"Prime Minister, I heard that your nephew became the Pasha of the Ottoman Empire. Congratulations! Ruan Xihao of the Military Commission said to Li Yuchang a little frivolously.

Li Yuchang smiled bitterly after hearing this, "Who knows how he fooled around in the Ottoman Empire." ”

Ruan Xihao said with a smile: "Fooling around is definitely not enough, in the news we have gotten, Comrade Li Weiren's fortress battle is impressive. The 30,000 Ottoman troops resisted the 200,000 Russian troops, and when he returned, he had to make a good report. ”

Li Yuchang could only say perfunctorily: "You guys should hurry up and get him back." ”

That being said, Li Yuchang is not very confident in the safety of his cousin. The third assault and defense of the Pleven fortress, which began on July 15, ended on July 17, and the onslaught of the Russian army paid a heavy price, with 83,000 Russian casualties of 20,000, 10,000 Bulgarian militias of 7,500, and the commander also killed on the front line.

In order to capture the city of Pleven, the Russian Danube Corps had already lost 40,000 men in three offensive and defensive battles. The Ottoman army stationed in the city of Pleven was no more than 30,000, and it is said that the casualties of these 30,000 were less than 3,000. Of course, this is all just a story. That was the end of the news about the Ottoman army in Plevin. On August 1, 1877, China received news from the Ottoman Empire that the Ottoman Sultan had conferred the title of "Pasha" on Li Weiren, the Chinese instructor stationed in the Ottoman Empire. This honorable Ottoman title was rarely given to foreigners, and all foreigners who received this title without exception made great contributions to the Ottoman Empire.

The rest of the news came from countries outside the Ottoman Empire. After the end of the third Pleven offensive and defensive battle, the 200,000 Russian troops had to stop their pace and join 100,000 Romanian soldiers to build a 70-kilometer-long trench to completely encircle the city of Plevin. Judging by this indication, it is unlikely that Russia will have a new large-scale offensive in the Rhine region until the city of Pleven is uprooted.

European newspapers carried a large number of reports with horrific headlines, such as "The Impenetrable Pleven Fortress", "The Danube Nightmare of Russia", "The Rising Ottoman Army", "Ottoman Famous General - Ottoman 61 Nuri Pasha", "Ottoman Butcher - Ottoman 61 Nuri Pasha", "The Craftsman's Son - Osman 61 Nuri Pasha", "From Hunger to Greatness - Ottoman 61 Nuri Pasha" and other articles were also published.

In contrast to the opposing reporting attitudes of the press, the reaction of the financial community in Europe is completely unanimous. Russian stocks on major European exchanges, which had risen sharply because of the successful trading of 100 tons of gold, all collapsed, the ruble fell by more than a third, and European banks refused to buy Russian war bonds.

Even if he is not a soldier, Li Yuchang knows very well that Pleven City has become the focus of the war. If Russia wants to recover its damaged credit, it must conquer the city of Plevin. In such a situation, "Lord Li Weiren Pasha" is not safe at all.

When a soldier always encounters this kind of thing, Li Yuchang has no solution to it. After bidding farewell to Ruan Xishang, director of the Personnel Bureau of the Central Military Commission, Li Yuchang went to see Wei Ze, thinking about his troubles as he walked. It has been rumored internally for a long time, and in the second year of the Second Five-Year Plan, that is, in 1877, Li Yuchang will be appointed as prime minister. In terms of Li Yuchang's work qualifications, there is no reason for him to be the prime minister worthy of being denied by others. The problem is that some interpret this as a sign that Weeser is going to start pushing hard for the retirement system. Li Yuchang is 63 years old this year, exactly 68 years old after becoming a prime minister, and according to the rules of seven up and eight down, he will obediently step down after becoming prime minister.

And Bi Qingshan has been the prime minister for three terms, and now he is only 46 years old. The reason why Bi Qingshan was not allowed to continue to be the prime minister was because Wei Ze thought that Bi Qingshan had too much power and had to leave him aside. And there is also a very outrageous statement, Wei Ze wants to send Bi Qingshan to Sudan Province. That is, exile abroad.

Bi Qingshan can be the prime minister for three terms, and he can be regarded as having a lot of power in the government, but the Li family has no reason to be afraid of Bi Qingshan. For Li Yuchang personally, he was born as a businessman and ended up as the prime minister, and there is nothing to regret in his life. The only problem was the rumor that Wei Ze was going to exile Bi Qingshan to Africa.

Two years ago, it was rumored that Hong Dachun, director of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, wanted to rectify Wang Mingshan. Hong Dachun is just a group of middle-level personnel with some merit and hard work, while Wang Mingshan is a core member of the central government. As soon as the news of Hong Dachun's going to Wang Mingshan came out, the people who heard the news basically didn't believe it. It's too much of a joke to have an intermediate person challenge the top core.

The development of the matter was a big surprise, and Chen Jishi of the Northern Animal Husbandry Bureau opposed Wang Mingshan's plan to strengthen the animal husbandry industry, which was bitterly criticized by Wang Mingshan. This matter would not have caused any waves, is Wang Mingshan, who is in charge of the work of the four provinces, a director of the Animal Husbandry Bureau, a matter?

