I want to be emperor

Chapter 684 Three Major Plans for Overseas Expansion
In the Great Chu Empire, the direction of external expansion not only involves the layout of the empire's overall expansion strategy, but also involves the promotion of domestic industry and commerce, and is even more subject to competition from the army and navy.

The overall strategic layout, this is naturally the most important.

The focus here is reflected in the previous series of strategies targeting the Qingkang area and the Mobei area, and even the follow-up northern strategy and northwest strategy.

Each of these strategies counts as one, and they are all for the overall strategic security of the empire, attacking potential enemies, and ensuring the strategic security of the central plains of the empire.

Putting down the chieftain rebellion in the southwest region, accepting Heshuote and then taking over the Qingkang region, all these are to eliminate the risk of rebellion in the southwest and Qingkang regions.

Similarly, the previous series of strategies in Monan, Mobei, and Northeast regions were also aimed at destroying the enemy.

Later, the Northwest strategy pacified Jungar, and the North strategy attacked the Russians, also to destroy the enemy.

This way of expansion is based on eliminating the enemy, reducing the pressure on the border, and protecting its own hinterland. It does not mean that these barren lands are really fancy, nor is it because of any economic interests in these places. What benefits are there for the economy of the empire? .

In fact, except for the Northeast region, to be precise, the area south of Heilongjiang, the imperial rule in other northern regions is a pure loss... Especially the vast Siberia region that is competing with the Russians. How many mineral resources, but because of geographical constraints, these places are actually a burden for the empire...

Even if it is developed in the future, it will at best maintain a balance of payments.

But the empire spent tens of millions of funds for this!

So much military spending every year, in fact, most of it is invested in the northern region.

Now, the high-level empire is even planning to build a Northern Grassland Railway and a Northwest Railway, and these two railways are all money-losing products with huge investment but extremely low expected operating income.

The Grassland Railway is planned to leave Zhangjiakou all the way from Tianjin, and then go all the way north to Mobei, and finally arrive at the city of Kuer on the west side of Xiaobeihai (Lake Baikal). Xihai County is the city built by the empire at the most navigable location on the upper reaches of the Lena River.

The Northwest Railway starts from Xi'an, then goes all the way west, passes through Lanzhou and the Hexi Corridor to Jiayuguan, and finally leaves Jiayuguan to Hami, Turpan, and Yining.

The routes along these two railways belong to areas with a small population and backward economy.

The Northern Grassland Railway is okay. After all, the road is flat and relatively easy to build. Even if there are few people in the towns along the way, it is easy to repair and requires little investment.

However, the Northwest Railway has to pass through many mountains, especially in Shaanxi and eastern Gansu. It will be very difficult to build, and after leaving the Hexi Corridor, there will be deserts or Gobi Desert along the way.

But the high level of the empire is still determined to build these two railways, not for anything else, just to strengthen the actual control over the territories newly included in the empire, such as Mobei, Siberia, and Turpan provinces, and to strengthen personnel and economic exchanges , Let these places become the real hinterland of the empire as soon as possible.

A territory does not mean that after occupying or even killing all the locals, it can become its real core territory.

If a place travels outside the actual rule of the empire for a long time due to traffic restrictions, various problems may arise over time.

Even the official Han immigrants that the empire organized in the past, after decades or hundreds of years of evolution, will appear alienated, and eventually become a new border trouble for the empire.

In order to avoid this kind of thing, the cultural and economic exchanges and personnel flow between these remote areas and the Central Plains must be maintained.

If you want to do this, then the railway has become the best choice.

Therefore, even if these two railways are losing money, the empire will repair them!
This is also an important reason why the imperial government insisted on monopolizing the railway, that is, through a unified approach, using the profits of railway operations in the eastern and central plains to support the construction and operation in remote areas.

If this is not done, then no commercial railway company will be willing to build railways such as the Northern Grassland Railway and the Northwest Railway, which have no economic profit.

These are all in order to obey the overall strategy of the empire.

But in addition to the empire's overall strategy, the empire's external expansion will also take economic issues into consideration.

This point has been reflected in the expansion of Southeast Asia and India before. The expansion of the Great Chu Empire in these places is very realistic, and it is for money.

The main way is to use powerful force to forcibly open the local market, and then use trade to plunder the local economic interests.

This is a very typical colonial expansion.

In addition, there is competition between the army and the navy.

If the empire expands on the northern land, naturally there will be nothing wrong with the navy. The navy can't send warships ashore, right?

