The New Year of 1900 is approaching.

Hu Xiaoyan finally ran through his territory and got to know all the officials under him one after another.

Hu Xiaoyan has already married, and almost important figures such as Cai Yuanpei, Zhang Binglin, Ye Chengxin's fourth son, Ye Yiming, Li Jingmai, Tao Chengzhang, Tang Shaoyi and others have sent people to pay New Year's greetings. And Hu Xiaoyan also sent people to send gifts to these people, including several princes of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang, Sheng Xuanhuai, Zhu Baosan and others.

The day before the Spring Festival, Hu Xiaoyan received a post from Enming. Enming hopes to meet Hu Xiaoyan for an interview.

For Enming's post, Hu Xiaoyan didn't dare to slack off. Hu Xiaoyan's conscription was so easy, Enming contributed a lot, if he hadn't turned a blind eye, where would Hu Xiaoyan have been able to set up conscription points all over Anhui and smoothly gather an armed team of more than 10,000 people?

After arriving in Anqing, Hu Xiaoyan immediately visited Enming.

In the governor's yamen, Hu Xiaoyan met Enming, the governor of Anhui. Eun Ming looked a little haggard.

"Master Hu, your recent actions are not small!" Enming's tone was a little stiff.

"Hongfu of the Tuo people, Anqing light industry base, mining production in Suxian and Ma'anshan, all three are developing well. It's just that there are too many people at the bottom! I have to guard against it. For example, those people in Su County, now it's not very comfortable if they don't make some trouble for the villain. Hu Xiaoyan began to cry bitterly. The scholars of Su County are indeed not at ease now. They are of course restless pulling. As long as the sons and nephews of these people are of a certain age, they were all arrested by Hu Xiaoyan, and some of them became teachers, and some of them were almost arrested and entered the military academy.

I think that over the years, these scholars have not been diligent, and the six grains have not been divided. Who has ever done heavy work? At this time, he was sent to the military academy to study military affairs. Not only were the German instructors dissatisfied with these people, but these scholars were also very dissatisfied with Hu Xiaoyan.

Hu Xiaoyan also had no choice, he was reluctant to send those college students under him to the military academy. Those are hens that lay golden eggs. There were not enough cadets in the military academy, so Hu Xiaoyan had no choice but to arrest these literate soldiers to fill the numbers. However, the military academy is only called a German training class, and Hu Xiaoyan does not have the power to open a military school at present. The opening of the military academy was to go to the imperial court.

Enming is also dissatisfied with this, do you want to rebel when you recruit so many soldiers from the Yamen of the General Department of Mining? If it weren't for Hu Xiaoyan, he would have turned his face a long time ago. Hu Xiaoyan has invested more than 1.5 million taels in his farm and light industry base. I saw that more than 20 factories of various kinds have already started construction. These days, we can only see a steady stream of raw materials pouring into Anqing from all over the country, and then making finished products into Anqing wharf in a steady stream.

Enming is still very satisfied with a person like Hu Xiaoyan who can do great things. casually didn't care much about Hu Xiaoyan's supernumerary conscription. But Hu Xiaoyan's opening of a military academy is very bad. This is a right that only the imperial court has!

"Your military school is still closed. Otherwise, the old man doesn't seem to be like the court to explain. Enming lowered his breath as he pulled out a few copies of the recital from his sleeve.

Hu Xiaoyan took a look, and it was full of impeachments of the big families for Hu Xiaoyan's actions. Some said that Hu Xiaoyan gathered troops to rebel, and some accused Hu Xiaoyan of opening a military academy for misdeeds. All the excerpts are for what they say. Seeing Hu Xiaoyan gritted his teeth.

"My lord, how the lower officials are doing in Su County, and how they are doing in the light industry in Anqing, the adults are all looking at it! If there weren't those soldiers watching. Can these family businesses still be kept? Hu Xiaoyan cried with a sad face.

"My lord, the lower officials have only made some money by selling all their properties in the UK, and now they are all invested in these foreign affairs. If I have selfish intentions, why don't I recruit 180,000 soldiers? ”

Enming raised his eyebrows. If Hu Xiaoyan took more than a few million taels to recruit troops, and recruited tens of thousands of soldiers, even if they were all spears and big swords, he would not be able to resist it. At present, Anhui has not yet begun the training of the new army!

It was only after Cixi's death that the imperial court opened up the province's authority to train troops. At this time, the soldiers under Enming were mainly Huai Army and Green Battalion soldiers. Their combat effectiveness is inferior even to the militia.

"Xiaohu, this official naturally knows you. But what you're doing is really inappropriate. There is no such precedent in my Qing Dynasty, and military schools can never exist again. "Enming must not compromise on this point, he is full of people! The world is also full of people.

"All right, sir. After the lower officer returned, the military academy was disbanded. Hu Xiaoyan reluctantly agreed.

Although Enming has recently relied on Hu Xiaoyan to do foreign affairs and build an industrial zone for light industry, he has always been a Manchurian, and if the military academy is opened without an edict from the imperial court, according to the law, he will be killed.

If Hu Xiaoyan insists on building himself, Enming may not say anything, but maybe he will be forced to gather troops to rebel at any time. After all, Enming is the governor of Anhui, and he has the right to directly convict Hu Xiaoyan and then confiscate his property. Rebellion or something, don't joke. Without a heavy industrial base and the support of the rear, Hu Xiaoyan's early work would have been in vain. Once this point is reached, Hu Xiaoyan can only return to the UK to be a duke.

