In May 1862, in the Xinhua Palace, Lin Zhe was looking at the proposal for the establishment of a province in Xinjiang in his hand in detail.

The current division of provinces, prefectures, prefectures and counties in the empire as a whole follows the division of the Ming and Qing dynasties, even if there are some changes, but they are only some changes in the administrative division of small places, such as some counties, prefectures, prefectures, provinces, etc.

The 18 provinces in Guannai are still the 18 provinces, and the biggest changes in the past few years are still some border areas, such as the northeast and northern grasslands, and Tibet.

At that time, in order to strengthen the actual control of the northeast, the northern grasslands and Tibet, the empire reorganized the three general districts of the Qing Dynasty into provincial-level jurisdictions in the northeast, and established the three provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoyang. Some parts of southern Mongolia were integrated to form Mongolian Province, and then various banners and leagues in Outer Mongolia were combined to form Wutai Province.

Subsequently, because the British had been using the Tibet issue to engage in diplomatic bargaining with the empire, and did not recognize the empire's control over Tibet, but only recognized the empire's suzerainty over Tibet, the empire simply set up a provincial-level administrative organization in Tibet and sent thousands of troops to Lhasa, Tibet, to control Lhasa militarily.

Except for the above three regions, the empire did not actually make any changes to the original eighteen provinces of Kannai.

However, this situation is obviously impossible to continue, for example, the Taiwan Mansion in Fujian Province and the Qiongzhou Mansion in Guangdong Province have been pushing for the establishment of separate provinces, but considering that although the area of these two islands is not small, the population is not large, so Lin Zhe has been holding back.

However, as the imperial military put down the invasion of Aguba in Xinjiang, it was at the same time to drive the Russians away from Ili. The Sixth Army, which has been advancing the Line of Actual Control to the south of Lake Balkhash and has been stationed in the Xinjiang region, has not stopped its military operations for two years. Rather, it was a war with the Russians or the Kokand Khanate, which had already crossed the borders of the Kokand Khanate. In fact, a large number of the territory of the Kokand Khanate was occupied, such as the Pishbek to which the Kokand Khanate belonged, which was controlled by the Chinese army.

Alas, to put it mildly, in fact, what the Chinese Empire did in the Kokand Khanate was actually no different from the Russians, they were constantly encroaching on the territory of the Kokand Khanate.

The recovery of Xinjiang and the extension of the actual control area to the west have led to the fact that the scope of the Ili region is somewhat large, and it is no longer administratively suitable for Gansu Province to continue to be in charge.

In the pre-Qing era, Xinjiang was the same as the northeast. They all belong to the general jurisdiction, and there is no separate provincial administrative body, but they do not belong to Shaanxi and Gansu, but belong to the independent general jurisdiction.

After the fall of the former Qing Dynasty, Xinjiang was occupied by Agubai at that time, and the empire failed to recover Xinjiang at the first time, so when the six provinces of Northeast China, Northern Grassland, and Tibet were established, Xinjiang was not taken into account.

After the Sixth Army marched into Xinjiang, Gansu Province was represented in the administrative affairs of the region. To this end, the empire established the Ili Road in Xinjiang.

However, now the situation in Xinjiang has generally stabilized, and Xinjiang's administrative affairs have always been managed by Gansu, and it is not a city.

In 1862, in addition to Gansu Province as later generations, there was also a Xining Road. Well, that is, Qinghai Province in later generations, after the Sixth Army entered Xinjiang. The newly established Yili Road is also under the jurisdiction of Gansu Province.

As a result, although Gansu Province has a small population, its economy is also very backward. However, the area is quite large, covering more than 3 million square kilometers.

Such a large area area. In fact, Xining Province and Xinjiang Province in Gansu Province have actually worked on their own for a long time, and although the positions of these two Taoists are only at the sub-provincial level, their actual power is much greater than that of other Taoists.

