The official ship of Xue Huan, the governor of Jiangsu, arrived in Shanghai at noon on the third day, and Guan Zhuofan personally went to the wharf to greet him. When the two met, they were polite and polite, and no one mentioned the former discord. When they got on the sedan chair, they went straight to the Yamen of the Domain, where the generals above the Xuan Army and the Huai Army Battalion, and the officials above the fourth rank in Shanghai City had all gathered here, waiting for the governor to give instructions on the next battle strategy.

This meeting was originally superfluous. Li Hongzhang's Huai army came from the Hunan army, and only received the will of Zeng Guofan, where would he listen to his command Xue Huan? As for Xuan Jun, it turned out that he already had a very high opinion of himself, and after the victory in Shanghai, there was only one "Xuan Shuai" in his eyes, and Xue Huan had a hard time with Guan Zhuofan, everyone knows, who is willing to take Xue Huan's words seriously?

But as far as Xue Huan was concerned, he took it for granted that he had the responsibility to preside over such a meeting - Yu Gong, Huai Jun was a guest army, and now he was in Shanghai with Xuan Jun, and he felt that he had to rely on himself to coordinate the arrangements between the two armies for them; Yu private, it turned out that Shanghai was the dominant Xuan army, and he was helpless, but now that there is one more Huai army, he wants to take this opportunity to take advantage of Li Hongzhang and use Li Hongzhang to suppress Guan Zhuofan's arrogance.

It is a pity that what he does not know is that the edict that transferred him to Beijing to wait for him and ordered Li Hongzhang to act as governor of Jiangsu had already been issued by the cabinet and delivered to Shanghai late last night.

Mingfa's edict was contained in the Di Bao, and there was no secrecy to speak of, so everyone in Shanghai officialdom already knew about it, but Xue Huan himself did not know -- he boarded the ship in Nantong two days ago, and only arrived in Shanghai today. And Guan Zhuofan also deceived and didn't know. And for good reason: he arrived at the dock early in the morning to wait for the Futai. Therefore "too late" to know.

Thereupon. When Guan Zhuofan accompanied Xue Huan into the flower hall of the Yamen of the Domain, he said, "Futai has arrived!" The hall was full of people who had no choice but to stand and greet each other. Looking at Xue Huan's complacent look, everyone was surprised at first, and then they realized that he had just gotten off the boat and had not yet received the news, so he was afraid that he was going to make a fuss. However, such times. Who would make a rafter with a head under the noses of Governor Li and Guan Fantai? I had to wait for him to read the edict himself. And the officials of the Xuanjun family were gloating, and everyone couldn't help laughing, waiting to see him show his ugliness.

"Shaoquan!" Xue Huan clenched Li Hongzhang's hands tightly, and made a look that was not only affectionate, but also excited, "The officials and people in Shanghai, looking forward to it, are looking forward to you-this time." Shanghai can finally rest assured! ”

If this sentence is put four months ago. is barely reasonable, now it is clear that the Xuan army has fought for 70 days and has kept Shanghai, and he is a little ambiguous when he says it, which is almost equivalent to stepping on the Xuan army. Li Hongzhang was extremely embarrassed, looked at Guan Zhuofan, he looked ignorant and unconscious, and said in his heart that this is embarrassing, Xue Huan doesn't know the edict, it's not good for him to tell him by himself, your governor, now it's up to me to do it?

"Lord Xue praises me too much, there is today's situation in Shanghai, it all depends on Lord Xue and Guan Fansi's liliang, Shaoquan has no size." Li Hongzhang is a very smart person, so he naturally refuses to be a gun for him, so that there is a rift between himself and Guan Zhuofan.

After some perfunctory work, they each sat down, and Xue Huan first said the words of the emperor's grace and the words of the commander Gao Yi, and then began to talk about the next military arrangements in Jiangsu. He was in Nantong and put a lot of effort into this, so he talked about it in a good way. It is said that the south should be defended and the north should be marched, although the Huai army is a guest army, but it is here on the order of Zeng Dashuai, so Shanghai should not only treat each other equally, but also militarily should be dominated by the Huai army.

Ren Tianzhu, the right-hand politician of the three grades who was in charge of the "personnel system" of the Yamen of the Domain, saw that it would not be a situation if it continued like this, so he quietly instructed an experience department to take yesterday's palace report and stuff it to a senator surnamed Zhou who came with Xue Huan and was in the governor's yamen. Senator Zhou is Xue Huan's close confidant, he flipped through the newspaper slightly, his face changed greatly, and he looked at Xue Huan, who was still talking endlessly.