But whether it is in Siberia or Central Asia, the expansion of these places is destined to be dominated by the army.

Conversely, if it is expansion in Southeast Asia, India or even the Americas, then it is doomed to focus on the navy.

Without the escort of the navy, and without the navy to defeat the enemy's navy first, there would be no landing operations.

Even in landing operations, the Marine Corps of the Navy is still the key force.

On the army's side, it's just a matter of cooperating in combat.

This is also the reason why the navy has been promoting the expansion of the empire overseas, because only when it expands overseas on a large scale, the navy will have more military expenditures, more battles, more exploits, and more Get promoted and get rich...

However, because of the overall strategy of the empire, the promotion effect of the navy was not great. The high-level empire only supported the navy's overseas colonial expansion, but never supported the large-scale expansion of territory overseas, and the overall power input is also limited.

Although the navy has opinions on this, it has to pay for the overall situation of the empire.

Now, the northern strategy seems to be coming to a successful conclusion, and the people in the navy can't help it, and they are starting to promote a new round of overseas expansion.

In October of the early winter of Chengshun's 20th year, the navy officially submitted the empire's overseas strategy.

The intention of this overseas strategy is huge. It is said that it is to win more living space for the empire, more markets and industrial raw materials for the empire's industry and commerce.

These slogans were often shouted by the top of the empire before.

So these slogans are nothing, and in terms of specific strategies, the navy's overseas strategy has three specific plans.

The first plan is to create an absolute defense circle along the coast of the empire, the second plan is to fight for more living space for the people of the empire, and the third plan is to open up more overseas markets for the empire and protect overseas interests.

The first plan is to create an absolute defensive circle along the coast of the empire, which refers to requiring the enemy to stay away from the coast of the empire, and not even giving them the opportunity to get close to the coast of the empire.

For this reason, it is necessary to fully control the island areas close to the empire, such as the Luzon Islands controlled by the Spaniards, and the Fusang Islands.

As for the reason, the navy said that the Luzon Islands and even the necessary places for the empire to go south, falling into the hands of others is a huge security threat to the empire. As long as the enemy deploys a powerful fleet in the Luzon Islands, they can threaten Guangzhou at any time This important economic center of the empire even threatens the coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang, and enters the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Conscience of heaven and earth, how can the Spaniards have the ability to maintain such a large fleet in Luzon under the eyes of the empire... It will not work for them for 100 years.

As for the Fusang Islands... In fact, when the Fusang Islands are closed to the outside world these years, they have cut off all ties with other countries except for maintaining trade with the Great Chu Empire.

Under such circumstances, in recent years, the Fusang Islands have actually become the largest single overseas market of the empire, and it is still a monopoly market. A large number of various industrial commodities of the empire continue to pass through Nagasaki and other ports directly controlled by the Edo shogunate. Enter various places in Fuso.

In the early years, a piece of land was leased to the empire to allow the empire to mine gold and silver.

Therefore, although Fusang is not a vassal state of the Great Chu Empire today, the Great Chu Empire has actually gained great benefits from this place.

The people in power of the Edo shogunate are very realistic.

Their closed-door policy is actually very interesting, that is, to prohibit other daimyos and foreign countries, including trade with the Great Chu Empire, but the Edo Shogunate also trades with the Great Chu Empire itself.

To put it bluntly, the Edo shogunate wanted to monopolize foreign trade, earn a lot of economic benefits, squeeze other domestic daimyos, and suppress other daimyos.

The empire doesn’t care about what’s going on inside them, as long as the empire’s goods can be sold continuously and some industrial raw materials or special products from Fuso can be obtained at the same time. How your Edo shogunate suppresses and squeezes daimyo has nothing to do with the empire.

In this case, in fact, the upper echelons of the empire are holding on to Fusang, as long as it doesn't affect my money, the rest will go with the flow.

As for crossing the sea to attack... The natural conditions of that place are not good, and the local population is very large... It is a very typical place with many people and little land.

As far as the empire is concerned, it is better to fight Fusang to expand in any place in Nanyang. It is easier and more profitable.

As for Fusang becoming a threat to the empire... Please, this is the era of the Great Chu Empire, the people are very confident, and they are thinking about whether it is worthwhile to destroy Fusang, not whether Fusang will turn against themselves.

But... In order to seek overseas expansion, the Chinese navy especially likes to exaggerate the threats of Fuso, Spain and the Dutch.

