Since it has been decided that Li Hezhang will defect to the Jingwu Army, the remaining question is where to start, and on this point, Li Hezhang and Li Hongzhang's opinions are surprisingly consistent, that is, they cannot enter politics, but must join the army.

In Li Hongzhang's view, it is a troubled time now, and it is more reliable to join the army in the troubled times, and the achievements that can be obtained in the future are also greater, and the main reliance of the Jingwu Army is the army, and only by joining the Jingwu Army can we learn more information from the inside, so that in the future, whether they want to deal with Li Yongji or defect to Li Yongji, they can have a more detailed reference.

Li Hezhang didn't think so much, he just preferred to lead the army, and he felt that the current civil affairs system in Jiangnan was too weird, and the scholars were excluded, but the local businessmen were in power, and he was afraid that it would be difficult for an outsider to integrate into that strange bureaucratic circle, in comparison, there were not so many worries about joining the army, although there was also a difference between locals and outsiders, but the difference was not so big.

Well, the tone of joining the army has also been set, and then it is how to join the army.

If it is a normal court soldier and horse, Li Hongzhang still has a way to deal with it, it is nothing more than a money word, but the elite army is self-contained, and it can't spend money to buy officials at all, so it can only go to the recruitment office to compete for recruitment, but then you have to start from a small soldier, which is what Li Hongzhang is not happy to see. Because in Li Hongzhang's heart, even if his third brother is not as good as himself, he is also full of poetry and books, and he is talented, how can he be mixed with that group of farmers as a small soldier?

After all, the middle and senior officers in the Jingwu Army are all newly promoted magnates, and they were not famous at all before, or before they followed the Jingwu Army to become famous, they were all low-level officials that Li Hongzhang would not look at, so these people had no friendship with Li Hongzhang in the past, and if they did not have a relationship, they naturally couldn't have a relationship.

You can't use money, and you can't find a relationship. didn't want Li Hezhang to start as a soldier, so Li Hongzhang was a little difficult at this time.

"Second brother doesn't have to be embarrassed, I've also thought about this." Li Hezhang seemed to be confident, "I plan to apply for the Qingpu Military Academy." ”

"Qingpu Military Academy? What is that? After all, Li Hongzhang has been staying in the concession area of Shanghai, and obviously has not heard of this military school.

"It's a school dedicated to teaching officers." Li Hezhang said, "I heard that the site of the school is the place where Li Yongji started his military training, and the things taught in the school are all from Li Yongji, but they are actually Westerners' art of war." There you should not only learn the art of war, but also learn drills. Learning to shoot a gun, it is said that the guys used are the same as the elite of the elite army, and once you learn it there, you can become an officer when you come out, and you don't have to start as a big soldier. ”

"Oh, I see." Li Hongzhang's comprehension was not bad, and he quickly understood the meaning of this, "Set up a special school to teach officers? Isn't this similar to learning martial arts? ”

"Exactly." Li Hezhang nodded and said, "But in the past, the martial arts of the imperial court were all looking for teachers by themselves. Learn by yourself, and then take exams by yourself, people are specially set up schools to teach people, to say. It's a bit like the national eunuch in the army. Well, I've thought about it, the kind of troops of the Jingwu Army use Western firearms. What we learn is Western-style tactics, and we really don't know much about them, the so-called knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent. A hundred battles will not be defeated, only by understanding what is going on inside them, can they have a good future in the future. ”

"Well, now that you've decided, let's do it for now." Li Hongzhang sighed and patted Li Hezhang on the shoulder, "It's really difficult for you, you have to learn from scratch here alone." ”

"What did the second brother say?" Li Hezhang smiled, "This is all my own willingness!" ”

Just when Li Hongzhang and Li Hezhang, the two speculators, were discussing in the guest room how to bet on both ends and how to soar in the coming troubled times, they didn't know that in the room next to them, there were also two idealists discussing things at this time, and they were also talking about Li Yongji and Jingwujun.

These two people are both young people in their early thirties, they both have braided hair, and they both wear Western clothes, and even the tone of their speech is straightforward, and at a glance they know that they are the kind of fake foreign devils who have been compradors or stayed abroad.

