After visiting the 20 warships purchased by Guo Songtao, Feng Yunshan was full of pride.

Today, the Chinese Empire has firmly occupied the first place in the navy of the entire Eastern world. Of course, the Far East today has no navy of its own. Korea and Vietnam had been annexed by the Empire, and Japan, the only great power in the later world, had not yet been civilized, and there were only a few hundred so-called warships converted from fishing boats with a total displacement of no more than 10,000 tons. A few years ago, the Perry fleet of the United States, now in Feng Yunshan's opinion, can be destroyed by sending an Oriental fleet at will. What's more, now there are 20 new warships, and now the four major ship bureaus have been established and started to put into production to build warships, and new warships enter the service of the three ocean-going fleets every month, even if he is the emperor and has been out for a few months, it is not clear how many warships the empire has.

Looking at this majestic warship, especially the two battleships and the four cruisers, Feng Yunshan naturally wanted to establish a new ocean-going naval fleet. As for who was in charge of this fleet, he thought of a person, in fact, this person was his favorite general of the naval division, that is, Peng Yulin, who is now the commander of the 6th Infantry Division and responsible for the preparation of the Yellow River Naval Division.

Peng Yulin can be described as the founder of modern Chinese sailors. Although the Fujian Navy Division is the first modern naval fleet in China, its real creation was after the establishment of the Fuzhou Ship Administration. However, not long after the founding of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Peng Yulin founded the Hunan Army Naval Division, purchased foreign cannons, manufactured large ships, and trained soldiers, and then after the elimination of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Peng Yulin created the Yangtze River Naval Division with new battalions and drills, new naval cannons, and new systems, and eventually developed into the Beiyang Naval Division, the largest naval fleet of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. It can be said that Peng Yulin is the founder of the modern Chinese Navy.

Think about it, under the suspicion of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the lack of silver taels, the lack of modern military talents and warships, can create the Yangtze River Naval Division, and now with the full support of his own emperor, with Peng Yulin's talent and ability, plus the 20 warships in front of him, as well as a steady stream of warships and warships bought from foreigners, plus the support of hundreds of millions of Shengyuan financial resources prepared by himself, I am afraid that he will not be able to surpass the Beiyang Naval Division in history?

By the way, some of the generals of the Hunan Army have been left to dry for two years, and now their arrogance is exhausted and they can be activated, especially that Yang Zaifu and Zou Shouzhang, I remember that they are both famous generals of the Hunan Army's naval division, just right, as Peng Yulin, who should have been their boss in history, is not it the lack of such a capable subordinate.

The decision has been made, Feng Yunshan immediately issued an order to the newly purchased 20 warships on the banks of the Huangpu River: "Pass on my order, from now on, transfer the former commander of the 6th Infantry Division, Peng Yulin, to Tokyo, Yang Zaifu, Zou Shouzhang and Si Fucha to assist, with the coordination of the General Staff, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Finance and Taxation, and cooperate with Peng Yulin to transfer manpower and funds, two months later, a new ocean-going fleet will be established, and I will name it the 'Pacific Fleet' of the Chinese Empire, ranking first among the four major fleets of the empire, and all supplies should be given priority. ”

Transferring to a steam gunboat with a displacement of more than 300 tons, it was nearly dusk when it approached the mouth of the Suzhou Creek. Standing on the deck, Feng Yunshan looked at the Bund Wharf in Shanghai not far away, where there were several merchant ships entering and leaving the port in an orderly manner, and there were more than ten huge Chinese merchant ships or Western armed merchant ships moored at the berth next to the wharf, a busy scene.

Feng Yunshan saw Liu Kunyi, the prefect of Songjiang, and Zhang Zhidong, the magistrate of Shanghai, who were standing respectfully on the side, beckoned the two of them to get closer to him, pointed to the right bank of the Huangpu River, and said: "Two Aiqing, now this is under your rule, seeing that there are many cargo ships in this port, and the entry and exit are in and out in an orderly manner, I am very relieved, would you like to introduce me to me?" ”

Liu Kun took a look at Zhang Zhidong, and bowed to Feng Yunshan: "Your Majesty forgot that Shanghai is a special zone, under the rule of Lord Zhang, directly responsible to the imperial court, not under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Mansion, how can Weichen introduce it?" It is still familiar to Lord Zhang, and Lord Zhang will report to His Majesty. Besides, Songjiang Mansion, which is ruled by Weichen, will not have so many foreigners running rampant everywhere. Wechen has always believed that the way to govern is to clean up the source. When the chaos is peaceful, people's hearts will be quiet. At this time, it is time to abandon the terms of Western trade and drive out a large number of foreign businessmen, and it is only right to engage in agriculture and run schools. ”

Feng Yunshan smiled, for Liu Kunyi, although he didn't have much contact, he also knew at this moment that this person's style was conservative at this time, because he was stubborn to the old, as a Confucian scholar, he obviously rejected foreigners, advocating self-reliance, educating and educating people to govern the place. However, he who is familiar with history naturally knows that this Liu Kunyi, as an important figure in the Hunan army in history, was indeed conservative at first, but eventually developed from a feudal scholar who believed in Confucian classics to a famous Western-style diplomat in the late Qing Dynasty.

