The Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Qing jumped out to refute Li Hongzhang's proposition, but none of the conservatives such as Prince Qing jumped out to speak, which was quite different from the usual court discussions, and I felt a little strange in my heart, why is this.

The Empress Dowager Cixi listened to the Qing school and the Westernist faction, and after a few rounds, she also heard a rough idea, and couldn't help but smile and said: "Since you all said about Tanhualang Li Guolou, Li Guolou, you also stepped forward to speak!" ”

"Za, the slave obeys." Li Guolou cried in response, took a step forward, knelt on the gold brick ground, he was so aggrieved in his heart, those Qing schools actually said to him in the court, "The debt of private morality is because of the return from abroad." "On the fair and honest Jinluan Palace, the Qing faction is really shameless, the two sides are reasonable, tell the facts, how can they expose his old bottom, these things are in his files, didn't the Queen Mother still appoint him to be a tanhualang.

Li Guolou said loudly: "The emperor, the queen mother of the two palaces, the slave first has to refute a few words, how can private virtue be put above the court and talk nonsense, private is secret, can the gentleman be above the court, talk about private life, even if you have an opinion on the character of the slave, you can play the court, let the emperor and the queen mother of the two palaces be judged, the country is the first to look at this person's ability, just like Chen Ping, the founder of the Han Dynasty, the history books also write that he owes private virtue, but still can't cover up the great achievements he has established, and Chen Ping bowed for the Han Dynasty, Died in the post of the prime minister, what an admirable person this is, the slave is to take the Qu rebel marquis as an example, to establish an immortal merit for the Qing Dynasty, the marquis is my wish, endure humiliation and bitter courage, ride the wind and waves in the future, and shine in the east! ”

Li Guolou was really a little anxious, and his words not only made the princes and ministers look at him with admiration, but also made the sound of praise "um" behind the Cizhu curtain, and it was two, and even the Empress Dowager Ci'an was full of good feelings towards Li Guolou.

Li Guolou showed gratitude, and continued: "The minister has read the sage book, and also learned the foreign language, talking about which is better and which is inferior, that is meaningless, to have a big debate, it should be put in the Hanlin Academy, not to talk freely when the heart palace is discussed, because this truth is too profound, who starts, can not finish talking in a day, I Daqing is not to use foreign culture to educate the people, but need to master some of our sage doctrine does not have the practical skills of writing, as the saying goes, the church apprentice starves the master, so I Daqing hires those foreign senior technicians, They will all in order to keep their jobs, will have reservations, people have selfishness, not because those technicians are foreigners, but human nature, want to break this pattern, only go out, learn all the skills of foreign technicians, and start from laying the foundation, so as to build a high-rise building, so that smart schoolchildren can learn Western skills from an early age, this is like we learn the doctrine of the sage, ten years of cold windows to have something to gain, how can there be a half-hung person, become a two-list Jinshi truth, the slave also presented an excerpt, which is written in it, is the actual experience of the slave, the so-called fog to see the flowers, who can say clearly, to say that there is a right to speak, the slave has the courage to say a word, listen to the foreign students, and have studied the science student Li Guolou words, can take many detours, the Qing Dynasty relies on a group of foreign people like Li Guolou for the Chinese people, and can be integrated, the ultimate goal is to let the science of science carry forward, to the world, the future of the Qing Dynasty can stand on the top of the world, all countries to congratulate the grand scene, just around the corner, but also hope that the emperor, the queen mother of the two palaces, the wish of the slave! ”

Li Guolou has a thick skin, and he boasted and boasted about himself, so that the Qing school was helpless against him for a while, because what Li Guolou said, all the ways returned to the source, and then fell to the sage science.

"Hmm······ Li Guolou is a loyal and patriotic person, and this palace appreciates your courage and confession. "I rarely spoke, and the Empress Dowager Ci'an spoke up, and her words were full of words.

The historian next to him immediately recorded the case, "Li Guolou is a loyal and patriotic person" This sentence is a high praise given to Li Guolou by the Empress Dowager Ci'an of the East Palace of the world, and it will always be recorded in the annals of history.