At this moment, a young man wearing round glasses shook his head: "Brother Chunfu, it's the right time to come to Shanghai with you this time, if you don't come here, I don't know that my China has changed so much, and there is hope for prosperity, and there is hope for prosperity." ”

"Yes, if you don't see it with your own eyes, who would believe that there will be such a big change in less than half a year." The young man called Chunfu also nodded, "Xuanqing, to be honest, although I have been in Shanghai for the past two years, I haven't changed so much before, it seems that it started half a year ago, and it suddenly changed, and the source of this change is the handsome man who is less than fifteen years old."

Hehe, in fact, even if Lan Qing didn't write to me, I had already planned to go to the handsome, who knew that there was a delay before, but Lan Qing ran in my head, went to others first, and turned around to recruit me, hehe, or he was lucky. ”

"Lan Qing." The bespectacled young man nodded, "He has always been lively, he is very talkative, and he talks all day long about finding the Lord, changing the law, chasing the Tartars, and strengthening the country." In the past, we laughed at him, saying that it was impossible for anyone to listen to him, but we didn't expect that it was he who ran over our heads, and actually became some kind of foreign minister, but he soared into the sky. Hey, don't talk about him, it's incredible that even you can be the Minister of Science and Education. ”

"What's so incredible about this." The young man who didn't wear glasses smiled, "The new dynasty has a new atmosphere, this shows the courage of the handsome man to reduce talents in an eclectic way, I just took a fancy to this point and was willing to serve him, not just to be this official." And what's wrong with me being the Minister of Science and Education, can't I still be able to do it? Besides, now that you have come over, we have the opportunity to work together again, with your talent, with the mind of a handsome, your achievements in the future will not be under me. ”

"We'll talk about that later." The bespectacled man smiled and looked very cheerful.

The Lan Qing that these two people are talking about is Wang Tao, and when Li Yongji was still the governor of Jiangnan in the Qing court, he was given a position as the minister of foreign affairs, in fact, he was asked to pull people who knew foreign affairs over for his use.

Wang Tao was also concerned, and soon pulled many former friends and colleagues over, such as Rong Hong was quickly invited by him, and Rong Hong and Li Yongji also met and chatted. They were quite satisfied with each other, and Rong Hong also agreed to be the head of the business delegation and lead the business delegation to the United States for business and cultural exhibitions.

However, after that, Li Yongji soon started the late summer offensive, defeated the Taiping army, and then there was the interception of silver, and then soon after that, he completely turned his face with the Qing court, and then he was busy with coal chemical industry, and he had no chance to organize a business delegation, which also made Rong Hong and Wang Tao idle again.

After being free. Rong Hong was okay, wandering around and looking around, watching the new changes in the Jiangnan region under the rule of the Jingwu Army, the more he watched, the more excited he became, and it stimulated the blood in his heart to change the world.

Wang Tao is different, he joined the Jingwu Army relatively early, and these changes have long been known, and now he is addicted to pulling people, or showing off. became an official fan, so he used the excuse that his status was too low to attract people, and he wanted to be a big official.

As a result, Li Yongji gave him the position of foreign minister, whose main function was to deal with foreigners. At the same time, it is also convenient for him to attract people who understand foreign affairs to enter the elite army.

In fact, the foreign secretary is a bluffing position, which looks like a bull, but in fact has limited power. If you really calculate it, the nature is similar to that of a headhunting company.

After all, if you really deal with foreigners, foreigners will go directly to Li Yongji. He will not go to find Wang Tao, so the real role of the foreign minister is to bring in Chinese who understand foreign affairs.

In other words, Li Yongji gave Wang Tao a new official position and an establishment, as for how many people can be available under him, the foreign minister, it will be up to him to pull the head.

The more people he pulls, the stronger the department will be, and the more funds he wants, of course, it is not just a random pull, the people he pulls have to go through Li Yongji's eyes, and Li Yongji can only let him be an errand under Wang Tao, so that he can allocate funds to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to which the Minister of Foreign Affairs belongs, and pay salaries to these employees, which is similar to the insurance companies in later generations.

