The post-war arrangements were much busier than Dong Shuheng had imagined. Relatively speaking, the previous war seemed quite easy.
Zeng Gong was assigned to go to Qishan in Daying, Jiangbei to report his victory. When he left, he took away two hundred thousand taels of silver. This money was just a stepping stone. He would definitely continue to invest in the future. As long as he could get the benefits he wanted, he would spend the money.
It's all worth it.
Mr. He is in charge of raising shares. How to distribute the shares of each company is still a matter of debate. But no matter what, Dong Shuheng will hold 51% of the dry shares. This is considered protection fee and is also the consensus of everyone. Dong Shuheng is also very sensible and does not take it in vain.
, I injected 500,000 taels of silver all at once, mainly because I had made a few small fortunes recently and started to make money. In the end, the funds raised by everyone will establish a bank and an industrial company that completely imitate the Western bank model.
In accordance with the order, the Navy established the Gaoyou Lake base in Qiaojiajian. In the future, a permanent water stronghold will be built here to protect the Yangzhou section of the waterway. At the same time, Dong Shuheng ordered the Navy to clean up the scattered water bandits in Gaoyou Lake to fight for training.
Sailors take turns to familiarize themselves with the driving and maintenance of ships, the use of artillery, and prepare talent reserves.
The entire navy was very motivated because Dong Shuheng promised to spend 50% of the captured money to buy new ships for the navy. From the 80 or so pirate ships that had been captured before, 10 strong new ships were selected and sent to Shanghai for renovation and transition for the navy.
After using it, other ships were assigned to the Huaihai Group to form a new transportation company. Qichang Shipyard has been renamed Huaihai Shipyard and is preparing for expansion. A number of equipment has been shipped from the country through American foreign companies. The focus of the shipyard will shift
When he arrived in Gaoyou and stayed in Shanghai, Dong Shuheng was always worried.
The problem of overproduction in the north of the United States has become serious, and orders are urgently needed at this time. This time, people from Huaihai Company were personally received by the American minister, because Huaihai Company was preparing to import a set of steel smelting equipment and a cement manufacturing equipment from the United States.
This order will amount to 200,000 taels of silver. The United States' trade share with China is much lower than that of the United Kingdom, so this order will greatly enhance the minister's status in the heart of the president.
In the direction of Dongtai, in addition to continuing the existing projects, Dong Shuheng asked the Armed Forces Ministry to recruit another 10,000 new soldiers, who would be trained by the remaining training camp soldiers and Prussian instructors. The Procurement Department purchased 1,000 old-fashioned rifles in Shanghai, and they have been put in place.
Used as a training gun.
The guns and artillery customized with Prussia are already at sea. This time, a whole production line of Dresser rifles will be shipped with the ship. At the same time, a group of retired officers will come, and Dong Shuheng will hire them with a monthly salary of 30 taels.
These retired Prussian officers. Because he is planning to establish a Jiangbei Military Preparation School, what is most lacking now is teachers.
Karl no longer works in the instructor corps. He became Dong Shuheng's personal representative and returned to Prussia. This time he will represent Dong Shuheng to acquire a factory called Krupp. Dong Shuheng's request is that even if the acquisition is unsuccessful, he must be invited to China for a joint venture.
Building a factory. Accompanying him is a Chinese translator named Wang Tao, whose real name is Li Bin. He is 25 years old this year. He is a talent recently recruited by Huaihai Bookstore from the "Mohai Bookstore" run by Shanghai Yangren missionaries. He is proficient in German and English and will serve as
Karl's deputy will go to Prussia together and will also be responsible for inspecting the development of Prussia's manufacturing industry.
Liu Qingnan was responsible for recruiting 1,000 recruits to form a garrison regiment in Gaoyou. With the cooperation of the local gentry, the recruitment work went smoothly. For a wealthy family who wanted to recruit people, Dong Shuheng meant that as long as you can pass the assessment, I will let you in.
But it all starts from the bottom.
The backyard of Zhizhou Yamen.
"Shu Heng, have you thought about it all? You may be in trouble if you are not careful." Wei Yuan said to Dong Shuheng. Wei Yuzhen next to him also had a look of concern.
"Master, you have studied the situation at home and abroad for so many years, can't you still see it?" Dong Shuheng asked, "The Qing court has ceased to exist in name only. If the Qing court still has fighting power, based on its suspicion of the Han people, no matter what
It will not delegate power to local organizations and regiments. Since the Jintian Uprising, the Qing army has never won a battle. The only few victories were won by local regiments. Now Jiang Zhongyuan's Chu Yong and Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army are not local leaders.
If these people did not take a penny from the Qing court, would they really be loyal to the Qing court? Now the only two field troops that the Qing court can use are the Jiangbei camp and the Jiangnan camp, and these two camps can only
Huddle up and defend the Taiping Army. So as long as the Qing government feels that we will not overthrow them immediately, they will only use other ways to check and balance us, such as supporting the Hunan Army, or training new armies, instead of directly falling out with us, because they
There are more things to worry about than us!"
"Master, to be honest, if I had five thousand Huaihai regiments in hand now, I would be sure to capture Beijing. But I can't do that. It will only make others easier. Our biggest enemies are foreigners, the Western powers.
They are like a pack of wolves, ready to come and tear off a piece of meat when China is weak. Now that the Qing court is here, China is still a whole, and the Western powers dare not swallow China in one bite. Once the Qing court is gone, we will not have enough
If they have sufficient strength to fight against the Western powers, then they will immediately support their respective agents to carve up China."
"At that time, the French will separate Yunnan and Guizhou, the British will separate the provinces along the Yangtze River, and Guangdong and Guangxi will be separated separately. The Americans may occupy Fujian and Taiwan..." Dong Shuheng kept telling.
