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After Qin Mu discussed with his ministers, the Ministry of War began to mobilize the army to Fusu City, Baiqi City, Thang Long Prefecture, Hue, Ava, and Dagon, stationing one to two thousand soldiers in each place, and then using local resources to organize more vassal troops from the local area to clear out the remaining forces in the local mountainous areas.
This will free up the Royal Navy. The navy is used for exploration, or to put it more bluntly, it is used to make money. Australia, India, the Persian Gulf, South Africa, there are too many places that need the navy to explore.
Moreover, using the navy to explore is a very profitable thing. Some people said that Zheng He's voyages to the West were a waste of money and manpower, which is really ridiculous. Without Zheng He's voyages to the West and the countless wealth he gained, could Yongle's five expeditions to Mongolia and the Yongle era have been supported
After leaving the South Seas, the navy's strategy will begin to adjust. Except for uninhabited areas like Australia and some strategic maritime outposts, the navy will no longer insist on incorporating the occupied land into the territory of the Qin Dynasty as it did in the South Seas.
Qin Mu believes that Britain's colonial method in history should be the most successful. It cleverly uses local forces, does not get involved, but stands at a detached height to control local trade, politics, economy, culture, and taxation. It regards colonies as a place to supply raw materials and dump products.
In the Huagai Palace, Qin Mu summoned the cabinet assistants Sima An, Lu Zhenfei, and Li Yuan, the Navy Commander Di Zhongxing, the Minister of War He Liang, the Left Vice Minister Gu Jun'en, the Left Vice Minister of Revenue Xu Yingjie, the Left Vice Minister of Works Wei Yuan, the Left Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Huang Zhenlin, and the Right Vice Minister Gan Nan, and held a small meeting.
Qin Mu first said: "Once the army takes over Eastern Siberia and drives Tsarist Russia across the Ural Mountains, the strategic space of the Qin Dynasty will be basically large enough.
As the saying goes, a country may be great, but it will perish if it loves war. If the Qin Dynasty continues to expand its territory, it will not only bite off more than it can chew, but will also likely be dragged down.
Therefore, the next step is to adjust the strategy and change the occupation by force into a multi-pronged approach of force, diplomacy, economy, culture, faith, etc., and adopt a detached way of colonization.
If we continue to plunder wealth through force and gain without working, we will become like the former Spain, which simply squandered the wealth looted from South America without producing anything. Then it will be difficult for domestic industry and commerce to develop.
In this situation, the people will become extravagant and lazy. They always want to gain something without working, but even a mountain of gold and silver will eventually be squandered. History has proven that Spain has failed, and our Qin Dynasty must not follow the old path of Spain.
The navy's future mission is to occupy some strategic points at sea, control the raw material production areas, and the dumping areas of goods. This occupation is no longer aimed at occupying the territory, but relying on force. With diplomatic skills, control the local economy, culture, and even taxation. In short, the navy has only one mission, which is to serve the economy of Daqin. "
Qin Mu spoke a lot in one breath. Fortunately, there were ministers who had followed him for a long time and had been exposed to his new ideas, so they could understand them.
Li Yuan said, "Your Majesty, our Great Qin is vast and rich in resources. We do not need to rely on overseas colonies for raw materials. In this case, I am afraid that the merchants of Great Qin are unwilling to go abroad to obtain raw materials. As your majesty said, without market demand, there is no driving force. If this problem is not solved, the motivation to go abroad will ultimately be difficult to match that of countries such as Britain and France."
Huang Zhenlin, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: "It should not be difficult to solve this problem. The court can formulate corresponding laws to prohibit the premature exploitation of domestic resources, so as to create a situation of resource shortage for the land, so as to form the impetus for external demand."
Qin Mu remembered that the Americans in later generations did the same thing. They formulated corresponding laws to prohibit the exploitation of domestic resources and let businessmen go out and rob other countries’ resources first. Then their own resources became strategic reserves. After your resources were almost robbed, I would slowly exploit my own resources.
Qin Mu was greatly relieved after listening to Huang Zhenlin's suggestion. Now the horizons of the ministers in the court are becoming more and more open. It is hard to imagine that the rulers and ministers of the Ming Dynasty, who knew almost nothing about the world, would have such vision and discuss the world situation, not to mention the Qing Dynasty, which was closed to the outside world.
