Lord of Ming Dynasty

The new generation of civil official groups and the new generation of military generals are relatively chaotic or unclear. Some belong to the eldest prince Yongwu, some belong to the second eldest Prince Yongwen, and the third is a literati, but there are also some forces. The rest are formed and grown up. Or some of the sons who have made great achievements are also close, and generally speaking, they are also royal power.

Following Zhang Qiang's transfer of power, the confidants and generals went to the Council of Advisors and Political Councils, the State Council, the Advisory Bureau, and the Advisory Council. In these places, the eldest prince received part of the military power and some local civil servants' rights from Zhang Qiang. , so that the power of the prince has increased to about 5.00% of the remaining 30.00% of the power, and the prestige and influence have increased, making many forces compromise or move closer to him. Now, according to the report of the Military Intelligence Department, the prince's The power evaluation has risen from about [-]% in the past to about [-]% now, which can be regarded as the largest power in the Chinese Empire besides Zhang Qiang.

Absorbed defectors from other forces, took some power from Zhang Qiang, and arranged for his own people to go up. The crown prince, who is also Zhang Qiangli's crown prince, was basically able to peacefully receive the power of the royal family, and controlled a part of the garrison. Most of the garrison , the crown prince has basically mastered the power of the core area.

For his people, Zhang Qiang did not confer titles this time, leaving it to him to buy people's hearts, only to find a safe position for his confidants and use titles to protect them, so as not to cause them to lose too much. big.

However, Zhang Qiang felt that he was not a short-lived person. Maybe his son needed to be very old to ascend to the throne, so he focused on training his own prince, who was also his own son. Seeing which son was smarter, he would train him, but he could not treat the eldest son of the direct line harshly. The eldest son of the direct line must focus on training. Zhang Qiang is expected to reach the generation of his grandson. The Huaxia Empire is still quite powerful, or even more prosperous, just like the emperors Kangxi, Qianlong, and Yongzheng of later generations. The above is good, but after all, they seem to be strong and prosperous, and their children and grandchildren must be better than them, even if they are not the most powerful, they must also prosper.

After several months of tossing, Zhang Qiang finally completed the reform of titles. His confidants, the army generals he brought up, and some civil servants who followed him were all given titles. Founding the country!It is for big seals and special seals, of course they are some old guys, and the young ones are basically left to the son to get the seal, to invite and buy people's hearts, and the son also asked for titles for a few people. Calculated in this way, although the gold content of Zhang Qiang's title should be If there are more, then you can't seal too much, but it still exceeds some expectations in the end, and seals a little more.

But this is nothing like the founding of the country. There must be more titles. Who made these people all heroes? Many titles should have been conferred in the early days of the founding of the country. After more than 20 years, some people died, some people fell behind, and some people retired. , a large number of people were lost at once.This is considered Zhang Qiang's profit, because there is no need to give them actual rewards, and the sons and grandsons of some people do not need to confer higher titles. The opportunity to buy people's hearts is given to the sons and grandchildren, so that the Huaxia Empire can last longer.

An empire, no matter how well you do, there will always be prosperity and decline. A large part of the decline is that some people occupy high positions, but many rights do not belong to them, so they want to steal high positions and steal power, but not through formal channels , then they can only plot against former colleagues and some capable people, so the dynasty was destroyed by themselves, but they never thought of it, or thought of it, but they were dazzled by power, and they only cared about fighting for power, but they didn't want to Once the house is dug down by you, your rights will be gone with the wind, and it will only give opportunities to some ambitious people who can only show themselves in troubled times.

After finishing all this, Zhang Qiang took the time to look at the progress of the telegraph laying project. The current progress is in two important places. Jinhua Mansion and Xianju County have been fully laid, Jinling Mansion is also well laid, and Yanjing It has basically reached every county government in the surrounding [-] kilometers, and some have entered villages and towns in the mountains, and long-distance telegrams have already rushed to the capital of East Siberia, the capital of Central Siberia, and then the two capitals are connected, and then spread to West Siberia The capital, the [-]-kilometer defense line of the Urals is gathered directly from Yekaterinburg, and then returns to Yanjing through Mongolia, so that Yanjing can grasp the situation there.

