If World War I had broken out as scheduled, it would have been a godsend to China, which had just completed its 175 national industrial programs, and there could have been no better thing.

Then again, without the Sino-Chinese War, there would have been no rise in imperial prestige, no Sino-French alliance, no Sino-French alliance, no huge long-term support loan of 385 million pounds, and then no 175 national industrial plans.

From this point of view, it is true that it verifies the old saying that harming others will harm oneself.

Under the great impetus of the 175 national industrial plans, the overall strength of China's industry has been greatly improved, the further exploration and development of resources in the three eastern provinces, as well as the large-scale mining exploration in Shanxi, Shandong, Zhili, Chahar, Huguang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Liangguang also ushered in the expansion of the mining industry during this period. Including the way of opening up the mining industry in some provinces to foreign countries, it has actively promoted the development of China's mining industry and ensured the supply of industrial raw materials.

Far East Mining Corporation has undoubtedly been the most rapid in its progress, with the mining of iron ore, coal, copper and other mining raw materials in Shandong, Hebei and Shanxi.

The total amount of machinery and equipment imported from abroad has continued to rise, and junior colleges and technical schools are widely distributed in the provinces to train skilled workers, and the newly opened factories also have external technicians and special technical training schools for the cultivation of talents in the factory.

The talents cultivated by the Northeast Industrial Base in the past began to flow to the major new industrial zones such as Zhili, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Huguang, Shanxi, Shandong, etc., which promoted the development of new factories in various places, and the large-scale opening of railways and the dredging of major waterways in the country have more positive significance for the development of industry.

At this time, China is developing at a high speed in a positive momentum, and what it lacks is only a chance to take off.

If there is anything that dissatisfies Song Biao now, it must be China's shipbuilding industry, although the Far Eastern consortium has devoted a lot of efforts to this, but the truth is always so cruel.

At the end of 1912, the Jinzhou Shipyard designed and built a light armored cruiser with a displacement of 2,400 tons, and for the first time, it used a domestically produced reciprocating three-expansion steam engine power unit and boiler.

The biggest problem of this ship is that there is a problem in the design, there is an obvious backward phenomenon after launching, the weight of the front half of the hull is lower than the rear half, and the problem is not obvious when sailing at low speeds, once it enters the speed of more than 15 knots, the ship is unusually unstable, and it shakes sharply when it encounters a little wind and waves, and finally has to increase the caliber of the main gun in the bow to 240mm, and balance the hull with the weight of two bizarre twin cannons.

Obviously a failure, not only this problem, but also many other problems, the self-built steam engine is also a constant problem, which is irritating.

Song Biao is also difficult to understand, after all, the investment in the shipbuilding industry is not long-term, it is not high, but he can not be discouraged, he can only find a way to let the Far East Shipbuilding Corporation set up the Far East Ship Design Institute, recruit some experienced foreign designers and experts from Britain, France and the United States as consultants, and continue to design the second light-tonnage cruiser on his own.

At the beginning of the year, after repeated deliberations on the design proposal, the Golden State Shipyard made persistent efforts and once again decided to build the sixth type of warship designed by itself, or a light armored cruiser with a design displacement of about 2,500 tons, and at the same time continued to import a complete set of construction drawings from boilers to steam turbines and main guns from France and Britain to build four light armored cruisers with a design displacement of 3,300 tons.

Just when these two classes of lightly armored cruisers were being built in the dock at the same time, Song Biao arrived at Aurora Mansion for a visit.

Sinian.

In order to demonstrate his determination to govern China and make the country rich and strong, Song Biao officially changed his name to "Song Zhizhong" after becoming emperor, and the name "Song Aurora" he used before the Liberation Revolution was also occasionally used, for example, when publishing editorials, he would change to "Aurora" as a pen name.

After the recovery of Dalian, the empire obviously could not use the Russian transliteration of "Darni" as the name of the prefecture, and it happened that Aurora University was also located in "Darni", so Song Biao did not use the transliteration word "Dalian", but named it "Aurora".

Song Biao's birthplace on the public information is located in the "Darni" Lushunkou Xiaogushan area, Lushun and Dalian are also regarded as his dragon pond location, and the imperial ancestral mausoleum funded by the General Administration of the Inner Court in Lushun is between Lushun Panlong Temple and Changchun Nunnery.

