Paris, France.

After the defeat of France, there was not much influence at home. In winter, Paris is covered in snow, and the roads are full of pedestrians. and extravagant private carriages.

Hubnel, the interim president of the cabinet, stepped out of his personal carriage and gathered his body. It's really a cold season.

It wasn't until he entered the office, by the fire, that he felt better. I took off my coat and hung my top hat on the hanger, before I could pour a cup of hot water. There was a quick knock on the door, damn it. Who will it be at this time?

"What's the bad news? Which parliamentarian had a factory in China that went out of business? Or was the merchant ship in Malacca robbed by pirates? Hubnel said humorously after opening the door.

It was his private secretary, Sarich, who entered. He exaggeratedly said: "Your Excellency, these days, that damn Chinese envoy has been waving our reparations francs, buying machines everywhere, Lance and Cleaver and even the entire shipyard have been bought by him. They are trying to figure out how to get this shipbuilding equipment back to China. I think this behavior of theirs should be stopped. Our influence in the Far East has been greatly weakened, and once the Chinese shipbuilding industry is allowed to develop, we will lose the Far East forever. ”

Hubnell looked at Saric who was gradually getting a little excited, shook his head and said: "Sarri, you are exaggerating, we don't have much interest in the Far East, our focus is on Europe, in the Mediterranean. Now the Republic is almost against the whole world, we are fighting against the Germans in Europe, Suez with the British in Egypt, and the Russians in Dardanelles. The Napoleonic era is long gone, and the republic does not have so many resources to confront all the powers, so we must give it up. ”

After listening to this, Saric said calmly: "Your Excellency, I think your opinion is right, the republic really cannot be against all the powerful countries. But I think what we need to do is to unite the Russians and the British against Germany, not abandon China. ”

Hubnel said with a smile: "I didn't say that I wanted to give up China, I have long known the actions of the Chinese, and I have already asked Yasente." ”

"Oh," Saric said, surprised, "what did General Orb say?" ”

Hubnel took out a document and handed it to Sarich, saying: "This is the 'Green Water Navy Plan' recently submitted by the Admiralty, and the Admiralty has made a detailed analysis, believing that torpedoes will become the decisive force in naval battles, and once the Republic has 100 mine-striking ships, it will pose the greatest threat to the British Navy." I also think that rather than spending a lot of money on building capital ships that will never catch up with the British, it would be better to build such torpedo ships, which would cost much less in comparison. The Admiralty has canceled the construction program for all battleships. ”

Saric quickly read the plan in his hand and said, "So we sell those shipbuilding equipment cheaply to the Chinese?" ”

"Since the Chinese are willing to spend a lot of money on those obsolete things, why don't we do it?"

"But, Your Excellency, Prime Minister." Saric quickly calculated the gains and losses in his mind: "As far as I know, torodo attack ships cannot carry out ocean-going operations. ”

"Our main target now is the Germans on land, and we need to significantly strengthen the army, and the navy just needs to protect the coast," Hubnell said. ”

Seeing that Saric was still going to speak, Hubnel stood up and said: "I have submitted this plan to the Parliament, and the Cabinet will be questioned by the Parliament in the afternoon." When Saric heard this, he had to keep his mouth shut.

As long as you are familiar with the history of foreign navies, you will not forget the famous "green water naval strategy" in French history. Of course, Guan Xuqing would not give up such an opportunity and instructed Li Hongzhang to buy French shipbuilding equipment on a large scale.

Historically, until 1884, the French Navy had been the second largest in the world, and they had a group of naval design geniuses led by Röhm, which made the design of French ships always at the forefront of the world, and even the proud British naval designers often absorbed the technology they adopted.

Between 1775 and 1884, during the Victorian Dark Ages of the Royal Navy, the French Navy even narrowly surpassed the British Royal Navy. However, in 1884, Admiral Aub, a representative of the French naval youth, became the Minister of the Navy, and he believed that the emerging sea power of torpedoes was the magic weapon to defeat the enemy, and that it would no longer be the huge battleships but the torpedo attack ships that would determine the victory or defeat at sea, so as soon as he came to power, he immediately ordered the cancellation of all battleship construction plans and began to design and build some torpedo boat carriers. Since the torodo ships could not fight in the ocean alone, Obu's plan was called the "Green Water Naval Strategy".

It was not until the 90s that the French were fully aware of this mistake, and hurriedly picked up three "Marceau" class ships that had been delayed for almost 7 years. The design and construction of the "Martel" class, the three "Charlemagne" classes, etc., could not support the French navy, and by the end of the 19th century, the French naval fleet had long been far behind, reduced to an inconsequential force on the high seas.

Guan Xuqing took advantage of this huge mistake to buy French shipbuilding equipment on a large scale and hire technicians who were about to lose their jobs. Anyway, he has a lot of francs in his hand now.

However, it is said that the navy has made great contributions to winning this Sino-French battle. Therefore, in addition to leaving some soldiers' salaries and the bereavement of the victims, all other indemnities were invested in the construction of the navy.

The two 3,800-ton shore defense cruisers purchased in Britain have also been launched for sea trials and will be able to return to China at the beginning of next year. By that time, the number of cruisers of the Oshimizu division would reach 7 units. Each of them was the most advanced cruiser in the world at that time, but if the shipbuilding industry could not keep up, it would inevitably have the tragedy of the First Sino-Japanese Naval War in history, "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" were injured in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, because the shipbuilding industry was backward at that time, it could not be repaired, resulting in one being sunk and one being captured by Japan.

After buying back a large amount of shipbuilding equipment, part of it was placed in the rebuilt Mawei Military Port. Part of it is placed in the newly built Tianjin Dagu Military Port. And the machines of the Jiangnan Shipbuilding Bureau are all German, so they are not put in the Jiangnan Shipbuilding Bureau.

In addition to expanding the scale of the shipbuilding industry, the original arsenal also continued to develop, and the machines of Krupp and Mauser purchased from Germany have been shipped back, and these machines have been divided up by the Jinling Machinery Bureau and the Hubei Gun Bureau.

But everything didn't go very smoothly because of the Sino-French war. Britain took the lead, the United States, Russia, and other countries have all raised the price of steel to an outrageous level, and the machines that have been emptied of guns and cannons are now imported less than one or two steels. As a result, the construction of military heavy industry is almost at a standstill, and the domestic steel is simply not enough to be equipped with guns and artillery for the 400,000 troops of the new army.

However, also under the influence of the war, light industry flourished.

Since Guan Xuqing had previously decreed that all the military supplies purchased by the Ministry of War for the troops could only be purchased in the Daqing Dynasty's own factories, the factory opportunities established when industry and commerce were encouraged in those years were ordered to receive a large number of orders, and the marching tents, military uniforms, shoes and socks worn by the soldiers, dry rations, fires, sheep fat, etc., were all shipped to the front line in large quantities.

One can imagine how many items are consumed in a day by the more than 100,000 troops in Vietnam. Every day, tens of thousands of taels of silver flow into the pockets of these manufacturers. With the funds, these factories are desperately expanding their scale and improving their production processes in order to get more orders, and the three-day rations that each person carries with them at the beginning of the army are compressed dough cakes purchased from the Shanghai Food Bureau, which are hard and unpalatable. The soldiers generally felt bad. Later, the Shanghai Meilin factory was able to produce canned food, and the 4 cans he carried with him could be enough for a soldier to eat normally for 7 days. According to incomplete statistics, the light industry in the Qing Dynasty increased by 200% in 1883 and 1884, which overwhelmed the number of foreign factories in the Qing Dynasty.

After seeing these reports, Guan Xuqing also made up his mind to start other heavy industries such as steel.