After Shen Shiming and the others left, Li Yongji also exhaled, feeling that this kind of dictatorial rule was really emotional, and he would be intoxicated if he was not careful.

However, this is almost the same, Li Yongji feels that his interference in the State Department has almost reached a point now, and even if there is no interference from him in the future, the State Council can continue to operate freely.

In fact, the reason why Li Yongji was so anxious to unify weights and measures before the whole country was unified, and to carry out the simplified character reform, as well as the vernacular literary movement, was also because he did not want to repeat it in the future, or to forcibly promote these policies that would be done sooner or later in advance, and when the climate was formed, then he could be fully rolled out without his own implementation.

In other words, Li Yongji is now preparing for a rainy day, speeding up the pace of making arrangements for domestic affairs in advance in order to prepare for the upcoming American Civil War.

Because Li Yongji has thought about it, when the American civil war breaks out and the fighting is fierce, if he wants to help the south achieve victory, I am afraid that he will not be able to go in person, and once he goes to the United States in person, then there must be a government team here in China that can calm the field and ensure the effective operation of his previous system, so that he can rest assured that he can lead troops abroad.

In fact, the promotion of this new cultural movement can also be regarded as an ideological nomenclature in this era, because the acceptance of simplified Chinese characters and vernacular Chinese is a complete acceptance of Li Yongji's rule, which is equivalent to being incompatible with other local regimes, such as the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

In other words, with the promotion of this kind of great light, he can quickly see who among the intellectuals is with him all the way, and who is still stubborn to the end, so before going to the United States, the diehards who are stubborn to the end must be purged again, so as to maintain the stability of the government to the greatest extent.

Moreover, the promotion of the New Culture Movement. With the release of simplified Chinese characters, he can also set up an official newspaper, called "China Daily", on which he can publicize the policies and strategies of the Chinese Empire, and can write about the situation inside and outside China, and use encouragement, boasting, dislocation and intimidation, etc., to continuously brainwash the people, so that the people will continue to become their own brain-dead fans, no, it is to let the people gradually establish a kind of nationalism and nationalism.

As long as one of them can form a climate, nationalism and nationalism. Then he basically doesn't have to worry about domestic affairs, and he can fight local tyrants in the United States with peace of mind.

Of course, only ideological guidance and restraint are not enough, or this thing is relatively slow, the most fundamental thing in the current Chinese Empire is also Li Yongji's power base, and that is still the army!

After some time, Li Yongji will lead troops to the United States, and it is estimated that he will also take the Praetorian Guards to dispatch at that time. Then the armed forces that remain in the country must be able to ensure that there will be no chaos and that they can continue to maintain their territorial integrity.

Of course, before that, he had to fight the Russians first. This battle must also be won simply and beautifully, and it must be won through the first battle against Russia, at least the status of a military power, so that the other powers can look at themselves. Be able to talk to yourself on an equal footing.

Li Yongji has been pretending to be a grandson for so long before, and the army is keeping it secret, isn't it just to misjudge foreigners? Now the Russians have taken the bait. Even if there is Britain and France, it will be a piece of cake.

In fact, Li Yongji did not worry about the problem of manpower; because of his abundant finances, the army building has always been in an orderly manner, and Li Yongji has never been worried about it, and what worries Li Yongji the most is actually the problem of ordnance and equipment.

That's right, Li Yongji's army is now very well armed and equipped, but due to the immaturity at the beginning, especially Li Yongji and Zhang Xinda, both of whom are not people with long-term goals, and they both go wherever they go, so their weapons are also quite chaotic.

At present, the weapons of the Chinese Imperial Army are also varied, from the copycat version of the Sharps rifle, the copycat version of the Colt revolver, to the 56 semi-automatic, and even the imitation of the Type 99 rifle, the Type 1860 large cover gun that fires 7.62mm bullets!

Although Li Yongji can't be said to be a weapons exhibition hall here, it is absolutely true that there are many types.

However, there is a crisis here, that is, the supply of weapons for the imperial army all comes from Li Yongji, and Li Yongji is all obtained from Zhang Xinda, although the number is large, but in the end there is only this one channel.

