Chapter 59 The British Empire, we are serious! (Please collect, vote monthly, recommend, and read more)

Zhuge Weidao had already sat down at the seat assigned to him, next to Zhuge Yangwu and Zhuge Yangming, two military advisors of the Yangzi generation. Their rankings in the military advisor corps were sixteenth and seventeenth respectively - this

The ranking of military advisors of the Zhuge family was originally based on first come, first served. Among the eighteen military advisors today, Zhuge Weijiu has been the military advisor the longest, so he is the "great military advisor".

However, having the title of Grand Military Advisor does not mean that you have great power, because in theory, all formal Military Advisors have the same right to speak, vote and other privileges. The alternate Military Advisor does not have the right to vote, and the right to speak is also reduced, but other privileges are the same.

some.

According to the tradition since the establishment of the Military Advisor Corps, the military advisors who have been awarded the three volumes of "International Politics", "Army", and "Navy" often have more say and influence in national affairs than other military advisors. If they are responsible for a certain

If a national policy issue is agreed upon, other military advisors will generally not object. Moreover, the military advisor who has been awarded these three heavenly books will also have a high probability of becoming the prime minister.

However, no matter which military advisor becomes prime minister, he must implement the policies formulated by the military advisor regiment. From this perspective, the military advisor regiment is actually a deep government of the Ming Empire, or it can also be regarded as the core of a party.

Since the existence of the eight great families inhibited the development of modern political parties in the Ming Dynasty, although the Ming Dynasty now has political meetings that can formulate laws and elect prime ministers and ministers, there are no parties. The eight great aristocratic families and their surrounding nobles, businessmen, and officials

The political groups formed by families can also be regarded as parties to a certain extent.

According to Zhuge Weidao's current knowledge, the eight major aristocratic families are now roughly divided into four groups. One is the alliance composed of the Zhuge family and the Zhendong Zhang family (descendants of Zhang Huangyan). These two aristocratic families and their affiliated families are all in

They have invested huge sums of money in industry and mining. In fact, they are also the spokesperson of Ming Dynasty 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 in overseas trade and large-scale overseas agriculture - they are naturally the spokespersons of the Ming Dynasty's overseas interests.

The third is the three "rebel families" of Li and Liu and their old ministers and ministers. They were not good at doing business at the beginning, so they invested relatively late in overseas trade, overseas large-scale agriculture, industry, commerce and mining.

They did not hold much profit. However, they also appeared to be relatively "grassroots" and could easily get involved with the farmers' mutual aid associations. Gradually, they controlled most of the agricultural mutual aid associations and built industries based on the agricultural mutual aid associations. In fact, these three aristocratic families are the Ming Dynasty.

The spokesperson for small farmers (family farmers).

The fourth is the aristocratic family of the King of Guizhou, the Mu family, and a group of honorable minister families who were born in the former Ming Dynasty. The power of this faction cannot be compared with the other three factions, but they have a better relationship with the Ming royal family and the three princes of Zhu Ming. They are orthodox royalists.

.These families are also rooted in the Peasants' Mutual Aid Association like Er Li and Yi Liu, and the Peasants' Mutual Aid Associations they control are all near Beijing, and to some extent they are also protecting 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 many interests in Myanmar.

However, these four party-like groups do not take turns to take power, but jointly govern. Moreover, the interests of the four factions are not clearly defined, but there is me among you, and you among me. The Zhuge family also controls some farmers

Mutual aid associations, and families like Er Li and Yi Liu who look like country bumpkins will also invest in the industries created by the Zhuge family.

In addition, these four major factions all control some banks, which serve as their "fund pool" for investment in industries at home and abroad. The Yangtze River Bank, which is firmly controlled by the Zhuge family (all shares are publicly owned by the Zhuge family), has been conservative for more than a hundred years.

, steady and able to calculate, always able to avoid risks and seize opportunities, it has now grown into the world's number one bank and is also the king of East Asia's financial industry!

