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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 746: Postwar Development

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    The local conflict war between the four countries of China, Britain, France, and Russia ended, and each other ended in an incredible way.  In this war, the Chinese casualties totaled more than 68,000 soldiers, the British and French suffered more than 36,000 casualties, and more than 34,000 prisoners were taken. Russia had a long-term conflict with the Taiping Rebellion, so the cumulative casualties were much higher.  , they suffered casualties of more than 134,000 soldiers in the Far East and lost large areas of territory.  But Russia was not the most miserable among the three defeated countries, but France was the most miserable.

    France has accumulated a lot of contradictions in the country before. In another time and space, it was precisely because Napoleon III continued to launch wars abroad and achieved victory that the domestic conflicts were transferred. However, in this time and space, France is not so good.  As luck would have it, their defeat in the Far East War directly ignited the powder keg of domestic conflicts.  Although Napoleon III followed the footsteps of the United Kingdom and ended the war more honorably, various forms of republican and labor movements broke out in the country starting in 1862. Of course, the masterminds behind these movements were the absolute leaders in the French economy.  bourgeoisie.  They had money but no political power, so the French bourgeoisie began a new round of changes, while Napoleon III was busy suppressing these movements everywhere and was unable to launch any form of invasion.

    Britain is different. They have the title of the world's factory, while China in the Far East formulated a development plan. After the war, China began to exert its efforts and spend huge amounts of money to start various domestic constructions.  Britain is an important country that provides various supplies to China. They are busy doing business with China. At the same time, the development of the American Civil War further attracted the attention of Britain, so Britain's expansion into the Far East also stalled.

    The two-headed eagle that had its Asian end cut off was not having a good time either. Although they lost a large area of ??territory east of Siberia, their expansion plan in Central Asia also failed.  But they are still the largest country in Europe.  Under the leadership of Alexander II, Russia began to focus on domestic reform and development, while also dealing with challenges from the Ottomans and other countries. Therefore, Russia temporarily gave up invasion in the Far East.

    As Xiao Yungui said before, this war will create more than ten years of peace for the country, and then it can focus on domestic development, even if everything is destroyed and reconstructed.  It¡¯s also a good deal.  Therefore, the impact of the war was far-reaching. It brought a golden period of development to the young Chinese Taiping Rebellion in the Far East.

    Domestic development is inseparable from foreign technology and materials. Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had developed some industry and commerce in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, the foundation of these factories and enterprises was very weak. By the end of the war, there were only three new technology steel plants in the country, namely Shanghai.  Steel Plant, Ningbo Steel Plant, Hanyang Steel Plant.  The annual steel production of the three steel plants is only a pitiful 500,000 tons.  This is indeed appalling compared to the tens of millions of tons of steel produced annually by Shanghai Baosteel alone in later generations.  This amount of steel is only enough to meet domestic weapons production needs during the war, but cannot meet domestic steel for construction.  Especially the construction of several large railways, which are big consumers of steel. There are also many factories, ships and other machine production plants waiting to be built that are waiting to be expanded, and there is also a huge demand for steel.

    Although there is no shortage of iron ore in the country, the traffic in many places is terrible. If you want to open mining, you must first build roads and improve the logistics environment.  At the same time, building a large number of steel plants also requires a lot of machinery and materials.  Therefore, there was a long early stage when domestic industry did not develop.  It is destined to need to import large quantities of steel and other materials from abroad to meet domestic construction needs.

    ??But now the United Kingdom does not restrict China's development too much. Even when the US imperialism blocked New China in later generations, China still obtained a lot of commercial and trade supplies from the United Kingdom through Hong Kong.  Moreover, what the British Empire now needs more is the global trade market, rather than the global hegemony of the United States that has nothing to do when it is full. It is in the interests of the United Kingdom to launch larger-scale trade with China. This is why they launched the Far East  purpose of war.

    So.  At the end of the war, Xiao Yungui, in accordance with the "Ten-Year National Development Charter" formulated by the cabinet, instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to quickly reach a series of foreign trade agreements with the United Kingdom to ensure future domestic development.

    As for the funding problem, it was also effectively solved after the war.  A lot of money will go back to construction.  The Taiping Army had previously spent a huge amount of money on military expenditures. In addition to the war against the Three Kingdoms, they were also marching into unoccupied areas in various battlefields across the country, and were also clearing out bandit forces in various places.  The military expenditure spent on transferring the imperial troops to Xinjiang was as high as more than 10 million taels.

