Zhuge Weidao had already sat down at the seat assigned to him, next to Zhuge Yangwu and Zhuge Yangming, two military advisors of the Yangzi generation. Their rankings in the military advisor regiment were sixteen and seventeen respectively - this The ranking of military advisors of the Zhuge family was originally based on first come, first served. Among the eighteen military advisors today, Zhuge Weijiu has been the military advisor the longest, so he is the "great military advisor".
However, having the title of Grand Strategist does not mean having great power, because in theory, all formal Strategies have the same right to speak, vote and other privileges. The candidate military advisor does not have the right to vote, and his right to speak is also reduced, but he has other privileges.
According to the tradition since the establishment of the Military Advisor Corps, the military advisors who are awarded the three volumes of "International Politics", "Army", and "Navy" often have more say and influence in national affairs than other military advisors. If they reach an agreement on a certain national policy issue, other military advisors will generally not object. Moreover, the military advisor who is taught these three heavenly books also has a high probability of being able to become the prime minister.
However, no matter which military advisor becomes prime minister, he must implement the policies formulated by the military advisor regiment... From this perspective, the military advisor regiment is actually a deep state of the Ming Empire, or it can also be seen as the core of a party .
Since the existence of the eight great families inhibited the development of modern political parties in the Ming Dynasty, although the Ming Dynasty now has a political assembly that can formulate laws and elect prime ministers and ministers, there are no parties. The political groups composed of the eight aristocratic families and their surrounding noble, industrial, business, and official families can also be regarded as parties to a certain extent.
According to what Zhuge Weidao currently knows, the eight major families are now roughly divided into four groups. One is the alliance composed of the Zhuge family and the Zhendong Zhang family (descendants of Zhang Huangyan). These two families and their affiliated families are all in They have invested huge sums of money in industry and mining. In fact, they are also the spokespersons of Ming Dynasty’s industrial capital.
The second is the alliance formed by the Zheng family and the Zhennan Wang family. These two families and their surrounding affiliated families have invested in overseas trade and large-scale overseas agriculture - they are naturally the spokespersons of the Ming Dynasty's overseas interests.
The third is the three "rebel families" of Li and Liu and their old and honorable ministers' families. They were not good at doing business in the beginning, so they invested relatively late in overseas trade, overseas large-scale agriculture, and industrial, commercial and mining industries, and their profits were not large. However, they also appear to be relatively "grassroots" and easily get involved with the farmers' mutual aid associations. Gradually, they control most of the agricultural mutual aid associations and build industries based on the agricultural mutual aid associations. In fact, these three aristocratic families are the spokespersons of small farmers (family farmers) in Ming Dynasty.
The fourth is the aristocratic family of the King of Guizhou, the Mu family, and a group of virtuous minister families who were born in the Ming Dynasty. The power of this faction cannot be compared with the other three factions, but they have a better relationship with the Ming royal family and the three princes of Zhu Ming. They are orthodox royalists. These families, like Er Li and Yi Liu, are also rooted in the Peasants' Mutual Aid Association, and the Peasants' Mutual Aid Associations they control are all near Beijing, and to some extent they are also protecting the royal family.
In addition, the Mu family and its affiliated families are also the backstage of the Ava royal family in Myanmar, so they also have many interests in Myanmar.
However, these four party-like groups do not take turns taking power, but govern together. Moreover, the interests of the four factions are not clearly defined, but that there is me among you, and you among me. The Zhuge family also controls some farmers' mutual aid associations, and families like Er Li and Yi Liu, who look like country bumpkins, will also invest in the industries created by the Zhuge family.
In addition, these four major factions all control some banks, which serve as their "fund pool" for investment in industries at home and abroad... and the Yangtze River Bank, which is firmly controlled by the Zhuge family (all shares are publicly owned by the Zhuge family), has a hundred Over the years, it has been conservative, prudent and calculating, always able to avoid risks and seize opportunities. Now it has grown into the world's number one bank and is also the king of East Asia's financial industry!
It is precisely because of the Yangtze River Bank's ability to control East Asia's finance that the Zhuge family's military advisors were able to control the national policies of the Ming Dynasty for a long time! Otherwise, just relying on their superpower of "being able to pinch and calculate", others may not be able to listen.
