In the Chuxiu Palace of the Forbidden City, the Empress Dowager Cixi, as usual, finished breakfast, went out of the palace to the Taiye Pool to play, watched the flowers, birds, fish and insects in the imperial garden, and she loved several long-haired lion cats, the name said: "treading the snow to find plums", "whipping hydrangea", "silver gun grabbing iron bottles", "golden hairpins inserting silver bottles", these long-haired lion cats are rare breeds in Linqing County, Shandong, named according to the classification of coat color.

Lion cat from the appearance of the head, into a diamond shape, eyes to round, concave, ears to small, legs to short, waist to round, body to short, tail to thick, can have these conditions cats can be called superb, they not only put on a variety of long hair, but also gave birth to a very chic yellow and a blue mandarin duck eyes, also known as gold and silver eyes, yin and yang eyes, particularly noble and beautiful, from the color of the coat, pure yellow good, pure white slightly secondary, pure black and second, other such as raccoon flower color around the stripes like a tiger, or tortoiseshell spots black, yellow, white three colors even, the head and face are clear and good.

Warm and beautiful weather, a lake rippling blue waves, just to the top of the view, weeping willow bank in a warm pavilion, the Empress Dowager Cixi arms a "four o'clock" pure yellow color lion cat, while looking at the folds, while caressing the cat in her arms long hair, she is about to unload the authority in her hands, all handed over to her son Zaichun to take care of the court affairs, so now she rarely writes the case, no longer easy to write, less than forty years old, began to enjoy the gifts given to her by nature.

Empress Dowager Cixi likes luxury life, loves to listen to the words of Ma Jili, on pomp, she is older than the Empress Dowager Ci'an of the East Palace, who called her the emperor's biological mother, on ambition, at this time she never thought of being an empress like Wu Zetian, seeing that her son Zaichun can take charge of the imperial power alone, she is very relieved and has a sense of accomplishment.

A crumbling dynasty, unexpectedly resurrected, a huge peasant uprising, almost wiped out, the former sworn enemy "Eight-Nation Alliance", now has become a "guest", on the merits of course she is big, no one has her vision, the Prince Gong Yixun to her camp, is her life proud.

Although the Empress Dowager Cixi is nostalgic for the powerful past eventful years, but people always have to face the reality, Prince Gong Yixun even resigned from the regent throne, what reason does she have to hold on to the imperial power with the Empress Dowager Ci'an, her son has grown up, she is about to unload the burden on her body, but now, she still has to stand on the next shift.

Finally, the Empress Dowager Cixi from the exhaustive folds, saw Li Guolou's book on Prince Gong's "eleven Chen Articles", couldn't help frowning and carefully studying it, slowly concentrating on studying, there are dense annotations next to the Chen Tiao, there are a few have been criticized by Prince Gong Yi Xun to be decent, scolding Li Guolou for not understanding military affairs, and indiscriminately commenting on military defense, coastal defense, and border stops, not a scholar's proper conduct, but a few of them were highly appreciated by Prince Gong Yixun, thinking that Li Guolou is to the point, quite insightful, commendable, and dare to speak out.

What kind of person is Li Guolou, the young man who sits straight in the Qianqing Palace to write articles, seems to have a vigorous upward vitality, even the Empress Dowager Ci'an of the East Palace also said a few good words for him, and she also likes such a talented young man, hand-picked Li Guolou as Tanhualang, which shows that heroes and women see the same thing, a young talent with achievements, and finally appeared in the court, and the Empress Dowager Cixi couldn't help but fall into contemplation······

"Xiao Lizi, does Prince Gong go to the study, if he comes, please come over, and say that the palace will see the Chen, and he will understand." The Empress Dowager Cixi stopped reading other memorabilia and began to tease the long-haired lion cat in her hand, babbling like an old woman talking to small animals, and now she was only interested in Li Guolou's book.

"Zha, the minion will go and see." Li Lianying bowed and retreated, secretly happy in her heart, it seems that she is going to reap the benefits again, Li Guolou is a buddy, she doesn't treat him as a "eunuch", but treats him as a friend, and often thinks about him, such a person is worth making friends for a lifetime, and it is not in vain that he mentions it, and it is really favored by the Empress Dowager Cixi, it seems that this time he is going to reap the benefits, and as long as he sends a message to Li Guolou, he will be able to get white flowers and silver again.

Li Lianying first rode a horse and galloped to the Forbidden City, and then ran an errand in the palace, and then went to the upper study out of breath to explain the reason for the matter to Prince Gong Yixun, running sweaty and panting, so that Prince Gong Yixun would be rewarded.

