Finally, Dong Shuheng signed a secret agreement with the two ministers.
"Under the premise that Britain and France declare war on Russia, China will send troops to launch an attack on Russia's Far East to contain the forces in eastern Russia. Britain and France will recognize the land occupied by China in the war with Russia..."
Through this agreement, Dong Shuheng turned the war that was about to break out with the Russians into part of the Crimean War.
This will prevent Britain and France from holding Dong Shuheng back due to other matters when the Huai Navy is fighting the Russian army.
At least until the war with Russia is over, neither Britain nor France will have any more conflicts with China.
Many people in history have commented that the Crimean War was the First World War, but this is highly controversial because the scale of this war was limited to the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea and the Balkan Peninsula.
However, now that China has joined, the scale and scope of this war are greater than the Crimean War in history, and its scale is already comparable to a world war.
This war will see Russia in its heyday challenge Britain, France, Turkey, the Kingdom of Sardinia, Austria and China. The arrogant Nicholas I did not flinch at all. Not being afraid of war is indeed an innate national quality of a fighting nation.
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A few days after taking over, Dong Shuheng met Bao Ling and Bulbulon alone.
He and Bao Ling made an agreement to attend the launching ceremony of the Xu-Yang Railway. This railway connects Xuzhou, Haizhou, Yancheng, Dongtai, Gaoyou and Yangzhou, and has a branch line extending to Tongzhou and Haimen Port.
Why was the later Beijing-Shanghai line not chosen? Mainly because the later Beijing-Shanghai line basically coincided with the Grand Canal.
Currently, the efficiency of shipping and train transportation is about the same. The main reason is that the current speed of steam locomotives is not much faster than shipping.
Although the railway from Xuzhou to Yangzhou via Huai'an will be closer, there is shipping on this route as an alternative, so there is no rush now.
On the other hand, the cities along the coast, especially Yancheng Dongtai, were the first places developed by the Huaihai Navy.
The northern part of Dongtai, especially the currently planned Taipei Industrial Zone, is the center of the Huaihai Navy military industry and the high-tech machinery manufacturing industry.
There are also many R&D centers and experimental bases here. In addition, the Huaihai Navy's recruit training center is also here. At the same time, a huge exercise training ground is also being built here.
If the railway can be built, the Huai Navy will not need to deploy too many garrison troops along the coast, and the army can be quickly transported by railway.
In Dongtai and Yancheng, troops and supplies in the rear can also be quickly transported to where they are needed.
This railway is not only a coastal artery in Jiangsu, but also a steel defense line.
The construction of railways can also promote the development of Taipei Industrial Zone. Railway transportation of raw materials is much more stable than water transportation. Water transportation also needs to consider the weather and may even be affected by dry periods.
Especially the rivers in Dongtai and Yancheng areas are all natural rivers, and the scale of the river channels is not very large.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to build this railway, and this line is located in plain areas, so it is not very difficult to build the railway. The main problem is to build a lot of bridges.
Dong Shuheng also wanted to accumulate experience in bridge construction through this railway construction. You must know that in later generations, China will be one of the world's leading bridge construction countries. The title of "Infrastructure Maniac" is not false.
The construction of this railway will be a link between the interests of China and Britain, not to mention the joint fight against Russia. It will be aimed at the economic benefits brought to Britain during the construction of this railway. Britain must also temporarily maintain its relationship with the Huaihai Navy.
Next was a one-on-one meeting with French Bourblon.
Dong Shuheng first learned about the construction status of the two ironclad ships. When Prince Adalbert returned to Europe, the Huai Navy also sent a ship to follow him to Europe. On board were technicians who had gone to France to participate in the construction of ironclad ships, as well as naval officers.
These people will participate in the construction of the ironclad ship. After the ship is built, these people will also drive it back to the country.
This time the railway order was not given to France, and Bulbulon raised objections to Dong Shuheng more than once.
Dong Shuheng carefully sorted out the big projects he had on hand, including railway construction, in cooperation with the British.
In the manufacturing of train locomotives, a cooperation agreement has been reached with Adalbert of Prussia. Prussia will export a complete set of locomotive manufacturing technology to Huaihai Navy.
Of course, this was a condition for Dong Shuheng to exchange steam turbine technology.
The construction of the cable telegraph has been contracted to an American company as part of the original cooperation with John.
Now the laying of the telegraph line from Shanghai to Yangzhou has begun. Telegraphy is much simpler than railways, and the project is progressing very quickly. You must know that someone is already trying to lay a telegraph line across the ocean.
I have to admire people in the 19th century for their pursuit of scientific and technological progress. No matter how many flaws Westerners have, they at least have a spirit of exploration worth learning from.
These two projects are currently in urgent need of foreign aid for Dong Shuheng, but unfortunately, they have already been acquired.
Dong Shuheng racked his brains and suddenly thought that he had obtained the development rights of Keelung in Taiwan and Hainan Island from the Qing government.
Because Weihaiwei was too close to Tianjin, the Qing government ultimately did not agree to hand it over to the Nanyang Navy.
However, they agreed with the Nanyang Navy to build a military port in Keelung, Taiwan, and at the same time handed over the land around Keelung to the Huai Navy for management.
