During the discussion last night, Zhu Dawen, who is proposed to be the deputy superintendent of Tianjin Customs, raised a question.

Merchants from all over the world were worried that if they did not trade with the local Thirteen Lines in Guangdong, their merchant ships would be attacked by the armed forces of the local government of Guangdong, or that the Thirteen Lines would collude with the Dutch to harass their merchant ships.

"If such a situation occurs, it will be difficult for businessmen from all countries to have the power to protect themselves, which may lead to businessmen from all countries being unwilling to trade with China in Tianjin."

Zhu Dawen's worries were justified, because most of the merchants he recruited were foreign merchants with no official background, and the only one with an official background was the French East India Company, which was not capable of confronting the Dutch at present.

In other words, the international trade mission that came to Tianjin this time could not rely on its own strength to ensure the safety of their fleets passing through the southern regions of the empire.

Why, then, could the southern local powers of the Tatar Empire work against their governments?

Because, of course, the news that civil strife was taking place in the Tatar Empire, which had already reached Macau.

Merchants of various countries had reason to suspect that the Tatar Empire might not be able to call on its remote southern powers, and that they would not dare to act rashly if the Governor of the Empire did not agree.

Businessmen, seeking wealth.

It's just a matter of earning more and earning less, and there is no need to risk your life for this.

In this regard, Jia Liu made three measures.

He instructed the former minister in charge of the work of the imperial camp to immediately draft an edict to the governor of Liangguang, Li Shiyao, to immediately submit to the Jingshi, otherwise he would be punished for conspiracy.

"In addition, send Li Shiyao's brother Li Fengyao to Guangdong to persuade his brother not to be obsessed, if he can take the lead in the restoration, I will reward Li Shiyao without hesitation, and I can give the Li family a hereditary first-class earl."

Duke, marquis, and earl are super titles, if you have to compare, the earl corresponds to the Dorobelle of the clan, and if the hereditary first-class earl has a higher gold content.

Since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, there have been more than ten Han people such as Zhao Liangdong, Zheng Zhangxu, Ma Siwen, Xian Guoan, Zhou Quanbin, Wang Zhiding, Zhang Tingyu, Huang Tinggui, etc.

Even Li Shiyao's grandfather, Li Yongfang, was only a second-class uncle back then.

Therefore, Jia Liu's hereditary first-class uncle to Li Shiyao is definitely worthy of being rewarded.

It's definitely very bright, too.

“... Tell Li Fengyao that his brother can consider it, but he must not destroy the trade opened by the imperial court in the north, otherwise, I will kill all the men, women and children of the Li family, and dig out their ancestor Li Yongfang! ”

Jia Liu is not intimidating, but will really do it.

Hundreds of thousands of old Manchurians told him to slaughter and slacken, do you still care about a fake Manchurian Ertar family?

Li Shiyao is really not interested, and it will definitely stimulate the executioner attribute of the Six Emperors.

Of course, it is certainly impossible to say the original words directly to Li Fengyao, and the person who delivered the words at that time must have expressed them in a euphemistic way.

The second is to Xingwen Wuchang, requesting Wuchang to send troops in the direction of Jiangxi and Hunan to form military pressure on the Guangdong Green Battalion.

To ensure that Li Shuyao did not dare to easily send troops to attack and harass merchant ships, as long as he dared to move, Jia Liu would not hesitate to risk the Liangguang region falling into Wuchang.

Third, it is necessary to strike iron hard.

It is urgent to build a strong navy!

For this reason, Jia Liu specially met with the delegation of the Beiyang Naval Division headed by Zamur in the morning.

The predecessor of the Beiyang Naval Division was the Dagu Naval Division, which now has more than 3,000 soldiers and more than 100 warships.

Whether it is the size of the force or the number and quality of warships, the Beiyang Naval Division is much worse than other coastal naval divisions.

However, the mental outlook and combat effectiveness have been greatly improved.

It is mainly due to the large-scale military training movement initiated by Jia Liu personally in the naval division.

Asiha, who was in charge of the military department, had previously reported the basic situation of the Daqing Water Division to His Majesty the Emperor, and at present, the coastal defense of the Great Qing Dynasty is mainly in charge of the Eight Banners Naval Division and the Green Camp Naval Division.

The Eight Banners Naval Division is mainly stationed in Heilongjiang, Mergen, Jilin and other places, and the scale is relatively small, with a total number of about 3,000 troops, which can be basically ignored.

During the Battle of Yaksa that year, several battalions of the Eight Banners Naval Division outside the Guanxi were mainly responsible for the transportation of grain and grass to ensure that the army besieging Yaksa would not run out of food, but other than that, it had no effect.

The Eight Banners Naval Division in Guannai has a total strength of more than 10,000 people, and because of its small number, it mainly plays a supervisory role in coastal defense and has little effect in actual combat.

