Master Yuan, start!

Basically, one out of every four people will be "semi-forced" to join the National Defense Force to replace soldiers who are eliminated and discharged due to injuries or illnesses.

However, due to the severe cold weather in Northeast China, farm work basically means working for a year and resting for half a year, with a "hibernation" period of up to 5 months every year.

Therefore, many civilians who joined the army did not have much resistance to this kind of forced conscription. Instead of chopping wood in the mountains or selling their labor at stations and docks in winter, it would be better to join the National Defense Force directly.

Of course, the most important thing is that you can get money by joining the army. Not only are your food, clothing, and daily expenses covered by the army, but you will also receive a certain amount of "attendance allowance" every month.

The allowance was not as much as the regular soldiers’ salary, but it was pretty good in the eyes of the common people who had just arrived.

According to the plan, the National Defense Army will expand the conscript organization to 6 more regiments based on the six regiments initially established in North Korea, which can basically meet the needs of combat.

Thinking back, Yuan Xiangcheng wrote the words "Lu 20" under the word "Yuan" on the white paper, and under the word "日", he wrote "Lu 24".

"Fortunately, after the Northeast Border Industry Bank's financial system was gradually established, it was possible to use paper money to pay military salaries, which alleviated the financial pressure to a certain extent."

"But the navy is a big problem!"

Thinking of this, Yuan Xiangcheng started to have a headache again.

During the past three years, the navy has successively purchased two more warships. Now the Beiyang Fleet has a total of five main warships.

Even if Japan sent out two warships, the current Combined Fleet still has nine main warships.

"Fortunately, I had no intention of confronting the Japanese head-on, nor did I allow these five warships to dock together. Instead, they were dispersed in the ports of Lushun, Yantai, and Incheon to prevent surprise attacks.

After Ling whispered, Yuan Xiangcheng wrote words like "5 ships at sea" and "9 ships at sea" on white papers.

WIn addition, the achievements of light and heavy industries outside the Great Wall have also begun to emerge.

The Pyongyang Coal Mine was established the earliest and now has an annual output of 50 tons, which is not inferior to the Tangshan Kaiping Coal Mine, which started production earlier.

Coal mines in Fushun, Benxi, Liaoyang, Tieling, Jinzhou and other places also went into production before 1894, with annual output ranging from 20 to 40 tons.

In total, not counting the Kaiping coal mine and the Pingxiang and Changxing coal mines dug by the southern governors, the coal production in Northeast China and North Korea has reached more than 200 million tons.

In comparison, Japan's annual coal production at that time was 416 million tons.

Although it cannot compare with Japan in quantity, its quality is not inferior to Japanese coal.

Most of the coal mines in Fushun, Benxi and other places produce anthracite with low sulfur content. They are close to transportation lines, which makes them very convenient for both transshipment and export.

QIn contrast, the western Japan region, where Japan's industry is concentrated, mainly produces lignite, while most of the anthracite producing areas are far away in Hokkaido.

In terms of coal production, the three northeastern provinces plus North Korea are half of Japan.

After thinking for a while, Yuan Xiangcheng wrote "200 million tons of coal" under the word "Yuan" on the left side of the white paper, and wrote "416 million tons of coal" under the word "Ri" on the right side.

: Steel production outside the Great Wall far exceeds that of Japan. When writing this, Yuan Xiangcheng rarely showed a happy expression.

In this time and space, Japan suffered a defeat, surrendered its warships, and cut off trade with North Korea, which led to a period of "hardship march".

Japan has few iron ore resources, and now it can only rely on the simple ironworks built by the Satsuma Domain at the end of the shogunate to barely maintain its daily iron needs, with annual steel production of only a few tenths of a ton.

The famous Yawata Iron and Steel Works in Japan is still on the drawing board. In the original time, construction could not start until the indemnity of the Treaty of Shimonoseki was received. In 1901, Japan's steel production saw an explosion, exceeding 5 tons for the first time.

Now, the largest steel production center in East Asia, Benxi Iron Works, has been established outside the Great Wall and in North Korea.

Unlike the Pyongyang Iron and Steel Works, which produced a few hundred tons annually for learning and exploratory purposes, the Benxi Iron and Steel Works had an annual production target of 3 tons from the beginning.

After introducing the "backward" production technology of Carnegie Steel Company, Benxi Iron Works quickly exceeded an annual output of 2 tons. Due to the large demand for steel rails for the railway outside the Great Wall, Benxi is currently striving to sprint towards 3 tons.

