Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 673 Accelerated Growth

Surprisingly, the Russians did not win. Post-battle analysis revealed that the two Imperial Guards units facing the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, equipped with numerous rifled muskets, were difficult to withstand in open battle with the same number of troops. Often, two or even three times the number of troops were needed to withstand the enemy's fierce firepower. Then there were the valiant Cossack cavalry, historically invincible against the Turkish cavalry, but this time they gained no advantage. The Turkish cavalry, heavily equipped with revolvers, not only withstood the Cossack charge but also inflicted heavy casualties on the Cossacks.

This discovery deeply unsettled several high-ranking generals in the Tsarist Russian military, who repeatedly petitioned the Tsar to procure new rifled rifles.

This request caught the Tsar's attention, and he conveyed the urgent need for new equipment to the British. Britain was chosen naturally because of its advanced technology and status as the only possible supplier.

The British side stated they were powerless to mass-produce rifled rifles and revolvers. They understood the principles of revolvers, but couldn't manufacture the percussion cap. The principles of rifled rifles weren't difficult either, but unfortunately, the mechanical manufacturing process for the rifling hadn't yet been solved.

In fact, both Britain and France were trying to find a solution to this technological problem, but neither side could find a solution, so they could only continue to use smoothbore muskets against each other.

The wars in Europe undoubtedly benefited the Zhou Empire. It cannot be ignored that the prolonged warfare significantly advanced European military capabilities, accelerating the development of new weapons.

Almost all new technologies are born out of war.

Therefore, the Zhou Empire could not remain stagnant and needed war to test its weapons and equipment and promote the advancement of weapon development.

We need to find a competitor, and the best competitor right now is France.

At a recent cabinet meeting, Jia Lian elaborated on the above views, concluding with: "Looking at the world, the only country that can pose a threat to China is Europe. Therefore, it is necessary to organize a permanent military observation group to conduct long-term observation of the military capabilities of Europe. It is suggested that graduates of military academies take turns going to Europe to observe changes in the form of warfare, so as to achieve the goal of knowing oneself and one's enemy."

This suggestion, coming from Jia Lian, was extremely grating to Yue Qi. "I am the cabinet minister in charge of the Ministry of War. You are overstepping your bounds."

In fact, since Jia Lian joined the cabinet, Yue Qi's presence has become increasingly inconspicuous. The reason is simple: Li Yuan trusted Jia Lian's judgment more on military matters. Furthermore, the failure to produce a military reform plan that satisfied Li Yuan made the erosion of Yue Qi's position a natural consequence.

It can only be said that Li Yuan, who had witnessed Jia Lian's command of battles in Southeast Asia, was not satisfied with Yue Qi's clearly outdated ideas on army building.

Similarly, the First and Second Divisions of the Nanyang New Army, deployed in Borneo and Java, were able to actively request to replace their rifles with new breech-loading rifles and even persuaded the Nanyang government to provide the funds.

Of the four garrisons of the New Army deployed in the capital, only Shenji Garrison is currently equipped with muzzle-loading percussion rifles, and even then, it's still experimental. The other three garrisons have yet to be equipped with them due to opposition from the Ministry of War.

The Ministry of War's reason for opposing it was simple: the new equipment was too expensive, and there were no adversaries in the vicinity that could pose a threat, so there was no need to change equipment.

It can't be said that the Ministry of War did something wrong. After all, the world is a huge makeshift organization. When there are no external threats, there is no internal motivation to spend money on military expenditures.

This is also what Mencius said: "A state without external enemies will inevitably perish."

The most crucial point is that for a long time, the Central Plains Empire was always the one initiating attacks, and rarely the one being attacked.

It's difficult for someone who has never been hit to develop a fear of insufficient firepower.

"It would be best if the Ministry of War took the lead in this matter, with the Court of State Ceremonies providing assistance." Yue Qi had no choice but to step in and fight for control, lest he be cursed by his subordinates in private.

Li Yuan smiled and looked at Jia Lian, asking, "What does Jia Qing think?"

Jia Lian smiled and said, "What Prime Minister Yue said is absolutely right. I think we should raise the level of importance we attach to this matter to show the court's attention."

Li Yuan smiled and nodded to show that he understood, then turned to Yue Qi and asked, "Does Yue Qing have a plan?"

Yue Qi said, "Your Majesty, I need to discuss this with the Ministry of War before submitting a memorial."

Li Yuan nodded: "Can you come up with a plan in three days?"

That's Li Yuan's style. Once he agrees to something, he'll give a timeframe and not keep dragging it out.

The same applies to other government affairs; they must be completed within the stipulated time, and those who fail to do so will be held accountable.

