【2nd Update】

Huang Tifang, who is a Qingliu cadre, actually had a high-level visit from the opponent's base camp, and so on, and when he arrived at Xu Shouchang's back garden, he had already seen the little old man in the hexagonal pavilion in the lotus pond with great interest, and he was standing in the pool with a wine cup, and suddenly chanted loudly: "Sassy and sassy eyebrows are too Shiwen, and the original taste of chivalry and smell from time to time." It is still common for the prison door to sit down, and it is the most anecdotal group for the country. ”

This half of the poem, the little old man recited it was a subdued tone, a pride gushed out, the patrol Taoist Xu Shouchang and another brocade robe with his back to Lu Hong, the slightly chubby man tapped the table and applauded.

"Brother Shulan's pride is not lost back then!" The brocade-robed man's deep voice sounded, and then he smiled with emotion: "Little brother has not held the nine-stone bow or stroked the seven-string tong all these years. Three years of bending the north wind, what is the use of this hand! ”

As soon as this person spoke, there was an inexplicable sense of Xiao Su between his words, and after the little old man Huang Tifang heard it, he was obviously deeply touched, and when he turned around and was about to speak, he had already seen Lu Hong standing at the gate of the courtyard, and he was busy beckoning, "Lu Xian's nephew, I've been looking for you for a long time, come and see the old man's best friend Master Zhang!" ”

As soon as he spoke, Xu Shouchang and the man in the brocade robe turned their heads, Xu Shouchang naturally saw Lu Hong, but after living in his house, except for Huang Tifang's niece and maid who walked around the old man, the other people were just briefly introduced as the little old man's protégé and backward, and after a conversation just now, the little old man mentioned this Lu Hong many times, so he was interested.

And the man in the brocade robe attaches great importance to Huang Tifang's posterity, obviously he is also a little surprised, they were close friends back then, and they often talked and discussed national affairs by candlelight, how high Huang Shulan's vision is, it is naturally clear, and he can't help but look at Lu Hong a few more times.

When Lu Hong heard Huang Tifang's introduction, he suddenly remembered something in his head, walked a few steps and bowed and said, "Under Lu Hong, meet Master Zhang!" As he stood with his hands folded, he couldn't help but look at the slightly chubby official again, he could probably guess the identity of the person who came, but this appearance was somewhat different from what he imagined.

The brocade-robed man was also stunned when he saw Lu Hong's expression, turned his head to look at Huang Tifang, smiled slightly, and then turned around and asked: "Lu Hong, I heard Huang Gong say that you have traveled to the Taixi countries, you can be said to be well-informed, and you are also proficient in military science, and you are quite good at reasoning...... Look at you, you seem to know where I came from? ”

Lu Hong glanced at Huang Tifang, and the little old man was also looking at himself with interest, so he arched his hand again, and said with a smile: "Since Lord Zhang asked, I will dare to guess that the capable Huang Gong is so respectful, and the character who is treated well by Lord Zhongtang must be a person with extraordinary talents, so I dare to speculate, my lord, you must be one of the two horns of the green cow!" ”

The brocade-robed man squinted his eyes and looked at Lu Hong, then turned his head to look at Huang Tifang, who had a very wonderful expression, and nodded with interest and smiled: "Brother Shulan, it seems that your vision is really unique, this Lu Hong's insight is really surprising, and even I know the two horns of the green cow with Xiaoda!" ”

The so-called green cow is the homonym of the word "clear stream", and this green cow refers to Li Hongzao, the other big man of the clear stream, that is, the figure above the ordinary courtiers, and Zhang Zhidong and Zhang Peilun, the two clear stream cadres are known as the "two horns of the green ox", which is a metaphor for these two sharp weapons in the hands of the clear stream, used to hit people, in addition, Chen Baochen, another famous cadre of the clear stream, is known as the tail of the green ox, Other Qingliu celebrities have their own titles.

And Lu Hong just heard Huang Tifang introduce the surname Zhang, and before that, he was even more exported, the two sentences of "don't hold the nine-stone bow, don't stroke the seven-string tong", he also heard it and was deeply resentful in the words, obviously this experienced ups and downs, and Huang Tifang was close, and now he can be an official under the curtain of Li Hongzhang, the counterpart of Qingliu and the governor of Zhili, so he guessed at once that this ten out of ten is Zhang Peilun in the four admonitions of Qingliu back then.

Huang Tifang was obviously very satisfied with Lu Hong's performance at this time, when he introduced his experience in Mengyin, Shandong to Zhang Peilun before, although Zhang Peilun did not say it explicitly, he must have doubts, even Xu Shouchang also asked several questions, and he called Lu Hong over, obviously not to explain the matter in Shandong.

Above the court, Qingliu criticized the officials of the Western-style faction, but also impeached a large number of conservative officials, but in major national affairs, Qingliu such as Huang Tifang, Zhang Peilun, Zhang Zhidong and others were not simply the mouthpiece of Qingliu bigwigs, otherwise they would not have won great prestige.

He passed through Tianjin, the reason why he took a break, this fatigue is actually an excuse, and when he arrived here, he sent the chief to visit Zhang Peilun with his name, in his opinion, this news obviously must also be known to Li Hongzhang, who has the country's military strength, but the most suitable person to deliver the news is undoubtedly his best friend Zhang Peilun.

