Since the history of Europe has always been a political system ruled by aristocrats, the British army still legally implemented the "gift system" in the first half of the 19th century, especially when officials were ordered by the king and filled by aristocratic brothers. The most outrageous thing is that these aristocratic brothers are not serious about being officials. Will they spend some money to hire people to help them deal with public affairs?
For example, in 176, the Finance Department of the British Navy and the Director of the Accounting Department of the Sixth Military Department spent 500 pounds and 1,000 pounds each year to hire people to act as agents, and the rest was brought to their own department. Charlie Briyezke got a salary of 1 pound and 13 shillings. On the one hand, he hired people to work as employees, and on the other hand, he got a salary of 227 pounds and 3 shillings for senior civil servants in the official hall.
This situation was not put on the agenda until February 154, when the British government published the Report on Establishing a Regular British Civil Service System and passed the examination to select the civil service system. This is the famous British civil service reform. After a long quarrel, the British Privy Council signed the Order of the Privy Council of the Royal Government on May 21, 155, and Britain changed it.
However, every system does not mean that changes can change the facts. It takes time for the system to be popularized. Fourteen years after the introduction of the civil service system, out of the 926 civil servants recorded annually, 7o33 have directly finished their jobs without competitive selection, and two have passed the public competition examination, with an average of two in one year.
Franklin, an American veteran, once visited Britain and commented that "absolute corruption is popular among people of all levels in this ancient country, and it is completely degenerate and corrupt from head to toe!"
Civil servants are still like this, but officers can, especially because the so-called absolute power leads to absolute corruption, which is not only applicable to China, but also to Britain
Military corruption refers to the fact that although civil servants practice the life system, most of them are aristocrats. At least they have basic education. However, there is a popular system of selling officials in the military. Ranks can be bought and sold, which is the only one in Europe. Selling officials in China’s history is not really daring to sell officials, that is, the Han Dynasty and the Manchu Dynasty were very early, and even if they did it, they were special cases. There was absolutely no system.
It is enough for the British to sell officials to make the big officers look down on them.
Compared with the big six countries in Europe, such as France, even if they wanted to become military officers in the aristocratic era before the Great Revolution, they had to be approved by court genealogists to have 1/16 aristocratic descent. Therefore, almost all the officers in French schools were from big noble or had a family history of hundreds of years, so Napoleon was introduced to the king’s nobility. Napoleon was an officer because his family was a small aristocrat after all, and the emperor had to win over the indigenous people of Corsica at that time to make an exception and let him go to the military school.
Although the British also attach importance to aristocratic descent, with the growth of new noble’s class, those who have become rich through capital expansion have no prominent background and hope to get a decent status by joining the army. Therefore, they have gradually formed a system of buying and selling officers. This system is that the rich have opened up new roads and all their qualifications and talents are sidelined in the face of money
Before the Opium War, the only restriction made by Britain on the system of selling ranks was that in 176o, children were forbidden to buy officials, and the transaction price was fixed. The first one was to put a fig leaf on their face, unlike the Qing Dynasty, when children were born, they could donate officials. The fixed transaction was to promote the commercial society.
Until now, Zhu Jinglun has received news that the promotion of British officers is still up to the money. In addition to the fixed price commission, he also needs to buy his own army and equipment. There are indeed rich people who can afford it.
This system made the British always win less and lose more in the face of the French army in Napoleon’s time. It was not that the number of troops was not enough or that the British army was not equipped. In fact, at that time, the British army was well paid, and the whole illegal weapons and equipment were aided by the British.
But officers can’t. Some nobles who buy officials will order soldiers to carry them across the river to defeat Napoleon in the March. The Duke of Wellington once ordered soldiers to throw these delicate aristocratic officers into the river.
The quality of officers is generally low, not to mention the fact that officers have no interest in the army. They are as keen on cocktail parties, ballroom dancing and literary salons as noble and civilian officials, and rarely communicate with soldiers. They are completely different circles from those from the bottom.
Not only ordinary British officials look down on soldiers, but even famous soldiers like Wellington are forced to recruit soldiers from the bottom poor. They think that their roots are "inhuman" and "recruited scum of the earth knows how to drink"
The management of the army is also very chaotic. When Wellington led soldiers from Scotland and Ireland to fight Napoleon, the British army allowed soldiers’ families to March with the unified soldiers, accompanied by a large group of women and children, which was probably left over from the pirate culture.
After the officer position can be bought and sold, it is almost certain that corruption will occur, and the British will also be paid.
