Fuzhou.

In 1844, Fuzhou as one of the first five to open the port, Britain, the United States and France and other countries have set up consulates in Fuzhou, Daoguang years, Fuzhou's tea exports have been accounting for three percent of China's total tea exports, in recent years, with the decline of green tea exports, Fuzhou's black tea exports accounted for four to five percent of the total.

This time he came to Fuzhou, Hu Chuyuan not only wanted to do a good job in the affairs of the Fuzhou Ship Administration Yamen, but also wanted to do a good job in China's tea industry.

He knows that only by stabilizing China's silk industry and tea industry can China have a future at all...... In fact, they didn't see the essence of the problem.

Hu Chuyuan's steamboat stopped at Mawei Harbor, and while he was still on board, he had already seen a large factory building of the Fuzhou Shipyard, gray smoke rising from the chimney of the iron factory, and the vast ship harbor spread out on the flat and broad river beach that was several miles long.

At first glance, Hu Chuyuan thought that he had come to Portsmouth in 1879, and there were more than a dozen ships docked outside the port, large and small, ranging from hundreds of tonnage to at least 1,000 tonnage.

Around Mawei Port and the north side of the shipyard are continuous mountains, most of them are only two or three hundred meters high, and there are also less than 100 meters high slopes, many European-style villas are built near the mountain, hidden in the shade of the trees, and the slope top on the north side is flattened to see a continuous building.

It's true.

Hu Chuyuan really thought that he had come to the wrong place, and the people accompanying him were generally shocked by the scene in front of him, but he never thought that the Fuzhou Shipyard was actually like this, which can be described as beautiful and magnificent.

It's a lot of fun.

Thinking about his future career in Fuzhou Shipbuilding, Hu Chuyuan seems to have seen many wonderful futures and hopes.

It is indeed an almost magical place, which has cultivated some of the most famous people in modern Chinese naval history, Liu Buchan, Deng Shichang, Lin Taizeng, Ye Zuqi, Wei Yuan, Chen Zhaoao, Zheng Qinglian, .......

As long as Hu Chuyuan wants, he can probably find it here.

Really, as long as you sit on the throne of the Minister of Shipping of Fuzhou, it is like opening a cornucopia of talents.

A group of people gathered on the wharf, leading the way were several officials wearing the third and fourth grades of the imperial court's official uniforms, and when they heard that Hu Chuyuan's ship had arrived, the supervisors and bureau members of the Fuzhou shipping administration rushed in one after another.

Hu Chuyuan also came prepared, and there were more than 20 people in the team with him, and more people will arrive one after another.

He was ahead, and more than 20 people behind him followed in a mighty way, walking all the way down Banqiao.

The person in front of the crowd was wearing a second-class official uniform, about fifty years old, with a ruddy complexion, a slightly dark complexion, and a gray beard.

He took a step forward and said with a smile to Hu Chuyuan: "Hu Ti adheres to his father's will and regains control of Fuzhou Shipbuilding, which is really gratifying!" ”

Hu Chuyuan already knew very well about the situation of the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Yamen, not only did Zhang Baixi and Tu Renshou do the internal response, but he also carefully inquired about the details of each official through the Fuzhou branch of the Jiangnan Commercial Bank.

In the Fuzhou Shipyard Yamen, only one person has the official rank of Cong Erpin.

He is Ye Wenlan.

This is also a very powerful official businessman, Xiamen people, living in Fuzhou for many years of business, traveling in the South Seas, proficient in the languages of the islands, Shen Baozhen built Fuzhou shipbuilding, he was the chief worker, because of repeated merits, accumulated merit to promote the alternate road, posthumously from the second grade of the political envoy title.

Hu Chuyuan arched his hand and thanked him: "Lord Ye, look up for a long time!" ”

Ye Wenlan said with a smile: "Hu Tituo, please let me introduce you to the colleagues of the shipping administration, this is Lord Wu Zhengbing Wu of the Shipping Bureau, and this is Lord Zhang Baixi of the Tongyuan Bureau, ...... of Master Zhang!" ”

Fuzhou Shipyard is different from Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, this is a level equivalent to the governor of the Yamen of the shipyard, a large number of officials, with a shipping bureau, munitions bureau, mine bureau, copper yuan bureau, telegraph bureau, and another copywriting, support, reimbursement, issuance, inspection, five departments, thirteen factories and the shipyard school, in addition, the Fujian Navy Division is also under the jurisdiction of Fuzhou shipbuilding.

According to the information collected by Hu Chuyuan, the current second-rank official of the Shipping Administration Yamen is only Ye Wenlan, Wu Zhengbing and others in the Shipping Bureau are in the third or fourth rank, and the secretaries of various departments, as well as the officials of the management office and the senator are all five or six ranks, and the servants and supervisors belong to the seventh or eighth ranks, and the rest are not in charge of the first-class officials.

