Since ancient times, China has been a continental country, and the mainland countries have a very obvious characteristic, that is, the military strategic focus is on land, focusing on the development of the army, and the navy is destined to receive only a small amount of investment.

This is true not only of China, but also of most countries in the world, such as France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, etc.

Only the United Kingdom, the United States, an island nation, or a maritime country facing a threat from the two oceans, would attach great importance to the development of the navy, well, the same is true of the historical Japanese after the Meiji Restoration.

As far as contemporary China is concerned, its core interests are on the mainland, so the investment in the army is quite huge, and the army takes hundreds of millions of dollars from the more than 100 million yuan in military spending every year, and the navy can only get 10 million or 20 million.

Under such a national situation, the admirals within the navy want to expand the navy, and the resistance they face is naturally extremely huge.

When the navy put forward the first five-year development plan, it was immediately opposed by the army and the cabinet, and even the emperor Lin Zhe did not speak out to support it, and Lin Zhe's non-support was actually an unspoken opposition.

The naval lion opened his mouth widely, and he would ask for 200 million yuan with one mouth, which was naturally not something that the existing imperial finances could support.

After the plan was opposed, although the navy was frustrated, but it also knew that this matter could not be forced, so it had to greatly lower the plan standards, and once again proposed amendments to the five-year plan, this time regardless of their specific plans, well, anyway, those people in the army and the cabinet didn't care much, and they didn't even understand the navy's warships and other things, they only paid attention to one point. That's how much it costs.

And this time, the appetite of the Navy is much smaller. It only said that it would cost 50 million, and that the 50 million could be drawn in five years. That is, on the basis of the regular funds of the Navy, an additional 1,000 years will be allocated every year.

More than 10 million a year?

Although this figure still makes those people in the army and the cabinet still dissatisfied, they also know that they will accept it when they see it, because no matter what, they also know that Lin Zhe is very concerned about the development of the navy, and if the army and the cabinet do not let go and forcibly block the expansion of the navy, then there is a very high possibility that Lin Zhe will oppose it.

In addition, in recent years, the imperial economy has maintained a relatively large growth rate, the economy has developed, and the tax reform led by the Ministry of Finance has also worked well. And gradually implemented throughout the country, it is expected that the subsequent central fiscal revenue will increase, so those talents in the army and the cabinet are reluctant to accept it.

At this time, at the imperial meeting at the end of January 1867, the Admiralty General Lin Dabiao formally submitted the first five-year development plan of the Navy, at which the army and the cabinet only made symbolic objections and did not insist on the opinion, and seeing that these courtiers had reached a consensus, Lin Zhecai, as the arbiter, formally approved the document.

This plan is different from the usual military spending plan, and the funds required for this plan do not go through normal military spending channels. Instead, it is independent of the military expenditure of the Navy and Army, and is directly allocated by the Ministry of Finance on an annual basis, with an initial annual set of 10 million.

And this 10 million naturally needs to be used strictly, and the lion's share is used to pay for newly built warships. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of warships at any of them, and those capital ships are often in the millions, and the 10,000-ton ironclad ships are even more than 2 million. Without additional financial support, relying on the regular funding of the Navy cannot be sustained.

In addition, this part of the funds will be used to expand the military port!

There are not many good ports along the coast of China. There are also many suitable as military ports, but there are not many excellent ports with century-old military ports.

The first thing a military port needs to consider is security. The port of anchorage must be able to ensure safety, and then it must be strategically located, for example, close to China's economic hinterland, such as the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, or the Bohai Bay.

Then there is a certain industrial base that ensures that its port facilities can be built and then repaired to the warships.

And then there's the depth of the water!

The draft of the current battleships is getting deeper and deeper, the previous Yandi-class draft was only more than six meters, but the draft of the Chiyou-class under construction has reached 8.5, if you take into account the future, then those battleships in the First World War period, the draft has generally reached more than nine meters, and the draft of those super battleships with larger tonnage in the Second World War period is more than ten meters.

And those super aircraft carriers after World War II have a draft of more than 11 meters, or even as much as 12 meters.

In other words, if you take into account the development of the navy in the next hundred years, and at the same time have confidence in the Imperial Navy, which will be able to build a large number of battleships in a few decades and a large number of super aircraft carriers after World War II, then it is better to choose those deep-water ports with a water depth of more than 12 meters as the main military ports now.

