C762 telegraph network Meridian (1/2)
To the Great Qing, the so-called regular army meant that the army could be deployed across provinces without their morale crumbling. Doing deep combat would not produce a strong sense of disgust, and coupled with the fact that they were proficient in new firearms, they were already considered elites among elites in the eyes of the officials of the imperial court.
What? You said you want to train a stronger army that can fight the foreigners? What do you want? Did he want to rebel? Such an army was a complete nightmare for the Manchu dynasty.
In fact, the higher ups of the Manchu were a little grateful to Yaqub and the Russian behind his back for bringing over 60,000 elites of the Xiangjun Group. Don't underestimate this number, this was already considered as the elite of the Xiangjun Group, for there to be 60,000 of them fighting against foreign forces during the time of the late Qing, it could already be considered as the elite of the entire Great Qing's army.
Towards such elites, the Manchu's attitude was very clear. Since they were not made by the imperial government, they could only guard against them and not raise them. Why did the Chinese need such an elite army?
Of course, Zuo Zongtang was still in the Gan Shan region trying to pacify the pars dorsalis's rebellion, the real history would only wait until he brought the coffin into the battlefield, which would be around 1875, and no one knew how many elites he could bring out from the Xiang Army.
Looking at the numbers, the number of people in Great Qing who could reach the fighting strength of one hundred thousand would be limited to one hundred thousand. On the other hand, Xiao Letian was prepared to help Zai Chun cultivate an army of eighty thousand in ten years, and this was already something that he had slightly exaggerated about before. Now that Zai Chun had opened his mouth to ask for a hundred thousand, even Xiao Letian, whose face was even thicker than the city walls, could not bear to listen anymore.
”Stop dreaming, pack up and prepare to return to Ryukyu. Your teacher is coming …”
When he mentioned Weng Tonghe, the little emperor's face immediately turned bitter. Thinking back to Imperial Advisor's strict teaching style and Xiao Letian's relaxed teaching style, he felt that his good days were about to come to an end.
Xiao Letian saw Zai Chun's hesitation and let out a long sigh. ”Do you really think that going out to study the imperial government and not care about anything else? Your studies are related to the fate of the Empire, so how could they not be interested? ”
”In this year, your performance has impressed the Beijing. You forced three hundred flagmen to come to the Ryukyu to train and form your own army, and afterwards, you made a Fusang Bank and gave four million silver to the imperial government. What would happen if no one noticed …”
”It was Master who gave me the idea to back me up. You can't just point it at me …”
Xiao Letian went up and smacked the little emperor's head, ”Enough, stop talking rubbish, pack up those gifts I gave you. We'll leave in three days.
In the last three days, Xiao Letian and the Fu Sang Mu Manor continued their intensive discussion. This time, they were discussing about the construction of the telegraph line, and separated the two main lines, one going past the four nations and headed straight to the River Hu family.
Now, Xiao Letian's envoy had reached an agreement with North Korea, where the telegraph line could cross over from the inside of the country. The telegraph line could enter the black water of White Mountain, and the other one could head straight to the Tanggu.
At the same time, Ryukyu's underwater cable to Shanghai, Fuzhou and Hong Kong would be completed in a few months. At that time, Ryukyu would become a place where telegraph network would cross the pacific ocean.
To put it in half-jokingly, if the Ryukyu became the communication link between Asia and the North America, even the Western Powers would be reluctant to kill him here. Even if they had to start a war, they would have to be extremely cautious.