Qing Zhengaxe is willing to let Qu Hongji be the new Minister of Shipping in Fuzhou, which is a very important signal...... They are about to summon the Minister of Jiangnan Trade again.

There is no way, the French are already in the city, and the urgent reports from Guangxi and Vietnam are sent more than a dozen times a day, when it comes to fighting, then it will cost money, and when it comes to spending money, then you can only find Hu Chuyuan.

After sensing this trend, Hu Chuyuan further sent people to the United States and Europe to purchase more arms.

Unlike some time ago, I also feel that China and France may have to go to war on a large scale, and the prices of European and American arms have risen, with the floating amount of the United States being about 10 percent, and the floating amount of Germany and Britain being as high as 30 percent, but for Hu Chuyuan, this is not a big deal.

As soon as you really start, that price can definitely rise to 100%, or even 200%.

After Qu Hongji arrived in Fuzhou, at the end of November, just a few days before the outbreak of the Battle of Shanxi in Vietnam, Hu Chuyuan sailed to Fuzhou, this time, he was also preparing to go to Hong Kong.

As usual, when he was in Hangzhou, he had a secret meeting with Mei Qizhao as usual to discuss the next measures.

After Hu Chuyuan's American nationality was exposed, among many officials, the only person who continued to maintain close cooperation with Hu Chuyuan was Mei Qizhao.

At the beginning of the year, Zhang Shusheng, the governor of Liangguang, already felt that the situation was wrong, and said that he was sick and asked for leave, and the Qing political axe made up for Zeng Guoquan in the past.

The rest of the more than 40 battalions stationed in Guangxi and Vietnam were half of the Huai Army, and half of them were the Guangxi Regiment and the Dian Army.

Liu Yongfu, who had recently been recruited by the Qing government, was very strong, with more than 30,000 troops, strong troops and well-equipped, but he did not listen to commands, and hid in the mountains and nests on the border between Yunnan and Guangxi.

Seeing that the situation was not good and he couldn't be the master, Zeng Guoquan played very directly, saying that he couldn't move the Huai army at all, and the Qing political axe could only continue to force Zhang Shusheng out to be the governor of Liangguang, and Zeng Guoquan was stationed in Nanning in the name of "governing the land camp".

Zhang Shusheng is useless.

Hu Chuyuan and Mei Qizhao are clear about this.

As soon as Zhang Shusheng was defeated, Mei Qizhao planned to take the initiative to replace Zhang Shusheng according to the original plan, and go to Liangguang to gamble on luck, no matter what, he had Hu Chuyuan in the middle, and the Xiang army had to give some affection.

After negotiating with Mei Qizhao, Hu Chuyuan continued to take a boat to Fuzhou.

As winter approached, the sea surface of Qiantang Bay also became cold, because the road was very close, and Fuzhou could be reached in two days.

The carriage was driving on the seawall heading to Pukou, and the wharf could already be seen in front of it.

Hu Chuyuan sat in the carriage, still thinking about the Sino-French war in his heart.

Defeating France is obviously not a big problem, the only difficulty is only how to keep the seedling of the Fujian Navy, at this moment, he asked Qu Hongji to be the Minister of Fuzhou Shipping, the goal is of course to avoid Zhang Peilun's incompetent people from causing some negative problems in the Fuzhou Navy.

What about other than that?

Hu Chuyuan has been thinking about it in his heart...... If he can use this incident to deal a blow to the Huai army, and at the same time gradually collect the strength of the Hunan army into his own, and then cultivate the strength of Mei Qizhao's Jiangxi army and win over the Yunnan system, this is of course the best result, and it is also what he wants.

Hu Chuyuan pondered in his heart.

He knew that Zuo Zongtang would not be able to support it for long, and once Zuo Zongtang passed away, even if he still had a number of foreign companies as bargaining chips in his hands, he wanted to compete with Manchurian...... With a twist of his wrist, his chips were still much worse.

In other words...... Hu Chuyuan knew that before Zuo Zongtang died, he had to re-train a reliable new pillar and new banner for the Hunan army, and the weight of Liu Kunyi and Zeng Guoquan was still a little worse, and even if they were co-opted, it would be impossible to make the Manchu conservative forces headed by Cixi feel deeply jealous.

