The family banquet in Prince Gong's mansion is also extravagant, although only Guan Zhuofan is invited, but only the fruit snacks before the meal are served on sixteen plates.

Guan Zhuofan thought to himself, King Gong had a clear intention to reward the double salary, but to maintain such pomp, it was not a matter of one or two servings.

"Lord Wang," Guan Zhuofan took out an envelope from the page of his boots and handed it over across the table, "The expenses in the house are huge, this is a little filial piety on my part, please accept it from the prince." ”

"Hey, you're still here." King Gong on the opposite side smiled, took the bag, neither avoided the guests nor the people, opened the package, pulled out the ticket inside, twisted it with his hand, and then put the bag back on the table.

"Okay, I rewarded you with 10,000 at the beginning, and now I have found 100,000 back."

"If you go back to the prince, these are all silver accumulated by long hair, and it won't hurt you to take it."

"Yixuan, I have a heart." King Gong smiled and nodded, "Come, drink this cup first." ”

King Gong is still the same old-fashioned method, with cellar ice cubes, the town of Western wine, poured into a fine crystal glass. In July, when the summer has not disappeared, this way of drinking is really refreshing.

"Let's talk about Jiangning first," King Gong, like Cixi, put Jiangning in a very important position, "Zeng Guofan has already played, requesting the removal of the Hunan army, and at the same time, he will also return home for Zeng Guoquan. You are coming back from Jiangning, what do you think of these two things? ”

Guan Zhuofan thought to himself, these two things are actually the same, both originated from the great plunder of the Hunan army after the recovery of Jiangning. However, in front of King Gong, there is no need to be as cautious as when His Majesty spoke yesterday, firstly, it is the identity of a cronie, and secondly, it is a private house. It is not as many eyes and ears as it is in the temple. The third is King Gong's familiarity with political affairs. is better than the queen mother of the two palaces, if he blindly vains and wrongs, he hears it, but it is not beautiful.

"Lord Wang, I am young, my knowledge is limited, and I don't dare to mess with the affairs of Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan. As for the matter of Jiangning. I know everything, and I can't say anything. ”

"Okay, just say it."

"Zeng Guoquan's auspicious word camp, the twilight has been revealed, this is there. At the end of the strong crossbow, it was not easy to penetrate Jiang Ning's layer of Lu Mian. When the city was broken, I watched the battle with my own eyes on the Jingwang slope seven miles outside the city, and it was really a bitter battle under the scorching sun. And it didn't take any chances. ”

"Then after the breakdown......

"Lord, I said something that I don't like. The breath of the Jizi camp was all hung on Jiangning City, Jiang Ning was alive, they were alive, and as soon as Jiang Ning died, they were also dead. ”

King Gong was surprised: "Yixuan, where did you start with this?" ”

"The eagle is not full, but if it is full, it will be far away." Guan Zhuofan took Liu Xun's words to "borrow flowers to offer Buddha", and said frankly, "After Jiangning broke the city, to be honest, no one can figure it out." If there is no silver in Jiangning City, then no one will believe it, and if there is a mountain of gold and silver, there is no empirical evidence. Therefore, I persuaded the prince not to go deeper, confused, confused, Zeng Guofan proposed to dismantle the Hunan army, I guess what he wanted to withdraw, first of all, was the 50,000 people in the Jizi battalion. ”

"Yixuan, your insight is quite profound." King Gong looked at Guan Zhuofan with appreciation, and said in his heart that he had been training outside for two years, and he really couldn't look at him with his original eyes.

The two requests in Zeng Guofan's fold, Prince Gong could see that one was to leave a place for Zeng Guoquan, and to retreat as advance. The other also has a negative connotation, expressing dissatisfaction with the attack on the Hunan army in the government and the opposition. If according to the previous attitude of the imperial court, Zeng Guofan's excerpts should be "uncontroversial" and not allowed. This is of course because they are still twisting the military soldiers, and it is also a kind of envelopment of the Zeng brothers, expressing that they do not care about the outside voice.

Now it may be time to reconsider. If the Jizi battalion can no longer fight, then staying is just a futile waste of military salaries, so why bother?

After talking about Jiangning, we talked about the twist, but on this matter, King Gong's opinion was the same as Guan Zhuofan's, thinking that there was no need for the participation of the Xuan army, and the soldiers were enough, and the only pity was that the Xuan army's sailors were not needed.

"I heard that as soon as your gunboat rang off in the north of the city, the long hairs in Jiangning City were all terrified!" King Gong Haha said with a smile, "It's a pity that the gunboats are useless in fighting bandits now." ”

The purchase of the Aspen fleet was a board made by King Gong, although it could not be completely successful in the end, but the two ships left behind became famous in the Taihu Lake, which was regarded as saving his face, so he was extremely proud.

"It's all thanks to the wisdom of the prince!" Guan Zhuofan took the opportunity to say, "But now the British ships have taken another step. ”

"Oh? How did you go one step further? ”

"The latest ships no longer use paddle wheels, but propellers placed underwater. Not only is the boat moving much smoother, but the boat is twice as fast as before. ”

King Gong was born and raised in the imperial city, and never left the capital except for Rehe. Although he is smart by nature, the propeller is unimaginable, no matter how Guan Zhuofan explains, but the multiplication of the speed of the ship is always understandable.

