In the following days, Hu Chuyuan continued to visit the factory under the Shipmaster Yamen, and he also took the time to go to the Shipmaster School, and found that the school has been in preparation for thirteen years, and the students of the manufacturing class have only been recruited for two sessions, with a total of 41 people.

That's a little too little.

He took the matter to heart, but didn't change it right away.

In fact, after Shen Baozhen, the successive Fuzhou Shipping Ministers did not have the actual ability to manage the Shipping Yamen, and although the Yamen was equivalent to the governor, it was far from being managed by ordinary governors.

It can be said that the successive shipping ministers are worse than the last, Ding Yuechang is still a good job, Wu Zancheng and He Ruzhang are Li Hongzhang's Huai cronies, and they are incompetent.

Li Hongzhang is a person who likes to appoint incompetent people very much, and his philosophy of employing people is "emphasizing virtue and measuring talent"; to put it bluntly, that is, whoever is more obedient, who respects him more, and who is more respectful of him, he will arrange for whoever to take up important posts.

Whether the Fuzhou Shipyard Yamen Office is good or not has nothing to do with him, he just wants to transfer talents and resources from the Yamen, so the more obedient the better, and the more incompetent the better.

Hu Chuyuan is different, he likes to use those who are really capable, only in this way can he "enjoy success and taste life".

Before coming to Fuzhou, he transferred Zheng Xitai, the general ledger of Jiangnan Commercial Bank, and through Wu Shuzhen, he transferred more than 10 people such as Feyntz, Rawls, and Weister from the Technical Bureau of Qichang Foreign Bank, and Hua Yufang from Gezhi Academy.

Zheng Xitai is a native of Guangdong, at the age of 17 he entered Shanghai Liru Bank as an apprentice, and at the age of 22 he was promoted to the main account.

Of the first batch of American technician consultants that Wu Shuzhen and Yung recruited for Hu Chuyuan, only three had a college education, including Feyntz and Rawls, the former as manager of the Pittsburgh Steel Company and the latter as chief engineer at the Virginia shipyard.

In order to dig up these two people, the Wu family spent a lot of money.

Each of these people is not simple.

Zheng Xitai, who is only forty-two years old, is considered to be the generation that connects the past and the next among all the shopkeepers of the Hu family, and his qualifications are enough to be called the fifth big shopkeeper.

However, he is indeed a very intelligent person, and during his six years of training at Liru Bank, he has developed a fluent English language, and has a unique understanding of Western banking and traditional money banking business.

In order to check the accounts, Zheng Xitai transferred four chief accounts and more than 10 assistants from the Fuzhou branch of the Jiangnan Commercial Bank, plus several of his own cronies, and nearly 20 people who were proficient in accounting worked all night for three days to check all the accounts of the Fuzhou Shipyard Yamen.

Early in the morning, he handed over to Hu Chuyuan the urgently written Yamen Accounting Bulletin, which was more than 20 pages thick.

Hu Chuyuan has always been a very relaxed person, anyway, there are not many things in this world that can stump him.

While eating breakfast, he flipped through the accounts bulletin.

He is also a guy who knows how to "enjoy success and taste life", just four days after coming to the Shipmaster Yamen, he asked Hu Rong to change all the furniture of the Yamen, antique paintings and calligraphy, bronzes, porcelain and jade used for decoration, all of which are treasures.

After reading the entire communiqué, Hu Chuyuan couldn't help frowning slightly, and asked Zheng Xitai: "Can you be sure about the issue of this private money?" ”

Zheng Xitai smiled bitterly: "The owner, the accounts of the yamen are full of holes, and there are too many problems, and anyone with a little ability can see the problem." As for this private money, I dare to take a head guarantee, since Lord Shen took over the yamen, he began to embezzle, and when he went to serve as the governor of Liangjiang, it has always been the director Ye Wenlan who is misappropriating, after thirteen years, a total of 2.14 million taels of silver have been transferred. ”

Gee.

Hu Chuyuan sneered in his heart and said secretly: Shen Baozhen...... But that's it!

After a little thought, he asked Zheng Xitai, "Guess where this money is currently and how much is left?" ”

Zheng Xitai thought for a while and said, "I guess that from the very beginning, Lord Shen took public funds from the yamen to let Ye Wenlan do business outside. Ye Wenlan was mainly engaged in Nanyang trade, selling porcelain, silk, tea, and lacquerware from Fujian to Nanyang, and then selling tinware, sugar, spices, and even illicit salt from Nanyang to Fujian. In recent years, Ye Wenlan has abundant capital and has also opened more than a dozen money banks in Fujian, and it is estimated that these funds are also lent outside. If you count it like this, I'm afraid that there will be more and more, and there will be at least six million taels! ”

Gee.