At this time, Aurora Prefecture has jurisdiction over Aurora County, Lushun County, Jinzhou County, Pulandian County, Zhuanghe County, Fuzhou County, Aurora County and Jinzhou County are all special zones, and Aurora belongs to the Free Port and Financial Free City.

Because of the good development of the local economy, in addition to Aurora University and the Far East Naval Non-commissioned Officer School, Jinzhou also has the Far East Shipbuilding Industry Institute and the Golden State Commercial, Normal, Textile and other colleges, the local economy is mainly based on ports, international trade, financial securities, real estate, shipbuilding, textiles, with the country's largest Far East Stock Exchange and more than 60 foreign banks, known as the Far East financial and foreign trade center.

Song Biao's public information cannot be changed, and Aurora Mansion can also be claimed to be the emperor's hometown, and he is such an emperor.

After visiting Shenyang for many days, Song Biao did not continue to stay in Liaoyang and Haizhou, but went directly south to Aurora Mansion, and after resting for a day in the Governor's Mansion where the Russians had stayed, he went directly to the Jinzhou Shipyard the next morning to inspect it.

From 1911 to 1913, the Imperial Central Navy successively purchased 7 second-hand cruisers and 4 new types of light armored cruisers from Britain, the United States, France and other countries, with a displacement tonnage of between 2,000 tons and 8,500 tons, and built seven warships with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, a 2,400-ton Haijin lightly armored cruiser, a 1,750-ton Haining light armored cruiser, and five coastal defense steel ships with a displacement of 1,200 to 1,500 tons.

By the end of 1915, a number of new lightly armored cruisers purchased and built by the United States would be in place one after another, and the Central Navy would have 27 cruisers with a total tonnage of 140,000 tons.

Of course, this tonnage is not only very far apart, but if it is really to fight, the 27 cruisers together may not be the opponent of the three battleships.

Song Biao's visit to the Jinzhou Shipyard at this time is naturally of great significance, and the implication is also obvious, because Cheng Biguang is the highest person in charge of the design problems of the first two self-built ships, at least in terms of responsibility, Song Biao is very disappointed in Cheng Biguang, and this time he only asked Sa Zhenbing, deputy chief of the general staff of the Central Military Department, who is in charge of naval affairs, to accompany him, and let Cheng Biguang, the minister of the navy, ponder what the problem is in Yanjing City.

Compared with the last time he came to inspect, the scale of the Jinzhou Shipyard has been much larger than in the past, and the second shipyard, a joint venture with the United States, has already built a 10,000-ton cargo ship, so Song Biao does not understand why the Jinzhou Shipyard has problems even building a 2,000-ton cruiser.

Although he has always been a little unhappy about this, Song Biao still maintained great restraint and calmness, and did not make any adjustments to the personnel, nor did he interfere with the normal operation of the shipyard.

Or because the emperor did not say anything for a long time, Hu Weiqiao, who was the director of the factory, and Zheng Qinglian, the chief engineer, were so panicked, they arrived at the Kanto Governor's Mansion very early, and since then they have been back to the shipyard, Song Biao did not look unhappy, and listened to their introductions all the way to visit the newly added dock and factory building as he did the previous two visits to the shipyard.

In order to control the quality of shipbuilding steel and facilitate the use of large-scale steel, Jinzhou Shipyard has jointly invested in a steel plant in the surrounding plant area and the United States Bethlehem and Far East Iron and Steel Corporation, which is specially used for smelting shipbuilding steel.

Song Biao also went to the new steel plant to check it out, at least on the surface, the Jinzhou Shipyard is simply good news, the total tonnage of shipbuilding has increased sixfold compared with 1911, a large number of 5,000-ton displacement freighters, as well as 300 to 600-ton small steamers, patrol boats, 10,000-ton freighters can be built four, the number of workers expanded to 20,000.

It seems to be good news, but Song Biao is no longer as optimistic as he used to be.

Until he left the shipyard, Song Biao did not say much about Hu Weiqiao and Sa Zhenbing, he just completed the scheduled inspection work on time and on time, returned to the mansion at noon, and prepared to inspect Aurora University and the Far East Naval Non-commissioned Officer School in the afternoon.

