Regarding Yuxian's death, although Lin Yiqing felt regretful, he did not feel the slightest guilt.

After all, she was the one who wanted to kill him in the first place.

He still doesn't understand why she hates Lin Yizhe so much, and even after Lin Yizhe's death, she has to take her anger on herself.

He was also puzzled about the origin of the little Dehringer pistol.

Thinking of the future of Zhu Xueyan and the little girl named Wang Siqi, Lin Yiqing couldn't help but be a little worried.

He wasn't worried that they would become his future enemies, he was worried about how many more people like them would be born in this ancient and vast empire.

Lin Yiqing's eyes fell on the newspaper in his hand, and his heart couldn't help but move.

Of course, he knew who the real owner of the "Dianshizhai Pictorial," which had a great influence in Qianguo.

As a soldier, he didn't quite understand why Lin Yizhe, who was born as a literati, secretly spent a lot of manpower and material resources to create pictorials, but now he understands a little.

In this era, there are countless unjust cases like Yang Naiwu Ge Bi's, but few cases can have as far-reaching social influence as Yang Bi's case. This is inseparable from the long-term follow-up reports of "Dianshizhai Pictorial" and "Declaration" at that time. In the end, Yang Naiwu's case was able to break through the low-level tastes of "talented and beautiful women" and "rape, murder, poisoning", and rose to the institutional criticism of the judicial system of the Celestial Empire.

Needless to say, the role of the "Dianshizhai Pictorial" in letting the people of the whole country understand the facts of the case in the form of pictures and texts, the "Declaration" not only tracked and reported on the case, but also published a large number of commentary articles, such as the article "On the Yuhang County Case". He is also criticizing the imperial court for sending the petition case back to the original local yamen for retrial. In fact, it is a disguised obstruction of the way for the people to appeal. The article says:

"Now the people are unjust. If the boss appoints the original officer to review the case, the person has been coerced by the original official, and the fact that he is tortured again, is as if he was banned from prosecution,...... The so-called protector is also for this. The torture of the people in Middle-earth is included in this. ”

Another example is the article "On the Review of the Yuhang Case", which directly pointed out that the judicial system of the Daqian Empire was capable of torturing the people, and the article said:

“…… Gai Min is the state capital. How can Bengu Bangning listen to the destruction of his people and still hope for the prosperity of his state?...... I like to use non-punishment. Even if those who use non-punishment are given high positions, how can the people deserve such a miserable punishment? ”

Sadly, such a major case that attracted national attention was not able to lead to the transformation of the judicial system of the Celestial Empire. The reform of the judicial system, which is carried out with reference to the Western model of "separation of powers", is still a distant dream.

Is this the fate of the people of this land?

A long whistle interrupted Lin Yiqing's thoughts.

"Hanpeng, you've been sitting alone for too long, haven't you? Don't you come out and breathe? Iwasaki's gentle voice came from the doorway, "There's a strange sight on the sea these days!" Check it out! ”

"Okay." Lin Yiqing heard her voice with excitement. I couldn't help but feel a little strange, and responded.

Lin Yiqing got up and walked out of the cabin. Yuka Iwasaki came up and grabbed his hand and led him to the deck.

At this time, the "Flying Tiger," a high-speed notification ship of the Great Qian Imperial Navy at Lin Yiqing's feet, was breaking the waves at a speed of 18 knots on the sea.

The "Flying Tiger" is a large, high-speed notification ship of the second generation of the Qianguo Dynasty, which is larger than the first-generation "Thunder" class notification ship, with a full load displacement of 1,100 tons and a speed of an astonishing 21 knots.

The reason why the Qianguo Navy attaches great importance to high-speed notification ships can be said to have been stimulated by the Japanese invasion of Moss Bay. Because of the resolute opposition of the conservative diehards at that time, the telegraph was not able to take place, because after the Japanese army invaded Moswan, the Daqian court in Beijing was at a loss, but fortunately, the shipmaster and sailor had a high-speed notification ship and rushed north to transmit military information, and the Daqian court only learned the news seven days later, and it was already a month after receiving the first telegram sent by Fujian officials through the traditional post station system. The Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces was furious when she heard the news, and under their direct intervention, the telegraph lines of the Celestial Empire finally began to be erected, and the important role of "ship delivery" in this war also made the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces have a deep emotional understanding.

