I started with the Shinsengumi in Bakumatsu

Chapter 142: Gold and silver return to their original position, pre-dreadnought technology

Although Yagyu is resting in the mansion, all important documents of the cabinet need to be sent to Yagyu's mansion for Yagyu's review and approval.

Yagyu's mansion doesn't have many servants. After all, he doesn't stay here often, so he doesn't hire too many people. Just a dozen people for daily cleaning and maintenance are enough.

Now these servants are under the management of the general manager Okita Jin.

Yagyu lives and works in the mansion, and Okita Kane personally attends to him, usually delivering some hot tea, or meals and cakes.

When Ichimura Tetsunosuke is away, Okita Kane will also take on some secretary and assistant work.

After all, Okita Jin is from a samurai family, so his literary quality is naturally not bad.

At the entrance of Yagyu Mansion, Okita Jin took a document from the Ministry of War, walked through the front yard in small steps, and came to Yagyu's study. She saw Yagyu frowning, as if he had encountered a problem.

When Yagyu heard the footsteps, he knew it was Okita Kane. If it was Ichimura Tetsunosuke, the sound of leather boots would be even more obvious.

He raised his head and looked at the door. Jin Okita, wearing traditional kosode and Wu clothes, with her hair in a woman's bun, was standing at the door.

"What document? Show it to me."

Okitakin quickly stepped forward and handed the documents from the War Department to Yagyu.

This document is a question from the War Department asking about the location and designation of new troops.

Yagyu thought that this was the first batch of troops. Except for the Sixth Guards Division in the center, the rest of the troops were stationed in Kyushu Island, Yueshu, and Kanto.

As for the pioneering corps from Hokkaido in the Northeast, it's not a big problem.

In this way, one army should be stationed in Jiuzhou, one army in Guandong, and one division in Yuezhou.

Among them, the Guards Army is organized into six divisions, while the Local Army is organized into two divisions.

There are three armies plus one division, for a total of eleven divisions. Each division has a strength of about 8000 people, and the total strength is nearly 3. The remaining [-] strength is the strength of the northern border defense and pioneering corps.

Yagyu was thinking, scribbling and correcting on a piece of draft paper. Okita Jin saw that Yagyu was always frowning and thinking, so he walked quietly behind Yagyu and massaged Yagyu's head.

The movements in Yagyu's hands paused.

"Have I disturbed you?" Okita Jin was a little worried.

Yagyu lowered his head and said, "It's very comfortable. Let's continue."

Yagyu continued to write his arrangements on the draft. The first was the unit number. The six divisions of the Guards were named the [-]st to [-]th Guards Division respectively.

Stationed in Wuzhou is the Second Army, which has jurisdiction over the 201st Division and the 202nd Division.

The Third Army stationed near Linggao Township in Kyushu has jurisdiction over the 301st Division and the 302nd Division.

Stationed in Yuezhou is the Independent Eighth Division.

The Northern Pioneer Corps has four divisions, currently one division in Hokkaido, one division in total in Kitajima Castle and Kamura Castle in Alaska, and the other two divisions are being expanded.

四个师的编制为401，402，403和404师，正在筹建的正是403和404两个师。

Yagyu wrote these things down and put them aside, and looked again at the national bank plan jointly submitted by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Interior.

The current mainstream system is the gold and silver standard system, but after 1870, the price of silver depreciated and the gold standard prevailed.

However, considering Japan's trade deficit with other countries, Yagyu still chose the gold and silver bimetallic system, gold storage, a small amount of circulation, silver as the main foreign trade currency, and paper currency domestically.

The Meiji government in history directly pegged the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar, but Yagyu settled for the second best and only needed to peg it against Prussia or France. The main purpose of this was to prevent the outflow of gold.

After the introduction of banknotes in the country, prices can be quickly stabilized and people can settle down.

The shortcomings of gold and silver bimetallism are obvious. In order to reduce the impact, Yagyu plans to establish a law specific to coins and firmly control the power of minting coins in the hands of the state.

He also wants to find a more perfect way, but in fact, the reality is very complicated, and what he can do is to pay a smaller price to obtain higher benefits.