Hu Chuyuan laughed evilly and said, "It's really a lot." ”

Zheng Xitai said: "In addition to this private money, the phenomenon of corruption and deduction within the yamen is also very serious, and at least 300,000 taels of official silver are lost in it every year. In addition, the salaries of foreigner consultants are generally too high, and the military salaries of Fujian sailors are also paid by the yamen, and the four problems add up, so it is no wonder that the shipmaster yamen has no money to use, and can only take out more than 100,000 taels of silver every year for shipbuilding. ”

Gee.

Hu Chuyuan was quite happy, and said with a smile: "That's why Lord Zhongtang and He Jing are so anxious for me to take care of the shipyard." ”

Zheng Xitai couldn't help but ask, "Boss, what are you going to do?" ”

Hu Chuyuan was calm, and instructed calmly: "You take someone to sort out these communiqués again, divide them according to each official, and see how much each of them is greedy, the evidence must be sufficient, one copy for each person, and I will let them see it clearly." ”

Zheng Xitai nodded yes, and went down to do something.

Hu Chuyuan called Hu Rong over again and instructed Hu Rong to prepare fifty-seven envelopes and silver tickets, with silver tickets ranging in denomination, the highest being three thousand taels and the lowest being one hundred taels.

In Hu Chuyuan's view, the problem of corruption and deduction by these officials is not big, and what he is afraid of is that they deliberately purchase inferior coal and iron at high prices and lose public funds.

How can you benefit yourself without harming the public?

Of course, this is also very convenient for him to use his financial resources to control the entire Fuzhou shipyard, including the Fujian Naval Division.

He has money, so why not use it as his most powerful weapon?

After instructing these things, he continued to invite Wu Shuzhen and those American advisers to visit the shipyard and factory of the shipmaster, and asked questions while watching, and also thought in his heart how to improve the production capacity of the shipyard in Fuzhou.

At noon, as soon as Hu Chuyuan finished reading the three docks of the shipyard, Hu Rong hurriedly came to him, saying that a relative had come to him.

Relatives?

Hu Chuyuan felt strange, so he returned to the shipmaster's yamen, and as soon as he entered the study, he saw a very familiar young man sitting inside, twenty-seven or eighteen years old, white and fat, not tall, and his expression was vaguely similar to He Jing.

Hu Chuyuan thought to himself, it turned out to be this person......!

This is He Jing's nephew He Qigong, who was born in Guangdong, has always been by He Jing's side as a staff member, and is also He Jing's most trusted confidant.

Seeing Hu Chuyuan, He Qigong got up with a smile and arched his hand: "Brother Xian, long time no see!" ”

"Cousin!" Hu Chuyuan nodded politely, invited He Qigong to sit down again, and asked, "Didn't my cousin follow Uncle He in Beijing, why did he come back now?" ”

He Qigong smiled, took out an excerpt and two secret letters from his cuffs, he first took out the fold and handed it to Hu Chuyuan, and said: "Uncle wears many hats, and he is really unable to manage the affairs of the ship, and he can't live up to the trust of the imperial court. Prince Gong and Lord Shen, the secretary of the Ministry of War, have already agreed, and have made a reply on the excerpt, and my uncle asked me to bring this excerpt back to you immediately, so that you can do things at the shipyard yamen! ”

"Oh?" Hu Chuyuan was secretly happy, he was asking for this thing.

I opened the excerpt and took a look, and sure enough, as He Qigong said, the Military Aircraft Department and the Military Department had already confirmed the matter and agreed that "Hu Chuyuan, the acting director of the Fuzhou Shipping Administration Yamen, was in charge of the affairs of the Ship Administration Yamen, but it was just ...... All major events must be cut by He Jing, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang.

After reading the excerpt, Hu Chuyuan couldn't help laughing, and said to He Qigong: "I'm still lacking this fold!" ”

"But isn't it, without real power, it's really difficult to do things in this place!"