In addition to giving Wang Tao a minister of foreign affairs, Li Yongji also gave Rong Hong the position of minister of science and education, of course, this is also an empty shell organization, and there is no actual power. If he wants to turn a shell official into a real power official, he has to be like Wang Tao, pull people by himself, enrich this department by himself, and after the personnel are inspected by Li Yongji, he can officially enter the establishment and eat public meals.

There is no way to make the functional departments of the government at all levels look like insurance pulling people's heads.

As a matter of fact, the current Jiangnan region is all grass-roots, and the army is fine, but in terms of government affairs, because the original bureaucratic system has been broken, and the new bureaucratic system has not yet been established, it is in a state of leaderlessness.

Li Yongji's biggest problem was the lack of a large number of qualified administrative personnel, and this qualification mainly refers to administrative personnel who could understand the Western political system, but in the late Qing Dynasty of 1860, such people were simply rare, and even if there were a very few suitable people, the number was too small, and they could not form the climate.

Under such circumstances, Li Yongji did not want to follow the old path of changing the soup but not the medicine, and continued to use the original conservative gentry as officials, so he promoted businessmen to come out and made this kind of local autonomy, small government and big society, so that everyone could make progress in their studies.

However, although the current local government is loose and disorderly, the army is firmly in the hands of Li Yongji, and it has also sent capable personnel early on to help the local government establish a local police force, and the Jingwu army itself has no problem with its own finances, so no matter how inexperienced the government is, there will be no problem.

To put it simply, as long as Li Yongji is not short of money in his hands, and the army and police are not chaotic, the place will not be chaotic.

In fact, this kind of local self-government type of local government also has the advantage, that is, it leaves plenty of room for study and revision, and during this period, those businessmen who have been specially promoted by Li Yongji can have a buffer process, learn how to be officials, how to balance the relationship between being an official and doing business, and prepare for the establishment of a truly modern local government in the future.

In Li Yongji's vision, in the future, the officials of the local government should let the small and medium-sized businessmen who have no land or little land take on the responsibilities, and no longer let those big landlords and gentry become officials.

At this time, although the businessmen of the late Qing Dynasty and those compradors who understood foreign affairs were also very weak and had many problems, compared with the old bureaucrats, the advantages were still obvious, at least they could really know how to open their eyes to the world, and weakness would not be bullish, and a weak local government was the most suitable for powerful people.

These two young men who talk about Wang Tao. They all come from extraordinary backgrounds, and the one who doesn't wear glasses is Rong Hong, who is the current minister of science and education in the Jiangnan region.

The man with glasses is called Huang Kuan, and it is Rong Hong's own head, no, his subordinates.

Although Huang Kuan is not as famous as Rong Hong in another time and space, he is actually a super bull, because he was the first Chinese to study in the UK in the late Qing Dynasty and obtain a doctorate.

Huang Kuan, like Rong Hong, has studied in the United States together. They attended Monson School in Massachusetts, USA, and were classmates for a while.

Later, the two of them graduated together, and Rong Hong was admitted to Yale University in the United States, while Huang Kuan was admitted to the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom.

After Huang Kuan was admitted to the University of Edinburgh, he first studied literature and later changed to medicine, and obtained a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of medicine respectively. Later, he continued to study and finally obtained a doctorate degree in medicine, which can be said to be the first Chinese to get a doctorate from the United Kingdom.

Later, in 1857. Huang Kuan returned to China, first as a doctor and missionary in Hong Kong, but resigned because he was ostracized. Coming to Guangzhou Huiai Medical Center to practice medicine, he not only has excellent medical skills, but also has great management skills. The Huiai Medical Center is thriving.

However, no matter how skilled he is in medicine and superb in management, after all, he is a Chinese, and he is excluded everywhere in a place dominated by foreigners, which makes him very depressed all the time, and he has always wanted to go out on his own, but unfortunately he has been short of money and cannot make the trip.

