Looking at the endless flow of the Yangtze River in the distance, Xiao Yungui sighed lightly, recalling the night he returned to Suzhou, Zuo Zongtang and Qianjiang, two strategists, to give him advice......

After sending off the southbound fleet that day, Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er delayed in Shanghai for two more days, mainly to discuss some details of the construction of the railway, although the railway from Shanghai to Suzhou is not long, but along the way may occupy people's fields, houses, and so on. The engineers and exploration teams dispatched by Jardine Matheson are already on the way, and the specific construction of the route will not be determined until these professionals arrive in Shanghai for on-the-spot surveys, but Xiao Yungui still explained some details that need to be paid attention to to by Wang Minyun, Wei Helin, Zhu Changlin and others.

The resistance to the construction of the railroad in this era was still very great, and for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, although there was no interference from the Manchu Qing Dynasty from within the old Shili itself, the fear of this new thing from the people would bring resistance to the construction of the railway. At this time, people were superstitious about ghosts and spirits, feng shui, and some people would think that the construction of the railway was locking the earth, or moving someone's feng shui.

When explaining to Wang Minyun and others, Xiao Yungui set a tone that the railway must be repaired no matter what, but before it is repaired, the route surveyed by foreigners may involve the infringement of civil rights, and it is necessary to deal with it in advance. For example, if the land is occupied, the Navy and the Department of Military Affairs will be responsible for finding a field that can be replaced, and if the house is occupied, the Department of Military Affairs will pay for the demolition and relocation, and if the cemetery is occupied, it will send someone to find another feng shui treasure for the burial, and the Military Department will be responsible for the expenses, and so on.

In addition, Xiao Yungui also asked Wang Libin to open the first newspaper of his own in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in this era must have its own public opinion weapon to occupy the commanding heights of morality, this newspaper is named "Southern Jiangsu Times", which is published every seven days. Later, in the Taiping Army, this newspaper was also called the Rite Magazine.

Wang Libin also founded a newspaper in history, and Xiao Yungui naturally asked him to be responsible for running the newspaper, and then became the West Hall Public Opinion Department, with Wang Libin as the director, and the position was the same as that of the general system. After serving as the Department of Public Opinion, Wang Libin seemed to be reborn, changed his name to Wang Tao, and devoted himself to his journalism career. Different from the Imperial Decree, the Public Opinion Department is more responsible for the external news release of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, newspapers, and public opinion control, while the Imperial Decree is responsible for the collection and collection of various ancient books. Publication of various books, manuals, and regulations customized by the government. The edict was originally in charge of Hong Yun'er, and was later handed over to Li Xuanji and Fu Shanxiang in charge.

With the Public Opinion Department and the Southern Jiangsu Times, Xiao Yungui asked Wang Tao to publicize the benefits of building railways in the newspapers, consciously or unconsciously, and at the same time to publicize Han culture in the newspapers to attack the foundation of Manchu rule.

After explaining the matter of the railroad and the newspaper. Xiao Yungui received the edict of the Heavenly King, and the last time it was the edict of the East King. This time, it was the King of Heaven who came to urge the King of the West to return to Beijing. Last time, Xiao Yungui delayed on the grounds that the war in Ningbo was tight, and this time the battle report of Ningbo's victory had been sent to Tianjing, and he couldn't delay any longer, so he and Hong Yun'er and Li Xuanji took Qianjiang, Tang Erniu and more than 1,000 elite West Hall guards to Suzhou. For the rest of the telegraph, arsenal, and shipyard matters, Xiao Yungui asked Wang Minyun to take Xu Shou, Hua Hengfang and others to discuss and handle them, and if they were not decided, they could be reported to the Xiwang Tribunal.

Xu Shou and Hua Hengfang are the people recommended by Li Shanlan. Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er also know their names in history, and they are the most suitable to assist Wang Minyun in handling Shanghai's foreign affairs, and the two also hold important positions in the Military and Political Department, and their positions are the same as those of the General System.

After spending two days back in Suzhou. The epidemic in Suzhou has completely subsided, and with the efforts of Zuo Zongtang and others, Suzhou has gradually recovered its former prosperity. After returning to Suzhou, Hong Yuner took Li Xuanji to find Clifford, Clifford's identity is special, and it is unknown whether he may be able to get British support through him, so the couple discussed, Hong Yuner decided to go out in person to continue to win over Clifford.

