Wang Chenhao, together with Ding Ruchang and others, formulated the technical parameters of the Dengyun-class battleship, roughly estimated the cost, and then reported it to Li Hongzhang for information.

After Li Hongzhang entered Beijing, he first held talks with British Minister Dou Nale and reported to him the construction parameters of the Dengyun-class battleships submitted by Wang Chenhao, so as to obtain a preliminary quotation from the British side.

Dou Nale was very happy to learn that Li Hongzhang was going to order a new warship from Britain, and immediately briefed the London side on the situation after making a polite remark about enhancing Sino-British diplomatic relations.

In order to cooperate with the smooth visit of the Marquis de Strrigand, chairman of the British Joint Military Commission, to China, the London Ship Administration and the Vickers shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, the next day, after studying the shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, the Dengyun-class battleships ordered by the Qing Empire were initially priced at 1.65 million pounds sterling, or 12.37 million taels of silver, each.

Although Wang Chenhao had given Li Hongzhang a preventive shot, Li Hongzhang was still startled when he got Dou Nale's quotation, and his expression on his face only reflected three words - too expensive.

Dou Nale said that this is only a preliminary offer, suggesting that Li Hongzhang is in the recovery of Sino-British relations, and the price may change.

Then Li Hongzhang took the quotation of the British and went to the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, and Prince Gong's palace successively, and reported the situation to the Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu, and Prince Gong respectively, and persuaded them to allocate funds for the new ship.

Yi is nothing, he knows the important surname of the navy, Cixi allowed Li Hongzhang to add ships and artillery, so the navy yamen will get a shipbuilding fee, but it is five million taels to die. Now Li Hongzhang spent more than 12 million taels of silver to order a battleship, which is not the master, and it is impossible for the household department to allocate so much money.

Cixi supported Li Hongzhang to add ships and artillery at the beginning, which can be said to have done enough face-saving work, but when she learned that the cost of a Dengyun-class battleship was as high as 12.37 million taels of silver, Cixi immediately kept silent.

Li Hongzhang had no choice but to bitterly state the stakes, saying that the surrounding countries of the Qing Dynasty all had new battleships under construction, and if the Qing Dynasty did not buy new ships, the Beiyang Naval Division would be unable to resist foreign humiliation when war broke out three years later, and when the enemy navy drove straight in, it could easily go straight to the Beijing Division along the Haihe River, and the imperial family would be humiliated again, and the Summer Palace would be looted again.

Of course, Li Hongzhang was scaring her, it was impossible for a battleship with a draft of more than eight meters to smash the capital directly, but Cixi didn't understand, and she was afraid that her Summer Palace would be robbed again, so Cixi nodded in agreement.

Cixi agreed, pushed the problem to Guangxu, and was a good person in front of Li Hongzhang, but Emperor Guangxu didn't do it.

The annual tax revenue collected by the household department from the provinces is only about 80 million taels of silver, excluding more than 5 million taels of royal expenses, the alimony of 1 million bannermen who are not engaged in production is as high as 40 million taels, the expenses of the Eight Banners, the Green Camp, and the Sailor are 20 million taels, and the remaining 15 million taels are used for various public expenses of the imperial court.

However, in order to repair the Summer Palace for Cixi, so that she happily retires for a long time and no longer interferes in politics, Zhang has turned a blind eye to the embezzlement of naval funds over the years, which has caused dissatisfaction among the Beiyang Group and people of insight in China.

Guangxu convened a meeting of the imperial court again and again to discuss countermeasures with the ministers of civil and military affairs to see how to squeeze out the funds.

However, after deliberation and discussion, in the end, only 5 million taels of silver could be squeezed out, and the Beiyang Naval Division had to pay 10 million taels in advance for the purchase of two Dengyun-class battleships, plus it had to purchase auxiliary warships to refit and overhaul the ships of the Beiyang Naval Division, and the Navy Yamen would have allocated 17 million taels of silver in the first year, and in the next three years, it would have to add more than 6 million taels of additional maintenance expenses for the naval division and subsequent ship building expenses, and it would have to consume one-third of the financial revenue to maintain the combat effectiveness of the Beiyang Naval Division.

How to raise this money has become a huge problem.

Li Hongzhang then proposed to borrow money from foreigners to tide over the difficulties temporarily, but was immediately bombarded by Weng Tongyi and Li Hongzao. The reason is very simple, after the Second Opium War, according to the treaty "Treaty of Yanjing" owed 16 million taels, and in order to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing Empire's treasury was exhausted, so it had to borrow money from the foreign powers, and Britain, France and the United States took the opportunity to coerce the Qing government to establish a customs management system dominated by foreigners.

In the 30 years since the rise of Westernization, the Qing Empire borrowed 25 times before and after, and the loans totaling 130 million taels had been repaid before the First Sino-Japanese War. After paying off the loan, the Qing Empire had a reason to take back the right to administer the customs and use its own people to manage the customs.

Although under Hurd's management, the customs of the Great Qing Dynasty became the most efficient and honest yamen, adding 17 million taels of tariff revenue to the political axe every year. However, the diehards of the Manchu Qing Dynasty insisted on taking back the management of the customs, and the salary of the customs yamen was eleven times that of other yamen of the same level.

