At the end of this small but high-level court meeting, when the Tongzhi Emperor, who was on the verge of amnesty, returned to the Qianqing Palace, the Empress Arut was waiting for him. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"It's so cold, why is the emperor sweating so much?" Seeing Emperor Tongzhi's sweaty appearance, Alut asked with concern, and stepped forward to gently wipe away the sweat beads for him with a handkerchief.

"It's not for the impeachment of Lin Yizhe and Li Hongzhang, alas!" Emperor Tongzhi sighed, but there was a look of smugness in his eyes, "The emperor's mother should be in a good mood today, you can stay for a while and go to ask for peace." By the way, explore the mouth of the emperor's mother. ”

"Those two officials have nothing to do, and they are indiscriminately impeached, causing the emperor and the queen mother to work hard, it's really hateful!" When the Arut clan heard Lin Yizhe's name, their hearts couldn't help but move.

"The Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate have been ordered to severely punish and report." Emperor Tongzhi nodded and said, "These two people have ill intentions and must be severely punished." ”

The empress and the emperor talked for a while, and then went to greet the Empress Dowager Cixi. Emperor Tongzhi entered the warm pavilion, recalling the scene of the court meeting, and his heart palpitated.

About two hours later, during the lunch break, Wen Xiang returned to the mansion, and the housekeeper stepped forward and presented a brocade box to him, saying that it was sent by someone from Prince Gong's mansion.

Wen Xiangden understood, couldn't help but smile slightly, he took the brocade box, entered the study, retreated from the people, and then carefully opened the brocade box.

In the golden satin lining, there is a simple shape of tea glazed porcelain pot (this kind of pot was fired by Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Factory in the Yongzheng year when Tang Ying presided over the kiln industry, which is extremely precious).

Thinking that he had easily won this pot from King Gong, Wen Xiang couldn't help but smile.

In Prince Gong's Mansion, Prince Gong wrote a letter and ordered Pegasus to go to Tianjin and deliver it to Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili.

Fuzhou, Mawei Port.

In front of the dock of the shipyard, a typical British cruiser, the "Peshuo Princess", which was gifted to China by the British, is installing artillery, and a huge crane is hoisting a 190-mm cannon produced by the French company Schneider onto the ship, and the ship is full of busy workers. Several professionals from Schneider are reviewing the drawings with Chinese technicians.

A foreigner, watching all this, turned away, returned to his apartment, took out the letterhead, and wrote in a hurry:

“…… I noticed that the French Schneider company is trying to win the favor of the Chinese with their high-quality guns, and it seems to have achieved some results, I think that the artillery produced by Krupp is better, and I hope that Krupp will increase its competitiveness with Schneider and not be satisfied with the limited ......cooperation between the current and Chinese companies."

The "zealous" foreigner did not notice that while he was writing this letter, there was another person, like him, who was watching the cruiser with the dragon flag flying.

After this man left, he also wrote a long letter, but the content of this letter did not correspond to what he had seen.

The letter was sent across the ocean to Japan, and after several decoders interpreted it according to the hints between the lines, the content became like this:

“…… The Qing shipyard fleet purchased a cruiser from the British, with a displacement of 1,800 tons, equipped with a 190 mm large-caliber breech gun produced by the French Schneider company, which was built at the Devonport shipyard in the United Kingdom. ”

Nagasaki, Japan.

The sound of wheels came, and under the curious chasing gaze of several Japanese schoolchildren wearing uniform uniforms, a strangely shaped four-wheeled Western carriage walked all the way on the main street of Yokohama Castle, full of pedestrians in old-fashioned kimonos and Western-style costumes, until the intersection of Yokohama's "Chinatown" did it turn to the left, pass through the antique Chinese archway at the entrance of "Chinatown", and pass by the barber room, tailor shop, Chinese cuisine, raw silk, tea, seafood, sugar, porcelain and other dry stores along the Chinese street. Finally, with the screeching sound of wheels rubbing against the ground, he slowly stopped in front of the door of a teahouse.

When the door opened, a middle-aged man in his 30s with a square-faced, long, Western-style beard and a casual suit stepped down, and the costumed geisha, who had been waiting in front of the teahouse, immediately greeted him.

"The road is long, you have worked hard." The geisha saluted the middle-aged man, and there was no trace of unfamiliarity in his words.

"Where, you're so polite." The middle-aged man hurriedly bowed and returned the salute, "Miss Akura, is Mr. Ito still here?" Although he was dressed in civilian clothes, the middle-aged man's unusually straight waist and neat demeanor faintly revealed a bit of military temperament.

"Please come with me!" The geisha got up to lead the way, and the middle-aged man hurriedly followed, and the two walked into the teahouse together, passing through a number of Japanese-style rooms, then through a rockery, and finally stopped in front of a hidden Japanese-style room door in the depths of the teahouse.

The soundproofing effect of the Japanese room does not seem to be very good, and you can faintly hear the laughter of women eating in the room at the door, mixed with a few men's unbridled laughter.

