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Chapter 51 Northern Manufacturing Bureau

In order to protect the weapons and ammunition of the new army, Liu Ji specially established the Northern Manufacturing Bureau, which was directly under the central control. The Northern Manufacturing Bureau was originally planned to be located in Tianjin Wei near the capital. Liu Ji thought that although it was convenient for sea transportation there, attacks from the sea could easily be lost in Tianjin, so he changed his address to Changping Prefecture, not far from the capital. Tao Pengti, the first Minister of Service of the Manufacturing Bureau, and Lin Ashi, who returned from the United States, served as the deputy.

The Northern Manufacturing Bureau is divided into two departments: Heying Village on the east side of Changping and Yuhuang Temple on the west side of Changping. The Eastern Bureau mainly produces gunpowder, bullets, and rifles. The Western Bureau mainly produces flowering bullets, cannon trucks and military equipment. The equipment required is mainly imported from the UK by Lin Ashi.

It was already a cold winter season when Liu Ji inspected the factory, and the factory and infrastructure had been completed. In order to ensure the supply of ammunition when the army conquered Zhanggeer next year, the construction period was accelerated and the construction was completed before the Spring Festival.

In addition to local officials of all sizes and sizes, there were also Lin Ashi who were stationed here and some subordinate officials. Today, Lin Ashi was wearing a fifth-rank official uniform. His short hair had been raised and a braid was attached to the back of his head. It looked like there was no foreign flavor. Even the kowtow posture was not much different from the local officials. Instead, the Hakka flavor still sounded so strong.

Liu Ji accompanied him with Tao Peng, the Minister of Service in charge of the Manufacturing Bureau, and Bao Shichen, the Minister of Works, who was in charge of this project. Lin Zexu, who had just joined the Military Affairs Office, also walked with him. Lin Zexu had a curiosity about new affairs that ordinary people could not meet, which also made him accept these things faster than ordinary scholars and officials. This time, Lin Zexu took the initiative to accompany him.

Under the guidance of Lin Ashi, a huge group of officials arrived at the eastern bureau of the Northern Manufacturing Bureau east of Changping. Along the way, the local Eight Banners and Green Camp soldiers isolated the onlookers. When they arrived at the Eastern Bureau, the guards who arrived here in advance and the officers and soldiers of the Tiger Gun Camp had already stood all over the courtyard of the East Bureau. They carried foreign guns and had swords hanging around their waists. Except for the guards who were still yellow jackets and red roofs, the military uniforms of the Tiger Gun Camp had been changed to green new military uniforms with upper and lower uppers, and the hat on their heads was also a kind of green cloth hat.

Such outfits naturally attracted everyone's attention. When everyone's confused eyes were on two soldiers from the Tiger Gun Camp standing under a cluster of green trees, smart people already understood the magical use of these green military uniforms. If such military uniforms were hidden in the woods, they should be able to hide them well.

The factory where the machine was installed was a wooden structure. When he walked into the empty factory, Liu Ji was worried about the money again. This time he bought the machine from the British and spent all the silver he had accumulated recently. Fortunately, he copied the homes of five princes before the New Year, otherwise the machine would not be able to be bought back.

When he was short of money, Liu Ji would involuntarily think whether the annual expenditure was over 17 million taels of Han soldiers was worth it. If the money was really put into practice instead of being used to raise a large number of "idle people", the military expenditure of the Qing Dynasty would definitely be among the forefront of the world. It is ironic that the military expenditure of the world's forefront was actually defeated by thousands of British soldiers later.

Seeing Liu Ji's thoughtful thoughts, Lin Ashi thought the emperor was not satisfied, so he stepped forward and said carefully: "Does the emperor be dissatisfied with the factory?"

Liu Ji came back to his senses and smiled, and asked Lin Ashi: "How long will it take for Mr. Lulaub to transport it to the machine."

"There is still half an hour left for the fast Malay report to take the outpost. The emperor will take a rest in the house prepared by his subordinates and wait for a moment."

"Okay, I'll go and have a rest."

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Before Liu Ji opened the five ports to trade, China's trade with Europe was limited to one port in Guangdong.

At that time, China entrusted all the jurisdiction over trade among European and American people to Guangdong officials, the Governor of Guangdong, the Governor of Guangdong, and the Governor of Guangdong Customs, etc. These Guangdong officials also entrusted all the trade with European and American countries and all the regulations on the actions of European and American people in Guangdong to hold all the "traders" of monopoly "foreign businesses". The traders also entrusted all the consignee committee of the British East India Company to implement the rules on these trade and actions.

Therefore, China naturally expects that the Consignees Committee will have administrative jurisdiction over all European and Americans in their residence in Guangdong. These appointments are, in normal terms, very broad in scope, and their nature is more appropriate to express them by indirect rule or even "contracting". The supervisory power of superiors does not work, but is almost allowed to act arbitrarily. However, for some reason, when the superiors' concerns are concentrated on this aspect, the supervisory power will suddenly be restored and appear with an extremely severe attitude. This system can be said to be arbitrarily merging by the Qing Dynasty on the standard of "Celestial Customization", and the Qing Dynasty allowed foreign trade out of favors. For this system, even the East India Company with some convenience is not satisfied. However, the tough resistance to the Qing Dynasty has been rejected from trade with China and has lost its monopoly on trade with China.

Liu Ji ordered the five ports to trade freely, and the UK was very welcome to this. However, the development of things had some twists and turns. After the five ports, the 13 companies in Guangzhou closed down five companies in less than a year. They were Liquanxing, Xichengxing, Tongtaixing, Fulongxing, and Dongshengxing. These merchants actually monopolized European trade with China with the East India Company. Without these merchants, the British could not buy and sell goods in China by themselves. Due to the sudden bankruptcy of the five merchants, there were only six merchants in Guangdong. The other four merchants in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai have not yet formed the same climate as Guangzhou trade.

At this time, a petition signed by almost 44 Indian merchants, including all the large Mumbai merchants, was sent to the East India Company Consignees Committee, and then transferred to the British Business Consul Lulaub.

The petition expresses dissatisfaction with the following situations: 1. Due to the reduction of foreign banks and the unreasonable prohibition of trading with single merchants, the price of Indian cotton was inappropriately lowered; 2. Bankrupt foreign banks were bankrupted with huge debts from foreign merchants, and their debts were returned year by year by year by year by year by year by other merchants who issued "joint guarantees". Now foreign banks have lost money and their debts are accumulated without interest; 3. As a source of financial support for repaying these liabilities, they are used for trade (that is, provident fund for merchants collected from foreign merchants); 4. It is required to abolish the regular ritual silver (every foreign ship entrance is enrolled) of 1,950 taels; 5. It is allowed to expand transactions with public and single merchants.
Chapter completed!
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