"Play music!" As the officers and soldiers of the First Navy Fleet who returned with honor stepped onto the military dock of the Oriental Port, the military band immediately played cheerful music. Even though they were quite disliked this grand show, Lieutenant Colonel Lu Ming could not wipe out everyone's feelings. Therefore, he buried his heart in his heart, put on a smile, and happily accepted the congratulations from the officials of the Military Department and the Executive Committee.

"This time, land and sea jointly attacked the Port of Buenos Aires, eliminated the enemy La Plata fleet, sunk five enemy ships, captured three enemy flagships, and captured nearly 200 naval officers and soldiers, with brilliant results. It can be regarded as the greatest victory in the naval battle since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Commander Lu, who carefully planned this battle, commanded it with a steady command, should be the first to be the first." Liao Meng, the Minister of Army, who acted as the Chief of Staff of the National Armed Forces, held Lu Ming's hands tightly and said enthusiastically.

"Chief Liao praised the situation. It was entirely up to the soldiers to fight this battle. Especially the army soldiers who captured the fort, they seized the Spanish fort without regard to casualties, and turned the guns to bombard the military port, causing the Spanish torch to be in chaos. The two ships were stranded, and the rushing forward was also dispersed by the arson ships floating down from the upstream. Therefore, I really dare not take the lead in the guns, so Chief Liao should understand." Lu Ming pulled out his hand gently, shook his head and said with a smile.

"Commander Lu is really modest." Liao Meng smiled a little embarrassedly, and then said: "Anyway, the Spanish fleet has been destroyed. Our ships can traverse the La Plata River, and no one can stop them. The next step is to mobilize heavy troops to completely occupy the entire La Plata area, including Asuncion, and then threaten the Spaniards' silver mine in Potosi."

"It is easy to start a war, but it is difficult to end the war." Lu Ming's face no longer had a perfunctory smile on his face at this time. He sighed and said, "The Spanish have a war potential that is far better than ours. They have more than four million people in the Old Continent; they have multiple shipyards in Seville, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Cadiz, Havana, Villacruz, Cartagena, Lima and other places. There are countless technicians and workers; they have multiple gold and silver mines in New Spain, Peru and Charcas; they also have a Catholic allies; such strength is not comparable to the weak East Coast. Even if we win for a while, then what? The Spanish can escalate the war! Whether the Spanish are willing to end the war depends on their mood. Can our East Coast Republic really grasp its own destiny in this war? I think it is difficult!"

Seeing Lu Ming boarding the carriage, he headed toward the city without looking back. Liao Meng's face was gloomy at first, but he quickly adjusted his emotions and continued to meet the naval officers walking over with a smile. The ages of these officers were uneven and the sources were quite complicated. Some of them were pirates recruited in the Caribbean, some were poor kids from Shandong fishermen, some were officers from nautical schools, and some were naval scholars trained by Corps Forts. No matter where they came from and how different the backgrounds were, although they were tensely treated with Shangguan's praise, the excited expression in their eyes was fully revealed.

As soon as the La Plata fleet was destroyed, the sea control power in this area was firmly in the hands of the people on the east coast. In half a month since October, a large number of inland steamers have been transferred to the La Plata River and Parana River basins to transport spoils, materials and personnel. According to statistics, the inland transport company has now dispatched about 40 72-ton inland steamers to the above two places to undertake transportation tasks, which naturally led to an extreme shortage of domestic transportation capacity. The flow rate of various materials such as coal, building materials, wooden boards, grain and cotton has begun to slow down. The war has just begun. The negative effects on the economy have begun to slowly emerge.

Since its relationship with the Spaniards became tighter, the domestic market has once again expanded the production capacity of the three shipyards. Currently, the largest Zhenhai Shipyard has 9 ship platforms. The Dayuhe Naval Shipyard also has 6 ship platforms, and the Modern Special Shipyard has 5 ship platforms. It also recruits a large number of junior high school graduates. Some engineering and technical graduates from Corps Fort have joined in. In addition, a small number of ordinary craftsmen with little technical culture, so they barely operated the three factories.

