Mrs. Hurd looked quietly at her thoughtful husband, who had been so deep in thought these days, she was used to it, and she did not want to disturb his thinking, but she knew that he must be in some kind of difficulty, and she wanted to help him out of it, but she did not know how to proceed.

Hurd had been obsessed with the naval affairs of the Qianguo for a long time, and Mrs. Hurd knew something. In those days, telegrams from London were unusually frequent, and British naval magazines mailed by Kingdon took up an entire bookcase, and the words Hurd mentioned most were "warship" and "navy".

With Hurd's efforts, the Qianguo court finally decided to buy British-made Rendale test gunboats, a total of 10 ships, and everyone was happy for the arrival of the order, but Hurd was not satisfied, he always wanted to recommend British-made large warships to Qianguo, but he never succeeded.

Mrs. Hurd knew that her husband's goals were not all there was to him, and he had always wanted to help the Qianguo government to form the Royal Navy, and that he would command it on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor, who was respected by the Great Qian's Empire.

Although Mrs. Hurd was a complete amateur in the Navy (she did not know that her husband was also a great layman, not much better than her), she also understood that it would be much more difficult for her husband to achieve this goal than it was for him to order British-made warships.

"Ella, what do you think of Lin Yiqing?" Hurd stopped thinking abruptly and asked her.

Mrs. Hurd immediately remembered the recent incident of the imperial examination in Qianguo, and these days people are talking about those lucky young men of the empire who were chosen by the emperor, and she is not unfamiliar with the name Lin Yiqing.

"All I know about him comes from the newspapers. No more than you know. Robert. Mrs. Hurd smiled.

"Tell me about it." Hurd insisted that she speak her mind.

Mrs. Hurd replied. "When he was in Japan, he was a warrior, a man of justice, and a good general, but when he returned to his home country, he became a reclusive nobleman, an artist and a man of letters, deliberately far from the war and his former subordinates. I don't know why he changed this way, but now judging by the fact that he is named on the gold list, he is very, very smart, and knows what to do to make his career smooth sailing in this ancient country where literature and art are valued more than science and technology. ”

"You're absolutely right, Ella, this man is indeed very smart as you say, a little too smart." Hurd sighed and said.

"When I went to the summer palace to meet Her Majesty the Honored Queen Mother. I got to know his two wives, one of whom was from Qianguo. One is Japanese, both are very beautiful and lovely people, they get along very well, like sisters, I wonder why two people fall in love with one person at the same time, without the slightest jealousy of each other. "It is incredible," went on to find out later that he had many women, and that, like these two ladies in the summer palace, they all got along with each other very well, and that no one tried to possess his favor alone, which was completely different from the intriguing concubines in the palace. ”

Hearing what Madame said about this situation, Hurd smiled and nodded, "Yes, it's incredible, I'm really curious how he managed to do it." He smiled and smiled, his face gradually becoming serious, "To be able to do this, it is by no means a simple person......

"A man like him, although the Empress Dowager of Qianguo trusted him very much, was also afraid of his abilities, so she would keep his two wives and their children in the court." Mrs. Hurd said, "They're actually hostages. ”

"Yes, such a person, if he becomes an enemy, it is really terrible." "My biggest fear right now is that he might become my enemy. ”

Hearing her husband's last words, Mrs. Hurd was startled.

Why do you think so? Robert? ”

"Because, several times my plan to sell warships was more or less interfered with by this person, and it didn't succeed." Hurd said with some depression.

"Really?" Mrs. Hurd shook her husband's hand and comforted him gently, "Maybe he is also as enthusiastic about the naval construction of Qianguo as you are, but he still doesn't understand your dream, so you have a misunderstanding, if the misunderstanding is eliminated, I think you two excellent people will not have a war." ”

Mrs. Hurd knew that her husband, an Irish-born Englishman, had stepped into this mysterious oriental country at the age of 19 as a diplomatic officer of the Chinese Customs, and because he was studious, diligent, and active, he was appointed to the throne of the General Taxation Department of the Chinese Customs at the age of 28.

