"This Mao Jun will give me all the problems." It was already evening, and the streets of the originally humid and sultry port of Cádiz were gradually getting some cool smell, and Gawain had just maxed out the windows to allow more cool breezes to blow in. He is too hot now, not only because of the weather, but also because of his mood and anxiety.

Just now, the secretary sent him an urgent paperwork. The urgent document was sent from Viana Castelo in northern Portugal, written in ciphertext, and it took the secretary more than an hour to translate it and then send it to Gao Wengang for review. The content is actually very simple, that is, the Portuguese garrison stationed there wants to move, and wants to move east to the Crimean Peninsula to deal with the increasingly complicated situation there.

To be honest, Gao Wengang, who came from a civilian background, did not think that his 2,000-strong troops, originally numbered 1,770 men, with the 7th Army Mixed Battalion as the main body, and recruited some infantry after arriving in Portugal, could make a difference. Once the Russians go south, it will be hundreds of thousands and 200,000 troops, can you mix in a few thousand people?

Of course, he did not believe that this force was qualified to participate in the armed conflict currently taking place in the South Netherlands. The French army was strong and famous, invincible in the Netherlands and the Rhine, didn't you see that Austria and Spain avoided it? It's just that the Dutch are spending money to recruit troops and horses, and are constantly digging trenches and repairing fortresses to prevent themselves from being burned. There are more than 2,000 soldiers and horses on the east coast, no matter how advanced the tactics are and how sophisticated the weapons are, they have a ball! It's not enough for people to stuff their teeth!

Therefore, this army seems to him to be a decoration, and it has no effect. And it is also an expensive ornament, and he has to find a way to spend everything, but he still has no command, which is simply unacceptable. I don't know what the local lords think, they don't even stop this gang of bastards in the military department, these thousands of expatriate troops are useless, it's better than the navy warships! Hmph, it seems that the country is now full of mediocre people, and if I go back to serve as a member of the Executive Committee, I will definitely find a way to veto this resolution.

But now the problem is in front of you, and it always has to be solved! Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun has officially written himself, asking for the eastward transfer to Haji Port "just in case", how should he answer? It is definitely not possible to refuse directly, he has no right to control their Portuguese garrison, and if they really want to leave, they will definitely not be able to stop them. The reason why Commander Mao has officially sent an official document is also because more than half of the salary must be approved by him, Gao Wengang.

And this brings us to the fucking power structure right now. As the plenipotentiary envoy of the Eastern Republic to Europe, Gao Wengang should be under his management of all the diplomatic, economic, judicial, and other civil affairs in his jurisdiction, but he has no control over this army, because the military department does not want to give him military power, and the bigwigs of the executive committee are afraid that this is a bit inappropriate, so they let them discuss something.

To put it bluntly, Mao Jun and Gao Wengang are basically in a relationship of mutual checks and balances. Mao Jun asked for money to raise soldiers, which Gao Wengang found a way to pay, so sometimes he had to listen to his opinion. But in the final analysis, there is no subordinate relationship between them, and Mao Jun still has a lot of autonomy while respecting Gao Wengang's opinions, such as this time he decided to transfer the whole army to the east and garrison it in the Black Sea.

This time, Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun said in an official document that the 2,250 members of the Portuguese garrison army (mercenaries with two infantry companies recruited in Portugal) will be dispatched to the whole army, and after arriving at the Black Sea, they will find a way to recruit two infantry companies to increase the total strength of the garrison to a full strength of more than 2,700 people.

In addition, according to the agreement reached between the East Coast Government and the Kingdom of Portugal, the East Coasters could also recruit no more than 3,000 "volunteers" in Portugal to fight overseas. These 3,000 men, basically part of the active army of the Kingdom of Portugal, all took off their uniforms and joined the command system of the East Coast as mercenaries, becoming a reliable and experienced armed force.

Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun believes that after the troops totaling about 5,700 people are transferred eastward to the Crimean Peninsula, supplemented by the strength of the 1,000 troops of the local Haji garrison, it is already a relatively considerable military force, which is enough to "make trouble" in some places, although there may still be some confusion within this force.

There is no doubt that it is very expensive to raise an army of several thousand men, especially when the army is still fighting abroad. Gao Wengang thought and calculated, and felt that with the current financial situation in Cadiz, it might be able to support it in a short time, but it would be unbearable after a long time. You know, now that they have no choice but to give up such a once-in-a-lifetime thing as providing loans to the Ottoman Empire, how can they afford to raise such a large number of troops to fight abroad for a long time?

As for the practice mentioned by Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun in the official document to seek loan assistance from the Gena*ians or Venetians to support their troops, Gao Wengang was even more angry: You guys, I will run the loan, and I won't figure out a way when I have to repay the loan in the future? Not to mention whether the money can be repaid, let's just say that I have to bear all the troubles of these things, and I will be in place to let you go out for a while?

Gao Wengang was a little depressed, and instinctively wanted to reject Mao Jun's proposal to transfer to the east, but after thinking about it, he never made up his mind. A troop of five or six thousand people is marching and fighting outside, and the cost of this year is probably not more than one million yuan! Although the profits of the trading stations he currently manages are not bad, because of the heavy tasks and the heavy expenses, the annual balance is not much. Now he has to take out more than one million yuan in cash to support Mao Jun and them to fight outside, where is he going to get so much money?

