In November 1879, Ding Yuntong's long-planned budget decree was officially promulgated.

This law is actually borrowed from the budget law of the United States in the previous life, and if this law can be thoroughly implemented, it can curb corruption to a certain extent. At this time, the corruption of the Qing Dynasty had reached the extreme, and in the words of the report of the Japanese spy leader Araki Sei, the whole of China was not only officialdom, but also the whole people, which was quite similar to the Celestial Empire in the previous life. Ding Yuntong had read Araki Spirit's "Book of Resurrection" in his previous life, and now that he has traveled over, he can observe his empire from a bystander's perspective.

The Japanese spies thought that China's tax revenue was only 80 million taels, but in fact it should have been four times that amount, but most of it went into the pockets of officials at all levels. Confucianism, the original spiritual pillar, has been completely alienated into a tool for promotion and wealth, and the faith of the entire nation has collapsed. The erroneous policy can be reversed, but the corruption of the whole nation and the collapse of the faith of the whole nation cannot be saved, and the judgment of the Japanese spies is that within 20 years, the Qing country will perish. History has proved them right, so Japan's First Sino-Japanese War, without any risky elements, was completely a sure victory and a natural thing.

But can you change all of this?

The answer is that it is possible.

The British, Hurd, used the system to transform customs. Yourself weishenme can't use the system to transform the country? In the previous life, the sage Hu Shi had a passage: A haode country, if you don't talk about the system, only talk about morality, you will become a rotten country in Zuihou, and everyone is a hypocrite. And if a rotten country does not pay attention to morality and the rule of law, morality will gradually return with the improvement of living standards.

This passage is astonishingly accurate, whether it is in today's China, which pays lip to benevolence, righteousness, and morality, or to the Celestial Empire in the previous life, all the bureaucrats cultivated all day long to propagate what spirit to uphold, what banner to hold, and what line to take, and all of them are schizophrenic with different hearts.

So how do you change all that?

Ding Yuntong's view is that neither the people's election nor the disclosure of property can solve the problem, and the "raising incorruptible silver" pioneered by Emperor Yongzheng is even more trivial and does not benefit the overall situation. In the past life, Singapore has proved this, and high salaries and incorruptible pensions are just the icing on the cake for an already incorruptible government.

In previous lives, all the countries that ranked high in terms of integrity had one thing in common, that is, they had strict budget laws. The United States does not have high salaries, no "campaign anti-corruption", and no Independent Commission Against Corruption, but it has a comprehensive, specific, and transparent budget law. That is, even if an official paints his office, he must make a budget, buy a few buckets of paint, where to buy it, the price, where to paint, how many buckets to paint, how many buckets to leave, and where to put it. These must be clearly noted in the budget for review.

With this bill, it is very difficult for officials to embezzle from jishu, and the probability of being found is very high, a thief who is always watched, he can't make a move, even if he picks up the wallet, he can only hand it over to the police uncle, and the moral standard will naturally improve.

Of course, Ding Yuntong also knew that at this time in China, laws and regulations did not work, the organization was chaotic, especially the grassroots government, which was almost scattered, and forcibly implemented the budget law would only come to an end.

At present, Jihua first started at the level of the central ministry and the provincial level, and gradually extended to the state capital, and Zuihou is the county town, and the most optimistic estimate of this process is more than ten years. However, changes at the top of the government can be made now, and the results are quick and impactful.

Ding Yuntong inspected the UK for a year, and the financial delegation to the UK that had just returned was assigned to various ministries, including Zhang Jian, a clerk, Shen Yunpei, a Jishi of the Hanlin Academy, Yan Xinhou, a supervisor of Henan Salt Affairs, and Xu Dinglin, a Taoist of Anhui, all of whom were promoted to be responsible for specific implementation work.

In mid-December 1879, the fleet returning from Britain finally crossed the Pacific Ocean and returned to the port of Mawei in Fujian. At this time, the northern ports of Lushun and Weihaiwei were still under construction, and Mawei Port became the home port of the Chinese Navy.

When three warships flying dragon flags sailed into the harbor, colorful flags were hoisted on both sides of the strait, salutes were fired, all the soldiers on the shore raised their hands to salute the warships, and the flagship cruiser Yangwu waved the flag "Welcome home."

The officers and men on the three ships could not help but be enthusiastic, and this scene was fierce and fierce, and they could not help but be infected by the British teaching Lang Weili.

For Luang Weili, Ding Yuntong has mixed emotions. Historically, Luang Weili has made great contributions to the construction of the Beiyang Naval Division, he has fair management, strict training, and is full of honor and responsibility for his work. However, Zuihou still broke up with China, and an important reason was that the officers and men of the Beiyang Naval Division could not endure his strict management for a long time.

As soon as Luang Weili left, the training and military discipline of the Beiyang Naval Division became more and more lax, and the training was not strict. The officers all went ashore to buy houses and live in them, and the soldiers left the ship at will. Even when patrolling the coastline, in Hong Kong, Shanghai and other places, ** gambling.

Some people believe that Luang Weili was sent by the British to control the Beiyang Naval Division, and there is this factor. In Japan during the same period, Colonel Engels of the United Kingdom was named a nobleman by Japan, with status and real power, and made great contributions to the construction of the Japanese Navy.

There is no reason for the Chinese and Japanese navies, which started at the same time, to simply think that if the great powers want to control China, they will not want to control the Japanese. The key lies in the wisdom and ability of the government itself. As long as the authority is clear, the division of labor is in place, and the bottom line is kept, foreigners can only train and guide. Can they still kidnap the Chinese fleet to do what they don't want to do?

