Early the next morning, Zeng Guofan weakly pushed off the cloak on his body, only to suddenly realize that he had slept in the study all night? But outside the door, a few iron-and-bronze Goshkha were still standing straight.

Zeng Guofan nodded with satisfaction and said in a slightly hoarse voice: "You all go and rest!" ”

Recalling the not very clear dream last night, Zeng Guofan's back was suddenly soaked with sweat, and suddenly, Li Hongzhang, the secretary of the accompanying camp, looked at the door.

Zeng Guofan snorted dissatisfiedly: "A man beats his husband and behaves in a genuine manner, how can he look like a rat peeping?" Come on in! What's the matter? ”

Li Hongzhang's face turned red, and he couldn't help but contradict Zeng Guofan, and skillfully beat a thousand queens and said: "The lowly post Jinwen Lord and the Lord Listed as the Lord signed an agreement with the Russians, and the lowly post still thinks that the navy must seek high-quality products, and it must be England, and retreat to France, then the land division must be the first choice of Prussia, the Russian land division is decadent, and the navy is completely incomparable with England. The European and Western powers have their own strengths, which need to be explained in detail! ”

Zeng Guofan was a little unhappy when he heard Li Hongzhang mention the Nanyang Naval Division: "Aren't you as good as you as an adult?" Shaoquan, how did I teach you? You once studied under Xu Ziling, a famous scholar in Hefei, and I have repeatedly called you a great use, and called you and Guo Songtao, Chen Nai, Shuai Yuanduo, etc., together with his subordinates, Ding Wei Four Gentlemen? ”

As soon as Li Hongzhang heard it, he knew that Zeng Guofan was really losing his temper, so he gave a student salute and said: "Please don't blame me, Hongzhang, I'm in a hurry today, and I'm still a little dizzy, and I'm anxious to see the agreement that the adult brought back. ”

Zeng Guofan nodded and said: "You must always remember that you are under my door, and I should take care of you, this time and that time!" Who can see the direction of the wind in the court now? Don't look at your lintel today, tomorrow you may be ruined, don't let this disaster come out of your mouth, no one will treat you when you go out. ”

Zeng Guofan stood up and handed a copy of the Qing-Russia Agreement on his desk to Li Hongzhang and said, "Originally, you were not qualified to see it, but today I will make an exception for you to see, you can look at the doorway inside!" I still remember that when you were in Caolu, you added a clear banner to the economy, that is, the study of the world, in addition to the three traditional academic standards of righteousness, diction, and examination put forward by Yao Nai, of the Tongcheng faction, and I was very pleased at that time! ”

Zeng Guofan said to himself, but Li Hongzhang on the side looked pale, and after a while, he handed the copy back to Zeng Guofan with a trembling hand.

Zeng Guofan asked quietly: "How is it?" Do you see any doorways? ”

Li Hongzhang replied in response to the question: "My lord, is this really signed?" ”

Zeng Guofan nodded and said, "Lord Sushun, Lord Jingshou and I have all seen it, so Lord Sushun signed it on the spot!" ”

Li Hongzhang felt a kind of dizziness like a powerlessness to return to the sky, and then said: "Why don't you find someone who understands economic theory and ask about it?" Is this tantamount to handing over the lifeblood of my economy to the Russians for a few decades? You must know that this army division is also formed quickly, and it is difficult for this navy to achieve results without decades or hundreds of years? Lord Sushun misled the country and the people! ”

Li Hongzhang's voice frightened Goshha outside the door, and hurriedly leaned out and closed the door, Zeng Guofan snorted coldly: "Do you really think that Su Shun and Jing Shou can't see it?" Do you have to live for a few decades in a lifetime? They are too open-minded, as long as they live well, where will they care about the lives and deaths of others? The imperial court can't take care of it, so what else does it care about the people's livelihood in the world? ”

Li Hongzhang suddenly fell to his knees with a thud and said, "My lord! Never! This is the flesh and blood of my Qing subjects! ”