The British army is a recruitment system. The way to form an army is often that an officer buys a rank and then the government entrusts him to form another regiment. The government will fully pay and equip him with weapons, while the officer is responsible for the recruitment, management and training of soldiers.
Due to the lack of familiarity with officers, the British army is widely short of posts, just like the China army in the Qing Dynasty
But it is strange that there are so many problems in the British army, and it seems that the British army’s record is not bad. Zhu Jinglun is puzzled. His officers will not tell lies. He has figured out the truth that Europe has saved the British army in the war for a long time
In history, Europeans have to fight a big battle every few years, which not only greatly exercises the military key, but also forms the general martial arts culture in European countries. In the era of great navigation, European adventurers seem to be more desperate in other places. They regard it as a kind of quality rather than a cultural stress response to frequent and fierce wars. By that time, when westerners generally live in stability in the 21st century, it will not be westerners who show their so-called "brave" spirit, but the people wearing headscarves in the Middle East will show their "brave" spirit in the west, and at that time, westerners said that it was an unwritten behavior
Another reason is that the mercenary system popular in Europe in history can hire a large number of professional Swiss mercenaries with money, which hides the fact that the British army is weak
Make a fool of oneself, the real British army, was in the war with Russia in Crimea. All kinds of corruption problems have been revealed by newspapers which are now flourishing. This kind of public opinion supervision is also helpful to the British army, but the situation has not been reversed yet. However, news from Britain shows that the British have been reflecting on this situation in recent years and have great reform intentions.
In recent years, Zhu Jinglun really believed that the British Sixth Army was scum, and he was able to agree to the Opium War because their opponents were even more scum, and the big officers believed that the big six armies could completely crush the British Sixth Army.
But why did Li Xiucheng defeat the French army but could do nothing about the British army? Is it just because there are more British troops than French troops?
Zhu Jinglun believes that this is a very important news. Let the front try to find out these news as soon as possible, which will help Zhu Jinglun to make appropriate decisions at all times. Yes, he does not want to see the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the British war continue to be deadlocked, which will let the Manchu find opportunities. Whether the Xianghuai regiment takes the opportunity to expand or the Qing court takes advantage of the situation, it will break the current balance of power in China and make a big loss of precious exhibition time.
Earlier, Zhu Jinglun thought that Li Xiucheng could easily handle the statement made by the British army that he would remain neutral and tell Li Xiucheng that he could no longer sell weapons to him. Li Xiucheng was a proud man and told him that he would not sell them to him, so he was really in a hurry.
I thought that Li Xiucheng could easily handle the British army without his own help, and he needed to intervene at the right time to mediate between the two sides. Now it seems that Li Xiucheng can’t handle the British, so he really needs to help him.
Even if Li Xiucheng attacked Haina from an emotional point of view instead of a political point of view, it was in China that the nation regained its lost power. At that time, Lao Jiang was willing to enlarge the Sixth Navy to compete with the Vietnamese for Nansha through the Taiwan Province Strait. Of course, Zhu Jinglun could also help the Taiping Army to take care of the British army.
Zhu Jinglun thought it was a joke when the British threatened the war. After a few months, Prussia beat the French Empire and Germany unexpectedly, and the high-profile unification of the new European political situation would give the British a headache for a while. It is very likely that the British threatened to expect France to solve Prussia early and then form a Coalition with them to fight in the East.
France suddenly fell, and Britain will definitely focus on Europe, the home front, and the strategy of balancing Europe will be that their goal in the next few years will never radiate power to other places.
This is the political significance of geography, and the change of geopolitical power will cause a series of chain reactions.
So Zhu Jinglun felt that Li Xiucheng was really good at timing before this war.
Section five hundred and forty-five Delivery trouble
Li Xiucheng is really in big trouble.
After losing the artillery battle with the British army, he could imagine that when he was in Haicheng, he was now equipped with Armstrong’s rifle gun, which was much better than his rifle gun. Not only did he shoot higher, but he also had a longer range and the shells were more powerful.
The British made great efforts in the concession, which was not to help defend Haicheng, not to help the Qing army fight, but to defend their lair. They demolished a large number of civil buildings in the concession, built strong fortifications, hired a large number of civilian workers and logistics to form a 20 thousand army.
The key is that they have 3oo Armstrong cannons. Although Li Xiucheng has more cannons, it is impossible to fully display them on the front, and the previous artillery battle has caused too many casualties to his excellent gunners. It is difficult to fight with the British under fire.
From other directions, the British gunboats patrol the Huangpu River at the mouth of Wusong River, and it is impossible for both sides of the British naval stage to pose a threat to the concession. It is really a headache for Li Xiucheng that the British adopt the contraction defense strategy in the offshore center.