Based on this consideration, Ding Yuntong gave Luang Weili great authority in the contract, and in peacetime, Luang Weili was responsible for the training of the navy, and in principle, his decision was Zuihou's decision. However, in wartime, Luang Weili could only serve as a staff officer, and the Chinese side was responsible for the specific command of the operation. Luang Weili did not object to such a contract.

After resting for three days at Mawei Harbor, the navy immediately went into training, and the entire fleet took the "Yangwu" as the flagship, the "Shannon" was renamed the "Beidou", and the "Leander" and "Iris" were renamed "Kunlun" and "Canghai", and the above four ships formed the core of the navy.

Lin Guoxiang, captain of the "Yangwu" ship, as the captain of the flagship, still serves as the commander of the fleet, and Liu Buyun, Lin Taizeng, and others respectively serve as deputy captains of each ship.

The training of the fleet maintained a high intensity, with a special emphasis on the accuracy of artillery strikes in high-speed maneuvers. Huang Jianxun, who returned to China with the ship, also led the mine battalion and constantly practiced laying mines in various weather and sea conditions.

The key subject was personally explained by Ding Yuntong, that is, how to lay a tight blockade with mines in the shortest possible time.

This requires that the mines should be evenly distributed in a straight line at a constant spacing at sea, and the speed must be fast, and it is difficult to meet this requirement at the mechanical level at this time. In the windy and turbulent sea, ships, mines, and water are all moving, and it is impossible to do it quickly and accurately without corresponding measuring instruments.

In the face of Huang Jianxun's report, Ding Yuntong remembered the local method of Lin Youcheng of the volunteer army in his previous life, which measured the length in advance and tied haode hemp rope and tied it between the anchor mines, so that a thunder would be laid out, and at the same distance, the next one would be pulled into the water. This method is simple and effective, Lin Youcheng deployed 90 in one hour, and Zuihou also sank a US landing ship.

Huang Jianxun looked at the instructions sent by the emperor, and suddenly felt that he had studied in vain in the UK.

At the same time, Ding Richang, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, was strictly supervising the construction of four forts.

According to the secret jihua, all the manpower could not be hired by the locals, but was brought exclusively from other places, and materials and artillery were transported to the mountains in the middle of the night. The construction of the top of the mountain is always strictly controlled by the General Staff, and idlers are caught when they get close. Four smaller forts were used as a cover, built on the tops of Jinjinshan, Changmen Mountain, Luoxing Mountain, and Majiao Mountain. In the distance of the treadmill, an extremely strong heavy fort was built, and bamboo was planted around the fort, and houses were built as a disguise, some disguised as a small mountain temple, some seemed to be a wooden house where the officers and soldiers guarding the mountain slept at night, and some were built into a lighthouse.

But underneath the camouflage is a large fort in the form of a half-bunker or half-walled fort, and when the fixed rope is cut during the battle, the camouflaged bamboo house will fall to both sides, revealing the fort.

The fort does not use rocks and cement, but adopts the "Sanhe soil" of Fujian folk, "Sanhe soil" that is, ash, sand, soil mixed with camphor tree sap, glutinous rice pulp, brown sugar, grass paper towel, the viscosity is excellent, the solidity is incomparable, and the southern Fujian is called "brown sugar Sanhe soil". It can effectively prevent the damage to the soldiers of the battery when the enemy shells are attacked, and the rocks and cement are blown away.

Each battery houses two 280mm caliber Krupp heavy guns, which are the largest and heaviest steel guns produced by Krupp to date. The main gun is 13.96 meters long, the inner diameter of the muzzle is 28 cm, the gun weighs 48,974 kg, the total weight is 59,888 kg, the effective firing range is 16,460 meters, and the muzzle can be rotated 360 degrees.

In this era, no armor could withstand the bombardment of such heavy artillery. However, the price is not expensive, one door costs more than 40,000 taels of silver, Ding Yuntong spent 500,000 yuan to buy 12 doors in one go, and 8 doors were placed in the horsetail, which shows that he is thinking about it.

The construction of the entire fort began in June 1879, day and night, countless people took turns to build, Ding Richang even supervised himself on the construction site, zuihou vomited blood tiredly. The four batteries were built in only 14 months, and they were extremely strong and structurally perfect, with underground behind the batteries, barracks, telegraph command posts, ammunition depots, etc.

All the soldiers of the battery are trained in the field, choose similar terrain, train with similar artillery, in short, do not use heavy batteries in Mawei Port for training, in order to hide people's eyes.

Throughout the second half of the year, Guangxi was also loose outside and tight inside, and Ding Baojiao, who was ordered to serve as the governor of Guangxi, could be said to be very busy and set up supply stations; building and training field hospitals; Food, ammunition, horses, medicines, which were transported from the rear, were secretly stored in warehouses at the border; Continuously send personnel to explore the road traffic situation, determine the supply route and emergency plan; Jihua was formulated, and once the war started, how to recruit men, wagons, cattle and donkeys and other manpower from various counties and townships as soon as possible.

And all this, Ding Baojiao has to report to Ding Yuntong at all times, and also receives instructions or inquiries from Ding Yuntong at all times.

Ding Yuntong also asked Hu Xueyan and Zheng Guanying to formulate jihua to make plans for the financial needs of the war, he estimated that at least 10 million taels of silver would be needed, but if the Vietnamese government could sincerely help China and provide all the logistics supplies it could, such as grain, forage, manpower, carriages and horses, etc., then the financial pressure would be greatly reduced, which required the efforts of Tang Jingsong and others.

Ding Yuntong hopes that after next spring, he will be able to make all preparations and wait for a little bit of Mars in Vietnam.