Zhuge Weidao has already sat down in the seat arranged for him, next to Zhuge Yangwu and Zhuge Yangming, the two military divisions of the Yangzi generation, and their rankings in the military division are sixteenth and seventeenth respectively - the ranking of the military division of the Zhuge family was originally said to come first come, first served, in today's eighteen military divisions, Zhuge Weijiu has been a military division for the longest time, so he is the "big military division".

However, having the title of a great military division does not mean that he has great power, because theoretically, all official military divisions have the same right to speak, vote and other privileges. The alternate division does not have the right to vote, and the right to speak is also discounted, but other privileges are available.

According to the tradition since the establishment of the military division regiment, the military divisions that have been awarded the three heavenly books of "International Politics," "Army," and "Navy" often have more say and influence on national affairs than other military divisions. If they agree on a national issue, the other divisions will generally not object. Moreover, the military advisors who have been awarded these three heavenly books also have a high probability of paying homage.

However, no matter which military advisor is able to pay homage to the prime minister, he must implement the policies set by the military division...... From this point of view, the military division group is actually a deep state of the Ming Empire, or it can also be regarded as the core of a party.

Because the existence of the Eight Great Families inhibited the development of the modern political parties of the Ming Dynasty, although the current Ming Dynasty has a council that can formulate laws and elect prime ministers and monks, there is no political party. The political groups composed of the Eight Great Families and their surrounding nobles, industrialists, and eunuch families can also be regarded as parties to a certain extent.

According to the current situation of Zhuge Weidao, the eight families are now roughly divided into four groups, one is the alliance formed by the Zhuge family and the Zhendong Zhang family (Zhang Huangyan's descendants), these two families and their affiliated families have invested heavily in industry and mining, in fact, they are also the spokesmen of Daming industrial capital.

The second is the alliance formed by the Zheng family and the Zhennan Wang family, these two families and their surrounding affiliated families have invested capital in overseas trade and overseas agriculture—they are naturally the spokesmen of the Ming Dynasty's overseas interests.

The third is Er, Li and Liu, the three "righteous families" and their old lords' families. They were not very good at trading at the beginning, so they invested relatively late in overseas trade, overseas agriculture, and industrial and commercial mining, and did not share much profit. However, because of this, they are more "grassroots", and it is easy to get along with the peasant mutual aid associations below, and gradually control most of the agricultural mutual aid associations, and also rely on the agricultural mutual aid associations to build industries. In fact, these three families are the spokesmen of the Ming Dynasty small farmers (family farmers).

Fourth, the family of King Mu of Qian, and a group of noble families who were born in the old Ming Dynasty. The power of this faction cannot be compared with the other three factions, but they have a better relationship with the Ming Dynasty and the Zhu Ming Three Princes' Mansion, and they are orthodox royalists. Like Erli and Liu, these families are also rooted in the Peasant Mutual Aid Association, and the peasant associations they control are all near Beijing, and to some extent they are also defending the royal family.

In addition, the Mu family and its affiliated families are also the backstage of the Ava royal family in Myanmar, so they also have a lot of interests in Myanmar.

However, these four types of party groups do not take turns to sit in power, but are in coalition government. And the interests of their four factions are not clearly distinguished, but you have me, and I have you. The Zhuge family also controls some farmers' mutual aid associations, and a family like Erli and Liu, who seem to be very dirty, will also invest in the industries created by the Zhuge family.

In addition, all four of these factions control some banks, which serve as "pools" for their investment in industry at home and abroad...... The Yangtze River Bank, which is firmly controlled by the Zhuge family (all shares belong to the Zhuge family), has grown into the world's No. 1 bank and the king of the East Asian financial industry because of its more than 100 years of conservatism, stability and ability to calculate, and always be able to avoid risks and seize opportunities!

It is precisely by virtue of the Yangtze River Bank's ability to control East Asian finance that the military division of the Zhuge family has been able to control the national policy of the Ming Dynasty for a long time! Otherwise, just by relying on their superpower of "being able to pinch and calculate", others may not be able to listen.

