Li Zhutou saw Qin Kai's posture and knew that he didn't want to make too much noise, so he hurriedly leaned in and whispered: "When the lord came to take office, he happened to be on duty at the dock, so it's really rude to see these flag men of the lord, why don't you send them to the flag city for the lord to hand over to the Guangzhou General's Mansion?" ”

Qin Kai was stunned for a moment, he understood that this was the iron law of the Qing Dynasty, and the banner people would be under the control of the flag city, big and small things, and the yamen outside couldn't control it, but now the things here haven't been figured out, he shook his hand, pulled the flag man officers over, and called the beaten old man and two children over, and asked, sure enough, it was a trivial mung bean matter. ()

At this time, the old man lying on the ground saw that someone was standing up for them, obviously having the spirit, this half-old man took two little babies to beg for some meals, but the crockpot at the door of the restaurant accidentally touched these drunken flag people, and was beaten indiscriminately by the other party, the old man was alert, lying on the ground and pretending to be dead......

Qin Kai heard that the old man did not have a Cantonese accent, and his speech was quite organized, not like a beggar, so he asked, "Old man, where did you come from, what did you do to make a living, and how did you beg to Guangzhou Mansion?"

I didn't expect this half-old man to have some origins, from his arms for a long time, took out a piece of oil paper wrapped things, inside there was a tribute to the text, it turned out to be an old Xiucai, said that he fled from Wuzhou Mansion in Guangxi, last year's drought in Guangxi, Wuzhou around a radius of hundreds of miles are not harvested, no harvest is strict, to today in February and March, a large number of people have run out of rations, and people have begun to starve to death in various places.

He had no choice but to take two orphan-born students, collected the last entanglement of the family and decided to escape from the wilderness, and boarded a cargo ship in the upper reaches of the Xijiang River, only to escape to Guangzhou...... Thanksgiving, the old man lay on the ground and kowtowed.

Qin Kai heard the catastrophe in Guangxi, this news was very unfamiliar to him, pondered for a while, these banner officers he did not hesitate to let the officials each beat 10 military sticks on the spot, in order to set an example, the crime, that is the easiest, disrespectful to the officials, in addition, under his order, let them each take out 2 taels of silver to compensate the old man, and it will be so-so.

After the flagmen beat the sticks, they were also honest, and they were driven away by each other's support, and this wicked man wanted to grind the old man and the two children to the old man and the two children, and he took them back to the yamen to ask about the news of Wuzhou, Guangxi, after all, this is a big mansion near Guangzhou, if there is a big drought over there, the neighboring Luodingzhou and Zhaoqing mansions are also very problematic

When he arrived at the Yamen, the old man figured out that the official who was interviewed privately by Weifu turned out to be the governor of Guangdong, and he was a little more in awe in his heart, this old Gongsheng naturally knew everything about the questions asked by Qin Kai, and under careful questioning, Qin Kai also felt that the problems seemed to have reached a very strict point, and he didn't know anything about the fatal matter, as the governor of Guangdong

Asked Sun Fu about this, Sun Fu didn't know, but he was an old officialdom, called Lao Gongsheng to ask, and he figured out the tricks, this Wuzhou Mansion disaster is naturally a sure thing, but the officials in Guangxi must also know the Cheng Dù of this disaster, but they must be lucky, hoping to survive until the autumn harvest in July, they can get through this pass, anyway, there is no food, and wild vegetables and chaff can survive for a few months.

According to Lao Gongsheng's description, Sun Fu estimated that in the next month or two, the number of people fleeing in the direction of Guangdong will increase in large numbers, after all, there are still a few people like Lao Gongsheng who can get together and get on cargo ships, and a large number of people are still trekking along the mountainous areas from Wuzhou to Zhaoqing and Luoding.

