The British Navy is constantly exercising, groping for ways to defeat China in a disadvantaged state, and the Chinese naval division is also constantly exercising, and the superior forces in hand do not need to be explored, but only need to be integrated, so the exercises of the Chinese naval division are more joint exercises with the navies of the allies and dependent countries, and strive to quickly give full play to their combat effectiveness in joint operations after the outbreak of war.

Compared to the active efforts of the Navy, the Army was relatively stagnant because it really did not need so many troops to cope with the war. China is so big, with a population of 600 million people alone, which is the result of slow growth, while Europe's population has swelled to 360 million, which was only 190 million in 1800, which is much faster than China's, but still Chinese population more than the entire European population.

Over the years, diplomatic operations have made China no longer need to confront the whole of Europe, and even the European countries that need to be confronted have become fewer and fewer, and at present, on land, even only need to deal with France, which is still the case that France is on the side of Britain, in fact, Sino-French relations have been good, but the general trend of diplomacy has allowed China to begin to enter with Germany. Germany's army strength can already overwhelm France, and the Chinese army can achieve a land victory without even using its hands, so it is completely unnecessary to maintain a large army.

Therefore, the funds invested in the army have been limited in recent years, and the number of reserve soldiers in rural areas has been maintained at 9 million, and the increase is limited to the cities, but the proportion of urban reserve soldiers is even lower, and only 3 million urban reserve troops are equipped, so that the reserve troops are as high as 12 million, and the standing army is maintained at the scale of 1 million, and the combat troops are still the establishment of 13 armies, with a total number of 300,000 people, as border troops, stationed in border areas; The auxiliary army was renamed the government soldiers, and it also became a standing army, stationed in the interior, with an establishment of 30 armies and a total strength of 600,000 troops; In addition, there were three armies of the Shuai Battalion, with a total strength of 100,000 troops, and the garrison of the emperor and the imperial palace.

Due to the expansion of the reserve army and the increase in inflation and income levels over the years, the army division's military expenditure has increased from 120 million taels in the past to 300 million taels of gold, which is equivalent to only 15 million taels of gold, which is not much compared with the financial revenue of up to 300 million taels of gold.

In the context of the naval competition, the funds of the naval division have surpassed that of the land division, reaching 30 million taels of gold, equivalent to more than 150 million pounds. The total military expenditure amounted to more than 14 percent of the fiscal expenditure. Of course, this is much lower than the situation in which European countries tend to approach one-third of their total fiscal expenditure. However, in addition to the expenditure on education for universal education and the welfare expenditure of the gradually established social welfare system, it is still somewhat financially unable to maintain half of the military expenditure.

Therefore, Lu Shi believes that the reason why Lu Shi has not been expanded is that the Navy Division has taken up too much money and is becoming more and more dissatisfied with the Water Division.

There seem to be contradictions between all countries in the world, the navy and the army, and the biggest contradiction is often the struggle for funding and dominance.

Maritime powers are often dominated by the navy, such as the United Kingdom, and continental countries are often dominated by the army, and China has always been like this, but in recent years, with the expansion of maritime interests, the navy's voice has been continuously improved, which has caused dissatisfaction among the land divisions, and dissatisfaction will put pressure on the naval divisions.

And every time there is a war, it is basically agreed to by the land division, but the navy's military expenditure not only exceeds that of the land division, but also more than twice that of the land division, which makes the land division constantly sarcastic about the water division, calling the naval division a water monkey who eats nothing and eats nothing. Public opinion is also dissatisfied with the increasing military spending of the naval division, and the pressure on the naval division is very great.

Therefore, they shared the pressure through their allies, let South Africa and other dependent countries build a considerable navy, and then continue joint exercises with the navies of these countries to help the navies of these countries form combat strength as soon as possible, so that in the future, Chinese naval divisions can cooperate in operations.

In East Asia, we are conducting joint exercises with the Japanese and North Korean navies, in the Indian Ocean with the Indian fleet of African companies, in West Africa with the navy of the Kingdom of South Africa, in the Americas with the navy of the American company, the largest of the largest exercises, with the navy of European companies in the Mediterranean, and with the navy of the Kingdom of Greece.

In addition, the market was mobilized on a large scale, and the navy of the Kingdom of South Africa was transferred to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, and because large warships could not pass through the Suez Canal, European companies were even forced to upgrade the Suez Canal five years ago, after the appearance of 20,000-ton ironclad ships, and it took three years to widen and deepen the Suez Canal.

It seems that the British Navy has set the main battlefield in the Mediterranean, and at the beginning of the war, it will use absolute superiority to destroy China's naval bases in the Mediterranean, destroy bases in Sicily, Crete, and Egypt, and block the Suez Canal and the Turkish Strait.

The British Navy does not attempt to enter the Black Sea or the Indian Ocean, but it must have control in the Mediterranean, and then it will attack from all sides and launch a broken engagement.

