"Converting the budget of 8.6 million Han Yuan for ship purchase and personnel training, the royal family will take out 2 million Han won, the Ministry of Finance will allocate 5 million Han won, and the remaining 1.6 million Han Yuan will be transferred from the special funds of the Navy."

At the end of 1879, Zhang Zhenxun gave Li Mingyuan assets worth 31 million taels of silver in the name of his daughter's marriage, which was invested in the palace and the development and construction of heavy industry, and the working capital that could be used was about 10 million taels of silver, and 1 million taels (that is, 2 million Han Yuan) were drawn from the 10 million taels of silver to support the development of the navy, which was moderate and did not affect the follow-up use plan of the reserve funds.

"There is a surplus of funds collected during the internal rectification period, and the government can squeeze in the budget again, and within two years, 5 million won can be allocated to support the navy's ship purchase plan."

Liu Pu said on behalf of the government department.

"If the navy thinks about it, it can also get together 1.6 million won."

"Very good, the problem of ship purchase funds has been solved, on the construction of the navy itself, Chen Sen, Li Han, Feng Guoan, do you have any other comments and suggestions to add?"

"Your Majesty, since you want to expand the scale of the naval ship force, should the construction of the naval base, the establishment of the base garrison force, and the establishment of the Marine Corps also be expanded accordingly?"

"There is no doubt that the naval base will change as the fleet grows."

"As Your Majesty said, the naval forces of the homeland are the navies of Chile and the Republic of Brazil, and perhaps the US Navy will be added later, and in order to cope with the changes brought about by the increase in the naval strength of the Republic of Chile and the Republic of Brazil, the minister believes that it is necessary to follow the example of Britain and France and set up three base management commands in the home area, with full authority to command the naval management affairs in the Atlantic and Pacific directions, and share the management pressure of the commanders of the surface forces."

"Have you prepared a specific plan for the construction and management of the base?"

"There is already a preliminary plan."

Chen Sen explained: "The naval base construction plan is expected to be completed in nine years, from this year to 1890, the three naval bases to assist the ship formation to manage a total of 40 main warships, the base personnel including 5,500 officers and men of the surface ships, 4,500 marines, 10,000 base ship maintenance and garrison troops, every two years, a comprehensive exercise of joint cooperation between the base, the ships and the marines, to enhance the comprehensive combat capability of the base and the ship formation." ”

"Haha, where is the base construction plan you proposed, I think it includes all matters related to the navy."

Li Mingyuan laughed and did not make a clear statement on the plan proposed by Chen Sen.

"The construction of the base is closely related to the overall plan of the navy, and when formulating the base construction plan, it is inevitable that other aspects of the navy development will be involved."

"I understand your feelings."

Li Mingyuan waved his hand, stopped laughing, and explained: "The navy is different from the army, it belongs to high-tech arms, and the daily maintenance of warships and the monthly salary of officers and men are all huge expenses compared with the army.

Compare the Manchu Division, the Toei Fleet, and the Home Navy, which are also latecomers.

In terms of the Qing court's naval divisions, the annual income of the naval admiral was about 8,400 taels of silver; The annual income of the chief soldier of the navy is about 3,960 taels of silver; The vice admiral's annual income is about 3,240 taels of silver; The annual income of the admiral is about 2,640 taels of silver.

The monthly salary of a first-class sailor is 10 taels of silver; The monthly salary of the first-class gunner is 20 taels of silver; The monthly salary of the shore handyman is 3 taels of silver; The torpedo maker was paid 24 taels of silver per month; The monthly salary of the signal soldier is 30 taels of silver.

The annual income of a farmer in mainland China is about 40 taels of silver; The annual income of an ordinary worker in Shanghai and Yangcheng in the developed coastal areas is about 50 taels of silver, and the average military salary of the officers and men of the Qing navy is nearly 10 times that of the ordinary people in the mainland. ”

Li Mingyuan went on to recount the intelligence officers gathered from the Far East.

"Since 1874, the Meiji government of Toei has promulgated a new standard for the salaries of naval officers and soldiers: the annual salary of a naval admiral is 6,000~8,000 yen; The annual salary of a vice admiral is 4400~5500 yen; Rear Admiral, Medical Director, and Comptroller General are 3,600~4,600 yen; Navy adjutant at all levels is about 1280~3000 yen; The number of naval lieutenants at all levels is about 400~980 yen; The average sailor's salary is 7 yen (100 yen or 1 yen) per day, which translates to 25.55 yen as an adult's salary.

According to the economic data released by the Dongying government last year, the average ordinary Japanese household can save more than 10 yen a year, and the ratio of yen to Chinese won is 1 to 0.75, and more than 10 yen is at the level of eight or nine Chinese won in the mainland, which is not worth two months' income of ordinary local workers, and their living standards are not as good as those of the Chinese people in the mainland. Because of the small size of the country and the poverty of the land, Dongying could only choose to squeeze the interests of the common people as much as possible to develop the navy, while although the local navy used land as the main military subsidy, the standard of military salaries for the officers and men of the navy was one-third lower than that of Dongying, but the proportion of the amount of funds spent each year on the maintenance of warships and the training of naval technicians and officers and soldiers was far higher than that of the Dongying and Qing navies.

At the beginning of this year, the Navy submitted a budget of 1.78 million Han Yuan, and it is expected that in the next 10 years, the proportion of the Navy's military spending will increase by no less than 5 percent. ”

"How does Your Majesty think it is appropriate to change it?"

"The number of the three main bases remains unchanged, the number of main warships will increase to 26 within ten years, the number of ship units will be reduced to 4,500, the size of the Marine Corps will be roughly in accordance with your plan, the staffing will be maintained at about 4,000 people, and the number of personnel attached to the base will gradually increase to 7,000."

Li Mingyuan slightly reduced the naval expansion plan proposed by Chen Sen, reminding: "Although the Germans took the initiative to contact us and were willing to help build warships on the mainland, their intentions were mainly for the interests of Germany itself, so I intend to select a group of personnel from within the government and from the navy to form a joint military investigation team, which will be mainly responsible for supervising the Volkeng shipyard, and require the Germans to build two battleships in strict accordance with our improved plan, and not to make experimental changes." ”

"Your Majesty is assured that the navy will select suitable personnel and ask the German side to start the formal construction of the local warships after completing the construction plan of the two warships of the Qing court."

"The Germans will most likely bully the Qing court for not understanding the way of warship construction, and use two warships purchased by the Qing court as experimental objects to verify and improve their warship construction technology.

Li Han echoed.

"After the military inspection delegation arrives in Europe, in addition to supervising the construction of warships, it will also assign some personnel to inspect the military situation of the armies and navies of various European countries, so as to make a comparative reference for the military development of the mainland." …………