1900 was destined to be a year when the Chinese Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire competed fiercely.

The Chinese Empire and Britain formed a military alliance, which was considered a diplomatic draw with the Tsarist Russian Empire. In terms of subsequent war funds, the Chinese Empire prepared 4.7 US dollars of funds, which weighed 250 million US dollars of Tsarist Russian. However, in terms of the number of troops, Tsarist Russia clamored to invest 1.8 million troops to fight against China, while the Chinese Empire only prepared 1.62 million troops, with only 38 troops in the front-line area and a total force of only 1.14 million. The Chinese Empire was at a disadvantage in terms of the number of troops.

However, in terms of military equipment and combat training, the Imperial Chinese Army once again won a game.

As the front-line war zone of the Chinese Empire, the three major military regions in the northern China Empire were the front-line combat zones of the 38 armies. In addition to changing into the latest advanced weapons and equipment of the Chinese Empire, individual protective equipment was also greatly improved.

For example, an ordinary second-class private from the front-line combat unit of the Chinese Empire was equipped with a Browning Blade rifle with 100 millimeter bullets, four honeycomb grenades, steel helmets and military caps, field military boots and cloth shoes, training uniforms and regular clothes, raincoats, bayonets (sabers), military rosary, compass, kettles, and marching backpacks.

Among them, steel helmets, field military boots and training uniforms are obviously different from the current foreign military forces of countries around the world.

The quality of the steel helmet is significantly higher than that of the foreign army helmets of the same period. Large stamping machines are used to stamp Chinese special steel in one go, which improves the protection ability of 50% compared to the foreign army helmets, effectively resists and bounces 80% of the foreign army bullets and shrapnel damage. Field military boots are made of leather steel bottoms, effectively protecting soldiers' feet and improving their marching ability. The training uniforms are Mi color suits, and summer training uniforms are grass green and intersecting mi color. Winter training uniforms are Mi color colors with gray, white and black intersecting mi color, which can greatly improve soldiers' concealment and survival ability in field battles.

The Imperial Army Department has always followed the principle of quality army building by the imperial emperor Chen Hao. Therefore, in terms of the amount of individual equipment expenditures of various countries, the average individual equipment of the Tsarist Russian army was insufficient to attract US dollars. The individual cost of the French and British army was around RMB 100 million. The standard of individual equipment of the German army was not at the highest in the world before the 19th century, reaching RMB 100 million.

In the 20th century, the individual cost of the Imperial Army exceeded the individual standard of the German Army, reaching RMB 1 in 1900, reaching the world's first place.

Of course, with the support of advanced weapons and equipment, after rigorous training of Chinese military training, the combat capabilities of the Imperial Chinese Army also rose sharply. The Imperial Chinese Army was called the second only to the German Army in the Beiyang Army. After the First Sino-Russian War, the popularity of the Imperial Chinese Army has increased significantly.

With the Chinese Imperial Ministry of Defense expanding the existing standing army of 54 towns into the wartime organization of 54 armies. The Imperial Army of the Imperial Army, with a total force of 1.62 million, is now recognized by the army community of various countries as the second strongest army in the world.

The Tsarist Russian Army's expenditure on individual equipment did not increase much, and it still had the idea of ​​building a military that was undermining everything. After the First Sino-Russian War, the Tsarist Russian Army's world ranking dropped to sixth place.

The Chinese Empire created an advantage in military equipment and quality, and then the two sides once again launched a game on strategic material reserves.

The Tsarist Russian Empire clamored that once China and Russia go to war, Tsarist Russian army could defeat the Chinese Empire's army within three months and end the war within six months, forcing the Chinese Empire to surrender or seek peace.

Therefore, the Tsarist Russian General Staff Headquarters formulated a six-month strategic material reserve mechanism, planning to reserve 2 million rifles, 100,000 heavy machine guns, 1 billion ammunition, 6,000 artillery, 60,000 ammunition, war horses, 500,000 horses, reserve 200,000 tons of grain, 1 million tons of forage, and 50,000 boxes of medicine.

