"There is no virtuous in the Xianliang Temple!"

I don't know when this sentence began to be preached in the capital, the reason is also simple Xianliang Temple because of its proximity to the imperial palace, for many years has been the place where local Xinjiang officials enter Beijing to report their work, this Xianliang Temple in the ancient cypress towering to the sky, the old Huai shade, the house is spacious, very quiet. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 There are delicate and vivid murals in the temple, but for the local officials who used to be here, most of them were not interested in the scenery in the temple.

Logically speaking, the principle of local Xinjiang officials going to Beijing to report on their work is to "bring more people and more silver." The former is used to make ideas, while the latter is used to make good friends with Beijing officials. However, this time, when the Xicrossyuan in Xianliang Temple, which is used by the "Beiyang Minister" all the year round, ushered in the Beiyang Minister, some monks in Xianliang Temple found that this Master Li was not very different from ordinary - there were very few attachés, but more than 30 people, except for the guards and sedan chair men, there was no staff member with him, only Li Jingfang, who had just returned from Japan, came to this Xianliang Temple with him.

In the hall of the West Cross Courtyard, because of the heavy rain in the sky, it seems to be a little cool this summer, but an old man is wearing a single clothes, standing by the door of the hall, looking at the heavy rain outside the door with deep eyes, and the tea smoke in the teacup he holds in his hand rises and changes.

Outside the window, the sound of rain hitting the eaves was heard, but it was messy.

This old man is the powerful minister of the world, known as the Bismarck of the East, and Li Hongzhang, the minister of Beiyang and the governor of Zhili, who holds countless important positions. As in the past, I lived in Kenryo Temple.

"There is no virtuous in the virtuous temple". This sentence is talking about him Li Hongzhang. In fact, this is popular in the capital, but it is said that those local officials who live here, in fact, only Hanchen will live in Xianliang Temple when he goes to Beijing, as for the Manchu ministers, most of them have their own houses in the inner city, even if Li Hongzhang, who is the minister of Beiyang and the governor of Zhili, does not have his own house in the inner city, and all the people who live in this place are banner people. Naturally, there is no place for him, Hanchen.

There is no virtuous in the Xianliang Temple, whether there is no virtuous in this temple, or the country does not allow the virtuous, I am afraid that only the people who are in it will know that in the past eighteen days, the Beiyang land and water division that he worked hard to build has suffered heavy losses in southern Liaoning, and the heavy land of the naval division Lushunkou is occupied by the enemy, and only a little remnant of the army will be withdrawn from southern Liaoning, and the sailor division is still in Shanghai and Singapore for maintenance. And this court also pointed to him to save him.

Decades of ups and downs in the sea, a lifetime of achievements. It's like just a spring dream. It's time to wake up and think like this in your heart. Li Hongzhang's voice sounded in his ears:

"Dad, when will this Queen Mother be summoned?"

As if he had been awakened from a dream, Li Hongzhang turned his head in astonishment, looked at his son, and smiled for a while.

"According to the rules, I handed over the excerpt today, and the queen mother or emperor should be summoned tomorrow......"

Rules, there are too many things to follow the rules.

"Dad, there may be a number of people waiting for Dad to send someone to deliver the silver!"

When Li Jingfang spoke, the corners of his lips were raised, with a hint of ridicule on his face, every time his father entered Beijing in the past, the silver he gave away was as little as tens of thousands of taels, even if his father mentioned every time he went to Beijing to report on his work, it was a headache, and the silver sent out that year, even if it was less than 100,000 taels, or nearly a million taels, if it was used to do things, how much could it do? But over the years, tens of millions of taels of silver have been paid out, and what has been exchanged for it?

"From now on, we will never send it again!"

When he said this, the beard on Li Hongzhang's face jumped slightly, and after this sentence came out, he looked at his son and commanded.

"Let's go to Prince Gong's Mansion first! You go along! ”

It was four o'clock in the afternoon to King Gong's mansion. Although the summer days are long, but because of the rain, there are still two hours before the dark, King Gong specially led the way, leading Li Hongzhang into the study "Tao Lu", and today at this time of the banquet hospitality. This is not simplification, but compassion, because when the banquet is set up in the main hall, the prince's etiquette is closed, and the clothes are rarely compromised, is it not to make the guests suffer? The study is set up to sit down, just for convenience. There is only one accompanying guest, it is Yixun's eldest son Zaicheng, and he specially invited his eldest son to accompany him, so he does not take Li Hongzhang as an outsider.

Officialdom has always been like this, and even together with Li Hongzhang himself, the reason why he brought his eldest son Li Jingfang to visit King Gong also has this meaning, although the thoughts can be different, but the four hosts and guests, this will be around a marble-faced mahogany round table, into a Dingzhi momentum, no distinction between up and down, talking about nature is gossip, although they did not take the initiative to talk about the current situation, but after all, the words still came to the current situation.

"That's right! Lao Zhongtang, I heard that the HSBC Bank used to borrow money, although it was relented to foreign countries, and secretly there were many rich Chinese businessmen's silver. The money borrowed each time is sold in Shanghai as stated in the contract. It can be seen that the loan is actually the silver of the people. Why do Chinese people dare not lend to their own country, and would rather let foreign merchants exploit them? ”

King Gong casually mentioned the facts he had heard recently, whether it was the 17 million taels of the navy's loan or the 20 million taels of the loan just agreed between the Beiyang Yamen and HSBC, all of them were sold in Shanghai.