The total number of officials, large and small, is fifty-seven, which is comparable to the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry of the Beijing Division.

These people all gathered at the port, and under Ye Wenlan's recommendation, Hu Chuyuan also greeted them one by one. His background and money are too powerful, these people don't dare to slack off at all, and they are all cautious.

Everyone had already set up a banquet in the shipyard's yamen to pick up the wind and wash the dust for Hu Chuyuan and his party.

He Jing was still in the capital, but before leaving, he had already made arrangements for the officials to renovate the Fuzhou Ship Administration Yamen and make it Hu Chuyuan's mansion in Fuzhou.

Seeing that Hu Chuyuan had too many retinues, and there were six or seven foreigner advisers among them, Ye Wenlan immediately sent someone to clean up a French-style manor near the shipmaster's yamen for these entourages to live in.

In the afternoon, accompanied by Ye Wenlan and others, Hu Chuyuan first visited the equipment of the shipyard under the shipyard and the two wooden ships under construction.

Only in the evening did he return to the back garden of the shipmaster's yamen and stayed in Jinghaitang, where Shen Baozhen had lived for nine years.

This should have been a place where the Minister of Shipping of Fuzhou could live, but Hu Chuyuan is the kind of person who does not give in, and he will not be polite to others. He also knew that He Jing deliberately wanted him to live here, that is, to tell these officials of the Ship Administration Yamen clearly - Hu Chuyuan is equivalent to the Minister of Fuzhou Shipping Administration, and he has the final say on this one-third of an acre of land.

Of course, it is impossible for Hu Chuyuan to spend all his thoughts and time on the Fuzhou Ship Administration like Shen Baozhen.

His current career is very large, and his annual stable income is more than 10 million taels of silver, which is equivalent to the appropriation of ten Fuzhou shipyard yamen.

Zuo Zongtang and He Jing both understood that they just asked Hu Chuyuan to do two things, first, to control the overall situation; second, to ensure finances; Who will take care of the real practical affairs, they have already arranged.

Zhang Baixi and Tu Renshou, who were Jinshi in the tenth year of Tongzhi, and Dai Hongci, who were Jinshi in the second year of Guangxu, these are all people arranged by them, and they can also be said to be Hu Chuyuan's faction.

These three people all have one characteristic, that is, they were born in a scholarly family and have a rich family education. Zhang Baixi is a native of Changsha, Hunan, and studied under Guo Songtao, who is currently the minister of the five European countries, Tu Renshou is from Hubei, and his grandfather Tu Zhishen was the governor of Zhili, with a very high reputation, and he himself studied under Li Shoulan, who is famous for being good at mathematics and Western theory.

Dai Hongci is a native of Nanhai, Guangdong, He Jing's fellow villager, very young, famous for knowing foreign affairs in the capital.

The three of them have been in Fuzhou Shipbuilding for a year, Zhang Baixi is the director of the Tongyuan Bureau, Tu Renshou is the secretary of the reimbursement department, and Dai Hongci is the manager of the Shipping Bureau.

Hu Chuyuan estimated that he could only find one of the three to manage the ship administration instead of him, and just as he was thinking, Yan Shizhang led three young and middle-aged officials in.

I had already seen it during the day, and Hu Chuyuan recognized it as Zhang Baixi and the three of them at a glance, so he smiled and said, "Please sit down, three of you!" ”

"Thanks for the tipping!" Zhang Baixi took the lead in thanking him and took the other two to sit down together, and then he said to Hu Chuyuan: "The three of us came to meet the adults this time to thank the adults for their recommendation." ”

Among the three, Zhang Baixi is the oldest, thirty-two years old, his appearance is not good, thin and capable, with a very fine mustache, thin eyebrows, and introverted eyes.

Tu Renshou behind him was also about thirty years old, burly, looking more serious, and full of energy. Dai Hongci is only twenty-four or five years old, not tall, with thick eyebrows and square face, but he looks very smart.

