1890 King of Southeast Asia

The Vega has a new mission - transporting troops.

"Quick, quick, quick, hurry up and get on board, don't dawdle." In Surabaya Port, soldiers of the newly formed Fifth Brigade are queuing up to go ashore. Time is tight. They don't know when the Dutch Navy will block the waterway. They can only send the soldiers to the Brunei colony for reorganization.

"Hey, one, two, push! One, two, push!" The artillery is trying to push the cannon onto the ship. The port is very busy, with dozens of ships operating at the same time, but the side effect is that the machinery is insufficient. The artillery can only use manpower to transfer nearly 800 kilograms of cannons to the ship, which is undoubtedly a very difficult task.

"Hu! Hu! Hu!" The gunner of this artillery group is 17-year-old Yu Deshui, a new immigrant who became a gunner in just half a year. At this level, he can operate a cannon alone and command a firepower group.

"Finally up!" Yu Deshui's eyes were full of tears. He was not crying, but holding his breath. He stood up only when his lungs stopped whirring like a bellows.

"Deshui, good news. I just heard the new battalion commander discussing your promotion." A simple and honest middle-aged man came over with a smile on his face, looked around and said carefully in Yu Deshui's ear.

"Oh." Yu Deshui was only seventeen years old after all. If it weren't for the reorganization of the Production and Construction Corps, he would not have gone to the battlefield, so he didn't have much physical training and didn't have much energy at this time.

"Don't say oh, it's over. If you get promoted, you will at least be a company commander, but you are too young, you should be a deputy, or a deputy. Our village has just settled down, and the rice has not been harvested yet, and you are pulled to fight again..."

Ignoring the chattering of the man from the same village, Yu Deshui looked at the cannon and thought of his father...

"Is he from the Hunan Army trustworthy?" Yu Deshui's battalion commander was talking to the brigade commander Li Abing at this time.

"And he has only been here for half a year, and he must be trusted before he can be used." Li Abing said.

Having participated in the Battle of Dahukou, attacked Pamanukan, destroyed Tangerang, supported Madura Island, and then been reorganized into the Fourth Brigade, and stayed in Madura Island until now, Li Abing attaches the most importance to trust!

"This is the comment I asked the head of Qianfeng Village 2 for. These are the evaluations given by the neighbors after investigation and visit. At present, they tend to be positive." Ma Bei, the battalion commander of the artillery battalion, said.

Because of insufficient artillery training, the newly formed Fifth Brigade is not directly equipped with artillery at the first level. The supporting firepower is mainly mortars, and artillery is assigned to the artillery battalion.

It is called an artillery battalion, but in fact it is more than that. There are three four-gun artillery companies equipped with British three-inch guns for easy supply. There are also three 18-unit 102 rocket launchers. It is not enough for an artillery regiment, but it is more than an artillery battalion.

"Call Yu Deshui over, I will talk to him." Li Abing thought for a long time and said.

Ma Bei ran to find Yu Deshui

"Yu Deshui!" Ma Bei shouted in the artillery area.

"Yes!" Yu Deshui stood up straight with a start.

In Nanhua, the food is good. There is rice, vegetables and fish for every meal, and tofu from time to time. Sometimes you can catch wild animals and eat a piece of meat. Although it is not as luxurious as the life when he was a child, Yu Deshui is very satisfied to be full.

"The brigade commander is calling you, go there immediately." Even if he is optimistic about Yu Deshui, Ma Bei cannot reveal any information. This is the rule. The army is a place where rules are followed. This is what Liu Yiming constantly emphasizes.

"Yes!" Yu Deshui packed up his weapons and walked towards the brigade commander's cabin.

"Yu Deshui, Hunanese?" After entering the door, Li Abing asked directly without being polite.

"Yes!" Yu Deshui was a little nervous.

"Don't be nervous. Speaking of us being fellow villagers, my great-grandfather is also from Hunan." Of course not, Li Abing didn't know where his great-grandfather was from, but he was from the north.

"Is your father a general of the Qing Dynasty?" Li Abing continued to ask.

"Not a general, but the commander of the Shuizi Camp of the Hunan Army." Yu Deshui was very nervous now, with cold sweat all over his back, but the army has its own rules, and now is not the time for him to explain.

"How did you end up here?" Li Abing walked over casually and looked into Yu Deshui's eyes.

"The case, after the Tianjin case, Zeng Zhongtang died, and the Hunan Army lost its source.

The higher-ups didn't give money, so my father went to ask for it. The damn court gave him 200 taels and wanted to dismiss more than 1,500 people.

Suddenly one day, the soldiers came to arrest people, and my mother stuffed me in a hole, and I escaped.

After that, I wandered until I was caught by human traffickers and came here." Yu Deshui told him everything he knew.

Li Abing took notes and asked some questions that seemed irrelevant but could indirectly express a person's three views.

After asking, he nodded.

"The organization has decided to give you more responsibilities. You need to study more in the future. Yicun knows about this, right? Yicun will soon be built into a town. After this battle, I recommend you to go to school."

Li A Bing paused, looked at the 17-year-old child, and smiled evilly.

"I heard that it is difficult to arrange for women. There are already 7,000 or 8,000 girls in Yicun. When the time comes, you can go to school and seize the opportunity!"

"Ah! I... my level is not enough, so I can only fight on the front line." Yu Deshui knows about the organization. His village chief was a member of the organization before. He knew everything from farming and fighting to teaching.

