In 1861, the Ministry of Education sent more than 100 government-funded students to Britain and France, and the Ministry of Education needed to spend at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to allow these students to study abroad.

At the same time, due to the rise of the trend of new education in the empire, all walks of life in the empire, especially in politics, have a great demand for new talents, and the promotion speed of some new talents is also super fast.

For example, the first batch of international students who began to return to China last year, in addition to some professional science and engineering talents who entered the Imperial University, Jiangnan University, etc., and served as important scientific research and research, many students entered the government departments to work, and the starting point is very high, generally directly into the cabinet ministries or the secretariat of the palace department and other central institutions, the most is also a section chief.

There was even a geology student who went directly to the Department of Minerals of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce as the deputy director of the Coal Division.

After returning to China, you will be able to occupy a high position, which is a great attraction for students in China!

Although the empire has been carrying out new educational reforms for several years, it has now completely abolished the old imperial examination and reformed it into a unique national employee examination.

But for students, the essence of studying has not changed, that is, being an official!

China's thousand-year-old tradition of bureaucracy was not so easily changed, and even this bureaucratic system was a major help for the empire to implement a new education system.

Isn't the reason why those young students were able to quickly accept all kinds of new subjects, from burying their heads in the scriptures to all kinds of new subjects in the blink of an eye, was it because the content of the Empire's state employee examination had changed.

If they want to be admitted to become officials, they have to learn these new disciplines!

Nowadays, people find that they can quickly enter the career after returning to China after studying abroad. So it set off a small wave of self-funded study abroad!

Although the empire sends a large number of students to study in Europe every year, mainly to England and France.

However, the number of places to study abroad on official scholarship is very valuable. There are too many people competing!

But studying abroad at your own expense is different, as long as you have the courage to go thousands of miles away. At the same time, if your family is financially wealthy and can afford to study abroad, then you can study at your own expense.

Therefore, since the beginning of the past two years, many students from wealthy families have gradually begun to study at their own expense because they cannot compete for the places of government-funded study abroad.

For these self-financed students, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also give great help, and actively help them contact the schools where they study abroad to solve some life problems, of course, you have to pay for the money yourself. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs only plays the role of an intermediary.

However, due to the high cost of studying abroad, international students need to spend about 3,000 pounds to study in the UK for four years, which is difficult for ordinary families to afford.

Even if it is some wealthy businessmen and big landlord families, it is difficult to say that they will spend more than 10,000 yuan to let the children of the family stay, so in fact, the group of self-funded students is mainly the children of rich families, and it is not that all rich people will let their children study abroad, and those who have the courage to study thousands of miles away are still a minority after all.

So by the time 1860. Thirteen students studied at their own expense through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

By 1861, that number had doubled, and more than 20 students had studied in England, France, and Prussia at their own expense through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Although there are not many self-funded students studying abroad, it is far less than the number of government-funded international students. But it is also something from nothing, and one is better than nothing.

You must know that the empire of this era has a great demand for high-level talents. The industrial and commercial industry needs a large number of administrative and technical talents, and the government also needs a large number of elite talents to enrich the officialdom.

Compared with the Ministry of Education, it began to send a large number of international students to study abroad. The pace at which the military sends students has slowed down.

Why?

Because for the military, their army tactics have basically been at the forefront of the world. With the exception of China, other countries do not teach skirmishers, breech-loading rifles. Therefore, there is no need to send army students to study in other countries, and at present, the military only sends students in the navy, and there are also a small number of students in artillery, cavalry and other subjects.

In 1861, the military sent only more than 20 students, most of whom were naval students who went to England to study, and a few were army students who went to France to study artillery, cavalry, baggage and other subjects.

And in terms of the army, especially in the infantry section, the Chinese army can proudly claim to be at the forefront of the world!

With the exception of the Royal Army Military Academy of the Imperial Chinese Empire, there is no school in the world that can teach breech-loading rifles and skirmisher tactics.

The development of the empire in 1861 was not only reflected in education, but also in other aspects.

For example, water conservancy!

All dynasties in China have regarded water conservancy as a key national project, and the former Qing Dynasty will invest a lot of money in river engineering every year.

The nascent Chinese Empire is no exception, there is no way to do it without investment, if you don't dredge the rivers and strengthen and build them, those big rivers, especially the Yellow River and Huai River basins, will be affected every year, and there will be a catastrophe every three or five years.

