In the thirteenth year of Guangxu, in January 1887, the Sino-British-Burmese War and the Sino-Russian Siberian Blitzkrieg had gradually dispersed, and the focus of national discussion was the most promulgated five-year plan and the most military service system

However, none of this seems to be able to dampen Guan Xuqing's mood of immediately turning the country into development, and one after another, the appointment of people has been transformed from the function to the cabinet, and the order of the study has been issued, showing the determination of the seventeen-year-old emperor, and the current form is too rare

From a global perspective, although the two wars in Vietnam and Burma completely offended Britain and France, the two great imperialist greats, it is conceivable that in the future, these two great colonial empires will inevitably do everything possible to contain China's development

For example, in Tibet and Burma, China made some small moves, fully supported Japan's development, and so on, but as the famous saying goes, there are no eternal friends and no eternal enemies in this world, from this point of view, through these two wars, China has at least obtained the qualification to negotiate with Britain and France on an equal footing, and other colonial countries will also weigh it first when they watch China, rather than always treating him as a piece of fat fed to the mouth

Such a shift is actually very important, and the heaviness of external pressure determines the angle of a country's policy tilt, whether it is military or economic

As can be seen from the series of treaties signed with Germany and the United States after the war, the Qing Dynasty fully accepted the capital and products of Germany and the United States, which enabled the two countries to obtain a large capital export area and a dumping market for products, while China received some technical support for production in both countries, financial and fiscal reform with financial support from both countries, and the full dispatch of foreign students

However, if we look at the problem, we should see that in essence, any poor, closed and backward country cannot complete the transformation of civilization and enlightenment without the help of advanced countries, just like Japan and Britain, China and the Soviet Union, so it is necessary to pay an appropriate price

Unlike Britain and France, which have a lot of capital but are not willing to transform their own industries, during this period, the industries of Germany and the United States are in a high stage of development, a large amount of capital is digested at home, and the export to overseas is only a negligible part

As for product dumping, not to mention that the two countries are separated by half a world from China, whether it is from Hamburg to Yangon, Myanmar, or from Los Angeles to Shanghai, this freight is quite amazing, you must know that in this era there are neither airplanes, not even steam turbines have been invented, and large cargo ships can run more than a dozen knots in this era, which is already very amazing, so these treaties are far less terrible than they seem on paper

Although more than 40 years have passed since the First Opium War, China's small-scale peasant economy still dominates the social economy

To break this situation, a large number of high-quality, high-quality circulating goods are necessary, rather than let Britain and France inferior goods flood the market, it is better to enjoy the world's best goods, you must know that most of the technology in Germany and the United States is already the best in the world As for the local factories, the products of Germany and the United States are high-end products, and they have little impact on those who have just started and mainly operate some low-tech livelihood industries

Second, the industrial threshold of this era is not high, and the possibility of imitation and renovation is very high, which also enables domestic factories to catch up quickly

Of course, even with the support of Germany and the United States, it is not a matter of getting back and forth, after all, Britain and France have the world's first and second largest navies and a huge colony with one-fifth of the area, and their strength is undoubtedly very strong

However, this period was the last of the world's colonialism, and the Berlin Conference held in March 1885 formally divided the last piece of land of colonialism - Africa, and each country roughly determined its sphere of influence in Africa according to historical habits and their own interests

For a time, the golden continent was full of smoke, and the Egyptian War, the Ethiopian War, the Sultan Mahdi Uprising, the Congo Riot, the Nepal Riot, and the South African Boer Riot The great powers devoted most of their energy to that continent, and even Russia, which was not invited by the Berlin Conference, stepped up its activities in Iran, hoping to open up the Indian Ocean and participate in this partition

As for Japan, the only country that could cause trouble for China, they still urgently need to absorb the aid brought by Britain and France, and the navy's grand "four ships" program will also take time, so such a gap is undoubtedly a godsend for China

In terms of the internal environment, the Manchu elite forces that originally restricted the development of the country basically collapsed, and the country will gradually get rid of the heavy burden of the banner people, and the contradictions between the various nationalities are bound to ease somewhat, and through these two wars, the development of domestic industry and commerce has been greatly stimulated, although the results of the war did not receive much reparation, but the war funds mainly came from the state's agricultural taxes, compared with the peasants, who accounted for more than ninety percent of the population, the apportionment to the merchants was undoubtedly a very small part, In this way, the scissors effect of industry and agriculture has been realized in disguise

As for the life of the peasants, because there were no major natural disasters during the Guangxu period, they barely lived well, and Vietnam and Myanmar were both areas with exceptionally rich agricultural resources, and the immigration policy eased the contradiction of land annexation to a certain extent, so the contradiction caused by the difference between industrial and agricultural scissors was not obvious

