Vigorously promoting large-scale mechanized farming operations can be said to be imminent for the northern provinces, after this five-year-long drought, the entire north is now said to be vast and sparsely populated, and a large number of people have been organized and planned to move to the border provinces to reclaim and station.

In five years, the industries of the Qing provinces developed rapidly, and all kinds of factories and mines sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

In addition, a large number of disaster victims have become migrant workers, and a large number of construction teams and engineering teams are active in large and medium-sized cities and various large and small construction sites, and a large number of railway lines and highway lines are constantly extending in both the north and the south.

Even as a migrant worker, the annual income is far more than farming, as long as there is a need, no one wants to go home to farm, not to mention that the five-year drought has caused many farmers to lose their land.

In the case of vast land and sparse population, in order to restore agriculture in the north as soon as possible, only the implementation of large-scale mechanized operations, Zhao Liewen is very clear about this, nodded, he said: "Now the land in the north can be said to be highly concentrated, small loans are afraid that they can not meet the needs of purchasing agricultural machinery, and besides, the installment payment is ......, and the bank is now facing huge capital turnover pressure." ”

The banks are short of funds, and it is easy to know that the expenses for disaster relief in the north, the construction of railway and highway lines, the support of factories and mines in various provinces, and the large-scale organization of resettlement are all staggeringly large, and at present they have to spend huge military expenditures.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Zhao Liewen continued: "Now that the banknotes have shown signs of depreciation, continuing to issue additional banknotes will not only damage the reputation of Yuanqi Bank, but I am afraid that it will ...... Public resentment is boiling. ”

"It's true that we can't continue to issue more banknotes." Yi Zhishu slightly bowed his head.

Zhao Liewen said tentatively: "Increase the amount of gold investment in the market? ”

Because there is no open gold exchange banknote business, the only thing that can be exchanged for gold or silver is gold and silver jewelry stores, especially gold jewelry is very popular, because of the fear of paper money depreciation, it should be said that paper money has been in depreciation, many people are keen to buy gold jewelry to maintain value, all gold stores are in short supply, often out of stock, even silver jewelry is also sought after, however, in order to stabilize the value of banknotes, gold and silver prices have always been a fixed price.

Of course, the gold bars put on the market by Yuanqi Bank to promote value preservation are more popular, and the wealthy people who have a lot of money are vying to buy gold bars to maintain their value, and 10 taels of large yellow croaker and one or two small yellow croakers are in short supply.

"Increasing investment in the gold market is only one aspect." Yi Zhizu said slowly: "On the other hand, the foreign exchange market is opened, and all the funds repatriated from the United States cannot be converted into gold, but they can be exchanged for foreign exchange, and the opening of the foreign exchange market will inevitably be able to absorb some funds."

Then there is the listing of Yuanqi's overseas companies in the United States and South America and other countries in China, and the three-pronged approach will inevitably be able to absorb a considerable part of the market's wealthy funds, which will not only be conducive to the preservation of banknotes, but also alleviate the pressure of Yuanqi's capital turnover. ”

"There's really nothing that can stump the big shopkeeper." Zhao Liewen sighed heartily.

"Huifu doesn't need to put gold on my face." Yi Zhizhi said: "This catastrophe has almost hollowed out Yuanqi's family foundation, and the gold that has been stored hard over the years has almost bottomed out, which is also forced to be helpless." ”

"Value!" Zhao Liewen said slowly: "After surviving this pass, the Qing Dynasty will inevitably usher in an unprecedented prosperous era, and Yuanqi will inevitably reach a heyday." ”

After a pause, he continued: "The death of the former Ming Dynasty, not to say that it was due to natural disasters, but the Chongzhen drought undoubtedly accelerated the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

It is rare that the big shopkeeper can turn harm into profit, with the help of this great drought not only consolidated the frontier, but also promoted the rapid development of the Qing industry, in the humble opinion of students, this drought is comparable to the English enclosure movement, especially rare is that the imperial court also controls a large amount of land. ”

Yi Zhifen said with a smile: "How difficult it is to prosper the country, the most important thing about this catastrophe is to enhance the cohesion of the country and the nation, and greatly promote the transformation of our country from a feudal dynasty to a modern country....... ”

Kyoshi, Prime Minister's Office.

Yi Yi put down the fold in his hand, and breathed a sigh of relief, except for Shanxi, the drought in other provinces has been basically alleviated, there is no doubt that the drought in the north of the Qing Dynasty that has lasted for five years is finally coming to an end, and he can finally breathe a sigh of relief, all the time, he has been worried that the drought will continue until after he leaves office.