"When our foreign affairs are done, I will build dozens of 'propellers' for him!"

From there, we began to talk about foreign affairs. Guan Zhuofan's conversation was extremely strong, and he did not hide it at all, and reported to King Gong carefully and carefully on many affairs that he had opened and planned to open in Jiangsu, one by one, except for the industrial park and the free trade zone, and everything from coinage to the Cantonese dialect hall was omitted.

The more King Gong listened, the brighter his eyes became, and there were many things in it that he had never thought of before. Only when I heard the Cantonese dialect hall, I showed a sad expression.

"Hey, isn't this the way of the Tongwen Pavilion? If the handling of Tongwenguan can also be so smooth, how good it would be! ”

"Yes, I heard Uncle Xu Xing say that there are always some people who can't eat the ancients and are causing trouble for the prince."

"Aren't you just the people of the U Ren group? Holding the ancestors to talk about things, it seems that we are no worse than foreigners, so why bother to learn from foreigners? "This is where King Gong is troubled, and he shakes his head when he says it," this group of people talked about things, and they all said it well, but they didn't know that everything was more expensive than practice. Hmph, if you have the ability, please try it! ”

This is, of course, an angry remark. King Gong's annoyance is not only the attitude that Wo Ren has always had, but also originated from his latest twist, thinking that the practice of "recruiting astronomical students and entering the museum to study" in the Tongbunkan is very absurd, please stop the discussion. And the reason for the use of Wu Ren is that I am a big China, why bother with no talent, even if it is astronomical arithmetic, there must be people who are proficient in it, just find a few at random, why bother to learn from the foreigners in the Tongwen Museum?

"Talking to them about the big truths and talking about empty words is something that can never be argued." Guan Zhuofan pondered for a moment and said with a smile, "I plan for the prince, but there is a way." ”

"Oh? Tell me about it! "King Gong is very interested.

"Actually, the prince has already said it, it's the sentence 'please try them'."

"Huh?" King Gong heard the taste and became energetic, "How do you say this?" ”

"Since it is said that there is no talent, then you might as well make a decree and ask him to promote a few talents who are proficient in astronomy and arithmetic. He is a man of reason, he pays attention to sincerity and does not deceive, and his words must be sincere. I guess I'm embarrassed to say anything more about the things on the side. Guan Zhuofan said, "If this still doesn't work out, and you still think that the affairs of foreigners are easy to handle, then just like the prince said, invite his old man to the prime minister's yamen and a minister, and do it in person!" ”

This method sounds incredible, but when you think about it, there is no flaw.

"Yixuan, it's really yours!" King Gong's heart was overjoyed, hahadaxiao, "It turned out that you were both civil and military, and you were not mistaken!" ”

"Zhuo Fan didn't dare to be the praise of the prince." Guan Zhuofan said respectfully and humbly.

"You can afford it." King Gong said with emotion. The meal was almost finished, and he picked up a slice of cantaloupe and chewed it slowly, about to ask him what he was most concerned about.

"Yixuan, Xu Gengshen came back from Shanghai and told me that you want to train a new army in Jiangsu?"

"Yes."

"Well, now that Jiangning is broken, the force of the twist is enough, and it will be peaceful in the near future. Duolonga relieved the siege of Xi'an, and it seems that the rebellion in the northwest will not be a big trouble, but a good opportunity to train troops. King Gong nodded and said, "What kind of training do you have to be called a new army?" ”

"All Western-style ordnance and equipment, all Western-style combat exercises," Guan Zhuofan replied, "but this alone is not enough-Lord Wang, you know, now in the army everywhere, those who serve as soldiers are only to make a fortune, and those who are officials are promoted to make a fortune together, and it is best to transfer to a real magistrate somewhere." If such a bad habit does not go, it cannot be called a new army, and it is far from the professional army that foreigners say. ”

"Oh," King Gong slowly savored Guan Zhuofan's words and asked, "It's just that the combat strength of the Xuan army, I heard that it is already quite invincible, and it still needs to train troops, why?" ”

King Gong's words, Guan Zhuofan disagreed in his heart - twisting the army and returning to the chaos are both big troubles, and it is still very early to say that it will be calmed down.

"Back to the words of the prince," Guan Zhuofan said respectfully, "in order to deal with the British and French. ”

Without warning, this sentence came suddenly, and King Gong was stunned for a while. But after listening to it, his brows gradually wrinkled, and after listening for a while, he raised his hand to stop Guan Zhuofan's words.

"Come on—"

"Huh!"

"Tell Liufujin to open the small house!"

"Huh!"

The wait-in entourage did not slack off in the slightest, and walked away - the small house was a secret room behind King Gong's study, and only the most important things would be transferred there to discuss. And in the entire palace, only King Gong's original maid in the house is allowed to serve, and now Liufu Jin Qiuyu.

"Yixuan, let's go." King Gong said with a solemn face, "Let's talk in another place." ”

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