Dominate the Country

"Let the Nanyang Navy coordinate the Batavia war."

"The Nanyang local navy and army are under its command."

After seeing the memorial handed over by Dong Gao, Chen Ming conveyed his will without hesitation.

"Your Majesty, William Eyre Bronte, the British ambassador to Nanjing, requests an audience."

"No." Chen Ming waved his hand.

"Your Majesty, François Philippe Perrier, the French ambassador to Nanjing, and Robin Lustig, the Swedish ambassador to Nanjing, jointly request an audience."

"No, no. Let them go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Chen Ming held the translation of the secret letter of the North American Expeditionary Force in his hand. His attention was no longer on Nanyang, but on North America. His voice gradually rose from low to high, and he roared. His face turned red and then blue. His neck seemed to explode, and his fists pounded on the imperial desk.

Veins popped out on his forehead. If it weren't for the most basic restraint, Chen Ming would have wanted to sweep everything on the imperial desk to the ground. At this moment, he didn't want to care about his manners. Damn it, the rockets were leaked.

He was extremely angry!

The expeditionary army defeated the Spanish Eastern Army, but rockets appeared in their Western Army on a large scale!

—— When the bad news of the Eastern Army reached the Western Army, the Spanish Western Colonial Army not only did not choose to retreat, but took out the rockets they had been hiding before, and attacked the expeditionary army defenders at the mouth of the Colorado River like crazy, and really crossed the Colorado River before the main force of the expeditionary army returned.

This was a very bad military situation, which was delivered to Chen Ming by the expeditionary army together with their other great victory.

Chen Ming was very angry, and he wanted to curse.

This was a blow to Chen Ming. Although he knew the day he made the rocket that this thing would spread all over the world sooner or later. And it is very likely that China's enemies will use it against China. In this time and space, it will have a higher and wider circulation and use period than the AK47, 63-type 107 rocket launcher, and RPG-7 rocket launcher, the world's three most technologically unsophisticated conventional weapons.

Who knows how many years the weapons of this era will continue to develop before weapons with power and convenience comparable to rockets appear.

But Chen Ming had not heard or noticed any news of the "treasure" leaking before, but the big duck suddenly took out the "treasure", which caught him off guard.

Chen Ming also had the European intelligence he had just received not long ago, as well as the North American war report.

There was no news about the Spanish using rockets in the war, which, from a certain perspective, also showed that they had just got this thing not long ago, and Chen Ming could still feel the Spanish's attention to China.

This is a big killer, and the Spanish who got the killer seemed to keep it specifically to deal with China.

Perhaps this thing will spread to every country in Europe soon.

I don't know if it will have any impact on the future situation in Europe, such as Napoleon's European War 20 years later...

The rockets in the hands of the rebels will pose an unpredictable threat to the occupying forces.

Chen Ming is furious now.

"Eunuch Zhang, what's going on?"

Li Xiaomei hurried to the Qianqing Palace. The emperor's every move was watched by everyone in the palace.

Chen Ming rarely threw things, let alone punished anyone. If anyone offended him, his position would be adjusted directly.

But today, from the middle of the morning to lunch in the afternoon, six eunuchs and palace maids headed by Zhang Dayong had been punished to kneel outside.

"To answer your majesty, it was a war report from North America. Our Han people fought with Spain. One win and one loss, and the Spanish had rockets in their hands. But the National Security Bureau didn't notice any news before the incident, and your majesty was furious." He had already called Changsha Hou Chen Liang in and severely reprimanded him.

Zhang Dayong knelt outside for a full three hours, and he was almost broken by kneeling. Now supported by two young eunuchs, he was answering Li Xiaomei. Since he climbed up to Chen Ming, he has been suffering from such a crime for many years.

Li Xiaomei's face changed. She certainly knew what the rocket leak meant. This was definitely bad news for Chen Han. This piece of news alone made her worry endlessly about the North American war, which was originally not a worry. Fortunately, they had defeated the smaller Spanish East Route Army before. They also annihilated a total of more than 10,000 enemies, and defeated the East Route Army.

"The Spanish equipped the West Route Army with all rockets, and the East Route Army had none? This is too unreasonable." Is it just because the West Route Army might fight a little later than the East Route Army?

Li Xiaomei's attention has been diverted. She is no longer concerned about why Chen Ming suddenly became angry and punished people. If he didn't get angry after such a thing happened, it would be worrying. Li Xiaomei turned to worry about the war in North America.

"How many people did we lose? The Spanish Western Army won. How much did they achieve?"