He Qigong smiled, and then lowered his voice and said: "Uncle is not only in Beijing to recruit for convenience, but also to fight for the imperial court's coastal defense military expenses for Fujian and Zhejiang. Now that the imperial court has made a decision, the annual allocation of four million taels of silver for coastal defense military expenditure to set up the Beiyang Naval Division and the Nanyang Naval Division, my uncle wants to take a bite from the annual four million taels of coastal defense appropriation, he wrote an excerpt, but I feel that the weight is insufficient, so let me come back immediately to discuss with you, to see if I can add two or three more reasons. ”

After saying this, he handed over the secret letter signed with He Jing's name to Hu Chuyuan.

Hu Chuyuan cautiously opened the letter, and saw that He Jing also analyzed the situation in detail.

In 1874, when the Qing Dynasty attacked Taiwan, the Qing Dynasty was in an uproar, and there was already a saying that the whole country would build coastal defense, and it happened that Zuo Zongtang also wanted to recover Xinjiang Province with the strength of the whole country, and the matter of coastal defense could only be temporarily shelved.

After several years of controversy, and with the gradual end of the war in Xinjiang Province, the Qing court began to pay attention to coastal defense again, and decided to host the Beiyang Naval Division and the Nanyang Naval Division, and no longer counted on the Fuzhou Ship Administration Yamen and the Fujian Naval Division, and the Yangtze River Naval Division controlled by the Hunan army was not in the imperial court's plan.

The reason why the Qing court made such a decision was that it wanted to bring the Beiyang and Nanyang naval divisions under the control of the imperial court, rather than being subject to the Hunan army like the Yangtze River naval division.

He Jing has his own analysis, he believes that Cixi, Prince Gong and others have no intention of focusing on the Nanyang Naval Division, but only want to set up the Beiyang Naval Division to defend the Beijing Division, and the Nanyang Naval Division, the Yangtze River Naval Division, and the Fujian Naval Division are not in the imperial court's plan.

In addition, the Nanyang Naval Division itself was positioned to defend Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and conflicted with the Yangtze River Naval Division and the Fujian Naval Division, making the value of the Fujian Naval Division even lower.

But he still wanted to fight, so he wrote an excerpt and listed three reasons.

First of all, on the grounds of annexing the Ryukyu Kingdom, he wanted to purchase two or three additional ironclad ships, which were roughly the same size as the ironclad ships, so as not to repeat the old incident of attacking Taiwan in the 13th year of Tongzhi.

Second, he said that the Fujian Navy Division governed the Taiwan Strait and could block the foreigner fleet from going north, and it was the first pass of the Beijing Division's coastal defense, guarding Jiangsu and Zhejiang, aiding Liangguang in the south and Beijing in the north; Third, it is said that the whole country should build the Beiyang Naval Division, which is the best policy, but how can the coastal defense of the imperial court "look up to Li Zhongtang alone"?

In the end, he said that the Jiangnan Commercial Bank was very profitable, and the official shares were more than 3 million taels of silver a year, and if the imperial court did not support the establishment of the Fujian Naval Division, it would definitely be controlled by the Liangjiang and Hunan armies, which was also inappropriate.

After reading it, Hu Chuyuan had to say that politicians are politicians...... He Jing is very aware of the "heavy burden" on his body, and with his qualifications and merits, he can certainly sit on the throne of the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, but it is very abnormal to concurrently serve as the governor of Fujian, the minister of shipping of Fuzhou, and the general of Fuzhou.

Not only that, but the imperial court has not yet filled the vacancies of the governors of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, and He Jing continues to actually control the real power of the governors of the two provinces...... Because at this stage, as long as the vacancies of the governors of the two provinces are filled and rewarded according to merit, the person who takes office will definitely be the military attache of the Huai Army and the Hunan Army. Rather than this, Cixi, Prince Gong and others would rather keep their positions vacant and let He Jing, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, take charge on their behalf, so as not to let the military affairs of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces also be controlled by the Hunan and Huai departments.

In fact, the imperial court deliberately increased He Jing's power and used him to contain Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang.

He Jing's last two reasons are all aimed at his "burden", and every sentence is directed at the things that the Manchurian nobles are most worried about.

(Addendum: two verbose sentences here, after writing for so long, the protagonist has only begun to take his first steps in the military and political spheres, this is the book, a little dragged.) ）

(The development line of the protagonist should still be very clear, out of the office, through the most common way of this era to control military power, the entire first volume is to pave the way for this transformation.) ）

(Questions about how the protagonist protects himself.,There will be arrangements slowly.,I'm in a hurry to ask now.,It seems too early)

(Finally, I hope you will support a lot)