Hu Chuyuan saw the whole situation very clearly, saying that Ben had fallen into a relatively long-term economic recession and was not capable of threatening China for the time being, and at most it was in the case of a large-scale naval war between China and Russia, and he was looking for an excuse to send troops to wipe it out.

The renewal of the Tsarist Russian Navy is not strong, the overall ideological ratio is very backward, and it is still stuck to the era of ironclad cruisers, which have a large number of warships on the surface, but in fact, most of them cannot withstand the fight.

One of the main troubles now is the Franco-Russian alliance, and to fight Russia is to fight France, which is a very nasty problem.

He believed that the situation in the Far East would be very stable for ten years, and that once it started, it would be a very large-scale war. Therefore, in the current situation, there is no need to expand the size of the navy to the level of Britain and France, and it is more reasonable to keep it between 350,000 tons and 400,000 tons for a long time.

The Qing navy may no longer be under his control, but it can be ...... in terms of the overall technology and development trend Even the specific personnel transfer is still up to him, and the most important thing is that only he can transfer those generals.

Therefore, once Hu Chuyuan agrees, this is the final conclusion, and Zhang Baixi only needs to send the resolution to Emperor Guangxu for approval.

After the meeting, many people wanted to talk to Hu Chuyuan alone, including Zhang Baixi, everyone knew that Zhang Baixi was probably talking to Emperor Guangxu again, and he didn't dare to fight with him.

Hu Chuyuan also understood this in his heart, so he asked the others to go back to rest first, leaving only Zhang Baixi in the large conference room.

The two drank a little tea and talked about some old things.

Zhang Baixi.

Without Hu Chuyuan, where did Zhang Baixi come from.

The relationship between them is just like Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, and it is indeed about the same, and now, Emperor Guangxu clearly believes in Zhang Baixi more, which has supported Zhang Baixi to the position of Minister of Military Aircraft, and Prince Gong doesn't ask much about things.

Soon, the two of them talked about some things about Jingshi.

gradually touched on the big things and key points, Zhang Baixi suddenly remembered something, and asked people to take a gift box, which looked like it was hiding a scroll of calligraphy and painting. As soon as he opened it, it was indeed a copybook, and when he opened it again, it was actually Wang Xizhi's "Clear Post When the Snow is Fast", which surprised Hu Chuyuan.

Zhang Baixi then handed over the notebook to Hu Chuyuan, and said: "The emperor checked the accounts of the household department at the beginning of the year, and in recent years, the annual income has increased by 20%. The emperor was overjoyed, knowing that Zhongtang has always liked to collect calligraphy, painting and porcelain, so he asked people to count some fine products in the palace and give them to Zhongtang, this paste is a rare treasure of the royal family, the emperor attaches great importance to it, so he let the lower officials personally transfer it to Zhongtang. ”

"Oh......!"

Hu Chuyuan sighed for a while, and after a careful look, it is indeed the most exquisite copy of Tang Shenlong, and it is also the version of the pen [***] closest to Wang Xizhi, which is really a stunning work in Chinese calligraphy, a treasure of the town.

He couldn't help but be a little alarmed, and after a while, he was able to enjoy watching it, and immediately called Chen Shanyuan in and asked him to carefully send it back to Phu Quoc Villa for treasure.

When Chen Shanyuan took the notebook and left, Zhang Baixi sighed with embarrassment: "The saint treats the Longen of the middle hall, which has been rare since ancient times, and the lower officials are really envious." ”

Hu Chuyuan laughed and said, "You know my surname, just say anything directly." ”

"That's ......!"

Zhang Baixi was not verbose, and immediately said: "Since these days, the Manchurians have been arguing about the issue of raising silver. In the past few years, the salaries of the common people in Zhili have been 10 yuan per month, and the military salaries of the Xianghuai and navy battalions have been raised, and the salaries of ordinary soldiers have also been 15 yuan. The people have a lot of money in their hands, and there is naturally a lot of buying and selling, and prices are rising quite quickly. The Manchurian support is less than five clear yuan per month, so it is normal for everyone to have some arguments. Prince Alcohol is gone, Prince Gong is also old, and now the most powerful princes are very prestigious in the clan, and the emperor can't hold it anymore! ”

Hu Chuyuan listened coldly, sneered, and waited for him to finish speaking before asking, "Then do you think it should go up?" ”

Zhang Baixi pondered for a while and said: "I think it can be slightly raised back to eight clear yuan, and the financial pressure is not great, so I can't squeeze the Manchurian people too much." ”

Hu Chuyuan said coldly: "Nonsense." Manchurians have their own hands and feet, what can't they do? The old laborers who pick up dung and water in the city of Tianjin have nothing else to do, and they can earn six clear yuan of coolie money a month, sell the dung and water to the countryside, and sell some additional rations. How come only Han people can do these things, but they can't do them when they are full of people? ”

"...... this?" Zhang Baixi was speechless for a while.

