"How much time will it take?"

Early November 1848. To the north of Jiulong Town, Bao'an County, on Bijia Mountain, scaffolding encloses a building, and a steep and tall spire can be faintly seen. A group of people dressed as Taoist priests were looking and talking in the distance, attracting the merchants who came to the customs office in the Kowloon Walled City to stare at curiously. It seems to be Zhu Ming's tradition to like to interact with monks. Now that Zhu Jishi's career is getting bigger and bigger, there are naturally "masters outside the world" to vote.

"Xuan Zhenren, we are working day and night to ensure that it will be completed by the end of the year!"

The foreman replied respectfully to the bald fat Taoist priest.

"This Nine Dragons view is related to the dragon vein luck of my Ming Dynasty, not only to catch up with the construction period, but also to be strong and exquisite, at least to be able to stand for a thousand years!" After this "Xuan Zhenren" finished instructing the foreman, he said to a few young Taoist priests around him: "As a teacher, I will travel to Huguang in a few days to investigate the route of the Tielong vein for the Shengshang, and the project of this Nine Dragons Temple will be handed over to you to supervise." ”

This is said to be the Taoist number Zhaoxuan of the master of Wudang Mountain, and it was brought to Hubei by Zhu Jishi when he led his troops to Hubei at the beginning of the second year of Guangfu. actually passed the "Xiucai Written Examination", and even attracted Zhu Jishi's attention with a strategy on the relationship between dragon veins, dragon qi and the return of the world, and was sealed as a "real person" and brought back to Guangdong. Recently, he has also been given a very special mission to guide the dragon qi into the Central Plains for the Ming Dynasty.

According to the article of Zhao Xuan Zhenren published in "Ta Kung Pao", the current Ming Dynasty is revived from the sea, and the dragon qi also comes from the sea, and it lands in Kowloon, which is the head of the dragon vein of the Ming Dynasty. However, this dragon vein has a head and no body. Although the dragon is strong. But it stopped at Lingnan. Do not enter the Central Plains. According to the vein of the Nine Dragons, the son of heaven of the Zhu family is enough to look at the lake according to Fujian and Guangdong, but it is difficult to compete in the Central Plains. If the Zhu family still wants to revive the great cause of their ancestors and destroy the Tartars and gain the overall situation, they must lead the dragon vein into the Central Plains! As for this method of connecting the dragon veins, it must be found in the West, because Zhu Ming's revival business started from the West - the method has now been found. It's called a railway!

"Your Majesty, after a long detour, you just want to build a railway! Why bother to let this Zhaoxuan jump up and down, just make a will? ”

In the palace in Guangzhou City, Princess Luo Xiangju teased her daughter, who was a few months old to Zhu Jishi, while smiling and laughing about the matter of the real person of Xuanda.

"This won't work!" Zhu Jishi pressed his temple and said with a wry smile, "We are not Europe here, and the common people don't know the benefits of the Ludao Railway...... I just think that the railway disturbs people and destroys feng shui, which is a bad thing. ”

As early as when Zhu Jishi raised troops in Kowloon, he had the idea of building the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway. I want to use the railway to connect Kowloon and Guangzhou City. He also placed an order early to buy a steam locomotive from the United Kingdom, and asked Lan Fangxing to try to produce rails. Now the steam locomotive and the rails have long been done. However, the construction of the railway has not yet begun.

"Railways destroy feng shui? Says who? Luo Xiangju asked with a smile with a wink.

"Many people say so, Pan Shicheng, Wu Shaorong, Lu Peifang, Gao Yinglong, by the way, Su Yuniang also thinks so."

Cantonese people, how can anyone not believe in feng shui? After the steam locomotive was transported to Guangdong, Zhu Jishi asked people to lay several kilometers of railroad tracks outside the Whampoa Military Academy on Changzhou Island, and put the steam locomotive on it and ran around, but the people who saw it said that it was not good! Later, Zhu Jishi's finances were in some difficulty, so he put aside the matter of building the railway. It was not until the recent issuance of 300 million yuan banknotes that the matter of issuing 300 million yuan banknotes went relatively smoothly that he began to ponder the need to build a railway, and also wanted to build a railway connecting Kowloon and Wuchang. But this feng shui theory cannot be ignored.

And Zhu Jishi's personality is not particularly tough, he always likes to find a softer solution when he encounters problems, and when he can be deceived, he will never use a knife or a gun. This was true when co-opting the gentry gangs, and it was also the same when fighting feudal superstitions. That's why he instructed Zhao Xuan Zhenren to make this farce of "leading the dragon vein into the Central Plains", not only propagating that the "dragon vein into the Central Plains" is related to whether the Ming Dynasty can be revived, but also fooling that wherever the railway passes, affected by the dragon vein going north, the market will prosper - but not Zhu Ming's family, but everyone together!

