The money to be spent on the Jinhang Canal Project in Zhejiang is not a lot of money for Hu Chuyuan, and his goal is only to try his best to improve Zhejiang's raw silk industry and tea industry, and also let Mei Qizhao and Qu Hongji get political capital from it.

Even if the nearly six million taels of silver project money is borrowed or not repaid, and he can't get a penny back, he will still earn it back after all.

In order to ensure the smooth operation of the project, the prefects and counties in various places will not be unable to get along with the project because the project was contracted to the Jiangnan Water Conservancy Bureau and there is no opportunity to make a fortune from it, Hu Chuyuan and Mei Qizhao secretly discussed for a few hours, and quietly moved the prefects of Jinhua Mansion and Yanzhou Mansion, using Mei Qizhao's cronies and those young officials recommended by Hu Chuyuan before.

In this way, with Qu Hongji's secret contact and the secret help of these prefects, Hu Chuyuan's dispatch of people to acquire the fields along the canal will also be carried out more smoothly.

The prefect of Quzhou is already Liao Zhongshan from Jiangsu, this is the person recommended by Hu Chuyuan last year, he is an upright person, there must be no problem, so naturally there is no need to change it.

The prefect of Jinhua will be replaced by Liu Hongxi, a native of Jiangxi, and the prefect of Yanzhou will be replaced by Huang Jiaju, a native of Hunan.

"Huang Jiaju".

Really, every time he saw this name, Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but be a little excited and trembling.

After talking about these things, Qu Hongji and Hu Chuyuan talked about Fuzhou again, and said: "Do you remember my fellow villager Zhang Baixi in the same year, after being recommended by the cavalry captain to Lord Zhongtang, he was appointed by Lord Zhongtang together with Tu Renshou in Fuzhou Shipping Administration, he served as the meeting office of the Yamen Tongyuan Bureau, and Tu Rencode served as the secretary of the audit office. ”

"Oh, I do!"

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly, at the beginning, when Yan Shizhang and he recommended these people, he specially listed seven of them, namely Qu Hongji, Zhang Baixi, Tu Renshou from Hunan, Dai Hongci from Guangdong, Liao Zhongshan from Jiangsu, Tang Jingsong from Guangxi, and Liu Hongxi from Jiangxi.

Yan Shizhang once said that all seven of them have the talent of governors, and Qu Hongji is even better, which means that he is a person who can win the governorship.

Therefore, Hu Chuyuan specially recommended Qu Hongji to Hangzhou Mansion, Zhejiang, and also wanted to observe it up close.

In fact, there are not many of these seven people who really become governors, and only Qu Hongji is the minister of military aircraft, during the period when Prince Qing Yixuan and Yuan Shikai were in power, Qu Hongji was the last boss of the Qing school, and he was the only one who could fight with these two people.

It's a pity that the defeat was lost by Zhang Baixi.

Before the new policy was about to be launched, under the recommendation of Rong Lu, Qu Hongji and Zhang Baixi were recruited by Cixi together, and the implication was that one of the two could be the minister of military aircraft, and the two of them were in the same county, township, classmate, and the same year, and they had a very strong personal relationship, so they made a private appointment, no matter who was the minister of military aircraft, they would try to ensure that the other person was the governor of Liangjiang.

As a result, because Zhang Baixi's rhetoric about the new policy was too intense, Cixi was unhappy, so she used Qu Hongji as the minister of military aircraft.

found that Cixi didn't like Zhang Baixi, Qu Hongji chose the surname and forgot the original agreement, let alone the governor of Liangjiang, and even the position of governor was not assigned to Zhang Baixi.

In a fit of anger, Zhang Baixi formed an alliance with Yuan Shikai.

Later, Qu Hongji attacked political enemies Prince Qing Yixuan and Yuan Shikai in the name of anti-corruption, while Zhang Baixi repeatedly contacted other officials to help Yuan Shikai and Qu Hongji oppose him.

Hu Chuyuan didn't know these things, he was more familiar with Rockefeller, Yataro Iwasaki, Qiao Zhiyong, Sheng Xuanhuai, and ...... than Qu Hongji and Zhang Baixi!

However, Hu Chuyuan can also see a little clearly-few people in politics are really clean, and the same is true for Qu Hongji, who has exhausted all the organs, and what he wants is his official position.

In the minds of these people, there is nothing in the world that is more important than official positions, followed by the rise and fall of the country and the life and death of the people. They are still much better than some officials, for example, they rank money in third place, not first, not second.

At this moment in front of him, Qu Hongji still cared about his friendship with Zhang Baixi, so he recommended to Hu Chuyuan: "Zhang Baixi is a very good person, with outstanding talents, and is known for his intensive study of Western studies, so he can be sent there by Lord Zhongtang." Now that I think about it, Lord Zhongtang had already planned and sent him over in advance, and when he heard that Lord Cavalry was about to be promoted to the post of ship master, he also wrote a secret letter and entrusted him to forward to the Captain. ”

Since he is a talent, of course Hu Chuyuan has to use it.

He took the letter from Qu Hongji's hand, opened it and looked at it, and couldn't help frowning.

