Let's talk about Zuo Zongtang first, he is a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, but his character is average. He and Zeng Guofan are Hunan villagers, arrogant, will try three exams and three failures, in a rage to return to the hometown to teach, after people reach middle age, Zuo Zongtang suddenly has political consciousness, feel that life can not be regretted because of inaction, so he tore his face to tie Zeng Guofan. Lao Zeng is very righteous, for the sake of the face of the countryman, a part of the Hunan army under the full command of Zuo Zongtang, Lao Zuo began to slowly set up his own door, from a private school teacher who teaches and educates people to turn around gorgeously, become a fierce general who kills long-haired thieves without blinking, and has won several big battles, the Empress Dowager Cixi finally slowly knew that in addition to Zeng Guofan in the Hunan army, there is also Zuo Zongtang, and sighed that Hunan is really talented.

In 1863, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was over, Tianjing was conquered by Zeng Guofan, and Lao Zeng reported to the imperial court that Hong Xiuquan's youngest son, Hong Tiangui, had died. Zuo Zongtang went to sue the royal complaint, accusing Zeng Guofan of lying: Hong Youzhu escaped! Lao Zeng, the most important "integrity" in his life, was shocked to hear that Zuo Zongtang stabbed him in the back, and in anger, he turned his face with Zuo Zongtang.

Without Zeng Guofan's cover, Zuo Zongtang's career began to stand still, and he scolded Zeng Guofan for being a hypocrite at every turn, taking pleasure in it. Li Hongzhang has regarded himself as a student of Lao Zeng all his life, and he is naturally very unhappy with Zuo Zongtang, Zuo Zongtang has no meritorious service in the imperial examination, Li Hongzhang mentioned Zuo Zongtang in the middle of the court and said: This guy has not been admitted to the Jinshi after taking the exam three times, it can't be that his brain is not good, or he has the same backbone as Wei Yan, and he didn't read the sage book of Confucius well.

As for Zuo Zongtang, even Zeng Guofan looked down on him, let alone his student Li Hongzhang. Seeing that Li Hongzhang put forward the theory of coastal defense, he quickly jumped out and clamored to put forward the "theory of defense of the fortress." He said in the "Chapter": "Those who value Xinjiang Province protect Mongolia, and those who protect Mongolia defend Beijing."

Besides, Weng Tongyi, this person, born as a champion, has outstanding literary talents, and is also very good at calligraphy, but he is small-minded. He opposes "coastal defense" mainly because "coastal defense" was put forward by Li Hongzhang, and he generally opposes all policies put forward by Li Hongzhang. The reason is that fools can see that he has a personal vendetta with Li Hongzhang.

During the period of exterminating the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Weng Tongshu's elder brother Weng Tongshu abandoned the city and fled, Zeng Guofan asked Li Hongzhang to report to the court on his behalf, which was also a routine matter, but Li Hongzhang's wonderful pen was born, and Weng Tongshu was sentenced to "behead the prisoner", which is equivalent to the current reprieve. As soon as Weng Tongyi's father heard that his son was subjected to such a heavy punishment, he couldn't stand the blow, so he didn't take a breath and kicked back to the west. Only then did Emperor Xianfeng find a reason to change Weng Tongshu's sentence to be a military province. His father died and his brother migrated, and Weng Tongyi made a feud with Li Hongzhang from then on, and he was intolerable for the rest of his life.

The Empress Dowager Cixi heard it behind the curtain, these are all loyal ministers of my Qing Dynasty, whether it is coastal defense or plug defense, they all want to protect my Qing Dynasty, why is it so noisy? The Empress Dowager Cixi didn't read much, and she didn't learn the collection of mathematics, but she also understood that this was not an either/or relationship, several old men quarreled and listened to the cocoon, anyway, the Qing Dynasty is not rebuilding the Old Summer Palace now, and her 40th birthday does not need to be done in a big way, and the customs in charge of Hurd also collects a lot of taxes and silver every year, and the court is not short of money, so she and the Empress Dowager Ci'an combined, and decided to grasp both hands and be hard with both hands, and ordered Zuo Zongtang to be the minister of the Qin Mission to recover Xinjiang Province; In order to show that he attached more importance to Li Hongzhang's opinions, Li Hongzhang also appointed Shen Baozhen as the minister of Nanyang trade affairs to engage in the Nanyang naval division.

As for himself, after tasting the sweetness of the last invasion of Taiwan, he felt that the people of the Great Qing Dynasty were stupid and had a lot of money, so he set his sights on North Korea, another vassal country of the Great Qing Dynasty. In 1868, the "theory of conquest of Korea" arose in the country, and whether to fight or not to fight Korea became a problem, and the ministers were divided into two factions, first arguing in front of the emperor, and then feeling that it was not enjoyable, and developed into a street like a triad.

By May 1875, the emperor was also annoyed, and felt that it would be thankful to wait any longer, anyway, having just bought three gunboats from Britain and established a navy, he agreed to let these militants go to Korea to make trouble.

He was very excited, commanded the gunboat "Yunyang", and went to the waters of Busan, North Korea, with great military might.

