At the end of 1876, the whole land of China seemed to be no different from the past five or ten years, and the people were living in hardship, with constant internal and external troubles. But among officialdom and intellectuals, people with high political sensitivity can vaguely smell a different smell.

In August of that year, the Sino-British Treaty of Yantai was signed, the main contents of which were: (1) Britain had to send personnel to Yunnan to investigate and prepare to negotiate the treaty of Yunnan and Burma. (2) Yichang, Wuhu, Wenzhou and Beihai will be added as treaty ports; Datong, Anqing, Hukou, Wuxue, Luxikou and Shashi are open as berthing wharves for ships; The British can send personnel to the residence to inspect the British business affairs in Sichuan Province. (3) In the case of a case involving the life and property of a British person in a mainland province or treaty port, the British Embassy may send personnel to "observe the trial". (4) Britain can send personnel to Tibet and India via Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan; It is also possible to enter Tibet from India, subject to a note to the Chinese Government. (5) China paid 80,000 taels of silver in compensation for the Yunnan case and sent personnel to Britain to express "regret".

This treaty seems to be only one of many treaties signed by the imperial court, but those who are interested can see that the treaty did not cause major losses except for the opening of new treaty ports. This is enough to make people excited, and the British Minister Wittoma, who had left Beijing before, has quietly returned to the embassy in Beijing. In some teahouses in the capital, there are also rumors that the young Guangxu Emperor denounced the ministers for cowardice.

In September, the imperial court also made a series of personnel changes, the prime minister's yamen was renamed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the grade was the same as that of several other ministries, the head of the head was no longer called Shangshu, all were called ministers, and the first minister was Shen Baozhen. His post as Minister of Nanyang was taken over by Liu Kunyi.

The Ministry of Commerce was newly established, and the first minister was Hu Xueyan, an alternate minister of Jiangxi, and Tang Tingshu, the vice minister.

Huaxia Bank was established as the central bank of the country, with Zheng Guanying, the first president, and Xu Run, vice president.

Others, such as Li Hongzao, Minister of Military Aircraft, Xu Tong, a member of the Hongde Palace, Zhang Jiaxiang, Zhong Peixian, Sun Yuwen, and Song Jin, cabinet scholars, Zhang Jing, Xu Yongyi, and Liu Xihong, a counselor of the General Political Department, were transferred from their posts one after another.

In addition to the original Prince Gong Yixin, Wen Xiang, and Shen Guifen, the new Military Aircraft Department has added Ding Baojiao, the governor of Sichuan.

He also ordered Yuan Chang, the head of the household department, Tang Jingsong, the director of the Ministry of Officials, and Wu Dacheng, the scholar of Shaanxi and Gansu, as the military aircraft Zhang Jing.

In November, the imperial court began to successively open all kinds of industrial and mining enterprises in the country, except for the Fujian Shipbuilding Bureau, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, which were operated by the government, and the rest were tendered and participated in by private bidding, and the proportion of shares was not restricted, and all production and operation were responsible for their own profits and losses, and the government did not interfere. If there is harassment and obstruction by the local government or villagers, they can request assistance from the newly established Ministry of Commerce.

At the same time, the Hanyang Iron Works and the Hanyang Arsenal were opened, and the person in charge was the minister of the Imperial Mission, Jang Zhidong, and the machinery and equipment required for it were ordered from Germany. After the completion of these two factories, they will be directly under the central government together with Fujian Shipbuilding Bureau, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and Tianjin Machinery Bureau.

The Hanyang Arsenal is responsible for replicating rifles, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is responsible for artillery, the Fujian Shipbuilding Bureau specializes in building warships, and the Tianjin Machinery Bureau is under its control of all auxiliary equipment, such as mines, torpedoes, bombs, etc.

The government's move made the local gentry and private capital have the enthusiasm to invest, and the Ministry of Commerce even stepped forward to assist in hiring foreign technicians and management personnel, and made considerable profits in a short period of time, such as the steamship China Merchants Bureau, because of the low transportation costs, even squeezed out the American-funded Qichang Steamship Company, and fiercely competed with the British-funded Swire and Jardine Matheson, which further stimulated latecomers to participate in investment.

In the next few years, Kaiping Mineral Factory, Lanzhou Weaving Factory, Shanghai Machine Weaving Factory, Hubei Weaving Factory and so on were established in succession.

Kaiping in Zhili, Limuyi in Jiangsu, Chizhou in Anhui and Pingxiang in Jiangxi have successively opened coal mining companies, and Mohe in Heilongjiang has even excavated gold mines.

All this is in Ding Yuntong's expectation, as long as the policy is appropriate and profitable, the people will naturally follow.

At this moment, he is pacing in the Dongnuan Pavilion, the industrial and mining enterprises begin to be established, the traffic problem will be highlighted, the construction of the railway, has been imminent, Ding Yuntong Jihua first has to build two major arteries, from Beijing to Guangzhou, Shanghai to Wuhan, in Zhengzhou intersection, but this requires a lot of money, almost astronomical.

In addition, it is also important to help enterprises work around and issue some loans to speed up development, which also requires money.

But Huaxia Bank, which had just been established, only had 2.3 million taels of silver that he put in, and Zheng Guanying, Xu Run and others had also discussed it several times, but they couldn't come up with a way.

Ding Yuntong also knew that this could not be rushed, although he had already issued an order to let the finances of the southeastern provinces take out 100,000 taels of gold every year and hand it over to Huaxia Bank. In this way, there can be more than one million taels a year, but it can't help much in a short time.

