"Passed on Li Hongzhang, this matter will be handed over to him to deal with with it with full authority, and the meaning of the imperial court is only four words: not to give an inch. This matter must be done with the majesty of our Chinese Celestial Empire. ”

"Convey the general staff, and the new army of the two towns of Lalian changed their plans and all of them were stationed in Jiulian City. Be prepared to send troops to North Korea. ”

"Tell the Beiyang Naval Division, all of them go out to sea to patrol, and advance to the Tsushima Strait. In the event of an attack, a full counterattack will be carried out. ”

"Then send an order to Li Hongzhang to mobilize all units of the Huai Army, strengthen the defense of the Haikou fortresses, and reorganize the army for war."

"Prince Li stays, and the others retreat." After everyone withdrew, Guangxu said: "The prince remembers to tell Li Hongzhang that all arrangements should be made in a big way and create momentum, the bigger the better." ”

Shi Duo was slightly stunned, then understood, and bowed in agreement.

"There is one more thing, you can help me bring a message to Li Hongzhang." Guangxu's expression suddenly became gloomy again: "Li Hongzhang has worked hard for the Qing Dynasty, don't ruin his reputation in the hands of his nephews in his later years." ”

Shi Duo was stunned, only to hear Guangxu say: "If the foreigners have something to do, they want to investigate the minister, then what do you want me to do as an emperor?" What is the use of an emperor who can't even protect his own ministers? In front of outsiders, no matter who it is, there is no right or wrong. I just want to protect my shortcomings above board. But in our own court, we must clearly distinguish between right and wrong in our own hearts. ”

When Shi Duo heard Guangxu say what to do with the emperor, his heart was shocked, and this was already a heart-wrenching word. But in a blink of an eye, I understood. For Li Hongzhang, there are two wills, one light and one dark, one punishment and one reward, one before and one after two sentences, the first sentence praises Li Hongzhang's hard work, and the second sentence sighs that Li Hongzhang has no successor. It is above board, and there is no way to win people's hearts. Li Hongzhang not only couldn't say anything, but would only be more diligent in handling negotiations; Externally, it was just a threat, and the Qing Dynasty naturally would not be afraid of him. And the court showed a strong performance, but only Li Hongzhang came forward. Between one strong and one soft, not only does not damage the national prestige, but also gives the imperial court a lot of room to move. Shi Duo raised his head and looked at the emperor in front of him. Is he still the emperor?

Back at the military plane, after the ministers discussed and drafted their wills, Shi Duo did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly rushed to Cining Palace with these two wills in person. There is such a big thing in the imperial court, how to deal with it, it must be to invite the queen mother and her old man. Without the Queen Mother's nod, he would give Shi Duo two more dares, and he would not have the courage to issue these two wills.

However, as soon as he walked to the gate of Cining Palace, he, the minister of the guard, was blocked by the eunuch, and after a while, he saw Li Lianying walking out of Cining Palace, and Shi Duo hurriedly stepped forward to ask what was going on.

"The Queen Mother has been unwell recently. The Queen Mother said, things in the court. It was handled by the emperor and several ministers on the military plane. Li Lianying finished repeating the Queen Mother's message expressionlessly, and when she looked up and saw Shi Duo's worried look, she smiled and whispered: "The prince just needs to handle it according to the will of the Queen Mother." The emperor can do whatever he wants, and he can't be wrong. ”

Shi Duo hesitated for a moment, but he already understood in his heart, and sighed gloomily. At this time, the Queen Mother gently and skillfully dodged away and threw all the heavy burdens to the emperor...... Shi Duo glanced at the Cining Palace, bowed his hand to Li Lianying, turned around and strode away.

"Shaochuan, what do you think of this excerpt? Is it possible? In the imperial study, Guangxu handed over Zhang Jian's excerpt on attracting private capital into the mining industry to Tang Shaoyi.

Tang Shaoyi looked at it carefully before slowly saying, "The general idea is good. Nowadays, there is too much wealth in the Qing Dynasty to be able to precipitate silver in the people, because there is no more way to invest, and this silver can only be stored in the treasury......"