This new pillar may not have Zeng Guoquan's influence and merits, and he may not have Liu Kunyi's status in the hearts of the Manchu conservative forces, but he must be able to control the main force of the Hunan army and be able to keep the gate of China for the Manchus at a critical moment.

Only then will this new pillar be valuable.

So, who?

Hu Chuyuan pondered this question in his heart, although he had several answers, after all, it was related to all his overall plans, and it was also related to his net worth, surname, life, wealth, and power...... He had to be cautious.

Thinking about .......

Woohoo ......!

Li Cunyi let out a long roar, pulled the reins in his hand hard, got up and stepped on the dead brake board, relying on his waist board, leg strength and driving skills, he forcibly pulled the galloping carriage to stop.

The two Iberian horses flew and trampled on the ground with their hooves, neighing non-stop, but they couldn't move forward half an inch at all, which shows that Li Cunyi's kung fu is by no means vain.

Hu Chuyuan opened the curtain and took a look, but saw Chen Shanyuan running over in a hurry, rushing over with a big stride, grabbing the horse and turning over.

When he arrived at the window, Chen Shanyuan couldn't wait to tell Hu Chuyuan: "The owner, it's not good...... A few bombs were found in the Tengchong ......! ”

He didn't finish.

Hu Chuyuan was surprised and asked eagerly, "What's the matter?" ”

With that, he opened the car door and let Chen Shanyuan come in to talk.

After entering the car, Chen Shanyuan was also out of breath, and reported more eagerly and hurriedly: "The brothers of the Fuqing Society found out that they were all hidden in the kitchen, and across the warehouse is the ammunition depot. ”

Hu Chuyuan's eyes drooped, and his whole person was much colder.

Fear.

Of course he was afraid.

He's human too.

A deep cold chill pierced his heart, making him almost unable to say a word.

For a short moment, he gritted his teeth even more hatefully.

Immediately, he raised his eyes and continued to ask Chen Shanyuan, "Who else knows...... Did you send someone to deal with it? ”

Chen Shanyuan wiped his sweat and said in a low voice: "Because I don't know who placed it, my subordinates temporarily blocked the news, and only let a few cronies quietly transfer the bomb, which looks like a privately made bomb, but it is very finely made, and the power is definitely not small." The bomb has a fuse, and it is hidden at the bottom of the cabbage basket, so it will not explode unless someone ignites it himself. Speaking of which, the opponent is afraid that he is also determined to die! ”

"That's ......???"

Hu Chuyuan thought about it in his heart.

There is no doubt that there will be no second possibility except for himself, Li Hongzhang hates him, and the Manchurians hate him even more, but these people are more anxious than anyone else to want him to help and help this Qing Dynasty get through the current difficulties.

The French are not so dirty, and the other arcade rivals are not so bold.

Anyway, after all, he is a third-grade official of the imperial court.

To tell the truth, with Hu Chuyuan's current strength buried in Yuben, even if he assassinates Ito Hirobumi, it is not very difficult, he can't do anything to the entire official system of Yuben, let alone necessary, these officials still have a great role in controlling the extreme right-wing forces in Yuben, even if Ito Hirobumi also wants to invade China, he just feels that the current time is not ripe, and he needs to better accumulate strength, rather than hastily recovering action.

What Hu Chuyuan really wants to do in Yuben now is actually to find out the real murderer behind the scenes.

He is not the kind of person who only has the courage of a puppet and only cares about the refreshment of the moment, he wants to find out the murderer behind the scenes, rather than a full-scale killing, and more of an idea is to temporarily curb the wave of crazy assassinations against himself.

Only in this way can he have more energy and time to do the big things he wants to do.

When he does what he wants to do, he can deal with Yuben whenever he wants, and it is very possible to completely kill Yuben's future.

He's not one to rush for a moment.

This is Hu Chuyuan's surname that will never change, he is a typical [***] type of Chinese, his vision of things and the future is by no means calculated in a day, a month, a year, but ten, thirty, a hundred years.

Hu Chuyuan thought in his heart, and after a long time, he raised his eyes again, and coldly instructed Chen Shanyuan: "Don't alarm the people on the boat, try to catch me alive...... Of course, these are all small minions, even if they are caught, there is no practical meaning, maybe it is a cook who was bought by someone at a price of 1,000 taels of silver. ”

Saying this, he couldn't help but think about it again, and sighed: "In this year, I am afraid that kind of thing is the least valuable, and a thousand taels of silver is considered a high price." ”

Oh, yes!