Therefore, the steel production outside the Great Wall is greater than that of Japan.

"I won in terms of steel production."

Yuan Xiangcheng looked happy, but after a few breaths, he wilted as if he remembered something.

Compared with Japan, China is ahead, but compared with any country such as the United States, Russia, Germany, France and Britain, China's steel production at this time is only a drop in the bucket.

1 tons, Germany 363 million tons, France 83 tons, Britain 316 million tons. China's current steel production cannot even reach a fraction of that.

"There's still a long way to go to catch up with the UK and the US."

Yuan Xiangcheng sighed and continued to record by candlelight.

In the cotton spinning industry, there are currently five machine spinning mills in northern China, namely the Incheon Spinning Mill owned by the Red Confucian Society, the Lushun Dasheng Spinning Mill owned by Zhang Jian, the Yantai Zhangyu Spinning Mill owned by Zhang Bishi, the Tianjin Chengcheng Spinning Mill jointly run by Chenghou and Yuan Xiangcheng, and the Seoul Spinning Mill run by Korean aristocrats.

The five major spinning mills had a total of 5 spindles, while Japan had more than 15 spindles in 1894.

"Combining the spinning mills in the south, the total number of spindles in China should exceed that of Japan."

Yuan, 15 spindles; Japan, 38 spindles. Yuan Xiangcheng added another new data.

Although the number of spindles is not as large as that of Japan, the export volume of cotton yarn from outside the Great Wall and North Korea is higher than that of Japan because the population is far smaller than that of Japan. Most of the cotton yarn from Japan is used for domestic consumption.

"Shipping, next is the most important shipping."

Yuan Xiangcheng muttered to himself, clenching the pencil tightly with both hands until his fingers turned white.

Thanks to the large amount of steel produced locally, the shipping industry outside the Great Wall has also developed further. Now, ships of the Sihai Shipping Company manufactured by the Incheon Shipyard and flying the Yellow Dragon flag can be seen everywhere on the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea.

Today, not counting civilian merchant ships, the Sihai Shipping Company alone has more than 50 ships of various sizes with a total tonnage of more than 60000 tons.

Yuan Xiangcheng kept in mind the creed of large-scale industrial production in later generations: the more produced, the lower the cost.

At his request, the Incheon Shipyard only produced civilian 1200-ton river and sea dual-purpose iron-ribbed wooden-hulled cargo ships in the past few years.

The keel is made of steel produced by Benxi Changtie Factory; the steam turbine is purchased second-hand from Britain and the United States; and the outer hull is made of high-quality wood from Changbai Mountain in Jilin.

This type of cargo ship has many shortcomings, including small tonnage, backward technology, slow speed, and almost no protection capabilities, making it unable to withstand ocean waves.

Compared with the British and American cargo ships that crisscrossed the North Atlantic, these ships were almost nothing.

But, it doesn’t matter!

For China in the late 19th century, industrial products did not need to be the best, but only the most suitable.

For Europe, it has long entered the era of ironclad ships. If they were asked to make "iron-ribbed and wooden-hulled" ships of the previous era, the cost would be difficult to reduce, as the price of European wood is much higher than that of China.

Although China's steel production is currently unable to increase, steam turbine technology is almost blank and there are not many skilled workers.

Money 9 31 1-o

But these are not problems at all for 1-2000 ton offshore cargo ships.

In addition to supplying the Sihai Shipping Company, the Incheon Shipyard also opened its ships to private orders, and a total of more than 30 1200-ton cargo ships were sold.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have money to buy it. You can borrow money from the Northeast Border Industry Bank and pay it in installments.

Yuan Shikai creatively introduced what would later become known as "consumer loans" in the late 19th century. This was due to the increasing demand for transporting people and goods as trade between the three northeastern provinces and Korea continued to develop after the opening of ports outside the Great Wall.

Therefore, even if interest is required, a considerable number of merchants still choose to take out loans to buy ships.

Of course, more people are still willing to borrow from fellow townsmen in the province's chamber of commerce, but no matter how they buy, the ships of the Incheon Shipyard are very popular.

"Comparative advantage, we must clearly understand China's comparative advantage in the late 19th century!"

Yuan Xiangcheng recalled a piece of news from later generations.