The important point is that the two victories in the nominal war against foreign aggression greatly boosted the morale of the people, especially the "feud" of the enemy who burned the Old Summer Palace and inflicted heavy damage on himself in the two opium wars, which added to the infinite enthusiasm of the people

Just look at the unprecedented military fever that broke out after the war, and the streets and alleys, taverns and tea shops have sung praises to Guan Xuqing, you can see that in such a mood, the slightest contradiction brought about by taxation was easily covered up

Under the cover of currency reform, most people will not know that in the past few years, they have actually paid fifty percent of the original taxes, they will only feel that their hands are much tighter than before, and the things on the street are expensive. It was not until China began to embark on the path of imperialism of foreign expansion

In the depths of winter, Tangshan is full of cold north winds, because it is located in the flat North China Plain and close to the Bohai Sea, so the wind is still very strong and blows Li Hongzhang's official robe, patting his knees, but this proud old man has no fear, strokes his long beard, and stands straight on the train leading from Beijing to Guanwai

This time, Russia had just ended the wars in Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey, and tore up the border line that had just been signed and demarcated between the two sides, took advantage of the fire to loot, and sent troops to the land of Longxing outside the Guan, although because of the rapid reaction of Dong Liang's troops, he immediately organized troops to drive the Russians out, but some towns outside the Guanguan were also looted, and there were ruins and broken walls everywhere, and even the holy capital Hetualla was also burned by fire

In their opinion, the Qing Dynasty even the world's top two British and French people have been defeated, and a mere British and French people look down on the long-haired devil is nothing, I heard that not long ago the long-haired devil was defeated by the British and Turks, I have to say that the "Daqing Daily" has been reported a lot, indeed made those high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital gain a lot of knowledge, many people get up early in the morning, the first thing is to count the newspaper grid

Li Hongzhang couldn't help but think of the conversation between him and Prince Gong in the Qinxin Pavilion before leaving Beijing, and the Qinxin Pavilion was the highest place in Prince Gong's mansion, located on the top of a hill with lush herbs, with a wide field of vision

Prince Gong always likes to watch the scenery and entertain guests here: "Hongzhang, don't look at me with an iron hat on my head, but since I was doing foreign affairs, the little emperor in the palace has regarded me and you as grasshoppers on a rope...... In terms of power, the kid of the old seven families is not below the women of the West Palace back then, but in terms of knowledge, the west is beyond reach...... You say that the old seven local boys really don't know how to advance or retreat, and they insist on fighting to the end with foreigners, isn't that a lantern lit in a pit - looking for death? If you really want to provoke the foreigners, it's another disaster, those bastards of your Taoist army can really stop the foreigners, don't forget, their skills are all learned from the foreigners, not to mention the two battles of Annam and Burma, the family funds accumulated by the Tongguang and the two dynasties have also been consumed, hundreds of thousands of troops are placed there, which is very scary, but if there is no silver in vain, their hands will be full of burning sticks."

Li Hongzhang's heart moved slightly when he heard this, he was sincerely respectful to this iron-hat prince who had gone through four dynasties and always held an important position, and he was full of words among the clan and local officials, so he said tentatively: "You are saying that the emperor intends not to deal with the Russians, so he wants to use our ......."

Prince Gong pursed his lips and smiled: "Don't you see that our emperor dares to use anyone except himself, but everyone is guarding against a little bit of pro-government, so he nominally took over the military power of you and Zuo Zongtang, and reorganized the army, and everyone with a discerning eye knows that the Qing Dynasty can fight only Hunan, Chu, and Huai, those are your and Zuo Zongtang's troops, he reorganized the troops and reorganized them, and let Dong Liang and several other young people who he brought up be divided into ten people, and he was stunned that Zuo Zongtang was also hollowed

The Russians burned the Zhuangzi outside the gate to the ground, and the prince Baylor of the yellow and red belts in the German alley still hated him to the bone, and he now wants us to come forward to negotiate, this is called the eastward movement of the trouble, and the basin will be deducted on our heads, so you can only go this time, you can only be hard but not soft, one cannot cut the land, and the other cannot pay compensation, I have asked Mr. Hurd of the Customs and Excise Department and the French Minister Barnoli to accompany you, and you will send someone to contact you below, so that they can fold it together, and ask the imperial court to send troops out of the customs......"