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said: "What is there to thank for this, I am willing to recommend you to serve as foreign officials for the benefit of a government and a county, I didn't expect that Lord Zhongtang and Lord Governor actually arranged you here, I'm afraid you will be wronged!" ”

Zhang Baixi immediately said: "It's serious to promote adults, but we don't feel wronged." Compared with doing nothing in Beijing, it is said that reading excerpts and picketing typos and dictionaries can still do practical things here. Now the imperial court wants to revitalize the sailors with the power of the whole country, and the Fuzhou Ship Administration is a promising place, and the three of us can serve here, I don't know how lucky we are. ”

Tu Renshou also arched his hand and said: "Yes, Lord Tiao, you are really serious, and being able to handle the practice that is beneficial to the country here really makes the lower officials extremely happy." We are even more grateful for your recommendation, and if there is anything to send us in the future, you can say that we will do our best. ”

Dai Hongci said with a smile: "I am promoted to my lord, the junior official has the least qualifications, and I am already very happy to be able to become an official." ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly and said, "Okay, let's open the skylight and say something." The Fuzhou Ship Master is of special importance to the Lord Zhongtang and the Governor, and even more important to the Imperial Court, and I hope that the three of them can work together with me to run the Ship Master well. ”

Zhang Baixi led Tu Renshou and Dai Hongci to bow his hand and said: "Don't worry, the adults have the grace of knowing us, and we will do our best to share the worries and solve problems for the adults!" ”

Listening to their words, Hu Chuyuan was secretly happy in his heart, and said secretly: It's cool to have cronies!

He also thought that he could do more things like recommending others to be promoted, but for him it was just a gesture, but for others it was a major event that he would be grateful for for a lifetime.

What they are talking about now is just a scene, before Hu Chuyuan was officially transferred to Fuzhou, Zhang Baixi and Tu Renshou had already stabbed Hu Chuyuan with a lot of inside information about the Fuzhou Shipyard Yamen in advance.

In addition, Hu Chuyuan also sent people to Fuzhou in advance to inquire about the news, and he was already familiar with the foundation of the 57 officials.

Knowing is knowing, understanding is understanding, what should be said is still to be said, what should be asked is still to be asked, it seems to be redundant, but this is the officialdom rules of the Qing Dynasty.

Hu Chuyuan was also very serious and asked Zhang Baixi: "You have been here for a year, you should have some understanding of the affairs of the shipmaster, can you tell me about the troubles of the shipmaster yamen?" ”

The three of them groaned for a moment and looked at each other.

After a while, Zhang Baixi said: "My lord, the main problem of the shipyard yamen at present is that there are many shortcomings, officials are corrupt and deducted, followed by the uneven quality of Fujian sailors, mixed personnel, and the annual military salary and loss are not small. As a result, the 1.16 million taels of silver that the imperial court borrowed every year from the Min Customs, the Min Tax Bureau, and the Min Tea Tax Department could not be used at all, and only a hundred thousand taels of silver could be used to build ships. ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly knowingly, and said to Zhang Baixi: "You can talk about it carefully!" ”

"It's good!"

Zhang Baixi bowed his head, and then talked about some of the existing problems of the shipyard yamen in detail.

The officials of the Fuzhou Ship Administration Yamen are mainly divided into two categories, the first is the prefect and county of Shen Baozhen who was transferred from all over Fujian in his early years, and these people are currently mainly responsible for administrative affairs; The second type is the merchant, who is responsible for purchasing coal, iron, machinery and timber.

During Shen Baozhen's tenure, these two types of officials were still respectful of their duties, and after Shen Baozhen left, the situation of administrative officials embezzling and accepting bribes, and businessmen taking kickbacks at false prices became more and more serious.

These people want to receive the same gray income as those officials at the same level outside, and they have no right to collect taxes, so they can only make a fuss in their powers, buy inferior coal, iron and wood machinery at high prices, and collude with businessmen to seek kickbacks for personal gain.

They were able to make more than 100,000 taels of silver from it every year, but the losses caused to the Fuzhou Ship Administration Yamen were as high as hundreds of thousands of taels.

Listening to Zhang Baixi finish speaking one by one, Hu Chuyuan only sneered in his heart.

In the political situation of the late Qing Dynasty, no matter which yamen and government-run enterprises had this kind of problem, the shipmaster yamen was not a special case. Even if the officials in the yamen are dismissed from their posts and replaced by a group of officials, not to mention, these people are still familiar with the affairs of the shipyard.

Hu Chuyuan already had an idea in his heart, and said to Zhang Baixi: "Don't worry about this matter, let's think about it in the long run." I still have to continue to visit the various bureaus and factories of the Shipping Administration these days, so I will be accompanied by you and Lord Wu of the Shipping Bureau! ”

Zhang Baixi also knew that similar problems existed in various yamen, and it was useless to be anxious, so he immediately nodded and said, "Okay, promote your lord!" ”

Seeing that it was not too late, Hu Chuyuan got up to see them off, and when he came back, he invited Zheng Xitai and Hua Yufang over, and asked Zheng Xitai to take people to take all the accounts of the Harbour Master Yamen for verification, while Hua Yufang was responsible for leading those American technical advisers to conduct a thorough inventory of the production status and level of the Harbour Master Yamen, and submit a complete report as soon as possible.