Chapter Seventy-Three: Blood Fire Hell

  See off the Yuan Shikai who is full of hope, let him go to harm the so-called Ming Cheng Huang Hou who was blown by the sticks, and let this old lady who is not inferior to the noble concubine in the history of the sticks continue her tragic ending killed by the Japanese, Yang Feng began to shift his focus to his construction side.

  In fact, this was first proposed by Xue Fucheng. As the governor of Taiwan, he naturally wanted to make some contributions to his jurisdiction.

  "Why don't you build a factory in Taiwan?" asked Xue Fucheng.

  "Whatever you want to build, we'll build it. But for now, first, we need to build an arsenal so we don't have to transport military supplies from Europe anymore. Second, we also need to build a cement factory, as we can't do construction without this material. Additionally, we must repair the railway connecting northern and southern Taiwan."

  "Goodness gracious, this place is still too small to show off, I wonder how much it would cost for our imperial court to buy a governor-general?" Yang Feng suddenly asked.

  "This governor is not something that can be bought." Xue Fucheng said with a bad tone.

  "That's not necessarily true, is it? Look at me now, I have a title of Governor-General for purchase." Yang Feng said disdainfully.

  "Our imperial court's governor-general governs several provinces, can it be compared to the governor of your small fishing village? However, I have always been puzzled, what is the point of spending tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy that place?" Xue Fucheng said curiously.

  Yang Feng smiled secretly and thought to himself: Can I tell you that beneath the sand lies an endless supply of oil?

  "You see, someone like me is definitely not feasible. I have no official title and no connections, the imperial court doesn't even know who I am. But you're different, just casually spend a year in Taiwan, then next year take a trip to pave the way, I'll pay for you to buy the position of Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang." He didn't answer Xue Fucheng's question, but instead continued on the topic of buying official positions.

  Xue Fu Cheng did not explicitly agree or disagree, but he was also very clear in his mind that the current officials in the imperial court were basically all about open and transparent pricing. Buying a governor-general might sound shocking, but in reality, it wasn't a big deal. For someone like him, a second-rank official, spending tens of thousands of taels of silver to get involved with the Grand Council and giving some money to eunuchs like Li Lianying was enough to easily secure a position as governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang. Since Yang Feng was willing to do so, Xue naturally wouldn't refuse.

  The two did not continue to discuss this issue, but instead continued to study the factory. First of all, the cement plant was naturally suitable for Yangfeng Investment. The munitions factory had to be incorporated into the official business. In fact, during Liu Mingchuan's era in Taiwan, there was already a small-scale military industry, but it was abandoned again during Shao Youlian's era. Now, the original factory is reopened, and the original purely official management is changed to joint state-private management, that is, the Taiwan Provincial Government and Bofors jointly manage it. Of course, the Taiwan Provincial Government does not need to invest money, and all investments are borne by Bofors. In exchange for the land used and permanent tax exemption, the Taiwan Provincial Government acquires 40% of the shares.

  Then there was the railway, Liu Mingchuan built a railway from Taipei to Keelung, so in Taiwan there is a Railway Bureau of Taiwan Province, and indeed there were plans for a railway that would run through northern and southern Taiwan, but after he left office it was put on hold, now it's just a matter of starting again. Originally Liu Mingchuan strongly opposed the construction of railways by foreigners, but this problem doesn't need to be considered anymore, as this railway will be built by the British JY company, naturally with all sorts of privileges such as mining rights within 30 miles along the line.

  Actually, Yang Feng didn't care about this bit of profit, Taiwan didn't have many resources, just camphor, sulfur, and some gold mines, the biggest one being the Keelung coal mine. This kind of thing was beneath Yang's notice, but this rule couldn't be broken. Now that the great powers were building railways in China, they had to play by the rules, and they couldn't break them even when it came to their own place.

  These things have caused a stir in Taiwan, but this is something that Xue Fu Cheng needs to deal with, and has nothing to do with Yang Feng. Anyway, the Han Chinese gentry did not dare oppose him, even the local tyrants now understand that Yang Da Boss is not easy to mess with. As for those aborigines, they can only speak with big guns, the thousand people he left in Taipei for Xue Fu Cheng are just for this purpose. The remaining main armed forces in Taiwan, Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army, Lin Chaozhong's Dongjun, these are all supporters of Xue Fu Cheng. As long as they don't get involved, those one thousand mercenaries are enough to sweep across Taiwan, even if they oppose it, it would be useless. Under Yang Feng's strong military and economic pressure, plus Xue Fu Cheng's governance pressure, the opponents have only one dead end.

  Just as he was busy with construction in Taiwan, Nozu Michitsura of Tian'an, after a long period of rest and consolation for the Japanese soldiers' frightened hearts, finally launched the third attack on the Qing army. This time, it wasn't just the Tian'an direction, even the big island of Chengwen's Yizhang also had to come out with a hard head.