Even the Empress Dowager Cixi was happy when she heard it, and the Empress Dowager Ci'an nodded to each other, praising Li Guolou for being able to speak well, worthy of their fondness for Tanhualang, and the words were loud, so that the Westernists and the Qing faction were silent, and the banners died down, and those princes and ministers were surrounded by Li Guolou's words, and for a while, no one could catch the handle in his words.

Li Lianying took out Li Guolou's excerpt from the stacked plate, handed it to the Empress Dowager Cixi to read, and made her happy, Li Guolou is written in Manchu and Chinese languages, so that the slave is an intimate slave, the Empress Dowager Cixi smiled happily: "Well, the truth is that the more you argue, the clearer it is, today there will be a debate Li Guolou, which is quite reasonable, about Prince Gong's excerpt "Proposed Selection of Schoolchildren to Go Overseas to Learn Art" approved by the imperial court, but it is not allowed to let people go to the Prime Minister's Office to learn what foreign languages, and they can be officials if they can't pass the exam. Zuo Zongtang will not be the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and he can take the exam again after two years, eager for quick success and quick profit, pulling out seedlings to promote the truth, don't you understand! ”

"The ministers are grateful, and send the emperor and the queen mother of the two palaces to drive." Prince Gong proudly glanced at the gang of ancient and unclear schools, and the early dynasty ended with the victory of the Westerners, and it was not a good end to beat the little reporter.

Emperor Tongzhi from beginning to end, without a word, kept flipping through the folds, and could not see any joy, anger and sorrow from his face, and then said: "Reward Li Guolou, one flower feather at a glance!" ”

"Minion, thank God, long live my emperor." Li Guolou knelt on the ground and kowtowed, the ministers next to him were jealous and their eyes were green, and there was a "blue feather" on the hat of the five-grade official, and the "flower feather" was worn by the three-grade officials, in the minds of the Tongzhi Emperor, it was equivalent to treating Li Guolou as a third-grade member, and there was a degree in one step to the sky.

Li Guolou stepped out of the Heart Cultivation Palace, and Li Hongzhang said in a low voice: "Guolou, go to Tianjin with me tomorrow!" ”

"Zha, the lower officials are willing to accompany you." Li Guolou was pouting, he didn't dare to object, he had a lot of wives and children, so he could only go separately, be a lonely man, and work diligently for the country and the people.

The so-called friends are to get together and form gangs, so no matter what the relationship between the princes and ministers is, after the early dynasty, they are bored walking, directly sitting in a sedan chair, getting on the carriage and getting into the carriage, and each going back to the house, and some have to go to the yamen to do errands.

Li Guolou went straight to the Internal Affairs Office, the Yamen of the Internal Affairs Office is not far from Xihua Gate, he has an official hat "Wanshoushan Project Supervisor", there is his office, he is the emperor's personal servant, for the master to run errands, the office always has to go several times, the Minister of the Internal Affairs Rong Lu is also one of his top bosses, and in the future, he will allocate money from the Internal Affairs Office to the Wanshoushan Project, and he will pay 1% of the filial piety to Rong Lu.

Li Guolou always thought of Rong Lu, who looked like a decent man and a gentleman, radiant, and wooed him and showed favor to him, and sent him 500,000 taels of silver tickets the next day, but he played yin, and gave him ten official slaves at once, and he didn't think about how many internal affairs spies there were, and he actually got five good-looking little girls to tempt him.

Hey, Rong Lu is too rich, it is a famous official in Beijing who loves to show off his dress, he is extremely particular about clothes and decorations, every winter from November, to the Lantern Festival of the next year, in two and a half months, Rong Lu wore a mink coat and did not wear it repeatedly, one style a day, in order to facilitate wear, easy to identify, he put hundreds of mink coats with numbers, sewn clothes inside, in order to avoid repeated wearing, Rong Lu is this way to flaunt his taste and worth, thinking about Rong Lu, whether he is a friend or foe, I can't figure it out, Li Guolou came to the residence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with his hands on his back.