"Uh......h Woo ......" The sound of two whistles pulled him back from his contemplation, and in an instant, he had a lot of feelings about the railway in front of him

The reason why Jinda insisted on adopting British standards was naturally to lay the foundation for Britain and other countries to compete for the power of China's road construction in the future, and he didn't know the ghost ways in the hearts of foreigners, but he finally chose to support Jinda, because he firmly believed that no matter after ten or twenty years or a hundred years, this mine railway will definitely become a section of China's huge railway system in the future

And now it has really become an important section of the Jingfeng Railway, Guan Xu Qingyi came to power, the first thing to do is to eliminate redundant personnel, the formation of elite troops, in addition to the large-scale construction of railways, no one understands the significance of roads for the country to rule the country better than him, the so-called roads lead to Rome, the stormy Roman Empire is relying on the Mediterranean convenient shipping conditions and a stone road to Rome to maintain for centuries

Now that there are railways, as long as troops are stationed along the railways, once something happens in a certain direction, troops thousands of miles away can be mobilized overnight, greatly increasing the deployment area and efficiency of the troops, and thus achieving the goal of enriching the country in a real sense

In addition to the rails laid on the ground, the railway also needs to run on the train on the Jingfeng line, Beijing-Shanghai line, and Jinghan line, most of the trains are imported from Britain and Germany, and a small part is imported from the United States

After two years of hard work with the first batch of young children and children in the United States supplemented by the recruitment of foreign technicians, the Tianjin Railway Bureau and the Wuchang Railway Bureau were finally established, becoming the only two train manufacturing plants in China, the two factories use German and American technology, and the machine tools from Germany and the United States have a lot of technology, which can be said to be the credit of Fang Huai's diplomacy, but with the weak technical foundation of the Qing Dynasty and the lack of talents, to digest these things, it is necessary for these people to redouble their efforts

Everything has to start from scratch, while building while learning good in the past few years, the continuous victories in foreign wars have greatly boosted the people's hearts, many military factories are pasted with "make one more bomb, kill one more", "don't look at the sweat at this time, you need to see the blood at that time" slogans, the workers who used whips and often cut corners one by one worked overtime without saying a word, those students who usually dressed cleanly slept directly in the workshop, and continued to work when they woke up, and the processing silver issued to them, As soon as the fire money changed hands, they bought donation tickets

Now the Wuchang Railway Bureau has been able to produce various carriages such as passenger and freight transport, and the Tianjin Machinery Bureau has also imitated the first low-horsepower steam locomotive, which has created an era for China's railway industry

In Li Hongzhang's drowsy thoughts, the train continued to move forward, surrounded by gray office buildings and large iron gates for each factory and house, and the smell peculiar to the heavy industrial zone permeated the air

Coal ash is everywhere, and even the flowers on the small flower beds are black, such a scene can still be seen sporadically in Tangshan, in this land in North China, as if there is already a prototype of a small industrial zone, most of these foreign affairs in Beiyang are his painstaking efforts, but today looking at these painstaking efforts, it makes him think of the land in the Northeast

This time, when he went out of the customs, in addition to making negotiations, another errand was to comfort the northeast of the place, where resources and transportation were not under it, and the situation was also open, and the important thing was that the land was vast and sparsely populated, suitable for construction

Fang Huai's emphasis on this land is well known among their important ministers, but it is a pity that since the "Treaty of Beijing" and the "Treaty of Aihui" cut off millions of miles of territory in Jiangbei and Jiangdong, it has become a piece of land under the feet of the Russians

Guan Xuqing even thought about building fortress groups along the Heilongjiang and Ussuri rivers, but the south had been facing pressure from Britain and France, and the project was huge, and the treasury could not take out the money for a while, so it was stopped under the persuasion of the ministers

However, these did not stop Guan Xuqing's dedication to the land in the northeast, the transformation of the Jilin Machinery Bureau, the construction of Anshan Iron Mine and Liaoyang Coal Mine, the laying and extension of the Jingfeng Railway, this kind of excerpt is always in the first row in the south study Thinking of before leaving, Guan Xuqing also specially instructed him to investigate the loss in detail and restore the original appearance as soon as possible

Perhaps, the emperor has long planned a big war with Russia, but is it now? Taking advantage of the entanglement between Britain and Russia, first seized Burma and recaptured a large amount of Mobei land, it was the time difference, frankly speaking, if one side of the Anglo-Russian war at that time withdrew first or did not do its best, then the Qing Dynasty would be doomed

Whether Myanmar can return is still unknown, the opening of the northern gateway has the possibility of being directly by the Russian * Palace, fortunately, Guan Xu liquidated the right time, and it is really dangerous to win for such a big bargain, so what is the emperor's plan this time? Will you send yourself to the Northeast to help rebuild or to go to war with Russia?