Four days later, at the foot of Tianma Mountain, thirty miles southeast of Fuzhou City, on the bank of the Minjiang River estuary, a huge fleet approached the wharf and docked at the riverside wharf. The flagship headed by the emperor was the emperor's imperial ship "Hong Kong", which arrived from Qiongzhou Mansion in Guangdong.

On the way back to Shengjing, Feng Yunshan passed through the waters of Fujian, and remembered the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau to be built in the first five-year plan, so he temporarily ordered to go to the Fuzhou Shipping Administration Bureau to stop and see the situation of the Shipping Administration Bureau on the spot.

As early as the end of the second year of Taisheng, the first five-year plan of the Chinese Empire was issued. In this plan, the first place is to vigorously develop the military industry, and the main goal is to establish the four major shipbuilding bureaus in Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanghai, and Dengzhou, and the four major machine building bureaus in Shengjing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Wuchang.

As the emperor of the Chinese Empire, Feng Yunshan actually had some understanding of the situation of the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau.

At the beginning of last year, Vice Premier Zeng Guanlan reported that the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau was about to build a shipyard more than twice the size of the Changzhou Shipyard at the mouth of the Pearl River, capable of producing four large warships and three small and medium-sized merchant ships at the same time, and said that four warships would be launched by the end of the year. Later, Feng Yunshan seemed to have heard Fujian Governor Shen Guifen, Chief of General Staff Zuo Zongtang, and Defense Minister Shi Dakai all say that the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau had been completed and several warships had been built.

On the shore, on the edge of the wharf, Shen Baozhen, director of the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, had already led dozens of officials of the Shipping Administration Bureau and nearly 100 soldiers of the Capture Army to respectfully greet the holy driver.

"Shen Baozhen, Director of the Shipping Department of the Ministry of National Defense of Weichen and Director of the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, visited Your Majesty, may my emperor live long live, long live, long live!" Shen Baozhen looked average, a little short, and was kneeling on the ground with a respectful face at the moment.

"Shen Aiqing is flat, everyone is flat!" Feng Yunshan raised his hands weakly, as if there was a wordless power, but it was actually the majesty of his emperor, which immediately held everyone up.

Frowning, Feng Yunshan found that although the Manchu Dynasty was overthrown, the imperial officials, especially the former officials of the Manchu Dynasty like Shen Baozhen, who were born as Manchu Jinshi, although they shaved off their braids, were still accustomed to the etiquette of the Manchu Dynasty. Zhong Aiqing listened to my words, from now on, unless it is necessary for court etiquette, everyone is not allowed to bow to me, let alone bow to the superior officials under any circumstances. ”

Seeing that the emperor said solemnly, everyone was a little stunned, and then reacted and praised one after another: "Your Majesty is really a benevolent king!" As he spoke, he knelt on the ground again and shouted long live, making Feng Yunshan smile bitterly. Dare to feel that what he just said was in vain.

This Shen Baozhen is Lin Zexu's nephew and son-in-law, upright personality, originally in the Manchu Qing Dynasty Inspectorate under the supervision of the five products of the imperial history, after the northern attack of Beijing saw the fall of the Manchu Dynasty, he returned to the Chinese Empire, after the list was seen by Feng Yunshan, remembering that in history this is one of the important ministers of the Westernization movement during the "Tongzhi Zhongxing", especially has been the Minister of Shipping. When Zuo Zongtang, who founded the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, was transferred to the Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, he recommended Shen Baozhen as the Minister of Fujian Shipbuilding and presided over the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau. He not only developed the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, but also single-handedly created the first naval fleet in modern China, built the first more than 1,000-ton wooden-hulled steamship of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the "Wan Nianqing", and in his later years, he made great contributions to resisting Japan and developing Taiwan, and was one of the few cadres. It just so happened that because he was a native of Fuzhou, Feng Yunshan promoted him exceptionally and directly appointed him as the director of the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, the largest of the four major shipping bureaus, and the director of the Shipping Department of the Ministry of National Defense.

Feng Yunshan directly called Shen Baozhen to his side, just wanted to ask him about the situation, only to see a few fast horses hurrying over, before they arrived, they jumped off the horse, there were already soldiers come forward to interrogate, after a while, greeted over, but it was Fujian Governor Shen Guifen, Infantry Division Commander Xu Daguang, Fuzhou Governor Hu Yingtai, and Min County, Houguan and other county magistrates, because Feng Yunshan temporarily wanted to come, they were some distance from the Ship Bureau, and arrived at this time.

Waving his hand to stop these imperial officials who had slowly become bureaucrats, Feng Yunshan directly asked Shen Guifen, the governor of Fujian: "Shen Guifen Shen Aiqing, you and Shen Baozhen and Shen Aiqing are the same year Jinshi, have you ever strongly supported Director Shen's shipping affairs?" ”

Shen Guifen was born in the Shen clan in Tongli, Suzhou Prefecture, in the hometown of rich businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River, and was relatively open-minded, Feng Yunshan deliberately put it in the position of governor of Fujian, so that he could open up the tea trade route in Fujian and vigorously develop the black tea industry that foreigners like, thinking of the last time Guo Songtao said, Shen Guifen, Shen Baozhen and Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhiwan (Zhang Zhidong's brother) and Guo Songtao and others are all the same Jinshi, so he directly asked him half-jokingly and half-seriously if he had supported Shen Baozhen's Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau. After all, although the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau has a special fund directly allocated by the Ministry of Finance and Taxation, it still has to rely on local support for personnel transfer, policy support, land supply, Minjiang waterway control, logistics supply and other aspects.