Zeng Guofan floated up Li Hongzhang said coldly: "There is flesh and blood, but only the people's, learn from the pain, the solution to the war wounds and rotten flesh is to completely cut it off, the pain is temporary, not the world!" The Russians have only been knocking on the bones and sucking the marrow for just a few decades, as long as the Qing Dynasty is stable, how much silver do they need? How many high-ranking officials don't have it? The court has everything, it depends on whether we, the courtiers, will do it, especially the one on our head today. ”

Li Hongzhang got up from the ground and said, "Then my lord, shouldn't we be led by the Russians?" ”

Zeng Guofan took a deep breath, but did not continue Li Hongzhang's topic: "After this year, I am also ready to put you back to organize group training, Huaiyong is not inferior to Xiangyong, and now the long-haired bandits are powerful, and they have cut off Fujian and Liangguang, which makes Nanyang have no scruples, you can make more friends with England and France when you go to Shanghai this time, and show your ambition to control the foreign and the bandits with the foreign!" ”

As soon as Li Hongzhang heard that his long-cherished wish had finally been fulfilled, he ignored the so-called treaty before, and hurriedly knelt down on his knees and said loudly: "I am willing to be a pawn for my lord!" ”

Looking at the emaciated Li Hongzhang's resolute face, Zeng Guofan sighed slightly and said: "Prince Yixu has the intention of helping me, but it is also a lot of restraint, Su Shun is even more so, it is used to restrain us Hanchen, if you have any difficulties when you go out this time, you can mention my name, you are my person, they will think clearly before they want to stretch out their hands, okay, you go!" ”

After Li Hongzhang left, Zeng Guofan stared at his brand at the end of the copy, the seal on the copper seal was so dazzling, and the cinnabar was full of a non-existent smell of blood?

Ten days later, on September 29, 1858, Lin Haijiang obtained the "Qing-Russian Treaty of Tianjin" after the analysis and judgment of the intelligence department.

But it's not entirely the case, for example, without Li Hongzhang, it is likely that there will be a more powerful Wang Hongzhang or Zhao Hongzhang, and this change itself will not have much fluctuation in the direction of history, at least before this Wang Hongzhang or Zhao Hongzhang does not make other judgments, but if the people who must die in history do not die, then history will have major changes.

In Lin Haijiang's memory, Xianfeng has not had a few years to live, and this scumbag emperor is the real culprit who ruined the Chinese nation, but how did this guy die? Lin Haijiang is not impressed?

Only vaguely know that Xianfeng was seriously ill around July 15, 1861, and on July 16, he seemed to be critically ill and unconscious, and died on July 17, before he died, he summoned eight ministers, these eight people were Zaiyuan, Duanhua, Jingshou, Sushun, Mu Yin, Kuangyuan, Du Han, Jiao Youying to his sickbed, and announced that Zaichun was the crown prince, because he had no choice for a son, Zaichun was Tongzhi, and let these eight people be ministers of life, also recorded as ministers of state in Zanxiang, It's a pity that Xianfeng didn't notice that the eight ministers he chose seemed to be in the same camp? He did not balance the forces of all sides to contain each other.

As a result, his eight ministers, the first is Zaiyuan, Zaiyuan is the thirteenth son of Kangxi Yunxiang, Prince Yi and his descendants, Zaiyuan is the hereditary prince, the second is Zongzheng of the Zongren Mansion, the former minister Duanhua, Duanhua's life experience is more prominent, he is the younger brother of the Qing Taizu Nurhachi, Shuerhaqi's son Jierhalang, the descendant of Prince Zheng of Jierhalang, Duanhua hereditary Prince Zheng is also the former minister, and the rest of Sushun, Jingshou, Mu Yin, Kuangyuan, Du Han, and Jiao Youying are all hanging military ministers, None of them are fuel-efficient lamps!

But Xianfeng ignored the power of Emperor Yin, the main thing is the fifth son of the emperor Yi Cheng, he passed to Prince Xuan, the sixth son of the emperor Prince Gong Yi, the seventh son of the emperor Wang Yixun, and the eighth son of the emperor Yi Xu, the ninth son of the emperor Yi Xun, these five brothers are the nobles of the clan, especially Yi, Yi should inherit the throne did not inherit, and later became the Minister of Military Aircraft, before Xianfeng's death, Yi's Minister of Military Aircraft and all other positions were dismissed, it is an empty title, that is, an empty name Prince Gong, they all went to Chengde to spend time drinking, Who handed over Yanjing's mess to Prince Gong to deal with, of course Prince Gong was angry.