The first thousand and 110 chapter four telegraph project is about to be completed

The rest of the telegraph line goes around the core area, except overseas, it has basically been connected to the capitals, state capitals, county offices, and important garrison locations of each border. The lines of each important garrison location are the same as the borders of the core area and important cities , give priority to laying three lines, using all the imperial examination personnel of the Ministry of Industry, the imperial examination scholars in the past ten years, some old craftsmen of engineering, craftsmen, and workers from some large domestic engineering construction companies and using nearby lines All the skilled craftsmen in the prefectures, magistrates, prefectures, and county governments in the state give priority to the laying of telegraph lines.

The telegraph lines in the core area are like a net, densely packed along these constructed skeletons, separated dozens of engineering teams to construct and lay, connect all the state capitals that are not on these lines, and then subcontract to the government County and other engineering teams.

Of course, the rudimentary telegraph system established in this way has greatly improved the speed of message transmission and technological level of the Chinese Empire, but it has also caused the financial expenditure of the Chinese Empire to overrun again. Expenses, but the central finance of the Huaxia Empire still needs to pay the bill in the end. Although it has stimulated the increase in tax revenue, the recoverable tax revenue is completely out of proportion to the expenditure, and the overall loss is still large.

Although the national project will definitely lose money, but in comparison, the construction model of the Huaxia Empire still enriches private businessmen and loses the country. Therefore, Zhang Qiang will have to consider how to rationally use financial expenditures in the future.

In recent years, with the trade of Turkey, Russia, the Qing Dynasty, and the Arshaf dynasty of Iran, as well as the trade with Sweden in the west, the trade of British merchants, and the trade of Spanish merchants, the Chinese Empire has a large amount of materials and commodities. Exporting to the West and Europe has made a lot of income, but because Siberia is still sucking blood, the development of each governor-general is uneven, many governor-generals have to subsidize, and some poor mountainous areas in the core area have to subsidize, so the overall revenue ratio of the Chinese Empire It is still somewhat unbalanced, and the profit is getting less and less as time goes by.

The debt owed by the empire has been growing, and the profit subsidy can only slowly repay the debt, but cannot completely repay the debt. This makes the Huaxia Yuan currency of the Huaxia Empire slightly inflated. Previously, there were trillions of yuan. The Huaxia Yuan needs to be repaid. At present, with the annual profit, there are only 8000 billion Huaxia Yuan left to be repaid. The annual profit is more than 1000 billion, but the debts that need to be repaid to the Chinese people have not seen much reduction. There is only a decrease of more than 100 billion every year, and the annual profit can only be used to repay 400 billion, and sometimes it needs to increase the debt of 300 billion, which makes the heaviest debt that China repays every year is actually more than 100 billion. , sometimes billions.

For this, Zhang Qiang was having a headache, but the telegraph system had to be developed. What is important now is the telegraph system in Central Asia and the Western Regions, and tens of billions have to be invested in the construction, where the distance is far away, and the terrain is complicated, which is more complicated than the states in Southeast Asia. .

Moreover, Zhang Qiang is thinking of building a telegraph system in overseas territories, first let them connect on their own sites, and then station navy clippers at some telegraph points. Navy clippers can guarantee sails and steam engines, at least twelve knots per hour The speed, the fastest speed is 1 knots to send the message to the next message transmission point. After several transmissions, the farthest Australia, the second farthest Malacca Strait, only takes seven days to send the telegram to On the coast of the core area, it is sent from the county-level telegraph station on the coast to the state-level telegraph station, and the state is then directly delivered to the next state telegraph station. It is transmitted three times in a row. In a maximum of ten days, the telegram can travel more than [-] kilometers. Others outside Australia are sent to the capital.

This speed is slower than the cargo ships of later generations, and much slower than airplanes, a lot, but compared to the Chinese Empire of this era, it is precisely the clipper warships of the Chinese Empire For frigates to transmit messages, um, flying shear ships, specially improved frigates for transmitting messages, in addition to the basic force equipment, the speed is increased, but the average speed is [-] knots, and the cruising speed is only [-] knots. It's only two knots, and the fastest is seventeen knots. Sometimes it's just a little more than seventeen knots with the wind and the help of the steam engine.

It takes 23 days to travel from Darwin Port to Yanjing of the Chinese Empire at this speed. The fastest speed and the slowest speed take more than 30 days. It takes nearly two months to save at least one-third to two-quarters of the time, which is considered the fastest. up.

