Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 172 Sending troops to Thailand
Except for the second division that stayed in Nagasaki, all the troops of Lu Yiwei's Southeast Army returned to the country.And Xu Bangdao was also promoted to the commander of the second division because of his military exploits, and Chen Shanyuan became the commander of the brigade.

After Feng Xianghua returned to the capital, he was directly appointed as the Marshal, succeeding Zuo Zongtang as the Grand Marshal of the Qing Navy and Army.This surprising but reasonable appointment also caused a wave of moderate waves.

One morning, in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

"Your Majesty, Germany's offensive in Thailand has been frustrated recently. Germany is restrained by France and cannot continue to increase its troops to the Far East. It hopes to borrow troops from the Qing Dynasty to help them occupy Thailand." said Feng Xianghua, who had just succeeded Li Hongzhang in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. .

Guan Xuqing thought for a moment, then said slowly: "Xianghua, how do you think we should reply to Germany?"

"My minister thinks that our Qing Dynasty has been quite tense in recent years to expand its territory. Now it is time to recuperate, develop industries and continue to increase troops. Whatever happened to Thailand is good." Feng Xianghua has been calmer than before since he came back. a lot of.Handling things has also matured a lot.

"Well, that's right. But Germany is my ally of the Qing Dynasty, and now our two [-]-ton battleships of the Qing Dynasty are still being built in Germany. The Qing Dynasty has just withdrawn troops from China. If we refuse to send troops under the excuse of insufficient troops at this time, I'm afraid it will be punished. Germany thinks that Qing Dynasty is an excuse for not wanting to help. I am afraid it will worsen the relationship between the two countries." Guan Xuqing nodded with a smile and said.

As soon as this remark came out, all the civil and military audience in the audience nodded their heads in agreement.

"I have already considered this point, because Thailand is similar to Myanmar. There are many snakes, insects, poisonous ants, and the weather is humid, mostly woods. The German army is extremely uncomfortable, so the Thais took advantage. But Thailand has few troops and weapons. Being backward, it is still no match for Germany. I suggested that the emperor only need to send the Wangfeng special forces who have been trained in Burma for a long time, plus a division stationed in Burma to easily solve Thailand. In addition, they can justifiably collect military expenses for borrowing troops from Germany. "Feng Xianghua said loudly.

Guan Xuqing's eyes lit up, how could he forget Crazy Wang, this war madman, the Sino-Japanese war has been fought so fiercely in recent months, he must have driven him crazy long ago.Letting him go to Thailand at this time must be a tiger. In addition, if Germany occupies Thailand, then the zero tariff should be able to exchange Germany's interests in Thailand with Germany. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

"Haha, good! Not bad, let me clear up a division and a special force of tens of thousands of people to go back and forth for thousands of kilometers. I should charge more military expenses. Xianghua, I will let you negotiate with Germany on this matter. Quickly draw up a charter and show it to me." Guan Xuqing said with a smile on his face.

"Cha." Feng Xianghua said still sternly.

Guan Xuqing nodded in satisfaction, turned his gaze to Peng Yulin, and said, "Yulin, send a telegram in the name of the Ministry of War. Let Wang Feng come back."

"Cha." Peng Yulin bowed his head and said.

A week after the signing of the Tokyo Treaty, the first year's reparations finally arrived.This Sino-Japanese war used almost all warships, and nearly 10 divisions and 25 troops were used in North Korea.The expenditure on military salaries is very large. Fortunately, in the few years after the Sino-British Burma War, the economic development of the Qing Dynasty has been relatively stable, especially after the customs duties were regained from the British, the increase in tax money was almost doubled.

In addition to spending 6000 million silver dollars to increase military pay, the rest were all invested in the construction of the Navy and the Gun Bureau.After the Sino-French War, technicians hired from France with high salaries finally used Qing Dynasty's unadvanced shipbuilding machines to manufacture Qing Dynasty's own ironclad ships after several years of hard work.

