"Does the emperor mean that some of the industries that use steam engines can be transferred overseas?"

Yang Chengye had a flash of inspiration in his mind, and suddenly thought of something.

Xiao Ming smiled and nodded, and he said: "In fact, some merchants in the empire have brought steam engine technology to the colonies, and this is the mining field in the colony, and mining without a steam engine is very inefficient. ”

"That's right, relatively speaking, you have to build a thermal power plant to use electricity, and the steam engine only needs coal and water wherever it goes, which is very convenient." Yang Chengye said.

Pang Yukun pondered for a while, and said: "The factories with steam engines as the main body are slowly withdrawing from the imperial market, these idle machines are indeed wasteful, and compared with the cheap labor in the colonies, the salaries of the imperial workers are much higher, and the factory owners will gradually be unable to bear it, but they can continue to make profits when they are transferred to the colonies, which is also a waste for the empire." ”

"That's what I mean, the merchants of the empire are the merchants of the empire wherever they go, and their output is the output of the empire, so that the steam engine industry is completely abandoned and causes a huge waste, and it is better to transfer it to the colonies to extract surplus value."

"The Emperor Shengming!" When everyone heard this, they were all impressed.

The empire has grown so fast in recent years that the people of the empire can't keep up with the pace of factory machinery upgrading.

After the advent of electricity, this contradiction is more prominent, still using the steam engine will face low efficiency and high labor costs, the use of electricity, the purchase of just a few years of steam engine will be idle.

After the empire successively occupied the colonies of the Wa Kingdom and the South Seas, there were already some nimble merchants who were ready to move the steam engine factories to the colonies, so that they could continue to produce in the colonies, and thus have the money to buy electric machinery.

It's just that the empire has extremely strict control in terms of technology, except for the mining industry, and has always been extremely strict in other aspects.

Because of this, businessmen and officials complained about business when they came into contact, and now that the emperor has set the tone, there will be no problem with this matter.

The report on the economy, science and technology basically ended here, and then Xiao Ming listened to the situation of political reform and military reform in the past two days.

According to the reports provided by the Cabinet and the General Staff Headquarters, the restructuring of the various provinces has now been completed, and the officials of each branch have their own duties.

The top-down setting of posts in the military region has also been basically completed.

These two reforms were successfully completed, and Xiao Ming was also relieved, because it meant that the empire had officially become a modern country, whether in terms of industry and commerce, political system, culture or industry and commerce.

For hundreds of years to come, the order he has created will not lag behind enough to ensure the stable operation of the empire, after all, these institutions themselves come from the present day.

The year-end meeting lasted from morning to noon, and after entertaining the ministers in the palace, the meeting continued in the afternoon, but the content of the afternoon meeting became the meeting for the next year's specific plan.

"If you have something to do, you have nothing to do!"

In the evening, in the shrill voice of Qian Dafu, the curtain came to an end, and the courtiers shouted long live, exiting the hall, and tomorrow was the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve.

Standing up from the dragon chair, Xiao Ming and Qian Dafu first withdrew from the Zhengda Guangming Palace.

Coming to the outside of the hall, Xiao Ming looked up at the goose feathers flying in the sky and asked, "It seems that the war in Nanyang will be delayed until next year." ”

"I'm afraid so, but at least the Southeast Army has taken Jakarta, and now I don't know if Yue Yun's fleet is enough to control the trade routes at sea." Qian Dafu was responsible for receiving telegrams, so he was naturally well aware of these wars.

Xiao Ming's eyes narrowed, in fact, he had a premonition that the war in Nanyang would not be as easy as that of the Wa Kingdom and Goryeo, after all, although the weapons of the West were backward, they were truly modern troops.

And the soldiers of the era of lining up to shoot were the most disciplined era, because in every war they had to face the muzzle of the enemy's guns directly.

So in Jakarta, the thunderous offensive resulted in 2,000 casualties, while in India there are many more Western soldiers, and if they go head-to-head, they will also lose a lot of soldiers.

Now he needs oil the most, and the occupation of India is not in the first place, so he is also thinking about the offensive plan of India.

Since the Imperial Navy was able to control the sea routes, the coalition soldiers besieging India were a good choice.

At the same time, if Luo Xin's Southwestern Army attacked East Indochina and British-controlled Burma by land, and surrounded India from the east, the Indian coalition would be even more uncomfortable.

Soon, his idea was verified at the tenth day of the year, and a telegram from the Imperial Navy was delivered to him.

"In the battle of the mouth of the Ganges, the Imperial Navy sank ninety-six enemy warships, but more than 3,000 were killed and wounded, which is the most serious battle damage suffered by the Imperial Navy so far.

In the imperial study, Cui Shangan analyzes the battle report from Nanyang.

"How many people are there in the Southeastern Army now?" Xiao Ming asked.

"Back to the emperor, there are currently 64,000 soldiers registered in the Southeast Army, of which 57,000 are combat soldiers, and the remaining 7,000 are logistics and civilian personnel." Cui Shangan said.

Xiao Ming nodded when he heard this, because of the modernization and reform of the army, the logistics of the army are now their own business, because logistics soldiers account for a considerable proportion of the army.

"According to Liu Chen, if we want to capture Calcutta, we are afraid that we will have to pay 20,000 casualties, which is equivalent to losing half of the combatants of the Southeast Army?"

"I'm afraid that's true, and the Southeast Army now has garrisons in the colonies in order to control the colonies, and I'm afraid that the soldiers who actually participated in the attack can only make up about 40,000 people."

Xiao Ming frowned, "It's not worth paying the lives of 20,000 soldiers for a Kolkata, since that's the case, let's spend it slowly, anyway, the empire has time now, the more we wait, the more advanced equipment we have, and they will eventually lose the will to fight if they are separated from their country for too long." ”

"Xiaguan also has this idea, taking advantage of this time, the empire can digest the colonies that have been occupied, and at the same time let the southwest army go south to attack the city, so that it can't take care of each other." Cui Shangan said.

Standing up and walking to the map, Xiao Ming circled India in a red circle, and he said: "Let's do it, in addition, expand the empire's army to the size of 600,000 people, I'm afraid we will have to deal with a lot of things in the future." ”

Cui Shangan was stunned for a moment, and then said with a smile: "Your Majesty, this is no problem, but this military expenditure?" ”