Wang Chenhao's visit to Russia was a foregone conclusion, but before leaving, Wang Chenhao convened a meeting of his henchmen. Implement all arrangements and keep your family foundation as the first priority.

Zhili Iron and Steel Company was handed over to Cao Fuzhen to take care of, and the construction of the company is currently proceeding in an orderly manner according to the plan, because it has not yet been completed and put into production, so the vampires in the imperial court have not yet been targeted, and Cao Fuzhen is also relieved to take care of Wang Chenhao.

After the reorganization of Beiyang Ordnance Manufacturing and Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, it was changed from a government office to an official and commercial supervision, which was actually Wang Chenhao's personal private property, but it was carried out under the guise of raising funds from the private sector in order to cover people's eyes. The manufacture of new equipment will also have to be completed around the end of the year, and Wang Chenhao will be back soon, so he is not worried, he only needs to implement the established plan.

Wang Chenhao's only worry was that during his departure, the new army in Beiyang Eight Towns changed his surname. Although this incident seems to be a conspiracy between Russia and Guangxu, Wang Shizhen reminded Wang Chenhao that there are also Li Hongzhang's ideas, and reminded Wang Chenhao to beware of Li Hongzhang.

Wang Chenhao then made detailed arrangements at the meeting, and during the period of his absence, the training of the new army was strictly implemented in accordance with the existing regulations. If the new Minister of Military Training, Tie Liang, is obedient, he will find a way to squeeze him out if he is disobedient. In this regard, Wang Chenhao specially told Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui, Gong Yuanyou, Ren Yongqing, Ruan Zhongshu and others, they all expressed their loyalty and must follow Wang Chenhao's instructions, and absolutely not let others seize military power, including Li Hongzhang, Wang Chenhao also made a certain beware of him.

Wang Shizhen, Ruan Zhongshu, Zhang Feng and others offered advice to Wang Chenhao and demanded that the treatment of officers and soldiers be improved, which caused high military expenditures, which would certainly not be supported by the financial resources of the imperial court. If the imperial court forcibly seizes military power, once it is unable to maintain military spending or reduce expenditure, it will inevitably cause the army to be unstable, and the officers and soldiers will not be satisfied, and then they will not be able to control the army. At that time, the imperial court had to return the military power to Wang Chenhao. Similarly, Li Hongzhang does not have the financial resources, and this method is ostensibly aimed at the imperial court, but in fact, it is also a hidden intention to guard against Li Hongzhang.

This proposal was unanimously agreed by Wang Chenhao and other cadres, so in accordance with Wang Shizhen's proposal, Wang Chenhao revised the regulations on the salaries of officers and men of the Beiyang Army, and the salaries of officers were raised by 20 percent, and the salaries of ordinary soldiers were raised to 5 taels of silver per month.

Such a large-scale increase in military salaries and benefits made the new officers and soldiers of the eight towns of Beiyang grateful to Wang Chenhao and their allegiance, and some officers and soldiers even offered Wang Chenhao's immortal tablet in the dormitory. However, the military expenditure of the Eight Towns New Army increased by nearly two million taels, which made the imperial court extremely dissatisfied and ordered accountability.

Wang Chenhao has already taken countermeasures, saying that after the United States experienced a gold run crisis, the Cleveland political axe abolished the gold and silver double standard and implemented the gold standard, and the silver purchase bill in the United States will also be terminated. The consequence of all this is that the United States will sell silver on a large scale, the international silver price will plummet, and the gold-to-silver ratio will depreciate from the current 1:18.5 to 1:33.7, resulting in the silver standard countries suffering a silver depreciation crisis. The depreciation of silver will lead to a crazy increase in domestic prices, so the increase in wages and benefits for the Beiyang Army is only to ensure the morale and positivity of the army.

Wang Chenhao's explanation startled the imperial court, and Weng Tongyi, as the head of the household department, knew that what Wang Chenhao said was true, and immediately reported it to Emperor Guangxu. Guangxu is also afraid, the finances are already tight, once the silver depreciates on a large scale, the existing 80 million fiscal revenue will shrink on a large scale within a few months. If what Wang Chenhao said is true, the price of silver will fall by more than half, that is, the current financial purchasing power of 80 million taels will eventually have an actual purchasing power of only 40 million taels.

