Chapter 193 Li Hongzhang discusses coastal defense (5)
I heard that local medicines are warm in nature, cheap, and less addictive, and are no more harmful than foreign medicines. For the current plan, it seems that the ban on opium poppies in various provinces should be temporarily suspended, and the taxes on foreign medicines should be increased, so that overseas opium will not be imported without huge profits. Then establish rules and strict restrictions so that users can gradually quit and stop smoking. The people's wealth can be eliminated as a source of external consumption, and the national salary has a tendency to increase day by day. This is a two-pronged move.
Each box of foreign medicine costs RMB 100, the customs tax is 30 taels, and the amount of donation varies from province to province. Fujian donated 36 taels of silver per box, Jiangsu donated 32 taels of silver per box, and Beiyang and Tianjin donated 24 taels of silver. The heavier the donation, the more leakage.
The British treaty originally stipulated how to pay taxes on foreign medicines, but it was left to China to decide. If all foreign taxes could be negotiated, there would be no leakage and the benefits would be even greater. Otherwise, all the mouths in the north and south will increase the number of donations, all according to the style of Fujian Province, without any slight difference, so as to avoid being avoided.
These taxes and donations were collected exclusively for coastal defense funds and were drawn by the commander-in-chief. Together they amounted to a huge sum of money. In addition, all provinces along the rivers and coasts have ordered the rectification of goods and salt, and each province has allocated tens of thousands of taels to assist coastal defense every year.
The above numbers are all matters of open source. If you cut down boats and ships to maintain ships and warships, and cut down redundant troops for border defense to support coastal defense warriors, you will stop the unnecessary needs of the government and reduce unnecessary local expenses, so as to benefit the army and achieve long-term plans, and it will also save money greatly. If you don't have one mind at the top, one mind inside and outside, and one mind in the middle and outside, there will be no one who will give up halfway.
4. One rule for employing original music. It is proposed to send a commander-in-chief to instruct the manager, and to select the generals who can effectively manage the town. The seven coastal provinces of Northern and Southern Oceans must be united as one to be able to respond well. However, the area is too long, the tasks are heavy, and it is difficult for one person to take care of them all. Not all governors may have a thorough understanding of foreign affairs, and they may not all agree on the same opinions. If you ask the commander-in-chief to make arrangements, you may not be able to do it according to the requirements. If we discuss it with all the provinces, we may be afraid of shifting the blame and causing delays.
In the past, when all the thieves in Guangdong were dealt with, why didn't they call upon the commander-in-chief Jian? I have also been preparing for the throne, and I know the joys and sorrows. Pay, power, and border affairs are not his responsibility, but they only have an empty name, and the governors still have to pay attention to military matters. Divided territories make it easy to separate situations, and divergent orders make it difficult for soldiers to follow them. This is because the desire to unify power leads to chaos.
What's more, when something happens, the military situation changes rapidly. If the Western countries have wires to notify them, they can reach the seaside everywhere, which can be thousands of miles in a moment. There are inland trains and railways, and troops are stationed nearby. When the police hear the news, they rush to help, which can cover thousands of miles in a day. Then the commander-in-chief will not make any mistakes, and China will definitely be unable to do it.
This year's battle in Taiwan will be decided after more than a month since I wrote to Shen Baozhen to discuss the deployment of troops. The ships were dispatched and shipped separately, and it was completed in three months, and the Japanese business was settled. It's an emergency, I'm afraid it won't be enough. Therefore, I tried to talk about running foreign affairs and controlling foreign soldiers. If we do not change the law and only pursue empty words, there will be no real help. I dare not say it without knowing it.
The secret plan is to establish a commander-in-chief in the three provinces of Beiyang, who is twice as talented as the minister, but it is not possible to cope with it. There are more ports in the four provinces of Nanyang, which seems to be beyond the reach of one commander-in-chief. For projects such as the creation of iron-armored warships, senior officials must be assigned to supervise the planning and management. For example, former Jiangxi Governor Shen Baozhen and former Jiangsu Governor Ding Richang were all concerned about the matter and were familiar with the details, so they seemed competent.
Ding Richang planned to set up three admirals in the north, east and south to control the ships separately, which was not for nothing. However, it is not easy for someone who is good at both civil and military skills and is accustomed to sailing a ship in wind and waves to gain the upper hand. If you suppress your ministers and make them more mature, employing people is the most urgent task, and storing talents is especially far-reaching.
It has been more than thirty years since foreigners entered China and more than ten years in Beijing. They have threatened us with troops and have spent almost all their time. However, there are countless people who seek to master military tactics and master foreign methods. It is the fault of not learning, and the failure of subordinates to learn is the fault of their superiors. Don’t teach.