However, the huge problem facing the Tsarist Russian government is that these strategic materials account for less than one-fifth of the warehouse reserve share in Tsarist Russia across the country, and more than four-fifths of the war preparation materials need to be re-purchased.

The Tsarist Russian General Staff planned to complete all strategic material reserve plans before the Siberian Railway was opened in February 1902... To this end, the Tsarist Russian Ministry of Finance urgently allocated 100 million rubles to purchase related strategic materials.

However, the Tsarist Russian Empire's arsenals across the country faced serious problems of insufficient production capacity and insufficient inventory. As the Tsarist Russian Army began to change Nagan rifles one after another, only Moscow's Nagan Arsenal and Royal Arsenal produced modified rifles. As of September 1900, the two arsenals had only produced 900,000 new Nagan rifles and 40 million rounds of bullets. Even the more than 2 million troops in Tsarist Russian service were not equipped in place, let alone reserves of 3 million rifles and old rounds.

As we all know, during the war, the consumption of ordnance was huge. The lifespan of guns during this period was very low during the battle. Especially when Russia's craftsmanship and steel were backward, new guns had to be replaced in an average of three months during the war. Therefore, the Russian military department of Tsarist Russia planned to reserve 2 million rifles so that it could maintain combat effectiveness. Now facing this problem of capacity limitation, the Russian government of Tsarist Russia had to seek help from France and Germany, in addition to large-scale increase in production lines and increase production capacity. However, the production cost of firearms in France and Germany was much higher than that of Russia's local governments, and Tsarist Russia could not afford it. Therefore, Tsarist Russia had to suggest that the General Staff Headquarters requested a reduction.

The Russian General Staff had no choice but to urge domestic arsenals to work overtime to produce. On the other hand, the requirements for storage and storage are reduced, and the number of guns has been reduced from 2 million to 1 million.

In this way, the Tsarist Russian Army's gun reserves are only enough for 1.8 million to fight for another three months. After this time, the Tsarist Russian Army will have to bear the risk of insufficient guns caused by the damage to guns.

The same situation also occurs in heavy machine guns, artillery and other weapons and equipment. The requirements are also reduced due to the insufficient production capacity of major Tsarist Russian arsenals and the long-term internal military internal disasters, resulting in poor quality and insufficient quantity of these weapons and equipment.

The reserves of other strategic materials, including food, forage, horses, etc., are progressing smoothly. Tsarist Russia has the advantage of an agricultural country in this regard.

However, in medicine, Tsarist Russia miserably discovered that the Chinese Empire restricted the export of pharmaceutical essentials to Russia, especially anti-inflammatory, hemostasis, drugs, industrial disinfection alcohol, and surgical equipment, etc., canceled the export to Russia, and used patent rights to implement the pharmaceutical industries in Europe and the United States. "

, prevent them from exporting to Russia.

The Chinese Empire's progress in the field of medicine was rapid, especially the super-large production of Shennong antibiotics, which quickly replaced other countries' pharmaceutical products in the fields of anti-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory, and became a strategic drug that countries are rushing to import. One of the fields of Chinese specialty steel is low-toxic alloy steel that specializes in the production of medical devices. This technology allows the Chinese Empire's pharmaceutical device companies to produce safer medical surgical equipment and quickly seize the world medical device market.

Under the restrictions of the export control of medical devices in the Chinese Empire, anti-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory drugs represented by Shennong antibiotics have become the strategic material reserve project of the Chinese Empire and restricted exports to Russia. As a result, Russia was in a dilemma in purchasing medicines. Pharmaceutical companies in many countries were afraid of being sanctioned by Chinese pharmaceutical companies and dared not export such drugs to Russia that were included in export control by the Chinese Empire. A small number of companies resold them at high prices in order to make profits, but the Tsarist Russian government had limited funds, and the too high price was immediately scared away.

