It was another New Year, and the whole year of Guangxu did not drag down the newly emerging ethnic enterprises. Many local enterprises in the Qing Dynasty also made a fortune from the war.

Similarly, the Qing Dynasty in the Guangxu ten years of taxation also fully felt how much help the prosperity of ethnic enterprises to the country's financial revenue, in the beginning of March of the tenth year of Guangxu, after three months of collection. Finally, all the taxes were collected and handed over to Li Zhen and put into the treasury, a full 530 million taels of silver.

Tax revenue has increased by nearly 100 percent compared with last year, and this achievement is mainly due to Vietnam, which has just been incorporated into the territory of the Qing Dynasty. I have to say that the French rule in Vietnam in the past ten years has been quite successful, especially in today's Vietnamese Province, where the French have been working hard for a whole decade, but let Guan Xuqing pick up a ready-made one.

As a result of the abolition of some of the terms signed with France during the Second Opium War, many French concessions and customs duties were recovered. As a result, the entire tax revenue has risen in a straight line, and it has to be said that the national strength of the Qing Dynasty is very strong. At that time, Japan's GDP was the highest in the world, and Japan's tax revenue in just one year was worth five years of tax revenue. So Guan Xuqing can do what he wants without any worries.

The atmosphere of the morning dynasty was very relaxed, a festive scene of the New Year. After discussing some inconsequential matters among the monarchs and ministers, they just retreated to the court. Prince Alcohol said with a side of praise.

"Your Majesty, the minister still has important things to tell."

"Lord Seven, please speak." Guan Xuqing looked at him curiously.

Prince Alcohol cleared his throat and said, "Now that I have cleared the country and the people, I have just defeated France. The whole country is full of praise, the emperor is already fourteen years old, and he has reached the age of marriage. Although he has been in power but still has not married, the minister suggested that a draft could be held to elect the queen. The whole country celebrates. ”

Guan Xuqing almost didn't fall on the dragon chair after listening, draft? You're only fourteen years old and you're getting married? Thinking about the fact that he was twenty-six years old in his previous life, he was not married, but after he wore it back, he would have to get married first.

Before Guan Xuqing could speak, almost all the civil and military officers in the court seconded it. A strong agreement said that in the end, everyone unanimously passed the draft ceremony on the eighth day of the next lunar month, and all women over the age of thirteen and under the age of eighteen in the Eight Banners must participate, and Wang Shang and others will conduct a preliminary review, and finally select one hundred women with outstanding appearance, temperament and knowledge for the emperor to decide in person.

Guan Xuqing is both novel and excited about this kind of draft. It's hard to wear it back and be an emperor, of course, you have to enjoy the privilege of being an emperor, and I'm really sorry for myself if I don't marry ten or eight. However, later generations learned that the harem women were really not flattering, and they really didn't know what the 100 so-called women with good knowledge, appearance, and temperament were selected.

After the early dynasty, Guan Xuqing was still dealing with all kinds of cumbersome government affairs, and he had already forgotten about the draft. Over the past year or so, the system of Daqing Bank has become more and more perfect. After the defeat of the invincible French in the Sino-French War, the people's trust in the government reached an unprecedented height. They are willing to deposit the silver in the bank and are deposited for a long time on a regular basis, the Daqing Bank absorbed so many deposits and supported the construction of the country's heavy industry at low interest, the reconstruction of the Mawei Military Port, after the purchase of a complete set of shipbuilding equipment and technical personnel from France, the shipbuilding industry of the Daqing Dynasty quickly upgraded to a higher level, and it seems that it is only a matter of time before the Qing Dynasty builds its first ironclad ship. In addition, during the war, the price of steel was raised by various countries, which had already caused the gun bureaus in various parts of the Qing Dynasty to stop production. However, recently, I don't know what happened, the Qing Dynasty actually mined iron ore and smelted iron and steel in China, apparently reaching a state of self-sufficiency. There is no need for the import of steel, and in the face of this sudden blow, the Western powers, led by the British, who are driving up the price of steel, cannot imagine how a China with such backward mining technology can find such a large iron ore!

Of course, these are all done by Guan Xuqing and the mining technicians. At the beginning, everyone just carried it out, and the imperial court gave an order to mine. Can you stand in the way? What's more, this little emperor has created miracles again and again, and the ministers, including the people, have become numb. Everyone blindly worships this "true son" to the extreme.

Guan Xuqing was amused in his heart, from later generations, of course, he was clear about the distribution of iron ore in China, and now he only pointed out one of the Hubei Daye Iron Mine, just because it was close to the Hubei Gun Bureau and deep in the interior. In the absence of aircraft today, it is still more difficult for the great powers to strike. For example, in several major iron mining areas in the northeast, Guan Xuqing has already arranged heavy troops, but they have not mined.