Qin Kai immediately took out the map, the traffic in the direction of Wuzhou Mansion is actually okay, along the Xijiang River, you can go directly from Zhaoqing to Wuzhou, the river is wide, and the boats on the inland river can be navigated, which is a feasible way

Lao Gongsheng and his students, Qin Kai asked Zhang Jian to lead them to read, read what should be read, the old man sent to Mengxue to continue teaching students, and he took the Wuzhou disaster recorded by the Yamen Office directly to Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangguang, this matter Lao Liu can manage, but he overstepped his authority, but for the refugees in Guangxi, it may not be a good thing for him, this is the labor that Guangdong lacks

Liu Kunyi has been annoyed recently, and the reorganization of the Guangdong army is not going well, and the dismissal of miscellaneous soldiers and old officers requires a large amount of severance pay, and the 600,000 taels of silver he withheld are almost used, and he also has to recruit new soldiers, purchase firearms, and military funds and clothing are a large amount of expenditure, and he is thinking about what else he can withhold...... Now even a few of his staff members are in a hurry,

This interception of the silver of the imperial court, once in a while is not a big problem, after all, this feudal official must have a place to find silver, this "local salary" in the name of good want, but really cash into silver, is not a simple matter, this Liu Kun a salary order to go down for more than a month, now at this time, the rice in the field has just sprouted, where to raise money

Master Han came in to tell him, saying that Qin Kai, the governor of Guangdong, came to ask for a meeting, Liu Kunyi naturally knew what was going on, and the masters of both sides were considered to be angry, although the two were one level apart in rank, but there was no relationship between the upper and lower levels, so they would talk about their personal friendship...... Immediately asked someone to invite Qin Kai into the side hall to drink tea, and let Master Han and Master Hu's two cronies also come in to accompany him.

For this Qin governor, there have been a lot of new things in Guangzhou recently, first of all, his special economic zone, to Liu Kun's surprise, as soon as he attracted investment, so many businessmen came, rushing to invest capital and build factories on that wasteland, and the first merchants to build factories have begun to produce goods.

He sent Master Han to look at it, it is an oil mill, the process is much simpler, and the requirements for workers are not high, but the quality of soybean oil and sesame oil produced is very good, and the oil extraction efficiency is extremely fast, a small factory can process thousands of catties of soybeans a day, and the refined soybean oil can have more than 1,000 catties, the most important thing is that this factory also has some new technology, producing very clear oil products, and the outside sales are very good.

However, for this oil extraction technology and machinery, those businessmen are silent, keep their mouths shut, these industries are simple to get started, and the added value of the products is high, the remaining products of oil extraction soybean cake can be used as high-grade feed for livestock after rough processing, in fact, after fine grinding and processing, as food is also possible, so the overall processing of the additional output value is very high, naturally as their own secrets to keep it.

For these, naturally they will not be put on the table to ask, plus this time in the matter of the conquest of the Ryukyus, Qin Kai bought a big face for Liu Kunyi, and gave the credit of sitting in the rear and logistics support for free, although in comparison, this is also a small achievement, but it can be regarded as a face-saving thing.

As soon as they met, Liu Kunyi had already greeted warmly: "Gale Wind, I've been out for a long time, and the journey is good."

"Lord Liu, thanks to you, the journey has been smooth," Qin Kai laughed and entered the room, and greeted the two masters respectively, and sat down and politely talked to Liu Kun, the content of this conversation naturally ignored this discussion, when it came to the war, Lao Liu was also quite interested, and the two had some common language.

On the side, Master Han made up kung fu tea, this authentic kung fu tea technique, Qin Kai has never seen it in later generations, only to see the tea cup dexterously replaced, after the hot tea is slightly made, after several complicated techniques, only to pour out a few cups of tea with a light fragrance, just appreciating this craft, it is already breathtaking, so that Qin Kai sighed for a while, the kung fu tea technology he saw in the film and television in later generations, in comparison, is simply a rural style.

However, Qin Kai's level of tea tasting can only be said to be extremely low-level, this kung fu tea with good color and fragrance, he just felt a little when he drank it, and after being polite, he naturally entered the topic, he took out the news of the victims of the disaster in Wuzhou Mansion, Guangxi, and handed it over, "Lord Liu, this is the news that I heard from a group of disaster victims on the road, and I dare not make a judgment, so I specially brought it to the adults to take a look."