Li Yongji is okay in China, he can provide it in a steady stream, and then distribute it everywhere, but once Li Yongji leaves China, what will happen to the supply of weapons and ammunition in this later stage?

Therefore, the immediate task is for the Chinese Empire to build a minimum arsenal capable of producing the most basic rifles and ammunition on its own.

This involves the question of what kind of gun to choose as the first self-produced gun of the Chinese Empire.

In fact, there is no need to think much about this problem, for now, the first self-produced rifle of the Chinese Empire, there is no doubt that the copycat version of the Sharps rifle must be chosen!

First of all, the copycat version of the Sharps rifle is the most equipped weapon in the Imperial Army, and most people are familiar with the performance of this gun.

Secondly, the biggest advantage of this rifle is that the ammunition is easy to make, after all, it fires paper shells or numb bullets, rather than copper shell bullets, and it has unique advantages in terms of production simplicity and cost.

However, since the expansion of the Jingwu Army, the propellant of the Sharps rifle has actually become yellow gunpowder, that is, smokeless gunpowder, instead of the so-called black gunpowder, so if you want to Shun lì production bullet factory, in the case of the lack of saltpeter in China, synthetic ammonia may be necessary.

That's right, ammunition comes first, in comparison, whether you can produce guns on your own is actually not so urgent, after all, in the current Chinese Imperial Army, the number of Sharps rifles is already quite terrifying.

So far, in the past year, Zhang Xinda has successively shipped more than 1 million Sharps rifles, of which more than 500,000 rifles have been sealed in the Zài warehouse, and only about 500,000 have been distributed to the army for use.

In other words, in fact, in the Imperial Chinese Army, in addition to the Praetorian Guard, there are actually many people in other units who are equipped with a large number of cold weapons such as machetes, especially the militia units, such as the National Guard, which is dominated by the Construction Corps, and the gun ownership rate is less than 30 percent.

However, according to Zhang Xinda, the original factories that produced Sharps rifles have switched to the production of new 1860 large-cover guns, and the backward Sharps rifles are no longer produced. So one million is probably the final number.

Fortunately, the production equipment in modern society, especially the mold, has been debugged and sealed, and it can be transmitted to Li Yongji at any time.

In this way, after arranging the problems of the State Council, the military camp training on the Huqiu side had also been put on the shelf, and there was no longer any need for too much intervention by himself, Li Yongji re-took the men and horses of the guard battalion and galloped all the way to the secret base in Guangde County, which is where the power plant is located.

When I came to the power plant, I found that it was as usual. I asked the person in charge and found that this power plant has been maintaining a low-load operation, and there are people on duty to monitor it every day, so the operation is quite stable.

This shows that although the level of these people supervising the power plant is average, the spirit of responsibility is still quite good, and the meticulous implementation of the instructions and the low load operation have allowed China's first thermal power station to safely generate electricity for so long.

After encouraging the power plant staff, Li Yongji went on a dark and windy night as usual. Let the relevant people disperse in advance, and then come to the reserved land that has been leveled, and open the space-time trading system.

"Ada, have you got all the equipment over there?" Li Yongji asked Zhang Xinda.

"No problem. It's all debugged, and it's all packaged. Zhang Xinda said, "This time, I have saved more than half a month's tonnage, that is, the tonnage of 1,800 tons." Enough to transport large equipment. What I will send to you this time is a set of small ammonia synthesis equipment with an annual output of 100,000 tons, plus a set of co-production small coke oven equipment. It also comes with a set of equipment for the production of nitric acid and nitrocellulose, removing miscellaneous things, with a total mass of 1,785 tons, which is just right. ”

"Very good, I'll pick the place, and you can teleport the device."

"Well, let me ask one last time, do you think it's really necessary?" Zhang Xinda suddenly said, "If you are just afraid that after you leave, the troops staying in China will lack weapons, in fact, I have a large amount of ammunition here, and if the tonnage of these equipment you transmit is replaced with ammunition, it is enough for your troops to fight for a year and a half, you don't have to worry about it, and it is cheap, why is it so thankless?" And once you're gone, who do you call if something goes wrong with these devices? ”

"I've thought about it, it's necessary." Li Yongji sighed, "I also know that it is a bit urgent to start producing nitric acid by synthesizing ammonia now, but in many cases it is not a matter of how many weapons there are, but a matter of self-confidence."

