I want to be emperor

When Luo Zhixue found Hua Xiuyuan, the current supervisor of the Western Trading Company, and asked if he could set up a colony in South Africa, Hua Xiuyuan fell into deep thought...

It is not easy to set up a colony in South Africa.

First of all, that place is seven to eight thousand kilometers away from Hongkou Port, the nearest colonial port of the Western Trading Company. It is a very big challenge for the transportation force to project troops at such a long distance and maintain logistical supplies. .

In addition, the current South Africa and the east coast of Africa along the way are not without owners. Many European countries such as the Dutch, Portuguese, and English have occupied colonies on the east coast of Africa.

Especially the strength of the Dutch in this area is quite strong.

Near the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost tip of South Africa, is now occupied by the Dutch.

Under such circumstances, it is more difficult to colonize South Africa than to wipe out a native country in India.

However, His Majesty has made it clear that he wants to colonize South Africa, even if he is only asking about the feasibility of colonizing South Africa... However, since His Majesty has asked so, he must have this thought.

As a subject, it is his duty to share the worries of the king, and Hua Xiuyuan could only grit his teeth and said: "Your Majesty, although the colonization of South Africa is extremely difficult, I and the [-] subjects of the Western Trading Company will not hesitate to do so." After a little preparation in the next year, I will launch the South African colonization plan!"

Seeing Hua Xiuyuan's expression and hearing what he said, Luo Zhixue knew that he had misunderstood himself.

After the Army and Navy hold their noses and admit that there is no need for any additional military expenses, as long as the war revenue is shared, the civil servants will naturally have no opinion... Leaving aside overseas expansion, overseas markets, etc., just talk about the war itself.

In addition to the above-mentioned newly built warships, a large number of original pure sail warships will actually be steamed and modified. These modifications will be carried out during the overhaul time of the warships to prolong the service life and combat effectiveness of the warships.

And even if they can win in this way, the price they need to pay will not be a small amount.

But when there are a large number of steel parts and high-power steam engines, these are no longer a problem.

In the end, the navy found out that if it wants to colonize South Africa, it is best to completely control the Indian Peninsula first. Even if it cannot be completely controlled, it is best to expel the European colonists in these places.

Therefore, the indirect gold standard must continue to be implemented, and in order to maintain the indirect gold standard system in the next few decades, the Great Chu Empire needs a large amount of gold.

Many of them are large cruisers used as the flagships of the ocean patrol squadrons, all of which have a displacement of more than 2000 tons.

But after a few decades, with the further development of the economy and the further expansion of people's ideas, and it is estimated that the Great Chu Empire can at least complete the control of the global economy by that time, then with the help of the Great Chu Empire's strong national power, it is completely possible to issue credit cards. currency.

Because the Chu Empire Navy needs a large number of warships to maintain its presence in various colonies, routes, and sea areas, and to deter various natives and European colonists at any time.

After the army and navy finalized their cooperation intention, they began to mention the Indian strategy at the council meeting.

But it is still too early to talk about the credit standard. People even have concerns about paper money backed by precious metal currency. Now you tell them that paper money cannot be exchanged for precious metals, which will definitely cause unnecessary disturbances.

Only in this way can we turn the Indian Peninsula into our own back garden, without worrying about the sudden appearance of enemy warships attacking the route, and even turn the Indian Peninsula into a logistics supply point.

It has been four or five years since the navy of the Great Chu Empire started steaming, but due to a series of factors such as the relatively low performance of the early shipboard steam engines, low failure rate, high processing difficulty, and limited output, so don't look at the big steam engines. The steaming of the Chu Empire Navy seems to be very lively, but in fact, at present, the core main battleships of the Great Chu Empire Navy, that is, the dozens of battleships, are still dominated by sail warships.

At present, the gold in South Africa has not been discovered on a large scale, and it will not escape after a few years.

Originally, the army was still thinking about whether to go to the Ural Mountains, but now I heard from the navy that they want to make trouble in the Indian peninsula.

This is why the navy built such a large number of various frigates in the early years. The tonnage of these frigates is actually not large, generally around [-] tons, and their combat effectiveness is not strong. They are equipped with twenty or thirty artillery pieces. These small frigates sometimes face Some powerful European armed merchant ships are powerless, let alone confronting the enemy's regular battleships.

For example, in the age of steam engines, the Great Chu Empire Navy expanded the number of large frigates of eight or nine hundred tons, and reduced the number of small tonnage frigates of four or five hundred tons, so that among the proposed one hundred large frigates, Except for the more than 20 frigates built in succession in the early years, which were 25-[-] tons, the rest are the frigates that Chengshun started to build in [-] years, all of which are large-scale frigates of [-]-[-] tons.

Just taking advantage of this time, the navy of the Great Chu Empire and the warships of the two major armed trading companies were completely steamed, thereby enhancing their combat effectiveness.

As for decades later... the Great Chu Empire has already started playing credit currency, who is still on the gold standard!
Today's gold standard system is just a compromise to some extent, mainly because the people's concept of currency is still limited to precious metal currency, and they are not at ease if the light paper money cannot be exchanged for gold.

