I have to admit that Li Hongzhang is one of the most interesting people Lin Zhe has ever seen in this era, and he has a vision and some unique thinking that amazes Lin Zhe in industrial and commercial development and even military development.

For example, he said that the development of industry and commerce is now related to the foundation and even the survival of a country, but the merchants are all profitable, and if all the industries of a country are entrusted to the merchants, it is tantamount to building an empire on the beach.

When Lin Zhe asked him how to solve the problem, he said that some industries related to the survival of the country, such as shipping, shipbuilding, and machinery, should be supervised and run by the government, and some extremely important industries would even be directly run by the government, such as coal, iron and mining, iron and steel, and other industries in which private capital is unwilling or unable to invest.

As a later generation, Lin Zhe had a little understanding of the Westernization Movement in history, and naturally knew several unique terms in the late Qing Dynasty, such as official supervision and commercial office.

Although the official supervision and commercial office in Li Hongzhang's mouth is somewhat different from the official supervision and commercial office in history, the official supervision and commercial office in history is because the government does not trust national capital in any emerging industry, and at the same time, the Qing court actually strictly prevented the development of national capital in the early stage of the Westernization Movement, otherwise it would not have been delayed until the end of the Qing Dynasty when the New Deal popularized modern company law and other policies on a large scale.

It's just that the development of the official supervision and commercial office in the later stage was troublesome, and finally died out in the long river of history.

But you can't say that the official supervision and commercial office of others are doing wrong, because the so-called pure commercial office of the big projects in the late Qing Dynasty is basically unreliable, and the most obvious example is the railway construction in the late Qing Dynasty.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese people were very reluctant to cede the construction of the railway to foreigners, so there were many examples of pure commercial operations, such as the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway. The Sichuan-Han Railway and other railways have had similar experiences, but they are basically unreliable. Either there was no follow-up for many years, or the railroad companies that raised money invested in stocks or used it for other purposes, and finally had to let the government come out and clean up the mess.

After breaking the capital connection with the real estate developers of later generations, a bad building was created. The most unlucky people are not the people who bought the houses, not the developers, but the local officials, because they basically have to give the developers and the people a guarantee in the end, not to mention, they often have to be scolded by the people.

Now, although Li Hongzhang still says that the government supervises and runs the business, the starting point is not to prevent the development of national capital, nor to carry out the official supervision and business management of all industries. He only said that some important industries related to the survival of the country, especially those related to the military industry, should be supervised and operated by the government.

The starting point of the government is that in addition to these important industries, it also runs some industries in which private capital is unable or unwilling to invest.

Although Li Hongzhang is talking about official supervision and business and official office, his starting point is similar to what Lin Zhe considered, but Lin Zhe did not use the official supervision and business office that Li Hongzhang said, he directly used the royal industry to deal with these affairs, but considering the particularity of the royal industry, it can barely be regarded as a combination of official supervision and business office and official office.

Although Lin Zhe did not intend to adopt Li Hongzhang's suggestions in his heart, his remarks still made Lin Zhe look down on him.

Among Lin Zhe's many subordinates, there are no longer a few who are good at industry and commerce. In particular, many of the talents from the business world recruited during his tenure as the superintendent of the business district are different from those from the traditional imperial examinations, and there are no theorists or visionaries among them. Basically, they are doers, and dealing with business affairs are very realistic.

For example, Xiao Changzhong, the current mayor of Shanghai, and Qi Xuanyun, who has been the acting mayor of the business district and is now a member of Susong Taidao. There are also Guo Longyun, the governor of Anhui, and Bi Xuanxi, the prefect of Taipingfu, who are all relatively well-known industrial and commercial officials in the Chinese imperial system. The positions are also important industrial development areas in the Chinese Empire, such as Shanghai, Susongtai area, and Ma'anshan base in Dangtu County.

And then there's a big push, obvious, albeit not remarkable. But there are still many talented generals, such as many officials from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Finance.

To put it mildly, in the contemporary Chinese Empire, there are not a few talents who are good at new-style industrial and commercial affairs.

However, most of these people are people who are immersed in hard work, they only do it, but they don't think about it, they only pay attention to how many new enterprises are built, how many new taxes are added, and so on, but they rarely consider the overall situation of industrial and commercial development of the entire empire, and rarely pay attention to some economic theories and other things, not to mention the interrelationship between national defense and the economy.

In the past few years, Lin Zhe himself has been responsible for these things, and he is responsible for formulating the military strategic development of the entire empire, formulating the industrial and commercial strategic planning of the empire, and even specifically building factories there.

Because Lin Zhe has the knowledge of the afterlife, he is prophetic in these strategic plans!

Today's talk with this Li Hongzhang made him feel that this Li Hongzhang was quite interesting, and he was able to systematically discuss and put forward a complete set of theories on industrial and commercial development in front of him, and there was only such a Li Hongzhang for so many years.

