After Sushun finished speaking, all the senior officials in the court widened their eyes.
This Sushun really dares to say it!
But what he said is reasonable. I think the area under the jurisdiction of Dong Shuheng, the governor-general of Liangjiang, is now free of banditry.
But this Dong Shuheng still maintained a standing army of fifty or sixty thousand men. This was only known to the Qing court.
This does not include the troops in the Heilongjiang River Basin in the Far East, the troops hidden in Shandong, and the militia troops that even the Huaihai Navy himself does not know how many there are.
The reason why we can't figure out the number of militiamen is because the number of militiamen in Huaihai Navy is increasing every day.
Every day, refugees from all over the country are taken in by the Huai Haijun Farm. At the same time, the farm will export some of its militia overseas at a certain period of time.
This year alone, the number of immigrants sent to the Far East will reach 200,000. In addition, the Huaihai Haijun Farm in Southeast Asia will immigrate 100,000 people.
Los Angeles and San Francisco in North America together will have 100,000 immigrants, and Peru in South America will have 60,000 immigrants.
Most of these people have to be drawn from the Huaihai Navy Farm in the mainland. Since there are too many immigrants from the Far East, many of them are recruited directly from Shandong.
Therefore, Huaihai is no longer content to wait for the refugees to come.
The caravans of Huaihai Company and Great Wall Company generally recruit people in areas where the population is concentrated and relatively poor. In this way, they can barely meet the needs of the Huaihai Navy.
At this time, Sushun proposed to downsize the Huaihai Navy, Hunan Army, and Hubei Army, which had become powerful armies. Obviously, there was no way to actually implement it.
So if this proposal is implemented, it will only have an effect on those green camps and local patrol camps under the control of the Qing government.
These armies had to be financed by the imperial court, were numerous in number, and were scattered in various places.
Many people understood it immediately.
In conjunction with the imperial court's proposal some time ago to allow localities to raise their own funds to establish new armies, the imperial court is going to take action on the Green Camp.
The Green Battalion, which had the largest number, suffered repeated defeats during the war and was of little use. It is no wonder that the imperial court did not want to continue to support them.
However, any reform will inevitably touch the cake of those with vested interests. The Green Camp cake has always been in the hands of the general group.
Of course, the Eight Banners cake is bigger, but that thing is more dangerous than the Green Camp, and even the emperor dare not touch it easily.
The second article is okay. It actually encourages industry and commerce. Only some old diehards who stick to the old paper will come out to oppose it. But these people can only talk and have little impact on the overall situation.
Just to open up the customs, some people may use the ancestral system as an issue.
Everyone had nothing to say, but now Sushun just mentioned these two suggestions, and everyone started to discuss them sentence by sentence.
Xianfeng knew that there were too many people at this time, and the discussion probably would not produce any results. He simply dismissed the court and let Sushun and the Minister of Military Aircraft stay.
Xianfeng always felt that Su Shun was hesitant to speak, as if there were still many words left unsaid.
As expected, after the dispersion of the dynasty, Sushun became much more open to internal exchanges.
Sushun elaborated his thoughts again.
The first is to reform the military system. Sushun said frankly that since localities were allowed to raise funds to build new armies, they would simply abolish the original Green Camp Patrol Battalion and other armies. The money saved would be retained by the court to form a new army.
Some of them can be selected to join the new army, and the court will not care about the others. Those who cannot find their own way out will be allocated land outside the pass. This can also speed up the development outside the pass.
Sushun made a very comprehensive analysis and thought out all the options for these people, which can be said to be a well-intentioned move.
However, Sushun did not think of dismantling these troops. It was not only the soldiers who were harmed, but also the generals who suffered the greatest losses.
What military generals care about is not the little salary every year. There is a huge chain of interests behind them.
This interest group is a vampire lying on the tens of millions of military expenditures allocated by the court every year. Now that it is gone, how can these people give up?
These talents are the link between the imperial court and the army, and it is these officers who the soldiers can come into contact with.
There is another problem with Sushun's proposal. It allows local governments to establish new armies, and the local governments must raise their own funds. This will inevitably increase the power of local governors.
However, it would not work without this kind of reform. The imperial court could still maintain a good balance among the provinces by recruiting new armies.
If it is like now, if team training is developed in some places and not in other places, it is very likely to lose control.
Just like the current Huaihai Navy, because one family is the largest, it completely dominates the two rivers.
If there had been relatively strong team training in Anhui and Jiangxi at that time, then perhaps Dong Shuheng could have been restrained.
Now, let the localities establish new armies to stabilize the local areas. More money will be invested in the court's new army. After a few years, the court will have troops in its hands, and it will naturally be able to strengthen its control over the local areas.
The second is to reform industry and commerce and increase financial resources. Sushun believes that the court currently has no money, but it does not mean that the local government has no money.
It is definitely not possible to let the imperial court rob it openly. Those ministers are all from local wealthy families, and they will be the first to come out to oppose it.
Therefore, if the court wanted to increase its financial resources, it had to exchange things.
What does the imperial court have? Official titles, these are always for sale, and they are considered to be the bulk of the imperial court's income.
There are not many people like Wu Jianzhang who can spend 1.8 million taels to buy an official position, but there are a lot of people who can spend tens of thousands taels to buy a civil servant, a student, etc.
