Yan Xueyi was idle at home for a few days, and another incident came to the door, which led to another celebrity in the late Qing Dynasty - Li Hongzhang. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Li Hongzhang also came to "fight the autumn wind", but compared with Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang did not have any coercive measures, but summoned Yan Daozhen in the capital, hoping that Yan could support a sum of silver, and how much silver he could support depends on Yan's own, and Li Hongzhang did not only "solicit donations" from Yan himself, other famous businessmen were summoned by Li Hongzhang.

What does Li Hongzhang want silver for?

The answer is simple, buy warships and build a powerful fleet to defend the Manchus.

In 1875 (the first year of Guangxu), the Chaoyi coastal defense discussion, according to the Westernist faction's "Proposal for Coastal Defense", "Guangxu" (Guangxu is only a few years old, should be Cixi) specially appointed Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang to create the Beiyang Naval Division, through the General Taxation Department R. Hurd ordered four gunboats (i.e., Rendal gunboats) in the United Kingdom, which was the beginning of the Qing Dynasty Navy's purchase of warships from abroad; in 1879, it continued to order two ramming cruisers Yangwei and Chaoyong to Britain.

Li Hongzhang asked for silver in order to buy warships and establish a powerful Beiyang naval division, so he wanted to summon those big businessmen to "fight the autumn wind".

Do you want to give Li Hongzhang silver? There is no one in the big businessmen that Li Hongzhang has asked who does not take out a sum of money, Li Hongzhang is a big man, if he offends Li Hongzhang, the end may be very serious.

And Yan Xueyi, who knows history, understands Li Hongzhang's status.

Li Hongzhang (February 15, 1823 - November 7, 1901), a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, one of the main leaders of the Westernization Movement, a native of Hefei, the world is known as Li Zhongtang, also known as Li Hefei, his real name is Zhang Tong, the word gradually Fu or Zihuang, the number Shaoquan (Quan), in his later years, he called himself Yisuo, alias Worry, and Wenzhong.

As the founder and commander of the Huai Army and the Beiyang Naval Division, the leader of the Westernization Movement, an important minister in the late Qing Dynasty, the official to the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang Commerce, and a scholar of Wenhuadian University, he once signed the "Treaty of Vietnam", "Treaty of Shimonoseki", "Sino-French Concise Treaty" on behalf of the Qing government, etc.

Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi regarded him as "the only person in the Qing Empire who had the ability to compete with the world powers", and the Empress Dowager Cixi regarded him as "the person who recreated Xuanhuang". Together with Zeng Guofan, Zhang Zhidong and Zuo Zongtang, he is known as the "Four Famous Ministers of Zhongxing", and together with Bismarck and Grant, he is known as the "Three Great Men of the World in the Nineteenth Century".

This shows how high Li Hongzhang's status is.

Li Hongzhang asked the Yan family for silver, and Yan Xueyi decided to give it, not only to give, but also to give more, and for the first time, he directly took out one million taels of silver to Li Hongzhang.

The reason why Yan Xueyi gave Li Hongzhang so much silver is very simple, that is, let Li Hongzhang build a huge Beiyang naval division to train more naval talents for the Chinese nation, and then Yan Xueyi can build a truly powerful navy on this basis to defend the country after overthrowing the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Historically, the Beiyang Naval Division was formally established on December 17, 1888 (the 14th year of Guangxu) on Liugong Island in Weihaiwei, Shandong, with a total of 25 main warships, 50 auxiliary warships, 30 transport ships, more than 4,000 officers and soldiers, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty allocated 4 million taels of silver to naval construction every year.

The strength of the fleet used to be the first in East Asia and the ninth in the world (according to the ranking of the "U.S. Navy Yearbook" of that year, the top eight were: Britain, France, Tsarist Russia, Germany, Spain, Ottoman Turkey, Italy, and the United States), and then gradually lagged behind the Japanese for various reasons.

However, the main reason for lagging behind the Beiyang Navy in 1891 was that in 1891, the Beiyang Navy was asked to "stop purchasing foreign ships and armaments for three years", so that before the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Beiyang Navy failed to import a single warship or even a single flowering shell, and its equipment stagnated.

Of course, no matter how strong or weak the Beiyang Naval Division is, the warships are basically purchased from the outside world, so that the Beiyang Naval Division is actually far behind the Western countries.

Yan Xueyi doesn't have to care about how backward the Beiyang Naval Division is, what Yan Xueyi values is a large number of naval talents trained by the Beiyang Naval Division, Yan Xueyi has no shortage of warship technology in his hands, and when the time comes, he will build powerful warships and establish a world-class naval fleet.

Therefore, Yan Xueyi directly took out one million taels of silver from the Yan family and gave it to Li Hongzhang, which made Li Hongzhang very happy, and the Yan family gave Li Hongzhang the most silver.

There are many incomprehensions among the elders in the clan, and Yan Xueyi only explained to a few elders who followed Yan Xueyi to Yuanhe City: "No matter how powerful the navy is, it is impossible to drive warships to land, and when we overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty and unify the whole country, then the Beiyang Naval Division is not ours?" ”

Everyone thought about it, it was true, the warship could not be driven on land, there was no need to worry about the Beiyang Naval Division, and when the Manchu Qing Dynasty was overthrown and the whole country was unified, the Beiyang Naval Division would be rootless, and in the end it would have to take refuge obediently, and the Yan family would earn a lot of silver every year, and they couldn't spend it, so they could support Li Hongzhang to build the Beiyang Naval Division, and they could also get closer to Li Hongzhang.

The Yan clan directly took out one million taels of silver to Li Hongzhang, and also let the other big businessmen summoned by Li Hongzhang take a breath, they all knew that the Yan clan was rich in the world, but they didn't expect to be able to easily take out one million taels of silver and send it out for nothing, and then they were embarrassed when they only took out such a little silver, and then they were distressed and generally took out an extra sum of silver, which also greatly increased the amount of silver raised by Li Hongzhang, and as a result, the strength of the Beiyang Navy Division was greatly improved, which was exactly what Yan Xueyi wanted.

Yan Xueyi not only gave Li Hongzhang silver, but also sent a group of educated students from Yuanhe City to the Beiyang Naval Division through connections to prepare for the future.

Now there is a little butterfly like Yan Xueyi who has changed history in this world, although history has changed a lot, but some things that should happen will still happen.

For example, it is inevitable that the suzerainty will still take the risk of going to war with the suzerainty of Korea for the sake of interests, unless the land of China is changed beyond recognition by Yan Xueyi, and the Chinese nation is incomparably strong, and even the Chinese nation will not dare to do it easily, of course, at that time, the Chinese nation will also attract the joint attack of the great powers.

In the same way, the First World War could not have been avoided, as Europe's new upstarts challenged the old powers to redraw national interests.

The general trend remains the same, and this is the best outcome, and no one can stop a person who knows the general trend from moving forward.