Zeng Guofan had seen the fortress plan. Before Xiao Letian left for Europe, he had secretly held talks with Zeng Guofan, including how to get more than 10 million square kilometers of Manchu and Qing Dynasty lands into his hands.
The future may not be a country completely dominated by the Han people, but it will certainly be a country dominated by the Chinese, and the Chinese directly inherit the Chinese civilization, which is a common ethnic complex with the Han as the mainstay and the integration of multiple ethnic groups.
It's a bit like nationalism, but it's not as narrow-minded as the world thinks, because this nation is not distinguished by blood genes, but by culture, only culture!
Defining a nation based on culture is a task that can only be accomplished by Chinese people, because only the Chinese have experience, and because only the Chinese civilization in the world is continuous without interruption.
The bloodline of the Han people during the Qing Dynasty had long been in chaos. Compared with the bloodline of the Han people in the early years of the Han Dynasty, it had already undergone multi-ethnic integration!
Over the course of thousands of years, many ethnic groups have disappeared in the long river of history, and many ethnic groups have become one of the hundreds of surnames.
In this kind of country, you promote narrow blood nationalism? Isn't this a joke, slapping your own ancestors in the face? Maybe you are a descendant of the nations you criticize, and you curse your own ancestors?
Therefore, Zeng Guofan still very much recognized the Chinese concept proposed by Xiao Letian. This kind of cultural nationalism is very popular with traditional Chinese literati.
It can be said that as soon as this concept of Chinese ethnicity was introduced, people didn't say anything on the surface, but if you look closely, you will find that the attitudes of all social strata at that time were actually very accepting.
So what if the Manchus, Mongolians and Tibetans returned to their tribes? In fact, not many people scolded the streets!
In fact, after more than two hundred years of integration, the Manchus, Mongolians and other ethnic groups have long written and spoken the same language and traveled the same track. Even the Manchus themselves can no longer speak Manchu.
They all celebrate the same festivals, there is no big difference in weddings and funerals, and the values in their bones are the same. They all know to honor their parents and not to molest other people's wives.
The basic concepts of good and evil are the same, reading, writing, chatting and even eating and drinking are all the same.
This is already a unified community in terms of culture. According to Chinese standards, what is this if it is not a unified nation?
Therefore, if China is truly unified by the Chinese ethnic group, then under such a value system, all ethnic groups will not have too many complaints, and the wave of resistance will not be too violent.
But if the concept of the Chinese nation really wants to become a country, a lot of detailed work needs to be done, because no regime will voluntarily withdraw from the stage of history.
War is inevitable and cannot be fought without bloodshed!
How to win the battle needs to be calculated, and how to fight the most economical battle needs to be carefully considered!
Xiao Letian is not a fool. He will not fight a losing battle. After a war, there must be profits and at least breakeven. This is the right war.
Can't people die in vain just for the sake of a righteous cause? Can’t we let people waste their wealth by spending money in vain?
After much deliberation, the fortress plan is the most suitable!
To give a simple example, if you want to control an entire Zhili government, and based on past governance experience, you must place ruling officials in all prefectures and counties, and you must have violent institutions to assist the officials in management.
You have to deploy heavy troops at all the ferries, passes, bridges, rivers... and other important military areas in the surrounding border areas, and then set up military camps in every city with a large population.
This way you can guard against all possible enemy invasions or internal rebellions!
How many soldiers do you need to raise? It’s definitely not possible without 100,000!
After mankind entered a new era, due to the development of science and technology, the means of governance have rapidly improved!
If Xiao Letian were to control a Zhili government, he would not need to train 100,000 soldiers at all. In fact, 10,000 or 20,000 elite soldiers would be enough!
By turning a city into a fortress, local militias can resist enemy attacks or internal rebellions for a period of time, and then elite regiments can use highly efficient railways to gallop left and right, arriving at dawn and dusk.
Rebels appeared in Handan in the morning, and maybe the field regiment from Shanhaiguan came over by train in the afternoon! ,
Before the rebels on your side have even chewed off the city skin, the field artillery of the elite regiment has already opened fire!
By using railway lines and fortresses, the distance and utilization efficiency of the army can be greatly improved. This is economically the most cost-effective and economical!
Xiao Letian's plan to encroach on the Central Plains is actually an enlarged version of such a project!
A special zone is a fortress with self-defense capabilities, training militias to harness the power of the working class and the powerful auxiliary of industrialization.
The Qing Dynasty couldn't chew these fortresses at all. Even if they chewed one or two, their blood would be drained!
The forts and special zones are connected by transportation networks such as rivers, railways, canals, roads, etc. One side warns the other side that the fast mobile troops are about to take action.
The fortress holds back the enemy, and then the elite legions destroy the enemy's effective forces in the field, allowing the army to run on Scud. This is to get twice the result with half the effort!
There is no need to sprinkle all the troops with pepper, and evenly distribute all the troops. Every city must have a green camp, it must be full of the city, and it must be defended by a certain number of troops.
That was the thinking mode of the Middle Ages, and it was a last resort because human transportation and logistics were really underdeveloped!
It was this backward military thinking that allowed the Manchu and Qing Dynasties to have millions of armies on paper. The emperor looked at the accounts of the Ministry of War. Well, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties had millions of troops!
But when it came to the national war, he realized that it was difficult to gather 100,000 elite troops!
Because the military strength has been spread like salt and melted into every prefecture, county and even village and town, and the one to two thousand or eight to nine hundred soldiers stationed in those small counties are a complete waste of resources. They may only be an army on paper for free in their lifetime. You will never win a battle in your life.
Even if there is a war for them, can you trust these so-called armies who live among the common people all year round and are more concerned about doing business than training to win the war?
War is an extremely professional science, and it has long ceased to be the medieval model in which you can win by playing in a sea of people!
After Zeng Guofan read the top-secret files of the fortress project, the old commander was so excited that he didn't sleep all night. He even drank a bottle of wine due to his poor health.
It was this plan that made the old commander understand that Xiao Letian was not a charlatan who fired off cannons. This guy really had the skills to build, govern, and surround a country!
There is nothing more to say, the old man just wants to fight for the continuity of Chinese civilization in the future!
Zeng Guofan was already ready to die of exhaustion in Beijing, and he didn't even care about the infamy behind him!
Emperor Tongzhi must be pro-government, and he must be the kind of true pro-government who can use his power. This must be guaranteed, because if Zaichun does not pro-government, those fortress special zones cannot be ceded!
The Japanese army wanted these things, and no one, including Yizhen and the two empress dowagers, dared to agree to it!
Only Aixinjue Luo Zaichun, who has been successfully brainwashed by Xiao Letian, will agree to go to the Concession Special Zone, and only by concessioning the land first can you have time to build super fortresses!
Including the future construction of railways, Zai Chun will nod his head and use treasures!
For the ten thousand-year foundation of the Chinese nation! Zeng Guofan fought hard!
"The Queen Mother... Your Majesty... I am guilty of death. Twenty thousand soldiers are already on the road. Not only on the road, I also suggested that these soldiers should be stationed in Zhuozhou instead of Baoding Prefecture!"
