The unexpected "reconciliation" between China and Britain was a tactical compromise made by the British to avoid the losses of a rash war between China and Britain. In a sense, it was also a show of respect for China's existing strength.
After confirming this fact, Vézé felt very uncomfortable. Vézé did plan to get rid of the British as soon as possible. But the wisdom of the British in diplomacy was indeed extraordinary. In history, the Spanish Armada was destroyed, the once arrogant Emperor Napoleon was destroyed, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was destroyed, the German Emperor was destroyed, and the royal family of Russia was killed. But the British royal family was still alive and kicking until the 21st century. In terms of attitude towards China, the British always made the choice that maximized their interests. This ability was not something that an ordinary country could match.
Moreover, in this time and space, China and Britain had only fought two wars, and the British did not burn Beijing. Although it was the idea of the Restoration Party not to like the British, after the British suffered in the Battle of Foshan, they did not act rashly. Now China and Britain were enemies, but not enemies who would not rest until they were dead. Vézé might have the guts to beat the whole world, but Vézé did not have the courage to release the devil of extreme racism. Since he had to maintain this minimum level of rationality, Vézé found that he could not really do anything to the British.
Of course, the compromise between the two powers was usually paid by the smaller countries. The Dutch East Indies was the one who paid the bill this time. Since China was eager for the land and resources of the Dutch East Indies, the British were also happy to establish a new order in the Dutch East Indies. Between July and August 1868, the British, Chinese, and Dutch East Indies signed the first document of the Dutch East Indies Investment Agreement in Singapore. Historically, Borneo belonged to the Dutch East Indies, but now Borneo was completely in the hands of China. In the Dutch East Indies islands of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, the Magulu Archipelago, and New Guinea, China could apply to the Dutch East Indies authorities for land leases, plantations, and mining.
Because of the pressure from the British, the representative of the Dutch East Indies authorities was not friendly. He said unhappily, "People from China in the Dutch East Indies have no political power and must abide by local laws." After saying all this, the Dutch representative continued, a little discouraged, "But the Dutch East Indies government has the obligation to protect their legitimate rights."
These were the contents of the negotiations between the United Kingdom and China. Of course, the United Kingdom would not allow the Chinese to take over the Dutch East Indies, nor would they allow the Dutch East Indies authorities to massacre the Chinese. Such a massacre would give China the perfect excuse to declare war on the Netherlands. If he wanted to maintain balance, these were all necessary tasks.
Although they didn't manage to turn the Dutch East Indies into China's territory, after the signing of the Dutch East Indies Investment Agreement, China's minimum conditions were met. The expansion in the south was temporarily halted, and good relations with the British were maintained.
According to Zuo Zhidan's words, "This diplomatic victory is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
Vézé knew that Zuo Zhidan hoped to receive such a high evaluation. Otherwise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would seem to have done nothing. The comrades in China were also very satisfied. The provinces had recently gone to Borneo to investigate the local situation. Originally, everyone had been arguing endlessly about the division of land for plantations. With the land development rights in the Dutch East Indies, China could build more plantations in the Dutch East Indies. The huge population pressure in China had also been relieved.
In the past decade or so, because of urbanization and immigration in Borneo, Guangdong, Fujian and other places, the population conflict had been greatly alleviated. The Yangtze River basin was filled with mountains of corpses, and the population pressure had been greatly relieved. After the Taiping Rebellion swept through the northwest region, it was said that nearly 20 million people were wiped out. After millions of Manchus were eliminated in Hebei, the land conflict had also been greatly alleviated. In the remaining provinces with large populations, the population of Henan and Shandong could be fully resolved by the recovery of the border.
In the next ten years, the population problem would not constitute the main pressure for the time being. Ten years later, the fully-fledged China could make the surrounding areas pay the bill through war. All of this seemed so good. The urgent task now was to smoothly implement the first five-year plan.
As for the naval industry, Vézé finally came up with a design plan for the capital ship of 1874. The basic data was copied from the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan warships.
Pure steam power, the entire ship was supplied with electricity. 60,000 horsepower, four-blade twin propellers, two triple-expansion engines, eight boilers, and a maximum endurance of 60,000 nautical miles.
Displacement of 650 tons, riveted metal hull, 280mm full waterline cold forged low carbon steel armor belt, centerline layout, 3 fully enclosed 3O5 Dual Recoil Cannon turrets, 2 fully enclosed Dual Recoil Cannon turrets with 150 Recoil Cannon turrets, and several other auxiliary cannon positions.