Tianjin's Eight Banners were already dismissed by Jia Liu, and the two Eight Banners in Jingkou (Zhenjiang), Zhapu (Hangzhou), and Fuzhou and Guangzhou remained.

Therefore, the Green Battalion Naval Division is the main force of the Qing Dynasty's coastal defense, mainly in the four provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu, with a total strength of 100,000 troops and more than 700 large and small warships.

At present, except for the Jiangsu Lvying Naval Division, which is nominally subordinate to the central government of the Restoration, the naval divisions of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang provinces should be "local armed forces" for various reasons.

Among them, the Fujian Green Camp Naval Division was severely damaged by the Black Flag Army led by Yang Yuchun, and now it is no longer able to go to sea to fight, and it is huddled in the coastal areas of Fujian.

Although the main force still exists, due to the serious idea of avoiding war and fearing war, coupled with the discord between the governor of Zhejiang and the general of Hangzhou, the Zhejiang Green Camp Sailor is now like a child without a father and no one cares.

The Guangdong Naval Division is now intact and is regarded as the strongest naval combat unit in the Qing Dynasty, and the data of the military department show that the Guangdong Naval Division has more than 17,000 people and more than 200 large and small gunboats.

As for the Jiangsu Naval Division, Jia Liuyi merged the Jiangsu Naval Division with the Tianjin Naval Division in the name of the imperial court, and transferred some local naval divisions of a similar nature to the northern coast and reorganized them into the Beiyang Naval Division.

The headquarters of the naval division was placed in Qingdao, in the coastal area of Shandong.

The naval divisions of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces planned to reorganize the naval divisions under Yang Yuchun into the Nanyang Naval Division, and the naval divisions were based in Xiamen in Fujian or the coastal areas of Guangdong.

Therefore, Lao Ji, who was familiar with the united front work, had already sent candidates to the south secretly to carry out the work of plotting rebellion against civil and military officials in the three provinces, including the naval divisions, and with the joint assistance of military and general righteousness, the officers and men of the naval divisions in the south could return to the arms of the imperial court.

I am afraid it will take several months for this counter-terrorism work to see results.

"You have to prepare, within half a year, the number of sailors will be expanded to 20,000..."

After Zamur and the others arrived, Jia Liu directly stated that the imperial court would expand the Beiyang Naval Division, and put forward six methods of "training, simplifying weapons, building ships, raising salaries, employing people, and lasting".

Needless to say, the training of soldiers is naturally to eliminate the original weapons of the sailors that do not conform to the trend of the times, and let the Ministry of Engineering build more copper and iron cannons for the sailors.

Shipbuilding is to open the Beiyang Shipyard in Tianjin, which is a large-scale imitation of the three-masted gunboats of Western countries, and the other is to produce ironclad ships.

Instead of a battleship made of all-iron, it may be more appropriate to call it an armored ship with thick iron armor on the outer bread of a wooden battleship to defend against attacks.

Due to the lack of a steam engine, the ironclad ships built today are all powered by manpower and cannot last long voyages, but they are extremely fast in short sprints, and they are invincible in offshore combat.

When the steam engine is built, the ironclad can be turned into a battleship that does not require manpower.

I have the impression that it was only a few decades before Britain and France had steam engine-powered armored ships, and then they drove to China, which gave the Qing military and civilians a great shock.

It is said that the ship is strong and the cannon is sharp.

Everything has a development process, and it took decades for Western countries to go from the birth and improvement of the steam engine to its civilian and military use.

Jia Liu, however, brought this forward because he didn't need decades to prove that something was bound to appear.

The steam engine is already there, the steel industry is there, and the concept of the ironclad ship is there, so Jia Liu only needs to piece together the hardware he already has like a music tailor.

No need to prove, no need to explore.

That's the benefit of the traverser.

To put it bluntly, the six emperors are not great producers and developers, nor are they pioneers of science and technology, but they are just two-way dealers who are patchwork and assembled.

Typical application of take-it-or-leave-it-ism.

It is optimistically estimated that in ten years, China's navy will be fully equipped with ironclad ships.

Conservative estimates, up to fifteen years.

If everything goes well and well, Jia Liu thinks that when he reaches his fortieth birthday, he should be sitting on a black-smoking ironclad ship, looking out over the great old revolutionary area on the beach of Normandy.

Just a few hundred cannons on the coast can shock and succumb to the good times of the old district, what a good time.

It's beautiful when you think about it.

For the sake of this beautiful imperial era, after the talks with the navy, Jia Liu personally wrote to the navy - "Building a strong royal navy is in line with the trend of the development of the empire." ”

At the same time, he wrote a note to his henchman, Admiral Zamur of the Beiyang Naval Division, "The Royal Navy is only subordinate to me and my descendants, and this will not change for a hundred years." ”