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Text Chapter 255 The First Five-Year Plan

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    It was already mid-August when I returned to Beijing from Tianjin. As the date of Wang Yuze¡¯s accession to the throne became closer and closer, the ancient city of Beijing also entered into a celebration.  Government officials and top military officials will rush to Beijing in early or mid-September to attend Wang Yuze's enthronement ceremony.  At Wang Yuze's request, the enthronement ceremony was simplified as much as possible, with only the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the heaven at the Temple of Heaven, and the awards to the harem and officials.  In the evening, a dinner will be held at Xinhua Palace, the Imperial Palace.

    In addition to senior government officials and military generals, those currently confirmed to attend the enthronement ceremony include representatives from all walks of life, representatives of military soldiers, representatives of disabled soldiers, personnel of foreign embassies in China, and other people from all walks of life.  Of course, ordinary people can also visit the heaven-sacrifice ceremony.  But they had no chance to participate in the latter two procedures.

    ??Also, Prince Albert of Germany?  William?  Prince Heinrich will participate in Wang Yuze's coronation ceremony, presumably to continue to deepen the relationship between Germany and China.  As China becomes stronger and stronger, Germany has begun to face up to the relationship between Germany and China.  As early as 1882, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy had signed a treaty of alliance, forming the European Alliance.  However, the enemies they faced were too powerful, and the Austria-Hungary Empire and Italy in the Triple Alliance did not have much combat effectiveness, which forced Germany to seek more powerful allies.  China's rapid rise has undoubtedly given Germany a better choice.  This time, Prince Heinrich came to visit and participated in Wang Yuze's coronation ceremony. In fact, he hoped to establish a deeper alliance with China.

    Now, the transformation work of Beijing city is proceeding rapidly.  The streets were widened, and the original old stone roads began to be replaced with cement roads. However, due to time constraints, only part of the main road could be reconstructed, and the remaining parts were undergoing subsequent reconstruction.  City sewers, green trees, etc. all require a lot of time to be transformed.

    After returning to Beijing from Tianjin, Wang Yuze stayed in Beijing because the time for his enthronement was approaching and there were too many things to be busy with.

    On August 20, Wang Yuze participated in the cabinet meeting. The topics discussed by the cabinet this time, in addition to all matters related to Wang Yuze's enthronement ceremony, also included an overall plan for development in the next few years.

    Although Wang Yuze requested that the coronation ceremony be simple, the cabinet also has its own considerations. At least it cannot let outsiders look down on China!  As for the name of the country, Wang Yuze rejected their proposal and directly decided to use the word "Zhonghua" and use the word "China" or "Chinese Empire" to the outside world.  As for the records in history books, they all refer to the Fourth Empire of China.  Although this has been criticized by many people, it is not in line with the etiquette and laws that have been handed down in China for thousands of years.  But at Wang Yuze's insistence, he had to let Wang Yuze have the final say.  As for Wang Yuze's harem, the so-called emperor's selfless affairs are also within the scope of everyone's discussion.  Fortunately, Wang Yuze now only has five wives in total, who can be granted the title based on ranking. The queen is naturally the eldest lady Xiong Menghan, the noble concubine is the second lady Yang Shilan, the concubine Shu is the third lady Zhou Rui, the concubine De is the fourth lady Yuying, and the concubine Xian is  For the fifth lady, Xianer.  In addition, in the Xinhua Palace, female officers were used to replace eunuchs, and dedicated female soldiers served as internal guards. The defense outside the Xinhua Palace was made up of elite soldiers selected from the special forces "Blade" and the army.  In addition, the cabinet also had disputes over whether to establish a crown prince. One party believed that establishing a crown prince would stabilize the country, while the other party believed that Wang Yuze was still young and there was no need to establish a crown prince so early.  In the end, Wang Yuze made the decision to postpone the establishment of the crown prince.  He is only 23 years old this year, how can he live for decades?  Now that the prince is established, when will the prince inherit the throne?  Besides, the children are still young now and cannot discern their character, so naturally they cannot make blind choices.  In addition, according to Wang Yuze's vision, the future system will implement a constitutional monarchy. Before he has arranged everything, it is best not to establish a prince.

    After that, it¡¯s time to plan the future of the empire.  At this cabinet meeting, Wang Yuze proposed a development plan for the next five years. The cabinet will take the lead and make a plan for the future development of the empire's national economy and people's livelihood.  Unexpectedly, the cabinet had already made preparations, so China's first five-year plan was established at this meeting.  The time was from 1896 to 1900, and the remaining half of 1895 was the preparation stage.

