There was silence in the auditorium.
Everyone was thinking about what Zhuge Weidao said.
Although the Ming Dynasty has been "cowardly" for more than a hundred years, in the past hundred years or so, the Ming Dynasty has undoubtedly been the pole of the world!
Although the British Empire's tail is raised very high, its claws are also extended very long. However, the hegemony of central and eastern Eurasia and the North Pacific is still firmly controlled by the Ming Dynasty. The British control of India and the Strait of Malacca was also achieved on the premise of ensuring the economic interests of the Ming Dynasty - this control was actually "bought" by the British with real money and silver, not by strong ships and cannons. .
For more than a hundred years, the Ming Dynasty has been exporting handicrafts and industrial products through the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, while importing gold and silver. This means that the capital needed for the development of industrialization in the Ming Dynasty can be easily obtained without plundering and colonizing... Since most of the silver and a considerable part of the gold plundered by Europeans from the New World flowed into the Ming Dynasty, this This means that Europe itself is the largest export market for Ming Dynasty’s industrial and handicraft products.
The resources needed for the development of industrialization in Ming Dynasty, such as cotton, soybeans, rubber, palm oil, coal mines, iron mines, petroleum, tin mines, timber, rice, etc., can be obtained either from the vast mainland or from overseas provinces and Siam. Luo, Annan, Ava and other Southeast Asian vassal states obtained it.
Of course, India also has a huge market. But before India was conquered by the Europeans, it had always been a surplus country in exporting goods. It is difficult for external goods to be imported into India... Historically, after the Industrial Revolution, it was difficult for the foreign cloth produced in Britain to open the market in India. In the end, it had to use administrative means to destroy India's homespun cloth production.
The national policy of the Ming Dynasty has always been to expand the mainland without colonization. When seeing a place like India with a population larger than that of the Ming Dynasty (currently India’s population is not as large as that of the Ming Dynasty), of course it has to be avoided.
So the Ming Dynasty didn’t care too much about the expansion of the British Empire in India—even if it did, it wouldn’t know what to do? It seems stupid to help India resist the British. If India rises and becomes a white-eyed wolf, then Ming Dynasty should not cry blindly?
And competing for India with the British does not seem to be in line with the national policy of the Ming Dynasty. If we seize it and do not colonize it, it will be even worse if we treat it as a native land!
Moreover, shipping at that time was still in the transition stage from sail to steam, and the sail battleships of the Ming Dynasty were still unable to compete with the British (King Zhuge Wuzhong did not understand sailing and navigation, and did not have a golden finger to sail). In addition, the distance between the two sides was far enough. Without the Suez Canal, it is a full 15,000 nautical miles. If sailing ships are used to transport troops, it is impossible to pose a threat to an industrialized country over such a long distance.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty chose to maintain a "win-win relationship" with the United Kingdom. For the Ming Dynasty, which had some excess production after industrialization, there was really no reason to go to war with its largest market.
But this harmonious situation, as the world becomes "smaller and smaller" and Britain fully realizes industrialization, is about to and will definitely come to an end!
However, when this "soon" will become a reality is still a question mark.
"Daozi," Li Tiezhu, chief of naval intelligence, was the first to ask, "How long will there be for peace?"
Standing in front of a huge world map, Zhuge Weidao replied: "When the technological progress brought about by the Industrial Revolution comes to an end, peace will end at that time, and world war will inevitably break out. Because when technological progress comes to an end, the world economy will lack incremental growth for a long time, causing powerful countries to turn to stock competition.
At the same time, due to the mismatch between the huge production capacity brought about by the industrial revolution and market demand, as well as the supply capacity of raw materials, production will experience a substantial surplus after technological progress is temporarily stopped. The competition for markets and raw materials will inevitably push Ming and Great Britain into hostility.
In addition, the technological progress brought about by the Industrial Revolution actually 'shrunk' our world, making it possible for a superpower to dominate the world's oceans!