Li Lianying took a twenty-tael silver ticket, smiled and personally helped Prince Gong Yixun to sit in a sedan chair and walked to the island warm pavilion in the middle of the Taiye Pool.

Don't underestimate these twenty taels of silver tickets, the accumulation of time is a windfall, eunuchs usually rely on passing words, delivering news, making a little money, and going out of the palace to pass on the decree, this kind of fat shortage, but also need to balance the interests of colleagues with each other, how can one person make benefits.

Prince Gong Yixun got off the eight-carried sedan chair and stepped into the island in the middle of the Taiye Pool, feeling happy, the state affairs were in the direction of his decision-making, developing step by step, and the politics and military also made strategies for him.

Carrying Li Guolou to Li Hongzhang two Chen Notes, Yi Xun is happy and worried, one of them, the national currency from silver to silver dollars, will completely change the situation of silver outflow in the Qing Dynasty, but also reduce the country's heavy burden of fire consumption, which makes him surprised and happy, as long as the Qing Dynasty can produce silver dollars, the casting and smelting metal industry will also step up to a level, but this also needs to cooperate with a Western power, otherwise the alloy technology will make the Qing Dynasty have nothing to do.

On the other hand, although his inner proposition coincides with Li Guolou, he will not easily express his position, it is a matter of national dignity, and he must find a proper solution, even if the Qing Dynasty wants to fully cooperate with Prussia, it will not be smooth sailing, and it will be counterproductive to take it step by step.

After the ceremony, Yi Xun sat on the chair of the Empress Dowager Cixi, the two drank tea, smiled at each other, with the ambiguity of a lover's unique in their eyes, the eunuch and maid next to him walked away, leaving Li Lianying standing on one side, serving the two masters alone.

The Empress Dowager Cixi said slowly: "Prince Gong, the scenery of this liquid pool is too monotonous, and the palace is tired of playing, so can the renovation of Wanshou Mountain be put on the agenda!" ”

The Empress Dowager Cixi knew that it was impossible to renovate the Old Summer Palace, since she didn't ask about political affairs, she wanted to live for the rest of her life, and wanted to repair a "Wanshou Mountain" in the Old Summer Palace first, where it was not spoiled too badly by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and some courtyards were still intact, but they still needed to be repaired, of course, silver was the key, and the Empress Dowager Cixi was more concerned about her own courtyard than state affairs.

In fact, it is to repair the Old Summer Palace, under the guise of borrowing a pretext, everyone's hearts are clear, and it is easy to talk on this scene.

Prince Gong Yixun was bitter in his heart, the country even the front-line army salary has been in arrears for half a year, but not allocated to repair the "Wanshou Mountain" maintenance funds, the two palace queen mothers refused to remove the curtains, but the rebuilding of the "Wanshou Mountain" is a huge construction project, not this year's appropriation of a sum of money, next year will be over, but year after year, not to mention more than ten years, the cost of treasury silver, tens of millions of taels, think that the Qianlong Emperor through decades, spent hundreds of millions of taels of silver, this was repaired into the Old Summer Palace, Now where did the Qing Dynasty come from, so much silver was spent on the useless "Wanshou Mountain".

But it is not possible to allocate funds, and now the edict needs to be issued with two palace jade seals to count, and the Empress Dowager Ci'an and the Empress Dowager Cixi cancel the curtain to listen to the government is an established national policy and must be implemented.

Prince Gong hesitated for a moment, was ruthless, and said: "Queen Mother, I will raise 500,000 taels of silver first, and then raise 200,000 taels of silver in the second half of the year, with 700,000 taels of silver project funds, there is no problem to start construction, next year I will find a way to raise 600,000 taels of silver, Queen Mother, you see if you can be satisfied!" ”

"Hmm······ Prince Gong is still satisfied. The Empress Dowager Cixi is very satisfied, she also knows that this time is different from the past, this amount of money is allocated from the household department, I don't know how many officials will be impeached by the Yushitai people, as for the rest of the money are paid by her servants to the empress dowager of the two palaces in the name of paying homage to the empress dowager, the financial revenue of the Qing Dynasty, how much is it in a year, as a senior decision-maker of the country, she has two accounts in her heart.

"Today, the palace saw that you presented it, and I was very inspired, now even the foreign gun team has been disbanded, and the General Administration of Customs should be nationalized, this article Prince Gong, you start to do it, there is no need to discuss it in the court, you go to negotiate with the foreigners, and come up with a feasible solution to write the charm!"

Prince Gong nodded with a smile on the corner of his mouth, and the warm pavilion spoke very casually, and the teacup in his hand was not put down, and the conversation continued in a pleasant atmosphere.