Li Yuan used the performance evaluation system to put a strain on all officials in the Zhou Empire. The root cause lay in his observation during his rule in the South China Sea: he found that the workload of lower-level officials was actually quite light. They could even have a few drinks after get off work each day and enjoy themselves. Back then, he was a disgraced official and could only observe from the sidelines; now that he was the emperor, he naturally wanted to find fault with his ministers.

Yue Qi had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree.

After asking around and finding nothing else to report, Li Yuan simply adjourned the meeting.

The Ministry of War acted quickly this time because there were previously archived documents of dispatching observation groups. After making some adjustments, the one-off observation groups could be turned into permanent observation groups.

The next day, Yue Qi brought the plan that the Ministry of War had worked overtime to complete to the palace. This time, Li Yuan was very satisfied and felt that Yue Qi was still a qualified cabinet minister.

According to the Ministry of War's plan, fifty people would be sent to Europe each year to join a military observer group, and each group would have to stay for a full two years before returning home.

Li Yuan verbally instructed the Ministry of War to ensure that every officer returning from Europe would be promoted one rank, and those with outstanding performance could be promoted two ranks.

The inspection team should not consist only of junior officers; it should also include officers of the rank of brigadier general.

After the plan was approved, the Ministry of War began to implement it, drawing personnel together to study the language for a year, and only those who passed the test had the opportunity to join the observation group.

The first time Li Yuan left the palace to meet with military personnel was to visit the observation group that was studying there, which caused quite a stir.

The people, both in and out of the court, were deeply concerned about the possibility of the emperor's excessive military expansion based on the news in the newspaper.

It can only be said that the other side of this concern is the emerging industrial capital. With the market becoming saturated, companies urgently need new large orders to meet the needs of further development.

This spurred two driving forces: one was to increase production capacity output to Xinhua Colony, and the other was to secure procurement orders for military equipment upgrades. The former was driven by private initiatives, especially after learning of the existence of New Gold Mountain. Many adventurous private capitalists in Jiangnan took the initiative to bring equipment to Xinhua Colony to build factories. Behind this group of risk-taking capitalists were naturally driving forces, as well as some who were forced to make this choice after large families lost their room for development.

The spontaneous migration of people brought a large number of timber orders to Dongping Prefecture outside the pass, which promoted the rapid development of the shipbuilding industry in Jiangnan.

In the fifth year of the Qianzheng reign, besides the more than 10,000 people forcibly emigrated by Li Yuan out of personal brotherhood (though somewhat unwillingly), there were also more than 30,000 people who emigrated spontaneously. The majority of the emigrants were from the Xue family's fleet, which grew from more than 200 ships arriving in the fourth year of the Qianzheng reign to more than 300 ships, bringing nearly 100,000 people. Slave traders saw a business opportunity and scourddled white-skinned women from all over the world, selling them to the Xinhua colonies in exchange for gold and silver. They then used the Spanish shipping routes to Manila and Java to purchase tea and other goods in high demand in Europe, thus forming a global trade route.

Because the profits from Eastern goods on the new global trade routes were enormous, more maritime adventurers joined in, accelerating the rate of immigration to the new Chinese colonies.

In the fifth year of the Qianzheng reign, the population of the Xinhua colony exceeded 300,000 (including some indigenous people), and in the sixth year of the Qianzheng reign, the population exceeded one million.

Centered around the three cities of Kaiyuan Prefecture, Xinhua Prefecture (New Gold Mountain), and Pingyuan (Los Angeles), the Xinhua Colony saw the emergence of new industrial zones, significantly reducing the need to transport goods from within the country and, in turn, accelerating the rate of immigration. By the end of the seventh year of the Qianzheng era, the Xinhua Colony's population census of the three prefectures, including a large number of newborn mixed-race children, showed a population exceeding two million.

Through the exchange of goods, the Native Americans of North America had no choice but to continue migrating westward or southward (mainly because they were outmatched in combat).

In 1809, the westward expansion of the United States encountered a large-scale counterattack from the natives, and hundreds of massacres of westward immigrants by natives broke out in the central region.

The belated realization of the situation by the US government led them to discover that, for reasons unknown, a large number of Native Americans had formed a barrier stretching hundreds of kilometers north to south, blocking westward expansion.

The most critical issue wasn't that no one dared to venture westward, but rather that the European immigrants who did venture westward were simply no match for the natives.

After purchasing Louisiana from Napoleon in 1803, the U.S. government, taking advantage of the chaos of war in Europe and coveting the Spanish-held Florida, showed little interest in promoting spontaneous westward migration. The peak of westward migration can be traced back to Jackson's Indian Relocation Act of 1830.

Through various channels, the US government confirmed that the Zhou Empire was also conducting large-scale immigration to the west coast of North America. Due to the government's fear of the Zhou Empire, it became even more determined to attack Spain first.

