Wang Chenhao had long expected the intensification of the contradictions between Ben and Russia on the Korean Peninsula, and he wished that Russia would start a war in Korea, so that he could gain more time for development.

In Wang Chenhao's heart, the armed forces are ranked first. The recruitment and training of the new army in the eight towns of Beiyang is progressing smoothly, and the new troops in the first and second towns have moved out of the military horse farm and camped near the military grain city and the old dragon head railway station, and have begun to carry out the task of guarding the security of Gongwei Zhili. The original military horse farm continues to be used as a training base for the newly recruited Six Towns New Army, but the original facilities are not sufficient and are being expanded.

The issue of weapons and equipment of the New Army in the Six Towns has always attracted much attention, and the [***] fire companies have been chasing Wang Chenhao and throwing out a series of preferential orders in the hope of winning this huge arms order. Because Wang Chenhao had made a promise with the German Mauser Company and the Krupp Company, the new army procurement in the future gave priority to their companies. However, Li Hongzhang hoped that the equipment could be made by himself, and suggested that Wang Chenhao order from the Tianjin Machinery Bureau and the Jiangnan Machinery Bureau to ease the financial pressure of the two bureaus.

Of course, Wang Chenhao understands the importance of localization, and blindly relying on outsourcing will hit the development of local manufacturing, and at the same time cause national defense to be fragile. However, the cost of replacing the weapons and equipment needed by the new army with domestic production is too high, and the total budget for the equipment procurement of the new army in the six towns will exceed nearly 800,000 taels, and in the future, the new army in 28 towns will be trained in the whole country, and the total budget will be overrun by nearly 5 million taels, not counting the cost of purchasing spare weapons and parts. Such a huge overspending budget is obviously not cost-effective.

Li Hongzhang also knew the disadvantages of making his own weapons, and he had been rectifying the redundancy of officials and the problem of [***] during this time, but the results were not great, and the Western-style company he presided over was in danger of being emptied by the bureaucracy.

"It's not impossible, just change it to a commercial office."

Wang Chenhao could not refute Li Hongzhang's face, but he had to consider his own situation, and he would not do the business of losing money, so he proposed to change the current Tianjin Machinery Bureau and Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau from official to commercial. Only in this way can the corruption of the bureaucracy be stopped, and at the same time the advantages of the commercial economy can be brought into play, and productivity can be increased and costs can be reduced.

Li Hongzhang hesitated, he didn't think about this problem. Some time ago, Zhang Zhidong talked to him about changing the official office to the official supervision and commercial office, or directly changing it to the commercial office. Due to the serious losses of the Hanyang Iron Works supervised by Zhang Zhidong, the imperial court ordered it to suspend business for rectification, but Zhang Zhidong has never been able to avoid the problem of bureaucratic habits affecting the operation of the iron works. Therefore, he thought of introducing private commercial capital to operate the iron works, and realize the supervision of government and business or completely commercial enterprises to save the Hanyang Iron Works. The advantage of commercial office is that it can not only reduce the redundant expenses of the imperial court, but also increase taxes to fill the embarrassing situation of financial shortage.

"Of course, there are great benefits to business offices, but businessmen will do whatever it takes to pursue profits, and they are afraid of endangering the safety of the imperial court."

What Li Hongzhang hesitated was that the Tianjin Machinery Bureau and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau were different from the Hanyang Iron Works and related to national defense and security. Once it is changed to a government-to-business supervision or commercial office, businessmen will do whatever it takes to pursue profits, and if they accidentally leak national defense secrets or let foreign capital control the defense industry, this will pose a huge threat to national security.

Wang Chenhao knew Li Hongzhang's concerns, so he thought of a way to get the best of both worlds, and said: "There is another way, which is to leave it to me to take care of." ”

Li Hongzhang said: "Chen Hao, if you want to train the new army, how can you have time to take care of it?" ”

Wang Chenhao said with a smile: "With the experience of the New Army in the first town, the rest of the New Army work has experience and precedent reference, and it is on the right track, and Wang Shizhen and others will take care of everything, I don't need to be too careful." ”

Li Hongzhang smiled and said: "Chen Hao, your vision is good, the people you picked are really talents who can support the beam, the old man believes this." It's just that you will supervise it, is there a difference between it and the old man's supervision? ”

Wang Chenhao replied: "On the surface, there is no difference. However, if you supervise the matter, you will be embarrassed to move those old officials because of the old feelings, and your rectification will not have any effect at all. It's different when I come to supervise it, and I know that my style is to promote a lot of newcomers and crowd out the elderly. If I come forward to rectify them, they will either choose to give in to me and restrain themselves, or roll up and leave, so that the rectification will be effective. ”

Li Hongzhang nodded, but said worriedly: "Of course, this can achieve the effect of rectification, but in this way, Chen Hao, aren't you going to offend people?" ”

Wang Chenhao said with a firm expression: "The corpse is vegetarian, I don't care if I offend them." In extraordinary times, extraordinary measures should be used, and the cancer on the body will not be removed, and the harm will be endless. Besides, isn't there still you? I came forward to offend them, at most I made him hold a grudge, saying that I was relying on you to spoil and act boldly, and when I finished rectifying, you came forward to appease them a little, and after calming their anger, we also got the business done, right? ”

Li Hongzhang paused for a moment, and immediately understood what Wang Chenhao meant, and immediately laughed a few times, and said: "Chenhao, you are singing a double reed play, let the old man have a red face with you!" ”

Wang Chenhao nodded, noncommittal.

Li Hongzhang thought about it for a while, this trick was nothing less than a clever move, looked at Wang Chenhao and said approvingly: "Chenhao has grown again!" ”

Wang Chenhao hurriedly replied humbly: "It's all your careful cultivation, and Chenhao has always been grateful." ”

Li Hongzhang nodded, and secretly begged Wang Chenhao to know this, and it was not in vain for him to waste his efforts, so he said: "In this case, then our Weng and son-in-law will sing a double reed play for them." ”

After speaking, the old and the young looked at each other and laughed.

Early the next morning, Li Hongzhang issued an order of the Minister of Beiyang Commerce, appointing Wang Chenhao to act as the affairs of the Tianjin Machinery Bureau and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and was given full authority for the reform of the two bureaus. At the same time, Li Hongzhang folded the "Discount of Official Supervision and Business Office" to the imperial court, and experienced all kinds of disadvantages of official office, as well as the multiple benefits of business and office, and finally combined the two to demonstrate that his official and commercial supervision is the best compromise method.

Li Hongzhang's excerpt is to be given priority, and the imperial court does not approve of the commercial office, but Li Hongzhang's official supervision and commercial office is a compromise method. The next day, Zhang Zhidong's excerpt was also delivered, and it was also proposed to supervise the business of the government. Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong, one of the Beiyang Trade Minister and the other Nanyang Trade Minister, had the same opinion and were obviously negotiated, so the imperial court approved their proposal three days later and allowed the government to supervise the business.

Before that, the north and south oceans had already begun to implement the plan before they were officially approved by the imperial court. This situation was no longer a secret rule at the end of the Qing Dynasty, which shows that the binding power of the central government of the Qing court on the local government was really limited.

Wang Chenhao's official residence is not far from the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, and he used to visit it often when he had time. When Li Hongzhang formally appointed him to take over the Machinery Bureau, Wang Chenhao immediately took more than 100 members of his personal guards, together with more than 30 officials from the Beiyang Trade Yamen, Tianjin Customs, Navy Yamen, and other departments, to bring all the account rosters to the Tianjin Machinery Bureau.