"Reporting to the Queen, the expeditionary force reported that our army lost nearly 3,000 people in two battles. The Spanish Western Army crossed the mouth of the Colorado River."

"The Colorado River is the main river in the southwestern region of North America. It originates from the Rocky Mountains in the central and western parts of North America, flows in a northeast-southwest direction, and flows into Jiazhou Bay. This river is like the Nujiang River and Lancang River in Yunnan and Guizhou in the southwest of our country. There are cliffs and valleys on both sides, and it is difficult for birds to cross."

"The estuary area that flows into Jiazhou Bay is the easiest place for the army to pass through." Before entering the Salton Basin, the Spanish Eastern Army crossed the Colorado River Valley, and 40,000 people spent nearly ten days.

The Colorado River runs from northeast to southwest. The Eastern Army first crossed the river valley and then entered the Salton. The first tough battle of the Western Army was at the mouth of the river. This is not contradictory.

"After passing here, the Spaniards can attack the Jiazhou Peninsula to the south, San Diego to the west, and Tokyo to the north. San Diego, not far from the west side of the Salton Basin, is a very important port on the west coast of North America. There are immigrant villages around dozens of miles. Now the Spaniards are coming, no matter what the final outcome is, San Diego will suffer heavy losses."

Zhang Dayong roughly explained to the queen some of the current war situation in North America. The victory of the expeditionary army over the Eastern Route Army was not decisive, because the Salton Basin was too far from the core area of ​​Mexico. On the contrary, the Spanish Western Route Army, which had crossed the Colorado River, could attack San Diego, a city that had not yet been renamed, and thus cut off the traffic between the upper and lower Jiazhou by land. From San Diego to the north, this could be said to be Chen Han's effective control area; from San Diego to the south, some places in the Lower Jiazhou Peninsula had already established Chinese immigrant villages and towns.

If the Spaniards really went in, even if they were beaten very badly in the end, Chen Han's immigration process in North America would also suffer a heavy blow.

Chen Ming no longer wanted to look at the Dutch in Nanyang. If possible, he would now want to send the Nanjing Imperial Guards to North America and completely wipe out the Spanish in Mexico. But now he can't. There are no gods in this world, so he can't do the "great shift of heaven and earth". But he decided to immediately mobilize a support force, which could not only express his toughness, but also give confidence to the expeditionary army and immigrants in North America. So he didn't want to spend any more energy on the Nanyang issue.

"Count how many troops are there on Chongming Island? As long as they are qualified, send them all."

"Select another regiment from the Imperial Guard."

"The Logistics Department must mobilize enough transport ships in the shortest possible time."

The civil and military officials in the court held their breath these days. Everyone knew that the emperor was angry. While they sighed for the senior leaders of the expeditionary army and Chen Liang, they were also slightly worried about the situation in North America. After all, the number of expeditionary forces was too small.

Of course, this slightly panicked attitude was more caused by Chen Ming. Who made him act uncalm? And the reason why Chen Ming acted uncalm was because the situation was beyond his control.

Fortunately, after being angry for a few days, Chen Ming gradually stabilized his mind. The power of the rocket was very great, but it was not necessarily able to help the Spaniards defeat the main force of the expeditionary army. How could there be no sacrifice and price in fighting?

China has such strong capital that even if the entire West Coast immigration area of ​​North America is destroyed, he has the power to start over.

At the same time, this news was also passed from Chen Han's top management to the middle management, and the newspapers reported this news, including the defeat on the Colorado River. In a few days, a batch of ships returning from North America will arrive. With so many people and so many mouths, the news obviously cannot be concealed. So just make it public first.

Just say that the defeat of the expeditionary army on the Colorado River is a strategic shift, that's all.

After all, in terms of casualties, the price paid by the expeditionary army in the war is much smaller than the tragic defeat of the Spanish Western Route Army. Even in the battle of the estuary, which was a failure, the 3,000 expeditionary troops lost about one-third, but they suffered four or five times the casualties of the enemy. As long as the matter is vague, how many people can get a map of North America, and then point to the location of the battle at the estuary to tell everyone how important the significance of this battle is?

The sudden start of the war in North America quickly attracted everyone's attention. Even the Nanyang War, when the Nanyang Navy easily captured the city of Batavia, was not as attractive as the word "North America".

A war that happened nearby was overshadowed by a war thousands of miles away, which shows from one side the change in the mentality of the Chinese people today. Countless Chinese people have long regarded Nanyang as their own territory in their hearts, and in the minds of countless Chinese people, it is effortless for the court to deploy naval and land forces stationed in Nanyang to flatten the two islands of Java and Sumatra.

