In the harem or simply in the party, there are but listening to the newcomers laughing, and hearing the old people crying, but this situation is even more cruel in the political arena.

In the frustration of love, at most you are crying and crying, and you have nothing to complain about, but in the political arena, once you lose power, then you don't even have time and opportunity to lament, because countless people will immediately rush up and tear you to pieces.

Since ancient times, there have been few charcoal in the snow, well, the icing on the cake is actually not much, the most is to beat the water dogs, see others are unlucky and then don't care if there is a grudge or not, follow others to step on a foot and say, even if you can get benefits by stepping on a foot, I don't care.

It's just that I saw that the person who used to be high above was suddenly unlucky, and I didn't seem to be able to live for my past decades of life if I didn't step on it.

In the first two months of 1864, many officials who had been close to Bi Yu and his peers were deliberately attacked by others.

For Lin Zhe, if he wants to suppress Bi Yutong, or even eradicate the political forces that Bi Yutong has established over the past years, he doesn't actually need to do much, he just needs to give others a signal, and then light a little fire, and then naturally there are countless officials who want to step on other people's corpses to take the initiative to rush forward and act as Lin Zhe's sword.

suppressed Bi Yu and others, in fact, Lin Zhe only did two things, one was to let Bi Yutong return to Shaoxing to recuperate, and the second thing was to transfer Hong Bobei to serve as the political envoy of Gansu Province through the Personnel Department of the Secretariat.

Other than that, he didn't do anything else.

However, just after him, many officials below will shake out the negative information of officials who are close to Bi Yutong. And then squeezed them out of politics.

This top-down political reshuffle lasted for more than a month, and in addition to the high-level officials who are well known to the public, many middle- and lower-level officials were affected. It may be very innocent from their point of view, but since they have embarked on a career in office, they must have the awareness of experiencing the twists and turns of their career.

The political turmoil in the empire gradually subsided after Xue Huan officially became the prime minister of the cabinet, and after half a month later, the political forces of Bi Yutong's faction were gradually divided up by Jiang Daoquan, Guo Longyun, Xue Huan and others. Calm returned to the empire's political arena.

After the peace of the imperial political arena was restored, Lin Zhe also began his second tour after becoming emperor!

At the beginning of 1858, in order to resist the British and French forces. To boost the morale of the military in the Jiangnan region, Lin Zhe once went out to patrol Zhenjiang, Jiangyin and other places.

However, at that time, the main thing was to inspect the troops, and there were no direct local inspections.

And this time the inspection, although there will also be the formation of inspection troops. But the main thing is to inspect the place.

According to the inspection plan that was drawn up at the end of last year. In the first half of 1864, Lin Zhe would inspect parts of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including Zhenjiang, Jiangyin, Suzhou, and Shanghai.

After that, they will continue to take the navy's warships to the north, and then go to Shandong to inspect the Qingdao naval base, and then go to Zhili Province to inspect Tianjin and Beiping, and then return to Beijing by ship after the inspection.

Like the previous times when he went out of the palace, this time Lin Zhe also brought Fang Deconcubine!

Among the nine concubines, there is no doubt that Fang Deconcubine monopolizes the holy favor. When Lin Zhe went out of the palace by himself, he would always take her with him. This situation naturally has a lot of complaints among the harem concubines.

However, even if they complained, no one dared to show a trace of dissatisfaction or complaint in front of Lin Zhe, even Queen Chen Jing.

took Fang Deconcubine to sit on the steam cruise ship 'Yanhuang' specially built by the Navy for the royal family, Fang Deconcubine went back to the cabin to rest first, while Lin Zhe went to the top deck with Lin Dabiao, Minister of the Admiralty, and introduced the royal ship while walking Lin Dabiao.

"When the Yanhuang was designed and built, it was designed and constructed in imitation of the most advanced warships of the Empire, and its hull design was modeled after the Pangu, using a hull mixed with wood and wrought iron, and steel was also used in important parts of the hull, with a standard displacement of 1,800 tons, and the hull had the same hull design as the Pangu, with perfect watertight cabins and drainage facilities.

The sail steam hybrid is still used, and the steam power system adopts the most advanced new generation of steam engine in China, using a horizontal flat steam engine, equipped with two coal-fired boilers, using single-shaft and single-propeller propulsion, with a maximum horsepower of 1,200 horsepower and a maximum speed of 12 knots. ”

Lin Dabiao briefly introduced the royal cruise ship, but the introduction only involved some important technical parameters, and he generally only talked about the hull, power, and protection, as for other aspects, there was not much.