However, Chen Jishi, director of the Animal Husbandry Bureau, asked the Academy of Sciences to send a research team to verify Wang Mingshan's plan, and at this time, many central cadres learned that Wei Ze had a system for project approval, and this system had actually passed the approval of the central government. But everyone didn't care about this kind of thing at all, and it wasn't until the little director of animal husbandry used this system to try to fight back that everyone knew that there was such a thing.

The Academy of Sciences believed that the calculation method in Wang Mingshan's plan was wrong, and the data in the plan to strengthen the animal husbandry industry in all four provinces were completely wrong, and finally supported Chen Jishi's plan. A group of nameless hairy boys and one guy have overturned the old guys' right to speak, which is a major event that has caused a sensation in officialdom.

Li Yuchang actually knew that Hong Dachun, director of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, was not involved in this matter at all, but some people thought that Hong Dachun was the director of the Animal Husbandry Department, and no one dared to do anything without his instructions. Hong Dachun has always felt that he is more wronged than Dou E, but he is the highest official in charge of animal husbandry, and he said that he was not involved in directing this matter, and no one believed him. Later, Wei Ze was ruthless and rectified a group of guys who didn't keep their mouths, and the matter finally stopped.

From this incident, Li Yuchang has learned that the more outrageous the statement, the more the various interpretations of these statements, the facts in them may not be untrue. Even if the rumors are not true, there must be something in them. As the saying goes, there is no wind and no waves. As rumored, Wei Ze asked Bi Qingshan to go to Africa? Or did Wei Ze put Bi Qingshan in charge of African affairs? Either way, it means that there is a considerable change in China's strategic direction.

After meeting Wei Ze, Vice Premier Li Yuchang sat down in a chair silently, ready to listen to what Wei Ze had to say.

"There may be an internal conflict in Japan, and I want you to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and make an assessment with the comrades in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Weeser said. ”

"Do an assessment?" Li Yuchang couldn't help but ask. In fact, this is not really trying to ask for any results, and Li Yuchang is not really in favor of doing the evaluation. Now the government departments are not happy when they mention the assessment, and Wang Mingshan is planted on the assessment. If Wang Mingshan had given an order to the director of the Animal Husbandry Bureau in his capacity as the responsible person of the four provinces, the director of the Animal Husbandry Bureau would not have any chance to deny it. Wei Ze's preparations for the construction of the system have gradually been revealed, and the government is completely different from the traditional feudal government, and the current new system is very different from the traditional mode of being an official.

Hearing Li Yuchang's rhetorical question, Wei Ze also took the trouble to explain: "We have to make an assessment of Japan under the new circumstances. In the past, our strength was insufficient, and the British supported Japan and wanted to monopolize its interests. We will have no choice but to accede to the British demands. Now that the balance of power has changed, we can do more with Japan. At this point, it is necessary to make an assessment of the current changes in Japan. ”

"Governor, don't you have to make your next decision? Why assess? Li Yuchang asked.

Wei Ze replied: "For the things that really determine the fate of the country, I will do research and make a judgment, this is what I must do. At present, Japan has no essential influence on China's national destiny at all, and these assessments must of course be made by the departments in charge of them. Prime Minister, you're in charge of foreign trade, and you're also in charge of these things in Japan, so you have to be involved in these assessments. ”

After all, Li Yuchang was at this age, and he asked bluntly: "What if the assessment is wrong?" ”

"Evaluation is not just about coming up with a result, if that's the case, anyone can pat their head on the head. And the real evaluation is to come up with a set of evaluation methods, which is a very scientific thing. We often do this training in organizational life meetings, and the scientific attitude does not mean that what you come up with is right. The scientific attitude lies in the fact that we have come up with a set of theories that can be falsified, or we have come up with experience that can be falsified in practice. It is impossible to get the assessment of Japan right at once, and the reason why I want to evaluate it is to come up with a model that we can use to analyze Japan. Even if the evaluation method of this incident is wrong, we need to know what is wrong in our assessment. Weser continued to explain.

After listening to Wei Ze's explanation, Li Yuchang was quite unhappy in his heart. As the saying goes, the apprentices of the church starve to death of the master, and the tricks that the masters have summed up after thousands of tempers are not passed on to the apprentices. This kind of assessment itself requires the master to take out his housekeeping skills, which is not only to teach the apprentices, but also to let the group of people who have nothing to do with it learn together.

Weser himself has always done this, and he has never been hesitant to teach his skills to others, but Weser has gained a status that no one else can match. Li Yuchang did not dare to publicly deny this practice, but he felt that he was a little wronged in doing so. If this kind of assessment is wrong, it will not only be a loss of face, but also a matter of grasping some people with dark thoughts in their hearts.

Seeing Li Yuchang's embarrassed expression, Wei Ze asked with a relaxed expression: "How is it, are there any other questions?" ”

Li Yuchang did not dare to refuse, and was considered to be refusing to work and running away, which would have very serious consequences. Compared with this result, inaccurate judgment at work is not a big deal. He replied seriously: "I understand, I will go and do this assessment with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." ”