Now Li Hongzhang has once again asked for a loan from foreigners, which is bound to give foreigners an excuse to continue to control the customs. In this way, Li Hongzhang hindered the way of a large number of people to make a fortune, and as soon as Weng Tongyong and Li Hongzao opposed it, they immediately won the support of a large number of officials.

The Summer Palace project has been completed, and there is no reason not to allocate funds to the navy yamen, and the courtiers want to take back the customs and resolutely oppose borrowing from foreigners. Guangxu was in a dilemma, his head suddenly grew several times, and he had a terrible headache.

On the last day of the end of April, the courtiers finally got a positive reply from Guangxu after arguing for a week.

On this day, Emperor Guangxu issued a decree approving Li Hongzhang's naval ship purchase case to appease the hearts of the sailors. However, on the issue of financial allocation, the household department only allocated 6 million taels of silver, and asked Li Hongzhang to either settle the rest of the money himself, or wait for two years to save enough money before buying.

Guangxu's compromise was in Li Hongzhang's expectations, in fact, Lao Li had a mirror in his heart about the little family background of the imperial court and those things, and he thought that he could burn high incense if he could get five million taels of silver, but he didn't expect that six million taels would come in the end, which was better than the expected result.

After returning to Tianjin, Li Hongzhang found Ding Ruchang and Wang Chenhao and told them about the situation.

Regarding the customs issue, Wang Chenhao's mood is a little complicated. On the one hand, the use of foreigners in the management of the customs always makes people feel humiliated and humiliated, and it is a loss of face, Wang Chenhao also supports the recovery of the customs and the management of his own people. On the other hand, in the late Qing Dynasty, the customs was the only one with the highest efficiency and integrity, which was due to the strict management of some foreigners such as Hurd. If it is taken back and managed by those corrupt officials and corrupt officials, it will be a miasma in a few years, and the customs revenue of the imperial court will definitely not be able to be saved.

It's not good to take it back, and it's not good if you don't collect it, it's very tangled.

Ding Ruchang sighed: "There are only six million taels of silver, which is only enough for the advance cost of a Dengyun-class battleship, and the remaining silver is not even enough for the modification of the ships of the Navy." ”

After the war, the Beiyang Naval Division was well aware of the power of the rapid-fire guns of the Navy, so calls for large-scale replacement of rapid-fire guns came and went.

Li Hongzhang said calmly: "You also know that the court has no money, and it is very good to be able to give six million taels." ”

Wang Chenhao's face was full of worry and said: "It's just that in this way, the ship purchase plan will take more than five years to complete." Five years is too long, not to mention how many maritime threats there are during this period, and the launch of new ships after five years will definitely lag behind, not only will the deterrent effect be greatly reduced, but it will also be too cost-effective economically. ”

Li Hongzhang said: "So far, only we can raise money ourselves. ”

Wang Chenhao frowned and said, "Raise money by yourself, wouldn't that be a cheap court?" ”

Ding Ruchang said with a smile: "Chen Hao doesn't know, half of the silver was raised by Lord Zhongtang himself in the preparation for the establishment of the Beiyang Naval Division. Since the establishment of the Beiyang Naval Division, the annual funds have basically been raised by the Zhongtang Lord, and it is precisely because of this that the Beiyang Naval Division has always been under the name of the Zhongtang Lord. ”

Li Hongzhang said with a smile: "There are no outsiders here, the old man will tell the truth, raising money by himself is this benefit, and this Beiyang sailor is the old man's family." The court wanted to take it back, so the old man took out the bills for all these years and returned all the silver to the old man. The court had no money to give, so it had to keep the old man in charge of the water master, and there was a water master in hand, which was one of the main reasons why the old man had not moved the place for more than 20 years. ”

Ding Ruchang smiled and asked, "Chen Hao understands?" ”

Wang Chenhao looked at the two of them in amazement, and secretly said No wonder they all said that the Beiyang Sailor was owned by Li Hongzhang alone, but it turned out that there were such twists and turns.

Li Hongzhang glanced at Wang Chenhao and said with a smile: "Don't worry, I'll understand slowly." This political thing is like this, no matter what you do, there must be a high-sounding reason, foreigners are stronger than us in the Qing Dynasty, but there must be a plausible excuse when bullying us. ”

Wang Chenhao roughly understood what Li Hongzhang meant, and said with a smile: "So we raised the money to train the water master and it was our own?" ”

Li Hongzhang and Ding Ruchang glanced at each other, laughed slightly implicitly, and neither admitted nor denied it.

Wang Chenhao suddenly felt a lot more relaxed, it seems that this is the unspoken rule between the imperial court and the feudal officials.

"In this case, the surname Nasuo will make a lot of noise, it is not enough to have battleships, but also to add a group of auxiliary ships."

Ding Ruchang asked with a smile: "That's all money, although we raise our own silver taels, but this is not a small amount after all, Chen Hao can't be in a hurry." ”

Li Hongzhang nodded, which is also what he meant.

Wang Chenhao smiled: "Don't worry." Since I raised it myself, I had a way to get the money. ”