The theory of sea power was coined by the U.S. naval theorist A.T. Mahan in the late 19th century. In his work, the author analyzes and studies the many naval battles fought by Britain and the Netherlands, Spain, France, and other naval powers for maritime supremacy, as well as the naval battles in the United States' ** war, and expounds the major impact and role of sea power on the victory or defeat of these wars on the relevant countries, colonies, and maritime trade. Of course, he doesn't have his share now. As early as 1861, His Majesty the Great Emperor of the Chinese Empire once again added a strong touch to his career: on February 13 and 28, he published "The Influence of Sea Power on History, 1660~1783" and "The Influence of Sea Power on the French Revolution and Empire, 1793~1812", which established the foundation of Lin's theory of sea power. Subsequently, on March 17 of the following year, the "Naval Strategy" was published, which formally formed the current popular naval theory system of the empire.

As Mahan said in his theory of sea power, it is impossible for a country to develop its navy and army at the same time. For example, from 1870 to 1875, the imperial army's military expenditure accounted for 63.6% of national defense spending, and by 1875, the navy immediately put forward a plan to renew warships, and in the next five years, the proportion of naval military spending will rise to 69.1%, just like a big stride, of course, this time the navy is more ruthless.

But the Navy and Army are destined not to live in harmony. For example, because of the Navy's renewal plan, the proportion of the Navy's military spending has been above 65% in the past two years, while the military expenditure for the Army has been suppressed at less than 30%. Although the imperial army has reached more than 1.3 million, the reserve and construction corps are as high as 2.5 million, but the military expenditure at this stage is still more than enough (the cost of the servant army and the foreign legion is the responsibility of the colonial government, and the central government does not need to allocate funds, in addition, the royal family will spend 25% of the income of the consortium as a subsidy for military expenses every year), but it is only a little more deductible than before.

Of course, there are young Zhuang factions in the navy, and the young Zhuang faction in the navy succeeded, and the emperor himself paid for them to build an experimental warship. The young Zhuang faction of the army is red-eyed, and we can't be worse than the iron ducks in the navy. Among them, the one who made the most trouble was Xiang Takamori, the current chief of the Operations Division of the General Staff (Saigo Takamori). Probably because of the habit of the Dongying people, Xiang Longsheng bypassed the chief of the general staff and the minister of war and directly submitted his plan to the Xianyang Palace (in fact, it was Lin Hong's own rule, and any military personnel in the staff department had the right to submit a document to the emperor)——

Looking at the "Overview of the Five-Year Operational Plan of the Imperial Army" in front of him, Lin Hong couldn't cry or laugh! Just settled the navy, the army made trouble again. What does the Army's five-year combat plan think that it is a summary of the Army's strategy and tactics? This TM is the Army's five-year expansion plan of 500,000 troops! What a big head!

However, this so-called overview of the battle plan is not without bright spots, in which the General Staff pointed out in the plan that the whole army should be equipped with the new small-caliber artillery that has just been developed, that is, mortars, and the General Staff is unanimously optimistic about this kind of weapon, which will be an important guarantee for the grassroots operations of the Imperial Army, and the army people are not blind to this, and Lin Hong is also ready to speed up the implementation of mortars.

But what really blinded Lin Hong's 24k dog's eyes was the last paragraph of the article, expanding the number and caliber of large-caliber artillery in the divisional artillery brigade. It was also proposed to equip army artillery with cannons of 210mm and 250mm calibers. Your sister! Cannon, know what a cannon is? The caliber is more than 40 times that of a cannon, and your army is unhappy to see that the navy has artillery, right? Do you know what the concept of 210mm and 250mm is? That TM is a standard naval gun, and a 250 mm 40 times caliber cannon is the main gun of a Shaoxing-class cruiser, why does your army want such a large-caliber artillery?! Hit the warship! That's what the shore defense team used to do. Lin Hong was angry when he looked at it, he thought he had a lot of money and had no place to spend it.