The Department of Water Resources under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is responsible for the overall planning of water conservancy affairs throughout the country, and its main responsibilities are twofold: one is for water conservancy projects in ordinary areas, mainly for irrigating farmland, and the second is for water conservancy projects that are prone to flooding, focusing on flood control.

In the past few years, the main work of the water conservancy department has been concentrated on water conservancy and irrigation projects in the southern provinces, especially increasing investment in water conservancy in some important grain-producing areas, striving to develop more fertile land, and further increasing grain output.

Since 1860, the main focus of the Department of Water Resources has been on the management of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, and the Huai River.

In particular, for the treatment of the Yellow River after the dike burst in 1855, it took a lot of resources and energy of the department.

In July 1861, the Department of Water Resources submitted a plan for the treatment of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (from Shandong to Henan), and the project funds required by the plan were as high as more than 3 million yuan.

However, even if it was expensive, the cabinet still approved the plan, but the specific project funds were fully funded by the central government, with the provincial governments of Shandong and Henan supporting part, and the local governments of the prefectures and counties along the Yellow River paying part.

The whole project is not only about the Yellow River itself, but also about the many tributaries that flow into it, which is a huge project for the empire.

In order to reduce the investment of funds, the Department of Water Resources called on local governments to actively mobilize the people and let more people participate.

Why, because at that time, it was impossible for the empire to levy conscription on the people like the former Qing dynasty and other dynasties, and it had to hire people to participate in the project, but in order to reduce the cost of construction, the wage was very low, and basically only the people involved in the project would be given a bite to eat, in addition to a symbolic small amount of cash compensation.

Without widespread propaganda and spontaneous support from the population, it would be difficult to start a large-scale war!

At the same time, in order to show support, the military said that several of its subordinate engineering units would also participate in it, and they would help with the construction for free.

These engineering units were all adapted from prisoners of war in the past few years, and since the dissolution of the Auxiliary Defense Force by the Empire, a large number of auxiliary defense forces have been converted into militarized reclamation units, engineering units, etc.

A large number of prisoners of war accepted in the later period also joined these reclamation and engineering units one after another.

These reclamation troops were also the main force of the empire's early immigration to the northeast, and the military sent a total of 50,000 reclamation troops to the northeast, especially in the bitter cold Heilongjiang region.

In addition to building barracks, fortifications and other military buildings for the troops, most of the engineering units are also involved in the construction of some infrastructure, such as water conservancy projects.

In the past few years, more than 50 percent of the construction of a large number of water conservancy projects in the Jiangnan area was completed by these engineering units.

However, this situation did not last long, since these engineering units were made up of prisoners of war, and the Empire had already ended a large-scale war last year, and without a large source of prisoners of war, it is difficult to say how long these free coolie battalions would last.

However, in order to solve this dilemma, the military began to replenish the large number of prisoners captured during the domestic clean-up into these so-called engineering units.

Now that the military is waging large-scale anti-bandit battles across the country, many prisoners have been captured, so that in a short period of time, these free laborers controlled by the military can continue for several years.

Up to now, there have been about 200,000 free laborers in the dozens of cantonment and engineer brigades controlled by the military, and in three or four years, perhaps around 1865, these so-called cantonment and engineering units will become history.

For this, the military top brass felt that it was a pity, but Lin Zhe did not think so.

The empire has gradually entered a period of rapid development of peace, and it is better to eliminate some special remnants of the war period as soon as possible.

Compared with these reclamation and engineering troops, Lin Zhe cares more about the military's own military reform!

On July 16, 1861, Lin Zhe once again left the palace and went to the Guards barracks in the southern suburbs of Beijing.

The 1st Guards Division, which belonged to the Guards Army, was stationed here, and this 1st Guards Division was the first unit in the country to carry out the stragglers, that is, the 1861 type of reform.

Today, Lin Zhelai came to the barracks of the 1st Guards Division to inspect this unit that had just completed the establishment reform, and he wanted to see if the 1st Guards Division had truly become a modern unit as he expected after completing the new establishment reform.

At 11 o'clock in the morning of the same day, Lin Zhe, accompanied by a large number of military and political dignitaries, inspected the 1st Guards Division.

Like the review ceremony in Nanjing that year, Lin Zhe did not stand on the high platform and shout any slogans, but rode a pure white war horse, wearing a special dragon-patterned military uniform, he held high the command knife to inspect the most loyal troops to him.

After these superficial ceremonies at noon, the highlight of today's review begins, that is, the 1st Guards Division will conduct exercises with a new formation.

And this exercise will be able to verify the success of the reform of the 1st Guards Division! (To be continued.) )