Hu Chuyuan's world evaporated.

Almost no one knows where he went, but Yan Shizhang stayed in China, arrived in Shanghai very early, lived in Yongyuan, and sat in Chen Xiaobai, Tan Zeyun, and Zheng Xitai...... Behind them, take the idea for them.

What to do at this moment, Yan Shizhang is very clear.

This kind of thing, to put it bluntly, is still a vicious fight in the officialdom, and he has seen too much.

Although Prince Su, Li Hongzao, and Weng Tongyi were alone early on, and seemed to have gotten rid of all relations with Hu Chuyuan, they also had a lot of evidence in Hu Chuyuan's hands, and besides, they and Li Hongzhang were also incompatible.

They're still waiting for their chance.

Hu Chuyuan said that although he was determined to lose, they might not lose.

At this moment, Zuo Zongtang and He Jing can't speak, Zuo Zongtang may still have some courage and leeway, He Jing doesn't have it, if he is not careful, his position as the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang will be beaten.

The same is true for Mei Qizhao.

Everyone is suffering, as long as they survive this hurdle, they are still the feudal officials who cover the sky with one hand.

What about Hu Chuyuan?

No one knows where he is.

He doesn't care about the position of bullshit deputy minister in the United States, even the position of the general office of the Jiangnan Commercial Bank has been removed, and an even more bullshit Zheng Guanying is sent to take office, what kind of humorous thing is this?

Li Hongzhang wanted to take the opportunity to control Jiangnan Commercial Bank as his own, but this abacus may not be too loud.

January 17, 1883.

Time flies so fast, and the situation has changed in more than ten days, only himself, Li Hongzhang, and Sheng Xuanhuai can laugh.

Hu Chuyuan seemed to be enlightened.

He finally figured it out, the time was almost up, and it was time for him to leave the muddy waters of the Qing court, in fact, from the time when the Qing court was unwilling to come forward for him to blame this political axe, he knew that this era would always be a fucking disaster.

The logic of the Manchurians...... Definitely not something that a normal person can understand.

The Tengchong did not go to Singapore, but changed its route halfway to Rohto.

Sailing through the mouth of the riverbank, the huge second-class ironclad boat shuttled through the water of the tropical rainforest at a very slow speed, and after rounding a few bends, Hu Chuyuan saw the town of Ledun again.

At this time, Rohto is no longer what it was three years ago.

There are six huge batteries along the shore, and the muzzles of more than 20 Krupp guns are all black, like a group of monsters, and in front of them is the city of Letown, around which are scattered with endless rice fields.

It's a good place to grow three crops of rice a year.

There are also more than a dozen wooden villages scattered around the city of Leto, where a large number of troops are stationed.

There are people here who can know the origin of Tengchong, and soon the nearest wooden village has pulled up the colored flags, and other wooden villages have followed suit, and countless colorful flags are floating high, seemingly welcoming the arrival of the Tengchong.

In the harbor, more than a dozen warships also hung colorful flags.

This time, the Tengchong can dock at the port, and after several years of construction, the Port of Rohto has become a large port with 5,000 tons of berths.

Here, Hu Chuyuan didn't have to worry about Yu Ben's assassination, he was the first to step down the deck, and Chen Shanyuan, Cheng Tinghua and the others walked down briskly in turn.

In front, Zhang Lingpu, Liu Guigui and others walked out of the wooden village with a magnificent welcome procession and walked towards Hu Chuyuan.

After more than a dozen steps away, Zhang Lingpu quickly stepped forward to pay homage and said, "My subordinates have seen adults!" ”

Liu Guigui and the others also knelt down and said, "I've seen adults!" ”

Hu Chuyuan picked Zhang Lingpu up first, and sighed: "What kind of bullshit is now, a deputy minister who breaks birds' eggs!" ”

Zhang Lingpu said: "Adults are still adults, you are at least the chief master of our Nanyang Company!" ”

"yes!"

Liu Guigui and others echoed one after another.

Hu Chuyuan didn't mind, and asked everyone to go back to the military village together.

When they sat down in the military village, Zhang Lingpu concisely explained the current situation of Leton.

Beginning in 1879, Hu Chuyuan invested in Letown to continuously improve the living and living conditions here, and the number of immigrants transferred from Fujian continued to increase, with about 75,000 immigrants, Zhang Lingpu's Red Banner Army of 14,000 people, and Liu Guigui's Xingang Army of more than 7,000 people.

The Red Banner Army is mainly responsible for guarding Letun, training in peacetime, and helping to plant rice and plant land when the farm is busy, while Liu's precious Xingang Army is mainly a militia surname, and is usually mining, gold mining, copper smelting, and fishing, and its actual combat power is limited.

Here, Zhang Lingpu also set up a Xingang School, teaching everything miscellaneous.