As for Hainan Island, the Qing government agreed with the Huaihai Navy to build a military port at the southern end, which was later known as Sanya. At the same time, the commercial development rights of Hainan Island were handed over to the Huaihai Company, but the Huaihai Company also had to pay taxes to exploit the mineral resources on Hainan Island.
to the local government.
Even though he didn't know much about China's mineral resources, Dong Shuheng had read in many novels that Hainan Island's iron ore resources are very rich, and it is a rare rich iron ore in China.
The famous Shilu Iron Mine is on Hainan Island and has now been discovered.
Dong Shuheng still remembers seeing the introduction of Shilu Iron Mine when he was watching videos in later generations.
The reserves of Shilu iron ore account for about 71% of the country's rich iron ore reserves, ranking first in the country. It is not only rich in iron, cobalt, and copper resources, but also has nickel, sulfur, silver, gold and other mineral resources.
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As a famous large-scale iron-rich deposit in my country, the Shilu Iron Mine has a total proven total reserve of 466 million tons and an average iron grade of 48.81%; there is also a large-scale cobalt-rich deposit with a total proven cobalt metal amount of 13,000 tons; at the same time It has been proven to have a medium-scale copper-rich deposit, with a proven copper metal amount of 75,000 tons. It is known as "the richest iron ore in Asia".
Finally, Dong Shuheng decided to cooperate with France in Keelung, Taiwan, to build a shipyard. This shipyard specialized in building ocean-going steam-powered ships, and they were new iron-hulled steam ships.
In fact, the Crimean War was a turning point when steam-powered battleships replaced sail-powered battleships on the historical stage.
The Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet was defeated by the British and French fleets. The major powers realized the advantages of steam-powered warships. They then began to develop and build ironclads.
Among the current major powers, France has always been at the forefront in developing ironclad ships. However, it is impossible for France to directly help Dong Shuheng build an ironclad shipyard.
Dong Shuheng doesn't need it either. He still has eight armored frigates on the slipway! Although they are smaller and lack the ability to fight in oceans, the technology on them is leading.
Dong Shuheng was planning to find a wet nurse for his fleet. This shipyard in Keelung ostensibly built iron-hulled ocean-going ships, but in fact Dong Shuheng’s real purpose was to accumulate experience in building ocean-going supply ships.
Of course, ocean-going ships are also needed. In the future, a large number of ocean-going ships will be needed on both the north and south Pacific routes.
Nowadays, ocean-going companies mainly use sail cargo ships for these two routes, and at most they use steam as auxiliary power. This efficiency is still too low.
If the manufacturing technology of large ironclad ships could be obtained from France, even if it was a castrated civilian version, Dong Shuheng would not mind a little blood.
Bourblon breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that Dong Shuheng only wanted to build large ocean-going cargo ships. No matter how proud France was, it would not export its core technology.
In addition, Dong Shuheng is also preparing to build a naval school in Keelung with France, which will be the same as the naval school established in Haizhou in cooperation with the United Kingdom, creating a situation of north-south competition between the two schools.
Otherwise, in the future, all officers of the navy will come from the same line, there will be no competition, and they will be like a pool of stagnant water, and the development of the navy will definitely be affected.
Dong Shuheng had already thought of the names for them, one was called "Beiyang Naval Academy" and the other was called "Nanyang Naval Academy".
Together with Gaoyou Army Officer School, it is the current three major military schools in Huaihai Navy.
Bourblon also agreed with the establishment of this military academy. Now the British have a great influence on the Chinese Navy. The ships and advisors of the Nanyang Navy are all British.
The French have never felt that their navy is inferior to the British. In order to increase France's influence in the Chinese navy, Bourblon believes that the country will definitely agree to this plan.
Finally, the Easter egg given to the French is the large-scale mining equipment developed for the Hainan Island Iron Ore. As well as all the equipment and technical support of a steel plant.
Although Huaihai Navy now has machinery manufacturing capabilities, the time is too short after all. In terms of large-scale equipment manufacturing, Huaihai Navy still has big shortcomings.
Many large-scale equipment had to be imported from abroad. In the past, they were mainly imported from Prussia. This time, in order to balance trade with Britain and France, Dong Shuheng gave this piece of cake to France.
Dong Shuheng analyzed why the great powers did not take major military actions against China during the 20 years of later Westernization Movement.
There has been a relatively stable stage in history. One of the reasons is that the Westernization Movement purchased a large number of equipment, weapons, ships, etc. from abroad.
These large-scale purchases, coupled with the import of opium, allowed major powers such as Britain and France to obtain a large amount of trade revenue from China. Therefore, they no longer needed to resort to force.
Looking back at China at that stage, we can see that it has indeed achieved great development. If the old witch hadn't made a series of desperate maneuvers, the achievements of twenty years of development were cut off by Japan. Historically, this Qing Dynasty said
Maybe it will last for a few more years.
International trade is so magical. It does not mean that you can only make money without spending money. As long as international trade is grasped well, it can form a win-win situation.
Dong Shuheng now spends a lot of money every year, but he is not a traitor. He feels that it is better to give up some economic interests than to give up sovereign interests.
Once the money is spent, at least you can buy the things you need. When these things arrive in China, they greatly accelerate China's industrialization development process.
In the early days of industrialization, it was more cost-effective to buy many things than to develop them yourself. For example, it is better to develop a steam engine from scratch than to buy the technology and then focus on how to improve the efficiency of the steam engine.