After the Battle of Zamboanga, Lin Fei also subdued the Sultan of Yagurul and turned the Sulu Sultanate into the "Sulu Islands Autonomous Region of the Chinese Empire", to which the Chinese Empire sent a government.

After Lin Fei conquered Mindanao and conquered the Sulu Islands, the population of the Chinese Empire reached 2.4 million, of which more than 500,000 were Chinese, and now a large amount of money could be allocated to build warships and expand the army.

In the case of the original relatively small population, it is a very dangerous thing to allocate funds to build warships and expand the army, the Huaxia Empire uses Huaxia currency, at this time banks are still being established in various places, and the tax money cannot be sent back to Yanhuang City, and the allocated funds are directly printed and distributed in Huaxia currency.

If the funds are allocated, an extra part of the total amount of Huaxia coins will be increased, which is equivalent to causing a certain amount of inflation, and in the case of a small population, these inflations will be borne by a smaller population, and individuals may be overwhelmed, leading to a sudden collapse of Huaxia coins.

In the case of an increase in population, inflation is borne by more people, so the impact on individuals is relatively small. In addition to weakening the effects of inflation, an increase in population would produce more food to feed the troops.

At this time, Lin Fei's troops had been replenished to full strength, with two regiments and one battalion of infantry, totaling 2,940 people, in addition to 30 sniper squads, 50 artillery companies, 120 communications companies, 240 engineer companies, and 40 logistics troops, a total of 3,420 people.

Lin Fei decided to expand his forces again to attack the Visayas and Luzon Islands and completely occupy the Philippines, and on the basis of the original troops, Lin Fei decided to recruit more infantry, bringing the infantry to a brigade of 3,780 people, and recruit an artillery company of 50 people, equipped with five HP-1 60mm mortars.

Lin Fei knew very well that the Spaniards would definitely attach great importance to the Chinese Empire at this time, so the future war would be more difficult to fight, in this case, the logistics supply work would be even more important, and the Visayas and Luzon were the core areas of Spanish rule, and he might not be able to recruit a large number of migrant workers as smoothly as in Mindanao, so Lin Fei decided to form a logistics force.

Lin Fei decided to first set up a battalion of logistics troops, with an establishment of 420 people, and the recruitment of personnel is no longer limited to Chinese, assimilated Filipinos, and Muslims who are grateful to the Chinese Empire can become the objects of recruitment, after expansion, the size of Lin Fei's troops will reach more than 5,000 people, and it is not a big problem for a population of two million to support an army of 5,000 people.

Lin Fei handed over the troop expansion plan to his General Staff to implement, and then began to build battleships, Lin Fei has been thinking about the design parameters of battleships in these days of marching, at this time he already has a complete battleship construction plan in his heart, and he plans to return to Yanhuang City to implement this plan.

Lin Fei was going to improve the steam engine in Zamboanga, Lin Fei had decided to use Zamboanga's steam engine as the power of the new warship, Lin Fei came to the steam engine factory, found Chandlu, and first asked: "Have all the Spanish craftsmen returned to work?" ”

Qian Delu said with a smile: "Of course they have returned to work, they are all the pillars of the family, there is a family to support, how can they not go to work?" ”

Lin Fei nodded and said, "That's good, I'm going to make some improvements to your steam engine, and I'm going to get the drawings of your factory's 'Lawrence Model 3 Steam Engine'." ”

"Lawrence 3 steam engine" is a type of steam engine used in ships, widely used in various types of merchant ships in Spain, the power is not low, the power of the warship is more than enough, and what is more rare is that the steam engine factory also has propellers and transmission devices supporting the steam engine.

In the construction of warships, the steam engine belongs to the power components, the propeller and the transmission system belong to the propulsion parts, both are produced by completely different manufacturers, the design and manufacturing of the propeller is very difficult, especially the manufacturing, the shape of the propeller is a space surface, in Lin Fei's era it needs to be processed by five-axis linkage CNC machine tools, in this era can only be processed by skilled craftsmen with experience.

Lin Fei did master a group of shipbuilding craftsmen at this time, but these craftsmen were all shipbuilders, and there was no one who could build propellers, so if they wanted to build warships, they could only rely on the existing propellers, but fortunately, this steam engine factory solved the problem for Lin Fei.

Not long after Qian Delu took the drawings of the steam engine, Lin Fei pointed to the drawings and said: "The steam engine is composed of two parts, one is the steam production part, and the other is the steam work part, the steam work part is nothing to change, what I want to change is the steam generation part, that is, the boiler part." ”

Qian Delu asked, "I don't know how you plan to improve?" ”

Lin Fei said: "I plan to add a set of heat exchangers, so that the steam provides a part of the heat to the air outlet, which can increase the temperature of the air outlet, increase the combustion efficiency, I have calculated, so that after the improvement, about 20% of coal can be saved." ”

Lin Fei told Qian Delu how to install the heat exchanger, including a schematic diagram, and as for the specific installation method, Qian Delu himself led the craftsmen to ponder.

