Zeng Guofan died. {[23]{wx} In June of the 10th year of Tongzhi, less than a year after the completion of the Tianjin Case, and eight months after he resigned from his position as governor of Zhili to become governor of Liangjiang. In August of the ninth year of Tongzhi, Ma Xinyi, the governor of Liangjiang, was assassinated by Zhang Wenxiang, a commoner, and the imperial court was in a hurry.

It may be true that 'the outside is ashamed of the clear discussion, the guilty god', Zeng Guofan, who is just in his early sixties and has always been in good health, suddenly had numbness in his feet when he walked in the West Flower Garden in Nanjing in the afternoon, Zeng Jize helped him back to the study, and died suddenly after sitting upright for three moments. The world is shocked!

It is Liu Xian, although because of many incidents, Zeng Guofan is no longer as revered as when he first crossed, and it is also regretful and sad to hear the news of his death suddenly.

Beijing dropped out of the dynasty for three days, posthumously presented Taifu, Zhen Wenzheng, and enshrined in Beijing Zhaozhong and Xianliang Temple.

It's just that in Liu Xian's view, it's all in vain, people are dead, or this kind of sudden death, Zeng Guofan has been infamous from the government and the opposition from the world, and the inner feelings make people think about it and lament.

After hearing the news, Zhang Shouyan led a team to Hunan to pay tribute to filial piety on the second day. A generation of celebrities withered.

The earth will turn the same as whoever leaves. Although Zeng Guofan's sudden death caused an uproar in China, after the waves, the life of the family will continue to go on.

Qin Jun's business has developed better and better in the past two months. The fabrics produced by textile factories rely on relatively cheap prices and fairly acceptable quality, and have opened up the market in Lingnan. And matches, soap, these things, even rushed out of the two Guangzhou. Towards Hunan and Jiangxi, they attacked the city and plundered the land. The white sugar produced by the sugar refinery is also definitely a sought-after commodity, and with the Hongji Coal Mine, Beijing still does not give much to Qin Jun's military salary every month. However, Liu Xian expanded to a Qin army of 20,000 people, and he was never short of money to spend.

Nationwide, the Qin army was the first breech firearm in China's hills, and more than half of the troops were equipped. And that mighty cavalry unit. The good horses that Liu Xian brought back from Xinjiang had to be half-sold and half-given to Henan for a thousand horses, and then at a price of fifty taels each. sold Liu Mingchuan 2,000 horses, and the rest was all held in the palm of Liu Xian's hand. Although the cavalry of the Qin army was only about 3,000 people, the garrison regiment and an infantry battalion that accompanied the army to the south. Coupled with the full riding of the artillery battalion and the military headquarters, the power is shocking, and it makes many generals and officers who are suffering from cavalry feel distressed and directly scold their mothers.

At the same time, when Zeng Guofan had just entered the earth. The Sino-Japanese Trade Charter was signed in Tianjin.

This is a treaty that Liu Xian has never heard of. It wouldn't have been his attention. There were also too many miscellaneous treaties signed by the Manchus. Liu Xian didn't have the heart to pay attention to them one by one. It is only because the first paragraph of the "Trade Charter" stipulates that China will open to Japan 15 coastal ports along the river, including Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Ningbo, Jiujiang, Hankou, Tianjin, Niuzhuang, Zhifu, Guangzhou, Shantou, Qiongzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Taiwan, and Tamsui, which have been previously opened to Western powers; Japan opened up eight coastal ports to China, including Yokohama, Hakodate, Osaka, Kobe, Niigata, Isato, Nagasaki, and Tsukiji, which had been opened to Western powers. Not to mention other regulations, only Japan can go directly to Qiongzhou, and Qiongzhou can go directly to Japan, which has brought some convenience to the Qin army to smuggle Japanese copper. This made Liu Xian keep a heart on it.

China's import of copper from Japan is not a matter of one or two years, but hundreds of years of history.

The Qin army's current breech guns all need copper-shelled bullets, and copper is an indispensable strategic material for the Qin army. And China's copper production area, there are Qing Dynasty. All of them are Yunnan-based. But now that Yungui has Shi Dakai, the Xianghuai army is now dominant. It's not like you'll be able to cook Shi Dakai in a year or two. Besides, even if Shi Dakai is defeated this year and next year, and Yunnan is pacified, can the mining and smelting of copper ore be restored this year and next year?

War has caused the greatest damage to people's livelihoods. Shi Dakai has been entrenched in Yunnan for many years, and once captured most of Yunnan, and the Taiping Army in the middle did not know how many miner brothers had been 'liberated', and the mining industry in Yunnan had been dilapidated. Liu Xian did not plan to wait for the resumption of copper mining in Yunnan before increasing ammunition production and reserves.

Originally, the smuggling between the Qin army and Japan relied on the merchant ships in Guangzhou, and the Chinese merchants went directly to Japan to trade, whether official or private, to get back a shipload of copper, and then refine it again after the Qin army handed it over. A small amount of silver and brass as the main body can be obtained. Although the smelting level in Japan is constantly improving, the secondary refining of copper is far from the same as before, and only the silver extracted from it can be used to cover the cost of goods. However, the price of copper purchased from Japan is still much lower than that of domestic copper.