From Vézé's point of view, the designs of the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan warships had huge flaws. The German engineers who did not understand ship design completely copied the 1879 design of the British Intrepid. Therefore, the entire warship was a huge waste and impractical.
With China's current level of design, this design was also a transitional design for the Intrepid class. Whether the construction could be completed by 1874, Vézé actually had no confidence. However, as long as this warship was completed no later than 1876, it would be the world's top design, enough to fight against the British Navy.
More importantly, the world's warship design ideas were still in the exploration phase, and everyone had taken countless detours. For example, the British were still ordering sail and steam hybrid warships. If the captains of the US Navy wanted to operate a purely steam-powered warship, they would have to buy fuel and coal out of their own pockets. Of course, the early stages of the US Navy were actually building purely steam-powered warships for the US Navy. At this time, the US Navy said, "If there's a mast, why can't there be a sail?"
The British Intrepid in 1879 used a triple-expansion steam engine, which was the real foundation of the British naval design, and the name Intrepid actually came from it.
Vézé firmly believed that as long as nothing went wrong. China would probably be able to create a calculator, or even an early electronic tube calculator, in 1889. At that time, they would be able to operate a true Intrepid class battleship. Of course, when the rest of the world operated Intrepid class battleships, China had already begun the aircraft carrier era. Of course, Vézé didn't quite believe that he would live to see China's aircraft carrier fleet cruise the world's oceans.
This was just an important system construction in the heavy industry. A warship required a large number of factories to produce the components of the warship, a large number of factories to produce "components of the factory that built the components of the warship", and a large number of factories to produce "components of the factory that built the components of the warship". This wasn't just a simple factory, but a system.
Therefore, the final result of the industrial development was to use as many standard parts as possible, which undoubtedly required hundreds of years of accumulation. Vézé could point out the direction that would be summed up after hundreds of years of accumulation, but the necessary processes in the middle couldn't be omitted.
In addition to the warship, the rest was the railway system. In addition, Vézé was looking forward to the development of materials science to produce high-temperature and high-pressure steel, which could be used to make ammonia reactors. With the technology to produce high-temperature and high-pressure cannon steel, the ammonia reactors could be made. With ammonia, China could get rid of the food crisis that had always loomed over China.
In addition to the heavy industry and the military industry, the social convenience was to deepen the comprehensive land reform and build a rural water system. This wasn't just a simple problem of building a reservoir, it also involved a comprehensive problem of soil and water conservation. The new China's reservoir construction did play a huge role, but the reservoir's supporting system had problems that led to the reservoir silting up and other problems. Because of the rise of groundwater pumping machines, a large number of reservoirs and water conservancy projects were later abandoned. Vézé didn't want these wastes to reappear in China.
Thinking of this, Vézé felt that Zuo Zhidan really didn't make enough progress. Did he replace Hong Ren in the past? When he became the foreign minister, he was quite an advanced and revolutionary young comrade. How did he become a complete bureaucrat in less than ten years?
What was needed now was talent, science and technology, engineering, management, administration, and also to cultivate a large number of qualified industrial workers. Even though he knew that he was in a hurry, Vézé couldn't help but want to spoil things through excessive enthusiasm. Social progress was never a straight line process, there were twists and turns, there were ups and downs. The first thing that came out of a changing society was inevitably unadaptability. Vézé knew this, but Vézé still couldn't help but do his best to promote faster social progress, even if the progress was actually ahead of the times.
Vézé wasn't the only one who felt unadaptability, and it wasn't even limited to the China led by Vézé. In the United Kingdom, the butterfly effect of unadaptability was also growing.
The British newspapers needed news, and some of the news from the parliament was an important source of news. The changes in China introduced by the British parliament shocked the British society, and there were more and more reports about China. The Five-Year Plan was a public plan. In addition to internal secrets, most things including the theory of the Five-Year Plan had to be made known to Chinese society.
It had to be admitted that the Chinese people's understanding of the Five-Year Plan was far less than that of the British. Of course, the British ruling class sneered at it. In a capitalist country, political correctness was important. The state spent so much power on the management of the whole society, which touched the interests of the bourgeoisie. In fact, this approach might not make the bourgeoisie bleed, but the state power that was strong enough to control the grassroots itself was a huge threat to the bourgeoisie. They had to oppose it instinctively. Even a group of so-called British reformists strongly criticized China's state-owned land system.
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