In this case, the Tsarist Russian government finally obtained only 10,000 boxes of such medical products and equipment. The other 40,000 boxes of medicines and equipment were imported from France and Germany respectively, but the effect was obviously not as good as that of China.

Similarly, when the Tsarist Russian Empire was stockpiling strategic materials on a large scale, the Ministry of Defense of the Chinese Empire was also carrying out relevant strategic materials reserves.

The emperor of the Chinese Empire, Chen Hao, knew that Russia was difficult to conquer. Napoleon and Hitler, the world's strongest, were destroyed by Russia. Russia was like an indestructible young strongman.

In Wang Chenhao's view, Russia has never had time to surrender in history. Therefore, when fighting against Russia, Wang Chenhao did not expect Russia to surrender like Japan.

In this way, Wang Chenhao's strategic thinking changed to a war of attrition with Russia. Only by dragging down the Russian economy can Russia give up the war.

Under this strategic premise, the Ministry of Defense of the Chinese Empire began to reserve strategic materials on a large scale.

All strategic materials can be supplied to the Imperial Army of China for a year.

Among them, there are 5 million rifles, 300,000 heavy machine guns, 5 billion ammunition, 4,000 lightning cannons, 20,000 artillery pieces, 300 million shells of various types, 3 million kilograms of explosives, 500,000 war horses, 10,000 cars, 800,000 tons of grain, 3 million tons of oil, 2 million tons of forage, and 220,000 boxes of medicine.

Such a huge reserve of strategic materials directly consumed 260 million dragon coins. According to the estimates of the General Logistics Department, this batch of strategic materials could be completed in June 1902. However, Wang Chenhao believed that it should be completed earlier, because Wang Chenhao would not wait until Russia's Siberian Railway was completed and wait until Russia was ready for war before taking action. Wang Chenhao had to take the initiative. Therefore, the order issued by Wang Chenhao to the General Logistics Department was to be completed before the end of the first year of Guanghua.

For General Zhang's Logistics Department of the Chinese Empire, Wang Chenhao gave them a task very arduous, but it was not impossible to complete.

Subsequently, the General Logistics Department placed purchase orders to major companies across the country and put forward the requirement of achieving rapid production while ensuring quality and quantity.

Regarding the purchase list of the Empire's up to 260 million dragon coins, major domestic companies and factories were ecstatic, increasing the number of employees and working hours, and working overtime to produce the strategic materials needed by the Empire's government.

In China, most companies in China have low production efficiency. In addition to the start-up, the more important thing is that the workers’ personal skills are not high. At present, major companies basically do not implement assembly line operations, so the overall efficiency is low.

However, this problem was quickly solved. Wang Chenhao ordered the Beiyang Industrial Group under his name to pass on the technology of assembly line operation to other national companies and factories in China, so that they can also use assembly line operation. In this way, many beginners do not need to master all the production technology of the product, but only need to be proficient in one step.

With the large-scale implementation of assembly line operation methods in the Chinese Empire, the production efficiency of major factory companies has risen sharply. Not only can the tasks stipulated by the imperial government be completed on time, but the company also creates rich product profits, which will continue to grow and grow, and will play a huge role in improving the empire's overall industrial strength.

Soon, by the end of 1900, next year will be the first year of the empire.

For the ministers of the five provinces and nine ministries of the empire, they became even busier by the end of the year. In addition to summarizing the work of the year, it is more important to make next year's fiscal budget. Especially next year is the first year of the empire. The ministers of various ministries all thought that they could make achievements next year and achieve higher political achievements to invite the emperor to the empire for credit, so everyone was actively preparing.

On January 2, the first year of the light year, local councils across the country listened to the annual work reports of their respective local governments and conducted strict audits.

On January 12, the local councils of each province reviewed the annual work reports of each local government and submitted them to the Imperial Cabinet. Subsequently, the five provinces and nine ministries of the Imperial Cabinet began to carry out relevant summary audits.

