The French navy is the second largest in the world, and it is definitely not boastful, they have 38 ironclads, 9 coastal defense ironclads, 50 cruisers, gunboats and 60 torpedo boats, with a total tonnage of half a million tons. The pen is www.biquge.info and the soldiers are well-trained, with a wealth of experience in the colonies. During the Franco-Prussian War, although the army was defeated, the French navy blocked the German coast from beginning to end, and took advantage of it.

In comparison, the main ironclad ships of the Ming Navy are only four, eight second-class ironclad ships, and twenty armored cruisers, with a total tonnage of 100,000 tons. In recent years, it has been mired in financial difficulties and has not been able to expand its naval armaments, and it is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of naval strength. Therefore, once a war starts, the battle will be dominated by land battles, and naval battles will be based on defense.

If you want to really make France feel the pressure and make them feel a personal sense of crisis, then you must be able to compete with France in the navy. Otherwise, it was just a colonial war, and there was no gain or loss to the French mainland, and if they win, they would expand the colonies, and if they lost, they would just give up, and there would be no threat to the French mainland. The Ming Dynasty won, but it only kept Vietnam, and if it was defeated, it might be invaded by the French army. Therefore, due to the gap in the navies, the current strategic posture of the two countries is not equal.

Therefore, as a strategic consideration to make the Ming "able to fight", warships must be urgently built at this time, even if they can't catch up with the war, but the deterrent effect on the French must be there.

Therefore, Zhu Jinglun suggested that the provisional budget of the navy be increased, the navy should be allocated emergency funds, and 10 first-class ironclad ships and 20 second-class ironclad ships should be built, so as to bring the number of ironclad ships of the Ming Navy on a par with that of France. The shipbuilding industry developed in the Ming Dynasty in recent years has the ability to provide technical support for the construction of warships.

"But where is the money going to be?"

Chen Zhiting said worriedly, the disaster relief operation, so that the government has a heavy debt burden, and the Ming government is unwilling to borrow foreign debts, so in the past few years, after paying off foreign debts and selling the railway company to pay off debts, it has repaid 100 million taels for two consecutive years, and now the accumulated foreign debts have dropped to 800 million taels, equivalent to one billion customs taels.

However, the main debt is the domestic debt, which not only has not decreased, but has also increased from 500 million customs taels to 800 million customs taels, equivalent to 600 million taels, and the foreign debts owed are actually only 200 million taels.

It's just that the Ming government has adopted the practice of issuing domestic debts to repay foreign debts, and has withdrawn too much hard currency from the Ming economy, which has reached the limit that the financial system can bear, and is issuing large debts, which may affect the stability of the currency.

"Borrow money from the British!"

Zhu Jinglun suggested.

Chen Zhiting did not want to borrow foreign debts, because he was worried about the Japanese government, and because he saw that many countries were under the control of foreign powers because they owed debts to Britain and France, so he avoided foreign debts.

"Do we have to pay foreign debts?"

Chen Zhiting sighed.

Zhu Jinglun smiled: "It's not just about borrowing money. If we can borrow money from Britain, the more money we borrow, the more Britain will have to support us, and this is politically beneficial. ”

Isn't the reason why the United States participated in World War I because Britain and France owe too much money to the United States, and if Britain and France are defeated and the United States will have to go bankrupt, the United States will have no choice.

If you can borrow money from Britain, it is a diplomatic victory in itself, and if you can borrow enough money to influence the attitude of the British government, it rises to a political victory.

Taking advantage of the fact that Britain still supports the Ming in its attitude, it may not be impossible to borrow money from the British when it promises them high interest rates, and once the British resist the pressure of France and allow the Ming to raise funds in the London market, then they will have to slowly lean to the side of the Ming, at least they will not help France.

Chen Zhiting nodded: "You can talk to the British." Don't know how much to borrow? ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "The more the merrier!" ”

Chen Zhiting still doesn't want to borrow money in his heart, this is not a matter of face, and the trouble of borrowing money with taxes as collateral is too great. In the past few years, half of the food and clothing have been repaid, and all walks of life have raised taxes, and now the market is sluggish, and the people have long been complaining, borrowing money, how to repay, raising taxes, isn't it tyranny.

He returned to Shangshu Province and stayed up all night, and the next day he discussed the matter with the Hubu Shangshu, and Zhang Jingxiu, the Hubu Shangshu, did not advocate borrowing, and determined that the French army did not enter Vietnam more than 10,000, and the emperor wanted to borrow money to build warships, I am afraid that the emperor was too worried, and the Ming Dynasty and Vietnam were connected by land, and the decisive battle should be on land, not at sea, but the emperor wanted to build warships.

Zhang Jingxiu believes that if only the army is used, there is no need to borrow foreign money.

Chen Zhiting felt that it was not unreasonable, and found the Ministry of War Shangshu Luo Xuanyan, Luo Xuanyan also thought that the decisive battle should be on land, at this time the treasury was empty, and the war was imminent, if the peace could not be maintained, it was inevitable to compete with legal persons on land, and it was indeed not the time to build a warship, and Luo Xuanyan was worried that even if a warship was built in a short period of time, it may not be able to form combat effectiveness, and it may not be able to form an army.

