[57] The Wind Blows the Red Flag and the Earth Turns (13)

Cixi tilted her head slightly, and the pearls on her head trembled.

She asked impatiently, "How is it now?" ”

Li Hongzhang raised his head and looked at Cixi, and immediately bowed his head and said: "At present, the armies have been relaxed for a long time, if they attack rashly without training, I am afraid that they will repeat the mistakes of Wang Zhengqi." Moreover...... Moreover, there is no silver for the encirclement and suppression of the army, and the grain and grass needed for tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to march and fight also need to spend a huge amount of silver. According to the minister's rough calculation, Shandong put down the rebellion, and the army needed at least three million taels of silver and grain and grass for the first period. ”

Cixi said angrily: "I want money again!" I don't have any money! You go to Ding Baozhen to ask for it! ”

Li Hongzhang said bluntly: "Wang Zhengqi lost his teacher and died, and also lost all the money and grain in Jinan Mansion, Shandong was affected by drought this year, and the money and grain were already unsustainable. ”

Cixi became even more angry when she heard this: "Find the household department to ask for it!" ”

Hearing this, Dong Sui, the head of the household department, arched his hand sideways and said: "There is a drought in all parts of North China this year, and the money and grain of the household department have long been tight, and the northwest is using troops, and the money and grain of Lord Zuo cannot be supported by the household department, and now Shandong is going to use troops again, and the treasury is really not enough for the army." ”

Cixi snorted coldly and mocked Li Hongzhang: "The imperial court has no money, Lord Li should find a way by himself, otherwise you can discuss with that Yao Fan and ask him to return to you the money you paid for the purchase of warships before." ”

Li Hongzhang was extremely embarrassed for a while, and his face became more and more gray.

Prince Gong Yixin stood up from the side and said: "The minister thinks that the matter is urgent, and now it should be temporarily allocated from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to repair the Old Summer Palace, the garden is so big, I am afraid that it will not be completed in a few years, so it is better to delay it first." ”

When the Minister of the Interior and the Chief Administrator heard this, he hurriedly said: "Since the rebuilding of the Old Summer Palace, more than 40,000 taels of silver have been spent on engineering and office silver, and more than 40,000 taels of silver are still owed to the factories. If there was money, the construction of the garden would not be as slow as it is now. ”

How could Yi Xin not know that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had no money, and he pulled this topic out, just hoping to take this opportunity and completely stop rebuilding the bottomless pit of the Old Summer Palace.

Now the little emperor Guangxu is less than five years old, and all political affairs are in charge of Cixi, and the ministers of the court and the central government no longer pursue the goal of returning to the emperor in the late Tongzhi period. Since Cixi has re-lowered the curtain to listen to the government, and it seems that she will at least rule until the little emperor reaches adulthood, then the reason for rebuilding the Old Summer Palace so that Cixi can have a place to live in her old age after returning to the emperor is no longer valid, and it really does not make sense to continue to fill the silver into the project of rebuilding the Old Summer Palace.

As soon as Cixi heard that the topic was on her head, she secretly scolded the devil six for not being a thing, and her heart was even more troubled, and the hands in her sleeves clenched into fists angrily: "The Ministry of Internal Affairs has proposed several times that there is no money for the project!" It's not that Prince Gong doesn't know that the money for repairing the garden before was still made up with the help of all parties, what does it have to do with the imperial court? ”

Cixi turned her head to the side and didn't look at Yi Xin, looked at the vermilion lacquer pillar on the Heart Cultivation Hall and said, "Master Li, you better find another way for this money!" Don't always play the idea of the emperor's inner library. ”

Li Hongzhang said: "Weichen thinks that there are two ways to consider at the moment. ”

When Cixi heard that Li Hongzhang had two methods, she thought that you Han ghosts still had a lot of ideas, so she hurriedly said: "You talk about it, say it and discuss it, and use it if you can." ”

Li Hongzhang said: "The first method is to prepay the tariff silver from the customs. The second method is to make paper money and return some silver to use. ”

When Cixi heard this, one of the two methods was to ask for help from foreigners, and the other was not to ask foreigners, so she was naturally willing to choose the less humiliating one.

"The advance of customs duties has to deal with foreigners, not to mention the British, even the General Secretary of Customs Hurd may not agree. Tell me, what is the method of that line of banknotes? ”

Li Hongzhang's idea was heard in detail from Li Jingfang, Li Jingshu, and Li Jingxuan, which was also Yao Fan's three sons at the beginning, Li Hongzhang pondered for a long time after hearing it, but because of the Ming Dynasty's treasure money and the people's experience, although he was moved, he never dared to use it lightly, and now the matter is urgent, and he only wants to obey the power.

