Seeing the cabinet door open, Prince Jing couldn't help but get up from his chair.

"I don't know if there is another hurting mechanism in this cabinet, be careful, don't come forward for the time being." Lin Yiqing said, pulling the cabinet door hard and retreating to the side, seeing that the cabinet door was wide open, several important ministers sitting in front of the cabinet door all got up to avoid it.

Facts have proved that Lin Yiqing's worries are superfluous, the cabinet doors are all open, and there is no other mechanism to start, Lin Yiqing is still not very relieved, Zhao Erzhen according to Lin Yiqing's instructions, called a few guards with shields, and hooked out the things in the cabinet one by one with a hook, and did not see any more mechanisms.

It was only then that Prince Chun breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at Lin Yiqing with an approving gaze and nodded slightly.

"Sure enough, it's a loan document! It's exactly the same as the one from the bank, and the score is exactly the same! Prince Jing saw the documents submitted by the director of the Ministry of Works, "Now that the evidence is ironclad, he Hu Yulin has nothing to deny!" ”

"He Hu Yulin's family wealth is so much, according to the rough estimate recorded in this account book, I am afraid that there must be more than 20 million!"

Hearing the figure that Yan Danchu, the head of the household, said, all the ministers in the room held their breath again, and their eyes widened one by one.

20,000,000 taels of silver!

I'm afraid that as soon as this case is concluded, there will be a proverb among the people that "Zuo Hu falls, and the court is full"!

Lin Yiqing, who saw this scene, was secretly amused in his heart, but also knew that Hu Yulin's suffering was inevitable.

Thinking of Hu Yulin, Lin Yiqing couldn't help but clench his fists.

At this moment, the news of the opening of the copper cabinet has quietly spread far and wide, and the acting criminal department Shangshu Weng Shuping, who got the news, rushed to the Ministry of Industry. Previously, he was sick at home and did not go to the ministry to discuss. It's to escape the disaster.

Uncle Weng sat in a sedan chair and walked halfway. I remembered to ask for details about opening the cabinet. When he learned that the cabinet was opened by Lin Yiqing, he snorted in great disappointment, and immediately ordered the sedan chair to turn around and return the same way.

At night, when everything is silent, most of the people in Beijing fall asleep, but in a hut in an alley, the lights are still on.

A small sedan chair came out of the night and stopped in front of the house. A person got out of the sedan chair, looked around, and walked quickly into the house.

"The cabinet is open? Is there a slip in it? Xi Zhengfu looked at Shen Jifu, who was in a hurry in civilian clothes, suppressed the excitement in his heart, and asked.

"Yes, it just happens to be matched with the foundation we found from the bank." Shen Jifu nodded, excitement flashed in his eyes, "I handed everything over to Prince Jing." ”

"That Lin Yiqing, it's really amazing, we didn't see the wrong person." A strange bright color flashed in Xi Zhengfu's eyes. "How is Lord Jing's performance?"

"Lord Jing didn't say anything, but I could see it. He had already made up his mind to get rid of the Zuohu faction. Shen Jifu said.

"The last time the imperial court borrowed the case of Yang Naiwu Ge Bi to make a big move against Zhejiang Province, it had the intention of clearing the forces of the Zuo faction, I originally thought that the imperial court would take care of face and may not be willing to completely overthrow the Zuo family, but as soon as Hu Yulin's matter came out, the imperial court was decisive and could not tolerate the Zuo family. It was only a matter of time before Zuo fell. Xi Zhengfu nodded.

"The Zuo family is so famous, and the money for greedy ink is spent on useless places, we can't collect anything, and the oil and water in the Hu family industry is much larger." Thinking of the benefits that he could get this time, Shen Jifu's eyes flashed with a strange light.

"It's nature. Hu Yulin committed such a thing, his life is not guaranteed, and their Hui merchants will have to be a head below us in the future. Xi Zhengfu behaved very calmly, "The Hu family's industry has a lot of messes, and the imperial court just asks us to charge it at a cheap price, so we have to be careful." ”

"It's nature." Shen Jifu nodded.

"By the way, did you tell Lin Yiqing about Hu Yulin's assassination of Lin Yizhe?" Xi Zhengfu asked.