In addition to talking about industry and commerce, Li Hongzhang also showed great interest in the development of the Chinese Empire's navy, of course, he personally did not have any hobby for the navy, and his attention to the navy was because of the development of industry and commerce.

He said that China is thousands of miles away from the sea, and the barbarians can land at any point anywhere with strong ships and artillery, so it is very unfavorable for the subsequent development of the empire, because even if they win once on land this year, it does not mean that they will be able to win next time, and once they lose once, then the tariffs, treaty ports, and the like will have to be sent empty-handed, and once the protection of tariff barriers is lost, the industry and commerce that have developed with great difficulty in China will face a great crisis.

In order to ensure the smooth development of domestic industry and commerce, it is necessary to build up coastal defense, and in order to carry out coastal defense, it is naturally necessary to build a navy.

When he first heard Li Hongzhang talk about building a navy, Lin Zhe thought that Li Hongzhang was going to engage in the Beiyang Naval Division, but he was greatly surprised to hear him talk about the navy and coastal defense, coastal defense and tariff barriers, and then the theory of contact with domestic industry and commerce.

The relationship between coastal defense and tariffs and industry and commerce seems to later generations to be a very simple common sense, but in a time and space China where 99 percent of the people are illiterate and there are few people who can't even figure out what industrial and commercial industry is, there are not many people who can figure out these things, let alone connect them.

After listening to Li Hongzhang's words, Lin Zhe was a little depressed, as a traveler, he knew that these were taken for granted, but he, Li Hongzhang, was a native of this time and space, and he belonged to an indigenous person who had never attended a new-style school, had not studied in school, and was born on the right path of the imperial examination, how could he figure out these things? Shouldn't he be like Jiang Daoquan and those people, holding traditional scriptures every day and talking about the morality of a saint?

It seems that I still underestimate these famous people in this time and space, which one of the people who can be rewritten in Chinese history is simple?

Lin Zhe didn't stay with Li Hongzhang for too long, let alone said that he was impressed by Li Hongzhang's talent, and then said: Please teach me, sir! Or say anything as long as the gentleman is willing to come, as long as you want, any position is vacant and so on.

Although Li Hongzhang surprised Lin Zhe, it was just surprise, as for what to do after the surprise!

When Li Hongzhang left the Zhonghua Palace and returned to his small courtyard under the custody of the military police, he couldn't calm down in his heart!

Although he didn't know that it was Lin Zhe who he was going to see before he went, and thought it was other executives, but in the past year, he was finally received, although Li Hongzhang didn't want to admit it in his heart, or it was simply a subconscious behavior, he attached great importance to this trip, and he was thinking about what to say on the way there.

When I met Lin Zhe, in the face of Lin Zhe's problem, although Li Hongzhang did not show his talent and learn, and then let Lin Zhe appreciate and reuse him, but as a person with ideals and ambitions, and at the same time very conceited, it would be very rewarding to have the opportunity to brag about his talent in front of others, and then say something that others could not understand.

Well, to put it simply, what Li Hongzhang said in front of Lin Zhe was actually a very stinky fart pretending behavior!

If he was not facing Lin Zhe but someone else, whether it was Xianfeng or Shi Dakai or someone else, he would probably be stunned by him.

But he met Lin Zhe, and Lin Zhe was even more bewitching than him!

Therefore, this pretending behavior also made Lin Zhe sigh a little, there are still a few natives in this time and space who can know a little common sense of national defense economy, and not all of them are ignorant fools.

Therefore, Li Hongzhang did not see an expression of shock or anything like that on Lin Zhe's face at that time, and Lin Zhe did not praise some of the national defense economic theories he said.

This made Li Hongzhang quite disappointed!

Whoever takes out his most proud toy to show off, although he doesn't plan to sell it, but if no one cares about it after putting it up, this psychology will not be good!

On the day he returned to the small courtyard where he was under house arrest, the lights in Li Hongzhang's room were on until the early hours of the morning, and he lost sleep!

There was no expected holy decree, no high-ranking officials came to the door to invite him to an important position, nothing, as if nothing had happened, Li Hongzhang returned to his old life, reading, eating, sleeping, and living this day like a backwater pool without living water flowing into, without the slightest wave.

In the past year, although Li Hongzhang felt inconvenient, he didn't say that he couldn't bear it, but since he went to see Lin Zhe, he felt more and more that this dull life under house arrest was irritable.

For the first time, he began to hope that he could leave this small courtyard, go outside, take a walk, and do what he wanted to do, such as starting an industrial and commercial business.

So half a month later, Li Hongzhang, who had been thinking about it for a long time, finally picked up the pen, and then wrote a letter and entrusted the gendarmes to forward it to Lin Zhe. (To be continued......)