In this case, he can’t fight at all, can he? People with multiple dead spots always win.
So he let the infantry charge again and again at the fire, but at this time, he now foreigners actually took out a new weapon, a high-altitude musket, which was swept away as a large piece. He didn’t understand this weapon and had never seen the root. When the Taiping rebels were lying on the ground, Li Xiucheng knew that storm was not the way.
Ignorance of new weapons made Li Xiucheng feel that it was impossible for infantry to fill in without many lives.
He didn’t think of asking for help until he tried everything, because at this time, in his understanding, there were also big guns that could suppress the British artillery. He thought that the giant guns would detour to the rear to bombard the British warships. It was not necessary to deal with the Huangpu River capital ship, but to kill the narrow Wusong River gunboat, so that he could attack the rear of the concession through that river.
The good news is that the big businessman told him that the big arsenal was willing to deliver the goods when it was connected, but stressed that this was a private trading office after the military attache of the big government, and the price had to be one hundred and fifty-two thousand for each cannon.
Li Xiucheng acquiesced in this group of vampires’ extortion. If they can get the money, they can earn it back. Once they fail, they will not only give up all their efforts, but Li Xiucheng thinks that he may be in big trouble.
In recent years, Hong Xiu has put him in charge of the university. Although most of the time, his strength is unobstructed, but he has opposed him in vain. A force named Hong has already formed. It is impossible for the report to see him grow up. He has been secretly wooing other powerful reports to give him a little chance. That group of people will definitely make trouble for him.
That’s why he would rather come to the sea to direct the battle himself and keep his cousin Li Shixian in Ningguo Mansion. He is worried about what Yang Fuqing will do once his main force is transferred from Tianjing and transferred back to Huizhou from northern Jiangxi. Hong Xiu lives in the deep palace every day and doesn’t ask about politics, but who can figure out what’s going on in this heavenly king’s mind? What if he plays a secret imperial edict to Yang Fuqing once and Yang Fuqing suddenly leads troops to Beijing, and Li Xiucheng will become the second Yang Xiuqing.
Therefore, Li Xiucheng tried his best to defeat the forces of the sea people in World War I while keeping Li Shixian in Ningguo House and keeping an eye on Yang Fuqing.
In Taicang, where will he be sent to Wang Haiyang in southern Jiangxi? He is not too worried about what Wang Haiyang will hook up with Zuo Zongtang, because it was Zuo Zongtang who drove Wang Haiyang from Zhejiang to Fujian and from Fujian to Jiangxi, and beat Wang Haiyang like a lost dog. Wang Haiyang’s old brother died at Zuo Zongtang’s hand, and there were thousands of them. It was impossible for them to reconcile.
But we still have to see if Li Xiucheng can attack the sea as soon as possible. Otherwise, there will be a change in Wang Haiyang for a long time. Wang Haiyang has a bloody feud with Zuo Zongtang, but there are a large number of old Bao generals in his hands. Once Bao secretly contacts Wang Haiyang, if he loses in the sea, Bao and Wang Haiyang will be able to go straight to Tianjing City and come to Tianjingwei again.
Therefore, he must take the sea as quickly as possible without giving people a chance.
Ask him to take the sea and then meet Wang Haiyang as quickly as possible in Taicang. Zuo Zongtang’s army will completely clear the obstacles to crossing the river, so that the Wang Haiyang department can follow him in the northern expedition. Whether the northern expedition can be successful or not is not the key. Drive Wang Haiyang and his gang across the Yangtze River and let them go to Jiangbei to build territory like Chen Yucheng did in those years, so Jiangnan will be stable.
Whether Yang Fuqing’s Wang Haiyang department is successful or unfavorable, he has enough excuses to transfer Yang Fuqing to cross the river to support him. After all, his army is fighting hard with foreigners, and Yang Fuqing has to support him to save his strength in public and private.
Yang Fuqing and Wang Haiyang both went to Jiangbei. No matter what they did, the Jiangnan area became one piece. Li Xiucheng had the final say, and the princes surnamed Hong didn’t care much about it, so he could make great efforts in this whole area.
Therefore, the key question is whether we can get the sea as soon as possible.
The good news is that he promised to sell him cannons, but there is one difficulty, such as hiding from the British blockade
The British navy has been afraid to go near Haicheng, but they still have an advantage in Huangpu River. In the Yangtze River and the sea, British warships finally control the sea-making power. The biggest reason why smugglers dare to ask for such a high price is that their goods are constantly detained by the British.