Of course, in Lin Haijiang's memory, there is also an imperial force that completely sank China, the emperor is the Tongzhi Emperor, and then the Eastern Empress Dowager and the Western Empress Dowager, orphans and widows, don't look at these three people, it was the imperial era at that time, and these three people were the political core of feudal imperial power.

In particular, she has two stamps, the Imperial Reward and the Tongdaotang, and the emperor's edict before ascending the throne and inheriting the Great Treasure cannot be effective without these two stamps.

When Xianfeng was dying, he took into account some of the two seals, especially did not take into account the clan nobles represented by Emperor Yin's five brothers, as a result, these two forces combined, when the two forces of the emperor and Emperor Yin jointly dealt with the courtiers, the eight ministers, in the comparison of political forces, obviously the power of the eight ministers could not withstand the power of the emperor and the emperor Yin, and as a result, there was a coup d'état of Xinyou, and Cixi and Ci'an listened to the government. In addition, Cixi actually controlled the dynasty for nearly half a century, which not only affected the fate of the Qing Dynasty, but also affected the fate of the entire Chinese nation.

The woman named Lan'er who was bitten by Xianfeng did not hesitate to let a country sink into the abyss of no return for the sake of her survival and power, and this kind of mental trick itself was terrifying.

In the use of the Xianghuai system in history, Yi Su has always been used rather than reused, until his death, the old man of Zeng Guofan was the governor of Liangjiang, supervising the military affairs of the four provinces, Yi Su for the dictatorship of the governor of the centralized power of the insight into the fire, in this regard, neither Cixi nor Gong Lao Liu is not his opponent, the view is not as far-reaching and insightful as him, Gong Lao Liu for Zeng Guofan and others is almost equal to connivance, Cixi for the private **, Li Hongzhang Huai and the development of the power of Beiyang is also a blind eye, so that in the end sit big, The formation of a tail is not falling.

But now that Zeng Guofan has become the prime minister of Beiyang with greater power than the governor of Liangjiang, the Qing court will definitely obey his words for a long time, ask for money for money, ask people to give people, and even go so far as to sign such a "Qing-Russian Treaty of Tianjin" with Russia on the basis of betraying national interests?

I still know a little about Lin Haijiang in Russia, in addition to being talented in alcoholism and extremely greedy in my own surname, it is really not easy to find out what merits are there, and polar bears have also invaded the most territory in China in history, which has always been Lin Haijiang's heart knot.

The key question is that the Russians will be able to help the Qing court create an iron barrel of Arthur and a powerful Beiyang navy? Those are the basics! Lin Haijiang asked himself if he didn't dare to brag about the cowhide of the Russians, but anyone who knew a little bit of professionalism knew that the navy was a technology-intensive branch of the army in modern times, and Zeng Guofan did not need to count on the Qing court to select sailors to manage the band.

The two naval divisions of the Qing court are still under their own control and have completed the overall digestion, and the commanders who can command advanced surface ships such as ironclad ships must receive at least three years of systematic learning and training from theory to practice.

Rely on them to command the hull? Put a ship worth millions of taels of silver under their command? Entrusting them with the hopes and destiny of a nation? I am afraid that Lin Haijiang is the only one in the world who dares, but whenever he goes to fight Lin Haijiang, he will take the flagship to personally coordinate and command, and it is to protect the cruiser against the sail battleship, and the two sides themselves are not weapons at the same tactical level.

Through many battles and a large number of sea raids, Lin Haijiang cultivated his team, and now no matter how tight the funds of the old port are, the selection of outstanding young students and non-commissioned officers to Prussia for further study must be the first priority, because the reserve of talents is not overnight.

The Qing court didn't think that it could have combat power with ships, right? For Alexander. Rajevich. Manov, that is, Tsar Alexander II, Lin Haijiang knew very well what stupid things this guy had done.

However, he had no impression at all about the Russian negotiator, Duke Gomocherov, and he must have been a powerful guy, and he was also deeply surprised that Tsar Alexander II did not take the opportunity to provide territorial claims to the Qing court.

