For now, as an important pillar of the Lanfang regime, the total number of Lanfang army and navy is 31,276.
More than 80% of this army are Chinese, and the remaining less than 20% are local indigenous people and Europeans.
This number is already very large compared to the Chinese population of more than 700,000.
As far as the entire Chinese population in Lanfang is concerned, excluding the old, weak, women and children, the number of young and strong Chinese who can join the army is only about 300,000, so manpower is very scarce.
Moreover, Chinese are not only needed in the military, but also in the ruling institutions, social security maintenance forces, and key production positions.
Therefore, these 300,000 young Chinese people are actually not enough.
In this context, faced with the pressure of population shortage, Zhao Xuening suppressed the opposition from high-level officials and decided to admit women into the army and into the social production system, launching the initial women's liberation movement.
If there are not enough young and strong Chinese men, then young and strong Chinese women will take over.
Women with physical conditions above a certain level can join the army to alleviate the problem of underpopulation.
Among the Lanfang army and navy, the number of female soldiers reaches 6,000, accounting for one-fifth of the total number.
The same is true for the ruling institutions and social security forces. Chinese women also account for about one-fifth of the grassroots civil affairs officials and police officers who maintain public security.
Among the important industrial production institutions, young Chinese women participated on a large scale, accounting for about two-fifths of the total. They generally participated in mining, smelting, and casting weapons, working together with young men.
In both the administrative and industrial production systems, Chinese accounted for an absolute majority.
Only in the production of primary industries such as agriculture and fishery, the Lanfang regime organized large-scale participation of the local indigenous population, set up farms one after another, and organized a large number of indigenous people to carry out agricultural production in areas with fertile land.
At the same time, Zhao Xuening took the lead with the Ministry of Education to educate these indigenous people in Chinese, intending to change their language habits from scratch, hoping to create a new national identity through education and make them true Lanfang citizens.
Despite this, the indigenous population controlled by the Lanfang regime after the annexation war did not constitute the majority.
More than half of the more than three million indigenous people invested in Lanfang under the leadership of their respective leaders, and were not annexed by Lanfang's military. So in the final analysis, Lanfang wants to digest this part of the population. It's really not a task that can be completed in a short time.
Currently, of Lanfang's overall population of less than four million, only less than two million can be fully utilized and controlled. The manpower utilization rate is not high, barely 50%.
Under such circumstances, internal reforms would take too much time, consume too much energy, and would not be very efficient. In order to increase strength as soon as possible, Zhao Xuening believed that annexing the Philippines was the best way.
And Zhao Xuening also has clear ideas about his future ambitions.
If Lanfang wants to maintain its current regime, it must continue to increase the proportion of Chinese. Concentrating all Chinese in Southeast Asia into Lanfang is one way, and recruiting Han people from inland and coastal areas is also another way.
But the best way is actually to attack the Qing Empire.
As long as one province is captured, Lanfang's population ratio will be instantly balanced, and the problem of lack of Chinese will be solved instantly.
Therefore, in order to complete this grand strategy, it is very important to take the Philippines as a springboard and base of advancement.
However, Zhao Xuening has not informed everyone about this grand strategy yet, so it is normal for his subordinates to have some doubts.
Chen Qilong looked at Zhao Xuening.
"President, even if it is not difficult to deal with the Netherlands and Spain, the British will not stand in the way. Everything is going in the best direction. After we take over the Philippines, how will we face the Qing Dynasty? The distance between the Philippines and the Qing Dynasty is It’s really close.”
Chen Qilong's words indeed aroused hidden worries in many people's hearts.
Since everyone's rise, they have been busy dealing with various disobedient forces. All year round, they are either fighting or preparing for war. The more they fight, the stronger and richer they become. This depends on Zhao Xuening's wise leadership.
But I have to say that everyone's attitude towards the Northern Qing Empire has always been quite vague.
During the time when Zhao Xuening decided to rebel from the Netherlands, some people proposed to pay tribute to the Qing Empire in exchange for the protection of the Qing Empire, so that they could survive in the East Indies and let the Dutch surrender.
However, Zhao Xuening refused on the grounds that the Qing Empire would not care about them, and then persisted in fighting and won the final victory. From then on, his prestige and the confidence of his subordinates increased dramatically, which triggered a large number of attempts by his subordinates to persuade them to join.
They hope that Zhao Xuening will become king and emperor, and become a local emperor and local tyrant in the Nanyang region. They can also enjoy the hereditary aristocratic title and live happily.
But Zhao Xuening did not agree.
One of the reasons for his refusal was that he pursued a republican form of government, not autocratic rule, and had no interest in proclaiming himself king or emperor.
But this reason was obviously not enough to satisfy his subordinates.
So his second reason was that he did not want to arouse the vigilance and hostility of the Qing Empire.
The Qing Empire may not necessarily understand what a president is and what a republic is, but the Qing Empire must understand what it means to be a king and an emperor.
Although the Qing Empire had no territorial interest in the Nanyang region, if a Han emperor or king suddenly appeared here...
What would they think?
"We are all Han people, and Han people call themselves kings and emperors in Nanyang. What do you think the Qing court and the emperor will think?"
Using the power of the Qing Empire, Zhao Xuening suppressed the restless hearts of his subordinates and made them successfully accept his ideas.
