April 28, 1894, Tianjin, Beiyang Yamen.

In the room with a bright and clean window, Li Hongzhang occupied a round table, munched on the desk, and used his set of sterling silver tableware that he carried everywhere he went, and frequently made moves against a plate of fat and tender perch in the middle, starting from an inch below the head of the fish, and expanding the position to the belly of the fish.

Li Zhongtang loves to eat sea bass, and everyone knows it. But more people don't know, he didn't suffer less when he was a child, and when he was young, he followed Zeng Guofan to fight in the east and west, and he was tossed several times, until the Huai army was strong and his position was stable, so he had the opportunity to enjoy comfortably.

But this also has a benefit, to boil him a good body bones, seventy years old, the taste is extremely heavy, salty, spicy, eat this fat thing all day long will not accumulate food, but let him full of energy, quick thinking.

He is a person who is accustomed to holding the situation in his hands, and when he opens his eyes, he is the family and the country, and he does not forget to listen to the situation when he eats. No matter what ordinary people hear about the news of the collapse of the sky, it can't make him stop his chopsticks, and casually "uh-huh" in response, still like a knife, beckoning, and eating sweetly.

“…… Today, a newspaper said that the "Guowen Bao" was officially put on sale, and its contents were quite complicated, and there was a suspicion of arrogating the government and government and bewitching the people's minds. He unfulfilled his permission to spread the Japanese espionage case without authorization, with the intention of holding the imperial court hostage with the enthusiasm of the people, and it seems that it should be strictly deterred. ”

The staff member who gave it quickly was about to read the next one, when Li Hongzhang suddenly raised his chopsticks: "Slow, tell me about this article in detail." So what's going on with "National News"? ”

"Yes! According to the verification of Tianjin Dao, the newspaper came from the newly opened newspaper office in the British Concession, and the editor-in-chief was Yan Youling, printed with Western machine qì, which was quite sophisticated and clean, and there were new punctuation marks and sentence breaks, with the vernacular text as the main body, and the pictures and texts were rich. There are important news and current affairs reviews, novel words, overseas anecdotes, English teaching, and business advertisements. The content is varied, universal, and extremely popular. ”

"Yan Youling? Hehe, it seems that he is really determined to find another way! ”

Li Hongzhang didn't care about the content, he commented on the person first. He has always believed that it is all because of people, and the release of this "Guowen Bao" can be known without asking, there must be someone in the center to preside over it, this is the imperial examination is not going through, so he delusionally wants to get a road to heaven from the aspect of public opinion!

People in the upper echelons know that the current Guangxu Emperor is already old, and with the support of Weng Tongyi and other imperial party Qingliu, he has always wanted to take power in person, and really drove the father of the Empress Dowager to the Summer Palace to enjoy the blessings. It was a young and novel acute child, and he didn't see Lafayette's desire for power to control the overall situation, and he didn't have the slightest intention of handing over power at all.

But there are still a large number of young people who don't know the height of the sky, thinking that they have the opportunity to make a move to the heavens, and they will be on the rise! This Yan Youling is forty years old, why is he still so naïve? It's just out of place!

Li Hongzhang sneered, waved his chopsticks and ordered: "Bring me a copy of the newspaper later." Go on. Then he slammed at the half-crippled perch.

"Yes. Li Jingfang, the special envoy to Japan, has arrived in Tokyo to meet with Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito. Prime Minister Ito apologized for the espionage case and promised to investigate it thoroughly. Li Qinenvoy believed that the Japanese people had no intention of repentance, that the government and the opposition had a tendency to overthrow Ito's conservatism, and that the people's support for the war prevailed. Caution should be exercised with embankments. ”

Again, it's the same set of arguments. Li Hongzhang didn't raise his head, and the staff consciously skipped this one.

There are dozens of important pieces of news, and every thing has to make the heads of ordinary officials three times, but Li Hongzhang has long been accustomed to it, like the wind passing through a clear pond, and the water is not rippling. After eating step by step, drinking tea and rinsing his mouth, wiping his hands and cleaning, and then pacing back and forth slowly along the courtyard verandah, feeling a little hot on his body, he immediately stopped and turned back to the study.

At this time, Zhang Peilun rushed over with an hour, presented a copy of the "Guowen Daily" that exuded the smell of ink with both hands, and said solemnly: "Fu Xiang! Yan Youling's actions are unusual, the content of this newspaper is very profound, and the picture is not small! ”

"What a fuss, there is an old man, and the sky can't fall!"

Li Hongzhang sat upright, took the newspaper and shook it, didn't rush to read the content, first scanned the entries and typesetting, and said in surprise: "Hey, it's really a cost!" Have you counted, how many fonts are used here? How much effort does it take to get so many photos? There are also the sailing schedules, the price of water feet, the price of rice and noodles in foreign goods stores and markets, whether it is approved? ”

Zhang Peilun nodded deeply: "I have asked the British Concession's "Yiwen Western News" and "Beijing-Tianjin Times", they can't make such a newspaper, and the price of 10 yuan will lose a lot of money." The figures are accurate and informative, not false. The key is that this is the first newspaper that is only available to Chinese people, and the content of it is enough to cause a trend, so you must not be careful! ”

Li Hongzhang squinted his old eyes, and from the headlines on the front page, it turned out to be a commentary on the Japanese espionage case, in which a large number of data were used to describe in detail that in recent decades, Japan has continued to gain an inch of progress, deliberately scheming to loot the intelligence of the Qing Dynasty, and surveying and mapping the geographical map of mountains and rivers.