It is said that Spain is a global empire, and it may rely on the Luzon Islands to threaten the hinterland of the empire in the future.

He also said that Fusang was on the edge of the empire, how could others sleep soundly in the couch? He also said that with the continuous development of industry and commerce in the empire, Fusang seemed to be showing signs of industrialization. A water-powered factory, and even a new type of spinning machine is not known from where... In the long run, Fuso will also embark on the road of industrialization, and eventually become the core threat of the empire.

In order to ensure the absolute safety of the empire's mainland coast, the navy strongly recommends capturing the two major areas of Fusang and Luzon Islands to establish an absolute homeland defense circle.

The above is the plan for the absolute defense circle of the local coast in the overseas expansion strategy proposed by the Navy.

In addition to the absolute defense circle plan, the second plan is to win more living space for the people of the empire.

What is a living space?

Not some industrial and commercial interests, but cultivated land!

Food is the first element of human survival, and everything else has to be placed in the back row. Although there is a lot of arable land in the empire, it is not enough. The empire needs to obtain more arable land from other places.

Therefore, the Navy proposes to expand its expansion in various parts of the South Seas, following the example of the previous expansion of the Malacca Peninsula, to seize more South Sea territories to accommodate more immigrants.

For example, some coastal areas in Siam are very good. The Siamese Plain has a very high grain output. With the current backward water conservancy infrastructure and backward farming ability of the Siamese, they can achieve such a large grain output. The empire exported grain in large quantities.

If the empire can take down this fertile land, and then organize a large number of immigrants to come and cultivate it by themselves, and repair the water conservancy facilities, it will be easy to double the grain output several times.

Another example is the Luzon Islands, Borneo, even the central and western parts of Sumatra and Java Island. If these places are well developed, they are very suitable for growing food... Even in places where food cannot be grown, some tropical cash crops can be grown. Such as planting rubber, planting tropical fruits and the like.

At the same time, the expansion in the Americas is based on the current empire's colonial strongholds on the west coast of America, and it rapidly expands to the inland areas of North America to accommodate more immigrants.

According to the information reported by the American immigrants, the Americas are very rich. It is said that they are rich in gold and silver. The most important thing is the pleasant climate. The overall climate is similar to that of the empire.

After the people of the empire immigrated, they were able to adapt to the local life very well, and they would not have difficulty adapting to the local natural environment and climate like immigrants to Nanyang or northern immigrants.

However, these areas with pleasant climate and fertile land are not on the west coast, but in the hinterland of North America and the west coast.

If North America can be controlled, it will be easy to feed hundreds of millions of imperial people with the good natural conditions of North America.

For this reason, the Navy strongly recommends increasing the expansion and development of the Americas, especially North America.

For this reason, the expansion and development of Nanyang, India and even Fusang can be put aside temporarily.

This shows that the navy attaches great importance to the Americas.

The third plan is only to open up more overseas markets for the empire, not only the dumping places of industrial products, but also the sources of industrial raw materials and agricultural products.

In order to improve the overall living standard of the people of the empire.

To put it simply, it is ordinary overseas colonization, which focuses on plundering indigenous countries and the economic interests of overseas colonies. At present, most of the overseas territories of the Great Chu Empire are doing this. At the same time, the overseas colonization of other European countries Basically do the same.

The above three major plans were put forward by the Navy Institute, and when they were submitted to Luo Zhixue, Luo Zhixue was very interested.

It has to be said that although the strategic plan made by the navy is directly aimed at enhancing the influence of the navy and expanding the importance of the navy within the empire, it has to be denied that the navy is very smart, and almost every All plans are based on the highest interests of the empire.

At the same time, it also suits Luo Zhixue's appetite.

The generals of the navy are not stupid. They will also study the strategy of the high-level empire and what Luo Zhixue wants to do. In fact, the specific content of this plan is not important to the navy itself. The navy only needs the empire. Expand overseas and increase the influence of the navy.

The specific content is purely for the purpose of impressing Luo Zhixue, other high-level officials in the country, and even people from all walks of life in the country.

Throw out what others want, and then get what you want.

This is the direct reason why the navy proposed three major overseas expansion plans.

Luo Zhixue is very interested in these three major plans, and thinks that the navy is doing a good job, taking into account all aspects of the problem.

There are both direct territorial expansion and annexation, as well as ordinary colonial models, which are really beneficial.

