Before the Meiji Restoration began, Japan had a consensus on the issue of reform, whether it was the emperor, the reformists, or the shogunate.

In fact, it is in the original history, after the success of the reform of the 1898-year-old in the late Qing Dynasty.

Although the last general Tokugawa Keiki was the supreme leader of the shogunate, he himself was a reformist and committed a major policy in 1867.

It was only because the shogunate conservative forces were too deep and the opinions were not unified, and the Satsuma and Choshu were anxious and could not wait, so the war against the Shogun was launched.

The end of the Wuchen War was in 1869, and the last aftermath of the Southwest War was in 1877.

Because of Emperor Hua, the war has not been completed yet. If it were developed according to the original historical trajectory, Takasaki Saigo would have died long ago, but Takasaki Saigo is still alive now. Not long ago, just after being caught by Xuan Jianzhang before Emperor Hua visited Europe, Emperor Hua ordered Xuan Jianzhang and Li Hongzhang to bloom Takasaki Saigo again.

The two vassals of Satsuma and Changzhou have the strength to compete with the central government, and the Chinese reformists have almost no foundation. The leaders from all over the country cannot help the reformists fight against the conservatives, and in the end it will probably be even more chaotic than in the Beiyang period.

No matter how the elites at the upper level are doing, the lowest-level rural clan system and the way they face the loess and the sky are unchanged, society is still the same.

Of course, there is another situation that must be considered. During the change process, the gun is wrapped around other blind followers.

Emperor Hua told Zeng Jize that he had some of his views on the direction of the country, which gave Zeng Jize a new understanding of the situation of the entire country and Emperor Hua's foreign policy.

Zeng Jize also reported to Emperor Hua about some of his learning achievements in Europe.

Zeng Jizeyi has a basic understanding of Chinese and Western cultures.

He started with primary school education and believed that: "The so-called primary schools in China are divided into ancient and modern times. Sinologists use words, sounds, and philology as the beginning of learning, and ancient primary schools. Song scholars use sweeping to deal with advances and retreats as the base of children's mothers, and today's primary schools."

"The so-called primary school in Westerners use microscopes to examine the fine and small things to help the family to examine the differences in the materials of all things, the differences in life and death, animals and plants, and the differences in fetal and egg moisture.

From the details to know the greatness, from the surface to verify the inside, from the useless to find usefulness, and from the same species to observe different species.

This is the primary school, and it is a ally related to optics and electrical science. It is also a sign of gathering to invite people to watch it."

In this regard, Chinese studies focus on human moral articles and the subject's practice, while Western learning focuses on the examination of objective things.

Zeng Jize did not compare the methods of Western learning with China's "Studying things and learning knowledge".

Although he mentioned that "the aspiration to make Chinese businessmen and people imitate the European art of enriching the country and strengthening the army, and study things to gain knowledge."

However, if he further infers, he could even come to the conclusion that traditional Chinese knowledge did not truly follow the teachings of "sincerity, uprightness of mind, investigation of things, enlightenment, self-cultivation, self-cultivation, family management, country governance, and peace of the world", but instead ignored the investigation of things and enlightenment, and directly embarked on the path of self-cultivation.

This may be the deviation from the initial dogma of Chinese traditional knowledge from New Confucianism (Neo-Confucianism), and this deviation is the root cause of the problems in Chinese knowledge!

The understanding of Western culture directly penetrates into Zeng Jize's practice of diplomacy.

Zeng Jize discovered that Western international relations follow a rule, namely international law, and the fundamental point of international law is to protect national sovereignty and protect national sovereignty regardless of the size of the country.

Zeng Jize told Emperor Hua: "Western countries use public laws to maintain their own system to protect their vassals of small countries, so that they all have the right to be independent."

This is the biggest cultural difference between relations between traditional Eastern countries. The consciousness of international law and sovereignty gave Zeng Jize endless power. He used Western international law as a weapon to attack his son's spear and shield him.

After hearing Zeng Jize's words, Emperor Hua was very happy and agreed: "I said it very well. I thought about it with me. A few days ago, I also talked about education issues with Princess Katrina Kaif, which is similar to yours."

Zeng Jize smiled and said, "I have any good solutions. These are summarized through my usual speech to His Majesty at the Huacui Evening News. It's just that after staying in Europe for a few years, I have gained some new experiences. This is how I educate Siping."

