When Shi Dakai was confused and took his son to tease the pandas in the Yangtze River, Beijing and Changchun were busy, and this time it was a happy event, because two fleets had returned from Britain. The Gu'an study abroad team led by Bolton and Yung Hong finally returned with the medium fleet promised by the British, after a one-year extension of the study period. The Qing Dynasty nominally defended the sea frontier, but in fact the British procurement fleet also came back to counter the First Mobile Fleet of North Manchuria.

After Guoxing'a came out of the customs, Yixin and Su Shun got along quite well. Although both of them have a strong desire for power, they can't move anyone for the time being, so they can only find a way to run in. As a result, when both parties no longer looked at each other through Xianfeng, they found that they were actually very compatible, not only were they pragmatic doers, but their personalities just complemented each other. Su Shun is impatient and fierce, and Yixin's soft personality can turn around for him in some things. And when Yixin is indecisive, Su Shun can quickly jump out and come up with a good idea for everyone. The queen mother of the two palaces was unlucky, it was because of the infighting in the previous dynasty, so she had to make a fuss about them, but now Yixin and Su Shun are getting more and more in tune, and their weight will naturally come down. Su Shun and Yi Xin both wanted to limit the power of the queen from the bottom of their hearts, and they were both veterans of officialdom, so they naturally quickly made the queen mother of the two palaces a rubber stamp. The two palaces were unwilling, and they could only do things in secret, provoking Yixin and Su Shun to continue to pinch.

In the past three years of Yixin and Sushun's joint administration, the Qing Dynasty is really good, and there are still a lot of bad things in various places, but the overall trend is still good, at least the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not as good as day by day. The near-term worries are gradually resolved, and this pro-one has to be a little far-sighted, and the first far-sighted is Guoxing, the number one feudal town of the Qing Dynasty. I wanted to make the bitter cold northern Xinjiang poor and prosperous, but I didn't expect him to prosper. In the past three years in North Manchuria, the two of them have also paid close attention, and Guo Xing'a has been tossing up and down, and everything has not escaped their eyes.

"Forget your ancestors with a number of dictionaries, and change summer with Yiyi!" Every time Su Shun saw the new policy in Northern Manchuria, he had to scold Guo Xing'a, and when he saw Guo Xing'a's education syllabus, he even smashed the table.

Yi Xin also felt that Guo Xing'a was a little excessive, but he was also very interested in the things that Guo Xing'a promoted, such as ships and armaments. At the same time, Yixin was also very curious about where Guo Xing'a got so much money. Although Guo Xing'a has to take away 10 million taels from the imperial court every year, looking at the things that Guo Xing'a did, fools don't know enough. Later, Yi Xin and Su Shun learned about Guo Xing's arms sales to the Americans, and Su Shun directly labeled Guo Xing'a as a traitor, but Yi Xin began to believe that Guo Xing'a's weapons were really better than those of foreigners.

The newspapers in London were reporting on the industrial miracle of North Manchuria, but the two rulers did not care about the threat of Goxinga, because they felt that Goxinga would be defeated. Although the taxes in the Qing Dynasty are not light, and there is no limit to the amount of money in the group training below, it is a bit more powerful to exploit the people, but Guoxinga is completely outrageous. The most ruthless in the era of the family gate valve is ten taxes and six, which makes the people unhappy, Guo Xing'a actually received ten taxes and eight in order to engage in some foreign things, which is simply not leaving a way for the people to live. Otherwise, without the help of the imperial court, the people of Heiji will rebel and kill Guoxing.

Of course, in order to prevent Guoxing and Agu from jumping off the wall in a hurry, Yixin and Su Shun still arranged for Tepuqin to sit in Shengjing, and at the same time strengthened the defense of the Great Wall. Guo Xing'a will not have enough to eat in the future, and he will not want to come to the court to gnaw meat again. On land, it's watching, but it's still a matter at sea. The battle fought by the First Rapid Reaction Fleet of North Manchuria in the United States was still very deterrent, and Goxinga had a fleet in his hands that was not inferior to the foreigners, but it was a troublesome matter. If Guoxing'a knocks on both sides of the Great Wall and the sea, the imperial court can only give more money, otherwise there is really no way. Therefore, the imperial court must have its own navy and strengthen coastal defense, not only to avoid being bullied by foreigners in the future, but also to guard against the poor and crazy Guoxing.

