Compared with the tense situation on the part of the navy, the army side is much more relaxed.

The strength of the navy is not good, in the face of the British and French navies, especially the British navy has a huge pressure, but the army is not so, the rise of the Chinese empire depends on the army, since 1863 Lin Zhe founded Yuyao County Yongying, the Chinese army can be said to have won many battles, although occasionally there will be a small defeat, but in the large-scale battle is not a defeat, the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the overthrow of the Manchu Qing and other unification wars not to say, only to say foreign wars, in 1858 in Shanghai against the British and French forces, However, nearly 30,000 British and French troops were annihilated, and nearly 20,000 prisoners were captured.

Later, in the small and medium-sized conflicts that broke out between the North and Russia, although it is said that there were no large-scale victories, this cannot be blamed on the army itself, but because the conflicts between the North and the Russians were mainly small-scale and sustained conflicts, and no large-scale wars were fought at all.

The frequent border conflicts and overseas disputes also allowed the Chinese army to gain rich combat experience after the reunification of the country, which is very important for the growth of young officers.

Although most of the soldiers and low-ranking officers of the Chinese Army, who had been peaceful for more than five years, had never participated in the war, the middle- and high-ranking generals were still the generals who had grown up in the War of Reunification and had rich combat experience.

At the same time, the equipment of the army and the quality of the soldiers have also increased, which can be seen from the average height of the soldiers, before 1860, the average height of the soldiers of the Chinese army was actually less than 1.6 meters, but today in 1866. The average height of the soldiers has reached a little more than 1.6 meters, which shows that the comprehensive physical fitness of the soldiers has been greatly improved compared with the past.

This is already an average level on a global scale. The average height of the soldiers of the British and French powers is actually just over 1.6 meters.

Later generations often say that foreigners are tall, but in fact, that was after the 20th century. In the nineteenth century, the height of Europeans was actually not as tall as there, and the real gap between the height of the East and the West was after the twentieth century, after the end of the nineteenth century, because at that time the industrialization of Europe was generally completed, the per capita food level increased significantly, from the previous lack of food to the level of more than 400 kilograms per capita, and why has the height of the Chinese not increased significantly in modern times? This is because until the seventies and eighties of the twentieth century, the per capita grain level remained at the level of about 300 kilograms every year. In some years, it was even just over 200 kilograms, and it was not until the end of the 20 th century that the per capita grain reached more than 400 kilograms.

At that time, it had been 20 years since the reform and opening up.

Therefore, to evaluate whether a country is strong, it is good not to look at the face of any political performance projects and other things, but to directly look at the per capita food level.

Even if you build a nuclear bomb and missile, have a strong army of tens of millions, and boast that your military strength ranks first in the universe, you cannot change the essence of being a poor and weak country.

Food levels per capita. This is an important condition for measuring the richness of a country!

In the mid-nineteenth century, most European countries were still in the industrial revolution stage, or had just completed the industrial revolution, although they already had considerable industrial manufacturing capabilities. However, social security is still very weak, and the per capita food level is actually quite average, otherwise there would not be so many Europeans who cannot survive every year to emigrate to the Americas or even to the Far East to seek opportunities to survive and make a fortune.

Even the modern world leader, the United Kingdom, is no exception. Don't look at Britain as powerful, but in reality the life of ordinary Britons is not bad. If you read a little more books that basically describe the life of ordinary Britons in the Victorian period, you can clearly feel the British people at that time. In particular, the vast majority of ordinary Britons, in fact, their lives are not as decent as the children of an empire on which the sun never sets.

In the early and mid-nineteenth century, ordinary people in all countries of the world did not have a good life, let alone say that no one was right.

The per capita food of European countries is not high, and the per capita food level of the Chinese Empire is actually even lower.

More than 90 percent of the contemporary Chinese people, especially those in rural areas, are malnourished, and if you think about it, in a country where small landlords with dozens of acres of land cannot eat white rice every day, how much better life do you want ordinary farmers to have?

It's good not to starve!

Although the general bad influence has affected the recruitment of soldiers by the military to a certain extent, the population of the empire at this time is highlighted, the population base is large, and there are many potential soldiers of the right age, and the army of the empire is far less than that of later generations, the navy and army combined, counting the garrison, the total number of troops is less than 800,000.

800,000 people out of hundreds of millions of people?

If this can't be picked out, those officers in charge of the military training department will have to be so ashamed that they will commit suicide to apologize.

In addition, being a soldier is still quite attractive to rural children!

Although since the unification of the empire, the military has begun to gradually reduce the salary level of ordinary soldiers, of course, it will not be directly reduced, but will be directly deducted in various names, for example, in the past, the military directly subsidized part of the food expenses, and now all the food expenses need to be paid by the soldiers themselves, and just by canceling the food subsidy, it can save the military at least 10 million expenses every year.

After the unification of the empire, the actual amount of money that soldiers could get was not as high as during the civil war, but this still could not stop the enthusiasm of rural children to join the army.

Why?

Because even though the salary of soldiers has been greatly reduced, it is still a lot, at least more than the income from farming at home.

At the same time, after three years of field service, a soldier can continue to serve and become a non-commissioned officer if he wishes to continue his service, thereby becoming a professional soldier whose career can continue until his forties.

At the same time, if a soldier cannot be admitted as a non-commissioned officer, he can also be transferred to the local garrison to continue to serve, and this service time is shorter. Only two years, and then retire from active service.

