On the whole, although the Ming Dynasty is still reducing the army during the war against the United States, from 6 million at its peak to 2 million, and will also reduce it to 1 million active troops, it has decided to start preparing for the establishment of a new reserve force. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The army planned to expand the standing army to 200 armies, and only 30 full-fledged armies were retained in peacetime, and it was the army formed in the late war to serve the country that was the first army to the thirtieth army of the national army, with a full strength of 10,000 troops, and in wartime it was expanded to 20,000 to 30,000 people; The other seventy armies, the 1st to 70th armies, were semi-standing armies, with 5,000 troops retained, totaling 350,000; In addition, on the basis of veterans of the war against the United States, the 71st Army to the 170th Army were formed, a total of 100 new armies, and only the basic structure was retained, and the first army retained 2,000 people, with a total of 340,000 people.

In this way, the standing army was expanded to two hundred corps, but only one million troops were retained.

With the reunification of the country, the reserve human resources tripled, and the army demanded the unification of the manpower of the whole country and the formation of new reserve soldiers, citing the shortage of troops during the war against the United States at that time.

Their method is to recruit 1 million new soldiers every year for training and retirement, and build 10 million reservists in 10 years, and recruit them in wartime, which will completely solve the problem of insufficient troops in wartime.

The annual increase in the training expenses, salaries and material consumption of one million soldiers, the expenditure budget for one soldier is two hundred taels, and the total is two hundred million taels.

After the reunification of China, the fiscal revenue increased, reaching a total of 300 million taels, equivalent to 125 million pounds, which is about the same as the 130 million pounds in the United Kingdom, which is already the limit.

The Manchu Qing ruled areas after tax reform, increased commercial tax, but abolished the past 20 million agricultural tax to buy people's hearts, the north tax revenue is only more than 60 million Ming taels, the vast majority of tax revenue still comes from the industrial south, and the focus is on supporting the development of the north, but the financial expenditure in the north is as high as 150 million.

The expansion of the army alone has already caused a serious deficit in the Ming Dynasty's finances, and it is difficult for the household department to accept the simultaneous expansion of the navy and army.

Although Zhu Jinglun was also worried about the threat from the sea, it was impossible for him to ignore the financial situation, and he was unlikely to support the plan for a large-scale expansion of the navy at this time. As far as Zhu Jinglun is concerned, he does not believe that Japan's naval expansion can pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty, as long as the army is strong enough, a land country like the Ming Dynasty is unlikely to be threatened, and maintaining a large navy is just to safeguard overseas interests.

Moreover, Japan's Double 12 naval expansion plan has only received preliminary support, and the budget has not yet been prepared, and the first phase of the budget has caused domestic controversy, arguing that construction should be delayed, so the threat is only potential.

It was one thing that promoted the passage of the naval expansion case, and the death of Chen Ada, the banner figure of the Ming Navy.

When he was in the United States, he fell ill, and he was lucky not to be injured in the naval battle, but after the naval battle, he basically fell ill, and the subsequent operations were commanded by a group of key officers such as naval officer Deng Shichang, and he did not experience any large-scale naval battles, basically just maintaining the blockade.

The Battle of the Caribbean Sea was objectively evaluated by the Ministry of War, and was considered to be a key battle that determined the direction of the Ming-US War.

Deng Shicai also fell seriously ill after the war, but he quickly recovered his health, while Chen Ada couldn't afford to be sick and remained ill.

Zhu Jinglun went to visit him many times, he kept saying that if he died in the United States, died on the battlefield, it was the best destination, but unfortunately he would die in the hospital bed, he strongly asked to continue to expand the navy, he thought that the Ming navy was too far behind Britain, Britain had built eight battleships, and the Ming did not have one, once Britain and a land power alliance, it was a huge threat to the Ming.

Chen Ada is also worried about the maritime pattern in East Asia, Japan is expanding its navy, Russia is expanding its Pacific Fleet, and Germany has also entered the East Asian region, and the maritime forces in this region will be unprecedentedly complex, and if the Ming Dynasty cannot have an overwhelming maritime force, it will lose its right to speak in this region.

Chen Ada said that the size of the Ming navy should be at least stronger than that of Japan and Russia combined, otherwise it will lose the sea control in East Asia, as for the future, he said that he himself does not see the day when the Ming navy surpasses the British, and perhaps there will never be that day.

For naval officers of this era, Britain has always been an unsurpassed existence.

And Zhu Jinglun knows very well that Chen Ada's obsession is Britain, and he joined the navy to take revenge on Britain, but unfortunately his country has never given him this opportunity.

Chen Ada died of illness in September 1897, he had no children, and his will was written to the Ministry of War, telling the Ministry of War his idea, hoping to pass a bill to ensure that the power of the Ming Navy would not be lost to the Russian Pacific Fleet and the Japanese Navy combined, otherwise the Ming would lose the right to control the sea in East Asia.

Under the tremendous influence of his death, the Ministry of War resubmitted the bill of naval expansion, which was supported by the Ministry of Household and passed, and Zhu Jinglun also did not deny the bill under the influence of emotion.

After the Navy Bill was made public, it did not arouse opposition from domestic public opinion, because the reasons of the Ministry of War were very sufficient, and out of national security considerations, Daming was forced to deal with the challenge of naval expansion.

After the passage of the Ming Naval Act, the neurotic Germany also passed the Act, passing a bill to build eight capital battleships, four of which would be organized as the German Pacific Fleet, with its headquarters in Pusan, but covering the area of Nantong and the German Pacific Colonies.

Germany's explanation to the outside world was that it was to protect the German colonies in the Far East and deal with the Japanese threat.

In 1898, the Russians also announced that they had ordered a battleship from the French shipyard in La Sepe, named the Prince, and announced that the ship would be assigned to the Russian Pacific Fleet, and that it would be the flagship of the Pacific Fleet when it was completed.

At this time, the Americans also announced that they would begin to build their own large navy under the threat of sea power and the Ming Dynasty, and although the United States went north with a heavy debt burden, their strong economic strength still allowed them to build ten battleships, two of which were ordered from the United Kingdom, and the remaining eight were built by their own shipyards.

The naval arms race at the end of the nineteenth century finally broke out.

Under the huge national security threat, in addition to maintaining the expansion of both land and sea, the Ming began to actively seek alliances, Germany should have been the best ally, because an alliance with the Ming could break the pressure of Russia on them, but the proximity of the Ming to Germany was scared away by the huge appetite of the Germans.

Germany hoped that Daming would allow Germany to build a coastal railway line from Nantong to Beiya.

At this time, the French showed enough flexibility, they were more active in reconciling with the Ming Dynasty, showing enough peace sincerity, and the French suggested that France, Russia, and the Ming Dynasty should establish a tripartite coordination mechanism on the situation on the East Asian continent, so as to ensure the security of the East Asian continent.