The matter of buying a warship, in fact, was on the agenda of the imperial court before Guo Xing'a left, but it was just to buy a little less to test the water. However, as the pressure on the imperial court increased, the progress of the imperial court's purchase of ships did not accelerate, but the volume increased, and the imperial court needed a fleet that could compete with the first rapid response fleet. The First Rapid Reaction Fleet went to the wolf pack tactics of medium ships, and there were more than fifty battleships alone, and with the addition of supply ships, they were almost eighty. The imperial court will definitely not be able to sell so much, so according to the consistent thinking of the imperial court, the imperial court will buy big ships to deal with small boats. It was still Hurd's line, and the imperial court spent almost four million taels in one go to purchase a battlefleet from Britain to come back. But history seems to be a strange circle, no matter how Guo Xinga stirs up the situation, there is no way to avoid some inevitable things, Hurd's purchaser in Britain is still Li Tai, and the fleet commander Li Tai is still looking for Aspen.

The Qing Dynasty increased the price, and the goods were naturally different from history, no longer eight medium-sized boats, but a group of big guys. The seven main battleships, the largest China, had a displacement of 8,000 tons, and the smallest, the Xiamen, also reached 6,500 tons. And there are five cruisers of about 4,000 tons, five destroyers of 2,000 to 3,000 tons, three gunboats of 100-ton units, and three supply ships. Such a fleet, not to mention appearing in Asia, also has a certain status in Europe. However, because things were added, the working hours were naturally increased, so it was a year faster than in history before arriving at the mouth of Dagu, Tianjin. A year before the arrival of the warship, the interior of the Qing Dynasty was in turmoil over this huge fleet, except for Guo Xing'a, who did not make peace, but everyone who said something came out and showed their faces.

The first one to jump out was Zeng Guofan, and Zeng Guofan's group was the most powerful faction in the Qing Dynasty except for Guoxinga. For the control of this new fleet, Zeng Guofan was very ambitious. In addition to relying on the strength and position of the group, Zeng Guofan also used some small skills to fight with Yixun and the old benefactor Su Shun. From the very beginning, Zeng Guofan insisted on three expectations for the fleet: first, the ships sailed to Anqing and Hankou, second, the brave men of the Chu army's sailors, and third, the relevant matters were to be agreed between the minister and Li Hongzhang. Zeng Guofan's three expectations are all very purposeful, the first sail to Hankou is false, but Hankou in Zeng Guofan's range of strength is true, he wants to use the fleet to sail to Hankow, to Yixun and the foreigners to a fait accompli, to take the control of the fleet as his own. In the last two points, there are also vague words and deception. In short, it is ready to take the fleet into its own possession and "dominate" the side.

With the lesson of Guoxing'a, Yixin and Su Shun are guarding against the local powerful faction every day, and naturally oppose the fleet sailing to Anqing. They were prepared to require the fleet to be stationed in Shanghai for the purpose of attacking Nanjing. However, Zeng Guofan insisted that "it should be used on the river", "The soldiers of the department do not grow on the sea, and they cannot use force in the ocean, so they dare not use it according to Chen." Of course, a generation of great Confucian Zeng Guofan slapped himself in the face, but from the first year of Tongzhi, he emphasized that "the thinness of the officials and armies of Anhui and Wu is on land but not in the water, and the rebellion in Jinling is rampant, and it is also on land but not in the water", and he kept repeating this theory in the future. Sima Zhao's heart is well known to passers-by, and Zeng Guofan has been clumsy in hiding his ears and stealing bells in order to obtain the fleet. But he has begun to prepare to weaken the Hunan army, and he will not let go of this matter, the Hunan army is already too strong, and with such a fleet, I am afraid that it will be more troublesome than Goxinga.

The other force was the Huai army represented by Li Hongzhang, who led the Huai army to Shanghai, and after Li Hongzhang arrived in Shanghai, he combined with the comprador gentry in Shanghai, and his wings gradually became full, and Shanghai's relative superiority made him quite hesitant. From the beginning of the preparation for the acquisition of the fleet, Shanghai has been in a position close to the water. Moreover, the most important thing is that Li Hongzhang mastered Shanghai, an important financial town, and had close ties with Zeng Guofan, forming an alliance of "Xianghuai family", Shanghai was known as "one million a month" at that time, and the customs revenue alone accounted for more than half of the country's customs revenue. The rich man Li Hongzhang didn't dare to ask for it clearly, but he also had a small abacus in his heart.

Yi Xin and Su Shun also wanted to control this fleet in the hands of the imperial court, the core purpose of the imperial court to buy the fleet was to balance Guoxing'a, if the fleet was placed in the distant south of the Yangtze River, it was really not in line with the interests of the imperial court. However, "the Zhou family is declining, and the princes are hegemonic", the imperial court needs to borrow the power of Zeng Guofan and use Li Hongzhang's money, so it can't get into trouble with them. Therefore, the commander of the fleet elected by the imperial court was noble, and he did not even have a chance to speak. However, the imperial court also has the advantage of the imperial court, after all, the righteous name is in hand, and the imperial court can also provoke Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan to have internal strife. However, Yixin, Su Shun, Zeng Guofan, and Li Hongzhang did not expect that it was not only their three forces vying for control of the fleet, but also a larger British.