The current land scale of Letown is much larger than that of Fuqing County, and the main economic pillars are gold mining, copper smelting, rice, timber, sugarcane, fishing, shipbuilding, and there are often some weaving and handicrafts, and the scale of rice fields is very large, seven or eight times larger than the scale of paddy fields in Fuqing County.

Because there are many people and few fields, most of the paddy fields are sown rice and coarse seeds, and the average yield is not high, but the total output is not bad, and there is a large surplus of grain.

The rice was mainly sold along the river to the natives in exchange for local specialties, even gold and copper ore, and then sold back to the country through the Nanyang Company.

At present, it can basically keep the revenue flat, and with Hu Chuyuan's support of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year, the average living standard and situation are many times better than in the past.

Talking, Zhang Lingpu said unevenly: "My lord, let's take down the entire Sarawak in one go, and then directly defeat Vietnam in the future, and then start the attack from Guangxi and overthrow the Qing court." ”

"That's right, my lord, what are we afraid of!"

Liu Guigui and those under Zhang Lingpu's account echoed one after another.

Hu Chuyuan laughed, these people have raised wild surnames in the mountains and wilderness, and they are not afraid of the sky and the earth if they have guns and cannons in their hands.

But he didn't refuse, but said: "It's okay to fight, but not now, let's beat Sarawak down first according to what we said." ”

Zhang Lingpu said: "This matter, we have almost arranged it, just waiting for you to speak!" ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Don't worry, wait for me to think about it." ”

Hu Chuyuan likes to build gardens, this is a well-known thing, in order to welcome Hu Chuyuan to visit at any time, Zhang Lingpu specially built a fusion of local and Jiangnan style stilt buildings on the northeast slope of Letun City, surrounded by a military village wooden wall protection.

After living in the garden, Hu Chuyuan lit a kerosene lamp very late, sat on a wicker chair, and staggered to think about his thoughts.

Thinking about Rohton, he couldn't help but feel a little cliché.

He had read some late Qing novels before, and it seemed that he had to do something great in Nanyang, but he had always been unconvinced, and always felt that with his huge power in China, would he still fall into that field?

As a result, life is unpredictable, the world is unpredictable, and the unpredictable history is even more unpredictable.

How could he have imagined that he had really arrived in this field.

Zhang Lingpu is a person who has seen the world, and he probably knows that one day...... Hu Chuyuan may live here for a long time, after he gained a firm foothold in Letown, he led people to build a garden in this good place, because it was hidden in the mountains and forests, so it was called "Hidden Garden".

It's really fucking right for him.

What a "hidden garden".

But among the various famous gardens that Hu Chuyuan has lived in in his life, only the Hidden Garden makes him feel like he has all the troubles of the principle, and in the past year, it seems that only today, he is not worried about his assassination and the turn of the Qing court.

Maybe it's because he doesn't know about this at all, and the Qing court has already turned against him.

All in all, it's an exceptionally nice place.

Good things don't always last long, and it won't be long before the place is shattered by a new tranquility.

He was thinking about these things when Cheng Tinghua knocked on the door, walked in, and sat cross-legged next to him.

After a while, Cheng Tinghua suddenly chuckled and said, "My lord, you haven't been simple all these years, you actually hide a territory here." ”

Hu Chuyuan sighed helplessly, he couldn't accept such a compliment.

He needs his own military power, but he doesn't look down on such a small place, and he builds a military base here, more just to protect the local Chinese.

Thinking of this, he explained to Cheng Tinghua: "You may not know the blood and debts of Nanyang, and it is not easy for the Chinese here. Mindi is an eight-point mountain and two fields, and a large number of Fujian people can only go out to Nanyang to seek a way to live. It's a pity that the natives and foreigners here are very jealous, and there is a place called Shilongmen more than 100 miles away from us, where the British and Dutch have provoked the natives to slaughter thousands of Chinese. I passed through this place on my way to Europe, and when I heard about it, I gave them some money to buy guns and guns for the time being. ”

Cheng Tinghua sighed silently and said, "It's not easy for us Chinese." ”

Hu Chuyuan said again: "I'm too rich, even if I don't rebel, the court will turn against me sooner or later." Anyway, I have to leave a way for myself to live, I originally wanted to rectify the silk and tea industries and stabilize the economic dragon veins of the Qing Dynasty, but unfortunately, the people are ...... Let's let them toss for the time being, it's hard to say looking at the current situation, maybe, I still have the possibility of getting back a game, we have to wait patiently. In any case, the people's food and clothing life come first, and my personal safety is second. ”

Cheng Tinghua was silent for a while, and only said after a while: "What do you say, my lord, I wanted to say it...... If you go to the United States, I plan to return to China with Guo Yunshen and Wang Zhengyi. Hearing you say that, I don't want to leave. ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled and didn't mind.