Later, Yan Fu personally wrote an editor-in-chief commentary, in which he determined that Japan would definitely provoke a war in order to realize its ambition of dominating Asia, based on his professional qualifications as the general manager of the Beiyang Naval Academy and the honor student of the Royal Naval College in the United Kingdom. In addition, the commander of the Far East Fleet of the British Empire, Fremant, said that "one country carries out such large-scale espionage against another, and at the same time wantonly expands its navy in a way that is beyond the economic capacity of its country, and there is only one purpose, war!" ”

In this regard, Yan Fu shouted: "Be prepared for danger in times of peace, and forget about the war!" Japan is ready for an all-out war, and we must not unilaterally hope that peace will last forever, but we must wait for it and be vigilant against drastic changes! ”

When Li Hongzhang saw this, his beard shook slightly, his thin fingers flicked the newspaper, and said with a smile: "Look, I don't know, I thought he was advocating for the old man and the Beiyang sailors!" ”

Zhang Peilun's headache is here. If it only exaggerates the Japanese threat, most of the high-ranking officials and the public will stop when the gossip spreads for a few days. However, he also said that he would continue to expand the navy, increase appropriations, and update ships, which would inevitably attract the attention of political opponents, and properly pull hatred for Li Zhongtang!

It can be expected that the overwhelming cross-examination is indispensable, Li Hongzhang has just opened the espionage case and beaten Zhang Zhidong, and now that this is happening, they will inevitably make a decisive move! In particular, these grandsons couldn't pull the birthday of the Empress Dowager Xi as a pretense to talk about things, and Li Zhongtang had to be anxious for a while.

Li Hongzhang is not afraid of bites because of lice, but he feels that Yan Fu has actually learned to be flexible, and he patted himself tactfully, which was really unexpected. But the method is obviously wrong, but it is causing trouble, which is really laughable.

The next important news, regarding the rebellion of the Donghak Party in Korea, the latest news is that the day before yesterday, its main force had occupied Baeksan, gathered a crowd to revolt, and the gathering of followers would become an irremediable disaster. With the corruption of the Joseon Daejun and Concubine Min's relatives, and the incompetence of the officials, they will be unstoppable, or they will be able to go down to Jeolla Province and threaten Gyeonggi in ten days. The solution must be sought from the suzerain, the Qing Dynasty.

Li Hongzhang has always looked down on those rebellious mud legs, thinking that they are just a rabble. He attaches more importance to the latter statement, which is very in line with the mentality of today, the Heavenly Empire, and those who hear it will be complacent about it, and even publicize it everywhere, so is the newspaper still worried about not selling?

The later "Manuscript of the History of Chinese Gewu" seems absurd at first, but it actually starts from the unknowable millions of years ago, with the ancestral grinding stone as a knife, the wrong bone as a needle, hunting for a living, and even the next seven or eight thousand years, domesticating pigs and dogs, planting rice, making pottery, and sharpening the original jade...... In addition to the physical evidence, a qiē is the first to say.

Li Hongzhang is not the kind of sour and rotten literati who reads books, and when he tastes it carefully, he feels that something is wrong. This is to put the ancient civilization that cannot be examined, list it in detail, and inherit it in a series, regardless of whether it can be known, there must be the humanistic reproduction of the three emperors and five emperors and the Xia, Shang and Zhou, and it will become a model of Chinese Gewu scholarship throughout ancient and modern times! This is to challenge the slander and suppression of Western countries, and it is also to open a new road to fame in addition to the eight shares!

It's hard to get this thing out of the way without attracting discussion and pursuit! Whether you are for or against, you must first read before you can speak, and you must have a platform to speak, so those who buy newspapers, initiate arguments, submit articles, stir up trouble or take advantage of it, can roll up a strong wind in an instant, and you can't stop it!

Li Hongzhang immediately thought about banning this "Guowen Bao". Keeping something so incendiary is pure evil!

But after thinking about it, he couldn't make up his mind. What level and ability Yan Fu is, he couldn't be clearer. On his own, he would never be able to come up with such a precise and detailed thing, and there must be a large group of people behind him who are supporting and giving advice!

Look at the words of the novel in the back, all kinds of small knowledge, without the collection and sorting of a large number of personnel, long-term accumulation, it is simply not enough to support continuous publication.

Li Hongzhang can assert that every section in this is a book, or any book that can sell well all over the world! Dozens of completely unrelated novels, how many people have to work together, and how many Chenguang's painstaking solitudes can be done?

At this point, he can understand why the staff attaches so much importance to this newspaper, and Zhang Peilun is so solemn, it really has too much impact!

Putting down the newspaper, Li Hongzhang thought for a while, and suddenly asked: "You said, when this thing is transmitted to the palace, what will the emperor and the queen mother think?" ”

Zhang Peilun smiled bitterly: "The emperor must be greatly appreciated, Xigong ...... I'm afraid I'm going to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight. ”

Li Hongzhang smiled silently: "Yes, then let them fight first." Well, if there is a new edition of this newspaper in the future, remember to send it to me first. Hehe, I haven't encountered such an interesting thing in a few days, so let's take a look, where did the loaches come from, making waves in Lao Tzu's territory! ”