The war in the Far East entered an unprecedented state of anxiety.

The strong attack of the army on the Ahufeiling defense line in Korea, the strong attack on the Changchun defense line by the Russian-French coalition army, and the strong attack on the Turpan defense line by the Russian-French coalition army and the Central Asian forces...... Almost all of them are stuck in a kind of dilemma.

The Entente could not fight, and although the Chinese army had an advantage in equipment, it was unable to launch a large-scale counterattack due to the lack of sufficient troops.

The organization of the Entente was successively increased to the five major countries of France, Russia, Spain, and the Netherlands, and the new Korean Republic was organized in the south of Korea, the Yarkand Khanate supported by Russia and France, and the Kingdom of Vietnam and the Kingdom of Cambodia supported by France, which had no meaning at all.

Under the pressure of Britain and Germany, Belgium temporarily withdrew from the Entente.

On the battlefield, for every 1.93 casualties of the Entente countries, China and the South Asian Allied forces will lose 1 person, which is a very good figure, but in terms of the rate of consumption of bullets and shells, the Chinese and South Asian Allied forces are also much larger than the Entente countries at a rate of 2.3 times and 3.1 times.

Money.

It has become China's last barrier.

The strength of the Entente was still increasing rapidly, and Russia had mobilized 3.12 million troops, half of which were concentrated in the Far East, with the local army increasing to 1.45 million, the French army also increasing to 2.17 million, and deploying 1.58 million in the Far East.

Spain and the Netherlands sent relatively few troops, mainly navies and less than 30,000 or 40,000 troops.

The main problem of the Entente at present was that although the number of troops was surging, the main supply was dependent on Russia and the Far Eastern Railway, and in this respect the problem was becoming more and more obvious and intensified.

The problem with the Chinese and South Asian coalition forces is that the number of reserve forces is too small, although the number has increased to 2.3 million, the new troops are mainly militia surnames and lack rigorous training.

With the increase in military strength, military spending has surged, but the average combat strength and combat quality have been declining by a large margin, and even the traditional strategy of "the army is a military school" has begun to be difficult to implement.

Both sides can no longer drag on, and the decisive battle will eventually come.

In fact, Hu Chuyuan no longer has any surplus troops in his hands, and all the troops have been brought to the front line to make up for the front-line allowance established for the transition from the conscription system to the conscription system, which is as high as 55 million yuan per month.

Coupled with the loss of ammunition, medical expenses, casualty allowances, and equipment deployment, even if it is only supported by the current scale, the monthly military expenditure is about 100 million yuan.

Fortunately, the military spending of the Entente countries was higher, about 335 million yuan per month.

If this continues, in another year, the economies of France, Russia, and Ben will be almost bankrupt.

At the end of November, the northeast finally ushered in a large area of snowfall, the war between the two sides began to come to a standstill, due to the lack of heavy artillery forces, the storm on Changchun appeared very unwise, and the Allied Far East coalition forces were forced to stop the large-scale offensive.

This is good news for both sides.

There is also a very special good news for the Chinese team and the South Asian coalition forces, that is, BASF's aspirin and dasulfonamide have become secret drugs and have begun to be used on a large scale in the coalition forces, especially the latter, which is used as an effective antibiotic for sepsis and other wound inflammation.

In the field of traditional Chinese medicine, berberine extracted from Coptis chinensis, as well as andrographisin, are used as some auxiliary antibiotics on a larger scale, and these drugs are mainly produced by Guangji Pharmaceutical and Jiuzhitang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., which are subsidiaries of Fukang Company.

The use of basic drugs such as trauma drugs, white medicines, and blood tonic ointments is increasing.

Effectively protecting the lives of the soldiers is the most important task of the Chinese team now, and compared with the Entente organization, the Chinese side spends several times more on medical expenses.

Of course, this also greatly reduced the loss rate of Chinese soldiers.

Due to the lack of training of doctors in China, at present, China mainly hires field doctors from the United States and Britain, and Britain and the United States openly organize the Red Cross to set up large-scale field hospitals in Changchun, Turpan, Pyongyang, and other important areas.

In the vast majority of countries, the Far East War was a war of aggression against China by the Entente powers, and Hu Chuyuan constantly publicized this fact through official channels and a number of advertising and public relations agencies, which also made China indeed get more help from the international community.

The war went on so anxiously, and no one had a good way out.

Victory or defeat.

No one has a choice.

As in World War I and World War II, an armistice is out of the question, and both sides can only survive if they defeat their opponents and reap enough rewards and gains.

To put it bluntly, both sides are pinning their hopes on the large war reparations that they will receive if they defeat their opponents.