  These days, both sides have not had any battles, mainly because Zhang Gaoyuan and Nie Shichen were also scared. The difference is that Notsu Michizane was frightened by the casualty rate, while they were frightened by the consumption of bullets by their subordinates. According to the analysis of the war situation during this period, they found that their soldiers had to consume an average of 4,000 rounds of ammunition to kill a Japanese soldier, which is unbelievable. Nie Shichen's unit, which has experienced many battles, is now better off, with a consumption of less than 2,000 rounds. Xu Bangdao's unit, which has just entered the battlefield, even reached a record high of 8,000 rounds. This situation is definitely not conducive to launching an attack, and it is unbearable for logistics alone, excluding the issue of soldiers' courage.

  The four main generals agreed that before the exchange ratio of ammunition consumption and battle results fell below one thousand, they absolutely could not consider the issue of taking the initiative to attack.

  However, despite the lack of combat, the Japanese army still suffered heavy casualties. Simply put, deserters! The severe situation of soldiers fleeing, although the Fifth Division came from Hiroshima, known for its tenacity, but still many soldiers could not bear this cruel and bloody, or desperate battle, chose to become deserters. From the start of the war to now, the entire division has lost over 300 people, with nearly 200 from ōshima's unit alone. In this situation, there would be no breakthrough victory, and Nogi Maresuke doubted that they would all flee without a fight, so he decided to concentrate his forces, sacrificing lives if necessary, to break through the Qing army's defenses.

  "Your Imperial Majesty, brave warriors, I know we have suffered defeats before, but why? Is it because you are not brave enough or your marksmanship is not accurate enough? No. You are the best soldiers, even those devils cannot be compared to you, yet you still failed. The reason is simple: your weapons are inferior to the enemy's advanced ones, your bullets are fewer than the enemy's, and your cannons are not even as good as the enemy's scraps. In short, you are too poor, the Japanese Empire is too poor."

  Why are we poor?

  Because we were on a small island with nothing.

  We have nothing to lose, so we will be bullied. If we don't expand our territory, our descendants will still have nothing, and we will struggle in poverty for generations to come.

  For them, for our children and grandchildren, we must use our blood, our lives to win a future that is no longer humiliated.

  Defeat the enemies in front of you, and a land of richness that you cannot even imagine will open its gates to you.

  There is gold everywhere, there are women everywhere, there is food that can't be finished, and there is wealth that can't be exhausted.

  Warriors, for our future, charge! At the pre-war oath-taking rally, Lieutenant General Notsu Mitsugu waved his military sword and shouted hysterically. The remaining 12,000 soldiers of the Fifth Division took up their Type 18 Murata rifles with bayonets attached and launched a three-sided attack on the Qing army with a sense of tragic indignation.

  Notsu Michizane's deployment was still the same as before, Cheng Huan and Tian'an restrained in the south, and the main force of the concentrated division, about 6,000 people, launched a frontal attack on Zhang Gaoyuan's unit. In fact, he had no other choice. Tian'an was stuck at an intersection, with Yashan to the east, Chenghuan to the north, mountains on three sides and sea on one side. At this time, it wasn't modern times, roads were not convenient, wanting to take a detour was like playing around, at this time there were only a few roads that could be taken, other areas were basically all barren mountains, dense forests, and marshes, there was no other way to fight.

  While in front of them, Zhang Gaoyuan led the three thousand Qing troops to make all preparations. Although there was a big difference in numbers between the two sides, he didn't have any worries at all. The reason is simple: Burton's secret weapon had been set up. Li Ergezi was very generous with small expenses - the cheap barbed wire used by American western pioneers could be bought as much as they wanted. Now, in front of the three defense lines, rows and rows of barbed wire filled with thorns were densely arranged. Not only was it erected on the Tianan Front Line, but also at the two fortresses of Lushun and Weihai, and even more shamelessly, alternating current had been connected to the barbed wire at these fortresses according to Burton's suggestion.

  Boffors now also sells generators manufactured by General Electric, which use small steam turbines from the Parsons Turbine Company.

  Of course, such a high-end product, whether the Japanese still have the ability to enjoy it, this point even Yang Feng himself is not sure.

  Six thousand brave Japanese soldiers thus entered the hell of blood and fire without hesitation, with only less than thirty artillery pieces to provide cover for them, and due to logistical problems, ammunition was severely insufficient.

  And their opponents, now have more than 100 recoilless guns, with a total of over 200 artillery pieces. On their positions, there are more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition, and in the rear base of Yashan, nearly 200,000 rounds of ammunition, 3 million rounds of bullets, and 50,000 hand grenades are stored. Of course, some of them are already domestically produced. Ye Zhichao is not good at fighting, but he is good at logistics management, and has managed the rear base in an orderly manner.