Another one is the land controlled by the imperial court. All the land in the pass belongs to the owner, so don’t worry about it.
Therefore, the idea of landing can only be outside the customs. This involves the ancestral system and must be decided by the emperor himself.
The third is to reform the tax system. Now all taxes are collected by local governments, and then they keep their own taxes and hand over the rest to the court.
The current result is that the local governments use up all the tax revenue, leaving very little in the hands of the court.
Therefore, Sushun suggested that the Ministry of Revenue directly send people to supervise taxes during the summer harvest every year, and then directly deliver the tax money to Beijing.
It is necessary to clarify the tax sharing system with the local governments, such as agricultural tax and Ding tax to be paid to the court, while Rating tax and other taxes should be placed in the local government.
There is also the fourth reform of flag affairs. The imperial court raises these Eight Banners disciples like pigs every year, but when the critical moment comes, they are of no use at all.
However, Sushun still hasn't said this, or it's not that critical yet.
After listening to Sushun's explanation again, everyone, including the Minister of Military and Aircraft, nodded repeatedly.
It’s okay if you don’t nod, they don’t have any better ideas to come up with.
Anyway, it was Sushun who came up with this idea and it will be implemented in the end. If something goes wrong, Sushun will be responsible for it.
Why do most people like to follow what others say during meetings? This is why people who agree should not take responsibility!
Xianfeng was very happy, finally hearing someone who could make some constructive suggestions.
The key is to finally stand up as a responsible person and a member of the royal family.
Xianfeng immediately appointed Sushun as minister in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Minister of Household Affairs (Manchu), and co-organizer of the bachelor's degree. He ordered the prime minister to reform things.
Sushun also suggested to Xianfeng that Westernization could increase the court's income, and the court should also engage in Westernization. Xianfeng adopted his suggestion and ordered all provinces to implement Westernization, build their own factories, and develop industry and commerce.
This was already a huge step forward for the conservative Qing court.
Among the reforms of the Qing court, the biggest ones were the opening up of foreign countries and the reform of the military system.
In accordance with the requirements of the Qing court, each province established two new armies in towns. Military expenses were drawn from local taxes. This once again clarified the order issued by the court at the beginning of the year.
The order to abolish the Green Camp caused a great sensation, and in fact caused great trouble to the Qing court.
The order to develop industry, commerce and Westernization has received responses from many places. Regardless of whether it is real or fake, many local governors have begun to build factories.
Suddenly a large number of orders flew to Shanghai.
These mainland people generally won't look for foreigners because they can't communicate.
When they want to buy things, purchase machinery and equipment, weapons and ammunition, etc., they have to go through an intermediary. In the past, most of the 13 Banks in Shanghai played the role of comprador.
But now the Huai Haijun family has the final say in Shanghai, so naturally these intermediary compradors are all Huai Haijun's subordinates.
The news was summarized to Dong Shuheng.
Dong Shuheng made a stroke of his pen - sell.
Whether it is machinery, equipment, guns or ammunition, Huai Haijun sells them all, and they all have foreign brands. Otherwise, how would the imperial court feel if they knew that their reforms had made Huai Hai Hai a fortune?
Of course, the guns sold by the Huaihai Navy are naturally smoothbore guns, and no one in the mainland government knows that the great powers outside have begun to switch to rifled guns.
Even Tsarist Russia in the north still uses muskets.
Dong Shuheng knew that if he didn't sell it, the British, French and Americans would sell it too.
As a result, the new armies in many places bought guns. Textile bureaus, machinery bureaus and other factories were established in many places.
Things like steam engines also appeared in front of people in inland areas.
No longer will people see Huaihai Company's steam freighter from a distance and wonder why it smokes.
People in the interior can also go to mechanical rice mills to shell rice, or they can go to mechanical flour mills to grind wheat into flour.
The Manchu and Qing court seemed to have learned something overnight. Some senior officials of the Huaihai Navy were worried that this would lead to the revival of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
When the time comes, if the Huai Navy wants to destroy the Manchu Qing again, won't it mean that they will have to spend more effort?
However, Dong Shuheng was not worried. No one else knew, but Dong Shuheng understood very well.
The Manchus fell into the hands of the new army they had worked so hard to build.
Dong Shuheng hoped that the more thorough the reform of the imperial court, the better, so that he would not have to continue to fight against these old forces after destroying the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
The current reforms of the Manchu Qing Dynasty can be regarded as paving the way for Dong Shuheng to eliminate the old forces in the future.
"Su Laoliu, Su Laoliu! You'd better swing your butcher knife more violently this time and help me kill this bad guy." Dong Shuheng thought in his heart.
But Dong Shuheng didn't do nothing. He first found Ji Mingshan and explained the matter to him for a long time.
Next, he concentrated on another thing.
He, Wei Yuan and Zuo Zongtang have been planning and preparing for this matter.
An internal magazine was even published to promote the idea of unity.
Now time has finally matured, or in other words, Dong Shuheng feels that he does not have much time left in his hands.
On August 16, the first meeting of the Renaissance Association after its reorganization was held in Jiangning.
There were many more people attending this revival meeting than before, more than 500 people.
Some veterans emerged, who were important members of the Huaihai Navy's military, political, and corporate systems. Except for those who were relatively far away, most of the Huaihai Navy's branches sent people to attend this meeting.