In order to build China's first iron army, Nanchang Military Academy was established.
Nanchang Military Academy is built on a wide piece of land, surrounded by green trees and green lawns.
On campus, the towering buildings and wide squares give people a sense of grandeur and majesty.
At the gate of the school, a sharp bronze sword stands majestically, symbolizing the mission and spirit of this military school.
Inside the school building, the spacious and bright classrooms and clean and tidy dormitories give people a feeling of comfort and tranquility.
Shi Dakai used Mr. Sun Yat-sen's couplet "Please go elsewhere to get promoted and make a fortune; don't enter here if you are greedy for life and afraid of death." He hung it at the entrance of the military academy and ordered that all generals above the company level must go to the military academy to study.
If you don't learn, you won't even be able to use telegraph machines and weapons and equipment, let alone command battles.
Military academies were a novelty at the time. Soldiers might not understand why they had to study and read during a war, but this was always a good thing. After all, you had to pay tuition to study in a private school, but here it was free.
On this special day, Shi Dakai stood on the stage and delivered a speech.
"Our responsibility is to defend our thousands of Chinese people, drive out the Tartars, and strengthen the present China."
"You are the future leaders, shouldering the future of the country and the hopes of the people. The education and training you receive here is to make you strong, disciplined and organized soldiers who can serve the country in the most difficult moments. , fight for the people.”
"You must understand that as a soldier, your responsibilities and obligations are not only to fight and command, but also to safeguard the dignity of the country and the interests of the people. You must always remain vigilant, constantly improve your quality and abilities, and be ready at any time Dedicate everything you have to your country and people."
"Today, you have become the first batch of cadets of this military academy, and you have also become the pioneers and representatives of this era."
"I just want to ask, do you want to be the emperor?"
Zeng Guofan felt that Shi Dakai was just trying to win over people's hearts and wanted to undermine him, so he loudly questioned him.
"On the contrary, what I did was so that there would no longer be emperors on the Chinese continent."
Shi Dakai's loud voice floated back and forth in the square.
Everyone on and off the stage was shocked.
Both the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had emperors. Everyone could not understand what I meant, and it was difficult for them to imagine what a country without an emperor would be like.
"Study hard and you will understand the meaning of this sentence in the future!"
Shi Dakai's speech broke the silence in the square.
The structural reform of the Taiping Army also began. The army was organized according to the sequence of corps, division, brigade, regiment, battalion, company and platoon and the principle of "three-three system".
Various arms are also divided in detail, including infantry, cavalry, artillery, scouts, engineers, communications, etc.
At the same time, using telegraphs, Shi Dakai established China's first general staff headquarters in modern times. The headquarters could instantly organize local battles and truly strategize and win decisively thousands of miles away.
The most fundamental factor in fighting a war is comprehensive national strength. Shi Dakai wanted to use the capital accumulated during the Agrarian Revolution and Jiangxi's resource advantages to focus on developing basic industries to enhance the strength of the Taiping Army.
Within half a year, Shi Dakai established a mining company in Dexing, mainly mining copper and gold mines; established coal companies in Pingxiang and Yichun; and established a steel company in Nanchang.
Not only that, in order to fully open up the minds of the Chinese people, Shi Dakai also established the Nanchang University Hall, where 50 scholars sent by the Gallic Kingdom taught democracy and science.
The environment of Nanchang University is very beautiful. The campus is lined with trees, flowers are in bloom, and there are large lawns and lakes.
The new teaching buildings and laboratories are brand-new and modern, and every corner is full of curiosity and innovation.
As for the president of Nanchang University, Shi Dakai sent Zhu Yidian to invite a monk from Dongyuan, Hangzhou, with a letter: "Learn from the barbarians and learn skills to conquer the barbarians. A young man is better than a blue man. Only the king can save the country and become strong." , the Dharma name Chengguan is the famous Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan advocated "learning from the barbarians and developing skills to control the barbarians" throughout his life, but he was not reused. Now he is in his sixties.
After arriving in Nanchang, he was deeply moved. Unexpectedly, the reform ideas he proposed were actually used here. Seeing this situation, it can be said that he died without regrets.
In October 1855, Blue Star, with the efforts of Wei Yuan, founded the first modern newspaper, Huaxia Minbao, which was responsible for promoting new ideas.
A change in thinking will completely bury Chinese feudalism.
After studying, Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang also completely fell into the camp of democracy and science, believing that feudalism was bound to perish.
At the same time, as a graduate of the military academy, Shi Dakai could easily draw the designs of Maxim, Mauser, and grenades.
According to the current productivity, these weapons and equipment can be produced.
As a result, the two major arsenals in Nanchang began to secretly produce these most advanced weapons for the next few decades.
However, there is a flaw in this, that is, the gunpowder currently used is traditional black powder, which will affect the power of these new equipment.
But it is more than enough to defeat the current Qing Army.
Preparing new gunpowder requires a strong chemical engineering foundation, which China cannot do now.
Blue Star In June 1856, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army broke through the Jiangnan camp of the Qing Army.
At this time, Nanjing completely solved the siege of the Qing Army.
After a period of recruiting troops, Shi Dakai's military strength in Jiangxi had increased to 300,000.
