Although the weather was still hot, since he was going to officially receive the battleship, Li Yongji could not continue to play shirtless casually, but Li Yongji was not willing to wear an official uniform in this weather to make himself uncomfortable, so he simply wore a short-sleeved shirt and cropped pants, and then followed everyone to the dock to greet the returning battleship.

Li Yongji's dress is also very inappropriate in this era, but with his current status and power, as long as he is not completely naked, no one will say anything about him in front of him even if he is shirtless, and even think that he is a maverick, which is the benefit of power.

In fact, it is a bit inappropriate to say that these three ships are battleships, because although these three clippers are all armed merchant ships, when they were sold to Li Yongji, the guns on the ships had already been dismantled in advance. However, this is not an American businessman who did it on purpose, but Li Yongji himself asked for it to be dismantled, there is no way, who made their artillery expensive and rotten.

All three ships were originally equipped with old-fashioned front-loading bronze guns, with an average of twelve guns per ship, including six 32-pounder guns and six 24-pounder guns. It is said that this firepower is not bad in this era, and it has not been completely eliminated, if the price is cheap, Li Yongji does not mind bringing the cannon over, so that everyone can be familiar with the characteristics of the sail battleship.

It's a pity that the price of these cannons is too expensive, and if the cannons are also complete, the price of each ship will be at least a quarter higher, which makes Li Yongji very unhappy. At this price, he can buy more powerful artillery in modern society, and it has to come with a gun-sighting radar system, and he will have to modify it sooner or later, and he will have to dismantle it when the time comes, so he simply doesn't want these old-fashioned artillery.

Although there were no artillery, it seemed a bit unworthy of the name to say that the battleships were too big, especially after sailing into the dock and docking, everyone approached and immediately felt their insignificance.

This was expected by Li Yongji. These three ships are also ships with a displacement of 2,000 tons, not to mention anything else, the tonnage alone can kill all the ships of the Qing Dynasty at this time, or they will not be specially bought as warships.

Li Yongji was because he had seen a bigger ship in modern society, so he didn't lose his temper when he saw it for the first time, but Mo Haihu and others were obviously not among them, and his excitement was overflowing, and he felt that the shotgun had finally changed to a cannon, and the serf had turned over and sang.

The handover process was not unusual, as it had been negotiated beforehand. In addition, the foreigners on the ship will continue to be hired for a period of time, and they can only go back until Li Yongji's specially selected subordinates teach how to operate the ship, so there is no handover ceremony or anything like that, just everyone shakes hands, signs, and then goes down to have a meal together, and it is OK to contact the feelings.

However, because these foreigners will continue to stay as instructors, they will temporarily live here for a while. In order to conceal his submarine force, Li Yongji deliberately demarcated an area in advance as a residential area for foreigners, stipulating that foreigners could only live in this residential area and were not allowed to leave this area.

In the foreigner residential area, three beautiful dormitory buildings were built in advance with color steel plate houses, and the dormitory buildings also have bars and bathhouses. The residential area was governed by foreigners, so the captains and sailors of these foreigners were very satisfied. As for the rule that foreigners cannot go out of the special zone, they can understand to some extent, how to say that this is also a private military port for other people.

These American-dominated captains and sailors were all civilians. They are not soldiers, they are all focused on making money, and they do not pay attention to politics. So of course, they are happy to enforce the rules set by their employers. In fact, after visiting the special zone, they were quite satisfied, the only thing they were unhappy about was that there were no brothels and girls.

However, Li Yongji also said that this is just a temporary place for you to stay, and you will not live for a long time, and after teaching your subordinates how to operate the boat, you can leave here and return to the concession. So if you want to live a good life of freedom as soon as possible, just teach yourself to the people you give to them.

Of course, if these foreigners are still willing to continue to accept Li Yongji's employment and work for Li Yongji after teaching this group of people, they can first return to the American Concession in Hongkou and join the New Oriental Shipping Training Company that Li Yongji founded there as instructors, and continue to teach people how to sail ships.

At the following welcome banquet, Li Yongji only appeared at the beginning and made a speech on Sino-US friendship, mutual assistance and mutual love, and then left the banquet under the pretext of being busy with military affairs and let them eat and drink by themselves.

