1825 My New Daming

Chapter 59 British Empire, We're Serious! (Seek collection, monthly pass, recommendation, follow-up)
Zhuge Weidao had already taken the seat assigned to him, right next to Zhuge Yangwu and Zhuge Yangming, two military advisors of the Yangzi generation. Zhuge's family's ranking of military divisions used to be based on first-come-first-served. Among the eighteen military divisions today, Zhuge Weijiu has been a military division for the longest time, so he is a "great military division".

However, having the title of Great Military Division does not mean that you have mastered the power, because theoretically all official military divisions have the same right to speak, vote and other privileges.The alternate military division has no voting rights, and the right to speak is also discounted, but other privileges are available.

According to the tradition since the establishment of the Military Advisory Corps, the military advisors awarded the three volumes of "International Politics", "Army", and "Navy" often have more say and influence on national affairs than other military advisors.If they reach an agreement on a certain national policy issue, other military divisions generally do not object.Moreover, military advisers who have to be granted these three heavenly books also have a high probability of being able to pay homage to their ministers.

However, no matter which military adviser is able to pay homage to the Prime Minister, he must implement the policies formulated by the military division. From this perspective, the military division is actually a deep government of the Ming Empire, or it can be regarded as the core of a party.

Because the existence of the Eight Great Aristocratic Families inhibited the development of modern political parties in the Ming Dynasty, although the current Ming Dynasty has a political council that can formulate laws and elect prime ministers and ministers, it has no party affiliation.And the political groups formed by the Eight Great Aristocratic Families and their surrounding dignitaries, businessmen, and official families can also be regarded as parties to a certain extent.

According to Zhuge Weidao's current situation, the eight major families are roughly divided into four groups. One is the alliance formed by the Zhuge family and Zhendong Zhang family (the descendants of Zhang Huangyan). They have invested huge sums of money in industry and mining, and in fact they are also the spokesmen of Daming 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 capital in overseas trade and overseas large agriculture-they are naturally the spokespersons of Daming's overseas interests.

The third is the three "rebel families" of two, Li and Liu, and their old Xunchen families.They were not good at doing business at the beginning, so they invested relatively late in overseas trade, overseas large-scale agriculture, industrial and commercial mining, and their profits were not much.However, because of this, they appear to be relatively "grassroots", and it is easy to mingle with the farmers' mutual aid associations below, gradually controlling most of the agricultural mutual aid associations, and relying on the agricultural mutual aid associations to build an industry.In fact, these three families are the spokespersons of the small peasants (family farmers) of the Ming Dynasty.

The fourth is the aristocratic family of the Mu family of King Guizhou and a group of Xunchen families who were born in the old Ming Dynasty.The power of this faction cannot be compared with the other three factions, but they have a relatively good relationship with the Daming royal family and Zhu Ming's three princes' residence, and they are orthodox royalists.These families, like Er Li and Yi Liu, also took root in the farmers' mutual aid associations, and the farmers' mutual aid associations they controlled were all near Beijing, and to some extent they were also defending the royal family.

In addition, the Mu family and its affiliated families are also the backstage of the Awa royal family in Myanmar, so they also have a lot of interests in Myanmar.

However, the groups of these four types of parties do not sit on the throne in turn, but govern jointly.Moreover, the interests of the four factions are not clear-cut, but there is me in you, and you in me.The Zhuge family also controls some farmers' mutual aid associations, and a family like Erli and Liu, who look like bumpkins, will also invest in the industry created by the Zhuge family.

In addition, these four factions all control some banks as their "capital pools" for investing in industries at home and abroad. The Changjiang Bank (all shares are owned by the Zhuge family), which is firmly controlled by the Zhuge family, has been conservative and stable for more than 100 years. He can pinch and count, and can always avoid risks and seize opportunities. Now he has grown into the world's number one bank and the king of East Asia's financial industry!
It is precisely by virtue of Changjiang Bank's ability to control East Asian finance that the Zhuge family's military advisers have been able to control the national policy of Ming Dynasty for a long time!Otherwise, relying on their superpower of "being able to pinch and count", others may not be able to listen.

