[New day, brothers, continue to ask for a few recommendation votes~~]

In January of the 20th year of Guangxu, the Beijing Daily published an excerpt, and on January 3, Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, issued a holy decree to suspend the construction of the section of the Shanhai Pass outside the Kanto Railway in consideration of the empty amount of money in the household department...... This is just an excerpt from the Beijing Daily that is only a few crosses, and the content written is not complicated, but Lu Hong, who is a crosser, knows the actual impact of this incident.

Today's Manchu Dynasty, in terms of its appearance, was not the accumulation of hardships that later generations thought it would be, and the 30 years of Westernization can be said to be indispensable, and the feudal officials in various places also had many measures to open up new studies and new ideas, and among them, the most far-reaching impact is undoubtedly the two major projects of the navy and the railway.

The Western-style faction headed by Li Hongzhang tried to enrich the country and strengthen the army by running Western-style affairs on a large scale, but the germ of capitalism could not germinate in the land lacking commerce, and the government-run industry was doomed to fail under the already collapsed imperial system.

In 1890, after it was reported that the Russians had begun to build the Trans-Siberian Railway, and in view of the fact that the northeast was an important base for the empire's control of the vassal state of Korea, Li Hongzhang continued to write letters, and at the same time, the Westernists of Korea and China also made suggestions one after another, and obtained permission to build the Kwantung Railway on the grounds that the construction of the Kwantung Railway could defend the land of Longxing of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Before the first no-day, the construction of the inner section of the customs has been completed, starting from Linxi Town on the Jingu Railway, and the repair to Shanhaiguan, and then by Sheng Xuanhuai raised more than 3 million taels of silver for the construction of the outer section of the Guan, it is planned to build from Shanhaiguan to Jinzhou, and then through Guangning, Xinmintun, Shenyang to Jilin, and then from Shenyang to build branch lines to Niuzhuang, Yingkou and other northeast important places, and if the Guandong Railway is completed, the elite of the Huai Army can easily complete the dispatch outside the Guan.

It's just that this important national defense and economic lifeline was stopped at such a critical moment, and the apparent reason was that "the amount of money in the household department was empty", but in fact, a large amount of railway money was embezzled as a preparation for the 60th anniversary of the old woman in the Forbidden City...... Of course, Li Hongzhang naturally did not take this kind of perfunctory remarks seriously, and a few months later, the Huai Department raised more silver taels, and finally only built 70 kilometers of railways outside the Guan......

In fact, if this railway can be built to more than 200 kilometers, it can easily send the troops in the Guannai to Fengtian and Haicheng, the main battlefields of the fierce battles in the future, and even rushing to the aid of Lushun is no longer an unattainable goal...... But all this is clearly just an illusion!

Now, history has not changed because of the emergence of its own small butterfly effect, and all the profound disasters are pressing on this difficult nation step by step, but most of the Chinese people in the prosperous era, except for Lu Hong, cannot feel the urgency of the war at all...... Even the Lord Li Zhongtang, who intended to be wary of Yuben, he far underestimated Yuben's will to war!

Lu Hong, who dropped the cup, felt a little relaxed after the mood was released, he is now just a wave in the tide of history, and now he is still planning his own money-making business in this Yimeng Mountains, in fact, even if he knows the trend of history, it seems that there is no chance to affect this era at all...... Let's do a good job of the industry at hand first!

"Xiaoliang, what are you doing with the probe!" Lu Hong, who was standing with his back to the window, suddenly turned his head and said to the door of the guest room.

Ye Yuanliang pulled the little Lori to appear at the door, looked at the smashed teacup on the ground with some surprise, and quickly ran over to clean up the broken porcelain, and then asked with some worry: "Master, what's wrong?" ”

Seeing these two sensible little guys, Lu Hong also smiled knowingly, there are still too many things to do in this era, and he still needs to go down step by step, thinking of this, he smiled at Ye Yuanliang and Ye Yilin: "Xiaoliang, Xiaolin, it's nothing, you two go and rest...... By the way, I may have to travel far these days, Xiaoliang, take good care of your sister, do you know? ”

"Master, got it!" Ye Yuanliang straightened his chest, and said loudly as if he was learning from Wang Daosheng, which made Lu Hong quite interesting, and at this time, there was a sudden sound of messy footsteps outside......

"Master Lu, we're back!" As the footsteps approached, Wang Daosheng's loud voice rang out in the courtyard.

Lu Hong immediately pushed open the door and walked out, the originally spacious courtyard suddenly poured into about No. 20 Qingzhuang, it seems that the things he took care of Wang Daosheng to do are obviously quite fruitful, if the No. 20 manpower can be used, his secret mining plan is obviously very promising...... Of course, all of them need to be tested enough.

Outside, Wang Daosheng, Qi Kaiyuan, and Chen Shuisheng stood at the forefront, and the most important thing for Lu Hong to explain today was naturally manpower, and they wanted the most reliable manpower, so in addition to them, there were 19 men in the courtyard at this time, of which Wang Daosheng alone brought 9, Qi Kaiyuan 5, and Chen Shuisheng 5.

looked at them one by one, they were all honest farmers, but in their eyes, Lu Hong couldn't even see a little bit of excitement, it was completely a dull twilight, this was a group of farmers who couldn't see hope!