"Nope." Shen Jifu shook his head and said, "I'm thinking that there is a lack of evidence in this matter, he may not be willing to believe it, but he may think that we are scheming him, and once the news spreads, it may make waves again and involve too much, so I pondered it or forget it." Besides, Hu Yulin is dead this time, and Lin Yizhe's revenge is equivalent to revenge, and there is no need to let him know that this matter is blocked. ”

"Also, in that case, don't say anything to him." Xi Zhengfu thought for a moment and said.

"He's still in Beijing for a few days, you can take a look at him and visit him, this person is indeed extraordinary, and I felt this way when I met him for the first time today." Shen Jifu suggested.

"Not for now." Xi Zhengfu smiled slightly when he heard this, "I have my own time with him. ”

"When is the right time to meet?" Shen Jifu asked.

"In this world, he is about to change his face, he will definitely be an important person, and if there is an opportunity to meet, it depends on how to grasp it......" Xi Zhengfu looked up at the bright moon outside the window and said in a low voice.

Under the same moonlight, Lin Yiqing tonight couldn't sleep for a long time.

The scene during the day still appears in front of me from time to time.

Although he successfully opened the copper cabinet, and the evidence stored in it that Hu Yulin colluded with Zuo Jigao to embezzle ink was all there, Prince Jing and Prince Chun fell into silence after looking at them one by one.

Lin Yiqing understood their difficulties.

After all, Zuo Jigao is one of the "Zhongxing Famous Ministers" of the Daqian Dynasty, the tree has deep roots, if you want to uproot it, I don't know how many people will be involved, if you are not careful, it will definitely cause an uproar!

For the first time, Lin Yiqing felt that the affairs of Qianguo were actually much more difficult to handle than those of Japan.

Everything I did in Satsuma can't be simply copied in Qianguo!

In fact, before himself and Lin Yizhe, there were Westerners who made efforts and attempts to reform the country!

According to Lin Yiqing's understanding through the Western newspapers of this era, that was the first time that Western personages in China systematically put forward proposals for reforming the internal and diplomatic affairs of cadres, and the most famous and influential of them were the "Outsider's Observation" (written on September 18, the fourth year of Tongzhi) by Hurd, an Englishman who served as the chief tax officer, and the "New Discussion Strategy" by Wittoma, the acting British minister to China.

After these two documents were submitted to the Prime Minister's National Affairs Yamen in February of the fifth year of Tongzhi (9066), they were sent to the governors of various places for careful planning, which caused an uproar at the time.

After seeing these two documents. At that time, the governor of Huguang denounced it as "harboring evil intentions". Liu Kunyi, the governor of Jiangxi, believed that "you must not ask for it." Ruilin, the governor of Liangguang, and Jiang Yili, the governor of Guangdong, said: "The way to self-improvement is not to wait for external seeking" and "there is no need to change the law." Zuo Jigao, who was the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang at the time, also thought that it was enough to learn only Western shipbuilding, and that the foreigners' rifles were not as good as the shotguns in Guangdong. These people are not known for their stubbornness among the feudal officials of the Qing Dynasty, and they are still so disgusted, let alone others?

Be a traverser. Lin Yiqing knew that the proposal put forward by the two Britons was actually very pertinent, but many people in the Qianguo still believed that the "negative value" of the proposal of Wei Tuma and others was the main thing, and that they were just "demanding that the government abide by unequal treaties and organize a cause conducive to the expansion of aggression by the great powers." ”

In fact, what Hurd and Wittoma said all hit the nail on the head of the country at that time!

The central message of these two Recommendations is threefold:

First, due to the whitewashing and corruption of false texts. Qianguo has fallen into a very dangerous situation.

First of all, it was the extremely corrupt officialdom of the Qianguo at that time. Hurd said in "The Theory of Outsider Spectators" that "there are few people who do their duty." There are many private people". The Beijing officials are "those who are just-in-fame and just, who suffer a lot from jurisdiction, and have no time to pay attention to internal duties; The members of the ministry are appointed to exercise power, and those who are honest and honest will be refuted. The reason for the financial difficulties lies in the fact that "there are many people under the government who take from the people, but few who lose from the state." ”

Second, there is the backwardness and incompetence of the Qianguo army. Hurd pointed out that the Qianguo army "usually draws bows and lifts stones, only talks about the frame style, is lazy, and can only raise birds for recreation." ”

Third, the education system of the Qianguo country has long been outdated, and what scholars have learned is not useful, "poetry and writing are not proficient, so that they can be famous, but they cannot answer questions about what people should know." ”

The consequences of extreme corruption are enormous. "All kinds of wrongs, so that the most docile people in all nations have turned away from obedience and chaos everywhere."