This time, His Majesty Lin Yiqing resigned from Beijing and prepared to go to Nanjing to visit his seriously ill uncle Shen Youdan, and the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces was very moved when she learned about it, and specially ordered Lin Yiqing to take a naval high-speed notification ship to Nanjing, so as to save time.

After Lin Yiqing got on the "Flying Tiger", Guan took Yang Yonglin to visit the whole ship, and Lin Yiqing understood what it meant that Lin Yizhe wanted to engage in this type of ship back then.

The current "Flying Tiger" is equipped with 1 100 mm main gun and 3 75 mm secondary guns, as well as 4 40 mm machine guns and 2 Gatling machine guns.

"Hanpeng, look! What's there? Iwasaki Yuka said with a smile as she pointed to the blue sea in the distance.

"This is ......" Lin Yiqing's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at the fleet of long sailboats connected by cables on the sea.

At the front of these fleets were small steamships towing sailboats.

Lin Yiqing understood why Iwasaki Yujia was so surprised, in fact, it was the first time he had seen this kind of sea transport fleet of steamships and sailboats.

When he was in Japan, Lin Yiqing often went to sea, and he was very familiar with the situation of Japan's maritime shipping after the Meiji Restoration, and he had the impression that all Japanese transport ships had been steamed, and only fishermen were still using sailboats.

"Is it the first time Lord Lin has seen the sand fleet towed by this small steamer?" A voice came from behind, and Lin Yiqing looked back. Seeing the pipe belt of the "Flying Tiger", Yang Yonglin smiled and walked towards him.

"yes!" Lin Yiqing smiled and nodded. The gaze returned to the sailboats towed by small steamers on the sea.

"This is the fleet of the imperial court. It's not surprising that we, the scuds of the sea, pass news back and forth between the north and the south. Yang Yonglin sighed, "Sometimes when we encounter these sand boats, we have to slow down and avoid them, and if we collide, it will be troublesome." ”

"Aren't the Fujian factories and the Shanghai factories able to build their own steamships? Why did the imperial court still use these old-fashioned sailing ships for its luck? Lin Yiqing asked with some puzzlement.

"Lord Lin knows. This frozen three feet, not a day of cold, the people have been using wooden boats for a long time, although they know that the steamship is convenient, but due to financial resources, it is difficult to replace all of them, so it has become like this. Yang Yonglin replied, "In fact, it can be done like this, and it is all thanks to Brother Ling Lin Wenxiang." ”

Yang Yonglin told Lin Yiqing that the sand boat transportation industry in Qianguo was once unprecedentedly prosperous during the Xianfeng Shaoguang period. Soybeans are transported from north to south. Grain is transported from south to north, and there is a round trip for more than a month. A sand boat can make seven or eight round trips a year, which is very profitable. At the peak of the Shanghai port, there were 5,000 sand ships and more than 100,000 sailors.

However, after the "Treaty of Nanjing" in the 22nd year of Shaoguang and the "Treaty of Beijing" in the 10th year of Xianfeng, many ports of Qianguo were opened to the outside world, and the influx of Western steamers quickly forced the traditional passenger and cargo transportation industry of sand ships in Qianguo to the point of collapse. Because whether it is speed, load, safety or price, traditional sand ships are not the opponent of Western freighters. However, in the past four or five years, the number of sand boats in Shanghai Port has dropped sharply to four or five hundred, and thousands of wooden boats have been stranded on the Huangpu beach, allowing them to rot naturally in the wind and sun. Even the fleet of Wang Yongsheng, the king of sand boats, has been declining all the way down without exception. The other shipowners were just as desperate as Wang. Because the hardware and software could not compete with foreign businessmen, they had to wait for the government to negotiate. The shipowners got together to discuss, and the result was that Wang Yongsheng was unanimously elected to take the lead in submitting a document to the government, begging the government to negotiate with the foreigners, and to assign the soybean and grain business to the Qianguo sand boat franchise, and foreign businessmen were not allowed to interfere.

A passage in the submission touched Li Shaoquan. The submission said that if the sand shipbuilding industry went bankrupt, it would not only be a problem of more than 100,000 shipwrights losing their jobs, but also might provoke a popular uprising, and the imperial court's grain transportation line might also be destroyed. Li Shaoquan forwarded the submission to Prime Minister Yamen and vigorously pushed the matter forward, but he hit a nail in the coffin at the British Minister Wittoma, who refused on the spot, claiming that all the consequences arising therefrom should be borne by the Qianguo government.

