Two days later, Xu Jie, Zhang Peilun and Deng Shichang came to Liu Mingchuan's official residence as scheduled. Then Xu Jie and others respectfully handed over the worship post and stood outside the door waiting.

"Jishi, you're so formal today." Zhang Peilun said with a smile.

"Huh." Xu Jie just smiled faintly. And he didn't answer. In Xu Jie's heart, if only from the perspective of personal feelings, Xu Jie respects the first governor of Taiwan who defended Taiwan and built Taiwan more for the people he admires in his heart, Xu Jie naturally attaches great importance to it, and specially wears a formal suit, and in addition to the silver weapons and other things brought by Beiyang, Xu Jie also specially looted various items brought by himself and Vittorio and others from Europe. The reason is that without it, a national hero, respect is a must!!

Liu Mingchuan is not very clear about the purpose of this three-person "delegation" sent by his boss, the current governor of Zhili and a scholar of Wenhuadian University, Li Hongzhang, but as far as the identities of these three people are concerned, one is Li Hongzhang's newly recruited protégé, according to foreigners in Taiwan, he is still a famous Italian ship designer, and he and Vittorio Cuniberti and others sold new warships to the Beiyang. The other is Zhang Peilun, who once resisted the law with himself, although Zhang Peilun was defeated, but the unspeakable hidden Lao Liu still knows. What's more, now that he is the son-in-law of his old boss, he shouldn't be lazy. As for Deng Shichang? Liu Mingchuan really doesn't have a cold. Y's Ding Ruchang had all worked under him, and this deputy general, who was at least 2 levels lower than Lao Ding, naturally couldn't get into Lao Liu's eyes.

After the three were invited to the living room, the idlers retreated, and the four sat down. Zhang Youqiao first expressed his condolences to Lao Liu on behalf of Lao Li, and then reminisced about the relationship between the two people, and after an active atmosphere for more than half an hour, Zhang Youqiao felt that the heat was almost over, so he handed over Li Hongzhang's handwritten letter to Liu Mingchuan.

A short letter, Lao Liu actually took more than 20 minutes, looking at Lao Liu's changeable face, Xu Jie and Zhang Peilun were a little worried, the content of Lao Li's letter, others don't know, Xu Jie and Zhang Peilun are quite clear. Not to mention anything else, it is enough to annoy Lao Liu by asking Taiwan and Beiyang to "help each other" in terms of silver when it is simply necessary, others don't know, can Lao Liu still know about Li Hongzhang's means of collecting money? Let's take buying Dingzhen as an example. There is such a record in history,

The price of the Dingyuan ship increased by 1,409,000 taels, and the price of the Zhenyuan ship was 1,424,800 taels, plus various miscellaneous expenses and travel expenses back to China, a total of 3399240 taels of silver were paid, because the funds of Fujian and Nanyang were only used to purchase one ship. Li Hongzhang proposed to allocate "Huaibei Salt to discuss the donation of 1 million taels of silver", also known as "the provinces have borrowed the official funds of the China Merchants Bureau for steamships, and it is planned to deduct and repay them in annual installments under the bureau's transportation and water feet, and more than 350,000 taels of silver should be repaid every year. China Merchants should be requested to repay 1 million taels in the third session to meet the needs of custom-made iron armor." The so-called "salt negotiation to donate money for service" has always been an open fire of extortion, and as for the embezzlement of the China Merchants Bureau to return the official funds of various localities, it is even more to squeeze the local finances. In the final analysis, Li Hongzhang raised a huge sum of 3.64 million taels for the purchase of ironclad ships without much effort, and finally included these two ships in the Beiyang bag. (The above information is from the website of Beiyang Naval Division)