Zuo Zongtang's strength, the quality of knowing and employing people, and the ability to control the overall situation...... There is no need to go into details, in short, it is extremely powerful, and a year in advance, Zhang Baixi, a native of Hunan, and Tu Renshou, a native of Hubei, were sent to the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Yamen, one serving as the meeting office in the Tongyuan Bureau, and the other serving as the secretary of the Audit Office, which pinched the financial key points of the Shipbuilding Yamen.

Regarding the situation inside the shipmaster's yamen, as long as the two of them ventilate privately, they can basically touch the top ten.

In this letter, Zhang Baixi and Tu Renshou first want to thank Hu Chuyuan for his recommendation, both of them and Qu Hongji are in the same year, that is, the thirteenth year of Tongzhi Jinshi, their qualifications are very shallow, without Hu Chuyuan's help, how can they get the real shortage of the fifth rank in the place?

In addition, Zhang Baixi informed Hu Chuyuan of what he had learned from inside the yamen, in short, the situation was very bad, and he had to make sufficient preparations in advance, and by the way, he expressed his loyalty and gratitude, and as soon as Hu Chuyuan took office, they would only look at Hu Chuyuan.

After reading the entire letter, Hu Chuyuan lamented that the situation of the Ship Administration Yamen was indeed very tricky, and second, he lamented that the benefits of his cronies and henchmen were really real.

Before he took office, Zhang Baixi and Tu Renshou had already stated that they would follow him, report the news, and let him prepare.

Since there is internal annihilation and mutual help, why worry about big things?

Hu Chuyuan couldn't help laughing, and said to Qu Hongji: "Thank you, Lord Huo, this letter really helped me a lot!" ”

In front of Mei Qizhao, Qu Hongji did not hide it at all, and said with a smile: "This is the responsibility that should be fulfilled, if there is anything wrong in the future, it doesn't hurt for the cavalry captain to say bluntly, Huo will definitely do his best!" ”

Hu Chuyuan bowed slightly.

The big and small things have been discussed, and the two adults have dinner before Hu Chuyuan sends them out of the Hu family's compound.

When he returned to Leng Qiutang, he showed Zhang Baixi's letter to Yan Shizhang, and then secretly discussed with Yan Shizhang, and decided to deploy in advance, first dispatching a few very shrewd shopkeepers from Jiangnan Commercial Bank to wait in Fuzhou.

In addition, for the people mentioned by Zhang Baixi in the letter, they will also be investigated one by one to see their hole cards and networks.

always felt that the employment in Fuzhou would be more nervous, and Hu Chuyuan also asked Yan Shizhang to try his best to recruit some people for him to handle big things together.

There are a lot of these people, Yan Shizhang himself has the habit and responsibility of collecting talents to recommend to Hu Chuyuan, and he quickly recommended three people, all of whom are in the Jiangnan Academy of Chinese Studies.

The first one is Miao Quansun, a native of Jiangyin, Jiangsu, who was a jinshi in the second year of Guangxu, because of a disagreement with Xu Tong, a bachelor in charge of the Hanlin Academy, and left his job to go home.

He is known for his mastery of epigraphy and bibliography, and is also a master collector in the Jiangyin area, and is currently studying ancient books with Yu Yue at Jiangnan Academy of Chinese Studies.

When he was in Shanghai, Yan Shizhang often went in and out of the Jiangnan Sinology Museum, and he was very familiar with the people inside, and he always felt that Miao Quansun's ability was not simple, and it was overkill to study ancient Chinese calligraphy and painting.

Since Hu Chuyuan wanted to levy a few more staff, Yan Shizhang first recommended Miao Quansun.

The second person is Niu Yugeng, a Zhejiang Huiji, a four-year jinshi in Tongzhi, very old, but not very old, once served as a scholar in Shandong, and then resigned and went home because of Ding Wei. After Ding Wei was over, he wanted to fill the vacancy and return to Beijing, but the officials of the ministry wanted to accept him 30,000 taels of silver as a bribe.

The third person is also the Zhejiang Huiji Gu Jiaxiang, twenty-six years old, Guangxu two years of Jinshi, not very lucky, at the beginning of the year suffered from the mother's worries, went home to keep filial piety for a few months, at the invitation of fellow villager Niu Yugeng went to the Jiangnan Academy of Chinese Studies to study.

This person attaches more importance to the theory of Westernization, and often goes to the Western Academy and Gezhi Academy, and has a good personal relationship with Xu Shou and others.

Yan Shizhang's eyes are still very accurate, and almost all the people he likes are of good value.

Hu Chuyuan immediately agreed, and personally wrote a letter (the level of calligraphy and Chinese culture skills are too sparse, so I still have to ask Yan Shizhang to revise it again and copy it before I can take it out to meet people) to the three of them, and hired them as his staff members to discuss major matters together.

After he "wrote" the letter, Yan Shizhang personally took the letter to Shanghai to find them.

This incident gave Hu Chuyuan another inspiration, that is, the Jiangnan Sinology Museum recruits talents with surnames, and I have to admit that among the talents of this era, many people are proficient in articles, gold and stone studies, calligraphy and painting, catalogs, etc., these are the real Chinese studies.