Suddenly seeing an excerpt of "Russian cavalry harassing the Mongolian fold", Guan Xuqing put down the fold in his hand. Pulled the telegram from Mongolia out of the pile.

After reading the recital, Guan Xuqing's face turned blue. said to Wang Shang beside him: "Go, pass on Zuo Zongtang." ”

"Wow."

After a while, Zuo Zongtang walked into the Heart Cultivation Palace.

"Minister, knock on the emperor."

"Let's be flat."

"Your Majesty."

Guan Xuqing didn't raise his head, handed the telegram to Wang Shang, pointed to Zuo Zongtang who was standing in front of him, and said, "Have you read this telegram?" ”

Zuo Zongtang took the telegram from Wang Shang's hand, looked at it and said, "The ministers and the people of the Military Aircraft Department have already seen it. ”

"Huh? What do you guys think? At this time, Guan Xuqing raised his head and looked at Zuo Zongtang expectantly.

"I think that Tsarist Russia is just a small force harassing our interior. At this time, Tsarist Russia faced the hatred of Britain in Europe, and they were fiercely fighting in Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey at the same time. I can't take care of me for the time being. And our Qing Dynasty has just defeated France, and the combat effectiveness it has displayed should have attracted enough attention from Tsarist Russia. The ministers didn't dare to say anything, so they presented it to the emperor for preview. Zuo Zongtang said cautiously.

Guan Xuqing looked at the veterans who were getting older and less and less tempered before, and sighed in his heart that the years can really smooth out an angular temper? He was sure that if something like this had happened ten years ago, this old fellow would have been the first to shout that he would lead his troops to kill Russia. What's more, ten years ago, the Qing Dynasty basically used cold weapons, and now the guys in their hands are no worse than the Russians. The family background is solid, and the people are low-key. It also verifies a sentence, barefoot people are not afraid of wearing shoes. Now that we're wearing shoes, we have to think twice about everything.

Guan Xuqing looked at Zuo Zongtang like this and didn't speak. The word "Sichuan" furrowed into his brows, and he said leisurely after I don't know how long: "Since 1840, when Britain launched the First Opium War, Britain has stripped the most extensive privileges in China, including the legalization of the opium trade, which I hate the most. Needless to say, opium poisoning shakes the most fundamental thing of a nation. ”

"Yes." Zuo Zongtang was confused when he heard it, and he didn't know why the emperor suddenly said this.

Guan Xuqing ignored Zuo Zongtang's confused eyes and continued: "It's hard to imagine how a country whose tariffs are still controlled by other countries can develop and become strong, not to mention such a large amount of fiscal revenue, how can such a low tariff protect its own national industry. Even if it is only for the sake of tariffs, we will have to fight with Britain in the Qing Dynasty. ”

Zuo Zongtang finally understood, it turned out that the emperor was going to war with Britain. But now it is Russia that is harassing our borders!

"What the emperor said is extremely true, but now that Russia is harassing our borders, and Britain has no bad behavior, how can we start a war with Britain?"

"Hahaha, Zong Tang. Didn't you just say that Russia and Britain are fighting fiercely in Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan? As the old saying goes, the enemy of an enemy is a friend. If Britain was to be defeated, it was necessary to unite with Russia. However, Russia is like a jackal, if you want to cooperate with him, you must first defeat his wolf ambitions, only if you hurt the opponent, can you attract the attention of the opponent, before that, even if you put the best conditions, it will only be regarded as a sign of cowardice. Communication can only be between wolves and wolves, and there is no possibility of dialogue between wolves and sheep. ”

Zuo Zongtang finally cleared the clouds and saw the blue sky, and said excitedly: "The old minister thinks that how to grasp the scale of the conflict is the key, which not only makes Russia realize the strength of our Qing Dynasty, but also does not turn into a large-scale war." Lay the foundation for future cooperation! ”

Guan Xuqing looked at Zuo Zongtang with satisfaction, sometimes the conversation between smart people and smart people only needs one look. As Zuo Zongtang grew older, he was no longer the hot-tempered old man Guan Xuqing had when he first met him.

"That's right, let the Nie Shicheng troops stationed in Mongolia not only have to guard the thousands of kilometers of border, but also can't cross the border to pursue the enemy. I also knew that this was tantamount to tying their hands and feet, but without difficulty, there was no sharpening. As the saying goes, "the edge of the sword is sharpened", I am now building a peerless sword. Guan Xuqing said, with firm confidence in his eyes.