"Back to Your Majesty, Wechen naturally vigorously supports Brother Shen Nian's shipbuilding, but this is not because Director Shen is the same year as Wechen, but because Wechen's responsibility lies. As long as it is a character assigned to Weichen by His Majesty and the imperial court, Weichen will work hard to do a good job. Shen Guifen is worthy of being from a big family, and she answered calmly, which made it impossible to find fault.

Feng Yunshan only beat it slightly, and the purpose was naturally to make Shen Guifen more supportive of Shen Baozhen's Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau. Therefore, he nodded with satisfaction and praised: "Shen Aiqing reassures me." By the way, what happened to Fujian's tea industry? ”

"Your Majesty, if Your Majesty does not give up and entrust the ministers with the great responsibility, how can you not be dedicated to your Majesty and the court?" Hearing the emperor ask about the development of tea in Fujian, Shen Guifen became a little excited: "All the prefectures and capitals of Fujian Province are rich in tea. Oolong tea produced in southern Fujian, such as Tieguanyin, Buddha's hand, etc., produced in several prefectures in southern Fujian, such as Anxi; Wuyi tea is produced in Yanping, Jianning and Shaowu in northern Fujian; There are many white teas and jasmine teas in Funing and Fuzhou Erfu in the Mindong Tea Area. Your Majesty, since Weichen became the governor of Fujian, has vigorously developed tea cultivation in accordance with His Majesty's will, especially the targeted development of black tea, which foreigners love to drink. As of the end of last year, there were more than 600,000 landless mountain people from Zhejiang's Chuzhou Prefecture, Jiangxi's Guangxin Mansion and Jianchang Mansion, Tingzhou, Zhangzhou Prefecture, Quanzhou Mansion and other places in this province rushed to receive vouchers from the government to rent mountains for reclamation and plant tea gardens. Together with the original tea farmers, the number of tea farmers has reached more than 1.7 million. ”

"More than 5,000 tea factories have been renewed, with more than 1,000 or hundreds of people in each factory, dozens of small ones, and nearly 200,000 employees. At the same time, he was a merchant and a burdenman, and he was full of roads, filling up the reverse brigade, and there were hundreds of thousands of people in short supply. Fortunately, there is a Jiangxi-Fujian railway under construction, and when the railway is opened, it will be able to relieve the pressure of tea transportation. Speaking of this, Shen Guifen blurted out another burst of data: "Your Majesty, in the third year of Taisheng, Fujian Province produced more than 90 quintals of various types of tea, of which 420,000 quintals were exported, accounting for 50% of the country's total exports of 750,000 quintals. Last year, Fujian province produced a total of 1.3 million quintals of various types of tea and exported 680,000 quintals. This year, Weichen expects that Fujian Province can produce more than 1.5 million quintals of tea, and export more than 800,000 quintals of tea. ”

Feng Yunshan looked surprised, he didn't know how much data last year's data was, he only knew that it was more than the year before last, but he didn't expect it to be so much. The total output of tea in the country cannot be calculated, but in terms of export volume alone, from Fujian Province, you can see the total export volume of the country, because Fujian has more black tea, it has always accounted for half of the total exports, but after Shen Guifen took office as governor, vigorously developed the tea industry, Feng Yunshan estimated, the proportion can be squeezed into about sixty percent. In this way, last year, the country was able to export about 1.1 million quintals of tea. Feng Yunshan knew that because of the impact of the British War in the Crimean War and the Indian Rebellion War, the price of tea this year was the same as last year, and the export value of tea this year was 44 million Shengyuan.

However, I didn't come to Fuzhou to listen to Shen Guifen talk about tea, although these teas have developed very well, but they are only forty or fifty million saint yuan per year, excluding the cost, the real fall on the state finance will not exceed ten million saint yuan, this money, Feng Yunshan will not take it seriously. After all, in the past few years, the wealth that has been stolen from the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the official gentry and bullies in various places is worth hundreds of millions of holy yuan. If it weren't for the sake of stabilizing the situation, quickly pacifying the whole country, and not letting too many wealthy families from all over the country resist fiercely, Feng Yunshan would have ruthlessly attacked the rich officials and gentry in various places, at least he would have been able to loot hundreds of millions of holy yuan in money. Nowadays, the most important thing is coastal defense, and in order to form a fleet at sea, the naval academy and warships are the most important.

Therefore, Feng Yunshan praised Shen Guifen and said: "Shen Aiqing has done his best to benefit the people of Fujian, and he has made great contributions. Reward for half a year, and reward the merits. ”

Shen Guifen was overjoyed and was busy thanking.

Feng Yunshan said to Shen Baozhen: "Director Shen, let's continue to talk about the situation of the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, what I am most concerned about this time is how my Shipping Administration Situation is." ”

Shen Baozhen pointed to a bay in the upper reaches of the Min River, and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, seeing is believing, at the bay of the northern branch of the Min River over there, the four docks of my Fuzhou Shipping Bureau are hiding there. It's better to follow Weichen to the dock not far in front to have a look, and naturally know how the Harbour Administration Bureau is developing! ”

Shen Baozhen's words were exactly what Feng Yunshan meant, so Junchen and the others walked along the river bank towards the river bay dock on the northern tributary of the Min River.