In the next few days, Ding Yuntong issued several wills one after another,

Ordered Xu Jingcheng, the examiner of Sichuan Township, to send an envoy to Mandalay, the capital of the Gongbang Dynasty in Burma.

Household member Wailang Zeng Jize sent an envoy to the Central Asian khanate of Bukhara,

Shandong Taoist Zhang Yinheng sent an envoy to Hue, the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam.

And there are special explanations in the will, let them survey the mountains and rivers along the way, and draw a geographical map.

Ding Yuntong's move has his deep considerations, Vietnam and Myanmar have historically been subject states of China, and China, as their suzerain, has sovereignty under international law, which is similar to North Korea, but in the past period, China has been too busy to take care of itself, and this relationship has been infiltrated by foreign powers, and this relationship has been diluted.

Ding Yuntong sent people to carry gifts to the envoy, precisely to reaffirm the traditional relationship between the two sides with actions. In this way, when China is strong in the future, it will be able to interfere in these places in the name of the suzerain.

As for the Bukhara Khanate, the region of Central Asia in which it was located was now within the Shili range of Russia. Of the three khanates of Central Asia, Kokand had been destroyed by Russia, leaving Bukhara and Khiva to become Russian vassals.

However, Central Asia is extremely important, it is the land passage that Ding Yuntong is preparing to lead to West Asia and Europe in the future, and when the American textile industry is developing greatly, Central Asia, as an important cotton planting area, will have major economic interests.

What's even more terrifying is that this will lead to the core area of Shijie oil. Turkmenistan, then Persia, then the Arab countries, these are the future of China, the fight against Japan is only for security, and these places are the key to whether the empire can control Shijie in the future.

In Ding Yuntong's Jihua, Central Asia will be a major focus of contention between China and Russia in the future.

After dealing with this matter, Ding Yuntong finally met Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, who was ordered to enter Beijing in the Xinuan Pavilion of the Yangxin Palace. is different from the peasant appearance in the old photos that Ding Yuntong saw in his previous life, Li Hongzhang looks very energetic, and there is a bit of cunning between his eyebrows.

Ding Yuntong looked at Li Hongzhang with emotion, he was originally a person more than a hundred years later, and being able to face to face with the celebrities in the history books made him a little trance.

He knew that Li Hongzhang was one of the few officials in the Qing Dynasty who was good at accepting new things and at the same time able to do things, and this person played an extremely important role in China's modern industry and commerce, but his concept of building industry and commerce was still very limited, and he was far from the Japanese contemporaries of the Restoration, such as Okubo Ritsu, Kido Takayoshi, Ito Hirobumi, and Iwakura Gushi.

After Ding Yuntong waited for Li Hongzhang to kowtow to say goodbye, the first thing he said was: "Li Aiqing, I want to establish the Central Bank of the People's Republic of China." ”

Li Hongzhang imagined countless scenes of meeting the little emperor, but this was beyond imagination in any case, and he was stunned for a while.

Ding Yuntong continued: "I have also thought about the choice of president, let Zheng Guanying, the prime minister of Shanghai Taikoo Steamship, be the prime minister, I believe you know this person." ”

Historically, Zheng Guanying was the author of the famous "Danger of the Prosperous Age" and a patriotic intellectual. But few people know that he is also a big comprador and an extremely good businessman.

Li Hongzhang was not only taken aback today, the little emperor Guangxu in front of him really made him feel unfathomable.

"Wechen was a little out of shape just now, but the matter of preparing for the bank does not seem to be urgent, and Wechen thinks that there is an urgent need to establish an industrial and commercial enterprise to open up financial resources for the country."

Ding Yuntong smiled and said, "Li Aiqing, you don't know anything. The so-called central bank is not as simple as deposits and loans, it is a state tool, and it is indispensable for foreign economic penetration, exertion of influence on other countries, internal fund-raising, and concentrating on construction. Well, this bank is called Huaxia Bank. You let Zheng Guanying be responsible for the specific handling, this is the first thing. ”

The second thing is that you have set up quite a few industrial and commercial enterprises, but most of them have fallen into difficulties. Regardless of whether you are an official supervisor or a joint government-business office, or essentially an official office, you will become a yamen when you go to Zuihou, corruption will be rampant, everyone is not motivated, and passive sabotage. Moreover, the funds are all funded by the imperial court, and the costs are not considered, the profits are not calculated, and the innovation cannot be made, how can they compete with foreigners? Even if there are private businessmen who come to buy shares, and make money, the government takes the lion's share, and loses it? Do businessmen still dare to demand compensation from the government? There are not many benefits, but the risks are very high, who wants to be wronged? ”

Li Hongzhang has occasionally thought about these problems, but no one has ever pointed them out so clearly, and he can't help but think deeply.