"It's not as good as the faith of foreign businessmen. Just as the merchants and people in various provinces now borrow millions of silver, those who can borrow it are forced by the official situation, not their own intentions. ”

Li Hongzhang made an assertion, in fact, in his heart, what he wanted to say was that "the court has no trust" and naturally cannot borrow silver.

During this period, there were even more unscrupulous counties and counties, coerced and suppressed in many ways, and even reversed the rich and the poor, solicited bribes and expelled them, and demanded nameless fees from the gentry who lent them, which was full of drawbacks and frequent slanders. Such and such...... Of course, it will make the businessmen hesitate and dare not apply...... Cough! ”

Li Hongzhang shook his head and didn't want to say any more.

When it comes to this layer, King Gong evokes endless things, to run a navy, to increase the flag salary, to repay foreign debts, and to build an imperial garden for the queen mother to maintain, and a lot of silver must be spent everywhere. Last year, Russia wanted to destroy Japan, and in order to strengthen the navy, it had to borrow 17 million taels of silver, and now Tang Haoran rebelled, and he had to raise tens of millions of silver to quell the rebellion, but where did the silver come from?

"Old Middle Hall!"

King Gong wanted to be calm but couldn't calm down, it turned out that he was preparing a meal and calmly discussing the business, so he couldn't help but talk about it in advance:

"It's better to be in a hurry! Now that the navy has been set up to prevent the Russians, and the rebellion of the Tang Dynasty has to be quelled, the funds are getting more and more, and if there is no long-term policy for long-term peace and stability, it is a great thing in terms of financial management! ”

"The prince saw it, and Hongzhang thought so too. The way of financial management is nothing more than to save money and open source, Yan Danchu comprehensively checked the name and truth, and tried to put an end to the overflow, and the layer of throttling was entrusted to someone. As for the way of open source, at the beginning of the year, Hongzhang said it very clearly, and I think the prince has always heard of it! ”

King Gong should be able to remember. At that time, Zhangzhidong in Hubei Province asked to make copper dollars, and Shandong also asked to make copper dollars, and Li Hong, as the minister of Beiyang, also asked to make copper to solve the needs of the people.

"You mean this copper dollar, isn't it true that the court has already promised you? However, far water can't save near fire, the key is how to raise money in front of you? ”

This question, in Li Hongzhang's "right heart", he thought for a while, and slowly replied:

"The prince always remembers that there was a discussion of printed money on the original fold. In Western countries, banknotes not only pass through their own countries, but also have exchange markets in other countries, so why can't we print them in the Qing Dynasty? If the household department imitates the foreign method of fine printing banknotes, and sends them to all provinces in Haiphong every year at a rate of 1 million, the most important thing is that the entry and exit are consistent, and all the taxes paid after the grain are paid are allowed to be collected in a number, and they are no different from cash. When the credit is established and the four seas are passed, the benefits are indescribable! ”

"This ......"

King Gong said suspiciously,

"Isn't this the method of issuing treasure money in previous dynasties? I've talked to a lot of people about this method, but the explanation has never been successful. ”

"Yes, all dynasties have never succeeded in issuing treasure money. However, how can the northern ticket number and the silver ticket of the southern money bank be opened? The ticket of the Beijing division 'Siheng', through the capital Dayi, is all passed, and the reason is that our silver ticket is real, and if we issue a thousand taels of silver tickets, there will be a thousand taels of silver placed there. It's like in a gambling game, you take money to buy chips first, the chips are worth as much as you want, and no one will suspect that you can't exchange chips for money after gambling. If there is also cash in the banknotes, the credit will be good. ”

"Old Middle Hall!"

Zai Cheng, who was originally accompanying him on the side, hurriedly said on the side,

"When you say this, I think of an allusion, just like Wang Jiefu wants to turn Dongting Lake into fertile land."

Li Hongzhang was stunned for a moment, thought about it carefully, and then remembered that the allusion that Zai Cheng said was actually the story of Liu Gongfu. This is a story that can be counted in the notes of the Song people, and Zai Cheng also misremembered. The original record: Wang Anshi loves to talk about things that benefit the country, and some villains echo the flattery, saying that Liangshan is 800 miles away, and the water becomes a field, which can make great profits. When Wang Anshi heard this suggestion, he was very happy, but after thinking about it, he wondered, where can the water be tolerated? At that time, Liu Gongfu, a first-class figure in Dongfang Shuo, was sitting in a guest seat and replied to Wang Anshi's words: "Next to Liangshanbo, another 800-mile-large water pool can accommodate the water that has been decided. Wang Anshi immediately laughed when he heard this, and stopped talking about this suggestion.

And this would be a quote to the meaning of this allusion: why issue any more money when the silver is there? Of course, Li Hongzhang understood, and replied appreciatively:

"Good question, Baylor! When banks issue banknotes, it is naturally not necessary to dig 800 miles of water to accommodate Liangshanbo. It is not necessary to prepare a bill of 10,000 taels of silver, and there is room for manoeuvre. However, this is not an indiscriminate issuance of money, it is the use of one money into two money, and it is also an interest-free debt, which is not harmful to the people and beneficial to the country, and it is the best abacus. ”

"Old Middle Hall,"

Yixun, who listened very attentively, immediately realized that this was a good solution to the problem, so he hurriedly continued to ask.

"Tell me more! I still can't figure out the reasoning. ”

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