Li Hongzhang said eloquently: "The imperial court makes paper money, and takes back the silver and copper coins, copper and silver are both metals, and they can be sold for money, so that there will naturally be an entry, and the copper coins and silver of the Qing Dynasty outside are hundreds of millions, even if 10 million taels of silver are withdrawn a year, it is also considerable, and it will not affect the normal monetary order of the market."

Then the government used the exchanged silver for military spending, so that the thieves could be leveled.

In the future, we will still have the money to find foreigners to buy machines and ships, build factories to engage in foreign affairs, and make foreign cloth, steel, dyes, ships and other commodities to sell in China, and gradually shrink the market share of foreign goods. ”

The more Li Hongzhang spoke, the more energetic he became: "When it comes to paper money, some people oppose it, and talk about the treasure money of the Ming Dynasty, but the treasure money of the Ming Dynasty is because the finance has been unable to make ends meet, and it cannot be compared with the current problem of ringworm scabies in the Qing Dynasty." As long as the rubber thieves are eliminated, the deficit in military spending can be stopped. ”

Moreover, the finances of our Qing Dynasty are very good, and the customs revenue is increasing year by year, and it is a good time to have such a source of income as a guarantee.

Now that all the Western countries are in banknotes, wouldn't it be a loss if the Qing Dynasty didn't catch up with this trend? People use paper as money, but the Qing Kingdom uses silver as money, which is really a great loss. ”

Li Hongzhang's words were basically a copy of Yao Fan's nonsense, Yao Fan didn't tell him, the reason why foreigners dare to paper money is because the system of modern countries can effectively control the amount of money! And once any feudal dynasty tastes the sweetness of the money printing machine, it is like a bear licking honey, and it can't stop at all! Moreover, at this time, the banknotes of Western countries had a strong central bank that could control the circulation of money, and could also exchange banknotes for equivalent exchanges, and could use the treasury reserves to exchange banknotes for gold and silver.

When Cixi heard this, she was very moved! So he immediately asked the ministers present: "Do you think this law is feasible?" ”

Li Hongzhang took the lead and said: "When the long hair was eradicated, the official tickets of the household department and the treasure banknotes of the Qing Dynasty were also used, which was an expedient measure, and it was harmless to use it in small amounts. ”

Prince Gong Yixin, who is also a Westernist, said: "At the turn of autumn and winter, it is the time to build river water conservancy, and the imperial court can pay for this year's river work silver with paper money, so that the silver can be freed up for military expenses." ”

A powerful minister, plus a relative of the emperor, the two of them supported the paper money policy in one go, and there was a precedent of paper money in order to suppress bandits during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, where were the other ministers willing to stir up this bowl of troubled waters, they kept silent.

Li Hongzao, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, was anxious when he heard it, although his name was one word different from Li Hongzhang, but he did not have any relatives, and immediately stood up and said: "Paper money instead of silver is a bad government, how can it!" There must be complaints about the receipt of paper money in various places, how to be willing to work hard? ”

Cixi choked and said, "Then you and I will find the silver to come out!" ”

Li Hongzaomu stood there stunned, speechless.

Cixi said again: "The northwest wants to use soldiers, and Shandong wants to use soldiers, where does the imperial court have so much money to fight?" Now that the Shandong soldiers and horses are fighting almost completely with Yao Fan, presumably at this time, the gang of rubber thieves is attacking the city!

Shen Guifen, let me ask you, in addition to Mo Zushen and Li Peirong, there are more than 2,000 horses in Shandong, isn't there also the green camp of Yanzhou Town and Caozhou Town? There are more than 4,000 people in each of the two divisions, and a total of 10,000 people, can't they suppress bandits? ”

Shen Guifen, the secretary of the military department, stood up and said: "The green battalions of Yanzhou Town and Caozhou Town are both garrison battalions, which are stationed in various places in peacetime, and they are good at defending the city and not good at field battles.