Tang Shaoyi was only halfway through when Cixi came.

After Guangxu and Tang Shaoyi met the ceremony, Cixi sat down: "What are you discussing about things?" ”

"Back to my father, Zhang Jian has a share and wants to pull some funds from the people, and his son is discussing this matter with Tang Shaoyi, and the conclusion has not yet been reached, so his father is giving him some advice."

"You will consult first, and the mourners will listen first. Tang Shaoyi, you can go on. ”

"Shaochuan, can you explain to the Queen Mother."

"Wow." Tang Shaoyi continued: "The emperor wants to increase the national tax burden, but judging from the current structure of the national tax burden, if no changes are made, the tax burden cannot be greatly increased. ”

"First, if agricultural production increases, there may be things that hurt farmers. In addition, agriculture is greatly affected by the weather, and once a natural disaster occurs, not only can it not increase the tax burden for the state, but the state must also use the tax burden to provide disaster relief. At present, the main tax burden of the Qing Dynasty comes from agriculture. ”

"In this way, the only thing that can raise taxes for the country is industry. The good news is that industry is still a blank for the Qing Dynasty at present, and vigorously developing industry can not only increase the tax burden of the country, increase the number of employed people, and stabilize the country's internal affairs. This is beneficial to the increase in the tax burden of the Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately, in order to increase the industrial tax burden, it is necessary for industrially produced goods to circulate quickly. That is, national infrastructure such as railways and highways must have a certain foundation, regulation and scale. In this way, in the absence of the industrial tax burden, it is necessary to use the existing agricultural tax burden for national infrastructure. ”

"Although infrastructure construction can also drive the development of related supporting industries, the imperial court can also increase the tax burden, and infrastructure construction is a long-term investment project, and it is precisely because it is a surname investment, but the huge amount of funds required for infrastructure construction is not currently affordable by the state finance. The key is that until the infrastructure is completed, we can only see the inputs but not the outputs. The upfront stage is completely a consumable investment. ”

“……”

"Lord Zhang's proposal is good, when the financial resources of the imperial court are poor, pulling private capital can effectively supplement the financial resources of the imperial court. However, there are pros and cons to everything, and if the input and output of private capital cannot be well coordinated, the shock caused by this is enough to affect the stability of a country. ”

Therefore, Weichen believes that the specific method of cheering up mentioned by Master Zhang is still to be discussed.

Guangxu nodded, worthy of the prime minister's material. Tang Shaoyi's words hit the nail on the head and had a far-sighted surname, which made Guangxu, a visitor from later generations, suddenly enlightened. I think that the direct fuse of the fall of the Qing Dynasty in later generations was not because of the uneven distribution of the Sichuan Railway, which led to the road protection movement and finally cut off the entire Qing Dynasty. Moreover, Tang Shaoyi's explanation of industry is also in place, if industry wants to develop, it must let commodities circulate. The flow capacity of commodities is directly proportional to the size and capacity of national roads. The supporting industries needed for the construction of the country's roads, and the workers needed to build the roads themselves, were enough to attract a large number of unemployed people, and in this era of industrial underdevelopment and the late Qing Dynasty, the number of people needed to build roads would be even larger. A Northeast Railway absorbed almost all of Shanxi's affected population. If the people are well fed and clothed, they will naturally not think about rebellion or anything. But just a Northeast Railway, so the imperial court is powerless, it is not for American loans and American businessmen's capital injection, it is basically impossible to start construction in the next two years. It's just that where did the money come from for the construction of the Northeast Railway ordered by Cixi in later generations? Or did Guangxu himself underestimate the capabilities of the world's number one economy?

"The railways in the Northeast and Zhili are simply foreigners' money. We still have to dig deep into our potential. Guangxu said to himself: "As for Zhang Jian's proposal...... Otherwise, Shaochuan, you will personally go on a trip and take the excerpt to ask Li Zhongtang what he means. He's an old man in foreign affairs, isn't it good for China Merchants to do a good job? There should be some way. Also ask him if he is interested in taking some shares. He, the first governor in the world, always wants to take the lead and do it? After speaking, Guangxu turned his head and asked Cixi: "Dear father, what do you think?" ”

"The emperor asked about politics and Li Hongzhang didn't forget to knock him out, this Li Hongzhang is afraid that there will be complaints again." Cixi smiled: "Tang Ruyi, you just do what the emperor wants." ”

"Oh, Weichen is going to go." After saying that, he withdrew.

