Chapter 246 Under the River

Once the decree was promulgated, the wives of the Zhangjun brothers enthusiastically signed up to study, and no one played mahjong anymore.

Zhao Qiaoer, Liu Yingshu, Jin Shu and Meilixi also entered the girls' school. However, the situation of the four people is different. Zhao Qiaoer was the original wife of the governor. The court ordered her to enter the girls' school, not as a student, but as the principal of the Taipei Women's School. She was busy with school affairs all day long and was very busy. Jin Shu is erudite and versatile. She was hired as a teacher by the school to teach girls to read and write. She is respected by everyone as Mr. Jin. This little fairy turned into a gentleman, but it is also a great spectacle. Mr. Jin's class is full every time, and everyone comes to see the fairy!

Meilixi has been the chief and has some management skills. He was hired as the dean of the school and is in charge of student work. Meilixi does have two juniors. Many of them are the wives of Taiwan's military and political masters. They are not easy to mess with, such as Wu Peifu's wife and Nahawu's wife, who are all the second son of the imperial court. When he entered the school, his nostrils were so awesome that he did not respect the teacher and did not unite his classmates, but within a few days, he was obediently cleaned up by Meilixi and became a good student.

Liu Yingshu, without knowledge and culture, can't read big words, and can only be a student. However, she is also at ease that Wu Peifu's wife is the eldest daughter of a famous gentry family in Taiwan, and she is not a student with her.

Only Yao Xi's wife Cuihua could not recognize the situation. She stayed at home and refused to go to school. She also openly ran to the school and pulled people to play mahjong. It was useless for Zhao Qiaoer and Meilixi to come to persuade. Finally, Zhou Charter, in the name of the governor, ordered Yao Xi to leave Cuihua within three days. This time, Cuihua was scared to death and cried into the school.

In a word, the new school of learning in the two places of Taiwan and North Korea is booming, the social atmosphere has been greatly improved, and the academic atmosphere in the two places is flourishing.

Even Na Jin in Beijing couldn't sit still and asked the court to come to Taiwan to study politics. Jin is a scholar of Wenyuange University. Naturally, he has nothing to say about his academic ability and has nothing to do in Beijing. Moreover, the court has long distrusted Jin. Hearing that he was going to Taiwan, he readily agreed. In this way, Yehenara Jin, as a scholar of Wenyuange University, came to Taiwan and became the president of Taipei University, the highest university in Taiwan.

Master and apprentice Zhou Charter finally reunited in Taiwan.

At the beginning, Jin was not very good at Tianjin Wubei School, because he was a literati and knew nothing about the military. Now, he has become the president of the university, and his major is finally the right one, and his knowledge has become useful. Jin relied on himself as Zhou Charter's mentor and asked Zhou Charter for school funds. As soon as he opened his mouth, it was a huge sum of 5 million taels of silver, but Zhou Charter gave Jin 10 million taels of silver. With the money, Jin showed his skills, and Taipei University Hall rose rapidly and rose to the top of world universities. Two years later, it ranked Behind Oxford University!

Taiwan and North Korea, the territories of the Zhou Charter, are prosperous, and the military, industry and commerce, education and civil affairs are gradually on the track of modernization. By the end of 1897, after two years of construction, two arsenals in Taipei and Tainan were officially put into production, and the guns produced in Taiwan began to be equipped with the army. At the same time, the three most advanced cruisers purchased from the United Kingdom are equipped with the navy. These three cruisers are the cruiser Dingyang with a displacement of 8,000 tons, the cruiser Dinghai with a displacement of 7,000 tons, and the fast cruiser Dingzhou with a displacement of 5,000 tons. The three large cruisers are all equipped with large-caliber rapid-fire guns and thick armor. Their firepower has surpassed the two sea giants of Zhenyuan and Dingyuan, the original Beiyang Marine Division, and become the new maritime hegemon in Asia. With these three new cruisers, Zhang Jun's navy has further strengthened and become a veritable First Fleet in the Asian Sea.

At the same time, the first offshore frigate produced by the Westport Shipyard was launched. It was impossible for the Westport Shipyard to build its own frigate in just two years. This is almost a shipyard from scratch. It is a miracle that it can build an ordinary merchant ship. However, after negotiating with Hirofumi Ito, Zhou Charter obtained a large number of shipbuilding technicians and engineers from Japan. Hirobumi Ito even believed that with the protection of the Zhangjun navy, there was no need for Japan to develop the navy, so he almost unreservedly gave all Japanese shipbuilding technology to the West Port Shipyard. Therefore, in just two years, the West Port Shipyard has made rapid progress. While the first frigate was launched, Taiwan's first 7,000-ton cruiser also started construction at the West Port Dockyard. It is expected that in two years, the Zhangjun Navy will have its first self-produced cruiser.

And Zhang Jun's army is also expanding rapidly. By the end of 1897, Zhang Jun officially had three armies, the First Army stationed in Taiwan, the Second Army stationed in North Korea, and the third army stationed in Ryukyu. The third army was developed on the basis of Guo Erwan's independent brigade and marines. The commander is Guo Erwan and the deputy commander is Li Guoge, with three divisions under its jurisdiction.

