Chapter 85: Li Zhongtang's thoughts

This Jiangnan Weaving Bureau is a big industry in the Beiyang industry whose profits are second only to China Merchants, and after a Xiǎoxiǎo wind last year, Li Zhongtang wrote to Ding Richang this year, hoping that he could double the production capacity of the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau, which Ding Richang promised with his mouth.

"This is the ...... Governor Ding didn't have time to do it, but he sent a telegram two weeks ago, saying that his supervisor had gone to inspect the South China Sea! ”

"It's Brother Yusheng's beloved general Qin Kai! This young man is very interesting, he is now a fourth-grade Taoist, I heard that Zhang Peilun, a Qingliu cadre, is also quite close to this person, but he is a person, Xingsun, have you ever inquired about the details of this Qin armor...... Li Zhongtang stroked his beard and said with a smile.

When Sheng Xuanhuai heard this, his heart moved, and he also heard what Lord Zhongtang meant, "My lord, I did send people to Guangzhou and Fuzhou to check the origin of this Qin Governor, but there is no substantive news, but this Qin Kai did recruit a group of people and horses, and the Mawei Ship Administration was in full swing, and I also heard that the Huimin industry, free clinic and free school that Governor Ding and Governor Zhang Peilun engaged in in Fujian have this Qin Kai in their hands!" It is said that the chapters on the rise of empires and the current situation in Vietnam in the "Fujian New Daily" were all written by this person! ”

"Oh! No wonder Yu Sheng saw this son," Li Zhongtang was slightly stunned when he heard this, "In this way, this son can be used!" Xingsun, what do you think? ”

"My lord, this matter needs to be cautious, but don't forget it, this horsetail shipmaster is the old foundation of Zuo Dashuai, and I heard that this Qin Kai has a close relationship with that Hu Xueyan......

"Oh ......" Speaking of the difference between factions, even Li Zhongtang's eyes flashed, he pondered for a moment, and decided to talk about today's business first, "Yu Ting, in addition, there seems to be some movement on the Korean side, and the Japanese country is also eyeing it now!" You tell the sailors to get ready! I have ordered the Qing Army to go to North Korea in a few days, and you should send a sailor to escort you! ”

"Don't worry, sir! I should personally go to North Korea to escort this matter! "Ding Ruchang has always been unscrupulous in carrying out Li Zhongtang's orders, which is also one of the magic weapons for him to ascend to the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division.

What an eventful time! As soon as the French made a fuss in Vietnam, the Japanese people did not stop, and they had to do their best to let the French negotiate things properly, and in the entire court, Li Zhongtang was conceited and knew that this declining empire was a qiē, from a scholar to now being in charge of a country's heavy army, everyone in the world knows that the strong army of the Qing Dynasty is now only the Huai Army!

Actually, it's not quite, Zuo Dashuai is still there! However, the Hunan army has long been divided, and the people who go home and the pensioners who care for the elderly are now the horns of the firefighters, thinking of the current situation of the Qing Dynasty, his pride of looking for a feudal marquis three thousand miles away has long been consumed in the internal fighting of the Huai army!

The so-called ten battalions of the Huai Army, the five battalions given to him by his self-confessed teacher Zeng Guofan, Cheng Xueqi's Kaijun and Liu Shiqi's Qi Army, Guo Songlin's Song Army, Yang Dingxun's Xun Army, and Tang Renlian's Ren Army, he is completely distrustful, and he has been abolished and reorganized a few years ago, and these banners have long been found in the Huai Army.

And the old man of the Huai Army, Ma Wuying, who was born and died with him, has been promoted and made rich over the years, and gradually there is a momentum that cannot be lost, Zhang Shusheng and Wu Changqing were the relatives of the year, but Zhang Shusheng after being promoted to the governor is now somewhat self-talking, and many things are not told to him, the boss!

Wu Changqing is also an old slippery head, he can hear a lot of rumors, saying that Lao Wu and Zhang Shusheng are eyebrows, and they also want to rise to the next level! So this time the hard work of sending troops to Korea, his first thought was to let Wu Changqing go to the vassal country to stay, and the provincial government continued to think about self-reliance with Zhang Shusheng.

Liu Mingchuan was also a thorn in the Huai army back then, and when he was about to be abolished, the inscription battalion mutinied, so he directly asked him to go back to his hometown to recuperate, but this Liu Mingchuan was a capable person in the end, and let him go home to gnaw on the old rice.