Hearing this, Chen Shanyuan also sighed in his heart, and he and Hu Chuyuan asked, "My lord, what should I do later?" ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Search, continue to search clearly...... But don't alarm the others, prepare the escape boat, and walk close to the shore after going to sea, in addition, you can arrange for me to let the people of the Fuqing Society secretly pick us up in the area of Fuding County. Let's really catch the person who was bought, let's make a plan and blow up the Tengchong with the surname Suo...... Just wait and see who's behind the scenes. ”

"...... this?"

Chen Shanyuan couldn't help but be a little reluctant, the Tengchong is also a lot of combat power, and it is even more valuable.

He didn't say anything because he knew...... For Hu Chuyuan, this ironclad ship with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons is nothing at all, and if you really want to buy it, you can buy a hundred of them.

After carefully explaining a few more words, Hu Chuyuan asked Chen Shanyuan to go back to do business.

This time, he decided to put a long line to catch a big fish, and he asked Li Cunyi to drive the car slowly and slowly, giving Chen Shanyuan and Fuqing She enough time.

In the secret gladiatorial battle with Yue himself, he cultivated the Fuqing Society, which is a spy gang that is really worth using, although it also has an obvious surname of the underworld community.

Li Cunyi listened to the words all the time, and when the carriage was back on the road, he couldn't help but ask Hu Chuyuan: "My lord, what kind of madness did you say I did, you are a member of the imperial court!" ”

"Huh!"

yes, what kind of crazy person did I send it?

Hu Chuyuan can understand, but others can't.

After a while, he sighed faintly with Li Cunyi: "I am good at assassination...... No other trick works, this trick is always tried and tested! ”

This trick is indeed tried and tested.

It can be said that the Meiji Restoration was a coup d'état that was assassinated, and if it had not been for the assassination of the Tokugawa shogunate by a large number of dead soldiers, there would have been no legend of the Shinsengumi and Hijikata Toshizo.

In Ito's time, the bureaucratic system was still barely in control of the country, but after Ito's death in the assassination, the situation began to change dramatically.

Among those who served as prime ministers, almost all of them who were non-right-wingers were assassinated, and Shigenobu Okuma lost his legs in the assassination, and the 19th, 20th, 27th, and 29th prime ministers Hara Keimoto, Takahashi Isyoshi, Hamaguchi Yuki, and Inukai Takeshi were all assassinated by right-wing groups with military backgrounds during their tenure of office, and even Keisuke Okada, who was born as an admiral, and other prime ministers who were born in the military but were not far-right forces, had the experience of being assassinated, but they were lucky not to die.

The process of their assassination seems simple, but ...... There is no doubt that the protection mechanism within the political axe is basically non-existent, and even the internal people assisted in the assassination.

Behind the scenes of those seemingly simple shots, there are no elaborate arrangements and countless puzzles that are difficult to solve.

Far-right ...... In the end, there are still chaebols who are fully supporting.

Money is the crux and root of everything.

It is more deadly than any political struggle, and when you completely kill other people's ways to make money and impoverish them, they will absolutely do whatever it takes to get rid of you.

Perhaps, this is the reason why the assassination of Hu Chuyuan is becoming more and more crazy, and the funds and scale are getting bigger and bigger.

I couldn't find an internal response by Hu Chuyuan's side, and I couldn't make a more secret plan, so I used the tactics of a sea of people, just like dealing with the Tokugawa shogunate, constantly assassinating, constantly sending dead soldiers, hundreds, thousands, and constantly calling on the dead soldiers to move forward bravely and go forward one after another...... Until the Tokugawa shogunate had to compromise.

The intelligence collected by Hu Chuyuan in Yuben shows all this, the so-called people of insight and down-and-out ...... The samurai class, who had given everything but did not reap the benefits of the Meiji Restoration, had come to see Hu Chuyuan and the forces represented by Hu Chuyuan as the only factor blocking the development of the Samoto, causing the economy to be unable to develop, and causing them to be impoverished and destitute.

Hu Chuyuan had absolutely never thought that he had become the second Tokugawa shogunate, and it had become the crux of Yuben's inability to develop and become a great power...... Although, to some extent, it is.