The place where Aspen's fleet was supposed to be stationed was supposed to be Shanghai, but because Aspen and Botun were angry, they actually drove to Dagukou in one go. Botun's purchase fleet consisted of two 7,000-ton battleships, six cruisers of about 4,000 tons, eight destroyers of 2,000 tons, and four supply ships. Relying on Botun's study abroad team of only about 400 people, he will definitely not be able to get it back, and two-thirds of his 400 people are pure science students, so he will not be able to sail at all. The two fleets returned together because the British had deliberately done it to save costs, because Aspen had brought Botun back, and they could save themselves from having to hire someone to send them back. When he arrived in Singapore, Bian Changdi took the First Rapid Reaction Fleet and transported a large number of sailors to pick up the ship. The first meeting between the "foreign faction" and the "inland river faction" of the North Manchurian Navy was quite harmonious, and there was no resentment like the enemy in the future. After the Chinese took over the warship, Aspen felt insulted, because after Bolton thanked him, he commanded the fleet to leave at high speed, leaving the Aspen fleet far behind. For some issues of honor, the two sides began a race, and this force ran through, and the anchorage suddenly became an unprepared Dagukou.

Botun went to Dalian with his own fleet, and the unarmed fleet needed to be equipped with the advanced artillery of Northern Manchuria, as well as upgrade the boilers and protective ironclad, and familiarize the sailors with British warships. Aspen and Li Tai went to Beijing and handed over their dream treaty to Yi Xin and Su Shun, which suddenly woke Yi Xin from her sweet dream.

, Li Tai's self-proclaimed "plenipotentiary representative of the Chinese government" can turn a blind eye, and it can be forgiven for signing a contract with Aspen privately, but the content of this contract is too exciting! 1. China has established an offshore naval division, and Asben has been the president for four years. With the exception of Aspen, China is not allowed to appoint a foreigner as president. All foreign-style ships in China, or foreigners hired in the mainland, or ships purchased by officials and civilians in China, shall be subject to the jurisdiction and dispatch of Aspen in the future. 2. Aspen only carried out the orders of the Chinese Emperor transmitted by Li Tai. If it is relayed by someone else, it is not obeyed. If there is anything that Asben is inconvenient to do, Li Taitai will not pass it on. 3. All the sailors, soldiers, and sailors of this division shall be selected by Aspen, and shall still be approved only by Li Tai's consent. Fourth, this sailor is a foreign sailor, should hang a foreign style flag......

Yi Xin, Su Shun, Wen Xiang, Du Han and others were all stupid when they saw Li Taitai's contract at the Prime Minister's Yamen, and they couldn't understand what Li Taitai meant. Almost every article was to deprive the imperial court of its rights, and then give it to Li Taitai himself. Yi Xin and the others looked at Li Taitai, who was full of earnestness, and they were all wondering, why didn't he simply stipulate in the contract that he was the emperor of China! According to this contract, the fleet that the Qing Empire bought for millions of taels of silver completely became a foreign flag and obeyed the orders of foreign fleets. And this Aspen, who was sold back, was not only the commander of this fleet, but also the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Navy. It doesn't matter if you sell a few boats, you have to pay all your money to the one who sold the ship, what is the reason.

"Is your country taking away all the military power and interests of our Qing Dynasty in one fell swoop? Is war inevitable? Yi Xin didn't reply to Li Tai, and took the contract and went to Hurd to settle the score. Moreover, Yi Xin and others did not think that Li Tai was too dreamy, but thought that this was a British conspiracy, and there must be a threat of British force behind it. But even if the capital was moved to the Anti-Japanese War, there was absolutely no way to accept such conditions, so he could only prepare to fight with the British.

"Oh God! This is by no means the intention of our government, this is a private act of Lee Tai! "Hurd looked at this strange contract, and it was also messy.

After the news came out, the government and the opposition were in an uproar, and the people who had gone to Dagukou not long ago to see the new things swept away their good opinion of this fleet, and even Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, who had previously competed for the command of the fleet, wrote to oppose the fleet being controlled by foreigners. Sushun is more crisp, return the goods! It is better to find Guoxing to buy warships, and it is absolutely impossible to accept such a nest as a foreign devil, and if this tone is endured, it will really be endless troubles for foreigners to control the Chinese navy.

After Changchun's Guoxinga got the news, he was also speechless for a while, he drove away Li Taitai at the beginning, but unfortunately it still did not change the situation of Asben's fleet. However, Guo Xing'a had a little bad thoughts, the boats that Daqing bought back were really good, much better than his.