"Brother Da Xianzhuang, this time that little guy has given us a problem!" Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, looked at the telegram in his hand and said with a helpless smile. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

And sitting next to him is Liu Kunyi, the governor of the two lakes whose status is not inferior to him, these two are currently the most powerful local governors in the entire Qing Dynasty, if there is anyone who can force them before, then only Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, is left.

But at the beginning of the year, Li Hongzhang fell seriously ill and died, and Li Hongzhang's direct subordinate was swallowed by Wang Sirui in just a few months, and no outsiders were allowed to drink a sip of soup at all.

If these two governors accept Wang Sirui, then it basically means that Wang Sirui has won most of China without blood, and now the northern forces are also dominated by Wang Sirui's family, not only in terms of the number of soldiers, but also in terms of the quality of soldiers, which is not comparable to them.

This time, Zhang Zhidong had just come to Lianghu to inspect the industries under his former rule, but unexpectedly received a telegram from Wang Sirui here.

And Liu Kunyi also knows that time is short, and he has had several ups and downs in his life, so he looks down on this kind of thing a lot. Even when he took office as the governor of the two lakes, he didn't bring too many of his own manpower, he just wanted to do some business, and the position of the governor of the two lakes was previously held by Zhang Zhidong, and he and Zhang Zhidong had the same ideals, so the two were compatible.

"Since Brother Xiangtao has already made a decision, why should I be asked about this person who is about to enter the coffin? I've seen the winds and waves in my life, but it's a pity that you and my brothers didn't have a good time. Liu Kunyi said with some regret.

In fact, this time Zhang Zhidong came to the Lianghu area not just to see his industries, but to discuss the future with Liu Kunyi.

It's a pity that Liu Kunyi's physical condition has been getting worse and worse recently, and he already feels a little powerless. And Liu Kunyi's condition also made Zhang Zhidong a little worried.

If Liu Kun leaves like this, then he Zhang Nanpi will completely become a lonely person, and those old guys who struggled together in the early days will also leave one by one. How long can he Zhang Zhidong survive?

"When you and I were young, we watched this country being bullied by the great powers, so we worked hard all our lives to make him stronger. But in his twilight years, this man realized that what we could do was only so little, so insignificant. Even, even to protect the safety of the people in a place, it is necessary to unite and negotiate with foreigners to ensure it.

After a lifetime of struggle, a lifetime of hard work, and a lifetime of fighting, how many thousands of Han men died under our hands? But we have fought a lifetime of defeat, how can we say it?

This little guy is good at everything, he knows the art of war, he can resist the enemy, he knows how to stratagem, he can calculate the enemy, and he has the courage to fight the enemy, which you and my brothers do not have. It's a pity that he is too young, so young that I dare not trust him easily. Zhang Zhidong shook his head self-deprecatingly and said.

Zhang Zhidong has been mixed all his life, and he can compete with a historical super bull like Li Hongzhang, how can his own power be blown out?

Wang Sirui's situation in the capital and Shengjing during this time, Zhang Zhidong has already mastered everything, although it is an exaggeration to master his every move, but at the very least, what policies has Wang Sirui implemented in the capital, Zhili, and Shandong? What big things have been done? What was the war like in Shengjing? These general situations are still very easy to get by Zhang Zhidong.

It was precisely because of Wang Sirui's series of policies that Zhang Zhidong did not speak out against him before, and Zhang Zhidong naturally could not tell others his true considerations, so he could only refuse the anti-Wang proposals of other governors on the grounds that the country had foreign enemies.

And with Wang Sirui's victory in Shengjing, not only shocked Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi, but also frightened those governors who were clamoring to oppose the king earlier, and now one by one there is no intention of opposing the king at all.

After all, Wang Sirui even fought the Japanese, and he also caused the Japanese to lose more than half, but he himself only suffered thousands of casualties.

Therefore, now those anti-king governors are busy looting the people's fat and people's ointment from all over the country, once Wang Sirui orders them to move their butts, these guys will leave the country with the family and those people's fat and ointment as soon as possible.

As long as you have money, what can you do without rights? You can't die for the sake of power, right?

And Zhang Zhidong saw the hope of the country's rise in Wang Sirui's body, although his arsenal was not long in operation, but it has also provided tens of thousands of rifles for Wang Sirui's Han army, and those are still imitation Mauser rifles, just this point, Zhang Zhidong is willing to lose.