Only when "superpower" is combined with "money ability", is it truly powerful!
And Zhuge Weidao can now become a candidate member of the Military Advisor Corps, which can be regarded as touching the true highest power of the Ming Empire.
Seeing that Zhuge Weidao had already sat down, the great military advisor Zhuge Weijiu smiled and said to him: "Daozi, this is your first time to attend the military advisor meeting. I will tell you the rules. The military advisor usually meets every month. Regular meetings are held on the morning of the second and sixteenth day of the lunar month. You may not attend, but you cannot entrust others to exercise voting rights or express opinions. In addition, the decisions made at the military division meeting will be sent to the military divisions and alternates who did not attend the meeting by secret telegram or by hand. The military advisor knows. You are now a candidate military advisor, so the code book of the military advisor regiment must be in your own hands and cannot be entrusted to others. Daozi, do you understand?"
"I understand, Great Military Advisor, I understand everything."
At this time, Zhuge Yangwu handed Zhuge Weidao a book with "Taiping Dictionary" written on the cover and said, "Uncle One Hundred and Eighth, this is your code book. You must carry it with you."
Seeing that Zhuge Weidao had collected the code book, Zhuge Weijiu said again: "You can take notes at the military advisor meeting, but you must keep these notes properly. In addition, you can also prepare some documents for other military advisors to circulate, but Some top-secret documents can only be read, not copied, let alone taken away."
As he said that, he glanced at Zhuge Yangwu again, who immediately handed Zhuge Weidao a folder. Zhuge Weidao opened it and saw several pages of documents. The title of the top one clearly read "First Department of the Navy" Thousand Ship Plan Proposal Draft (Top Secret)”!
Well, the top-secret documents of the Navy Department were actually circulated at the meeting of the Zhuge Family’s internal military division!
"Daozi," Zhuge Weijiu said again, "Now we can see this document, and the eighteen official members of the Zheng family's official party can also see it... But the core groups of other aristocratic families can still see it. Not even."
This is also a matter of course!
Because the Zheng family is supported by three small sects and also has huge overseas interests in Annan, Siam, Nanzhang, Chenla, Malay Peninsula, Java Island, Sumatra Island and other places, it is the only one among the eight major families that can break up with the Zhuge family. A family with a lot of skills - of course, between the Zhuge family and the Zheng family, you have me, and I have you.
Zhuge Weidao picked up the document and read it carefully.
The idea of the "Thousand Ships Plan" was actually proposed by Zhuge Weidao, but it was the staff officers and engineers of the Shipbuilding Bureau of the Ministry of the Navy who really turned this idea into an executable plan.
It has to be said that those staff officers and engineers were very professional, and they launched a partially executable shipbuilding plan in a very short period of time.
First of all, the 15,000-ton armored ship, which is the main ship type of the "One Thousand Ship Project", was split into two plans - the real plan. The first is the "Hongwu Emperor-class" plan, which plans to build a total of twenty ships; the second is the "15,000-ton class" armor and patrol plan, which plans to use a newly designed hull that can carry piggyback turrets and use a full-oil power system. It is also planned to equip this cruise ship with eight newly developed 200mm main guns. It is also planned to build twenty ships and then upgrade them according to the situation.
Secondly, in order to convince the British that the Ming Empire really wanted to implement the "Thousand Ship Plan", the Ming Navy Ministry also suggested that the court issue "dock subsidies" to major domestic shipyards to encourage them to build large 20,000-ton shipyards... ..At the same time, it will also be recommended that the ten largest shipyards secretly start building ultra-large shipyards of more than 50,000 tons.
Although Ming Dynasty's industrial strength currently ranks first in the world, its shipbuilding is second in the world, and Britain is first in the world!
In addition, France, Prussia, and Austria, which are allied with Britain, are also among the world's leading shipbuilding powers. Therefore, the shipbuilding capabilities of Britain and its allies can still overwhelm the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, if Ming Dynasty really wants to engage in a naval arms race with Great Britain, it cannot just shout in vain, but must spend real money to improve its country's shipbuilding capabilities!