The term of office of the prime minister of the Qing Dynasty did not adopt the five-year system of the United Kingdom, but followed the four-year system of the United States, although there was no explicit provision that he could only serve two consecutive terms, but he knew that he could only serve two consecutive terms, and as for Su Shun, who succeeded him, it was difficult to say whether he could serve two consecutive terms.

It's not that there isn't, but that you don't dare! There is Yi Zhicontent, there is Yuan Qi, he can't afford the slightest unrealistic idea, and now the most powerful person in the Qing Dynasty is not the queen mother, not the emperor, not the prime minister, but Yi Zhicontent, who lives in Shanghai, and no one dares to disobey his ideas.

Moreover, after serving two consecutive terms as prime minister, he is also a little disheartened, although he is not a puppet as prime minister, but in many aspects he has to rely on Yuanqi's nose, especially in the financial and military aspects, this time to declare war on the five European countries, easy to be content with a phone call, whether it is the imperial court, the parliament, there is no room for refusal and opposition, of course, the imperial court is impossible to watch the five European countries divide the gold mines of South Africa.

"Lord Wang, Su Xiang is here." An attendant reported at the door.

"Ask him to come in." Yi Yi said and stood up, his term of office was less than a year, and he naturally had to be polite to this long-time deputy who was the successor of Yi Zhicontent.

Su Shun, who was waiting for Su Shun to come in, sat down, and Su Shun did not go around in circles and said straightly: "As soon as spring begins, except for Shanxi, all northern provinces have different degrees of rainfall, and the drought has been alleviated.

In the past, the drought has passed, and the top priority is to restore agriculture in the north, but now that the population of the northern provinces has decreased significantly, I am afraid that it will be difficult to recover in a short time, I would like to go to Shanghai to find out what Yi Guocheng really thinks. ”

After a slight groan, Yi Yi said, "Let's go together." Not only the issue of restoring agriculture in the northern provinces, but also the huge debts of the imperial court and the war in South Africa all need to be discussed in detail with Yi Guocheng. ”

Prime Minister's Residence, 10 Downing Street, Westminster Borough, London, England.

Putting down the telegram in his hand, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's face became extremely ugly, the telegram was sent from Delhi by the Governor in India, Calcutta, which was stationed with 20,000 British troops, was under the fierce offensive of 50,000 Qing troops led by Shi Dakai, and only held out for five days before falling, and the British army retreated to Plassey, while the Qing army was in hot pursuit.

He stood up and walked to the large map of India hanging on the wall, and looked at Plassey on the map with a frown, if it was said that the Qing State intended to expand in India, it seemed a little unreasonable to send only 50,000 troops.

After the Qing State declared war on the four countries of Germany and France, and immediately after the sudden declaration of war on England, and sent troops from Bengal, he realized that the Qing State was deliberately provoking England, and it was successfully provoking England, which led to the parliament passing the declaration of war on the Qing State by an absolute majority.

But he didn't expect the Qing army in Bengal to attack so fiercely, it didn't seem like it was just to provoke England, maybe the Qing was still thinking about expanding westward, taking the opportunity to get enough benefits, or it was to get bargaining chips, bargaining chips!

The chamberlain pushed the door open and reported: "Your Excellency, Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Battenberg is here. ”

"Ask him to come in." Disraeli quickly adjusted his mood and walked back to his desk and sat down.

Admiral Battenberg came in and bowed slightly, saying, "Your Excellency, several admirals who went to South Africa to watch the battle have rushed back to London ....... ”

"Sit down and talk." Disraeli stretched out his hand.

"Judging from the situation of the Battle of Durban, the combat power of the Qing Navy has not increased significantly, and the torpedoes, which we are most concerned about, do not seem to have changed." After sitting down, Battenberg said calmly: "There are also people who suspect that the Qing Navy has hidden its strength, but the appearance of torpedo boats proves that there should be no major improvements in torpedoes.

Very simply, if the Qing State could greatly increase the range and speed of torpedoes enough to attack ironclad ships from a long distance, there would be no need to manufacture high-speed torpedo boats that specialize in launching torpedoes. ”

Disraeli said: "Are torpedo boats capable of posing a great threat to the Royal Navy fleet?" ”

"I can't." Battenberg said with great certainty: "After replacing the rapid-fire guns, the density of firepower of our warships has been greatly improved, and in addition, the increase in speed is not small, which is completely enough to sink torpedo boats beyond a range of two thousand meters." ”

Disraeli shook his head slowly, "Qing Guo dared to declare war on the Five Kingdoms, and deliberately provoked our country, it could not be so simple. ”

"We don't have a better option right now." Battenberg said in a muffled voice, not to mention that England had declared war on the Qing State, and this war itself was planned and provoked by England, and England now has no reason not to send a naval fleet.

"Yes." Disraeli said in a deep voice: "We can sell the latest warships to Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. ”