As long as you don't lose money, you will make money.

With Okitajin's massage, Yagyu felt that his chaotic mind became much clearer. He determined the bank's system, and the exchange of gold, silver and banknotes was also determined.

The gold content of one gold coin issued by the National Bank is only one quarter of that of the US dollar, which is 0.37625 grams.

Calculated this way, one pound can be exchanged for almost eighteen yen, which is still within the acceptable range.

As for the exchange between gold coins and silver coins, it is based on the decimal system, with one gold coin being exchanged for ten silver coins.

When Western countries switch to the gold standard due to the decline in silver prices, Asia, which is less economically developed, will be less affected. Japan can conduct bulk trade of silver with nearby countries such as the Qing Dynasty and purchase raw materials. Perhaps it can find its own in the cracks. road.

Okita Jin was very happy when she saw Yagyuo's hesitation to writing quickly. After Yagyuo finished writing, she said, "Did you solve the problem, sir?"

Liu Sheng solved a problem that was bothering him and said happily: "Thanks to you, my mind is much clearer and I no longer worry about gains and losses."

Okita Jin said embarrassedly: "Sir, you are joking. What I did is not worth mentioning."

Yagyu leaned back on the chair and continued to enjoy Okita Jin's service. He said with a satisfied look on his face: "The key to something is probably a small fulcrum. In Western proverbs, a king is because of a horse's hoof. Without horseshoes, a war was lost and the country eventually perished.

Ah Jin, there is no need to belittle yourself. I am much more comfortable staying in the mansion these days than in the cabinet. It seems that I should really live at home more, hahaha. "

Okitakin looked down at Yagyu with shyness and said with a smile: "As long as you are satisfied, sir, I will work harder."

Ichimura Tetsunosuke walked over quickly and saw the warm scene between Yagyu and Okita Jin. For a moment, he didn't know whether to step back or come in.

However, Yagyu had long heard Tetsunosuke's footsteps. He closed his eyes and asked directly: "Tetsunosuke, what are you doing at the door? There are documents from the Ministry of War, as well as bank construction documents from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Interior. Bai Shu, you send it to the cabinet and let them handle it."

"Yes, Prime Minister!"

Tetsunosuke Ichimura hurriedly stepped forward and handed over a document: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, this is a document from the Navy Ministry. Minister Sakamoto plans to build the first naval battleship of more than [-] tons. Here are the drawings and construction costs. Budget." Yagyu then opened his eyes, took the documents from the Navy Ministry, and looked down. He saw that the battleship looked similar to the two thousand-ton battleship bought from the United States. It was equivalent to a replica.

But this is also a safe method. After all, this is the first time to build such a large warship.

In the past, there were self-built steamships all over Japan, but they were all about one thousand tons. Even now, it is a challenge to imitate a two thousand tons ironclad ship.

Yagyu looked at the cost of this armored ship at about 1 gold, which converted to more than [-] pounds.

He knocked on the table, looked at the turret of the ironclad, and said: "We no longer need to imitate the turrets of Western countries. Since we want to use Prussian breech-loaded guns, then we will use new turrets.

I will go to the cabinet now and ask Mr. Katsu, Ryoma and other Navy officials and engineers to be present to verify it with the data first. "

It took decades for the armored ship's turret to evolve to what it looked like during World War I. When the ironclad ship first began, the United States directly built an iron turtle like a Korean turtle ship. The entire deck was wrapped in a thick layer of armor. , like a submarine floating on the sea.

As for the British and French ironclads, the forts were also developed into fortresses. Once the guns were fired, the smoke instantly enveloped the forts and affected the line of sight.

There is also the layout of the fort, which has developed over 30 years from the initial octagonal central gun room to the ship's rotating platform to the full centerline main gun layout.

The pre-dreadnought era of all centerline main guns set the standard for battleships.

Yagyu wants to adopt a full centerline main gun layout to build a new type of ironclad ship.

However, if this technology were to be revealed, I am afraid that it would become the technical reserve of Western countries, so this matter could only be carried out secretly.

Yagyu tidied up and stood up to leave the mansion. Okita Jin immediately picked up the tuxedo jacket and put it on for him. When Yagyu put on his shoes and left the room, he saluted with a doge seat and said: "Be careful on the road."