Li Yongji's departure can not only allow him to avoid this big steamer-style banquet hall by himself, go back to the air-conditioned room to blow the air conditioner comfortably, but also make everyone eat more freely. After all, if Li Yongji was at the banquet, the foreigners would be better, but the carefully selected officers and soldiers of the Navy Division would have to be restrained a lot, and it would be impossible for them to eat freely.

In fact, Li Yongji did not leave alone this time, he also brought a few Chinese who came with the ship to the air-conditioned room with foreigners to eat his small stove, and who are these people? It was Li Yongji who asked Wang Tao to recruit the three big bulls - Li Shanlan, Xu Shou, and Hua Hengfang.

After Wang Taomao recommended himself, although Li Yongji accepted him, he did not have a very suitable position for him for the time being, after all, he was an outsider, not promoted from the military system, and he had not been promoted, and he was not good at handling government affairs, so he appointed him as his personal counselor, helped him come up with ideas, analyzed intelligence, and by the way, familiarized himself with the current situation of the Jingwu Army.

At first, Wang Tao also understood and felt that this was a matter of course, but after he knew more information about the Jingwu Army, the more complicated his mood became, and the utilitarian fire burned more and more, and sighed that he had chosen the right person.

Without him, because in Wang Tao's view, with the current strength of the Jingwu Army, it was completely possible to sweep away China and dominate the world, so he began to constantly promote his so-called military strategy and instigated Li Yongji to rebel as much as possible.

According to Wang Tao's plan, he wanted Li Yongji to cooperate with the Taiping Army first, and then leave one and guard his hometown, and then send another army to the Northern Expedition, like Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang did back then, and smashed the Yellow Dragon in one fell swoop and defeated Beijing!

As long as the capital is conquered, the Qing court will be destroyed in the legal system, and then it can take the power of victory, establish the country as the emperor, and command the world. When the time comes, the Qing court will fall, the new country will be built, and most of the governors in various places will be Han Chinese, and they will be sincerely supported. Even if there are one or two dissatisfied, sending troops to fight is that, in that case, even if they resist, they can only fight alone, and they will definitely not be able to block the blow of the elite army.

According to Wang Tao's estimate, the Jingwu army rebels now, and it will take one year to destroy the Qing court and then claim the emperor to establish the country, and it will take up to three years to sweep the world, that is. After three years, the glory of the Han dynasty can be restored.

I have to say that Wang Tao's strategy has a certain degree of feasibility, but unfortunately it is not Li Yongji's dish, because that method has too many variables, and once China is quickly unified, Li Yongji will have to bear all the burdens of the old dynasty, which will make it difficult for him to move forward, which is not conducive to his reform strategy.

Li Yongji's real idea was to become a warlord for a while, and then concentrate on developing industry and commerce on his own territory. Use the national market and capital to supply this small part of the country, and wait for the industry and commerce on its own territory to develop, especially the industrial strength is strong enough to be self-sufficient at least in the production of primary weapons. Instead of relying entirely on his own blood transfusion, he will let go and dominate the whole world.

The advantage of this is that you are safe and safe, and you can live more comfortably. You can first cultivate your own talents steadily, and you don't have to worry about the troubles of the whole country from the beginning, but this kind of obvious harm to others and self-interest is a matter of eating from other places. Li Yongji definitely couldn't tell Wang Tao, so Li Yongji simply calculated an account for Wang Tao from an economic point of view.

The first is military spending.

Li Yongji's elite army is currently divided into three parts.

The first is the elite field force, which is the expansion of the old battalion of the elite army, after the expansion, this force has a total of three divisions, about 60,000 people.

The cost of these three divisions is the highest, not counting the cost of weapons and ammunition, just counting the salary expenses of officers and soldiers and various welfare expenses such as food expenses and medical expenses, it will cost nearly 500,000 taels of silver, which is equivalent to an average of 8 taels of silver per person per month.

The second is the local garrison force, which mainly refers to the police force being formed in various places, the bodyguard unit of the Jingwu Dart Bureau, and the non-Jingwu military lineage troops formed for various other reasons, so far, the total number of this force is a total of 30,000 people, not counting weapons and ammunition, simply counting salary expenses, it will cost 100,000 taels of silver every month!

