The news that the Qing Dynasty passed the plan for the tax reform and that Weng Tonggong was preparing to visit East Asian countries immediately spread all over Sijiucheng, and even foreigners were amazed that this was a bold attempt by an ancient empire, blooming with new branches like ancient trees in spring, and all countries expressed close attention.

The Qing Dynasty was now in a relative honeymoon period with the West, the benefits of the Second Opium War had not yet been digested, and the rapidly rising Prussia in Europe challenged the international order, which involved the attention of Britain and France and other powers.

In addition, the news of Zuo Zongtang's westward expedition to Xinjiang had already reached Europe, and the British and French, who had always been at odds with the Russians, would not come to trouble the Qing Dynasty at this time, because they did not want the Russians to overextend their power in Central Asia, because that would affect the interests of Britain and France in the Indian colonies.

Britain, in particular, was even more reluctant to see the Russians take control of Afghanistan, because then the Russians would take a high-level stance against India.

Once the Afghan plateau falls into the sphere of influence of the Russians, then a series of ports close to the northern shore of the Arabian Sea will be dangerous, including Karachi, the famous port of Pakistan in later generations, if the Russian navy has a foothold here, then Britain can only think that the Russians will declare war here, and the security of the Indian shipping route is the most important goal of the empire.

Therefore, the enemy of the enemy is a friend, although the British also tried to get involved in Central Asia, Xinjiang, including Tibet, but in the face of the Russians, a big enemy, the Qing country, a weak little enemy, can let go first, and even help in a short time.

Wouldn't it be easier to wait until the claws of the Russians reaching out to Central Asia were cut off, and then deal with the weak Qing Dynasty?

Therefore, the British attitude towards the tax reform of the Qing Dynasty was very peaceful, and there was no excessive reaction, let alone strong resistance from European financiers, although there were some vigilant calls, but in the face of the great interests of the empire, these calls were suppressed.

When Xiao Lotian got the summary of all the information, the time had already reached 1867, that is, the late autumn of the sixth year of Tongzhi, in mid-October.

Xiao Lotian, who had completed all the negotiations with Japan, had already begun to prepare to leave Osaka Castle with the little emperor, and according to the agreement, the Ryukyu garrison would leave here before the Spring Festival, and the ruling power of Osaka Castle would still be returned to the Japanese government, but the headquarters of the Fuso Bank remained in Osaka Castle, and Xiao Lotian also left a thousand bank guards in the name of mercenaries.

He knew very well the virtues of the Japanese, and if the soldiers were withdrawn, it would not take them two years to forget the pain of being beaten, and then there would be a lot of non-divisive thoughts.

Therefore, Xiao Lotian has to choose to knock these Japanese at all times...... Oh no, now their name should be Fuso, Jae Chun's proposal has been approved by the emperor, although secretly operating to send hundreds of thousands of military funds to the young emperor, but as long as the disgusting name and flag of the future generations can be completely eliminated, then it is worth the amount of money.

"Okay, well, the reaction of the British is really not what I expected, as long as there is no destruction of foreign forces in the first ten years of the twenty-year tax reform, as long as I use ten years to plump up my wings, our plan will be successful......"

"My good apprentice, the new army you want finally has military spending, and I will prepare 80,000 military expenses for you in ten years......

Zaichun couldn't sit still excitedly, he was only eleven years old, and he was already able to pass such an important proposal in the court, and he was not much worse than Kangxi! As long as he worked harder, he might be able to become the real master of Zhongxing in the Qing Dynasty, and his merits surpassed the three generations of emperors of Kang Yongqian, and he could also become the first emperor of the ages!

"It's too little, there are too few masters, can you have more, I want to train 100,000 troops!"

", do you know what an elite soldier is? It's all a money-burning machine, and the ones I provide you with are lifelong professional soldiers, do you think it's the kind of mess that eats in the bag?"

"Silly boy, save some money to spend, you will know to cry when you spend a lot of money in the future!"

Xiao Letian through the campaign in Europe, coupled with the memory of his previous life, is very clear about the military strength of Western countries, take the Franco-Prussian War a few years later as an example, when Prussia mobilized a million troops in the Franco-Prussian War, but the combat strength was only more than 600,000, and the rest were auxiliary arms.

And these more than 600,000 troops are not all professional soldiers, many of them are mobilized conscripts, and the real elite will not exceed 40%, that is, less than 200,000.

Looking at France again, in the entire Franco-Prussian War, the total number of troops invested was less than 600,000, of which the number of combat troops was less than 400,000, even according to the 40% elite ratio, the professional elite army that France could mobilize at that time was less than 200,000.

What kind of countries are Prussia and France? They are both army powers that even Britain cannot match, and yes, Britain's strength lies in the ocean, and Britain's army is indeed far inferior to Prussia and France.

Later historians are very puzzled by France's performance in that war, and it is said that the Second French Empire formed by Napoleon III should not be so weak, why even the fledgling Prussia is not an opponent.

But no matter how much the historiography racks their brains to explore the truth of the year, but if they lose, they lose, even if they add half of the data on the combat power of the French army, the number of elite legions is only more than 200,000.

This is already a veteran power that has experienced the industrial revolution, and the elite raised by the power of the country is only two or three hundred thousand, the reason is actually very simple, the elite army is too expensive, not only needs a high salary, but also needs to upgrade weapons and equipment at any time, which is the big head of gold swallowing.

Once the musket and artillery technology is upgraded, these main forces must immediately reequip to ensure combat effectiveness, and reequip 200,300,000 or even 400,000 elite legions in one go.

The situation in the Qing Dynasty was more complicated than in Europe, because there was no comprehensive military reform, so the military system of the Qing Dynasty was very chaotic, and the Eight Banners, the Green Battalion, the local regimental training, and the Hunan army that had turned into a regular army have never had accurate figures for one person and one account.

According to historical records, Qing Dynasty officials told the Prussian envoys that the Qing Dynasty had a standing army of more than 2 million, and the frightened Prussian officials were dumbfounded, and then boasted to the British that the Qing Dynasty's standing army reached more than 1.8 million, but the British were not so easy to fool.

If calculated according to the numbers on paper, it is really not bragging that the Qing Dynasty had 2 million troops, but the key is that many local regimental exercises have also been calculated, and those local regimental exercises are simply unable to fight large-scale national wars, at best, they are to carry out garrison tasks in the local area, and they cannot complete the war tasks of the army in the modern sense.

The actual number of troops in the Qing Dynasty is actually three, one is the Eight Banners, the second is the Green Battalion, and the third is the Hunan Army and the Huai Army trained by the Hanchens.