Because the current Gansu Province is too big, it is very difficult to rely on the Gansu Provincial Government to manage such a huge country, so the cabinet has the opportunity to split the current Gansu.

They intended to separate the Ili Province and then form the province of Xinjiang.

However, Xining Province is still under the jurisdiction of Gansu, and will not be a separate province like later generations, mainly because the Gansu region in this year is typically vast and sparsely populated, if Xining Road is set up as a separate province, the population will be so much, and the establishment of provincial-level units is a political waste.

As for Xinjiang, it is more special, because the area of the Ili Road is really huge, and the actual area of the Ili Road alone is nearly 2 million square kilometers, which is much larger than the Xinjiang Province in later generations, because the Ili Road under the control of the Chinese Empire includes part of the western part of the Kokand Khanate and the southern part of Balkhash Lake, which is engaged in military confrontation with Russia, in addition to the original Xinjiang region.

Therefore, although the population of Ili Province was very small, the empire established Xinjiang Province separately in order to facilitate local administration.

After all, even in the pre-Qing era, this Xinjiang was the jurisdiction of General Yili, which was independent and directly under the jurisdiction of the central government, and was temporarily assigned to Gansu Province a few years ago, but the empire had not yet controlled Xinjiang at that time, and it was also to facilitate the Gansu region to facilitate the personnel of the Sixth Army and other personnel who entered the Ili Road to fight and work.

Today, it is no longer suitable to let Gansu Province manage the Ili Road, so it is simply to upgrade the Ili Road directly to Xinjiang Province.

After approving the document on the establishment of a province in Xinjiang, Lin Zhe saw the briefing on the situation in the Kingdom of Vietnam submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Since the French suspended a large-scale offensive in southern Vietnam late last year, the fighting in southern Vietnam has generally lulled, the briefing said.

The French began to tighten their control over the six provinces of Nanqi, especially in the three provinces on the eastern coast of Nanqi, and continued to send troops from North Africa and other regions to reinforce Vietnam.

The Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam was not idle, selling the mineral mining rights of the entire Beiqi region, and after borrowing several loans from the Chinese Empire, it purchased a large amount of ordnance materials from the Empire (relative to the Vietnamese), and began to train the Second Infantry Regiment, the Third Infantry Regiment and the Guards Infantry Battalion of the New Forbidden Army.

During this period, the French also tried to end the war in Vietnam through diplomatic channels. The Vietnamese were forced to cede the six provinces of Nam Ki, but under great pressure from the empire. The Nguyen Dynasty did not dare to agree at all, but continued to prepare for war with the support of the empire. Put on a posture to carry the war through to the end.

When diplomacy could not resolve the war, the French resumed large-scale military operations in the early summer of 1862.

This time the French were strengthened, and their French army numbered about 4,000 men, but it is worth noting that they recruited a large number of local natives and formed the so-called Annam Army to fight with them, although this part of the Annam army was armed with old-fashioned flintlock pistols or simply cold weapons, but there were quite a few of them, a full seven or eight thousand men.

The forces invested by the Nguyen Dynasty in the Nam Ki direction were mainly three forbidden infantry regiments, totaling about 6,000 people. In addition, there was a part of the old army of the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam, about 10,000 or 20,000 people.

The two sides have been fighting frequently and on a large scale for months.

However, according to the report of the Imperial Observer Military Attache in the Kingdom of Vietnam, the military adviser who helped the Vietnamese in their training, and the Chinese officer who actually commanded the three infantry regiments of the new Forbidden Army in Vietnam, the war in southern Vietnam is generally stable at present.

Although the Vietnamese army still could not defeat the French, relying on the complex terrain of Vietnam also brought great trouble to the French, and the casualty ratio of the two sides continued to decline, and the casualty ratio of the two sides could generally be achieved by ten to one. Occasionally, the casualty ratio could be reduced to six to one or even less than five to one, and in some special cases, the new Vietnamese Forbidden Army could win a small victory.

