After Liu Hai completed the reorganization of the army, he devoted his energy to the construction of the factory.
As the time gets closer and closer to 1894, Liu Hai is under increasing pressure. The various factories Liu Hai has invested in and built now are to be self-sufficient in 1894 when the Western powers impose a military supply blockade on the Qing Dynasty.
The most important one is to build a steel plant.
To build a large-scale steel base, the first thing that cannot be separated is the iron ore area.
If they were to build it in Qingting, they would have to launch large-scale exploration activities immediately.
But with Liu Hai here, all of this is unnecessary. Liu Hai has already made a copy of detailed information on mineral resources in modern times.
This information can be said to be a priceless treasure for the Qing Dynasty. If the great powers get this information, they will carve up the Qing Dynasty without any scruples, because the information in this information is so important, as long as they have it
, you can obtain detailed information on all the mineral resources in the Qing Dynasty.
However, this information is now safely stored in Liu Hai's space ring. Unless foreign powers also obtain alien technology, they will never be able to obtain the details of this information.
Based on this information, Liu Hai determined his first industrial base, which was in Ma'anshan near Nanjing and Wuhu.
Ma'anshan is one of the major iron ore producing areas in the south, with total iron ore reserves reaching 1.635 billion tons.
Moreover, Ma'anshan Iron Ore is an endogenous iron deposit that is symbiotic with copper ore, so it can also smelt a large amount of copper.
For the Qing Dynasty at that time, this was simply a natural treasure land.
In order to build this large industrial base, Liu Hai decided to invest a total of 1 million taels of silver in this place.
The main purpose of this batch of silver was mostly to purchase land that already had owners near Ma'anshan and to build factories.
As for Liu Hai, all the required machinery and equipment were purchased from modern sources. If it had not been purchased from the great powers during the Qing Dynasty, this industrial base would not have been able to obtain 10 to 20 million taels of silver.
In order to speed up the construction of Ma'anshan Industrial Base, Liu Hai recruited migrant workers in the vicinity of Ma'anshan.
These migrant workers are farmers with little land nearby. Their life was not good at first. However, due to the large number of workers recruited in Ma'anshan this time, they finally found a way to survive.
Of course, Liu Hai is also a capitalist after all. Although he said he gave these farmers a way to live, the money he paid was only enough to provide them with basic living.
But just like this, it has also won the support of the nearby people. The money these people have received from farming and working since ancient times is only enough for their families to barely survive and not starve to death. The wages paid by Liu Hai Liu Hai this time can at least ensure that they
With enough food and clothing at home, Liu Hai is already a very good person in the eyes of these migrant workers.
Because of the efforts of migrant workers, the construction of Ma'anshan was very fast. By the beginning of 1893, many factories had been completed.
Next, Liu Hai placed the industrial equipment purchased from Hyundai in the warehouse of the Ma'anshan base, and released the biochemical humans that had been prepared a few days in advance, allowing them to serve as technical workers in the factory.
In the industrial revolution, besides equipment, the most important thing was talent. Although many countries could buy equipment, there was a shortage of talents to use these equipment. Therefore, they were simply unable to complete the most basic industrial layout.
And Liu Hai really doesn’t have to worry about this aspect at all. With biochemical people, Liu Hai can perfectly start an industrial base as long as he has the equipment.
Therefore, during this industrial construction, a large number of factories were quickly formed in the Ma'anshan base.
Steel plants and machinery manufacturing plants are rising one after another, forming a unique landscape in Ma'anshan, Anhui, and also the backbone of the future rise of this nation.
Ma'anshan has also transformed from a small, remote county town into an industrialized city that is beginning to take shape on a modern scale.
Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Works, in Liu Hai's expectation, was officially put into operation in mid-1893.
This steel factory is simply a small enterprise in modern times? But for the Qing Dynasty, it was the most advanced steel factory in the world.
For now, when the first phase of the project is completed, Ma'anshan can reach an annual steel production of 800,000 tons.
If the second phase of the project is completed, Ma'anshan can reach an annual steel production of 2 million tons.
This also includes many special steels, which can be said to be the most advanced in the world today? Even many Western powers cannot produce them.
For example, the armor steel produced by Anshan Iron and Steel Works was developed based on the armor of the Japanese battleship Yamato during World War II. Its scientific name is surface hardened armor VH.
With this kind of armor steel, if a battleship is built with the same thickness, the battleship built by Liu Hai will have more than double the protection level of the strongest battleship in the world today.
Even the armor steel equipped on future Dreadnought-class battleships is more than 70% inferior to this armor steel.
Liu Hai first applied this armor steel to three light cruisers built by Shanghai Shipyard.
This makes the protection capabilities of these three cruisers of more than 2,000 tons sufficient to meet the standards of cruisers of more than 4,000 tons.
Moreover, in order to improve the survivability of his own warships, Liu Hai also refitted all the warships of the Nanyang Navy.
The armor mounted on the outside of all battleships has been replaced with new armor steel, which has improved the protective capabilities of Liu Hai's Nanyang Navy battleships to a higher level.
And just when Liu Hai was updating his naval equipment on a large scale, some turmoil occurred within the Qing Dynasty.
It turns out that although Empress Dowager Cixi had ostensibly returned power to Emperor Guangxu, she actually still controlled the entire Qing court.
