Seeing that Pretorius was silent, Kryuger was a little anxious, the Transvaal's railways, gold mines, and foreign trade were all in the hands of the Qing people, if the currency was in the hands of the Qing people, what could the Boers have left?

Glancing at Yi Zhi, who was in the presence of the old god, he said in a deep voice: "My country is preparing to issue its own currency. ”

"China has implemented the gold standard, and overseas Chinese dollars are directly linked to gold, and they can be freely exchanged with gold anytime and anywhere." Yi Zhixiang glanced at him, and then looked at Pretorius, "This policy will inevitably greatly enhance the status of Huayuan in your country, if, for workers' wages, railway freight tickets and foreign trade are all settled in Huayuan, it is necessary for your country to issue a new currency?" ”

Hearing this, Kryuger couldn't help but be dumbfounded, if this is the case, the Chinese dollar will inevitably become the most popular currency in the Transvaal, and with the boycott of the banks, the Chinese yuan will easily gain a monopoly position in the Transvaal.

"We agree." Pretorius no longer hesitated, and replied in a firm tone. He knew very well that the Transvaal was powerless to resist at all, not to mention that the Transvaal did not have its own financial system, and even if it did, even if it could issue its own currency, it would not be able to compete with Huayuan, because the Transvaal's economy, transportation, industry, foreign trade and other lifelines were all in the hands of the Qing people.

And with the strength of the Qing State, it is impossible to allow European countries to get involved in the Transvaal, they have no other choice at all, as mentioned before, it is impossible to borrow large amounts from Europe, if they really dare to borrow funds from Europe, Yuan Qi may not even pay the mining tax.

It's really urgent, the Qing State may directly annex the Transvaal!

For the sake of the Transvaal, the world's largest gold mine with reserves of tens of thousands of tons, the Qing State has already fought two wars with European countries, what else can not be done?

After a pause, he continued: "However, we urgently need a huge amount of money for post-war economic recovery and post-war reconstruction, and we need at least 200 million Chinese dollars in low-interest loans. ”

Yi Zhixiang didn't have the patience to talk about the specific loan amount and interest, and immediately pointed to Zhao Liewen, "The number of loans, interest, repayment methods and other details will be discussed with you in detail by Mr. Zhao and Shopkeeper Hu." With that, he stood up and paced out of the hall, and asked the secretary outside the door, "Shopkeeper Hu hasn't come here yet?" Hurry up. ”

As soon as the words fell, he saw Yi Zhengxing and Hu Guangyong coming together, he couldn't help but smile, slowly paced forward, and said: "Negotiations have begun, the Transvaal has agreed that Huayuan will become the only legal currency in the Transvaal, and Xue Yan went in to talk to them about the details of a large low-interest loan." ”

Hu Guangyong, who was waiting, saluted and walked into the hall, and then he looked at Yi Zhengxing and said, "Let them talk, let's go." ”

The two walked along the bluestone path of the lotus pond, and Yi Zhengxing was silent for a while before he spoke: "It seems that the sonar technology has not yet made a breakthrough, and the fleet has not been able to detect submarines under the surface of the sea when it goes to sea. ”

"It's not just sonar that can detect submarines," Yi Zhishu said slowly, "and planes." ”

Plane? Yi Zhengxing was stunned for a moment, "Aircraft are developing so fast?" Can you fly long distances? ”

"It's a new plane, a helicopter." Yi Zhizhi said unhurriedly: "Helicopters can take off and land vertically, they can take off and land on the deck of warships, and when the fleet goes to sea, as long as they carry a few helicopters, they can monitor submarines within tens of kilometers on the sea surface." ”

An aircraft that can take off and land on the deck of a battleship? Yi Zhengxing was speechless for a long time, how did he come up with this? It is no wonder that Yuan Qi spared no effort to support the research of aircraft, and moved the aircraft research institute to Xi'an after a little success, and realized the military value of aircraft from the beginning.

No wonder Yi Zhengxing was surprised, as a new thing, the debut of the aircraft in Shanghai has attracted the attention of the whole world, but no one has linked the aircraft with the military, let alone the helicopter with vertical take-off and landing, according to the historical trajectory, the helicopter was invented thirty or forty years later than the airplane.

Yi Zhishu is the most clear about the use of helicopters, therefore, after the aircraft research institute moved to Xi'an, it was clearly proposed to develop a helicopter, in fact, the principle of the helicopter is the Qing Dynasty folk children's toy - bamboo dragonfly, also known as flying spiral.

