"Converting the budget for ship purchase and personnel training to 8.6 million Han Yuan, the royal family allocated 2 million Han Yuan, the Ministry of Finance allocated 5 million Han Yuan, and the remaining 1.6 million Han Yuan was allocated from the Navy's special funds."
At the end of 1879, Zhang Zhenxun gave Li Mingyuan assets worth 31 million taels of silver in the name of his daughter's dowry. In addition to investing in the palace, heavy industry development and construction, etc., this money could be used as a working capital of about 10 million taels of silver.
From the 10 million taels of silver, 1 million taels (i.e. 2 million Han yuan) were extracted to support the development of the navy. The amount was moderate and would not affect the subsequent use plan of the reserve funds.
"There is a balance of funds collected during the internal rectification period. The government can squeeze out more from the fiscal budget and allocate 5 million Chinese yuan within two years to support the navy's ship purchase plan."
Liu Pu expressed his position on behalf of the government departments.
"The navy can think of more ways to raise 1.6 million Chinese yuan."
"Very good, the problem of ship purchase funds has been solved. Regarding the construction of the navy itself, Chen Sen, Li Han, Feng Guoan, do you have any other comments or suggestions that you would like to add?"
"Your Majesty, since we want to expand the size of the naval ship force, shouldn't the construction of naval bases, the establishment of base garrison forces, and the establishment of the Marine Corps also be expanded accordingly?"
"There is no doubt that naval bases will change as the fleet expands."
“As His Majesty said, the domestic navy’s combat targets are the navies of Chile and the Republic of Brazil, and perhaps the U.S. Navy will be added later. In order to cope with the changes brought about by the increasing naval strength of Chile and the Republic of Brazil, I believe that we should follow the example of the British and French navies.
The country has unified the establishment of three base management commands in the home region, with full authority to command naval management affairs in the Atlantic and Pacific directions, and to share the management pressure of surface force commanders."
"Are you ready for the specific plans for base construction and management?"
"We already have preliminary plans."
Chen Sen explained, "The naval base construction plan is expected to take nine years to complete. From this year to 1890, the three naval bases will assist the fleet to manage a total of 40 main warships. The base personnel include 5,500 surface ship officers and soldiers, and 4,500 navy and land forces.
The battle team, 10,000 base ship maintenance and garrison troops, holds a comprehensive joint joint exercise among the base, ships, and Marine Corps every two years to enhance the comprehensive combat capabilities of the base and ship formations."
"Haha, what is the base construction plan you proposed? I think it includes all matters related to the navy."
Li Mingyuan laughed and did not make a clear statement on the plan proposed by Chen Sen.
"Base construction is closely related to the Navy's overall plan. When formulating a base construction plan, it will inevitably involve other aspects of Navy development matters."
"I understand how you feel."
Li Mingyuan waved his hand, stopped laughing, and explained, "The navy is different from the army. It is a high-tech branch. The daily maintenance of warships and the monthly salary of officers and soldiers are a huge expense compared to the army.
Compare the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, the Japanese fleet and the local navy, which are both late-developing naval countries.
In terms of the Qing Dynasty navy, the annual income of the admiral of the navy is about 8,400 taels of silver; the annual income of the navy general is about 3,960 taels; the annual income of the naval vice-admiral is about 3,240 taels; and the annual income of the naval officer is about 2,640 taels.
silver.
The monthly salary of a first-class sailor is 10 taels of silver; the monthly salary of a first-class gunner is 20 taels of silver; the monthly salary of ashore handyman is 3 taels of silver; the monthly salary of a torpedo maker is 24 taels of silver; and the monthly salary of a signal soldier is 30 taels of silver.
The annual income of a farmer in the mainland is about 40 taels of silver; the annual income of an ordinary worker in the developed coastal areas of Shanghai and Yangcheng is about 50 taels of silver. Comparing the two, we can find that the average military salary income of the Qing navy officers and soldiers is
Nearly ten times that of ordinary people in mainland China."
Li Mingyuan continued to describe the intelligence collected by intelligence personnel from the Far East.
"Since 1874, the Japanese Meiji government has promulgated new salary standards for naval officers and soldiers: the annual salary of an admiral is 6,000 to 8,000 yen; the annual salary of a vice admiral is 4,400 to 5,500 yen; the rear admiral, military medical director, and accountant director are
The salary for naval officers at all levels is about 1,280 to 3,000 yen; the salary for lieutenants at all levels is about 400 to 980 yen; the military pay for ordinary sailors is 7 yen per day (100 yen equals 1 yen), converted into
The annual salary is only 25.55 yen.
Economic data released by the Japanese government last year showed that an average Japanese household can save more than ten yen a year. The ratio of Japanese yen to Chinese yuan is 1 to 0.75. More than ten yen can be saved in the mainland.
That is, the level of eight or nine Chinese yuan is not worth two months' income of ordinary local workers, and their living standards are not as good as those of Chinese people in mainland China. Because Japan is poor in small countries, it can only choose to squeeze ordinary people as much as possible.
In order to develop the navy, although the mainland uses land as the main military subsidy, the salary standard of naval officers and soldiers is one-third lower than that of Japan, but the proportion of annual funds spent on warship maintenance and training of naval technicians and officers and soldiers is still higher.
Far higher than the Japanese and Qing navy.
At the beginning of this year, the navy submitted a budget of 1.78 million Chinese yuan. It is expected that in the next ten years, the navy's military expenditures will increase by no less than 5%. It is very difficult to put so much financial pressure on the government and it is impossible to completely
Follow your base construction plan."
"What changes does His Majesty think are appropriate?"
"The number of the three main bases remains unchanged. The number of main warships will increase to 26 within ten years. The naval force establishment will be reduced to 4,500 people. The size of the Marine Corps will be roughly in accordance with your plan. The personnel establishment will be maintained at about 4,000 people. The personnel assigned to the base will
Gradually increase to 7,000 people."
Li Mingyuan slightly reduced the naval expansion plan proposed by Chen Sen, reminding him, "Although the Germans have taken the initiative to contact us and are willing to help the locals build warships, their intention is mainly for Germany's own interests, so I plan to cooperate with them from within the government and
The navy each selected a group of personnel to form a joint military inspection team, which was mainly responsible for supervising the Volcan shipyard and required the Germans to build two battleships in strict accordance with our improved plan and no experimental changes were allowed."
"Your Majesty can rest assured that the navy will select suitable personnel and require the German side to complete the construction plan of the Qing Dynasty's two warships before starting the formal construction of local warships."
"The Germans will most likely bully the Qing court for not knowing how to build warships. They will use two warships purchased by the Qing court as experimental subjects to verify and improve their warship construction technology. The Qing court will suffer losses, but we cannot be fooled by the Germans.
, I suffered a loss for no apparent reason.”
Li Han echoed.
"After the military inspection team arrives in Europe, in addition to supervising the construction of warships, some personnel will also be separated to inspect the military situation of the armies and navies of European countries, so as to serve as a comparative reference for local military development."......