Only when "super power" is added with "money power" is it truly powerful!
Now that Zhuge Weidao can become an alternate member of the Military Division, he has touched the real supreme power of the Ming Empire.

Seeing that Zhuge Weidao had already taken his seat, the military adviser Zhuge Weijiu smiled and said to him, "Daozi, this is the first time you have attended the military division meeting. I will tell you the rules. The military division usually meets every month. A regular meeting is held on the morning of the second and sixteenth day of junior high school. You can 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 military divisions and alternates who did not attend the meeting by secret telegram or by hand The military division knows. You are now an alternate military division, so the password book of the military division group must be in your hands and cannot be entrusted to others. Daozi, do you understand everything?"

"Understood, Grand Master, I understand."

At this time, Zhuge Yangwu handed Zhuge Weidao a book with "Taiping Dictionary" written on the cover, and said, "Uncle [-], this is your password book, you must carry it with you."

Seeing that Zhuge Weidao had put away the code book, Zhuge Weijiu said again: "You can take notes at the military division meeting, but you must keep these notes properly. In addition, you can also prepare some documents in advance for other military divisions to circulate, but Some top-secret documents can only be viewed, not copied, let alone taken away.”

As he spoke, he glanced at Zhuge Yangwu again, and the latter immediately handed Zhuge Weidao a folder. Zhuge Weidao opened it, and there were several pages of documents inside. Thousand Ships Plan Proposal Draft (Top Secret)"!
Well, the top-secret document of the Ministry of the Navy was circulated at the military division meeting inside the Zhuge family!
"Daozi," Zhuge Weijiu said again, "We can see this document now, and the eighteen officials of the official party of the Zheng family can also see it, but the core groups of other aristocratic families have not yet seen it."

This is also a matter of course!
Because the Zheng family is supported by three small sects, it also has huge overseas interests in Annan, Siam, Nanzhang, Chenla, Malay Peninsula, Java Island, Sumatra Island and other places, so it is the only one among the eight great families who can break up with the Zhuge family. The family of the wrist - of course, between the Zhuge family and the Zheng family, there is also me in you, and you in me.

Zhuge Weidao picked up the document and read it carefully.

The idea of ​​"One Thousand Ships Plan" was actually proposed by Zhuge Weidao, but it was the staff 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 are still very professional, and they launched a shipbuilding plan that can be partially implemented in a very short period of time.

First of all, the 200-ton armored ship, which is the capital ship of the "One Thousand Ships Project", was dismantled by them into two plans—the real plan.The first is the "Hongwu Great Emperor" plan, which plans to build a total of [-] ships; the second is the "[-]-ton class" patrol plan, which is going to adopt a newly designed hull that can carry a piggyback turret and use a full oil power system. It is also planned to equip this cruiser with eight newly developed [-]mm main guns, and plans to build [-] of them, and then upgrade them according to the situation.

Secondly, in order to make the British believe that the Ming Empire really wanted to implement the "One Thousand Ships Plan", the Ming Dynasty Admiralty also suggested that the imperial court issue "dock subsidies" to major domestic shipyards to encourage them to build [-]-ton large docks. At the same time, It is suggested that the ten largest shipyards secretly start to build super-large docks of more than [-] tons.

Although Daming's industrial strength is firmly ranked first in the world, its shipbuilding ranks second in the world, and Britain is number one in the world!

In addition, France, Prussia, and Austria, which allied with Britain, are also among the top shipbuilding countries in the world, so the shipbuilding capabilities of Britain and its allies can still overwhelm Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, if Ming Dynasty really wanted to engage in a naval arms race with Great Britain, it could not just shout, but to spend real money to improve the country's shipbuilding capabilities!

(End of this chapter)