The level and scale of the assassinations he has encountered now are becoming more and more similar to the treatment of the later Tokugawa shogunate, or even surpassing...... In any case, he himself has more experience in this area, the chaebols are richer, there are more samurai who can be used, and a large number of new young officers are willing to devote themselves to this holy war to liberate him.

Really, sitting in the carriage, Hu Chuyuan thought about these things, he only felt that it was very dark and humorous, very vicious, very weird, and it was difficult to understand.

It can only be said that the legend of his appearance in this new selection group has just ended...... During the alternating period of the samurai movement, the military, politics, chaebol, and society were also in the transition between the old and the new.

If he had appeared twenty years later, the right-wing forces might have used more clever tactics against him, at least like they had done with Inu Yangyi, who could solve the problem with just one bullet and a crappy surgeon, and even if he couldn't assassinate him, he wouldn't have come up with a terrifying crowd tactic of terror, revealing so many horses.

Of course, this time the method is obviously more clever, after all, the last time the turmoil was too big.

It seems that it has become an unsolvable problem to protect one's own life and continue to suppress the development of the economy.

Even Hu Chuyuan, at this moment, he couldn't come up with a better answer.

So, he decided to take a risk and take a step forward, he thought, maybe there would be a better outcome.

After the Fuqing Society carefully and quietly inspected the Tengchong again, Hu Chuyuan got on the ship belatedly and headed for Fuzhou.

It was very calm all the way, and it was not until it was less than a few dozen kilometers away from Fuding County that Fuqingshe caught a ...... who was ready to light a bomb The result surprised Hu Chuyuan, it was actually the orphan girl he took in in Fuzhou.

When he heard the orphan girl speak fluently, and looked at him with a complex look of guilt and anger, he could understand, he could understand the reason for all this.

He felt pity for the fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl, but he didn't say anything, and asked the people of the Fuqing Society to quietly lock her in the ammunition depot.

It was late at night, and after most of Xiangyong had rested, Hu Chuyuan asked Chen Shanyuan and Hu Rong to find a reason that was not too lame, and summoned Cheng Tinghua and others to the bow of the boat.

Until this moment, the decision about Hu Chuyuan was still not revealed, only Chen Shanyuan and Li Cunyi really knew that they had also arranged for a few Fuqing Society brothers who were willing to sacrifice their lives.

Cheng Tinghua came slowly, and he smiled, and the others generally didn't understand what was about to happen, and they just thought that Hu Chuyuan was on a whim.

Seeing Hu Chuyuan, Cheng Tinghua smiled and wanted to say something, but before he could really speak, the Tengchong suddenly seemed to be hit by a cannonball, the huge hull exploded, and the roaring explosion resounded through the sky, and for a while, black smoke rolled up, rushed into the sky, and turned into black mushrooms.

Red flames engulfed the cabin in an instant, and thick black smoke billowed from it.

At this moment, Hu Chuyuan, who had been learning Baguazhang with Cheng Tinghua for half a year, grabbed the railing first, and Li Cunyi, who was with him, also grabbed him, and several Xiangyong, who were far away from them, were telling jokes and interesting stories in Hunan dialect, but they were blown away by the torn open deck.

Huge waves poured out from the perimeter of the ship, covering the deck in an instant.

Boom.

There were several explosions in succession, and it seemed that the ammunition depot was detonating continuously.

Everyone desperately pushed Hu Chuyuan onto the lifeboat, seven or eight people in a small boat, hurriedly put it on the sea, Cheng Tinghua, who was barely pulling the railing of the ship, couldn't withstand the impact, the whole person was like a straw in a typhoon, and he was swept away by the giant waves, but he was Cheng Tinghua after all, and the moment before he was swallowed by the huge waves, he had already jumped several times in a row and jumped on the lifeboat first.

On the deck, more people rushed out, and Chen Shanyuan quickly untied the diesel engine boat on the Tengchong with a few cronies of the Fuqing Society, and drove around the hull of the ship...... Obviously, they are the most informed group of people, and they have been prepared in advance, and the real victims are only some family members of Xiang Yong and the Hu family, as well as the sailors and crew members on the ship.

Do big things without being informal.

That being said, things often have to be done that way.

