Small hydropower stations naturally could not drive large equipment. What Cheng Ruofan saw were products made from local materials that were easy to sell. For example, bamboo chopsticks. Compared with factories in the Northeast industrial zone, it might be more appropriate to call the factory buildings in the Yunnan-Guizhou region workshops.

But this did not make Cheng Ruofan feel any contempt. Even during the brief visit, Cheng Ruofan saw those male and female workers wearing local hand-spun coarse cloth, who had a faint awe for the electric equipment processing pillars. However, this did not affect these workers, who had only been in contact with mechanical equipment for about a year, from using these equipments skillfully.

Local bamboo was separated and cut under the sharp cutting knife rotating at high speed. The bamboo skin, branches, and other parts were not mechanically processed but sent to nearby villages and towns, processed into products by locals, and then transported away centrally.

Cheng Ruofan liked seeing such a situation very much. In the Northeast, capital- and technology-intensive factories in cities provided products only they could produce. Workshops under the 'small commodity economy' everywhere in the Northeast provided parts and products they could provide to the million-strong army. The victory of the war against Japan was not the victory of a few people, but the victory of the entire Northeast people.

Now, the Southwest region has joined the frontline of the war against Britain. The employment and productivity level improvement generated by the state's capital injection into the Southwest will definitely allow the Southwest economy to develop rapidly.

When Cheng Ruofan returned to Kunming, it was March 4. Contrary to Cheng Ruofan's expectations, Zhong Yifu did not stay up until his eyes were red. Seeing Cheng Ruofan appear at the headquarters, Zhong Yifu asked with a relaxed expression, "How was the inspection outside?" Judging from his appearance, he wanted to care about Cheng Ruofan's work instead.

Compared with the calmness in the Chinese headquarters, the British headquarters in Yangon found that all they could do was to contain the fleeing British Indian troops. Lieutenant General Macbeth, Commander of the Yangon Command, shouted angrily at his adjutant, "Telegraph the General Headquarters immediately and ask them to send reinforcements! Anyone will do as long as it's not the British Indian Army!"

After the adjutant left with the order, Lieutenant General Macbeth shouted at the brigade commander of the Yangon Defense Command in front of him, "Now, immediately make those British Indian troops dig trenches outside the city. Remember, machine gun positions must be arranged behind the trenches. Anyone who retreats from the position without authorization will be shot immediately!"

After all, he had experienced battles with mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the Western Front. Lieutenant General Macbeth forced himself to calm down and said word by word, "The position is set to only allow entry, not exit. If the enemy breaks into the trench, we must be able to strafe everyone in the trench!"

Listening to this bloody order, the brigade commander's killing intent also rose. As before, the Republic National Defense Force used the Indian army as a breakthrough point again. Even if this batch of British Indian troops received more training, even if this batch of British Indian troops was deployed in positions that shouldn't bear the main attack. But the sudden attack launched by the Chinese army was as fast as lightning, defeating the British Indian Army in a very short time, and began to intersperse and surround along the gap.

According to the British report transmitted by radio, as the British Indian Army collapsed rapidly, 60,000 British troops were isolated and surrounded by the Chinese army. Although the encirclement circle was still fragile, due to the insufficient number of defenders in Yangon, the best way was not to rush to reinforce and relieve the siege, but to guard Yangon first, so that the temporarily surrounded British army could break out with peace of mind.

The brigade commander saluted immediately, "Yes, General, I will execute the order immediately."

Macbeth looked at the brigade commander's back, but felt very uneasy in his heart. This uneasiness was so strong that he ordered the communications officer to contact the British army immediately to hear their views. Three British divisions were besieged in an area about 50 kilometers away from Yangon. From the perspective of rescue, the main force could arrive in about two days for 50 kilometers. Although there was still a reserve division in hand, committing the reserve force to the battlefield now meant that no mistakes could be made in subsequent battles, so Lieutenant General Macbeth must figure out whether the British divisions could hold on.

In Kunming, Cheng Ruofan listened to Zhong Yifu recount the war report up to now and asked, "How much do you think the British learned from the Japanese?"

"The Japanese army should have told the British what they knew. However, the Chairman deduced with us that to deal with infantry squad and platoon tactics, one either uses the same tactics or uses firepower far superior to our army, fighting and retreating, always hanging onto our army, making our army launch attacks continuously. The performance of the British army shows no sign that they have adopted any countermeasures."

After Zhong Yifu finished speaking, he felt that these things were not important. What was important was that he had been considering whether to drive the British army completely out of southern Burma these days. Although the British army theoretically did have the possibility of landing, there were only a few landing sites suitable for large-scale amphibious operations. As long as reserve teams were prepared to go, there was no need to worry that the British army could really win by landing operations.

Most importantly, adding all various British troops together, judging from the intelligence collected now, they did not have the ability to counterattack Burma.