Xiao Yungui introduced Qianjiang to Zuo Zongtang, and then talked about governance together, Zuo Zongtang took out the official document "Regulations on Treating the People" sent by Tianjing to Xiao Yungui and Qianjiang, and the edict from Tianjing asked all localities to handle it accordingly, but Zuo Zongtang felt that there were too many absurd things on it, and it was not implemented, and this edict and regulations were also locked in the cabinet by Zuo Zongtang to sleep.

After reading it, Qian Jiang first said: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, the King of Heaven is doing this to turn all the private property in the world into public property, and all of them into his family's property. ”

Zuo Zongtang joined the Taiping Army earlier than Qian Jiang, but he also knew what the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was pursuing, and said after coughing lightly: "Mr. Qian's words are too heavy, but his words are not unreasonable. His Royal Highness the King of the West, since the Heavenly Kingdom raised its army, the banner played is to share the land and share the wealth, and the people who have always raised the army have played such a banner in order to call on the people of the world to be vassals. But human nature is self-interested, and the hustle and bustle of the world is all for profit, and absolute fairness can never appear. In the past, we fought everywhere, and there was no fundamental place, so it was necessary to concentrate all the manpower and material resources for unified distribution, but now that we have our own territory, we can't do this if we want to run this place. ”

Xiao Yungui raised his hand to stop the two of them and said, "I understand the words of the two, Prime Minister Zuo did a good job and did not handle it according to Tianjing's decree, otherwise there would be a big mess." Not to mention Shanghai, how many merchants come and go in the land of Suzhou and Hangzhou, and how many handicraft workshops and shop markets? If you really want to do things according to the rules of heaven, won't you cut off the business routes of the merchants? Speaking of this, Xiao Yungui stood up and looked at the huge candle in the room and sneered: "The principal and interest of the shop are all the principal and interests of the Heavenly King, and the people are not allowed to use them...... What is the rationale for this? ”

Zuo Zongtang nodded and said: "That's right, but the King of the West has to think deeper, and we can still fool this matter in the future, but the King of the West, you are about to go to Beijing to report on your work, and there must be eyeliner in Tianjing over there, if the King of Heaven and the King of the East use this as an excuse to ask the King of the West why he does not respect the decree of the Kingdom of Heaven, how should he deal with it?" That's not all I worry about. ”

Xiao Yungui said with a gloomy face: "They can't see the general trend clearly, Lao Tzu will do it alone, anyway, Lao Tzu can't go to a dead end with them." Now that southern Jiangsu has been lowered, I have more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in my hands, am I still afraid of them? ”

Zuo Zongtang glanced at Qian Jiang, who stroked the goatee under his chin and muttered for a moment: "King Xi." The subordinates understood what the left minister was really worried about. Now although the king of the west led his troops to take down southern Jiangsu, he was in ruins, and it took time to gain a firm foothold, which is one of them. Second, southern Jiangsu and Shanghai were the Qing court's tax places, after the fall of Nanjing, the Jiangnan Cao Yun was cut off, and the Qing court originally thought that there was still Shanghai maritime transportation and Cao Yun, but Shanghai was also captured, and the Cao operation in the south of the Yangtze River was completely cut off by us. The Qing court will definitely be desperate to recapture southern Jiangsu. If we turn against Tianjing at this time, then Xidian will have to face the pressure of the Qing court alone, and the gains outweigh the losses. Third, although most of the soldiers in the Xidian army are soldiers from Hunan, Hui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places, most of the elite backbones are the old brothers of Xiwang Guangxi. At this time, King Xi and Tianjing turned their faces because of political disagreements, and they could not have an advantage in the name of righteousness. It is difficult to guarantee that the old brother who leads the troops under his command will not be suspicious. In the future, there will be internal worries when soldiers meet. At this time, the time to turn his face with Tianjing is far from the time. ”

