Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 70 Postwar Reconstruction

Paris France.

After the defeat, France did not have much domestic influence.In winter, Paris is covered in silver, and pedestrians in twos and threes can be seen everywhere on the road.and luxurious private carriages.

The interim president of the cabinet, Hubner, stepped out of his private carriage and closed his clothes.This is really a cold season.

He was feeling better until he was in the office, by the fire.He took off his coat and hung his top hat on the hanger before pouring a cup of hot water.There came a quick knock on the door, damn it.Who will it be at this time?
"What's the bad news? Which representative's factory in China closed down? Or was the merchant ship in Malacca robbed by pirates?" Hubner said humorously after opening the door.

In came Saric, his personal secretary.He exaggeratedly said: "Honorable President, these days, the damn Chinese special envoy is waving our compensation francs, buying machines everywhere, including Lance, Cleaver and even the entire shipyard. They are trying to find a way to ship these shipbuilding equipment back to China. I think their behavior should be stopped. Our influence in the Far East has been greatly weakened. Once China's shipbuilding industry is allowed to develop, we will never Lose the Far East."

Hubner looked at Saric, who was getting a little excited, shook his head and said: "Sari, you are exaggerating. We don't have much interest in the Far East. Our focus is on Europe and the Mediterranean. Now the Republic is almost in peace The whole world is against us, we are against the Germans in Europe, against the British in Egypt for Suez, and against the Russians in the Dardanelles. The Napoleonic era is far behind us, and the republic does not have the resources to fight against all the great powers, so we Something has to be given up."

After listening to Saric, he said calmly: "Your Excellency, I think your views are correct. The Republic really cannot fight against all powerful countries. But I think what we have to do is to unite Russia and the British to fight against Germany. Rather than abandoning China."

Hubner said with a smile: "I didn't say that I would give up China. I have known the Chinese people's actions for a long time, and I have already asked Ascent."

"Oh." Saric was quite surprised, and said, "What did General Orb say?"

Hubner took out a document and handed it to Saric, saying: "This is the 'Green Water Navy Plan' recently submitted by the Ministry of the Navy. Power, once the republic has 100 torpedo ships, it will pose the greatest threat to the British navy. I also think it is better to build such torpedo ships than to spend a lot of money to build capital ships that will never catch up with the British. Now, they cost much less. The Admiralty has canceled all plans for battleships."

Saric quickly read the plan in his hand, and said: "So we sell those shipbuilding equipment to the Chinese at a low price?"

"Since the Chinese are willing to spend a lot of money to buy those outdated things, why not do it?"

"But, Your Excellency Prime Minister." Saric quickly calculated the gains and losses in his mind: "As far as I know, torpedo attacks on ships cannot carry out ocean operations."

Hubner said: "Our main target now is the Germans on land. We need to greatly strengthen the army. The navy only needs to protect the coast."

Seeing that Saric still wanted to say something, Hubner stood up and said, "I have submitted this plan to the parliament, and the cabinet will be questioned by the parliament this afternoon." Saric had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.

Anyone who is familiar with the history of foreign navies will never forget the famous "green water naval strategy" in French history.

Historically, before 1884, the French Navy has been ranked second in the world. They have a group of ship design geniuses headed by Rohm, making the design of French ships always at the forefront of the world. Even the proud British ship design Teachers also often learn from the techniques they employ.

During the Victorian Dark Ages of the Royal Navy between 1775 and 1884, the French Navy even came close to surpassing the British Royal Navy.However, in 1884, Admiral Aube, a representative of the French Navy’s youth faction, became the Minister of the Navy. He believed that the emerging sea power torpedo was a magic weapon for defeating the enemy. Therefore, as soon as he came to power, he immediately ordered the cancellation of all battleship construction plans, and began to design and build some torpedo boat motherships.Because torpedo ships cannot fight alone in the ocean, this plan of Orb is called "Green Water Naval Strategy".

The French didn't fully realize this mistake until the 90s, and quickly picked up the three "Maceau" class ships whose construction period had been delayed for almost 7 years. Unfortunately, they looked old when they were completed.The design and construction of the "Martel" class, three "Charlemagne" class ships, etc. are also difficult to support the shelf of the French Navy. critical strength.

Guan Xuqing took advantage of this huge mistake to buy French shipbuilding equipment and hire technicians who were about to lose their jobs.Anyway, he now has a lot of francs.

However, the navy has made great contributions to winning this Sino-French battle.Therefore, except for the military salaries of some soldiers and the pensions of the victims, all other indemnities were invested in the construction of the navy.

The two 3800-ton coastal defense cruisers purchased in the UK have also been launched for sea trials, and they will be able to return to China early next year.By that time, the number of cruisers in the Daqingshui Division will reach 7.And each of them was the most advanced cruiser in the world at that time, but if the shipbuilding industry could not keep up, there would inevitably be tragedies during the Sino-Japanese War of [-]-[-]. "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" were injured in the Yellow Sea battle, because the shipbuilding industry was backward at that time. , could not be repaired, resulting in one being sunk and one being captured.

After buying back a large amount of shipbuilding equipment, part of it was placed in the rebuilt Mawei Naval Port.Part of it is placed in the newly built Dagu Military Port in Tianjin.The machines of the Jiangnan Shipbuilding Bureau are all German, so they were not sent to the Jiangnan Shipbuilding Bureau.

In addition to expanding the scale of the shipbuilding industry, the original arsenal continued to develop. The Krupp and Mauser machines bought from Germany have been shipped back, and these machines have been divided up by Jinling Machinery Bureau and Hubei Gun Bureau.

But everything was not very smooth, due to the Sino-French war.Led by the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, etc. have driven up the price of steel to an outrageous level. The machines that make guns and cannons have been emptied, but now they import less than a tael of steel.The construction of military heavy industry has almost come to a standstill, and the domestic steel is simply not enough for the 40 troops that the Qing Dynasty recruited to equip the guns.

However, also affected by the war, the light industry has developed vigorously.

Since Guan Xuqing decreed before that all military supplies purchased by the Ministry of War for the troops can only be purchased in Daqing’s own factories, so the factories established when business was encouraged back then have received a large number of orders. Military uniforms, shoes and socks, dry food, matches, sheep oil, etc. were all transported to the front line of Vietnam in large quantities.

It is conceivable that the more than 4 troops in Vietnam consume a lot of goods in a day.Every day, tens of thousands of taels of silver flow into the pockets of these manufacturers.With the funds, these factories desperately expanded their scale and improved their production techniques to obtain more orders. From the very beginning, the three-day rations that each soldier carried with him were compressed dough purchased from the Shanghai Food Bureau. They were hard, And unpalatable.Soldiers generally feel bad.Later, the Shanghai Meilin Factory was able to produce canned food, and the 7 canned food they carried with them could be enough for a soldier to eat normally for 1883 days.One can imagine the speed at which the light industry flourished at that time. According to incomplete statistics, the light industry in the Qing Dynasty increased by 1884% in the two years of 200 and [-], which has already overwhelmed the foreign factories in the Qing Dynasty in terms of quantity.

After seeing these reports, Guan Xuqing also made up his mind to start other heavy industries such as iron and steel.

(End of this chapter)