Next to Xishiku is the splendid compound of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the gate still needs to be surveyed and sealed, Li Guolou took the big seal of "Wanshoushan Project Supervision" from the hand of Cheng Kun, checked it, and led a group of subordinates to enter the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

If the household department is compared to the "silver household department", then the internal affairs office is a mountain of gold, the normal income of the Qing Empire's annual treasury is thirty or forty million taels of silver, and the internal affairs government needs at least 10 million taels of silver to bear its own profits and losses, in order to make the palace operate normally, if the general ledger of the Qing Dynasty is actually at least 50 million taels or more per year, and a quarter of the state finance is spent on the emperor, feudal society, the surplus money of the state, and then all the emperor's money, to maintain a huge royal family, the manpower and material resources required, which makes people feel terrible, this is a state secretOutsiders can only rely on imagination to depict scenes of royal life.

Rong Lu did not come to the Internal Affairs Office, Li Guolou directly led two eunuchs to a courtyard, and there were two brand-new signboards "Wanshoushan Project Office" and "Wanshoushan Project Preparation Office" standing on the left and right at the door.

"Hahahaha, it's really nice here, I've seen a luxuriously decorated office room." That bazi was the first to step into the threshold with his teeth and claws, he had already turned into a phoenix, if it was good, Li Guolou was the first to think of him, and this was his territory from now on.

"What's your name?" Now Li Guolou can also straighten his waist and speak to eunuchs.

"Hey, hey, Master Li, my name is Yan Mei'er, his name is Smiley, and the two of us are here to do the book." The eunuch's eyes were very affectionate, and he entertained his master Li Guolou and several relatives, and the eunuch was busy pouring water and tea with a smiling face.

Li Guolou sat behind a wide desk, a chair or a sofa chair, it seemed that the eunuch knew that he was a fake foreign devil, and got him a foreigner chair, Li Guolou tried the elasticity of the sofa chair, nodded and approved: "The two of you will not be treated badly by the official office in the future, you must be diligent in doing errands, and you must understand the rules, you can't do bad things, your hand stretches out to cross the line, and the official can't protect you, understand!" ”

"I understand, Master Li, don't worry, we are also rising step by step, how can we break our own rules." The eunuch smiled and handed over a stack of silver tickets, this is the rule, the chief is coming, and Feng Yi presents a little bit of heart.

"Hmm······ The eyes and smiling faces have a great future, and the official will not move the two of you, and in the future, listen to the words of the wealth and the adult, and benefit you first. Li Guolou unceremoniously let Na Bazi accept it, he didn't see how many silver tickets there were, this was just the beginning, and his hand was soft when he received the money in the future.

"Thank you, master, for your kindness." Tears were already flashing on her eyes and smiling faces, and she knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Li Guolou and Nabazi respectively, this is their main master and second master.

Yan Meier took the account book and handed it to Li Guolou to watch, this is not a running account book, but a general ledger of income, the two eunuchs have just been promoted to the Wanshou Mountain Project Preparation Office, this is also the rule of the palace, if you are short of fat for a few years, you will step down, you have to reach out and make money, and if you go down to fish for an unlimited amount, you will attract hatred, and your subordinates have no hope, so you don't sell the chief.

Li Guolou saw it, and also sighed, the country has been fighting, the Old Summer Palace can only maintain the annual repair cost, a little more than a year, but there is still no more than 600,000 taels of silver, the life of the Queen Mother of the two palaces is very hard, this money can only maintain the normal operation of the Old Summer Palace.

"Hmm······ The official knows, Lord Rong there I will deal with, in the future the Ministry of Internal Affairs will not be less than one million taels of silver, as for the shortage of the part, the official will share the worries for the two palace queen mothers, in the future, the Wanshou Mountain project funds are deposited into the bank, and the interest earned will be given to the two queen mothers to celebrate their birthdays. "Li Guolou is a chess master, and he wants to make the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces have a good impression of inviting her into the bank.

"Pierce." Eye-catching, smiling faces kneeling on the ground and still smiling, in the future, the Wanshou Mountain project will enter at least two million taels of silver every year, and the future will add a terrifying number, and they will finally come out.