It was precisely by relying on the Yangtze River Bank's ability to control East Asia's finance that the Zhuge family's military strategists were able to control the national policies of the Ming Dynasty for a long time! Otherwise, others would not necessarily listen to them just relying on their super power of "manipulating and calculating".

Only when "superpower" is combined with "money ability", is it truly powerful!

And Zhuge Weidao can now become a candidate member of the Military Advisor Corps, which can be regarded as touching the true highest power of the Ming Empire.

Seeing that Zhuge Weidao had already sat down, the great military advisor Zhuge Weijiu smiled and said to him: "Daozi, this is your first time to attend the meeting of the military advisor group. Let me tell you the rules. The military advisor group usually meets every month.

Regular meetings are held on the morning of the second and sixteenth day of the lunar month. You may not attend, but you cannot entrust others to exercise voting rights or express opinions. In addition, the decisions made at the military division meeting will be sent to the military divisions who did not attend the meeting through secret messages or by hand. Alternate

The military advisor knows. You are now a candidate military advisor, so the code book of the military advisor group must be in your own hands and cannot be entrusted to others. Daozi, do you understand?"

"I understand, Great Military Advisor, I understand everything."

At this time, Zhuge Yangwu handed Zhuge Weidao a book with "Taiping Dictionary" written on the cover and said, "Uncle One Hundred and Eight, this is your code book. You must carry it with you."

Seeing that Zhuge Weidao had collected the code book, Zhuge Weijiu said again: "You can take notes at the military advisor meeting, but you must keep these notes properly. In addition, you can also prepare some documents in advance for other military advisors to circulate, but

Some top-secret documents can only be read, not copied, let alone taken away."

As he said that, he glanced at Zhuge Yangwu again, who immediately handed Zhuge Weidao a folder. Zhuge Weidao opened it and saw several pages of documents, the top one of which had the title "First Department of the Navy"

Draft proposal for Thousand Ships Plan (Top Secret)”!

Well, the top-secret documents of the Admiralty were actually circulated at the meeting of the Zhuge Family’s internal military division!

"Daozi," Zhuge Weijiu said again, "Now we can see this document. The eighteen official members of the Zheng family's official party can also see it, but the core groups of other aristocratic families cannot yet see it."

This is also a matter of course!

Because the Zheng family is supported by three small sects and also has huge overseas interests in Annan, Siam, Nanzhang, Chenla, Malay Peninsula, Java Island, Sumatra and other places, it is the only one among the eight major families that can break up with the Zhuge family.

A family with a lot of skills - of course, between the Zhuge family and the Zheng family, you have me, and I have you.

Zhuge Weidao picked up the document and read it carefully.

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

It has to be said that those staff officers and engineers were very professional, and they launched a partially executable shipbuilding plan in a very short period of time.

First of all, the 15,000-ton armored ship, which is the main ship type of the "Thousand Ship Project", was split into two plans - the real plan. The first is the "Hongwu Emperor Class" plan, which plans to build a total of two

Ten ships; the second is the "15,000-ton class" cruise ship plan, which plans to adopt a newly designed hull that can carry piggyback turrets and adopt a full oil power system. It is also planned to equip this cruise ship with eight newly developed

It is also planned to build twenty ships with a 200mm main gun, and then upgrade them according to the situation.

Secondly, in order to convince the British that the Ming Empire really wanted to implement the "One Thousand Ship Plan", the Ming Navy Ministry also suggested that the court issue "shipyard subsidies" to major domestic shipyards to encourage them to build large 20,000-ton shipyards. At the same time, it would also

It is recommended that the ten largest shipyards secretly build ultra-large shipyards with over 50,000 tons.

Although Ming Dynasty's industrial strength currently ranks first in the world, its shipbuilding is second in the world, and Britain is first in the world!

In addition, France, Prussia, and Austria, which are allied with Britain, are also among the world's leading shipbuilding powers, so the shipbuilding capabilities of Britain and its allies can still overwhelm the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, if the Ming Dynasty really wants to engage in a naval arms race with Great Britain, it cannot just talk in vain, but must use real money to improve its shipbuilding capabilities!
Chapter completed!