In order to attack the southwest, Beiyang can be regarded as doing its best, with the Yangtze River Fleet as the mainstay, cooperating with all the ships suitable for inland shipping in the Beiyang Fleet, and then recruiting civilian ships along the Yangtze River, and finally forming an extremely large inland river fleet. The fleet departed from Yichang. Follow the Yangtze River straight into Chongqing. With an elite army of 70,000 troops, plus heavy grain and grass, this fleet stretched for hundreds of miles. It looks spectacular.

Wushan is located in the northeast of Sichuan Province, the heart of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, known as the "gateway to the east of Chongqing", spanning both sides of the Yangtze River and Wuxia. It is adjacent to Badong County of Hubei Province to the east, Fengjie County to the west, Jianshi County of Hubei Province to the south, and Wuxi County and Shennongjia Forest Area to the north. The county seat is located at the confluence of the Daning River and the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River is known as a natural hazard, and the Three Gorges area is a place where rapids and rapids are densely packed. Old-fashioned wooden boats really can't get by without a strong helmsman.

Now Wushan is only an extremely remote small county town in Sichuan, and when they heard that there was going to be a war, the local people almost ran out. Because this is the entrance to the Bashu region, it is the gateway to the land of Bashu, coupled with the dangerous terrain and prominent strategic position, the military forces that have occupied the Bashu region in the past dynasties have regarded this as the focus of defense, and over time, it has become a fortress. The people living here have been in the habit of hiding from the war for generations. After Cai Ye regarded the Wushan area as the place of the first battle, the local people quickly fled to the mountains and forests or left their hometowns. Nowadays, Wushan has not much arable land, and the terrain is extremely complex, so the population is not large, because it is the most turbulent place of the Yangtze River, and most of the people who survive here rely on ferries to make a living. Now that the Beiyang army is pressing the border, and even the Yangtze River naval army is coming murderously, those old men have already gotten the news and run away. After all, the most powerful in the Yangtze River region is not Beiyang, nor is it the Southwest New Army, but the foreign merchants who are densely scattered all over the Yangtze River. War is a disaster for small businessmen, but it is a huge opportunity for big businessmen to make a fortune, and the best thing to make since ancient times is war money.

Now the big businessmen in the form of the Republic of China have seen it clearly. Beiyang has blockaded the southwest, making the southwest's economy turbulent, supplies in short supply, and the price of certain military supplies has swelled like a snowball. For businessmen, if they have a 100 percent benefit, they can take risks, not to mention that the transportation of military supplies to the southwest is at least a few hundred percent of the profit, which is enough to make all businessmen go crazy. Although the southwest is not financially rich, but there are no eggs under the nest, no matter how difficult the southwest's finances are, Cai Ye can only grit his teeth and persevere, because he understands that there is no military supplies to repel Beiyang, and now everything in Xinnan is a mirror. After the establishment of the Republic of China, the transportation in the hinterland of the Central Plains has developed rapidly, and the southwest region has been disobedient, Beiyang will certainly not spend a lot of money to build roads and pave railways. Even the new railroad plans of foreign businessmen were canceled under the pressure of national public opinion. Therefore, after the founding of the Republic of China, there was no large-scale laying of railways in the southwest. The Yangtze River is still an important channel for the Sichuan-Shu region to connect with other places. The old man who was able to steer an ordinary large wooden boat across the Three Gorges was the most valuable asset to those businessmen who wanted to smuggle military supplies into the southwest and wanted to get rich and go crazy. Therefore, after learning that the Yangtze River fleet entered Sichuan and Shu along the Yangtze River, these experienced old captains quickly disappeared in the waters of the Three Gorges. In this way, the Beiyang Army, which was ready to recruit these old men and organize businessmen to smuggle in, pounced. I believe that after the Yangtze River water army passes, the water surface will settle down, and these people will emerge from unexpected places.

Of course, compared with this kind of southern businessman who makes a fortune with his head, the Northeast businessman led by the Northeast Maossen Chamber of Commerce is much happier. Among them, of course, the large chambers of commerce under the Mansfield Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Commerce of Northeast China are the most dominant. Because after the Northeast Security Army captured the Ganning area, the large enterprises controlled by the Northeast government occupied the Ganning area for the first time. A large amount of capital was injected into the Ganning area, so that these large chambers of commerce quickly established a bridgehead in the Ganning area. Unlike those private enterprises that hesitated, the enterprises controlled by the Governor's Office and the Mansfield Chamber of Commerce were well aware of Feng Yong's determination to take the Ganning region. This is the place where it is going to be built, and the Ganning region is the second northeast. With the policy support of the Northeast government, I am worried that I can't make money!

The rise of Northeast China has made the public-owned enterprises that monopolize the economy of Northeast China make a lot of money. Moreover, government-controlled enterprises and the Mansfield Chamber of Commerce are involved in strategic areas that private companies cannot participate in, such as heavy industry, basic industry, transportation industry, military enterprises, and so on. In these areas, public enterprises not only enjoy the government's policy support, but also do not have to worry about sales. There is even extremely preferential administrative policy support, which makes these government-controlled enterprises as huge as balloons. Feng Yong, who came from later generations, certainly understood the shortcomings of the public-owned enterprises that relied on administrative instructions, and although the administrative command development method could concentrate resources to the greatest extent, it was also easy to cause the problems of waste of resources and institutional rigidity. It is not good for the continued development of a force. But now China is in a state of warlord chaos, and everything is based on the development of strength. In order to pursue the high speed of enterprise development, Feng Yong will inevitably put aside the development potential. Feng Yong is not Stalin, he has a clear and accurate understanding of the development of the world. When the strength of the Northeast is sufficient, or the Great Revolutionary War is completed, it can begin to reform the public enterprises. Although this will inevitably cause large-scale waste of resources and environmental pollution, Northeast China has also achieved a high speed that is difficult to achieve with normal development. The "Soviet Industrial Miracle" that happened in the original time and space was very eager for Feng Yong.