As for the navy, let them be the logistics transportation captain.

Let’s not talk about whether the combat power is strong or not. First of all, you have to have so many warships.

The expansion of ocean-going warships is not only reflected in frigates, but also in cruisers and battleships.

In addition, it also involves international trade... Those natives don't recognize any banknotes. They only need gold or silver, and they can exchange gold and silver for the Chu Yuan banknotes of the Great Chu Empire. This is already the limit they can accept.

At that time, the credit of the currency will not be maintained by gold, silver and other precious metals, but by the troops of the Great Chu Empire that span the world.

At the same time, about 1000 sail cruisers will be newly built and put into service. The displacement of these cruisers is more than 2000 tons or more than [-] tons.

The tonnage of the battleship has expanded from about [-] tons two years ago to the current five or six thousand tons.

But don’t worry too much, take your time, it’s okay to spend several years or even ten years to promote this strategy.

Today's hundreds of tons are not enough at all. In the future, the Great Chu Empire will need tens of thousands of tons of gold reserves. At present, only South Africa can supply so much gold for the Great Chu Empire.

Luo Zhixue reckoned that if he had a gold reserve of several thousand tons, preferably tens of thousands of tons, then the empire's indirect gold standard could last for decades.

In addition to warships, other ocean-going vessels are basically sailing vessels, and only a few ocean-going vessels are equipped with steam engines as auxiliary power.

The military has no problem with the attitude of the civilians.

In the past two decades, the civil servants of the Great Chu Empire have always had a very clear attitude towards the expansion of wars abroad: as long as we are not allowed to pay, and let us take most of the war income, then we will Just support foreign expansion!
This Indian strategy is also in line with the consistent attitude of the civil servants, so it is easy to obtain the support of the civil servants.

The reason for the emphasis on quantity is because no matter how powerful a battleship is, it is impossible for it to appear in two places at the same time. If you want to maintain such a large sea area at the same time and maintain an advantage, then the advantage of numbers is indispensable.

This battle was fought by the military, and the casualties were also those of the military, and it has nothing to do with their civil servants.

This is a technical limitation and there is no quick solution. We can only wait for the domestic industry to continue to improve the technology, and the new steam warships will be built and put into service one after another. Install a steam engine to gradually solve this problem.

Then a group of civilian officials made a very clear statement: Your military should not expect us to pay an additional military expenditure of one copper coin.

Regardless of whether it is new construction or refitting, there is one thing that the navy has always insisted on, that is, the number of ocean-going warships in active service must be maintained at more than [-]... After all, the Great Chu Empire needs to control the sea area, the overseas colonies and routes that need to be protected. There are too many. At the same time, the Great Chu Empire was still colonizing the Americas, India and even the east coast of Africa.

The Navy will serve about forty sail battleships. These sail battleships were designed and carried by Chengshun in 21 years. The displacement is more than [-] tons, with a maximum of [-] tons. A large number of steel components are used. A sail warship with a high-power steam engine.

Want to control South Africa's gold, but for the future.

Ever since, it didn't take long for the navy to find the army and discuss doing something in the Indian peninsula. After the main war with the Russians ended, the army had saved money for several years, and now they have money in their pockets. For some money, I just want to do something.

Most of the war income obtained from the war, their civil servants can still go whoring for nothing...their civil servants have never refused such a good thing.

These overseas expansion operations cannot be maintained without a powerful and large naval fleet.

That's why there are three different battleships, battleships, cruisers, and frigates, that are used in conjunction with each other.

Forty sail battleships, [-] sail cruisers, and [-] sail frigates were newly built and put into service.

Therefore, strictly speaking, the cruisers of the Great Chu Empire Navy can be divided into two types: reconnaissance cruisers and frigate leaders according to their combat purposes.

If you want to kill these European colonists, you must first seize their colony in India. Otherwise, if you run across the Indian Ocean to Africa, their fleet on the Indian Peninsula can run over to attack your supply line.

After all, Luo Zhixue wanted to colonize South Africa. In addition to occupying South Africa, which is an extremely important geographical location, to control the waterway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, in fact, it was more for the gold that came to South Africa to stabilize the domestic gold standard.

The modified battleships are mainly first-class battleships with relatively large tonnage and relatively new hulls, and some third-class new battleships. The number will reach as many as dozens.
There are more modifications to other cruisers and frigates.

According to the navy's plan, it will wait until about 35 years after Chengshun, that is, ten years later.

If you insist on continuing to play the precious metal standard currency, then deflation will inevitably occur.

And after the modification, many warships will be downgraded, such as third-class battleships to cruisers, cruisers to frigates, frigates to offshore patrol ships, etc., and some will be changed to training ships or warships for other purposes.

Among them, the various frigates, which account for more than half of the number, are responsible for patrolling and protecting routes on weekdays, doing various chores when going out to sea with the formation, and sometimes performing some low-intensity combat missions.

This is the reason why Luo Zhixue asked the Western Trading Company to colonize South Africa.

