Although he didn't dare to expect too much from the combat strength of this temporary group of guards, this young Qin governor has always been good at making dangerous moves, and the feats he has achieved are almost unattainable in the eyes of outsiders, but they have just succeeded in his hands, which cannot help but make Zeng Jize repay some expectations again.

Therefore, he naturally vetoed the conditions proposed by the French to cede North Vietnam, but the situation on the front line is unknown, and there is no telegraph line from Hanoi to the border of Guangxi and Yunnan...... The loss of the important town of Shanxi was undoubtedly a fatal defeat, and he was waiting for news from the front line for the past few days, which made people urgently call Guangzhou to get some information from Qin Kai.

Li Hongzao naturally knew the progress over there, and he had been talking for more than half a month, and he was still standing still, and it was estimated that he would not be able to talk about the results until the soldiers and horses on both sides were finished, "Zeng Hou...... I'm afraid not, the war in North Vietnam is urgent!"

Yi looked at the others, all of them were bodhisattva statues, and he said: "Then I think I have to ask Lord Zhongtang to come out to mediate, what do you think?" ”

Li Zhongtang Ding Wei has been in Hefei for some time, but it has made the officials in the court forget a little bit about this powerful figure in the court, but it is the turn to deal with foreigners, and now in this situation, the adults present are not interested in mixing, and letting Li Hefei deal with it is also a good way to get rid of it

After making up his mind, Prince Gong personally sent a telegram to ask Li Zhongtang, who was known as the first person in late Qing diplomacy, to come out, but Lord Zhongtang was not a fool, and only came out and said, "The old man thinks that the Chinese Exclusion Act of the United States of America is the most unfair bill in the world" and then excused Ding Wei at home and could not discuss politics, so he no longer bothered Prince Gong.

At a time when Prime Minister Yamen was worried about the right person to deal with, Ding Richang, governor of Fujian, Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei, and Chen Baochen, a scholar from Hanlin, suddenly launched a new round of motions, demanding that the "Chinese Exclusion Act" of the United States be dealt with toughly, and that heavy taxes should be imposed on goods imported by the United States as punishment for discriminating against Chinese in the United States.

In this regard, as the nominal commander of the Huai Army, which represents the most powerful military strength of the Qing State, Zhang Shusheng, has always remained silent, obviously, his silence represents an obscure opinion, the Huai Army and the Beiyang Department obviously do not agree to meet with the American soldiers, this is a trick, that is the strength of the Qingliu Party, but in the end he wants the Huai Army to wipe his ass, and the Huai Army naturally refuses.

Above the court, for a while for the question of whether the United States should increase tariffs, Qin Kai at this time but Zhang Peilun lit a fire again, taking the important commodity "raw silk" exported by the Qing Dynasty as an example, the United States is the main exporter of raw silk in China, through the guò agreement tariff, the export tax on raw silk is maintained at 5, but the United States taxes on the silk exported by China 30, this "light silk and heavy silk" tariff, obviously inhibiting the export of Chinese silk.

However, now the country is flooded with a large number of so-called foreign silk, which is not a whole silk product at all, but a blend of cheap silk and other materials, the finished product is low, and the import tariff is only 5, and it also enjoys the provisions of foreign goods free of centigold, which is far lower than the centigold required to be paid for the products of domestic silk factories.

This fire is definitely burning strong enough, this silk has always been an important industry in the coastal provinces, now when I hear it, it turns out that the silk industry has been sluggish in recent years, all of which are the ghosts of the United States, and the officials of the provinces immediately have a little more hatred of the enemy, and they have played to demand an increase in tariffs on imports of American goods, increase tariffs on raw silk exported to the United States, and protect the silk and raw silk industries in the provinces.

If this article is implemented, it is definitely an important blow to the American silk industry, although Japan's raw silk industry is in the ascendant, and the production capacity has increased greatly in recent years, but in the raw silk imported by the United States, it is mainly from China's raw silk, importing more than 900 tons of Chinese raw silk every month, and dumping more than 10,000 so-called foreign silk horses into China during the same period, plundering millions of taels of silver.

