"Selling newspapers, selling newspapers! The imperial court had trained a new army of 100,000 soldiers, and their combat strength had crushed the foreigners!”
"The Black Flag Army fought the Red-headed Ghost and killed the French Commander, Li Weili!”
"Li Lianying, Rong Lu has been executed! He had confiscated 70 million taels of silver! The national treasury is full!"
"The Imperial Court is encouraging the establishment of industries and commerce.”
A group of newspaper boys were peddling their wares on the streets. At present, several important cities had already opened newspaper shops.
"Give me a portion!"
"I want three servings!"
For a time, everyone was scrambling to buy it. These common people and scholars would buy a copy to read when they had nothing to do. In this era, there were not many entertainment activities. A newspaper that cost a few coins was the cheapest pastime.
State affairs were obviously the best topics to talk about, especially in the capital. Teahouses also kept up with the times. Other than storytelling, they also added a program like talking about newspapers.
Although sometimes it was nonsense and some people even started fighting because of it,
Today's newspapers were selling exceptionally well, and they had to reprint them twice in a row!
"Your Majesty is wise. These corrupt officials should have been killed long ago. 70 million taels is such a big sum!”
"I wonder if the new army really has the combat strength of a superpower!”
"Don't be afraid. When the Second Dingzhen Warship returns, we will be the number one navy in East Asia. If the foreigners don't send a large fleet from their own country, they won't be able to do anything to us.”
"If you can't beat the Westerners, then train more new soldiers! As long as you dare to fight, you have guts!"
"Forget it! This is the rule of Manchu, it's our business…Don't, what are you doing…Don't hit me…"
Everyone was more concerned about the major national events that were happening. After a few days of fresh fighting between the Westernization Faction and the die-hards, they lost interest in setting up a business.
These things were too far away from ordinary people and needed to be slowly influenced. However, at the same time, more and more elites shifted their attention to them.
What Li Ye had said in the new army had already affected the interests of too many people. Although these people did not dare to say anything on the surface, dark clouds had already begun to gather.
Tianjin
The Tianjin Machinery Bureau occupied thousands of acres of land. There were casting workshops, steel factories, assembly workshops, and dozens of other large factories. The entire camp had been surrounded. Ordinary people were only allowed to enter and not leave. Now, there were almost no foreign engineers here. Only a few Chinese engineers who were willing to become Chinese citizens had been transferred away.
Shen Baojing had been troubled by the bitter taste recently. The task given by the Emperor was very heavy, and they did not produce enough.
However, if this thing was added to the gunpowder and some nails and patches were added, the power of the cannonball would indeed be much greater.
"Director Shen, the foreigners have been sniffing at the rumors that our cannons are more powerful than theirs. These foreigners think that our guns are all imitations of theirs, so how can they be better than theirs?”
Kou Lian was sent to supervise the progress of the weapons manufacturing in Tianjin Machine Factory today. Naturally, he had to ask about these rumors.
"Of course, it's true. Our firearms are no less than the Westerners. It's just that although the scale of production has expanded, time is tight and these things are too expensive.”
During this period of time, Shen Baojing had already expanded all kinds of production workshops on a large scale. It was just that the Imperial Court was a little too anxious.
"The emperor said that you have to move faster. The new army's weapons must be properly equipped, and the ammunition reserves must be 50% more than now.”
Kou Lian relayed Li Ye's words.
"Lord Chief, the situation in Annan was critical a few days ago, and I did not dare to neglect it, so I ordered all the craftsmen to work overtime. Now that the situation in Annan has been determined, the French will be defeated.”
Shen Baojing asked in confusion.
"I don't know about Master's matters, but our Slave Zuo only needs to do as instructed.”
Kou Lian's mouth was tightly shut, and he really didn't know why.
"Alright then! Eunuch, this way please!" We went to take a look at the weapons. Shen Baojing couldn't get anything out of him, so he gave up and brought Kou Lian to inspect the goods.
The two of them passed by the warehouse. Kou Lian had seen many things, so he knew about machine guns, machine guns, rifles, and cannons.
However, there were some things that he did not understand. For example, the black iron lump, which was called a grenade.
Only after asking clearly did he understand that it was a bit like the quaking thunders of the previous dynasty, only much more powerful.
There were also bundles of iron wires and piles of shovels. Even Shen Baojing did not know what they were used for.
" Do shovels have to be used for farm work?“
"There are bundles of iron wires and there are even thorns on them. Aren't you afraid of pricking your hands?”
"Such good iron. If it's wasted like this, who knows how many guns and cannons can be made with it!”
Kou Lian thought to himself as he looked at it. Meanwhile, Shen Baojing's heart was bleeding. They had to work overtime and waste materials on these seemingly useless things. They were simply sorry for the heavens.
Forbidden City
At this moment, Li Ye was a little happy.
Once the ban on private foreign factories was lifted, after a few months of silence, the number of factories gradually increased, and the situation would only increase.
The advantages of giving local enterprises low taxes, land costs, and helping with publicity and promotion were also reflected. This was because they had just started out and the products were a little worse than the Westerners, but the cost was much lower.
Moreover, the sales ability of the Chinese was not something that the Westerners could compare to, especially when some old money houses and silk shops in Shanxi began to sell these things.
Chinese people liked to buy things from acquaintances, afraid of being scammed by strangers, especially foreigners. Moreover, the quality of those Huang Zhuang's things was not inferior to that of foreigners, and the things were cheaper. Why would they buy from foreigners?
Li Ye rejected most of the memorials about the newly established Machine Bureau, leaving only the famous ones for later generations.
Most of these officials were just following the trend. It was a mess. Instead of repeating the construction and producing some inferior things, it was better not to build them.
First, he would focus his financial and material resources on making the existing machine factory bigger and stronger, and then complete the enterprise reform.
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