Emperor Guangxu convened his ministers to discuss, but there was no way. So Guangxu issued an order to ask Wang Chenhao, and Wang Chenhao replied that there was no other way than to carry out the reform of the gold standard. And the newcomers Kang Youwei and Tan Si recommended by Weng Tongyi for Guangxu also thought that there was no other way than the reform of the gold standard.

As a result, Guangxu no longer paid attention to Wang Chenhao's salary increase for the Beiyang Army, and all his thoughts were put on discussing the reform of the gold standard, which was a major matter related to the finances of the dynasty, and once it shrank, it would be a very big blow to the imperial court.

As early as 1887, Britain and France continued to lobby the Qing government to carry out the reform of the gold standard, and the Westernists led by Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong called for financial reform, but they were always blocked by the diehards. Because the United States purchased silver on a large scale and maintained the stability of international silver prices, the diehards had an excuse to successfully block the reform, so that the second great quarrel ended in the defeat of the Westernists. Now that the United States has begun to sell silver, the price of silver will fall sharply in a few months, and the economic impact on the Qing Empire can be imagined. At this time, the diehards ran out of excuses, and the Westernists' calls for reform resurged.

Guangxu then summoned his ministers to discuss the feasibility of implementing a reform of the gold standard, and Wang Chenhao, having succeeded in diverting their attention, began to prepare for his trip abroad.

Wang Chenhao felt that the long journey was too boring, so he decided to take his Jiaolong and his marine biological environment research team, ready to find underwater treasures along the way for fun, both for entertainment and to obtain unexpected wealth.

So, Wang Chenhao negotiated with Li Huade, a British businessman in Tianjin, and leased a royal mail ship Maria from him as a means of transportation to St. Petersburg. Since the Maria was an ocean-going mail ship, Wang Chenhao, in consideration of his own personal safety, in addition to bringing Li Guodong and 50 other personal soldiers, also transferred a guard adjustment reconnaissance company from the first town of the Beiyang Army as an escort team.

After enriching the security force, Wang Chenhao expanded the equipment of his treasure digging team. Originally, his expedition team consisted of only 80 people, including 50 divers from the Lushun Mine Battalion, as well as 100 Danish pump submersibles, a salvage boat and several small boats.

After nearly a year of salvage operations and expansion, the current marine biological environment scientific expedition team has two 2,000-ton large salvage barges, the Danish Thebes and the British Lawrence; Each barge is equipped with a 100-ton crane and more than 20 grapples weighing 30 kg to 1 ton, which can be used for any submarine shipwreck grasping task, and 4 armed speedboats, equipped with Armstrong 37 rapid-fire guns as the main weapon, used to drive pirates and ensure the safety of the fleet. The entire salvage team has more than 230 employees, including 120 diving experts, more than 300 sets of improved pump submersibles, and 100 sets of spare ones, becoming the world's first private armed salvage team worthy of the name.

In this way, Wang Chenhao's traveling ships reached three, with a total of more than 500 people. In order to deal with emergencies, Wang Chenhao ordered Li Guodong to secretly prepare a batch of weapons and ammunition and store them in a secret cabin of the Maria in case of emergency.

After everything was ready, on 12 January, Wang Chenhao went to Beijing to receive a customs seal from the military aircraft office ordering him to go abroad on a business trip, and then went to the premier's yamen to receive a customs clearance document printed with the seals of the ministers of various countries in China.

According to the regulations, before leaving, Wang Chenhao went to meet Guangxu and Cixi respectively, and accepted the instructions of Guangxu and Cixi as courtiers. Of course, this instruction is nothing more than to warn Wang Chenhao that he represents the imperial court, not an individual, and that he must maintain the majesty of the imperial court everywhere, take good-neighborliness and friendship as the premise, and handle good relations with passing countries, and so on. Of course, it can also be expressed by the words of Wang Chenhao's era, that is, the two words "harmony".