After Chen Zhiting consulted with many people, he still decided that he should not borrow, but he rejected the emperor's opinion in person, which made him very uncomfortable.

Fortunately, there was a long delay.

It's been October for a while, Zhu Jinglun is strange here, why Chen Zhiting has no news at all, and if he borrows money or not, he has to explain it.

Not being able to borrow money from the UK, and getting some ambiguous verbal support from the British, is really unsettling.

So he could only find Chen Zhiting again, and when asked, Chen Zhiting talked about other things left and right, and all kinds of rhetoric, and he didn't have any contact with Britain at all.

Zhu Jinglun remained silent and did not persuade him, so he did not mention the matter.

At this time, Wen Kite and others have returned to China, Wen Kite is the first to return to China, he is in Japan, in recent years, he has carefully studied Japan's military politics, and praised a number of policies of the Japanese, and the Japanese will single-handedly reform the Ming Army Wen Kite called the father of the Ming Army, not only did not think that Wen Kite led the troops to conquer Nagasaki and had any hatred for him, but was extremely respectful, Wen Kite was like a fish in water in Japan, and he was happy.

It is not surprising that Wen Kite, who was infected with militaristic ideas in Germany, certainly feels comfortable in Japan, a militaristic country.

Chen Jishi returned from Russia, extremely worried about Russia's ambitions, Russia was full of a kind of eastward admonition, many Russian officers talked about it in front of Chen Jishi, believing that Mongolia, Manchuria and Xinjiang have not belonged to China's traditional territory since ancient times, but the leadership of nomadic herders in Siberia and other places, and the tsar is the monarch of the steppe countries such as the Kazan Khanate, the Astarakhan Khanate, and the Siberian Khanate, and legally has more power to inherit Xinjiang, Mongolia, and Manchuria, and has more obligation to protect the herdsmen there.

Chen Jishi deduced that sooner or later Russia would have to advance eastward and southward, Zuo Zongtang Chen soldiers in Shaanxi and Gansu, contain the return to Xinjiang, and let Tsarist Russia have some scruples, seeing that once Tsarist Russia strengthened its control over Central Asia, it would inevitably enter Xinjiang, and on the Kyakhta railway, there would be many disputes with the Manchus, and sooner or later this would cause trouble.

The most important attitude was Zhang Kaishan, who returned from France, who believed that France's ambition to annex Vietnam was unstoppable, and that it would never be possible to dispel France's ambition unless it could be dealt a blow to France. As for the scale of the military operation, Zhang Kaishan deduced that it would probably be a national war.

It is not easy for the Ming Dynasty to win France, France's military strength is recovering quickly, under a full-scale war, France can mobilize more than one million troops, and if the Ming wants to obstruct France, it must fight a million-level war with France.

Zhu Jinglun successively summoned the officers to listen to the report, which made the political arena of the Ming Dynasty a little weird, and the civilian officials suddenly lowered their profile.

Because Zhu Jinglun has not had direct contact with the army for a long time. The military affairs are all entrusted to the Ministry of War, and now the emperor suddenly summoned the returning officers, and these officers were transferred by the civilian government before, everyone knows that it is the civil servants who are suppressing them, and now the emperor is directly seeing them, what is this thinking?

Zhu Jinglun has no time to pay attention to the deception of officialdom, he is the emperor, he has an absolute position advantage in the era of imperial power, Cixi as a woman, suppressed Yixin, Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan and others can't turn over, not to mention Zhu Jinglun, his position makes him in most cases, he doesn't need to consider the attitude of others, it is the attitude of others who consider him.

Therefore, after meeting with the army officers, he also met with the navy officers, and demanded that the navy should also strengthen its vigilance, not slacken in any way, and asked them to consider how to expand its armament and form combat effectiveness in the shortest possible time.

Zhu Jinglun never said how he wanted to be, but there will always be people who can guess how he wants to be.

Hurd soon asked to see Zhu Jinglun, and he admonished Zhu Jinglun, saying that the current armament situation of the Ming Dynasty, if it faced the first-class European powers, he was afraid that he would be caught off guard, and Hurd suggested reconciliation with France.

Zhu Jinglun said that if the French want to exclude Daming from Vietnam, this has broken through the bottom line that Daming can accept. Hurd also suggested that if this battle had to be fought, the Ming Dynasty would have to increase its current strength exponentially.

Hurd suggested doubling the size of the army, expanding the standing army to 600,000 and the reserve to 1.4 million, so that in the event of a war, there would be two million troops at their disposal. On the other hand, the navy must also be expanded.

Zhu Jinglun told Hurd again about the difficulties that Chen Zhiting had emphasized, and Hurd suggested borrowing from Britain. Zhu Jinglun was worried that Britain would be influenced by France, and would not allow the Ming to borrow money in England.

Hurd asked him to take charge of this matter, and he would definitely be able to help Daming borrow enough money to expand his troops, and at the same time, he hoped that before Daming was ready, he would not rush to war with France.

Zhu Jinglun knew that after so many years of hibernation, Hurd finally couldn't hold it back.