I started with the Shinsengumi in Bakumatsu

Chapter 143 Brown powder promotes cannons and giant ships, and the central bank is established
Yagyu thought the meeting was over and was about to get up and leave, but Katsu Kaishu's expression became serious.

"Since the Prime Minister has classified the development of the navy as a national secret and entrusted us with such an important task, I must take it seriously."

Katsu Kaishu took out his notebook from his arms and continued.

"The main gun theory proposed by the Prime Minister is very advanced, but it is not practical enough.

I understand that the Prime Minister was inspired by learning about the ironclad naval battle in the American Civil War, and I just understood it after listening to it.

I also know a lot about American naval battles. It can be said that from what my Western friends know, the ironclad naval battle in the American Civil War should be the first naval battle after the emergence of ironclads.

The cannons of the two ironclad ships were unable to deal with the other's armor, and they finally used ancient naval battle tactics to duel. Unfortunately, one of the ironclad ships was too slow, and the battle ended in a draw between the two warships.

From this battle alone, it can be seen that medium-caliber cannons are indeed no longer suitable for naval battles.

Mr. Prime Minister, I have understood the Krupp breech-loaded naval gun you mentioned. Although it is powerful enough and has a faster rate of fire than the front-loaded guns of other Western countries, it really cannot cope with complex actual situations.

Because the main gun proposed by the Prime Minister is used to deal with the heavy armor of the main ship, if the opponent dispatches other warships, such as torpedo boats, it can threaten the ironclad ship with only the main gun. "

The suggestion put forward by Katsu Kaishu reminded Yagyu of the era of rapid-fire secondary guns. These are secondary guns mounted on both sides of the battleship, with calibers ranging from more than 100 mm to 240 mm.

There is also a secondary main gun, which is used to make up for the lack of firepower of the main gun, with a caliber of about [-] millimeters.

Yagyu clapped his hands and said: "As expected of Mr. Katsu, your suggestion is right. The development of our warships still needs to take into account the current environment. We can install secondary guns on both sides to make up for the shortcomings of the main guns.

In addition, our current artillery still uses black powder, which results in the shells not being powerful enough to penetrate the armor of enemy ships.

I have a new formula here that you need to study, called brown gunpowder. You only need to replace the charcoal with the kind of charcoal that is not fully carbonized. "

In fact, current technology can develop smokeless gunpowder. The nitrocellulose needed has been invented 30 years ago. He does not need to develop nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin double-base smokeless gunpowder. He only needs to study nitrocellulose single-base gunpowder.

The nitroglycerin in double-base gunpowder is unstable, and double-base gunpowders in Britain and France have exploded many times.

Of course, you can also imitate Germany's double-base tubular smokeless gunpowder, but this can only be used as a reserve technology. After all, Nobel has just made a detonator, and mass production of nitroglycerin is also very dangerous.

To sum up, Japan does not have such conditions for the time being.

On the contrary, America's single-base smokeless gunpowder is very suitable for the national conditions. Even though it is only [-]% as powerful as the English double-base gunpowder, it is much stronger than the current black powder.

Of course, this is also a technical reserve. He will master the breech-loading artillery manufacturing technology in his own country and then study it in depth. Now he can first send overseas students to Western countries to study chemistry and learn how to make nitrocellulose before studying single-base smokeless gunpowder.

Although the current ironclad ships are still developing, there was a period of time when the artillery could not keep up, so they chose collision tactics, which was somewhat dark humor.

If black powder is changed to brown powder, then the ironclads will really enter the age of cannons and giant ships.

Because brown powder is very suitable for breech-mounted rifled guns, and the artillery can increase the caliber and lengthen the barrel, there is no need to worry about the shortcomings of black powder.

Coupled with the new artillery layout, Yagyu believed that he could obtain enough benefits from Prussia.

Katsu Kaishu had some doubts about the new gunpowder proposed by Yagyu, but as long as they passed experiments, they could understand the data of this new gunpowder, so he suppressed his doubts and said: "As for the construction of new ironclad ships, I will think about it carefully after I go back. , I will show it to the Prime Minister at that time."

Yagyu didn't push it too much. He nodded and said: "This is a challenge. We can't be anxious and work slowly and carefully. The focus now is to build an ironclad ship of more than [-] tons.

Once these two ironclad ships are in place and our new army has been trained enough, I plan to settle the score with the Dutch and revise the previously concluded treaty. "

Previously, in order to develop the reform, Yagyu had to sign unequal treaties with Britain, France, the United States, Russia and the Netherlands, and made great concessions on tariffs.

Now that the country is undergoing reform and its strength is steadily increasing, it is natural to resolve the unequal treaties.

Therefore, the first target Yagyu chose was the weakest Netherlands.

The Netherlands has established diplomatic relations with the shogunate for nearly 300 years, but at the end of the shogunate it chose to take advantage of the situation. Why not take advantage of it?In a year at most, he will solve the problem in the Netherlands.

Yagyu temporarily handed over the construction of new ironclad ships to Katsu Kaishu and Sakamoto Ryoma.

Next he has to solve the problems of education and banking.

The construction of schools in Kyoto has long been completed and is now in use, enrolling students.

Schools in various places follow a unified curriculum, with ten classes every day, starting at six in the morning and finishing at five in the evening.

According to Western calculations, there is one day off per week, no winter and summer vacations, and it looks like five years of primary school. In fact, the learning time is the current nine years of primary school, junior high school, and middle school.

In addition, Kyoto's first women's college is about to recruit students.

The headlines immediately appeared in the Kyoto newspapers that Katsuko Ichijo, the daughter of Duke Gosho's family, would enter a women's college.