After all, a ship is needed to convey the message, and then the telegraph system on the island conveys the message, leaving the sea voyage distance around the island in the middle, and then the news clipper on the other island, and the communication ship will arrive at least half an hour after receiving the telegram. A three-hour delay, if you still have to report, at least half a day of delay, if there are other circumstances, at least half a day or one day of delay, so this is the fastest message delivery speed that the Chinese Empire can achieve now, if it is The telegraph system on land is no longer needed. After several telegram transmissions between states, the distance between thousands of miles is only two or three days, or even a little more than one day. Of course, if there is a delay, it will be three to five days. It was sent to the capital at one o'clock.

However, for the development of the Huaxia Empire, Zhang Qiang doesn't mind spending more money now to increase the speed of message transmission. Therefore, [-] kilometers of telegraph lines have been built, and the key lines are still double-wired. One incoming call, one outgoing call, and the lines are staggered.

On the primary telegraph line, a telegraph line can only communicate one message, and can only transmit one message in one direction, and cannot be transmitted back and forth, because it is too simple. The Huaxia Imperial Academy of Sciences is speeding up the research on a new upgraded version of the telegraph line. and messaging methods.

The railway steam engine train that uses the telegraph transmission method has made great progress in vehicle scheduling. The train schedule can be adjusted at any time, and if something happens in the middle, if the train exceeds the time limit, it can send a telegram to the station along the way. Inquire, and then send the nearest manpower to investigate, which greatly reduces the occurrence of accidents. At the same time, for some faulty cars, they are quickly dragged to the nearby station for repair, which increases the efficiency of the train by at least 30.00%, and the time along the road by 15.00 %, and at the same time increased the speed of the train by 70%. 8% may not be a big deal in short-distance, but in the long-distance view, it takes more than [-] days to arrive at a distance of thousands of miles, so this is an increase of about [-] days. How many more short-distance trains of hundreds of kilometers can run in these eight days or so.

In short, the telegraph not only minimizes the chance of military mobilization, rebellion in various places, and other emergencies, but also can mobilize nearby troops to suppress the rebellion at any time. The telegraph line laid far away from the train railway has greatly improved the speed and mobilization of trains. At the same time, colleagues have also accelerated the development of commercial trade, with goods from the south going to the north and goods from the north going to the south, and the liquidity has been greatly improved.

Moreover, the money account checks the accounts, and the speed of improving the circulation of the Chinese Empire's currency has also been greatly improved.

With the formation of the main line railway, the skeleton of the main line railway was built, and more and more branch lines. The Huaxia Empire was connected by the railway network and also by the telegraph network.

The telegraph network is spreading to the Governor's District on land.

Chapter 110 Buying a Ship

"Hello, I'm Montero, commander of the Spanish Far East Colonial Fleet,"

"Hello, I'm Barcelona, ​​a member of the Spanish Senate,"

Several foreigners wore blue double-breasted coats, Spanish ship-shaped nautical hats, flintlock pistols and command knives hanging from their waists. They were tall, blond and blue-eyed foreigners with a sense of rhythm in their actions and a sense of arrogance. Appeared outside the Jinlingfu Military Academy at the former navy headquarters mansion, followed behind this group was a tall, blond foreigner wearing a cowboy hat and black tuxedo. Standing in front of the steps, Ruan Tian, ​​the navy director who came back from Southeast Asia, greeted them.

A few people exchanged a few words, the translator took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead after laboriously translating for them. Ruan Tian couldn't feel the aggressiveness of the Spanish, but the translator could, so the translator tried to find some translation answers that both parties were satisfied with and introduced them to both parties.

Ruan Tian dealt with it slowly, he was not in a hurry, he knew the situation of the Spaniards, although they occupied the Bengal area and owned the port, but lost almost all the fleet, there was already a lot of criticism in Spain, and the captain of the army had been dismissed. Withdrew back, and [-] backward sailing ships came. Compared with the British sailing warship fleet of more than [-] tons from the west, with a total of [-] ships, the Spaniards were more powerful than him. more anxious.

