The study was quiet, the air still and cool. Ying Zheng sat at his table, the deciphered report from Meng Tian lying before him. The candle flame flickered, reflecting in his ancient, unblinking eyes. He felt a deep, cold satisfaction, the familiar feeling of a complex military campaign proceeding exactly as planned. His general had located the enemy's fortress and identified its most vulnerable supply line. The field operation was on track.
Now, he turned his attention back to the other front in his war: the battle for the empire's future. He had won a major political victory. He had broken Cixi's absolute control over the treasury and the military. The creation of the Joint Regency Audit Office, now firmly under the influence of his proxies Prince Gong and Ci'an, meant that for the first time, the nation's wealth could be directed by logic and strategy rather than by the whims and vanities of a single woman. The funds were secure. The question now was how to use them.
Building the Northern Fleet was a crucial first step, a necessary shield. But a shield alone does not win a war, nor does it build an empire. Ying Zheng's ambitions stretched far beyond merely surviving the coming century. He intended to dominate it. And he knew, with the cold clarity of a man who had seen two thousand years into the future, that the true power of the Western nations came not just from their iron ships, but from the massive industrial heartlands that produced them.
The wealth of those nations came from their factories, their coal mines, their sprawling networks of railroads. It came from their ability to transform raw materials into steel, and steel into machines of unprecedented power and efficiency. He needed to build his own.
He could not announce such a radical plan publicly. Cixi and the conservative faction would fight it tooth and nail, decrying it as a wholesale abandonment of traditional values. It would be seen as another step towards "barbarization." He had to begin his industrial revolution in the shadows, just as he had begun his political one.
He summoned Shen Ke. His brilliant scholar-analyst arrived under the cover of darkness, his face alight with intellectual curiosity and unwavering loyalty. He was no longer just a spymaster; he was about to become the empire's secret minister of industrial planning.
Ying Zheng gestured for him to sit. "Scholar Shen," he began, his voice quiet but intense. "We have secured the purse. Now we must decide how to invest it. Cixi spent her stolen silver on a stone boat. We will spend the state's silver on things that have a greater return."
He laid out his new, secret, long-term strategy, giving Shen Ke his next set of critical tasks.
"First, we must acquire talent," he said. "An army cannot fight without generals, and an industry cannot be built without engineers. I want you to use the authority of the new Audit Office, under the guise of an 'educational reform' initiative championed by Empress Dowager Ci'an, to establish a secret fund. We will use this fund to identify the most brilliant, most promising young minds from the Hanlin Academy and the provincial schools. And we will send them abroad."
Shen Ke listened, his eyes wide.
"They will not go as diplomats, to sip tea and exchange pleasantries," Ying Zheng continued. "They will go as students. They will be enrolled in the finest universities in Germany, in Britain, and in the new, rising power of America. They will not study philosophy or poetry. They will study civil engineering, chemistry, metallurgy, geology, and manufacturing. They will learn how the Westerners build their bridges, their factories, and their machines. They will become our future industrial leaders, and their loyalty will be to the throne that gave them this opportunity, not to any provincial viceroy."
Second, he addressed the issue of resources. "A fire cannot burn without fuel. I want you to use the authority of Viceroy Li Hongzhang's office to commission a new, comprehensive geological survey of the northern provinces. The official reason will be a grand imperial search for new sources of jade and precious metals, a project that will appeal to the court's vanity." He looked at Shen Ke, a cold smile on his lips. "Its real purpose will be to identify and map the nation's vast, untapped reserves of high-grade coking coal and iron ore. We will find the ingredients of our industrial revolution."
Finally, he outlined the first practical step. "We must build a prototype. We will heavily subsidize a new, experimental ironworks and arsenal, to be built under the direct supervision of Viceroy Li Hongzhang and attached to his Huai Army. Publicly, its purpose will be to produce modern rifles and cannonballs for his troops, a project no one can argue with. But its secret, primary purpose will be to serve as our first national laboratory. It is where the first generation of our new, foreign-trained engineers will practice their craft. It is where we will experiment with the Bessemer process for mass-producing steel. It is where we will turn blueprints into reality."
Shen Ke was left breathless by the sheer scale and ambition of the plan. It was a complete, top-to-bottom strategy for the forced industrialization of an entire nation. It was a plan that looked not years, but decades into the future.
"Your Majesty," the scholar said, his voice filled with awe. "This… this is the work of a century."
"I have the time," Ying Zheng replied simply. "And thanks to Prince Gong's efforts, I now have the money." He looked at his analyst, his ancient eyes burning with the same intensity he had felt when he first ordered the construction of the Great Wall. "Cixi believed power came from secrets and silver. She was wrong. True power comes from knowledge and steel. She spent her fortune on a pleasure boat made of stone. I will spend the state's fortune on a future made of steel, coal, and brilliant minds."
He paused, a look of immense, patient, and terrifying purpose on his young face.
"Let us see whose investment yields the greater return."
The mission was given. Shen Ke departed, his mind reeling with the magnitude of the task before him. He was no longer just a spymaster. He was now a key architect of a secret industrial revolution.
Ying Zheng was left alone in his study. He was no longer just playing the political games of the Qing court. He was no longer just fighting a covert war against his enemies. He was now acting as a true emperor, a nation-builder, laying the deep, fundamental groundwork for the complete military and industrial transformation of his new empire. He was planting the seeds of a superpower, preparing it not just for the Sino-Japanese War he knew was coming in two decades, but for the great global power conflicts of the 20th century. The Second Reign had truly begun.