Xu Jingcheng said: "Lord Weng has been in charge of the household department for a long time, I believe that the way to make money is much better than me, it has always made the treasury solid, nothing more than to open source and reduce expenditure, Japan is a small country, its emperor is still strict in order to buy warships and strictly economize, a meal of the sun, I am the kingdom of the Heavenly Empire, how is it not as good as the Japanese people?" ”

Weng Tongyi said with a smile: "Open source and reduce expenditure, you say it easily!" I ask you, where does the source begin, and where does the flow begin? ”

Xu Jingcheng didn't know much about the economy, and was speechless for a while when Weng Tongcheng asked him like this, Weng Tongcheng said again: "Even if the source has been opened and the flow has been broken, we can't just buy two ironclad ships, we must build a fleet at least a dozen ironclad ships, cruisers, destroyers, etc., right?" All of this will cost a lot of money, and this time it will be tens of millions of taels of silver."

"Now that my Daqing Dynasty is silver and money is cheap, what impact will it have on our Daqing Dynasty if you say that so much silver will flow abroad at once?"

Xu Jingcheng was speechless, Xu Jingcheng didn't understand what it meant to be cheap and expensive, but Lin Yuan knew that in the Qing Dynasty, two currencies were used, one was silver and one was copper, before the middle of the Qing Dynasty, due to the abundant silver in the national treasury, the price of silver and copper coins was relatively constant, and one or two silver coins were exchanged for about a thousand copper coins.

However, after the middle of the Qing Dynasty, with the opium trade and the signing of a series of unequal treaties, the Qing government paid a large amount of indemnities, resulting in a large outflow of silver from China.

In the Qing Dynasty, large transactions were settled with silver, and small transactions were settled with copper coins, and the occasions for the use of copper coins were usually agricultural and handicraft trade, and silver was in the hands of the rich or the government, and when they bought goods, they would exchange silver for copper coins.

In the case of the cheap silver, the amount of silver they have has not changed, but the amount of copper coins that can be exchanged for these silver has increased, and they can buy more items with the same amount of silver, and the sellers of the goods slowly find out about this, so they will raise the price of the goods, so that the problems caused by the cheap silver are passed on to all the people in society, and inflation occurs.

When Lin Yuan was thinking about it, Weng Tonggong had already explained the consequences of the "silver famine" clearly, and when he heard everyone looking at each other, Weng Tonggong continued: "If prices soar and the people can't bear to suffer, I believe you will be very clear about the consequences, when the Mao bandits started in Guangxi, they were able to go north to attack Hunan, Kehubei, and occupy Jinling in the east. ”

Weng Tonggong threw out this passage, and everyone on the field was suddenly silent, Weng Tonggong's meaning was very clear: To build a navy is to help the rebels, and this crime is to exterminate the nine clans!

Xu Jingcheng was also scared out of his head by Weng Tonggong, he stretched out his hand to wipe the sweat, and said, "Won't I build a navy in the Qing Dynasty?" ”

Weng Tongyi said: "Who said that it is necessary to build a navy to defend the country, let's take the previous stage as an example, the combined fleet of Japan and Russia attacked Tianjin Dagu, wasn't it the same as our defenders? ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "Weng Tongyi actually used that battle as an example, that battle was not representative at all, because at that time Japan and Russia did not want to launch a full-scale landing attack, if they wanted to launch a full-scale attack, China's coastline is so long, they can find another place to land." ”

Xu Jingcheng was completely inferior in this confrontation, but he was unwilling to admit defeat, so he said: "If we don't have a navy, then after the enemy has beaten us, we can't fight back, aren't we at the mercy of others?" ”

Weng Tongyi said with a smile: "It is the next policy to subdue the four Yi by force, and Mingjun has always served the public with virtue." ”

As soon as Weng Tonggong's voice fell, everyone nodded yes, Xu Jingcheng was speechless for a while, and Weng Tongcheng said: "It's not too early, let's disperse, the matter of the navy, if Lord Xu has something unclear, let's discuss it later." ”

Xu Jingcheng nodded, everyone dispersed, Lin Yuan saw Xu Jingcheng come out of the country, sat in the sedan chair, and then the sedan chair drivers carried the sedan chair and walked east along the street, Lin Yuan followed, walked in front of the sedan chair, Xu Jingcheng's guards saw someone walking in front of the sedan chair from behind, thinking that Lin Yuan had a bad heart, so he pulled out his knife and shouted and asked Lin Yuan: "What do you do?" ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "You go and call Master Xu out, as soon as he comes out, you will know who I am." ”

The guard sneered, "Ridiculous, how can we adults see us if you want to see them!" ”

At this moment, the sedan curtain was lifted, Xu Jingcheng poked his head out of it and said, "What's the noise?" ”

Before the words fell, he saw Lin Yuan, his official position was not as big as Lin Yuan, so he hurriedly got out of the sedan chair, walked a few steps to Lin Yuan, bowed down, and said: "It turned out to be Lord Lin, the official greeted him late, and I hope that the Lord will forgive him." ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "There is nothing to do, there is nothing to do, why do you want to debate the affairs of the navy with Lord Weng in front of so many people?" ”

Xu Jingcheng said with a smile: "This is not a place to talk, let's find a teahouse, let's chat while drinking tea." ”

Lin Yuan nodded in agreement, and the two came to a teahouse side by side, and in the teahouse, Xu Jingcheng said, "Isn't this going to try again?" So these lifters came to the capital, these movers are the future pillars of the country, so the saint also attaches great importance to them, I thought that these lifters jointly wrote a letter to talk about the construction of warships and the establishment of the navy. ”

"But Lord Weng disagreed, so he invited me to come out and debate publicly in front of all the lifters, so that they could see whether the construction of the navy was beneficial to the Qing Dynasty, so I came here to debate with him."

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "But I look at today's situation, Lord Xu has completely fallen behind, if Lord Xu can't think of a way to turn the tide, I'm afraid that the book jointly signed by all the people will become Don't Build a Navy." ”

Xu Jingcheng said helplessly: "There is no way, what Lord Weng said is true, the navy is indeed a monster that swallows gold and eats silver, and the national strength of our Qing Dynasty is not strong, so it is indeed difficult to build a navy." ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "I heard the meaning of discouragement from Lord Xu's words, don't adults want to build a navy?" ”

Xu Jingcheng sighed, raised the teacup in his hand, and said: "Forget it, let's not talk about this, let's still taste the new Biluochun, and talk about the wind and snow." ”

Lin Yuan nodded lightly and said silently: "Lord Xu still doesn't know what to do, Lord Li has passed away." ”

Xu Jingcheng's hand loosened when he heard this, and the teacup fell on the table with a "snap", and he was surprised: "What did you say?" ”

Lin Yuan took out the fold from his arms and said, "I believe that this fold should have some weight, building a navy is Lord Li's last wish, and I believe the emperor will consider it." ”

Xu Jingcheng sighed and said, "But my Qing Dynasty is weak, how can I have the strength to build a navy?" ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "You don't have to worry, I have a way." ”