These people have the demeanor of heroes, but they may not necessarily be anti-Qing fighters.

Horses of courses!

At least for now, anti-Qing is still not a mainstream topic.

The next day, Hu Chuyuan, accompanied by Chen Shanyuan, Li Cunyi and others, inspected the entire Rohton, confirmed that the time was ripe, and asked Zhang Lingpu to prepare to do it, while he officially went to Singapore.

Originally, if there was no arrival of Hu Chuyuan, Zhang Lingpu would have to do it.

These were agreed matters, and it was important to settle the affairs of Sarawak before the outbreak of the Sino-French war, so that we could concentrate on dealing with the Dutch.

Returning to the Ivy Garden in Singapore, Hu Chuyuan took a short rest and went to the Governor's House of the Straits to meet with Sir Faderrick-Walder, who had already had a personal relationship with him in London before Sir Walter left for Singapore to become Governor-General, and gave him a Yongzheng porcelain as a gift.

After arriving in Singapore, Sir Walter also visited Fuzhou and presented Hu with a Chinese antique from his private collection.

The personal relationship between the two is still very good, and in order to assist Sir Walter in Singapore, Hu Chuyuan also asked Ye Wenlan to introduce a number of local Chinese businessmen for him.

The two met for an afternoon at the Governor's Palace, where they discussed some international and internal issues within the Qing court.

A few days later, the shocking news came from Sarawak that the Brooke dynasty had been overthrown by pirates.

In fact, it is not very troublesome, let alone a big thing, the Brooke Dynasty currently has only a few thousand mercenaries in total, and more often rely on instigating the natives to balance the various forces in the place.

The plan was very simple, Liu Guigui pretended to be a pirate and invited the indigenous pirates, Chinese pirates, and foreign pirates from outside to attack together, break the Brooke dynasty's defense line in Kuching, and kill Charles Brooke.

Subsequently, everyone elected foreign pirates to establish the country, and specially sent someone to inform the governor of the British colonial channel.

Before the establishment of the state, there was a conflict "inside", and a large number of pirates who did not obey the "control" robbed the residents in Kuching, which triggered a large-scale bloody battle, and Zhang Lingpu immediately rushed over with the Red Banner Army and several well-connected indigenous tribes to defeat the "other" pirates.

The latter thing was simpler, Zhang Lingpu established the temporary political axe of Sarawak and served as the chief system himself.

In order not to affect the lives of his family in China and cover up the relationship between him and Hu Chuyuan, Zhang Lingpu had already assumed the pseudonym "Chamberlain" during his time in Vietnam, so it was not clear who he was.

Hearing that Chamberlain, who was Chinese, had a certain scale of military strength and had fought fiercely in Vietnam and France, Sir Walder had to come to Hu Chuyuan, hoping that Hu Chuyuan would mediate.

This was a particular blank spot, as the British were not ready to carry out military conquest of Sarawak, and the urgent transfer of troops to Sarawak also required an agreement in Parliament.

With this in mind, Sir Wald received an order from the British political axe to make contact first for the time being.

So, out of "personal friendship", Hu Chuyuan personally went to Kuching in Sarawak to check the situation, and brought Sir Walder's representative.

Everything was planned in advance, and after Hu Chuyuan's arrival, all the British businessmen and missionaries living in Kuching, including representatives of Hu Chuyuan and Sir Walder, took part in a parade of temporary political axes.

The army of more than 20,000 men trained to pass through the streets, followed by warriors from indigenous tribes, and finally by artillery units, as well as a naval salute at the port of Kuching.

Zhang Lingpu had twelve warships, four of which were decommissioned ships purchased from the United States and rebuilt at the New Jersey shipyard with new guns, the other four were gunboats, also purchased from the United States, and the last two were old cruisers purchased from Chile.

In addition to these fairly regular warships, they also obtained seven pirate ships by eliminating pirates, and simply painted them to join the naval sequence of the Temporary Political Axe.

Anyway, it looks pretty shocking.

After "confirming" the strength of the Sarawak Provisional Political Axe Army, Hu Chuyuan first held a meeting with "Chamberlain", and then he returned to Singapore and asked Sir Walder to report the news back to the British Political Axe.

After many times of coordination by Hu Chuyuan, in the end, "Chamberlain" and the British Empire reached an agreement, and Sarawak became an overseas autonomous state of the British Empire, with autonomy under the protection of the British, paying an annual tax of 600,000 taels of silver to the British Empire, and British and Chinese merchants had the right to engage in trade and investment in Sarawak.

The main dispute between the two sides was diplomatic rights, and the final condition was that "the autonomous state of Sarawak should have its own diplomatic and military rights in Greater Borneo and its surrounding waters".

(To be continued)