As a "pacification", the Daqian Imperial Court reduced or exempted 30 percent of the "subsidized silver" and 30 percent of the "stolen silver" of the sand boats, but after all, it was a drop in the bucket, and it was already inadequate to maintain the entire sand ship industry by relying only on the grain freight of the imperial court. In the eighth year of Tongzhi, the Suez Canal was opened to navigation, and two years later, the Far East section of the Eurasian submarine cable was laid in Shanghai, and more Western merchant ships poured into Qianguo, and the situation of the sand ship transportation industry in Qianguo was even worse.

During this period, the Qianguo government did not turn a blind eye to the sand boat transportation industry. Prime Minister Yamen also ordered the Minister of Military Aircraft of the Cabinet and the Minister of Trade of the South and North Seas to jointly discuss the resolution of the Cao Yun crisis. As a result, three recommendations were obtained. The first is to repair the canal and restore river transportation; the second is to repair all abandoned sand ships and continue to maintain maritime transportation; Third, the imperial court increased the freight of the sand boat transportation industry in order to save the sand ship transportation industry that was on the verge of bankruptcy.

However, all three suggestions were refuted by Li Shaoquan. Li Shaoquan believes that the canal has been doing its best for more than 800 years, and the transportation capacity is only 100,000 stones per year, which is useless in the overall situation of Caoyun; Obviously there are convenient conditions for shipping, but it is not crazy to have to spend a lot of money to build a canal; And to repair the sand boat, it needs at least 30 million taels of silver, and more than 400 warehouses with a capacity of more than 10,000 stones need to be built, where does the imperial court have so much money? Increasing the freight of sand boats can save a while, but it is not a long-term solution.

At that time, Li Shaoquan's teacher Zeng Bohan also fell into deep contradictions. As early as the sixth year of Tongzhi, Rong Hong suggested that he adopt the method of "attracting merchants and raising shares" to buy foreign ships and set up their own steamship company to save Caoyun. But at that time, Zeng Bohan was worried that the rebellion in the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom had just subsided, and the people's hearts were not solid, so they "carried the grain...... Once the imperial court develops steamships, more than 100,000 sand boat owners and shipwrights and sailors will lose their vitality, which will lead to large-scale civil uprisings and riots.

But in any case, the traditional sand boat transportation industry in Qianguo has finally reached the end of the road. In March of the 11th year of Tongzhi, Prime Minister Yamen sent another letter to Zeng Bohan and Li Shaoquan. Inquire about the use of ships for water transportation. Hopefully, they will come up with a practical plan. A month later. Zeng Bohan died of illness suddenly, and the matter completely fell on Li Shaoquan. Li Shaoquan's solution was to expand the China Merchants Bureau. The operation policy of China Merchants has also been changed from the previous official policy of "carrying grain and collecting passengers and goods" to "carrying grain as the first meaning and transporting cao as the second meaning", and the main business of China Merchants Group is to carry passengers and freight.

At the beginning of the establishment of China Merchants. Like the sand shipping industry, there is fierce competition with foreign steamship companies. However, due to the strong support of the shipping administration, the British Swire and Jardine Steamship Company, and the American Qichang Steamship Company were defeated many times in business wars against China Merchants, and with the full cooperation of a group of "comprador shareholders" who were familiar with the laws of modern Western business operations, Qichang Company went bankrupt, and Swire and Jardine Matheson were forced to sign "parity contracts" with China Merchants three times. The policy support of the imperial court and the full cooperation between experienced private managers made China Merchants quickly open up the situation and become one of the largest steamship companies in China and abroad. With the continuous expansion of China Merchants business. It not only absorbs a lot of sailor labor in the sand boat industry, but also brings a glimmer of hope to the sand boat owners.