Even if he is still a conservative feudal figure, Feng Yunshan did not reject him, but still appointed him as the prefect of Songjiang. After all, he had been living in seclusion in the interior and had never seen the benefits of trading with foreigners. In addition, he read the Confucian classics and had a very strong national integrity, and "loyalty to the monarch" and "peace and security" became his goal and all, but later, after he served as the governor of Liangguang for four years, the governor of Liangjiang and the minister of trade in Nanyang, the opportunities for contact with foreign affairs in actual government affairs continued to increase, and he gradually realized the benefits of foreign affairs to the country, so he began to slowly change, and the measures for foreign affairs that were beneficial to the country and the people also began to be implemented. Later, after the defeat of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War, Liu Kunyi was violently stimulated, suddenly woke up, and began to actively handle Western-style projects such as building railways, opening mines, and developing agriculture and industry, and advocated Western studies and reformed education, becoming the leader of the Westernization Movement in the later period, and also became the biggest propagandist and agitator of the late Qing Dynasty's reform of the law.

Therefore, Feng Yunshan is not in a hurry, he believes that when Liu Kun has more contact with foreign affairs, he will change like history and become his right-hand man.

So, Feng Yunshan looked at Zhang Zhidong, and he pinned great hopes on this Manchu important minister who was more famous than Liu Kunyi in later generations.

The corners of the young Zhang Zhidong's mouth have begun to climb up the black beard, his eyes are bright, he saluted Feng Yunshan, and said: "Your Majesty, Lord Liu, all the adults, please look at the Suzhou River estuary, from the mouth of the river to the north of Shanghai in front of the two miles of the river, Weichen will be divided into the Bund special area, corresponding to the Pudong Free Trade Zone established by the imperial court, backed by the Huangpu River for the freight terminal, at present, all kinds of merchant ships can enter and exit the wharf every day up to 40 or 50, can berth cargo ships up to more than 40 ships, river and sea transportation is increasingly busy, frequent transactions. In the near future, we are afraid that these berths will not be able to berth more and more merchant ships, so we are building a 4-kilometer-long Pudong wharf with cement and steel in Pudong on the other side of the river, which can berth more merchant ships. ”

Zhang Zhidong said, stretched out his hand and pointed to a three-story western-style building in the center of the wharf, and said: "Your Majesty, please see, this western-style house is the Jianghai Customs that Weichen ordered to rebuild last year, and it is the only customs office in Shanghai County. But don't underestimate this small western-style building, and don't underestimate the tariff we charge for basic goods is only one percent, but there are so many cargo ships every day, and there are many goods to be traded, and the tariffs are very considerable, to the point that Weichen didn't expect it. ”

When Zhang Zhidong said this, he asked Liu Kunyi: "Lord Liu, the lower officials want to ask, how much is the annual income from grain, cotton and mulberry and other crops in Songjiang Mansion for millions of acres of cultivated land?" How much does the whole Songjiang Prefecture pay in a year? ”

Feng Yunshan couldn't help but smile, he just wanted to let Liu Kun touch it, but he didn't expect that this Zhang Zhidong would take the initiative to take this matter. Feng Yunshan naturally knew that Zhang Zhidong wanted to highlight the income of the customs of a county in Shanghai through the taxes of the Songjiang government. The tax policy of the Chinese Empire has now become relatively simple, and all import and export goods traded with foreign merchants, except for ultra-high tax rates such as opium chips and zero-tariff goods such as weapons, machinery, and rice, the rest of the general goods are taxed at a rate of 10%. Today, although the port of Shanghai has not surpassed the old trading port of Guangzhou in the empire, it is also very close, and the annual transaction of goods is massive, and the tariff must be very amazing.

Sure enough, Liu Kun did not doubt him, and said directly and calmly: "Your Majesty, Lord Zhang, according to statistics, most of the 640,000 farmers in Songjiang Mansion last year were planted with cotton, grain, mulberry hemp and other crops, of which cotton accounted for the largest proportion, and the output value was more than half, on average, in terms of planting alone, each household included the cost of fertilizer seeds, etc., the output value was about 220 saint yuan, if the cost is removed, each household almost has a net income of 130 saint yuan, of course, there is a big difference in this, and the labor cost of farmers in public is not taken into account, In addition, most of the farmers will spin yarn by themselves to earn some subsidies for their families during their leisure time. In this way, the total value of the crops in Songjiang Mansion last year is probably 83.2 million holy yuan. The total annual tax payment of the whole Songjiang province is around 5.2 million holy dollars. ”

Zhang Zhidong said with a smile: "Under the governance of Lord Liu, Songjiang Mansion is really rich and healthy, which is really a blessing for the people!" However, nowadays, relying on farmers to cultivate, they can only barely eat and dress at most, and it is difficult to reach the point of not worrying about food and clothing, and it is far from the level of peace and prosperity in the world required by His Majesty. I'll wait ......"

Zhang Zhidong wanted to say more, Feng Yunshan interrupted him with these unnutritious words, this Zhang Zhidong is still too young, it seems that there is a faint discord with Liu Kunyi. I also blame myself, the establishment of the Pudong Special Economic Zone, the status of Shanghai County is set to be transcendent, the place that should have belonged to Songjiang Mansion is now not under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Prefecture, no wonder the two are a little discordant. At the moment, he said with a little dissatisfaction: "Zhang Aiqing directly said about your profit in Shanghai County." ”

Zhang Zhidong smiled awkwardly, and his face was straight: "Weichen obeys the order!" ”