"It's just the emperor, what kind of infrastructure is this and what kind of work is this, should you really be able to run the court to make money?" Cixi, an old politician, really had little experience in nation-building.

"The ghost only knows that Huang Po is not allowed to sell and boast when she buys melons. There is no business in the world that only makes money and does not lose money, at most it is just a big opportunity to make money. After speaking, Guangxu asked, "I don't know what my father's purpose is to come here today." ”

"If you don't have a will, you can't come to see the emperor." Seeing Guangxu's apologetic smile, Cixi smiled slightly: "The emperor has said that he didn't come to Cining Palace, so he won't come to see it." ”

"This is a son, isn't it, please forgive my father."

"It's not the emperor's fault, it's all the Orientals who made trouble." When Guangxu wanted to say something, Cixi waved her hand: "Since the emperor has made a decision on the matter of the Orientals, just do it according to the emperor's own wishes." The mourning family came over, but they had nothing to do to talk to the emperor. ”

Guangxu nodded and was about to speak, Cixi's next sentence made Guangxu's head not bend. Cixi said the same: "Emperor, how long have you not been there." ”

What do you mean? What do you want? I don't ask about the government, and I don't ask about my own affairs, but when I talk about it, do you have to take care of which woman's bed I go to? For a while, Guangxu could only say: "Eh...... This one...... It didn't take long, it wasn't ...... Busy. He scratched his head as he spoke.

"Since you fell seriously ill last year, you haven't stayed overnight for a year**, and the mourning family can help you remember it. The folk still know that 'there are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is great'. No matter how busy you are, you won't have time to give birth to your son. The emperor has no heirs, which is a great disaster for the country. Recalling that the first emperor ruled without a queen, the mourning family still felt grief in their hearts. ”

"This ...... No hurry, no hurry. Erchen is still young, so he is not in a hurry. ”

"Don't you have to wait until you are seventy or eighty to call for urgency?" Cixi looked really anxious: "It's not bad for the mourning family to look at that willow eyebrow, although it is a Han person." If the emperor is interested, the mourning family will let the minister think that he is a righteous daughter, and then raise a flag. ”

"There's no rush to this." If you want to say that you don't have this mind, it's fake, men, they all understand. However, the country is in ruins, and there is a world war in the past. I really can't bring this interest to me.

In this way, the two of them chatted without a word, Cixi was thinking of the law and asked Guangxu to give birth to a son, but Guangxu tried to refuse. Cixi trained with a straight face, and Guangxu responded with a hippie smile. It is also a piece of harmony. It wasn't until dinner that Cixi told Guangxu that she ordered Weng Tonggong to arrange the logistics and supplies for the new army's training: "No matter how you say it, Weng Tonggong is also the emperor's teacher." ”

Guangxu just smiled. After dinner, Cixi finally said what she wanted to ask.

"If the Oriental people really provoke war, it will not be a blessing to the country. The mourning family can't see that they can pay more silver, why is the emperor so serious? ”

"Losing money can indeed be exchanged for a moment of peace. But such a groveling approach can only indulge the greater ambitions and ** of others. If you want to be respected by other countries, you must have at least equal strength. Britain, France and other Western powers are strong in their ships, and it is understandable that our Qing Dynasty cannot compare with others. If the clown can also bully the Qing Dynasty, then who else will take the Qing Dynasty seriously. This is true of man, and so it is with the nation. Guangxu stood up: "In my opinion, only in the roar of artillery fire, the dignity of the country tempered with blood and fire is the most real. ”

Cixi didn't refute, and sat quietly thinking about what Guangxu had just said. After a while, he got up and was leaving.

At this time, Guangxu said to Cixi: "The dignity of the country cannot be desecrated. My aunt. ”

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