Liu Kun took a look, his expression gradually became stricter, and he handed it to Master Hu next to him, he didn't have any impression of this matter, "Master Hu, can there be a report on this matter in Wuzhou?" ”

After carefully reading the contents of the two pages, Master Hu nodded and said: "My lord, this matter is under the jurisdiction of the governor of Guangxi, but last autumn it was indeed reported that there was a great drought and a lack of harvest in the local area, and the governor of Guangxi, Lord Xu Yanxu, had already raised relief grain a year ago, but I don't know why there are still victims who fled to Guangzhou."

"Oh......" Liu Kun nodded, since Xu Yanxu, the governor of Guangxi, had already sent someone to handle this matter, it was inconvenient for him to handle it too much, after all, the responsibilities of the two sides were different, and they did not belong to each other, and the civil affairs side was still the governor with greater powers and responsibilities, he turned his head and said to Qin Kai: "Gale Wind, it seems that there will be a lot of victims in Zhaoqing and Luoding, what is your good plan?" ”

Qin Kai sneered in his heart, this Zhaoqing Mansion and Luoding Prefecture are all controlled by your Liu Kunyi's cronies, and our governor has not succeeded in installing a subordinate until now, but now he has a request for him, and among the victims, there is no use value. ,

He pretended to think deeply before he said: "Lord Liu, these victims should be properly guided, I can send people from the Xijiang River up to set up a porridge shed between the two prefectures, but Zhaoqing Mansion and Luoding Prefecture should also open a warehouse for disaster relief to alleviate the disaster situation, and these victims still need to pay attention to guidance, but don't make any mess, I will consider transferring these people to Leizhou, where there is still wasteland to be resettled." ”

This disaster relief matter is actually a reason, how could Liu Kunyi, who came from a turbulent era, not be able to handle this matter, and in the end, this matter has to fall on the governor in charge of civil affairs, or his Qin Kai's business, but the silver can be handled by him, but the local Hunan military officials still have to cooperate

Liu Kun heard Qin Kai's words early on, since Qin Kai was willing to take over the disaster, he was naturally happy, he was now concerned about the survival of the entire Hunan military system, Zuo Dashuai was fighting outside all the year round, and these old men of the Hunan army system relied on him to support him.

This time, the appearance of the Cantonese army in Vietnam can be described as very bad, and although the Gui army is an army that has been guarding the border for a long time, it is also low in combat effectiveness, so that he, the governor of Liangguang, can be said to be very disgraceful, and he has made up his mind to reorganize the Cantonese army, but now the problem has arisen, and silver is the biggest obstacle to this matter.

Liu Kunyi naturally agreed, and immediately asked the officials of the two places to cooperate with the matter, and after a change of words, he asked: "Recently, there have been some rumors in the imperial court, can you deal with the gale?" ”

When it came to the topic, Qin Kai immediately raised his spirit, Sun Fu had communicated privately with Master Han in advance about this matter, and the main points of both sides were very clear, today was a scene, and the bigwigs on both sides met at the end to discuss, "Lord Liu, I am to blame for this matter, I originally wanted to make so many things happen to this water division, but I am afraid that this water division will be defeated in less than a year."

Speaking of this soldier and horse, the Hunan army can have a painful skin, Liu Kun squinted his eyes and couldn't help nodding.

Now one wants to consolidate his control over the Nanyang Naval Division, and the other wants to consolidate the Hunan Army system with the opportunity of rebuilding the Guangdong Army, the two sides hit it off, Liu Kun promised to immediately contact Zuo Dashuai, to the imperial court, against the Manchus to control the Naval Division, the specific reason is naturally that this naval division is difficult to control, and it is not enough to master it without years of study.

At the same time, Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangguang, asked the imperial court to train the Cantonese naval division, which was too old to fight, and entrusted the minister of Nanyang, Qin Kai, to rectify it in order to deal with the threat of the French fleet from Vietnam.

In return, Qin Kai naturally supported Liu Kunyi's silver problem, and he provided two ways to increase his income, one was to open a factory belonging to the Hunan military system, and the early funds in this area were solved by Qin Kai, but the manpower was solved by a large number of wealthy Hunan army children, which was what Liu Kunyi hoped to do, and he naturally accepted it all.

In terms of industry, Qin Kaijian chose the most stable oil extraction and flour industry, which is labor-intensive, and uses the output of the machine to drive income, and uses the background of officialdom to make food the easiest thing to get, after deep processing, although the added value of this product is not high, but it is better in quantity.