Emperor Hua smiled slightly and affirmed Zeng Jize's work.

In the original history, Zeng Jize successfully recovered Yili in difficult negotiations with Russia. When debating the matter of taxing foreign medicines in the Yantai Treaty, he said righteously: "Western countries, regardless of size, strength, strength, and tax payment, are decided by the owner and issued customs, and they will be handled in accordance with the matter. Although the customer is strong and large, they cannot infringe on the right of the master's autonomy." "The right to increase tax is up to me!"

This alone was enough to be included in the ranks of famous officials in the late Qing Dynasty, but his father's light was too strong, covering up the sharpness of this brilliant diplomat in the late Qing Dynasty.

Zeng Jize also has many unique insights into the experience and understanding of Western society.

For diplomats, it is a basic mission to examine the "different political, language, and customs" of their country.

Zeng Jize mainly records this observation conclusion in his diary.

First, let’s look at the architecture. Chinese buildings are spread out in multiple planes, and the floors are not high, which wastes land.

"The foundation of Westerners is very valuable, so they like building houses. The height is eight or nine floors, and the first and second floors of the ground are kitchens and wine rooms, which can be said to be a cherishing ground."

Zeng Jize did not make further analysis of the fundamental reason for the formation of this difference.

In fact, this difference is caused by the difference between China and the West in the development stage.

Chinese cities have not developed fully because they are in the stage of agricultural civilization. The rapid development of Western cities and industry and commerce will inevitably lead to rising land prices and high-rise buildings.

Regarding garden construction, Zeng Jize also noticed the difference between China and the West.

In the West, "the construction of gardens and gardens is as large as a large area, and the situation is as wide as a large area. When you visit the place where you are resting, the larger area is as large as more than ten miles, and the smaller area is as small as two or three miles. There is no small heart to cherish the ground, and there is no slightest rule of conciliation. If you enjoy the people, the people will not complain."

This conclusion is very insightful: he combined the Western political ideal of building public gardens with the "joy with the people" and discovered the people-oriented political genes of Western society. The implicit meaning is that Chinese gardens are mostly built by private or royal families, and did not practice the ancients' ideal of "joy with the people".

Zeng Jize’s understanding of military power. As an enthusiastic supporter of the Westernization Movement, Zeng Jize is the most sensitive to the gap between China and the West.

Regarding the powerful root of Western military power, he realized: "Its scale is also aligned with the intelligence of the people of the country, accumulated decades of experience, and consumed countless wealth before it was achieved. Therefore, it is a big and meticulous person, and it is also good at winning."

Why can the West use the wisdom and power of the whole country to create such a huge military machine? Zeng Jize is vague.

Emperor Hua speculated that this may be a flaw in Zeng Jize's observation, but it may also be that he is unwilling to be involved in political disputes.

Because Zeng Jize wrote a famous article in Europe, in contrast, China's own famous article "Theory of Sleeping First and Wake Up" says, "As for domestic affairs", it says, "I will not talk about it for the time being."

Emperor Hua affirmed Zeng Jize's ideas. People who have been abroad for a long time have unique vision, but people in China can still have this understanding as long as they read what Emperor Hua has written.

"The Duke of Bismarck is versatile and plays with Austria, France and Russia. Bismarck is a firm nationalist, but his foreign policy has changed repeatedly. He unites different countries at different times to achieve the lofty purpose of unifying Germany. A mature politician must believe that he has no eternal friends." Emperor Hua smiled at Zeng Jize.

Zeng Jize nodded, "Yes."

"When you go to Germany this time, you are mainly diplomatic, and you also have to order Chinese orders. Remember, we must order German warships, but before the formal negotiations, you must let the Germans know that we mainly tend to order British and French warships." The cute president continued to tell Zeng Jize.

Zeng Jize said curiously: "Look for a few more to negotiate prices. I can understand this, but why did Your Majesty decide to order German warships? Isn't the British navy the most powerful in the world, and the French ranked second? Is the emerging German industry capable of building first-class battleships? Germany's shipbuilding experience is definitely not as good as that of the British and French. Even though we have a bad relationship with Britain and France now, I am confident that it will not affect the order matters. Besides, we just happened to ease relations with the British and French by purchasing warships."

When Emperor Hua heard Zeng Jize say this, he knew that Zeng Jize had done some homework in the navy and warships. He was very pleased and said with a smile: "Easy with the ease of relationships, not by giving money! It is by the competition of national strength, and buying from Germans with insufficient shipbuilding experience. I have decided that German industry is fully capable of building the latest battleships. Besides, we are not just receiving goods without inspection."