Although the two wars are far and near, the far one is quite suspenseful, while the near one is sure to win. Naturally, the attraction is stronger in the far one and weaker in the near one.

…

A ship flying the British flag docked at the port of Port Klang, which is the largest port city in the country of the Sultan of Selangor. But five years ago, it was still an inconspicuous fishing village. In recent years, the tin mines in the Klang Valley near Kuala Lumpur, where the Gombak River and the Klang River meet, have been developed on a large scale. The Chinese came here, and the Selangor region must have a nearby seaport, so Port Klang came into being.

The endless tin blocks were transported to Port Klang by inland ships along the Klang River, and then loaded onto sea ships; at the same time, these sea ships also brought cheap daily necessities needed by the natives in the Selangor region. For example, linen and fine cloth, the goods transported by Chinese merchant ships are at least half the price of the local cloth produced by the local natives themselves. And it is light and breathable, more suitable for the local climate.

In addition to other kinds of living utensils, food, clothing, housing, transportation, luxury and treasures, everything is available. Soon, the colonial economy between China and Selangor was established. During this period, a large number of Chinese came to Selangor, and some of Selangor's indigenous nobles were also pulled into the chain of interests.

As China officially incorporated Malaya into its ranks, the economic advantages of the Chinese in Malaya were also rapidly established.

For example, in Kuala Lumpur, which has developed rapidly in the past two years, almost all the tin mines in it are run by Chinese, and at most there are indigenous nobles who enjoy dry stock dividends. But they will not specifically manage this.

China's demand for tin is now increasing. Naval copper is not only used in warships and transport ships, but also in civilian ocean-going transport fleets. As a result, the prices of copper and tin in the entire East are rising.

Tin can also be used in glass production. Glass manufacturing in this era has long been popular in Europe, and the production method is no longer a secret. What China is producing now is glass plates (not mirrors), which is to pour molten glass on tin plates to ensure the flatness and smoothness of the glass surface. As for the downstream production item of the glass industry - mirrors, tin is also needed. The method of using tin foil and mercury to coat the back of the glass to make mirrors is still the most common method used by countries around the world to make glass mirrors.

In China, bronze mirrors have almost been completely eliminated. Except for some remote border areas, bronze mirrors are still used. In inland sea areas, glass mirrors have been like an unstoppable flood, washing away the traces of bronze mirrors in thousands of households.

Even the famous Huzhou mirror and Xuejia mirror are also finished.

The representative of the Huzhou mirror, Xuejia mirror, which has a high status and reputation in the history of bronze mirror casting in China, has now become a handicraft.

The so-called Xuejia mirror, "like the essence of the sun, like the brightness of the moon, the water and the sky are one color, and the rhinoceros shines on the crowd." It has always been used as a tribute to the court. There is no way out either. Copper mirrors have too many shortcomings compared to glass mirrors.

Then there is tinplate. This is a product with great practical significance. Its good sealing, preservation, light-proof, sturdiness and unique decorative charm determine its wide coverage in the packaging container industry. It is a packaging variety needed by many products in China now. For example, snack boxes, sugar jars, and canned food.

The so-called "tinplate" is a layer of tin on the surface. Bohemia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia) has been producing tinplate since the 14th century. It is mainly used to make tableware and drinking utensils, but in China its main use is to hold food.

This is the best storage container for canned food in the current era.

The tin on the inner wall of the tinplate will react with the oxygen remaining in the container during filling, reducing the chance of oxidation of food ingredients. The reducing effect of tin has a good preservation effect on the flavor and color of light-colored fruits and juices. Therefore, juice cans packed in unpainted iron cans have better nutritional preservation than juice cans packed in other packaging materials, with less browning, better acceptance of flavor quality, and thus longer storage period.

In today's China, all kinds of canned food are emerging in an endless stream, with production increasing day by day, and sales are also increasing day by day. Tinplate can ensure the hygiene of food and minimize the possibility of spoilage. It is the first choice for food packaging containers such as tea packaging, coffee packaging, cocoa packaging, medicine packaging, candy packaging, cigarette packaging, and gift packaging.

Unknowingly, tinplate has also become the mainstay of China's steel industry, and China has only used it for less than eight years. Tinplate was officially produced in Chinese steel mills only when it was seen.

Chen Ming originally wanted it to be used for military tableware and kettles.

In the early years, China's steel production, especially iron production, was far less than it is now, and there was simply not much pig iron to make it. But now everything has changed, just like Kuala Lumpur in front of us, it is changing very fast.