The third, militia units. This is mainly a non-full-time unit selected from among the peasant workers recruited by Li Yongji in various places, similar to the military engineering team, all using cold weapons such as machetes. This force is the largest in number, currently totaling 100,000 men. Only in wartime, that is, when the order is called, does the militia receive a salary allowance of one tael per person per month, and they are not paid this money in normal times. However, once all of them are recruited, at least 100,000 taels of silver will be spent that month.

That is to say, if he just raises the army and does not fight, Li Yongji will spend more than one million taels of silver a month, and if he fights, counting all kinds of consumption, it will at least double, and he will need two million taels of silver a month! It's a gold-eating monster!

Secondly, the cost of labor is calculated.

Li Yongji is currently building a large number of migrant workers in various places, and the total number of migrant workers recruited in various places has reached 800,000, and these 800,000 people are all required to be paid for their work, and in addition to the benefits of food, each person needs an average of 2 taels of silver per month, which means that the wages for the peasant workers alone will be 1.6 million taels of silver a month!

This one hundred and sixty-five is still a pure salary expenditure, and if you count the tools they use, it is a large expense. You must know that in order to speed up the progress, although Li Yongji did not equip these migrant workers with modern machinery and equipment, they were all made of stainless steel, such as shovels and hoes. Based on the price of steel in this era, the purchase cost of these 800,000 people alone exceeded 3 million taels of silver, and more than 300,000 taels of silver were consumed every month due to the wear and tear of various tools.

So to sum it up now, Li Yongji's monthly expenses for raising soldiers and workers are as high as three million taels of silver, and this is still a situation where there is no big war to fight, and if there is a war, it is estimated that it will be doubled.

Where does the money come from? In the area under Li Yongji's control, Li Yongji did not collect any agricultural taxes, on the contrary, those who followed him could also be exempt from taxes, which allowed Li Yongji and the Jingwu army to win the hearts of the people, but they lost a large source of income.

Therefore, it is unceremonious to say that these military expenses and wages are subsidized by Li Yongji's own money, or rather, they are supported by the high profits earned by various businesses under Li Yongjitongguò.

Of course, Li Yongji did not attribute all his financial sources to his own business profits, saying that they were mainly donations from overseas people.

"Lan Qing." Li Yongji said this to Wang Tao at that time. also sighed deliberately, "You understand now, we seem to be strong at the moment, but in fact, we are in danger, and the key is lack of money." For the time being, I can still support it, but it will not work for a long time. ”

"But, it's because of this that we have to rebel as soon as possible." At that time, Wang Tao still wanted to struggle, "The more land we have laid, the more taxes we can collect." It should be enough to feed these armies with the strength of the whole country. ”

"Enough? You couldn't be more wrong. Seeing that the other party followed his pace, Li Yongji smiled at the time, "You forgot one question, that is, why can my elite army be invincible?" In addition to the lives of soldiers, the most important thing is that we have the most advanced weapons in the world, but these weapons are imported at a cost, even ammunition. Now on the defensive, the ammunition consumption is not large. It doesn't matter if others can't figure out your situation, but once you enter the country, the consumption is astronomical. Can these weapons and ammunition ...... I'll be honest with you, those foreign devils can't be trusted, we're just a local warlord now, and they're going to support us with all their might. If we had the intention of winning the world, then the situation would be different, and they would inevitably ask us for many unequal treaties. You can figure this out.

Therefore, if we want to really rise, we must first develop industry, at least so that we can be self-sufficient in weapons.

As the saying goes, there is no stability without agriculture, no business without wealth, and no work without strength, and we must now take advantage of this excellent situation to first develop our own agricultural and industrial system, especially industry, and when we can make muskets and cannons ourselves, then we will naturally not be afraid of anything!

But how to develop industry? Let me tell you, I now have a lot of new technologies and equipment that I have obtained through various methods, but because the methods are not so upright, I can't see the light of day for the time being, and I also lack the talents who know how to operate.

Therefore, what I lack most now is talents, especially all kinds of talents who understand astronomy, geography and physics, these people are here, so that the things I get at hand can exert their power, and they can make us strong, so, Lan Qing, if you really have the heart, help me invite those talents over first! ”

Not to mention, Li Yongji's flickering really worked, at least Wang Tao believed it.

It was after that long talk that Wang Tao no longer promoted his set of quick attack theory, but let go of the little Jiujiu in his original heart, and began to go to Shanghai sincerely, and tried his best to lobby the old, middle-aged and young friends he knew at the beginning, and fooled them to serve the elite army.