And in the following ten years, the United States raw silk imports increased substantially, the year before the first day of China's export of raw silk has reached an astonishing 5,500 tons of volume, during the period, Japan's raw silk exports in 1886 surpassed China, becoming the United States' largest exporter of raw silk, and with the export of cheap raw silk, the so-called "foreign silk" of larger-scale mixed textiles turned to dump in China, completely destroyed the silk industry of this ancient silk country,

Guangdong Governor Yamen, Qin Kai is full of interest with Erlang's legs, reviewing the proposals of the various R&D teams collected by the Mawei Science and Technology R&D Bureau from the real room and factory these days, since the last time he was mad, Chen Fatzi went back and personally went to Wang Fei, Wu Yun, and Lin Deping to discuss some projects that were urgently needed to be tackled in each factory, and then disclosed the requirements and details of research and development in the Mawei real yàn room and factory.

Any person or R&D team can make progress in R&D can submit it to the Mawei Scientific Research Bureau for approval, and be rewarded according to the size of the results, and included in the assessment basis of Mawei technical level. After the heavy reward for the research and the evaluation of the horsetail technology, the enthusiasm was mobilized at once, and at the same time, these research and development topics were recorded in the Mawei real yàn room, and a large number of students from the real yàn room were also mobilized to join the research of the subject.

Now he has a few research and development reports on hand, although the research results are still immature, but let him look very happy, for example, a student named Cheng Donggang in Mawei Higher School pointed out in a research report on the principle of steel quenching, through the analysis of the surface layer of the quenched steel, this student found that after heating the steel plate to a certain temperature, quenching will achieve the desired effect.

Cheng Donggang, a student who had studied atomic theory in physics, boldly assumed that high temperature increased the distance between iron atoms, and quenching caused carbon molecules to merge between iron atoms, forming a new special steel structure...... Qin Kai was very satisfied with this still immature research report, which was called the theory of austenite to martensite in the field of steel research in later generations, and it would undoubtedly be confirmed in the field of metallurgy many years later.

On this R&D report, he picked up a Widvan thick fountain pen purchased from Germany not long ago, pondered it, and wrote the key points of knowledge about the transformation of austenite and martensite that he had consulted at the back of the report in a conjectural way, and at the same time, quietly recorded the name Cheng Donggang.

It was a pleasure to read these R&D reports, and soon he was able to sit down on some of the reports on the direction of R&D, and on several other reports on optical lenses, petroleum processing technology, and even a rubber application.

At this time, Sun Fu came in from outside, and Qin Kai was frightened by the two panda eyes, and he hurriedly got up and asked, "Brother Sun, what's wrong with you?" I heard that you have married a new concubine, it can't be overwork......"

Sun Fu was almost confused when he heard this, picked up the bitter tea that Qin Kai loved to drink on the table next to him, poured a cup, drank it all, and then frowned and said: "Gale Wind, how can I have time to make such a joke now, Vietnam is at war, you are going to provoke the United States again, I pondered all night yesterday, and I still decided that this is a dangerous move."

Seeing Sun Fu's panda eyes, Qin Kai was also quite moved, this will make it not the Yankees who he provoked, but the Mi Guoyan, who always provoked our dignified China, but he picked up so many big people, naturally he had a great grasp in his heart, the United States in this era is at best a developing country that has just had some economic achievements, and the economic crisis every seven or eight years has long overwhelmed the Yankees.

The ebb of railroad construction, which is about to show its signs, will soon plunge the United States into the abyss of economic crisis again, and more importantly, after the Civil War, the United States has been influenced by the Monroe Doctrine for nearly 20 years, and has no intention of competing with the European powers, but is at ease to develop the domestic economy.

But in the same way, the U.S. military strength in this period was completely shore defense forces, even before the Spanish-American War more than ten years later, the U.S. Army's strength has been maintained at a very low number, about 28,000 people, during this period, the only thing the U.S. Army did was to suppress and massacre the Indians in the later blockbuster "Dances with Wolves".

