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Weng Mansion, when I came to Weng Mansion, the rain outside the house was still falling, it was rainy in spring, even in the capital, the raindrops fell on the green tiles on the roof only made a few crisp sounds, in the water ripples that slid down the green tiles, in the Weng Mansion study, Tang Haoran was respectful with Weng Tonggong to discuss the problem, from the current affairs of the Taixi powers, to the domestic current situation, it can be said that everything is discussed, and as the topic returns to the country, Weng Tongyi nods his head from time to time, and occasionally praises his beard, obviously, Tang Haoran's every sentence spoke to his heart.

"Of course, Xiang Ye knows that in the light of twenty years, that is, the ** war fifty years ago, we lost that battle, reparated and ceded Hong Kong, but then the real defeat was that we signed the "Treaty of Nanjing", "Humen Treaty" and articles of association with Britain, Britain not only got Hong Kong, indemnity and the right to trade with five ports, but also got one-sided most-favored-nation treatment, one-sided agreement tariffs, consular jurisdiction and warships stationed in the treaty port, and then, the United States and France successively used force to threaten and negotiate the same as Britain. Even more than the privileges of Britain, after the Taixi powers opened our door, the small European and American countries heard the news and wanted to make treaties with us, and as a result, at that time, we "treated everyone equally" in accordance with the tradition of "the heavenly kingdom" and "the diplomacy of the domain", and gave all kinds of privileges to the great powers in addition to the cession of land. Xiangye, why is this? ”

Tang Haoran only shouted Weng Tongyi for a while, and at this time, Tang Haoran's words only made him feel heartbroken immediately.

"At that time, the dynasty did not understand Taixi, lest the countries of Thailand collude due to the negotiations of small countries, and then damage the national situation!"

Weng Tongyi's explanation made Tang Haoran secretly laugh in his heart, is this really the case? However, since the other party is now the backer he is looking for, he naturally does not object, not to mention, in history, these so-called clear streams were originally "not enough to achieve things, but more than to lose", Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and even Ito Hirofumi declared that the reason why China is not to be afraid is because "China's affairs are all ruined in the hands of the clear stream of words", for this kind of "no ability to do things, but there is a merit of failure", it is better to try to make friends, and it is best to be able to help them.

"It's not terrible to lose the war, this is a defeat on the battlefield, we can do it again, the foreigners are strong, we buy equipment, set up factories, and we can always defeat them, but the real reason why the Taixi countries defeated us is that they are fundamentally outdated, but our China, is not without a place that is not stronger than Taixi, such as China's Lun Chang Mingjiao, which was respected by the Taixi countries hundreds of years ago, for example, our imperial examination system is respected by the world's first power - the United Kingdom......"

"Oh, really?"

Weng Tongyi heard that the British admired the imperial examination of the dynasty, and immediately became interested, these years, everyone looked at foreigners just envy and fear, although they thought that "the famous teaching of China is far superior to the Taixi countries", but that is just a closed door to say it himself, and now Tang Haoran, such a "foreign" person, also said so, how can he not be excited.

"Of course, for hundreds of years, people from various countries in Taixi have respected our country's imperial examinations, and even if we have lost in many wars, Taixi scholars still praise our country's imperial examination system. In his "General Treatise on China", Lian Shi said: "China's excellent examination system for the recruitment of civil and military generals is the only place where their system differs from any great monarchy, ancient or modern, ......"

Tang Haoran quoted the praise of foreigners, which made Weng Tongyi feel extremely comfortable in his heart, and he stroked his beard and smiled from time to time, as if he enjoyed this feeling of being admired by foreigners.

"What Europeans appreciate is the principle of selecting talents in China's imperial examination system: equal opportunities, fair competition, and merit-based recruitment. They thought that this was an outstanding system that was worth emulating, that is, under our influence, the Tess-West countries began to abolish the system of giving officials and established a system of selecting civil servants from examinations, and France first learned from China in 1791, that is, almost a hundred years ago, and Germany was about 1800. People of insight in Britain have long called on the government to emulate China's imperial examination system and open up the examination for all citizens. In 1833, the principle of merit-based recruitment was confirmed in the United Kingdom, but it was not until 1847 that the first competitive examinations were conducted in a British foreign mission for the appointment of clerks. This was met with criticism, but the British administrative reformers were victorious because it was an excellent system of selecting talent. In 1855, the first civil service board was established in Britain to administer the competitive examination of ordinary civil servants. It was not until 20 years ago that the British civil service examination system was finally established by statute to normalize competitive examinations for the civil service. ”

Although Tang Haoran said these things slightly mentioned in "Tai Xice", he did not mention his relationship with China's imperial examination system, and the reason why Tang Haoran said these words at this time was to pave the way for his following words.