Ding Yuntong also said: "Presumably you also know that Japan is engaged in reform, and they have begun to transfer all industrial and mining enterprises to private individuals at low prices. Its efficiency is far from being comparable to that of the government and the yamen. ”

Li Hongzhang has actually heard of this, and he can't imagine that the emperor is young and in the ninth tier, and he is so clear, he has already admired the five bodies to the ground: "How should the minister handle it, please make it clear to the emperor." ”

Ding Yuntong nodded and said: "The way is to let private capital freely participate in the shares, establish a general meeting of shareholders, and hire talents by the general meeting of shareholders, serve as managers, and concentrate on management. The government is only responsible for supervising tax collection, providing policy protection, controlling product quality, supervising the orderly operation of the market, and so on. This specific management charter can be used as a reference to the laws of foreigners, which will be slowly promulgated in the future.

As for a few arms enterprises, such as the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, and so on, it can be stipulated that the government must have more than half of the shares, and the Huaxia Bank can come forward, and the government will hire foreigners and be responsible for security and confidentiality matters. ”

Li Hongzhang nodded frequently, and there was an inexplicable impulse in his whole body, and he had a premonition that everything would be completely new.

"The third thing is that I know that you are already preparing to set up a railway bureau and a telegraph office, and this matter needs to be carried out as soon as possible, and the regulations must be drawn up, and after a while, as soon as the new policy begins, you will have to start working immediately."

Li Hongzhang asked: "Bixia wants to implement a new policy?" ”

Ding Yuntong nodded: "Yes, the Guangxu New Deal will start at the end of this year, but it will not be fanfare, everything must be carried out in a low-key manner." There is the reality of the New Deal, but there is no name of the New Deal. Do things well one by one and make achievements. But on the surface, it seems as if everything is as it is. In this way, when those old masters come out to obstruct it, everything will be completed, and the suspicions of the officials and the people will be avoided. At the same time, foreigners should not be vigilant. ”

Li Hongzhang was convinced, knelt down and kowtowed: "My emperor Shengming, the new policy will be a great success." ”

Ding Yuntong saw that he had almost said it, so he asked Li Hongzhang to step down, and then he wanted to reveal the news of the new deal to Shen Baozhen, Zuo Zongtang, and officials who were interested in innovation in the Military Aircraft Department.

What I just told Li Hongzhang is only a fraction of the new deal, but it is what Li Hongzhang can do at present.

Wait until the selection of the people in the center of power is arranged according to your own wishes, and then you will make a big move.

After Huaxia Bank is run well, the income and expenditure of the household department must go through Huaxia Bank, which can manage the overall operation and investment of the whole country, including future capital output. Historically, Citibank, HSBC and the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank have all been important instruments of imperialist aggression.

The next step was to reform the government apparatus and replace the six ministries and the prime minister's yamen.

At the same time, the military system was reformed and a new army was organized and trained. The Eight Banners and the Green Battalion have been decayed and decayed, and they still need 20 million taels of silver to support them every year, which is really overwhelming. The green camp can be successfully abolished, but the Eight Banners are very troublesome, and they are only afraid that their rash withdrawal will arouse the opposition of the royal family and nobles, and their power is not stable, so they will ignore him for the time being. When the new army loyal to itself is trained, it can immediately remove the Eight Banners, and the power will come out of the barrel of the gun, and I am afraid that they will not succeed in rebellion.

As for the Hunan army, it had been slowly reduced after Zeng Guofan's death, and some had joined Li Hongzhang's Huai army, and now only Zuo Zongtang's Western Expeditionary Army remained. In addition, the Huai Army also has tens of thousands of people, which can be used as auxiliary units of the new army after reorganization and transformation in the future. Historically, before the First Sino-Japanese War, the Huai Army had only more than 50,000 capable troops and only 25,000 mobile troops, which was not as good as the strength of Japan's army, not to mention that Japan's elite troops alone exceeded 120,000.

Now that I've crossed over myself, it's different. In five or six years, Jihua will be able to build an elite army. This unit must have a unified standard of weapons, a complete logistical support system, full support from communications, medical information, and other quarters, a command system with high efficiency and high quality, and a system guarantee for the replenishment and training of new recruits. But the most important thing, above all else, is to have a true sense of patriotism and loyalty, knowing how to fight in Weishenme.

In history, the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded China, and there was even a Chinese mercenary army in it. The foreigners asked them, isn't it patriotic that Weishenme wants to attack his own country? How did they answer, they said, "Because this country is not ours, it belongs to those who are dignitary, it belongs to the emperor and the queen mother." The coast of the land is not the king's land, so everything in this country, including the people, is the emperor's private property, the country does not belong to us, and we can't attack it? ”

When the army is ready, it can take some initiative externally.

Looking out the window of Xinuan Pavilion, Ding Yuntong said to himself: "The new deal is about to begin." ”