This made Luo Zhixue have to carefully consider the feasibility of these three major plans of the Navy!
But there are many problems. For example, the first and second plans can actually be viewed as a whole, because their core is to directly occupy and annex overseas indigenous countries, and turn these overseas territories into territories directly under the empire. .

But this way the difficulty is not small.

Simple territorial expansion is easy, but how to turn these territories into the permanent territory of the empire, and implement them at the least cost, and reduce the subsequent impact, requires careful consideration.

For example, it is not so easy to annex Fusang.

It's not because they are difficult to fight, and it's not because the navy said that Fusang will be a threat to the empire in the future, which is basically nonsense.

After all, Fuso is on the edge of the empire. There is a saying: Mexico is too far from heaven, but too close to the United States!

The powerful Great Chu Empire will naturally have a huge impact on Fusang's social structure and economic system, and make them rely heavily on the empire... It is impossible to threaten the empire.

As for the difficulty of annexation, there is no difficulty in the military. Simply sending tens of thousands of imperial troops to land can basically sweep the Fusang Islands.

The problem is that there are too many indigenous people in this poor place. According to various unreliable preliminary statistics, Fusang has a population of about a thousand or even 2000 million these days.

And their race is not very good, each of them is very short, 1.4 meters is normal, and 1.5 meters is tall...

According to the previous teachings of the empire, once annexed, large-scale intermarriage will be carried out in order to completely turn the local aborigines into Han Chinese.

But when Luo Zhixue thought of the large-scale fusion and intermarriage of the Chinese nation with more than 2000 million dwarves... and then gave birth to a group of dwarves... he felt uncomfortable!

If you really want to be so tall, wouldn't it be that the average height of the Chinese people who have taken 20 years to improve will be pulled down every minute.

The average height does not increase but decreases!

This is so nonsense!

Besides, Luo Zhixue personally doesn't have a good impression of Fusang. Although the thing that caused him to have a bad impression of Fusang came from the time and space of his previous life. It is almost impossible for the same situation to happen again in this time and space, but he still feels uncomfortable...

Doesn't this exterminate them all? Luo Zhixue thinks he is a good person. Instead of exterminating them, this will accommodate them as a family and enjoy the outstanding achievements brought about by the industrialization of the empire?
Damn, how can there be such a good thing in the world.

Isn't this the merger of the Mexicans and the United States? You say how terrible the Americans are...

Besides, the Fusang people have been annexed as the people of the empire, how can they squeeze out their economic value in the future and provide the people of the empire with good living conditions?

Therefore, Luo Zhixue wants to annex Fusang, but he is not willing to accept all 2000 million Fusang people... Such ambivalence actually exists in other places, mainly in the Nanyang Peninsula.

At present, the Great Chu Empire has not annexed the Nanyang Peninsula on a large scale, it has only annexed the Annan region, and other places are still oppressed and ruled in the form of puppet states.

In addition to the need to continue to squeeze economically, it is also related to the poor race of the local people. Nima's short and ugly aborigines, whether it is the high-level empire, or Luo Zhixue, all despise them...

The Annan before was better. Many of them were descendants of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty. The most important thing is that the local population is not large. These days, Annan has been affected by the strategy for a long time, but the population is actually very small.

The Ruan family in the south has always been trapped by the sparse population, the economy cannot develop, and the army only has tens of thousands of people.

Moreover, there were frequent wars in the area before, and a large-scale civil war broke out in the area before the empire was annexed, so that the local population further plummeted.

When the empire accepted the territory of the Ruan family in the south of Annan, only four to 10,000+ people were counted in such a large place... [-] to [-] young and strong were captured as prisoners of war, and then transported to Sumatra to plant rubber .

The same is true in the north, more than 10,000+ rebel captives were transported to Borneo to plant rubber.

After the 10,000+ young and strong were sent to the rubber plantations on the two islands, most of the remaining locals were old, weak, women and children, and the total number was not many.

Therefore, the integration of the empire in Vietnam is relatively easy. Although there are some negative effects, they are generally controllable.

But Fusang... that has a population of nearly 2000 million, and the language barrier and cultural customs are also very different, so it is very troublesome to integrate.

Therefore, it seems feasible to annex Fusang, but it is also very troublesome. Luo Zhixue is absolutely unwilling to annex Fusang directly, that would make him feel uncomfortable!

As for not merging after the annexation and letting them play by themselves, that's even more nonsense.

The enlightenment policy is the basic national policy of the empire, and it is impossible to change it because of Fusang.

It's not qualified yet!

(End of this chapter)