No one except the Empress Dowager Cixi can mobilize the military aircraft in the Military Aircraft Department, and these people are completely following the orders of the Empress Dowager Cixi. Emperor Guangxu is still a puppet.
As an ambitious emperor, Guangxu would certainly not allow such a thing to happen.
So Emperor Guangxu contacted his teacher Weng Tonghe and began to win over ministers in the court.
Empress Dowager Cixi has been in charge of the imperial court for so many years, and she has long been familiar with Emperor Guangxu's old tricks.
However, due to the strong interference within the royal family against Cixi, she did not dare to act rashly, so she could only rely on Emperor Guangxu to slowly expand her strength.
However, the Empress Dowager Cixi did not give it in vain. She firmly held the military power near the capital in her own hands, and made Li Hongzhang her arm.
In this way, even if Emperor Guangxu pulled over all the ministers of the imperial court, he would not be able to overturn Cixi's control over the Qing Dynasty.
After a lot of troubles, Emperor Guangxu discovered that the ministers he had attracted were all lengtouqing with no real power.
The real powerful people are all cunning and cunning. They have long seen the contrast in strength between Cixi and Emperor Guangxu, and naturally they are unwilling to stand on Guangxu's side.
Emperor Guangxu is also a smart man. Since these big officials in the capital are unwilling to stand on my side, I will set my sights outside the capital.
The first person to be caught by Emperor Guangxu's eyes was Liu Hai, the Governor of Liangjiang.
Some time ago, Liu Hai was in trouble with the court. Why did Emperor Guangxu think of Liu Hai first?
In fact, this is not to blame Emperor Guangxu. The reason why Liu Hai was in conflict with the imperial court some time ago was mainly because Empress Dowager Cixi could not tolerate the rise of a local power.
Therefore, she carried out all-round suppression of bangs and various conspiracies.
However, Liu Hai was able to exist safely under such siege and suppression, and went further, which impressed Emperor Guangxu.
Although Emperor Guangxu was just a puppet at the time, he was unable to participate in such large-scale political activities.
But Emperor Guangxu also saw the energy of bangs.
And isn't there a saying? The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Since Liu Hai and the Empress Dowager Cixi didn't deal with them, they were naturally the targets of Emperor Guangxu's wooing.
Therefore, Emperor Guangxu issued several decrees in succession to praise Liu Hai for his contribution to Liangjiang, especially the Ma'anshan Industrial Base, which made it possible for the Qing Dynasty to surpass Japan in steel production.
Emperor Guangxu's teacher Weng Tonghe went even further. He directly submitted a memorial to Emperor Guangxu, demanding a reduction in the military expenditure of the Beiyang Navy to compensate for the insufficient military expenditure of the Nanyang Navy over the years.
Weng Tonghe's memorial was naturally strongly opposed by Li Hongzhang. In the past few years, the Beiyang Navy had not purchased any new warships. In recent years, it was still thinking of importing a batch of rapid-fire cannons from the United Kingdom to replace the old-fashioned artillery on the navy's ships. If so,
If Weng Tonghe does this, won't everything be ruined?
Therefore, Li Hongzhang immediately submitted a memorial to Emperor Guangxu to prove its power.
However, Emperor Guangxu rejected Li Hongzhang's rebuttal, and Emperor Guangxu's reasons were very sufficient.
The first is that for more than ten years, the Beiyang Navy has been misappropriating the funds of the Nanyang Navy. Originally, the Nanyang Navy also had 2 million taels of naval funds every year, but they were all allocated to the Beiyang Navy, and now the Beiyang Navy
There are still more than 5 million taels of silver in the account. With this money, the Beiyang Navy should be able to support it for several years.
After Li Hongzhang read Emperor Guangxu's approval, he felt a little self-defeating. He knew that corruption and waste were very serious in Beiyang.
Of the 5 million silver in Beiyang's books, only half of it can actually be used by the navy.
For a long time, due to serious corruption in the Beiyang Navy, the warships have been unable to use high-quality coal. Even the artillery shells may not be used because they are produced by themselves. They can only import high-quality artillery shells from Britain and Germany.
But these words of Li Hongzhang cannot be told to Emperor Guangxu. If Emperor Guangxu finds out that Beiyang's finances are in chaos, then Beiyang will be waiting for a big purge.
Therefore, Li Hongzhang could only endure this sigh. In fact, it was not that Li Hongzhang could not get money. With his own net worth, it was still very easy to maintain the operation of Beiyang for one or two years.
But Li Hongzhang also had a hard time giving up his good fortune, so he was not willing to send his pension money to the bottomless hole of Beiyang.
As a result, Beiyang suffered from a shortage of funds. If the navy could still carry out some maritime trade and barely survive, then the Beiyang army would be in serious trouble.
Many guns and ammunition that had been negotiated to be imported have been stopped from being imported, and all soldiers' rations have been reduced by half.
Coupled with the deductions from officers at all levels, the food and wages falling into the hands of these soldiers are even less. Moreover, Beiyang has one of the most criticized problems, that is, the soldiers have to pay for their own food. In this way, the soldiers have to pay for their food.
The food and salary he received was no longer enough to support his family.
The soldiers don't even have enough to eat, and they can't feed their families. Can you still expect these people to work hard?