The ship platforms of the three factories are currently almost all of various types of steam engine sailboats, because only such ships can escape the tracking and attack of hostile maritime strength - relying on their proud speed. Among them, there are three steam engine sailboats for immigrants, three special immigration ships, and three large flying scissor transport ships (the "scud" modification equipped with steam engines); two ammunition supply ships equipped for the First Fleet, two water supply ships, one troop transport ship, one coal ship, and one repair ship; in addition, the Executive Committee took out the remaining Brazilian redwood to build a battleship again, and started construction of two guard gunboats with wood transported back from New China; of course, there is also a dredger and a whaling ship required for domestic development - even in the war years, it cannot be said that construction will not be carried out.

In order to collect the sailors needed for these ships, the Executive Committee asked the 36th class of Corps Fort, who should have graduated at the end of the year, to graduate early. There were about 200 sailors specially trained for sailing. At the same time, the door for Malays to enter the east coast was once again opened. About 200 Malay sailors who were considered qualified after a long period of inspection were awarded official identity certificates, and they would join the newly launched transport ships and act as lower-level sailors; these people, together with a small number of fishermen, sailors, new graduates of Dayuhe Navigation School, and new graduates of Luoqia Seaman School, totaling about 300 people; then some young people who had been on the ship were recruited as intern sailor training, which could almost be fooled.

At this point, the Executive Committee has almost spent the money on hand. If trade is cut off next year, the country will not be able to make the case. We cannot support the war, right?

When all shipyards and technicians are all focused on building these large ships, they naturally have no spare time to build small inland steamers with a large domestic demand. Currently, all inland steamers sailing in various canals, lakes, and near the seas are 72-ton, with a total of 66 ships, which undertake extremely heavy inland transport tasks in China. However, almost 40 ships have been transferred to the La Plata River and Parana River to transport materials and personnel, so the domestic transportation capacity is seriously insufficient. Insufficient transportation capacity affects all aspects of the economy, and in short, it will cause endless harm.

The carriage carrying Lu Ming quickly entered outside the Executive Committee Administrative Building in the city. After thanking the coachman, Lu Ming went up to the second floor to enter the conference room surrounded by the secretary and the guards. At this time, the conference room was filled with smoke and a meeting was being held that was related to future decisions. The meeting had entered the middle plate. After seeing Lu Ming enter the venue, 11 Central Committee members, led by the Chairman of the Executive Committee Liu Weimin, and some ministers present, stood up and applauded, cheering for the commander-in-chief who annihilated the Spanish La Plata fleet.

Lu Ming smiled unnaturally, and after the military salute, he found a seat in the back row. He received a notice to attend the Executive Committee meeting shortly after getting off the boat, saying that Chairman Liu of the Executive Committee would have some "very important" issues that need to be consulted with him.

As soon as he sat down, Liu Weimin cleared his throat and said, "The plan to reactivate the sealed 35-ton old steamer and Ping An Iron and Steel Plant to build the No. 2 blast furnace, right? Then let's discuss the next issue, about the transfer of the battleship "Bayerzid" to the Ottoman Empire."

In recent months, there have been many ups and downs about the "Bayerzid" battleship. The Navy's request for temporary detention of this warship and steam reform to join the East Coast Navy was once very popular, but the Executive Committee refuted the request of the Navy after careful consideration. On the one hand, the sailors sent by the Ottoman Empire to pick up the ship have entered the East Port, and you directly confiscate the guys who are eating, it would be strange if you don't make any trouble. On the other hand, the war with the Spaniards has just begun. As the Ottoman Empire, which has now risen to the first trading partner of the East Coast Republic, it is obviously extremely unwise to offend them. In such a situation, the Executive Committee decided to hand over the warship to the Ottomans.

But if you hand over the warship, you hand over the warship. Isn’t it over to let them drive back by themselves? Of course, things are not that simple!

More than a month after the official war with the Spaniards began, the ships that sent messages to the local area should have set off long ago. At most, in mid-to-late December, the Spanish king would learn about the war that was taking place in the New World. At this time, merchant ships heading to the Old World on the east coast were at risk of being attacked by the Spanish navy. Therefore, the centralized escort system was mentioned again and quickly approved by the Executive Committee.

The so-called centralized escort means that all merchant ships gather at designated locations and then go to the destination uniformly under the escort of naval warships. This greatly improves the security factor and avoids the danger of a single ship being attacked by hostile forces at sea, because the navy obviously cannot equip every transport ship with warship escort. Of course, the scale of the fleet under the centralized escort system will also become very large, which will easily attract the attention of the enemy's navy and thus break out in large-scale naval wars, but this is also impossible.
Chapter completed!