As a royal cruise ship, the construction standard of the Yanhuang is actually much higher than that of ordinary warships, except for the hull design of this royal cruise ship is responsible for the navy, and the crew is provided by the navy, the others actually have nothing to do with the navy, and even this royal cruise ship is not built with naval funds, but the royal industry pays out of their own pockets.

In the early years, Lin Zhe preferred to go out on the warships of the navy, when he went to Jiangyin, he went to be a naval warship that Tu Du took, and at the same time, the huge royal family was not only Lin Zhe alone, but also many concubines and the Queen Mother Lin Fang, who sometimes needed to use ships when returning to the province.

And the navy can't always send warships to pick it up every time, so generally when the royal family members have travel plans, the navy will arrange other ships, but it's not a matter of always bothering the navy like this, well, the more important thing is that these ships of the navy, whether they are warships or transport ships, their comfort is quite limited, and the completion cannot meet the royal pomp and circumstance. As a result, the officials of the palace department felt that it was better to simply buy a ship to serve as a royal seat ship, and use it as a means of transportation for the royal family, especially Lin Zhe.

Anyway, the royal family is not short of money, and the Royal Asset Management Office can casually squeeze out hundreds of thousands to buy a ship!

The royal family provided funds for the construction of ships, so the Navy's shipbuilding section directly designed many plans according to the hull standards of warships, and finally chose the plan of 1,800 tons.

Other than that. The ship was not built at the Shanghai Shipyard or the Qingdao Naval Shipyard, but was built by the Royal Asset Management Office to support another shipyard in China, the Guangzhou Shipyard, the third largest shipyard in the country. So it was the order for the ship that was given to them.

After all, the cost of building this ship is not small, although there is no armor or artillery on the top, but the price of the hull and power system is not cheap, and the luxury decoration inside the hull makes the cost of this royal cruise ship much more expensive than the merchant ships and passenger ships of the same tonnage.

The purchase price of the ship has reached nearly 300,000 yuan, which should be regarded as the most expensive non-warship ship.

But this price still can't be compared to those battleships!

The price of British-built steel ships in this era should be the cheapest, such as its 1,700-ton ironclad ship Discovery. The cost was nearly 80,000 pounds, which included rear-loading guns, which was more expensive than a battleship with front-loading smoothbore guns. Because since the large-scale application of rear-loading naval guns in the Imperial Navy, the British have also begun to apply rear-loading naval guns on a large scale, and basically the ironclad ships that have been in service in the past two years are equipped with rear-loading guns.

In the Chinese Empire, the price of building ships, especially steel warships, was even higher. Mainly equipment depreciation. There is a shortage of high-tech talents, and steel and parts are relatively expensive.

The cost of the more than 1,800 tons of the Nu Snail reached 400,000 yuan, which is about 87,000 pounds when converted into pounds, and this is only the offshore ironclad ship.

If it is a 2,400-ton Pangu ocean-going ironclad ship, its cost is as high as 600,000 yuan, which is a little more than 130,000 pounds sterling.

The newest and largest Yandi ironclad ship that is still under construction has a design tonnage of 4,000 tons. The cost reached 1 million dollars, which was converted into more than 217,000 pounds. You must know that the cost of the British defense-class ironclad ship of more than 6,000 tons is only 255,000 pounds.

Just as the cost of producing high-tech products in China in later generations was generally higher than that of developed countries in Europe and the United States, the cost of producing high-tech products in the Chinese Empire in this year was actually higher than that of Britain.

The reason why there was a saying in the late Qing Dynasty that 'it is better to buy than to build' is because its own technology is not strong and its industrial base is insufficient, so the cost of producing high-tech industrial products is often much more expensive than direct import.

The unit price of the tonnage of the ironclad ships made by the empire is higher than that of the British and French man-made ironclad ships.

However, the high cost of the Royal Cruise Ship Yanhuang is not only due to the high cost of the imperial shipbuilding, but also related to its luxurious installation.

In addition to the high cost of construction, the operation and maintenance cost of this royal cruise ship is not small, because the power and hull are designed and built according to the standards of warships, and the technical requirements for ship maintenance are quite high, and the only domestic power that can maintain thousands of tons of steel and steam ships is the Imperial Navy.

At the same time, it is not easy to drive this battleship, this is not a technical problem, after all, this Yanhuang is a royal cruise ship, but it is just a ship, and the captain of an experienced steamship can command it to drive away, but the key is that the people on this ship are not ordinary people, but the emperor and other members of the royal family, and safety needs to be absolutely guaranteed.

