All the troops of Lu Yiwei's Southeast Group Army except for the Second Division stayed in Nagasaki, and the rest of the troops returned to China, while Xu Bangdao was also promoted to the commander of the Second Division because of his military exploits, and Chen Shanyuan became the brigade commander

After Feng Xianghua returned to the capital, he was directly appointed as the marshal, replacing Zuo Zongtang as the generalissimo of the Qing Dynasty and the navy and army

One morning in the morning, in the Taihe Palace

"Your Majesty, the recent setback of the German offensive in Thailand and the fact that Germany is unable to continue to increase troops in the Far East because it is held back by France is hoping to borrow troops from our Great Qing Dynasty to help them occupy Thailand," said Feng Xianghua, who had just succeeded Li Hongzhang in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Guan Xuqing thought for a while, and said slowly: "Xianghua, how do you think we should reply to Germany?" ”

"I think that in recent years, the Qing Dynasty has expanded its territory, and the army has been quite nervous, and now it is time to recuperate, develop industry, continue to increase troops, and Thailand's little bit of, no matter what is good," Feng Xianghua Since returning from Japan, he has been much calmer than before, and he has also matured a lot in handling things

"Well, that's right, but Germany is my ally of the Qing Dynasty, and now my two 10,000-ton battleships are still under construction in Germany, and my Qing Dynasty has just withdrawn its troops from Japan, if I am unwilling to send troops under the pretext of insufficient troops at this time, I am afraid that Germany will think that my Qing Dynasty is unwilling to help, and the excuse may worsen the relationship between the two countries," Guan Xuqing nodded with a smile and said

As soon as these words came out, all the civil and military officers in the audience also nodded yes

"The minister has also taken this into account, because Thailand is similar to Myanmar, there are many snakes, insects and ants, and the weather is humid, and most of them are very unsuitable for the German ** team, so the Thais have taken advantage of it, but Thailand has few troops, backward weapons, and has always been not the opponent of Germany, the minister suggested that the emperor only need to send Wang Feng's special forces who have been trained in Myanmar for a long time, plus a division stationed in Myanmar can easily solve the problem of Thailand, and in addition, it can justifiably collect the military expenses of the German borrowed troops," Feng Xianghua said loudly

Guan Xuqing's eyes lit up, how could he forget the madman Wang, this war maniac, the Sino-Japanese war in recent months has been so fierce, it is estimated that he has long been suffocated crazy, let him go to Thailand at this time, he must be a tiger in the mountains, and if Germany occupies Thailand, then Japan's zero tariff should be able to exchange with Germany for the interests of the Qing Dynasty in Thailand, which can really be described as killing two birds with one stone

"Haha, yes, yes, let me clear a division and a special forces tens of thousands of people back and forth thousands of kilometers back and forth, is it time to charge more military spending, this matter will let you negotiate with Germany, hurry up and draw up a charter for me to see" Guan Xuqing said with a smile on his face

"Chirp," Feng Xianghua said coldly

Guan Xuqing nodded with satisfaction, swept his gaze to Peng Yulin, and said, "Yulin, send a telegram in the name of the Ministry of War to ask Wang Feng to come back."

"Chirp" Peng Yulin bowed his head

A week after the signing of the Tokyo Treaty, Japan's first year of indemnity finally arrived, the Sino-Japanese war used almost all the warships, in Korea, Xian, Japan used nearly 10 divisions, 250,000 troops, in the expenditure on military salaries is very huge, fortunately, in the years after the Sino-British Burma War, the economic development of the Qing Dynasty has been relatively stable, especially after the British recaptured the customs tariffs, the increase in tax silver almost doubled

In addition to spending 60 million silver dollars to increase military salaries, the rest was all invested in the construction of the navy and the gun bureau

The first ironclad ship made by the Qing Dynasty has been launched, which is modeled after the main ironclad ship Elegance that was knocked over by the gunboats of the Qing Dynasty during the Sino-French War, but it is much more practical than the French Elegance at that time

Compared with the elegant displacement of 6,000 tons, the displacement of the self-made ironclad ship of the Qing Dynasty reached 7,000 tons, with a total of 4 380mm main guns in the front and rear, a total of 32 180mm secondary guns and 16 54mm machine guns on the left and right side chords

The main defensive armor is 254mm thick, although it is nearly 100mm thinner than the 345mm thick steel plate of the "Zhenyuan" class, but it is much better than those ironclad ships made in the UK, and the 17-knot voyage can ensure that it can easily escape when encountering the enemy's 10,000-ton battleship

Since the design and manufacturing are all done in the rebuilt Mawei Military Port*, the manufacturing cost is actually not very much, and the manufacturing cost of an ironclad ship is 5 million silver dollars, and the cycle is half a year

After paying 60 million silver dollars for military salaries, Guan Xuqing invested another 50 million silver dollars in the navy to build 10 sister ships of the same class, and the ironclad ship that had been launched was named "Southern Army" and incorporated into the Nanyang Fleet, and the ten sister ships launched in the future will be numbered from one to ten rows, such as Nanjun No. 1 and Nanjun No. 2......

It's not that Guan Xuqing doesn't want to build a few more ships at a time, but the current Mawei shipyard only has the capacity to build ten ships at the same time, and the shortage of technical personnel and manufacturing machines is also the biggest obstacle to the development of the shipbuilding industry in the Qing Dynasty

The remaining 110 million silver dollars were opened in Shandong, Sichuan, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanghai, and other places to increase the production of guns

At the same time, the Ministry of War urgently notified the whole country of 1 million reservists to prepare to become professional soldiers, of course, if they do not want to, they can withdraw directly, but after successive victories against France, Britain, Russia, and Japan, there has been a craze for joining the army throughout the country

Everyone is proud to join the army, how can they give up such a good opportunity, not to mention that the military salary after joining the army is enough to support the family, which makes all the soldiers who join the army have no worries

"Sure enough, it is easy to do things, as soon as Japan's reparations are in place, the navy has also developed, the army has also developed, the gun bureau has also been built, and the most important thing is that the pensions for the officers and soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country have also been issued," Guan Xuqing said with his eyes closed while lying on the recliner in the Heart Cultivation Palace

Standing in front of Guan Xuqing was Li Zhen, the secretary of the household department who was slightly fat

"The emperor is wise and orderly, so he can make the country and the people safe," Li Zhen flattered

Guan Xuqing closed his eyes and continued: "It's not that I'm wise, but that my Qing Dynasty's financial situation has been good in the past few years, and it's all your credit."

"Everything is ordered by the emperor, the minister is just acting on orders, how dare he rob this greedy merit" Li Zhen told the truth

Although the Minister of Finance of the Qing Dynasty is not very capable, he is diligent, studious, honest, and incorruptible, so Guan Xuqing has also been using him until now, after all, Guan Xuqing in later generations originally studied finance, so he can also be directly dialed

"Don't be too modest, I've done well in the past few years, now I'm in Daqing Fei, and there are many places where I need to use money, although in recent years, the tax revenue has increased a lot, but the same expenses are also a lot bigger, I want you to go back and make a list, and write down the places that spend more every year, I want to see if it can be reduced" Guan Xuqing opened his eyes and looked at Li Zhen and continued: "Since ancient times, the treasury has been full, in addition to open source, it is to throttle, and now I am in the open source of Daqing, but throttling is also necessary."

"Chirp," Li Zhen replied with his head down