Wang Tao is eloquent, and the conditions offered by Li Yongji are good enough, especially the temptation of Li Shanlan, Xu Shou, and Hua Hengfang to give each of them a high-standard real room, so they couldn't bear it anymore and agreed to come to Li Yongji's territory to have a look.

At this time, Li Yongji had just negotiated a warship business with the Americans, and in order to deepen the perception of these people and make them realize the strength of the Jingwu Army and the opening of Li Yongji, Wang Tao deliberately delayed the time to return to Qingpu County and asked to go to Mojiagang with the three warships.

Not to mention, this method really works, especially when Li Shanlan and others knew that this was bought by the Chinese as a warship, and it inspired that little patriotic sentiment in their hearts, and they felt that Li Yongji was indeed an enlightened person, and perhaps he could really show his strengths.

After really meeting Li Yongji and following him into the so-called air-conditioned room to eat a small stove, although they lamented that Li Yongji's age was too young, they were still surprised by the answers, because they could all feel Li Yongji's solid foundation in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and even Li Yongji's whimsical ideas in many aspects gave them a lot of inspiration.

Perhaps because he had already agreed with Li Yongji, coupled with the stimulation of alcohol, the eldest Li Shanlan suddenly spoke: "Lord Admiral, we are very grateful for your kind invitation, but what do you want us to do when you invite us here?" I listened to Lan Qing, do you want to ask us to set up an ordnance station? ”

"Of course this has to be done." Li Yongji smiled, "But you talents are all engaged in ordnance, some of them are too wasteful, and I don't lack ordnance for the time being." Actually, I invite you here because I want to do a good job in China's real basic industries first, for example, here in Jiaxing, I plan to put into operation a new Haiyan chemical plant, at least to get out of the three acids and two alkalis. ”

"Three acids and two alkalis?" Li Shanlan was stunned for a moment, obviously not reacting.

"It is the three acids of sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and hydrochloric acid, plus caustic soda and soda ash. Taken together, it is three acids and two alkalis. Li Yongji explained with a smile, "I want you to make a large number of these three acids and two alkalis for me in a short period of time, and then talk about other things." ”

"These things are not easy to do." It was Xu Shou who spoke, and he knew a lot about chemistry, so he opened his mouth and said, "Even in the West, the method of making these things is secret, and if we want to make these ourselves, it is better to say that we need to manufacture them in large quantities if we want to make them ourselves...... It's hard. ”

"You don't need to worry about that." Li Yongji squinted and smiled, "It's not a secret, I have a batch of complete technical information on how to produce three acids and two alkalis, as well as a batch of production equipment that matches the new technology." It's a pity that I have the materials, the equipment and the funds, but no one is available. As long as you are willing to work hard to help me research, whether it is materials, equipment or manpower funds, I will give you priority. ”

"If that's the case, then I'm willing to give it a try." Xu Shou nodded.

"In addition, I am also planning to form a university of science and engineering." Li Yongji added, "In the future, I will teach mathematics, physics, chemistry and modern medicine. I provide the land, buildings, students and teaching materials of the university, you just need to be a teacher in the past with peace of mind, and pass on your knowledge, of course, if you have any relatives and friends who are very talented, you can also invite them together, I will not refuse to come, all of them are hired with high salaries, I don't know if you are happy or not? ”

"If this is the case, then the adult will have a lot of merit!" Hua Hengfang clenched his fists, "I don't care about others, if I am my own, I will definitely be willing to be a teacher in this school." ”

"I'm willing to give it a try." Li Shanlan also nodded.

"Then we're done!" Li Yongji smiled and raised his glass, "You come to me, you don't need to think about anything, just do your studies with peace of mind, don't underestimate this, doing studies is to save the country and rejuvenate the country!" I just want to tell you a truth that in this world, the most expensive thing is not gold, but talent! The most expensive of the talents is not the poor literati who play poetry and articles, but the technicians who can do mathematics, physics and chemistry! I just want to use guò to change the world's concept of emphasizing literature over reason, so that everyone will emphasize literature over reason! Maybe this concept of emphasizing reason and not emphasizing text is not something that can be done in one or two years, but as long as you work hard, you can do it in the end! (To be continued......)