"In the past, Taixi's strength lies in its focus on industry and commerce to hold the art of science and technology to become rich and strong, and now it leads me to China's imperial examination, civil and military officials are judged, and they choose to govern the country with their expertise, supplemented by the art of wealth and strength, and their country can not be strong! But on the other hand, our China, although there is a famous education and science examination, but I don't understand why the West is strong, if as early as 50 years ago, as soon as the war was defeated, we will learn a lesson, do not waste the first 20 years, and then the next 30 years, I am afraid that China today has already returned to the world's top power, has already returned to the prosperity of all nations, how can there be the shame of losing the domain? ”

Tang Haoran's "shame of the Yi You Domain" refers to the "Sino-French New Treaty" signed in 1885 due to the Sino-French War, and China's loss of Vietnam's vassals.

"According to Ziran,"

Since Tang Haoran entered the study, it can be said that every sentence in Weng Tongyi's heart, although he is inclined to reform and reform, but what he tends to is "based on China's common name religion, supplemented by the art of prosperity and strength of various countries", in fact, there is no essential difference from the ministers who are now running foreign affairs. And Tang Haoran's words naturally won his approval, so he said slowly.

"In the past fifty years, is the foreign affairs we have done not worth mentioning?"

This sentence is not so much a problem, but rather that Weng Tongyi wants to know from Tang Haoran's mouth how Li Hongzhang and their foreign affairs are doing.

"Xiangye, you are in the court, and the affairs in the court are naturally clearer than the younger generations, dare to ask Xiangye, what is the person who is doing foreign affairs today?"

"This ......"

When Weng Tongyi groaned, Tang Haoran said.

"Those who do it, there are no other four words - "rich country and strong soldiers", dare to ask Xiangye, the foreign affairs of the dynasty have been established for 30 years, how rich is the country? How strong is the army? ”

After Tang Haoran's words fell, he looked at Weng Tongyi and said.

"If the country is not rich, how can we talk about strong soldiers? If the country has no silver, how can it run factories, build mines, open up routes, and build railways? All of this requires silver, and without it, how can it be done? If the country has money, it will be able to build railways, train new troops, and operate the navy. ”

Weng Tongyi didn't say a word, listened quietly, the Ministry of Household Shangshu, naturally has a deep understanding of this, these years the use of the dynasty is getting bigger and bigger day by day, many problems, in the final analysis, it is still silver, he wants to support Zhang Zhidong to do foreign affairs, but he suffers from lack of financial resources, can only barely maintain, want to advocate the establishment of a sailor, a land division, in order to win Li Hongzhang's support, but also suffer from financial resources, no matter what to do, in the final analysis, or rely on silver to speak, Zhang Zhidong to do foreign affairs, run a sailor, Lu Shi, if there is enough silver, How could he let him Li Hefei run rampant to this day?

"Ziran, in your opinion, how should this rich country and strong army be managed!"

Weng Tongyi looked at Tang Haoran, this Tang Haoran had the "ability to raise money" as early as Wuchang, so he naturally thought of asking him for advice.

Seeing Weng Tongyi like this, Tang Haoran knew that half of the purpose of this trip had been achieved, so he spoke.

"I don't know if Xiang Ye is reading the "Japanese Political Change Examination" written by the younger generation, have you ever paid attention to the Meiji Restoration in Japan, which of the reforms is important?" Tang Haoran's rhetorical question made Weng Tongyi frown slightly, and then said.

Although the Meiji Restoration has changed as much as it imitates Taixi, the "Harmony of the Soul and the West" mentioned by it is somewhat similar to the "Chinese body and Western use", and it does have some merits! ”

Although Weng Tongyi did not answer Tang Haoran's question, Tang Haoran did not ask, but agreed.

"That's natural, the Japanese people have learned my China for thousands of years before, and the one it mentioned is "and the soul of the Han Cai" and the current "and the soul of the foreign talent", with the way of learning, although the person who does it is just "Mu Monkey and crown", but the person it mentioned, but it can be used as a lesson for our country, such as for decades, the people who hold foreign affairs talk about "rich countries and strong soldiers" but do not know how to operate, this point, the way of the Japanese, but can be used for reference! ”

And the reason why he mentioned Japan's "Meiji Restoration" was to quote it to the "reform of the law", now is not five years later, there is no impact on the thinking of the Chinese people caused by the defeat in five years, now it seems to be a little early to talk about the "reform of the law", there is no ideological impact, how can these people who are known for being conservative be willing to change the law, the reason why Weng Tongyi will invite himself over today is that in a certain way, he is not attracted by Japan's reform of the law, but by Japan's "respect for the emperor". As for the so-called reform of the law, it is just staying at the level of "middle school as the body, Western learning as the priority", and talking about changing the law with this kind of person is naturally like playing the piano to a cow. Now we have to find another way to start with something else.

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