The beautiful and luxurious four-wheel drive carriage, Li Yunzhong seemed restless, if a few ladies knew that he was "a golden house hidden Jiao", there would definitely be a misunderstanding, if it was an ordinary girl, Li Yunzhong didn't care, but this woman named Kong Mei was different, he always had a feeling that her girlfriend in her previous life had a kind of origin, and he really didn't want Kong Mei to have a misunderstanding and leave him, which was also his intention to send Kong Mei out of Nanjing.

"Stop!" Li Yunzhong shouted, opened the window, and commanded the guards on horseback: "You go and call Mayor Zhou Lichun and Zhou over!" ”

When Zhou Lichun heard the emperor's summons, he didn't dare to slack off, walked into the carriage with his head down, made a courtesy, and asked carefully: "I don't know what happened to the emperor's call to the ministers?" ”

Li Yunzhong glanced at Su Sanniang and the others who were sitting behind, smiled slightly, ordered the carriage to move on, and pointed to the street outside and asked, "Zhou Aiqing, why is Shanghai full of lights, the carriage has walked through four streets, and every shop and company is hung with colorful lanterns and red banners, is there any happy event in Shanghai recently?" ”

Zhou Lichun replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, these decorations are spontaneous by the residents of Shanghai, they heard that the Han army has captured Beijing, and the Tartars have been expelled from the customs, and the firecrackers alone have been set off for three days and three nights, not to mention these lucky ornaments." ”

Li Yunzhong originally asked casually, but he didn't expect the people of Shanghai to be so excited, he remembered that after receiving the news of the capture of Beijing, the people of Nanjing were not so lively and excited, and shook his head slightly and sighed: "If every common person in China is like this, why worry that the country cannot be strong, and why worry about foreign invasion." You're good! This mayor is competent. ”

Zhou Lichun's face was full of pride, and he raised his forehead, as if he was making an inaugural speech: "Thank you for the emperor's appreciation, since Weichen took over the post of mayor, he has not been slack, and he has worked hard every day, lest he live up to the emperor's trust, now there are 2.2 million residents in Shanghai, 100,000 foreigners, and the taxes paid every month are 3 million taels." Plus the tariffs are doubled......"

Li Yunzhong listened to Zhou Lichun's complacency. He smiled faintly and said softly: "This is all your credit, but I heard that there are many rebellious ideas in Shanghai, and you have applied for the appointment of the foreigner Andrew as a councilor." The officials are not allowed. And this foreigner named Andrew openly exercised his rights as a parliamentarian. Is there such a thing? ”

Zhou Lichun was startled, a layer of fine sweat broke out on his forehead, and he arched his hand: "So that the emperor will know." In recent years, more and more people have returned from Europe, and these things have inevitably appeared, and all kinds of ideas have been spread wantonly with the help of newspapers. ”

"Humph! How daring! Li Yunzhong shouted angrily and said heavily: "I have heard of these things in Nanjing, but I didn't expect you Zhou Lichun to know about it and not report it, and openly install cronies everywhere, do you regard Shanghai as your private property!" ”

Zhou Lichun was frightened, knelt on the red blanket, kowtowed: "Wechen don't dare, the emperor spares his life, but in the past year, the things that Shanghai has applied for, the six ministries have never been inaccurate, Wechen wrote a book, several cabinet assistants are also criticized, and the following councilors are persecuted day by day, Wechen really has no way to act like this, please atone for the emperor." ”

Hearing that the parliamentarians were so presumptuous, Li Yunzhong immediately scolded in a tone of hatred: "I told you a long time ago that these parliamentarians are just acting as a façade to let foreigners understand that the Han people also talk about democracy, why are you so confused, you actually take it seriously, and let them hold real power, dozens of ministers impeached you this week Lichun, I only think they are stubborn and conservative, if it weren't for Chang Dachun's personal experience in Shanghai affairs, I ...... I was almost deceived by you! ”

Zhou Lichun heard that the emperor blamed him for his rebellion, and kept kowtowing, and argued: "Wechen is guilty, Wechen has always referred to London and Paris in governing Shanghai, and Wechen is guilty!" ”

Li Yunzhong saw that his arrogance had disappeared and that he had achieved his goal, and he comforted him warmly: "It's not all your fault, there is no experience in governing big cities, Shanghai is the first special city to try out, in any case, Shanghai has also made some contributions to the Northern Expedition, and you have made a lot of contributions to the capture of Beijing, so let's do it, the post of governor of Guangdong Province is still vacant, you can take office one day!" ”

Zhou Lichun was surprised and delighted, thinking that today would end with the dismissal of the official, but he didn't expect that the official would be promoted to two levels, his mind was full of words of gratitude, mixed with joy and sorrow, and he couldn't cry for a while, crying: "Thank you for the emperor's grace, the old minister will definitely bow to death and die, but ...... Just ......"