Therefore, the maintenance and driving of this ship are carried out by the active officers and soldiers of the Navy, and the daily management work is treated according to the standards of warships, but the Royal Navy does not have extra funds to maintain and maintain a ship whose property rights belong to the 'Royal Asset Management Office', so the Royal Asset Management Office needs to pay the necessary management fees to the Navy every year.

Piloting this cruise ship today are the active officers and men of the Navy.

In front of and behind the Yanhuang, there are two naval warships, including the female snail ironclad ship, the navy originally planned to take out the Pangu as an escort ship, but although the waterway in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River is also deep, but Pangu as an ocean-going vessel, its draft is much deeper than that of Pangu, and now the navy only has Pangu such an ocean-going ironclad ship, which treats Pangu as a treasure on weekdays, but will not easily let Pangu enter the Yangtze River, not afraid of 10,000, just in case, in case of bad luck to run aground!

Therefore, the Pangu will join the royal fleet in Shanghai, and then it will go north to Qingdao and Tianjin.

After the end of this inspection, the Pangu will end the previous many months of trial training, so as to enter the shipyard for maintenance, and after it is closed and maintained, the second ship of the Pangu class, that is, the Zhurong, will also be officially put into service, and the Pangu will be formed together with the Zhurong, as the pillar of the imperial navy to control the sea frontier.

The fleet went down the river and made short stops in Zhenjiang and Jiangyin, and after Lin Zhe went ashore to inspect the local officials and garrisons, he did not stay long, not even staying for one night, but went directly to Shanghai.

Lin Zhe's inspection itinerary was rather intense, he stayed in Zhenjiang for a morning, and only in Jiangyin for about an afternoon, and the reason why he did not stay in these two places for one night was not only that there were no factors worth wasting time in these two places, but also because he took into account the need to avoid causing trouble to the place.

Like the emperors in ancient times, Lin Zhe's patrol is also a troublesome thing, and it will cost the people and money if it is not very good.

In the former Qing Dynasty, like Kangxi Qianlong, he liked the southern tour, and the southern tour cost countless times. For Lin Zhe, it is simply not necessary to let the local government build a large number of buildings or even palaces just for the sake of an inspection.

As with previous inspections, Lin Zhe strictly ordered extravagance and waste, and the palaces he settled at along the way were generally directly borrowed from the official yamen, or the mansions of local wealthy merchants.

And to Shanghai is simpler, directly live in the Generalissimo's Mansion, now the Shanghai Palace, this building was used as the Shanghai Municipal Government and other yamen offices a few years ago, but the year before last the Shanghai Municipal Government and other administrative agencies have moved to the new government building, this mansion is vacant, re-taken over by the Royal Assets Management Office, was used as the royal palace.

After arriving in Shanghai, Lin Zhe directly moved into this three-story western-style building.

In the evening of the same day, a large-scale dinner was held according to the scheduled itinerary, which was attended not only by high-ranking military and political officials of Jiangsu, Shanghai, and other empires, but also by a small number of invited representatives of Shanghai citizens, mainly from the educational circles and business circles.

At about six o'clock that night, there were many horse-drawn carriages coming in one after another outside the Shanghai Imperial Palace, and then men and women wearing full-body dresses walked down from the carriages.

Lin Zhe went out to attend some banquets, and it was a small tradition for him to like to take Fang De Concubine with him on occasions such as cocktail parties, and this time many ministers who accompanied Lin Zhe on his tour often brought their female dependents, either their younger wives, or simply their daughters-in-law and daughters.

Why?

You can't let Fang Deconcubine be bored alone, someone has to accompany her to talk and chat for time!

In addition, when attending banquets, although there is still a traditional distinction between men and women, it is often different for men and women, with the men chatting and eating in the front hall, while the women chatting and eating in the backyard.

At that time, these ministers will also have to bring their ladies to the banquet!

In addition, this is also related to Lin Zhe, Lin Zhe has the soul of future generations, and there is nothing like male and female defense in his heart, and since it is a cocktail banquet, it is always more formal to attend with a female companion.

In recent years, when Lin Zhe held state banquets, on some occasions he would eat with Empress Chen Jing on the same occasion, and the emperor and empress were together, and the courtiers naturally had to bring their wives to participate together.

Over time, when attending state banquets and cocktail parties held by the royal family, these courtiers are already accustomed to bringing their families.

In the midst of these crowds, a young woman dressed in a retro Hanfu followed a middle-aged man into the palace with a look of curiosity. (To be continued.) )