C1375 Huge military expenses

The line for the delivery of supplies was getting longer and longer. From afar, it looked like a long dragon that could be seen day and night.

In fact, the best way to transport supplies from the Ryukyu's main island to the Tangwan Mountain was to have the ship docked in the inner village of Si Ma Village and take the nearest and also the best Mount Pan mountain path to head up the mountain.

However, the strait was currently filled with water mines, and there were also a few stranded enemy battleships in the reef area outside of Sihu Village. There were about a thousand Russian Army s supporting the warships in a last-ditch effort, so Sihu Village had already lost its role as a supply center.

All the supplies had to be disembarked from the west and east shores of the island, and had to go through countless manpower to reach the mountain.

Xiao Letian stood on top of the mountain rock and used his binoculars to survey the scene in front of him. He let out a long sigh and said, "If you want to maintain this thirty thousand strong army's battle here, you need to have at least fifty thousand worth of support and support. The cost per day is not less than four hundred thousand silver coins! And this is only a siege! "

"If it's a battle of the same level as before, the military expenditure per day would be at least 2 million silver taels …" This was war! This is burning money! "

After putting down the telescope, Xiao Letian directly asked Wang Huaiyuan who was behind him without turning his head back, "Do you have any statistics? How much have we spent so far? "

Wang Huaiyuan said with a bitter face, "There are no recent data. Three days ago, our detailed statistics were released, and in order for this ambush to go from the early preparations to the enemy officially taking part in the main battlefield, we had already spent thirteen million silver coins. Just the cost of expanding the Tangwan Mountain's fortress was half …"

"We've already used up half of our ammunition in the last few days' war, especially our artillery shells. Not to mention rifles, bullets, explosives, medical products, food … Of course, there are also the water mines, the expenses of Zhiyuan Warship, as well as the purchase of fishing boats and merchant ships from the outside world for use in the sinking of the sea … "

"Just the expenses for the past few days alone, I can't pay you without seven million silver taels!" Sigh … "This battle, locking the enemy's cage was practically made of pure silver, spending too much money …"

Even though Xiao Letian was rich and overbearing, when he heard this number, he still could not help but sigh and shake his head.

"My Prime Minister! That's another account, okay? "The money over there is spent like flowing water. Dragon Lord wants 100,000 strands of fur, the cost of importing a strand of fur is around 70 Silver Yuan, and the cost of manufacturing it ourselves is also around 50 Silver Yuan …"

"Just the cost of the Dragon Lord's rifles is over seven million Dragon Mark Silver Dollars. What about bullets? Let alone anything else, I don't think that we will have much left of the thirty million that Prime Minister prepared for this Dragon Lord … "

If you don't take charge, you don't know how expensive Chai Mi is! The more he calculated, the more frightened he became. War was a gold-eating monster; no matter what kind of mental preparation Xiao Letian had made in advance, he would still suck in a breath of cold air when he saw the true numbers in front of him.

"We can't continue fighting like this. From now on, we have to control the fierce battles in the Tangwan Mountain. All strategies are focused on besieging them. As long as the enemies don't go crazy, we can't allow them to use any large scale attacks …" We need to save some supplies for the Far East! "

What Xiao Letian said was not wrong, more money, less money was only one aspect of the problem that everyone was facing. Another important factor was that money might not necessarily be able to buy things.

On the surface, both Tanggu and Ryukyu looked like they had a production line for Mauser's rifle, but everyone was well aware that these two production lines were actually just assembly plants.

Gun stock, trigger, bayonet, strap... Some of the external equipment could be produced by the Chinese, but the barrels and needles could not be produced by the Chinese until now.

The steel barrels were all manufactured in Prussia, and the rifled threads were cut in Prussia. The firing needles were also loaded onto the ships in hamburger and delivered into Xiao Letian's hands via the sea.

This kind of transaction efficiency was naturally much faster than buying and selling guns as a whole, and the cost had been greatly reduced as well. However, the key parts were controlled by someone else. Even if that person was an ally of theirs, it was still very uncomfortable.

Xiao Letian had a premonition that if the Tangwan Mountain's achievements were to be made known to the world, the British and French people would definitely take action against him.

Those merchant ships floating on the ocean would very likely become the enemy's focus. They would seal off the Suez Canal, seal off the Malacca Strait, and then send the army to search one ship after another. They would deduct all merchant ships that carried barrels and needles to the Chinese.

If that happened, Xiao Letian would immediately fall into an awkward situation where he had money and could not buy any weapons. And this would happen almost 100% of the time.

"We still have to consider the battles in the Far East. We cannot waste the limited resources, so just send more to the Far East …" Send people to contact Americans and ask for help from the Carnegie Family. We are willing to spend an additional 15% of the money as long as the United States guarantees that we will be able to supply arms … "

"We can't let anything go wrong with the pacific route. This is our lifeline … "Let our university students go, let the political teams go!"

As the Prime Minister gave the order, the groups of Ryukyu university students who had been on standby in the ocean since long ago began to move. These future high-ranking Chinese intellectuals, all of them with incomparably excited expressions, lined up neatly and started disembarking the ship, flying straight for Tangwan Mountain.

All along the way, all the soldiers looked at them in disbelief. Ma Xiaobao, that's the youngest son of my neighborhood's Ma family! "He's a top student at the Maritime University. How did he end up on the battlefield …"

"That's right, that's Dragon Lake Mountain, a child from the district of Fusang. He's very close to my home … I know that child as well, and that one over there … "

"Stinking brats, what are you guys doing here instead of studying?" The veterans asked at once.

The child proudly said, "We are a newly formed political assault team. The future battles will depend on our abilities!" We are going to the battlefield, straight to the Tangwan Mountain! "

"What?" Everyone was stunned. Although there was a tradition of an Elementary Scholar in the Chinese Army, but that was only true for military universities. Many of the students that came back were students from ordinary universities!

All the veterans present knew these children. They were studying translation, history of literature, science, physics, mathematics, etc. I heard that these professionals are going to become scientists in the future. Why would they come to the battlefield?

No one could understand, but no one dared to question the Prime Minister's decision. Once these children walked to the frontlines of the trenches under the astonished gazes of the thirty thousand strong army, the rest of the affairs would be completely taken aback.

The children took out iron trumpets from their backpacks and placed them on the edge of the trench. They began to speak in Russian, sounding just like a group of foreign birds.

The Chinese Marines could not understand what the children were saying, but the Russian soldier on the mountain was completely dumbfounded. Although the Russian was not standard, everyone could understand it.