At the beginning of the war, the Chinese naval division planned to rely on the bases in the Mediterranean Sea to quickly destroy the British bases in the Mediterranean, including Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea and Malta in the middle of the Mediterranean, and then concentrate their forces to capture the British bases in the Strait of Gibraltar and completely open the passage to the Atlantic.

The forces that China can rely on in the Mediterranean include Egypt and Greece, which do not have an alliance treaty but in fact have allies that they can win with absolute certainty, as well as overseas companies such as European companies, and have formed a situation of encirclement around British naval bases.

In Cyprus, the Ottoman Empire in the north has become increasingly dependent on Chinese support to maintain its rule in recent years, although the Ottoman Empire no longer has a decent navy, but after expelling the country's non-Muslim population, their social contradictions have greatly declined, and the Sultan's willingness to reform is also stronger, but gradually transformed into a modern country, and the industrial revolution appeared. His port facilities, in times of war, were perfectly at the disposal of China.

The Manchu Empire has completely declined, as early as 30 years ago in the world war, the army of the Manchu Empire showed a state of decay, when the population of the Manchu Empire was only 50 or 60 million people, 30 years later, the pure agricultural rule, although the Manchu Qing national strength is getting weaker and weaker, but the population has increased to the north, reaching 100 million people, and successfully made the country an agrarian country, the number of nomadic population has dropped to less than 10%. However, the way in which the agrarian society was ruled seriously affected the development of the industrial revolution. If you want to run an industry here, you have to deal with the insatiable extortion of officials, and a large number of official and merchant groups such as salt merchants and thirteen merchants have been formed, but modern industry and commerce have no chance to develop at all. Because the immature industry needs protection, not looting. Under the onslaught of Greek and Chinese goods from the surrounding area, the Manchu industry struggled.

And as the population reached 100 million, basically all the materials were consumed, and it was impossible to accumulate industrial capital. As the population grows, the population gets poorer and poorer. The land is getting smaller and smaller, and the arable land per capita is getting smaller and smaller. As an agrarian nation, the population of the Eight Banners of Han and Persia accounts for ninety percent, and the population of the Eight Banners of Han is as high as 60 million, completely becoming an absolutely dominant ethnic group. However, peasant uprisings and other rebellious phenomena peculiar to the Han Chinese also began to emerge one after another. Today's Manchu Empire has actually taken on the state of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and a peasant uprising sweeping the country could occur at any time.

The biggest reason why the Taiping Rebellion did not break out in the Manchu Empire was that the external environment was relatively friendly, and because of the Sino-British struggle for hegemony, a large country like the Manchu Qing Dynasty had never been brutally invaded by European powers. By maintaining an alliance with Greece and maintaining good relations with China, the Manchus controlled their tariffs, albeit modest rates, but the corruption of customs officials made it difficult for goods from other countries outside of China and Greece to flow into the Manchus on a large scale.

The ports of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, in the direction of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, were mainly controlled by African companies, while those facing the Mediterranean Sea were operated by the Greeks, of course, the customs were operated by the Manchus, but the port terminals were operated by African companies and Greek merchants. Therefore, these ports have maintained a relatively good infrastructure, and ports such as Ceyhan in the Mediterranean, after the war, will quickly become the best base for Chinese sailors to attack Cyprus, which is close at hand.

With the Ottoman and Manchu empires to the north, Crete and Egypt to the south, Egyptian-controlled Syria to the east, and Greece to the west, Cyprus can be said to be surrounded by Chinese power.

The British were in Malta in the middle of the Mediterranean, separated from Sicily by a strait to the north, Tripoli controlled by Egypt to the south, and only Tunisia to the west was controlled by France.

Once the war began, the Chinese sailors were confident that the first time to capture Cyprus, the British army in Malta would either be destroyed, or they could only hide in French territory, or retreat to Gibraltar.

It can be said that Britain's bases in the Mediterranean are all surrounded by China, which has spent decades weaving a cage for the British Navy, and is now constantly closing the net around this cage to compress the space for the British Navy's activities.

However, both sides know that war will definitely break out, but no one knows when it will break out and with what fuse.

Because there is no special reason, in fact, no one dares or wants to shoot the first shot, after all, the trade relationship between the two countries is actually very close, Britain is China's largest trading partner, China is also Britain's largest trading partner, but the two countries are also each other's biggest competitors.

Without enough reason, whoever shoots rashly will put himself in a disadvantageous position, even if he is as strong as the crown prince, he will not dare to risk the entrenched resistance to British trade interests at home and rashly break the trade ties with Britain.

Because of this relationship, there are even some optimists who have been making such noises that it is impossible to have a war in today's situation where the economies of various countries are extremely close, because if a war breaks out between any country, it will actually kill itself while killing each other.

This argument was actually what some people thought before the First World War, but it appeared forty years earlier in this era of fierce competition.

But will war really not break out?