On January 20, the National Bureau of Statistics of the Empire of China released economic data showing that preliminary estimates showed that the imperial GDP dragon coins increased by 42.3% over the previous year.

After the speech of the Imperial Cabinet, Zhang Feng, said in a question from the News Office: "In 1900, facing the extremely complex domestic and international economic environment, extremely severe natural disasters and major challenges, under the wise leadership of His Majesty the Imperial Cabinet, the Imperial Cabinet, firmly adhered to the judging situation proposed by His Majesty the Imperial Cabinet. The scientific decision-making economic development idea ultimately united and led the people of all ethnic groups in the country to accelerate the development and construction of the national economy, making the overall economic operation of the Imperial economy good, and the total economic output continued to remain at the second level in the world, not far from the world's first United States. We believe that under the wise leadership of His Majesty the Imperial Cabinet, the Imperial will soon catch up with the United States and regain the crown of the world's first economy."

Of course, Zhang Feng deliberately was unclear about the issue of GDP and economic output. In fact, the Chinese Empire's total economic output was surpassed by the United States in 1895 and has not caught up until now. The United States' development speed was too fast, and the Chinese Empire was just starting, so it took at least twenty years to catch up with the United States.

According to preliminary estimates, the GDP of the Long Coin in 1900 was calculated at comparable prices, an increase of 42.3% over the previous year, and the growth rate accelerated by 22 percentage points compared with the previous year. This shows that the economic development speed of the Chinese Empire is still very fast.

By industry, the primary industry has the fastest growth, reaching Longcoin, with an increase of 45.3%: the added value of the secondary industry is 290 million Longcoin, with an increase of 12.2%: the added value of the tertiary industry is 140 million Longcoin, with an increase of 9.5%.

Agricultural production has grown steadily. Thanks to the government's financial support and large-scale use of chemical fertilizers, grain production has increased year by year. The total grain output for the whole year reached 91.5 million tons, an increase of 18% over the previous year, and increased production for three consecutive years. Oil production increased by 2.7%, and sugar production increased by 1.9%. Meat production maintained a steady growth, with pig, cattle, mutton and poultry production for the whole year being 4.8 million tons, an increase of 3.6%.

Among them, pork production was 3.7 million tons, an increase of 13.7%.

9,150 tons of grain, seem to be a lot. After being allocated to the 400 million people in the country, it was just a short supply level. The 4.8 million tons of meat were mainly concentrated in the ancient Méng and the Greater Northwest region. People in these areas mainly eat meat. If you look at the whole country, these meats are too small on average, which shows that most people in the Chinese Empire cannot afford to eat meat.

Of course, judging from the current national conditions of the Chinese Empire, it is already very good to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people. The Chinese Empire is still growing, and I believe that it will not take long for the people to eat meat frequently.

Industrial production grew rapidly, and enterprise efficiency increased significantly. The added value of industrial enterprises above the designated size increased by 65.7% over the previous year. In terms of light and heavy industries, heavy industries grew by 176.5%, and light industries grew by 63.6. In terms of region, the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangzhou region grew by 114.9%, the Yangtze River Delta region increased by 48.4%, and the Pearl River Delta region was stimulated by the US-Philippines War, and it grew by 100% in other regions. The growth rate was no more than 20%, mainly because the industrial bases have not been fully built and are still in its infancy.

The biggest driving force for industrial growth comes from Zhili Steel Company. Driven by Zhili Steel Company, the total steel production of the Chinese Empire in 1900 reached 5.64 million tons, surpassing the 4.98 million tons of the UK, ranking third in the world, with Germany second at 6.65 million tons, while the United States first at 10.35 million tons, which is quite obvious. But if it is compared with the Qing Dynasty six years ago, the Qing Dynasty's steel production was only a few thousand tons at that time, which can be said to be a remarkable achievement.