As the spokesman and grabber of British interests in the Qianguo, Hurd was extremely enthusiastic about the Qianguo's plan to build a new-style navy while controlling the administrative power of the Qianguo's customs and interfering in the internal affairs of the Qianguo, and at the same time he was extremely enthusiastic about the Qianguo's plan to build a new-style navy -- perhaps it was the excessively efficient relations of the customs under his management that gave him enough energy to "not do his job." As early as 9061, Hurd participated in the planning and negotiation of the "Li Tai-Aspen Fleet," which was the earliest practice of his intervention in the coastal defense of the Qianguo. Although there was the covert support of Prince Jing on that occasion, it was ultimately aborted because of Li Taitai's stubbornness and stupidity, as well as the strong opposition of the Empress Dowager of Qianguo and the local officials of Qianguo headed by Zeng Bohan.

Although there was a major setback (the "Li Tai-Aspen Fleet" incident had nothing to do with Lin Yiqing, but to some extent left a shadow in Hurd's heart), Hurd did not stop there. After the Japanese invasion of Moss Bay, the proposal on building a Western-style navy re-attracted the attention of the Qianguo government, and Hurd once again intervened in the field of Qianguo naval construction, and he strongly recommended to the Qianguo government the British-built ironclad ships (the two originally sold to Turkey) and cruisers, but because the performance of the armored cruisers already built by the Qianguo Fuzhou Ship Administration Bureau exceeded the heavy artillery ramming cruisers launched by the Armstrong Company that he recommended. At that time, Ding Yusheng, the Minister of Shipping, and Li Shaoquan, the Governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang, quarreled over the limited naval funds. This eventually led to the bankruptcy of the plan led by Hurd to buy British warships.

For this time the purchase of ships failed. Hurd was very annoyed. He inquired in many ways, and only then did he know that the reason why Ding Yusheng dared to compete with Li Shaoquan with such fanfare was because this person named Lin Yiqing gave the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau a better design plan for the ironclad ship!

Hurd tried to oppose this plan, but eventually gave up because his knowledge of the Navy was too poor.

Although Hurd was full of enthusiasm for the construction of the Qianguo Navy, in fact he did not have a deep understanding of the navy and warships, and most of his relevant information and knowledge came from Jin Denggan, director of the Qianguo Customs Office in London, and the main task of this office was to purchase arms and ships for the Qianguo Liaison with the Navy. After two successive failures. In order to deal with the threat of the Russian Navy, Prince Jing and Li Shaoquan both agreed to purchase mosquito cannon boats, that is, Rendal gunboats, for emergency purposes.

The great success of the purchase of the Randolph gunboats made Hurd full of spirit, and he did not mind the criticism of those Randolph gunboats in Qianguo at that time, but wholeheartedly became the "commander-in-chief" of the Qianguo Navy, and actively encouraged the Qianguo to buy larger warships, so as to realize the control of the Qianguo Navy step by step. After much deliberation by Hurd. He proposed to the Qianguo Imperial Court the idea of establishing a "General Administration of Coastal Defense" and appointing him as the General Department of Coastal Defense. In order to directly control the new navy of the Qianguo, this plan had already been tacitly approved by Prince Jing, but it could not be implemented because of the joint opposition of Li Shaoquan, minister of Beiyang, and Ding Yusheng, minister of Nanyang.

An important reason for Li Shaoquan and Ding Yusheng's opposition is that Qianguo should build its own ironclad ships, and it is difficult to build a large ironclad ship of 10,000 tons overnight, so it should start with ships of more than 5,000 tons and less than 10,000 tons, and the design scheme of this ironclad ship comes from Lin Yiqing!

Once again, the Qianguo court approved the proposal of the two local ministers, upgraded the Fuzhou Ship Administration Bureau to a national shipbuilding organization, and appointed a member of the royal family as the Minister of Shipping, who soon began construction of a larger shipyard in Xiamen in preparation for the installation of the ironclad ships. After inquiry, Hurd learned that the plan and site selection of the Xiamen shipyard were still presided over by Lin Yiqing in secret.

has ruined his own affairs one after another, and it is no wonder that Hurd is angry with Lin Yiqing.

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