The foundation was unstable, the battle was defeated, and the strength was not as good as the enemy. Now the country has only sent more than a dozen old sailing warships. A huge warship with a displacement of more than 3000 tons, but whether it was the Spanish sailors in Bangladesh or the fleet of the Chinese Empire, they all laughed and said nothing. That kind of thing may still be useful in Western Europe, but in the East, it has already Been behind for a long, long time.

That kind of combat distance is only 400 meters, solid bullets flying around the giant ship cannon, the top of the previous overseas indigenous people is okay, to deal with the fast running steam warships of the Chinese Empire, or iron-clad warships, maybe surrounded by 180 Within a meter range, the warships of the Huaxia Empire can't beat them, but the warships of the Huaxia Empire are running far away on the sea, let alone a distance of 1000 meters, one can wipe out more than a dozen such warships.

Although the frigate has only 24 cannons, the really important cannons are only two on the deck of the ship, but these two cannons can kill more than a dozen of these sailing battleships over time. battleship.

I don't know what the group of noble councilors from Spain think. The tonnage sent here is relatively large, the artillery is relatively large, and the displacement is relatively large. Where do they belong to the first-class battleship? Do you think you are sure of victory?

But the British are pragmatic. They not only sent two ironclad warships with sails and steam engines, but also big guys with a displacement of more than 3000 tons. Just this small team can easily destroy the [-]-ship giant artillery fleet sent by the Spaniards again.

Putting away some disdainful psychology, Ruan Tian negotiated with these Spanish visitors with difficulty, argued, and then reported it, and then argued again, and then used his brains to suppress it. It took almost a month to reach an agreement. The Spaniards spent about 1000 million The Spanish gold coins of Huaxia Yuan and the Spanish trade agreement allow Spanish ports to be open to merchants of the Huaxia Empire, and allow Chinese merchants to go to the Spanish colonies to stop for supplies, where to do business, and to do business in Spain. They provide translation and guidance, etc. , in exchange for the Huaxia Empire agreeing to sell their warships.

Ten years of sailing warships, wooden, [-] ships, all with a displacement of about [-] tons, the Spaniards used these warships to do business with the Chinese Empire, to deliver news, or to guard the coast of the colony.

The main body of the eight-year iron-clad sail warship is made of wood, but the weapons and equipment must catch up with the current era. For example, one turret-type artillery of the Chinese Empire is installed on the bow, one twelve-pound light artillery, and one at the stern. The others remain unchanged. And those that remained the same were solid-fire artillery that was almost the same as the Spaniards' artillery, but much more advanced than what they brought this time.

At least the combat distance is about 800 meters, the shortest distance is 300 meters, and a little bit at a distance of 700 meters to 550 meters. The artillery ranges from 34-pound to [-]-pound artillery, which is similar to the battle line salvo of guns. A battleship similar to the one they came this time with bottom gun ports.

There are about 35 warships, which can be used to guard the islands and cover the main fleet, to guard the periphery, and to transport troops and fight.

After five years of installing the steam engine prototype developed by the British, the Chinese Empire decommissioned 1000 tons of sailing armored warships, [-] ships, and suffered enough losses from the British. The Spaniards obtained the British steam engine sample, which is equivalent to a simple The boiler has a crude propeller blade, the kind that can be disassembled. These things need to be manufactured by the Chinese Empire. After reading and listening to the introduction, the researchers of the Chinese Empire will soon improve the horsepower, which is equivalent to A [-]-horsepower steam engine powered by a later tank was manufactured, then improved, and installed on the ships of the Chinese Empire Fleet owned by the retired Coastal Navy Guard.

The steam engine can burn charcoal or coal. The charcoal-burning power is only more than 300 horsepower, and the speed of the sailing warship can be increased by one or two knots, which is faster than the 35 warships used by the Spaniards to fight the British. It should be higher, the same as the speed of the British warships fighting against them, which is equivalent to a little bit higher than the British steam engine warships, and the speed of the British warships is similar, and the one with [-] horsepower is three to four knots faster. Speed, but also to ensure more flexible steering at sea.

This kind of steam engine prototype is faster and more flexible than the offshore paddle wheel steam engine of the Chinese Empire, so it was quickly adopted by the Chinese Empire, and a large number of steam paddle steamers were sold to the Spaniards for inland rivers and offshore areas in Bangladesh. For coastal material transportation, more than 500 ships were sold, and more than 100 ships were included in this purchase.