This frequent, small-scale sustained fighting came down. Although the Vietnamese suffered heavy losses, and even lost some strategic points, the French did not have a good time. More than 1,000 people were killed and wounded in the ongoing fighting.

This continued bloodshed of casualties was very uncomfortable for the French, who knew that their soldiers were in need of reinforcements from North Africa or even from the mainland. Not to mention the death and injury of more than 1,000 people, even if there are two or three hundred dead or wounded, it is unacceptable.

The most contrasting. Although the Vietnamese suffered greater losses, and at least seven or eight thousand people were killed or wounded in the continuous fighting in the past few months, they were fighting on their own soil, and there was no big problem in replenishing troops, and the empire continued to provide them with the support of ordnance and weapons.

So although the loss is very large, it is not too much to hold on.

Of course, this is not without consequences, and the most direct consequence is that the Nguyen Dynasty has now defaulted on more than 3 million yuan in loans to the empire.

These three million are nothing to an industrial country, even to an empire, and the assets of any raw silk enterprise exceed this number, but for the Nguyen Dynasty, it is a very large number.

With the current financial income of the Nguyen Dynasty, it is difficult for them to repay the annual installment principal and interest.

For this reason, in order to increase fiscal revenue, continue this battlefield, and repay the debts owed to the empire, the Nguyen Dynasty also adopted many methods, such as the early sale of mineral mining rights, then the collection of all materials that can be exported to China in exchange for funds, and finally the strengthening of domestic taxes, further increase the domestic tax rate, and even through the public sale of official positions to obtain funds.

Either way, these policies are proper Kingdom signs.

But the Chinese Empire needed the Ruan Dynasty to continue to exist, and the Ruan Dynasty needed to continue to drag the French down, so the Ruan Dynasty could barely support itself with the Empire's loans.

As for how the Ruan Dynasty will repay its huge foreign debts when the war is over, it is not something that Lin Zhe needs to consider.

On the Vietnamese side, the French continued to fight the Nguyen Dynasty, and with the support of the Empire, although it was difficult for the Nguyen Dynasty to win the war, it was really not easy to lose.

In addition to Vietnam, Myanmar, which also belongs to Southeast Asia, has been the same recently, although Lin Chengting is now being pressed and beaten by the British, but it is also firmly holding the northern part of Myanmar, or that sentence, with the support of the empire, if the British want to completely eliminate Lin Chengting, they will have to send tens of thousands of troops to fight in Burma, and they must all be troops equipped with rear-loading rifles.

Why?

Because Lin Chengting's troops have also been equipped with rear-loading rifles one after another, the two infantry brigades of its elite main force have a total of more than 6,000 people, but they all use rear-loading rifles and even front-loading rifled artillery, and the level of equipment is no worse than that of the British.

Southeast Asia, Burma and Vietnam continue to fight, Siam and other regions, although occasionally some things happen, but basically have nothing to do with the empire, the only thing worth mentioning is that although the empire lost its suzerainty over Siam, but also learned from Britain, France and other countries, signed a series of treaties with Siam, and basically obtained the same rights as other Western countries, including the most important trade and consular jurisdiction.

The only difference between the two sides of the American Civil War in history is that both sides of the American Civil War are invariably used on a large scale, and they are mainly equipped with the 1858 Linde rifle of the Chinese Empire and the 1859 Enfield of the British, and there are also some modified breech rifles of the French, and the German Dresser 1841, etc., However, with the exception of rear-loading rifles from China and Britain, there are not many weapons and equipment in other countries.

However, the American Civil War changed from the historical Mini rifle to the current rear-loading rifle did not change the overall situation of the war, the Northern Army occupied a certain advantage, but it was still somewhat difficult to destroy the Southern Army, and this American Civil War had to be fought for at least two more years or even longer.

The above-mentioned international situation tended to be calm on the whole, and did not attract much attention from the imperial side!

Relatively speaking, Lin Zhe pays more attention to the changes in the situation in Japan than in these places. (To be continued.) )