The headlines also included Prime Minister Yagyu's praise for Duke Ichijo and Katsuko Ichijo.

Nijo Saikei, Prince Asahiko, and others who belonged to the Yagyu camp also sent their female relatives to study at a women's college.

With nobles and officials at all levels taking the lead, businessmen seeking connections also joined in, followed by wealthy citizens. In this way, the women's college was quickly filled with female students.

This day is the opening day of the women's college. Yagyu dressed up with the help of Okita Jin and came to give a speech at the opening ceremony of the women's college.

In order to encourage the girls to persevere, Yagyu shouted impassionedly: "I believe that Japanese women can also carry half of the country's sky with her weak shoulders and contribute their own strength to the rise of the country!" Yagyu's remarks made the girls Excited and excited about it, this has led many smart women to participate in society.

Even foreign ambassadors such as Parkes and Barland had to say that Yagyu's mind was open enough and very civilized.

If there is a feminist movement, then Yagyu is definitely a feminist pioneer.

After all, even Western countries that claim to be civilized countries do not give women equal rights. This is the result of the struggles of later feminist activists.

Of course, Yagyu is also shouting slogans. If you want to achieve equality, it will take a long time. This is not something that Yagyu can solve.

However, Yagyu's actions still promoted the country's westernization process.

After solving the problem of education, it becomes the problem of banks.

This matter cannot be delayed.

Shibusawa Eiichi, Sakuma Shoyama and Ito Koshitaro came to Yagyu's mansion with a bank plan for discussion.

First of all, the central bank is a unitary central bank system.

This system establishes only one unified central bank in a country, and the institutional setup generally adopts a head office and branch system.

Secondly, all capital is owned by the central bank of the country.

The central bank then has decision-making, executive and supervisory powers.

Finally, there is the internal organizational structure of the central bank, the departments directly related to the exercise of central bank functions: the monetary policy operation department, the department responsible for currency issuance, etc.

Departments that provide consultation, research and analysis for the performance of the functions of the central bank: statistical analysis departments, research departments and other departments that provide guarantees and administrative services for the effective performance of the functions of the central bank.

In addition, commercial banks can be established with personal investment, but do not have the power to issue currency independently.

Yagyu adds an additional point to this because modern banks did not distinguish between issuing banks and commercial banks at the beginning.

Such a situation is not conducive to ensuring the stability of currency circulation.

At the same time, many scattered small banks have regional restrictions on their credit activities, so the bank notes they issue can only circulate in limited areas.

Therefore, Yagyu resolves this situation in advance to ensure that Japan's economy stabilizes quickly.

"Gentlemen, the employees within the bank must pass strict assessments and have excellent professional abilities. The establishment of the central bank represents the authority of the central government, and there must be no mistakes."

Faced with Yagyu's advice, Shibusawa Eiichi assured: "Prime Minister, don't worry, there will definitely be no problems with the bank!"

After the bank plan was approved, the central bank's preparations suddenly became much faster.

After such a long period of preparation, the central bank's reserves include 1000 million gold coins, 3000 million silver coins, and the newly issued Japanese yen is temporarily issued at 4000 million Japanese yen.

The reason why the cabinet has so many reserves is mainly to melt old gold coins and make them into new gold coins. One gold coin is enough to make more than four new gold coins. 1000 million gold coins are equivalent to 250 million taels of gold coins. .

This is still a short period of time. Yagyu has already stepped up the development of Sado Gold Mountain and Konobu Gold Mountain. Together with the development of Hisikarigo Gold Mountain this year, the central bank's gold and silver reserves will grow.

In addition, the old currency of the former shogunate was prohibited from circulation and had to be exchanged for Japanese yen at the central bank.

These measures can ensure the stability of the Japanese currency within decades.

The current Japanese yen has only a quarter of its historical purchasing power, so Yagyu stipulates that the monthly salary of grassroots civil servants is 24 yen, and the salary of workers is about [-] yen. Female workers are cheaper, only about [-] yen.

These wage levels are similar to those of the Meiji government in history, and Yagyu did not deliberately raise wages.

After all, Japan is currently in dire straits and needs a lot of money to promote the country's comprehensive Westernization. Therefore, before the country can prosper, it has to tighten its belt.

Moreover, the pressure on the existing cabinet was much easier than that of the Meiji government in history.

The cabinet did not bear a heavy burden of samurai, nor did it give those feudal lords too many benefits. Even officials at all levels did not receive too much salary.

As the prime minister, his monthly salary is [-] yen a month, which is already the highest salary for an official. These salaries are enough to live a luxurious life.

Because these preliminary preparations are sufficient, according to the policies that Yagyu will implement next, Japan's annual income should be around 8000 million yen.

According to the proportion of purchasing power, the historical Meiji government in Japan was about 5000 million yen, which was equivalent to [-] million yen for the Yagyu cabinet. However, this was the income accumulated by the Meiji government by squeezing farmers. High-intensity taxation led to peasant riots, and the Yagyu cabinet implemented The policy has reduced the burden on farmers.

Moreover, most of the interests of the Meiji government were earned by the nobles and big businessmen, and the Yagyu cabinet suppressed the nobles and big businessmen from the beginning, and the fiscal revenue structure was much better than that of the Meiji government.

Moreover, Yagyu believes that this is just less than the Meiji government at the beginning. After a few years of gradual development, the Yagyu cabinet will inevitably surpass the Meiji government.

　The development of warships will continue to be added in the future, mainly based on the information found.

　　In addition, I don’t know much about banking economics and the like. You can give me an explanation. I will make modifications and additions after checking it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)