In desperation, Senator Zhou had no choice but to get up, go around behind Xue Huan, and said softly: "Gong Zhen, there is a report ...... the palace."

"Uh-huh, let me look back." Xue Huan was talking happily, and he didn't look back, he answered casually and continued to talk about his.

Suddenly there was a sound of drinking tea and coughing in the audience-everyone knew what was going on in the newspaper, so this scene was particularly comical in their eyes, and many people could hardly help laughing, and they had to bow their heads to drink tea and pretend to cough to hide the past.

Xue Huan was stunned, did he say something wrong? Looking back at the Senator Zhou, his face was even uglier than the dead Lao Tzu Niang, and he knew that something was wrong, and he didn't read a few lines of the newspaper, and his hands couldn't help but tremble.

"This ...... This ......" He put down the newspaper and looked around blankly, but saw that everyone lowered their heads and avoided his gaze, even Li Hongzhang was embarrassed, only Zhuo Fan had a puzzled expression on his face, as if he didn't know what was going on.

He understood, he made a fuss! In the future, this will become a stain that can never be washed away.

Xue Huan's face was blue and white for a while, he was really ashamed and angry, and he couldn't wait to find a crack in the ground to get into. However, he didn't expect that this was a game done by Guan Zhuofan, but put all his resentment on Li Hongzhang - he still wanted to give him a good hand, but in a blink of an eye, he snatched his seat in front of him!

"Shaoquan, there is a ...... to be ordered," Xue Huan stood up and said with difficulty. Since Di Bao is in his hands, he naturally has to officially announce the news, and the sadness in his heart is really indescribable, "I'm going to transfer internally, and you will act as Su Fu." ”

"Oh, oh......" Things have come to this point, and Li Hongzhang can't find anything to comfort him, so he can only pretend that he doesn't know about it, and agree awkwardly, "Everything has to be advised by the Duke of Hajel." ”

"How can it be ...... like this" Guan Zhuofan was shocked and muttered, "It's so unexpected, it's too unexpected......"

After saying these few words, the three of them stood there stiffly, not knowing what to say for a while. The full hall of officials, watching the three second-grade officials acting on it, could only sit upright, and no one dared to make a little noise, so the hall was dead.

"I'm hungry." Only Daniel Zhang was restless, stretched his muscles on the chair indifferently, stepped on the horse boots on the ground and crunched, and said with a smile: "After listening to Lord Xue's teachings for a long time, why don't we all get together and invite Lord Xue to give him a meal?" ”

"!" Guan Zhuofan said sharply, "You set some rules for me!" ”

However, Daniel Zhang's interjection made the atmosphere that had frozen just now loosen. Xue Huan was an old official in the officialdom in the end, and he quickly sobered up from his gaffe, and said with a forced smile: "Shaoquan, since this is the case, I will go back to Nantong first, and call the people from the governor's yamen to pack up and report to you in Shanghai." In the future, the affairs of Jiangsu will be entrusted to you and Yixuan. ”

Li Hongzhang understands that if he makes such a fuss, whoever he is, he will not want to stay any longer, and it is useless to stay. So he nodded and said, "Then Yixuan and I will send the pilgrimage to the dock." ”

This so-called military meeting ended in nothing. Li Hongzhang and Guan Zhuofan, plus Wu Xu, who also served as an envoy, personally sent Xue Huan all the way to the Dongmen Wharf, watched him walk onto the official ship, and raised his hand to say goodbye. Although the official ship could not be driven for a while, the three of them knew that Xue Huan would not come down again no matter what.

Now that Xue Huan is gone, the remaining three people, except for Xuezheng, are the "new team" of Jiangsu Province. And between these "troikas", there are different thoughts.

As far as Li Hongzhang is concerned, after the twist and turn just now, he knows that he has offended Xue Huan no matter what. However, when he took over the post of governor, it was when I had the world and I was in high spirits, so I didn't take such a thing too seriously, but thought about how to revitalize the armed forces, expand the Huai army, and use this position to achieve an amazing feat.

Guan Zhuofan thought simply, and today he finally let out a bad breath, and made Xue Huan hate Li Hongzhang, and his heart was really happy.

Wu Xu's idea is simpler: as soon as Xue Huan is gone, his life will not be easy.

*(To be continued......)