The mid-to-late 19th century was an extremely important stage for the development of world ships. Almost all works on the history of warships and naval history in later generations will mention this colorful golden years to a greater or lesser extent.

During this period, with the rapid development of the industrial revolution, new technologies such as steam engines, steel armor, breech artillery, etc., new inventions continued to emerge. The wooden sail warships that dominated the ocean for centuries began to withdraw from the stage of history reluctantly in the face of new technologies.

In that era, the ironclad ship was undoubtedly the overlord of the sea.

This kind of warship in armor developed from the battleship era in the sailing warships acted as the main battleship in the navy and was used to participate in regular large-scale maritime operations. It was the backbone of the navies of various countries and a symbol of national strength. According to the simple division standards at that time, ironclad ships could be divided into first-class ironclad ships (displacement of more than 56,000 tons). Later, China's "Dingyuan" was called "first-class ironclad ships all over the earth". This type of large ironclad ship was the ancestor of later battleships; the other type of ironclad ship was smaller, called second-class ironclad ships (displacement of 34,000 tons). Japan's "Fusang" and "Hire" ironclad ships belonged to this category, and were used to being called "small ironclad ships" at that time.

The ironclad ships that China now needs to buy, as for cruisers, light cruisers, and smaller gunboats and torpedo ships, China already has the ability to produce them on its own.

"Okay." Zeng Jize nodded and agreed, "Your Majesty, how many ships are there, what size?"

"Four ships!" The cute president made four fingers, "The largest ironclad ship of this era!"

Emperor Hua didn't say it directly, but in fact he wanted four Dingyuan-level battleships!

The "Dingyuan" combat ship/first-class armored ship cost 6.2 million marks (equivalent to 370,000 pounds), and is a Dingyuan-class combat ship. In its original history, a 7,000-ton first-class ironclad ship was built by the Vulcan shipyard commissioned by the Qing Dynasty to build the Vulcan shipyard in Tantbury, Germany (which was assigned to Poland after World War II and is now named Szczecin).

They are the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan respectively, and are the main battleships of the Beiyang Fleet of the Qing Dynasty.

Construction started in 1881, and the Dingyuan ship was launched on December 28 of the same year, and the Zhenyuan ship of the same level was launched on November 28 of the following year; the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships were completed in 1884, and the Dingyuan ship cost about 1.4 million taels of silver and the Zhenyuan ship cost about 1.42 million taels of silver.

The British ambassador Wilma pointed out that the prices of these two ironclad ships were already very cheap at that time.

The German government won this order in order to stimulate heavy industry on the one hand and increase Germany's political influence in the Far East on the other hand.

In 1885, the two ships arrived at Dagukou and joined the Beiyang Navy.

The second ship was called "the number one giant ship in Asia" at that time.

In the same year, a 2440-ton cruiser, Jiyuan, was purchased in Germany, with performance far less than Dingyuan. The two ships "Zhenyuan" accounted for nearly half of the former, 680,000 taels of silver.

In the shipbuilding contract, it was originally stipulated that the shipment was transported to China after completion of the outer cabin, but due to the Sino-French war, Germany needed to remain neutral, so it was transported to China only after the war ended.

In the current time and space of Emperor Hua, the number of Emperor Hua increased, and the demand for the two ships was changed to four ships, because Emperor Hua knew the Germans' craftsmanship level and there was no problem!

The Zhenyuan armored ship was also produced by the German Volkeng Shipyard. It is the quasi-sister ship of the Dingyuan. Its parameters are basically the same. When Weihaiwei fell, the Zhenyuan ship, which had been severely damaged, was captured by the Japanese army and incorporated into the Japanese joint fleet, participating in the Russo-Japanese War. It was retired in 1915 and was dismantled.

The participation in previous battles can also be used until the end of the Russo-Japanese War, which fully demonstrates the excellent quality.

Huahuang was confident in the industrial products of the Germans. Most of the current Chinese engineers were poached from four countries: Britain, Germany, France and the United States. Therefore, Huahuang had a basic concept of world industry.

The same technology and the same cost must be the last use of German products.

Zeng Jize nodded, and after receiving clear instructions from Emperor Hua, he also felt at ease.
Chapter completed!