At this moment, Zhang Zhidong was going to discuss with Liu Kunyi what they were going to do next? Is it to continue with the status quo? Or is it opposition, or is it pandering?

However, after seeing Liu Kunyi again, Zhang Zhidong understood in his heart that he only had one choice left now, he could only cater to Wang Sirui.

"You and I are both fighting for the peace and security of the country and the people, if he can do it, why not give away the two governors? Now that Wang Sirui's army is flourishing, it is like the sky, and there must be foreigners behind him, you and I are afraid that we have no power to resist, even if we can survive for a few years, but what about a few years later? Brother Xiangtao, don't think about yourself, but also think about future generations. Besides, we can make a three-chapter covenant with him, and if he can really get the country on its feet, it will not be too late for us to hand it over to him. Liu Kunyi said.

People are dying and their words are good, Liu Kunyi is quite open in this matter at the moment, after all, standing from different angles, the results of looking at the problem are also different, Liu Kunyi is no longer qualified to covet power or anything, he just wants to create a stable living environment for his descendants.

As for going abroad? Liu Kunyi never thought that he was born as a Chinese and died as a Chinese ghost. How ironic would it be for them to fight for the country they have fought all their lives and finally let their children and grandchildren go abroad?

"Well, it's time to think about the people after you." Zhang Zhidong nodded, obviously persuaded by Liu Kunyi.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Zhidong continued: "I have raised four million taels of silver over there, and I can only raise so much this year. ”

"Six million taels of silver, I plan to arrange for someone to send it over in the near future, after all, foreigners can't wait." Liu Kunyi said.

His Lianghu area is slightly richer than the Huguang area, after all, Zhang Zhidong has been operating here for so long before, and his strength in all aspects is good, and the first batch of six million taels of silver is already very good.

However, the sum of the two parties is only 10 million taels of silver, and the compensation for the 450 million taels of silver, with a total of nearly 1 billion taels of silver in principal and interest, is still a drop in the bucket.

However, with this silver, Wang Sirui will be able to get a year's respite, but in the future, they don't know about this.

"Okay, I'll arrange this after I get back......"

…………

In the capital, it took nearly a day for the telegram to be sent, but there was no local governor who replied to him, which made Wang Sirui's face a little unbearable.

After all, he sent a telegram in the name of the imperial court, and this nominal imperial court could not even command those local governors, and did not even have time to reply to the telegram?

Wang Sirui said secretly ruthlessly, but he didn't have any way.

The expansion of the army is too fast, with his current strength, at most, he can only control Shengjing, Zhili, Shandong and Jingshi, and this is already his limit.

If he wants to continue to control the rest of the country, it will be a year at the earliest, and if nothing else, after a year, Wang Sirui will be able to recover at least two-thirds of the country. In two years, the whole country will be recovered.

But it's still too dangerous to do this, after all, the recovery is small, and you will always send troops to garrison after the recovery, right? In case foreigners come to make trouble at this time, what do you do to resist? Therefore, the ideal time is to complete the great cause of reunification in five years.

At that time, Wang Sirui's military and economic situation will be greatly improved, even if the foreigners attack, he will have extra troops to fight back.

It's not like now, even if those local governors jump up to resist him, he can only clean them up in the name of the imperial court, which makes those governors who know that the imperial court no longer exist have nothing to fear.

Again, the current scale of the arsenal can no longer meet Wang Sirui's needs for army expansion, and he must find a way to continue to purchase production lines.

But the Americans refused to continue selling to him, and the Germans were also grinding and chirping, without the slightest intention of selling, making their own? Now I don't have that strength, which is also a thing that hurts Wang Sirui's egg very much.

"My lord, Liu Kunyi, the governor of the two lakes, and Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, have called back. The two of them raised a total of 10 million taels of silver, which will be delivered to the capital in the near future. ”

'Huh......'

Wang Sirui let out a heavy sigh, and finally had good news.

And the reply of these two will inevitably serve as a warning to the other governors, even if they can't change everyone's attitude, but at least they can bring at least 10 million silver to Wang Sirui, plus the 10 million and 30 million taels of silver that they made up before, which is just enough for the first batch of indemnities paid to foreigners.

Now Wang Sirui doesn't want to provoke foreigners again because of the issue of compensation, after all, Wang Sirui knows very well in his heart when to pretend to be an uncle and when to pretend to be a grandson. (To be continued.) )