Only when "superpowers" are added to "money ability" can it be truly powerful!

And Zhuge Weidao can now become an alternate member of the military division group, which can be regarded as touching the real supreme power of the Ming Empire.

Seeing that Zhuge Weidao had already sat down, Zhuge Weijiu, the great military division, said to him with a smile: "Daozi, this is the first time you have attended the meeting of the military division. The old man will tell you the rules, the military division usually holds a regular meeting on the morning of the second and sixteenth days of the first month of each month. They may not attend, but they may not entrust others to exercise their voting rights or express their opinions. In addition, the decision of the meeting of the military division will be known to the military divisions and alternate military divisions who did not attend the meeting through secret telegrams or by hand. You are now an alternate military division, so the codebook of the military division must be in your own hands, and you cannot delegate it to others. Daozi, do you understand? ”

"Understood, Great Military Division, I understand."

At this time, Zhuge Yangwu handed Zhuge Weidao a book with "Taiping Dictionary" written on the cover, and said: "One hundred and eight uncles, this is your code book, you must carry it with you." ”

Seeing that Zhuge Weidao had put away the code book, Zhuge Weijiu said again: "You can take notes at the meeting of the military division, but you must keep these notes properly." In addition, it is also possible to prepare some documents for other military advisers to circulate, but some top-secret documents can only be read, not copied, and cannot be taken away. ”

As he spoke, he glanced at Zhuge Yangwu again, and the latter immediately handed Zhuge Weidao a folder, and Zhuge Weidao opened it to see that there were several pages of documents, and the top one of them read, "The draft proposal of the Admiralty's 1,000-ship plan (top secret)"!

Well, the top-secret document of the Admiralty was actually circulated at the meeting of the military division within the Zhuge family!

"Daozi," Zhuge Weijiu said, "This document, now we can see it, and the eighteen officials of the Zheng family's party can also see it...... But the core groups of other Maisons are not yet visible. ”

And rightfully so!

Because the Zheng family has the support of three small sects, and also has huge overseas interests in Annam, Siam, Nanzhang, Chenla, Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra and other places, it is the only family among the eight great families that can wrestle with the Zhuge family - of course, between the Zhuge family and the Zheng family, you have me, and I have you.

Zhuge Weidao picked up the document and looked at it carefully.

The idea of the "Thousand Ships Plan" was actually put forward by Zhuge Weidao, but it was the staff officers and engineers of the Shipbuilding Bureau of the Admiralty who really turned this idea into an executable plan.

It has to be said that those staff officers and engineers are still very professional, and in a very short time they launched a shipbuilding program that can be partially implemented.

First of all, the 15,000-ton armored ship, which is the capital ship type of the "Thousand Ships Project", was dismantled by them into two plans - the real plan. The first is the "Hongwu Emperor class" plan, which plans to build a total of 20 ships; The second is the "15,000-ton class" patrol plan, which is ready to adopt a newly designed hull that can carry a knapsack turret and adopts a full oil power system, and is also ready to equip this patrol with eight newly developed 200mm main guns, and also plans to build 20 ships, and then upgrade them according to the situation.

Secondly, in order to convince the British that the Ming Empire really wanted to implement the "Thousand Ships Plan", the Ming Admiralty also suggested that the imperial court issue "dock subsidies" to major shipyards in China to encourage everyone to build a 20,000-ton dock...... At the same time, it will also advise the 10 largest shipyards to secretly build super-large docks of more than 50,000 tons.

Now although the industrial strength of the Ming Dynasty ranks first in the world, shipbuilding is the second in the world, and Britain is the first in the world!

In addition, France, Prussia, and Austria, which had concluded alliances with Britain, were also among the world's top shipbuilding powers, so the shipbuilding capacity of Britain and its allies could still overwhelm the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, if Daming really wants to engage in a naval arms race with Great Britain, then he can't just shout in the air, but take out real money to improve his country's shipbuilding capacity!