The expansion of Ryukyu troops into an army is also necessary for the situation, because Ryukyu is becoming more and more important. At first, Zhang Jun's existence in Ryukyu was to subdue the Japanese, but now Ryukyu has become an important transportation hub between Taiwan and North Korea. After all, Taiwan and North Korea are geographically far apart, and Ryukyu is the node that binds the two places together! Therefore, Zhang Jun must firmly control Ryukyu. On this back. Under the scene, the third army of Ryukyu is actually as high as 50,000 officers and soldiers, which is the most powerful of the three armies, and the second fleet of the Zhang army in Ryukyu is also the strongest fleet in the Zhang army navy. In addition to more than a dozen warships such as the original Zhenyuan cruiser, two of the three advanced cruisers purchased from Britain were given to the second Fleet, that is, Dingyang ships and Dingzhou ships.

The powerful Third Army firmly controlled Ryukyu. At the same time, it has provided a strong military backing for North Korea. Because of the Ryukyu forces, the Russian forces retreated sharply in the Far East, and the Far East fleet did not dare to go south, which not only relieved the threat to Japan, but also greatly curbed the Russians' infiltration of Manchuria.

However, Zhang Jun's existence in North Korea, Taiwan and Ryukyu is only an adjustment made by Zhou Charter for survival. However, objectively, it formed a three-sided siege of the Qing Dynasty. This made the Qing court uneasy.

The prosperity of the Taiwan and dynasties has formed a sharp contrast with the decay of the Qing Dynasty.

After the end of the Second War, the state affairs of the Qing Dynasty declined day by day. The victory of the Zhou Charter did not bring any turning point to the Qing Dynasty. On the contrary, the Qing Dynasty was getting down day by day and out of control.

Japan has completely withdrawn from the partition of the Qing Dynasty and become a vassal state of the Zhou Charter. However, other Western powers have intensified.

The Russians gained a firm foothold in Manchuria through the South Manchuria Railway. They turned Zalandun into a bridgehead for Russia to enter the Qing Dynasty and continued to penetrate south. Zhou Charter once defeated the Japanese army in Liaodong and recaptured the Liaodong Peninsula. However, as Zhang Jun left Liaodong, the Russians took advantage of the opportunity to enter. In 1896, the Russians forced the Qing Dynasty to lease Lushun to the Russians, and Lushun became a military base for the Russians.

Since the First Sino-Japanese War, the Germans have repeatedly asked the Qing Dynasty to lease military bases. In 1995, the Secretary of the Navy, German Navy. It will propose to the German Foreign Minister Baron Mashaal to establish naval bases in three groups of China, namely Zhoushan Islands and Xiamen, Jiaozhou Bay and Dapeng Bay; Guandao and Penghu Islands at the southern end of North Korea. Kaiser Wilhelm II even put forward the so-called doctrine of education in Asia, defending Europe, and resisting the "yellow disaster". Without concealment, he expressed his want to establish his own sphere of influence in China. Today, the German Far East Fleet is moored in Shanghai, China, and may launch an armed invasion of the above three areas at any time.

After occupying Annan, the French never stopped further infiltrating China's interior. After the First Sino-Japanese War, the French once again asked the Qing court to lease the Mawei military port. However, the Mawei military port was actually the base of Zhang Jun in Fujian. After the Second Sino-Japanese War, Zhang Jun became the hegemon of the Taiwan Strait, and the French only Can give up. However, after adjusting its strategy, France began to penetrate into the Yangtze River Basin. In 1897, the French fleet arrived in the inland city of Chongqing and set up barracks in Chongqing.

The Yangtze River Basin has always been the sphere of influence of the British. The British have openly stationed troops at the five trade ports they have obtained, and the British Royal Fleet is unimpeded throughout the Yangtze River.

The United States, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and other European countries have also sent note to the imperial court of the Qing Dynasty, some of which proposed to lease territories, and some of which proposed to open trade ports.

In the face of the aggressive partition of the Western powers, the court of the Qing Dynasty was helpless.

However, domestic politics is becoming more and more rotten.

The reform movement of the reform party, which has been strongly resisted by the conservatives led by the Empress Dowager Cixi, has not been implemented for a long time, and the slogans have been loud, but until now, a specific measure has not been implemented. However, the partisan dispute has become extremely sharp because of the change of the law. The people of the Weixin Party and the conservative forces have reached the point of tension.

A series of reform plans proposed by the reformists touched the fundamental interests of conservative forces. Returning to the emperor is the basic policy of reform, and this policy has stabbed the pain of Empress Dowager Cixi, and she must not agree! The reform of the six departments and the abolition of the imperial examinations further touched on the vested interests of those in power, and the six officials in the court were right about the reform. Even many officials who used to support the reform heard that they were going to renounce the six departments and quit, which means that they will lose their jobs!

The most important point is to stop subsidies for flagmen and relatives and nobles, and save funds to start an industry. The children of the Eight Banners have fallen to the point of parasites. They can't do anything but walk birds and listen to music. If the subsidy is terminated, it will completely cut off their source of livelihood, which is equivalent to killing them. The Eight Banners, who had always been muddle-headed, made a final roar in this matter.

So, when it's time for the Regents and conservatives to die, both sides are rubbing their hands and preparing to launch a coup to catch each other all. A battle between blood and fire is inevitable.