Lin Fei continued: "In thirty days, I want four improved steam engines, can you do it?" ”

Qian Delu nodded and said, "No problem, it can definitely be done within thirty days, but your majesty is ......"

Lin Fei said: "If you have any difficulties, just say it directly, you don't have to say it." ”

Qian Delu said: "I heard that His Majesty is very proficient in Western technology, how can he make such a slight improvement? ”

Lin Fei said helplessly: "I have a way to make the steam engine produce more power, but no matter how powerful the power is, the efficiency of the propeller will be reduced, and we don't have the ability to redesign the propeller now." ”

Qian Delu didn't ask much, he agreed, worked overtime to make the steam engine, and at this time it was February 26th, Lin Fei arranged all kinds of things in Zamboanga, and then led his subordinates to return to Yanhuang City on Samar Island, and it was already March 1 when he returned to Yanhuang City.

Since Lin Fei conquered Wuduan City, there have been ships going back and forth between Wuduan City and Samar Island, not only bringing the copper ore and cotton of Wuduan City to Samar Island, but also bringing back the news of Lin Fei's repeated victories.

Lin Fei disembarked from the transport ship, and after giving a speech to the welcoming crowd, he went to inspect the slipway, accompanied by admirals Liu Daming and Yu Xier.

The slipway is located in the north of the harbor of Yanhuangcheng, not far from the harbor, there are two, and two warships can be built at the same time, and the slipway has been completely repaired at this time.

Lin Fei inspected the slipway, then came to the conference room of the shipyard, announced the parameters of the shipbuilding, Ling Xue and all the craftsmen also arrived, everyone's hearts were very excited, because the Huaxia Empire was about to build its first warship!

Under everyone's gaze, Lin Fei said: "The first step in building a battleship is to analyze our enemy, and determine the parameters of our battleship according to the enemy's battleship parameters, judging from the current situation, we have two enemies, one is the Spaniards, and the other is the Japanese!" ”

Most of the people in the navy were people on the Zhiyuan ship, and they had fought with the Japanese in the Yellow Sea, and although they sank the Yoshino ship with the help of Lin Fei, they also fell into the water and were captured, and were taken to Japan to be humiliated and tortured, so they naturally hated the Japanese very much.

Although Ling Xue and other craftsmen were not oppressed by the Japanese, Chen Fu brought back the news of the Lushun Massacre from Taiwan, in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army carried out a brutal massacre of the residents of the city after the capture of Lushun, and the death toll was more than 20,000.

Lin Fei continued: "The Spaniards are entrenched in the Visayas and Luzon at this time, both of which we have to fight, although Japan cannot fight the Philippines for the time being, but they will soon win the war against the Qing court, and then annex Taiwan, Japan's wolf ambitions against Taiwan are well known." ”

"As early as 1874, they sent troops to attack Taiwan, wanting to occupy Taiwan, but they did not succeed, at this time they will use the power of victory in the war to force the Qing government to cede the island of Taiwan, Taiwan Island is an inseparable part of our China, no matter what, Japan can not take it!"

"At this time, the island of Taiwan is still our base for recruiting Chinese, and it will be a bridge for us to trade with the Qing State in the future, if Japan is allowed to occupy the island of Taiwan, it will undoubtedly strangle our Chinese empire! So Japan is our great enemy! ”

"After analyzing the threat of Japan, let's analyze the strength of the fleets of Spain and Japan, the Spanish fleet in the Philippines has been wiped out by us, and the remaining two unprotected cruisers can't set off any storms, as for the Spanish home fleet, the hull is old, the road is long, there is no need to worry, the Japanese Navy is our fierce enemy, and the imaginary enemy of our warships is the Japanese Navy."

"At this time, the main battleships of the Japanese Navy are the combined fleet that participated in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, of which the Yoshino ship has been sunk by us, and the remaining main battleships are Hashidate, Itsukushima, Matsushima, Naniwa, Takachiho and other ships, and our opponents are these battleships!"

"The displacement of these warships, the Hashidate, Itsukushima and Matsushima ships are more than 4,000 tons, and the rest are 3,000 tons to 4,000 tons, and the main armaments are rapid-fire guns, with calibers of 120 mm, 150 mm and 152 mm, and a speed of 18 to 19 knots.

Everyone didn't react when they heard this, only Liu Daming's eyes widened, and he said dissatisfiedly: "These design indicators are too low, can you win?" ”

This book was first published from 17K Novel Network, the first time to see the genuine content! I734