Sa Zhenbing didn't dare to speak all the way, and it wasn't until he was about to return to the Kanto Mansion that he said to Song Biao, who was sitting in the car with his eyes closed: "Your Majesty, your subordinates think that the level of Jinzhou Shipyard is indeed the best in China, and the previous two self-built warships have problems, presumably due to lack of experience." ”

Song Biao continued to be silent and did not make any statement.

Sa Zhenbing hesitated slightly, and then continued to persuade: "Your Majesty, your subordinates think that the shipyard also needs some encouragement at this time. ”

Song Biao replied: "If they have a problem building dreadnoughts, I naturally have to actively encourage them not to be afraid of making mistakes, but if there is a mistake in building two cruisers, this is a trivial matter, and I can't talk about it." What's more, the Jinzhou Shipyard is a private factory, and it is not the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau of the previous dynasty, and the statement of the political axe is not important, the important thing is that they themselves must fight for the market. Then again, it's better to make a mistake early than later. ”

Sa Zhenbing thought about it and felt that this was also the case, the two lightly armored cruisers Haijin and Haining had repeatedly broken down, which was a thorny problem for the navy and shipyards, which made everyone lose confidence, but for the emperor, this was really a trivial matter.

Song Biao continued to say to Sa Zhenbing: "I still say the same thing as before, you continue to work hard, and when you have a real satisfactory result, I will reward you." ”

Sa Zhenbing immediately replied: "Your Majesty has thanked the emperor on behalf of the monarchs. ”

Song Biao stopped answering and closed his eyes.

Regarding the fact that the Haijin almost capsized in the Yellow Sea, he only instructed Cheng Biguang to entrust a French shipbuilding consultant to conduct an investigation, and asked Rong Xingqiao not only to find out the cause, but also to continue to adhere to the original grand strategy of the consortium shipbuilding industry.

Therefore, he does not blame anyone in public for this, nor does he take sides, which in itself is already the greatest encouragement to China's shipbuilding and military industry.

He did not speak, which means that the original plan will continue as before, without making any changes, but adding a higher design and technical institution such as the Far East Shipbuilding Research Institute.

In the afternoon of this day, Song Biao, as the emperor and the biggest sponsor, went to Aurora University to inspect.

The education of the empire is basically based on the example of Germany and the United States, learning from Germany, mainly implementing technical education, ensuring the country's industrial and technical talents, pursuing a higher level of knowledge of the skilled working class as the backbone of the national industry, and learning from the United States to promote the common development of national and private universities.

Yenching University, Fu Jen University, Soochow University, Aurora University...... After negotiations with the United States, Tsinghua University's education fund was transferred to St. John's University in Shanghai, Yenching University, and Fu Jen University, and Tsinghua University was used as the basis for the establishment of the Central Imperial University, which was funded by the central government.

Yenching University, Shanghai University, Nanjing University, and Zhejiang University are all public universities, but they all belong to local public universities funded by various provinces and directly under the central government, and the universities that really belong to the central government are Central Imperial University, Central University of Science and Technology, Central Jiaotong University, Central Medical University, Northeastern University, Jiangnan University, Beiyang University, Nanyang University, and Southwest University.

At this stage, the only one in China that can compete with the world's top universities is Aurora University, which had four language departments of English, French, German and Russian before 1907, teaching all foreign languages, adding a language campus in 1907 and a Chinese campus in 1912.

Aurora University occupies the largest area of all colleges and universities in the country, even higher than the Central Imperial University and Southwest University, covering an area of 21 square kilometers, including the entire Taishan, Mopanshan and the western suburbs, making this area collectively known as the university town, so it is large enough to set up six campuses at the same time, which is equivalent to the merger of six universities.

In addition to the students with good foreign language scores, most of the students need eight years from being admitted to the preparatory school to complete the bachelor's degree, and it is precisely because of this foundation that about half of the students can be recommended to study abroad after graduation, and there are more than 100 students who are sent to Yale, Harvard, Paris, Berlin and Moscow universities every year.