"The minister knows, and the minister will go to the military department to give Nie Shicheng an order."

"Well, go ahead."

After Zuo Zongtang left, Guan Xuqing walked alone in front of a world map hanging on the wall at 1:2000000. Looking at Russia in the Qing Dynasty, among Western countries, Russia is the most barbaric and greedy, and the Tsarist royal family that controls him also has an almost crazy ** about expanding its territory. In 1861, Russia took advantage of China's defeat in the Second Opium War to force China to recognize the legitimacy of the Treaty of Aihui, ceded the lands east of the Heilongjiang River and north of the Ussuri River, and inexplicably proposed to redefine the border between China and Russia in the northwest. In fact, as early as the Kangxi period, the "Treaty of Nebuchu" had clear stipulations that China and Russia took the Sayan Mountains as their northern boundary, but Russia forcibly used the name of surveying the northwest border to transfer 440,000 square kilometers of land south and east of Lake Balkhash and 170,000 square kilometers of land in the entire Tangnu Ulianghai to the Russian side, plus the land north of the Heilongjiang River and the east of the Ussuri River, in just over 20 years, more than 1.5 million square kilometers of land were lost, equivalent to the area of four Japans. If you continue to let things go, you will only lose more land.

But now is not the time for a war against Russia. The current Qing Dynasty is not able to compete with Russia, which has more than 20 million square kilometers of land and a standing army of more than 2 million. It will take time for the Qing Dynasty to become stronger, and Russia will inevitably grow old because of its own ills, and one day there will be a great war between the two countries with heavy land plots.

But before that, Guan Xuqing did not intend to provoke Russia, and his eyes were now fixed on the emerald country of southwest China, Myanmar. Burma was already a vassal state of China as early as the Qianlong period, but in 1886, that is, the next year, the British launched the Third Burma War, turning Burma into a British Indian colony. Such a thing will never be allowed to happen again, not to mention that Myanmar is still tied to Guan Xuqing's dream of entering the Indian Ocean.

Mahan said in "On Sea Power", "Whoever controls the Indian Ocean controls Asia." The Indian Ocean is the gateway to the seven oceans, and the fate of the world in the 21st century will be determined in the Indian Ocean. In fact, his words were fulfilled in the 20th century. The Gulf region is home to more than half of the world's oil, and the shipping lanes leading there are seen as a country's lifeline. And if China wants to participate in the game of Africa, the world's largest colony, it must also have access to the Indian Ocean.

China's ports are now located on the Pacific coast and must pass through the Strait of Malacca to enter the Indian Ocean, and the British took control of the Strait of Malacca by occupying Malaysia and Singapore after exchanging colonies with the Dutch in 1819. That is, in the event of a conflict between China and Britain, Britain can close China's door to the Indian Ocean at any time.

History has changed, and now even Guan Xuqing himself can't predict what the world will eventually become, so Guan Xuqing can only try his best to fight for the best situation for the Qing Dynasty. If the British were to annex Burma, Britain would build a strong territory stretching from the Pamirs in the north to the Malay Peninsula in the south, while China's three southwestern provinces would be completely exposed to the British eyelids. Historically, even though the Himalayas are several kilometers high, the British still cut off 90,000 square kilometers of Tibet's land, but they did not encroach on the southwest of China because it was divided into a sphere of influence by France, and the forces of the two countries reached a delicate balance here, and now this balance has been broken by Guan Xuqing himself, and the French forces on the Indochina Peninsula have been completely expelled by him, and the British will be able to enter the southwest of China without scruples after occupying Burma. Therefore, whether there is a war in Burma or not, China will face Britain, an empire on which the sun never sets, and if there is no war, the flames of war will burn outside the country, and if there is no war, sooner or later a war will be waged to defend the southwest.

Instead of sitting and waiting to die, it is better to fight to the death.

But if you fight to the death, you have to judge the situation, and blindly fighting hard is definitely not the opponent of the empire on which the sun never sets. After three centuries of overseas colonial expansion, especially after the Industrial Revolution, Britain finally reached its peak in the mid-19th century during the reign of Queen Victoria. By 1860, its industrial capacity was equivalent to 40 to 45 percent of the world's, and it alone accounted for one-fifth of the world's commercial volume and 40 percent of the world's trade in manufactured goods...... An unprecedentedly large colonial empire is presented to the eyes of the world -- "North America and Russia are our breadbaskets; Canada and the Baltic coast are our forest farms; Australia and West Asia have our pastures; Argentina and the North American wilderness have our cattle herds, Spain and France are our vineyards; The Mediterranean is our orchard; We have long occupied the cotton fields of the American South, and we are now extending it to all the warm regions of the planet......"