In the era of smart phones, smartphones from Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi and others have dominated the world, driving Nokia from a major international manufacturer into bankruptcy.

But in Africa, where the internet is poor and people have low incomes, smartphones cannot play their full potential.

At this time, a Chinese brand called Transsion was able to sweep the African market with its unique "feature phone".

If Transsion's feature phones were to be sold in China, since they lack a large screen and 4G network, no one would want them even if they were given away for free.

But in Africa, it is the most suitable. It is durable, resistant to falling and low in price, which perfectly meets the needs of Africans.

This is the comparative advantage. You don’t have to be the best, but as long as you can find the most suitable market, you can make a lot of money.

Yuan Shikai keenly grasped the comparative advantage China had over Europe at that time, but his blind pursuit of building large and powerful ships would certainly make him unable to compete with Europe and lead to complete failure.

However, there are no wide rivers like the Yangtze River outside the Great Wall, and the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea are not as windy and rough as the North Atlantic, which instead provides space for small cargo ships to survive.

No matter how advanced or how high the tonnage of British and American cargo ships are, can they enter the Haihe River in Tianjin, the Han River in North Korea, and the Daliao River in Fengtian?

No matter how strong the wind and waves are in the North Atlantic, what does it have to do with my Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea?

Our Northeast has its own national conditions!

For a tonnage of 1200, not only is it not cost-effective for developed industrial countries such as Britain, the United States, and Germany, but it is also not certain that they can find people to do it. Their shipyards have long reached the level of tons or even tons.

The tonnage of mainstream commercial cargo ships in Europe has also exceeded 5000+, and even -ton cruise ships have gradually appeared.

At this time, Britain and Germany had already been fighting for a share of North Atlantic shipping. After the Russo-German "Great Reconciliation of the Fourth Century", the situation in Eastern Europe and the Balkans eased, and the Germans turned their attention to the West and paid more attention to their maritime interests.

Therefore, the Germans launched the Friedrich der Große three years earlier than in the original time and space. This was a cheap immigrant ship capable of transporting more than 3 people.

Historically, it was on this ship that William II delivered his Hun Speech, which he practiced for the German troops heading to China to suppress the Boxer Rebellion.

Therefore, at this time, shipyards in Britain, the United States, Germany and other countries were all eager to accept large orders from the government and had no intention of caring about the demand for lightweight ships in the Far East.

At this time, Japan had about 700 merchant ships with a total tonnage of 11 tons, but most of them were small boats used for coastal inland seas and inland river shipping, with an average tonnage of 200 tons.

Although North China had only more than 80 ships, their total tonnage was more than 8 tons, with an average tonnage of 1000 tons, making them more capable of long-distance navigation than Japan.

After all, if a war breaks out in Japan, the first battle will definitely be a naval battle. At that time, it is impossible to use small boats weighing hundreds of tons to transport supplies.

"It's a tie."

After much hesitation, Yuan Xiangcheng finally put an equal sign on the shipping column.

As for the railway transportation industry, the total mileage of Japan's railways is approximately 3500 kilometers.

As for the railways in northern China, not counting the railways under construction in Guanwai, Jilin and Heilongjiang, and only counting the completed Shenglu Shenyang-Dalian Railway, Sheng'an Railway Shenyang-Dandong and North Korea West Coast Railway, the total length is about 1300 kilometers.

So in terms of railway mileage, Japan is larger than northern China.

As for the military industry, Japan has the Tokyo Artillery Factory, Osaka Artillery Factory, Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, and Tsukiji Naval Arsenal.

In northern China, there were the Incheon Machinery Bureau, the Incheon Shipyard, and the newly established Shengjing Arsenal.

However, in the military industry, the two can be regarded as weaklings fighting each other. They basically have no original research and development capabilities and can only survive by imitating European and American firearms.

"It's okay to imitate. The advantage is that you don't have to take detours. Following in others' footsteps can also save a lot of verification costs."

In the military industry column, Yuan Shikai was once again equated with the temple.

"call"

Picking up the white paper and blowing it dry, Yuan Xiangcheng stared at it for dozens of minutes under the flickering candlelight.

Finally, he placed the priceless paper on the flames, completely erasing its traces in this world.

A few days later, in Shengjing, inside the Governor-General's Office of the Three Eastern Provinces.

Beads of sweat the size of beans dripped onto the ground, but Yuan Xiangcheng turned a deaf ear to them.