Xu Yingjie, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, added: "Minister Huang's suggestion is very good, but forcibly prohibiting the exploitation of domestic resources may not be effective. Your Majesty, I think it is better to introduce tax policies to regulate it than to enact laws to forcibly prohibit it.
Now, there is almost no competition problem for Daqin's products in the world. In other words, even if Daqin's products have a higher cost, they will not lose their competitiveness.
This would provide the court with an advantage. It could raise taxes to increase the cost of using some domestic raw materials, so that business owners would look abroad.
Abroad, you can get a lot of free labor, and use military and political influence to control local raw materials. In this way, the cost of foreign raw materials is lower than that of domestic raw materials. This will not only increase import and export taxes, but also force industrialists to look overseas.
Of course, which raw materials need to have higher taxes? This requires careful weighing of the pros and cons, so as not to affect the income of ordinary people in the country and restrict the production capacity. "
"Very good." Qin Mu signaled Jin Gongnan to write down the opinions of all ministers and submit them to the court for discussion during the court meeting.
He pondered for a moment and then said: "The ultimate goal of sending troops to Nanyang before was to incorporate the entire Nanyang into the territory of Daqin, so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had nothing to do with it. But after the next policy adjustment, it will depend on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The best strategy is to attack the enemy's strategy, the next best is to attack the enemy's alliances, and the worst is to attack the city.
Next, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should take the lead in the military and solve problems that can be solved by exerting diplomatic pressure, and try not to use force. In addition, even if force has to be used, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should try to ensure that trade is not completely interrupted. "
Huang Zhenlin and Gan Nan stood up together, bowed and said, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will follow your Majesty's orders and do our best."
“As for the Royal Navy, it must also be prepared for a full-scale conflict with Western countries. As our Royal Navy continues to advance towards India, the Persian Gulf, and South Africa, the interests of Western countries will be damaged, and they are likely to unite again driven by interests.
Don't underestimate the Western countries because of the victory in Quanzhou Bay. As far as I know, the Netherlands, a small country, has nearly 10,000 warships and armed merchant ships, traveling around the world, and is known as the coachman of the sea.
The maritime strength of countries such as Britain, Portugal, Spain, and France should not be underestimated. Although the strength lost in Quanzhou Bay is not just a drop in the bucket for them, it definitely did not hurt them. It’s just that due to the long sea route, they could not fight against the Qin in the Far East.
Once our army advances to India, Africa, or even Europe, our geographical advantage will be completely lost. In those unfamiliar waters, our Royal Navy knows nothing about the waterways, climate, hydrology, ocean currents, etc.
Not to mention all the Western countries coming together, even the Netherlands alone could make the Qin Royal Navy return in defeat. Therefore, we must not be careless. "
There was no exaggeration in Qin Mu's words. In naval battles, the situation is greatly affected by sea conditions, climate, and other factors. A small negligence could determine the outcome of a war.
Compared with the Western maritime powers, the Qin Imperial Navy was still a little immature and lacked understanding of the situation in the open sea. Yi Sun-sin of Korea was able to defeat more than 100 Japanese warships with more than ten warships, not because the Korean navy was more powerful, but because Yi Sun-sin made full use of the complex sea conditions to defeat the Japanese navy.
Western maritime powers are very familiar with the conditions in the open ocean, but the Qin Imperial Navy is very unfamiliar with them and has never even been to the Indian Ocean. If they are careless, they may suffer a disastrous defeat like the Japanese Navy.
Now there is a general mood of pride and complacency in the navy. Because of a few victories, many people think that they are the best in the world. If we go out with this mentality, failure is almost inevitable.
Therefore, Qin Mu decided to give the navy another few blows to make them understand the true situation of countries around the world.
He said to Di Zhonghang: "The prisoners of the Quanzhou naval battle should be re-interrogated, and they should be asked to explain in detail the naval strength of each country, the situation of each strategic stronghold, and the situation of each sea route, and cross-check to prevent anyone from lying. Then, these important materials should be compiled into a book, and each naval captain should have a book and study it carefully so as to have a detailed understanding of the actual situation of Western countries. In addition, among the prisoners, we should try our best to persuade them to defect. They are familiar with the conditions in the open ocean, and with them as guides, the navy can avoid making many mistakes."
Di Zhongxing quickly stood up and replied, "Yes, Your Majesty."
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.(To be continued..)
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