Lin Yuan said: "Then please talk to me." ”

Lu Wansu said: "Our Da Shengkui has been trading between Mongolia and the Central Plains since the last years of Kangxi, and in recent decades has traded with Russia. ”

"However, in our Great Qing Dynasty, there are too few people of insight like you, so no one thinks that Mongolia is the northern barrier of our Great Qing Dynasty, and some people even say that Inner and Outer Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Qinghai are large and barren, and they are not beneficial to China, and they spend millions of gold to defend them, so it is better to sell the land to Britain and Russia, counting Inner and Outer Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Qinghai is no less than 20 million square miles, and the price of each square is 50 taels, which is no less than 100,000."

Lu Wansu said angrily: "The person who said this turned out to be a man named Liang Qichao, who was the future pillar of my Qing Dynasty, but it was really heartbreaking to say such traitorous words!" ”

This passage is indeed said by Liang Qichao, in Lin Yuan's era, Liang Qichao thought of this method in order to raise funds for the change, but many historians do not know about this matter, Lin Yuan was very surprised, and thought: "It's really strange that this businessman can know about Lu Dao." ”

Lu Wansu went on to say: "We in the Qing Dynasty regard Mongolia as a shoe, while Russia regards Mongolia as a treasure, I think that Mongolia is barren and poor, so they despise it, but they don't know, Mongolia is the real cornucopia, first say this cowhide sheepskin: this cowhide sheepskin is a good thing to keep out the cold, the favorite of the Westerners, originally I Da Shengkui bought and sold cowhide and sheepskin, and collected a thousand gold a day!" There are hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to pay taxes for the Qing Dynasty every year! ”

"There is also a wool item, wool spun into cloth, can also earn a lot, but Mongolian herdsmen do not know how to use, let the wool discarded, someone said: 'June camel hair floating all over the ground, suspicious spring fall poplars', it can be seen that the herdsmen do not attach great importance to these wool, if there is a sage born, the church herdsmen textile law, then the daily income is not hindered!"

Lu Wansu's eyes were full of indignation when he said this, and he said: "But in recent years, the Russians and the British have come one after another, if only they could trade fairly, they have guns in their hands and money in their waists, and they wantonly lower prices, I will give you an example." ”

"There is a poem in the Yuan people, saying: 'White Horse Purple Camel Wine, Sable Silver Rat Clothes', which are all precious things, this 'Silver Rat Clothes' is made of silver rat skin, which is very precious, the favorite of Western ladies, there are tens of millions of silver rat skins bought and sold over the years, Mongolian herdsmen know that the silver rat skin is profitable, so they hunt silver rats in the rest of the grazing, peel off the fur and sell it to us, usually our purchase price is one hundred Wen, but after the Russians came, they arrested our acquisition team on the grounds of spies."

"The Russians not only arrested our purchasing team, but also spread the news among the herdsmen that Da Shengkui no longer buys silver rat skins, which made the herdsmen panic, so the Russians took advantage of the situation and took away the silver rat skins in the herdsmen's hands at the price of ten cents a piece.

Lin Yuan frowned and asked, "Why don't I know about these things?" ”

Lu Wansu sighed and said, "Lin Shuai, you are the governor of the three eastern provinces, and these things are not in the jurisdiction of the three eastern provinces, how can you know the way?" ”

Lin Yuan nodded helplessly, Lu Wansu was tired, turned around to get the tea on the table, took a sip, Lin Yuan said: "Don't worry, I will not give up this treasure land of Mongolia to the Russians, there are more important things here." ”

Lu Wansu said: "Lin Shuai is far-sighted, much stronger than those officials and gentlemen in the capital, I don't know what is more important what Lin Shuai said?" ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "You must have heard of Mongolia's salt ponds, right?" ”

"Of course, the salt in Mongolia's salt ponds is of the highest quality, and it is not comparable anywhere else. ”

Lin Yuan said: "That's right, I just want these salts!" ”

Lu Wansu asked: "I'm just a cheap businessman, I don't know what is the beauty of this salt?" ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "In the eyes of you laymen, salt is just something used to flavor food, but in my eyes, they are all military industry and the pillar of national defense!" And there are three ways to extract salt, one is seawater, the other is mountain rocks, and the third is salt lakes. ”

Lu Wansu praised again and again, and Lin Yuan said: "You just said that the person inside is the envoy of Zhebuzun Danba, so who is this Zhebuzun Danba?" ”

Lu Wansu said: "All Mongolians believe in Lamaism, Zhebuzun Danba is the supreme leader of Mongolian Lamaism, his real name is very long, I won't tell you, he was born in Tongzhi eight years, twenty-six years old this year, when he was twelve years old, from his place of residence Simon to the residence of the Mongolian princes - Kulen, Kulen is to Mongolia, what Beijing is to the Qing Dynasty. ”

"Just after he came to Kulen, the Russian consul in Kulen did everything possible to approach him, gave him European-style toys, dozens of rare animals, in order to win him over, and even gave him a woman when he grew up, using this woman to spy on him and control him, not only that, the Russians also wantonly provoked the relationship between the Han and Mongolian peoples, repeatedly declared that the Han people wanted to destroy Mongolia, and even sent people to oppress the herdsmen, and then blamed the Han people."

Lu Wansu continued: "Lin Shuai, after you recover the Northeast, and recover Hailan Pao, Boli, and Vladivostok together, the Russians' ambition to annex Mongolia is even more rampant, they are nominally instigating ****, but in fact they want to bring Mongolia to the range of their own power, behind this, is Mongolia's huge gold and silver income, Lin Shuai, you must find a way to keep Mongolia!" ”

Speaking of this, Lu Wansu knelt down again and said: "My lord, the Mongolian herdsmen at this time, ruled by the princes and nobles, have to pay a large number of cattle and sheep to the princes and nobles every year, and the princes and nobles can kill the herdsmen at will, the herdsmen and slaves are the same. ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "Of course, under the wings of the Russians, the Mongolian people will not be happy, the Mongolian people are part of our Chinese nation, we will definitely not let the Russians' attempt succeed. ”

Lu Wansu shook his head and said, "I know so much about the Dao, and I don't know about other things." ”

Lin Yuan said: "In this way, if you have any news in the future, you will send someone to the Kanto newspaper office in Beijing, and I will be able to know the Tao after sending it there." ”

Lu Wansu nodded again and again, Lin Yuan and Shen Wanqing came out of him, returned to the post house, and happened to see Ilya with an apologetic face, Ilya said: "I'm really sorry, it's our people who made a mistake, and the person who received His Majesty the Tsar today was not you." ”

Although Lin Yuan was released from the pigeon, he was still very happy to learn about Russia's ambition to split Mongolia, and then Ilya said apologetically: "Our Tsar's Majesty does not want to see you, so we said that the meeting may be canceled." ”