At the same time, the U.S. Navy, at least until 1886, was still a coastal navy, and there were less than 30 old warships of more than 700 inland river and offshore warships that had made great contributions to the Civil War.

If you don't treat it aggressively now, then when will it be?

Qin Kai picked some topics to prove his judgment, I heard that this big country in Taixi had such a poor military strength, and now the descendants regained their vitality, nodding frequently and laughing, "Gale Wind, this lives in Longzhong and rules the world, is it just a person like you, I see that you have been soaked in the yamen all day long, and the news outside has not leaked at all."

Between the words, Sun Fu's vision of Qin Kai was also a little complicated, he naturally knew that Qin Kai had buried a lot of hidden stakes overseas, and he also knew that Qin Kai had a student named Ouyang Qing who presided over a secret intelligence system, but what Qin Liefeng knew was too surprising, he had such an understanding of a country thousands of miles away, not to mention the people around him......

Thinking of this, Sun Fu's attitude towards Qin Kai seemed to be a little more respectful, but Qin Kai didn't notice this, he picked up a few R&D reports in his hand and said with a smile: "Brother Sun, I can find a lot of good seedlings in the report sent by Chen Fatzi this time, these students have some spirituality, you let Zhang Jian take a good assessment"

Sun Fu was also a little curious about Qin Kai's importance to these students, took the reports and looked at them twice, they were all strange propositions, he was not interested at all, but he had been following Qin Kai for so long, he naturally understood the importance of technology, nodded and excerpted the name, and took out a telegram from his sleeve.

"Gale, Zeng Hou sent a telegram ......"

Zeng Jize ...... Qin Kai secretly said this name twice in his heart, "Brother Sun, how did Zeng Hou say it?" ”

"If you ask about the North of Vietnam, I'm afraid I'm worried about the war in North Vietnam."

"French" Qin Kai pondered for a while, this French ** team has not launched a real offensive yet, but even if the French attack with all their might in history, there is no good result, and if it is delayed a little, the economic crisis that swept Europe and the Americas alone can bring down the French cabinet, and a defeat can make the entire French army in the Far East lose the support of the domestic chaebol and fall into passivity.

What he has to do is just to change the diplomatic failure behind that military victory, of course, to change him in his own way, although the Qing army has some combat power, but in the subsequent defeats, the Qing army's low level of su zhì was exposed.

Qin Kai nodded and looked at Sun Fu, "Brother Sun, you can call back and show weakness before you can fight."

The next day, just when Qin Kai was pondering how to continue to fan the flames on the tariffs against the United States, Lu Yijin and Lu Da Shopkeeper rushed to see Qin Kai, and saw Old Man Lu's mysterious expression, which made Qin Kai suddenly have an ominous premonition

"Shopkeeper Lu, what's the matter with the bank?"

"My lord, Nanyang Bank is operating very well, your idea of that distinguished customer brand is really wonderful, in Guangzhou, the silver dollar issued by our Nanyang Bank is already the best quality of Dayang, I think I can go to Guangxi, Fujian to open a branch bank, earn interest on this money"

Qin Kai shook his head, "Shopkeeper Lu, this matter is not in a hurry, Guangdong is our foundation, do a good job of the foundation here first, and consider other things, our bank's lending business must be done as much as possible, I have a principle, only when we enter the factory in the special industrial zone, we will release money in accordance with the rules."

"My lord, I'll make arrangements," Shopkeeper Lu said that he was going to make arrangements, but he didn't mean to leave, he reached out and took out a telegram from his sleeve, "My lord, I have another thing to tell you here, it's the news brought by Shopkeeper Hu!"