Besides, most of the weapons in the green battalion are old, there are very few foreign guns, most of them are bird guns, big knives and spears, and the gang of rubber thieves all use new foreign guns, and there are hundreds of cannons! More than 1,000 people can wipe out more than 4,000 Huai troops! How can such a bandit be attacked by the Green Battalion? ”

The more Cixi listened, the more angry her face became: "According to this, you can only rely on the Huai army?" ”

Shen Guifen bowed his head and arched his hand: "The minister has a word, I don't know whether to say it or not." ”

Cixi frowned and said, "When is it?" Let's get straight to the point! ”

Shen Guifen said: "I have repeatedly seen the twists and turns of Pingdu Tongzhi Jin Ruchun, he said that Yao Fan's rubber thieves did not kill the people after entering the city, nor did they slaughter the troops, but only transported away the money, grain, treasury and silver, and then gave up the city that was finally captured, and retreated directly to a corner of Jimo in Jiaozhou. Similarly, after the thieves conquered Jiangshan County, they did not garrison the army, but only abandoned the city after transporting money and grain.

Isn't that suspicious? When all the public in the hall heard about the rebellion, they were all angry and eager to be punished, didn't they want to know why he Yao Fan rebelled? ”

Cixi asked suspiciously, "Then you can talk about it." ”

Shen Guifen took out a letter from his sleeve and presented it: "This is Jin Ruchun's secret letter, the military contribution department pretended to recruit security, and the letter detailed what the thief Yao Fan said to Jin Ruchun in private. ”

The eunuch took the letter and handed it to Cixi, but Cixi didn't read it and asked, "Since you have read the letter, then tell me about it." ”

Shen Guifen spat and said: "This letter has nothing to do with the military situation, but just the words of Jin Ruchun's family, the minister of peace." Chen originally thought that he was a little acquaintance, and what he said was irrelevant, but the reason for it was still worth saying.

That Jin Ruchun said that Yao Fan complained to him, saying that he was blackmailed by the new general Lu Shan, and that Lu Shan came to Jiaozhou and commanded him, insisting that Yao Fan's family was wealthy, and asked him to take out 500,000 taels of silver to help him, Yao Fan refused, and begged hard for wine, during the banquet, Lu Shan was angry, insulted Yao Fan's ancestors, and scolded him for being a Han dog, about drinking too much, Lu Shan ordered his soldiers to tie up Yao Fan, saying that if he did not take out the silver to redeem, he would be put in prison. ”

When Shen Guifen said this, she saw that although the Han officials in the Heart Cultivation Hall were all bowing their heads, they had rich expressions on their faces, and some of them were full of resentment; Some have nervous expressions; Some sighed silently.

Shen Guifen felt that something was wrong, but it was difficult to stop halfway through the words, so she had to continue: "That Yao Fan was ordered by Ding Junmen in Shandong to operate Xiangyong, and the leader of Xiangyong under his command was his personal family, surnamed He Shicheng, this person was reckless, seeing that Yao Fan was imprisoned, he immediately took Xiangyong to rob the prison, and the conflict with the soldiers of the general Yamen caused a fatality, then He Shicheng did not do anything, robbed the prison and released Yao Fan, and arrested Lu Shan and put him in prison.

Yao Fan said to Jin Ruchun that Na Lushan is now in prison.

The minister thought that since he said this, looking at what he did immediately after attacking the city and retreating, he didn't want to wait for the court to recruit peace. ”

After Shen Guifen said this, Cixi's face was already dark.

"Who is Lu Shan?"

"Back to the Queen Mother, General Lu's sister married the cousin of the eldest brother Yixuan in the Fuguo Mansion as a house-filler, and his title of general was just activated this year, for such a lack of activities, he probably has a tight deficit." Shen Guifen had already found out everything and hurriedly reported it.

Cixi was displeased: "How did the officials do it? What kind of foolish things are sent out? Such a slave who causes trouble, even if he saves his life and comes back in the future, he will have to ask the Zongren Mansion to deal with him heavily! ”

Shen Guifen hurriedly said: "This matter is Yao Fan's private complaint to Jin Ruchun, and his words may not be taken seriously, but Weichen feels that since Yao Fan regrets it so much, it is better to ask someone to pretend to recruit him and him, even if he can't recruit An, at least he can continue to stay in Jimo hesitantly, not to go around making trouble, and wait for the imperial army to raise enough food and grass, and the soldiers and horses are well trained, and when the time comes, he will be caught off guard." ”

The military department is full of Shangshu Guangshou and said: "The queen mother is angry, and she can't be angry for a thief, so Yao Fan is making such a big deal now, do you still expect Zhao'an?" I don't think so! ”

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