Outside the Kyushu Qingyan Palace, the original royal garden of the Qing Dynasty, Xiao Yungui looked at the plaque hanging outside the hall and said to Zuo Zongtang beside him: "Zuo Xiang, the Qing characters in this Kyushu Qingyan still look too eye-catching, is it a change?" Before Zuo Zongtang could answer, Xiao Yungui said to himself: "It's better to change it to Kyushu Taiping." ”

Zuo Zongtang smiled and didn't speak, but Hong Yun'er on the side said: "It's okay for us to remove the Manchu text, you must not change any names." You must know that it is easy for you to change a word here, but after it is spread, I am afraid that the people below will misunderstand it, follow the trend, and start to engage in mosquito prisons throughout the country. Maybe in the end, you don't even dare to clear the words and fill the words on the paper, and that's your sin. ”

Xiao Yungui stared at Hong Yun'er for a long time before saying, "Okay, then don't change it." After a pause, he continued, "It's a waste for us to live in such a large royal garden. Speaking of this, he said to Zuo Zongtang: "Zuo Xiang, why don't you do this, when we are not here on weekdays, let the common people also come in for a tour, collect some tickets, and after deducting all the expenses for managing the garden, half of the income will be charged to the treasury, and half will be owned by the royal family, so good?" ”

Zuo Zongtang smiled and said: "I think it's feasible, but in this way, Your Majesty may have to be annoyed by those rotten Confucians and old Confucians, what national prestige and imperial prestige cannot be degraded, and what place of the Ninety-Five Honor can be allowed to enter and exit the untouchables, maybe they will also have a noon gate petition." ”

Hong Yun'er said: "I think this should be done like this, it is a waste to put such a big garden." It should also play a role. As for those who petition the book, tell them first. If it is still stubborn, let the garrison department arrest all the crimes of disturbing the peace. Let them eat prison meals for a few days and think about it. ”

Xiao Yungui said: "This matter is so decided, this is our royal thing, we are not in a hurry, what are those individuals anxious about?" Besides, I've heard that the Queen of England often opens her Buckingham Palace to the public. I also opened this garden to earn a little money to supplement my family. ”

Zuo Zongtang said with a smile: "Your Majesty's separation of the royal family's expenses from the treasury is indeed an unprecedented benevolent government, and the royal family's expenses are all funded by His Majesty's own expenses. This pressure is indeed a little bigger, and the old minister will handle this matter. ”

Xiao Yungui hummed and said as he walked: "By the way, how is the discussion between Britain and France?" Zuo Zongtang replied: "The rest of the terms are negotiable, but the British refused to agree to the takeback of Hong Kong, and I heard that they are still asking for instructions from China." ”

Xiao Yungui frowned and said, "Didn't we already release the news that the Russians had signed a treaty with us?" Can Britain and France still bear this? ”

Hong Yun'er smiled: "I guess they are just carrying it to the death, maybe there will be a turnaround when the news comes from the UK." Speaking of this, Hong Yun'er paused and said: "Ah, I really can't imagine that our Wing King can do it so beautifully, otherwise it would not be possible to make Russia succumb only by relying on Chen Yucheng and Tan Shaoguang's attack on the Siberian region." ”

Zuo Zongtang said with a smile: "The big insect of the Wing King has been holding back in Hubei for several years. Once you enter the mountains and forests, it must be a blockbuster. I remember that when the Yiwang Department had just entered Qinghai and Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and other places provided them with food and grass day and night. Fortunately, the level of hot weapons in the Wing King's department is not high, otherwise we would still be a little unbearable. ”

Xiao Yungui nodded and said, "Yes." At the beginning, they just wanted to let the wing hall have a place to live before they went to the northwest, and in order to appease the heart of the wing hall, the places they passed along the way were supplied with food and clothing. Fortunately, Sichuan, Hanzhong, and Shanxi have a lot of grain, otherwise I really wouldn't have found so much food to supply them for their expedition to Xinjiang. ”

Hong Yun'er said with a smile: "This is the predecessor planting a tree and the later people enjoying the shade." The Qing court had three previous governors of Shaanxi and Gansu, Deng Tingzhen, Lin Zexu, and Shen Zhaolin were all experts in governing the country. It is also because of their good management that they can build the land of Shanxi into a place known as the anointed land in the south of the Yangtze River. After the Yiwang and their arrivals in Xinjiang, they also relied on the Lin Gongjing developed by Lin Zexu when they were in Xinjiang before, and opened up a lot of fertile land to solve the food problem of the Yiwang. ”

Zuo Zongtang nodded and said: "That's right, Lin Gong really did a lot of facts in his life, when he was exiled to Xinjiang, he saw the great ambition of Tsarist Russia to invade the northwest, so he vigorously developed agriculture in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, called for the reclamation of the real border, reclamation of hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land, the construction of Lin Gong wells, the improvement of local water conservancy, the promotion of Lin Gong spinning wheels, and the stability of all tribes in Xinjiang. ”

Xiao Yungui bowed slightly: "Shi Dakai, I believe that what he does in Xinjiang will not be worse than Lin Gong, and he is stationed in the northwest, so he can rest easy." His policy towards the tribes and khanates of the Kazakh steppe was also very practical, exchanging trade and trade, treating them equally, uniting the powerful tribes with weak and domineering forces, uniting everyone against the Russians, and even their troops were pointed at Orenburg, so the Russians would give in. ”