Either from the field units or from the garrison. The military has well-established arrangements, according to the wishes of the soldiers themselves. Soldiers will be given priority to serve as patrol officers and low-level clerks in their hometowns before joining the army, of course, due to their cultural level, they will not be able to hold positions above the rank of section officer.

At the same time, you can also go to work in major domestic enterprises, especially the industrial and mining enterprises under the royal industry, but they are very fond of recruiting retired soldiers, because these retired soldiers already have a perfect organization, collective, discipline concept, is one of the best sources of contemporary industry.

In modern times, industrial workers are the best soldiers. At the same time, soldiers are also the best source of industrial workers, because the two have a lot in common, and after a little training, they can adapt to each other's work.

The reason why rural children like to join the army is that the above are still secondary factors, and the most important thing is that as long as you join the army, then you will be able to eat enough, and it is the kind of white rice and white noodles that are full.

This level of diet is beyond the expectations of the vast majority of contemporary Chinese, and even outsiders seem to be a relatively decent citizen class. Even some of the lower middle class with low incomes cannot be hoped for.

For example, a high-tech worker with a weekly salary of 10 yuan, plus some bonuses, benefits, etc., can earn 550 yuan or even 600 yuan per year, which is a very high level in modern times. But his income usually has to support the family, which is more than a third of the food alone, if the family is large. Even half or more of your income has to be spent on food.

And even then, it's impossible to eat white rice or noodles every day. Meat can only be sacrificed at a specific time, and it is impossible to supply meat at two ends in three days like the military.

The level of food for today's soldiers is very high!

And this is well fed. Eating well is the most direct and primitive reason for attracting rural children to join the army.

Interestingly, when many soldiers return home after retirement, it is often difficult to endure the low standard of living, so few soldiers will say that they will go home and continue to work as farmers after retirement, and they will generally actively strive to stay in the big city and become a patrol officer or worker.

Because after joining the army, the soldiers are already very different from ordinary farmers in all aspects, you wear a straight military uniform and return to your hometown, and the people in your hometown see you as a monkey, and you also see your hometown people as monkeys, and they don't look at each other right.

If a soldier wants to be promoted to a non-commissioned officer in the future and continue to stay in the army as a professional soldier, then he must work hard to improve his cultural level, not to be able to be as talented as those officers who graduated from military academies, but at least you have to know the common words, and some basic military terms must be able to understand and understand.

After the literacy of the soldiers, although most of these soldiers do not have the opportunity to be admitted to the army and stay in the army, after learning the words, they can go to work in factories or work as low-level clerks in government agencies in the future.

In recent years, the quality of the Chinese army's soldiers has been comprehensively improved in all aspects.

The military is very proud of the comprehensive quality of soldiers!

Most of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the military can read and write, and the officers among them are the best young people in the contemporary empire!

Since the beginning of the empire, the best talents in the empire have always been concentrated in the military, and when the imperial university was opened, it had to ask the military to support the lecturers.

After the empire, those young students, those who graduated from higher secondary schools, usually have four choices, the first is to apply for the Imperial University, the Imperial University has been known as the cradle of the empire's middle and senior officials, most of the graduates of the previous classes have entered the political circles, and the career is quite smooth, but the Imperial University is too competitive, not so easy to get into.

In addition, it is to apply for the Royal Army Military Academy and the Royal Navy Military Academy, but the requirements for candidates in these two military schools are actually higher than those of the Imperial University, and those students who are not the top will not be admitted at all.

Imperial University, Army Military Academy, and Naval Military Academy, these three schools are the most preferred targets for contemporary imperial students, of course, which one to choose depends on the students' own wishes.

These three schools are Jiangnan University, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Zhili University and other universities or higher normal schools.

At the same time, in order to recruit more outstanding talents, the military is also actively promoting the concept of "Confucian generals", and the officers in the military boast that they are all the pillars of the "horses to level the world and get off the horses to soothe the people". And this is indeed true, compared with the previous dynasties, there are few generals in the military who are born as traditional military generals, basically all of them are scholars, and many generals are talented people who can export poems and write chapters.

If the military officers were brought out to serve as civilian officials, they would be able to do the job.

With the improvement of the quality of the army's personnel, the fact that the weapons are all rear-loading rifles, and the combat experience they have, the army is much more confident than the navy in the face of wars with foreign powers.

Within a few days, the 42 nd Infantry Brigade under the jurisdiction of the 21 st Infantry Division, which was originally stationed in Huizhou Prefecture, was connected to an artillery battalion of the division's artillery regiment, and a cavalry company formed a temporary 42 nd Mixed Brigade and then headed straight for Hong Kong.

When the 42nd Brigade of the Chinese Army moved out and then crossed Bao'an County into the Kowloon area, it quickly provoked a strong reaction from the British on Hong Kong Island.

The British quickly sent diplomatic representatives to inquire about the intention of the Chinese army to break into the Kowloon Peninsula, and at the same time urgently reported by telegram to Singapore, India and even London in China, saying that the Chinese had suddenly sent a large number of troops to the Kowloon Peninsula area, across the sea from Hong Kong Island.

And the British stationed in Hong Kong also found that they found a large fleet coming from the north, this fleet entered the mouth of the Pearl River, and this fleet with nearly a dozen ships, and most of them were ironclad ships, it is not necessary to guess that this is the native fleet of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire, that is, the 'First Fleet'.

And the arrival of the First Fleet of the Chinese Empire in Canton at such a sensitive time is abnormal in any case!

For a time, the whole of Britain was a little stunned, what happened to this Chinese? Is it possible to attack Hong Kong as a main attack? Are they provoking an all-out war with the British Empire? (To be continued.) )