At the end of 1875, just before the Spring Festival, the Qing Empire officially issued an edict to prepare for the establishment of the Qing Dynasty Navy, and established naval offices based in Yantai, Shandong and Lushun, Liaoning!
Prince Li Shiduo is the governor of the Navy Yamen, and Li Hongzhang is the deputy governor. Anyone with a discerning eye will know at a glance that Prince Li is just a Buddha, sitting on the stage eating incense, and Li Hongzhang is the one who really makes the decision!
Not only that, Emperor Tongzhi also authorized some economic powers to the Navy Yamen. The Qing Navy can prepare and build its own repair stations, gunnery bureaus, explosives factories, hospitals, schools, machinery institutes... As long as they can be matched with the Navy, They all allowed Li Hongzhang to prepare and build it together.
This is a huge right. Zaichun's purpose is to allow the navy to have a certain way to make money by itself. The more money he has, the less resistance he will have to running the navy.
The news that the Qing Empire was preparing to build a navy attracted the attention of countries all over the world. After all, Britain had a shipbuilding contract with the Qing Dynasty Navy. As soon as it heard such news, it immediately publicly declared that it welcomed Manchuria and Qing Dynasty to join the list of naval powers, and wished the Qing Empire a prosperous country and people. powerful!
Prussia and the United States also wished the Qing Empire Navy a smooth preparation and sent their own business negotiation team. The navy order could not be eaten by all the British. Everyone had to get a share of the pie.
What Emperor Tongzhi was most worried about was the attitude of his master Xiao Letian. The Qing Empire's plan to build a navy would directly compete with the Chinese navy. Will the head of state agree with his domineering character?
The result surprised Emperor Tongzhi. Instead of having any worries, Xiao Letian welcomed the Qing Empire's establishment of a navy with both hands, saying that this was the only way forward for the reform of the ancient empire. He was inspired by his apprentice's brave attempt.
Not only that, Xiao Letian also ordered European missions and Chinese enterprises and foundations to provide a lot of help to the naval talents studying abroad in the Qing Empire!
Xiao Letian even promised that as long as the Manchus recognized it, they could help the Manchus train a group of junior sailors and naval soldiers!
After all, Deng Shichang, Liu Buchan and others are senior officers at the captain level, and if a navy wants to form a combat effectiveness, it still needs many grassroots officers and soldiers, and the Chinese certainly have experience in training these soldiers.
Zai Chun quickly thanked him profusely, but he would never send a single soldier to the Chinese territory. He had been trained in the Chinese military camp, and such a melting pot could melt all stubborn hearts.
I was changed a lot in that atmosphere. If ordinary soldiers were trained in the Chinese military camp, how would they be able to command in the future?
Xiao Letian also knew that Zai Chun would eventually hire retired naval officers from the UK to train the army, so what he said was just to show his attitude.
Just let you, Emperor Tongzhi, feel at ease!
Others didn't care about the head of state's attitude, but it made Xiang Ying and others very aggrieved. Xiang Ying found an opportunity to complain about the change while his master was happy.
"Master... Emperor Tongzhi's direct competitor in setting up the Great Navy is our navy. Of course we are not afraid of him, but there is no need to praise them so much!"
"Yantai and the Lushun area both have our industrial zones, and the Manchu and Qing Dynasties are building a naval base right next to our industrial zones. Is this a threat?"
Xiao Letian chuckled, "Then what do you think we should do? How can you prevent the Qing Empire from forming its own navy? You must know that it is a country with complete sovereignty! It has that power..."
"Okay, I know you are worried that the Qing Empire's power will pose a threat to us, but don't worry too much... a hundred-year navy, a hundred-year navy, any powerful navy is impossible without a hundred years of accumulation."
"Does Manchu really have a chance of a hundred years? Haha... If I look at it, I'm afraid it won't even be fifty years!"
"Hiss... Master, are you saying something? Are there changes within the Qing Empire?" Xiang Ying asked.
"Haha... It's not that there have been changes, but that a key figure has been too #quiet in recent years, so quiet that it scares me!"
The person Xiao Letian was talking about was none other than the Japanese soldier Liu Yixin from far away in Xiling. At this moment, Yixin also knew all the information. Now he no longer had the confidence of the past, and there was deep anxiety on his face.
"It's too fast. I never thought that little bastard Zai Chun would do it so quickly!"
"I have only been in power for a few years. The Beijing-Tianjin Railway has been built, the Capital Steel Plant and the surrounding supporting industrial zones have also been put into operation, and the Beijing-Hankow Railway has even begun to be built..."
"Now even the navy has started to do it! What kind of trick of eating four dishes and one soup to deceive the people? It's exactly the same as that devil Xiao Letian, he really knows how to deceive!"
"If things go on like this, his popular support will become more and more stable, and our plan will become more and more difficult! What to do, what to do..."
Prince Gong Yixin was wandering back and forth in the room like a trapped animal. Outside were his confidants Na Duobao and others, as well as the guards Yisiha and Erha who swore to destroy the Manqing family!
"The prince has locked himself in for three hours. Is there anything wrong? Brother Erha, why don't you go in and take a look?"
Yisiha rolled his eyes at Na Duobao, "You want me to go in and get scolded? I'm not that stupid. If the prince doesn't let us in, let's just wait here!"
At this moment, Yi Xin's voice suddenly came from the room, "You two, come in! I have something for you to do!"
After the two walked into the house, they found that three hours had passed. Prince Gong seemed to have aged three years, and the wrinkles on his face had deepened.
"My lord...take care of yourself!"
"Don't worry about whether I'm in good health or not. I don't have time... I failed to calculate that Zai Chun started so quickly. The Qing Dynasty has not seen such an efficient emperor in two hundred years!"
"If we wait any longer, we will really have no chance!"
"Look..." Yi Xin wrote a series of numbers on the table with his fingers dipped in tea.
"I didn't expect that Li Hongzhang placed an order in the UK last year. The order was placed at the end of 1875, and the British shipyard happened to have vacant ship slots..."
"In three years, that is, in 1877, the captains sent by Zuo Jigao to study in Europe will be able to command warships back from Europe!"
"You must remember that a battleship cannot be sailed back alone... This year Li Hongzhang will send a large number of recruits to the UK to study. Two years can be considered a crash course!"
"But soldiers in the crash course can't sail ships across Europe and Asia! I'm sure that in 1877, about half of the European naval mercenaries must have been on these battleships!"
"Fuck! This has always been a powerful new force! Zai Chun suddenly has a terrifying fighting force!"
"Not only that, the final construction period set by the emperor for the Beijing-Hankou Railway is four years, which means it will be opened to traffic in 1878... These are all connected together!"
"That devil Xiao Letian is building a railway in the south of the Yangtze River. What if these two railways were colluded in Hankou in 1878!"
"Damn it! All our plans have been ruined! How could it be so fast? How could it be so fast!"