December 7, 1901.

Heavy snow began to fall in Yanjing, and the first snow of this winter came so big that it caught people off guard.

In the morning, accompanied by Li Cunyi, Hu Chuyuan wore a thick black coat, a wide-brimmed hat, an umbrella, and stepped on the thick snow, and walked forward with a click.

The road was dedicated to him, and it was very quiet along the way, surrounded by secret agents of the Secret Service, who were responsible for monitoring every movement in the surrounding area.

For China as a whole, Hu's personal safety trumps anything else.

No one could be more important than him.

As long as he is alive and in control of the country, all Chinese are convinced that victory will ultimately belong to China.

That's the biggest benefit he can bring to the country...... A confidence like no other.

Walking on this bluestone paved road, Hu Chuyuan was very calm, looking at the Prime Minister's Office in front of him from a distance, Li Cunyi was not wearing much, although he was already a fifty-four-year-old old gentleman, his body was stronger than Hu Chuyuan.

Li Cunyi walked with Hu Chuyuan's side with his hands behind his back, accompanying him.

Halfway through, he thoughtfully sighed with Hu Chuyuan: "My lord, this snow came really immediately, the climate in the northeast is cold fast, as long as it takes another month, it is basically impossible to organize a large-scale offensive." ”

Hu Chuyuan also had palpitations.

He had been waiting for this cold air flow for days!

He nodded and sighed, "yes." ”

Li Cunyi asked: "My lord, if this battle is won, what do you say, what can we get from the Entente?" ”

"Hmm...... Dignity! ”

Hu Chuyuan replied, and added: "The dignity that a world power should have!" ”

"Huh!"

Li Cunyi smiled happily.

When she arrived at the office, Niu Shuxian had already soaked a pot of Shifeng Longjing for Hu Chuyuan, and the office was also very clean, she had often been in and out of the Hu family since she was a child, and she knew Hu Chuyuan's life and surname very well.

Compared with Qiu Jin, who has a tough surname, the young and lovely Mei Xin, the twenty-six-year-old Niu Shuxian is stable and careful, and after graduating from Stanford University with her husband Liang Qichao, they went to Yale University to further their law studies.

Coupled with the relationship between the Niu family, she stayed by Hu Chuyuan's side as a secretary, had the key to the office, and was usually responsible for sorting out the documents and files in the Prime Minister's office, and her desk was also outside Hu Chuyuan's office.

The Confidential Secretariat is definitely not an ordinary secretarial clerk office center, most of the people here are political axe officials between the third rank and the fifth rank, and the lowest is also a senior official with the same rank of seventh rank.

According to their different duties and powers, they are roughly divided into more than a dozen groups, which are responsible for coordinating information from various cabinet departments of the Prime Minister's Office and reporting to Hu Chuyuan as soon as possible.

Hu Chuyuan also has a special training for these people, giving them a lot of freedom to submit new ideas and work plans on their own.

Early in the morning, Cai Yuanpei and Liang Qichao co-compiled a new national education plan and submitted it to Hu Chuyuan for review.

At this time, Cai Yuanpei was only thirty-three years old, Guangxu was a junior in the eighteenth year, and Guangxu entered the doctoral college in the twentieth year, and later, with the support of Hu Chuyuan, he went to Stanford University to study social education and economics with Liang Qichao, who was five years younger than him, after that, Cai Yuanpei went to the University of Berlin in Germany for further study, and Liang Qichao went to Yale University.

During the years of study and study in the United States and Germany, they systematically investigated and summarized the education systems of the United States and Germany, and prepared a draft of national education before returning to China.

During the half month that Yanjing was waiting to take up his post in the Confidential Secretariat, the two discussed with each other and redrafted a new "National Education Plan."

In fact, this is also an important goal for Hu Chuyuan to send them to study abroad.

Hu Chuyuan still attaches great importance to the opinions of these two people, and after reading all the plans very carefully, he read them again again, thinking in his heart while reading.

This "National Education Plan" is divided into two parts, Liang Qichao mainly drafted the first part, that is, the part of quality education and compulsory education, and Cai Yuanpei drafted the latter part, aiming at domestic universities and vocational college education.

According to this plan, a 12-year compulsory education system will be implemented in Japan, from elementary school to middle school to public school, and in order to facilitate the transition of social awareness, the private school enlightenment education system will still be retained, and the student status will be equivalent to the six-year elementary school curriculum.

In addition to public schools, secondary vocational and technical colleges such as vocational schools and technical schools are retained, which are within the scope of national compulsory education.