    In terms of industry, the state will continue to invest in heavy industries, such as steel, machinery manufacturing, military industry, shipbuilding, chemical industry, mineral mining and smelting, electric power and other industries.  At the same time, try to attract private capital to join as much as possible.  In terms of light industry, such as textiles, food, papermaking, daily chemicals and other fields, private capital investment should be made as much as possible, and the state is responsible for guiding this.  After the end of the first five-year plan, we strive to establish a complete industrial system in the country and shorten the gap with Western countries.  After the end of the second five-year plan, we will really catch up with Western countries.

    In terms of transportation,?The state invests in building a railway network connecting large and medium-sized cities across the country. Within the first five-year plan, all provincial capitals and large cities except the plateau will be connected to railways, with the total railway mileage reaching 20,000 kilometers.  In terms of highway construction, the Ministry of Transport takes the lead and all provinces and cities cooperate to achieve standard highways in all cities and counties across the country.  In the second five-year plan, the railway network will be further completed and all large and medium-sized cities will be connected to railways.  The road network is fully completed.

    In terms of education, five-year primary education should be universalized across the country. Provinces with conditions, such as Sichuan, the most developed province in the country, can consider extending it to middle school.  The country has established Imperial University, Imperial Polytechnic University, Imperial Army University, Imperial Naval University, Imperial University of Science and Technology, Imperial Administrative University, Imperial Normal University, Imperial Medical University and other top national universities.  Each province shall establish a comprehensive university, a normal university and a technical college as appropriate.  Each city established specialized technical schools to cultivate sufficient talents for industrial development.  The current educational system in China is five years of primary school, four years of middle school, and four years of university.  Of course, after high school you can choose to go to a technical school or go to university.  The state not only provides free education to primary schools, but also provides a lunch, and all college students can receive part of the subsidy.  For all students who choose normal universities, all tuition and living expenses will be subsidized by the state.  In a country where the illiteracy rate reaches almost 90%, if you want to revitalize education, in addition to financial investment, there is also a gap in the number of teachers.  The Ministry of Education proposed to basically realize this plan within ten years.  Of course, in order to ensure the smooth implementation of this plan, the government needs to invest 200 million yuan in special education funds every year.  This makes education the largest expenditure of the empire, as well as military expenditure. Even if one billion yuan of funds obtained from the Manchu nobles is invested, it can only meet five years of development. After five years, it will need to be paid for by the imperial finance.  .  And will the empire's finances be able to afford it by then?  This is hard to say.

    However, the cabinet is optimistic about the development of the economy in the next five years.  In terms of industry, transportation, education, and military industry, billions of yuan will be invested within five years, which will stimulate China's economic growth into explosive growth.  It is expected that next year's fiscal revenue will increase by more than 50%, and rapid growth will be guaranteed for several consecutive years.  Of course, after the stimulus effect of billions of yuan disappears, the growth of the economy and fiscal revenue will return to rationality.  At the same time, there is also a premise that China's development cannot be interrupted.  factors such as defeat.  In order to avoid this situation, China has to increase its military investment to ensure that in future wars, China will still be ahead of other countries.

    In addition, according to the opinions of the Ministry of National Defense, within the next five years, a compulsory military service system will be gradually established in the country.  All men of appropriate age must spend half a month each year undergoing military training.  Retired soldiers from the army will need to undergo one month of military training every year for the next five years to ensure that new units can be quickly formed during wartime.  At the same time, each primary school will set up a military representative to be responsible for students' physical training, and middle school students will undergo one-month military training every year.  Among them, boys are trained in fighting skills such as fighting and target shooting.  Girls are trained in medical knowledge and battlefield rescue.  College students and technical school students also undergo one-month military training every year.

    Most people in the cabinet opposed this plan.  In particular, Prime Minister Liang Xingrong accused the Ministry of National Defense of turning the entire country into a military camp, which will seriously hinder economic and social development.

    "However, Wang Yuze agrees with this.  Today's Chinese people have long lost their blood after nearly a thousand years of rule since the Song Dynasty. This is very detrimental to a nation that wants to become a world power.  Wang Yuze hopes to use this to re-energize the Chinese nation's martial tradition, which will be very helpful for China's future external expansion.  At least when encountering a world war, China will not have a huge population base but lack qualified soldiers.

    This caused another disagreement between Wang Yuze and Liang Xingrong.  Liang Xingrong believes that Wang Yuze's approach is too aggressive and is not conducive to China's development.  Wang Yuze, on the other hand, knows that time is running out for China. If he wants to complete his rise, he must race against time. He has no extra time to waste, so he can only use his own power to force development in certain aspects.  At this stage, the cabinet should be Wang Yuze's assistant, not a constraint.  This gave Wang Yuze the idea of ??replacing the prime minister.  As the first prime minister of western Sichuan, Liang Xingrong will also be the first prime minister of China. His term will be four years, with less than two months left.  The next prime minister of the cabinet, Wang Yuze, has decided to change him!

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