Xiao Yungui was slightly stunned, slowly sat down, and thought about it with one hand on his chin. Zuo Zongtang continued: "Mr. Qian is worthy of being a famous person in Guangzhou, in a word. King of the West, if the general trend is still unclear today. Although the armor brought by Tianjing is not as elite as mine, the nail in the eyes of the Manchu Qing is us, because we occupy the anointed land of southern Jiangsu, if there is no Tianjing in front of us. It will be difficult for us to deal with the Manchus. If the king of the west wants to replace him in the future, he will have to tolerate it for the time being, and it is best to say that he can move Tianjing to send troops to Huaisi and fight across the Yangtze River to attract the strength of the Qing army. ”

Qian Jiang said again: "Yes, although the Tianjing decree is absurd and uninhibited, we are not irretrievable. The subordinates thought that the king of the west would return to Beijing this time, and he should persuade the king of heaven and the king of the east to take back the order, even if he could not take back the order, he would also promise a heavy profit to let the king allow the west hall to act without respecting this decree. And if it can be said that Tianjing sent troops to Jiangbei, it would be the most haode situation. ”

Xiao Yungui sighed and said: "Yes, there are people in front, and we are making a fortune in the back, how good." Well, we can set up a special economic zone and strive for southern Jiangsu to be a special economic zone, and we don't have to follow Tianjing's decree. Seeing that Zuo and Qian did not understand the special economic zone, Xiao Yungui explained with a smile: "The so-called special economic zone is the meaning of a special region, our southern Jiangsu and Shanghai industries and commerce are prosperous, which is very different from the mainland. ”

Zuo Zongtang nodded and said: "This method is very good, but if you want Tianjing to agree to such a request, I am afraid that you will need to pay a certain price." ”

Xiao Yungui smiled and said: "Yes, the price must be paid, this king plans to promise Tianjing to pay one million taels of silver to Tianjing every year as a promise, in exchange for Tianjing's autonomy, what do you think?" ”

Zuo Zongtang frowned slightly and said: "Sunan is a land of ointment, and I am afraid that I will not be able to fool me if I only pay one million taels." ”

Qian Jiang said with a smile: "The price of King Xi is good, as the so-called sky-high asking price and paying back the money on the ground, we can't say too high all at once." ”

Zuo Zongtang hummed and said: "This is also true, but the king of the West has to have this account in his heart, and where is the bottom limit to bargain." ”

Xiao Yungui smiled and said: "This time to rectify the Shanghai tariff, presumably this year, the Shanghai customs tariff alone can have two or three million silver in the account, not counting the tariff on the Ningbo side, plus the money and grain taxes paid in the rest of the places, even if the Tianjing side wants me to pay three million taels a year, I can bear it." ”

Zuo Zongtang was pleasantly surprised: "How much can customs duties be? I heard that in the past, the Qing court only received hundreds of thousands of taels of tax silver from the Jiang Customs every year. ”

Xiao Yungui smiled faintly: "The Qing court is cocooned and self-bound, and it doesn't know the benefits of trade and taxation, and there are many corrupt officials under it, so the income will be bleak." However, since the Qing court's income was like this before, we don't have to tell the truth when we report to Tianjing. ”

Qian Jiang said with a smile: "Yes, the king of the west can go to the main guest, you can learn from Liu Bei and Uncle Liu Huang, mention your own suffering, complain more about the bitterness, I heard that the king of the west and the king of the east are brothers, and the king of heaven is also a close brother, you can be emotional." ”

Zuo Zongtang said with a smile: "Mr. Qian's words are good, the crying child has milk to eat, the king of the West can make a big fanfare, and the guards who return to Beijing will also be tattered, which makes people sympathize." ”

Xiao Yungui smiled and frowned: "It's no problem to ask this king to pretend to be pitiful, but this king is afraid that after going to Tianjing, he will be put under house arrest, and if he can't come back, he will be in trouble." ”

Zuo Zongtang smiled and said: "I have already thought of a few good strategies for the King of the West in the morning, if Tianjing is in trouble, I can help the King of the West get out." ”

Xiao Yungui was actually reluctant to go back to Tianjing, but in the current situation, he couldn't help but go back, he was afraid that Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing would harm him again, and when he heard that Zuo Zongtang had a good plan, he immediately said with joy: "Zuo Xiang, say quickly." (To be continued......)