I have to let my people know that our country is able to produce our own guns and ammunition, even in small quantities, and that it gives the local troops and the people confidence that they are still strong.

At the same time, it is also a warning to foreigners, to warn them not to act rashly, and to tell them that even if China leaves us, it still has enough force to defeat the enemy.

All in all, to be able to produce weapons for self-sufficiency, sometimes it is not only a matter of cost, but also psychological factors. ”

"But the problem is, you don't disclose the specific production process, do you?" Zhang Xinda said, "You must still treat this place as a military restricted area, right?" ”

"Of course." Li Yongji said, "When the time comes, I will only let my ministers come and visit, show them what I want to show them, and strengthen their confidence in me." After that, this is my forbidden area, my private property, or the imperial property, but the products produced, such as rifles and gunpowder, can be sold to the State Department, so that they can enrich the troops with these weapons according to the situation.

Therefore, as long as we sue the State Council, we can continue to produce weapons independently, they will be more confident, even if I am not in the country, they will be more determined to safeguard national interests, understand? ”

"Since you insist, I won't say anything." Zhang Xinda said, "But I can tell you, what I give you are all automation products, and there is no way to imitate them, and if they are broken, they can only be sent to me for repair." Of course, if you maintain it properly, it's absolutely fine to run for three or five years, but what, just in case, you know what I mean? ”

"I see what you mean." Li Yongji nodded and said, "Are you afraid that if the equipment breaks down and you can't produce weapons and ammunition on time, how will you explain?" You can rest assured that as long as the equipment will keep working well when the minister comes to visit. As for weapons and ammunition, I will put the weapons and ammunition in stock here, so that if it breaks, I can also fill the stock and treat it as if it was produced by myself, understand? ”

"No problem." Zhang Xinda said, "Then let's start." ”

"Good!"

After Li Yongji finished speaking, he chose a place, and then connected to the space-time trading system, and sure enough, he found that Zhang Xinda had packed the entire equipment and even the factory building and sent it over.

After a flash of light, a factory suddenly appeared on the originally flat ground.

Push open the door of the color steel plate room, and when you go in, you will see that there are behemoths inside, which are related equipment for the manufacture of synthetic ammonia and nitric acid.

With synthetic ammonia, there is nitric acid, and with nitric acid, it is equivalent to smokeless gunpowder! It's like TNT!

Li Yongji has a full set of relevant smokeless gunpowder and other propellant manufacturing processes, and even related equipment, but after all, it is subject to tonnage, so it can only be a small-scale production of smokeless gunpowder.

However, Li Yongji is already very satisfied, with an annual output of 100,000 tons of synthetic ammonia, as long as half of the production capacity is used to produce smokeless gunpowder, it is enough for the entire Chinese Empire's army to consume, and even without himself, he will not be afraid to fight against the Russians.

Moreover, as Li Yongji said to Zhang Xinda before, the real significance of this factory is not production capacity and products, but the question of whether there is or not, and it is a question of self-confidence.

Now everyone knows that all the weapons of the Imperial Army are from Li Yongji's hands, and even more internal people will know that these weapons must be transported through Li Yongji's hands.

Then, if Li Yongji leaves China in the future, and the army has no place to ask for weapons, there will inevitably be a sense of panic, which is quite detrimental to the stability of the entire empire.

On the contrary, if the top brass of the state and the military know that we have the ability to produce our own weapons and ammunition, then they will feel much more at ease.

Another point is that the early production of ready-made products can also allow Xu Shou and his team to speed up the progress of research in the real room, and move the synthetic ammonia technology from the real room stage to the practical stage earlier. Of course, it must be self-made equipment, using the technology mastered by oneself to produce, rather than directly moving from Hyundai like Li Yongji.

"Yes and no." Looking at the machines full of modernity, Li Yongji sighed, "When will I be able to let the people in my country really produce these things by themselves?" Well, there's still a long way to go. (To be continued......)