In the final analysis, everyone is a "convict" and "abandoned citizen" of the Qing Empire. From the perspective of social hierarchy, they belong to the untouchable category. They are the kind of people without status who cannot survive in the Qing Empire.
In terms of ethnic attributes, everyone is Han, and they are also feared and suppressed within the Qing Empire.
So although now they have made a name for themselves in Nanyang, Lanfang's senior officials still have inexplicable fear and apprehension about the huge Qing Empire.
This is also true for Europeans.
It would have to wait until the Second Opium War for the old empire to truly show its fragility. Even after the First Opium War, there was considerable public opinion in Europe that the British took advantage of a loophole to win the Qing Empire.
You led the British to win a battle with a naval sneak attack. What's so great about it?
In those days, who among the European countries had not lost a few battles? Who hasn’t cut a few pieces of land?
One defeat sealed the fate of the boss empire, and the difficulty was really too great.
Even Zhao Xuening himself did not fully understand the state of the Qing Empire in the middle and late Qianlong reign at the beginning, and did not dare to formulate strategies rashly.
Therefore, in the later stages of the company, when he continued to send people to Guangdong, Fujian and other places to recruit Han people to join Lanfang, he would also pay attention to placing spies to observe the actual situation of the Qing Empire.
Coupled with the addition of Tang Wenshan and other people who had some knowledge of the officialdom of the Qing Empire, it took Zhao Xuening three or four years to finally determine that the current state of the Qing Empire was by no means invincible.
Its heyday has passed, and it is now in rapid decline, and the source of all this is Emperor Qianlong, Hongli.
He is somewhat similar to Tang Xuanzong. He also created a dynasty at its peak in the early period of his rule, and then led the dynasty to an abyss of unrest in the later period.
The only difference is that Hongli did not meet An Lushan, and his battery life clearly exceeded Li Longji.
So although Zhao Xuening just wanted to dominate one place in Nanyang and start a new one, after getting a little understanding of Hongli's current situation, he found that it was no longer impossible for the snake to swallow the elephant.
The current internal political situation of the Qing Empire is indeed not as collapsed as it was at the end of the Ming Empire, but the Qing Empire also has its own destiny.
Back then, Huang Taiji, Dorgon and others were able to complete an earth-shattering snake swallowing an elephant, so it might not be impossible for him to do so in his turn.
Therefore, in the face of his subordinates' fear and fear of the Qing Empire, Zhao Xuening did not directly express his ambitions, but told everyone a fact.
"The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty is already seventy years old. It is unlikely that a seventy-year-old man will start a war for territory that does not originally belong to him. Moreover, to say the least, gentlemen, if the Qing army really They are coming to attack Lanfang, are you afraid?"
This is a very good question, and everyone who asked it was a little hesitant.
Even Li Chuang and Chu Teng, who had been the most active in expressing their opinions in the past, did not come forward to express their opinions, let alone others.
Even the Europeans who came from afar could not contend with the terrifying inertia brought to us by the big empire, let alone other people who had lived under the imperial system for generations.
So the first person to express his stance was Morris, a Scotsman.
"The Qing Dynasty is a very powerful and wealthy country. We, Lanfang, are a small country. If we go to war with it, I estimate that we will probably lose. Let me express my position first. I am indeed afraid. It is difficult for me to have a country where I can live. I don't want to Just lose this country.”
Zhao Xuening's first Dutch friend, Jeffrey Clare, also expressed his stance.
"The power of the Qing is no secret in Europe. Even the strongest countries in Europe dare not face the Qing directly. President, I think this is something worth considering."
After these two people expressed their opinions one after another, the atmosphere in the office became even more gloomy.
But Zhao Xuening didn't seem to be affected in any way.
He reached out and knocked on his desk.
"Everyone, some of you have been living here since birth, like me, but there are also many who have crossed the sea from the Qing Dynasty. You should be able to understand what state you are in within the Qing Dynasty. You don't need me to say more. Say it, right?”
No one answered, everyone acquiesced.
Zhao Xuening nodded.
"To put it bluntly, our group of people are all losers in the Qing Dynasty, and we are losers who will not be recognized. If we stay in the Qing Dynasty, let alone become kings and hegemons, even living is a difficult thing. At any time They may starve to death, freeze to death, or be beaten to death.
But where are we now? We built a country, you guys, we built a country! In a dangerous place surrounded by enemies, we overcame countless difficulties and obstacles and built a country under impossible circumstances!
Lanfang! This is our country! We built it, we built this country with the guns of the enemy and shed blood. It is like our child, and we are like its parents. If someone wants to bully our child, we How to do?
I don’t know what you are thinking, but if it were me, even if this enemy is very powerful, a hundred times stronger than me! For the sake of my child, I will stick up my bayonet and fight this bastard to the end. Before I die, nothing will happen to my child. This is my belief. What about you? "
Zhao Xuening looked at everyone in the office, at the senior leaders of the Lanfang Republic, and at the outstanding group of orangutans who had gone through countless hardships and obstacles and reunited with him.
Please!
You are all evil people!
You are the orangutans of Lanfang!
You are all evil people who lick blood from your knife edge!
You should be the group of people who are feared by others, not the group of people who are afraid of others!
Don't be afraid to clear it up!
Show me some courage!
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PS: Hot pot is very comfortable to eat. After thinking about it, I might as well add more, hehe~