Such a huge steel output would have been impossible to digest if the Chinese Empire had not implemented the expansion of domestic demand and comprehensive national industrial system construction. The large-scale railway construction of the Chinese Empire required huge steel supply, the construction of major industrial bases in the empire, and tens of thousands of factories.

When the company was established, all the steel needed for the machine came from the Imperial steel company. Especially the vigorous construction of the Imperial Industry, large-scale high-quality steel was basically bought by the Imperial Industry Department, such as naval warships, army cannons, guns and ammunition, cranes ranging from thousands of tons to as small as a nail. It can be said that the demand for steel is huge in the entire national economic construction. The Chinese Empire has a huge domestic market, so it was able to consume millions of tons of steel, and there was a shortage of supply.

Overall, the industrial production and sales connection between the Empire of China is very good. All 248 companies under Beiyang Group are profitable, more than 3 companies own multinational companies, and more than 152 companies have foreign trade surplus. The annual production and sales rate of industrial enterprises above designated size reached 97.9%. This is due to the government's expansion of domestic demand, overhaul of highways, railways, schools, hospitals, industrial bases and other projects, and the huge government investment naturally stimulates the rapid development of domestic industry. Especially the implementation of Russia's strategic reserves directly benefit tens of thousands of large, medium and small companies and factories in China.

The total import and export volume grew rapidly, and the trade deficit decreased significantly. The total import and export volume for the whole year was US$2.9 billion, an increase of 74.7% over the previous year. Among them, exports of US dollars, imports and exports were offset, with a deficit of US$70 million. This part of the deficit was mainly caused by the Chinese Empire purchasing arms materials from abroad and building warships. Excluding this part, in fact, in terms of private trade, the Chinese Empire has achieved a trade surplus.

This situation is mainly because the Chinese Empire abolished the unequal treaties of the great powers in China, regained customs, set up trade barriers, and protected domestic enterprises. At the same time, the biggest benefit is that food is not imported and opium is stopped. The trade volume of these two items has always been the key to the Chinese Empire's trade deficit.

As the naval industry of the Chinese Empire is fully localized, the trade surplus of the Chinese Empire will continue to expand in the future, and eventually restore the trade achievements of its prosperous period and even achieve greater achievements.

The proportion of workers and peasants in the Chinese Empire has changed dramatically. Due to the ultra-rapid development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Tang Industrial Base, the construction of six major industrial bases, railways and highways in the country, and the establishment of more than 30,000 industrial and mining companies, the number of Chinese workers has increased sharply from 1,900 five years ago to 1,900.

More than 1.4 million people per year.

The income of urban residents grew rapidly, with the total per capita income of urban residents in the whole year of 81 yuan, an increase of 41.5% over the previous year. Among the total per capita income of urban residents, wage income increased by 10.7%, transfer income increased by 12.8, net operating income increased by 12.1%, and property income increased by 5.

The per capita net income of rural residents was 29 yuan, an increase of 14.9%. After deducting price factors, the actual increase was 13.9%. Among them, wage income increased by 17.9%, family business net income increased by 12.1%, property income increased by 21.0%, and transfer income increased by b.

The money supply has grown steadily, and the Dragon Coin is super strong, thanks to the bundling of the British List and the US dollar. The increase in deposits and loans has accelerated. The balance of broad currency (m2) Dragon Coin increased by 19.7% over the end of last year: the narrow currency Dragon Coin increased by 21.2: the currency Dragon Coin in circulation increased by 16.7%, accelerating by 4.9 percentage points. The balance of various loans of financial institutions Dragon Coin was 490 million dragon coins, an increase of 90 million dragon coins over last year. The balance of various deposits was 4.8 billion dragon coins, of which Wang Chenhao had the largest personal deposit, reaching 100 million dragon coins, almost five times the nationals of the empire, becoming the richest man in the Chinese Empire and the second in the world's richest people...
Chapter completed!