"What's the matter? It's so mysterious," Qin Kai remembered, and the shopkeeper Hu didn't know what he was busy with recently

"Hu Da shopkeeper said that he wanted to negotiate the price of this raw silk with foreign businessmen, and wanted to set the price of self-produced raw silk at the ** port, and the price of this raw silk in the province every year was calculated by foreign businessmen, and our Chinese businessmen lost too much......" Saying this, Lu Yijin looked up at Qin Kai, and was very surprised to find that this Qin lord, who was calm and calm on weekdays, was distracted at this time.

Hurry up a mother, Qin Kai secretly beat the drum in his heart, he forgot about this stubble, but he didn't expect this Hu Da shopkeeper to be a vigorous and resolute character, and the trajectory here slid to the trajectory that was already in existence without suspense. There are too many interests involved in this matter, and I may not be able to have enough energy

It's best to find a way to remind this rich man in this matter, and he doesn't know what the situation is now, so he asked: "Shopkeeper Lu, how is Shopkeeper Hu going to start?" ”

"My lord, Hu Da's shopkeeper has already asked people to take stock of today's raw silk, as long as the supply of goods sent to foreign merchants is cut off, then the pricing power of this raw silk is in the hands of our Chinese businessmen" Lu Yijin talked eloquently, it is obvious that this plan is estimated to have been finalized before he came to Nanyang Bank, and he naturally knows something.

Qin Kai looked depressed, the pricing power of this raw silk seemed to be controllable, but in fact, it was simply a cake to satisfy hunger, and he couldn't count, he hurriedly asked: "Shopkeeper Lu, what is the progress of this matter in Huda?" Have you negotiated this price with foreign businessmen? ”,

"I also just got the news, Hu shopkeeper wants to invite you to deal with this matter, last month, Hu shopkeeper has quietly purchased 15 million taels of silver worth of raw silk, now the British, Americans want to buy a bag of raw silk, there is nowhere to buy at present, the entire ** port of raw silk trading is controlled by Hu shopkeeper"

"What about the price of raw silk now?"

"It's already risen by 4 percent, and the shopkeeper Hu is thinking that I want to ask you to come and transport it away" Lu Yijin said with a smile, obviously, in his opinion, this deal is currently a good thing to make a profit

Qin Kai was sweating when he heard it, this Hu Xueyan would really join in the fun, when is it not good to engage in this raw silk business, if you want to do it now, this hand is still very big enough, it is estimated that the silver taels of this Fukang silver number 7 percent will be smashed on this, even if he goes to let Hu Xueyan sell these raw silk now, it is almost impossible.

At this time, Qin Kai's mind was a mess, and he didn't have much idea for a while, so he hurriedly greeted Lu Yijin, "Shopkeeper Lu, we don't participate in this matter of raw silk pricing, I said it a long time ago, our Nanyang Bank is only engaged in the trading of special industrial zones, and we will not interfere in other aspects for the time being, besides...... You privately bring a message to Hu Da's shopkeeper, so that he must not be in a hurry"

In the Prime Minister's Yamen for National Affairs, Prince Gong was meeting with an important figure today, the Department of Customs and Excise, Hurd, and with regard to the "Chinese Exclusion Act" that shook the government and the opposition, important instructions were finally issued in the palace, and the face of the Celestial Empire must not be lost.

In addition to summoning the US minister to continue to protest, he also invited Hurd to come over today to talk about it, after all, Hurd is the absolute practitioner and authority of the Qing Dynasty in terms of customs and taxation.

After listening to Prince Gong's relay, Hurd was also a little strange, the court of the Qing Dynasty had no concept of tariffs at all, and it was only after he came to sort out this set of things clearly, and now he suddenly wants to raise the tariff on the export of raw silk and the windfall tax on the import of foreign silk, which is changing a little fast.

"Mr. Hurd, after deliberation by the imperial court, we must declare war on the discrimination of the United States against the Qing Dynasty, so we have decided to raise the import tax on all goods in the United States to 3 percent, and the export tax on raw silk to 20 percent, of course, British merchants are no longer within the scope of this tax increase," Prince Gong carefully stated the meaning of the imperial court word by word.