After years of gradual development and the foundation accumulated over the years, the Chinese Department of the University currently has 6,000 students, gradually surpassing the German campus and the English campus, becoming the largest campus of Aurora University.

The Russian department can transfer to the German department, and the English department can transfer to the French department, such as the nuclear physics major opened last year, and the French department, the German department and the English department have tutors at the same time, and students can apply freely according to their foreign language status.

With the development of the university's teaching strength and the increase in the number of external first-class professors, including the hiring of Nobel Prize-winning professors in physics and chemistry as supervisors, Aurora University has begun to focus more on the training of graduate and doctoral students in terms of teaching scale, and encourages its students to pursue master's degrees in the university as much as possible.

Such a large scale, teaching level, and faculty are naturally based on capital, and the foundation of Aurora University has maintained a scale of 15 million pounds all year round, and the annual new donations from the Far Eastern consortium, all walks of life and the royal family have also remained at the scale of 1 million pounds, ranking among the highest level among private universities in the world.

Of course, Imperial education as a whole is still modeled after Germany, with public and private universities having research institutes and conducting research in the basic sciences funded by the government and society, while the entire system and resources of national education are focused on vocational education as in Germany, and specialized education and vocational and technical education are mainly promoted throughout the country.

In terms of the entire educational structure, the empire adopted a four-level system, the first level was a public school and a primary school; the second level is the junior high school; The third level is senior high school, university preparatory school, junior college, vocational and technical school; The fourth level is universities, colleges, and colleges.

Taking into account the national conditions and the basic conditions of the national economy, the whole country is mainly based on public and private school education in rural areas, and the public school system is used first to establish compulsory education in a low-cost way, and only the counties and towns with large populations have formal primary education, and each county guarantees a public junior high school, and each province guarantees a public high school.

After graduating from public school and elementary school, you can choose to study in vocational high school, which generally takes three years to graduate, so many students will join the workforce at the age of 14.

In the western and southwestern provinces where local finances are poor, if Yunnan-Guizhou, Guangxi, Shaanxi, and Chahar can only guarantee basic public school education, while Huguang, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Hui, Shandong, Henan, and Sichuan provinces can popularize formal primary education, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Zhili implement a nine-year universal education, and the three eastern provinces and the three municipalities directly under the central government of Yanjing, Shanghai, and Tianjin continue to add one year of vocational security education on the basis of the nine-year compulsory education. That is, after graduating from junior high school, continue to increase the free education of one year in vocational and technical schools, such schools generally set up basic vocational training such as fitters, grinders, millers, spinners, etc., and the imperial law stipulates that only those who have reached the age of 16 can officially participate in the work, and it is strictly forbidden to recruit child laborers under the age of 14.

In 1912, the Empire introduced the "Vocational and Technical Workers Security Act", which strictly required that the relevant skilled workers of all enterprises must undergo a one-year vocational and technical training, and on the basis of the national industrial minimum wage, the salary guarantee for skilled workers was increased according to the technical level, and in the bidding of various projects and projects, enterprises were strictly required to reach a certain level of vocational and technical level.

Under the promotion of the 1540 education plan, in 1914, all provinces with relatively good economic levels had established a national comprehensive university, five professional colleges of normal, science and engineering, law, finance and economics, and medicine, and 40 specialized schools.

In general, the education of the empire is still based on Germany as a teacher, strictly learning the spirit of German vocational education, whether it is domestic or foreign-funded enterprises, in accordance with the empire's "Vocational and Technical Workers Security Act", to provide the most basic training courses for factory workers, to ensure that the vast majority of workers can obtain vocational rating qualifications.

As far as the current stage is concerned, the education of the three eastern provinces is certainly still much higher than the national level, and the number of primary, middle and junior colleges in the three provinces is roughly the same as that of the three provinces, and the Northeast University of Science and Law, Northeast University of Technology, Shengjing University, Jilin University, and Harbin Institute of Technology are based on the goal of overwhelming the higher education.

After visiting Aurora University, Song Biao's inspection of the Far East ended here, and after meeting with some of the general directors of the consortium at the Far East Hotel, he continued to return to Yanjing by special train.

At this point, he was ready to go, and everything was waiting for the outbreak of the First World War.

China is also ready.

(To be continued)