The smooth progress of South Africa's colonial expansion activities depends on how well the steaming plan of the Great Chu Empire Navy is going.

As for why frigates with larger tonnages were not built in the early days, because in the early pure sail warships, the cost would increase rapidly after the tonnage expanded, and the military expenditure of the navy was also limited, so more warships had to be built within the limited military expenditure.

As long as the steaming plan goes smoothly, the Great Chu Empire Navy will be able to colonize South Africa at a slight cost.

After thinking about it, the top army officials felt that this matter could still be done. Although India needed the navy to transport troops and supplies in the past, after they landed on the Indian peninsula, the army could completely leave the navy to do things like follow-up wars.

The Hantian-class battleship under construction is designed to have a full-load tonnage of 5000 tons. This is mainly due to the use of a large number of steel parts and high-power steam engine auxiliary power. Otherwise, it would be impossible to do it with a wooden hull alone. Even if it is done, the hull of more than [-] tons relies on sails alone, and the speed of sailing will be very low, let alone maneuverability.

At this time, it is necessary to separate currency from precious metals, and then adopt a credit standard system based on the credibility of the government.

If the difficulty is too great, it is not impossible to slow down.

Only some battleships were equipped with steam engines as an auxiliary power.

As for the sail frigate, about [-] ships will be built and served.

In the future, the Great Chu Empire will inevitably embark on the road of credit currency.

Then the navy made a lot of plans and found out... To fight South Africa, you must first control the east coast of Africa, and if you want to win the east coast of Africa, you must first kill the Dutch, the Portuguese, and a group of other European colonists .

Those civil servants who are stupid in reading and reading, besides being stingy, are still very talkative in other aspects. They basically did not stumbling the military for their external expansion, and they will give them great cooperation.

This kind of credit can't be there.

As for the war income, strictly speaking, all the money should be included in the national treasury, and the military can take part of it as additional military expenses. This is the result of many games between the civil and military sides in the past 20 years, and it is almost a tradition. up.

As for the cruisers, in the Great Chu Empire Navy, some of them cooperated with the battleships to serve as secondary combat missions such as peripheral reconnaissance and attack, and some of them were used as the flagship of the escort fleet.

Luo Zhixue didn't think about forcing the Western Trading Company to pay a huge price for the forced colonization. He really just asked about the feasibility of the current colonization.

Compared with the rapid popularization of steam engines in inland rivers and offshore ships, ocean-going ships are much slower in the popularization of steam.

The credit-based currency system is inevitable after the further development of productivity, because no matter whether it is gold or silver, after the productivity increases to a certain level, the quantity of these precious metals cannot support the huge productivity.

This is the ten-year development plan for the navy that the Great Chu Empire had finalized in the 25th year of Chengshun.

The development of the Great Chu Empire's navy has a context and is carried out continuously according to the domestic industrial level, and the development of the navy is bound to affect the overseas expansion activities of the Great Chu Empire.

This is the so-called 35-ship plan of the navy, that is, [-] new ocean-going warships will be built before Chengshun [-] years ago.

Therefore, even if it is killed now, it is actually not impossible, but when thinking of the possible huge losses and casualties, the high-level empire stopped this kind of thinking. It is better to wait a few years until the navy completes the steamization plan and the combat power soars. Go fight again.

When the Great Chu Empire expanded abroad, there was no precedent for paying a tragic price... When they colonized South Africa, they did not want such a precedent.

As for the matter on the Indian side, the navy family can't decide, and the army needs to cooperate.

It is worth noting that these warships are larger than those in the era of pure sails!

At the same time, the gold standard system of the Great Chu Empire has been implemented for less than ten years, and because the indirect gold standard is adopted, and the foreign trade of the Great Chu Empire is a surplus trade, and it is a large amount of surplus trade, so even if the gold reserve is relatively small, it will lead to a large amount of gold. With the issuance of banknotes, the gold standard system of the Great Chu Empire will not be a big problem for a while.

The tonnage of eight or nine hundred tons in the early days is no longer among the cruisers, and there are even fewer ones in the early one thousand tons. Now the newly built cruisers have a displacement of more than [-] tons. This kind of tonnage used to be three Wait for the tonnage of the battleship.

But the Great Chu Empire Navy still built hundreds of these small frigates!

And the core of the fleet decisive battle is still those battleships.

Only in this way can the money supply keep up with the pace of productivity development.

Otherwise, you can only use old warships to fight with the Dutch and other European colonists in a traditional battle between sailing warships.

However, the real South African colonial expansion can be postponed, but some preparatory work has to start, such as the exploration of routes, finalizing ports suitable for landing and colonization, and formulating combat plans against the Dutch and other European colonists.

Civil servants need more markets and war income as their political achievements.

Generals need more wars and military exploits as their promotion ladder.

As for Luo Zhixue... he was actually behind this matter.

Under such circumstances, the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire officially passed the resolution to conquer India and expel the European colonists.

After the high-level decision was made, the Great Chu Empire officially began preparations for war against India!