Through the vouchers issued by the Nanhai Bank, the Liangluo military group led by Lin Ziran raised a large amount of funds for expanding and preparing for war.

In the past six months, Lin Ziran's Southern Navy went south from Luo'an County to Luohai County, this war originally cost a lot of money, and after taking Luohai County, although Lin Ziran had already controlled the Liangluo region at that time, the financial revenue has increased significantly.

However, these increased revenues are still not enough to expand the arms war.

So far, including the two garrison divisions, the total strength of the Southern Navy under Lin Ziran has exceeded 150,000.

These troops are actually not much compared to the previous Liliangluo region, but Lin Ziran adopted a policy of elite soldiers.

Not only did he not owe the salaries of the soldiers, but he even subsidized the soldiers' food and conducted more frequent live-fire training, which required money and a lot of money.

At the same time, in the past year, the troops under Lin Ziran's command have been reloading guns on a large scale, and this expenditure is even more huge.

Even if you control the three major arsenals of Luo'an Arsenal, Fuyuan Ordnance Factory and Nanzhou Machinery Bureau, you can purchase European weapons at a lower price, only slightly higher than the cost price, but the cost of weapons procurement is still very high.

On the one hand, it is a large number of centralized outfits in a short period of time.

On the other hand, it is also because the price of rear-loading weapons is more expensive, and the improvement of technology makes production more difficult, resulting in the purchase price of rear-loading weapons being more expensive than that of previous smoothbore weapons.

At present, the Southern Navy has purchased a Luo'an III rear-loading rifle at a purchase price of 28 constant yuan, which is almost the cost price, and the arsenal has not left much profit.

As a comparison, the ex-factory price of Fuyuan musket smoothbore guns in the early years was generally only about 20 Hengyuan, and this price Fuyuan Ordnance Factory still had a huge profit.

In the past three months alone, the South China Navy has purchased a total of 40,000 Luo'an-3 rifles at an expenditure of more than 1 million Hengyuan.

The price of artillery is even more expensive, and the purchase price of 75-mm rear-loading field guns, which are 20 times the largest number in the South China Sea, has reached 2,300 Hengyuan.

And a hundred and fifty mm rear-loading howitzer is more expensive, and a hundred mm cannon is more expensive.

These steel breech-loading rifled guns are easy to use, but they are also extremely expensive.

At present, the South China Navy has procured and equipped nearly 300 rear-loading guns of various types, and the cost of artillery alone has exceeded nearly 8 million Hengyuan.

In fact, the above-mentioned investment in rear-loading muskets and artillery is quite good, because many of these are one-time investments, and the larger investment is actually consumables such as bullets and shells.

A 150-millimeter howitzer shell costs 180 Hengyuan.

A 75-mm howitzer shell also costs 20 constant yuan.

In the case of bullets, every 1,000 rounds of metal bullets cost about 100 constant dollars.

And these shells and bullets are consumed every moment during the battle.

It's just that in the previous Chongguangcheng Battle, the Southern Navy successively fired shells worth three million Hengyuan!

Even when there was no war before, in order to allow the troops to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, the Yugoslav Navy conducted frequent live-fire training, and the ammunition used in the training was extremely expensive.

In war, the place where money is spent is not only guns and ammunition, but also personnel salaries, food, horses, and so on.

When all this is added up, military spending is a very scary figure.

Even with the fiscal revenues of the two regions, it is difficult to support such a large-scale military expenditure.

How did those feudal towns maintain their military expenditures in the past?

They are in arrears of salaries, increase taxes, and borrow money.

As for Lin Ziran, it was the other way around!

He never defaulted on the salaries of his soldiers, and instead of increasing taxes, he reduced taxes to a certain extent, and as for borrowing, he wanted to borrow, but no one lent him......

Although Lin Ziran still has an extra income from kerosene, he is able to provide a large amount of money every year, which alleviates the financial pressure.

But even so, Lin Ziran did not have enough funds on hand to maintain the huge military expenditure, so he put the idea on paper money.

The benefits of paper money are very obvious, one constant dollar gold coin can issue one five constant yuan or even two constant yuan or even more banknotes.

Otherwise, Lin Ziran would not have tried his best to issue banknotes, and when the official credit was not enough, he would rather use the name of Nanhai Bank to issue vouchers in a roundabout way.

After many measures, this gap in military spending has finally been filled, but it cannot last long.

Therefore, the war on the side of Gwangan County must be resolved as soon as possible.

Lin Ziran was reluctant to let his army drag in Guang'an County, and one more day of delay would be an extra day's expenditure.

This situation is also concretely reflected in the front-line troops.

The 2nd Division, as the forward force of the north, and the two cavalry brigades quickly moved north, catching up with several Guang'an troops who did not retreat in time all the way to Shanghai, and defeated thousands of enemy troops.

But today in Shichang Town, the 2nd Dragoon Regiment under the 1st Cavalry Brigade encountered an enemy force that had always been special.

They are the cavalry of Hexi County!

The Second Dragoon Regiment had just arrived in Shichang Town only three hours after its arrival, and the reconnaissance cavalry on the periphery made an urgent report, saying that a large force of Hexi cavalry had been found in the west, and the number was no less than 500.

"Hexi cavalry? They're coming fast enough! The commander of the Second Dragoon Regiment, Dr. Deng Zhicheng, did not hesitate, and soon issued a series of orders.

"Send a herald to inform the brigade headquarters immediately!"

"Order the Scouts to conduct a detailed reconnaissance of the enemy forces in the west and find their main force!"

Doctor Deng Zhicheng didn't think that there were only more than 500 Hexi cavalry.

Since the Hexi people appeared here, it was naturally impossible for them to have only these more than 500 horsemen, and if there were no thousands or even tens of thousands of Hexi troops behind, Deng Zhicheng would dare to drown himself by urinating.

Now the question is where exactly the main forces of the enemy are, what are their routes and what are the goals.

After the 2nd Dragoon Regiment discovered the traces of the Hexi cavalry, it did not continue to go north, but prepared to take a temporary rest in Shichang Town, and at the same time sent a large number of scouts to reconnoiter the news of the Hexi cavalry.

It didn't take long for Deng Zhicheng to receive the news of the scout's report in the afternoon of the same day.

The scouts reported that the enemy's 500 cavalry were indeed only the forward, and there were still a large number of main forces in the rear, numbering at least 10,000 people.

And what made Deng Zhicheng a little worried was that among the tens of thousands of Hexi troops here, there were all cavalry troops, and there was no infantry at all.

Even the artillery is a cavalry artillery, and the baggage is a fast baggage unit with a large number of horses.

Although their current marching speed is not fast, it does not mean that they are not fast enough, in fact, if necessary, these Hexi cavalry can carry out a wide range of rapid maneuvers in a very short time.

That's not just a good thing!

At the same time, he also received an order from the brigade headquarters, and the order from the brigade headquarters was very simple, he should continue to monitor the enemy army, but not rashly contact or even engage the enemy army.

At the same time, more heralds were already rushing from the 1st Cavalry Brigade to the 2nd Division, the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, and even the 1st Division further behind.

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