Yagyu turned around, nodded slightly, and then left in a carriage with several guards, heading to the cabinet in the palace.

In the cabinet, Sakamoto Ryoma couldn't sit still. He couldn't help but asked: "Teacher, does the Prime Minister also know a lot about the navy?"

Old God Sheng Haizhou said: "How do I know? But the Prime Minister is well-informed and may have some very good suggestions."

Sakamoto Ryoma nodded and said: "It should be, I'm really looking forward to it."

"Everyone has been waiting for a long time. Let's start the meeting now."

Yagyu strode into the conference room. Before he entered, he had already asked the guards to deploy troops around and put them on alert.

He looked at the people in the conference room and said: "Today's matter is a state secret, so only you are allowed to come. Everyone must remain silent about what is discussed today and must not spread it to outsiders."

Katsu Kaishu's expression became serious when he saw Yagyu's serious attitude, and the Hakuho horse beside him was very nervous.

Sakamoto Ryoma was very excited and said: "Oh, after hearing what the Prime Minister said, I am even more interested. Tell me, what is it?"

Yagyu stepped forward and spread out the drawings and said: "This is the ironclad ship you want to build. I will grant the funds and let you build two trial ships. After that, you will build an ironclad ship of at least [-] tons!"

"Yo Xi!"

Sakamoto Ryoma clapped his hands excitedly: "What a difficult challenge!"

Katsu Kaishu wondered: "But this isn't an important secret, is it?"

Sakamoto Ryoma immediately looked at Yagyu, who nodded and said: "Yes, this ironclad ship of more than [-] tons will use a new layout.

This ironclad ship will use the largest caliber breech gun, and the turret layout is a full centerline main gun layout. "

As he spoke, he drew a simple floor plan.

"The turrets are arranged at the stern and bow of the ship. Although this turret is an open-air turret, it also has certain protection. In addition, the movement of turrets in Western countries involves moving the entire turret, but we only need to consider moving the artillery."

Sakamoto Ryoma immediately asked: "Only the main gun, what about the others? Too few?"

Yagyu explained: "In the future, it will be the era of ironclads. Medium-caliber artillery cannot penetrate such thick armor, so we must have artillery of about [-] millimeters."

Therefore, it is enough to remove all these medium-caliber artillery and strengthen the large-caliber main gun. As long as the opponent hits one shot, it can directly penetrate its armor. "

Katsu Kaishu stood up and said: "Yes, the Prime Minister is absolutely right. If you can't penetrate the opponent's armor, it will be useless no matter how many artillery pieces you have. You must have large-caliber artillery!"

Ryoma Sakamoto and Steed Hakumine also suddenly came to their senses.

"Oh, the Prime Minister is really sharp, why didn't I think of that?"

Sakamoto Ryoma looked a little annoyed, but in fact he was just trying to make fun of him.

"No wonder it's a national secret. This kind of layout is really powerful. If the Western countries get it, their strength will be even higher."

Sheng Haizhou frowned and said, "As soon as we build it, the Western countries will soon know about it."

Yagyu raised his hand and said: "Don't worry, everyone, when you build such a warship, I will exchange enough benefits with Prussia and Tsarist Russia.

The shipyard will be built in Hokkaido. When you go to Hokkaido to supervise the construction, the future of the Japanese Navy will be in your hands! "

He sent such secrets just to muddy the waters in Europe, so that Britain and France, which were pressing on Japan's head, would have no time to take care of themselves.

Prussia has been shrinking on the European continent because its navy is inferior to that of England and France. If he gives Prussia the naval technology that transcends the times and lets it catch up with Britain and France, it will force Britain and France to shift their focus back to Europe.

Katsu Kaishu, who had guessed what he was thinking, saluted and said, "I will not let the Prime Minister down."

Sakamoto Ryoma patted his arm and said: "I am very motivated now!"

　I won’t discuss too much about the protagonist’s wife and offspring, as they will be arranged later, but there won’t be much writing and it won’t affect the main plot.

　　Thanks for the book friend 20170517204350120 five hundred rewards!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)