What made Xu Jie, Zhang Peilun and others even more unexpected was that Lao Liu remembered the fact that the 4 ships of Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Jingyuan, and Laiyuan, which were originally planned to be allocated to Taipeng, reminded Lao Li of making Lao Li go to Beiyang. (Historical facts, it is true that these 4 ships are intended to be given to Taiwan Peng, maybe the final command will fall into the hands of Lao Liu) and think of Beiyang's patrol of Taiwan this time It is Zhiyuan among these 4 warships! Lao Liu felt that a wave of ignorance was on fire. directly threw Li Hongzhang's handwritten letter aside, and roared angrily: "Li Zhongtang's calculations have been calculated on the head of the old man of the Huai Department." Even if Zhang Shu was born to be in charge of Beiyang back then, it was nothing more than that, right? He, Li Hongzhang, transferred all the 4 clippers that were originally used for Taipeng to his Beiyang, and he was not satisfied? Do you still want me Taiwan to pay for his military expansion? Don't!! In this way, Lao Liu scolded, while Xu Jie and the others listened, and it was not until half an hour later that Liu Mingchuan was tired of scolding, and Xu Jie was ready to speak.

"Lord Liu, can the juniors ask a few questions?" Xu Jie asked respectfully.

"Well, if you have something to say, Lord Ben still has something to do." Liu Mingchuan said impatiently.

"Did Li Zhongtang fail the adults?" Xu Jie asked.

"Well, not yet, except for that." Although Liu Mingchuan is angry, but in terms of his character, he is not so blind to talk nonsense, after all, whether it was the rise of the Ming Army or his defense of Taiwan, Lao Li gave great help. …,

"How many capital warships do I have in Beiyang now?" Xu Jie continued to ask.

"Plus the Longwei built by the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, it should be 8 ships, you, a disciple of the Li Sect, should know better than me." Liu Mingchuan said angrily.

"That's easy to say. Lord Li has never been able to live with adults, so why should adults say that Li Zhongtang is calculating the old man, what Zhang Shusheng did back then, Lord Liu should know, right? Who struck first? Xu Jie asked calmly.

Liu Mingchuan naturally knew about Zhang Shusheng's vain attempt to replace him back then, so Liu Mingchuan didn't say anything, just waited for Xu Jie's next words.

"As for the warships, since Lord Liu knows that Beiyang now counts the Longwei who has just joined the Beiyang, there are only 8 ships, if Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Jingyuan, and Laiyuan 4 ships went to Taiwan and Peng, which Beiyang Fleet can still be called the Beiyang Fleet? With only 4 patrol clippers, can Taiwan and Peng really defend against foreign enemies? You have experienced the War of Resistance against France, it is not difficult to think, right? Xu Jie continued to say in a calm tone, and this calm contained facts that could not be denied.

"He Beiyang is the master of the imperial court's refining, and he is supported by the imperial court, and he is short of silver in Beiyang, so what does it have to do with me in Taiwan?" Liu Mingchuan is still very angry, but that anger has gradually dissipated. It is true that this descendant is right, Zhang Shusheng is indeed to blame himself, and Li Hongzhang did his best to prepare for the construction of Beiyang not for his own selfishness. It can't be said that there are no selfish intentions, but the starting point is still good. Even Lord Shen of Nanyang at that time agreed to the proposal of first gathering together to run Beiyang in order to set up an army as much as possible, not to mention, Lao Liu also knew that even if these 4 ships arrived in Taiwan, he Lao Liu would not be able to raise them, and only 4 warships would be of little use. It's better to concentrate on a certain fleet.

"Does Lord Liu think that the silver given by the imperial court every year is okay?" Xu Jie continued to ask.

"How do I, the governor of Taiwan, know if he has enough money in Beiyang? He doesn't have enough money in Beiyang, can he come and blackmail us old ministries? As soon as he heard Xu Jie say that Beiyang funds were not enough, Liu Mingchuan's face suddenly turned purple again.

"Whether this Beiyang silver is enough or not really has nothing to do with Lord Liu." Xu Jie said calmly. "But Lord Liu, can you say that the Beiyang Fleet and the Daqing Coastal Defense have nothing to do with the safety of Taiwan?" As soon as the words changed, Xu Jie said loudly.

Let's support it, recommend and collect it without trouble~~