"Sir, Saigo-kun has arrived." The geisha who led the way knelt at the door of the Japanese room and said softly, she could only be regarded as above average in terms of appearance, but her demeanor was elegant, her eyes were extremely moving, and her voice was unusually tactful, like a milk warbler's coquettish cry.

"Push the door in yourself!" A man's voice rang out in the room.

The middle-aged man couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he heard this familiar voice, and the geisha who led him in immediately opened the sliding door of the Japanese room.

"Ahh A woman's exclamation was suddenly heard in the room, followed by a burst of unbridled laughter—a young geisha in half-ragged clothes jumped up from the floor, her hands covering a pair of pepper breasts and shrunk to the side, while the man in the kimono who was sitting behind the sake table held up his right hand, which had been moving wildly on the young geisha's chest, laughed profusely.

The expressions of the two men at the door were different, the middle-aged man's face showed a hint of embarrassment, and the older geisha who led him there had already a look of surprise.

"Ito-kun, you're disgraced in front of the guests again!" The older geisha who led the way said with disgust.

"Hehe, Xixiang-kun is here, hurry up, come in, come in!" The man in the kimono turned a deaf ear to the older geisha's resentment, and waved vigorously to the guests.

He was about 30 years old, with a clear face, a big scab on the right cheek of his face, low eyebrows, a short beard on his chin, a pair of slender eyes that were deep and abnormal, and the whole body was full of exuberant vitality.

"Ah Cang, I have something to talk to Saigo-kun, please take Chiyoko out first." After the middle-aged man entered the room and sat down, the man in the kimono spoke again.

"Chiyoko, I'm going to your room tonight, let me regain my vanished youth and passion in your young and beautiful body!" Just as the young geisha was about to walk out of the door of the Japanese room, the man in the kimono suddenly shouted again.

The middle-aged man who had just sat down across from him could no longer restrain the embarrassment in his heart, and he opened his mouth and took a sip of the sake he had just drunk overflowing......

"Drunk and lying on the knees of a beauty, Ito-kun is really a person who does what he says." Watching the figures of the two geisha disappear around the corner of the corridor, Saigo joked with a smile.

"Chiyoko was also a person from a wealthy family, but she became a geisha after the Restoration. What do you think? Hirobumi Ito, who was dressed in a kimono, still had a dissolute look on his face, as if he had turned a deaf ear to the fact that the second half of his famous sentence "drunk and lying on the knees of a beautiful woman, waking up to the power of the world" was omitted by Saigo Congdao.

"She's really beautiful." Saigo replied casually, feeling a little anxious in his heart - in the face of such a direct temptation of his own, the "fish-colored Ito" in front of him was unmoved! This made Saigo Congdao, who had the heavy responsibility of this trip, feel that he couldn't start for a while.

"For Yamagu-kun, who regards the Tokugawa family's family system as an enemy of killing his father, will it be a different pleasure to conquer a woman like Chiyoko?" Hirobumi Ito spoke again.

"Saigo-kun, you have traveled to Europe with Shanxian-kun, and both prefer military, you can talk about it, you said that if I give Chiyoko to Shanxian-kun, will he laugh at it?" At this time, Ito Hirobumi's words and deeds were completely the true character of a disciple.

Your Excellency laughed. Saigo reluctantly pulled out a smile on his face, but his anger rose in his heart!

This is a naked counterattack to the temptation I just made!

The so-called gift of beauty is actually just a satire on the origin of Yama County Aritomo - although Yama County Aritomo claims to be from a low-level samurai family, but in fact he comes from a family of warehouse assistants whose status is inferior to the lowly "Ashigaru"!

It is said that this is why Yama Prefecture vigorously carried on the legacy of Masajiro Omura, who was assassinated for advocating the abolition of samurai privileges, and took advantage of the "National Conscription Edict" and "Conscription Notice" in the fifth year of the Meiji era, and took the opportunity of the implementation of the conscription system to destroy the military privileges of the samurai in one fell swoop, so that the so-called "equality of the four peoples" could be implemented in Japan!

However, in this way, it caused many scholars (old samurai) to lose their jobs, resulting in great social problems, and there were rebellions of the scholars in various places, which caused the Japanese government a headache for a while!

And Saigo, who was born in the Samos tribe, believes that there is only one solution, and that is to expand abroad! Transfer domestic contradictions!

Thinking of the goal of this trip, Saigo finally suppressed the anger in his heart and said, "Ito-kun, have you heard that the Qing Kingdom is cooperating with the British and French powers to vigorously expand the navy?" ”

"Huh? Saigo-kun's news is very well-informed. Ito Hirofumi didn't answer directly, but acquiesced, "What, does Saigo-kun think that what action should be taken against Qingguo?" ”

"Yes, Your Excellency." Saigo said, "I believe Your Excellency already knows that the Qing State is actively developing its navy, and if the empire can't make a decision with the Qing State before the Qing people's navy is built, then I'm afraid that although East Asia is big, there will be no place for the empire to live!" ”