Liu Xian trained his troops, ate and dressed well, and the advantage of being big was that he never felt sorry for ammunition. The Qin army's guns and shells were always in high demand. But he thinks it's worth it! The soldier's marksmanship is not aimed at the gun, but fed by bullets. The soldiers of the Qin army fired bullets on the training ground, and the future battlefield will harvest human lives.

Fortunately, the current guns and shells are still black powder, and there is more sulfur in Taiwan, which is not far away. The current governor of Taiwan, Zhou Maoqi, does not stop this. The Qinjun Mining Bureau developed two sulfur mines in Taiwan last year, and they have been produced one after another this year. The output is not enough to supply the needs of the Qin army for the time being, but next year, with the expansion and improvement of production, the sulfur of the Qin army will be self-sufficient and completely fine.

Saltpeter is produced from composted nitrate fields. Although it needs to be purified, the cost is much higher than that of natural saltpeter, but Liuzhou and Hainan Island, there are hundreds of acres of nitrate fields, and it is better to be self-sufficient than to hand over the lifeblood to others.

……

"Lord Liu, this is the design plan we have finalized. Please take a look! "Angra. Merkel solemnly handed over an essay to Liu Xian. The thick pinched text and drawings in it contain a plan for the steel plant run by Liu Xian.

"As you instructed, the steel plant is located in Qinzhou. It's really a nice place. Qinzhou Harbor has the conditions to become a world-class port, and it is an excellent natural deep-water port. The water area is wide, the wind and waves are small, the amount of sand is small, and the shore beach is stable. ”

Angela. Merkel has the good qualities of a German, conscientious, meticulous and sensible. During the nearly one-year planning and formulation of the iron and steel plant, the team led by him not only personally surveyed the coastline of Qinzhou Bay, personally inspected the geographical advantages of Qinzhou Prefecture, surveyed the line of China's first railway that Liu Xian was planning to build, the Guiqin Railway, and also went to Hainan to inspect the quality and phosphorus content of Shilu iron ore, and visited Hongji to explore the quality and scale of Hongji Coal Mine. Compared with the workload of the team he leads, a year is really not a long time.

[China's first small railway - In 1865, British businessman Durand built a one-mile-long "exhibition railway" German small railway along the moat outside the Xuanwu Gate in Beijing, which was the earliest railway in China. Soon after, the Qing rulers ordered it to be demolished on the grounds that "the spectators were horrified". Strictly speaking, this does not yet count as a railway in the true sense of the word.

China's first commercial railway - in 1876, Shanghai Jardine Matheson British businessmen without the consent of the Qing government, used deceptive means to build in Shanghai, unauthorized construction of the Songhu Railway (from Wu Liao to Shanghai), in July 1876 completed and opened to traffic, a total length of 15 kilometers, operating for more than a year, this is the first railway in China to handle passenger and freight transportation business. Later, the Qing government redeemed it with 280,000 taels of silver, and all of them were redeemed and demolished by the Qing government. 】

Today, the thick drawings and texts in Liu Xian's hands are Angela. Merkel's best reward for China is his best. It is necessary to 'adapt measures to local conditions', and Liu Xian can count on the iron and steel factory to complete the foundation of his own business. I don't want to end up in Zhangzhidong's 'Hanyang Iron Works'. Five million taels of silver can't produce a qualified steel rail, and it's almost like a waste.

After the first batch of projects were completed and put into operation at the steel plant, the steel rails produced were the largest source of rails for the Guiqin Railway.

"I hope that today's program planning can be put into construction as much as possible." It is impossible for Liu Xian to give Angela in a short time. Merkel has a reply, and he needs to read it seriously. So before that, he needs to put Angela first. Merkel gift out. If it weren't for the time to eat, he would have feasted Angela. Merkel. But now was not the time to eat, and he didn't want to listen to Angela before he had carefully read the plans and drawings himself. Merkel's tellings and introductions. The formation of preconceived impressions of the province.

But for Angela . Merkel, Liu Xian is very appreciative. If he can, in the future in the construction of the steel plant, he hopes that Lihe can continue to use Angra. Angela Merkel is chief engineer. It's just that it's too early to say this.

Sent away Angra. Merkel, Liu Xian returned to the study and looked at the thick text and drawings seriously. All are in Chinese and German parts. To be honest, there are a lot of professional terms in it, Liu Xian doesn't understand at all. Until dinner in the evening, Liu Xian only remembered a few pictures in his mind.

Angela. Merkel praised the quality of Shiroku iron ore;

Angela. Merkel praised the quality of Hongji coal;

Angela. Merkel praised the natural geographical conditions of Qinzhou Bay as excellent;

Angela. Merkel believes that the establishment of a steel plant in Qinzhou is justified. But he was disagreeable with Liu's plan for the Guiqin Railway. The nearly 600-kilometer journey, the mountains and rivers along the way, and the current acceptance of the railway by the Chinese, and the huge expenditure, at least six million taels of silver, were six times the total investment of the steel mill he handled. Angela. Merkel does not think that the Qin army in his eyes is capable of building such a provincial artery. Although he admired Liu Xian's courage very much, his will did not match the reality, and the reality was cold and cruel. (To be continued......) R640