Tengchong didn't bring many people this time, more and more people who fell into the water swam over, there were about dozens, but Tengchong was sinking rapidly, although many people grabbed the lifeboat, they were also pulled under the sea by the whirlpool rolled up when Tengchong sank.

Hu Chuyuan had already boarded the diesel engine boat and left the whirlpool area at a very fast speed, while Li Cunyi took some Xiang Yong who had escaped the catastrophe and drove several life-saving small wooden boats to operate in that dangerous sea area, trying to rescue more people.

Hu Chuyuan looked at this scene, looked at the corpses of those crew members and family members who were not strangers in the seawater, and looked at those who were still struggling in the seawater, his heart was very painful.

Only then did he realize that he had overestimated himself, and he dared to make such a cruel decision, but he couldn't seem to accept this cruel result.

There was a sudden stabbing pain in the heart, and the pain was heartbreaking.

He screamed in pain, and suddenly there was a darkness in front of him, and the whole person lost consciousness and passed out on the deck of the diesel engine boat.

"Your Excellency, ......!"

Everyone shouted in panic.

After a long time, Hu Chuyuan woke up.

It was already dark, and he was in a small cave, with a bonfire lit around it, and more than a dozen people gathered around it, baking clothes, and everyone was shivering, and it seemed very cold.

Hu Chuyuan coughed and wanted to sit up.

Hearing the voice, everyone seemed very happy, Chen Shanyuan immediately squatted over, held a bowl of hot water, and said with a smile: "My lord, you can wake up!" ”

Saying this, he helped Hu Chuyuan up.

After drinking this bowl of hot soup that still had a grassy smell, Hu Chuyuan felt a little better, and his body seemed to have an extra warm current, which was hot.

He looked around and saw that there were only thirteen or fourteen people.

Cheng Tinghua, Chen Shanyuan, Li Cunyi...... A few Xiangyong, a few guards from Huizhou, a few Fuqing sailors who were drawn from the Fujian Navy Division in the early years, and several members of the Fuqing Society, Niu Yugeng and Hu Rong were also choked by the icy seawater, and they shivered in front of the bonfire to bake clothes for themselves.

Looking around, Hu Chuyuan thought for a moment, and asked Chen Shanyuan, "Where are we now?" ”

Chen Shanyuan said: "It's on a small island, four or five miles from the land, it's too late, and at night, the sky will be colder, so we didn't continue to move forward." I guess it's the closest to Fuding. When tomorrow dawns, there will be fishermen in this area, and I will ask them about it when the time comes. ”

In front of everyone, Chen Shanyuan did not say anything directly.

The person who answered them affirmed that the members of the Fuqing Society were just fishermen disguised as their own locality, and only Hu Chuyuan and Chen Shanyuan knew all the details of the whole thing.

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly.

At this time, he inevitably asked Chen Shanyuan with some blame: "What is going on with that girl?" ”

Chen Shanyuan looked annoyed, and said: "It's all to blame for the carelessness of the subordinates, I took her to the township to bury her parents, asked a few villagers, and said that the parents were indeed locals, and they went out to wander in the early years, so they didn't have much suspicion and hid her parents there." Later, I brought her back and handed her over to the second housekeeper. ”

Hu Chuyuan couldn't cry or laugh, and sighed: "It's not your fault, no one would have thought that I would come up with such a bad trick, you should be more careful in the future." ”

Chen Shanyuan sighed silently again.

Cheng Tinghua hated: "I'm afraid that family was also deliberately killed by myself...... Then let a girl who is proficient in the Min dialect pretend to be their child, and then they get in. ”

Hu Chuyuan sighed silently, and then sneered.

He completely understood a truth, he was in the open, and he said that he was in the dark, no matter how he prevented it, he would still be calculated after all.

Unless he compromises with Yue himself, he will be assassinated by Yue himself one day.

But how could he compromise?

The Tengchong incident only illustrates one point, that is, Mr. Shimichi behind the scenes is smarter, and instead of using the old-fashioned tactics of dealing with the shogunate's crowds, he has turned to more insidious ambushes and assassinations.

If the Tengchong was really blown up and sunk by the Yu himself, even if a few people escaped, the most suspected thing is that one of the Yu Ben assassins lit the bomb, causing a chain explosion of the ammunition depot.

It's a very simple arrangement, and it's very effective.

That's all.

(To be continued)