ke finished reporting the above situation, Jia Zhi's young face showed a solemn expression. He keenly realized that Li Heng, the Prince of Xinhua, had started a new business and, after gaining some capital, could no longer control his ambition.

"What's the attitude of New Kingsoft?" Jia Zhi was well-educated and quickly got into character.

"Brother Xue Fang means that the Li family has the right to claim the moral high ground. Both Xin Jinshan and Kaiyuan City are under the rule of the Xinhua King. In the event of war, they should unite and help each other, and fight together." This statement was very subtle, almost saying that unless there is a war, everyone should live their own lives.

The young Jia Zhi didn't understand much, but that didn't matter. He could consult his staff after Xue Ke left.

Jia Lian only provided Jia Quan with a support team of twenty people, while Baochai prepared five hundred people.

And this doesn't even include the more than fifty attendants, maids, and servants who directly served Jia Zhi. Many of them came with their entire families; they couldn't refuse.

Of course, the real leader was Jia Lian's team. These twenty people who came to Kaiyuan City were all elites cultivated over many years, and Jia Lian paid the price of taking care of their families.

Even more importantly, to ensure the loyalty of Kaiyuan City, the vast majority of its officials were orphans adopted by Jia Lian in Guangzhou, and each of them had received at least five years of loyalty education.

The wives of these men were all given in Jia Lian's name. After arriving in Kaiyuan City, they recognized Jia Lian as their master, not the Xue family.

With this premise in mind, Jia Zhi's takeover of Kaiyuan City became significantly easier. He only needed to issue a warrant to summon the county magistrates of each county for a face-to-face meeting. Referring to a modern map, it can be seen that the territory of the Xinhua Kingdom roughly covers the area of ​​six states. Its shape resembles an irregular square, with the furthest county seat being Xianshui County (Salt Lake City).

The indigenous communities were located in several central states. They no longer carried primitive weapons but were equipped with a large number of smoothbore muskets and even breech-loading cannons. Some large tribes with populations exceeding 10,000, having learned to farm and settle down, also possessed cannons.

The current situation is that Americans are aware of the Chinese colonies on the West Coast, but they can't attend to them for the time being because the indigenous people in the central region have formed a de facto buffer zone.

The Americans had already occupied the Great Lakes region and had plans to expand westward, but they put that aside for the time being to fight the Spanish.

The Spanish were also having a hard time. Domestically, they were crippled by Napoleon's defeats, and their American colonies began to rebel for independence.

The War of Independence caused chaos and a large number of people fled, nearly half of whom fled to Kaiyuan Prefecture. Li Heng was quite magnanimous and took them in one by one.

In addition to taking in refugees, Li Heng also established contact with rebels in southern Mexico and traded military supplies with both sides of the conflict.

Currently, Mexico is embroiled in internal conflict, and Li Hengli is profiting immensely from the war by leveraging Pingyuan's geographical advantage. Mexico is rich in silver, making money there is indeed very easy.

Meanwhile, Li Heng also supported a force in neighboring northern Mexico, which controlled a large area of ​​northern Mexico.

In contrast, in the colony centered on Xin Jinshan, officials led by Xue Fang controlled a large number of factories and were more inclined to make money by simply sitting there and selling large quantities of the smoothbore guns they produced to Pingyuan Prefecture.

It must be said that, in terms of development mindset, Xue Fang and his group are much more stable. They are not in a hurry to expand eastward rapidly, but instead are focusing on solid construction, concentrating on building a railway network to connect the three core cities. After three years, the railway connecting Xin Jinshan and Pingyuan City has been completed, while the railway towards Kaiyuan City will take another six months to complete.

For the industry of Xinhua, the biggest problem is still iron ore. The iron ore found locally is not only small in scale, but also low in content.

Xue Fang has already asked Xue Pan for help, hoping to mine the iron ore discovered in Australia and transport it to New Gold Mountain.

This idea was met with fierce criticism from Xue Pan. While sea freight costs were indeed low, where would he get so many ships to transport them? The final agreement was that iron and steel ingots would be smelted locally in Australia and then shipped to places like New Gold Mountain. This move spurred a new wave of shipbuilding development, with shipyards throughout Southeast Asia receiving a flood of orders.