Zhang Peilun's current identity, even in the Huai system, is quite weighty, after his wife died, married Li Hongzhang's youngest daughter chrysanthemum as his wife, and now is the core copywriter of Chenglong Kuai's son-in-law plus the governor Yamen, Li Hongzhang, who offended Weng Tonggong with his outstanding writing, is now using a former Qingliugan to take charge of his own copywriting in the future, which is undoubtedly an extraordinary trust in Zhang Peilun.

"Nephew Lu Xian, just now I mentioned to Youqiao (Zhang Peilun) what you have heard, but Lord Zhang is quite confused, so I invite you to ask a few words!" Huang Tifang laughed and explained two sentences to Lu Hong.

Zhang Peilun put down the wine glass, leaned sideways and said with a serious face: "Lu Hong, what direct evidence is there for the news you told Huang Gong...... Or is it proof? Do you know that this news is related to the fortunes of the country and the life and death of tens of thousands of soldiers? ”

If this question was asked to Lu Hong yesterday, he would have to think about it, but today he had made a lot of extra preparations, the only problem was that the preparations he had made were originally planned to be shown to the old fox of Weng Tonggong after entering Beijing, but he didn't expect to kill Zhang Peilun halfway......

After a little thought, he threw out another conclusion about the First Sino-Japanese War, of course, he was naturally pretending to be the mouth of a non-existent Western media, "Lord Zhang, Western countries have already made various predictions about the situation in the Far East, and many official analysts hold a view that there is a sharp contradiction between the Qing Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty -- the root of the contradiction lies in resources!" ”

"Resource ......" Zhang Peilun heard this, and asked rhetorically, "Lu Hong, do you mean that you want to obtain the export of various minerals from my country?" ”

What Lu Hong mentioned at this time is actually the cause of the First Sino-Japanese War that has been said to be rotten in later generations - economic purposes led to the outbreak of war, and this is obviously the most convincing reason, "Lord Zhang, it is not a simple purchase, but plunder...... It has been more than 30 years since the Meiji Restoration, but the military expenditure has been huge year after year, and the only industries that this money depends on are cotton yarn and silk reeling, they are a projectile island country, the minerals are barren, and the establishment of foreign affairs, even if it is my Qing Dynasty, I also feel that the investment is huge, not to mention the small book, when I was in Taixi, I saw the British newspaper published the issue of the treasury bonds, more than 10 years ago, the book is said to have issued overseas treasury bonds and domestic bonds of 450 million yuan, to repay this large amount of national bonds, has made the political axe financial collapse of the day! ”

Some of the things he said came from the understanding of later generations, and the data and the like were in the name of the fake Totesi newspaper anyway, and naturally many of them were fabricated or exaggerated, and the desired result was that the inevitable surname of the war could be deduced!

Sure enough, Zhang Peilun was also startled when he heard the news of the 450 million national bonds, and Huang Tifang next to him frowned, I haven't heard Lu Hong talk about this news, this is really a bit of the demeanor of the cadres of the year, and his words are not shocking! However, this news is also clearly valuable......

Zhang Peilun pondered for a while, but obviously there was no evidence of the actual surname, although he felt the important value of these news, the Great Qing Kingdom had never issued bonds, and Xiao Xiaoben actually issued an astonishing bond that exceeded the annual tax revenue of the Great Qing Kingdom, and the purpose of this had to be carefully considered......

For the news of the national bonds, this is not news for a long time, the Qing court has not been short of silver, but because it is now convenient to borrow from banks in various countries, and in addition, the annual income of the Manchu court is very stable, there is no need to issue treasury bonds, in fact, the officials of the Qing Dynasty did not care about this small issue of bonds at all, suddenly, Lu Hong gave such a huge amount, although I don't know whether it is accurate, but the disclosure in the Taixi newspaper is supposed to have a basis.

From this point of study, combined with Huang Tifang's previous mention of the "Armament Opinion" by Minister of War Yama Prefecture Youtomo, it is inferred that the continued strengthening of armaments is to confront China, which is a reasonable inference, so there is indeed a possibility of conflict between China and China......

However, after careful consideration, Zhang Peilun was obviously still not at ease, he frowned and asked: "Lu Hong, what you said has some truth, but when Minister Keisuke Oshima returned to China a few years ago, he came to reiterate Prime Minister Ito's intention to conclude a treaty of friendship with the Qing Dynasty, and praised the strong [***] power of China. The only way to do the major events in the East is for China and China to work together. If you give up this way, the vast continent will be slaughtered and eaten by the European and American powers, and those who can survive will be hopeless', Zhongtang also appreciated this remark at that time! ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Peilun's expression was very contradictory, obviously thinking about this somewhat unpredictable neighbor, and looked sideways at Huang Tifang, "Huang Gong, what I said to you before, if you have the opportunity, please promote it in front of Lord Weng, Lord Zhongtang really has too much involvement, and I will definitely report the news here to Zhongtang and ask him to decide!" ”

Huang Tifang nodded, waved Lu Hong to go down first, and then the three of them talked in a low voice...... Lu Hong walked out of the courtyard, but saw Qin Tianmin waiting here, with a strange expression on his face.

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