What about Yu Deshui? He went to a private school for two years and came to Nanhua to learn knowledge for half a year. He was exposed to firing artillery when he was a child, and he remembered it after systematic learning.

"Silly boy, don't think about it. The organization is the organization. It will not affect your position. Go back!" Li A Bing knew that he had misunderstood. He had misunderstood enough in the past few days.

Yu Deshui left stupidly, and finally did not understand what Li A Bing meant.

One day after sailing, as soon as he got off the boat, the battalion commander found him and brought him a set of clothes.

"Yu Deshui!" The battalion commander looked at him and shouted at attention.

"Yes!" Yu Deshui stood at attention.

"Hereby appoints Yu Deshui, a militiaman from the second village of Qianfeng, as the commander of the second company of the artillery battalion of the fifth brigade, with the rank of warrant officer during wartime. This order is from the Kalimantan Command of the South China Army. November 23, 1891!" The battalion commander took out the letter of appointment and answered in a serious manner.

Yu Deshui was already confused. What am I doing? I got promoted?

"Hey! This is the officer's uniform and the letter of appointment. Keep them all. You have four guns in your hands, but there are only ten artillery cadets assigned to you. You can find the others yourself. Do a good job." Ma Bei patted Yu Deshui on the shoulder.

"Yes!" Yu Deshui answered reflexively before he could react.

Liu Yiming had trained nearly two thousand artillerymen in various ways, and the number of artillerymen operating barreled artillery should be sufficient.

But the artillery batteries need people, and three artillery batteries have taken away a thousand people. In addition, the artillery school needs instructors, and there is also a field heavy artillery regiment, which is not enough.

There is no way, so the students of the artillery school can only practice in advance, and those who can fire normally under command are pulled up. Yu Deshui is special because he is a militiaman, but his artillery skills are basically up to standard and he has a certain cultural foundation, so Ma Bei attaches so much importance to him.

…………

"Commander, the Dutch sent a diplomatic letter to protest our desire to transport troops to Kalimantan." Liu Yiming was talking to Xu Hui when Staff Officer Yang came in and said.

"Don't worry about him, he is also increasing his troops. In addition, he has not declared that this is his colony. We are behaving normally!" Liu Yiming said.

Kalimantan was incorporated into the Dutch East Indies in 1912. Before that, although the Dutch controlled it, they did not announce it because they were afraid of revenge from the Qing Dynasty.

"Let's continue. The bank has been established and accepted, so it's time to issue currency." Liu Yiming said as he looked at the documents submitted by Xu Hui.

"But we are at war now, what if something goes wrong?" Xu Hui said worriedly.

"It is precisely because the war is about to start. At this time, the British may want to control us, but they certainly don't want us to fail. So this is the most appropriate time." Liu Yiming said.

"This..." Xu Hui was a little uncertain. He had outstanding administrative skills, but lacked international vision. This is a common problem.

"Whether the Dutch fight or not, we are about to start fighting in Kalimantan. I plan to send Yang Tao to Kalimantan." Liu Yiming changed the subject and said.

"Why Yang Tao?" Xu Hui asked puzzledly.

"Logistics, we can't provide too much supplies, nor can we provide more soldiers. Send Yang Tao to fight and train at the same time. The immigrants specially selected a group of soldiers and sent them to Kalimantan for training. Yang Tao is good at this." Liu Yiming explained.

Xu Hui accepted this explanation and continued to ask.

"The machine for issuing banknotes is ready. What pattern is used?"

"Three mountains and five peaks as the base, plus the plate map of the dynasties, supplemented by the portrait of the founding emperor. I will give you these later.

The colors are distinguished by the five elements of the dynasties, plus the ink formula I gave you. If nothing unexpected happens, no one will be able to make counterfeit money within 20 years." Liu Yiming thought for a while and said.

"The denomination is 100\\/50\\/20\\/10\\/5\\/2\\/1, seven specifications, just right."

"This is to ensure our culture. I have seen those banana people and it's really enough!" Liu Yiming said.

"What about smaller denominations? 50 cents, 10 cents, and fen." Xu Hui asked.

"Isn't there one more mountain in the Three Mountains and Five Peaks? The 50-cent coin will use that mountain. Add coins.

The 50-cent coin will use silver coins, the 10-cent coin will use copper coins, and the 5-cent coin will use iron directly." Liu Yiming said.

"Okay, how many coins will be issued, and what is the name?" Xu Hui took the plan and asked all the questions he received.

"Name? To be frank, Southeast Asian currency,

The quantity will be converted into gold, silver, and pounds sterling, and converted into international gold prices. As a reserve fund, the exchange rate is 1:gram. The treasury will issue as much as it has.

That is, the exchange rate with the pound sterling will be maintained at 5:1, and it will fluctuate according to the international gold-silver price ratio."

Xu Hui was a little confused. It was accurate to six decimal places? So rigorous?

"The main partners we are working with now are the United Kingdom and the United States. This ratio is conducive to exports." Liu Yiming didn't pay attention to Xu Hui's performance, but said.

"Go design the new currency. I want to see the results within a week." Liu Yiming said.

"So urgent?" Xu Hui was a little embarrassed. The design was not difficult, but it was impossible to pass it in one set. Modifications also took time.

"We don't have that much time. We have to work overtime and try to finish it in this battle." Liu Yiming said.

Xu Hui nodded in agreement...