After steam engines were used in trains, it became inevitable that steam engines would be installed on ships.

In Tianjin, far away in China, a small steamship of 500 tons has been built. This steamship is propelled by a propeller and does not even dare to leave the Bohai Sea. It only travels back and forth between Tianjin and Liaodong for testing.

Upon receiving the news, Jia Lian was overjoyed. After informing Li Yuan, he personally came to Tianjin to see the steamship.

When they arrived, the steamship had already gone to Liaodong, and judging by the days, it wouldn't be back until tomorrow.

The next morning, Jia Lian went to the dock and climbed up to look out into the distance.

The telescope searched the sea all morning without spotting the small steamer, until around noon when black smoke finally appeared in the telescope.

Overwhelmed with excitement, Jia Lian could only silently admire the Chinese people, who have evolved to a higher level. Given the opportunity to showcase their abilities, scientists are capable of creating products that meet their own standards.

Before dusk, the small steamer finally docked. Jia Lian couldn't wait to board and find out more. The advantage of this ship was that it could run as long as there was coal, but the disadvantage was also obvious: it had to carry enough coal.

"The steam engine should be installed on a larger ship," Jia Lian instructed, and then, on behalf of the emperor, announced that the (state-run) Tianjin Shipyard, diligent in its duties to the emperor and with outstanding achievements, was hereby awarded the following...

A group of young technicians were promoted, and the shipyard captain was also promoted from the sixth rank to the fifth rank.

The most distinctive feature of this shipyard is that it's a state-owned enterprise, with all management personnel being government officials. In today's terms, it would be a legitimate state-owned enterprise.

After inspecting the shipyard, Jia Lian inspected the Tianjin Artillery Bureau, which was formerly an artillery factory under the Research and Development Department. After being relocated to Tianjin, it was upgraded to the Artillery Bureau (a fifth-rank official).

The new artillery being developed here has very specific requirements from Jia Lian: it must be breech-loading and the propellant must be nitrocellulose.

The artillery bureau chief, also a technocrat, showed no subservience to Jia Lian, instead launching into a long discussion about the difficulties they were currently facing.

"My lord, the biggest problem right now is the fuse you mentioned. Our research and development focuses on two main areas: impact fuses and time-delay fuses. After solving the problems of metal casings and sealed breechblocks, the breech-loading cannons that fire solid shot have completed test firings and are ready for shipboard trials at any time. Once the fuse problem is solved, high-explosive shells will naturally follow. What we need now is sufficient funding and to shut up those bureaucrats in the Ministry of War so they stop urging us all the time and interfering."

Upon hearing his report, Jia Lian flew into a rage and said, "Bullshit! Who are these cannons for? You need to remember one thing: the military is the user, and their opinions are very important. Especially for the infantry, the cannons need to be maneuvered in complex terrain, and the prototypes produced must pass the military's acceptance test. Don't expect me to back you up and force the cannons onto the military."

Well, when it comes to cannons, whether they're on warships or gun emplacements, it's not a big problem; being a bit bulky is acceptable.

But when it came to the army, all sorts of problems arose.

Don't spout nonsense like Europe is still using bronze cannons. No matter how good the cannon is, if it can't accompany the infantry in mobile warfare, it can only be used in a fixed position and is not very useful for infantry in field battles.

The artillery bureau was also complaining bitterly. Jia Lian had assigned them two projects: one was cannons and the other was mortars.

Both types of artillery require solutions to the technology of firing fuses, and that's where the problem lies.

The artillery bureau chief, who was being scolded, didn't argue. Judging from how he addressed Jia Lian, he was a true benefactor. These were all his own people, his staunch confidants, whom he had personally promoted.

"Focus on building the mortars first and sending them to Anxi as soon as possible. They will be handed over to the Royal Independent Mixed Brigade, whose situation is certainly very difficult. The cannons they are currently using are still bronze cannons."

The reason Jia Lian gave this explanation is simple and easy to guess: the Prince of Xining and the imperial court were not of one mind.

(End of this chapter)