Hu Chuyuan continued to beat him and said: "After you go back, you have to make it clear to the emperor that he is the emperor of China, not the emperor of the Manchus. The Manchurian cultivated land tax is only 7 percent, where the income tax is high, 50,000 Qing Yuan can be bought out, this is enough preferential treatment, what do you want to do, is it to make the Han people unable to live, the Manchu people raise the same as fat pigs, those Manchu people are satisfied? ”

"...... this?"

Zhang Baixi became more and more speechless, he thought that this matter would be very easy to handle, because Hu Chuyuan was very good at taking care of proportions, so that he would not force the Manchurians to rebel.

Hu Chuyuan was silent and stopped talking, and the application became more and more cold.

After a while, he said: "If you don't have merit, I will send someone to send someone back to the palace for the notes and other rewards, so let's stop here today." ”

Zhang Baixi hurriedly persuaded: "Lord Zhongtang, why are you doing this? The emperor is also very embarrassed? ”

Hu Chuyuan sneered silently, but he didn't speak.

Zhang Baixi was helpless, so he withdrew from the large conference room.

Looking at the back of his departure, Hu Chuyuan felt a little chill in his heart, not because Zhang Baixi gradually set up his own door, but because Zhang Baixi still did not see through China's current problem - Manchurian.

There are many people and bastards, these bastards have extremely stubborn resistance to China's progress, in order to carry out the Restoration, Hu Chuyuan does not know how much money he secretly took and how much energy he secretly spent to suppress Shiduo and those people, so as not to turn over the mountains and seas of nonsense.

At least for now, he is a constitutionalist and in the same camp as Zhang Baixi, but he has no intention of making any concessions to the Manchus.

After Zhang Baixi left, Lu Han quietly came in to find Hu Chuyuan.

Coincidentally, Lu Han is also talking about the problem of Manchurians.

In 1892, the Fuxing Society set up Ta Kung Pao and Xinmin Bao to publicize the idea of Ming Cooking, publicize the idea of Dagong Datong in the world, and pursue equality between Manchu and Han. Of course, this is only a superficial movement, and the greatest purpose of the Renaissance Society is still to remove the Manchu Revolution from China's political horizon.

The reason why they want to openly promote the ideas of Ming Cook and Dagong is to deliberately provoke the Manchus, and in fact, the Manchus are indeed provoked.

Because of the abundant funds, these two newspapers were distributed in a large area at a loss for a long time, and their headquarters were located in the Tianjin Concession, the Shanghai Concession, and Hong Kong, and in addition to the obstruction and protection of Hu Chuyuan and others, the Manchurians have been unable to seize them, and all kinds of radical tabloids and leaflets derived from the newspapers have been streamed all over the country.

The Manchurians are now enraged beyond measure, shouting every day that they want to retaliate and make an example of each other.

In addition, the living standards of the Manchu people have been suppressed very much, and most of them have become poor, and the contradictions between the two sides have become more intense, especially in Beijing, where the Manchu-Han conflict has become the most common case encountered in Shuntianfu, and the slightest bias can lead to a major event.

Lu Han also estimated that Zhang Baixi was talking to Hu Chuyuan alone about this matter, so he also persuaded Hu Chuyuan to continue to indulge, or it wouldn't be long before the Manchurians would be expelled.

After listening to Lu Han, Hu Chuyuan was silent for a long time.

After a while, Hu Chuyuan said pointedly: "You go on, I'll just ask...... If the Manchurians bring the matter of reinstatement to the table, you should make good use of it. I'm going to the U.S. recently, and it's going to take about half a year. ”

"Half a year ......?"

Lu Han seemed to understand something, he knew that Hu Chuyuan was a master of grasping the overall situation, which clearly showed that the contradiction had intensified to a certain extent, and he deliberately withdrew to make the court anxious.