Then there were more than 30 large iron-clad warships retired by the Chinese Empire in the past one or two years. The experimental steam engine warships were sold to the Spaniards. Far away, one is that the supply is unfavorable, and the other is that the repair is unfavorable. Because the failure rate is high, although it has been reduced a lot, there are still problems. Therefore, more than 30 ships were dealt with at a low price to the Spaniards.

Afterwards, the Spaniards selected more than 30 retired 200-ton sailed ironclad warships. They took a fancy to the artillery on these warships of the Chinese Empire. The turret artillery has a large caliber and a long range. In fact, the difference is only a 5.00-[-]% hit rate. If the sea conditions are good and the number of operators is good, the hit rate can be kept from [-]% to [-]%. This kind of artillery hits the wood and iron of the British or Spaniards. Or iron skin, the iron bone battleship is simply shot down, and the destructive power is huge. If it hits below the waterline, it can severely damage the enemy with one shot.

The first thousand and 110 chapter six steam boiler combination discussion

In the transaction with the Spaniards, a total of 90 steam paddle ships with a small tonnage of about 800 to [-] tons were sold, as well as more than [-] sailing warships under [-] tons. The guard team is also preparing to eliminate ships. They will receive nearly [-] large and small tonnage clipper-type sailing warships that have defeated the British and Spaniards, as well as iron skin, iron bone, and iron armor sailing warships, that have been eliminated by the Chinese Imperial Navy. These are simply tasteless to the Coastal Navy Guard who are already looking at steam engine battleships.

But there is no way, their tradition is to receive the retired warships of the Navy, to teach and train sailors and fighters needed by the Navy, to patrol and guard the coastline, and to transport some supplies to overseas fleets and overseas governors At the same time, they maintain the suppression of the strength of the overseas governor's district. They have no choice and income-generating ability, and they have no right to speak in the navy. Yes, they are under the management of the navy director and do not have their own independent department.

They are more sad. Their docks and shipyards are full of nearly thousands of warships that have been eliminated since the founding of the Chinese Empire. An old merchant ship.

Although many obsolete ships were sold or sold to merchants, the merchants also kept pace with the times. In the first 30 years, they almost bought out all the obsolete and decommissioned warships of the Chinese Empire except for war losses. The above warships were sold to the Navy Coast Guard as scraps, and new ships were bought for depreciation, and then they threw the old ones to the Navy Coast Guard.

Year after year, more than 20 years later, the wharves and shipyards of the Navy Coast Guard are full of merchant ships that have been transformed from these warships, as well as retired warships that have not been transformed. But there are still thousands of ships in the shipyard.

If there are still fishermen who want to buy these modified and smaller boats for fishing, the Navy Coast Guard would have gone bankrupt long ago, and the merchants are also very cunning. After they are no longer used, they will not sell what they have, that's all. If it was thrown on the beach, the naval guards had to drag it back for them, so as not to be full of such garbage and waste on the coastal beaches of the Huaxia Empire.

There are still a lot of merchant ships that the merchants don't want. They are all new merchant ships that are worn out and can't be bought at a price, so they are thrown away. The shipbuilding industry of the Chinese Empire is quite developed, just like the car cemetery of the United States in later generations. The same, casually throwing away until the processing capacity of the Huaxia Empire can't meet their throwing actions.

So there are discarded old boats everywhere, and the boats are worthless. This is the common philosophy of all the people in all the state capitals on the coast of the Chinese Empire.

The Spaniards came, of course Zhang Qiang had to sell all these second-hand goods to the Spaniards. He even told Ruan Tian that if he could sell all the old ships and old merchant ships and armed Merchant ships and decommissioned battleships are all sold out, and all [-] steam engine ironclad warships will be refitted for the navy fleet.

Since there are still more than 200 experimental warships in the Huaxia Empire, these warships have a high failure rate. At the beginning, the sailors of the Huaxia Empire were very happy when they saw the steam warships, and felt that it would be more appropriate to replace them. Advanced warships, but within a few months, they found that they were particularly laborious, dirty, bitter, and tired. Serving these steam engine warships that were always faulty, they almost turned into coal mine miners. A voyage Come down, every black coal egg is the same.