In this regard, Liu Kun was also very satisfied after listening to Qin Kai's explanation, after all, this is the first time that the Hunan military department has opened its own industry, Qin Kai swears that if it is managed properly, it is not a problem to earn seven or eight hundred thousand taels a year, this income makes Lao Liu very satisfied, so that the children of the Hunan army can enjoy the benefits, and there can be stable income, where to find such good things

After the cooperation was negotiated, Qin Kai handed over all the specific handling to Wu Jingui, and the Wu family specially arranged a capable shopkeeper to take charge of the two factories for Liu Kunyi, which made Lao Liu feel a lot more relieved, and sat in the yamen with peace of mind and waited to collect the money.

Thousands of miles away in the court, the topic of selecting Manchu cadres to take charge of the army in the navy has been noisy in recent days, and Prince Gong Wang Yi has put a lot of thought into this selection, and personally entrusted Shengjing General Yiketanga to select local Manchu children who are loyal and good at fighting, and require literacy and hyphenation.

Iktang Ana is also a fierce general with a yellow flag, and has made many achievements in the conflict between the north and Russia, and has won the trust of Prince Gong, for the selection of this general, he is naturally very attentive, and soon selected 20 Manchu children from the Shengjing camp, and flew to report to Prince Gong, after passing Ken, he rushed to the capital day and night.

Although the strong voice of opposition this time was far beyond the imagination of Cixi and the Manchu nobles, under the strong impetus of several iron-hat princes and the palace, this Manchu army seemed to be imperative, and now the palace of the prince of Doro, the palace of Prince Litun, and the palace of Prince Zheng is very lively. ,

Because it has long been spread in the capital, the queen mother in the palace intends to promote a group of Manchu children to serve as officers in the navy, and now everyone knows the children of the Eight Banners in the capital, the Nanyang Naval Division has been making military achievements in the past two years.

This capital is full of big people, who doesn't have any relatives in the court to have some ability, but it is not easy to squeeze in, the children of the Eight Banners are showing their skills, hoping that there is a good shortage, if you run to the water division and be a flag soldier officer, it is better to eat hardcore crops in the capital

However, several princes are now also a bag, and now the court is not only Qingliu, the Beiyang faction is attacking it, and the governors of the provinces are also flying all over the sky, which is in the governor's sphere of influence to seize power, try to ask the governor is willing to set this precedent, in addition, the relatives and nobles are very clear, although this move has been willing in the palace, but the main impetus is still their Manchu relatives, the queen mother in the palace is more interested in the court about the controversy about the Manchu army.

Only in the struggle of various factions, the authority of the Queen Mother's final decision can be truly reflected, and these princes and ministers are only the objects of her daily beating, obviously this time, the Queen Mother has the idea of beating the governor of Guangdong

Prince Gong also saw that this time the matter was a little difficult to end, and after convening the important ministers of the military aircraft yamen to discuss, Li Hongzao, the boss of Qingliu, came up with an idea, this time refuting the face of the queen mother, it was absolutely impossible, but to meddle in the affairs of the Nanyang Naval Division, it could only backfire, so that the governors of the world were dissatisfied.

However, the imperial court imitated the establishment of the Huai Army and the Hunan Army, organized and trained the new army, and let the children of the Eight Banners lead the troops, but this source of soldiers still needs to be solved by the imperial court

History, because of the prestige of Qin Kai, has quietly undergone some changes here, and the original Manchurian training of the new army will be advanced after more than ten years.

Prince Gong thought about it for a while, this is indeed a compromise plan, and it is a great thing to be able to train a new army of Eight Banners, but it is just ...... He really doesn't have a capable general at hand, and this old saying that a thousand troops are easy to get and a general is hard to find is child's play

After entering the palace overnight, the palace summoned those iron hat princes to discuss for a day, and finally reached the result, 20 Manchu children from Shengjing still sent the Nanyang sailors to practice, in order to learn the method of the sailors, in terms of silver, Cixi was enough to give face to the relatives and nobles, and agreed to pay 500,000 taels a year by the customs tariff, and the insufficient part was solved on the spot.