But it's not appropriate not to agree. Trade in the Black Sea was also very important to the Eastern Republic today, and the Don, Dnieper, and Danube rivers were like three rivers flowing with gold, constantly sending wealth to the people of the Eastern Bank. Moreover, this is only an economic benefit, and politically speaking, the Crimean Khanate, which dominates the northern shore of the Black Sea, is the most important fulcrum for the people on the eastern coast to achieve their strategic goals in the Near East, and it is an object that must be protected. Now the Russians have released a lot of signals about the war, as if the next moment 200,000 gray cattle will be pressed like a flood bursting the embankment, and it is also unknown that the small body of the Crimean Khanate will be able to withstand it.

At such a critical moment, if the Crimean Khanate was defeated on all fronts because he did not approve the transfer of troops - of course, the transfer was only a superficial article, and the real meaning in the official letter sent by Mao Jun was still to ask him for money - then no one could afford this responsibility.

After thinking about it, Gao Wengang's brows were about to twist into a ball, so he asked his secretary to find the financial statements of more than a dozen trading stations under his control, as well as the expenses that would need to be spent in the future: such as what information to collect, what market research to do, what art to buy at a low price, and what informants to buy, all of which are very expensive tasks.

Of course, it was impossible to look at the financial statements in detail, and he didn't have the time. However, after spending more than a few hours and a cursory look at it, he still has a certain understanding of the situation of these trading stations in the next two years.

"The signs of the French provoking war are becoming more and more obvious. South Netherlands, Franche-Comté, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Cologne, and even the United Provinces have too many places to spend money on, buying informants, spying on intelligence, and even collecting public information. Moreover, in the war zone, the informants are not very willing to go, and if they want to make them work hard, they have to spend more money. This is the case in Western Europe, and it is the same in the Balkans. Gao Wengang had just finished eating dinner in the office, and he was dizzy enough to make himself a pot of tea after reading the file for a long time in the candle, and said to himself: "But this time the matter on the Black Sea side is also quite big, if you don't prepare in advance, I'm afraid something will really happen." That's it, let's be cautious this time. Mao Jun's gang wanted to go to the Black Sea to garrison, so let them go, but they didn't know how to raise the money, alas. I hope they're just stationed, that will cost less money, and if they really want to go into battle, my little money will not be hollowed out in a moment. Well, it seems that we still have to go to the Italians to fight the autumn breeze and see if we can get some low-interest loans to fill the gap. ”

The "Italians" he mentioned actually referred to as the Gena*, who have always been a major exporter of capital, and have made a fortune over the years by relying on the connections of the East Coasters, not only selling tropical products such as cane sugar and making a lot of profits, but also making a fortune in the process of acting as an agent for East Coast industrial products, and the capital strength is very strong. Gawain had just come to them to borrow some money to spend, and the interest rate would be very low, compared to the usury they lent to the King of Spain, it was simply heaven and earth.

There is no way, who has made the Gena* people rely more and more on the protection of the people of the East Coast now! The blockade of the country's ports by the French Eastern Fleet has just been settled for less than three months, and it is said that Gao Wengang and the Netherlands came to mediate. Isn't it just a matter of building a few warships for the Spaniards, what a big deal, and it will be solved with a little coordination, as for shouting and killing at the door?

In fact, in history, because no one spoke to Genoia, several powerful countries pursued a policy of appeasement, so the French were extremely confident, sent a fleet to seal the door directly, and bombarded the ports of Genoia, creating a shocking invasion. Later, the French continued to blockade Genoa, cutting off Sicily, its main food supply, from the mainland, and threatening to land an army, which finally forced the Genoians to surrender and sent envoys to Paris to accept the humiliation of King Louis XIV of France, and signed a series of guarantees before the blockade was lifted.

In this process, Austria took a tacit attitude, England, Sweden and other countries did not care, and one of the parties, Spain, became a turtle with a shrunken head, and only the Dutch objected, but it was difficult to speak alone, and finally let the French succeed, just as they did in Franche-Comté, Luxembourg, South Netherlands and other places of small expansion.

But on this plane, the people of the East Coast would not be able to sit idly by and watch their ally, the Republic of Geno, be treated like this. Not long after the incident broke out, they began to actively intervene, mobilizing several transport ships to return from the northern shore of the Black Sea laden with food. The French warships were not authorized to do so, and they wanted to stop but did not dare to stop these ships flying the flag on the east coast, so they could only pinch their noses and let them go, and the blockade was self-defeating.

Subsequently, the people on the east coast held the Spaniards, united with the Dutch, and conducted some urgent mediation with the French, and finally after the Republic of Geno* promised not to build any ships for the Spanish kingdom after the delivery of these four warships, the French finally agreed to let them go, which was a good ending compared to history. It can also be seen from this that whether anyone is willing to stand up for them at the critical moment is completely different results. It is believed that after this incident, the Geno*s will have a deeper understanding of the influence of the people of the East in the Western Mediterranean, and will unite more closely under the banner of the Republic of the East Coast. Therefore, Gao Wengang felt that it was not a problem at all to go to Rena* Yaren to borrow a sum of money.

"Let's hope that the Russians on the other side of the Black Sea will finally retreat. If this battle starts for three years and five years, I won't have to prepare a loan of several million yuan for Mao Jun's gang......," Gao Wengang finally thought helplessly.