In the Dongnuan Pavilion of the Heart Cultivation Palace, Ding Yuntong was dining with Yuan Shikai and Xu Shichang, who had just returned from North Korea. Yuan Xu and the others sat there, bowing their heads and eating, not daring to breathe. It was a great honor to have dinner with the emperor, but the twisting and twisting of this meal was really harder than the nearly one-year trip to North Korea.

Confucianism pays attention to food and silence, and it is extremely rude to eat and talk, and the three of them eat silently.

After the meal, Ding Yuntong slowly listened to Yuan Shikai's report, and occasionally Xu Shichang made a supplement. Zhan Tianyou, a railway expert, and Fang Boliang, a telecommunications expert, who went with them, did not return to Beijing because they were ordered to build a railway from Beijing to Shenyang, but stayed in Shenyang.

Ding Yuntong listened while silently comparing with the memories of his previous life

At this time, North Korea, Japanese shili was infiltrating on a large scale.

King Gaozong is cowardly and incompetent by nature, just a puppet, and the power is concentrated in the hands of the Min concubine group represented by the princess Min Ziying, and Gaozong's father, Dayuanjun, who has been in power for ten years, lives in seclusion to avoid suspicion. Ding Yuntong knew that although this Dayuanjun was arrested by Li Hongzhang and imprisoned for a few years in his previous life, he adhered to tradition ideologically and hated Westernized Japan, unlike Concubine Min who swayed, and if she had milk, she was a mother. At this time, the government has been corrupted to the extreme, Concubine Min's family are all high-ranking officials in the imperial court, her brother Min Shenghao, cousins Min Kyuho, Min Qianhao, etc. all hold important positions, and the whole group is extremely poor and extravagant.

And at this time, Concubine Min was also pro-Japanese, and concluded the "Ganghwa Treaty" with Japan, sent a delegation to inspect Japan, and set up an organization "Managing the Machinery Yamen", etc., and the Japanese minister to Korea, Yoshishi Hanafu, contacted everywhere in the imperial court, expanded his influence, and cultivated pro-Japanese shili.

There were also a number of nobles and bureaucrats in the imperial court, such as Park Young-shou, Hong Young-sik, Kim Ok-kyun, Park Yong-hyo, Seo Kwang-beom, Seo Jae-pil and others, who had already begun to propagate the separation from China and learn from Japan.

Economically, Japan's economic shili is expanding aggressively. Japanese merchants took advantage of some of the privileges of the Ganghwa Treaty, such as duty-free trade and the free circulation of Japanese currency in open ports, while quickly controlling North Korea's finances, and the First Bank of Japan had already set up branches in Busan and branches in many cities. While expanding exports to North Korea and monopolizing North Korean exports.

Yuan Shikai said, implying that he was extremely worried about the situation in North Korea, and felt that Japan had ill intentions and ambitions.

Ding Yuntong nodded slightly, Yuan Shikai could understand this, which means that he has carefully observed.

Ding Yuntong had long expected everything that was happening in North Korea, and these were all historical inevitabilities. However, at present, he will not do anything to stop it, not only because of his own strength, but also because of a very important consideration: as long as Japan gains more benefits in Korea, the more difficult it will be for it to give up North Korea, and the easier it will be for Japan to take risks for North Korea.

Ding Yuntong has seen the history of the Meiji Restoration in his previous life, and when Japanese capitalism began to develop, due to the weakness of capital and the backwardness of Jishu, it was simply unable to compete with other powers.

As long as Japan is completely dependent on this market, and when its strength is sufficient and everything is ready, it will cut off the chain of Japan's interests, and it is not afraid that it will not come out desperately.

Ding Yuntong praised Yuan and Xu and the others, ordered them to be rewarded with one-eyed flowers, and promoted them to major staff officers, and sent them to Feng Zicai's first division and Wu Changqing's fourth division respectively, encouraging them to experience through the practice of the battlefield.

In the afternoon of the same day, Li Fengbao, the first minister to Germany, sent a telegram, saying that after careful study with the German side, the best plan for the construction of ironclad ships had been determined, and that the design basis of the German "Saxony" ironclad ships had been adopted, and the advantages of the British "Indomitable" class ironclad ships had been added. The telegram looked quite in high spirits.

Ding Yuntong had already expected this result, and sent back a telegram to approve the immediate start of the construction of the two ships, and ordered the chief engineer of the Shipping Engineering Office, Chen Zhaoao and Zheng Qinglian to go to Germany to supervise the construction, and sent technicians and workers to study together.

