Gong Ning, Military Region Command.

A richly decorated four-wheeled carriage drove quickly into the gate of the military area under the support of a group of cavalry, and only slowly stopped in front of the headquarters building, the door opened, and Zuo Zongtang, who was dressed in civilian clothes, slowly got off the carriage with the support of the attendants, and Feng Renxuan and Tang Bingcan, who had been waiting at the door for a long time, quickly stepped forward and saluted in a proper manner.

Zuo Zongtang waved his hand and said with a smile: "Commander Feng is now the commander-in-chief of the soldiers and horses of the two provinces, and his position is still ..... above the old man." ”

"Lord Ministry's words are already dead." Feng Renxuan said with a smile, the two provinces declared autonomy, and he was nominally the commander-in-chief of the soldiers and horses of the two provinces, but in fact, it was impossible to command Zhu Shanhai's soldiers and horses. As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and said, "Your Excellency, please ——。 ”

Entering the house and sitting down, Zuo Zongtang said straightly: "Is there a long-term stay in Gongning?" Or return to Kokand? ”

Feng Renxuan said without thinking: "Naturally, it is back to Kokand." ”

"That's fine." Zuo Zongtang said: "Otherwise, Zhu Shanhai will inevitably be suspicious." ”

Hearing this, Tang Bingcan hesitated and said, "In this way, isn't there no one who can restrain Zhu Shanhai and the others?" ”

"Why clamp? Only great chaos can be cured. Zuo Zongtang said in a deep voice: "This should also be one of the purposes of the prince to deliberately make the two northwestern provinces chaotic. ”

It turned out to be intentional connivance! Tang Bingcan couldn't help but suddenly realize, no wonder these two people tolerated everywhere, so that Zhu Shanhai could completely dominate the situation in the two northwest provinces, however, he couldn't help but be a little worried, "Internal and foreign affairs are in the hands of Zhu Shanhai, and the prestige of this fang will also flourish day by day, and the time will be a little longer, but I am afraid that the climate will ......." ”

"How big of a climate can it be?" Zuo Zongtang didn't care at all, as long as Feng Renxuan didn't rebel, Zhu Shanhai wouldn't be able to make any big waves no matter how capable he was.

Feng Renxuan also smiled and said, "Don't worry, the situation in the northwest is under the control of the prince." ”

Shanghai, Zhennan Wangfu, Changle Book House.

"Call from London." Zhao Liewen said slowly: "The parliament has officially passed the proposal to support Chile, and now the proposal for supporting Central Asia is being debated ........" ”

Yi Zhizu took the telegram and glanced at it casually, and said: "Since the proposal to support Chile has been passed, the proposal to support the independence of Central Asia will definitely be passed." ”

Zhao Liewen hesitated and said: "After all, the geography of Chile and Central Asia is different, one is close to the sea, and the other is not only far away from the ocean, but also far from the ocean, and the transportation is inconvenient ....... ”

"Don't forget, the British regard India as the jewel in their queen's crown, and since they can pass the Chilean proposal, there is no reason why they can't support the Central Asian proposal." ”

Speaking of this, he paused slightly, "Ren An came to report yesterday that the two British transport fleets suspected of being loaded with arms have gone south and north one after another. ”

Zhao Liewen said: "The British are playing the first cut and then the prelude? ”

Yi Zhengxing, who had been silent, said: "Why are the two northwestern provinces only electrified and autonomous, will this affect the decision of Britain and Russia?" ”

"Autonomy is just a transitional stage of independence, and it will have no effect." Yi Zhizu said slowly: "Zhu Shanhai's prestige and strength are not as good as Zuo Feng and the others, and they still need to buy time to cultivate their strength by coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes. ”

Hearing this, Zhao Liewen suppressed the smile on his face, "If the northwest declares independence, will the queen mother and the emperor be in danger?" ”

"I won't let them be in danger, and let Zuo Zongtang escort him back to Beijing after a while." Yi Zhizhi said, after all, this game of chess in the northwest was manipulated by him, if the queen mother and the emperor made any mistakes, he really couldn't explain to the court, and maybe it would cause chaos.

Lighting a cigarette casually, he continued: "At present, the situation is developing in the direction we expect, the more times like this, the more we can not be careless, they want our country to fight on two fronts, we might as well follow their wishes, increase troops in South America." In addition, the counterinsurgency in the northwest might as well be a little stronger. ”

With the issuance of a telegram, the war machine of the Qing Empire was quickly put into operation.

On land, with the help of a well-developed railway transportation network, troops quickly assembled from various provinces to Xi'an, and then successively transferred from Xi'an to the northwest, passing through Lanzhou, Wuwei, and Zhangye to gather in Hami, and a huge number of railway engineers were rushing to repair the railway day and night.

On the sea, fleets of different sizes set sail from the coastal ports of Liangguang, Luzon, Java, Myanmar and other provinces to Maputo, South Africa.

When the Qing Dynasty was busy deploying troops to the west, the two major stock exchanges were extremely hot, and the 200 million war bonds were popular as soon as they were thrown out, and the millions of large orders were one after another, and many people originally held a wait-and-see attitude, and when they saw this situation, they couldn't wait to buy them, after all, the war bonds had extremely rich returns, and no one would worry about the risk at all.

Kyoshi, Prime Minister's Office.

Looking at the telegrams, Yi Yi said with emotion: "The five years of rare drought in the seven northern provinces, this was put in the past, it was definitely enough to shake the country's foundation, but now it is good, after all-out relief, there is still the ability to carry out sea and land operations, look at this scale, it is not a small fight...... With such ability early in the morning, how could it have ended up in such a field today? ”

Seeing him sigh, Su Shun didn't feel funny, he had such ability early in the morning, how could he allow long hair to mess with the southeast, and how could he condone the rise of Yuanqi? Having said that, without the rise of Yuanqi, how could the Qing Dynasty have today's scene?

After a slight sigh, he said: "Finance is important to war, but war is not just about money and food, and in today's war, industrial strength and economic strength are the most important backing." ”

Speaking of this, he chuckled and said: "However, the 200 million war bonds were sold out in less than five days, and this alone is enough for the Qing Dynasty to be proud of, but I remember that the Qing Dynasty issued 20 million treasury bonds for the first time, and it completely relied on Yuan Qi to underwrite ......." ”

Yi Yi stretched out his palm and gestured, and said with a smile: "The issuance of war bonds this time has been so smooth, Yuan Qi has at least eaten so much, otherwise it would not have been such a sought-after situation." ”

"Fifty million?" Su Shun was a little surprised and said, "Yuan Qi can still take out 50 million to subscribe to war bonds?" ”

"50 million is a very conservative estimate." Yi Yi glanced at him, "On the opening day, all the million-dollar orders for a whole morning were from Yuan Qi. ”

Su Shun said suspiciously: "Doesn't it mean that Yuan Qi has a mandatory order that all the employees of factories and mines under his name must subscribe for 20% of their annual salary?" ”

"How many can there be? It's just a gesture. Yi Yi pursed his lips, and then said in a sullen voice: "We still greatly underestimate Yuan Qi's financial resources. ”