It would be good if the green battalion could be completed next year, and there was no money to make Ding Yuntong feel overstretched everywhere and tied his hands and feet. What he is doing now is only formulating policies and arranging personnel, but he cannot make some major initiatives. I couldn't help but sigh in my heart: A penny suffocates a hero. No matter how familiar I am with history, I have no money and no rut.

At this time, the eunuch reported that Li Hongzhang had been ordered to come.

Li Hongzhang was waiting at the gate of the palace at this time, and these days, he was in an inexplicable excitement, and he had always had a headache about how to persuade the imperial court to run foreign affairs and eliminate the interference of conservatives.

Now he suddenly found that in front of the new emperor, he had become a conservative, and the little emperor's ideas were quite avant-garde, and many concepts even he couldn't keep up. And although the emperor is young, he knows how to schem, and he doesn't quarrel with those conservatives, but quietly, and uses various reasons to remove people, which is indeed wise.

In fact, Ding Yuntong was also helpless, he had read the biography of Liu Xihong, the first minister in Germany, who was also a famous Confucian. But judging from Ding Yuntong's thinking, he is completely a psychopath.

To a large extent, this biography made Ding Yuntong determined to adhere to the principle of three noes, not to engage in open reform of the law, not to have any debate with the old school, and not to explain any new policies to the ministers.

Historically, when Liu Xihong was serving as deputy envoy to the United Kingdom, he saw with his own eyes that Britain "has no idle officials, no nomads, no estrangement, no brutal and unkind government, and no false correspondence". Seeing that the British prison is "clean and clean, and the dust is free", the prisoners are treated very humanely, the diet is "meaty", they can take a bath, their families can visit the prison, and they are well trained. Seeing that in Britain, whether rich or poor, children can go to school, and learn to pay attention to morality rather than just teaching people for profit. "Every time you enter his school, the rules are solemn", just like a Confucian gentleman. The whole of British society has a strict legal system, and everyone is polite, "The street market has never heard a person talking and talking, nor has I seen a person who is sorrowful." The place is neat and solemn, the people are jubilant, and it is not in vain to be rich and strong, and it is true that the Huns and Huihui can be treated."

These are completely different from Liu Xihong's previous inherent concept that "foreigners are barbarian states, Ru Mao drinks blood, and has not learned etiquette and education".

If a person is in a normal mind, will he reflect and think at this time? No matter how closed the brain is, shouldn't it blow some fresh wind into it?

But what is the conclusion of Liu Xihong's greatness?

He said that the British were originally savages, but later because of the Qianlong Dynasty, they sent people to our Celestial Dynasty to pay tribute, and saw my Celestial Empire along the way, a state of etiquette and education, and felt empathy, and was influenced by the Confucian benevolence and righteousness of the Celestial Empire. After returning to the UK, spread it everywhere to make the UK have the weather it has today. All in all, everything is learned from my Heavenly Empire.

When Ding Yuntong saw this in his previous life, he deeply felt the poison of China's thousand-year-old feudal ideology, which had turned a large number of people into madmen. It is not appropriate to discuss the reform with these people, what they really need is some medicine for mental illness.

Kim Ok-kyun, the leader of the Korean Enlightenment Party, also had the same view, and believed that the more deeply influenced by Confucianism was in Japan's feudal domains before the Meiji Restoration, the more stubborn and conservative they became.

After a while, the eunuch came to summon, Li Hongzhang entered the Dongnuan Pavilion, and saw the little emperor sitting and looking at him with a smile, so he quickly knelt down and kowtowed.

Ding Yuntong asked him about his body, and said: "Li Aiqing, you must have read my will, whether it is Beiyang or Nanyang, you must not handle the naval division by yourself, such major naval affairs need to be planned in a unified manner, and you must not go your own way, and the whole country is a game of chess." You canceled the order, so what does Hurd say? ”

"According to Weichen, his face is not good."

"Hmph, no matter him. I have already ordered Li Fengbao and Xu Jianyin to go to Europe to inspect naval ships, and Britain is arrogant and will definitely despise us. I have instructed Li and Xu to focus on Germany, France and Italy, especially Germany. Moreover, it is necessary to hire a group of teachers for the Harbour Master School, and the salary is negotiable. ”

"Your Majesty."

"I asked you to prepare the railway bureau and the telegraph office, how are things going?"

"The minister has sent people to England and the United States to hire technicians for the purpose of training personnel. The statutes have been drawn up and will be ready for operation early next year. ”

As he was talking, someone came to report that He Ruzhang, the first minister to Japan, was already waiting outside the door, and Ding Yuntong knew that this person was recommended by Li Hongzhang and was going to Japan to take office in the New Year. Although with the memory of history, he knew that there was something wrong with this person, but he remained silent at this time.

After a while, He Ruzhang was summoned in and immediately kowtowed to the emperor and Li Hongzhang.

Ding Yuntong looked at this person, with big ears, a good appearance, and an elderly appearance. Ding Yuntong gave him a few words of encouragement and asked him to pay more attention to Japan's state system, folk customs and customs during his mission to Japan, and to report more about things. He Ruzhang hurriedly obeyed.

After talking for a while, Li He and the others thanked him and withdrew.

Looking at He Ruzhang's back, Ding Yuntong secretly sighed in his heart: In his previous life, this He Ruzhang had a high historical evaluation, saying how enlightened and progressive he was, how honest and upright, until the beginning of the 21st century, from Japan's internal historical archives, it was discovered that this person took in an orphan Narahara Chen Zheng in Japan, and this Narahara Chen Zheng followed He Ruzhang back to China, and became a Japanese spy, using He Ruzhang to spy on intelligence. However, I will not interrupt this historical process now, and in the future, I can use that Narawara Chen Zheng to get some false information and drill a trap for the Japanese.

Thinking like this, Ding Yuntong couldn't help but smile.