Does the army have giant artillery? Yes!

What is artillery? He is the god of war. There is no doubt that artillery has an irreplaceable role in warfare. The standard artillery of the Imperial Army started from the battalion level, a battalion was equipped with an artillery company, equipped with four 45 mm howitzers and two 75 mm smoothbore guns, and later equipped with mortars and grenadiers, it could be popularized to the platoon level, greatly enhancing the firepower of front-line soldiers. At present, the largest caliber artillery of the Imperial Army is a 120 mm cannon, but it can only be equipped with three artillery regiments belonging to the division, and if it is a mountain division, the caliber of the artillery is basically not more than 75 mm, and the artillery is too heavy, especially the heavy artillery with a caliber of hundreds is completely measured by tons, and it is impossible to expand the number of heavy artillery in the whole army in the current situation that the imperial * team is only mules and horses.

The army has a cannon, and in 1866 it was the army that developed a 480 mm cannon on its own, and it turned out that this guy was too heavy to be used as a train gun on a train. The concept of train guns originated in the 1850s in the work of Englishman Anderson's National Defense. After the 1860s, the same concept existed in Russia. The first country to use train guns was the United States. During the Civil War, the Union Army (Northern Army) used a 13-inch mortar gun carrying an uncovered train for the first time to bombard Petersburg, a Confederate (Confederate Army) stronghold, in order to besiege Petersburg, a stronghold of the Confederate Army (Confederate Army). During the First World War, Germany bombarded Paris, France, with a range of 130 kilometers, the Paris cannon (Paris-Geschutz).

The Empire's "sun-shielding cannon" was as cumbersome as the train guns of the same period, and had to be complicated to disassemble during movement, coupled with the high manufacturing cost, the short life of large-caliber guns was not ideal in practical use. Finally, this 480 mm caliber gun is not cheap for the Navy (the coastal defense artillery defense system is under the control of the Navy, and this kind of artillery is finally equipped with coastal defense forces, and the Navy also develops its own naval guns on this basis).

"Your Majesty, what should the army do?" 22-year-old Xu Shichang looked at the emperor very worriedly.

"What else can I do! Tell the Secretary of War that the plan is well done, but the meal must be eaten one bite at a time, and the road must be taken step by step. If the Navy makes a mistake, it will lose some money to buy a lesson, and if the Army makes a mistake, it will not lose a few small dollars. ”

"Then I'm going to pass the word?" Xu Shichang was about to bow down and retreat, but he heard the emperor say again.

"What has your sworn little brother been doing lately?"

"Did Your Majesty ask Yuan Shikai? Shikai has just been admitted to the Faculty of Law at Imperial University. Yuan Shikai and Xu Shichang were all caused by the emperor, Yuan Shikai was famous as a prodigy in Henan when he was more than ten years old, and he was summoned by the emperor to enter the palace to see the driver and Xu Shichang, who had just been appointed as a military attache at that time, hit it off at first sight, and happily bowed down after a conversation, which is also an interesting story in the market.

"He's going to study law?" Lin Hong asked suspiciously, he thought that Yuan Shikai would join the army first like in history.

"It's not!"

"Why is that?"

"This" Xu Shichang hesitated for a moment but gritted his teeth and said, "Because Weiting's fiancée, Miss Zheng, is studying law, he said that he wanted to watch her so as not to be abducted." ”

Lin Hong was stunned for a moment, and then laughed, he didn't expect Yuan Shikai to have this side, and Xu Shichang was at a loss in His Majesty Dan.

"Nonsense, I said a long time ago about the freedom of love, this kid is afraid that he won't be able to marry a daughter-in-law in the future." After laughing, Lin Hong sighed.

"Then Your Majesty, I'll let him specialize?" Xu Shichang asked cautiously.

"No, it's his freedom to choose. This kid! Let him play! Tell him that you still have to read well, don't keep patronizing and watching your daughter-in-law. ”

"Your Majesty."