On February 13, 1877, in Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan, more than 40,000 Japanese warriors raised their banners and rebelled, known as the Southwest War. During the Meiji Restoration, these nobles were deprived of all their power and glory as samurai, and they rebelled against the government in anger for the sake of profit and dignity. Their leader was Saigo Takamori, a standard samurai who made great contributions to the Restoration, and who served as Field Marshal and Governor of the Guards. This man has always insisted on an immediate invasion of Korea and Taiwan to find a way out for the desperate samurai class. However, the Meiji government rejected his opinion because it believed that the country should be strengthened first and then consider external expansion. So Saigo Takamori resigned and became the commander of the rebellious samurai.

At this time, Ding Yuntong, who was sitting in the West Warm Pavilion of the Palace of the Palace of Cultivation in Beijing, was frowning and worried. He knew the time of the outbreak of the Southwest War, and originally fantasized about what channel he could use to give some assistance to the samurai rebels, so that Japan would suffer greater attrition in this civil war.

But in practice, it is almost impossible to find out, first of all, you can't find someone to contact, and you don't have the time and energy to do it, so you have to give up thinking about it.

Historically, although Japan had some attrition in the civil war, it greatly trained its army, including how to cooperate with the sea and land, how to land and attack, etc., and its combat effectiveness was greatly improved, and its ambitions also expanded rapidly, and it annexed the Ryukyus the following year.

However, Ding Yuntong did not intend to interfere with the course of history, and was ready to accept Japan's annexation of the Ryukyus, which had a very important strategic consideration.

Historically, Japan carefully chose to start the war in the First Sino-Japanese War, and at that time Japan was fully prepared in terms of system building, international environment, army and navy, intelligence gathering, and so on.

The Sino-Japanese war must be fought under the conditions that are most beneficial to China.

So what's in China's best interest?

First, when the war broke out, China was ready, while Japan was in a hurry, at least not as well as it was in history. At this point, the time of the war must be advanced, and it must not be the year of the First Sino-Japanese War. With Japan's aggressiveness and hard work, it will become stronger the sooner it is.

Second, the war must be waged on the Korean Peninsula, and Japan must not be allowed to shrink into a turtle shell on its own soil.

Third, the war must not only injure Japan, but must cripple it, otherwise the other side will bury itself in construction after suffering a little, and after 20 years, it will be troublesome.

So how can Japan be made to go to war willingly without waiting to be fully ready?

First of all, it is necessary to make Japan feel that there is hope for winning, and on this premise, all of China's preparations must be low-key and cautious, especially some key parts, which must not be known to Japan. At the same time, it is necessary to paralyze the other side, starting with the Ryukyus, and to slowly increase Japan's courage.

Second, it is necessary to fully understand the important role of Korea in Japan's economy, and the Qing Dynasty was ignorant of these things in the past life, and in this life it can make full arrangements to impose economic sanctions on Japan at an appropriate time to force Japan to go to war.

Thinking like this, Ding Yuntong looked at the eastern sky outside the window and sneered slightly: "Okay, for the time being, let you Japanese toss for a few years, and then take care of it later." ”

After a long conversation with the Empress Dowager Ci'an, Ding Yuntong issued an edict to cancel the two positions of Minister of Beiyang Trade and Minister of Nanyang Commerce, and Li Hongzhang entered the Military Aircraft Department and served as the Minister of Industry, specializing in the construction of the project. He was succeeded by Wang Wenshao, governor of Hunan.

At the same time, the division of the army was divided into four departments, the War Department, the Navy Department, the Logistics Department and the General Staff, and the War Department and the Navy Department were responsible for the formation, training, exercises and other daily activities of the Army and Navy respectively. The Logistics Department is responsible for the army's logistical support work.

Although the General Staff was under the establishment of the Ministry of War, it was directly responsible to the emperor and led the national war readiness work in peacetime; In wartime, he is responsible for the implementation of combat organization and command, and is also responsible for the collection and collation of classified information.

This is where Ding Yuntong's intentions lie, so that the military department will actually become an organization responsible for all miscellaneous affairs such as training, reorganization, equipment, and logistical support. But the actual military power could be firmly in the hands of the emperor through the General Staff.

Next door to the Xinuan Pavilion of the Heart Cultivation Palace, a communication office of the General Staff was set up, where Ding Yuntong could directly send telegrams to various armies, and also receive confidential information from various places.

At the same time, the reform of the military rank system was also being carried out, and various ranks such as general, colonel, lieutenant, and sergeant were established, but in order not to cause confusion, the original titles were retained until the establishment of the new army.

Along with the changes in the structure of the army, the reform of the army was also carried out in a low-key manner, and in 1849 there were still 610,000 soldiers in the whole army, although there were reductions from the Xianfeng period, and in 1875 there were still more than 500,000 on the books, of course, there were a large number of vacancies. But by the autumn of 1877, most of the hundreds of thousands of Green Battalions had been reorganized, and tens of thousands of elite Green Battalion soldiers had been reorganized into patrol battalions, assuming the functions of the police to maintain social order and patrol the border, and the rest of the personnel distributed a sum of money to fend for themselves.

In the spring of that year, two new agencies were added to the Ministry of Industry, the Telegraph Office and the Railway Bureau.

The first task of the Railway Bureau after its establishment was to prepare for the construction of the Tangbei Railway, so that the coal from the Tangshan Kailuan Coal Mine could be transported to Beitang in Tianjin, and then transported by water. In the previous life, the famous Tang-Xu Railway in history was forced to be shortened to Xugezhuang because of the opposition of the imperial court, but now with the support of the emperor, it can naturally be unimpeded.