At this time, Rong Hong suddenly wrote to him, saying that everyone hadn't seen him for a long time, and he missed him very much, so he asked him to come over for a get-together, don't worry about the cost, you just need to pay for it, and I'll take care of it. (Well, the mouth is full of the smell of pyramid * selling, it seems that pulling people's heads has been the same throughout the ages, let's lie first.) ）

Huang Kuan didn't think so much at first, but he felt a little depressed recently, so he thought it was good to get together with old friends and classmates, so he went to Shanghai from Guangzhou, but as soon as he arrived in Shanghai, Rong Hong pulled him to persuade him to be good here, and also observed the new changes here everywhere, boasting about the strength of the Jingwu Army and Li Yongji's wisdom and bearing, saying that you should also follow me to do it, everyone will work together to create a happy China and create a harmonious society.

The meaning of this kind of co-optation is too obvious, Huang Kuan is not a fool, Rong Hong's eloquence is average, and soon Huang Kuan knows Rong Hong's real purpose for looking for him.

However, although the means are a little not bright, the changes in Shanghai are real, so Huang Kuan is still quite tempted.

Huang Kuan is not like Li Hezhang, just looking at the new government's military situation and the issue of money and grain collection, his focus is a little broader, such as the health problem, he also pays attention to small details.

In Huang Kuan's view, the new Shanghai is full of surprises, not to mention that the common people have been exempted from all kinds of harsh taxes and all kinds of forced labor, not to mention how the people here support Li Yongji, just talking about the health problem, he feels very surprised.

First of all, Shanghai, that is, the original county town of Shanghai, began to require the people in the city not to spit, defecate anywhere, or litter, all urine and garbage must be dealt with centrally, and once they are found to be spitting, littering, and defecating, they must be severely punished.

Shanghai has not only increased the special type of sanitation worker, but also added many garbage bins in the streets and alleys, and there are police patrols everywhere, once the police find you spitting, littering or defecating anywhere, they will immediately catch you and fine, called a health fine.

Because this kind of health fine is directly related to the small treasury of the police station and the new government, the police are very harsh, basically according to the maximum value of the fine, no one is accommodating, even if you are a meritorious scholar.

Although this fine is a bit uncomfortable for many people, it is said that many people have been fined, and some police officers deliberately do not remind you in advance and stop you in advance in order to generate income, and you have to wait for you to do it before passing the fine, but at least there is no case of daring to frame people casually, which may be related to the so-called anonymous reward reporting system within the police.

From Huang Kuan's point of view, although this is a bad government in the mouth of the people, it is actually a good government, because this can prevent the spread of most diseases.

Second, drainage ditches have been dug on both sides of the streets in Shanghai, and some elderly people have been hired as cleaners. Sweep the streets every day. Not only does this make the streets cleaner, remove stagnant water in a timely manner, minimize the spread of disease, but also provide some new jobs and an income for some of the city's elderly.

Of course, in addition to these, Jingwujun has already turned against the Qing court and is also very interested in Huang Kuan, because Huang Kuan is very uninterested in the Qing court, so his perception of Li Yongji and Jingwujun is already quite good.

I heard Rong Hong say that Li Yongji wants to build a series of modern hospitals, and also encourages private hospitals. When he was able to provide interest-free loans to qualified people who run private hospitals, and even gave him the official position of Minister of Health for this purpose, he was even more concerned about meeting Li Yongji in person, because Rong Hong's words revealed a hint that this Minister of Health was none other than Huang Kuan.

In Huang Kuan's heart at this moment, Li Yongji and Jingwujun should be the kind of progressive forces that can realize their ambitions, so he is not much less in mood than Rong Hong when he wants to see Li Yongji now. I really want to go to Guangde County immediately and meet with Li Yongji in person to talk about the content, of course, mainly about how to build China's own health and medical industry.

I studied Western medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the UK for so many years. Huang Kuan's vision at this time was completely different from that of the Qing Dynasty, and he had long disdained the so-called traditional Chinese medicine, believing that what China lacked most now was a modern medical system, which was why the mortality rate was so high. In order to rejuvenate China and save the nation, it is urgent to build a modern medical and health system.