In the "New Discussion Strategy", Wei Tuma said that if the Qianguo is not in a hurry to change, there will be a danger of the destruction of the country and the partition of the country: "When the fruit of China is covered and eventually decayed,...... If one country intervenes, all countries follow it, and in the future, will the whole world of China still be unified and autonomous, or will it inevitably belong to all states? This goes without saying. ”

Second, the dry state has mishandled foreign affairs.

In the past 30 years of handling foreign relations, the Qianguo has regarded itself as a country of courtesy and righteousness in the Celestial Empire, and has not been able to get along with foreign countries and foreigners on an equal footing, resulting in many disputes and several disharmony. Hurd said in "The Theory of Outsider Sponters": "Officials in the Qianguo country treat foreigners like dogs at first...... It seems that all kinds of emotions are shallow and want to be light, and weak and want to subdue people. ”

Third, the country must be reformed.

If Qianguo wants to carry out reforms, it is necessary to replace the traditional cyclical and retro theory of Qianguo with the theory of evolution of competition and progress. Wittoma has a very incisive discussion of this, and he writes in the New Discussion Strategy: "The troubles of Middle-earth are like the four seasons of a year, and their rise and fall are all the same...... Especially some people: Yao Shun is the most. …… The Covenant of Evolution of the Quecha, the countries of Britain, France, Russia, and the United States, in contrast to 500 years ago, are in a much stronger situation than they were a thousand years ago; Compared with 500 years ago, the present is stronger than 500 years ago. Remembering also that since ancient times, no country in the four seas, no country, has ever been more courageous than its neighbors, and has not been annexed by its neighbors. At the same time, he pointed out that the people of Qianguo should realize that whether or not there is reform has a bearing on the life and death of Qianguo: "There is no difficulty in making a change in national politics, and it is not difficult to be the head of all countries." If it is not transferred, it will be a war for the nations within a few years. Moreover, he believes that the Qianguo should take the initiative to carry out reforms, otherwise it will hinder the sovereignty of the Qianguo: "When we set up or act on our behalf, we can use foreign people to make the wealth of the Qianguo and ignore it, and we can still say that it is autonomous!" ”

Fourth, the basic path for cadres to safeguard national independence is to learn from the West, use the law to strengthen oneself, and live in harmony with foreign countries. In their words: "The key to the independence of the country is to use the law to promote the good and eliminate the bad, so as to restore peace within the period." On the other hand, it is advisable to seek more harmony with foreign countries. If it is not possible to send a representative minister to be stationed abroad, it is advisable to try to avoid suspicion. In addition to sending envoys as soon as possible, the key to living in harmony is to "act according to the agreement," that is, to abide by the treaty. In addition, Hurd and Wittoma also made many specific suggestions on how to learn from the West and various matters of change.

Most of what Wittoma says in The New Discussion is a proverb that is to the point. At that time, the army and government institutions of the Qianguo were already corrupt; Qianguo is facing great danger; It is necessary to get out of the predicament and safeguard the country's independence. The only way is to learn from the West. Reform of the law!

But. These two proposals, which can be said to have a life-saving effect on the Qianguo, have been resolutely resisted by the Qianguo Shilin without exception! The reason why they are like this is that, in addition to the traditional concept of "defending against the summer," they also question the intentions of these people who made the proposals, and their views on the repeated humiliations suffered by the Qianguo are different from those of foreigners.

The first is the reason for the "disharmony" between China and foreign countries. In the view of Hedwithoma and other foreigners, it was mainly due to the arrogance of the Qianguo and its unwillingness to open the door and get along with foreigners on an equal footing, which led to the invasion of the Qianguo by the West. The scholars and doctors of Qianguo stressed that this was a consequence of Western aggression. In fact. These two reasons are mutually reinforcing, not mutually exclusive. The medieval ignorance of the ruling clique of the Qian-dynasty government in its foreign relations was an important reason for the invasion of the West. There were one-sided views on the analysis of Sino-foreign relations by Wei Toma and others, but if we did not seek full blame, his "new discussion strategy" was still a useful advice at the time.