In 1810, the United States sent troops to capture Florida.

In the same year, the population of the Xinhua colony approached four million, and while it was rapidly expanding in both the north and south, it also advanced fifty kilometers to the west, but its progress was slowed down due to the obstruction of the desert.

In the same year, Haiti gained independence, marking the beginning of a period of rapid development for the South American independence movement.

The unrest led to a mass exodus of people from South America. Some fled to the United States, while others fled to Mexico, and later to the Xinhua colonies.

Because of the unrest everywhere, the security of the Xinhua colony deteriorated sharply, and many newly built colonies were frequently attacked, with several even being breached.

Upon hearing the news, Li Yuan immediately convened a meeting of the heads of various prefectures in the Xinhua colony to discuss the matter.

The result of the discussion was that each of the three prefectures would establish a highly mobile local army, and the equipment would be purchased by each prefecture from within the country.

The vast and sparsely populated nature of the Xinhua colony resulted in a high degree of independence for its three major cities. Kaiyuan Prefecture was the Xue family's stronghold, while Xinjinshan was managed by Xue and Peng, agents of the Jia family. Li Yuanjian, facing the risk of being sidelined, transferred his direct line of officials to Pingyuan Prefecture for development. Li Heng, the nominal King of Xinhua, had his royal residence in Xinjinshan, but his sphere of influence was confined to the newly expanded Kaiyuan Prefecture (Los Angeles).

Human beings are all pretty much the same. Even though the domestic system is highly centralized, in the new Chinese colonies, it formed a nominal unity but a high degree of autonomy in reality.

Of the three prefectures, Xinhua Prefecture naturally had the largest population, with over two million, while the other two prefectures each had a little over one million.

The overall immigration policies were quite similar: a friendly trade approach was adopted towards the indigenous people. Land was bought if possible, and other methods were devised if that failed; force was only used when the trade became unmanageable. This approach was indeed very effective in the early stages, but it became more difficult after the eighth year of the Qianzheng reign. Some of the indigenous people also changed, no longer readily relinquishing their land.

Fortunately, during this period, the Xinhua colony also entered a period of slowdown in its outward expansion, and no large-scale armed conflict occurred between the two sides.

In contrast, the Native Americans' real enemy was the Americans from the east, who were more unreasonable and preferred to let guns do the talking.

The indigenous people, caught between two colonies, lived in a multi-tribal state, and wars broke out between them.

In short, the word "chaos" comes to mind.

The cabinet minister who was most supportive of colonialism, Jia Lian, would send the latest weapons to the new Chinese colonies every year without the colonies having to make their own purchases.

Xue Ke, the prefect of Kaiyuan Prefecture, took office as the prefect of Kaiyuan under the command of the Prince of Xinhua. In the autumn of the eighth year of Qianzheng, a group of fifty armed merchant ships arrived at the port, carrying not only immigrants, but also ten thousand new single-shot breech-loading rifles, ten thousand revolvers with metal cartridge cases, and fifty new cannons.

With these weapons, Kaiyuan Prefecture established its own professional army, a cavalry brigade of 5,000 men. Its main combat missions were to sweep through the border areas, protect the colonies, and fight against the natives who attacked the colonies.

In contrast, the professional army in New Washington was established earlier and acquired new equipment earlier. The professional army grew from the initial three thousand cavalrymen to eight thousand cavalrymen, including artillerymen.

Pingyuan Prefecture was the slowest to develop, as it never had a professional army and always existed as a militia.

That's why Li Heng was anxious, after all, that was his base of operations in the colonies.

At Li Heng's request, Xinhua Prefecture provided some new weapons to help Kaiyuan Prefecture establish a professional army of 3,000 men. The main adversaries of this army were not the natives, but desperate outlaws from Mexico. The newly formed Kaiyuan Cavalry Brigade quickly encountered several Mexican bandit gangs, resulting in over a hundred battles, large and small.

Faced with the new rifles, the Mexican gangs, still armed with smoothbore guns, suffered a devastating blow.

The Chinese brought their talent for signaling with beacon fires to North America, building beacon towers at various colonies. In the event of an attack, they would immediately set off smoke signals during the day and light beacon fires at night.

The cavalry brigade deployed on the outskirts immediately launched an attack, successfully encircling and annihilating several Mexican gangs.

The fighting in the Mexican direction was more intense, while the fighting with the natives in the east and north was relatively easier.

After the cavalry of Kaiyuan Prefecture wiped out a tribe of as many as three thousand who dared to attack a colony, the native tribes realized that these golden-skinned people were not just reasonable men. They began migrating eastward, actively distancing themselves from these people. Of course, trade had to be maintained; the natives had become inseparable from the wine offered by these merchants.

(End of this chapter)