Chapter 3: A Brief Peace
From the end of 1896, the whole East Asia returned to its previous state: the Qing continued to drag on, Japan continued to exhaust its military strength, Taiwan continued to remain silent, and Britain, France, America, Germany, and Russia continued to secretly contend for various interests in their eyes.
Since Liu Ye tried out the cooperative in Yilan, most of the local people have benefited from it. Grain yields and wasteland reclamation have also increased step by step, with significant results. Although there were some opposing voices from the landlord class, they didn't cause any major incidents after the lessons learned from the previous purge.
Since the effect is significant, Liu Yi then included Keelung and Taipei counties in the pilot program. He plans to add one or two counties each year, gradually implementing this policy throughout Taiwan. Although doing so will certainly harm the interests of some wealthy people, since Taiwan will be at war for a long time, food and population are important pillars of war, so it can only sacrifice a small number and take the majority.
In addition to continuing to promote cooperatives, Liu Ye also adopted the suggestion of Helena, the chairwoman of Taiwan Bank, and prepared to establish branches throughout Taiwan, mainly targeting small farmers and small businesses for short-term loans, and started preparing Taiwan's own financial system and currency system.
Since the railway from Hualien to Keelung to Taitong was opened in 1895, the construction of the railway from Hualien to Taitong also began. Due to the mountainous terrain, it took until 1997 to complete. By then, the entire Taiwan Railway will be fully connected, and whether it is economic, agricultural or military, they will all benefit from this railway. After the completion of the Taiwan Railway, Liu Ming-chuan planned to build a cross-island railway in central Taiwan, but this idea has not been verified by railway engineers. After all, in this era, large-scale tunnel construction is not easy to achieve. If it's too difficult, there's no need to use the bodies of thousands of railway builders to fill it.
Although England, France and Germany have an arms embargo on Taiwan, commercial trade is not prohibited. Taiwan's specialty products, such as sugar and camphor, are still very popular in Europe and America. However, due to the war, all of Taiwan's imports and exports are concentrated in the port of Tamsui.
By the end of 1896, the total strength of Taiwan's new army had reached 35,000 people, with more than half equipped with the new AK-01 semi-automatic rifle. There were also several hundred Dongfeng pickup trucks and Changjiang motorcycles as transportation tools for rapid support troops. The total strength of Taiwan's naval forces was close to 10,000 people, excluding submarine and torpedo boat personnel. Many ground personnel were stationed at the naval bases in Keelung, Hsingshan, Chih-t'ang, and Hualien. The number of submarines had exceeded 100, divided into two submarine fleets, stationed in four bases, responsible for patrolling their respective sea areas. However, the main defensive direction was still Taiwan's east and north coasts, as well as the Taiwan Strait and the Ryukyu Islands, searching for Japanese ships and striking at suitable times, which meant when there were no ships passing by in the surrounding area. In addition, the submarine fleet had a small task of escorting cargo ships carrying iron ore between Hainan Island and Taiwan, following the "Helen" ship's route.
In the years since the founding of the institute, it has successively improved the design of the "Big Yellow Fish"-class submarines, the "Seagull"-class torpedo boats and Type I torpedoes, and using electromagnetic principles, transformed the original "Sea Urchin" anchor mine into a new type of naval mine: the electromagnetic mine.
This electromagnetic mine, named "Sea Star", is normally suspended at a certain depth in the water. When a ship passes by, it triggers an explosion through the influence of the magnetic force on the hull. Since this mine is suspended below the sea surface, except for searching according to the mining chart, it is basically impossible to clear, so its threat to ships is higher than that of anchor mines.
In addition to improving the design of the "Big Yellow Fish-class" submarine, the institute also developed a new type of submarine with a larger hull, longer range and higher combat power. This submarine was named "Tuna-class", with a length of 55/47 meters, a width of 5.5/4.5 meters, a draft depth of 4.5 meters, a double-layer pressure hull, a displacement of 752/833 tons; on the surface, it is powered by two 8-cylinder diesel engines providing 1000 horsepower, with a speed of 13 knots and a range of 7,000 nautical miles; underwater, it is powered by two sets of electric motors and batteries providing 800 horsepower, with a speed of 17 knots and a range of 400 nautical miles; designed to dive to a depth of 100 meters; equipped with 4 forward and 2 aft 450mm torpedo tubes, with 14 torpedoes on board; the conning tower is equipped with two 12mm machine guns, and is fitted with underwater ventilation pipes, periscopes, long-wave radio transmitters, active sonar and hydrophones.
"After the successful trial of the "Swordfish-class" submarine, it will replace the current "Hai Lung-class" submarine and be equipped with Taiwan's naval submarine fleet. With this new type of submarine that has a longer range, faster underwater speed, and more ammunition, the defensive circle and strike circle of Taiwan's navy can be greatly expanded."
With the new submarine, there must be a new torpedo. Indeed, as a pair of closely coordinated weapons, the absence of either would greatly affect their effectiveness. The newly developed torpedo is not much different from the previous "I" torpedo, with the same warhead and fuse, but with an improved thermal power engine that increases its speed and slightly extends its range.
The "Type II" torpedo still has a caliber of 450mm, a length of 3600mm, a speed of 37 knots, a maximum range of 2000 meters, a total weight of 415 kilograms, and a warhead charge of 35 kilograms.
Apart from naval equipment, the institute, following Liu's rough description, experimented for several years and developed a mortar as an army supporting firepower. Currently, there is only one model with a 60mm caliber. This small cannon weighs only 17 kilograms, has a maximum range of 800 meters, a firing speed of about 30 rounds per minute, and a lethal radius of over 6 meters. Although the range is not far enough, both the firing speed and lethal radius are far superior to any artillery in this era.
Apart from mortars, light machine guns imitated by automatic rifles were also partially equipped with the new army. With semi-automatic rifles and hand grenades, they could basically conduct limited defensive battles. Due to the opening of the ring railway, the army was divided into four brigades, stationed in Keelung, Hualien, Jilong and Xiangshan. When encountering combat tasks, they were allocated along the railway line throughout Taiwan; In addition, a mobile brigade was established, stationed at Keelung Port, equipped with 30 Dongfeng pickup trucks and more than 100 Changjiang motorcycles, as a mobile force, directly under the command of the General Staff.
In addition to the construction on Taiwan's native soil, the Navy also built long-wave radio stations on small islands surrounding Taiwan, such as Penghu, Green Island and Orchid Island, for communication with ships at sea and surveillance posts.
Since the last negotiation broke down, more and more Japanese ships have been attacked in the waters outside Taiwan and the strait. Every month, several ships go missing near Taiwan, with neither the ships nor their crew members found. As many of Japan's supplies are imported from overseas, and Taiwan is located on the shipping route between Japan and Southeast Asia and Europe, this has seriously affected Japan's import and export of goods. Now, many Japanese ships dare not take the Taiwan route, but instead take a detour via the more distant and complicated Philippine route, increasing transportation costs and danger.
For this unspoken suffering, the Japanese government had been patient for a long time and finally erupted in June 1897. The Japanese government concentrated most of its usable warships to form a large fleet, carrying an entire division of army troops, and gathered in the Ryukyu Islands for the third time.