Although Lin Haijiang strategically despised Russia, a good-for-nothing polar bear, but strategically he had to pay enough attention to it, the defeat of the huge Tsarist Russian Empire in World War I gave birth to a revolution in its country, and now this polar bear is still quite strong, and has a good appetite, and knows how to eat to be less troublesome.

A lesson to the Russians? Lin Haijiang asked himself that he didn't have that ability for the time being, it was really beyond the reach of Russia, and he still had a lot of things to do, at least after Xianfeng hung up, the Qing court might have some adjustments to its own policy.

According to the news of cooperation from the shogunate in the morning, the Tokugawa shogunate has confirmed that the sovereignty of the Ryukyus belongs to the Chinese Empire, but this ownership is only nominal, that is, the Tokugawa shogunate is not sending troops to invade Ryukyu and return the Ryukyus to the Ryukyu people, and considering the strategic arrangement of recovering Taiwan and Qiongya, Lin Haijiang can only put a battalion of mountain infantry in the Ryukyu symbolic surname, but now Lin Haijiang's battalion of mountain infantry has not been able to land on the island, Because the Satsuma clan still had about 3,000 troops stationed in the Ryukyus, the reason why the shogunate was so happy was because the Ryukyus were not the main country, and they were controlled by the Satsuma domain.

The Diaoyu Islands, which later entangled China, actually referred to the Ryukyus, and in March 1854, U.S. Navy Commodore Perry signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with Tsumoto. Perry demanded that the port of Naha be opened to the Ryukyus, but the Ryukyu side said that the Ryukyus were a distant country and that the Ryukyu side had no right to decide on the right to open the port.

Later, Ryukyu was called Okinawa by the Oroto, and the Ryukyus were not only far from the mainland, but also had a very different history, culture, and terroir. The biggest reason is that Ryukyu was originally a country with reading power, and because of its geographical location, it often dealt with two strong neighbors across the sea, namely China, a large cultural country, and a feudal country that promoted samurai politics.

Hu Weimin and the staff officers of the General Staff Headquarters felt a little incomprehensible about Lin Haijiang's soft spot for islands, and it was very strategically correct to attach importance to naval and maritime rights and interests, but this does not mean that the islands should be occupied all over the world. This is especially true in places where development is extremely backward and there are hardly any mineral resources.

"The Ryukyuan people can't even afford to feed themselves, and the rice they grow can only be eaten by the royal family, and the people can only eat sweet potatoes! And there are thousands of soldiers from the Satsuma clan on the island, so what use do you want him? A springboard for attacking the Ben? It seems too far away, don't expect to take people from me to do any development anywhere! That's a pointless waste. Hu Weimin's righteous words have received a lot of praise and support.

Lin Haijiang glanced at Hu Weimin and said, "When did I say that I wanted to develop Ryukyu?" The people who promised to be allocated to you will not change, and I still expect you to create a highly developed Indonesia for me, and when you have laid a good grassroots level, you will be transferred to Qiongya for large-scale development, rest assured! I won't transfer you to the Ryukyus! ”

Hu Weimin almost said in front of him: "The predecessors planted trees and the later people enjoyed the shade? ”

Lin Haijiang spread his hands helplessly and said: "Do you see that Wang Faren, Zhang Zheng, Feng Guohua, Yang Tianhua can engage in development and construction?" If there is one, I understand that it will be assigned to you. ”

Immediately, Hu Weimin felt several extremely unfriendly eyes, but he was not afraid to say: "How old are you scaring the baby?" Where do I now have few skilled workers in construction, good cigars and whiskey! ”

Wang Faren preemptively said that he could help solve the problem of workers, Feng Guohua and Yang Tianhua also hurriedly said that they could help solve the problem of tobacco and alcohol, Hu Weimin nodded with satisfaction and said to Lin Haijiang: "Which island do you want, shouldn't it be placed where to tell people that this land is mine?" ”

Lin Haijiang looked at Hu Weimin for a while and said, "I thought you couldn't guess that!" ”

Hu Weimin was speechless......

(To be continued)