The gunboat "Yunyang" is a wooden-hulled steam engine ship, with a length of 37 meters, a displacement of only 249 tons, a speed of only 10 knots, a crew of 65 people, and one gun with a caliber of 16 cm and one gun of 14 cm. Through data comparison, you will find that its surname can not compare to the "Meiyun" gunboat of the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau of the Qing Dynasty. Inoue Yoshishin was lucky, at that time North Korea did not have a great pig body idea, and there was no leader with superpowers like Kim Jeong-yu, otherwise, he would have thrown a stone and smashed the "Yunyang" out of a big hole.

In 1875, North Korea, learning from the big brother Daqing to close the country for hundreds of years, and there was no Westernization movement, the strength was simply weak, and the face of such a broken gunboat as Yunyang was helpless, so he hurriedly asked for help from the suzerain, Daqing, Li Hongzhang was in charge of coastal defense, and Prince Gong let him take full responsibility for this matter.

Li Hongzhang felt that Song Xiaofei was more familiar with Yue Ben, he was very idle that day, and he hadn't chatted with Song Xiaofei for a long time, so he took a sip of Lu'an melon tea and asked him: "The gunboat has sailed to the North Korean waters, nephew, what do you think?" ”

Song Xiaofei said: "A robber country like Ben will be a disaster for me in the future, and now I will strangle him while he is not growing up." ”

Li Hongzhang said: "The old man also said in the court that it will be a disaster for Middle-earth to do misdeeds in North Korea!" It's a pity that a short-sighted person like Weng Tonggong said that the old man just wanted to take the opportunity to buy Western warships to get kickbacks! Now Zuo Zongtang is carrying the coffin to the west, it seems that he can recover Xinjiang Province, and the old man also wants to make some achievements in coastal defense, but unfortunately the old man has no available people at hand now. ”

Song Xiaofei said: "I have the courage to recommend one person to Lord Zhongtang, and he will be able to pacify the Korean Emperor and deter him." ”

Li Hongzhang asked, "Who?" ”

Song Xiaofei said: "Liu Mingchuan! I heard that Wen Zhenggong also praised him as handsome. There are also the 5,000 Huai troops to be convicted, Liu Mingchuan took them to defend North Korea, defend the Ryukyus, atone for their crimes, and kill two birds with one stone. ”

Liu Mingchuan and the Five Thousand Guilty Huai Army are Li Hongzhang's recent serious illness, and he has always wanted to find an opportunity to recommend them to the Empress Dowager Cixi, but after listening to Song Xiaofei's suggestion, he still shook his head and said: "Liu Liu's surname is too impatient, and it is not appropriate to make a comeback now." And he was also angry with the old man because of the last autumn hunt, and the old man wrote to him, but he didn't understand the old man's distress, and accused the old man of repeatedly saying that he would never come back. Second, he is still being criticized by Qingliu, especially the emperor Weng Tongyi will definitely vigorously block him, he is now dedicated to Yuqing Palace to walk, teach Emperor Guangxu, and his status is also like Zhongtian. He is against what the old man is doing now. ”

After joining Li Hongzhang's staff, Song Xiaofei had collected information on the interests, hobbies, surnames, and past events of the ministers of the DPRK and China, and studied it. In addition, I went to persuade Liu Mingchuan to make a comeback. ”

Li Hongzhang will be skeptical, but if Song Xiaofei can facilitate this matter, it will be a very good thing for him, so he said: "You can try, but the most important thing to fight a war is military salary, and I have recently asked the imperial court for a lot of silver taels to buy iron warships, which is also a big problem." ”

Song Xiaofei said: "Lord Zhongtang, I dare to ask, last year, because of the withdrawal of troops from Taiwan, the Qing court promised to pay 500,000 taels of silver to Yueben, has it been allocated?" ”

Li Hongzhang knew that Song Xiaofei wanted to pay attention to the 500,000 taels of compensation, and said: "I have already paid 100,000 taels of silver for the bereavement of the pension first, and the remaining 400,000 taels of silver. However, if you don't give this two pieces of silver, you will violate the public law of all countries, and you will turn against me and the Qing Kingdom. ”

Song Xiaofei said: "It's better to turn your face late than to turn your face early." However, Liu Mingchuan led 5,000 soldiers to fight in the court, and the Empress Dowager Cixi still needed Lord Zhongtang to do the work. ”

Li Hongzhang said: "On the side of the Queen Mother, the old man naturally fights for it, and there should be no problem." ”

Song Xiaofei said: "Finally, I have a reluctant request, when Lord Liu Mingchuan goes out, I want to go with him." When we first met, I mentioned to Nakado-sama that since I was a child, I had been determined to fight on the battlefield and make contributions to the country. ”

Song Xiaofei's thoughts in his heart are like this: he is Li Hongzhang's staff, equivalent to the secretary of the big leader, relying on the big tree of Lao Li, although it is good to enjoy the shade now, but now he has no fame in the imperial examination, he has to prepare for both hands, accumulate his own contacts, especially in the military, in order to realize his great dream of becoming the president of the Republic of China again and changing the world, which is also the meaning of his existence in this world, so he took the initiative to ask to follow Liu Mingchuan to go on the expedition.

Li Hongzhang was also worried that no one would restrain Liu Liumazi, so he said: "It's good for you to go to actual combat and practice." When the time comes, the old man will give you a tip, and when you encounter a problem, you will open it and look at it. ”

Song Xiaofei nodded and said, "Lord Xie Zhongtang, I will leave for Hefei to find Liu Mingchuan, and ask Lord Zhongtang to write a letter of introduction." ”;