After Dong Liang took office, Guan Xuqing also began to exercise the right of the Son of Heaven.

Every day, Guan Xuqing conscientiously reviewed the memoranda and telegrams sent by various ministries and provinces. Coming from the 21st century, he certainly knows the current situation of the Qing Dynasty well.

In general, Li Hongzhang's Westernization Movement still had a certain effect, and compared with the Second Opium War, the national strength of the Qing Dynasty was much stronger. At least in Asia, the Qing Dynasty was still a superpower. It was much stronger than Japan at the time. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is now commonly known as GDP, is also among the top three in the world. It is four times higher than in Japan.

Therefore, it was relatively easy to develop foreign affairs, although the Second Opium War was defeated before. The compensation ceded the land, but in fact, it did not shake the foundation of the Qing Dynasty. It is still easy to spend more than 50 million taels of silver every year to develop industry.

Today, the configuration of the Qing army is mainly composed of the Hunan army, the Chu army, the Huai army, the Eight Banners, and the Green Battalion. Among them, the Chu army, the Huai army, and the Hunan army are all units with a certain combat effectiveness that have survived hundreds of battles, large and small, and the troops are equipped with Western guns, such as Mauser robbery, Haqi Kaisi repeating guns, Krupp steel cannons, etc. Quite a few officers have gone through military schools. It can be said that these three troops can be called the elite of the Qing Dynasty. The soldiers of the Eight Banners, who were mainly composed of the children of the Eight Banners, still used primitive bows and arrows. It's just because the ancestors said that the Manchurians are based on riding and shooting. And refuse to use foreign guns and foreign artillery. All of them can only walk birds and gamble, and smoke opium. There are also a few outstanding people with high ideological consciousness who have not fallen under the halo of their parents. However, the ability of the Green Battalion soldiers in the 64th Town was uneven, and some units were quite strong in combat because of the relationship between the commanders. Some of them ate empty quotes, and their discipline was lax, and they even took the guns and bullets issued by the imperial court to exchange them for silver to buy wine and cigarettes. The officers were afraid of death, and the soldiers had no fighting spirit. This is the current situation of the army in the Qing Dynasty today.

Guan Xu reckoned with the days, and there were only more than two years left before the Sino-French war. If the current situation does not improve, I am afraid that history will repeat itself.

The navy is even worse, the Beiyang Naval Division has not yet been established, the Nanyang Naval Division is only equipped with a few 1,000-ton gunboats, and the Guangdong and Fujian naval divisions have only a few small boats. Together, there are only about 40 large and small. It was not enough for the French fleet to plug the teeth during the Sino-French war formation. However, due to the large investment of the Navy, the training cycle is long. Guan Xuqing still decided to start with the army first.

One morning, after listening to the routine reports of various ministries. opened his mouth and said: "Where is Zuo Zongtang?" ”

"The old minister is here." Zuo Zongtang took a step across.

"Zuo Shuai, how many troops do I have in the Qing Dynasty now?" Guan Xuqing asked.

"The army has a total of one million troops, including two hundred thousand each of the Chu army, the Hunan army, the Huai army, the Eight Banners, and the Green Battalion." Zuo Zongtang has led troops for many years.

"Now that the Qing Dynasty can no longer afford to raise so many soldiers, I have decided to disarm. Dong Liang has been given the will to dismantle part of the army of the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion, starting from Zhili. Guan Xuqing said.

As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar in the court. Even Prince Alcohol, the emperor's own son, frowned.

"Your Majesty, the soldiers of the Eight Banners are the foundation of my Qing Dynasty, and they cannot be abolished. The ancestors of this army are all the founding heroes of the Qing Dynasty. Prince Gang was the first to protest.

Prince Yan is the commander of the Eight Banners Army. Regardless of whether this army can fight or not, with 200,000 people in hand, it is still very confident to speak in the court. The previous plan to assassinate Guan Xuqing failed, and he originally thought that as soon as Cixi fell, he would be unlucky, but who knew that Li Lianying would be killed without saying a word. The little emperor didn't seem to know anything. It just recently jumped out again.

"This matter has been decided, no need to discuss it anymore. In the Second Opium War, the Anglo-French army was only 4,000 people, so why did we not find our army of more than 100,000 people in the north? The forced emperor moved to Rehe, and finally died there. What a shame it is for the Jingshi to be lost. What is the use of raising this kind of army? Guan Xuqing scolded.

Prince Don didn't know how to explain for a while, and knelt on the ground stupidly. The rest of the ministers did not dare to say a word.

"Your Majesty, please ask the emperor to give me a word of permission on how many troops are left." Zuo Zongtang said.

"Our Qing army is unified and reorganized, and there is no longer a distinction between the Hunan army, the Huai army, and the Chu army. It was unified as the Great Qing Army. The regular army is 500,000 people. Zuo Shuai, the reorganization will be left to you. As long as I can fight a tough battle, as long as I am a soldier who is not afraid of death. Guan Xuqing said loudly.

"Chirp" Zuo Zongtang knelt down to receive the order.

"I now appoint you as the commander of the Qing Army, and together with Dong Liang, I will prepare for the unified and integrated military affairs. The army was still divided into battalions, with 500 officers and men per battalion. Ten battalions are one standard, and ten standards are one. The Qing Army had a total of ten troops. You go back and draw up a list, and I will personally canonize the ten army generals of the Qing Dynasty. Guan Xuqing continued.

"Obey the order," Zuo Zongtang replied.