Some officials also played impeachment, saying that the train would shake the dragon veins and emit black smoke that would damage the crops. Ding Yuntong did not reprimand, but just looked for excuses one after another to remove the officials from their posts.

The entire railway is expected to cost 300,000 taels of silver, and the payment will be paid by Huaxia Bank. British engineers were hired, and the railroad specifications were standard gauge instead of Japanese narrow gauge. This is also the experience of Ding Yuntong in his previous life, and the standard rail will be in line with Shijie in the future, which will be beneficial to economic development. At the same time, the Tianjin Railway School was established in Tianjin, and British and American experts were hired as teachers.

The telegraph bureau was in charge of Sheng Xuanhuai, before the establishment of Ding Yuntong's will, it began to lay telegraph lines on a large scale, which was one of the most important tasks of Ding Yuntong, by the autumn of 1877, the telegraph network had begun to take shape, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and other large cities have set up telegraph branches one after another, to provide paid services for industry and commerce. At the same time, in accordance with Ding Yuntong's will, the General Staff Headquarters also set up a special telegraph and communications office.

On November 11 of this year, it was a good day to do business, and Ding Yuntong was sitting in the Yangxin Hall to listen to Hu Xueyan and Zheng Guanying's report: "Hu Aiqing, have you done everything about the loan?" ”

Hu Xueyan has a slender face, thick eyebrows, and a mustache, and a shrewd and capable look: "Back to the emperor, Weichen has borrowed 3 million, 3.5 million and 4 million taels from Liru Bank, Li Bank and Macquarie Bank respectively, and borrowed 15.5 million taels from HSBC, totaling 26 million taels of silver, with annual interest ranging from 6 to 7 percent, all guaranteed by the government, and Huaxia Bank came forward. ”

Ding Yuntong nodded, at this time, the borrowing interest rate in the international market is generally three percent (3%) per year, and rarely exceeds five percent (5%).

These foreigners saw that they were in a hurry to ask for money, and deliberately asked for the price, and left him alone, anyway, the wool came out of the sheep, and the money was going to be taken to London for speculation anyway, as long as the profit was high enough, they were not afraid of anything.

He looked at Zheng Guanying next to him, and Zheng Guanying hurriedly spoke: "In addition to the original two million taels from the bank, as well as more than 10 million taels of silver temporarily allocated by the provincial authorities and the Ministry of Households, a total of nearly 40 million taels has been remitted to London, and Xu Run has rushed to the United Kingdom to meet with Lord Guo Songtao to handle this matter together." ”

After speaking, Hu Zheng and the others looked at each other, looking a little worried, this large amount of money was remitted, what should I do if I lose it? This amount is equivalent to half of the annual fiscal revenue of the Qing Dynasty, especially the more than 10 million yuan of the household department, if it cannot be recovered before the Chinese New Year, the government officials of the whole country will not be able to pay their money.

Ding Yuntong looked at the faces of the two, knew what they were worried about, and smiled slightly: "The two Aiqing don't have to worry too much, this matter is all in my control." ”

In London, England in 1877, Shijie's financial center, wealth and dreams, glory and shame, light and darkness, hopes and disappointments, the colorful drama of life is staged day and night, as if the Thames River is constantly flowing.

In front of St. Paul's Cathedral on the Thames, there is the Royal Commercial Exchange Center, the Bank of England, known as the "Old Woman on the Needlework Street", the London Stock Exchange, etc., which is the London financial district affectionately called "a square mile" by Londoners, and since the Middle Ages, you can not only buy furs, wine, beer, spices from Europe, but also goods from the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and even Chinese silk shipped from the Silk Road. And now it is the dominant global finance, it is not only the financial and economic center of the whole United Kingdom, but also the economic center of the whole Shijie, and its every move affects Shijie all the time.

Since the beginning of the year, Russian and Ottoman government bonds have been the focus of attention in the London market, but the prospects for Russian government bonds are not optimistic, the market is generally not interested in subscription, and the price has remained low.

This continued until late November, but there was a sudden slight rebound, when a large amount of Russian government bonds, allegedly subscribed by a stream of capital from Asia, totalling more than 10 million pounds, which caused a large number of financial commentators to fall through the glasses, and newspapers speculated for days on end who these wrongdoers were, and there was a representative view that the Russians bought themselves for the sake of speculation in order to boost their popularity.

Either way, after a short-term recovery, Russian government bonds fell again and fell to new lows within days, as the Russian army suffered heavy casualties under the city of Pleven, the war was deadlocked, and Russia even turned to its allies Romania for help. The market believes that the Russians will not be able to play any tricks.

But history is full of drama, on December 10, 1877, Pleven was occupied by the Russian army, and tens of thousands of Ottoman Turkish troops surrendered, and the tide of the war took a big turn. The prospects for Russia's victory suddenly brightened, and the price of Russian government bonds in the London financial market was suddenly favored by everyone, and the price was like a roller coaster, and by the beginning of January, the price had doubled. By the end of January, Turkey had sued for peace, and Britain showed no signs of sending troops. All this led to extremely optimistic market expectations, and the price of Russian government bonds rose to the top.

At this time, in the Chinese Legation in the United Kingdom, Guo Songtao and Xu Run were relieved and toasted to each other. After receiving a telegram signed by the emperor himself two days ago, the two ordered all the national bonds to be thrown away, and gave up Jihua, who continued to speculate on the Turkish national debt, and remitted all the money back to China.

Such a result made them throw themselves to the five bodies that the emperor admired. This kind of yujian force insight can only be described by the true dragon emperor, otherwise it will not be able to explain everything like a miracle in front of him.

And in the hearts of some high-ranking officials in China who know the secrets, they also have the same feelings.

The prestige of the little emperor Guangxu is unprecedentedly high!