With the strong research strength of the Aircraft Research Institute and the huge financial support of Yuanqi, coupled with several sketches drawn by Yi Zhishu himself, Xi'an successfully developed the first improvised helicopter in less than two years.

Yi Zhizu knows very well that building aircraft carriers is still very unrealistic, but it is not difficult to build large warships that can carry helicopters, and the key to the problem is to be able to build armed helicopters with actual combat value.

For the warships of the navies of European countries that do not yet have any awareness of prevention and control, even helicopter gunships are enough to deal a devastating blow to large battleships and cruisers! Of course, there should be enough helicopters, and besides, he also envisioned using helicopters to launch torpedoes, which would be even more difficult to prevent!

Yi Zhengxing was worried that after the sale of submarines and torpedoes to Germany, the naval advantage would be weakened, and now when he heard that he could use a battleship to carry a helicopter with vertical lifting, he suddenly completely relieved himself, and changed the topic: "Father deliberately provoked the contradiction between Britain and France and Germany and Austria?" ”

"It's not okay not to provoke conflicts between them." Yi Zhizu sighed lightly, and then said slowly: "England has dominated the seas for more than a hundred years, has vast and rich colonies overseas, and its strength in finance, economy, industry and other aspects is far above our country, how can it be willing to be surpassed by our navy?"

Even if our country stops expanding abroad and blindly keeps its head in obscurity, Britain will inevitably regard our country as the greatest threat and will provoke at the first opportunity.

If we can stimulate the contradictions between Britain and France and Germany and Austria, or even provoke a war in Europe, our country can develop with peace of mind and have the opportunity to surpass Britain in an all-round way.

In terms of weapons research and development, China has always been a world leader, and as long as the secrecy measures are tight, this advantage should be maintained for another 30 years, that is to say, China must strive to catch up with England in all aspects during these 30 years.

In my opinion, sooner or later there will inevitably be a big war between the East and the West, and our country must seize the opportunity to enhance our comprehensive strength and war strength. ”

Yi Zhengxing hesitated: "Can't you maintain the advantage of weapon research and development?" ”

Hearing this, Yi Zhizhi was silent for a long time, the reason why Daqing has been able to maintain a huge advantage in weapon research and development is entirely because of his existence against the sky, after all, his knowledge is far from being comparable to the people of this world, but many things are not something that can be drummed up in this era.

"Of course you can, but it's very difficult." He said slowly: "Unless our country can cultivate a large number of top scientific and technological talents, sooner or later, it will be caught up by Western countries."

In terms of modern scientific and technological innovation, China's heritage is lacking after all, because China's modern education started dozens of years or hundreds of years later than Europe, which is difficult to make up for in a short time.

Disraeli made a speech saying that science and technology are an important force for national defense, which is true, but there are limitations, science and technology are not only an important force for national defense, but also the primary productive force, you must remember that at any time, our country must put the development of science and technology in the first place, which means that we must put education and training of personnel in the first place. ”

Yi Zhengxing said solemnly: "The son will definitely remember his father's teachings for the rest of his life!" ”

"Hmm." Yi Zhishu nodded, walked forward leisurely, and walked for a distance before he said: "Sushun will form a cabinet next year, can you have ideas?" ”

Yi Zhengxing chuckled and said: "My son thinks that my father should be the prime minister." ”

"I'm used to being lazy for my father, and I don't want to be bound by that." Yi Zhishu said slowly: "Su Shun has formed a cabinet, and I plan to add a few new departments for my father, and you can pick one at that time." ”

"The son obeys his father's arrangement." Yi Zhengxing nodded, but he was thinking in his heart, judging from this arrangement, Su Shun should also be re-elected for two consecutive terms.

Qiongzhou Mansion, Yulin Port.

Yulin Port is the first batch of ports in the Qing Dynasty to be included in the military port, because of the geographical location and port conditions are good, has always been one of the key construction of military ports, after 30 years of uninterrupted construction, Yulin Military Port has become one of the largest military ports in the South Seas, but also one of the bases of the South Ocean Fleet.

The harbor is densely moored with ironclad ships of various European countries of different sizes, needless to say, all of them are ironclad ships from five European countries captured from Maputo.

With the stationing of these ironclad ships and the stationing of more than 10,000 German naval and land officers and soldiers, Yulin Port, which has always been quite deserted, has also become lively.