The Empress Dowager Cixi sighed slightly: "Loyal ministers are stubborn and opinionated, they will not easily change their ways, admit death, they are strong, they have a brute strength, Tanhualang can stick to his own opinions, and he refuses to change the old rules, which shows that he is loyal, you scolded him as a traitor, don't you not let people speak, how can you have the bearing of the prime minister, in the future, you must change this arrogance, and you can't tolerate different opinions!" ”

"Queen Mother, I've changed a lot, otherwise how would I hand over the Tanhualang Chentiao." Yixun defended that he did not agree with all of Li Guolou's suggestions, but different opinions could be discussed at the meeting, which he always insisted on implementing, and there was no so-called "one word hall" in the Yamen of the Prime Minister's Office.

The Empress Dowager Cixi smiled, her eyes were shining, and she stared at Yixun like a hibiscus, this lover was talented enough to be worthy of her grace, the court was running well, and Yixun had made great contributions to the society.

"Prince Gong, this palace has carefully read these eleven Chen Tiao, and read your annotations, it can be seen that you like this Tanhualang very much, let's talk about your opinion first!"

Yixun said: "Well, that's the case, before Li Guolou's scientific expedition, I talked to him once, and was attracted by his conversation, this son is by no means a boastful person, good at finding problems and being able to solve problems, after he was admitted to the Jinshi, he talked with him twice, and then two times next to Li Zhongtang, together to participate in the discussion, this person has a peculiar idea, good at thinking about problems, a person alone in Beijing for about two years, but has become a famous long-sleeved dance official in Beijing, the three ladies in the family came forward for him to make money, do not forget to invest in the establishment of charity halls, schools, The family wants to set up a bank like the British, saying that it is to raise funds for the Beiyang Naval Division, so as not to burden the country with a heavy financial burden, which makes Li Guolou very opinionated about the dress that was a little alienated from returning to China Li Zhongtang appreciated it very much, and promoted Li Guolou to be a student at the Baoding Military Academy, but I didn't think it was appropriate, I didn't agree, and I temporarily put Li Guolou's official position away, where to put it, Li Zhongtang and I didn't decide for a while! ”

The Empress Dowager Cixi was very annoyed and shouted: "Li Zhongtang, it's really nonsense, making money and being a capable official, what is the Baoding Military Academy doing to study politics, it's overkill!" ”

Yixun nodded and said: "Yes, I think so too, Dacai, I now entrust him to establish the Yelia Charity Foundation for the establishment of the Charity Hall in the house, saving me 20,000 taels of silver at once, only 20,000 taels per year, the name is still hanging on me, and he has accepted the staffing, and the private office can become bigger and bigger, I believe this, from scratch, Yelia Charity Hall fundraising, I have seen it with my own eyes, those rich businessmen hope that the country will become strong, and donating money is more energetic than donating official positions, Originally, I was going to open an office to send international students to study abroad, but I didn't need to pay a penny, just hang my name, and it was all solved, I burst into tears at the fundraising meeting on the spot, and donated the mansion in Fuchengmen with a ruthless heart, as the school site, "People-friendly Fashion School" I contributed my own money and efforts, and it was done overnight, the Queen Mother, you think, you don't need me to sell my official beard, just need to say a few touching words on the platform, this silver still flies over, and talents are also flocking, overwhelmed, how much money do the people have, We can't see it, now that there is a concession, it is for the rich people to put the gold and silver treasures in the concession, we are staring, just anxious, watching the country's silver lose overseas, but Li Guolou can fool the foreign devil's money over, and let the foreign devil contribute to the country, which makes me appreciate, the Queen Mother, you think, this house is built by the foreigner's own money, and if he burns it and destroys it, isn't it a slap in the face! ”

Cixi said calmly: "Prince Gong, you mean the Chaoyang Plan, and Li Guolou is also involved in it!" ”

Yixun nodded and said: "Yes, but he only has 1% of the shares, and he does not participate in the development of the Chaoyang Plan, but through this incident, those compradors who betrayed the country to seek glory changed their attitude towards the Qing Dynasty, and reinvested the silver in local construction, no longer staying in the concession to their foreign masters, and are willing to contribute to the construction and development of the country. ”

"Oh······" The Empress Dowager Cixi has always been very concerned about the income generated by the Internal Affairs Office, this is her money bag, the Chongwenmen superintendent seems to have a humble official position, in fact, it is the emperor's special servant, in addition to handing over the tax silver to the treasury, intercepting more than half of it to be handed over to the Internal Affairs Office, which is also the Manchurian Emperor to make rules, it is the Qianlong Emperor to make rules, the Old Summer Palace repairs a part of the silver, that is, from the collection of city gate taxes, the emperor embezzles state taxes, this kind of behavior is done in the Qing Dynasty, it has long been the rules of the ancestors,