Considering the above conditions, there are actually many ports that are suitable for use as military ports for the Imperial Navy, but there are not many options to choose from as a core naval base port for the next hundred years.

The first is the port of Shanghai, which is currently the main naval base of the Imperial Navy, which is not actually a naval port, but a commercial port, although because of its proximity to Shanghai, so all aspects of the facilities are relatively perfect, but there is no secrecy and security at all.

Similarly, there is the port of Guangzhou, which is also a commercial port, and the warships are directly anchored on the banks of the Pearl River, and the merchant ships can get close to these warships and observe them carefully.

At present, it can be regarded as a professional military port, and there is only Qingdao Port at present.

Before the navy officially developed the Bohai Bay in Shandong, Qingdao was just a small town, and there were no large coastal cities, and Qingdao developed because of the large-scale presence of the navy.

The Qingdao Naval Shipyard alone, invested by the Navy, has brought many job opportunities to the local area.

At present, Qingdao Port is a purely military port and is not open to the public for the time being.

In addition, the navy has also carried out small-scale development in the ports of Mawei in Fujian, Keelung in Taiwan, Ningbo in Zhejiang, and Yingkou in Liaoyang, and Vladivostok in Jilin Province and Leizhou (Zhanjiang) in Guangdong Province for temporary berthing and replenishment of warships, but they are limited by financial constraints. None of these ports were developed on a large scale, but there were a few small coal and ammunition supply warehouses. In normal times, large-tonnage warships were not stationed, only some small gunboats were stationed.

And now in the Navy's five-year plan. It is preparing for the construction of two core naval bases.

One of them is the port of Shanghai, although the port of Shanghai has many defects of one kind or another, but as long as the Yangtze River Delta is China's economic powerhouse, then the strategic position of the port of Shanghai will far exceed other ports in the country, so although there are some problems in the port of Shanghai, the navy still intends to invest heavily in the expansion of its naval base in Wusong, Shanghai, it is worth noting that the Shanghai shipyard is also directly next to the naval base began to build its two large shipyards. The design standard is fifteen thousand tons.

The second is the Port of Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong!

Needless to say, the quality of Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui Port is that it did not become a famous military port in later generations because of many political reasons and the port has undertaken too much trade, and now, Hong Kong's commerce and trade are almost dispensable, and foreigners who come to China to trade generally go directly to Guangzhou and will not stay in Hong Kong at all.

At the same time, considering that the port of Guangzhou is used as a military port, its conditions are even worse than those of Shanghai. Therefore, the navy planned to simply abandon Guangzhou as the core naval base in the south, but transferred to Hong Kong, and even directly moved the headquarters of the Nanyang Fleet to the Kowloon Peninsula.

In the future, these two ports will be the main naval core bases for decades ********.

Of course. Naturally, the huge Chinese navy could not have only these two ports, but there would also be many other military ports, and other military ports would also be differentiated according to their importance.

For example, the Keelung Port in Taiwan and the Qingdao Port in Shandong Province were built as relatively important military ports. Both ports are purely military ports and are not open to the public.

And then there are some ports that are first class again. For example, Lushun Port, Vladivostok Port, Leizhou Port, Ningbo Port, Mawei Port, etc. These ports are generally used as ports for local offshore fleets.

In addition to the above-mentioned domestic ports, in fact, the Imperial Navy also intends to open up foreign ports for use!

For example, the port of Yokosuka in Tokyo Bay, Japan, was coveted by the Imperial Navy, and it was always wanted to officially lease the port from the Tokugawa shogunate and then open it up as an official military port for the Imperial Navy.

In addition, there were many excellent ports in several subject countries of the empire, such as Cam Ranh Bay, Hanoi Port and Da Nang in the Kingdom of Vietnam. Nampo and Busan in North Korea. Naha in the Ryukyus is a port of military strategic value.

The Imperial Navy also often passed by and anchored, such as Naha, which was the port of passage for China to Japan.

In addition, the Imperial Navy has a small fleet stationed in Hanoi and Da Nang of the Kingdom of Vietnam all year round!

The Empire is currently negotiating with the Kingdom of Vietnam to lease Cam Ranh Bay as a military base. Negotiated with the Hontokugawa shogunate to lease Yokosuka as a military base.

Among them, Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam is relatively easy, because the Kingdom of Vietnam was originally a vassal state of China, and now Vietnam can be said to be fully controlled by the empire in terms of diplomacy, military and economy, and it is relatively easy to concession Cam Ranh Bay.

