However, Li Hui is no longer the time he has just crossed, recalling the countless problems he saw after entering the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, Li Hui quickly understood Li Hongzhang's thoughts, and couldn't help but feel a little more sympathetic to him, "Yes, in terms of the inferior product quality and high production cost of domestic foreign enterprises, it is really not as cost-effective as buying foreign goods directly, and Lao Li does not know how to improve management, this problem cannot be solved for a long time, and it is not surprising that he will say such things in anger." In fact, judging from the fact that Lao Li has engaged in so many modern military enterprises, he is much stronger than Chang Kaishen later, but just as he does not attach importance to basic education, seeing that the Manchu Qing Dynasty is poor in the twilight, this 'pasteur maker' of the 'My Great Qing Dynasty' is inevitably eager for quick success."

Thinking of the words "quick success", Li Hui's eyes suddenly lit up, it turned out that the key was here, and he understood Li Hongzhang's mentality, and his grasp of persuading the other party naturally increased a lot. Because Li Hui himself is also eager for quick success now, and his proposal to embezzle funds for the construction of steel mills is also based on this mentality.

The First Sino-Japanese War was imminent, and Li Hui had to help the Beiyang Naval Division improve its strength as soon as possible in just over a year to at least change the outcome of the First Sino-Japanese Naval War. Historically, the steel mill of the Tianjin Machinery Bureau was not completed and put into operation until after the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which did not help the war at all, but instead occupied a lot of funds and had a negative impact on war preparedness

In the history of old China's industrial construction, similar tragedies are not the only one, such as Yan Xishan's painstaking efforts to build a steel production capacity of 40,000 or 50,000 tons (the annual crude steel production capacity is 780,000 tons, which is more than the entire steel output of the mainland before the completion combined). The Northwest Steelmaking Plant was not completed and put into operation until the end of 1937, and it became a trophy of the devil in the blink of an eye

The reason for this situation is that investors underestimate the risk of war because of a lack of foresight or a fluke mentality, but the long construction cycle of the steel industry is also a very important reason, especially in the era when open-hearth steelmaking was still the mainstream. Therefore, at that time, the development of the steel industry must have a relatively stable external environment, if there is a war soon, it is absolutely unwise to spend a lot of money to invest in steel plants.

The Japanese were much more shrewd in this matter, and they could not have been unaware of the importance of the steel industry, but the construction of the first large-scale steel plant did not begin until after the victory in the Sino-Japanese War, when the Meiji Restoration had already begun for several decades. This may be precisely because the Japanese government is afraid to invest money in the steel industry, which has a long construction period, because it is afraid to go to war with China at any time. In addition, the Japanese are not in a hurry to develop the steel industry, which may also be related to their special national conditions, Japan is a resource-poor island country, basically no iron ore production, even if they have a strong steel smelting capacity, they still can't get rid of the dependence on imports. Therefore, it was not until Sheng Xuanhuai controlled the Hunan Daye Iron Mine and had a stable source of iron ore that Japan began to vigorously develop the iron and steel industry in Japan. However, the steel mill of Tianjin Machinery Bureau is actually facing the same problem, and China only has a modern iron mine called Daye Iron Mine in Hunan at this time, which is far away and is controlled by Zhang Zhidong, a hostile faction, which is not reliable at all

The first point mentioned by Li Hui made Li Hongzhang unhappy, but the second point made him pay attention to it immediately, although Zhang Zhidong was more concerned about the overall situation in the clear stream, but it was only relatively speaking, Li Hongzhang categorically would not let his lifeline be in the hands of this opponent, and finally agreed to embezzle part of the money, but in order to prevent attracting attention, the amount would not be too much. So Li Hui came up with a new idea

Because of the happy conversation, Li Hongzhang even forgot to eat, until his son-in-law Zhang Peilun came to remind him that he noticed that his stomach had begun to protest, and he couldn't help but laugh dumbly, and exclaimed, "Dongyang is really a genius in the world!" I have Dongyang, the foreign must be successful, this is really the luck of the Qing Dynasty! ”

Hearing this, the smile on Li Hui's face suddenly froze, but fortunately, he reacted quickly enough to cover it up in time, and Li Hongzhang was surging and didn't notice it. But Li Hongzhang's heartfelt words still gave Li Hui a wake-up call, "It seems that Lao Li is really determined to be a loyal minister of the Manchu Dynasty, so it is inevitable to be an enemy in the future, and then I will only help the Beiyang Navy Division win the naval battle, remember not to say anything else, although I am somewhat sympathetic to Lao Li's experience, but I will not be stupid enough to help my enemies!" ”

Although Li Hui continued to talk and laugh at the dinner table for fear that Li Hongzhang would see the problem, the topic had inadvertently focused on Li Hui's original purpose of coming here -- the issue of naval armaments. Li Hongzhang is cunning and cunning, and he naturally noticed this change, but he did not have doubts, because according to common sense, Li Hui is still too young now, and it is impossible to maintain his previous amazing performance. In a sense, Li Hui's restraint made Li Hongzhang unconsciously relieved, his performance before was too demonic, it was simply beyond common sense, and even Li Hongzhang felt a lot of pressure

To Li Hongzhang's surprise, Li Hui did not rush to help him draw up the purchase list, but first did a job that he had never paid attention to - unified translation of names. Although some translators emerged in the late Qing Dynasty, because there was no unified organization for these translation work, the phenomenon of multiple translations of words was extremely common, not to mention that there may be several, or even a dozen translations of the same person's name, which undoubtedly greatly increased the difficulty of Chinese people studying Western studies.

On the other hand, this seriously wasted the already scarce translation power in China at the end of the Qing Dynasty, resulting in a delay in the translation of many fields in urgent need of translation, for example, the Beiyang Naval Division has been established for so many years, and there is no Chinese password available, so it can only force officers and soldiers to learn English. Even sailors in the Beiyang Navy are often able to speak fluent English, which is considered by many military fans in later generations to be a sign of their training, but the reason for this is not a kind of sadness?

Therefore, Li Hui decided to introduce the principle of later translation into this era in advance, so as to reduce the waste of talents. The second step is even more difficult, Li Hui intends to replace the current variety and generally overly literary translations with mature translations of later generations, but with his current situation of unknown nationality in China, how easy is it to convince those big bulls?

Fortunately, Li Hongzhang expressed his approval after reading Li Hui's draft, and if he uses his power to boost, there should still be some hope. If this work is to be fully rolled out, there will be no time to complete it in a few years, and Li Hui, who will intervene in the First Sino-Japanese War as the first goal after the crossing, obviously cannot have so much time, so it is natural for him to only choose naval professional terms as a pilot, and even so, he does not intend to complete it alone