    It can be said that Xiao Yungui has been operating in Jiangsu and Zhejiang for many years. Industry and commerce are prosperous and tax revenue is relatively stable. At the same time, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied Beijing, they also received a huge amount of funds from the assets of the Manchu nobles and senior officials.  After the Great Revolution of 1911, Yuan Shikai's protective policy towards the Manchu nobles and high-ranking officials led to this situation.?The huge assets of the classes that control a lot of social wealth are preserved.  It must be known that none of these Manchu nobles and high-ranking officials have accumulated wealth for more than two hundred years, and the wealth they have absorbed is not even a little bit. The sentence "three years to clear the prefecture, one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver" does not mean anything.  It's an exaggeration. A prefect alone can collect so much wealth, and it's easy to imagine how much wealth the powerful nobles at the higher level can control.

    In the time and space when Xiao Yungui succeeded, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom carried out a large-scale purge of the wealth of the Manchu nobles. Apart from sharing some of it with common bannermen and other civilians of various ethnic groups, there was still a large amount of wealth left. Among these wealth  The value of gold and silver alone is as high as hundreds of millions of taels.

    China has never been short of wealth. What the Qing Dynasty lacked was just the measures to convert this capital into national power. Did you not see that during the so-called Tongzhi and ZTE periods, the Westernizationists easily built a fleet that was number one in Asia and sixth in the world?  What?  This is despite repeated cuts in naval military spending.  If half of China's asset wealth at that time could be converted into national power, then China would release terrible energy.  Ever since, Xiao Yungui, who now controls almost half of China's wealth, began to do this.

    The first step is to prepare to nationalize the gold and silver in the wealth and use it as reserves to establish a state-owned bank to issue banknotes.  In the past, the Taiping Army had always used silver dollars. This was because the reserves required for issuing banknotes were insufficient. Once the gold and silver on the market were collected, it would affect the currency circulating in the market. Moreover, the country was not unified at that time and did not have this capability.  Conditions, and now that the country is basically unified, foreign wars have ended, and a large amount of assets and wealth are concentrated, all the conditions have been met.

    The second is to establish its own foreign exchange system. Since the British established the gold standard currency system in 1821, the currency has been linked to the equivalent value of gold. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also took the step of issuing currency and began to implement the gold standard system, so that a fixed exchange rate can be formed.

    The third is to attract private capital and state capital for joint construction.  In addition to the stable reform of the financial and monetary system, a large amount of the country's wealth also needs to be invested in education, the military and other aspects. The inflow of private capital is mainly used for the construction of railways and other places.  Especially in the construction of railways, the ten-year development plan accounts for 80% of the total investment. After a large number of railways are built, the state owns the ownership of the railways, while private investors own the 50-year operation of the railways.  Right, the construction of railways will greatly improve the domestic logistics environment and reduce the cost of goods in the logistics process, which is very beneficial to stimulating the development of business and trade.

    Involving private capital is also conducive to the transformation of the country's private wealth into national power. At that time, half of China's wealth was concentrated among the private sector. Feudal businessmen represented by Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchants and Shanxi and Shanxi merchants controlled most of the private wealth. Xiao Yungui also needed to pass  This method can guide these feudal merchants to capital merchants, so as to end the country's stubborn feudal forces' thirst for land, thereby further disintegrating the domestic feudal system, and ultimately transforming an agricultural feudal country into a capital-industrial country.

    At the same time, domestic policies for trade, industry and commerce were further opened up and expanded, and the Lijin tariff that had been implemented for many years by the Manchus was abolished. Many large-scale commercial markets were established across the country. The state ensured this by levying a unified commercial tax on goods produced by factories.  In terms of taxation, unified grain and agricultural product distribution markets have been established in rural markets across the country, and unified commercial tax collection has been implemented on agricultural products traded.  The unification of commercial taxes will transform the lijin tariff into a commercial product tax, further reducing the cost of commodity circulation. It should be noted that when the lijin tariff is implemented, you must pay the lijin tariff at every place you pass.

    Since the end of the war in 1862, China has begun a decade-long development and construction and major domestic reforms, fully utilizing and converting domestic wealth and capital, developing domestic industry and commerce, adjusting agricultural production methods, and popularizing domestic education.  system and actively improve people's livelihood.  Xiao Yungui and his wife are busy with domestic affairs all day long. Although they have the responsibility of the cabinet, they still need to control the country's major policies.

    During the American Civil War, China also began to increase its influence on the American Civil War. Through trade control and arms exports, it obtained a large amount of funds from the southern American government. At the same time, due to the interference of China and the United Kingdom, the duration of the American Civil War was greatly shortened.  extended.

    China has made great achievements through several years of development. One day in July 1865, Xiao Yungui received a delegation from Japan in Beijing. They were sent by the Japanese shogunate to discuss cooperation with China.  In fact, Japan's overthrow movement has begun to develop to the point of armed conflict. The Japanese shogunate couldn't hold on anymore and came to China to seek help (To be continued)
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