After the military affairs were purged, there were only two branches of civil and military affairs. Wen Ze was immersed in the accumulated habits of small regular script of chapters and sentences, while Wu Ze's bows, horses, swords and arrows were crude and not meticulous. However, he used chapters, sentences, bows and horses for Western affairs. The gap was too great, so Shen Baozhen had a request to set up before him. As for arithmetic, there was a memorial for changing guns and cannons in the martial arts test before Ding Richang. They all fail to meet the requirements of the ministry, and if they are used in a way that is not what they have learned, how can talents come out?
In recent times, the prudent Confucian scholars often use negotiating with foreign affairs as a means of attacking others, while those who are more sophisticated use it as a way to evade foreign affairs. If the imperial court had not worked hard to open up the atmosphere, break the old habits and seek practical solutions to win, the world would be in a crisis that would eventually be unstoppable. There will be less talent in the future, and it will be even worse than today. Given how big China is, it is not only worrying but also shameful to be unable to strengthen itself and become self-reliant.
I am foolish enough to think that the subjects cannot be changed suddenly and the literature cannot be abolished suddenly. However, the small regular script examination post is too frivolous and is not the way to cultivate talents. It seems that the examination regulations should be slightly modified. Open a separate box for Westernization and enterprising in order to cultivate talents.
Nowadays, there is a Tongwen School in the capital, and young children in Jiangsu are also sent to study abroad. It seems that the Western learning has been closed. However, the trend of scholar-bureaucrats has not yet exhausted their subordinates, because this is not the way to make progress in employing people.
It is proposed that in future coastal defense provinces, it is appropriate to establish a Bureau of Foreign Studies, with officials who are knowledgeable in current affairs to preside over its affairs, which are divided into disciplines, calculations, cartography, steamships, machinery, art of war, artillery, chemistry, and electrical science. All these have their roots in the production of military weapons for people’s birthdays.
Foreign countries use it to depose talented people, so their minds are never exhausted as the sun rises. The Chinese have all the intelligence and ability to catch up with the Westerners, but they have not mastered their methods and have not been introduced to them, so there is no way to encourage them to create new ones. If you have an interest in thinking, and know a thing or two about various things, choose the income bureau. Yanxi people who are knowledgeable and sophisticated will be their mentors and friends, and they will be paid according to the depth of their knowledge, so that they can study shrewdly and try their best again. Or assign the shipyard artillery bureau, or supplement the defense camp personnel. If successful, he will be distinguished between civil and military officials, and according to the military recommendation regulations, he will be rewarded and promoted, and he will be awarded the rank of Binhai and Yangjiang.
Students from the Tongwen Hall in Beijing and the Shanghai Dialect Hall, as well as students from abroad who have returned to China after studying abroad, can be transferred to the bureau to teach, and can be dispatched to various machine bureaus and warships as appropriate. With so many temptations and encouragements and punishments, if you apply what you have learned and taught, even if one out of ten people achieves success, it will be of use to one more person; if ten people out of a hundred people achieve success, it will be useful to ten more people. Twenty years later, it will be completed The effect of weapons and sailing on self-improvement can be seen.
5. The original music lasts for one piece. It is a time-honored method that has not been lost forever. Only when those who do things work together and succeed one after another, are they increasingly seeking excellence, not only protecting the environment and benefiting the people, but also deducing new ideas and making enough money. For example, all countries in the West started from a small place and created all kinds of sharp weapons. In less than a hundred years, they have achieved so much excellence, planned so far, and expanded their territory so widely. Isn't it possible that the whole country has worked hard and worked hard to improve itself? Effective.
Among the five continents, China has always been the most powerful, but now it is despised by small countries. Why? The power is inferior to others! When it comes to training troops, making weapons, and buying ships, we should learn from each other's strengths and eliminate our weaknesses. It's already too late to do this now. If you continue to follow the rules and do nothing, or if you continue to spin and stop, the consequences will be unbearable. If we don't turn it into a law and open up a way to employ people in Western affairs so that everyone can understand it, there will be a complete strategy to prevent the sea in the future. After a few decades, there will be no one to preside over it, and it will exist in name only and gradually fall into decadence.
Only when China and foreign countries are united, insist on what must be done, fight against all speculation, regard success as the most important thing, and regard the atmosphere as the most important thing, do not rush for quick results, do not hesitate to spend a lot of money, work hard, work tirelessly for a long time, and never turn back. , the common people's army is getting stronger, their talents are getting better, and their manufacturing is getting better. From being able to defend to being able to fight, from being poor and weak to becoming rich and powerful, maybe in due course, this is what the people of the world pray for.