In addition, a telegram was sent to Li Fengyuan, asking him to sign a confidentiality contract with the Volkeng shipyard, so that no one would know that it was China that ordered the warships, and that the engineers and workers who built them should also be kept secret, and the Chinese who worked with him were all called students. The shipyard has set aside a specific area that no one is allowed to enter, and the construction documents are classified as confidential files. Of course, the Chinese side will also attach all necessary expenses.

The Japanese were very ghostly in this regard, and when they purchased the "Fuso" and other three warships, Li Hongzhang and others of the Qing government knew nothing about it. It wasn't until Japan began to show off its might everywhere that Li Hongzhang sent people to look through the "London Machine News" to find the relevant data.

However, Li Hongzhang also learned well in his previous life, and it was not until "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" returned to China that the Japanese were shocked and rushed to build the Sanjing ship.

However, Ding Yuntong must be foolproof, believing that with the rigor of the Germans, as long as the confidentiality contract is signed, it will be difficult for Japan to easily obtain any information.

At the same time, he sent a telegram to Wei Han, who was in England, asking him to formally go and talk to the Armstrong shipbuilders about the cruiser.

Speaking of Japanese intelligence, Ding Yuntong remembered that in his previous life, Japanese spies infiltrated China on a large scale and penetrated everywhere. However, the Qing government in China had no intention of taking the initiative to collect intelligence, let alone take action, and did not even have such an idea, which can be seen in its ignorance.

However, Ding Yuntong happened to read a diary, the author was just a staff member under Li Hongzhang at the time, named Xue Fucheng, a mere copywriter. However, in his early years, he consciously collected intelligence on Japan, and recorded many of his correspondence with military attachés and overseas Chinese in Japan. This person's intelligence awareness is very rare, but it is a pity that this aspect of his talent in his previous life was not brought into play. Later, he went back and forth and became the minister of several countries.

Thinking of this, Ding Yuntong immediately decided to set up an intelligence team against Japan and issued several secret orders in succession.

Wang Zhichun and Xue Fucheng, commanders of the Diaojiang Defense, came to Beijing to be responsible for the collection of Japanese intelligence. Historically, this Wang Zhichun has also secretly traveled to Japan to collect intelligence, and has the advantage of doing secret diplomatic work. In addition, Hu Zhen, an overseas Chinese living in Kobe, Japan, had sent intelligence to Li Hongzhang in his previous life, and he should be able to develop him into a useful spy. Intelligence work in Japan was handled by Yao Wendong, whose ostensible identity was that of an attaché at the legation in Japan. Nagasaki Governor Yu Hao and Governor Liu Shou Hang in Kobe need to cooperate with Yao's work. But for some reason, these had to be kept secret from He Ruzhang, the minister stationed in Japan.

After issuing these orders, Ding Yuntong breathed a sigh of relief, he could only do this step and put the right people in the right place, as for success or failure, it was not something he could predict.

In any case, these tasks will not help in the coming Sino-French war.

Thinking like this, he cheered up again and sent a message to the Tianjin Mine School. A few days ago, the Tianjin Machinery Bureau reported that the students of the school have been "skilled, and they can be used in bombing." ”

Now that the mine battalion can be set up, Huang Jianxun, who is on his way home, will be the commander, and the American Man Yishi will be the instructor. Anyway, in the previous life, they were these two people, who were responsible for commanding the Dagukou Mine Battalion. There is no need to wait for Huang Jianxun to return, the mine battalion will now start geohydrographic surveys and experiments to study how to place mines in Mawei Port, Keelung and Taipei in Taiwan, as well as Hangzhou Bay and Dagukou.

At the same time, it was decreed that Ding Richang, the governor of Fujian, was promoted to the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang. He was going to have a good study of the coastal defense forts with Ding Richang, including Mawei Port and Taiwan. In the past, the fort of the Mawei Shipyard was in charge of the Fujian Shipbuilding Bureau, but now Ding Yuntong has been restructured, and the Shipbuilding Bureau is only responsible for building ships, and other work is arranged by the state.

Ding Yuntong planned to take advantage of the excellent terrain conditions of Mawei Port to organically combine the fleet, mines, and coastal defense batteries to hold a grand welcome party for the future French fleet.

After issuing these orders, Ding Yuntong was a little tired, but he still ended the busy day with a decree from Zuihou, ordering Wu Changqing's Fourth Division to be transferred to Guangxi to join Feng Zicai's First Division. At the same time, the Logistics Supply Department was set up, with Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, concurrently serving as the director, and was fully responsible for the logistics supply of the two divisions and other follow-up troops.

It was the end of March 1879, and the clouds of war were slowly looming over Indochina.