"Wang Daosheng, have you eaten it all?" Lu Hong is well versed in this principle of gentle employment, although he has never been a big official in his previous life, he naturally understands that motivation is the best means to restore morale, and for this group of farmers who have been hungry for several months, he is obviously still at the bottom of Marlos's psychology The basic needs of life!

The eyes of these farmers present immediately lit up, this old man Lu is really unusual, he has never heard of eating before he works, but he didn't expect to meet it today...... However, Wang Daosheng responded rather uncooperatively, "Master Lu, I have eaten it before I came!" ”

Lu Hong smiled and saw that the light in the eyes of these farmers dimmed little by little, and secretly laughed in his heart, patted Ye Yuanliang, and said: "Xiaoliang, you go to the front hall of the inn and tell the shopkeeper Wang, two sorghum Zhuangzi and two bowls of porridge per person...... and pointed at Qi Kaiyuan, "Qi Kaiyuan, you take them all to the front hall, and I will personally ask them one by one!"

"Got it, Master Lu!" Qi Kaiyuan straightened his chest and folded his abdomen and replied loudly, yesterday this old man Lu spoke to them vividly, the 50 catties of multigrain noodles in his own shed can make the family excited to death in a few days! And he chose from the circle of relatives and friends to find 5 reliable laborers, he thought worriedly, and he didn't know if Lu Hong was satisfied...... Excited and a little worried, he took a dozen young men to the front hall of the inn!

Inside the house, Lu Hong frowned and looked at the thin men who looked in their thirties and were not tall brought in by Wang Daosheng, "Wang Daosheng, the guy you brought?" What is your name? What are some of them? Can you do the heavy work? ”

Wang Daosheng next to him heard Lu Hong's somewhat suspicious tone, and was about to explain, but the thin man had already opened his mouth and said: "Master Lu, the little Shi Xiuwen, in the early years, joined the army with Brother Wang in the Huai Army Shuzi Battalion, and after the Shuzi Battalion was abolished, he and Brother Wang worked here to farm, and the little one used to be the sentry officer of the Krupp Artillery Team of the Shuzi Battalion, and he was familiar with some gunpowder, so Brother Wang let me come!" ”

Huaijun Shuzi Battalion...... Lu Hong didn't remember what kind of army establishment this was, and after pondering for a while, he remembered that this Shuzi Battalion was Zhang Shusheng's soldiers and horses in the five major battalions of the Huai Army, which should have been the No. 2 and external tough figure of the Huai Department, who had blocked the idea of entering the DPRK in 1882 in the Korean Renwu Rebellion, and even tried to transfer the Beiyang Fleet, which already had some strength at that time, to recapture Ryukyu, and later because of the disagreement with Li Hongzhang on this matter, it was excluded, and it was natural that the Shuzi Battalion was finally abolished.

Huai Jun is the originator of China's modern army, and it is also the first quasi-Western-style army with an artillery battalion, I didn't expect this Shi Xiuwen to be unsightly, he is still an old artilleryman, obviously, Wang Daosheng recruited this person, is to see that he bought a large amount of saltpeter, sulfur, his guess about this guy is really right, this guy has an experienced character.

Thinking of this, he nodded, "Shi Xiuwen, follow the rules for doing things here......"

"Master Lu, Brother Wang has told me, the little ones are clear!" Shi Xiuwen was very fast, and immediately raised his head and answered loudly, but he had the appearance of being a soldier, and this posture of hanging his hands sideways looked like a Western-style operation.

Lu Hong immediately picked up a pencil and wrote a few lines on the paper, handed it to Shi Xiuwen, and said with a serious expression: "Very good...... Shi Xiuwen, according to the proportion of this formula, you are responsible for configuring the things that Wang Daosheng got into black powder...... If you tell Wang Daosheng about the things you need, he will do it...... Can you do it well? ”

"Master Lu, wrap it up on me, and you can do a good job tomorrow!" Shi Xiuwen was obviously proficient in this, and when he mentioned this question, he answered it even more confidently.

Lu Hong took out 2 pieces of Yingyang from his pocket and put them on the table, "Shi Xiuwen, do a good job, I am optimistic about you...... You take this money to settle down first, and how much money you can earn in the future depends on your ability, so go down first...... Wang Daosheng, call the next one! ”

"Yes, Master Lu!" Wang Daosheng took Shi Xiuwen and the two turned around and went out, and when they got outside, he told Shi Xiuwen a few more words, asking him to go to the front hall to get two sorghum Zhuangzi, and then beckoned another one into the house.

The strictness of the individual investigation of these people is definitely beyond the expectations of Wang Daosheng and Qi Kaiyuan, Lu Hong naturally did not talk about a few words hastily, this is the first step to build his own team, these people must first have a good mouth, and then they must be honest and willing to work......

After talking about it for a while, Lu Hong was really satisfied with the work of Wang Daosheng and the three of them, they were all good laborers...... However, he still decided to brush down three or four people on the spot, as for the reasons, they are all small problems, which is naturally a wake-up call for these people he uses, only by working hard and working hard, can he get the errand of making the family eat and eat here!

However, these people who were brushed off did not abandon them, after all, they were all good labor...... While Lu Hong was pondering how to arrange, Qi Kaiyuan came in with a strange expression.