After discussing the affairs of the army, the matter of industrial construction is discussed below.

Industrial construction has reached an ideological consensus among the personnel of the former Huaxia Guild, and after the personnel under the rule of the former Qing court saw the strength of the Huaxia Army, they no longer had any idea of obstructing industrial construction.

Therefore, in the structure of the new dynasty of the Chinese Empire, there was no opposition to industrial construction, and there were only different views on how to implement the specific plan.

Hu Zhen decided to give an account to the people present, especially those who had come from the Qing court, before discussing the matter of industrial construction, so he pointed to Vice Prime Minister Liu Dingzhuang and said: "First of all, let you report to you on the situation of receiving the Qing court's industry and the progress of industrial construction!" ”

Liu Dingzhuang was in charge of industry and infrastructure in Nanyang, although he did not have any amazing ability, but he was diligent and conscientious in his work, familiar with industry, and had strong executive ability, so he was appointed by Hu Zhen to the position of deputy prime minister to assist Li Hongzhang in the construction of the Chinese Empire.

When he heard Hu Zhen's call, he stood up and bowed to Hu Zhen first, and said:

"Yes, Your Majesty, all my colleagues here, now I will report on the situation of China's local industry: the Qing court's original industrial and mining enterprises in China have all been accepted by us, and large-scale emergency expansion and transformation projects have begun, among which the key expansion is Hanyang Iron Works, Daye Iron Mine, Hubei Gun Factory, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau, Jinling Machinery Bureau, Fujian Shipbuilding Bureau, and Guangzhou Manufacturing Bureau. In the worst-case scenario of being cut off by the enemy, the Huaxia Army will also achieve self-sufficiency in training and combat ammunition and ensure the security of the Chinese mainland on land, with an initial investment of 40 million yuan, and plans to triple the scale of production within six months......

Li Hongzhang and others in the original Qing court all knew that 40 million yuan was converted into 40 million taels of silver, which was the total financial income of the Qing court for half a year, and they thought to themselves: The new dynasty is really wealthy, and these original industries of the Qing court are the result of years of investment, and they don't know if there are 40 million total assets, but the new dynasty is 40 million as soon as it is made, which is really a big deal!

Su Wenzhen, chief of the General Staff, immediately raised an objection: "A threefold increase in production is not enough, in case the sea route connecting us with Nanyang is cut off, the General Staff Department has made strict calculations and found that this output of weapons and ammunition can only meet the high-intensity combat needs of 150,000 Chinese military thermal weapons at most, and can only meet 15% of the operational needs of a million troops!" During this time period, if something happens internationally, there is a big trouble! ”

Liu Dingzhuang glanced at Hu Zhen, and saw that he didn't speak, so he directly replied to the words of the text, and said: "Chief of General Staff Su, please don't worry, please listen to me, transformation also needs a time difference, and the production capacity of these industries in the former Qing Dynasty will be doubled in a year......"

"It's not enough to double the size, it can only meet the combat needs of 300,000 troops!"

Prime Minister Li Hongzhang, Minister of Industry Zhang Zhidong and others could not interject, but Liu Dingzhuang replied, "...... In addition to these former Qing industrial transformation, we have also invested 60 million yuan to build new factories in six places such as Lushun Dalian, Baotou, Lanzhou, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Chongqing, etc., after the completion of the first phase of 9 months, the production capacity is equal to the total output of the former Qing industry after a year of large-scale industrial transformation. ”

But Su Wenzhen was still worried: "That calculates that it will take one year to meet 60% of the operational needs of a million-strong army, and if it is a two-million-strong army, it can only meet 15% of the operational needs." In this way, we still have to rely on the arms industry in Nanyang for at least two years! The question is, will the European powers give us this time? ”

"The local industrial base of China is like this, no matter how much we invest, we can only do it to this extent, and even if we increase investment, it will be difficult to transport it out in two or three years!"

Liu Dingzhuang has never been a person who can speak well, and when he said this, the scene suddenly cooled down.

Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong felt that hundreds of millions of taels of silver had been invested, and it was already very good that the production of the arms industry could achieve this level, and if it was the Qing army, the consumption of five million troops would be enough, but the firepower of the Huaxia army was many times stronger than that of the Qing army. If they were to save a little, it would be enough to meet the operational needs of the so-called million-strong army after a year, but they were not very familiar with the situation and could not say anything, so they had to make a stuffy gourd and not say a word.

Hu Zhen had no choice but to come forward in person: "If the European powers come to intervene, the first thing to bear the brunt of is not the army, that is the navy, the assumption of the chief of the Soviet General Staff is that after the defeat of the navy, the army needs the arms industry production that the army needs to support alone on the Chinese mainland, then since this is the case, when the European powers come to intervene, our navy must not be defeated, otherwise, everything in the Chinese empire is impossible to talk about!" ”

Su Wenzhi saw that the emperor had opened the golden mouth, nodded and said: "Yes, this is exactly what our staff department means!" ”

Hu Zhen stood up, raised his eyes and swept around the audience, and said solemnly:

"If there is an incident in which a certain European power country or the entire European power country jointly comes to intervene in an armed manner, with our naval strength, we will not have no chance of winning, everyone rest assured, no matter what then, I will personally board the battleship and fight the enemy to the death with all the naval officers and men!"

The personnel of the original Huaxia Guild all knew that they had personally participated in several naval battles, and had played a vital role in their magical artillery command, so they were accustomed to it.

But Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and other people from the former Qing court did not understand this, and Li Hongzhang, who was the leader, stood up: "The safety of hundreds of millions of subjects of the Chinese Empire under the emperor's dragon system is in danger, and Meng Lang must not move lightly!" ”

Hu Zhen waved his hand and said: "Li Aiqing, don't panic, if the European powers come to intervene, I have enough confidence and means, the Chinese Empire will definitely be able to win the battle, even if I board the battleship to participate in the war, I will be safe!" Let's continue to talk about industrial construction, Liu Dingzhuang, you continue to introduce industrial construction! ”

Liu Dingzhuang bent down and said: "Yes, I will continue to introduce that according to the emperor's will, the system of collecting taxes at the gold checkpoint will be abolished in the mainland of China, and the circulation of goods will be liberalized throughout the country......"

The two old men, Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong, shouted almost at the same time: "You can't cancel the gold tax!" ”

The Lijin system was a kind of commercial tax in the Manchu court. Also known as "centitax" or "centitax". Generally, after the goods are levied once at the place of departure, and the tax is repeated during transit, there is the so-called method of paying taxes in case of card and one inspection or two inspections at the same time. This was an important source of finance in the late Manchu Dynasty, and it was an important condition for the Manchu Qing Dynasty to survive after the Taiping Incident.

No wonder Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong both think that it cannot be canceled.

(This book is published by the author of Illumination 929 onwards.) Dot. Chinese website, please come up. Dot. Middle. Wen. Online subscription, thank you! (To be continued.) )