As for "handling things according to the agreement," the scholars and doctors of Qianguo insisted that it was a mistake to live in harmony with the Western powers, and it would only encourage the arrogance of the Western powers. But in fact, as long as we understand that the Qianguo was at a disadvantage at that time. The task facing us is to strive for a peaceful and stable environment and to realize the transformation from poverty and ignorance to prosperity and civilization. It is not difficult to understand that the practice of abiding by treaties in foreign relations and giving priority to peace is first and foremost beneficial to the country.

The scholars and doctors of the Qianguo also suspected the motives of Wei Tuma and others. They believe that both Wittomar and Hurd are British, and Witoma is also a British diplomat, so can the proposals they plan not think about the interests of their own country first? "Those who are not of our race will have different hearts", the narrow-mindedness of the patriarchal autocracy makes it reasonable for the doctors of the Qianguo to be skeptical and wary of their suggestions.

What the doctors do not know or do not want to understand is that in fact, there are many points of overlap in the interests of Western countries and the social progress of the Qianguo countries. The capitalist powers of the West want to expand the world market, and if the countries of the East become too corrupt politically and militarily, and if the society is in turmoil, the trade between the two sides will fail. Economically, if a country does not have the necessary infrastructure to adapt to the development of the world market, such as transportation, communication and raw materials, energy production, etc., trade between the two sides cannot be sustainable.

As a modern person with common sense of economics, Lin Yiqing knows that except for a small number of production projects with direct conflicts of interest, usually the more developed the commodity economy, the greater the mutual trade between countries!

At that time, Wittoma did not shy away from saying that the suggestions he put forward in the "New Discussion Strategy" were also beneficial to the West: "If the new law is taken from the former paragraph, the business bureau will benefit greatly." Second, it is easy for the mainland to be peaceful from now on, and foreign nationals come and go to trade and often live in it, which is easy to be preserved, and all countries can have no worries; Here's where they like it most. But generally speaking, "although foreign countries have benefited from this, the intervention countries have benefited a lot." These words are realistic. For example, wouldn't the cadres benefit the country a lot from eliminating the corruption they accuse? For another example, what they suggested was to help the West and not to the Qianguo in the railways, telegraph, hardware, and coal factories, to manufacture wheeled cars, motors, industrial and weaving instruments, and to reform finance and postal services? Qianguo Shilin's view of Wei Tuma's proposal as "conducive to the cause of the expansion of aggression by the great powers" was undoubtedly biased (unfortunately such a view will still be the "mainstream" in later generations)!

Since the Qianguo had not yet established a mass communication in the modern sense at that time, the proposals of Hurd and Wei Tuma were sent by the Qing court to the courtiers and local ministers for discussion, which can be said to be a powerful shock to these ministers, and the transmission of these suggestions and recitals also made the people who were worried about the country pay more attention to foreign affairs. Just this year, the Universal Gazette republished these two recommendations, further expanding their impact. Therefore, it can be said that "Outsider Observation" and "New Discussion Strategy" have played a positive role in promoting the formation of the trend of Westernization.

As far as some specific contents are concerned, the actual activities of the later Westernization Movement have never exceeded the scope of their proposals, and some opponents have later become active promoters. Even the debate between supporters and opponents of the Westernization movement revolved around the specific projects involved in the proposal, whether to hold railways, steamships, and so on. The higher-level issues raised by people of insight -- such as the question of the fundamentals and political system of the West -- were not the subject of heated debate during the Westernization Movement. The latter may be regarded as heresy, and the "misfortune with words" is suppressed by the diehards using their power; Or it can be ignored as an overseas anecdote. Hurd: There are clearly some major flaws in their proposal. The main reason is that there are no proposals for major institutional reforms. For example, it is only recommended to set up some specialized schools, but they do not dare to touch the imperial examination system and gradually establish a modern education system. The corruption of officialdom was exposed, but the establishment of modern state institutions was not proposed. This is due to limited knowledge and strategic considerations. They are the capable officials cultivated by modern Western civilization, not thinkers who can perceive the process of social change. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that their opinions were timely advice, which was relatively easier to understand by the people of this era, and was more conducive to the formation of Western-style thought. (To be continued......)

PS: When I was in high school, I sometimes dreamed that I was late for school and woke up to find that I was already sitting in the classroom.

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