Now the Mingzi Army is led by Liu Mingchuan's nephews Liu Shengxiu and Nie Shicheng, and the Shengzi Army is led by the upstart Zuo Guigui, and these newcomers are his Li Zhongtang's assured generals. There is also the Pan Dingxin Dingzi Army, although there is no change now, it still makes him feel unreliable, so this time the French made trouble, and he directly sent Pan Dingxin to Lang Son, Vietnam to play.

Now I think about these subordinate cadres all day long, and the most reassuring thing is these literati around him, Sheng Xuanhuai collects money for him, Zhou Fu and Chen Ding take care of civil affairs for him, and he is busy filling in the gaps and decorating the surface of the Great Qing Kingdom in front of those Taixi powers all day long. ,

And in the past ten years, the hope that he can see is very limited, and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has created dozens of China's firsts for him, but now he can only produce those old Western gadgets! And just last year, Mawei Shipmaster let him see some of the achievements of more than ten years of foreign affairs, and produced the first mén large-caliber heavy artillery in the Qing Dynasty, and then it was even more successful, and more advanced heavy artillery was successfully developed according to Ding Richang.

This makes Li Zhongtang often think, it seems that this is like the result of more than ten years of accumulation of foreign affairs, and this road of foreign affairs is still on the right track! Therefore, when Ding Richang played for him, a beloved general Qin Kai, he also helped him once, otherwise this real Taoist of the fourth grade would be so easy to get.

It's a pity that such young and capable people are a little buried in Ding Richang, and this young man still has some connections with Zuo Dashuai, but for the sake of the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau, such young people can still be recruited. Thinking of this, he said to this Sheng Xuanhuai: "Xingsun, that Qin armor...... You can send someone else to find out about it and write a note to me! ”

Sheng Xuanhuai nodded with a complicated expression, he had inquired about Qin Kai with a lot of money, but the red man in front of the supervisor of the Mawei Ship Administration and Governor Ding seemed to be very mysterious, and he lived in a simple place on weekdays, but he vaguely found some news, and the cotton cloth style last time seemed to be related to him, which made him very jealous, and he was a natural opponent with Hu Xueyan......

Therefore, he poured cold water on the plan of Lord Zhongtang, one mountain does not allow two tigers, and the China Merchants Bureau and the Weaving Bureau in charge of him are the industries that adults attach the most importance to, since this Qin Kai is also a figure engaged in industry, then he cannot be allowed to step into this Beiyang circle! Now the largest army and foreign affairs of the Great Qing Kingdom are in the hands of Lord Zhongtang, and as for the world beyond Beiyang, he Sheng Xuanhuai is too lazy to pay attention to it.

Li Zhongtang saw Sheng Xuanhuai's unnatural expression, and naturally understood the thoughts of his young right-hand man, Sheng Xuanhuai is only 35 years old now, and he has already taken care of this Beiyang financial road for himself in an orderly manner...... He smiled slightly, this is also human nature, but when it comes to his position, this balancing technique must be used.

He looked at Zhou Fu on the side, "Wushan, what do you think about the affairs over there in Vietnam?" This French minister has been tossing and turning for a while for two days, and I am about to annoy him to death! The Dingzi army has just entered Langshan, and I am thinking that the first battle will be at least half a year later at the end of the year! ”

Now Zhou Fu and Tianjin Governor Chen Ding are the only people around Li Zhongtang who can discuss matters, and such military aircraft events are also with Li Zhongtang's more than 20 years of Zhou Fu Neng's staff.

"My lord, you shouldn't take this hot potato! The French will definitely not let go if they don't get the benefits! And the Wa Kingdom is obviously crazy, and now it dares to fight against our Great Qing Kingdom! The French, we can't help them for a while, so find a way to drag it! And on the side of the Wa Kingdom, we must maintain the dignity of our Great Qing Kingdom. ”

Zhou Fu's words are very clear, the Qingzi Army and the Dingzi Army have gone to the front line, and the imperial court will not say that we are a good word in Beiyang.

"Wu Shan, I understand what you mean! It seems that the Japanese consul has to be called, they are too arrogant, and the Ryukyu matter is not over yet, and they want to attack our North Korean idea. ”

At this time, in the French embassy in Tianjinwei, the French minister Baohai and the consul Odama were also deliberating, and the content was naturally the agreement between the two countries that Li Zhongtang refused to sign.

"Is there any news from Lord Lu Mei, the governor of Jiāo?" The brown-haired French minister Bao Hai asked.