Higher education is dominated by private universities, and only a few large-scale public universities are retained in the provinces, especially public universities in the field of teacher training, medical and higher vocational and technical colleges.

On the whole, Cai Yuanpei highly recommends the importance of vocational and technical education in German education, and China's future way out must be an industrial power, so China must also cultivate a large number of technical and industrial talents.

He believes that university education should be based on comprehensiveness and freedom, while vocational and technical education should be based on specialization and practicality, and that there must be a systematic system of production and training within the secondary vocational and technical schools to higher vocational and technical colleges.

After reading the "National Education Plan" jointly drafted by the two, Hu Chuyuan was still very satisfied.

However, he did not immediately annotate, but put the plan aside, and asked Cai Yuanpei and Liang Qichao: "In the army, we have always advocated the policy and concept that the army is a military academy, what do you think about this?" ”

Hearing Hu Chuyuan say this, Cai Yuanpei immediately replied: "Our country's universal education has not been done well, only the six provinces in Jiangnan and Shandong, because of the perennial funding of adults, have established universal education with charitable surnames since more than ten years ago, but it does not involve everyone, and the elimination rate of students is very high. In this way, the illiteracy rate in the army is too high, and the army is a military school, which is a very good idea, and after three years of military service, it is equivalent to studying for three years, and it is much easier to go out and get a job. As long as the young people are educated, they are the backbone of the country! ”

Hu Chuyuan hummed noncommittally, and asked Liang Qichao again: "What do you think?" ”

Liang Qichao wanted to be a little more slippery, and said with a smile: "I think that the idea that the army is a military school can be adhered to for a long time, and it should be popularized, the factory is also an industrial technical school, and the enterprise is also a business school." ”

Hu Chuyuan continued to hum and said, "What I advocate is a spirit of eternal learning, a lifelong education plan, not that it is enough to study in school for more than ten years. We are now building a modern Chinese education system and spirit, which will affect many years and is far-reaching, so ...... We should pay more attention to this, establish the principles we should advocate from the beginning, and let the Chinese become a nation that will always learn. ”

Cai Yuanpei understood what he meant, and immediately asked, "My lord, do you mean the problem of on-the-job education?" ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded and said, "In addition to in-service education, there are also plans for self-study education, open education, and lifelong education. As long as Chinese universities and public universities can apply for attendance certificates, students who are not students of the school can go to attend classes as long as they have the equivalent high school degree, and even handle self-study education in the school, and the school will issue a self-study education graduation certificate through self-study examinations and tests. ”

Cai Yuanpei nodded slightly and said, "This is indeed a good way." ”

Hu Chuyuan continued: "I personally believe that the number of public universities should still increase, and in the long run, university education should also be semi-free, especially higher vocational and technical education, which must be run well, as an important foundation for national education, which will determine what kind of country we will become." ”

Cai Yuanpei and Liang Qichao nodded silently.

Hu Chuyuan handed back the "National Education Plan" in his hand to the two of them, and said: "Go back and reconsider, this one is too simple, you need to think about it more, you might as well lead a team to Jiangnan, Huguang, Shanxi and Sichuan to inspect and see what level the education situation in China is." In addition, there should be a systematic plan for national education, vocational education, university education, self-study education, and open education, and they should be interrelated with each other. ”

These words put a lot of pressure on Cai Yuanpei and Liang Qichao, they thought that their education plan would definitely give Hu Chuyuan a lot of inspiration, but now they understand...... They're far from it.

The two of them hurriedly left the office with the plan in their hands and continued to find a place to discuss.

Education is a very important issue, and it is also a problem that Hu Chuyuan hopes to initially solve during his tenure, but the "National Education Plan" proposed by Cai Yuanpei and Liang Qichao is far from enough.

In this battle, even the 140 million yuan of national education funds for next year that were determined in advance to be misappropriated.

At this point, Hu Chuyuan had to admire himself.

Their financial situation is even more dismal, and all the nobility have been cut off, but the expenditure on state education remains at the same level as last year.

The Russians, by contrast, do not have this awareness.

I hate it!

Hu Chuyuan gritted his teeth and suspended the last bit of support allowance for the Manchu nobles and Manchus, and misappropriated it to military spending, and the reserved education funds of 140 million Qingyuan continued, and the funds of the National Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Sciences were also distributed as planned.

Actually, you don't have to grit your teeth at all for this kind of thing.

Even if he only had one division of the Zhili Corps in Beijing left, the pitiful strength of the Manchurians would not dare to confront him.

The current Manchurians, except for a nominal emperor and three princes, the rest were almost stripped naked by Hu Chuyuan and allowed him to trample on them.

(To be continued)