The first ironclad ship made by the Qing Dynasty itself has been launched, and it was built in imitation of the main ironclad ship Elegance, which was knocked down by the Qing gunboat during the Sino-French War.But it was much more practical than the French Elegance at that time.

Compared with the elegant 6000-ton displacement, the self-made ironclad ship of the Qing Dynasty has a displacement of 7000 tons. There are four 4mm main guns in the front and rear, 380 32mm secondary guns in the left and right sides, and 180 16mm cannons.It is characterized by fast rate of fire and fierce firepower.This is adhering to the consistent design of warships by French designers. From the firepower, it is not difficult to see that the designer of this warship is French.

The main defensive armor is 254mm thick, although it is nearly 345mm thinner than the 100mm thick steel plate of the "Zhenyuan" class.But it is much better than those ironclad ships made in the UK, and the speed of 17 knots can ensure that it can easily escape when encountering an enemy battleship of [-] tons.

Since everything from design to manufacture is done in the rebuilt Mawei Naval Port, the manufacturing cost is actually not much.The manufacturing cost of an ironclad ship is 500 million silver dollars, and the cycle is half a year.

After paying 6000 million silver dollars in military pay, Guan Xuqing invested another 5000 million silver dollars in the navy to manufacture 10 sister ships of the same level. The ten sister ships launched will be numbered from one to ten, such as Nanjun No. [-] and Nanjun No. [-].

It's not that Guan Xuqing didn't want to build a few more ships at a time, but the current Mawei Shipyard can only build ten ships at the same time, and the shortage of technicians and manufacturing machines is also the biggest obstacle restricting the development of the Qing Dynasty's shipbuilding industry.

For the remaining 1 million silver dollars, more than 1 gun bureaus were opened in Shandong, Sichuan, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanghai and other places to increase the production of guns.

At the same time, the Ministry of War urgently notified the order that all 100 million reserve soldiers across the country are ready to turn into professional soldiers. Of course, those who don't want to can also withdraw directly.However, after successive victories against France, Britain, and Russia, there has been a craze for joining the army across the country.

Everyone is proud to join the army, so how could they give up such a good opportunity.What's more, the military salary after joining the army is enough to support the family!This makes all soldiers who join the army have no worries.

"Sure enough, it's easy to do things with money. Once the indemnities are in place, the navy has also developed, the army has also developed, the gun bureau has also been established, and the most important thing is that the officers and soldiers who died for the country were also issued." Guan Xuqing said while lying on the recliner in the Hall of Mental Cultivation and closed his eyes.

Standing in front of Guan Xuqing was Li Zhen, Minister of the Household Department, who was slightly fat.

"The emperor is wise, and the scheduling is orderly, so the country can be peaceful and the people safe." Li Zhen flattered.

Guan Xuqing closed his eyes and continued: "It's not that I'm wise, but that my Qing Dynasty's financial situation has been good in the past few years. This is all thanks to you."

"Everything is ordered by the emperor, and the minister is just following orders, how dare you take such greedy achievements!" Li Zhen said truthfully.

Although the finance minister of the Qing Dynasty was not very capable, he was diligent, studious, honest, and extremely clean, so Guan Xuqing has been using him until now. After all, Guan Xuqing of later generations studied finance.So you can also call him directly.

"Don't be too humble. You have done a good job in the past few years. Now my Qing Dynasty is developing rapidly, and there are many places that need money. Although the tax revenue has increased a lot in the past few years, the expenditure has also increased a lot. .I want you to go back and make a list of places with more expenditures every year. I want to see if I can reduce it." Guan Xuqing opened his eyes and looked at Li Zhen and continued: "Since ancient times, the national treasury has to be filled except for open source. It’s about throttling, and now my Qing Dynasty is opening up new sources of income, but throttling is also necessary!”

"Cha." Li Zhen replied with his head down.

(End of this chapter)