After telling these to Cheng Ruofan, Zhong Yifu waited for his old classmate to express his views. Initially, Cheng Ruofan did not answer until Zhong Yifu added unhappily, "Don't say the General Staff didn't make a comprehensive assessment of these possibilities."

Cheng Ruofan didn't want Zhong Yifu to think wildly, so he could only reply, "The General Staff did make a comprehensive assessment, but the main issue the General Staff has considered recently is how to give the British army continuous blows and increase British casualties as much as possible."

Zhong Yifu looked solemn. "I object. Is the General Staff trying to complete the Chairman's task quickly?"

"There is nothing wrong with this consideration. We all believe what the Chairman said: if Britain suffers 500,000 deaths in battle, it is impossible to continue fighting. If it can be completed earlier, the war can also end as soon as possible."

Hearing Cheng Ruofan answer very frankly, Zhong Yifu also stated his judgment, "The war we initially considered would last for two years, and now it's less than a year. Moreover, the General Staff should have taken the impact of the ANZAC Corps and the Asian International Tribunal on the British public into account recently, right?"

"...This is the biggest variable recently. Without this part, the General Staff would have made a decision long ago." Cheng Ruofan admitted the variable.

Zhong Yifu also felt this was the biggest variable, so he replied, "I think we should stick to the previous strategy. We are fighting a war with Britain now; fighting should be done according to the rules of fighting. Why be so hesitant?"

Cheng Ruofan couldn't help debating with his old classmate, "As a soldier, I didn't want to consider political battles too much. But we are all Central Committee members; the Chairman's view on strategy is the goal we want to implement. Driving Britain out of Lower Burma too early may not be beneficial to us. And politically, will Britain admit that we are a two-ocean country?"

Zhong Yifu replied, "We will only become a two-ocean country in many years."

"Even if it takes 20 years, it will be very fast. Yifu, we are all in our 30s, 1.5 times 20 years old. Looking back at the 20 years since I can remember, I feel it passed very fast. I can tell you one thing: we have already begun to try to build 4,000-ton civilian ships. The engineers of Jiangnan Shipyard have returned to their posts, and they have provided a new plan to the Industrial Bureau, building our 10,000-ton ships based on those few American 10,000-ton ships."

"10,000-ton ships..." Zhong Yifu was shocked by this news.

Since Zhong Yifu was a member of the Military Commission, Cheng Ruofan first let Zhong Yifu fully confirm that the following words belonged to state secrets before saying, "Our sectional shipbuilding design plan has passed the review and will begin soon. Do you know how fast sectional shipbuilding is?"

Zhong Yifu was a bit confused and asked blankly, "How fast?"

"It is 3-5 times that of ordinary shipbuilding. To build a 3,000-ton civilian ship, the theoretical time is only 3 months. And only the final overall assembly will use the dock; at other times, manufacturing is completed in the workshop. The biggest difficulty at this stage is the gantry crane and other transportation equipment manufacturing. Maybe in less than 10 years, we will have a navy with heavy cruisers as the main force."

Hearing this, Zhong Yifu felt that there were no thoughts in his brain because all these changes were too fast, so fast that Zhong Yifu felt if he had made a mistake.

Since he was a member of the Military Commission, Zhong Yifu still tried hard to calm himself down. And the best way to calm down was nothing more than one way; he asked, "Where does the money come from?"

"Money is not hard to get. Do you know how much our trade volume with the Soviet Union is?"

Hearing Cheng Ruofan's very calm tone, Zhong Yifu began to feel that things might really have changed too much, so he guessed towards the highest number he thought reasonable, "Did it reach 500 million yuan?"

"We now use RMB for pricing, and both sides sell on credit. In 1925 alone, our import and export trade volume with the Soviet Union reached 420 million RMB. Calculated in silver dollars, it is 420 million silver dollars. According to the assessment, this year, that is, 1926, imports and exports may reach 540 million, or even possibly 600 million."

This number didn't scare Zhong Yifu. After all, Sino-Japanese trade was about 1.1 billion yen in 1921, roughly equivalent to 1.1 billion silver dollars. Sino-Soviet trade reaching half of the previous Sino-Japanese trade was only half. With just such a trade volume, China indeed didn't worry much about naval construction costs.

Although Sino-Soviet trade was China's light industrial products and a few heavy industrial products in exchange for Soviet minerals, China didn't actually earn cash. But so many minerals could produce massive processed raw materials. China had a population of 480 million and sufficient market to digest these raw materials.

"You... the General Staff has worked hard." Zhong Yifu sighed.

Cheng Ruofan didn't say anything. In fact, it was the Central Conference of the Civilization Party that worked hard; much content was discussed by various departments after many meetings. The General Staff did not need to consider political issues; political issues were responsible by experts in politics and economics.

What really made Cheng Ruofan uneasy was the war situation. A thousand words combined into one sentence: the British army must be consumed as soon as possible to let peace come as early as possible. China had been chaotic for too long, so much so that it was unable to develop sustainably. Only a peaceful domestic and foreign environment could give China a real chance to develop.