"There was a message from the consulate in Guangzhou that it was said that specific action would be taken against Vietnam soon! It's just that it's been almost a month, and I haven't seen any specific movement! ”

"Yes! I was informed of the news as soon as possible, and from the news from the Beijing side of the Qing Kingdom, the Qing Army's army had been stationed near Lang Son in Vietnam, including the Dingzi Army, which was in charge of this Li Zhongtang! This news is sent out! ”

"Got it! Your Excellency, it looks like the Qing Kingdom has made up its mind to fight with us! ”

Baohai shook his brown head, "You don't understand this country, you don't understand the thoughts of the high-ranking people in this country, the most important thing for the Chinese is face, and the high-ranking people of this dynasty are most concerned about face and silver, the face is a song and dance, and the wealth is extensive, the last thing they want is to break anything that is calm on this surface, especially war!" Let a sheep command a pack of tiger wolves, and sooner or later this group of tiger wolves will become grazing animals! What's more, there was only a sheep-like army left in the Great Qing Kingdom! ”,

Bao Hai paused, and then continued: "However, the Minister of the Navy and Prime Minister Joufferi do not understand the thoughts of these Orientals at all, they always want to use guns as a tongue at the negotiating table, this is too arbitrary, I dare to assert that on the sea, the Qing State will definitely not be able to confront our French Republic, but on land, this empire has too amazing manpower, and we need to be cautious!" You must sort out these opinions of mine and hand them over to Lord Lu Mei, the governor of Jiāojiāo, and you must fully attract his attention! ”

Of course, a letter containing the recent deployment of Qing troops in Guangxi, Yunnan, and Vietnam quietly left Tientsin by French merchant ships, and among them was Baohai's views on a negotiated settlement of the Vietnamese question.

However, four days later, the news from Fuzhou caused the entire Qing officialdom and consulates to be in great shock: the Qing Nanyang naval division and the French Jiāo Toe China fleet had fought in the South China Sea.

Li Zhongtang got the news earlier than everyone else, it was a telegram sent to him by Ding Richang overnight, the content was not much, it was just a few hasty crosses - "The Nanyang Naval Division was attacked by French warships during its inspection of the South China Sea, and the Yuankai ship was defeated and martyred in the struggle, and Qin Kai led his troops to sink the three cruisers of the French army, the Destan, the Nielle, and La Perlouse, and damaged many ships, a great victory!" ”

As for why the war started and how to win, it was not elaborated, but this was enough, and now it was the time when the Manchu Dynasty was talking about how to resist the French invasion of the Qing Dynasty.

Li Zhongtang immediately saw that this was an opportunity to settle the Sino-French dispute that was currently plaguing the imperial court, and he immediately summoned the French minister Baohai, and after relaying the results of the Sino-French battle in the South China Sea, the French minister was really silent for a long time, apparently the news had not yet been passed on to Tianjin Wei, which in turn corroborated the truth of the victory.

Baohai was very angry about the incredible outcome of the war, and sent a messenger from Guangzhou to Vietnam that night to confirm the news, but before his messenger could report back, two days later, the new edition of the "Fujian Xinbao" reported the news of the battle between the Nanyang Navy Division and the French Navy, but the course of the battle was still vague, only in which it broke the news of the command error of Liu Shen, the commander of the Nanyang Naval Division, and the feat of Qin Kai, the superintendent of the Mawei Shipyard, to turn the tide, and at the same time made a detailed count of the results.

Sink three French 2,300-ton armored cruisers, the Destan, the Nielli, and La Perlouse, and damage the French 1,330-ton cruiser Souni, the 2,000-ton Flyers cruiser and the Triumph ironclad ship, and the Nanyang Naval Division lost 1,250 tons of the Iron Jacket Battleship Yuankai, and 174 people were killed!

The tragic situation of the surviving warships of the Nanyang Navy Division is even more described, especially the "Chaowu" Tiewaki Kuaibui ship, which was anchored in Mawei Harbor for people to visit, and its completely flattened bridge and bullet holes all over the hull were beautified by Fujian literati as a heroic story of seven in and seven out of the French Navy.

At the same time, Zhang Peilun, the governor of Fujian, Ding Richang, the governor of Fujian, and Qin Kai, the superintendent of the Mawei shipyard, also arrived in the capital on the same day.

The bigwigs of the DPRK and China naturally have some questions about how the Nanyang Naval Division won the victory in the naval battle, but in the face of being confirmed by many parties, the details of how to achieve victory were naturally highly summarized by the words "heroic fighting".

[.b.m]