Finally, due to the rapid advancement of military technology, the great powers, including the British and Rakshasa, all have the illusion that they are powerful, which will also make them more warlike than ever! "
"Daozi," Li Tiezhu asked again, "can you calculate when peace will end?"
Of course Zhuge Weidao can't forget it... He has not disclosed his identity as a military advisor, and theoretically has not obtained the "algorithm" passed down from his ancestors. But there are still people here who can figure it out!
Zhuge Weiyi, the Minister of Naval Armaments, was already counting his fingers. After counting, he interjected: "Fifteen to twenty years! The tonnage of battleships will double in fifteen to twenty years. By then, large battleships will The standard displacement of the warship will exceed 30,000 tons, a 400mm-caliber main gun may also appear, and a new fuel main engine will provide the warship with more than 100,000 horsepower. After this, it will be very difficult to continue to progress. After all, if the battleship is built too big, the draft will become very deep and the hull will become very wide. Many ports cannot be docked, and shallow water and narrow channels are difficult to pass. Moreover, it is necessary to maintain a high speed. Develop ultra-high-power marine main engine..."
This is the advantage of being able to calculate!
The battleships during World War I were almost like this. Although technology improved again during World War II, the rate of progress slowed down significantly, and it was incomparable to the rate of technological advancement of battleships before World War I.
As military technology continues to advance, officers in the army and navy will feel that they are not ready yet, so it is less likely for a war to break out. And once technological progress slows down significantly, officers will feel that they already have the most powerful weapons... If we don't fight now, when will we wait?
At this time, Zhuge Weidao took over the topic and said: "Fifteen to twenty years is not too long. We can prepare now for this war that is bound to come... This is not what we want." Provoke a war, but we have to face a war! Everything we do now is to ensure victory in the future!"
People in the auditorium turned their attention to Zhuge Weiyi, who was "good at pinching and calculating". This "shipbuilding minister" stroked his beard and said, "Soldiers are important matters of the country, the place of life and death, and the way of survival. Beiya!"
Zhuge Weiyi is the military advisor of the Zhuge family, and his words certainly represent the military advisors!
The officials present have long been accustomed to being guided by military advisors, although they sometimes feel that the military advisors are a bit timid. But those who have invested with these cowardly strategists for more than a hundred years have made a lot of money...so they are right!
"Daozi," the questioner was Zheng Guoan, the Minister of the Navy and Prince of Yanping County, "How should we prepare?"
"Reporting to Shangshu," Zhuge Weidao said, "The lower official believes that our preparations should be divided into two aspects. First, we must prepare ourselves well... do not place hope on a quick victory, but prepare to fight. A war that lasted ten years!”
Ten years is Zhuge Weidao's prediction of the possible duration of a world war in this timeline - in another timeline, World War I lasted just over four years as the Allies ran out of resources And it ended with conditional surrender. However, the resources possessed by the Allied Powers are completely incomparable to the two world empires of Great Britain and Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the mainlands of Great Britain and Ming Dynasty were far away from each other and would hardly be directly attacked by their opponents. Therefore, they both had a relatively stable rear area, and they were even less likely to admit defeat easily.
Zhuge Weidao now said "ten years", which is still a quite optimistic expectation. If we are pessimistic, the Thirty Years War is still possible!
The people present did not realize how terrifying this war that might last for ten years was, but they were all a little eager to try it.
Zhuge Weidao continued: "The second preparation we need to make is to tire out and weaken the enemy as much as possible before the war begins... There are three specific methods I can think of now. One is to try to Provoking a war between Britain and the Jin Kingdom caused Britain to fall into the quagmire of war in Central Asia and find it difficult to extricate itself, thus wasting national power and losing prestige; secondly, it used the opportunity of conducting negotiations to limit naval armaments and divide spheres of influence to deceive and mislead Britain. Let them spend their limited financial resources on ineffective armament projects.
According to my estimation, until the end of this war with Britain, we may still not be able to reach their homeland. The winner will be determined by exhausting their financial resources and depriving them of their most valuable colonies! "