He thought for a moment and immediately said, "Okay, I understand." In addition, there is another thing, the Philippines is reading, but the population of our Chinese in the Philippines is increasing, and the infighting has begun, fortunately, the army is under our control, and there is no major event for the time being, I am afraid that other powers will take the opportunity to find trouble and reoccupy the Philippines. ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "I have talked to Lu Guangquan about this matter, for the time being, we should try to be restrained, and don't dare to act mischief just because we have an army in our hands." The big thing is in the country, not in the Philippines. ”

Lu Han said: "We are very restrained, the problem is that the indigenous people don't like to make money very much, and the money is made by the Chinese, and they are not satisfied." Another problem of territory is that we now mainly occupy the central plain and the coastal mountains in the north, especially the gold and silver mines, iron mines, chrome mines, and copper mines, and we occupy a very large proportion, and we also operate the large local plantations, and there are many contradictions. ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly.

He has been paying attention to these situations, but he has no good solutions.

A key issue is that the Chinese are not indigenous, but often control large-scale assets, and Zhang Bishi has been using the Philippines as the main business base of Nanyang Company in the past five years, and the development momentum is very strong.

With the development of the Philippines and Borneo, Xu Run, Ye Wenlan and many Huizhou and Cantonese businessmen went over to develop, and Hu Chuyuan also opened the Singapore Wells Fargo Investment Bank Company there, using the entire Wells Fargo system to mine ore and develop a certain degree of heavy industry economy.

He thought about it in his heart, and had some ideas, so he said to Lu Han: "Things should start from two aspects, after I return from this tour, I will arrange for the Prime Minister's Foreign Affairs Yamen to speed up the examination and approval of the Philippine entry into the domain, so that the Philippines and the Qing Dynasty can determine a clear suzerain-vassal relationship, so that the Nanyang Navy has the right to intervene in Philippine affairs." On the other hand, you and Zhang Bishi will contact you, and I will also jointly fund the purchase of a batch of new warships for the Philippine Reading Army. The Fuzhou-class and Chunyu-class are still very good, so buy a few more. ”

Lu Han nodded silently and said, "That's okay, actually...... If there are four 8,000-ton battleships in service, then there is no need to worry about any problems, and we will be tough on domestic affairs. ”

Hu Chuyuan bowed slightly, and said slowly: "The two ships of the Dingyuan class can be sold, and I am a little reluctant emotionally." Although these two ships were greatly modified and equipped in the fifteenth year of Guangxu, their armor still belongs to mixed steel armor, and the defensive effect is more than 30% lower than that of the best hot-pressed Hawei steel at present, and the combat effectiveness is also much worse. However, the artillery is still very fierce, and it is enough in the Philippines. In addition, four new 8,500-ton second-class battleships could be ordered at the Fuzhou Shipyard. It just so happens that we can also use this contract to make preparations for the construction of the Liangzhou level. ”

Lu Han nodded.

The entire armed forces of the Philippines are mainly the Philippine Reading Army, and the army is divided into two parts, the North and the South, the Chinese Army, the South and the Aborigines, and both sides have fleets.

After Spain gave up its ownership, in order to deliberately create problems, it gave all its remaining old ships to the natives, and has always maintained close relations with the natives.

This is not interesting, in general, the difference between the two sides on land and sea is obvious, and the key issue now is the ability of the northern forces to complete internal suppression, while also having the ability to prevent external invasion and interference.

If there are really a few warships like this to enter the northern Philippines to serve, the pressure on the Filipino Chinese will be greatly reduced.

Speaking of this, Hu Chuyuan suddenly asked Lu Han again: "How is the situation between Zhang Lingpu and Liu Yongfu, I heard that Liu Yongfu has recently had a very stiff quarrel with the regent of North Vietnam, Nguyen Phuc Minh, and Nguyen Phuc Minh also sent someone to the Prime Minister's Foreign Affairs Yamen to ask for help, so that the imperial court can send troops to eliminate Liu Yongfu?" ”

Lu Han sneered and said, "What do you mean by being very stiff, you are basically under house arrest." This matter has been going on since the thirteenth year of Guangxu, but it is not obvious. Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army had more than 50,000 people, and some time ago he had a small-scale battle with the French, which frightened the French and put his hand into Laos. How to say it, the equipment is too hard, and the French can't bear it. Some time ago, Liu Yongfu wrote to me to discuss whether it was possible to reverse the Qing Dynasty and restore his sight. ”

Hu Chuyuan waved his hand and said, "This question...... You discuss it first, but I mean don't rush too much. ”

Lu Han knew what Hu Chuyuan meant, so he didn't continue, although he wanted Hu Chuyuan's consent.

(To be continued)