In fact, Huang Kuan's idea is not extreme at all. Rather, it's quite scientific. In fact, the mortality rate of the Qing Dynasty was very high, millions of people died every year, but this was mainly due to various diseases, especially because of diseases caused by health problems, especially the old and weak women and infants, and the real death of a small number of people because of the war.

However, the Qing government discouraged Huang Kuan, who knew that his ambition would not be recognized by the Qing court, and even he could not teach his students in China openly and explain what anatomy was going on, because those theories were contrary to morality and evil in the eyes of many Qing people.

Therefore, now that he heard that there was a powerful ruler who could defeat the Qing court, was very open, understood modern medicine, and was willing to support him in modern medicine, he was naturally overjoyed.

"You don't have to worry." Seeing Huang Kuan walking around, Rong Hong smiled, "Da Shuai is very busy now, and he doesn't see outsiders, so it's useless even if you go, it's better to wait here with peace of mind, and when Da Shuai is done, it's not too late to come to you again." ”

The marshal actually refers to Li Yongji, when Li Yongji held a group training earlier, he obviously had no official status, so everyone called him Lord, and later he had an official position, and everyone generally called him by his official name, such as Lord Admiral.

However, when Li Yongji turned his face with the Qing court, the original official name was not easy to call, and it was slightly inappropriate to call him an adult, and Li Yongji himself did not make a name, so everyone called him Dashuai.

The name of this marshal was first circulated within the Jingwu Army, and it originally meant the meaning of the commander of the Jingwu Army, but after it was spread, everyone called it that, which was regarded as an honorific title, and everyone began to call this name to replace Li Yongji, so once the handsome was said in the south of the Yangtze River, instead of a certain handsome, it was Li Yongji.

In fact, this is also related to Li Yongji's heart being too coarse and not caring too much about the character of the title, he is not interested in the title at all, he is just focused on military construction and industrial production, how can he care about these in ordinary times?

Don't talk about this, now he has turned against the Qing court, and he has a territory, not to mention that he is lonely, he has not even established a regular, unified local government, and he still does his own thing, which shows how careless he is.

This is also Li Yongji has a golden finger, can obtain super high profits, and has always been very rich in finance, he has never felt short of money to spend, otherwise he would have been bankrupt if he had changed to a normal one, without a ruler with a golden finger.

Of course, on the other hand, it is precisely because he has a golden finger that he is so unconcerned, but focuses on military and industry, if he does not have the golden finger of time and space trading, he will not do this.

In addition, his lack of care, in a certain way, is a kind of inaction rule, or a small government and a big society, compared with the previous Qing rule when there were excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes and apportionments, it is much better, not only allowing him to gain more popular support, but also allowing the whole society to have a buffer room, which reduces a lot of resistance for his future reforms.

"Can I not be in a hurry?" Hearing Rong Hong speak, Huang Kuan stopped, took off his glasses and wiped them, "How many years, how many years is it?" Do you remember what we made when we were in school in the United States? That is to rejuvenate our China, so that we Chinese can stand in the world with our heads held high again, and no longer be looked down upon.

It was with this dream in mind that I endured the eyes of others and studied hard, and then resolutely returned to China after completing my studies! It's a pity that the court ruled by Manchu has no chance for us to display our ambitions, so hateful, really hateful!

Now, let's finally wait for a great hero of the Han people, who can drive out the Tartars, rebuild China, and let us show our ambitions...... You know, I really can't wait to fly over, and now I'll talk to Li Dashuai all night and tell him everything I think in my chest, but now we have to wait! Wait, wait, I've been waiting too long, really too long, I really can't wait! ”

"yes, I've been waiting too long." Seeing that the other party actually began to cry, Rong Hong's eyes were also a little moist, "It's not just you, I've waited too long, but, I've been waiting for so long, do you still care about how many days?" What's more, in two days, there will be an autumn harvest celebration here in Shanghai, I heard that it is very lively, just right, let's go to see the autumn harvest ceremony first, and then go to various places to take a look in detail, at that time Li Dashuai is estimated to be busy, and when people are busy, we also have a good time, and then talk to him face to face about each other's ambitions, wouldn't it be better? (To be continued......)