After some negotiations, the empire officially leased Cam Ranh Bay to the Kingdom of Vietnam, paid 500,000 yuan at one time, and obtained the right to use it for 150 years, of course, the 500,000 yuan was not given directly, but paid by way of debt relief, you must know that the current Kingdom of Vietnam owes the empire a lot of debt, adding up to more than 4 million in principal and interest, which is for a weak and small country, this debt is like a mountain on the top of the head, which can reduce 500,000 is also good.

After the signing of the relevant treaties, the Imperial Navy officially stationed in Cam Ranh Bay and began small-scale construction, and now the Imperial Navy has limited funds, so it is naturally impossible to say that Cam Ranh Bay will be built into a huge naval base at once, but it is only for preliminary development, mainly to build some necessary infrastructure, such as coal warehouses, docks, etc., as for the maintenance of some facilities for warships, it is impossible to build in a short time.

At present, the Imperial Navy also includes some Vietnamese ports that do not have concessions, but can also be used, such as Hanoi Port and Da Nang, which are positioned as fleet supply ports, mainly to extend the scope of the Empire's activities in the South China Sea, and do not plan to build these ports into large naval bases for the time being.

Compared with the smooth situation on the Vietnamese side, the port of Yokosuka on the Japanese side is not so good.

In fact, it's not that the Tokugawa shogunate is unwilling, anyway, they have betrayed the country several times, in order to obtain China's continued support, the Tokugawa shogunate doesn't mind continuing to sell the country, but the problem is that they don't dare!

The situation in Japan is quite chaotic, the war between the Shogunate and the Shogunate has been going on for several years, in the past few years, the Tokugawa Shogunate was weak at the beginning, and was pressed and beaten by the Shogunate, and then the Empire increased its support for the Shogunate, and the Shogunate's army once counterattacked near Kyoto, but at this time, the Empire's Ministry of Foreign Affairs thought that the unification of Japan's Shogunate was not good for the Empire, and was worried that after the Shogunate reunified Japan, it would turn around and resist the oppression of the Empire.

Can this not be resisted? In recent years, the empire has taken advantage of the fire to rob, and has forced the Tokugawa shogunate to sell a large number of interests, customs duties, Edo concessions, and Ezo concessions, and in the past year, the empire has frequently negotiated with the Tokugawa shogunate on the issue of the independence of Ezo, and the imperial foreign ministry believes that Ezo is not the inherent territory of Japan, and the local people have the right to decide whether to become independent, which naturally caused serious dissatisfaction with the Tokugawa shogunate.

However, in order to avoid angering the empire, the Tokugawa shogunate directly cut off the support of the Tokugawa shogunate, so it also adopted an attitude of delay and did not dare to refuse directly.

From the perspective of the Japanese themselves, the current Chinese Empire is the representative of evil, and I don't know how many days I can't wait to swallow up the Imperial Minister in Japan, Li Bocang!

It was precisely because of this concern that Li Bocang simply suggested that the empire reduce the support of the Tokugawa shogunate, and there was no need to do anything, as long as some of the scheduled ordnance was seized for a few months, the shogunate army at the front would be defeated because the supplies could not keep up.

Otherwise, the shogunate army would have entered Kyoto long ago!

Under the left and right of the empire, the current two factions of Japan and Ben still maintain a stalemate, the shogunate can't fight, and the shogunate can't attack!

For a long time, it was not a dream to completely split Japan's book!

In this case, it was quite difficult for the empire to obtain the port of Yokosuka from the Tokugawa shogunate as a naval base. Why? Because if the Tokugawa shogunate dared to sign a treaty, the charge of treason would not be removed, and it was estimated that there would be a large number of people within the shogunate who would oppose it.

In addition, the current Pacific Fleet of the Imperial Navy is stationed in Edo, and it does not mean that a small fishing village is necessary as a naval base, so there is no rush for a while, and it is enough to talk slowly.

Although the construction of the naval base is costly, ordinary people generally do not pay attention to these, and what can really attract the attention of the Chinese people is how many warships the Imperial Navy is preparing to build.

And the Imperial Navy did not disappoint those who paid attention to the development of the Navy, as soon as the plan was adopted, the Imperial Navy announced that it would order four giant ships of 10,000 tons! (To be continued.) )

PS: 2-in-1 chapter!