The owners of the sand boats had pinned their hopes on the imperial court to give them the necessary protection in the harsh commercial environment. But after all, they belong to the "representatives of backward productive forces", and if they do not change, they can only accept the fate of being eliminated by the times together with their heavy and stupid sand boats. The success of China Merchants has given great inspiration to the owners of sand boats. They began to raise funds to buy small steamers to replace the old sand boats, in the hope of getting out of the predicament and regaining their vitality. However, there are not many shipyards capable of producing steamships in Qianguo at present, and the existing shipyards are all foreign shipyards, except for the Fujian Shipbuilding Administration Bureau and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and most of these shipyards are only interested in the production of large steamships, and are not willing to undertake the construction of small steamers that can be used for inland shipping.

At this time, Lin Yizhe's proposal to "separate shipping affairs" and "build small steamers for civilian use" put forward by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was quite targeted and operable. Because for the construction of ships of more than 3,000 tons, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, which has built "90-day gunboats", is not sure, but it is more than enough to build small steamers for transporting goods.

After the traditional inland river transportation industry in Qianguo fell into an unprecedented crisis, Lin Yizhe, in order to solve the dilemma faced by the sand shipping in Qianguo, proposed a solution to Li Shaoquan, who had established the China Merchants Bureau for steamships, that is, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau should build small steamers (small steamers) and purchase them in joint stock by the owners of sand boats, so as to transform the traditional sailing ship transportation into steamship transportation in Qianguo.

Li Shaoquan was very appreciative of Lin Yizhe's suggestion, believing that "if this can be done, not only will the Shanghai factory get rid of the big difficulties, but the private shipping will also be prosperous. ”

Li Shaoquan went to the imperial court and gave a solution, the imperial court fully adopted and gave support, and Li Shaoquan ordered the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to start building small steamers, "purchasing them with capital and people", and "changing the ship type". Since the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau already had mature experience in the production of "90-day gunboats", the production of small ships was naturally not a problem. Soon, a large number of small steamers were purchased by giants in the sand boat transportation industry such as Wang Yongsheng, the king of sand boats.

Since there were still a large number of traditional sand boats in Qianguo at that time, in order to "make the best use of things" and at the same time avoid the unemployment of a large number of sand boat sailors, Wang Yongsheng creatively invented the method of towing sand boats with small steamers for transportation.

In the traditional sailing ship of Middle-earth, the sand boat has a square head, square tip, flat bottom, shallow draft, its length-width ratio is large, with the characteristics of wide, large, flat and shallow, not afraid of sandy beaches, can sail in the sea area of the sandy seabed, and can also sail in rivers and lakes. The bottom of the sand boat is flat and can sit on the beach, and it is not afraid of running aground. Safe in the wind and waves. Especially when the wind direction and tide direction are different, because the bottom is flat and the draft is shallow, it is less affected by the tide and is safer. In addition, the sand boat has excellent performance in offshore navigation. The sand ship has many masts and sails, can sail against the wind, and can sail long distances on the ocean. The sand boat has a tall mast and high sails, which is conducive to the wind, and it has a shallow draft and low resistance, so it can sail quickly on the sea. The sand boat can not only sail with the wind, but also sail against the wind, and even sail against the wind and water, coupled with the good navigation performance of the sand boat, the seven-level wind can sail without hindrance, and can withstand a certain amount of wind and waves, so it also has a certain use value, and it is undoubtedly a pretty good way to tow with a small steamer. Therefore, not long after, on the north-south sea road of Qianguo, a large number of sand fleets dragged by small steamers appeared, and they traveled through the sea in groups, becoming a sea spectacle that foreign passengers would inevitably see when they came to Qianguo.

Because of official duties, the high-speed notification ships of the Naval Master and the Beiyang Naval Division often travel to and from Tianjin to Fuzhou. And when passing through the sea shipping route, it is common to see such a spectacular sight: a small steamer towing 5 to 10 or more wooden sand boats, waddling on the sea.

As for the solution of the Cao Yun crisis, Li Shaoquan has always regarded the establishment of the China Merchants Steamship Bureau and the construction of small steamers at the Jiangnan Shipyard as the most brilliant success in his career. (To be continued......)

PS: The stuffy oil bottle took out two ghost jade seals from the package. He weighed it, handed one of them to Wu Xie, and said, "You take this ghost jade seal back, I only need one is enough." Ten years from now, if you remember me, you can take this thing with you and open that bronze door. You might also see me inside. "No! I disagree! Wu Xie's voice was a little hoarse, "Give me both, I'm going to hand it over to the state!" ”

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