Wei Yuan's eyes widened and he looked at Dong Shuheng in disbelief, as if he was hearing a real horror story.
"Shu Heng, I have to say that your analysis makes sense. We must maintain a good relationship with the Qing court for the time being. But how do you maintain this balance? If our power grows, the Qing court will definitely find ways to suppress it.
Us." Wei Yuan asked.
"Master, as I just said, the Qing court will find ways to check and balance us, but we can also check and balance the Qing court. Compared with warlords like us, the Taiping Army is their biggest enemy, and our method of checking and balancing them is the Taiping Army.
, as long as the Taiping Army remains alive, we can concentrate on development, and when they turn around, I believe we will have accumulated enough strength by then."
"Shu Heng, I think we need to speed up the construction of the academy. We still need to have sufficient talents to lay a solid foundation. I want to wait for the imperial court's decree to come down and call together colleagues from the Fuxing Association. Then you'd better
Participate." Wei Yuan said. Many things he didn't dare to think about before, now with Dong Shuheng, he can slowly plan them. It has always been Wei Yuan's wish to create new schools and revive China. He is not interested in being an official now
, staying in the seat is also for Dong Shuheng's plan. Dong Shuheng needs his identity now.
After saying that, Wei Yuan left the backyard. He was going to the study to write letters to his friends from the revival group. It was as if he deliberately left Dong Shuheng and Wei Yuzhen alone in the backyard garden.
Dong Shuheng winked at Wei Yuzhen, as if to say: "Look, your father agreed." He naturally took Wei Yuzhen's hand and walked towards Xiaozhu Pavilion. Wei Yuzhen's face turned red, she didn't understand what Dong Shuheng did.
Why is it so natural to pull a girl's hand? As she was thinking about it, she even forgot to take her hand back.
"Do you often hold girls' hands?" Wei Yuzhen asked angrily.
"Yes, I like to hold one at the same time the most - when we are at home, the two girls always let me hold one at the same time." Dong Shuheng said with a smile.
"Hmph...he's just a scumbag!"
"Shu Heng, let's get down to business. How did you know this? Why didn't I think of it?" Wei Yuzhen was impressed by Dong Shuheng's shamelessness and no longer acted with him.
"Maybe it's because I know more about the general trends at home and abroad, so I have a broader perspective on issues, so I can touch on these points?"
"How is the bookstore lately?" Dong Shuheng continued to ask.
"The personnel and equipment are basically in place! There is just no specific publishing plan yet," Wei Yuzhen replied.
"Well, the bookstore has recently published the teacher's "Hai Guo Tu Zhi". I know there are hundreds of volumes. It covers world geography, history, political system, economy, religion, calendar, culture, and products. This is a book
It’s a good book to read about the world’s enlightenment. After this book is ready, we can publish newspapers. Through the newspaper essay collection, we can discover those open-minded talents.” Dong Shuheng said. He has high hopes for the bookstore, which will be his culture in the future.
position.
The Huaihai regiment training has now returned to Xiejia Town for repairs. After holding the hand of the junior sister in the back garden of Zhizhou Yamen for a long time, Dong Shuheng did not dare to take any further action. The main reason was that old man Wei had a history of conducting surprise attacks.
Returning to the military camp in the evening, Dong Shuheng summoned all the soldiers. There were not many people under his command now, and he could still show his face in front of all the soldiers.
"Brothers, you fought very well in this battle and lived up to my expectations for you. If you were training in a group before, now you have become real soldiers." Dong Shuheng said loudly, "From today on, we will
The Huaihai Navy is officially established, and you will be the first batch of soldiers of the Huaihai Navy..."
…
On April 25, 1853, the Huaihai Navy was established, with Dong Shuheng as the president and Liu Qingnan as the chief of general staff. The existing troops would be expanded to a teaching regiment of 2,000 people, with three infantry battalions, one artillery battalion, and a directly subordinate cavalry.
even.
Two infantry regiments, each with 2,000 men, including a teaching battalion, three infantry battalions, and directly affiliated cavalry companies.
Five garrison regiments, each with 1,000 people, are mainly responsible for local garrison tasks. They will be stationed in Haizhou, Yancheng, Huai'an, Gaoyou, and Haimen respectively in the name of local city defense battalions. They will be Dong Shuheng's control of the Huaiyang area this time.
To this end, he formulated a plan to "occupy the magpie's nest". The main content of this plan was to bribe all local government officials and install his own people to implement local management functions. Those who refused to cooperate would be visited by special forces.
They, after all, there are so many local civil unrest now.
There is also an inland river division - the "Huai Haihai Division". Dong Shuheng plans to designate the two existing ships as Yangtze-class gunboats, and plans to build eight more, so that the navy will have ten gunboats of the same class. If this time and
Krupp's cooperation went smoothly, and he replaced all the artillery on the ship with Krupp aft cannons. At the same time, he planned to hire shipbuilding experts from Prussia and the United States to develop ironclad warships of more than 1,000 tons to plan for the future ocean fleet.
Be prepared. This time occupying Haizhou, Dong Shuheng plans to build a large port there. This will be the famous Lianyungang Port in later generations. This will be the entrance to the sea for the entire northern Jiangsu region.
Finally, it’s time to reward based on merit. Every soldier on this expedition will receive a bonus. Moreover, the scale of the army expansion is very large. Most of them have become officers. You can see that the entire military camp is filled with an atmosphere of joy.
"Hello, President!" Dong Shuheng was wandering around the military camp, and greetings from soldiers came from time to time. I don't know who started it, but the good "presidential system" became "president." But this title is not bad.