A cruiser flying the golden dragon flag slowly sailed into the harbor after being checked, and the German minister in the Qing Dynasty, Mu Mo, stood on the deck with some excitement and looked at all the ironclad ships in the harbor, as long as the domestic payment came, these ironclad ships would be incorporated into the fleet of the Royal German Navy!

He hurried to the Yulin Military Port this time, and he did not have anything to do, but only to inspect and learn about the situation of the officers and men of the army in Yulin in all aspects, and he attached great importance to this military exchange between Germany and Qingqing, and he naturally did not dare to slack off when the naval units arrived in the future.

The German camp was located on the west side of the port, and the headquarters was a two-story red-brick building. Karl stood in front of a large map of Asia with his pipe in hand, and the map clearly outlined the territory of the Qing Dynasty in red pen.

Frederick. Karl was not a prisoner of war, but came to participate in the military exchanges between the German and Qing armies on behalf of the army.

Chief of Staff James pointed to the Siberia in the north with his hand and said: "This huge area is basically no man's land, and the same is true of Alaska in North America, the climate is very cold, covered with ice and snow all year round, it is difficult to survive, and it is completely barren. I don't know why Yuan Qi spent a huge amount of money to buy two wastelands from the Russians. ”

"That was to cut off the Russians' invasion of the east and look east for an outlet to the sea." Frederick. Karl said slowly: "At the same time, it is equivalent to eliminating the possibility of the Russians invading from the north, such a vast wasteland, even with sufficient supplies, it is difficult to cross. ”

James said: "There is no doubt that this is a huge empire that is larger than the whole of Europe, and it is undoubtedly of great benefit to our country to be able to form an alliance with such an empire. ”

Frederick. Karl said in a deep voice: "The Qing people are not allied with our country, they just want to use our country to contain England. ”

"Your Highness has seen it thoroughly." As he spoke, Mu Mo walked in slowly, and Rear Admiral Bendeman followed closely behind and helped to introduce: "This is Mu Mo, the minister to the Qing Kingdom. ”

"His Royal Highness is worthy of being one of the four great founders of the country, with excellent vision." Mu Mo said and bowed slightly, "It's an honor to meet Your Highness." ”

What the Four Founding Masters, Frederick. Carl didn't have a smile on his face, Standton battle, 40,000 troops were almost wiped out, and now Baba came to Qingguo for military exchanges, he was a little depressed in his heart, and asked: "You have been in Qingguo for a long time, and you should understand Qingguo's intentions more when you think about it." ”

"The Qing Dynasty itself has a weak industrial base, and the north has suffered from a major drought for five consecutive years, so it needs time to recuperate and develop industry." Mu Mo said slowly: "This time I deliberately befriended our country, deliberately ceded the English Bechuana to our country, and sold the captured ironclad ships to our country, and did not hesitate to sell torpedoes and submarine technology.

There is only one purpose, to stimulate the contradictions between China and Britain and France, provoke war in Europe, and buy time for the recovery and development of the Qing Dynasty. ”

Bendman hesitated: "Isn't the Qing State worried that after our country has obtained a large number of torpedoes and submarines, it will join forces with Britain and France to attack the Qing Kingdom in turn?" ”

"Attacking the Qing Kingdom?" Frederick. Karl turned and pointed to the map on the wall, "You should carefully study the territory, population, economy, industry, transportation, religion, military service system, etc. of the Qing Kingdom.

European countries have always said that China has a huge war mobilization capacity and war potential, and compared with the Qing Dynasty, China may not even be half.

Even if our five European countries join forces again, and they use all their forces to attack the Qing State, there is absolutely no chance of victory, and it will definitely be a long-term and continuous war of attrition with heavy losses, and no country will fight such a war because it cannot afford it. ”

After a pause, he continued: "The only possibility is to attack the Transvaal again, but who dares to guarantee that there will be no more advanced torpedoes and submarines in the Qing Kingdom?" Or is it a means capable of intercepting torpedoes and detecting submarines?

I am sure that since the Qing State dares to sell these technologies to our country, it will inevitably have the certainty of dealing with it, even if the Qing State is eager to provoke war in Europe to buy time for development, it is impossible to pay the price of weakening its own naval superiority, no country will make such a stupid decision! ”

"Your Highness is right." Mu Mo echoed: "There is no religious problem in the Qing country, the population is as high as 500 million, and the territory is vast, the resources are abundant, and the railways are developed, in terms of war mobilization ability and war potential, no country can compare. ”