Li Yunzhong helped him sit down and asked, "Just what?" Are you reluctant to Shanghai? ”

Zhou Lichun hurriedly shook his head and waved his hand, and replied: "Wechen has no such intention, it's just that Wechen's daughter Xiuying is going to get married in seven days, and Wechen is afraid that he won't be able to preside over their marriage!" The emperor didn't know that because of the war, their marriage had been delayed for a year, and Weichen really couldn't bear to delay it any longer. ”

"Hahaha!" Li Yunzhong laughed, promised the bait again, and said softly: "What's so difficult about this, I allow you to go to Guangdong to take office after presiding over their marriage, you have to remember that this Shanghai is similar to Guangzhou, even if you use what you have learned, if the results of your governance are satisfactory to me, it is not impossible to enter Wenyuan Pavilion!" ”

Zhou Lichun was stunned by Li Yunzhong's bait, he was just an honest farmer when he was young, because he was dissatisfied with the gangsters' bullying and blackmail, he joined the Heaven and Earth Society, he lived for forty years and never thought that he could be an official, but he didn't expect that forty or fifty years later, he was expected to peep into the position of prime minister, at first glance, he thought he was in a dream, and secretly pinched his thigh, and then knelt on the ground to thank him.

Li Yunzhong nodded with satisfaction, and said secretly: There are many people like Zhou Lichun in the Han Dynasty, who don't know what foreign affairs are, they only know how to please themselves, get promoted and make a fortune, it seems that these people are not useless, if they are used reasonably, they are worth no less than Lu Jianying and Chang Dachun.

"By the way, your daughter Zhou Xiuying is the little Y head behind you at the beginning, I remember that he served in the Fifth Army, and now he is getting married!"

Zhou Lichun looked relieved and replied: "Yes, at that time, Xiuying persuaded me to return to the emperor, it has been three years, she is now serving as a division commander in the Fifth Army, and his fiancé is Huang Bo, he is now the acting commander of the Fifth Army!" ”

Li Yunzhong was sincerely excited, Huang Bo had been his bodyguard, but he didn't expect this kid to get married silently, and joked: "One of these two couples is a division commander, the other is a military commander, plus you, the provincial governor, Guangdong Province is under your control!" ”

Zhou Lichun was stunned, isn't it, not to mention that the two of them have broken the routine and made people fearful by controlling the Fifth Army, but the Fifth Army is now stationed in Guangdong.

Thinking of this, Zhou Lichun cried with a sad face, and was overly frightened: "Weichen has no such intentions, please let the emperor know, Xiuying and Huang Bo are indeed in love, Weichen can't stop them, why don't you transfer them elsewhere?" ”

Li Yunzhong thought for a while and replied: "In order to avoid suspicion, I transferred the Fifth Army to Guangxi to listen to it, Li Shixian is Huang Bo's old boss, and I can't lose him." ”

Zhou Lichun said happily: "Yes! Yes, the emperor is wise! ”

After a while, Zhou Lichun became listless again, peeked at Li Yunzhong, and said in a slur manner: "Emperor Qi, this Zuo Zongtang is the general of the Southern Expedition, and he is good friends with Lu Jianying and Chang Dachun, if he interferes in the administration of Weichen, won't Weichen disappoint the emperor, Weichen's future will not be tight when the time comes, and the emperor's plan will be mistaken at that time, and Weichen will die without redemption!" ”

Li Yunzhong sneered twice, and scolded with a smile: "Don't worry, this Zuo Zongtang is not the kind of stubborn person, the most important thing for you to go to Guangdong is to set up foreign affairs, Zuo Zongtang may be able to help you, he is also very proficient in this aspect." ”

Zhou Lichun disagreed, he had seen a lot of these scholars, and the people in Shanghai would praise him, and the people he appointed were all Xiucai, or extremely poor Xiucai, purely for a bite of food, those uncles who were full of benevolence and morality, and he couldn't afford to serve them, and he had long heard his daughter and son-in-law say that Zuo Zongtang was a master of science, how could he agree with foreign affairs!

Li Yunzhong put away the discussion, opened the curtains, glanced out, and said to himself: "It's really like not seeing each other for three autumns, Shanghai is getting more and more flavorful!" ”

Zhou Lichun couldn't hear what Li Yunzhong was muttering, so he could only listen carefully.

Li Yunzhong turned around and said, "Is the woman named Kong Mei still in the other courtyard?" (To be continued......)