Now that Beiyang has blocked the commercial links between the southwest and southeast regions, the Yangtze River waterway can no longer reach the southwest directly, and business is much more difficult. However, enterprises in the northeast can continue to sell material resources to the southwest region through the Ganning area as a forward base, and the first to make war money is the government-led enterprises, followed by those independent large chambers of commerce in the northeast, and finally the small chambers of commerce are also involved, and for a time the Mongolian steppe has become a business route. For all this, Feng Yong is supportive. Although the northeast and southwest are allies, they are only allies, although Feng Yong allocated some military materials to support Cai Yi, but it is also very limited, and now the northeast is also going on a big war, although the family has surplus wealth, but it is far from being rich. However, even if the northeast is really wealthy, Feng Yong's support for the southwest will be limited. After all, the southwest is an independent force, and it is impossible for the northeast to spare no effort to support it. However, Feng Yong did not support the resale of military supplies to the southwest by enterprises under the Governor's Palace. After all, making war money is the best way to accumulate capital primitively. Now the Northeast Security Army is undergoing a large-scale redress. The Type 16 rifle has been put into production one after another in the Northeast Arsenal, and it can basically meet the needs of the main force. The unification of weapons and equipment is the only way to ensure the combat effectiveness of the troops, and Feng Yong is of course a little impatient. Therefore, of course, replacing the advanced weapons that came first will not be given away, but it is still very satisfying to sell Feng Yong at five to ten times the market price. Even if Cai Yi is his Feng Yong's brother, Feng Yong will not let go of the money he should earn. He Feng Yong thinks that he can still distinguish between public affairs and private affairs. Even when the war was approaching, Feng Yong deliberately sent some soldiers to escort these caravans, which made this trade route more prosperous. The opening of this trade route has completely reversed the sluggish form of the light industry in the Northeast, and the sequelae of the strong eradication of the Nalan family in the Northeast are slowly dissipating, which can be regarded as a gift to Feng Yong from this war!

As soon as the mighty Yangtze River Fleet entered the Three Gorges area, it ran into big trouble, and the already turbulent waterways were covered with mines, which Cai Ye found from the dock of the Yangtze River Fleet in Chengdu.

Before World War I, the Yangtze River almost became the backyard of the warships of the great powers, whether it was the Manchu Qing government or the Beiyang government, in the face of this form, although they did not dare to express their position, but their hearts were extremely aggrieved. You must know that the Yangtze River valley is an important financial resource for China, and the fleets of the great powers are like no one, and the good-faced Manchu emperor is of course not happy. The development of the navy was not a day's work, so the Qing court purchased a large number of mines and distributed them to the Yangtze River fleet, and hoarded them in the docks all over the Yangtze River. It was only the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Yuan Shikai of the Republic of China was only tough internally and weak externally, and did not dare to make the slightest change in the warships that were swaying away from the great powers, and these mines that maintained the dignity of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were piled up in the treasury of the Yangtze River Fleet. When Cai Ye was reorganizing the fleet in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, these mines were discovered. Originally, he thought that he would not need it, but he didn't expect that Cao Kun's army would choose to go north by water, and the momentum was the most formidable, and it happened to hit the muzzle of Cai Yi's gun. Of course, Cai Ye will not let go of the method of forcing them to get off the ship.

Rumble!

A loud bang shocked the entire Yangtze River fleet. The gunboat at the front, which was on patrol, unfortunately hit a mine. Then the sailors on the gunboat jumped down the river like dumplings.

"What's going on? What's going on? Cao Daguan, who was happily on the flagship, was startled, and ran to the command room in disheveled clothes, regardless of his face.

"Cao Shuai, Cai Ye has laid mines on the Yangtze River, and one of our gunboats has hit a mine!" Wu Peifu said calmly. As the actual commander of the army, Wu Peifu certainly had to stay on the flagship. It's just that unlike Cao Dashuai, Wu Peifu nests in the command every day to study strategic issues. After all, Cai Ye is an opponent that even he has to respect. Cao Kun's flagship is a light cruiser, if it weren't for Cao Kun's big face, I'm afraid the Beiyang Fleet would still be reluctant to send this new ship into the Yangtze River, after all, this is a sea ship, although the displacement is not large, but after all, it is not something mixed up in inland rivers. Although the waters of the Yangtze River basin are wide, there are also many places in the upper reaches that cannot be reached by cruisers. It can be said that the symbolism of this cruiser is greater than its practical role.

There were a lot of rooms on the cruiser, and Cao Dashuai did not participate in the specific command, but as the commander-in-chief, he could not help but come, so Cao Daguan simply used his connections to borrow such a cruiser, brought a few new concubines, and enjoyed the luxurious life on the warship.

"Mines? How could Cai Ye have this thing? Cao Kun's face changed. Although he doesn't care about the specific military, his ability to rise from the North Ocean proves that he is definitely not a straw bag who doesn't know anything.

(To be continued)