Zuo Zongtang said: "The Russians only experienced the defeat of the Crimea a few years ago, the domestic uprising was full of smoke, and the Ottomans and other countries were eyeing each other, and their new emperor gave up eastward expansion in order to ensure the stability of the territory of Western Europe, which is indeed a clear choice, otherwise they will suffer a serious blow in Central Asia." Zuo Zongtang paused and said meaningfully: "But I think this is just an expedient measure of the Russian emperor, and when the Russian national strength recovers in the future, they will still have a war with our country." ”

Xiao Yungui nodded and stroked his palms and smiled: "What Prime Minister Zuo said is very true, Britain and France are too far away, they will not have territorial claims to us, and Russia is different, they are adjacent to us, and they are indeed a big trouble." It's just that now we can't afford to fight again, and the three-way army still needs to digest the newly opened territory, otherwise I won't give up. ”

Zuo Zongtang said: "Your Majesty, although the Wing King Department is temporarily strong now, there are still many internal problems, the strife and contradictions between the khanates and tribes are still there, once the Russians retreat, these contradictions will still emerge, and the Wing King still needs to make great efforts to stabilize the place." It is necessary to foster a few friendly Central Asian countries to act as a buffer between us and Russia, and at the same time to strengthen the control of the north-west and north-west regions, then we must improve the local transportation environment. ”

Hong Yun'er applauded: "Zuo Xiang said to the point, whether it is to immigrate to the border, or to strengthen the control of border areas, or to increase the trade quota, we need to improve transportation. I think we should think about the construction of railways to Xinjiang, Mongolia, Northeast China and other places in advance, once these three places are connected to the railway, whether it is trade, immigration, or once the war breaks out again, we will be able to project troops. ”

Xiao Yungui nodded heavily and said: "Exactly, but these three places cost a lot of money to build the railway, and now the country's finances are still in deficit because of the continuous war, and there is really no extra money to build the railway." I think that these three railways are built in the way of our private fund-raising, and there are still many rich people in our people, especially those Jin merchants in Shanxi, who used to be the imperial merchants of the Qing court, and now they should also contribute more to the country, so let the Jin merchants in Shanxi take the lead and persuade them to participate in the construction of the railway. ”

Hong Yun'er said with a smile: "That's exactly how it should be, Qiao Zhiyong and these people have been frequently asking to see each other recently, and they are also worried that when the new dynasty will settle old accounts with them and let them fund the construction of the railway, they will definitely be happy." Moreover, their trade routes were mainly to Mongolia, Xinjiang and Russia, and the construction of railways would make it easier for them to trade, and they would definitely be willing. As long as the railway is built and is still owned by the state, they only have the right to operate it for 50 years, and they will be happy to do so. ”

The Jin merchants are the legends of this era, and the leading merchants among them, such as Da Shengkui and the Fusheng Gong of the Qiao family, all have great wealth in their hands. For example, the Dashengkui firm is now in its heyday, with 6 or 7,000 men and nearly 20,000 caravan camels, and its activity areas include the four major Khalkha departments, Kobdo, Uriya Sutai, Ulaanbaatar, Kyakhta, Inner Mongolia League, Xinjiang Urumqi, Kuqa, Ili, and even as far as they can travel to Moscow and other places in Russia, and their capital is very abundant, claiming that their assets can be used to pave a road from Kulun to Beijing with 50 taels of silver ingots. And Qiao Zhiyong's Qiao family's business name Fusheng Gong is not far behind, so they can fully afford the investment in building three railways.

Moreover, for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's policy of encouraging industry and commerce, these merchants were also very in favor of and supportive, but the Jin merchants had always supported the Manchu Qing Dynasty, so they were very worried that the new dynasty would settle accounts with them, and the history of their support for the Manchu Qing Dynasty could even be traced back to before the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs.

However, Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er never thought about killing chickens and taking eggs, it is true that the Manchu Qing Dynasty became strong and the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs without the support of the Jin merchants back then, and at that time they were indeed representatives of traitors, but Xiao Yungui did not think that it was all the fault of the Jin merchants. They are businessmen, the nature of businessmen is to pursue profits, the Ming and Manchu wars cut off the trade routes, the Ming Dynasty does not allow Jin merchants to trade with Mongolia, that doesn't cut off people's financial routes? Under such persecution, they could only seek business opportunities with the Manchus. And the real mistake of the Ming Dynasty was to focus on agriculture and suppress business, and did not make good use of the resources of the merchant class, so it was used by the enemy.

Now that the Qing Dynasty has fallen, the Jin merchants, although their origins are stained with the copper stench of Han blood, the experience and wealth they have accumulated after many years of business have made them gradually transform into the capitalist class. The emergence of various ticket numbers in Shanxi is an example, only when capital accumulation reaches a certain level, there will be financial concentration and transformation, although their own ticket numbers still have many deficiencies, but it is undeniable that they have been regarded as a group of people who are closest to the capitalist class after their own transformation.

Making good use of this group of people is very beneficial to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's implementation of the new industrial and commercial policy in the north, and killing chickens and eggs is actually more harmful than beneficial to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and letting them fund the development of railways is the best choice.

While discussing the construction of railways in the northwest, Mongolia, and northeast, the confidential secretary walked quickly and reported: "Your Majesty, Shanghai Urgent News, there is good news for the British and French negotiations...... to be continued" (to be continued......