Enming doesn't really want to turn his face with Hu Xiaoyan, he is doing things sincerely, it's just that Hu Xiaoyan is making too much noise, your sister, you will recruit 10,000 soldiers at every turn, and you still have a military school, if it goes on like this, Lao Tzu, the governor of Anhui, can't stand the pressure.

After briefly talking to Hu Xiaoyan about next year's industrial zone plan, he began to warn Hu Xiaoyan. Because the Boxer Rebellion has been getting bigger and bigger recently, there are rumors in Beijing that the Empress Dowager Cixi wants to recruit the Boxers into Beijing. Although Cixi finally gave up after being unanimously rejected by the courtiers, this was the reason why Tang Shaoyi sent a telegram to Hu Xiaoyan to return.

But in fact, Cixi did not give up on this, she secretly sent a message to Yuan Shikai to ask Yuan Shikai to stop the extermination of the Boxers. The new governor of Shandong, Yuan Shikai, did not want to rebel at this time, and of course he did not dare to disobey the order. It was only possible to stop the troops. As a result, the Boxers, who were about to be completely annihilated, were reunited and dispersed, and then moved collectively in the direction of Tianjin, fighting local tyrants and destroying churches along the way. Tens of thousands of people were killed and wounded, and millions of taels of money and property were lost in various places.

Although Enming is a banner man, he is still quite discerning, and now the Boxers are making such a big fuss, and they take "Fuqing and Exterminating the Ocean" as the banner. And the foreigners did not live up to the trust, and began to transfer troops into the embassy, and at the same time protested to the Qing court. After only protesting for a few months, Cixi didn't pay much attention to it.

When things are out of control, foreigners will definitely send troops. Once the foreigners send troops, will the Qing army be able to resist it? Enming is hopeless about this, he is also a soldier, what green camp Huai army or Yuan Shikai's new army, it looks brave and invincible, but it is a good thing to be able to escape without fighting in a fight. Otherwise, how could Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Naval Division be defeated? How could Nie Shicheng's Wu Yi army be defeated from Korea and retreat directly to Tianjin?

Once the situation really reaches that point, he Enming can only raise troops to serve the king. But he knows who he is. If you want to fight, you still have to rely on a new-style army, just like the 10,000 soldiers and horses under Hu Xiaoyan! Enming knew that Hu Xiaoyan had spent millions of taels of silver on that army. If it was peacetime, Enming would have done it a long time ago. Raising an army privately is a prelude to a rebellion. But he didn't dare. Hu Xiaoyan's 10,000 guns were internal causes, and the imminent launch of the Boxers and foreigners was an external cause. He also needs Hu Xiaoyan.

So after Enming polished Hu Xiaoyan, he praised Hu Xiaoyan with kind words, and Hu Xiaoyan was extremely uncomfortable at this meal.

Hu Xiaoyan's education in England was confused by the Manchu officialdom culture. I don't understand the truth of those roundabouts. But he didn't dare to ask. After all, everyone is not familiar with it to that extent.

After the meal, Enming actually sent Hu Xiaoyan out in person. At the time of parting, Enming asked seemingly unintentionally: "Xiaohu, I heard that you married a foreign woman?" ”

Hu Xiaoyan was stunned: "Exactly." ”

"It's not good! Very bad! Enming shook his head and didn't elaborate.

Leaving Hu Xiaoyan full of sorrow. Enming is not the first. Since Hu Xiaoyan took Angel back to Yamen and introduced it to his subordinates. Whether it is a martial artist like Sun Lutang and Zhang Yuan or a literati like Li Jingmai and Tao Chengzhang, everyone is respectful to Angel on the surface, but they don't seem to be satisfied on the inside.

Hu Xiaoyan didn't know why. He couldn't figure out why everyone was so emotional about him marrying an Englishman. Isn't it a matter of who he marries or not? Why is it involved in work and career?

Out of the governor's yamen, Hu Xiaoyan came to see Tao Chengzhang.

Tao Chengzhang is 22 years old, two years ago when the two first met, Cai Yuanpei and Zhang Binglin Liang Qichao and others acquiesced to Tao Chengzhang following Hu Xiaoyan, because Tao Chengzhang was too young.

Although Tao Chengzhang is young, he has already traveled all over the landscape of Zhejiang and formed his own set of ideas. In the days of Hu Xiaoyan's absence, he and Li Jingmai cooperated closely, and the operation of the Yamen of the Anhui Mining General Department was not leaked. Many officials who were installed by the court officials were bullied by him and could only hang their crowns.

Li Jingmai is mainly in charge of the construction and economic work of the new town, while Tao Chengzhang is the one who really presides over the overall situation, and he is also a high authority.

But Tao Chengzhang's residence is still a very simple thatched house. Although Hu Xiaoyan has made a large amount of money, there are still some problems in the construction of Anqing's light industry base from time to time. Tao Chengzhang has always lived in a thatched hut at the base, and he didn't even have time to celebrate the New Year.

Tens of thousands of men and women employed in the industrial zone are gathered together, and it is inevitable that some dirty things will happen, and Tao Chengzhang's temper is a little better than Zhang Binglin's, but both of them are actually believers in the supremacy of force. He mobilized 200 policemen from Suxian County and recruited another 300 policemen from the local area. 500 police officers suppressed it, and even hanged more than 20 unlucky eggs, so that the construction of the industrial zone was completed on schedule as originally planned. However, this also gave Tao Chengzhang an extra nickname, just because his face was as black as a Kunlun slave. It is known as "black impermanence". In the words of legend, the name of Tao Chengzhang can stop children's crying.

Hu Xiaoyan could only laugh at this.