Not to mention, being fooled by Zhao Xuan Dazhen and his group of disciples and grandchildren for a while, the "anti-railway faction" here in Guangdong stopped talking, and all the people who believed in Feng Shui were those who would rather believe in it than believe in it, and Zhao Xuan Dazhen was a master of Wudang Mountain! It is said that he has been enlightened by the Emperor Zhenwu, and he can do spells, and he can still see away? Besides, this matter is related to the Daming Dragon Vein, and if anyone opposes it, they will be suspected of rebellion......

Just when Zhu Jishi and Luo Xiangju were talking, a female official of the palace hurriedly came to report, saying that Zuo Zongtang, Luo Zenan, Wei. Hemming and Rodriguez asked to see him.

"Ask them to wait in the Fengtian Temple." Zhu Jishi asked Luo Xiangju to take her daughter back to her small courtyard, and then asked the female official to lead several ministers to the palace hall "Fengtian Palace", which was the original Guangzhou general's yamen with a plaque. Although Zhu Jishi was magnificent, he was not willing to spend money to build a palace for himself in Guangzhou, and now he still lives in a small general's mansion.

For his subordinates, Zhu Jishi was extremely polite in face, and there were two rows of seats in the Fengtian Palace, and his subordinates were allowed to sit during the court meeting. Zuo Zongtang, Luo Zenan, Weil. Heming and Rodriguez and the other five people were waiting for Zhu Jishi while sitting and talking. When he saw their king come in, he got up and bowed.

"Sit, sit." Zhu Jishi glanced at the four people in the room, and finally set his eyes on Rodriguez, who looked like a dusty man. "Ricardo, you're back from Shanghai? How is the buying and selling of counterfeit banknotes doing? ”

Rodriguez smiled bitterly: "I'm afraid I will lose money, because the Manchu Eight Banners New Army has just suffered a fiasco in Zhili, losing 50,000 people, and it has also dug the Yellow River dam to block the pursuing soldiers......"

He brought this news to Guangzhou, and in this era there was no such good thing as the telegraph, and the communication between Shanghai and Guangzhou could only be maintained by sailing ships. Rodriguez took a Nanyang company clipper and rushed back to Guangzhou overnight to report to Zhu Jishi. After getting off the boat, he didn't even return home, so he went directly into the palace, and happened to meet Zuo Zongtang and Wei, who met the palace audience. Haiming, as well as Luo Zenan, who worked in the front yard of the palace, asked to see each other.

"What? Dig up the Yellow River dam!? Zhu Jishi took a breath, "Is Monk Greenqin crazy?" He doesn't care about the lives and deaths of millions of Lebanese people? ”

Zuo Zongtang shook his head and took over the question: "Your Majesty, it's not that Seng Greenqin is crazy, it's that the Eight Banners New Army has lost miserably, and His Majesty dares to assert that the losses of the Eight Banners New Army are definitely more than 50,000, I'm afraid 100,000 can't stop it!" If the Yellow River dam is not dug up, the 6 Banners New Army of Seng Lingqin will definitely be wiped out! ”

"Then you can't dig the dam of the Yellow River......" Zhu Jishi remembered such things, and the Kuomintang also did it during the Anti-Japanese War.

"Zuo Xiang's words are reasonable, if Monk Greenqin is not cornered, it will never be like this." Luo Zenan stood up, took a map of North China from the bookshelf on the side, and spread it out on the public case in front of Zhu Jishi. Will. Hemming, Zuo Zongtang and Rodriguez all gathered.

"Your Majesty, according to the news, the remnants of Seng Lingqin have now retreated to the south of the Yellow Flood Area, and the armies of Zeng Disheng, Kong Bohai and Mianyu are also south of the Yellow River." Will. Heming took out a red and blue pencil from his pocket and sketched on the map the approximate location of the Yellow Flood and the Qing army south of the Yellow River—all of which Rodriguez had brought to Guangzhou.

"Is there any news north of the Yellow River?" Zhu Jishi tapped his finger on the area on the north bank of the Yellow River on the map.

"Not yet." Luo Zenan replied, "The last time I got news from Beijing was 5 days ago, and it was Di Bao on October 27...... Judging from the contents of the Di newspaper, the Qing court did not seem to know about the Battle of Huaxian that took place two days ago, and there was no news after the 27th. ”

The Battle of Huaxian took place on October 25, and the Qing court still didn't know what was going on until the 27th? And there has been no news from Beijing since October 27, so what's going on? (To be continued......)